I decided to have a bit of a holiday and spend some of the money I been saving during my time with Churchill Brothers. It had been 2 weeks since I resigned and I just upped and left. I didn’t speak to the media during that time; if I’m honest I had been too busy parting in Goa to even think about football, the Full Moon Party was everything I had heard. However this morning I was due to travel back to the UK, as everyone I knew in India was in some way connected to the club, so I headed home to lick my wounds and plot my next course of action. It was whilst waiting to board my flight that I fired up my laptop and checked my emails. Part of me was hoping to have been inundated with job offers, alas that wasn’t to be. All I had was the usual junk and a couple of requests for interviews about my resignation and what had prompted it. In had noticed that he club had reported that they had made a loss of almost £300k whilst I was there and whilst they hadn’t directly blamed me for it that was certainly the undertone of the statement. I contacted two journalists who had been in contact, one from a local paper in Northern Ireland and another from an Indian football website who I had always had a good relationship with, and agreed to answer their questions once I had returned home.
I had been home for a couple of days and made my way to the offices of the Belfast News where I would do both interviews at the same time Bryan Templeton would be the local guy whilst Jasjot Singh was the Indian guy, with the Indian Journalist joining us via Skype.
Bryan: So Ralph how does it feel to be back in Belfast?
Me: Cold. No it’s nice to be able to catch up with family and friends after my time away, but strange not to be involved in the day to day running of a football club.
Jasjot: How did you feel your time at Churchill had gone and how hard a decision was it to leave?
Me: I believe that we had performed well above expectations and had a dressing room that was all pulling in the same direction. To deliver a treble for the club was not even being dreamt of when I arrived, if fact survival was the only aim. I felt I had more than delivered for the club. As far as leaving goes it was difficult. I had built a squad that I feel can still do a job in the league and was looking forward to strengthening it for an assault on the Champions League. I had big plans for the club and thought that the Board had the same plans but that wasn’t the case as it transpired.
Bryan: So it was the lack of ambition that made you leave?
Me: That was part of it but if I’m honest not the deciding factor. I knew we weren’t going to have millions to spend, however I had a verbal agreement with the Board that there was some money there. This had been promised to me to get me to sign a new contract and not move to a Korean team as I had been looking to do, and when all of a sudden after I had committed to the club there was no money in the pot I felt cheated and that I’d been lied to. I decided if I couldn’t trust my employers then I didn’t want to be there.
Jasjot: It has been suggested by senior figures within the club that the reason there was no money was due to you overspending. What is your response to that?
Me: When I joined I was given a budget to spend £3k on transfers and almost £9k in wages. I admit I spent every bit of the transfer budget but had only spent about half of the wage budget I had been given meaning that we had about £4k per week still free to spend. That means as far as I’m concerned I over delivered on my part massively all whilst under spending by over £200k per year. In fact anytime I spoke with the board they were always saying how I had a tight control over wages and how pleasing this was. We also had quite good attendances of almost 4500 per home game and selling out for bigger matches, mainly due to the winning football I was delivering. So if they had failed to attract the correct level of sponsorship or had failed to get the best deal from the TV companies that is their fault and not mine.
Jasjot: Do you feel like you have unfinished business in India?
Me: I’m not sure I could go back. Managing anyone other than Churchill wouldn’t feel right and I don’t think I could return to the club whilst the current board are in charge.
Bryan: So what’s next? More adventures around the globe or do you fancy a crack at something closer to home, my team Larne are in need of a new manager.
Me: I’m not sure Bryan I haven’t even begun to look. I want to get back on the horse as quickly as possible and whether that is down the road or the other side of the world we’ll have to wait and see.
That interview had been towards the end of June and we were now in October and I was still unemployed. I had applied for loads of jobs since then and even had a few interviews bit the clubs always wanted to go in a different direction or wanted someone with more experience who knew the league, etc, etc, etc. I was beginning to think it was easier to get a job with no experience than it was with some and not just that but trophy winning experience. It was just as I was giving up hope and looking at normal jobs again that it happened, I got a job offer. It was from a team in Chile in the 2
nd tier who were struggling at the wrong end of the table. I done my research and found out that they were expected to be in and around the relegation scrap but as things stood with only 2 games left they were outside the relegation places, though the 2 games they had left were against 1
st and 2
nd in the league and it was only goal difference that was keeping them outside the drop zone. 2 months ago I would not have even considered the job but now and against my better judgement I accepted. I was off to Chile and Deportes Magallanes.
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