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The SPL was formed in 1998 and ever since then the Old Firm has dominated the league. In fact Celtic have won the league five times and Rangers four. And no-one else has ever won it since then. Now I’m on a mission to change that and I shall be doing it with Kilmarnock.....
I had never expected the call to come but it did. I’d never been back to Rugby Park since my playing days, too many bad memories you see. So that’s why when the call came through that Michael Johnston wanted to see me I was surprised. I assumed everyone at the club had forgotten about me. I suppose I hadn’t exactly set the world alight but I was by far and away the best player at the time. I never thought that he wanted to talk to me about the vacant manager job but when he did I was all ears. The wages were rubbish: a meagre £950 per week. But I hoped that would be raised in time if I did my job.
Billy Brown, the assistant manager, told me that Allan Johnston our left winger was the best player at the club closely followed by left back Garry Hay. This was the line up he recommended for me:
GK: Alan Combe
DR: David Lilley
DL: Gary Hay
DC: Simon Ford
DC: Frazer Wright
MR: Danny Invincible
ML: Allan Johnston
MC: Gary Locke
MC: James Fowler
SC: Gary Wales
SC: Aime Koudou
Our best youth players were apparently Craig Bryson and Ryan O’Leary. I’ll certainly keep a close eye on them.
That was the line up. Since I didn’t know much about these players, I decided to stick with this and the formation. Certainly those two promising players should get a decent run in this season but otherwise I don’t like to change the line up much unless I have to or we are doing terrible.
I surveyed training for half an hour from the stands. Craig Bryson and Danny Invincible stood out but I didn’t take any part of the session. I’m not one for getting involved. However I was not impressed with my strike force and made a mental note to look into buying another. Also having assessed the squad list, I was happy with the depth of the side except for the strike force again. This reinforced my desire to do something about it and I really wanted to get a great striker. This was something that I couldn’t really do however after the meeting I had with the chairman. As it was they wanted me at least to achieve continental qualification and for that they were willing to give me a meagre £35,000 transfer budget and a £29,500 wage budget whilst we were spending £27,500 already. As saying I would win the title would only get me 15k more transfer budget for an extremely hard task that even I didn’t expect to complete, I reluctantly accepted this poor offer. Thus my thoughts for a great striker went right out the window.
After this I went to a press conference where I would be introduced by the chairman to the media and fans. It was very brief and I didn’t say anything apart from: “I want to take this club onto bigger and better things and with the backing of the board and fans I believe we can do it.” After 15 minutes I got up and walked out. As I was walking down the corridor I was approached by a lady. “Nicola Brown, Kilmarnock Times...” “Not now” I butted in without looking up or breaking stride. But when I did finally look up I saw staring at me the most wonderful looking lady I had ever seen. I was so caught up in her I didn’t look where I was going and in doing so I smashed into a door. “Are you alright?” she asked. “Fine” I replied briskly before hurriedly walking away. This first week in charge was going to be fun.......
Author Notes
Using FM08 original version. Large Database with the following countries top leagues loaded up:
•England
•France
•Germany
•Spain
•Italy
•And Scotland
This is my first story I have done so bear with me. I don’t know how successful it will be or what is going to happen so I’d appreciate your support.
With the first game looming I decided not to alter my pitch size but Hearts had signed my Goalkeeping Coach Stuart Mclean. I hired a new coach to add to my collection of three: Matt Marshall and a new GK Coach former lower league player: Matthew Greatonex. Dundee Away Friendly
We went straight into our first match against Dundee. I used the assistant recommended line up of:
GK: Harpur
DR: Lilley
DL: Hay
DC: Murray
DC: O’Leary
MR: Invincible
ML: Gibson
MC: Bryson
MC: Locke
SC: Fernandez
SC: Koudou
I told the lads I expected a win and that is what we got. Our first chance and goal came in the first minute when O’Leary tapped it in from a corner. Both sides had chances but neither could take them. I encouraged the team at half time and made two changes. Johnston came on at left midfield for Gibson and Jarvis came on up front for Koudou. We scored our second ten minutes after the restart when Jarvis turned in a lovely Invincible cross. Later substitute Gary Wales missed an absolute sitter but it didn’t matter we got our first win.
After the match both Blues and Wigan made offers of £65,000 for hot prospect Ryan O’Leary. We were given 16/1 odds of winning the title behind Celtic, Rangers and Aberdeen. Bearing in mind our pitiful transfer budget I secured the loan signing of young right winger and striker Roy O’Donavon. He was only 21 and was very fast with a decent shooting ability. He should get a run in this season. Notts County Away Friendly
We used the same line up as we did against Dundee with O’Donavon making the bench. We had early chances in Fernandez and Koudou but no score. We dominated the first half and got our reward in the 37th minute when Bryson smashed the ball against the bar and Gibson was there to tap in from close range. A host of substitutes came on at half time including Roy O’Donavon and he proved crucial in getting our second win. First he scored in the 72nd minute. Willie Gibson floated in a cross and O’Donavon was there ahead of the keeper to knock it in. He made it 2 for him and 3 for us just 3 minutes later, this time James Fowler passed to him in space and he slotted it in to the bottom corner.
Well things have certainly started well for me. Two decent wins and a good prospect signed on loan. We’ve got Hednesford in three days before another friendly. And then we’ve got a tough season opener away to Celtic. You can’t get any worse.
Derby told The Sun that they wanted to sign Ryan O'Leary. I promptly issued a hands off warning and told them where to shove their offer. I had a meeting with the players represantive in the afternoon to decide on player bonuses. I hoped that if I gave them higher bonuses that would be an incentive for them to do well this season.
I decided not to even attend the last two friendly's and I didn't need to really go to the Hednesford with the lads as we took a fairly comfortable 2-0 win home. Combe, Lilley, Gibson and Invincible all signed new one or two year deals. Ryan O'Leary told the media he was tempted by Derby. But frankly I couldn't care less he wasn't going anywhere. We then beat Southend 1-0 in our final friendly. That meant we had won each and every friendly that were, incidentally all away from home. The next day i had a press conference with Locke and Fowler to announce that they would be captain and vice respectively.
One of our scouts, John Harvey, joined Wigan so I placed an advert but have yet to recieve an answer. We rtecieved news from the Finance department that we had sold 4634 season tickets this season which was OK but we could do better. Then, our youth coach Allan Johnston, joined Blackburn which really ****ed me off because all my staff had been signed up by bigger clubs. I couldn't be bothered signing another so we would have to manage with one for a while.
My birthday had come along quicker than anything but as I hadn't been with anyine since I broke up with Kerry 13 months ago and I'd only just moved so I barely knew anybody. This meant I stayed at home for my 34th.
Gordon Strachan was mouthing off in the press that they would beat us on Saturday and I couldn't be bothered to get involved with that fat idiot so I left it. We had odds of 4/1 to win in the hardest fixture of the season so no-one really expected us to win at all.
Celtic SPL Away
I lined up with this team:
GK Combe
DR Lilley
DL Hay
DC O’Leary
DC Ford
MR Jarvis
ML Gibson
MC Locke
MC Johnston
FC O’Donavon
FC Koudou
It didn't start well as we fell behind after just 2 minutes to a Donati shot. Just 8 minutes later Shunsuke Nakamura made it 2 with a sweet volley. I was not impressed. From the sidelines I was laying into every player. They had a goal ruled out just befire halftime but it didn't matter. I didn't speak to the players at halftime and went to sit high in the stands for the second part of the game. Petty, I know but I was really annoyed. I phoned down to Brown and told him to get Koudou off for Gary Wales and then told him to do whatever else he wanted. I was getting a massive amount of stick from the Celtic fans in the second half and they had more to cheer about when Vennegoor made it 3 and Brown 4 by the 70th minute. I could barely stay for the last 20 and when the whistle blew, I got straight up and walked out. I was hounded by press as I left Celtic Park but I told them all to **** off and where they could stick their bloody microphones. I quickly jumped into my Audi and sped off to my flat. When I was there I got into bed and pulled the covers over my head. Not a good start. Celtic 4-0 Kilmarnock
Content is excellent but can I voluteer up just a little suggestion, no not a criticism by any means. But it would make it a bit more readable if you had a bit more white space, you know lines between paragraph's etc.
On the other hand ignore me and continue to write however makes you happiest.
Kilmarnock: The Golden Years 
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