Saturday 23rd June 2006
“Ready for our trip tomorrow boss?” “Yeah I think so mate, what’s the reason we’re going away?” “Last week you passed your FIFA Pro license, so I’ve organized a meeting with a big European club. We will be flying to Switzerland, for a tour of there stadium and a meeting with there chairman. I am sure you will love this opportunity, they are a club full of potential and hopefully you will choose them.” “Ok but you can’t tell me who it is?” “No I promised there chairman that no-one will find out about the meeting and no stories will be leaked. We leave tomorrow; I will pick you up from your house at 8:30am” “Ok cool will see you then Fella” What a surprise, I knew we were going away but he’s booked us into a meeting and a tour of a new potential club. I couldn’t wait; all I could think about was who it could have been? So I decided to do some research. I couldn’t find anything; there was nothing on the internet, nothing in the papers, and nothing about recent sackings. I was baffled to which club I was going to see. The only team that underachieved last season in the Swiss Super League was FC Thun, but their manager Reiner Wydmeier signed a new 3 year contract at them ends of last season.
Sunday 24th June 2006 – 10:00am
“Last call for all passengers flying on flight ESYZUR097 to Zurich, please can all passengers proceed to gate 4”
This was our flight, my first chance to impress as a manager awaited me. As our flight left London Luton I was nervous, I’ve never been a good flyer. All I could think about was my future, this happened to take my mind off of the height I was traveling. As a football manager I never usually read the papers but as I was traveling to a new country and I wanted to get a grip of the press. I was shocked to find out that Christian Gross had been sacked as FC Basel manager. He failed to win the Swiss Super League or the Swiss COM Cup last year. He was all over the sports pages. Headlines read ‘St.Jakobspark in upheaval’ as I read further into the article it came to my knowledge that the reason for the termination of his contract was because of his personal relationship with club secretary. There were two full pages with articles on the relationship between the two, but the thing that most caught my eye was the article on who were favorites to replace him. The hot favorite was Sven Goran-Eriksson, and then next came Ruud Gullit and then Michael Laudrup. All three have vast amounts of managerial and playing experience. After putting down the paper, all I could hear was my agent, Paul Warnock tackling an Easy Burger, Sesame seeds and orange wrapping all over lap. By the time he had munched away all his Easy Burger we were almost ready to land.
Sunday 24th June 2006 –14:00pm Paul and I had landed around half an hour ago and we were now at our hotel, just outside of Zurich. I had to share a room with him but we had no time to settle in we had to be somewhere at 15:00pm. Paul wouldn’t tell me where we were going but I had a hunch we were going to the meeting and tour of the club. Twenty minutes later we arrived at St.Jakobspark, the home of FC Basel. We stepped out the taxi, I couldn’t hide my excitement. Dressed in a new black suit and white shirt, I strolled to the main entrance. A beautiful young lady greeted me at reception, now I can see why Christian Gross couldn’t help himself. Paul said to her “Good afternoon, im here with Tom Varney to see Chairman Werder Edelmann” this stunningly attractive lady replied in a sexy Swiss accent “One moment sir, I will go and get him”
A few minutes later a tall man came walking from the long hallway, “Why hello sir! You must be Mr. Varney” I replied “Yes, yes sir I am, thank you for welcoming me to your country I have been very impressed with it since I arrived this morning.” He shook my hand fiercely, my young fingers crippled in his old matured hands. I felt like such a weakling, what a bad first impression.
We then went on to have a tour of the St.Jakobspark Stadium; I was very impressed inside a modern, slick, work environment, and on the outside a 33,330 all-seater stadium with build in under-floor heating system in place. The attached training ground had good facilities accompanied by youth academy. None of the players were around so they had no idea that I was here, I felt a warm feeling about this place, even tho im confident in my own ability to do the job I had two problems. One, I couldn’t speak Swiss and two, my attraction the receptionist. The fact I couldn’t speak Swiss could be over come by lessons and at first a translator. My agent Paul could speak a little Swiss and was fluent in French so there was a start. Secondly, my attraction for said receptionist could be overlooked but if she came into play she would her contract would have to be terminated.
After the tour I sat down with Werder, he said he had connections with FIFA, and that they had been impressed with my Pro License exams. He had been informed that I had achieved one of the best grades there. He went on to say that offering me the job would a massive risk for him, especially as he has managers such as Sven Goran-Eriksson and Ruud Gullit interested in the job. My stomach was churning, I had butterflies. “But if you want the job, be here at 9:00am tomorrow morning and it’s yours. I will arrange a press conference” Werder finished. We shook hands again; thank goodness that it was a better handshake than our first one. Me and Paul left St.Jakobspark and went back to are hotel.
After dinner at our hotel, I wanted to get an early night so I went back to our room. Paul said that he wanted to check out the local sights so he could give me a better tour of the local sights tomorrow. As I came out of the hotels restaurant there was press everywhere, I thought Sven or Ruud must have been here as well but I was wrong all the reporters were here for me. They were shouting all kinds of things at me. I couldn’t understand a lot of the things they were saying. They could have been shouting “Your mum’s a slu*” or even “Varney for president” but all I wanted to do was ignore them, I knew if I had responded with I want the FC Basel job Werder would have been in rage. So as they were rushing towards me pointed microphones and good know what I ducked and dived up the stairs to my room. That night I couldn’t sleep, all I could think about was my new job, I had so many big plans for this club, I wanted to get them to be one of the biggest clubs in European football.
Monday 25th June 2006 - 10:00am – Press Conference – St-Jakobspark Stadium 
The Chairman stood up from the desks and announces “Ladies and Gentleman, I here by announce to you the new manager of FC Basel, Tom Varney” Gasps filled the room, most reporters had their cameras ready to photo Mr. Eriksson or Mr. Gullit, but they had to make do with me, a relatively unknown face in football. I walked into the room stood next to Werder and shook his hand, I had been practicing my hand shake and I was please in the way we shook hands. The shack lasted for around five seconds so the reporters could capture the Chairman’s new signing. I then posed with a FC Basel scarf lofted high above my shoulders. Werder then went on to say how he had made a massive risk in appointing me manager but he wanted to make absolutely clear that I had the full backing of the board. I then had to answer a few questions.
Q: What are your first thoughts on getting the job as FC Basel Manger? A: I am very much honored to become part of this fantastic club. Q: How did you initially hear about the job? A: I heard that Mr. Gross’ job was under threat and I asked my agent to speak to Mr. Edelmann and say to him that I was interested in the job. Next question please. Q: Without any managerial experience are you shocked that you have been given the job? A: I am very shocked, I heard that Sven Eriksson and Ruud Gullit were interested and may have applied for the job so I am very shocked to be picked over them. I am willing to put everything into this job and I want to gain every success in the future. Q: So what plans and aims do you have at the moment? A: My plans are simple, to make FC Basel the best team in Switzerland in the short term and long term one of the best, most feared teams in Europe. Thank you very much for your time but I now have to get on and meet my players and build for the future. Thank you again. So I stood up and left the conference room, the reporters stood up and appauled me. I was in dream world; I couldn’t believe how far I had come in such a little time. This time last year I was playing football part-time for my local side, and at the bottom of the FA Coaching ladder. Now im a FIFA Pro license holder and manager of a European team on the up.
Monday 25th June 2006 – 12:00am
Sat in my office for the first time; a lovely modern office, wireless internet connected to my Laptop. I had to get used to using my Microsoft Outlook if I wanted to gain news from around the world and contact various clubs about the availability of their players. I wanted to get on, my aims for today were to meet my backroom staff and players, I wanted to gain knowledge from my staff about each player. I needed to asses my players; decide who I wanted to keep, release, transfer-list or loan out.
After meeting with staff I decided that I wanted to keep all staff that I had on board, I offered Roman Crevoisier and new contract which he accepted straight away. Same wage but moving from goalkeeper coach to first team coach. I wanted to bring in an experienced goalkeeper for the new role. I also wanted to have a very wide range of scouts available to me. So I insisted in bring in six more scouts and one more goalkeeping coach. I offered contracts to seven or eight scouts, and only offered one deal to a new goalkeeping coach.
After meeting with my coaches and players, I decided on a total re-shake. I wanted to bring in Europe’s top young players to succeed under my management. Straight away I release seven players, these players failed to show promise in the last few months and were seen as surplus to requirements.
Tuesday 26th June 2006 – 08:00am This morning I was delighted to confirm to my new chairman that six new scouts and one new goalkeeping coach have accepted my contracts offers and will join the club this week. Werder is delighted with the signings and in an interview with the clubs website he said “These backroom staff signings shows Mr. Varney means business” He concluded that three of the six staff signings are big name, he went on to confirm that FC Basel’s new goalkeeping coach was Ex-French international Fabien Barthez and to scouts that have come in are Christian Karembeu from Portsmouth and ex Schalke 04 centre half Tomasz Waldoch.
I ordered my new scouts to search around Europe looking for top European players with potential. I wanted them to report back with a database of players to look closer at, so when I have discussed my transfer budget I can look closer into improving my squad.
Wednesday 27th June 2006 – 9:00 
New FC Basel boss has begun a massive re-shuffle at St.Jakobspark; he has already released seven players with immediate effect and today confirming that Australian midfielder Scott Chipperfield and Swiss defender Boris Smiljanic have been placed on the transfer list. Chipperfield already gaining some interest of premiership clubs Portsmouth and Watford but Varney confirmed he had received no approach yet. Varney has also started his future planning; he has employed various scouts from around Europe to eye up the talent available. There is some speculation that he has contacted several English clubs about the availability of some of their up and coming youngsters. Sought after youngster Gareth Bale has been linked with the club also Villa striker Gabriel Agbonlahor has stated he would be interested in teaming up with manager Tom Varney.
Thursday 28th June – 8:00am
I wanted to get things going, I was eager to carry this club forward. I urged my scouts to do a quick detailed search of different nations. I wanted them to scout, England, Belgium, Denmark, France, Croatia, Poland and finally Greece. I wanted to bring together a European dream team. It seems now that most of the top Swiss players aren’t playing in the Super League. You see Philipe Senderos and Johan Djourou playing in the premiership with Arsenal, Alexander Frei, Raphael Wicky and Philipe Degen all playing for top Bundesliga sides in Germany. This doesn’t look good for Swiss football, it shows that they are producing the quality but they can’t hold on to them. In future years I want to nurture our current youth academy to become top, top internationals.
Im getting used to my office now; im not taking wrong turns and im used to having my own sexy secretary now. She hasn’t become that much of a distraction as I once thought she might have. She has the best tea making skills ever. I have checked my emails for today and there have been three approached for my players. Portsmouth and Watford enquired about signing recently transfer listed Scott Chipperfield and Murcia made a £70,000 bid for defender Boris Smiljanic. I replied to both English clubs an acceptable value of £850,000 and I accepted the bid from Murcia for Smiljanic.
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