The Opportunity

In the dark of the night, a man walked through the rain and wind towards the light of the Swindon Town offices. As John Green entered the front door into the lobby, he shook the water from his mullet. He couldn’t help but feel altogether unsure about the opportunity that was about to be presented to him. The papers were full of jokes about the idea of three John Greens working on the same team. He knew John Green was one of the most charismatic and exciting new managers in English football and having watched Bald John Greens performance against Chorzów he knew the man had immeasurable talent.

In many ways the most difficult decisions you can be asked to make are the ones that are blatantly obvious when hypothetical. He knew that after plying his trade in semi-pro football for almost four years now. The idea of professional football was tantalising but it involved moving halfway across the country to Swindon, the town of eternal rain. Also, he was becoming increasingly referred to in the papers as “Other John Green”.

He removed his overcoat and asked the young secretary about his meeting. Before she had time to reply a host of characters appeared in the hall and greeted Other John Green. John Green, Dave Mustaine, Hank Green and a fourth man who was unfamiliar to Other John.

The five men walked to a conference room where they sat around a table. The fifth man turned out to be Daniel Biss, the man in charge of drawing up player contracts. The atmosphere was extremely relaxed; they talked football for a while before John got down to outlining the clubs setup, ambitions and so on. Eventually, after what seemed like no time at all, the contract was taken out by Daniel who read a few of the finer details of the paperwork before passing it to Other John. He read through it himself to check for any catches before he signed it. It all seemed good, decent wage, goal bonus, guaranteed minimum playing time, compensation to his previous club team and most other things he had hoped for.

He took the pen and scribed his signature in the indicated locations, much to the delight of the four other men. As Other John stood up from the table, John Green took him by the hand and said “You won’t regret taking this opportunity.”

Chorzów

In one moment everything can change. The heat, the tension, the waves of sound beating against the inside of your ear, they can all change in a heartbeat. You can feel them building, rising, peaking and then just hovering there, a weight of expectation surrounding you, overlooking you. Bald John Green knew this phenomenon.

On another rainy day in Swindon the tension was rising. With twenty four minutes gone, Bald John Green took the ball down from a header, it spun delicately at his feet before he turned and drove past two Chorzów defenders. Storming in to the box like a man possessed, he banished the mediocrity that had preceded. He rifled his shot hard past the helpless keeper and the moment came. The tension doesn’t just change; it gets replaced by something different, something brand new.

John looked up to the stands from his position on the side-line and saw the jubilant supporters, who said friendlies don’t mean anything? It had always been John’s motto that no player is ever bigger than the team, but he couldn’t help but wonder about bald John Green. He was a gentleman and always tried to get everyone else involved but there was no denying he was just much more talented than anyone else at the club. In the last week alone, John had received two offers from much bigger clubs about signing him.

Moments later it happened again. Fat Lucas pumped the ball up the field where it bounced over the heads of Pericard and the two defenders. Bald John Green used his brute strength to take the ball on his chest and break away where he coolly lifted the ball into the top corner with his lethal right foot.

Before the day was out, he did it twice more, slotting the ball into an empty net and applying a trademark finish to an incisive Swindon town breakaway. John ran a hand through his puff, he knew deep down that he needed someone to partner Bald John Green, on and off the pitch. Bald John Green just never seemed interested in hanging out with the rest of the team. He was, to his credit, self-distanced from the footballing stereotype of a womanising idiot. He just didn’t bond with Cteve Austin or Voluptuous Pericard. Voluptuous was always trying to set him up with a girlfriend so he could double date with Voluptuous and his wife Alice. It never seemed to work out, John couldn’t really fathom it, and Bald John Green was perhaps the nicest man he’d ever known.

As John followed behind his delighted players into the dressing room, his chief scout and brother Hank appeared from behind him. Pushing up his glasses, he said with a childish smile “We found him. Another John Green.”