retired_karamelkel

June-August 2007

I rapidly walked back to my apartment clutching my briefcase as it were the nuclear football itself. My heading was spinning from the two pints and the shock of being lost in a new city, no, checks that, a new world. I had no idea what was going on. I let my feet guide me back home. Once inside the apartment, I did a thorough search of the premises. I discover that I had been called “Pascal McIntosh,” which seemed strange, considering that I had never known either a “Pascal” or a “McIntosh.” From the correspondence file I found, I saw that the Alliance challenge had happened here too and that I had agreed to try it. The rules and expectations were the same. Using Google, U ascertained that Dover had indeed won the Premier League title two weeks ago. In addition, they had won the FA Cup, which filled half the goals of the AAC. I would have to win the League Cup and the Prem title for a second time. Calculating rapidly, I realized that I would have a further five seasons to finish the last two legs of the challenge. Vaguely, I wondered if this Pascal fellow was now sitting in my West Ham office and reaching the conclusion that he would have about three seasons to do all four legs of the Challenge. It certainly sounded like I had the better end of the bargain.

As the hours passed, my shock wore off. I began thumbing through the contents of my briefcase. It appeared that I had been using a 4-5-1 and the squad obviously tailored to fit it. As the papers began to pile up, I became very nervous. This Pascal character or whoever U had been was very strange. There was no way I could act like him and pull it off in convincing fashion. So, I wasn’t even going to try People were just going to have to chalk up all the changes to eccentricity ir brilliance. The first thing to go would be this 4-5-1. I had no doubt that it was a good tactic; after all, this team had apparently won the Prem with it. However, I had never used it that I knew of and it’s dangerous to use a tactic you don’t understand. My experience was a 4-3-1-2 so that’s what I would now coach and use. In the age old sports debate of whether to use a regular system, regardless of talent, or to fit the tactic to the personnel, I was squarely in the former camp. Having decided this point, I then called all the staff and informed them hat I had decided to make wholesale changes, and therefore they were all dismissed. The lone survivor of the coach purge was McCabe, who remained because he was a player and a Dover icon. He, however, would be limited to overseeing the conditioning of the players. I also informed him that he would now be playing in the reserves, to help the younger players.

The next morning, I went to my “new” office at the Crabbe. I put in a few phone calls to line up a new coaching staff. Then I held a meeting with the players. As the players entered the room, they didn’t seem too nervous; it appeared that McIntosh was an odd manager, so if they noticed any change, they didn’t let on. However, they quickly became tense as I launched into my speech. I said I was proud of them for winning the Prem title. That made them smile and nod. Then, I said that in order to win a second title, Dover would have to make a number of changes in order to surprise our opponents. That froze the smiles, but worse was to come. When I unveiled the dry erase board and showed them the new system that I was going to install. I saw the smiles disappear from faces of the pure wingers. They knew their job security was up. Sure enough, I put the wingers up for sale later that day. Over the next few days there was a flurry of activity. As staff arrived and left in large numbers. The new staff arrived and began drilling the players in the fundamentals of my 4-3-1-2. Since the new tactic was defensive in mindset like the previous 4-5-1, the focus of training was more focused on technical than philosophical. Craig, for instance, had to learn to work with Lecocq up front. As predicted, the wingers left quickly. McIntyre, Callejia, Oliver, McLeod, Falvre and Rae all left over the summer pre-season, bringing in about 5 million pounds in income. In came a ton of new faces. Some were summer signings made by McIntosh, but others were signings I made to stock the midfield and the reserves. Probably the most important of these signings was Frenchman Dario Rosales, whom my previous incarnation had signed. I made no comparable signings, focusing on creating depth. I had a barrelhead of cash to spend, actually more than I had at West Ham and I used it. By the beginning of the League season, there were 50 players in my usual 25/25 split between first team and the reserves.

To be fair, aside from the players mentioned above, none were sold or released. My predecessor had built a sound squad and so, except for a couple of position switches and the change in tactics, the team remained more or less intact, augmented by the raft of players I brought in. By the end of the summer, I was starting to feel at home in Dover. For starters, the club, unlike West Ham, had no chairman, just a very compliant general manager. For another, Dover had first-rate practice facilities, something that was conspicuously lacking at West Ham. Third, the constant pressure to succeed at West Ham that was fueled by the media and supporters alike was not evident in Dover. The local press and fans were just over the moon at having won the Prem the previous year and therefore were inclined to be generous in their expectations for the upcoming season. All they wanted was a respectable league position. As a result, the workaholic routine I had created for myself at West Ham began to gradually disappear at Dover. I realized that I had been granted a new lease on life and I began to, once again, enjoy managing.

Perhaps I became a bit too complacent. Dover’s 07/08 opened with a trip to Italy in late July for the FIFA World Club Championship. The players were still learning the new system and as a result, the first two group games against a Mexican and a Saudi side ended in scoreless draws, knocking us out of the competition. With nothing to lose in the last group game, we beat Boca 2-0 as new RMC Kevin Hamilton bagged the brace. Dover returned to England for Charity Shield action. We won that game on penalties after drawing 1-1 with Fulham. August concluded with the opening of Premier play. With the players still not quite getting the new system, the home opener against Arsenal and the road opener at Charlton were both 1-1 draws. The draws, while disappointing, were not morale-killers, because Dover Athletic was not based in London. Had those draws happened at West Ham, those faithful would be screaming bloody murder for not winning against London teams. Again, I briefly wondered if McIntosh was at West Ham, whether he was learning about the hell that was London derbies.

Even though there was little pressure on me, I wasn’t happy with the production I was getting out of my new team. With the European season coming up, I decided to reorganize the team. The following 25 players would comprise the European squad and regular first-team. The starter at each position is listed first under each position.

GK:
Guilluame Chevalier
Oliver Abiven
Herve Gatumel

DL:
David Main
Kenneth Murray

DR:
David Perez
Fabrice Landrin

DC:
Regis Batrice
Daniel Poggi

DC:
Max Aimar
Patrice Diawara

Utility Defender- David Munoz

LMC
John Miller
Ian Sinclair

CMC
Dario Rosales
Stuart Quinn

RMC
Ghislain Faure
Keith Hamilton

AMC
Fabian Foulon
Ian Clark

Utility midfielder: Stuart Robertson

FC
Michael Craig
Andy McCann

FC
Pascal Lecocq
Gary Paterson

This would be the first team for the rest of the season, barring sales or long-term injuries. Everyone else was in the reserves. They will either turn into good players or be sold to raise cash.

As it happened I made the roster reshuffle just in time. Dover was awarded 1.8M pounds for being entered into the first group stage of the Champions’ League. We were drawn in Group A with Dinamo (Croatia), Dortmund (Germany) and IK Goteberg (Sweden). Having no clue what this reality was like as far as foreign leagues, I had no idea whether this was a tough, average or easy draw. I guess I would find out soon enough.

retired_karamelkel

The first test of this reconfigured crew would be the Super Cup against Roma. The only starters to get the game off were the injured Batrice, Rosales and Faure. Everyone else fatigued or not, had to play. Only 11,800 fans showed up in Monaco for the game and it was well that the crowd was that small. Dover put up absolutely no fight against Roma and the Serie A giants were up 3-0 by halftime. That didn’t bother me too much. Dover was a tired team and fielding an uncohesive lineup for this ****-ant contest. My main concern during the second half was to make sure that no-one got hurt. Roma added a fourth goal to complete the drubbing. The only good thing was that we had the next two weeks off before going to Derby for a league game on the 18th of September.

In the interval, a number of Dover players went off to play international matches, mostly at the under 21 level. Craig was actually the only member of the team selected to play a full international, playing for Scotland. The break also gave me time to relax. The fans, media and town of Dover were so friendly and loyal that managing here was a piece of cake mentally. The players played hard, trained hard and seemed to enjoy football. Even with the blowout loss against Roma, the team remained optimistic. Part of it was that they were still in shock from my “personality” change. This guy Pascal, who I had supposedly been before, had been an angry, intense manager with a hard demeanor. By contrast, my style was far more laid back. I was a Scot by birth, but ha moved to the US when I was two. As a result, I had grown up watching American sports and absorbed their coaching methods. I had always hated coaches who yelled at their players. As a result, I took a gentle, low-key approach to managing. This approach had worked until I got to West Ham. There, the team and the chairman and the Alliance were egoists. They were prima-donnas, incapable of a winning attitude. As a result, I tried everything, including yelling and fear to motivate them. Nothing really worked. The team refused to listen. Because of all this, I had become a stressed out workaholic. I had become short-tempered and likely to blow up. I had once fined a player 6 months wages because he refused to stay in playing shape. Since arriving at Dover, I had returned to my old self. I was mellow and low-key once more. I was able to show patience with my younger players and actually help coach them. This difference was driven home to me one night as I sat doing research for tactical adjustments. On the net, I had come across a blog that purported to be fiction. However, when I skimmed the contents, I realized it wasn’t fiction at all. It was the Pascal McIntosh story. It told of how he had gotten Dover to the Prem and it made for interesting reading. The latest posts showed him at West Ham, the West Ham I had so suddenly left. I saw that Pascal was struggling with the problems and players that I had. It appeared that the Chairman still refused to improve the facilities and that the Alliance was pressuring Pascal, who had landed in the hospital, to get back to work. I had no idea who Ellen was, but who said it had to be an exact dimension match. I had to admit that I chuckled at Pascal’s predicament. At least, from what I had seen of the Dover days, when Pascal roared, people would listen. I was hoping he could turn West Ham into a winner, while, by comparison, I basked in the sun at Dover. My low-key approach was soon to cause problems.

The day after I started reading Pascal’s ‘fictional’ account, the first of the reservists, McNab, was sold. The displaced left back signed a deal with Portsmouth that would net Dover 750K pounds on December 15, assuming the deal went through. Before I even realized it, the Derby match was upon us. Batrice was still out, replaced by Poggi, but every other starter was fit and ready to play. Craig stunned the hostile, 33,000 strong crowd by going on a run early and capping it with a top-corner drive on 6 to give Dover the early 1-0 lead. However, Derby answered quickly on 13. Then, Faure, freshly recovered from his injuries, stuck a loose ball back into the net to give Dover the 2-1 lead. However, Chevalier was having a bad game for us and promptly allowed the tying goal near the end of the half. Fuming, I sent in Abiven for the second half. Worse, five minutes into the second half, Faure reinjured himimself and Hamilton came in to replace him. Dover did a credible job of holding onto the 2-2 draw. After the game, I was told that Faure would be out for two weeks with a calf strain. That just capped a sour game for us. Dover had yet to lose, or win a game in the Prem and was sitting in 14th place. But, there was no rest for the weary now as we had to travel to Sweden for a Wednesday night game against Goteberg to open group play in Europe. But, things got worse still. We had a spate of attitude problems leading up departing for Sweden. Chevalier was actually absent from training. When I found out, I didn’t warn him, didn’t fine him, but rather, released him. That made Abiven the number one keeper until I could find a replacement. I immediately got to work replacing the disgraced Chevalier by sending the scouts out and my making phone calls of my own. I found a French veteran named Ludovic Jaeger, who looked like a good signing. Julbio accepted our cash offer and we offered a generous contract to Jaeger.

We traveled to Sweden amidst the turmoil. In addition to off-field troubles, we had been bit by the injury bug again. Hamilton was now out. That meant that Sinclair and Robertson were going to have to help Rosales in the midfield. Every other regular draw the nod however, so I had a bit of hope. The game started off badly as a card-happy ref sent Rosales to the showers just two minutes. If this had been West Ham, that would have been the game right there. But, this Dover bunch showed more fortitude. Lecocq and Foulon scored to give us the 2-0 lead by halftime. At that point, Goteberg began playing like they actually had the man advantage and young international Bergman, quickly drew the home side level with a pair of fine strikes. At that stage, given Europe was not a large priority, I would have settled for a draw. However, the fine young men of Dover had more grit than I gave them credit for. First, Robertson, and then Foulon, for a second time, scored to give Dover the 4-2 road win. Based on that match, I decided to make Abiven the number one keeper right then and there, canceling the Jaeger deal. I hoped that the great resolve shown in this contest would manifest itself again on Saturday the 15th, when we would host Oldham at the Crabbe in a return to Prem action.

No changes were made to the lineup for the Oldham contest. A few players were less fit than I would have liked, but because of injuries, they would have to reach down and find the energy to play well. As with the Goteberg game, things did not start well for Dover. Oldham opened the scoring account on 7 when Ramsey beat Aimar to the ball and sent it past Abiven. But, Craig converted a penalty late in the half to tie the game. Then, ten minutes into the second half, Sinclair sent in a corner that Batricle headed into goal to give Dover the 2-1 edge. The nearly 20,000 at Crabbe anxiously watched as we managed to hold onto the lead for our first Prem win of the season.

retired_karamelkel

After that game I was able to walk down to the Sea-Side pub and enjoy a pint of bitter for the first time since, well, I can’t remember. I would have to imagine it hadn’t been since joining the Prem with West Ham way back in 02/03. In terms of real time, that had been eight years ago, but, of course, no one in Dover would have believed it. The pub was filled to the brim with happy fans and reporters alike. When I walked in, everyone raised a glass in my direction and then went back to their conversations. As I sat at the bar, I listened closely to what was being said around me. Apparently, the hot topic of the moment was me, specifically my ‘new’ attitude. The media were agog that, unlike the old Pascal, I would calmly listen to their questions and provide complete answers. The fans were talking about the ‘change’ in my demeanor. Gone was angry, irascible and irritated Pascal, who seemed have been possessed by this strange, low-key, calm and quiet alien. As I heard that theory, I had to chuckle, they weren’t that far off the mark. I finished the pint and tipped the barman generously. I then made my way out of the pub, occasionally stopping to shake hands or even sign an autograph or two. The good burghers of Dover seemed to appreciate their manager, something I was still trying to get used to two months into the season. I was used to pressure from any and all quarters. It was so nice to have the West Ham gorilla off my back. I found myself whistling “Dixie” as I walked back to my apartment. When I got back in, I checked the Pascal blog and found that he’d reamed Langfield for being an un-reliable keeper. No real surprise there, given that there had never been such a thing as a reliable keeper at West Ham during my tenure. I also noticed that O’Conner seemed to be doing much better under Pascal than he’d done for me. I had to wonder how Pascal had managed to motivate him. But, hey, he was no longer my problem. I smiled to myself and got to work on Dover training plans for the upcoming week.

As we prepared for the upcoming game against Dinamo, the local media did a write-up of Foulon and asked me to comment. O said that Foulon was a great young talent, the best I’d seen since François Denquin and Chris Caldwell. The reporters looked puzzled and asked to whom was I referring. I realized that, of course, these folks would have no idea who I was talking about. I cast my mind around for an analogy suitable to this time and drew a blank I had no idea who the young superstars were. So, in effect, I told the reporters that Foulon was a unique talent. I just hoped the youngster wouldn’t feel pressured by such high praise. We would find out soon enough when Dinamo came to Dover for the second round of matches in the Stage 1 group a section. The lineup was manned by all the regulars except for the injured Faure and the suspended Rosales. Robertson and Quinn took their places. As it turned out, I had no reason to worry about Foulon. The youngster picked of the MOM and a goal in our 3-1 pasting of Dinamo. The match had been scoreless at the half as Dinamo managed to repel all our goals on goal, whole we prevented Dinamo from even getting a shot off. The second half saw Dover break through with goals in the 50’s from Perez and Foulon. At that point, Dinamo’s offense scored on their lone shot of the day. However, on 84, Robertson iced the win with another goal to give Dover the 3-1 win. It was a nice performance and I wished that more than 13,500 had turned out to see it. After all, it’s not everyday that that you see your team take 15 shots and hold the opposition to a miserly 1.

The Dinamo game set a record for gate receipts from a single game with 283,000 pounds. To me, the number seemed small. At West Ham, the record was around 600,000 pounds. Then again, Upton Park was double the size of the Crabbe. Again, I was having trouble recalling exact figures from my West Ham days. It seemed that all the new Dove data was crowding out the West Ham info. I was slightly disturbed by this trend. I wanted to remember the London days clearly. That way I wouldn’t make the same mistakes at Dover. Besides, the better I remembered the West Ham days, the more I would appreciate Dover. As it was, the Ipswich game arrived too swiftly for me to dwell too much on what had been. Though the entire lineup was a bit tired, only Main and Robertson got the day off as Murray and Clark took their places respectively. Abiven was named captain for the game. By halftime, the 27,000 at Portman Road were stunned into silence. Their hometown Ipswich side had failed to get a single shot off. Their only consolation was that Dover had failed to score either, taking only four shots and only putting one of those on the money. Nine minutes into the second half Foulon broke the Ipswich defense off the dribble and put the ball in low to give Dover the 1-0. Thirteen minutes later, Craig iced the win with a bullet header off a Perez cross that made the score 2-0, Ipswich never got their offense going, taking just three shots in the second half. This was a great confidence-boosting win as we would have to travel to Dortmund in four days to take on one of Europe’s top teams. The win also put us in 7th place in the Prem, where we had yet to lose a game.

The Dortmund game arrived with little fanfare. This time, it was Perez and Miller who were unfit to answer the bell and they were replaced by Landrin, who would be making his first start of the season and Sinclair. Dortmund was a classy team and they proved it by totally abusing Abiven. The man who had been so solid earlier gave up three goals to the German side in the first half alone. By halftime, I had made a couple of subs to rest key players so they wouldn’t be injured in a meaningless second half. Predictably though, a stare went down in the second half anyway. After the game, I was told that Aimar would be out a week with a bruised thigh. We would be able to move past this loss quickly as we had a home game against Bolton on the weekend. It would also be the last game in September. I would be able to catch my breath and take stock.

In the run-up to the Bolton game, we were drawn into the League Cup third round, a road game against D2 side Coventry. Given that this Cup was one of the missing crown jewels of the AAC, I would have to focus more resources on this game than I normally would have. But first, we had to play Bolton. The good news before the match was that Faure was cleared to regain his RMC spot. The bad news was that Aimar, Foulon and Lecocq all needed the day off. They were replaced respectively by Diawara, Clark and Paterson. Main regained the captaincy after Abiven had failed to rally the troops in the Dortmund game. The 19000 that crowded the Crabbe saw Dover’s defense shut down Bolton in the first half and they raised the roof near the end of the half when Faure looped in a corner that Craig headed into the goal to give the home side the 1-0 lead. With Bolton having lost a man in the first half, the second half was a mere formality. The crowd at Crabbe gave Craig a standing O as I pulled him twenty minutes from the end. The man who really deserved the ovation was defender Perez, who played about as flawless a game as possible. He won the MOM, but, being a defender, not the cheers of the fans.


<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">********************************************* ************************************************** * English Premier Division - Sunday 30th September 2007********************************************** ************************************************** ================================================== ============================================== 2007/8 Table============================================= ================================================== =Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Chelsea 6 2 0 0 5 0 3 0 1 8 2 15 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2nd Man Utd 5 2 0 0 4 2 3 0 0 8 2 15 3rd Everton 7 3 0 0 4 0 1 1 2 3 4 13 4th Arsenal 7 2 2 0 9 3 1 1 1 6 6 12 5th Dover 6 2 1 0 4 2 1 2 0 5 3 12 6th Watford 7 3 0 0 7 2 0 2 2 5 9 11 7th Nottm Forest 7 0 1 2 2 5 3 0 1 5 1 10 8th Tottenham 7 2 0 1 9 7 1 1 2 2 5 10 9th Leeds 6 2 0 0 5 0 0 3 1 4 6 9 10th Liverpool 5 2 1 0 6 3 0 2 0 0 0 9 11th Sunderland 7 3 0 1 10 3 0 0 3 1 8 9 12th Ipswich 7 1 2 1 5 6 1 1 1 6 5 9 13th Bolton 6 3 0 0 5 1 0 0 3 0 4 9 14th Millwall 7 0 2 1 5 6 2 0 2 6 8 8 15th Aston Villa 6 0 1 3 2 7 2 0 0 6 2 7 16th Fulham 7 1 3 0 5 3 0 1 2 1 4 7 17th Oldham 7 1 0 3 2 7 0 1 2 4 6 4 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------18th Derby 6 0 3 1 5 6 0 0 2 0 5 3 19th Charlton 7 0 1 3 0 6 0 2 1 3 4 3 20th Newcastle 7 0 1 2 2 7 0 1 3 3 12 2 </pre>

retired_jgirl87

Aha, I just figured out the switcheroo between yourself and attjen. It's a unique idea and I'll follow your efforts closely. KUTGW Hick :thup:

retired_karamelkel

Cheers Spav

To say things were going well would be an understatement. As September ended, I felt sure that somebody from the organization would win one of the monthly awards, but it didn’t happen. I wasn’t all that worried about it either. If we continued to play the way we were, Dover would be raking in the awards at the end of the season. Dover was a team perched on the edge of greatness and I felt lucky to be managing a group with such strong mental character. To be honest, I was afraid to acquire any players for fear of wrecking the positive vibes of the dressing-room. Still, I needed to pick up another goalkeeper to replace the dismissed Chevalier. But, before I could really get to searching, the October 4th game against Aston Villa. They were one of the teams that I was having to constantly having to remind myself were in the Prem. They, Derby, Everton and, particularly, Oldham just seemed to be out of place to me. But, nobody cared what I thought; Dover still had to play all of them. Aimar and Miller were deemed unfit for the match had been replaced by Diawara and Sinclair respectively. The 19000 fans at the Crabbe were treated to another dazzling display of defense in the first half as Aston Villa failed to even get a shot off. Meanwhile on 36, Faure chipped the ball to Foulon who jinked past a pair of confused defenders and buried the shot to give Dover the 1-0 lead. The second half was much the same. Villa managed to get off two lonely shots and Dover coasted for the last ten minutes as Batricle iced the game on 80 with a header and Clark added a keynote just five minutes after coming on for Sinclair. The 3-0 win showed that Dover was just amazing, but the game raised a concern as well. One that would not bode well for the future. I hoped ten days off until an October 13 game against Fulham would give us time to figure out a solution.

The trouble was the lousy play of Rosales, who just did not seem to be able to play CMC. In eleven games he was averaging an anemic 6.18 and was averaging less than a tackle per game. Normally, I would just put him on the transfer list, but if we sold him, Dover would be another man short in the European roster. In addition, I didn’t feel comfortable making Quinn the starter. In the end, I decided to stick Rosales on the transfer list and keep playing him until he was sold. After all, it’s not like Dover was losing. Understandably, Rosales was upset at being put up for sale. He stormed into my office and demanded, in thickly accented English, to know what the hell I was thinking. Had this been West Ham, and one of those incompetent prima-donnas, I would have blown up and told him to get the **** out of my office. But, this was Dover and my mild manner had returned. I told him to sit down and poured coffee for both of us. I patiently explained to Rosales that he didn’t seem to fit my system that entire well. I told him that I hadn’t known the system would change when he had signed a contract. (I really wanted to tell him that I had not signed him, but that would not have been a good idea.) I told him that he needed a fresh start somewhere else where they used DMCs. I expressed the hope that a team would pick him up forthwith. He left the office looking a bit more cheerful, but that was probably because I told him he was still the number 1 CMC. Shortly after meeting with Rosales, I found a good replacement to fill the third-string goalkeeper role. Toulouse had a young keeper named Frederic Renard, who appeared to have potential. We offered 450K for him and they accepted. His contract demands were easy to accommodate and we signed him a few days later just in time to sit in the stands of the Craven Cottage during the Fulham game. The good thing about the week and a half layoff was that every one of the regulars returned from injury or got fit. Therefore, all the regulars got the nod for this game. On the other hand, a long layoff can result in a flat team. The latter is what happened to us this game. Dover held Fulham to just one shot in the first half, but we only took two shots ourselves. The second half saw Fulham pull ahead 1-0 on 65. They held onto that lead as Dover mounted an offensive surge and fell short. This was our first loss of the Premier season. We would have no time to dwell on the loss as we had to host Dortmund

retired_karamelkel

The night before the Dortmund game, I was sitting in my apartment surfing the net. When I checked out Pascal’s blog, I couldn’t help but laugh. The man was waxing dyspeptic about the “loser attitude” of West Ham. Not that I could blame him, after all, I was the one that had tolerated the situation and let it get so bad. As I sipped the glass of bourbon that would help me sleep the night before a match, I began to ruminate on the West Ham days. Where had it all gone wrong? At one point West Ham was a winning club. We had survived the playoffs in 01/02 to win promotion to the Prem for the 02/03 season. That season and the next were spent consolidating our stay in the Prem and recovering from self-inflicted bankruptcy. Then, things seemed to stall. It seemed that everyone was just satisfied to be in the Prem. Once survival was certain, all the players and the staff seemed to lose ambition to aspire for greater things. Matters were made worse, when trying for a quick fix; I signed several players to excessive contracts in an attempt to upgrade the team in a hurry. In a fit of Steinbrenner economics, I forgot that some players don’t react well to being millionaires. Take O’Connor and Moreira for example. If I remembered correctly, both had pulled down salaries of about 1.5 million pounds a year. Yet, instead of playing like superstars and earning their pay, they laughed all the way to the bank and became fat, lazy and indolent. Now Pascal was paying the piper for my mistakes and I began to feel vaguely guilty. Even if Pascal did hate the world, he didn’t deserve to be at West Ham. But, as I stared at the blog, a new feeling came over me. A feeling of purpose. I had no idea why I was at Dover. I had no idea what had happened. All I knew was that I had been given a chance to be successful and that I had damn well not blow it. This Dover gig might be a cakewalk compared to West? Ham, but I had the sense that I had better not blow this golden opportunity. I had better not repeat the same mistakes all over again. This is exactly the wrong attitude to have the night before facing a European superpower like Dortmund, but I couldn’t help myself. I fell into an unsay sleep that was all too reminiscent of the West Ham days. The next morning, I was bleary-eyed and downed a pot of coffee just to stay alert. My ill feelings increased when the trainer came into the office and told me that Foulon and Lecocq were unfit and best left off the lineup card. I merely grunted and took another large swallow of the bitter black coffee. Clark would play in place of Foulon and McCann in place of Lecocq. I’m not sure what I really needed to be worried about. In front of 12000 die-hards at the Crabbe, Dover held Dortmund to two shots in the first half. It was however, the second half that convinced me that, given a bit of luck, Dover could go all the way. You see, Pascal’s blog had told the tales of a prolific striker named Craig. When I came in, I had noticed that Craig was a good player, but hardly the demi-god that Pascal’s blog mentioned. In my opinion, Craig was a solid, steady producer of goals. My opinion changed in the second half of the Dortmund game. In the first minute of the second half, Miller whipped in a free-kick and Craig muscled his way through a crowd to leap, and nail a spectacular header to give Dover the 1-0 lead. Then, thirty minutes later, Craig struck again to ice the game, beating everyone to a Clark pass and blistering the game0clinching goal for the final 2-0 victory. It was a truly sublime performance and now, I finally understood that Craig was a great player. Call me crazy, but I have seen and now believe.

The Dortmund win put us in the driver’s seat of Group A with a three win, one loss record. We would play Millwall next at home over the weekend. There was one bad note after the game. I decided to banish Rosales to the reserves. He was simply having an awful season and I was tired of his inept play. To take his place on the first-team, I called up Coach McCabe, who would back up Quinn. The change seemed to reinvigorate all the regulars and everyone but Main was fit for duty against Millwall. Main was replaced by Murray. Since Main was normally the captain, the players had to vote for another one and selected Quinn. Nearly 21000 loyal fans crowded the Crabbe in what was easily the largest home crowd of the year. They witnessed a tough, defensive, bruising first half. Neither side gave much quarter nor was it a wonder that the ref didn’t issue more than three cards. The second half proved to have more offense, but neither Dover nor Millwall could break through and the game ended a scoreless draw. No matter, we remained firmly in fourth place in the standings.

retired_karamelkel

The morning after the game I found myself on the computer at my office at a ridiculous hour. I had to admit that my West Ham work habits were starting to become just as bad in this reality with Dover. Never mind that it was my coaches who designed the practice schedule and drills and those they did a lot of the paperwork, I still spent endless hours looking for ways to improve. There’s always one more film to watch, one more idea to consider. Now though, I was looking at the net and checking up on my favorite spectator sports. I also checked Pascal’s blog to read about the latest mishaps at West Ham. I saw that Pascal was launching an investigation into why realities had switched on him. I silently wished him luck. Not that I would actually want to return to West Ham. I had the distinct feeling that Pascal missed Dover more than I missed London. One item from the blog did stand out. In the course of his cross-examination of Ellen, she had told him that people had been worried about ‘his’ health, since he was working himself to death. At least Pascal had Ellen to tell him when to stop worrying about managing West Ham. I had nobody back then and nobody now. I wondered if things had really gotten that bad while I was at West Ham. As the dawn light filtered into the room, I spun around in my chair and stared out the window. Life was pleasant in Dover, but did I really belong here? So far, I had considered this a lark, a vacation from everything. Now, the reality was starting to sink in at last. I was stuck here and I wasn’t likely to go back to London. I had to admit, I missed my family and friends, none of whom existed in this reality. My cell, email, and address books all showed different people. I had lost touch with most of them since my ‘return’ because ‘I’ didn’t have anything in common with them anymore. They were Pascal’s friends, not mine. As a result, I was all alone in this office, with no life outside. But, then, I thought to myself, “So what else is new…it’s exactly the same as it was with West Ham. Different location, different players, different reality, but human nature doesn’t change.” I rubbed the stubble on my chin. It was too damn early for deep thinking. I turned back to the computer to finish reading Pascal’s blog entry. Apparently, he had managed to scare the daylights out of O’Conner. The lad seemed to be finally reconciling his hundred dollar talent with his ten cent head. Chuckling at the thought of Pascal tearing out his hair over O’Conner, I got back to work.

Now our attention turned to facing Goteberg at home. A win on Tuesday would punch our ticket to the second round of group games in the Champions League. The game arrived in due time. I was surprised when everyone but Main and Murray reported fit enough to play. Poggi got the nod at left back, but everyone else was a regular. 14000 Crabbe loyalists saw Dover make mincemeat out of the Swedes early. Perez rang in a corner 29 minutes in for the 1-0 lead and Craig followed up with a penalty four minutes later for the 2-0 lead. Foulon added the coup de grace on 65 and both he and Craig got standing ovations when I pulled them from the game a minute later. The 3-0 win clinched our berth in the second group stage. I could only hope that the crowds would be a bit larger for that competition.

I didn’t realize it until I had a chance to catch my breath before we headed to Liverpool to take on Everton, but both the Millwall and Goteberg games had set records. The former set an attendance record, the fist sell-out in Dover history. The latter was a gate receipts record of just over 300K quid. But all that was secondary to the Everton game. Given that most of the players were tuckered out from the Goteberg game, a patchwork lineup was devised as Diawara, Sinclair, McCabe and Hamilton were given starts. Regulars Perez, Foulon and Craig would be yanked at the first sign of extreme fatigue. The game proved to be difficult. Our vaunted defense cracked and allowed Everton a goal on 33, while a knackered forward crew was having difficulty creating offense. At the half, I pulled a tired Foulon, not wanting to risk his health. Even though we went on the attack in the second half, Everton sealed a 2-0 win on 83 when they converted a penalty. To complete a comedy of errors, Lecocq was sent off for receiving two yellow cards and a bunch of other players on our side got carded as well. The only real positive of the game was that no-one got hurt and that McCabe played well. Now we had four days to focus on the League Cup game against Coventry, which was an important game to the AAC challenge makers. The game would finish off the October schedule on Halloween.

retired_karamelkel

During the intervals between all these games, I managed to keep up with Pascal’s online blog. When he mentioned tracking down a newspaper article entitled ‘The Death of English Football’ by an ’E.K’ and mentioned a note with my initials, I got curious. I went over to the Dover public relations office and inquired as to how long they kept their clippings. They said about five years. I asked them to look up the article that Pascal had mentioned. The young intern seemed to go even paler and he stammered, Are…Are, you sure you…you…want to read that article sir?” I looked him straight in the eye and said in my best country twang from my childhood, “yes, son, I wanna read that article right quick.’ The young intern stared at me…”I’m sorry sir, I didn’t understand you.” I repeated the statement, and growing irritated, my accent increased. The clerk goggled at me. “But sir, that’s not a Scots or French accent.” I yelled at him. “I ain’t from France goddamn it, I’m from Missouri.” The clerk cowered, “Whatever you say Mr. McIntosh.” I calmed down quickly. It wasn’t the kid’s fault that I was stuck in a reality that I still wasn’t used to. At least he hadn’t called me ‘Pascal.’ I was getting used to being ‘Mr. McIntosh,’ or better yet, ‘Mac,’ but I was still apt to go off, or simply ignore people who called me Pascal.

At any rate, I finally got the article from the very subdued clerk. The byline showed it to indeed be written by an ‘E.K.’ the date of the story was in fact, the day before my ‘arrival’ at Dover. I must have missed it in all the upheaval and after reading it, I understood why no one had wanted to show me the article. It was a pure polemic that ranted on and on about how Dover was corrupting English football by fielding a lineup of French and Scots. As I read the piece, I started to chuckle, which by the end, had turned into mad laughter. The clerk looked at me as if I had indeed cracked. But, I hadn’t, the article was indeed hilarious. For one thing, there was no such thing as “English” football anymore. The advent of the Bosman and the EU had seen to that. All Prem clubs, most D1 clubs, a few D2 teams, a handful of D3 teams and even one or two Conference teams had foreign players. That list would expand rapidly if the Scots, Irish and Welsh were considered foreigners. So, ‘English’ football was already dead and why picks on Dover? Granted there was nary an Englishman on the roster, but at least there were British players. Old ‘E.K,’ sure was a hypocrite. I decided to let the article go by without comment, though I did check to see if Ellen Keating was still in this reality. Thankfully we weren’t, meaning she was Pascal’s problem, not mine. I returned to preparing for the Coventry game with a huge grin on my face.

All the regulars got the nod for the game at Highland Road Coventry. We were looking to avenge the 1-0 loss we had suffered to them two years earlier in the same competition. Lecocq scored his second goal of the season on 14 to give Dover the 1-0 lead. We grimly held off Coventry until 81 when Craig iced the win with a bullet header. We thus avenged the loss and moved onto the Fourth round of the competition. The only sour note was that Foulon had pulled up injured on 91 during extra time. He would be out a week and half with a twisted knee.

Having dispatched Coventry, the November portion the schedule was set to begin with a hoe game against Sunderland on the 3rd. Foulon won the YPOM, the first time someone in the Dover organization had been honored since my ‘takeover.’ In an amusing news item, West Ham decided to hire Dean Taylor as their new gaffer. Taylor appeared to be a rather no-account man who had started his managerial career in 2006 with Burnley. I chuckled as I saw the news on my computer screen. Of course, this West Ham team had nothing in common with the group I had managed. Their stars were Daniel Black and R. Diduca and the team was languishing in the First Division. Even the chairman was different, some guy named Andrew Parr. At least it wasn’t Keating; that would have been just too damn weird. Just before the Sunderland game, we received word of who Dover would play in the League Cup 4th. Round, we got Derby at Pride Park in Derby. That was not the draw I would have liked, but it was better than, say, Chelsea. But, we had to face Sunderland first. The lineup against Sunderland was a bit banged up, but the only regulars to get the day off were Perez and Craig due to fitness and Batricle due to suspension. Their places were filled by Landrin, Diawara and McCann. 19000 fans filled the Crabbe and saw a tedious and goalless first half in which each side took precisely two shots. That’s how the game ended as well, which both teams taking four shots apiece. The scoreless draw dropped us to 9th place in the Prem. But, I wasn’t too worried. After all, there was plenty of time to focus on the Prem. This year’s goal was the League Cup. But, the first weekend game of November on the 6th would be the wrap-up game against Dinamo in Croatia.

Since we had assured ourselves of a spot in the next stage, the game would be anti-climatic. Still, we had to play the game. The lineup was a bit banged up, but, again, only three regulars were out. This time it was Miller, Faure and Foulon, who was still out with a twisted knee. Sinclair, Hamilton and Robertson replaced them. Very little happened in the early portion the game. With 8 minutes gone in the second half, Sinclair drilled a shot true to give Dover the 1-0 lead. We retained the lead the rest of the way as Dinamo iced the game by committing an own goal on 81 to give Dover the 2-0 win. The win gave us first place in the Group. Our next game would be in 12 days in a rare Monday night game against Nottingham Forest on November 19th.

retired_karamelkel

The day after Stage 1 ended, the Stage 2 groups were drawn. Dover would get, gulp, Ajax, Barcelona and Inter. Talk about a tough group. On the other hand, the gate receipts would be staggering, even if the Euro powers tuned their noses up at 21000 seats Crabbe. We were also awarded 1,2M pounds for the achievement. Our game with Forest was pushed forward a day to Sunday. On Monday the 12th we sold reservist Nasser Joly to Leicester for 2.1M pounds. The cash gave us 20 million to spend on players, and I started looking in earnest. On Friday, we unloaded Fraser to Mansfield on a free. Much like Pascal in a dimension far away, I had slashed the reserve players price tags to free. On Sunday, in the Prem game of the week, we faced Nott. Forest at Crabbe. All the regulars, but two got the nod for the game. I decided to start McCabe in place of Quinn and Paterson got the start for the suspended Lecocq. 19000 at the Crabbe saw an offensive explosion in the first half. Unfortunately, Dover scored three times in the first half. It started with Foulon on 7, Paterson on 20 and Perez on 34. The latter promptly gave Forest a goal on 41 when his back pass slipped by Abiven. Still it was a great half, but it wasn’t perfect as Batricle had to leave the game just 8 minutes in. The second half was notable only because Clark frosted the cake with a goal on 82 after coming on for Foulon a few minutes before. The 4-1 victory was one of the best of the year and a rare display of offensive fireworks from Dover. We would need that confidence because we would be kicking off the Second Stage of the Champions League against Inter at the Crabbe. Worse was the news that Batricle would be out three weeks with a broken toe. Damn toe bones could ruin the season. But, Diawara should provide a competent replacement for the time being.

A day later, French youth player Trevino signed a youth contract with Dover. The kid would bolster the forward corps in the reserves. The game with Inter arrived much more quickly than I would have liked. The only regulars not to get the start were the injured Batricle who was replaced by Diawara and Foulon, replaced by Clark. Just fewer than 13000 turned up for the game, which was a shame. Dover held Inter shot-less in a brilliant first half performance. Clark slotted home a penalty on 37 to give Dover the 1-0 lead. Inter, like the great team they are, pulled level on 75 when Cetin scored. However, I would take the draw with no complaints. The relentless march of games would continue with an away match at Leeds on Saturday November 25.

The day after the game we signed young Scot Graeme Murray to a youth contract. The only Perez, Miller and the suspended Lecocq got the day off. Landrin, Sinclair and Paterson filled in for them. As usual, there was little action in the first half as Dover held Leeds to a solitary shot. The second half was unpleasant. Leeds’ Sparrow and Shaw scored soft goals to give Leeds the 2-0 victory. Worse was the news that Diawara had twisted his knee and would be out for a week and a half.

We seemed to have stalled a bit on the road. All of a sudden, road games in the Prem were becoming difficult regardless of the opponent. Next up would be another road game. This one was the November 28 League Cup game at Derby. After it, the November grind would be over and the December schedule would begin. The lineup for the Derby game included all the regulars except Quinn. McCabe played in his spot and Poggi played for the injured Diawara. The less said about the game, the better. I’ll confine my remarks to commenting that the referee was a sadist, a homer, and a Dover hater. By the 50th minute, both Abiven and Lecocq had been ejected. Remarkably, given the ref, we were only behind 1-0. The latter ejection doomed us to nine miens and Derby’s little got the clinching goal on 81 as they knocked us out of the League Cup completion. With that loss, the focus of the season shifted to attempting to win the Premier for a second time. The refocus would begin on the weekend with a home game against Man U on December 1.

I appealed the suspensions of both Abiven and Lecocq and I bitterly denounced the ref to the news people. /The FA said they agreed that the standard of officiating was bad. However, I wanted action, not words. But, with regard to the official, but words were all would happen. November then ended with the news that the FA had allowed Abiven’s three game suspension to stand. Lousy buggers. The result of all this was that a tense Dover team had to face a tough opponent in Man U. At least the game was at the Crabbe. It was a tired and cranky bunch that went out there. All the regulars except the injured ones, Main and Miller got the nod. Murray and Sinclair took the spot of the latter two. Quinn was voted game captain by the rest of the starting 11 and they went into battle against the better-known Manchester team. The first half was thrilling as the vaunted Red offense failed to get a shot off. Meanwhile Dover was peppering the Man U goal with more offensive vigor than usual. Unfortunately, Sabin, the Man U keeper was having a career day, saving left, right and center to keep us off the board as well. To the disappointment of the 19000 fans, the second half was all Man U, as the big Red offense roared to life and started harassing a tired Dover defense. Still, they were unable to put the ball into the net and the game ended a scoreless draw. The point dropped us to 10th place in the Prem and I was starting to feel very worried again. The initial blush of success had passed and now a grim reality took hold in my mind. Things were not as bright and cheerful; instead, I felt the grind beginning to take hold. My mood was made more depressed by the fact that our next game was against Barcelona at the Nou Camp, which would be, given our road form of late, be a manifestly difficult game. At least after the game, Dover wouldn’t have to worry about Camion’s League action until February 12, 2008.

retired_swmchick2006

Congrats on your grand and flame! :thup: