Thursday, February 28, 2008
2/28/2008 10:43:00 PM
I have just read a soccer news and i've decided to blog it here as i find this story interesting and meaningful. It is actually about a manchester united player, wes brown whose current contract end this season and he is free to leave man utd then. He've rejected the current contract offered to him and in fact he actually wants more. About this soccer news, the writer, paul hince actually wrote a story and hopes that he reads it and understands not to be so greedy about money. Anyone of you can read this story including non-soccer fans.
MOST unlike him, Old Trafford's Fiery One has not phoned to tell me how much he has offered Wes Brown to extend his career with the Reds.
So I'll go along with the majority suggestion that young Wesley has been offered £40,000 a week - but he's turned it down.
He sounds a bit like Oliver Twist - "Please Sir can I have more?"
Of course, Brown is perfectly entitled to secure the best deal he can from his employers.
But on this occasion I think Wesley should take what's on the table and I'll tell you why by telling a little tale about Marie.
It's not a happy story - in fact it's a tragic one.
The exact date I first met Marie I can't recall. But it was a bitter winter's day in late January.
The phone on my desk tinkled. On the other end was the commissioner from reception who told me there was a woman downstairs asking to see me. I walked down and there she was - the most wretched woman I'd ever seen.
Bedraggled, shivering, undernourished and with bags under her eyes as big as suitcases. In her hand was a plain plastic bag.
Out of that plastic bag she pulled a City shirt. The object of her visit, she said, was to see if I could get it signed by the players.
Of course, she explained, she couldn't afford a real shirt. It was a replica she had bought for pennies off Longsight Market. It was all she could afford as a birthday present for her 12-year-old son Andrew.
Marie's story unfolded. The first shock was to discover she was only 26 years old. She looked twice that age. The man she lived with was a sadistic, drunken monster who beat and abused her.
One day - thankfully - he walked out and never returned leaving Marie alone to look after two young sons.
Marie was desperate. She knew nothing about the benefit system and was forced to feed and clothe her two sons on her measly child allowance.
With the gas and electricity turned off and rent arrears mounting, she saw only one way out and began taking loans from a backstreet lender.
As Marie finished her tale, I did something stupidly patronising. I took a £5 note out of my pocket and tried to press it into her hand.
Her withering look of utter contempt chills me to this day. And with that she left without another word, leaving my crumpled banknote on the table.
I couldn't sleep that night thinking of that poor girl's predicament and the first thing I did the next morning was to drive to Maine Road to get all the players to sign that shirt.
After work that day I drove to the address in Longsight that Marie had given me. And there was no answer to my repeated knocks.
Then the door of the house next door opened and a man came out. "No good looking for Marie," he said. "She did a runner in the early hours."
It turned out that Marie's worst fears had materialised. The money lender's thugs had arrived to collect her growing debt.
So in the early hours of a cold winter's morning she stole away with her two young sons. No friend to go to, no money and very little hope.
I never heard from Marie again and I've still got that signed shirt.
Why have I retold that story now? In the hope that Wes Brown reads it.
Wes, you were brought up in Longsight. If God had not gifted you with your great talent your life could have followed an entirely different path.
Count your blessings. Think of all the good things in life you've got.
Don't be greedy. Just be grateful that you'll never have to face the same problems as Marie. Take the offer Wes and enjoy the rest of your life.
That is all about the story. Haha!!! When you guys and girls read this story, i felt that the woman, marie is very pitiful rite? So i wanna say we shouldn't be greedy and take things for granted. By putting ourselves in marie's shoes, what would you do? I hope that like paul hince, wes brown will also really go read on what he had wrote and could count himself lucky for what god has given to him and not marie. And also, hope everyone of you guys and girls enjoy this story. =)
~~~signing off: jUsTiCe~~~
