Starting Small - FMFormation.net - Football Manager

treva · 17-05-08, 10:57 AM

Back Story
Born in Somerset, England I lived with my mum for 10 years until my mum met my step dad and we moved to Nottingham where he worked. I was very interested in cricket and football. When I was younger my interest in football was higher than cricket. But when I discovered that I was a lot better at cricket then I was at football, my priorities changed. I played for me local town Bingham in both sports and was chosen for the district team for cricket. But after a few decent seasons playing for my local cricket team and finally coming out of the final youth team I was now only playing Saturdays. My football days had pretty much come to an end with myself stopping after 16, not wanting to join the adult team.

With my passion still firmly set on cricket and football I decided that I wanted to be a coach or teacher of either of these sports. I found a few places where I could take courses for Football coaching and that's where it kicked off. I got my badges as I finished one coaching course after another. I finally got to a pretty high stage in my coaching badge. I had started to manage a few youth sides around the Nottingham area and had got quite a bit of experience in coaching.

With only a part-time job working as a car salesman, I decided I had had enough with it and wanted to move onto bigger things to do with football. I got my eye set on a local team job in the English Conference North, the lowest league in the Nationwide leagues. The most local club in the ECN was Worksop and with them struggling and with no manager I decided I would apply.

I was sent an email back saying that there would be an interview on the 5th of July. I went to Babbage Way, the home ground of Worksop Football Club. The chairman, Howard Raymond came and introduced himself and we went into his office for the interview...

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I came out of Mr.Raymond's office feeling pleased to have got it over and done with. I felt it went well and Mr. Raymond promised me that I would be among the top candidates for this job and that I would receive a phone call soon. I took time out to have a look around the ground. Babbage Way has a 3,200 capacity with 900 of those seated. The ground is set in the country with a lower league style to it, as I expected. It Does make me think how big a step it is from higher football divisions with proper stands and everything, but it makes me feel glad that I could be a football manager of a Nationwide league club. With the ground actually away from the office it was quite a trek back. I got back to see Mr. Raymond waiting by the front door. He came over and said to me, "Lad you have the job! The other candidate for the job has dropped out. You are the new boss. Welcome to Worksop Football Club"

He told me that I would have a few days before I needed to come back to start work on the 10th of July. Time to get an idea of the league, players and possible buys and sells, ready for when I start work at Worksop Football Club.

Crammond7 · 17-05-08, 02:17 PM

true?

treva · 18-05-08, 11:16 AM

I got home and immediately shoved the kettle on and grabbed a bag of McCoys crisps, Grilled steak flavour. I turned on my laptop and decided to have a look at my e-mail. Found that there was an email from a local Worksop paper asking me to do an interview with them tomorrow, obviously they had found out about my appointment straight away. I e-mailed back saying that I would love to, and would be there at 10 o'clock. I then decided to look for possible transfers and have a look at my current squad of players. I looked at the current set of players and realised the side would need a big re-development if we were to survive relegation this season. I decided that we should get at least 1 player from each position which could enhance our strength and depth of squad. I immediately decided that I would try and get Paul Benson from Dagenham & Redbridge. A promising young striker who was 24 and was in his last year of contract. He was valued at £5,000, which was too hefty for our budget of £0. So I decided to ring up their chairman, Dave Andrews, and find out if we could try and get him on loan. Unfortunately he was unavailable and it was time to move on to free players.

I got searching for some free players on the market and I found a young goalie from Wimbledon's U18's. 16 year old, very promising and free! £10 a week he wanted and a £10 appearance bonus. Next I saw 24 year old defender Russell Cooke. Wanted £50 a week and hopefully he would be willing to join. Nick Clark was the next player to be approached by me. On the market with no club, very skillful player, with 2 seasons at Wolves under his belt, all be it without playing any games. I finally found a free transfer again without a club, Ben Thornley an attackive left winger. With lots of experience at many clubs and being only 30 he looked a perfect player for our squad.

With my day of searching for players almost over I decided to turn to our current players to see who will need to move on and leave the club in order to make some money. I then got a e-mail from the Hucknall boss, who must have contacted Mr.Raymond to ask for my e-mail address, enquiring how much Thorpe and Dempsey could be sold for. I said that Thorpe could be their's for £1,000 and Dempsey, a pretty good young player, for £3,000. He replied saying he would take them, with it now being down to the him to offer the two players contracts.

Overall a good hard day, becoming Worksop manager, and making a few good offers to players. Time to sleep, a busy day ahead with a journey down to Worksop and an interview with a local paper.

treva · 19-05-08, 03:02 PM

Next Day

Woke up nice and early at 7 o'clock. I had to be in Worksop at 10 o'clock for the local newspaper interview and it would take 2 hours to get there. I had some breakfast and grabbed my wallet so I could get some lunch in Worksop. With the office of the "Worksop Today" newspaper a few minutes away from the ground I thought I would pop into the office and start work a few days earlier than the chairman had first said. I decided to ring up the office and let them know I was coming in later on this afternoon. I then locked up the house, set the alarm and got in the car for the long ride up to Worksop.

I decided to play the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Snow Patrol on the way up. I am into modern music and was hoping to buy a few, new albums after my first week of pay. I got to Ryton Street, Worksop at 9:45, 15 minutes early for the interview. I rolled up in my lovely red, Audi TT, that I had saved up for ever since I took my driving test. I walked into the building and was greeted by the reporter who would be interviewing me. We sat down and had a chat before it came to 10 o'clock and we started the interview...

Interviewer: Congrats on the new job Jack, How does it feel to become a football manager, even if it is only a very small non-league club like Worksop?

Me: Thanks, It feels great to be honest. I mean to manage any club at a professional level is amazing and I hope I can move onto better things, whether it be with Worksop moving them up the leagues, or it be with a higher league team. This is the platform from where my managerial career can kick off.

Interviewer: Ok, I hear there will be drastic changes around the club, will this be involving players, staff or both?

Me: Well of course I will need to get in some new players and will obviously have to try and sell some players to get us out of our financial difficulties, but I'm not to sure about the staff. I have yet to meet most of them at the club and only being offered the job yesterday, I am pretty new to the club itself.

Interviewer: So you mentioned new players coming in and some going out, have you made any contacts with other clubs or players yet regarding transfers in or out?

Me: I haven't really given it much thought (Yeh right! I had spent all afternoon yesterday sorting out players to buy and sell, but I didn't want to let on that I had already been working my socks off), but there will certainly be some players in the free transfer market that I will have my eye on, and hopefully I can get some good quality players to the club. With limited transfer funds it may be hard to pick up good quality players from other teams around us, but we will try our best.

Interviewer: Finally Jack, what are your aims for the season? Is there a cup you will be aiming for or a league position you hope to achieve?

Me: Well of course there are things you wish to aim for and places that you would like to finish, but I don't really think that I should be worrying about it before the season. Of course I wanna keep this club up, as no manager wants to be relegated, but I have no aims as such that I need to achieve. I will speak to the chairman and we will discuss things, but my style is to do things as they go, and so this season will be starting from fresh for Worksop Town FC and we shall do things and aim for things as they come.

Interviewer: Thank you for your time out today to come and speak with us Jack.

Me: My pleasure

So with that done I headed out of the building and went on my way to the ground...

treva · 23-05-08, 09:04 PM

I popped into Greggs for my lunch. Decided to have a Cornish Pasty and a nice Ring Doughnut. After I had eaten my lunch in the Audi, I then decided I would drive down to the office. To be honest Worksop didn't seem like much of a place, but with myself not having to live here, it wouldn't really be much of a problem. I stepped into the office and went to meet the chairman. We sat down and we had a chat about things. He talked to me about what players I was thinking of buying and selling, and where the training facilities and everything was situated. I told him about the dealings I had already sorted out and he said fine, but in future try and contact him first. He then said that I should go meet the rest of the staff. First I was to see the managing director, Peter Robson. He told me that if I ever needed to chat with him about the club or something that I wanted doing, then to go to him. Next I went to see my assistant, who would be a very important person with him being at the club a while and could help me with players and so on. Peter Price was his name. We sat down and had a long chat about training days and which players are best at which position and so on. He also mentioned a few key positions we lacked in. The main of it he said was letting in goals, which was fantastic news to myself as I had already tried to bag a few defensive players off the market and was interested in a very young keeper. We discussed training plans and after a few hours we came up with this:

With most of the players on part time contracts (21 out of 25), we couldn't really get a decent schedule in. But we thought that with us being only a minuet club on the scale of English football, it would make no difference. We then discussed pre-season friendlies and we finalised 3 matches:

19th July, Babbage Way - vs Watford
30th July, Babbage Way - vs Thurrock
8th August, Babbage Way - vs Blackburn Reserves

The first game is going to be an absolute killer for a first match in charge. But they offered us and we decided to accept due to possible funds coming in through gate receipts. Next we are to play Thurrock which will be a tight game, with them a side in the Conference South and at about the same level. Finally we shall play Blackburn Reserves, at home again. It should be a good game and maybe a great chance to spot some good players we could snatch up...

treva · 30-05-08, 03:07 PM

I decided to go home early after speaking to the staff. I got some fish and chips on the way back for me dinner. Haddock not cod, always prefered haddock. Cracked out the vinegar and salt and then sat down in front of the telly and started to watch Sir Alan Sugar rollock some wannabe "Sir Alan Sugar's" on the Apprentice. Decided to get an early night ready for a big day of business tommorrow.

Next Day
I woke up to the sound of my telephone ringing. I thought, who could that be? Parents? Sisters? I picked up the phone and groggily said hello. It was Nick Clark's agent who I approached a few days back about signing. He told me that Nick would love to sign for Worskop Town FC and would be on his way to us in a few days. This was great news, he would be here in time for the Watford game, so he could show us how good he really is then. I then went to make some breakfast on that good news. A full English! Bacon, Baked Beans, Sausage and Hash Browns, but no mushrooms for me, just don't like 'em. Never have never will, they just dont have no taste. Anyways, after my lovely morning breakfast it was back to the desk for me. After some time spent looking at my squad and thinking about who will play where, I got another call, this time from Ben Thornley's agent. Bang, another player signed! Things looking good as the pre-season friendlies draw nearer....

Ben Thornley, ex-Man U player, what a signing!