I woke up on a snooker table at the Twerton Park (Bath City Ground) social club with an envelope in my front pocket. The night before was a blur and in an attempt to work out why I was here I opened the envelope and discovered it to be a contract making me the new manager of Bath City. Confused I strolled into the ground and used this contract to blag a free cup of tea and a hotdog from one of the food trailers. They tasted revolting, but brought back memories of the night before.
After finishing a degree in Physics I went back home to visit my family in Bath. Upon getting back I met up with some friends and we went out drinking. There we met Geoff Todd and Jim Relish, the chairman and director of football at Bath City. My friend is a big fan of City and recognised them. He went over to introduce himself and we ended up drinking together. I explained to them how with the credit crunch I could no longer go into banking as the majority of IC Physics graduates do and they told me how it had caused them to have to sack their last manager. It seemed that he was awful at balancing numbers and due to that Bath was in a poor financial state.
In a moment of drunken genius we came up with the perfect solution for all of us. Being a physics student I am good with maths, City needs a manager and I have no job. A contract was written up on the nearest napkin and we all signed. This drunken move may have been the best or worst thing that has happened to City.
[OOC] I'd now like to give a quick explanation as to why I have chosen to play a game managing Bath City. I was born and raised in Bath, they are a Blue Square South side so lowest league I could get and Bath City are pretty awful. In fact their feeder club, the University of Bath team (Team Bath) are also in Blue Square South. It is therefore my goal to take City to the premier league, or at least out of Blue Square.[End of OOC]
My first move after remembering the night before was to reread the contract. I have a weekly wage budget of 4.2k and 1.2k to spend on transfers. We have a feeder club, Team Bath. I am allowed 2 scouts, 1 coach, no limit to assistant managers, 1 physios. We currently have 1 assistant manager, 1 scout, 2 coaches and 2 physios. The coaches and one of the physio are old timer players. I have a full squad of players, a few reserves and squad of youngsters and I can only scout England. We're also over the wage budget by a couple of hundred.
I immediately held interviews with the staff and organised a training session so that I could get a feel for my new club. In the time while my employees gathered I went online and got myself a beginners understanding of tactics and the game. After the interviews and training I realised one important thing, the staff all suck. Unfortunately I can't afford mutual terminations, but most of their contracts run out in a year.
Probably the most annoying members of the staff are the scout and the non player physio. Their contracts end in 2013 and 2011. The scout wouldn't recognise Pele talent if he saw it and I'm sure the Physio is Harold Shipman in disguise. Anyway hopefully next season I'll have enough money to get a mutual termination or I can fob them off to some foolish side.
After looking at the players contracts and seeing them practice I realised things needed to change. Realising you have to spend money to make money, my first move was to ignore their wage budget completely and to sign a decent scout and to get some old ex internationals to sign for me. Looking at the well known players I managed to pick up, Jean Jaques Misse Misse who despite being 40 has 55 caps for camerroon and is at least twice as good as anyone else on the Bath team and only £325pw. My other signing is Zlatko Yankov who has nearly 80 caps for Bulgaria and can play nearly anywhere on the pitch. He's also at least twice as good as anyone else at City and only £200pw. My new scout Michael Birch cheaper and 1.5 times better than my starting scout. I've set both scouts to look for talent throughout England. I've also put in offers for Barry Hunter who I intend to make my coach next year and Nathan Blake who publicy laughs at our proposal. He'll be sorry.
Spurred on by initial success in signing two relatively great players I get a list of players recommended by my scouts. I first apply for Jason Hardy (St/MR) and Harrisson Bailey (MC/DC). Jason Hardy turns out to be a mistake when a few days later my scouts stumble on Michael Nardiello who is as good as Misse Misse and they believed would accept a full time contract for only £30 a week. I signed Hardy as a full time player for only £30 a week. After camping out on the football pitch I've let him have a room at my parents house with me. I also demanded a parent club from the board.
After getting Misse Misse, Yankov, Hardy and Bailey my first match came around. Unfortunately lots of teams picked up on Hunter and Nardiello and a bidding war commenced so I gave up on Hunter and Nardiello hadn't accepted yet. The first match was a 5-3 away win against Northwood. We were expected to win against them so it was no big surprise. I played with aggressive tactics and Misse Misse who I've set up as a target man and support forward had a good opening game scoring twice and assisting my other forward Gilroy, in getting a hatrick.
To congratulate me for our first win the board offerred me a choice of Wolves, Bristol City and some Coca Cola League 2 side. As a Bristol Rovers fan I could not choose Bristol City so I chose wolves who immediately offerred me Mark Salmon on loan. As another player at least twice as good as anyone on my squad I immediately accepted and awaited his reply.
While I waited our next match came up against Nuneaton Town, another team below our division. We trounced the 5-1 this time as my players got more used to playing together. I also discovered Robert Cavener (DR) and Robert Duggan (GK). I also put in bids for some other players which I failed to get.Even though my bids for Cavener and Duggan were low £80 and £30 I was intent on getting Nardiello and had put his offer upto £300pw. This would bring me over 1k above my limit pw. I therefore offerred 3 midfielders, a striker, my first team goalie and a defender to other clubs for no transfer fee, with the assumption that over the year I would save more than that by getting rid of them now; all of these players were drawing between £250 and £400 pw. The only one of them clubs weren't interested in was the goalkeeper, who is not only really awful, but also quite old.
Meanwhile my next match came along. This time against Crawley Town from the Blue Square Premiere. With a few wins under my belt I was quietly confident going into this match. That was a mistake and they beat us 2-0. This was predicted though and the fans didn't seem to mind too much.
2 days later we would thrash Eastwood town 4-1. A good confidence boost for the squad, despite Eastwood being in a lower division. We were also rewarded finally with the addition of Nardiello for £325pw and Salmon decided to join us from Wolves on loan.
A week later and with 2 more welcome additions to my squad (Cavener and Duggan coming one day before), we played Lewes another Blue Square Premier side. Even though we were predicted to lose superior tactics and a bit of luck let us win 3-2.
After telling my scouts to go look for some young potential we came to our last friendly, this time against Harrow Borough, and team in a lower division. This was an easy 2-0 win. The last of the players I put on the transfer list also left putting me £200pw below budget. I used these wages to sign 3 Irish midfielders, Noone, Fitzgerald and Marshall. We then got to the first match of the season and after a good press conference we went into the match confident.
The match was away to Worcester and though the favourite according to the bookies were Worcester, the prematch prediction was for us to scrape a win, which we did 1-0. This I thought was a rather shakey start to our campaign as with our new squad we are predicted 4th Worcester are predicted 14th. However my squad haven't had much experience playing together. In fact my starting line up consisted of a few of my weaker players as my newest players have not had time to practice with the team and I wanted a win. I am now about to go into the second match of the season against Bishops Stortford, another midtable team.
Though I am confident and have told the board and media I believe we can win the division or get promoted through playoffs we still have some problems to fix. I have useless staff, my team still have a ways to go when it comes to gelling together, a few of my young players (Nardiello in particular who is expected to far surpass Misse Misse) have great potential which could be wasted with out poor coaches, and finally the captain isn't good enough to play. Logically I would change the captain, but he's also one of the coaches, the team still need to gel and he's been captain for a long time and there are enough old team members that demoting him will annoy them. On the plus I am now beneath the recommended wages per week and I have not spent any of my transfer money. I was also thinking about getting a second assistant manager.
This is my story so far. Any advice on what you would do about my current problems would be appreciated. I'd also like to mention that I'm following similar rules to the guy playing Bognor Regis, so please don't tell me any player/staff names. I've set my players who can to Tugs and I've made my own part time versions for the rest of my players.
I was also thinking that maybe I should try to loan out Nardiello to Wolves or some other big club so he can get some decent training. I have too many forwards, so even though he's my best he's only 19 and he apparently has the potential to be a coca cola league 2/championship player. Therefore I think I'll want to keep him for at least 2/3 seasons.
After finishing a degree in Physics I went back home to visit my family in Bath. Upon getting back I met up with some friends and we went out drinking. There we met Geoff Todd and Jim Relish, the chairman and director of football at Bath City. My friend is a big fan of City and recognised them. He went over to introduce himself and we ended up drinking together. I explained to them how with the credit crunch I could no longer go into banking as the majority of IC Physics graduates do and they told me how it had caused them to have to sack their last manager. It seemed that he was awful at balancing numbers and due to that Bath was in a poor financial state.
In a moment of drunken genius we came up with the perfect solution for all of us. Being a physics student I am good with maths, City needs a manager and I have no job. A contract was written up on the nearest napkin and we all signed. This drunken move may have been the best or worst thing that has happened to City.
[OOC] I'd now like to give a quick explanation as to why I have chosen to play a game managing Bath City. I was born and raised in Bath, they are a Blue Square South side so lowest league I could get and Bath City are pretty awful. In fact their feeder club, the University of Bath team (Team Bath) are also in Blue Square South. It is therefore my goal to take City to the premier league, or at least out of Blue Square.[End of OOC]
My first move after remembering the night before was to reread the contract. I have a weekly wage budget of 4.2k and 1.2k to spend on transfers. We have a feeder club, Team Bath. I am allowed 2 scouts, 1 coach, no limit to assistant managers, 1 physios. We currently have 1 assistant manager, 1 scout, 2 coaches and 2 physios. The coaches and one of the physio are old timer players. I have a full squad of players, a few reserves and squad of youngsters and I can only scout England. We're also over the wage budget by a couple of hundred.
I immediately held interviews with the staff and organised a training session so that I could get a feel for my new club. In the time while my employees gathered I went online and got myself a beginners understanding of tactics and the game. After the interviews and training I realised one important thing, the staff all suck. Unfortunately I can't afford mutual terminations, but most of their contracts run out in a year.
Probably the most annoying members of the staff are the scout and the non player physio. Their contracts end in 2013 and 2011. The scout wouldn't recognise Pele talent if he saw it and I'm sure the Physio is Harold Shipman in disguise. Anyway hopefully next season I'll have enough money to get a mutual termination or I can fob them off to some foolish side.
After looking at the players contracts and seeing them practice I realised things needed to change. Realising you have to spend money to make money, my first move was to ignore their wage budget completely and to sign a decent scout and to get some old ex internationals to sign for me. Looking at the well known players I managed to pick up, Jean Jaques Misse Misse who despite being 40 has 55 caps for camerroon and is at least twice as good as anyone else on the Bath team and only £325pw. My other signing is Zlatko Yankov who has nearly 80 caps for Bulgaria and can play nearly anywhere on the pitch. He's also at least twice as good as anyone else at City and only £200pw. My new scout Michael Birch cheaper and 1.5 times better than my starting scout. I've set both scouts to look for talent throughout England. I've also put in offers for Barry Hunter who I intend to make my coach next year and Nathan Blake who publicy laughs at our proposal. He'll be sorry.
Spurred on by initial success in signing two relatively great players I get a list of players recommended by my scouts. I first apply for Jason Hardy (St/MR) and Harrisson Bailey (MC/DC). Jason Hardy turns out to be a mistake when a few days later my scouts stumble on Michael Nardiello who is as good as Misse Misse and they believed would accept a full time contract for only £30 a week. I signed Hardy as a full time player for only £30 a week. After camping out on the football pitch I've let him have a room at my parents house with me. I also demanded a parent club from the board.
After getting Misse Misse, Yankov, Hardy and Bailey my first match came around. Unfortunately lots of teams picked up on Hunter and Nardiello and a bidding war commenced so I gave up on Hunter and Nardiello hadn't accepted yet. The first match was a 5-3 away win against Northwood. We were expected to win against them so it was no big surprise. I played with aggressive tactics and Misse Misse who I've set up as a target man and support forward had a good opening game scoring twice and assisting my other forward Gilroy, in getting a hatrick.
To congratulate me for our first win the board offerred me a choice of Wolves, Bristol City and some Coca Cola League 2 side. As a Bristol Rovers fan I could not choose Bristol City so I chose wolves who immediately offerred me Mark Salmon on loan. As another player at least twice as good as anyone on my squad I immediately accepted and awaited his reply.
While I waited our next match came up against Nuneaton Town, another team below our division. We trounced the 5-1 this time as my players got more used to playing together. I also discovered Robert Cavener (DR) and Robert Duggan (GK). I also put in bids for some other players which I failed to get.Even though my bids for Cavener and Duggan were low £80 and £30 I was intent on getting Nardiello and had put his offer upto £300pw. This would bring me over 1k above my limit pw. I therefore offerred 3 midfielders, a striker, my first team goalie and a defender to other clubs for no transfer fee, with the assumption that over the year I would save more than that by getting rid of them now; all of these players were drawing between £250 and £400 pw. The only one of them clubs weren't interested in was the goalkeeper, who is not only really awful, but also quite old.
Meanwhile my next match came along. This time against Crawley Town from the Blue Square Premiere. With a few wins under my belt I was quietly confident going into this match. That was a mistake and they beat us 2-0. This was predicted though and the fans didn't seem to mind too much.
2 days later we would thrash Eastwood town 4-1. A good confidence boost for the squad, despite Eastwood being in a lower division. We were also rewarded finally with the addition of Nardiello for £325pw and Salmon decided to join us from Wolves on loan.
A week later and with 2 more welcome additions to my squad (Cavener and Duggan coming one day before), we played Lewes another Blue Square Premier side. Even though we were predicted to lose superior tactics and a bit of luck let us win 3-2.
After telling my scouts to go look for some young potential we came to our last friendly, this time against Harrow Borough, and team in a lower division. This was an easy 2-0 win. The last of the players I put on the transfer list also left putting me £200pw below budget. I used these wages to sign 3 Irish midfielders, Noone, Fitzgerald and Marshall. We then got to the first match of the season and after a good press conference we went into the match confident.
The match was away to Worcester and though the favourite according to the bookies were Worcester, the prematch prediction was for us to scrape a win, which we did 1-0. This I thought was a rather shakey start to our campaign as with our new squad we are predicted 4th Worcester are predicted 14th. However my squad haven't had much experience playing together. In fact my starting line up consisted of a few of my weaker players as my newest players have not had time to practice with the team and I wanted a win. I am now about to go into the second match of the season against Bishops Stortford, another midtable team.
Though I am confident and have told the board and media I believe we can win the division or get promoted through playoffs we still have some problems to fix. I have useless staff, my team still have a ways to go when it comes to gelling together, a few of my young players (Nardiello in particular who is expected to far surpass Misse Misse) have great potential which could be wasted with out poor coaches, and finally the captain isn't good enough to play. Logically I would change the captain, but he's also one of the coaches, the team still need to gel and he's been captain for a long time and there are enough old team members that demoting him will annoy them. On the plus I am now beneath the recommended wages per week and I have not spent any of my transfer money. I was also thinking about getting a second assistant manager.
This is my story so far. Any advice on what you would do about my current problems would be appreciated. I'd also like to mention that I'm following similar rules to the guy playing Bognor Regis, so please don't tell me any player/staff names. I've set my players who can to Tugs and I've made my own part time versions for the rest of my players.
I was also thinking that maybe I should try to loan out Nardiello to Wolves or some other big club so he can get some decent training. I have too many forwards, so even though he's my best he's only 19 and he apparently has the potential to be a coca cola league 2/championship player. Therefore I think I'll want to keep him for at least 2/3 seasons.
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