You can ignore my last two attempts at creating a story, I didn't like them but after reading a few other ones. Special note to Tanel, I've worked out how I will write out my story from now on. So here goes.. I hope you enjoy...



U.D. Lanzarote
28th June 2006

I was just settling down with my wife, to watch some evening television in my little cottage house in England when the phone rang, it was nearing on 8pm so I was surprised to be recieving a phone call at this time. It turned out that the person who phoned me was the chairman of U.D. Lanzarote in Spain. I listened with intruige as I was told to meet one of his English contacts in a restaurant just outside Leeds at 10pm tonight as he departed he wished me good luck.

With just a couple of hours until I had to be there, I quickly got dressed into some suitable attire and hopped into my car. Heading down the motorway I played "we're all going on a summer holiday" in my car. I finally got there for 9.55pm where a tall, dark man greeted me. He appeared Spanish but spoke brilliant English. We sat down to a table where we ordered our food, although I wasn't too hungry since I'd just eaten a Donner Kebab hours before. Immediately as recieved our drinks he showed me a peice of paper. Instantly I knew what it was "sign it" he said to me. I sat and studied the details immediately before asking him why he wanted to sign me. "We saw your progress with your local football team, and the size of that club is simalar to ours, we know it will be a change and challenge, but please move over to Spain and manage our club - we need you". I was astonished as no club had ever shown this much interest in my services.

We went over the slight problems such as moving countries, languages, my wife and accomodation, but we got over that quickly, I phoned my wife to see what she thought and she appeared delighted at the idea, she always wanted to live in Spain. No sooner than a few minutes after I signed my name on the dotted line. In just a week I would be living in Spain as the new manager of U.D. Lanzarote

29th June 2006

I came home from the meeting in the early hours. My wife stayed up to greet me with many congratulations. We scoured the internet until 3am looking at the accomodation we were offered from the club. We finally settled on a lovely little house which also comes with a pool. The club offered to pay half towards the accomodation whilst the rest is payed with some of my signing on fee.


Our luxurious Spanish home

We are scheduled to leave England for sunny Spain on the 2nd of July from Manchester Internation Airport. First, before we pack we will have to say goodbye to our families and also tell them of the news as they don't know just yet.

After I finally got up, I got a phone call from the chairman of the club, he said he was delighted that I signed the contract and he wished me good luck. He seemed pleased that I was already settled and had purchased my new home and claimed it was that nice that he'd be visiting me all the time for the pool!

I contacted the property owners of the current house and told them we were leaving, I also had to sort out what to do with our current car and thought about getting a new one over there. The day went very fast as I sorted out my personal life, I just can't wait to get over there and start my new job!

2nd July 2006

It was noon by the time we landed at the airport, as soon as we got our luggage and left the airport we felt the heat, it was immense, but my wife was pleased, she said then the pool would be put to use. The beach is also only a mile walk from the house. We got a cab to our new home and much to our surprise the whole team of Lanzarote was waiting to greet us. We thought that it was a lovely gesture and it also capitvated the family feeling that the club had, which I was pleased with. I left my wife to relax into the new home and unpack, whilst I left to go to the ground with my new team and the chairman. I sat in the front and conversed with Estanis (the chairman) about the future of club. He told me that I had a press conference this evening but first he promised to tour me around my new workplace.

We finally got into the stadium grounds, although it's not too far from the home, I'd had enough on the coach considering the heat. The players left and headed to the training ground, whilst me and Estanis went to my new office. He showed me around, the office appeared empty but he explained to me that they'd been looking for a manager for near on 3 months now, some of the coaching staff have been taking the managers role for some time.

We went to the board room where I saw down to a meeting with the Lanzarote F.C. board. I presented my ideas and plans for the club which were met with a loud applause. My plans are to take this club into the top division in Spanish football, but I did say that I wouldn't rush it, I wanted to make sure that we'd also stay there once we acheived the goal. The chairman said that he'd been waiting for this ambition for a long time, although it may be unrealistic, he said, it underlines the determination of the club.

I shook hands with all the board as they said they were looking forward to a long and sucessful era under my management. We went to the stadium which has a capacity of 6900 and is an all-seater. I thought these were good foundations, especially considering the tier of football they are in. I looked at the training facilities and the youth development and decided that they were average, the chairman agreed but said that we didn't have the funds to improve them until we were brought sucess.


The "Ciudad Deportiva Lanzarote"

I pointed out that we needed a young squad to keep a future here, but I found out that a little part of my job was already accomplished as the average age for the team is 24, I was very pleased to hear this.

I met up with the staff that worked here, I was afterwards breifed on how they were, they were not good enough to progress in my opinion so I took upon the decision (with the chairmans backing) to sack several members of the staff and bring in new ones. I appointed an assistant manager as didn't have one and brought in a new fitness coach, aswell as scrapping the current scouting system and implementing my own. I took out the core of the coaching staff and also brought in some new ones. I wanted to re-mould the club for the future to give it a chance. Some of the ex-employees were dissapointed and somewhat angry but understood the situation.

Come the end of the day the tempritures were still soaring, I had a press conference shortly so I returned home to freshen up. My wife wasn't there but she left a note saying she'd gone to check out the local area.


Probably where my wife was

I met up with Estinis again at the press room for the conference, a large scrum of journalists were waiting to pounce upon the news. We entered cooly to a rapid snapping of cameras. Once I sat down I took a sip of the water provided and waited for the questions to fire in.

Media: So Senor Holden, you've been brought into this club based on the fact that you acheived a few things with a small club back in England, why?
Estinis: I think I will answering this one. He took a flailing club up two divisions, and we are two divisions from La Liga - which is our ultimate target, to me it makes sense. Yes, it will be harder, but I feel he is the perfect man.
Media: Ok then. How is the club going to acheive this with such a poor financial state?
Estinis: Again, I can only answer this one. The club is very stable finanically, but obviously his transfer budget won't be huge, it will be bigger than the one he has previously, I am sure.
Media: Right, so are you going to be using this fund then Holden?
Holden: Yes, of course. I've seen the side train a little today and I must say, with every club, there will be room for improvement, some will go our and some will come in. I'm going to mould to the club the way I want it.
Media: So you're going to wield the axe very shortly?
Holden: I already have.
Media: Who have you sold? We've heard nothing about it!
Holden: Not with the players. I've dismissed several members of the coaching staff and brought in new ones. My coaching staff is now 100% Spanish, so communication cannot fail.
Media: We're predicting a mid-table finish this year, the odds no doubt will be very average for your side-
Holden: Sorry to interrupt but I will only accept these predictions once I have re-arranged the squad in the way I want it, then come back and predict. Mark my words, we'll be up there at the top
Media: Brave words, many a manager has promised things for this club and look where we are now. Good luck however.
Holden: Thank You

I left, the chairman seem pleased with how I conducted myself in the press conference, he did warn me that the local sport media were ruthless in times of worry at the club. He said that the fans were passionate and wanted more. I was worried by this, it only made me want to go out there and prove them wrong.

It was time to go home, so I got a lift from the chairman (I still haven't got a new car). I flipped open my laptop to find an email in my laptop. I received an enquiry for 22-year-old Fabiani. I rejected as I hadn't seen enough of my squad yet. Maybe as I gain a more indepth opinion I will begin to buy and sell.

I have a freindly against Fenerbahce in four days. No doubt it will be hard, and I expect to lose, but until then I will train with the squad and evaluate the changes I plan to make.

I'm very excited about the future of this club, and I am determined to bring the much-craved sucess.

6th July 2006

Today was my first match day, we were playing Fenerbahce at home, I knew it was going to be a very hard game. Considering the fact that they have recently been the champions of the Turkish Premierleague, aswell as boasting a strong side with players such as Appiah, Kezman, Rustu and Alex. Players I could only dream of possessing within my squad.

Over the past couple of days I'd managed to finalise my staff setup, in the end I was very content with the staff I'd managed to bring to the club, although it was hard I was pleased to get shut of the poor staff we had in the first place. My final staff list looks like this;

Assistant Manager: Alberto Galan
Coach: Gerardo Gerrido
Coach: Fernandes Diaz
Coach: Oscar Etxebarria
Gk Coach: Juan Jose Lausen
Physio: Antonio Zoido
Scout: Gabriel Diaz Gonzalez
Scout: Fermin Amarayo

I was still looking for a fitness coach, but it wasn't a complete necessity. I guess being in the lower divisions you are not as active in the transfer market, I'd only received one e-mail from another club enquiring about a player.

I'd had an easy past couple of days, and I finally managed to purchase my own car, which me and my wife shall share. We've settled in brilliantly into our new home and the pool is just amazing on a nightime.

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My Audi TT parked outside the clubs' ground

Back to day anyway. It was dinnertime; I chose to spend it with my wife today, but we were soon interrupted by a phone call, she urged me not to pick it up but I reminded her that it could be important business, it turned out to be one of my new scouts. He approached me with a list of names, he said he's uploaded videos of them onto the clubs staff database and told me to have a look at them when I had time. Straight after dinner I sat down at the computer to study the videos and the report cards that came with them and decided to put a bid in for two of the three I was shown; Chus Bravo (SW, DC) and David Lago (ST). It got me into the mood of whealing and dealing so I searched around on clubs factfiles and studied statistics of players, come the end of the day I made bids for three more players; Antonio Canadas (AM RL), Angel Turiel (DM) and Pablo Rodriguez (M LC). I am hoping to recieve good news on them all, I feel that it would strengthen our team immensely.


The Lads

Anyway, I had to be off to manage my first game in charge. My wife wanted to come and watch so I let her, but I did promise that she shouldn't expect much due to the opposition. I arrived at the ground in good time, with an hour to kick-off, where my chairman greeted me. He said that the Assistant manager had begun warming up with the players. I went in with the chairman and showed him my tactics, he did warn me that all the hardwork could go to waste, as he was also expecting a loss. The main benefit of this freindly would be the sell-out crowd we were expecting.

It got close to kick off, just 15 minutes to go, so I called my players into the dressing rooms (which were very bog-standard). I told them to go out and enjoy playing against some great players, I pointed out that tonight was not all about the result, but I still wanted 100%. The tempratures were around 29 degrees celcius but it was very gusty outside.

My tactics were to play wide as thier formation (according to my scout) was going to be very narrow. I told them to close down at all opportunities, to pass short and quick and to defend deep because of thier pacey frontline in Kezman.

The players went out onto the feild very fired-up, in front of a sellout crowd, something they were definately not used to. Although I couldn't understand them I heard them chanting and gearing each other up, it was refreshing to hear, as lately the morale had been poor.


How my first squad looked like