The Beautiful Quest: An Association Football Quest

Your first season as a Manchester United regular has ended very successfully. Six points clear at the top on Boxing Day, several crucial goals scored by you helped keep it that way. You won the Premier League Player of the Month for February after scoring 4 goals and making 2 assists, many of them deciding key games.

In March, you headed home an equaliser against Arsenal and then assisted Dion Dublin's winning goal against Liverpool. It was your goal that sealed the title on 18th April with three games to spare as you belted in a late volley to beat Newcastle United. As United won their third title in a row, you played 32 games and scored 18 goals, the joint top in the league along with Chris Sutton and Michael Owen.

In the FA Cup Third Round, you came off the bench and scored the fifth goal, which was an unspectacular tap in, in a thrilling 5-3 victory over Chelsea. In the Fourth Round, you scored another goal as Walsall were smashed 4-1. However, you did not get on the scoresheet in the Fifth Round against Barnsley as United lost 1-0 and crashed out of the cup.

In the Champions League Quarter Finals, the Red Devils played AS Monaco. The away leg was a goalless draw. At Old Trafford, David Trezeguet put the visitors ahead after only five minutes, before Solskjaer equalised after 53 minutes. Due to the away goal rule, if the score remained 1-1 then Monaco would progress to the semi finals. It stayed level until late in the game when a Gary Neville clearance from a corner found Ryan Giggs. The Welsh winger ran down the flank before passing the ball to you. With your first touch, you rounded the keeper and then scored the winning goal with your second, causing the Stretford End to explode.

In the semi final, United drew a strong Juventus team featuring the likes of Alessandro Del Piero and Zinedine Zidane. The leg in Turin got off to a bad start as Del Piero scored two within fifteen minutes. Andy Cole pulled one back before half time, but Zidane scored a brilliant solo goal just after. Del Piero completed his hat trick with a penalty on the hour mark, before David Beckham scored a free kick in injury time. Juventus went into the second leg with a 4-2 aggregate advantage, but those two away goals could be crucial if the game was tight. You scored at Old Trafford in 41 seconds with a cheeky back heel but Angelo Peruzzi put in a man of the match performance between the sticks, ensuring that was the only goal and that Juve triumphed 4-3 on aggregate.

In total, you made 47 appearances in all competitions, scoring 25 goals. This is a very impressive goals-to-appearances ratio and will ensure you are one of the first names on the team sheet next year. You finished the season as the club's top scorer in the league and joint top scorer in all competitions with Andy Cole. Despite this impressive season, you were snubbed for the awards with Michael Owen winning Player of the Season and PFA Young Player of the Season, David Beckham winning PFA Player of the Season and Dennis Bergkamp winning FWA Player of the Season. You did not make the team of the year either. On the other hand, your efforts were certainly appreciated at the club as you won the Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year.

While you were flying high in the month of February, you received that coveted phone call from Glenn Hoddle at long last. He had named you in his squad for the friendly against Chile at Wembley on February 11th. Given the number 20 shirt, you were not named in the starting eleven but you were on the bench. You came on for Teddy Sheringham after 63 minutes but perhaps the weight of expectation - the expectation of the Wembley crowd, the expectation of the country, the expectation of yourself - got to you. You did not really turn up and only had one shot, a header that went wide of the mark. It was not the dream debut you hoped for, instead it was quite disappointing. You were not in the squad for the game in March against Switzerland due to a clash with the Under-21 game. You did double your amount of caps on April 22nd when you again came on for Sheringham, this time in a game against Portugal. You did create a chance for Alan Shearer but your impact was similarly minimal. It was likely due to these lacklustre performances that Hoddle left you out of the World Cup squad, picking Shearer, Sheringham, Les Ferdinand and Michael Owen as his options in the final third, and did not even name you as a stand by.

You saw more success with the Under-21 team. You made your debut for them later than the senior team, appearing against Switzerland on March 24th, putting in a decent but unspectacular shift. You were again called up into the squad for three friendlies in May, appearing in all three. You put in fairly good performances and scored your first international goal at any level against South Africa on May 16th, as you nutmegsed their keeper.

You have had a very good season, comparable to that of Michael Owen, who is both a comparable age and comparable player to you. Pini points out that Owen is earning £10,000 a week in a deal worth £2.5 million a year and recommends that you request a new contract from Ferguson, and he promises he can negotiate a better contract that what Owen has. You…

1. Take him up on his offer
2. Realise that you aren't earning much less and decline
3. Decline because you think it would be greedy to ask for a new contract this soon after signing your existing one.

You have noticed that over the past few months, you have decline slightly as a footballer, possibly due to the large amount of matches you have played. While you have time off from matches and training in the summer, you try to rectify the issue by…

1. Hiring an elite personal trainer to try and improve your overall strength and fitness.
2. Like you have done since a kid, you practice your skills over and over until they improve.
3. You secretly acquire performance enhancing drugs to make sure you are performing to maximum capacity.
4. You decide to work with a local Academy to coach for a few weeks and hope keeping yourself immersed in football will get your skills back up.

The main star of Manchester United and English football in general is undeniably David Beckham. Over the last year or so, you have gotten to know the 23 year old quite well and even though he is hated by many due to getting sent off in the World Cup Round of 16, which ended in England's defeat to Argentina in a penalty shootout, he asks you whether you want to meet the Spice Girls, one of whom, Victoria Adams or 'Posh Spice', Beckham is engaged to. In response, you…

1. Accept and happily go with him.
2. Accept and tentatively go with him.
3. Decline but promise to meet them sometime.
4. Decline and refuse to meet them.

With your omission from the World Cup squad, you find yourself possessing quite a bit of free time and almost £2 million in your wages. With this time and money, you…

(Pick Two)

1. Buy a large house on the outskirts of Manchester.
2. Buy a terrace house built for a worker in Salford and renovate it.
3. Buy an Aston Martin V8 Coupé car.
4. Buy several different classic and vintage cars.
5. Get a questionable haircut.
6. Invest in some fashionable designer clothes.
7. Invest some money into your boyhood Beechfield United so the club can improve it's facilities.
8. Obtain a fake ID and attempt to get into some Manchester clubs without being recognised.

Stats
Name: Andy Watson
Age: 18
Height: 6ft 6in (198 cm)
Weight: 190 lbs (86 kg)
Position: Forward
Current Team: Manchester United
Number: 24
Youth Career:

• Beechfield United (1987-1991)
• Manchester United (1991-1996)

Senior Career:

• Manchester United (1996-) 47/23 (68/34)
• Total: 47/23 (68/34)

International Career:

• England Under-16 (1996) 4/0
• England Under-21 (1998- ) 4/1
• England (1998- ) 2/0

Skills:

• Pace - 9
• Power - 12
• Heading - 15
• Flair - 13
• Set Piece Taking - 8
• Passing - 7
• Intelligence - 13
• Leadership - 6

Relationships:

• Brian Watson (Father/Agent) - Excellent
• Tanya Watson (Mother) - Excellent
• Eric Harrison (Reserve Coach) - Great
• Alex Ferguson (Manager) - Great
• Wes Brown (Team Mate) - Good
• Eric Cantona (Ex-Captain) - Neutral
• Roy Keane (Captain) - Neutral
• David Beckham (Team Mate) - Great
• Gary Neville (Team Mate) - Good
• Ryan Giggs (Team Mate) - Good
• Pini Zahavi (Agent) - Good

Trophies:

• Manchester United
  • 1996-97 FA Premier League
  • 1997-98 FA Premier League
  • 1997 Charity Shield

Awards:

• Manchester United
  • Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year
  • Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year - 1997-98
  • Premier League Player of the Month - Feb 98