T.J. and the Cup Run Read online

  Contents

  Cover

  About the Book

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  A Note from Theo

  About the Author

  Also by Theo Walcott

  Copyright

  About the Book

  TJ and his friends get a terrible shock when their old teacher, Mr Potter, returns from illness to take over from Mr Wood as PE teacher at Parkview School.

  Worse still, they are about to play in the semifinal of the Cup, and Mr Potter’s really bad tactics nearly lose them the match.

  With everything they’ve trained for hanging in the balance, can TJ and his friends turn things around and win?

  Also available from the Arsenal and England football star:

  For fun, games, competitions & more, visit: www.theowalcottbooks.co.uk

  FOR SEBASTIAN AND AURORA

  SQUAD SHEET

  TJ: A skilful forward with an outstanding turn of speed. He has an incredibly powerful shot, and he’s good in the air too.

  Tulsi: A strong, powerful striker. When she has the ball at her feet all she thinks about is scoring!

  Rodrigo: He’s from Portugal and he doesn’t speak much English, but he’s a wizard with a football in midfield or defence.

  Rafi: A midfielder who never stops running and tackling. His mazy runs are legendary and he always brings a ball to school!

  Leila: An excellent tackler and a natural holding midfielder.

  Tommy: When he’s not skateboarding he’s a fearsome tackler in Parkview’s defence.

  Jamie: Jamie is big, strong, fit – and the team’s keeper. He’ll stop anything heading towards him!

  Danny: He’s not popular, but he’s a terrific defender and Parkview can’t do without him.

  Ariyan: He can play anywhere and do a good job for the team. A really useful squad member.

  Rob: Rob can read the game and set up clever moves from the midfield. But can he control his nerves when he’s out on the pitch?

  Ebony: Ebony has pace and a killer instinct for scoring goals. She’s fighting hard for a first-team place as a striker.

  CHAPTER 1

  ‘I THINK THE manager should take Marshall off,’ said Rob. ‘He’s never going to get past that full back.’

  On the TV screen the Wanderers midfielder, Paco Sanchez, struck a pass towards the corner flag. Marshall Jones, the Wanderers attacker, sprinted after the ball, but the Inter Milan defender was too quick for him. The defender even had time to control the ball and play a pass down the line to set up another Milan attack.

  ‘You see?’ said Rob.

  ‘It’s a recording,’ TJ pointed out. ‘You already know what happens. Wanderers lose.’

  ‘Marshall’s not properly fit,’ said Rob, shaking his head. ‘It takes a long time to get your match fitness back after a serious injury like his.’

  The others nodded glumly. ‘I don’t know why you’re making us watch this again,’ Tulsi complained.

  ‘Because of this,’ Rob said, pointing at the screen. ‘Milan’s right back is far slower than their left back. Marshall would have had a chance against him. I think the manager should have moved Marshall to the left wing and played Dexter Gordon on the right.’

  Dexter Gordon was only seventeen. TJ and his friends had seen him come on as a substitute the first time they had been to see Wanderers play, and he had been amazing.

  On the screen the Milan full back beat Marshall to the ball yet again, and set up a series of passes that ended with Milan’s goal.

  Jamie groaned. ‘I’m not watching any more of this,’ he said, grabbing the remote control from Rob and switching the DVD off. ‘Let’s play Fifa. This rain is never going to stop.’

  It was a Saturday morning, and they should have been playing in the park, but the rain had started falling just as they’d all arrived at TJ’s house. TJ switched on the Playstation. As usual, Rob beat everyone. ‘I don’t know how you do it,’ Jamie said ruefully after Rob had thrashed his Arsenal team 7–0. ‘I’ve got much better players than you. But you do things I’d never think of. I can’t believe Norwich City just beat me.’

  ‘You don’t really use the full power of the game,’ said Rob seriously. ‘You could—’

  ‘OK, OK,’ Jamie interrupted. ‘You’re a genius. I admit it.’

  ‘It’s stopped raining,’ Rafi said. ‘Come on, let’s go.’

  ‘It’ll be wet,’ said Tulsi.

  ‘Who cares,’ replied Rafi, who hated sitting still. ‘Anything’s better than being stuck inside.’

  Rob took his DVD from the machine and put it carefully into the wallet that contained his collection of recordings of football matches.

  ‘How many of those have you got?’ asked TJ.

  ‘Thirty-seven,’ replied Rob. ‘But this is the most important one, because Wanderers still have a chance to put things right. They play Inter Milan again in the last match of the Group Stage. The Group Stage is like a little league where all four teams have to play each other twice. The top two teams in each group go through to the knockout stage and—’

  ‘Rob!’ said Tulsi. ‘We know all that.’

  ‘Oh, right,’ said Rob. ‘Well anyway, they play Inter Milan again the week after next.’

  ‘Just after my birthday,’ said Jamie. ‘I wonder . . .’

  ‘I’m going to talk to Mr Wood,’ continued Rob. ‘Then he can talk to Marshall and maybe Marshall can talk to the manager. I mean, I think I should mention it, just in case they haven’t already thought of it.’

  Mr Wood was their teacher and ace football coach. He had been teaching Year Six since the beginning of term, when TJ had started at Parkview School. Before he became a teacher Mr Wood had been a promising young footballer at Wanderers – until he was forced out of the game by a serious injury. And he was still a good friend of Marshall Jones. While Marshall had been recovering from his recent injury he had actually visited their school several times.

  Jamie laughed. ‘It’ll never happen,’ he said. ‘I bet people give Marshall advice all the time. My dad definitely would if he had the chance.’

  ‘Well,’ said Rob seriously, ‘I think I’ll talk to Mr Wood anyway.’ But on Monday morning something happened that made Rob forget all about his plan. As soon as they arrived in class they could all tell that something was wrong. ‘Sit down, everyone,’ Mr Wood said. ‘I have some news for you. As from next week your regular teacher will be returning. Mr Potter has recovered from his illness, and he’s ready to come back.’

  There was a stunned silence. Then Tulsi said, ‘But you’re our teacher now, Mr Wood.’

  ‘I’m afraid I’m only actually a temporary teacher,’ Mr Wood explained. ‘I know it doesn’t seem that way, because Mr Potter has been ill for such a long time, but it’s true.’

  ‘What will you do then, Mr Wood?’ asked Jamie. ‘I mean, which class are you going to teach now?’

  ‘Don’t you understand, Jamie?’ Tulsi said. ‘He’s leaving.’

  Jamie stared for a moment, as the news sank in. ‘But what about the team?’ he said.

  ‘Mr Potter will be taking over,’ Mr Wood said. ‘Mr Burrows tells me he’s a PE specialist.’

  T
ulsi gave a hollow laugh. ‘He makes kids play silly games in the hall,’ she said. ‘But he doesn’t know a thing about—’

  ‘Enough!’ said Mr Wood. ‘Mr Potter will be your teacher and you’ll treat him with respect. You don’t need to worry about the team. All you have to do is remember the things you’ve learned and you’ll be fine.’

  At break time TJ asked his friends about Mr Potter.

  ‘He’s awful,’ Tulsi said darkly. ‘He’s been off sick for nearly a year. He was meant to be our teacher in September, but he never came back.’

  ‘Oh yeah,’ said TJ. ‘Mr Burrows told us when I came to see the school with my mum and dad. But then when I started Mr Wood was here. I just sort of thought he’d stay.’

  ‘So did we,’ Jamie said.

  ‘But Mr Potter can’t be that bad,’ said TJ, looking at the others. ‘Can he?’

  ‘He’s pretty bad,’ said Jamie. ‘But that’s not what matters. I mean, Mr Wood can’t just leave. We wouldn’t even have a football team if it wasn’t for him, or a football pitch.’

  ‘Well, I think Mr Wood’s right,’ said TJ. ‘We know what we have to do to be a good team. We’ve got good players. We’re in the semifinal of the Cup. No one can spoil that.’

  ‘I bet Mr Potter can,’ said Rob. ‘He’ll do things his way. He won’t listen to anything any of us say. You just wait and see.’

  CHAPTER 2

  ON FRIDAY AFTERNOON there was a special assembly in the school hall. Lots of parents came along to say goodbye to Mr Wood.

  ‘You’ve done a marvellous job,’ Mr Burrows told him as he shook his hand on the stage. ‘We can’t thank you enough. You’ve made a real difference to Parkview School, and we’re all very sorry to see you go.’

  There was loud applause. TJ was almost sure that he saw a tear in the eye of Mrs Logan, the deputy head, and when they went back to the classroom and it was time to go home, some of the girls were definitely crying. They were all going to miss Mr Wood badly.

  Monday arrived, and Mr Potter was waiting for them. He was tall and thin, with a straggly beard and glasses.

  ‘So,’ he began, ‘Mr Burrows tells me that we now have a school football team and there’s a training session arranged for tonight?’ There was a murmur of agreement. ‘Well, for the time being I’ll let the training carry on, but we don’t want to overdo it, do we? And now we need to get down to some proper work. Numeracy books out, please.’

  ‘But, Mr Potter,’ Tulsi said, raising her hand. ‘We’ve still got lots to do on our project. It’s all about football.’

  ‘Ah, yes. That.’ Mr Potter shook his head. ‘You really shouldn’t have been doing that at all,’ he said. ‘We must focus on Numeracy and Literacy. We have to stick to the basics. The really important things. We’ll keep football on the football field, if you don’t mind.’

  It didn’t take TJ long to discover that his friends were right. Mr Potter was an extremely bad teacher. He was very, very boring, and it wasn’t long before some of the kids who’d tried really hard for Mr Wood started messing around. When they did that, Mr Potter shouted at them, and then carried on being boring. TJ just hoped that Mr Potter wasn’t equally bad as a football coach.

  He wasn’t. He was worse.

  They all assembled on the field after school. ‘Well?’ said Mr Potter. ‘What are you waiting for? Get yourselves organized and let’s see you play.’

  ‘But we haven’t warmed up,’ said Rob. ‘We always warm up.’

  ‘We haven’t got all night,’ said Mr Potter, as Miss Berry jogged across the tarmac towards them. ‘It’s not really a sensible time to be playing football. It’ll be dark in half an hour. Let’s just get on with it.’

  ‘Hi, Mr Potter,’ Miss Berry said brightly. ‘I’ve been helping out with the coaching. What would you like me to do?’

  ‘You can take that lot over there,’ Mr Potter said. ‘I’ll stand here and observe.’

  TJ got together with his best friends and they all pulled on red training bibs. They’d all played together in the District Tournament a couple of weeks before. Jamie was in goal, Leila and Tommy in defence, Rafi and the Portuguese boy Rodrigo in midfield, and TJ and Tulsi up front. The team they were playing against had some good players too. There was Ariyan and Jay – they’d both been in the squad – and Cameron, and Leila’s friend Ebony.

  And then there was Rob. When TJ had first met him Rob had refused to join in at training. He had always said he was useless, and sat at the side compiling lists of statistics. But Mr Wood had spotted that Rob knew a huge amount about football and he’d made him into a kind of assistant coach. Gradually, Rob had started joining in with the training sessions and TJ had watched his confidence growing. He smiled as he remembered the day a few weeks before when Rob had first appeared on the pitch without his glasses on. ‘You won’t be able to see the ball,’ Jamie had said.

  ‘I can see your ugly face,’ Rob had replied with a nervous grin, ‘so I think I’ll be OK!’

  Rob pulled a blue bib over his head. TJ was looking forward to playing against him.

  Miss Berry blew the whistle and the game began.

  From the kickoff Tulsi tapped the ball back to Rafi and he hit a pass in behind the blue defenders for TJ to chase. It was a move they’d practised a lot. It was the same move, TJ realized, that they’d watched on TV when Paco Sanchez had hit a pass for Marshall to chase. And suddenly TJ knew how Marshall must have felt, because he couldn’t make his legs move fast enough. He should have been able to catch the ball, but it ran out of play before he could reach it.

  As he jogged back into position Rob said, ‘Don’t sprint like that, TJ, not yet. We haven’t warmed up, have we?’

  As soon as Rob said it, TJ knew he was right. He could feel the tightness in his muscles. He nodded to Rob. ‘We should all take it easy for a bit,’ he said. ‘We don’t want to get injured.’

  They carried on playing. ‘It doesn’t seem right without Mr Wood,’ Tulsi said to TJ when they paused for a moment. ‘He’d be telling us what to do. Look at Mr Potter. He isn’t doing anything.’

  On the other pitch an argument had broken out in front of the goal. ‘It was outside the area,’ the goalie, Matthew, was saying. ‘It was never a penalty.’

  ‘It was inside,’ shouted Carl.

  Matthew grabbed the ball. ‘Try taking a stupid penalty now,’ he said.

  Everyone began to shout at the same time. Carl managed to get hold of the ball and belted it high into the air. It came down in the road outside and bounced into a garden. Mr Potter blew his whistle. ‘That’ll do,’ he said. ‘I’ve seen more than enough.’

  ‘We usually go on until four o’clock,’ Rob said.

  Mr Potter looked at him. ‘Is there anything else you want to tell me about how you usually do things?’ he enquired.

  ‘Well, like I said, we always warm up,’ Rob began. Tulsi and Jamie both tried to catch his eye and stop him, but it was no good.

  ‘Then we usually do some sprints,’ Rob continued, ‘and individual ball skills work. Then we do drills—’

  ‘No, listen to me,’ Mr Potter interrupted. ‘I daresay you mean well, Rob, but I’m in charge now, and we’ll do things my way. It seems to me that you’re taking everything far too seriously. Football should be fun, especially at your age. You don’t need all these exercises. Just get out on the pitch and play. I always used to pretend I was Bobby Charlton.’ Mr Potter kicked at an imaginary ball. ‘Wham!’ he said. ‘In the back of the net.’

  He lost his balance, stumbled, and sat down heavily on the grass.

  CHAPTER 3

  ‘IT CAN’T BE as bad as all that,’ said TJ’s dad the following week, as he drove TJ and Jamie to the Wanderers Player Development Centre. TJ and his friend had both been invited to join the Player Development programme after their performances at the District Tournament. Tonight was their first session and they were both nervous. They’d been telling TJ’s dad about Mr Potter.

  ‘It is bad,�
�� said Jamie gloomily. ‘We had training again last night and he just let everyone do whatever they wanted. At least we warmed up this time, but it was only for a minute or two.’

  ‘And he’s a useless ref,’ added TJ. ‘He can’t keep up with the play and when he takes his glasses off, he can’t see properly. It’s not a joke.’

  Mr Wilson shook his head. ‘It’s a real shame,’ he said. ‘But at least you’ll get some proper coaching tonight, lads. Right, out you get – we’re here.’

  The Player Development sessions were held on the Astroturf pitch at the Sports Centre not far from where TJ lived. It was the same place where TJ and his friends came running with TJ’s dad, and Rob had come with them so that he could go for a run with Mr Wilson while they played. But even though TJ knew the place he still felt anxious, and he was very glad that Jamie was with him. ‘Don’t worry,’ Jamie said. ‘You’re actually good. I’m just a kind of accidental goalkeeper. I don’t even know how I do it. They’ll probably chuck me out when they see.’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ said TJ.

  A small group of boys were already waiting on the pitch, and as they approached TJ realized that he already knew two of them.

  There was Deng, the midfield player from Hillside School, and Leroy, the captain of Meadow Green School, who Parkview had played in the District Tournament. They both grinned as TJ and Jamie approached. A stocky young man walked towards them, smiling. ‘Hi, lads,’ he said. ‘Good to see you.’

  Phil was a coach from the Wanderers Academy. It was Phil who had spotted TJ and Jamie. ‘I knew you were starting here tonight,’ he said, ‘so I came down to introduce you to the coaches, Derryn and Baz.’

  Derryn was a tall, skinny black man. Baz was smaller with cropped blond hair and a tattoo of a snake on his neck. ‘OK,’ said Derryn. ‘There’s a few of you who are new tonight, so I’ll tell you a little about what happens. You geezers come down here every week and we give you some high-class coaching. Sometimes we arrange matches with teams from other towns, and sometimes we play against teams the same age as you from the Academy. That’s if you get selected, of course. And remember, you need to work hard. You only get to be a part of all this because we’ve invited you. There’s plenty of other boys waiting to take your place. Now let’s get warmed up.’