Glory Of The Football Manager System-Chapter 461: Still Top 4

The familiar dread stirred. Everton at home. Chelsea. The pattern of taking leads and failing to hold them, the crack in the machine that the autumn had exposed.

I could feel it in the crowd, in the body language of the players, in the way Neves’s head dropped slightly not in defeat, but in recognition that this team had been here before and the ending hadn’t always been kind.

I stepped to the edge of my technical area. "PUSH! Don’t sit back! We go again IMMEDIATELY!"

And this time, the response was immediate.

In the sixty-second minute, Zaha collected a long diagonal from Neves on the left touchline the same pass, the same switch, the same system and drove at the Watford right-back. One step-over. Two. The defender bit, lunging in, and Zaha was past him, to the byline, the ball on his right foot. He looked up, saw the near post, saw the body arriving, and cut the ball back.

Andros Townsend. The veteran.

The squad player. The man who had waited patiently for every opportunity this season behind Navas, behind Bowen, behind whichever winger the rotation selected ahead of him and had seized each chance with the quiet determination of a professional who understood his role. Townsend met Zaha’s cut-back at the near post and hit it first-time, a crisp, clean half-volley that flew into the roof of the net before the goalkeeper could move.

Watford 1–2 Crystal Palace. Townsend. 62 minutes.

Townsend’s celebration was directed at the bench. Not the crowd, not the away end, not the cameras. The bench. He pointed at Michael Steele, who had kept his spirits up during the weeks without starts, who had handed him jackets and coffee and quiet words when the starting eleven was announced and his name wasn’t in it.

At Sarah, who had included him in every tactical briefing as though he were a guaranteed starter. At Bray, whose set-piece routines had given him opportunities from dead balls even when open play passed him by. Townsend understood something that the media never would that the squad players, the men who didn’t start every week but trained every day, were the mortar between the bricks. Without them, the wall collapsed.

On the bench, Steele stood up and clapped. A single, solid clap. Then he sat back down. It was the most emotional thing I had ever seen from the stoic goalkeeping coach.

The final twenty-eight minutes were the grind at its most intense. Watford pushed.

We defended. Sakho and Tarkowski won everything in the air Deeney, who had been a nuisance all afternoon, was finally subdued, Sakho having won their personal war through a combination of physicality, intelligence, and what I suspected was a continuous stream of French psychological warfare.

Chilwell made a crucial block in the seventy-eighth minute, throwing himself in front of a Gray shot that was heading for the far corner. Pope made two saves in stoppage time that justified every minute of patience a fingertip stop from a header, then a punch from a deep free kick that he had no right to reach.

The whistle. 2-1. Three wins in eight days. Nine points from nine. The crisis that the media had been building since Chelsea had been quietly, professionally, unspectacularly dismantled.

[FULL TIME: Watford 1–2 Crystal Palace. Goals: Abraham 37’, Townsend 62’.]

[Manager Record: P25 W20 D3 L2. GF: 65. GA: 22.]

[Premier League: P11 W7 D2 L2. Points: 23. Position: 4th.]

And the best was yet to come.

On Monday, November 6th, the international break arrived and the squad scattered. But I wasn’t thinking about the players who left. I was thinking about the one who stayed.

On Tuesday morning, I walked into the gym at Beckenham and found Konaté on the treatment table. Rebecca was beside him, a smile on her face that I rarely saw from a woman whose default expression was professional concern.

"Full contact clearance," she said. "Sprint times are back to ninety-four percent of baseline. Hamstring flexibility within normal range. He’s fit, Danny. He’s ready."

I looked at Konaté. The boy who had collapsed on the Selhurst Park turf eight weeks ago. Who had done his rehab every day. Who had told me I’ll be back for November with the quiet certainty of a boy who had decided his body would obey his will.

"How do you feel?"

"Ready, gaffer." His voice was calm. His eyes were fire. "I want to play."

"Good. Because I’m putting you in the squad for Tottenham."

The word landed like a detonation. Tottenham. Away. Wembley. Ninety thousand people.

"Wembley?" Rebecca said, eyebrows rising. "For his first match back?"

"He’s been training for two weeks. He’s fit. And if I’m going to throw him back in, I might as well throw him in at the deep end."

Konaté’s face cracked into a grin the first genuine, full, joyful grin since September. "Wembley. I have never played at Wembley."

"I have, but it was a small crowd," I said. "We’ll figure it out together."

On Wednesday, I gathered the non-international players and made the announcement. Konaté stood beside me, in full training kit, his hamstring strapped but his posture transformed the tentative movement of the rehab weeks replaced by the coiled aggression of a player ready to compete.

"Ibou is back," I said.

The room erupted. Dann grabbed Konaté’s hand. Tomkins slapped his back. Bojan hugged him. And Tarkowski, the man who had stepped into Konaté’s shirt and worn it with distinction for eight weeks, walked up to the young Frenchman, looked him in the eye, and said: "Welcome back. I kept it warm for you."

I pulled Tarkowski aside after training. "Tarky. You’ve been outstanding. The partnership with Sakho has been exceptional. Konaté coming back doesn’t erase what you’ve done."

"I know, gaffer," he said simply. "But he’s the better player. He’s eighteen and he’s already the better player. That’s not a problem that’s a gift. You’ve got two top-class centre-backs and a captain in Dann who could start for half the league. That’s depth. That’s what wins titles."

I looked at this unassuming, professional, quietly brilliant defender and thought about how lucky I was.

When the internationals returned, I called a full squad meeting on Thursday, November 16th. Twenty-eight players, every staff member, the whole operation. The room was buzzing with post-break energy jet lag, new haircuts, stories from distant cities.

I waited for the noise to die down.

"Ibrahima Konaté starts on Saturday."

Sakho stood up, crossed the room, and lifted Konaté off the ground in a bear hug so fierce the eighteen-year-old’s feet dangled six inches above the floor. The room exploded laughter, cheers, and applause. Neves was clapping. Zaha was grinning. Rodríguez gave a small, appreciative nod.

"Wembley," I continued. "Tottenham away. Ninety thousand people. Pochettino’s team. Kane, Alli, Eriksen." I looked at every face in the room. "We go there to win. Not to survive. Not to grind out a draw. To win. Because we are Crystal Palace, and that is what we do."

The doubt that had crept in after Chelsea, after Everton, after Arsenal it was gone. In its place was something harder, something more dangerous. A team preparing for war.

"Rest tomorrow. Travel Saturday morning. We go to Wembley, and we bring it home."

[Season Status November 16th. P25 W20 D3 L2. GF: 65. GA: 22. PL: P11 W7 D2 L2. 23 pts. Position: 4th. EL: P4 W3 D1. 10 pts. Top of Group H. Konaté: CLEARED. The squad is at full strength for the first time since September 16th. Wembley awaits.]

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Thank you to Sir nameyelus for the Massage Chair.