January 31st. Nine-fourteen in the morning. My phone rang.
Dougie.
"They've triggered it. Chelsea are recalling Abraham. Fourteen days' notice. Effective immediately."
I was in my office at Beckenham. The coffee on my desk was still hot. The morning session wasn't due for another hour. The building was quiet, the way it always was before nine-thirty, the corridors empty, the analysis suite dark, the players still arriving in ones and twos.
"When did they call?"
"Seven this morning. Marina Granovskaia, direct to me. No negotiation. No discussion. The clause exists. They're exercising it. Tammy reports to Cobham on Monday."
I sat with it. The clause. The standard January recall provision that existed in almost every Premier League loan agreement, the safety valve that lending clubs inserted and rarely used. Chelsea had used it.
