Hello, my name is Thomas Buckingham and this is my journal. I will use this to keep track of my career as I progress from managing a club in the lower leagues of whichever country will accept me to hopeful one day taking control of one of the top clubs in the world. I know I won’t be landing a top job in Europe anytime soon, so I will be looking in South Africa and a handful of nations in Asia to start.
As far as my experience, well there isn’t much to gloat about. As an American, there really weren't any clubs with established youth setups to play for. I did play for local youth teams as well as my high school, but nothing beyond that. As far as managing, I helped at the grade school level to start. I did catch a break when I had a chance to coach at the youth level with the national team stateside where I made a few friends who went aboard. My plan is to use those contacts as I look to progress in the future. Wish me luck!
Right out of the gate I applied for seven jobs and was offered an interview by three clubs. I didn’t expect it to happen this quickly, but who am I to complain? To be honest, I figured for the first few months my job would be trying to prove to these clubs that I’m actually a real person and my application was no hoax.
My first interview was with Home Utd. FC in Singapore. It didn’t take long for me to feel out of place. They are currently in third place after eight games played (24 game season) and they expect to win this league this season. That’s a huge ask for someone who has never managed a professional club before. Regardless, I said those demands were reasonable and I was out the door wondering what just happened?!
After leaving Singapore, I was on my way to Malaysia for my second interview. This was with a second division side, Sarawak, who sit in the middle of the table halfway through their Premier League season. Sarawak are a club with little funds and are currently pushing above their weight. The board have asked me to avoid relegation if offered the job. Managing here would be a little less stressful, however, can I really start to make a name for myself if I’m managing a club in the Malaysian second division who are just trying to stay afloat?
Lastly, I hopped on another plane, this time to Indonesia. The club I’m interviewing for is another second tier side where the season is yet to start. It would be nice to start with a club at the beginning of the season, then again, I’m not Pep Guardiola. I need to take every job offer I receive very seriously. The club I interviewed for was PSPS Pekanbaru. They want a mid-table finish in the first season before pushing for promotion in year two.
It’s now a waiting game to see if I can land an offer.
I had a massive smile on my face when I received a phone call from the President of PSPS Pekanbaru, Arsadianto Rachman offering me a job. My first job as a manager!
The first thing I did after landing my new role was to learn about the club. They were promoted to the second tier back in 1999 and have been here ever since. They go by the nickname Askar Bertuah or ‘Lucky Warriors’ and wear a blue kit for home matches and wear white away from home. The stadium holds 25,000 and is located in a city of over 1,000,000 people, but I doubt we’ll ever get close to selling out. It is a multi-purpose facility after all.
The league set up is pretty unique. League Two is split into two halves, East and West. This season there are 11 teams in the East and 12 in the West. The first phase consists of 20-22 games over four months (June-October). The bottom two teams from the East and three from West will be relegated while the top four teams from both halves qualify for the second phase. Each side from the East play each other once (three matches) and the same in the West. The top two clubs reach the Semi Final where they play a two legged playoff to reach the Final. The loser in the East plays the loser from the West and the winner gets promoted along with the two clubs from the Final.
Well, we have 26 players, most of which are not League Two quality talents. Luckily we have a month and a half to bring in some new faces to improve the squad as we aim for a mid-table finish. With what we have a 4-4-2 seems to be the logical choice of formation as we prepare for our first friendly. Interesting enough our top talent, Muhammad Zulfikar, is a CAM who doesn’t fit what we are be looking to do. The smart move would be to cash in on him rather than forcing him to play a position he’s not familiar with.
Lucky for me, we have a pretty healthy transfer kitty, so rather than just filling our needs, I will look at whichever player our scouts find and if that player can improve the team, then I will try to bring them in. Like I mentioned before, we have 26 players, so we will see a handful of players exit as well. Our first need is a LB. We currently only have one on the roster and he clearly isn’t good enough for what we’re looking to achieve.
Time flies by when you’re having fun. I’ve been in Indonesia for a little over a month now and the staff and I have been busy. Our first order of business was to bring in some reinforcements where ever we could and get rid of the players we felt wouldn’t make an impact going forward. Five players were out the door before we made our first signing. Although two were loan moves, our entire roster is on one year deals, so expect those two players to become free agents when the season concludes. To no surprise two of the five went to lower league sides while the other three are now playing in League Three.
Our first addition came in the form of right midfielder, Adi Nugroho. We didn’t need to fill that role, but the 23-year old brings with him League One experience and should be one of the best players at this level. He is out of contract at the end of the season, so if he plays up to his potential I will look to bring him in on a permanent basis.
Three days later Supriyadi joined us on a free and will be our starting left back. He is already 34-years old, so I’m not sure he’ll be around long term, but it was clear we needed someone to fill in on the left side of defense. According to my staff, he is a star player for us and a “leading player for most League Two side.” That is very encouraging news.
On the same day as Supriyadi, Andi Prayoga put pen to paper on a one year deal. The League Two rule book states we must have seven U23 players here, so the addition of Prayoga was important. We didn’t need a keeper, but if we’re looking to get promoted in the next couple of years, an upgrade between the sticks would become a must. For now the 20-year old is no better than a backup, however, he has the potential to become much more.
With only two scouts on the books, finding any sort of scouting report on free agents proved to be nearly impossible in such a short time. Instead, I looked over League One rosters hoping we could find some U23 players willing to come in on loan. Rachmat Irianto was a player needing time on the pitch and wasn’t going to get much with Persebaya, so he agreed to join us for a season. He’s also listed as a ‘star’ player and will be out of contract at years end. Like Nugroho, if he lives up to his potential this season, a perminate deal could be in the cards.
The center of our midfield is currently our weakest link. Rosyad Setiwan is another U23 player we brought with loads of potential. He won’t be a starter right away, but he has the stats to make an immediate impact off the bench.
Today is deadline day and we still needed to sign two more U23 players as well as a backup right back. Our scouts haven’t found anyone worth bringing in even with me assigning one to solely focus on finding a youngster who could fill in on the right. With that said, Zakaria comes in on a one year deal, but will only play in emergency situations. If only my scouts have as much determination as he does.
Although it’s not official, we’ve agreed on a fee with Bali United to bring in Ricky Fajrin. Now we are working swiftly to get him to sign a contract. We did sign a left back earlier in the window, but Fajrin is 12 years younger and qualifies as the seventh and final U23 player we needed on the roster. He brings along with him 13 international caps and will be our starter from day one. Super excited about this deadline day final… Assuming we get it done in time.
With today being deadline day and the schedule showing our first preseason I’m ready to go. Ricky Fajrin won’t be here, but our roster is all set at this point. I haven’t found any newspapers or magazines with season projections in English, but the lads are telling me we are predicted to finish in the middle of the table, which is what the board is asking. Enough writing for now. Time to get the preseason friendlies underway.
Entry Six (June 22, 2019): My First Season set to Begin
Well… I left it up to the backroom staff to arrange our friendly matches leading up to the season. And with all the scouting and signings which needed to get done I never gave our schedule a real look over. Little did I know, we only had one friendly scheduled. We now prepare for the season with a squad lacking any sort of match fitness. I guess the good news is the squad is healthy and we start the campaign against a club predicted to finish below us in the table.
Another thing I didn’t notice at first is that there will only be three or four days off between each game. Luckily we have plenty of players on the roster who should all get a chance to prove themselves.
Entry Seven (June 30, 2019): Poor Form at the Start
League Two - Matchday 1
We’re off to a poor start. The match was done and dusted early on as we gave up three goals in the opening twenty minutes. To make matters worse, we only managed five shots, one on target against a club who are predicted to struggle in our half of the league.
League Two - Matchday 2
Our first point of the season. It’s disappointing to give up a late goal, but it’s hard to say we deserved all three points. I’m hoping after a few more games when the boys reach match fitness the results on the pitch will improve. There is no doubt we’ve been outplayed in our opening two matches.
League Two - Matchday 3
This was the first match in which I feel I can say we were the better side. We created more chances in this one then possible the last two combined. We were even awarded a penalty, but were robbed by the bar.
Entry Eight (July 18, 2019): Fine Form to Start July
League Two - Matchday 4
Massive three points in a very crazy match. After twelve minutes, Persiraja were down to ten men. Yet, one minute later they were on the board with a 1-0 lead. Our lads fought hard in the second half and Firman Septian leveled the scoring eleven minutes in. It was ten v ten for the final thirty minutes and we kept our heads while Septian bagged his second two minutes after he saw his teammate sent off. The striker completed his hat-trick one minute before added time and it proved to be a massive goal as the home side got one back with two minutes of added time to go. The bad news is we’ll be without Septian’s striking partner, Fiwi Dwipan, for 4-6 weeks with an ankle injury.
League Two - Matchday 5
Back-to-back wins for us! Septian found the back of the net again in this one and our fourth choice striker, Susilo Irwandoyo, put the game to bed in the 85th minute. This match was our fifth of the season and we’ve now scored six goals. The worrying thing now is the fact Septian has scored all but one of them. Let’s hope we can continue to improve and build on our last two matches while a few other players get on the scoresheet.
League Two Matchday 6
We held on for our third straight win and it was Irwandoyo who led us there. It came after the PSCS keeper made a great save low to his right, but our striker was the quickest to react to the rebound. In the end, the match wasn’t that close as our keeper was forced to only make one save.
League Two Matchday 7
We drop points for the first time this month. A little disappointed by the result seeing how we held a 2-0 lead heading into the break. Susilo Irwandoyo again was key for us scoring both the goals. Both from a cross by our left midfielder, Ifrawadi. Irwandoyo is listed as an ‘emergency backup’ by our coaching staff and started the year as our fourth choice striker, but injuries have given him a chance and I don’t think I can drop him as long as he continues to perform.
League Two Matchday 8
A pretty even game from start to finish. We took the lead twice only to see PSMS come back and find an equalizer on both occasions. Gutted at the end when the home side found a winner in the dying seconds of the match. After scoring five in our first four matches, Firman Septian has gone goalless in the last three. We’ll need him to get going again if we hope to stay in the top four.
League Two Table
We’re about a third of the way through the season and hold a place to advance to the second phase of the season. We are exceeding expectations which is great, but the league table is very tight. After picking up one point from our last two matches, we sit four points back of second and four points out of a relegation spot. Still a lot to play for in this one.
We were up against second in the league Sriwijaya and they got the best of us. The only goal in the match came from the penalty shot which is disappointing because there wasn’t much else that separated the two sides. We closed out the final ten minutes of the match in a more aggressive 4-3-1-2 formation and did score, but it was rightly ruled out for offsides. The result sees us fall out of the top four.
League Two - Matchday 10
Today’s match sees us lose three in a row. Both sides traded goals in the first half before the away side went up 2-1 in the 52nd minute. We gave up a poor penalty fourteen minutes later and Babel Utd went home with all three points in front of their two away fans.
League Two - Matchday 11
Our two front men got on the board two minutes apart and that’s all we needed to end our skid. It would’ve been nice to keep a clean sheet, but a win was very much needed as we’re halfway through the season.
League Two Table
After losing three in a row we closed out the month with three points before our first cup match. We are halfway through the season, however, the league table is still very tight. The board wanted us to finish mid-table yet we’re in eighth. On a positive note, we are just two points out of a playoff spot.
League Cup First Round
This one was a classic. We were up against a lower league side which allowed us to make ten chances. Three goals in twelve minutes made me believe this would turn into a complete thumping, but it was far from that. We took our foot off the gas and suddenly in the second half we were only up a goal before Fiwi Dwipan gave us our fifth in the 88th minute.
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