90 Minutes Is Not Enough

by Robert Mann

  Miles allowed a thoughtful expression to come over his face before he replied

  “Lad I think the chances are minimal. We are fully insured but will have to wait for the insurance company to comprehensively investigate before we can decide in which direction to proceed. Relocation may be a possibility but it would be a decision for the whole board to agree on not just me. As for the fire it is too early to comment”

  Keen to wrap things up due to the lateness of the hour for it was approaching midnight the interviewer asked one more question

  “Mr. Chairman have you any words of encouragement for your loyal fans at this desperate hour for your club”

  Miles had been waiting for something like this and was still fully psyched up almost like he was on stage.

  “Enjoy your summer holidays and do not worry! The club infrastructure is still here and we have a great team here fully capable of holding our own in Division 2 of The Coca Cola League. Our board will be meeting in emergency session as soon as possible and you will all be kept fully informed of developments. I have full faith in Jock to lead our team forward next season to greater glory. Our club is here to stay”

  With those closing words Miles raised his and Josh’s arms towards the gathered crowds who went absolutely wild. Strains of the Redbourne Rovers anthem could be heard in hope and defiance against adversity. The mikes and cameras switched towards the crowd who had started singing again showing their belief and faith in their club!

  As the Sky crew and the 5 Live outside broadcast unit were tying things up for the night, Miles could be seen dragging his reluctant team captain down to the police cordon where they both were being embraced by emotional fans many who were openly weeping.

  3

  Neighbours To The Rescue

  The Redbourne Rovers board met in emergency session two days latter with the conference facilities at The Redbourne Arms Hotel being taken over for the meeting. The board members convened in a mood of grim despair after the catastrophic events on the Saturday night at Pines Lane. Miles Grimley was a contented man though coming into this meeting. He had met with his manager Terrance Fletcher the day before who had now recovered from his bout of food poisoning and paid him a very hefty bonus for his superb work in taking the team up from the conference plus services rendered to the club! As agreed by the two men earlier in the season this had been a tax free bonus paid in fifty pound notes which Miles Grimley's very friendly accountant could disguise in the annual accounts for the year!

  The forty eight hours since the impromptu press conference at Pines Lane in the early hours of the Sunday morning had been hectic but to put it mildly for Miles. His phone had hardly stopped ringing with requests for interviews and more importantly offers of help from neighbouring clubs for the new season that was about twelve weeks away. Two of their neighbours Cheltenham Town, relative newcomers to the league themselves and Swindon Town had offered use of their stadiums for as long as needed obviously if their fixtures could be accordingly arranged by the football league. More importantly the initial reports from the insurance company regarding the fire suggested that although no cause had been found by the investigators, such had been the severity of the blaze, payment should be forthcoming within the next few weeks. The biggest issue though, for which Miles had to get the board on his side was the firm offer he had received from a national supermarket chain that morning for the devastated site at Pines Lane. Redbourne being an expanding town with people commuting to Bristol, Swindon and Birmingham daily had been in desperate need of a new supermarket for ages. The area that Pines Lane was set in being out of town was prime land for such development with the right investment to develop the road network around it. The incentive for Miles and for Redbourne Rovers which owned this valuable bit of prime estate land was relinquish it and we will build you a new stadium at no cost to yourselves.

  As far as Miles saw it this was a win win situation but he knew there would be a couple of die hard traditionalists on the board who would want to see Pines Lane rebuilt. He knew that the probable cost of this would far outweigh the insurance money leaving the club with crippling debts and still the access problem on match days. His way would leave the club financially solvent for years to come and with a new stadium, a legacy he would be proud of!

  Miles opened proceedings knowing that his negotiating and persuasive skills would be used to their maximum if his plan was going to succeed. The six other board members looked at him morosely hoping for some crumbs of good news. All were local business people who had put varying amounts of money into the club plus their considerable expertise.

  Miles started the meeting by giving them a run down on events since Saturday evening and the offers of temporary ground sharing from Swindon and Cheltenham. The rent conditions for using both grounds were pretty similar and very fair given the circumstances. After a short discussion it was decided that they would approach the football league with a request to ground share with Cheltenham for the foreseeable future. Although Swindon was slightly closer it was decided not to go with their very generous offer because of the recent rivalry that had started to occur between the two sets of fans. The two teams had ended up playing each other in the third round of the FA Cup in the season just gone. Redbourne had gone out in a thriller 3-2 at The County Ground. However the match had been marred by disgraceful running battles between the two sets of fans after the game which had disrupted traffic on and around Swindon's renowned magic roundabout. Although Miles was a great advocate of ‘any publicity is good publicity’, even he was somewhat shocked and embarrassed with the bad press the club received over that incident. It was only a small group of about two hundred fans that caused the trouble but enough to tarnish the image of the whole club. One day he reflected they could build bridges with Swindon to try and ensure such unsavoury events did not happen again but there were only so many balls he could juggle at one particular time he reflected!

  Hence the vote was passed by seven votes to nil to thank Swindon for their kind offer and at the same time accept the ground sharing offer from Cheltenham and to issue a press release to that effect. Latter in the summer they would begin the logistical planning of getting their fans on the seventy mile round journey to Cheltenham's Whaddon Lane.

  Miles Grimley looked at the rest of the board and decided to go for the low key approach vis-à-vis the offer from the supermarket to build the Rovers a new ground. He had been approached informally by the director of the supermarket chain months ago when their interest in the Pines Lane site had been mooted over a round of golf. The conversation between the two very wealthy friends had been casual but Miles had detected the seriousness of the underlying offer. Obviously at the time with a listed status being on Pines Lane the chances of anything happening had been zero until redevelopment had been given a helping hand! When the conversation had taken place promotion had been a possibility not a reality but the seeds of an idea had been planted in Mile’s mind that if events necessitated could be carried out. Miles considered himself a pragmatist and felt in this world you had to bend a few rules to succeed!

  Only now had it become a reality and the director of the supermarket chain had moved with blistering speed as soon as the news of the fire became public to draw up a formal proposal for the football club that had been couriered to Miles only the evening before the emergency board meeting. Miles had made photo copies of it for each member of the board. Handing them out to his fellow directors he casually remarked

  "I believe this proposal could be a life saver to our football club. Make sure you read it carefully. A new ten thousand seater stadium on the other side of town which will be ready for the season after next built for us at no cost to ourselves. We will own this stadium; all we have to do is sign away the ownership to Pines Lane. I think it beats putting the club into serious debt by rebuilding at Pines Lane. The insurance company is likely to pay out about four million if we are lucky but in this day and age that is not enough to build a new ground as I am sure
you realize. However if we accept this incredible offer we can also get financial security for the club for years to come and become a potent force in Division 2 with significant investment in the team"

  There was a stunned silence as the other directors digested the news. Keen to press home the element of surprise that he knew he had gained and wanting to get any hesitators on his side Miles continued

  "I personally think that the best site of the two planned developments suggested in the proposal before you is the one on the other side of town, just off the dual carriageway. There is nothing there but waste ground at the moment and access wise for both home and away fans it would be brilliant. The second site in the town centre although ripe for a development like ourselves I personally feel we would have serious planning issues with objections from local residents and businesses."

  Later that evening a copy of the proposal was dropped through the letterbox of the main offices of the local newspaper. The local paper wasted no time bringing out an early edition with the sensational breaking news! Nobody knew where the leak had come from but the headlines that afternoon in the Redbourne Gazette thundered in huge letters

  "New Ground Joy For The Rovers"

  The story was covered in it's entirety with the amazingly generous offer from the supermarket magnate described and pictures of the two potential sites. The board meeting had adjourned for twenty four hours to allow the directors of the football club to digest the terms of the deal and visit both sites before a vote was cast. Local television had picked up on the deal in the offing too and by the time the board of directors led by Miles visited the two sites the event was carried on the national and local news. Nobody really knew who had leaked the story when the board reconvened the following evening. Quite a few members felt that Miles might have been responsible but such was his power and charisma within the town and club nobody dared even suggesting such a thing. The vote was a foregone conclusion with it being six votes for accepting the offer and one lone dissenter who wanted Pines Lane to be redeveloped.

  Miles not being a man to let the grass grow under his feet was straight on to the phone to his golfing friend the supermarket magnate with the words he had being dying to say all day

  "Freddy we have a deal"

  Construction companies in all the surrounding areas to Redbourne were to be in for a bonanza year. The local paper began a competition the next day which Miles had dreamed up in order to find the name for the new ground with a season ticket put up for the lucky winner!

  4

  They Call It A Summer Break

  It was late May but the temporary club offices that had been set up in the centre of Redbourne in what had been previously a sales office for a mobile phone company were receiving a steady stream of enquiries about the new season that was just over two months away. A blitz kind of mentality had developed within the small team of office staff in their new premises ably led by the very attractive Miss Stede. Miss Stede whose first name was Deborah ran the offices with military precision and although her staff were slightly scared of her somewhat brusque manner she had her own fan club amongst the fans and the team had an on going sweepstake running on who would be the first to get this stunning blonde into bed. At the old Pines Lane site players had always been popping into the offices on a variety of pretexts to see the delectable Deborah. A couple had even gone out with her on the odd occasions but so far none had even come close to getting through her defence and winning the bet!

  A lot of callers by phone and on foot were for season ticket queries for Whaddon Road. Broadband had been installed at the offices and Cheltenham Town Football Club in an unprecedented display of cooperation and friendliness to Redbourne Rovers had sent their IT support staff over for the day and got them linked into Cheltenham's computerized ticketing system. Miles had already got an incentive scheme going within all renewals by the end of June getting free transport to home games at Cheltenham for the season. After being shown round by the current Cheltenham chairman with his fellow directors, Miles and his board had decided without any queries to keep home and away areas totally as what their very kind hosts used with home fans being initially located in the very popular terraced C and G stand which held just under two thousand fans.

  What had really pleased Miles though was the somewhat begrudging pay out from the insurance company for the fire at Pines Lane. Investigators for the insurance company after swarming all over the fire site for over a month had found no suspicious circumstances for the blaze and thus they had no choice! The coffers of Redbourne Rovers had been swollen by £4.3 million pounds which had gone into a special high interest account giving them 4.8% interest over the year. Soon when his manager Terence Fletcher came back from his holiday in the Bahamas with his gorgeous young wife Ashleyne he would sit down and discuss a transfer budget for the forthcoming season. Miles Grimley’s ambition was to see Redbourne in the Championship within three to four years and he would leave no stone unturned in achieving this. Miles had grown up in Redbourne and had made most of his money in real estate deals abroad. His heart, his money and his passion though now was with Redbourne Rovers.

  A month before the players were due back for pre season training Miles sat down with his manager to discuss the coming season. He trusted his young manager implicitly and was keen to gauge where he thought any weaknesses existed before assessing how much of the fire insurance money he would allocate towards strengthening the squad. Terrance spoke passionately to his chairman as he analysed the starting eleven that had been the mainstay of the team that had won them promotion from the conference. In his views the team needed two new players to make them competitive in the lower division of the football league a striker and a ball winning, hard tackling no nonsense midfielder. Miles looked at him intently and asked

  "So Tel”

  using the nickname that wound up Terrance every time.

  "Who do you have in mind?"

  Terrance looked at his chairman. He certainly respected Miles for what he had done to put Rovers on the football map and felt that with the two of them together the rise was only just starting. However he didn’t like the person he saw one bit at all. Terrance had always considered himself to be a honest character full of integrity but some of the stunts that Miles had got him involved in, in the two years since he had been manager at Redbourne defied belief! The fire at Pines Lane was the culmination for Terrance. He still felt very guilty about destroying such a valuable bit of English heritage and breaking the law but the money that had been offered to him and his brother a fire-fighter in neighbouring Cheltenham had been too good to turn down especially when he had a wife like Ashleyene with such expensive tastes. He also understood the rationale behind Miles’ plan although deep down he hated himself for going along with it. His brother though didn't feel the slightest bit guilty and was highly amused that his brother Terrance's team would be playing home games at Whaddon Road for he was a Cheltenham fan!

  "Well boss there is a striker I have been keeping tags on for ages who is currently on the transfer list for Carlisle."

  Miles mentally groaned for he hated long trips up north! Oblivious to Miles’ internal anguish Terrance continued

  "His name is Dickie Blissett. He is only twenty five and scored twelve last season for them before injury curtailed things. Our scout up north has watched him play a few times and he is someone who I feel would complement our style of football and do a good target man job! Carlisle rates him very highly but I reckon we could get him for £50000 at the very maximum. You never know Miles speak nicely to his agent and it might be a bit less!"

  Miles knew the agent in question and decided to get in touch with him as soon as the meeting with Terrance had ended. He owed him a favour!

  "I can't see a problem with the price”

  replied Miles

  "I will set the wheels in motion. So who is this midfield dynamo that we are going to buy?"

  "Are you sure that you are ready for this boss?"

&nbs
p; joked Terrance

  "Terry Pauls the youth team skipper at Man City. He can not break into the reserve team to save his life and is getting more and more frustrated by his lack of progress. He is only eighteen but has huge potential! I have had an informal chat with him and he is interested in dropping down two divisions in order to play regular first team football providing we can offer him a half decent wage!"

  Miles had heard of the player’s reputation but was slightly worried about the possible price involved in getting him.

  "I will give you your due Tel you have done your homework well. Isn’t he a bit outside of our price range though?"

  Terrance looked at his chairman in a half amused half cynical way as if to say you must be joking!

  "Miles you did say we have money to burn within reason”

  said Terrance enjoying the deliberate play on words. His humour wasn't lost on Miles who roared with laughter!

  "I have it on reliable information that Man City would let him go for £250000"

  Miles’ antennae were instantly alert. Getting these two players would be a huge statement of intent to the rest of Division 2 and to the local community. Redbourne Rovers transfer targets were now decided!

  Over on the edge of town where the A40 ran through a huge board had gone up on the wasteland that was visible from the dual carriageway. It read-

  ‘Thistle Brothers Developments - the new home of Redbourne Rovers.’ Planning permission had gone through in just over eight weeks which was an amazing feat. Work was due to start the next day as Miles Grimley and his dynamic young manager Terrance Fletcher walked around the waste ground. As they both posed for local and national press in front of the huge billboard each holding one end of a large Redbourne flag, Miles was trying to imagine what things would look like here in just over a year’s time. It was hard to envisage at this moment but having seen the plans for the stadium it was truly an astounding prospect that would grace the town for many many years to come. The photo shoot now completed; Miles and Terrence were ready for their long trip up north to hopefully acquire their two transfer targets, initial discussions having gone well with the two players’ agents!