The European Dream

[dannyfinn5]

Danny Finn, a former professional footballer who played for 5 clubs including Nottingham Forest, Scunthorpe United and his home town club Lincoln City during a career that spanned 15 years decided to try his hand at the management side of the game today and started hunting for his first professional job. Preferring to stay in Europe his search included his native England as well as France, Italy, Spain, Germany and the neighbours to the north, Scotland. His dream was to one day win the highest league prize in each of these countries before retiring to a villa somewhere to live out the rest of his days in style.

Entering his makeshift office in his new build house he began to plan out his first managerial position and applied for 3 jobs in England who were in search of a new manager for the upcoming 2014/15 season. He believed Bolton Wanderers in the Championship would not consider his application due to a lack of experience so decided to plump for the three lower league teams in League 1’s Port Vale and Leyton Orient as well as recently relegated League 2 side Hartlepool United.
Just a day later, he checked his emails to find, to his surprise, that both Port Vale and Hartlepool United had invited him to sit down with their respective Chairmen and discuss the managerial positions. Unfortunately Leyton Orient didn’t even offer them the courtesy of inviting him to an interview but nevertheless the road to the top has begun.
First up was the meeting with Hartlepool United Chairman Ken Hodcroft who didn’t waste any time in addressing the elephant in the room and asked why he should overlook me inexperience and give me a chance to steer the club forward. Nervously, the rookie manager replied in the only way he could think of… with a hint of humour. “Everybody has to start somewhere right? I haven’t managed a club yet but I’m desperate to get started.”
Hodcroft cracked a wee grin and continued probing the managerial prospect by asking why it appears that he is in the running for a few jobs at the moment? Panicking now, he fumbled around in his brain for a good answer before coming up with "I'm merely considering my options." God this is going horrible he thought to himself!
This answer didn't even get a rise out of Hodcroft who kept plowing through awkward question after question before finally arriving at one that Finn could answer boldly. When asked about the style of football he would wish to utilise with Hartlepool he confidently stated that he would like to play a direct, attacking style and attempt to bring some of the youth players through the ranks and give them a chance to perform and impress.
Hodcroft nodded approvingly before stating his aims for the club in the upcoming season. He admitted he was dissapointed at the recent relegation of the club and understood that bouncing back wouldn't be easy but wanted to aim for a top half finish this season. Finn agreed with Hodcroft saying that he understood that a club of this stature belons in the higher reaches of the football league and that given the chance he believed he could at least secure the desired top half finish with the £20,000 transfer budget allocated for the new manager to spend.
He looks impressed, Finn thought to himself after shaking hands with the Chairman and leaving the room. I really hope I get given the chance here but if not there is still that Port Vale interview tomorrow that I should be getting ready for. He hopped into his Audi A4 which he hoped one day would turn into a R8 and heading for for the motorway.
The next day, Finn rose from his hotel bedroom and arrived at Vale Park ready for his second job interview in as many days hoping for a bit of an easier ride than yesterday. Chairman Norman Smurthwaite greeted him and welcomed him to the club offering him a tea or a coffee. The interview followed a similar path the the Hartlepool one yesterday which relieved Finn a lot as he could just repeat yesterdays answers, just incase football Chairmen spoke to each other and caught him out on an exaggeration. He explained that the Valiants would like to keep the majority of the backroom staff at the club and asked if hired that would be an issue. Finn quelled any fears in the Chairman by stating he would happily work alomgside the current staff for at least the first season and hoped they could help him settle in quickly if hired.
Smurthwaite, whose name still made Finn chuckle every time he heard it went on to state that Port Vale should be finishing in mid table in League 1 this season and Finn would be allocated £30,000 for a transfer budget to bring in some fresh players to maybe help push them into the top half. Seeing as Finn had never help a managerial position before he would be over the moon with £30,000 to spend on new talent and enjoyed scouting the country trying to unearth a gem for the club.
And before he knew it he was back at home relaxing with a nice cold beer, praying for the phone to ring with that offer for a full time managerial position. He dozed off on the sofa that night with his mobile phone on his chest dreaming of being involved in the day to day running of a football club for the first time. Wouldn't that be nice!!

 

[dannyfinn5]

Ring, ring. Ring ring. Finn awoke with a startle to see an Unknown number ringing his mobile phone on the table. This is the moment he had been waiting for. But who was it on the phone? Had Port Vale decided to give him a crack at success in League 1 or was it Hartlepool United giving him a chance to cut his managerial teeth in one of the toughest leagues in England. He answered the phone and the voice was that of Ken Hodcroft from Hartlepool United. Hodcroft was pleased to tell him that it had been decided that Finn was the man that the Board wanted to lead the club into next season and he would be delighted if he would come to the club on a two year contract worth £825 a week. Finn could hardly believe it and gleefully accepted the offer saying he would jump in his car right away and be there to sign the contracts later on that day.
Upon arriving at the club, Finn signed his deal before meeting his Assistant manager Stephen Pears and the rest of his staff who seemed eager to work with him. As did the players, well what little players Hartlepool had retained after their relegation last season. Finn only counted 19 first team players in the meeting room when he first met them and only recognised a few familar faces amongst them like Marlon Harewood and Stuart Parnaby. In fact Harewood was the only recognised striker currently in the first team squad. Finn sat down and chatted with the players, laying out his plans for the season ahead with everybody agreeing that a realistic aim was the mid table mark with an outside chance of the top half and sneaking into the playoffs.
But before all that, he knew he needed to delve into the transfer and loan market to find some new players to strengthen his depleted squad before the big kick off.
Finn settled into his new office and rang around local clubs to attempt to arrange friendlies with them in order to run the rule over his new squad and give them some much needed fitness. When he finally switched the light off later that night he had successfully arranged 5 pre season friendlies in the North East for his squad in prepeartion for the long away trip to Stevange Borough in just under a months time for the big kick off to League 2.
Now time to get some rest... for tomorrow training and scouting begins.

 

[dannyfinn5]

Arriving at the training ground early the next morning, the new gaffer set about the uneviable task of evaluating his squad without every having seen them in training or play a game. However, there were a couple of things he did know... He knew he needed a couple of strikers to support Harewood along the season. He must have been on his phone for a good few hours enquiring about players before drawing up a shortlist of 3 targets, Matt Green from Birmingham, Alex Wall from Luton and Aaron O'Connor from Newport County. Now he wasn't sure how these enquiries were going to go and how much their respective clubs were going to want for their assets or even whether the players would tolerate the idea of joining Hartlepool, but he had to start somewhere. Next he searched for a new Centre Back as with player/coach Sam Collins being 37 now he desperatly needed some new blood at the back, if not for this season, then definitely for the next one. On the transfer list he spotted a couple of names he knew and enquired their parent clubs about the availablity of Ben Tozer (Northampton) and Thierry Audel (Crewe). His last job before going out to the practice field for the first time to take training was to attempt to find a back up goalkeeper for the season for his number 1 Scott Flinders. Both of the other goalkeepers at the club were very young and he felt they just wouldn't be able to cope with being thrust into the first team should anything happen to Flinders. For this he decided to search the loan market in order to save the club some valuable money on paying for another players wages. The player that really caught his eye was Simon Eastwood and after a quick conversation with his backroom staff the offer of a season long loan was sent to Blackburn Rovers. Now time to play the waiting game he said to himself as he trudged out of office to put his boots on for the first time as Hartlepool manager. The hard work starts now

 

[dannyfinn5]

Buzz, buzz! Game day was finally here!! Saturday 9th August 2014, the day Danny Finn set off on his road to greatness... Or so he thought. After a decent pre season that included 4 wins and a defeat with a bunch of new faces coming in, Finn was quietly confident on the coach journey down to Stevenage for the first game of the new season. His 3 new loan signings and 3 permanent signings all travelled as part of the opening day squad, as did 16 year old Centre Back Bradley Varga who was forced to be drafted in after a couple of niggly injuries to his back line during pre season left him short of defenders with not enough time to secure an emergency loan signing due to a shrinking wage budget. The new signings are:-
GK - Mats Morch (Season long loan from Derby) - 20 Years old with good speed and sweeping abilities
CB - Thierry Audel (£14,000 from Crewe) - 27 Years old with good experience at a higher level and excellent in the air
CM - Jack Rudge (Free Transfer) - 19 Years old who impressed during the Trialist match by scoring and setting up two goals. Seems real creative
ML - Jimmy Phillips (Season long loan from Burton) - 24 Years old who should be a decent squad player
ST - George Waring (Season long loan from Stoke) - 19 Years old who has great potential and has a good header on him
ST - Alex Wall (£8,000 from Luton) - 23 Years old with excellent pace and decent finishing for this level.
Overall Finn was happy with the balance of his new squad and was looking forward to the challenges ahead, especially hosting Championship side Rotherham United in the Capital One Cup First Round this coming Tuesday night

 

[dannyfinn5]

August:-
Stevenage Borough 1-2 Hartlepool United - Sky Bet League 2
Charles (16)............... Harewood (47,63)

Hartlepool United 0-1 Rotherham United - Capital One Cup 1st Round
Derbyshire (90+2)

Hartlepool United 1-0 Bury - Sky Bet League 2
Phillips (77)

Hartlepool United 3-1 Dagenham and Redbridge - Sky Bet League 2
Compton (21,48)......Labadie (81)
Wall (71)

AFC Wimbledon 2-0 Hartlepool United - Sky Bet League 2
Bennett (30)
Rigg (87)

Cheltenham Town 0-3 Hartlepool United - Sky Bet League 2
...........................Harewood (39)
...........................Duckworth (57)
...........................Franks (63)

Three games into the season and we are off to a flyer in the league with two wins out of two with a frustrating loss to Rotherham in the Capital One Cup sandwiched in between. We defended brilliantly against the Championship side and even had chances to win it in the second half before Matt Derbyshire popped up with a tap in deep into injury time as I was beginning to think about extra time and possibly penalties. The two league wins have both been pretty dominant performances in terms of possession and chances but sometimes we are being a bit wasteful. The Stevenage game especially proved this as we had 22 efforts but only 8 on target and the Bury game looked to be heading for a stalemate until Jimmy Phillips scored a belter from 25 yards. Then came the Dagenham game in which we really seemed to click. We had less possession of the ball but were clinical in attack having 8 out of 8 shots on target with the 3 goals. Was very disappointed to give them the faintest of sniffs with a goal in the last 10 minutes but overall a very impresive performance. After that we travelled to Wimbledon and struggled to keep hold of the ball. When the breakthrough did come on the half an hour mark it was no suprise as it had been coming. We started to get back into the game in the second half but couldn't strike back. Then when we were pushing up for the equaliser a terrible back pass from Compton, who had such a blinding game last time out played in Sean Rigg who slotted past 2nd choice keeper Morch who was in for Flinders who was absent through food poisoning. So the dream of an unbeaten season came crashing to an end but I never expected to win my first three games so I was still happy overall, we just had to focus on the next game and getting back to winning ways. Our first month ended with another long away trip to Cheltenham Town. Another dominant performance ensued to ensure that we would end the month in 3rd place in the League 2 standings with 4 wins and 1 loss. Harewood, Duckworth and a screamer from Franks secured all 3 points in a game where the defending was just as impressive as the attacking work. An all round brilliant first month in the job and hoping many more wins to come. Bring on September.
Player of the Month - Marlon Harewood

 

[dannyfinn5]

September (so far):-
Barnsley 2-0 Hartlepool United - Johnstone's Paint Trophy North 1st Round
Digby (30)
Jennings (77)

After the transfer window slammed shut, September opened up with a trip to high flying League 1 side Barnsley in the JPT first round. The board expect me to at least reach the next round so this one was going to be a tough one. After falling behind to a wonder strike from Digby, we slowly tried to claw our way back into it and just before the hour mark Harewood crashed a shot against the crossbar after great work from Woods and Compton. Unfortunately Barnsley kept playing and forced the 2nd goal through ex Bayern player Dale Jennings. Although Pools kept pushing forward looking for a way back into the game the experienced Barnsley back line held firm and elimnated Finn's men from their 2nd cup competetion in as many months.

Hartlepool United 1-2 Shewsbury Town - Sky Bet League 2
Walker (82,pen).....Slager (31)
..........................Esajas (60)

After the disappointment of another cup exit, Finn and his men turned their focus back to the league and the visit of struggling Shrewsbury Town to Victoria Park. Defying their lowly league position of 22nd the Shrews started brightly and took the lead on the half hour mark through Denzel Slager's first goal for his club after Callum Davies had missed a header from a long ball. No doubt Finn had a few choice words for his young centre back and told him in no uncertain terms to screw his head on. Half time came and went and 15 minutes after the break things went from bad to worse for Finn as following a scramble in the box, the ball fell kindly to Esajas who beat Flinders to make it 2-0. With 10 minutes on the clock, Hartlepool were gifted a lifeline when Jordan Mustoe brought down young George Waring in the box to give Brad Walker the chance to put his team back in with a shout. He steps up... and dispatches the penalty coolly into the left hand side of the net. Game on again. Moments later, Finn was out of his seat again, but a different reason this time. Wall played a delightful ball through to Waring who squared up the keeper just to screw his shot wide of the goal. The young striker was visably upset when the final whistle came, knowing he could have savalged a point from nothing for his side.