My story will revolve around the career of a fictional alter ego for myself, Ernie Allan. Ernie is a character that I have made up for the purpose of my save and this story on Football Manager 2018.
I will try to incorporate my own writing style with this story. The aim of the story is to provide progress updates, news articles/stories, updates from my own perspective as manager, hopefully create some graphics along the way.
I appreciate that a lot of people on here prefer quick, short monthly updates but I’m hoping to offer something a little different and hopefully most will like what I’m trying to do.
The basis of this story will be to follow the career of Ernie Allan and see where it takes him after starting in the deep dark depths of English football (I’ve downloaded the lower leagues packs so that we can start at the very, very bottom of the ladder). There is no real end goal, just to climb that ladder and achieve as much as I can with each club I end up at along the way!
Feedback will be most welcome along the way and your comments and likes are always much appreciated!
Ernie Allan
Ernie Harvey Allen (born 16 September 1988) is an English former semi-professional footballer, who played for both Bromley Football Club and Dulwich Hamlet Football Club. During his playing career, Allan played as a right winger and right full back, making his debut for Bromley in 2005 at the age of 17. Allen went on to make more than 80 appearances for Bromley before moving to Dulwich Hamlet on a free transfer in 2009, where he made a further 57 appearances before retiring in 2013 at the age of 25, due to injury.
Playing Career
Allan was a youth team player with Bromley Football Club from the age of 12. He worked his way up through the youth sides before making his debut for the senior team in 2005, against Burgess Hill Town in the Isthmian League. Allan managed to score two goals on his debut, which Bromley went on to win 3-0. After the impressive debut performance, Allan quickly established himself in the Bromley first team and helped the club to promotion, via the playoffs, where they overcame Horsham in the final, winning 3-1. Allan recorded an impressive tally of 8 goals in 23 games during that season, all from midfield.
Allan enjoyed two more seasons with Bromley Football Club and was in the squad that managed another promotion in the 2006-07 season which saw them rise into the Conference South for the first time in their history. However, he never quite recaptured the form of his first season, as persistent injuries kept him out of the team for large periods.
Bromley released Allan at the end of that season and he spent a year without a club, before he was signed by Dulwich Hamlet in 2009. Allan only managed 57 appearances for Hamlet in 3 seasons as injuries continued to plague his development and eventually he was forced to retire from playing football in 2013. Ironically, it was not due to any of his recurring injuries that forced him into retirement, but instead a clash of heads during a match against Folkestone Invicta which left him concussed and with a bleed on the brain. Allan retired under the advice of medical professionals.
Nickname
During his second season at Bromley Football Club, senior team manager Simon Osborn referred to Allan as ‘Little Ern’, due to his 5ft 4" stature, during an interview with BBC Radio Kent. The nickname stuck with him for the remainder of his career with fans of Bromley even creating a chant around it, which was then later adopted by Dulwich Hamlet supporters.
Personal Life
Ernie Allan was born in Bromley, Kent on 16th September 1988. His mother was a housewife, whilst his father was a fireman. He has two sisters. Allan is not married and has one son (Harvey) who was born on New Years Eve, 2016.
What happened last night? Is this the start of a new life, a chance to turn things around? As I sat there with a banging headache and what felt like the world’s worst hangover, I contemplated the events of the night before and whether it had actually happened or if I’d imagined or even dreamt it!
It was Saturday 24th June, 2017 and I was sitting there in my local pub, The Partridge. It was about 9:30pm and I’d been there since 4pm when I’d clocked off from work. There’s no doubt about it, I was p*ssed.
This was a pretty regular occurrence nowadays. I’d finish work at 4pm or 6pm depending on what shift I was on and find myself propped up at the bar in The Partridge which I had to pass on the walk home. I was a young man, only 29, but got into the habit of spending my afternoons with retired gents who used to frequent the boozer and watch the horse racing which they used to show on the TVs most afternoons. They’d have their betting slips neatly lined up on the table as their conversations became more irate and full of irrelevant nonsense with every pint they necked. Although if I’m perfectly honest, I spent most of my afternoon ignoring them and checking out the amazing t*ts on the barmaid that worked behind the bar of an afternoon. She loved a low cut top and most days they’d be on show for me to admire.
I worked at the local printing firm as a press operator. Something I’d picked up after my football career had come to an end. I had no formal qualifications as I’d always been pretty gifted as a footballer growing up. I never liked school and because I always thought I’d make it in the pro game, I switched off for most of it and didn’t put any effort into my education through my teen years at all. When the football came to an end, a pal put me in touch with this firm and they took me on, trained me up and that’s where I’ve been for the past 4 years, feeling sorry for myself that my opportunity to ‘make it’ was ripped from beneath me, casually going from day to day and letting my life pass me by.
I felt my life had been ruined and I’d fallen into this rut that I now couldn’t pull myself out of. My Mrs….well she’s a diamond to be fair and I don’t know why she’s stuck with me over these past four years as I’ve progressively become more and more of a *****, wallowing in my own self pity. My boy, Harvey, was 6 months old and had hardly seen me since the day he was born. If I wasn’t at work, I was in the pub, trying to **** a barmaid that was well out of my league!
The only good thing I had going on in my life was the fact I managed The Partridge’s Sunday team. It was the last glimpse of football I’d held onto and what had initially started out as a bit of fun soon became a serious 90 minutes on a Sunday lunchtime as my competitive nature would kick in. But it had gotten us a name in the **** pub leagues around Kent as we’d achieved back to back promotions with a record number of points and goals scored last season.
To my surprise, it hadn’t gone completely unnoticed and it was that night in the pub that I was given an opportunity. A chance to clean up my act, get my **** in gear and get back into competitive football. My experience as a football manager had been a hobby, a bit of fun with the lads, until I was presented with the most unexpected of job offers. Liam Archer, chairman of Bromley based Elmstead FC, sat down beside me at the bar, asked me what I was drinking and promptly bought me a JD & Coke with no ice! He went on to explain that he’d been to a few of the pub games that season, been to a few of my matches for Bromley and Dulwich too…..I remember thinking two things ‘who the f*ck is this guy?’ and ‘why is he stalking me?’.
He went on to explain who he was….I’d heard of Elmstead and come up against them a couple of times when I was a teenager at youth level, but that was it. Anyway, turns out Liam knew my grandad who’d passed away a year ago. Knew him quite well as it turns out and proceeded to tell me how disappointed he’d be to see me in the state I was now! It has to be said that it hit home when he said that. My grandad was my idol growing up, more so than my own dad who was pretty absent for most of my childhood to be fair. It was my grandad who took me to training, to my games, cheering me on from the sidelines and b*llocking me when required too. And Archer was right, my grandad would be ashamed to see the state of depression I’d fallen into over the past few years since my football ‘career’ had come to an end. I necked my drink and tried to hold back the tears, although a couple had managed to stream down my chubby little cheeks as Archer rested his hand on my shoulder to comfort me.
What came next was the biggest surprise to me. Liam just came out with it ‘I want you to come manage Elmstead for me!’ I lifted my head from the bar and he went on ‘I think you was a **** of talented young footballer, and I’ve seen you out there on a Sunday morning with these fat lads from the pub. You’ve got something to offer kid and I think you’ll make a **** of a manager. I’m offering you a shot to get back into competitive football…take the opportunity I’m giving you and who knows where it could lead’. I wasn’t sure if Archer felt he owed my recently deceased grandfather a favour, whether he genuinely thought I’d make a good manager or if he just pitied me. And to be honest, I didn’t really care – this was my shot to get back to the game I loved so much and make a career for myself as a football manager! I didn’t give Archer an answer to his offer, but he must have seen that I wanted it as he gave me my first official command as my new boss ‘you start on Monday kid!’
I checked my phone, 1 text, “7am at Oakley Road tomorrow. Your contract is done and ready for you to sign. We’ll start you on £300 per week.” I guess it hadn’t been a dream after all….Get in!
Monday morning came round and I was up bright and early, full of excitement to get started in my new job. I’d called my governor from the printing firm the day before and informed him of what had happened. I’d always been a reliable and decent worker, which went a long way with my old boss. So he’d given me his blessing to leave and start my new job straight away without requiring me to serve any notice, with the final words on our phone call being ‘You’ve been given a big opportunity here Ern. Don’t f*ck it up’.
As I pulled up at the ground, Liam Archer, my new boss, was there to greet me. We got the formalities of contract signing out of the way – as mentioned the day before in the text, I’d signed a 1 year deal with a £300 per week wage.
Archer said he’d asked the lads to get there for 8am so I could formally introduce myself to the team! I hadn’t prepared anything specific to say but if there’s one thing I’ve learnt at this level, passion and determination will get you a lot further than individual skill so I guessed I’d try to convey that in what I suppose would be my first team talk. But before I met the players, I was waiting to meet the rest of my staffing team, but there was nobody else about as I thought maybe they were turning up with the players. But I was wrong – it turns out I have no backroom staff as Archer is looking to rebuild this club up from scratch and he informed me I’d be responsible for the complete recruitment process as he wanted me to have my own team around me. I guess with me bringing everyone in, there would be no room for excuses, but I actually quite liked the idea that the chairman was putting so much faith in me from day 1!
The lads started to turn up one by one, grabbed a couple of balls and started kicking the ball about the pitch in a casual manner. The first thing I noticed is that I had a bunch of youngsters here….spotty teenagers of all shapes and sizes, all only 18 or 19 years old! A squad of 17 players was a decent base to work from but I’d definitely need to make some additions with some more experienced players!
Once everyone had arrived, I called them all in. I introduced myself, told the lads that they could come to me with anything, that my door is always open and I want open and effective communication between the lads and me this season. I emphasised that I for one, wanted to have a good season and felt we had an opportunity to make a name for ourselves this year in the league!! I told them in no uncertain terms that I won’t accept anything less than maximum effort in every training session, every game! And if I didn’t see that, you can expect to be dropped from the side! It seemed to go down pretty well to be fair and the boys definitely seemed up for it! But only time would tell who’d stand out and who’d fall by the wayside.
Here it is....my office! With the club not having a stadium as such, Archer and I were not based on the ground where we played our home game....I say ground, it's more like a field with a viewing area. Instead we had a couple of portacabins which we'd stuck on the site of a local building firm, where Archer was friendly with the owner. It's nothing special, but it's the first time I've had an office of my own and it felt pretty **** good to sit behind that desk. I might only be manager of little old Elmstead FC, but I felt like a big shot sitting in that chair.
My first two weeks in charge at Elmstead FC were busy, f*cking busy! Being a semi professional club with part time players, most of our lads had day jobs that was their main source of income. Therefore, we only had chance to train of an evening. What this did mean was that I had all day to work on my backroom staff and trying to attract new players of a higher calibre to our club.
Working alongside the chairman, we've been identifying targets all week and I'm pleased to say I now have a quota of staff for the upcoming season.
Samuel Skinner - Assistant Manager
Dominic Dickenson - Coach
Jason Carroll - Fitness Coach
Ashton Poleon - Goalkeeping Coach
Luca McDonald - Head of Youth Development
Matthew Wells - Chief Scout
Jardel Dyer - Head Physio
All of these guys have no prior experience with any club, but after putting out a number of adverts on my first day, this was the best of the bunch following an intensive round of interviews. All the lads have been offered 1 year deals, so I'm not committed for too long if it doesn't work out with any of them!
The next thing on the agenda was to get some new players on board. I knew that if we were going to compete this year, we'd need a number of better quality players and I looked to give the entire team a bit of an overhaul. We ran a couple of trial days, welcoming all local players to the club to show us what they could do and there was a number of players that impressed me. After a couple of weeks of negotiations, the squad now looks like this....
The most notable signings into the club are probably Ben Watson, Laurence Ball and Peter Trego.
Ben is a striker who offers us loads of experience up front. He's 31 years old and after coming through the youth setup at Brighton, he has been knocking around the lower leagues of English football his whole career. However, he has mainly played at a higher level in the Conference and Conference South for the likes of Bognor Regis, Exeter City, Forest Green and Dorchester. He's bagged 117 goals in 358 games and he's the main that will be leading our front line this season!
Laurence will come in at centre back. A Kent lad after coming through at Gillingham, he has spent majority of his time playing for clubs in the Bostik Premier, including Ramsgate, Margate, Dover and Leatherhead. He has 167 competitive games under his belt and I'll be looking to him to run the show at the back and keep things in order. There's a good chance Laurence will be given the vice captain's armband.
We're not going to win anything without a half decent keeper between the sticks, so this was a priority for me. Peter Trego has a cool head on his shoulders and definitely gives us a better option in goal. Despite his age of 36, he has not played a lot of football though, with only 35 games to his name for both Margate and Paulton. His lack of game time would be my only concern, but I've decided to give him a shot and make a name for himself here at the back end of his career.
I’ve been at FC Elmstead for over a month now and to be perfectly honest, it’s been great! I’ve loved every minute of being a football manager so far and can’t wait to kick off the season…..my first season as the boss!
There’s been a **** of a lot change at this little club since I arrived. A whole new backroom team is now in place and everyone seems to be working well together so far, so no complaints there. On the players front, well the first team looks almost unrecognisable to the bunch of spotty teenagers that stood before me on 26th June. I feel good about the business we’ve done and think we have at least a couple of players who could really stand out for us down in this league.
Pre season went well. With a whole host of new players who’d never played together before, we could have been forgiven for losing every friendly we played, but instead we managed to record three wins and actually only lost one game. Ben Watson is looking like a coup up front, banging in six goals for us in the five games….I hope he can keep that form up into the start of the season.
I sat down with Liam (Archer) this afternoon and we went through the targets for this season. He wants a mid table finish in the league and he’d like me to get us through at least one qualifying round in the FA Vase. Seems fair and I’m pleased he hasn’t heaped stupid amounts of pressure on me from day 1! The bookies have us down as a mid table side anyway and with odds of 100-1 to win the league, I don’t think many people will be expecting big things for us.
Tomorrow’s the first game of the season. Chuffed to get a home game to kick off and I know we’ll be heavy favourites against SC Thamesmead so hopefully we can get off to a good start!
View attachment 54255 “I’m disappointed to lose today. I didn’t think Gravesham did enough to deserve to win the game and thought we created the better chances. Our strikers had a bit of an off day and we were punished late on with a good goal from them.”
“We turned in a solid, professional performance and did a good job winning this game. We limited them to only a couple of half chances and took our own well. We tried to exploit the wings as much as possible, getting in as many crosses as possible and I think they struggled to cope with us out wide. They were the odds on favorites to win this league this year, so I’m obviously delighted to record a massive victory here.”
Kent Football United (Away) Lineup; Trego, Willis, Ball (Hustwick 64), Tatham, Carruthers, Baffour, Davis, Allen, Logan, Guppy (Palmer 64), Troke
“At kick off, Kent Football Utd were 2nd in the league after winning 3 of their opening 4 games. We knew this was going to be a tough challenge, but although the game was tight, we created the better chances on the day and took them well too! I feel for Kent a little as they probably didn’t deserve to be on the end of such a heavy defeat.”
"We've made a positive start in the league and I'm chuffed to get a few wins under our belts nice and early. Stansfield top the table after winning all of their opening 5 and they look like they'll be a force to reckon with this season!"
On another day when we would have taken our chances, this could of been another story. We were the better side here and put in a really good shift against higher league opposition in Chatham. Gutted not to make the 1st round of the Vase but we met the expectations set at the start of the season by getting this far!
Hi everyone, just wanted to say that I appreciate all the views on my story so far. I am still finding my feet with the best way to do things and as I'm not getting many 'likes' on this I'm thinking of changing the way I am writing the story. It seems that some of the best stories on here give a monthly update so I'm going to give this a go from October (in my save).
Right at the end of September though, I did have one more game in the league and recorded a good win over Snodland.
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