Soccer Supremo - A Sports Progression Fantasy

I turned and looked at the wedding countdown Ruth had bought for us. ”323 days to go.”

”You need to rip off the last number.”

”I already did,” I said. ”It’s the first thing I do when I get up.”

”Aw,” said Rachel. ”He’s excited really.”

”Course I am,” I said. ”I’ve never been to a castle. All right, I need to go to Bumpers for training.”

”Which training?” said Emma. ”Chester or Saltney?”

”Both.”

***

I drove the Mini to Bumpers and parked in my special exclusive space. It used to say ’manager’ to stop other people from using it, but I had ordered the builders to come back and repaint it to say ’SUPREMO’.

Ah, not really, but I was tempted.

I waved at Jojo in the reception block, who smiled and waved back. Our new canteen was already busy, filled with players from Chester, Saltney, and some of the women’s team even though their pre-season hadn’t started yet. There was the sound of scraping chairs, cutlery on plates, sizzling fryers, vents. Smiles, laughs, a couple of people in headphones, some of the coaches scribbling in notebooks while munching on toast.

I saw Wibbers and made a beeline for him. As usual, Sarah Greene was by his side. ”Dude,” I said. ”Can I have a quick chat?”

”Course, boss.”

”There’s good news and bad news. Do you want Sarah here?”

”Always,” he said, without embarrassment, because he was so besotted with her he didn’t realise how dippy he sounded. ”Start with the good news.”

”It’s not good news for you, bro.”

”Oh.”

Sarah shook her head. ”Jesus, Max.”

I laughed and pulled out a piece of paper and a pen. ”I’ve been thinking about the line up against Linfield next week. I think I have a rare chance to be a good person and I’m hoping you can help me out. Here’s Saltney’s squad.”

Sticky

GK

33

Kobi Ellis

GK

32

Cody Williams

GK

16

Lucas Hussain

D LC

19

Danny Prince

DL

24

Billy Webb

CB

22

Cam Mason

CB

21

Henry Dunston

CB

31

Carl Carlile

DCR

29

Otis Burke

RB

21

Cheb Alloula

DM AM LR

22

Magnus Evergreen

D,DM,M

30

Vincent Addo

DM RC

20

Ash Bradley

AM/F L

32

Toquinho

AM LR

20

Aff

ML

31

Davey Barnes

MLC

27

Sam Topps

MC

32

Charlie Cullen

MC

16

Omari Naysmith

MC

21

Max Best

Omni

27

Wibbers

F RLC

20

Tom Westwood

S

21

Gabriel

S

23

Almost before I had put it on the table, Sarah pointed to a mistake. ”William is 19.”

I gave her a thin smile. ”20 is his spreadsheet age. He will be 20 this season, won’t he? I just update the numbers at the start of the year and never have to think about them again. Okay, so we’re gonna do 4-4-2 on Tuesday. Sticky in goal, of course.” I circled his name. ”The other two goalies know they won’t be playing unless something terrible happens.” Kobi was a half-decent backup with CA 50, PA 59, while Cody Williams was 24/136, one of the brightest goalkeeping prospects in Wales. I crossed both guys out.

The next name was Lucas Hussein. He was a guy I had found shortly after acquiring my beefed-up new Playdar powers. At PA 74, Lucas could be a good player for Saltney in the Welsh league, but he was only CA 10 so involving him in competitive fixtures would have to wait a couple of years.

That said, I had found him while the Feedback Loop token was active and I was sure I would get an XP bonus if he played in a European match. Discovering the size of those bonuses was very appealing because if they were pitiful I could swap out that token and put something more useful into my limited slots. Adding another slot would cost 1,500 XP, so in a way, putting Lucas on the pitch would be like gaining that much. ”I’d like to get Lucas on the pitch for a few minutes one of these days because it’ll give him a big burst of motivation... but that’s my lowest priority.”

I crossed his name out. The XP boosts were nothing compared to the prize money for progressing in this competition, and Lucas could be an option to start a match in which I made some early subs to activate Bench Boost.

”Okay, we’re gonna keep the same back four.” I circled the names of Danny Prince, Henry Dunston, Magnus Evergreen, and Cheb Alloula. ”No explanation needed there. In midfield I’ve got two players who have come from warm, beautiful lands to live in the cold, wet north-west of England, and they came in part because I promised them Champions League football. With Linfield more or less wrapped up, I can’t leave them out, can I? So Vincent Addo and Tockers need to start. Davey Barnes needs minutes. You saw how good he is, right?”

Wibbers nodded. ”Great left foot.”