The fireworks to the north were still going when I typed an answer, and I deleted it.
I did not know. In November I had told that boy his name went in the morning the window opened. It had gone in. I had never once asked what happened after that.
Emma had her chin on my shoulder, reading the empty box on the screen. She told me to ring Dougie.
He picked up on the 2nd ring with a party behind him, and then a door shut on the party. He had known since the 20th of December that I would ring, and he said it once and quickly.
"The rule says a player must normally be registered by 12 noon on the last working day before the match. Liverpool is Wednesday. The last working day before Wednesday was yesterday, and the window opened at midnight."
I asked him what normally meant. He had rung the league before Christmas and asked them the same thing.
"It means normally," Dougie said. "The next 1. Not this 1."
