Glory Glory Rebels

Chapter 18 Lefty

Steve Bruce was also generous enough to help Rudy buy some training equipment, due to his limited finances at the moment Rudy was grateful for any help at all that he received. Rudy would not be able to afforded the same standard of equipment as the larger clubs, but at the same time he did not want to buy cheap rubbish that wouldn’t last one season.

“I want to say thank you, again Steve. If it weren’t for you, I don’t know what I would have done. I was really unsure about what equipment to purchase or even where to buy it from! You guided me and for that I can not thank you enough.” Rudy truly appreciated Steve’s help and had thanked him profusely over the last few days.

Bruce just patted him on the back and laughed it off,

“Don’t worry about it!”

Rudy had come to learn that the main reason Bruce had leafy Birmingham was because he had wanted to become a coach. Rudy also learned that he Bruce had applied to several clubs and had no response.

Rudy became obsessed with contracting Bruce as their coach and constantly pestered him for help. During the process of helping Rudy, Bruce learned that there were many obstacles and worries just in running an amateur club, he hated to think what was involved when the club was larger.

Bruce had never understood exactly what was involved in running a club, the players, the grounds, the infrastructure. All the issues that kept arising, Bruce took in his stride, he knew that it would only benefit him in the long run to fully understand how a club works and runs.

Rudy was constantly aware of the pressing financial needs of the club, he was always busy but money was always at the back of his mind. Rudy’s greatest resource was his knowledge of the future, he knew who won the World Cup in France, he knew who scored the most goals and he knew when the underdogs would break through.

Maybe no one in 2010 thought this information was terribly interesting, but in 1998 before the World Cup, the information that Rudy knew was invaluable. But Rudy wanted to be careful with this information, he wanted to take advantage of it but not draw too much attention to himself.

He spent some time in Wolf’s bar, listening and learning about betting, he spoke to several people who made gambling their life. Based on his own experience and the advice and knowledge he had garnered, Rudy went ahead and made a bet.

Rudy invested the last of his savings into the bet, he had spent every last dollar on the club, he even transferred money to the FC United account, he set aside a reasonable amount to make the bet and prayed that history would not change. Rudy felt a small sense of relief, he stood to make a very large profit from the bet he had placed.

Now that Rudy felt like his finances would soon be taken care of, he was able to focus on FC United and his team again. There was a surplus of players for some positions on the teams trial training day but Rudy found that there was also a shortage of players for some positions. It didn’t appear that there were many options for goalkeeper or left back.

The thing that was now concerning Rudy the most was the position of goalkeeper and left back. Bruce had mentioned that if Rudy was unable to find a suitable goalkeeper there was a chance that he could borrow one temporarily from another, higher level team.

But the position of left back was going to be a little more difficult to figure out. The position was best suited to a left footed player, there had been a few lefty’s at the trial but they had applied for forward or winger. To try and get them to learn a different position would be a nightmare and it would be almost impossible before they had to play before their first match.

Rudy did not want to rely on luck and wait until the last second to find a left back for his team, but they were a new team they had no talent scout, no reputation hell, they did even have a coach! Rudy was racking his brains to think where he was going to find other players.

Rudy though that perhaps he could ask Jason Smith for help, but he seemed to be in as much trouble as Rudy when it came to left footed players, Smith had come to rely on his right back to compensate for a weak left back.

Rudy finally understood how difficult it was to find a left back and why the larger clubs, when they found a lefty, hung on to them with all they had. They were extremely rare and the club would almost anything to hang on to those players.

Suddenly, Rudy remembered someone and thought to himself that he was a left footed player…