Alex poked her head into the manager's office with a grin. Beard and Ted were discussing a play with Nate, the kit man, which seemed to be a regular thing since the start of Ted's reign at Richmond.
"Sorry to interrupt, I wasn't sure if now was a good time…" Alex gestured to the packed lunch she had in her hands.
"Of course!" Ted smiled, summoning her in with a large smile, "c'mon in! We're just finishing up rounding out some plays for our next practice."
"Training," Beard corrected, eyes glued to the whiteboard in front of him.
"Training," Ted corrected himself with a wince. Alex smiled. "The language is quite a curve for a fellow english-speaking country!"
"It'll take time to get used to, I'm sure," Alex took a seat in an extra chair by the door. "The whole chips/crisp debate is enough to do my head in."
"Don't even get me started," Ted empathized, capping his marker and tossing it on his desk. "What do you think about us using Sam less at mid and trying him up front?" Ted asked.
Alex cocked an eyebrow, "you're asking me?"
"Well, you've had time to sit down with each of them and get a feel for what they can and can't do. Do you think he has it in him?"
"Uh, yeah." Alex nodded, "I think that Sam has the ability to keep up with the demands of forward. Mid has been a good challenge for him. He's young and quite agile."
"That," Ted pointed to her enthusiastically, "is what I'm talking about. See? This type of collaboration is what this team needs. All of us working together like a symbiotic little ecosystem-"
"Like a fungus." Nate offered. Ted looked at him and smiled.
"Exactly, my man. We're a forest floor fungus. Alex is out here being that tree that gives us the shade we need to thrive and the nutrients we need to grow."
"I'm not sure I'm-"
"Don't sell yourself short, ma'am. I won't allow that." Ted was serious in the endearingly kind way Alex found that only Ted Lasso could be.
"Well, thank you," she smiled, opening her lunch to take out her salad.
"Now, tell me, from what you've been able to gather, who should we be mindful of on and off the field?"
Alex was impressed with Ted's ability to connect every part of the supports the Richmond team had as a relevant part of the "ecosystem," as he so astutely coined. The four of them went through the entire team roster. Ted, Beard, and even Nate, asked her questions about the capabilities of each of the athletes she had evaluated over the course of her beginning days. She skillfully provided feedback about each of them, creating a larger conceptualization of each case. Ted and Beard were taking notes, eagerly taking in the information she offered. It was not rare for Alex to be consulting with the managers of a team. But in her experience, to have her professional opinions taken into account when creating the team's plays and guiding exercises and drills, was not something a coach does every day.
When Alex left the office, she felt herself filled with a warmth that she could not quite pinpoint. It was hard to deny that Ted's quirky and albeit seemingly unnatural positivity had a contagious effect. But it was more than that, it was the feeling of belonging to something so much bigger that made her near giddy with possibility. It only further solidified her confidence in her decision to accept the position at Richmond.
"Listen up!" Ted called, walking into the locker room, clapping his hands together to call further attention to himself. The banter began to quiet down as the team focused up on their new coach. "I wanna thank you all for giving Coach Beard and I a chance to see what matters most to you. I found your suggestions interesting and I will take them all into consideration. Even those of you who didn't have one took an opportunity to contribute and share your thoughts.
"Now, I don't mind that ya'll made your feelings known about me. And I must say, you certainly made sure to let me know, ain't that right coach?" He looked over at Beard, who nodded with an emphatic "mhm" in his direction, "but I am going to have to ask that you fellas have a little more respect for the staff around this place. Most of all, the women who work hard to make sure this operation runs smoothly and keep you boys in working order. Do ya'll understand?"
No one seemed to say much of anything. There were a few mutters, a few players exchanged glances, some exchanged smirks, but no one acknowledged the coach's request.
"Right," Roy stood up with a towel wrapped around his waist. "Now who the fuck's said something about our physio?" The room went deafeningly quiet. "Huh?" Not a response. "'Cause any smart ass who has something to share is going to love the taste of my fucking boots." No one responded. The two coaches exchanged a glance.
"Thank you for your support, Roy. I think we can handle it." Ted spoke up, "I think what your captain means to say is that we will not be tolerating anyone making this an uncomfortable workspace for anyone who is here to make your lives easier. Consider this your one and only warning."
Roy, unhappy with the lack of punishment for such a crime, huffed and walked off to take a miserable, low pressure shower. From her office, Alex softly smiled at the exchange she overheard.
Alex sighed as she finally placed the last bit of her documentation in a filing cabinet. She locked it carefully with the key she had placed on her personal keychain and turned for her bag. When she exited her office, she passed the locker room, empty with the exception of Ted and Beard sitting in the office, feet up, in a discussion.
"Have a nice night," she called, waving to them as she passed.
"You too, Alex," Ted called, as Beard waved a response.
The halls were quiet except for the clack of the soles of her shoes on the floor underneath her. She pulled out her mobile and checked her missed messages from the day. Her sister had informed her that her husband was getting a promotion. Her mother asked her about dinner this weekend. No breaking news. When the doors closed behind her, she scanned the car park for oncoming traffic before heading to her car. Roy Kent was also making his way to his own car, parked just a few spots away from her own.
"Roy," Alex called, quickening her steps to close the gap between them. He turned to her with a cocked eyebrow. She slowed her pace as she got closer to him and smiled softly, "I wanted to thank you. For earlier." Roy looked at her in a face that read confusion. "For speaking up about the suggestion box…" She felt the heat rise in her cheeks as she spoke. Something about the way that he responded made her feel silly for bringing it up at all.
"They're a bunch of pricks." He spoke sternly, staring past her with a gaze that pierced the doors all the way to the locker room. "Pricks who don't know how to behave."
Alex understood that this was a broader issue that she was only seeing a glimpse into. Something about his grumpy demeanor and the way he chastised the younger members of his team endeared him to her, but also validated that Roy Kent was much older than most of his teammates. Surely that had to be grating.
"Well, whatever they are, you were kind to have said something," she assured him, flashing a tight lipped smile. "I'm grateful."
"Don't mention it," he grumbled back. Roy decided that this was the end of their
conversation and turned to get into his car.
Alex chuckled and nodded her head in acceptance. As Roy got into his car and started it, he felt the discomfort of being acknowledged for his outburst earlier. He was not aware she had overheard the exchange and worried she had gotten the wrong idea. He was not someone who did the kind thing. He was someone who did the right thing.
There was a tension in the locker room that had not been there the day before. As the team arrived for the Crystal Palace match on Saturday night, Alex found herself shuffling around with the papers she had already organized twice just as a response to the anxious energy around her. Ted, Beard, and (slowly becoming less surprising) Nate had been in the coach's office with the door closed when she had arrived.
When Isaac arrived, he had peeked his head in to let her know, as she had told him she wanted to walk him through some stretches for the game to avoid further stress on the calf muscle he had been complaining about a few days before. She was thankful to have been interrupted by something that would be productive to channel all her energy into.
"Alright," she started, aware of the slow influx of players making their way to their lockers. "Show me what you've been doing."
She watched as Isaac walked her through the exercises they had gone. Occasionally, she corrected a hand placement, an angle, or how long to hold the position. But overall, it was impressive how much he had paid attention to the detailed instruction she had initially given.
Around her, Colin and Paul discussed the impact of a recent incident at a club on the team's comfort level partying with Richmond fans. The two of them swapped stories about one particularly flirtatious fan who had somehow made herself comfortable in as many as four different beds of the Richmond players. Trying to maintain a professional composure, Alex bit her lip as she focused on Isaac's movement, working to avoid reacting to any of the background conversation she had been lucky enough to overhear.
When Jamie Tartt entered the room, his headphones were on over his head. He made eye contact with no one, and walked directly to his locker, entirely disconnected from his surroundings. Isaac looked over at him and rolled his eyes.
"He always show up like this on match day?"
"Helps him 'stay in the zone,'" Isaac responded. Alex was a bit surprised at his attitude toward his teammate, since she had gathered that Colin and Isaac were some form of sidekick to the often demanding Tartt.
"Don't want to mess with him on match day," Colin spoke up, taking off his jacket and hanging it neatly in his locker. "He's got a whole ritual and everything."
The ritual aspect was not something that was unfamiliar to Alex. It was often that players she worked with would wear the same outfit every game day, listen to the same playlists, eat the same meals. More superstitious than the catholic women she was raised around, athletes often avoided any negative interference from the karma, the universe, the good Lord, whomever, on match day.
Moments later, the entire locker room was filled to the brim. Each of the players were getting themselves prepped for the game. As Alex finished up with Isaac, Roy approached her to ask her to tape up his knee, to which she gratefully accepted. She reached over for the roll of kinesiology tape she had brought out with her and patted the table in front of her Isaac had just jumped off of.
"Cheers," Roy said softly, getting up on the table and extending his leg toward her.
"Feeling alright?" She asked, glancing up at him before beginning her work.
"Fine," he replied. Had she not grown comfortable with working with athletes, Alex would have taken offense to the curt response he gave. It barely phased her as she ripped the end of the tape and smoothed its length onto his skin.
"Good."
"Alright fellas, here we go! Here we go!" Ted called, walking out from the office. "Coach, any last words?" He gestured toward Beard.
"Speed on the outside!"
"Speed on the outside, you heard the man. That's all we got for you." Lasso paused, "except for one thing-and that's HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SAM!"
The locker room exploded with cheers. Alex glanced over Roy's shoulder and smiled at the surprised look on Sam's face. A few of the reserve players came out from the hallway with cake on a cart. Sam was handed a few gifts, some wrapped and some unwrapped. He smiled at a poster handed to him of the Nigerian national team. Many of his fellow players patted his back in celebration.
Sam reached into the bag that was given to him and exclaimed,"aw, man! You guys got me Chin Chin! Wow, this all I used to eat growing up!"
"Yeah, well, we know you haven't been home in a while, so we thought we'd bring some home to you," Ted spoke up.
"You guys, man." Sam continued his statement in a heartfelt tone, speaking Yoruba. To which all of the players clapped and cheered in response. Alex looked up at Roy, who was looking on at the scene, the ghost of a smile playing at his lips. It was hard for her to ignore the softness of his features. When he turned, he noticed Alex staring at him. She smiled a knowing smile. Never would she call Roy Kent soft to his face.
"What?" Roy challenged her.
"Nothing," she smiled at his knee as she finished placing the last piece of tape.
"Nothing?" He found himself irritated with how unmoved she was by his pressure to respond.
"All done," she patted his knee with a smirk. "Good luck out there, Roy." With that, she turned on her heel and moved toward her office. Roy watched her leave and let out an exasperated chuckle.
"Alright fellas, let's get out there and show Crystal Palace whose house this is, right?" Lasso called out, to which the unanimous agreement by the team was a loud cheer. With that, all of the players started to shuffle out towards the tunnel where they would take the field for the match.
"That was fucking embarrassing!" Roy shouted, taking the water bottle offered to him from Nate and throwing it to the floor.
"Oh, I-I am equally livid," Nate assured him, nervous under the intensity of Roy's angry
gaze. To prove it, Nate elbowed the glass window of Ted's office. Shocked by the spider web crack it created, he let out an "Oh, my god!"
"Good lad," Roy encouraged, taking off towards the showers as his teammates remarked on Nate's show of aggression.
As Roy stepped under the head of the shower, he was surprised to feel an intense pressure behind the water as it hit his skin. He placed his head under the warm stream, enjoying the feeling of the water trickling down over him, the heat doing a number on his sore body. He couldn't help but wonder what else it was that Lasso could fix.
Alex was packing up her bag in her office when Ted appeared at the door. In his hand he held a plate with a single piece of cake and a plastic fork.
"Just wanted to catch you before you left and invite you to the party," Ted gestured toward the locker room, where the chatter and hollering was nearly as loud as the music that someone had been playing.
Alex smiled, "that's so sweet of you." She reached out and took the slice of cake from
Ted.
"Well, there are a lot of things to celebrate," he smiled softly. "Sam's birthday, for one. You starin' a new job, hell, me startin' a new job…"
Alex bit back the urge to remind her that his team lost the game and he had been called a wanker by the entire stadium all 90 minutes. Instead, she smiled and took a bite of her cake.
"This is the start of somethin' great," Ted reassured her, smiling as he knocked on the door frame, and disappearing back where he had come from.
"The start of something great," Alex echoed, taking another bite of cake with it's sickeningly sweet frosting.