BILLY BREMNER MEMORIAL JOIN OUR CAMPAIGN
Date: 4th September 2023
Mr. McAvoy will not dwell…
A visit from the Quality Assurance Team from abroad – this time from their partners in Greece – is never a pleasant one. At least that is the view of production manager, Mr. McAvoy.
His green tea is steaming in the corner of his desk, the light from his laptop, illuminating his concerned wee face and the vegan chocolate brownie, packed by the partner to ensure he “keeps his strength up” is sitting uneaten, because he hasn’t the heart to tell them that he hates vegan anything.
Now, there are group of people who buy him a vegan sausage roll every time they go to Greggs – he thinks they are trying to be supportive, in reality they are just taking the mickey…
What is not taking the mickey is the report in front of him, and it has got him a little worried….
Picture the scene…
It is a Thursday morning. The storms that were all over Edinburgh and making life in Gorgie, slightly less attractive than normal, have gone and the people in the factory where Mr. McAvoy is the head of production, are assembling on the shop floor to wait for Mr. McAvoy to deliver the “Greek” verdict.
For the second year in a row, their European partners, this time the Greeks, launched a wee look see, to make sure the quality they expect was being rolled out at the factory which produced widgets for the marketplace. Wee maroon widgets that were made, here in the Jam Tarts Widget Factory of Gorgie, were of hardy stuff and legendary within Scotland for being durable and dependable.
But that is never enough for the European market and Mr. McAvoy is looking at the report which tells him just that.
The fact is, that they have just lost their foothold in Europe. They have been found wanting, inferior to others in the European market and he needs to address the assembling crowd with the news.
But they already know.
The murmurings during the last fortnight of their performance and where, they knew they were deficient were ongoing, sincere and quite intense. It would take a blind and deaf person not to hear and see what the people who knew, knew – and kept telling themselves.
Right now, the Jam Tarts Widget Factory were not strong enough to conquer Europe, quite yet.
Mr. McAvoy rose from his seat and put the report under his arm. He drank the last of his green tea and opened the door of his office. Just outside was a balcony which overlooked the factory floor. It was a platform of a bygone era, and allowed a close inspection of all that was being played under it. You got to feel close to the action and involved in everything that was going on in the factory. It was a good feeling to feel that close – many a visiting manager spoke of how envious they were that the atmosphere was so intense because of that level of closeness from the observers, the audience if you will, and where the action was being played out.
Today Mr. McAvoy felt like he wanted to be as far away as possible, but Mr. McAvoy was no shirker of his responsibility: he knew it was his responsibility to deliver the news – no matter what that news was.
He was now standing upon the platform and the whole of the Jam Tarts Widget Factory were anxiously awaiting confirmation of what they already knew – Europe was off the table for another year.
Mr. McAvoy cleared his throat.
“OK guys, I am not going to dwell on the negatives. I don’t think that helps. So, I would like to start with thanking all of the people who were out entertaining our visitors. I know they splashed out a bit at the local taverna and paid the bill. What a great gift from the Greeks, though perhaps we should have seen that as a sign. Never really thought we should trust them bearing gifts, but never mind…”
The sore heads from some of the factory, the day after were testimony to how good a night it was, and Mr. McAvoy was convinced that it did not help anyone’s performance for the next 48 hours.
“So,” he continued. “We know that the Greeks were already in front of us in terms of how proficient they were, but they took an early opportunity to point out a couple of things which were problematic. Again though, I shall not dwell on those, but it looked like after the early part of their visit here we were going to have to climb a mountain to keep ourselves in the game.”
People round the factory remembered the Greeks called Taison and Thomas showing up a couple of errors early on and they knew then they were well out. A knockout blow from some guy called Konstamtellas was to follow a little while after and once the view in the canteen got dark, it never became light-hearted again. They knew they were doomed at the Jam Tarts Widget Factory then.
“Now, it is hard for me to defend ourselves over those errors as we didn’t do well enough, but again I do not want us to dwell on that.”
There was a murmuring of agreement on the floor as people nodded and thought about things being better for them domestically, but some among the throng thought, once again that there is a lack of ambition throughout the Jam Tarts Widget Factory and the past should be a guide to how they see their future.
And in the past, they had great European adventures…
“But the fact is, and I hate to say it.” Well don’t thought a few. “But right now, we are just not ready for Europe and need to stick on the domestic market. It’s a sore day for us. We need to put it to bed. It’s gone now. We can’t dwell on it. We’ve fallen short. We’ve got to concentrate on ourselves. We haven’t been good enough, if I’m honest.”
And with that, and without saying the words – we are out of Europe – M r. McAvoy turned and returned to his office.
But the maroon jerseys on the shop floor knew. Mr. McAvoy knew they knew but hoped they would not dwell upon it.
Or so he said…
Whilst the author, asserts his right to this as an original piece of work there is no evidence that Mr. Frankie McAvoy, does not like vegan brownies unless you know differently, so this is clearly a piece of fiction, though some his words have been used.
The fact is that Hearts were put out of Europe by Greek side PAOK and Head Coach, Frankie McAvoy had the following to say to BBC Scotland, “The goals we conceded were pretty poor. It’s difficult for me to stand here try and defend that because we didn’t do well enough. It’s a sore night for us. We need to put it to bed. It’s gone now. That’s down to failings from last season, not finishing third. We can’t dwell on it. We’ve fallen short. We’ve got to concentrate on ourselves. We need to make Tynecastle a hard place for anyone to come and try and pick up our form away from home – which hasn’t been good enough, if I’m honest.”
Posted in: Latest News