Gone Travelling
So here I was with my 40th birthday on the horizon and I was bored, I had a job that was going nowhere, still single despite my best efforts and with fewer and fewer friends to go on the lash with at the weekend as they settled down and had families etc. I was thinking what to do with myself and kept coming back to the fact that I had always wanted to go travelling. I should have gone with my Uni friends when we graduated but didn’t have the money, and it was kind of the same issue now, except that I could imagine myself in run down hostels with teenagers going mad into the early hours every night, nor could I see myself doing any of the typical traveller jobs of bar staff, picking fruit etc. So it seemed like a non-starter, AGAIN! So as I sat and looked through football results from around the globe I noticed that many managers were getting sacked, as is the way these days and a plan began to form in my head. What if I could go to some footballing backwater and convince some unsuspecting Chairman to give me the manager’s job. Now I know I’ve got no qualifications or experience but I’ve always talked a good game and I’m sure I’d have a much knowledge as some of the other candidates. With that I started checking for managerial sacking all over the place. I found an agency who specialised in Sports Management and uploaded my CV and started applying for jobs in far flung corners of the world, everywhere from South America to India to Korea. My plan was to through enough **** that some of it would stick.
So a few days later I, to my surprise, had been invited to interview for 3 jobs, 1 in India 1 in South Korea and the other in Colombia. They were all places that I was keen to visit so I decided that the 1st job I was offered I would take. So suited and booted in my living room I logged onto skype and completed my interviews. Most had gone ok though I’m sure my Irish accent and the fact that English was not the first language of those conducting the interviews had led to some things being lost in translation.
For the next couple of days I was constantly on my Gmail account checking if had heard anything, but for the best part of a week there was nothing. It was just as I was beginning to give up hope that I received a mail from Valanka Alemao, Managing Director of Churchill Brothers in India. As I opened it I was almost certain it was going to be a thanks but no thanks, but no, they wanted me to be their manager, and were going to pay me £825 per week into the bargain. I immediately responded saying that I couldn’t wait and started to pack my bags for a new life in India.
The next week or so was a bit of a blur with visas, accommodation and flights all to sort out, but before I knew it I was off from Belfast to London then onwards to India. I thought I would use this time to learn a bit about the club (thanks Wiki). So they were a professional club who played in the I-League, though they were favourites for the drop, guess there had to be a reason they would give me the job! I quickly read of the rules of the league noting that you could only have 4 foreign players and an extra 1 if they were Asian. In hindsight I wish I had read these rules before I’d had a few beers on the plane but I will explain that later. Anyway I landed in India and was whisked off to the club to meet the Chairman, backroom staff and players and it was at this point that it hit me, I was a football manger.
So here I was with my 40th birthday on the horizon and I was bored, I had a job that was going nowhere, still single despite my best efforts and with fewer and fewer friends to go on the lash with at the weekend as they settled down and had families etc. I was thinking what to do with myself and kept coming back to the fact that I had always wanted to go travelling. I should have gone with my Uni friends when we graduated but didn’t have the money, and it was kind of the same issue now, except that I could imagine myself in run down hostels with teenagers going mad into the early hours every night, nor could I see myself doing any of the typical traveller jobs of bar staff, picking fruit etc. So it seemed like a non-starter, AGAIN! So as I sat and looked through football results from around the globe I noticed that many managers were getting sacked, as is the way these days and a plan began to form in my head. What if I could go to some footballing backwater and convince some unsuspecting Chairman to give me the manager’s job. Now I know I’ve got no qualifications or experience but I’ve always talked a good game and I’m sure I’d have a much knowledge as some of the other candidates. With that I started checking for managerial sacking all over the place. I found an agency who specialised in Sports Management and uploaded my CV and started applying for jobs in far flung corners of the world, everywhere from South America to India to Korea. My plan was to through enough **** that some of it would stick.
So a few days later I, to my surprise, had been invited to interview for 3 jobs, 1 in India 1 in South Korea and the other in Colombia. They were all places that I was keen to visit so I decided that the 1st job I was offered I would take. So suited and booted in my living room I logged onto skype and completed my interviews. Most had gone ok though I’m sure my Irish accent and the fact that English was not the first language of those conducting the interviews had led to some things being lost in translation.
For the next couple of days I was constantly on my Gmail account checking if had heard anything, but for the best part of a week there was nothing. It was just as I was beginning to give up hope that I received a mail from Valanka Alemao, Managing Director of Churchill Brothers in India. As I opened it I was almost certain it was going to be a thanks but no thanks, but no, they wanted me to be their manager, and were going to pay me £825 per week into the bargain. I immediately responded saying that I couldn’t wait and started to pack my bags for a new life in India.
The next week or so was a bit of a blur with visas, accommodation and flights all to sort out, but before I knew it I was off from Belfast to London then onwards to India. I thought I would use this time to learn a bit about the club (thanks Wiki). So they were a professional club who played in the I-League, though they were favourites for the drop, guess there had to be a reason they would give me the job! I quickly read of the rules of the league noting that you could only have 4 foreign players and an extra 1 if they were Asian. In hindsight I wish I had read these rules before I’d had a few beers on the plane but I will explain that later. Anyway I landed in India and was whisked off to the club to meet the Chairman, backroom staff and players and it was at this point that it hit me, I was a football manger.
