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T.H · 01-04-08, 05:48 PM

I stood by the front door, dressed in a dark suit and a tie. It was weird to think that last time I was wearing it, was when I got signed up by West Brom, and yet just a few days later, here I am, West Brom manager, ready to go and pay my respects to Mowbray and McCarthy. I waited for the car to pick me up, and me and Wozza made it to the church for the 9:00 procession.

When we arrived I had a few words with the minister, Graham Dowling, and I joined my players on the right side of the church. The ceremony lasted for about two hours, with words being said from both sets of families and players. I decided to refrain from saying anything, because it seemed impersonal as I had never met neither Tony nor Mick.

After the procession, everyone came back to The Hawthorns for the reception, due to the close proximity to the church. I had a few words with Mr. Pearce and I explained to him my ambitions of winning the title. As a virtue for this, he offered me a £5.75M transfer budget in return. I shook his hands and thanked him, and set about, dreaming in my head about the players I could bring in.

I had let our scout, Bobby Hope leave for Everton the previous day, meaning we only had one scout left at the club, Tim Davies. Having heard my budget for the season, I decided to do some serious scouting of my own. I turned on my laptop and made myself a coffee. I loaded Internet Explorer and Football Manager 2008 to aid me with my work. I also found some scout reports left by Bobby in the filing cabinet, and so I set down to work.

After a good few hours scouting, I came up with a shortlist of players. After another couple of cups of coffee, I decided it was time to make some offers. I rang Manchester City manager Sven Goran Eriksson and checked on the availability of taking young keeper Joe Hart on loan. Sven agreed to the deal, and I have arranged to meet with Joe in the week.

I sent a few emails out, enquiring about no less than four players from four different clubs. My main target was Jose Goncalves, the young Portugese defender from Hearts, as I feel that we are a strong attacking side, with a few weaknesses in defence. I also felt that we needed to aid our attack, and so I put in a £350K bid for Bogdan Stancu, one of the players in Bobby’s report.

Next, I felt like we needed a player to sit in front of the back four, to cancel out opposition counter attacks, and help to set up chances of our own. I checked out a few players, but in the end I chose to enquire about experienced Santos midfielder Claudio Maldonado. I decided to opt for another defender, and so I enquired about another player in one of Bobby’s scouting reports, Simon Kjaer.
I looked at my watch, shut down my laptop lid, and went for a little walk around the stadium.

I woke up to the bright morning light, and the sound of birds singing. I sat up, realising that I had fallen asleep in the East Stand of the ground. I made my way back to the tunnel, and into my office, to check my emails. I turned on my laptop, and logged into Hotmail, surprised to see that I had 5 emails!

I read the first one, which was from Ryan Johnston, Jose Goncalves’ agent. He asked me to meet him at 5PM to discuss terms with his player, after Hearts had accepted my £3.1M offer. I moved onto the next email, this time from FC Midtjllyand. I opened it, and discovered that they wanted £1.1M for Simon. I agreed to the deal, and sent a reply to the club, in order for them to arrange me a suitable meeting time with Simon’s agent.

With two out of two successes, I was brimming with confidence, only to be let down by the third email. Santos wanted an extortionate £5.5M for Maldonado, which I could afford, but was nevertheless put off by the high price tag. I decided there would be players I would want to sell after watching training, so I agreed to the demands.

I opened the fourth email, expecting it to be a reply from Unierea Urziceni over Bogdan Stancu, but to my surprise it was from Wozza.

Hey Tom,
How are you getting on? I’m really enjoying it, and all my nerves have gone. It’s amazing how quickly I’ve settled in!
That’s it, just a quick word, I’ve got training!
Will catch up with you later, Woz.

I sent him a quick reply, and opened the final email. This time it was in regards to Stancu. My £350K offer had been accepted, and it had been arranged for me to meet Bogdan’s agent, Chris Ashmore, at 9:00 in the club restaurant to discuss personal terms. I downed the rest of my coffee, and hurried to the restaurant ready for talks.

When I arrived at the restaurant, I saw two men in discussion over a piece of paper. I introduced myself to them, and sat down. I informed them that I had to be quick because I had training to take shortly. I scanned through the demands on the contract, and shook Chris’ hand. Bogdan signed on the dotted line, marking the start of a 4 year contract worth £1,800 a week. I shook hands with Bogdan too, and made my way to the changing room, ready for training.