The Black Cats, are they really unlucky?

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thebusbybriddon

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I was announced as the manager of Sunderland. The first thing which came to any football fans mind was most likely "Who on earth is Chris Briddon?"

I often asked myself this question too, who really am I?

I'm about to find out who I really am when I get my teeth gritted right into this. The reason I have this job is because my Father was one of Directors at Kildare Partners, this is a business Ellis Short (Sunderland Chairman) founded. Ellis has known me since I was a child, me and my Dad moved out to Missouri. As I got older, around 13 we started travelling around Europe, the western Mediterranean and in the winter months we would travel around the Caribbean. My Mum and Sister joined us. Through living on a Cruise Ship for nearly 5 years I have learnt Bahasa Indonesian and Tagalog Filipino, I also became a huge fan of Indonesian football and have extensive knowledge on it.

Ellis always saw a strong footballing side to me, he always used to tell me "Just because you can't play, it doesn't mean you can't coach." Now I never actually took this too literal, I just thought he was joking. But when my phone rang receiving a call from an unknown number and I received a job offer from one of the biggest clubs in the Premier League - then I knew. It was literal.

For the last 3 years I've been living off of my Fathers money, living on a Cruise Ship, the only time I could disembark the ship was on a Saturday. So me and Ellis arranged a meeting for Tuesday, 7 days after the original phone call, but then 2 days after (Thursday) I received an iMessage 'Are you still up for Tuesday or do you want me to rearrange it?' It was almost like he was in desperate need of me, the reply I wanted to send was 'Yeah of course 9 on the dot. What's up with Gus?' but instead it was 'Yes, 9AM :)'.

I didn't know how to break the news to my girlfriend - she was a bar waitress working on the ship, I want her to live with me but she cannot leave due to contract rules. I went over several scenarios, the best option I had was to tell her to work until her contract expires then go back to the Philippines and then apply for a VISA. The second best option would be to marry her, no, no, Chris you're stupid.

After I spoke to her it turns out we're getting married. That's right, marriage is the solution.

I arrived at Doncaster/Sheffield Airport and decided to rent-a-car, drive up to Newcastle and stay in a hotel. I wouldn't say money is a problem, but I don't like not earning myself. I don't value money anyway, but it's always something I've never been short of. So I suppose it's all because of Ellis' success. When I rented a car I noticed that I needed lots of things. I currently had 2 iPhones, one from Barcelona and one from St. Lucia, firstly I need an English phone, secondly I need a car and thirdly I need a house. It turns out the transition isn't as easy as I thought it would be.

I stayed the night at the Holiday Inn in Washington which is a 15 minute drive from the Stadium of Light. I suppose I need an early nights sleep. Hope all goes well tomorrow.
 
I got my wake-up call at 0730, hopped in the rented Vauxhall Astra and set off at around 0825, upon arrival I was greeted by a security guard on a gate, he let me straight through. I didn't even have to stop the car. We both nodded showing out understanding for each other.

When I walked through the main entrance door, the receptionist (who I think was foreign, but I didn't quite catch her name) said "Oh, you're here early. Mr. Short is not here yet. I'm sure when he arrives he'll take you through himself." she turned and walked back behind her desk. As she turned she then said "Welcome to Sunderland".

I sat there, my eyes wondered the whole room area. It wasn't really a room, in fact I don't know what to call it. Pictures were everywhere of course there was Di Canio on his knees, the open top bus parade in 1973 with the FA Cup & all sorts of other pictures celebrating trophies. But the most recent picture to be added onto the wall had to be Steven Fletcher and Adam Johnson holding scarfs just after they signed, I soon noticed there is a lack in celebration images which are recent. This became a problem for me in my head, like a small OCD. There must be more recent pictures with the team celebrating - if possible with trophies.
 
We want more,We want more,We want more,We want more, Loving the start keep it up
 
Checking my Casio watch - 8:59.54 and the automatic sliding doors open as a man in pinstripe suit walks in, he spots me but walks straight past. He doesn't even acknowledge the receptionist.

Ellis walks in just as the doors are about to close.

"Chris, my son! How are you?" he still had the American accent.

"I'm good, thanks for this - you're crazy for offering this job to me" I cheekily said.

"Just because you can't play, it doesn't mean you can't coach." Boy I sure hope he's right.

"Anyway come through to my office we can talk about our ambitions" I followed him like a headless chicken straight through.

I start to think in my head "what the **** are you getting yourself into?!" I wouldn't say I'm clumsy but I don't make the best decisions.

We spoke football for 10 minutes and he expressed how he will not accept relegation, this is something I totally understand. He said he would give me upto £8M to spend and from their onwards I would have to sell to buy, this is also something I understand. We must've spent around 45 minutes talking about my life since we haven't really seen each other in nearly 10 years.

10:32.27 - I'm in my office, it's very spacious. Maybe it's too big, I'm not sure. Oh ****. I have a meeting with the assistant manager at 1030, Mauricio Taricco, he only stopped playing for Brighton under Gus Poyet a few year ago. Then he instantly became an assistant, for me this is a tough decision as I don't know whether to keep him or let him go. I know he'll leave if Gus gets another job, and if that's mid-season then it will make it tough for me. I know Kevin Ball could step up from being the Under-21's manager and become my number 2. I'd love to bring Peter Reid back to become the under-21's manager. I'm just making the worst of a situation, yet I have plenty of options available to me.
 
Good start

But as a Newcastle fan I hope you get relegated lol
 
I meet Mauricio down at pitchside, it's not a hard stadium to navigate. Mauricio can speak English, Spanish & French all fluently. I've heard he can be a bit of a hot-head with the media, so it's best off not to let him handle any post-match interviews. We had a brief conversation and I asked him to send me through the wage bill for each individual player.

His loyalty to me is something I need to discover as I really want to send him out on a coaching course. We didn't speak much like I say but we headed to a conference room or a meeting room whatever you want to call it, there was a big table with scouts all sat around. As I walked in they all stood upright like I was a Sergeant in the Army, in a way I was in disbelief - I don't exactly know how it made me feel, I couldn't be doing with that, so the first thing I said was "Sit down lads, I'm your mate now - if you want we can all go to the pub together, listen, just don't get up my ****."

We spoke about the squad and what we should focus on in training, I had names thrown at me. Honestly, I didn't quite know what to do, so I just agreed with everything they all said. By the end of the meeting I had to offer Frank Barlow a contract as a coach. He was a scout at Sunderland 3 years ago, then he became Danny Wilson's assistant manager at Sheffield United, he was also a coach at Sheffield Wednesday when Danny Wilson was manager. I'm noticing some people like to go around in 2's. Do I need to find a number 2?

We need a left-back so I have a shortlist of: Fabio (Cardiff), Luca Antonelli (Genoa), Danny Lafferty (Burnley), Stephen Hendrie (Hamilton) & Declan John (Cardiff)

I also have: Mattia Perin (Genoa - GK), Itumeleng Khune (Kaizer Chiefs - GK) & Tyias Browning (Everton - CB)

It's not that I need a Goalkeeper, but I managed match a £750K bid with Udinese and according to scouts he's better than our current number 1 contenders: Vito Mannone & Costel Pantillimon.

When I got back to my office a USB stick was placed on my desk, I didn't know what it was for so I took it to the receptionist (It turns out her name is Jade - from the Philippines coincidentally)

"What's this for?" I said approaching her

"Well Sir, it's the wage bill...... on a USB Stick" she replied nervously, almost with a slight showing of fear

"Can I please have it printed? If I ask for something can you make sure it isn't on a USB, I don't like those things."

When she brought the sheet to my office I said "Jade, it's Chris. Not Sir" in Filipino with a cheeky grin on my face, while she looked surprised.

I examined the wage bill, in comparison to the Chief Scout's report. The name which stood out like a sore thumb was Jozy Altidore, he's on £45K a week yet the scout report says he's the 4th best striker, behind Steven Fletcher, Danny Graham & Connor Wickham respectively. Yet he had the highest wage of the 4, his contract expires in 2017 and he has potential to become a strong Premier League striker, I know he can score goals as he has the track record with AZ Alkmaar. I'll make my decision on what will happen to him at the end of pre-season. There was also one other player who I was concerned about - Charis Mavrias - he's 19 and has great potential, yet he's on £12K a week and his contract expires in 2016, I suppose there's still plenty of time before I can worry about that. I have to head over to meet the players at the training ground now, see you soon.
 
The training facilities, AKA Academy of Light was a 5 minute drive, as I pulled up I thought it would be a good idea for them to arrive at the Stadium of Light everyday they train and jog to the Academy of Light - it's about 2.5 miles - I spoke to the fitness staff and head physio about this they said it is a possibility. I know this season the schedule will be tough and demanding so I want us to be the fittest team in the league, but over working on fitness could damage the team.

Once I had a look around I called the team into the meeting room. I wanted this changing as the wallpapers were blue. What I wanted were red wallpaper with a big plastic Sunderland crest on the wall. It was time for my speech. In all honesty I was quite confident "As you should all know by now, I'm your new gaffer" I saw Vito (Mannone) translating this to Ricky Alvarez and Gianny (Giaccherini) while Jordi Gomez was helping Santiago Vergini to understand what I was saying.

"I'm confident we can stay up this year and from what I've heard about you all it is possible that we can push for 12th position."

Instantly John O'Shea stood and agreed "Yeah, the boss is right. If we all give 110% then we can push even higher, the sky is the limit." after this everyone applauded, I wasn't sure if they were applauding me or John, but I know one thing for certain and that is that I certainly feel at home. They were all sitting down and it was fairly quiet so I felt now was the perfect time to say "Tonight we have a match" a certain uncertainty crossed from wall to wall. "It's only against the U21's to see how far you are with your fitness lads" a smile from ear to ear broke on my face as I said it in a jokey way.

"You should all know I will give everyone a fair chance and there is no strongest 11 or no captain in my mind yet as I haven't seen any of you play. So I expect you all working hard in training and especially in Ireland on our tour, we will all be spending a lot of time together there."

"The game is at the ground tonight so take the rest of the day off and all of you be in the main entrance for 6. The weather isn't looking too good for tonight so if we can we will get the game kicked off for 7, if not the half past. And guys - it's behind closed doors so no social media about it please."

As the team started to go I asked for John O'Shea to stay behind. He approaches me with a cup of tea in his hand "Boss, you wanted to see me?"

"Yeah, John what you did for me was great, I understand you were skipper last year and you're a possibility for it again this season."

"Thanks boss, I suppose I just have a strong belief in you that's all."

"Just a quick question" I said cautiously

"What do you want to do when you retire?"

"Well, I've always wanted to coach, but I would like to develop the youth. Ya'know like 'Head of Youth Development'."

An idea sprung to my head. "Actually John, I have something what can help you pursuit that job title. How would you like to tutor Jassem Sukar?" I questioned.

"Oh the small center half? He's left footed ain't he? Yeah I'm up for it." A happy look came onto his face

"Toughen him up, hopefully he'll reach 6foot and be ready for the first team in a few years."

"Thanks a lot for this John."

"No worries"
 
In the afternoon I went to view several apartments, they needed to be in the South Shields area because a cruise ship embarked in Newcastle and I know some of the crew on there so it would be nice to see them. I also wanted a nice view. I found the one I wanted, and the greatest part was I had nothing to move in with me - I had one suitcase and a backpack which carried all of my contents, I was able to move in, in just over 12 days, which was the 15th July. Until then I planned to sleep in my office. When Jade saw 2 men bringing a mattress into my office she had a crazy insane look on her face.

"What are you doing stupid?" She said to me in Filipino

"Moving in! I told you there's too much space" I replied sarcastically

But at least I have found something to take up the space in my office. At times I've considered letting Mauricio join my office, but I need my own space - just not this much.

I had a quick nap in my suit and woke up to check my watch and notice the time was 18:21.45. I'm late. I rush to my desk and call Jade - although she is just outside my office - "Can you get me a team tracksuit? The teams socks and Football boots please?" She immediately put down the phone and opened my door to turn and see my mattress and duvet toyed around. She looked at me and simply said "Follow."..............

"Here is the laundry, here is your choice of suits, tracksuits and even casual shirts and jeans." I was led through another door "and here is the boot room. Enjoy" it was like being in heaven, literally any choice of what football boots you wanted. The weather was awful, and awful weather calls for tracksuits.

I picked out a Sunderland tracksuit, Sunderland/Adidas Polo, the home kit socks and some adidas world cup boots.

I quickly slipped into them and went straight to the changing room to see Mauricio and Andy Beasley (Goalkeeping coach) talking to the lads. Mauricio walked over to me as I walked in and said "What's the team?"

"Which lads have we got?"

Mauricio moved out of my eyesight to reveal the team I had available to me tonight. "Well, I'll right down an 11 and at half time put the other 11 on?"

"There's 23 players, what about the 23rd?"

"We'll leave him, he's got all pre-season and you never know someone could get injured."

I had another office which was through the back of the changing rooms, this one was like a doctors room, 2 chairs on one side of the desk and then a computer and a chair on the other side, full of cabinets which I didn't need. I ordered for these to be taken out while the game was in play. I wrote my 11 down on paper then went and wrote it on the whiteboard in the changing rooms which read: Costel
Larsson Coates Vergini van Aanholt
Bridcutt
Buckley Johnson
Jordi Gomez
Altidore Wickham

Everyone will be alternated at half time.



The squad went out and warmed-up then I went and took some shots at Vito while Costel was getting most of the attention. While taking shots I just remembered about Khune, the goalkeeper who I recently offered a contract just after an hour the bid was made. This means I'll have 3 Premier League quality goalkeepers and I might be better off selling one of them, but Costel has just joined so my only choice would be to get rid of Vito. But he has a really good attitude and he's a funny person to be around, this is going to be the first of one of many dilemmas.
 
The game kicked off at around 1921, within 5 minutes Patrick van Aanholt went down. One of the physios over (the one who's name I always forget) to find out if he's ok.

"Just a knock, he should be alright after 5 minutes." the physio inferred.

"Billy (Jones)! get warm, you're going on." I shouted

"No boss, Patrick should be ok" the physio said with a surprised look branching across his face

"I'm not taking any risks mate."

Just after Billy came on we won a free kick for a foul committed on Will Buckley. The players rushed into the box as the ball was wide right about 30 yards out - Seb (Larsson) was taking, he ran up and hit it, it looked like a shot and swerved past Michael Pownall straight into the net.

"YEAHHHHHH!!!!!" I screamed.

What a sublime goal that was, it really was incredible.

The under 21's had a few good chances and in all honesty we weren't at our best. Nothing came of them, the only event which came was in the 39th minute a foul committed by El Hadji Ba on Liam Bridcutt.

It got to half time and I put a 9 other players on but left Seb Larsson and Santiago Vergini on.

In the second half Steven Fletcher scored just 5 minutes into it. Emanuele Giaccherini came on and was clearly the stand-out player, the game finished 4-0 with Giaccherini scroed two good goals.
 
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