Glory Glory Rebels

Chapter 2 Confused

"Um…what happened to me?” Rudy mumbled, holding his head in his hands, feeling very nervous.

Walsh grabbed Rudy’s hands and held them in his own.

“It’s alright, you will ok. You were knocked down by a big guy called Markson. You need to rest now, someone can drive you home and I will handle the rest of the player selection.” Walsh said soothingly.

Another wave of surprised washed over Rudy, player selection?

“What do you mean you will handle selecting the players?” Rudy asked confused.

Wolf’s eyes popped open in surprise and he looked at Rudy, he wondered what was going on but then seemed to realize that Rudy might have been suffering from some sort of temporary amnesia. Such a hard blow to the head might have that effect.

“Well, we were supposed to be picking player for the newly established club.” Wold replied quickly, hoping to help Rudy recover his memory.

Rudy frowned,

“The new football club?” He still couldn’t think clearly through the fog.

Rudy felt like his brain would explode, he had a rush of memories and thoughts that did not belong to him, he needed time to think and come to understand them. They mixed with his own memories creating a muddy, confused landscape of thoughts.

Wolf rubbed his chin thoughtfully,

“Do you remember Manchester United?” Wold asked, hoping that Rudy could at least remember that.

“Of course I remember them!” As a die hard football fan, Rudy thought that no matter what happened to him he would never forget Manchester United.

“What about Murdoch? Do you remember him?” Wolf asked and patiently waited for Rudy to answer.

Rudy felt a familiar stirring of feelings when he heard the name, he couldn’t put his finger on it to start with but the more he though about it, the clearer it became.

“The guy from News Group?” Rudy asked hesitantly.

Before he had gone back in time, Rudy had always taken the time to stay up to date on any football news. Murdoch was some huge billionaire that was involved heavily with Manchester United, he was mentioned almost every other day.

Thinking about it brought on an unexpected flare of anger for Rudy.

“That son of a b***h! I want to kill him!!” Rudy burst out. He remembered that he hated Murdoch with a passion.

Rudy could tell that Wolf did not much like Murdoch either from the expression on his face. They had both been chasing something and Murdoch had won, in the end Murdoch had purchased Manchester United for over fifty million dollars.

Rudy frowned and shook his head, when he thought about it he remembered that Murdoch had initiated and acquisition of Manchester United back in 1998. The price was very high for the club, but they were already established in the world of football.

Still it had caused a major upset in the football world but when Manchester United agreed to the acquisition there was not much anyone could do about it. The majority of fans were not happy about the acquisition and they began to rebel against it. The incident became more and more serious and eventually the government had to get involved.

Early 1999 saw the government shut down Murdochs acquisition and reminded people about the value of Manchester United and indeed the entire league. Rudy still did not understand what all this had to do with him.

Wolf saw that Rudy was still puzzled, he patted Rudy on the cheek none to gently to maybe try and knock some sense into him.

“You know I have told you before not to mess around with those players, but you ignored me.” Wolf sighed. “And what about the results?”

Rudy sat there, staring into space, trying to recall the memories that had led to this point. He remembered that because of his love for Manchester United during the Murdoch acquisition he had started a fan club called ‘The Red Devil Knights’. Rudy had led the members of the club in protest against the acquisition, but I thad all been for nothing.

Less than a month of negotiations saw Manchester United shareholders agree to Murdoch’s purchase. Rudy felt like everything they had done had been in vain, the shareholders had betrayed the fans and handed over the club anyway. Rudy was guessing that they were greedy and were just in it for the huge amount of money.

It was all about money, the shareholders did care about the team or the game, all they cared about was profits. What a lot of people didn’t know was that Murdoch had borrowed money from the banks to purchase the club. Once acquired, Manchester United would be one of the most heavily debated teams in the world.

The shareholders didn’t care, but Rudy did. He had planned to buy the club outright, he had some money and was trying to raise funds through his club, but they fell short and wouldn’t be able to afford it.

Rudy’s parents had left him a decent sum of money and collateral when they passed, Rudy sold the store and pooled all his resources together to establish the club, Wolf was his best friend and one of the founding members of the the Red Devil Knights. He ran a bar in Manchester and he was the perfect person to help Rudy with any issues the football club faced.