JOEL'S DREAM

     Joel was sitting in the airport lounge, sipping his mineral water, when the tanoy came on," BA flight two-six-one to Milan is now boarding. Please make your way to departure gate three, Thank you."

   " That's me! See you later Shaz, I'll phone you when I get there !"

   " See you Joel, hope everything goes okay!"

     After exchanging kisses, Joel picked up his bags and heads off through the Departures corridor and to the plane.

     Joel was possibly the best talent to come out of Scotland for years. He could play football with such style and skill, this was why he had been offered the most lucrative deal for a Scottish player ever. AC Milan, arguably the greatest team in the world had offered him a deal which would see him earn more than £40000 a week. This would make him the highest paid player in Europe and accelerate him to the top of world football.

     He was due to meet the manager on Monday to discuss the terms of his contract and if all went well he would sign for Milan and fulfill his dream of being a star footballer and also make his wife Sharon very very happy. Sharon was a gold digger and was after Joel for his money, but she did stick by him, they had been married for two years and if Joel got the contract Sharon would be able to move to Milan and have everything and have everything she desired. So obviously she was very determined to see this deal go through.

       After arriving at the hotel Joel settles in and unpacks before going to the Milan training camp to meet the players and his (hopefully) new manager, Roberto Ravelli.

  " Hello! I'm Erigo I will be your guide while you are in Italy.  I'm sorry if my English is no good but I am still getting lessons.  Anyway welcome to Italy!! Anywhere you want to go I will take you."

  " Oh thanks but I just want to meet the players then go back to the hotel and get some rest."

  " I understand it has been a long flight and you need to rest."

  " Yeah maybe we can go somewhere tomorrow or something!" said Joel who was getting a bit bored of talking and just wanted to get home and sleep.

  " OK then it's a date," replied Erigo." But I've been instructed to take you on a tour of the stadium before you go!"

  " Can't we do this tomorrow?" Said Joel tiredly.

  " No I'm sorry I must do as I have been instructed.

  " Okay but lets make it quick."

     After his tour Joel went back to his hotel for some well needed sleep. As he was lying there he began to drift away into a dream, thinking about the stadium he had been in barely an hour ago and the players he had just met. His dream of being a professional football player was so close to coming true and Joel was overjoyed about it, so much so that he barely got a wink of sleep that night.

     The next morning Joel was up really early to meet Erigo at 8:00pm before driving to Milan's stadium, newly named the 'San Siro Stadium', for his meeting with the manager and the board.  The managers office was massive, as Joel stepped inside he was stunned.  Trophies filled the room on all sides.  There was a massive marble desk in the middle of all these trophies and sitting at the desk was the manager, Roberto Ravelli and sat next to him were the ten members of the AC Milan Board, including the Chairman multi-millionaire Geirmund Zeige. These people were legends to him.  He had never been so excited in his life.

  " Ah, Joel please sit down," said Mr. Ravelli invitingly.

  " Thanks," replied Joel, who was still partly in shock.

  "I'll make this quick," said Mr. Ravelli," I've made you a very good offer and I hope that you will agree to play for us."

  " Em what? So do I just sign?"

  " Well I'll finalize things today and you'll have your medical tomorrow afternoon, but, enough of this business talk.  Tonight is celebration time!  I've organized a party with all the players tonight and I would be delighted if you could attend!" asked Mr. Zeige.

  " Yes I'd be delighted to!" replied Joel.

  " Okay then I'll see you at the club suite at about seven o'clock.  Is that okay with you?"

  " I'll be there Mr. Zeige," said Joel.

  " It was nice to meet you Joel and I hope we can become better acquainted at the party tonight."

  " Yeah me too Mr. Zeige.  Bye Mr. Ravelli, I'll see you at the party tonight."

  " Yes bye Joel," said Mr. Ravelli.

     Joel went back to his hotel filled with excitement and he couldn't wait to get to the party to meet more of his team mates.  In fact he was so eager that he was ready a full half hour before Erigo arrived with the car.

     When they got there the party had just started and Joel went around and started to get to know his team mates better.

  " Hi, my name's Joel pleased to meet you!"

  " Yeah I know, I'm Marco, and this is Jurgen."

  " Pleased to meet you," said Joel," I hope I'll be playing with you soon."

  " Yeah me too," replied Marco.

     " Hey Jurgen," whispered Marco.

  " Yeah," replied Jurgen.

  " I can't stand this anymore- all this about Joel.  If he signs what's going to happen to me, I'll be dropped and I'll have to play for the reserves and I don't want that to happen."

  " Hey how do you know he'll take your place? How do you know he wont take my place?"

  " Yeah!" replied Jurgen," Well we'll have to do something about it wont we,"

  " Well what can we do?"

  " This happened a few years back, this guy came and he was going to sign and take my place so I spiked his drink and when he took his medical it showed up and the manager got him charged!"

  " Do you think that'll work?"

  " It did the last time,"

  " OK! You go and get the stuff while I go and get our friend Joel a drink."

  " Okay," said Marco.  Marco turned and walked off while Jurgen went to get Joel a drink.

     Soon after Marco returned with the drugs Joel collapsed and was taken to hospital.  Hours later Joel awoke and was greeted by his doctor.

  " Ah Joel your awake. Look I've had to call your manager you know that don't you?"

  " Why? What's wrong with me?" asked Joel.

  " We've found traces of drugs in your system!"

  " What!!" shrieked Joel," But how can there be? I don't take drugs!"

  " Well their in your system and there's nothing anyone can do about. Your manager should be here soon but for now I recommend that you get some more sleep!"

  " No way I don't take drugs!" said Joel to himself as the doctor walked away.

     Soon after Mr. Ravelli and Mr. Zeige arrived and, after consulting the doctor, came over to talk to Joel," Hi Joel, I've just been speaking to your doctor, it seems you like to experiment with drugs!"

  " No Mr. Ravelli it's not like that! I honestly don't know how the drugs got there but I promise you I didn't know anything about it." Begged Joel.

  " Well do you honestly think we can believe you?" said Mr. Ravelli.

  " Look I really don't know how it happened!"

  " Joel, I don't know about you but if one of your, soon to be, players showed up in hospital with drugs in their system what would you think?"

  " Oh please Mr. Ravelli!"

  " Look Joel you must understand that I am going to have to put in a report to the Italian FA about this and I wouldn't be surprised if they handed you a worldwide ban!!"

  " What!! How can you be thinking about worldwide bans, I didn't do anything!" pleaded Joel," Somebody must have spiked my drink at the party!"

  " Well IF it was, it wasn't any of my players."

  " How do you know?" said Joel angrily," It probably was one of your players they're animals!"

  " How dare you insult my team! Mr. Zeige I recommend that we press ahead and file our report," said Mr. Ravelli," You never know we might be lucky enough to get this idiot a lifetime ban or maybe a worldwide ban!"

  " Look please Mr. Ravelli I didn't mean it like that," begged Joel.

  " It's too late for apologies now."

       It was too late for anything now....

                     

                                     THE END