Glory Glory Rebels

Chapter 17 New Record

Rudy did not have a huge celebration on the day FC United was officially founded, they were only one of over 7000 amateur clubs in England. As far as Rudy was concerned that was nothing to celebrate.

“When we have our ounce stadium and training grounds, we will have a small celebration. When we make it to the premier league we will celebrate so all of England will hear us!” Rudy said in response to those fans that wanted to party and commemorate the occasion.

A new, amateur club in Newton Heath, Manchester would not attract a lot of attention at the best of times seeing as the World Cup was approaching, it was all they were seeing in the media at the moment.

A local Manchester newspaper wrote a very short article on the establishment of FC United, the blurb could barely be seen under the massive two page spread about the World Cup in France. Rudy thought that maybe he should have waited to establish the club until after the World Cup, but it was to late now.

Now that the club had been established, the player selections were being finalized. Their records show that over the seven day registration period over 1,300 people had applied. A lot of them were not serious football players, like Tony the cab driver, and were just there to try their luck. However, over 250 people had passed the preliminary testing.

When Rudy had lodged this number with the FA, they had been extremely surprised. This was new record for the number of successful applicants within a new club, it absolutely smashed the previous record and Rudy was proud that his club had broken a record on registration, surely it was a sign that the club would continue to flourish.

Only 20 of the 250 people from the trial would be selected, this was the harsh reality of football team selections however. It may have seemed cruel, but to ensure the strength and continued success of FC United, it was necessary.

There was a lot of talk about the new club though, many of the fans were talking about FC United taking out the Northwest League championship. Some local newspapers had even printed predictions that FC United would win the championship.

Even though the final 20 list had not yet been confirmed, it was not difficult to see the strength of the new team, there were several upcoming local star players on the list not to mention that they had Rhodri Giggs, Ryan Giggs younger brother.

At 21 years old, Rhodri was at his prime, he was extremely fast and very skilled across the field. Although he was not quite enough for the professional leagues yet, he was more than enough for the amateur league.

Since Rudy knew that he would definitely sign Rhodri, he had offered him a contract in advance. Rhodri had signed the contract, he would receive a base salary and have the opportunity to earn extra through scoring goals, impeccable performance and attending public relation events.

Carl Makinson was 28, an excellent defensive midfielder and professional player. He had played for three years with Rosalem in League Two and then moved to the National League. Makinson was born and bred in Manchester, he was passionate and very supportive of Rudy’s cause. He had dropped everything he was doing to get to the FC United trials.

This was how Rudy came to be knocked out on the second day of the trials, Carl had been in such a rush to make it on time that he had quite literally bumped into Rudy and knocked him unconscious, leading to Rudy’s time traveling episode.

In Rudy’s original history, Carl Makinson was the coach of FC United. While he was the coach he had managed to rank them up for three consecutive years. Naturally that made him a prime candidate for Rudy now, he knew this guy had drive and determination.

Then there was Will Liton, right midfielder who was not extremely fast however at, 185cm tall and with excellent ball control skills, he had a distinct advantage. But what really caught he attention of FC United was his precise passing, his stunning long range shots and his accuracy.

When Rudy saw Will had terminated his contract with his current club and wanted to join FC United, Rudy knew that Will would become one of the star players for FC United. In addition to these three players there was one more that was worth mentioning.

Benny Olog was 22 years old and had played in the English National League. His grandfather was the well known Charlie Olog, from The Busby Babes’, and Benny preferred to go back to the Northwest League and play for FC United.

All together, FC United had a strong starting line-up and even though they had just been formed, FC United were already being regarded as the next top contender in the Northwest League Two. But despite the promising prospects of the team, Rudy still could not relax. He still needed to figure out what to do about a coach and he was running out of time.

Rudy tried to visit Steve Bruce as often as he could, without being a nuisance. Instead of asking Bruce to coach, Rudy changed his tactic. He used his time with Bruce to ask as many questions as he could, to gain as much insight as possible on the operation of the team and players.

Steve Bruce was more than happy to share his knowledge with Rudy, he gave him as many details as he could and made some suggestion to improve certain areas of the club. Bruce completely supported Rudy’s idea to establish a youth team as soon as financially possible, this was the basis for a solid future for the club.