CHAPTER 56 — NEW YEAR CHECK
**Copenhagen — January 1993**
The office reopened on the 4th.
Anders arrived at ten to eight — his invariable time — and had apparently spent part of the Christmas break reorganising the filing system, because the cabinets were labelled differently and there was a colour-coded index on the wall behind his desk that hadn't been there in December.
*"You reorganised the files over Christmas,"* Mikkel said, when he arrived.
*"I was bored,"* Anders said. *"Also the old system was going to cause problems by March. Twenty-two clients across seven countries in a filing system designed for eight clients in one country."*
*"When did you decide it would cause problems by March?"*
*"November,"* Anders said. *"I've been meaning to fix it since November."*
*"Why didn't you fix it in November?"*
*"Because in November we were doing other things,"* Anders said, with the patience of someone explaining something to a person who should already understand it. *"Now it's January and the filing system works. You're welcome."*
Mikkel looked at the index. It was genuinely good — logical, specific, the kind of system that would still make sense in two years when the roster was larger and the countries were more numerous. *"Thank you Anders."*
*"You're welcome,"* Anders said. *"Can I have a bonus?"*
*"No,"* Mikkel said.
*"I reorganised the entire filing system over Christmas,"* Anders said.
*"And it's excellent,"* Mikkel said. *"No bonus."*
*"I'll add it to the list,"* Anders said.
*"What list?"*
*"The list of things I've done that deserve a bonus and haven't received one,"* Anders said. *"It's quite long now. I'm thinking of framing it."*
---
Rasmus arrived at half past eight with a bag that clinked in a way that suggested he'd brought something back from Norway — he'd apparently spent part of the break in Trondheim, which nobody had asked him to do and which Mikkel had stopped being surprised by.
*"Norway,"* Mikkel said.
*"I wanted to watch Leonhardsen,"* Rasmus said. *"And Brattbakk. And there was a young left back at Molde who someone mentioned to me in October and I never got around to —"*
*"Over Christmas."*
*"Football doesn't stop over Christmas,"* Rasmus said. *"The leagues pause but the players keep playing in the sense that they keep existing and developing and —"*
*"Rasmus."*
*"Yes."*
*"Did you expense the trip?"*
*"Obviously,"* Rasmus said. *"It was work."*
*"It was self-assigned work over a holiday period,"* Mikkel said.
*"The best kind,"* Rasmus said. *"Nobody tells you what to do. You just watch football." *He put the bag on his desk and pulled out three reports, placing them in a neat stack. *"The Molde left back is interesting by the way. Seventeen, good crossing, the kind of —"*
*"January 14th first,"* Mikkel said.
*"After January 14th —"*
*"After January 14th,"* Mikkel said. *"Everything after January 14th."*
Rasmus looked at the reports. Looked at Mikkel. *"Can I at least file them?"*
*"File them,"* Mikkel said.
Rasmus filed them with the barely contained energy of a man who had three new things to show someone and had been told to wait, which was the hardest thing Rasmus ever had to do.
---
Astrid arrived last — at nine, which was unusual, Astrid being a nine o'clock person the way other people were eight o'clock people, the specific choice of someone who started at the time that suited her and was always ready when she arrived. She came in with coffee from the place around the corner, four cups, which she distributed without ceremony and without asking whether anyone wanted one because she already knew.
*"Happy new year,"* she said, sitting down.
*"Happy new year,"* the three of them said, in approximate unison.
*"How was everyone's Christmas?"* she said.
*"I reorganised the filing system,"* Anders said.
*"I went to Norway,"* Rasmus said.
They both looked at Mikkel.
*"I finished the document,"* he said.
Astrid looked at him. *"That's it? Christmas and you finished a document."*
*"And I had dinner with Birthe,"* Mikkel said. *"Her grandson Thomas wants to be a goalkeeper."*
*"How old is Thomas?"*
*"Four,"* Mikkel said.
*"Sign him,"* Rasmus said.
*"He's four,"* Mikkel said.
*"Gravesen is seventeen,"* Rasmus said. *"Four is only thirteen years earlier. Long-term thinking."*
*"Nobody is signing a four-year-old,"* Mikkel said.
*"Yet,"* Rasmus said.
Anders said: *"Can we do the roster check now? I've been thinking about it since the 28th and I'd like to actually do it."*
---
They went through it around the meeting room table — all four of them, the new filing system meaning Astrid could pull any client file in under thirty seconds, which Anders watched with the satisfied expression of someone watching their work function correctly.
Schmeichel first. The flagship. United top of the Premier League, the goalkeeper keeping clean sheets with the regularity of someone for whom clean sheets were a professional standard rather than an achievement. Mikkel said nothing about January — the staff knew it was coming and knew the broad shape of it and didn't need the details yet.
*"He's going to win the title this season,"* Rasmus said.
*"Probably,"* Mikkel said.
*"Definitely,"* Rasmus said. *"Have you seen the table? Eight points clear."*
*"Football tables change,"* Mikkel said.
*"Not by eight points with fifteen games left,"* Rasmus said. *"It's done. He's a Premier League champion. What does that do to the renegotiation?"*
*"Helps,"* Mikkel said. *"Which is why January 14th is the right date."*
*"Before the title is confirmed,"* Astrid said.
*"Before the title is confirmed,"* Mikkel agreed. *"When it's still probable rather than certain."*
Anders said: *"That's very calculated."*
*"It's very accurate,"* Mikkel said. *"Different thing."*
---
Laudrup at PSV — nine goals, seven assists in seventeen Eredivisie matches. Performing above what Ploegsma had projected and the pre-agreement had priced, which was exactly the scenario Mikkel had built the bonus structure for.
*"The bonus above fifteen goals,"* Rasmus said, checking the file. *"He's at nine in January. He'll hit fifteen."*
*"He'll hit twenty,"* Mikkel said.
*"You sound very sure,"* Anders said.
*"I am very sure,"* Mikkel said.
*"How?"* Anders said.
*"I watch him,"* Mikkel said. *"When you watch someone long enough you stop guessing and start knowing."*
*"That sounds like something you'd put on a motivational poster,"* Anders said.
*"It sounds like that,"* Mikkel said. *"It's also true."*
*"Both things,"* Rasmus said, *"can be simultaneously the case."*
*"Thank you Rasmus,"* Mikkel said.
*"Any time,"* Rasmus said.
---
Jensen at Leeds — nine Premier League starts since August, Wilkinson using him exactly as discussed. The English press had moved from cautiously positive to enthusiastic, which was the correct progression. A journalist at the Yorkshire Post had called him *the discovery of the Premier League's first season* which Mikkel had read and found accurate if slightly hyperbolic.
*"He called me,"* Mikkel said.
*"Jensen?"* Astrid said.
*"New year's day. Said he scored in a five-a-side at the training ground on the 31st and that he thought 1993 was going to be good."*
*"He called you on new year's day to tell you he scored in a five-a-side,"* Anders said.
*"Yes,"* Mikkel said.
Anders looked at Rasmus. Rasmus looked at Anders. Something passed between them — the specific communication of two people who had simultaneously found something both absurd and touching and were deciding how to handle it.
*"That's,"* Anders started.
*"Very Jensen,"* Rasmus finished.
*"Yes,"* Mikkel said. *"It is."*
---
Tøfting at Hamburg — the update Mikkel already knew from November but Rasmus had attended a match in December and had additional observations.
*"The half second,"* Rasmus said. *"I watched it happen. He received the ball in the 34th minute, there were three options, and he took exactly long enough to choose the right one. Not too long — exactly long enough."*
*"Did he choose correctly?"* Mikkel said.
*"Square pass to the midfielder's feet, who turned and played it forward and they nearly scored,"* Rasmus said. *"So — yes."*
*"That's the half second,"* Mikkel said.
*"That's the half second,"* Rasmus confirmed. *"It's working."*
*"His mother came to a match,"* Mikkel said. *"He told me. She sat in the stands and apparently interrogated the person next to her about Hamburg's tactical system for ninety minutes."*
*"Did they know the tactical system?"* Anders asked.
*"They did not,"* Mikkel said. *"She was dissatisfied with this."*
*"I like her,"* Rasmus said. *"I've never met her but I like her."*
*"Everyone likes her,"* Mikkel said. *"She's terrifying but everyone likes her."*
---
They worked through the rest — Elstrup at Mechelen scoring goals with the flat certainty he'd always had. Nielsen settled at Leverkusen, Calmund apparently calling him *my best signing of the year* in a press conference that nobody had asked him about signings in, which was very Calmund. Sivebæk approaching the end of his Brugge contract with the professional dignity of someone who had made the most of his European chapter. Møller at Anderlecht, eleven goals, Verschueren apparently telling anyone who would listen that the signing had been the best decision the club had made in three years.
*"Verschueren told a journalist,"* Rasmus said, reading from a Belgian press clipping he'd somehow obtained, *"that Trane Sports had — I'm translating — 'the most sophisticated understanding of player value of any agency operating in northern Europe.'"*
*"That's very kind of Verschueren,"* Mikkel said.
*"It's very accurate of Verschueren,"* Anders said. *"Different thing."*
*"Did you just use my line,"* Mikkel said.
*"I learned from the best,"* Anders said. *"Allegedly."*
---
The development clients — Friis-Hansen, Helveg, Colding, Schjonberg, Christiansen, Leonhardsen, Blomqvist, Andersen, Allan Nielsen, Gravesen, Brattbakk — each reviewed briefly, Rasmus providing the updated match observations, Astrid cross-referencing the contract database for any flags.
Colding at Lyngby remained the note — developing more slowly than projected, the Belgian pathway still possible but the timeline extended. Mikkel had called him before Christmas, a conversation that had been honest on both sides about where things stood. Colding had taken it well — better than Mikkel had expected, the pragmatic acceptance of someone who understood their own situation clearly.
*"He's going to be fine,"* Rasmus said. *"Just slower."*
*"Slower is fine,"* Mikkel said. *"Slower isn't stopped."*
*"You should tell him that,"* Anders said.
*"I did tell him that,"* Mikkel said. *"Over Christmas."*
*"You called Colding over Christmas,"* Astrid said.
*"Yes."*
*"To tell him slower isn't stopped."*
*"Among other things."*
Astrid looked at him with the expression she used when she was revising her understanding of something. *"You called all of them over Christmas, didn't you."*
It wasn't quite a question.
*"Most of them,"* Mikkel said.
*"Over Christmas,"* she said.
*"Football doesn't stop,"* Rasmus said, with the vindicated tone of someone whose earlier statement had just been validated.
*"That's what I said,"* Mikkel said.
*"You told me I was self-assigning work over a holiday period,"* Rasmus said.
*"You went to Norway,"* Mikkel said. *"I made phone calls. These are different things."*
*"Are they?"* Anders said.
*"Yes,"* Mikkel said firmly.
*"Marginally,"* Astrid said. *"But it sounds better."*
---
Gravesen last — the seventeen-year-old at Vejle, the five stars, the ceiling that the agency hadn't seen since Laudrup.
Rasmus had attended a Vejle youth match on the 2nd of January — two days after the holiday, which nobody had asked him to do.
*"Rasmus,"* Mikkel said.
*"I was in the area,"* Rasmus said.
*"You live in Copenhagen,"* Mikkel said. *"Vejle is two hours away."*
*"I was in the area in the sense that I went there specifically,"* Rasmus said. *"The report is on your desk."*
Mikkel looked at him. *"What did you see?"*
Rasmus was quiet for a moment — not performing the pause, genuinely considering how to describe it. *"He's not like other seventeen-year-olds,"* he said finally. *"You know how some players look like they're playing football? He looks like football is happening around him and he's navigating it. Like the game comes to him rather than him going to the game."*
The room was quiet.
*"That's very poetic for a scouting report,"* Anders said.
*"It's accurate,"* Rasmus said. *"The poetic version and the accurate version happen to be the same version."*
*"Both things,"* Mikkel said. *"Can be simultaneously the case."*
Rasmus pointed at him. *"Exactly."*
*"Don't point,"* Mikkel said.
---
They finished the check at half past eleven. Astrid updated the tracking sheets — every client flagged green except Colding who was amber and Sivebæk who was amber for contract reasons rather than performance ones. Anders updated the calendar with the January commitments. Rasmus filed his three Norway reports under the new system with the satisfaction of someone completing a task they'd been wanting to complete since the 4th.
Mikkel stood at the whiteboard. The *Don't blink* was still there from December, slightly faded, the marker having dried over the holiday. He uncapped a fresh marker and wrote it again underneath — darker this time, more definitive.
*"Ten days,"* he said.
*"Ten days,"* Astrid confirmed.
*"Are we ready?"* Anders said.
*"We've been ready since December,"* Astrid said. *"He's been ready since November."*
*"October,"* Rasmus said.
*"July,"* Mikkel said.
They looked at him.
*"I've been ready since July,"* he said. *"When Ferguson and I spoke at Old Trafford before pre-season."*
*"That's when you wrote it the first time,"* Anders said, looking at the whiteboard. *"Don't blink."*
*"Yes,"* Mikkel said.
*"And now it's January and you're writing it again,"* Anders said. *"Same words. Darker marker."*
*"Same words,"* Mikkel said. *"Darker marker."*
*"Does it mean something different the second time?"* Anders asked.
Mikkel looked at the whiteboard. At the two versions of the same instruction, one faded and one fresh, both true.
*"It means the same thing,"* he said. *"I just need to hear it more clearly."*
Anders nodded slowly. *"That's either very wise or slightly alarming."*
*"Both,"* Astrid said, without looking up.
*"Both,"* Mikkel agreed.
---
**⚙ SYSTEM UPDATE — EARLY JANUARY 1993**
*Funds: DKK 979,549 (£95,016 / $156,728)*
*Monthly Operating Costs: DKK 56,800 (£5,510 / $9,088)*
*Total Monthly Commission: DKK 73,878 (£7,166 / $11,820)*
*Net Monthly Position: DKK +17,078 (£1,657 / $2,732)*
*Total Clients: 22 — all reviewed*
*Green: 20 clients | Amber: Colding (pace), Sivebæk (contract)*
*Gravesen: Development tracking — exceptional*
*January 14th: Old Trafford — 10 days*