The Damned Utd by David Peace (easy readers txt) 📕

Further and further and further …

Under the stands and through the doors. Round the corner and down the corridor, I lie on the floor. My brandy spilt and my cigarette out.

* * *

You have gone round to Archie Gemmill’s flat. You and Roy McFarland. Archie Gemmill and his wife have given you tea and biscuits. You and Roy McFarland. Now Roy McFarland gets on the phone to Dave Mackay –

‘We’ve all got every respect for you, Dave, and you’re our pal,’ Roy tells Dave, ‘but please don’t come here, please don’t come to Derby …’

Roy listens. Then Roy says, ‘It’s not fair on you …’

Roy listens again. Then Roy says, ‘We want Brian back and we think we can …’

Roy listens. Roy holds the phone away from his ear. Roy hangs up –

‘What did Dave say?’ asks Archie Gemmill. ‘What did Dave say?’

‘What do you bloody think Dave Mackay said? He told me to fuck off, didn’t he? Told me he’s already shaken hands with Longson on it, as good as signed it.’

‘So what do we now?’ asks Gemmill. ‘What do we do now?’

‘We go see Longson and the board ourselves,’ says Roy. ‘In person.’

Roy goes to get his coat on, and Archie goes to get his. Then they both stomp out of the flat and down the stairs to pick up the rest of the first team, to take them to the Baseball Ground, to have it out with Longson and the rest of the board. In person.

You have gone round to Archie Gemmill’s flat. Now you are sat on your own on the settee in Gemmill’s flat, with a cigarette and with a drink, the lights and the fire off, wondering what to do with the rest of the day –

Tuesday 23 October 1973.

* * *

Under the stands, through the doors and round the corner, I am listening for the feet down the corridor, the voices –

There are voices. There are voices. There are voices outside the door …

‘Owl thou art and owl thou shall be,’ they whisper. ‘And all the birds of the earth shall peck at thee, shall peck at thee, peck at thee …’

There are voices and there are feet. Feet down the corridor.

Manny Cussins doesn’t knock. Many Cussins opens the door to the office and throws a newspaper onto the desk and says, ‘I don’t care to be made a fool of.’

I look down at the newspaper. The Yorkshire Post. The photograph of John Giles.

‘Well, go on then,’ says Cussins. ‘Read it.’

I pick up the paper. The Yorkshire Post. The photograph of John Giles:

‘Mr Nicholson rang Mr Clough last week. He asked permission for him to speak to me and Mr Clough gave him the go-ahead. Obviously I am interested in the Tottenham job – anyone who wasn’t would be crazy. I am very keen to go into management but if nothing comes from this I shall be just as happy going on playing.’

I put down the paper. The Yorkshire Post. The photograph of John Giles.

‘There are those upstairs in that boardroom,’ Manny Cussins says quietly, slowly, ‘who didn’t want you here. Who said you would be trouble. Too big for your boots, too quick with your mouth. Who said you’d be too eager to try and run the whole damn show. Who said you’d be out of control. Too interested in Number One, too interested in Brian Clough and not Leeds United. Who said you were the wrong man, the last man, for Leeds United. But I was the one who argued against them. Who persuaded them that Brian Clough was the right man, the only man, for Leeds United and, believe me, they took some persuading. But I told them you had the experience, the experience of winning a Championship, of competing in the European Cup; I told them you had the ambition, the ambition to win more Championships, to lift the European Cup; I told them you’d use your experience and your ambition to command the loyalty of your players and of the whole club and that, together, your experience, your ambition and their loyalty, their ability would bring this club the Championships and the cups it deserves and expects –

‘And so here you are; not at Brighton; not in the Third Division. Here at Leeds United, in the First Division, in the European Cup –

‘And that was me, Brian, me that got you here, me …’

I look down at the paper again. The Yorkshire Post. The photograph of John Giles.

Manny Cussins doesn’t say goodbye. Manny Cussins opens the door to leave and says quietly and slowly, ‘You’d do well to remember who your friends are here.’

* * *

The Derby County board won’t see the players. The Derby County board ignore the players’ request for a meeting. But the players won’t leave. The players stage a sit-in –

The Siege of Derby.

You have driven back to your house. You have locked your door. You have pulled your curtains. Now you sit in your house and you watch your television, watch –

The Siege of Derby –

Alan Hinton parading up and down outside the Baseball Ground. Alan Hinton with a tea urn on his head. Alan Hinton telling the cameras and the microphones –

‘This is the only cup we’ll ever win from now on.’

You sit in your house. Door locked and curtains pulled. You listen to your radio:

The rumours that the board are at the Midland Hotel. The rumours that they are about to announce the name of the new manager of Derby County –

You switch off your radio. In the dark. You switch on your television –

Colin