Middlewich, Marriage and more - Page 2 - FMFormation.net - Football Manager

**Jonners71** · 13-07-08, 09:10 AM

this is so good and very funny. keep it up mate

**Bowser** · 13-07-08, 07:09 PM

Wow! Dont compare me to hitler haha i like that headline mate...great story and the praises from other members of this forum is well deserved!

FluentInFootball · 14-07-08, 01:17 PM

Seconds, Minutes, Hours, Days, what is the point of time if you are not enjoying life, 3 days it took me to get over that hammering, thats 259,200 seconds, 4320 minutes, 72 hours or in my eyes, a lifetime.

The players knew i was reeling and on a few occasions Ryan Flynn approached me to see if I was ok, he was a sound lad Ryan, his scots accent now mixed with a more pure bred scouse than that of my own voice, he was one lad I was definitely keeping my eye on. On the 5th day after our mortality was revealed we had a training session prior to playing Dulwich Hamlet in the FA Trophy, everyone was back, we had a full squad again, what am I saying I felt like Cesar and I had my Legions back.

"Lads, 5 days ago we were embarrassed, not because we were poor, not because we weren't playing well, because we didn't show heart, yes the loss of some first teamers ripped the heart beat out of the squad, just because the heart beat has gone, it doesn't mean the heart goes too, we need to show edge, we need to bounce back, we need to win, we need..."

I paused the thing I was about to say was totally against my better judgement..."We need to play 3-4-3!" Half of Cheshire's population of flies were swallowed by my squad, mouths left hung open like fish for what seemed an eternity.

Paco - Portugal - GK (ex "grey" player, quality)

Welchy - England - DC
Tim Brown - England - DC (random Generated player)
Adam Dugdale - England - DC (On Loan)

"Defensive Mid....Our Anchorman, where can I find a lad that can pass the ball 40 yards, who's big and he's F***ing hard.....Blakey?"

Jack Blake, the 16 year old from my first day, now looked like an OAP, his eyes glazed, his face pale, but I knew he could handle it.

Mark Delaney - Wales - AML (Random Gen)
Flynny - Scotland - AMC (on Loan)
Alan Morris - England - AMR (Random Gen)

"Up Front, Gary M-S, I want you down the left, Amoo? Oi David get off the phone to your mum, your on the right of attack" The lads giggled even though everyone knew that was who he rang. "Finally, y por último, el huelgista, la canilla en el rey, Senor Fernandez" a broad smile came across his face, even he couldn't deny he was the tap-in king, not a single goal from 18 yards plus as yet, and i didn't care if it changed or not, as long as he kept up the good work.

We arrived in London at the Champion Hill Stadium, home of Dulwich Hamlet FC, Champion Hill?? more like Pigswill Barn, we'd be lucky if anyone turned up......They didn't, with a capacity crowd of oooh I'd say 83, 88 possibly if you counted dogs and squirrels. We Started the match positively and didn't relent.

"And that's 11" I screamed as the final ball hit the back of the net.

11-0 away from home, Fernandez got four, Amoo and GMS both got braces, one for Flynny and Welchy and the final and most special of all a 25-yard screamer from Blakey on his debut, the boy come good, and in my eyes a man of the match performance one goal, four assists, but Alex took the match ball, I didn't care, Jack knew I was proud of him.

**Jonners71** · 14-07-08, 01:25 PM

Just brilliant and the best squad selection talk ever! And always count squirells in the attendance figure, it boosts the numbers

**liveru** · 14-07-08, 05:36 PM

Brilliant story you've got developing here mate and as Jon said, that was a great squad selection talk.

Keep up the good work.

FluentInFootball · 14-07-08, 10:37 PM

That day launched the career of someone very influential to this tale. Jack Blake continued to grow and perform with players twice his age and he was able to cope and outdo them.

The season continued to progress and after the result over Dulwich Hamlet nothing could stop us again. 24 games unbeaten, 21 wins, 3 draws. Here we are 3 points from winning the Blue Square North Title, not exactly the biggest trophy in the world but for a 23 year old, for me it was one hell of an achievement, the only thing is that the team standing in our way today was Hinckley United, the only team to have beaten us all season, currently the only team that could challenge us for the title and the only team that had dented my confidence.

The 3-4-3 had worked fantastic this second half of the season but we had been conceding more in the last couple of games, more than I wanted to, more than we needed to and more importantly more than we could afford to. It didn't help that rumours were linking Sheldon with jobs elsewhere in the BSN and the fact that players were approaching me to advise he had tried to tap them up for his new club, this was fast getting on my nerves, the flash cars, the immaculate suits, the poor timekeeping and now this. I spoke to Steve and he concluded that for me to be a succesful manager, he needed to support me as a chairman.

I kept the same squad just dropping Delaney to left back, Gary M-S to Left Mid. We were playing in England, in a true English league, so we were gonna play an English formation.....4-4-2.

"I know what's around the corner, I just don't know which corner it is" - Kevin Keegan.

The stadium at Seddon Street was rocking to capacity in expectation, the fans were chanting my name, the team sheet was read out and with accordance to each players name the crowd let out a roar far beyond the capacity. Sheldon walked down the front of the stand towards the dugout, just as he had about sat down I called him over.

"Chris, you've been an absolute git whilst I've been here, I realise I have trodden on some toes namely yours, but your conduct has been unacceptable. You're Fired"

He put that smarmy look on his face that I had resisted smacking all season and turned to Steve, when a look of horror came about as he saw Steve smiling and waving back at him, he stormed off and I chose a fan to be my number 2 for the day, the game was fairly non-descript, a hard fought midfield battle.....until I found out where the corner was, literally.

Flynny whipped a corner in from the left, their man on the front post flicked it out with his head, and there like an angel was Jack Blake, left leg, bang, 18 yards in under a second. 3 minutes till we could celebrate....or could we, Alex Fernandez had been caught by an elbow in the box we brought him off for treatment, it looked worse than it was however the ref had clocked an extra 2 mins, that was it, what was 3 minutes was now 5.....

"Everyone Back!!!"

FluentInFootball · 15-07-08, 03:15 PM

Those 5 minutes lasted an eternity, but we hung on, the pitch was well and truly invaded. I can quite safely say that I had never been kissed on the lips by any man before that day, by the end of the day I must've been kissed by about 400 blokes.

However many left the stands and took to the pitch, Steve Morris was still sat in his seat, amongst the carnage I approached him.

"You ok Steve?" I enquired.
His Eyes were full of water and he just managed to muster "Thank You".

The town descended into absolute chaos, singing and dancing continued well into the night.

One thing I did overlook was we would now be in the Blue Square Premier, the same league as Northwich, a town barely 5 miles from Middlewich but much more than that, it was the closest town to the village where I was born, I had just made my first rival club as a manager and it was my own home town.

As much as I loved life in Middlewich with Gem and I did call it home, you have home and then home home, if you know what I mean, I was a Northwich lad, always will be. Anyone who knows the area will know it's not hard to find out where somebody lives, sure enough I'd come back from Knight's Grange (a local golf club) and the house was daubed with Northwich vics stuff, the lawn was covered in white and green toilet roll, I rang my mum, the same had happened to their house in Moulton, and also to both my Nan's and my sister's house in Winsford.

I needed to act before this got out of hand...

**liveru** · 15-07-08, 03:54 PM

Haha! 400 blokes!

That's more than my ex!

Brilliant stuff as usual FIF.

FluentInFootball · 15-07-08, 03:59 PM

Ta lad, I aim to please

**Jonners71** · 15-07-08, 04:38 PM

Brilliant stuff mate - always love reading this

FluentInFootball · 15-07-08, 04:47 PM

That Interview went out with all the local Guardians and Chronicles, Middlewich, Winsford and most importantly Northwich.

We would soon see if it worked or not.

FluentInFootball · 17-07-08, 12:07 AM

The random acts of vandalism against the club, players and my family subsided as we entered the off-season. However something was brewing in the boardroom.

Steve Morris would soon be stepping down as chairman of the club into an honorary director position, the club was going to be changing into a yet un-named pair of hands. The only information that had been confirmed to anyone was that it was a Cheshire based millionaire who had footballing interests.

On the Monday I was invited into the office to be shown the idea that the new owner(s) had to take the club forward, to say I was astounded was an understatement.

The plans for the new stadium were astounding, placed right next to the canal with a capacity of 10,000, and also a dedicated club shop, press centre and also executive suites and boxes.

The Portakabin-esque blocky offices were also to be replaced at the new site, by curving flowing walls, an evident show of flair for entertaining potential investors and future players.

Everything was looking to hint that the new owner(s) also had connection to the construction industry. Everything looked fantastic and then I was informed that the weekly wage budget for my assistant was £5k (10 times what I was on) I put my personal gripe to one side and rang John Owens at Liverpool, he decided he had had enough and handed his notice in, he would be available in June, Fantastic. The Second thing was a transfer budget of, wait for it, £1,000,000.00 for the Blue Square Premier, how am I meant to spend that sort of money, I set about by starting to enquire over the players I already had on loan.

Tuesday 6:15am
Gem's just about to head out for work as I boot the laptop, I log onto the BBC website and their it was, the answer.

The new owner was a Mr. Steve Morgan who was already a shareholder in Wolves, and who obviously had a bright vision for Middlewich, including some changes which hadn't yet been brought to light.

**liveru** · 17-07-08, 01:31 AM

It's getting all exciting now. The prospect of moving to a new 10k seater stadium must be pretty damn good.

Brilliant updates again FIF. Keep up the good work.

**Jonners71** · 17-07-08, 08:38 AM

Brilliant update mate - things progressing well in the Middlewich camp and with Morgan's cash anything is possible

**Hartynips** · 17-07-08, 04:10 PM

This is absoloutely fantastic reading mate great story

adamjigey · 17-07-08, 04:33 PM

great story mate becoming one of my favourites fast how did you make the bbc sport website do that headline mate KIU mate

**Bowser** · 17-07-08, 05:05 PM

Yeah i agree with others.

Adam, i think he used the source and edited it?

FluentInFootball · 19-08-08, 03:31 PM

The plans that had been laid out by the new chairman were expansive and also funnily enough expensive.
The main push and the step from being Semi-Pro part-timers to a professional footballing outfit was our new kit and badge.

The Star in the background was apparently to represent the bright future that was fast developing for this small mid-cheshire town, the waves in the foreground were to represent the canal, the focal point of the town, the provider of jobs in the past and with the new stadium being built on the canal side the provider of the town's jobs in the future.

The next thing to sort out was how to spend £1m, I'm in the conference how the hell can I spend that much?

Poppa's got a brand new bag...

Cedric Avinel

A solid young centre-back signed from Watford for £70k. After viewing DVD's of him from Watford's Reserve Team Coach and after watching him tackle first team players with ease, he had to be a purchase.

Cedric Baseya

A pacey striker signed for £10k from Southampton, didn't make much of a splash in the Championship so the Congolese target man came to Middlewich for a fresh start.

Lloyd James

Bargain of the century, a young welsh lad with potential by the bus load, snapped up from Southampton again, but I only dented the cheque book by.....£1k. Finally a decent partner for Blakey.

Ian Morris

Pacey left-sided Dubliner, signed from the Irons for £200k, my biggest indulgence of my tenure at Middlewich so far and possibly my most canny decision.

Rebate...

Having not blown my transfer budget I insisted that the Chairman take the money back for use towards the new stadium.
"I said that you weren't thick" he exclaimed

What a vote of confidence, I thought.

"That was your test, a crucial pivotal point in your career at the club, you agreed to John Owens being paid £4,800 per week, correct?"

"Yes, but..."

"No buts" he replied "How does £5.5k per week tickle your fancy"

"well...fan...ye...but...definitely"

I was now clearly the highest paid manager in the conference and I was only 24 years old, how the hell did this happen??

£5,500.00, my weekly wage - or: 8 times my monthly mortgage payment, 1392 copies of FourFourTwo magazine, 4 times the cost of my car when I first started at Middlewich, finally 7971 small bunches of bananas from Aldi.

How would you spend it?

**Jonners71** · 19-08-08, 04:35 PM

Yay!! Lamby's back writing and as good as ever - fantastic stuff - as for how to spend the wages? I'm married mate - wouldn't see a penny of it!