Parallel Universe - an alternative story about FM

[Zlatan]

First of all, I credit ChannelDelibird from the SortItOutSI.net forums for the saved game upon which this game and story is based. Secondly I'd like to say that I appreciate any comments or suggestions you make about my writing. Last but certainly not least I'd like to say: sit back, relax, and enjoy the story.

Part 1 - The flash
Peter James was very tired. He had just returned from a long day at the office meeting all sorts of unintresting people. But that's the way how life is for a business man like him, he often told himself. He hated his job. He used to want to become a football player when he was a kid. But now he was 40 and he hadn't got any further than the reserve team of London Caledonians FC. Nowadays, in the deepest of his heart he wanted to be a football manager of Arsenal FC.

So here he was driving through the dull streets of north London. On his way home, Peter always went past the Emirates stadium. He had been supporting Arsenal since he was a kid. He liked the old Highbury stadium better. Mainly because when Arsenal still played there, they had success. Now a few years after the team played their first match at the Emirates stadium versus Ajax the team had played very bad and were even fighting against relegation at some point. To make it worse Tottenham Hotspurs, the arch rival of Arsenal, had become champions last season. This season they were looking to win it again and they set a step in the, for them, right direction when they beat Arsenal last Saturday four to nothing England star striker Jermain Defoe netting three and giving an assist to Lennon to make it four. Oh how he hated Defoe, he appeared so arrogant to him. If he could he would almost kill him.

Peter decided to first get a bit of petrol in his car as he had to drive all the way to Newcastle tomorrow. So he went to the nearest filling station, filled his car and than went on to the shop to buy some cola.
Than in all of a sudden, as he walked outside the shop, he saw a big flash. For a moment he felt like he tumbled into nothing than it all turned black.

First everything around him looked blurry, than when Peter managed to focus again, he looked around him and saw that he was in some kind of hospital. While Peter was still wondering where the hell he was he heared somebody outside his room shout:
'Let me enter, I want to see him'
The door went open and to his astonishment he saw Jermain Defoe dash into the room wearing an Arsenal training suit closely followed by Aaron Lennon and Jamie Carragher.
'God are you OK, trainer?' Defoe asked. 'We thought we had lost you for a moment'.

 

[Zlatan]

Part 2 - The trainer

'Trainer?'
Peter James sat straight up in bed and checked wheter he was dreaming, but it all seemed so real and moreover, he hadn't ever realised that he was dreaming when he was dreaming so it must be real.
'Say something'
'Is, is this a joke?' was the best Peter could produce.
'What you mean a joke?'
'I only know you from the television'
'Damn, than his memory is damaged after all' Aaron Lennon, who stand in the back, concluded. 'The doctor thought you would fully recover'
'Don't you remember us, trainer?'
'I do remember you, but only from the television screen'
A moment of silence than Peter continued:
'You call me trainer, why?'
'You've been our head coach since I was at the youth academy of Arsenal.'
'Wait, you say you're playing for Arsenal?'
'Yes ofcourse'.
'But how can that be, last saturday I saw you in the stadium score three against Arsenal, this is all to confusing for me'.
'I don't know what happened to you, trainer, but all we know was that you suddenly collapsed while you were driving through north London. Your car was found at a filling station. Than you were brought to the Homerton Hospital. People think you've had a coronary thrombosis'. Defoe said.
'You've been out for a few days, when we heard you were concious again we immediatly went to the hospital to check up on you. What exactly happened Peter?' Carragher, who had moved to the side of his bed, said. Peter noticed that Carragher addressed him with his surname, while Defoe and Lennon called him trainer.
Peter answered: 'I was driving through north London I had just went past the Emirates. When I returned from a shop I suddenly saw a big flash, I tumbled over and now I woke up here, only a moment later you bashing into my room'.
'It seems you've lost your memory pretty bad' Lennon concluded.

'I suppose you don't want me as trainer now anymore, as I'm pretty dement now but...'
'No, no, that's not true, I think we all agree that we need you as trainer. You've pulled us out of the misery to make us title challengers once again.' Carragher stated
'But I can't possibly be a manager of Arsenal while I don't seem to remember everything you told me.'
'We can get you up to date.' Defoe said. 'What do you want to know?'
'Oh, so many things. I honestly don't know where to start.'
Again a moment of silence.
'Let me start with asking who am I?'
'Eh well, you're Peter James, 40 years old' Carragher started.
'That I remember'
'Good, well you're manager of Arsenal, though you are a big fan of Tottenham'
'What? Big fan of Tottenham? Never!'
'Oh you've had a change of heart than' Lennon concluded.
'Well anyway that's not the only thing I wanted to ask. You are all playing for Arsenal, right?
'Yes'
'Well I don't remember that. Besides you, what more players are in the Arsenal, I'm managing?
'Well so many I can't possibly say them all but I can name a few players'
'Please do'
'Well let's see we have us three and we've got Rio and eh...'
'Wait, Rio, Rio Ferdinand? The Man United player?'
'Man United player? He's never played there. Why would such a talented player play for a relegation battler?'
'Now this is getting more strange with the second, Man United a relegation battler?'
'Have been for ages already'
'His memory has been seriously damaged' Aaron Lennon concluded.
The door outside opened and a doctor appeared in the room.
'Sorry guys, the visiting hour is over. You'll have to leave now' the doctor said.
'Okay, don't worry, trainer, you'll be as good as you were in a few days I'm sure of that' Jamie Carragher said, although he didn't sound as sure as the words he spoke.
'Get well soon'

 

[Tom]

haha, creepy, i like it!

"Man United player? He's never played there. Why would such a talented player play for a relegation battler?"

cool!

 

[Zlatan]

Thanks for the comment Tom.
Quickly on to the next part.

Part 3 - The recovery

It had been a few weeks since Peter James saw 'the flash'. In a few days he would be released from the hospital. He looked besides his bed and saw the team photo of the Arsenal squad of this season. In this world that is. He still hadn't figured out what exactly happened to him. Was all his previous life that he remembered some sort of dream? Was it a memory produced by his mind while it was in a state of shock, like the doctors claimed. But how can he remember a whole life that he never lived? Or was this life all fake? Or maybe a parallel universe?

Peter himself thought it was the latter. He was always intrested in science and he once read in a science magazine that a parallel universe does exist(or even several of them) and that one could travel excidently or on purpose to a parallel universe. This was to him the most logical explanation, if this whole thing was logical at all, to what happened to him. The most annoying about it was that no-one he spoke to believed he was from another universe. Which Peter at the other hand understood, because after all would you believe it if someone was saying he came from another universe after he had fainted? Moreover what happened to the real manager of Arsenal, the Peter James that really lived in this life. Could he have ended up somehow in his old world? Or did he just disappear?

Fact is that he was now in a life where he was trainer of Arsenal and he felt it was his duty to Arsenal to forfill that job as good as possible. Apparently in this universe he had talent in managing. Moreover it had always been his biggest dream and now that this dream, no matter how strange, had come true, he was ought to let the dream last aslong as possible. He picked up the team photo from his side table and looked at it. He had been brought up to date over the past couple of weeks about everything around him in this life. In the middle he recognized the two goalies of Arsenal Jose Reina and Stuart Taylor. To the left and to the right of them sat the defenders: Wes Brown, Jamie Carragher, Paolo Ferreira, Rio Ferdinand, Aaron Mokoena, Jan Kromkamp and Franck Queudrue. On to the second row we had the midfielders: Scott Parker, Fabio Rochemback, Gaizka Mendieta, Aliaksandr Hleb, Aaron Lennon, John Arne Riise and Andy Reid. On the third and final row stood the attackers consisting of: Filipe Oliveira (He heard he had put alot of effort in getting him to Arsenal this season), Albert Lugue, Ricardo Vaz Te, Djibril Cisse and Jermain Defoe. These were his players and he noticed the loyalty and trust in him over the last few weeks when they all visited him in his room in Homerton. He also heard he always had a good relationship with the press and was really a so called 'people manager'. He thought he was ready to enter his new life.

He looked for one more time at the team photo. Not one of them was in the Arsenal squad he knew from his previous life. He placed the photo back on the side table. Not one, he thought, except for Aliaksandr Hleb...

 

[gamerguy350]

Good stuff!

 

[Fernandez]

Great stories. Disappointed about the Man. United part though.

 

[Zlatan]

Haha, sorry.
On to the next part.

Part 4 - The tactics

A few weeks had past again. The Arsenal squad was sitting in the airplane that took them to Cologne. From there on they would go on to Aachen where they would play their first match of the season.

While he was sitting in his business class seat, Peter James looked back at some hectic few weeks. First the president of Arsenal had to explain to the press that he had got a severe heart attack but that he will continue his work because 'he had full trust in James' abilities. Though he had informed the board with his theory, they had decided not to tell his version to the press in order not to make him look like a fool. Although the board said that they did believe Peter, he thought that they didn't take him seriously and actually didn't believe him. But he did agree that he would get a strange and bad image in the press, so he decided to go with their version.

Anyway, he thought, he should let go of it all now and enjoy beeing manager of Arsenal for aslong as possible. So he had discussed with his assistant Carlos Queiroz the tactics. They decided to go with a 4-1-3-2.
The keeper beeing Jose Reina with Taylor as solid replacement for him should he get injured. The main back four consisted of Ferreira, Ferdinand, Carragher and Queudrue. An alternative back could be: Kromkamp, Mokoena, Wes Brown and Riise. He placed Rochemback ahead of them as defensive midfielder, who could also be replaced by Scott Parker.
Than Arsenal had 2 wingers with a creative role: Aliaksandr Hleb and Riise. Oliveira and Andy Reid could replace them. Mendieta would be their main creative midfielder while his role would sometimes be filled in by young Aaron Lennon.
Last were the strikers he decided to play Defoe and Cisse(although he hated both in his 'former' life). Luque and young Vaz Te needed to fight for their place from the bench.

Finally Queiroz and Peter decided to spend the 29 million, which they got from the board to strengthen the squad, mainly on a left back and maybe a midfielder to strengthen the bench a bit.

'Lady's and gentlemen, fasten your seat belts. We are about to land' a soft woman voice said. From the airport of Cologne they went to Aachen to their hotel. Tomorrow they would play the local FC, Alemannia Aachen.

 

[Siawash]

Ooooohh. I like the story. Anymore to come?

 

[Zlatan]

Sure

Part 5 - The pressure

'I played sh*t today, trainer'
Jermain Defoe and Peter James were the only ones left in the away dressing room in Tivoli-Stadion in Aachen. The rest of the squad had already set course for the bus to take them home.
'Oh c'mon Jermain, you're only that sad because you didn't score a goal today' Peter tried to appease Defoe. 'I saw you spread some beautiful passes, you just needed a bit of luck in you're finishing'.
'It's not only that, trainer'
'Than what is it?'
'It's just that you know, Ricardo...'
'You think I'm gonna let you down because Ricardo played better today?'
'Well actually I have to admit I thought about it'
'Well ofcourse not, you're my main goalscorer. Why would I let you down?' Peter said. Though he had to admit, if Defoe wouldn't improve his performance and Vaz Te would he would have to give the young Portuguese striker a chance. He scored two today in only the half an hour he played. The other striker, Djibril Cisse, managed to bag two to make the final score 0-4. Peter also had to admit to himself that only after he subbed Vaz Te for Defoe Arsenal started playing better, finishing the chances they created.
'Well because I played sh*t as I said' Defoe answered.
'Listen, Jermain. I'll keep trust in you, cause someone who scored 50 goals last season won't be dropped because of one bad friendly match versus Aachen.'
'You don't even remember how I scored those 50 goals'.
A painful silence followed. Only broken by the door opening with the team manager of Arsenal standing in the door way.
'Are you coming, guys? The bus is about to depart' he said.

In the bus he sat next to his captain Jamie Carragher.
'Good match it was ey Peter' he said
'Nah, I think it only started after 60 minutes'
'That's right, but I think we were holding ourselves, maybe unintentionally, back. And also thanks to you bringing on Andy and Ricardo'.
Peter was still a bit puzzled by the conversation he had with Defoe in the dressing room. He decided to tell Carragher about it.
'Jermain is not happy with his performance. He said he was afraid Ricardo would take over his place'.
'Oh c'mon you know Jermain, he...'
'Well actually I don't really'
'Oh yeah' Carragher said. Than he continued: 'Well anyway he's always very hard on himself. If he does anything wrong he thinks his whole world will perish. He'll get over it, trust me Peter.'
Peter James looked over his shoulder and saw Defoe chatting happily with his friend Aaron Lennon.
'Well I hope you're right'
'I'm always right you know that, Peter' Carragher said with a smile.

 

[gamerguy350]

'Well actually I don't really' :funny:


Good stuff!

 

[Zlatan]

Tomorrow I'm off to California for 3 weeks, so this story will be put on hold for the moment. I will continue when I'm back again, stay tuned folks.