retired_rosa

Hi all, just a few quick notes.

The game is being played on Football Manager 2008 with the 8.0.1 patch installed. The leagues loaded are, the English Leagues down to Conference North and South and the Scottish Leagues down to the Third Division, all being playable. Also, all players from England are loaded.

Please note that I play Football Manager as realistic to real life as possible. This means I do not use the ‘Search’ screens to find players or staff. I use the job centre to advertise for staff and use scouts to find and look at potential signings.

Other ways I use to find players include looking at the top scorers and stats lists, scouting the players which have been identified by my scouts before a game as a ‘key man’ and also any players that play well against me. Again I will scout these players before I make an offer for them. This adds more realism for me and provides more of a challenge! I hope this will also make my story a bit more unique than others!

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this story and please give me some feedback! I will update it when I can as I work all week and only play FM when the missus is out!

17-2-2005

“But I got up yesterday”, “But I got up yesterday”, “But I got up yesterday” boomed out the voice of Homer Simpson, this was followed by a large thud and then silence.

Lee Owens stirred, sleepily opening his eyes to look at his Homer alarm clock, the time on it showed 9:15 am. Lee sat up in bed trying to remember how he got home the night before and then squinted from the pain of his pounding head.

“That’s the last time I go out drinking the night before a game” he thought to himself for the thousandth time in his life.

Lee then jumped out of bed, trying to ignore his steaming hangover, looked out of the bedroom window to see a dark, blustery day, took a quick shower, grabbed his boots and shin pads and jumped into his car to make his way to the local council pitches for his Sunday League game.

Lee is a local Sunday League footballer who plays in midfield for The White Lion Inn, and although pretty useful on the pitch had never gone any higher in football than playing in the local Sunday League.

Upon reaching the car park of the local pitches he could see the usual motley crew of his team mates, most of who were still half cut from the night before. Lee parked up and went to join them.

“Alright lads” was met with a few muffled responses of “Alright mate” and “Alright Lee” to which Lee responded with

“How many we got today then?”

“We got the bare 11 mate, John’s in no fit state to play, Bazza’s working, Kev went back to that birds house who he pulled last night and isn’t answering his phone, and Chris is still injured.”

“Oh great” replied Lee,

“If Kev ain’t here, who’s managing and picking the team?”

“Dunno” came the response from most of the players.

Lee was peed off, “same old, same old” he thought to himself.

Lee was a committed player, who always turned up to training and games whether he was ill, hanging or had to let his girlfriend down, and he could never understand why anyone would want to miss having a game of football on a Sunday morning, after all, you only get the opportunity once a week and its always a good crack with your team mates.

Lee and the team then made their way to the tightly spaced training rooms, where the team changed into their off colour, damp kit, moaning and groaning about having to play on a Sunday morning with both a hangover and a soaking wet kit!

“We got the lot who are top and haven’t lost for 3 seasons, haven’t we?” said Lee, trying to make some conversation other than the moaning,

“Yeah we have, and it looks like we’re in for a hammering” came the reply from most of the team.

Lee was always the one who had the most ideas within the team and decided now was the time to put these into practice.

“Ok lads, as the manager isn’t here, I’ll have a go at picking the team, if that’s alright with you boys?”

Most of the team answered with “Yeah, Yeah” and “Go for it mate”

“Right then lads, we’re go for a 4-5-1 then” Lee said enthusiastically,

“We know their the top scorers in the league and that they have the best creative players, so we can counter this with 5 across the midfield, this should stifle their creative players which will hopefully prevent them making too many chances and we can at least keep the score down!”

“Now come on boys, let’s have a good crack at them and try and get something out of this game”

The ref blew his whistle for kick off and the game took the usual Sunday League stance, tackles flying in everywhere, misplaced passes and abuse shouted at the ref but then a flash of genius from the oppositions number 9 meant The White Lion Inn were 1-0 down with just 5 minutes gone.

“Come on lads, keep your heads up and let’s try and keep our shape” Lee shouted to his team mates, more in hope than anything else.

The game continued with a few chances going begging from wayward shots which wouldn’t have looked out of place if Jonny Wilkinson had taken them.

With the ref looking at his watch, ready to blow for half time, a quick 1-2 by Lee and Jambo, the White Lion’s striker, ended up with Jambo slotting the ball past the opposition goalie to make it 1-1.

Half time came and Lee tried to rally his troops,

“We can do this; we’re winning all the battles in midfield and are controlling the game. If we don’t let in an early goal we can go on to win this. Come on lads let’s do this and get the 3 points today”

Lee noticed the rest of the team had now lost their drunken state and were really fired up for the game, maybe it was his half time team talk or maybe they knew they only had 45 minutes until they could go down the pub!

The second half started and straight away The White Lion got stuck in and were knocking the ball around with ease, the score remained the same until 10 minutes from time, when a cracking passing move between the midfielders ended up with Jambo smacking the ball home from 20 yards to put them 2-1 up.

Lee barked out orders for the last 10 minutes of the game, the midfield battled and helped the defence whenever they were needed and also supported the attack where possible. At last, the ref blew for full time and The White Lion’s players celebrated like they had won the FA Cup Final, and after handshakes and well done's all around with the other team, they made their way back to the dressing room.

“Nice one lads, that was quality and it takes something special to beat that lot” Lee happily said to the rest of The White Lion team.

“It was all down to you Lee” came the reply from Jambo,

“You organized us and playing a 4-5-1 was a great idea. You also got us playing well and really geed us up at half time to go for the win. You ought to be a proper manager mate, apply for the England job!”

Lee laughed at this, as did the rest of team, but this also made him seriously stop and think.

“I’d love to be a football manager, beats working 9 to 5 all week. Plus I’ve just managed 11 half-cut players to a win over a team who haven’t lost for 3 seasons. I can’t be too bad at it!” he thought to himself.

“Come on daydreamer” Jambo shouted to Lee, snapping him out of his thoughts

“We’re off to the pub”

With that, Lee followed the rest of the team out of the changing rooms and to the local.

retired_rosa

3-6-2007

“Hi, my name is Lee Owens and I’m here for an interview with Paul Bliss”

Lee had just arrived at the reception of Woodspring Park, the home of his hometown club Weston-super-Mare.

“Hello Mr Owens, please take a seat, Mr Bliss will be with you shortly” came the reply from the Weston receptionist.

Lee sat down and waited for Mr Bliss to arrive. For the past two years, Lee had made some major decisions in his life which meant leaving his job and career and using his savings to embark on several FA and UEFA coaching courses which had resulted in him achieving the UEFA ‘B’ coaching license.

A well dressed man approached Lee:

“Ahhh, you must be Lee, I’m Paul Bliss, nice to meet you”

“Hi Mr Bliss, nice to meet you too. Thanks for giving me the chance of an interview”

“Come on in to my office and let’s have a chat”

Upon making themselves comfortable, Paul got straight down to business.

“So tell me Lee, why do you think you’d make a good manager of this club?”

Lee paused for several seconds but had already prepared his answer for this type of question.

“Well Mr Bliss, as you have obviously read on my CV, I have achieved my UEFA ‘B’ coaching license after completing many other FA approved coaching courses. Although I have no previous managerial experience, I have lived in this town all of my life and have played local football for many years. Therefore, I have a very good knowledge of both the local footballing scene and of potential talent which could benefit this football club for many years to come. I also know what this club means to the supporters and feel that although I'm an unknown in the footballing world, I am a local, and the supporters would be in full support of me.”

“I also feel with there being several league clubs within a 50 mile radius of Weston, we could link up with some of these clubs as a feeder club, which would benefit us as the league club would loan us their up and coming players.”

“I like that answer” said Paul with a smile on his face.

For the next hour and a half, Lee and Paul discussed all things football, from the local scene to the national side. They also talked about the town of Weston-super-Mare itself as they were both Weston born and bred, and both realised they had a lot in common.

Paul seemed to take very well to Lee and liked and agreed with both his views on football and how it should be played. With a lack of candidates for the job and pre-season looming fast, Paul also knew he was going to have to take a gamble if he wanted Weston to start heading in the right direction.

“The only thing that worries me is your lack of managerial experience, but there is no doubt you have the required qualifications and the only way to get experience is to gain it. To be honest I haven’t had much response to the vacant manager position.”

“Obviously with our financial position and with us finishing second from bottom but only being reinstated to the Conference South due to Farnborough’s financial difficulties and the Hayes and Yeading merger, we’re not much of attractive proposition to most experienced managers. But I like you and having read your CV and spoken with you I’m going to go with my instincts on this one and give you a chance.”

“Really?! That’s great!” came the surprised response from Lee

“Yes, but you might not be so keen when I tell you our financial situation.” replied Paul who really wanted Lee to know the bad points of the club before he committed himself.

“We currently have enough money in the bank for the day to day running of the club but there is no money available at all for bringing any players in."

“We also only get crowds of around 250 to 300 for a home game, so until we achieve some success, bringing in money for transfers without selling any of the squad is nigh on impossible.”

“I understand Paul, I am fully aware of Weston’s financial plight and know that the crowds have never really gone up over the years.”

“Correct Lee, but I feel with some success we can get achieve higher attendances. Woodspring Park currently holds 3000 and the potential in this town is there."

"We can give you a players and staff wage budget of £2800 per month and our aim this season is just to avoid relegation. I would also like to offer you a 3 year contract of £325 a week”.

Lee took this all in and thought about it for a few minutes. He knew he could get by on £325 a week and he also knew this was an ideal opportunity to get himself on the first rung of the football management ladder.

“I’ll accept” came Lee’s reply

“But I feel we should be aiming higher than just trying to avoid relegation and I feel I can achieve a mid table position this season.”

“That’s the spirit!” Paul responded positively

“If you are that confident, I’m sure we can stretch the players and staff budget to £3300 a month”

“That would be great Mr Bliss” replied Lee, who knew that at this level an extra £500 a month is the difference between bringing in 2 or 3 good players.

“Is there any chance you also look into the possibility of forming some sort of link with a local professional club too?”

“No problem Lee, I’ll put it to the rest of the board at the next board meeting. Now let’s sign this contract and I’ll see you at 8 am on Monday 11th June”

Without any hesitation Lee signed the contract while Paul poured out a large brandy for each of them and made a toast:

“To the future of Weston-super-Mare AFC. Local boys onwards and upwards”

retired_brianrt

Just thought I would be the first to comment. For a first story, the start is excellent. Good narrative, good descriptional writing, and if it carries on in this vein you will have many a reader. Keep up the good work young man :thup: