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In early 2000 a group of young American university students gathered in a bar in Missouri. Over bottles of Missouri’s finest, they discussed politics and life. They came to the consensus that the Republicans were going to take over the country in November 2000 and each wanted out before that could happen. Each of the six students decided to finish their education in Europe. Two of the students, who were more liberal, headed to Holland. Two of the students decided to go to Rome to finish their studies. One student decided to go Oxford for his degree. I chose a different path from the rest of them; I went to the University of Edinburgh to finish up my history degree. As we made our plans to head to Europe, we made an agreement to meet in a pub in London in six months.
Well, each of us finished a semester in Europe and in July we met at a pub in London. We were all sports fans, and the first topic of discussion was the lack of sports for Americans in Europe. No football, baseball, and the basketball were alien to us. As it turned out, a couple of the group had wealthy friends back in the States. Over mugs of bitter, warm, English **** we hatched an idea. We would finance our own soccer team that would improve America’s international image. In addition, it would give us business experience that would look good on our resumes in years to come. Plus, it would be fun.
The first question was who would finance the project? Michael Hayes, who had been a student at Duke, knew several rich friends who would bankroll us. He also was the one who suggested that we be a corporation and raise capital by selling stock. With the money issue settled, we turned to the next question: Where would we play? This provoked some heated discussion. There was sentiment for Holland, Italy, and Scotland. The first two were rejected as being impractical. None of us could speak the lingo of those countries well enough to start a business. Scotland received general support; until I pointed out that the Scots league is a closed monopoly league. Even with Airdrie going bust, it would cost a premium to buy out a team. England was deemed the choice of country to begin our venture. Which led to the question of where we could start out? Normally, we would have to begin at the very bottom and work our way up the league ladder. But, I had heard rumors that Margate in the Conference was having financial trouble. I figured they would take a million dollar buyout to vacate the Conference. Another generous payment to the FA would cause that body to look the other way. The team would play in London and I agreed to serve as manger and GM while Oxford Mike would serve as CEO.
With funding secured and a league to play in, we next turned to the task of figuring out stadium issues. We decided to buy some land in a London suburb. We would initially build a 5000 seat stadium with enough land around it to expand to 50,000. Being American and serious about our teams, we gave the stadium the best practice facilities and a youth academy. We also put a retractable roof on the stadium. We decided to call the stadium “Yankee Stadium.” The last bit of business on the informal agenda was the name of the team, whose uniforms would be dark blue/white at home, red/white away and white/dark blue as a third alternative. We kicked a few names around, but finally decided on: American Exiles Football Club, or AXFC for short.
Over the next year, our new club took shape. Hayes and I oversaw the creation of the club. We acquired the land, got the stadium built and all the sundries of club management squared away. By July of 01 we were ready for business and the English Conference loomed. I only had a month to hire staff for the coaching and playing duties. Fortunately, our backers and stockholders granted us an even 500K pounds for expenses. It was time for the American invasion to begin.
To be fair, we got a late jump on signing players and such since we were a new club and not familiar with English football club rules. When my office at the Yank was ready I moved in and set to work. The first couple of days were used to make sure that the phones, fax, high speed internet and stats service databases were working. This was an American operation after all and we were a professional status ball-club. We weren’t about to stint on equipment. Two days later, satisfied that everything was in working order, began to make numerous phone calls. I had to find a coaching staff, scouts, trainers and players within a month. It meant 16 hour office days for me. I first made calls to interested coaches. Neil McNab joined quickly, as did top assistant Paul Childs. Both of these men were interestingly enough, English and American. They were also the only full-time coaches on the staff. These rests of the coaching duties were taken up by veteran players such as Stephen Young, Steven Thomas, Lee Weddall, and young coaching prodigy, Stephen Driver of Ireland. Next, I culled the web and phonebook to find men interested in scouting for us. One man had simply sown up on our doorstep requesting a job as scout. After his references checked out, he became the first scout hired by AXFC. The man was quickly dispatched to find youth talent for us to develop. In due course three other scouts joined us and they were assigned the England, Scotland and youth beats. With the front office staff filled, it was time to find players.
At this point, I feel obligated to point out that our backers are not like Max Griggs or Abramovich at Chelsea. We do not have boatloads of money to spend. Hayes told me that the backers were willing to release 230K pounds to procure players. Now, that amount is Impressive when you only need to buy two or three players to round out a team, but it doesn’t go far when you are trying to put together a competitive 23 man first team. In fact, that works out to 10K per player for transfer and signing bonuses. Since my scouts really hadn’t had time to really be able to recommend anyone to me, most of the early player procurement fell to me. I used every resource available to me to find interested players. At first, many were not keen to join an unknown club, but as we filled out the front office and the scouts began looking for players, our stock rose a bit. The first full-time player to join AXFC was Jeremy Chandler, a left back, who came over from Welsh League side Afran Lido for 16,000 pounds. During our “spending spree” the highest amount I spent on a player was to Irish League side Monaghan United. We paid 55K for their goalkeeper, Mark Browne.
As I mentioned earlier, it can be difficult to start a team from scratch with only 230K and the money dwindled fast. Before two weeks were up, even with a policy of no signing bonuses, the money ran out. By that time however, my scouts had gotten off their duffs and recommended and listed a few players in their searches. As a result, we had a number of free agents to choose from and we signed a fair number. Gradually, the roster took shape as we sped towards our home opener against Dag and Red.
August brought with it the first stockholders report. While the board was looking forward to the season, the people who had bought shares had reason to be nervous. We had made roughly 600 pounds in income and had nearly 300,000 pounds in expenditures. While most of the expenses were one time, such as transfer fees and signing bonuses, three lines on the report were a cause for concern. First, the monthly payroll looked to be 10,000 a month and would only rise. Second, and more ominous, was the stadium upkeep bill at nearly 50,000 pounds a month. Last was the 2,000 pounds for the nebulous “other” category. I could only hope these were fixed and that we could cover them eventually.
I did not decide on a first team or a starting lineup until three days before the Dag and Red game on the 18th of August. The problem was that few players stood out. Everyone was equally bad. Still, I did finally pencil in a first team. Starters are listed in bold on this depth chart.
Gk: John Browne (Irish 29) Robert Brook (Welsh 26)
DL: Neil Durkin (English 25) Jeremy Chandler (Welsh 29)
DR: Robert Mutchell (English 27) Declan Cooley (NI 25)
DC: Brian Mitchell (Scottish 38)
Steve Thornber (English 35) Steve Ward (English 27)
Stephen Thomas (Welsh 37)
LMC: Stephen Young (NI 34) Stephen Driver (Irish 22)
CMC: Shu Fatid (Scots/Bangladesh 19) Moses Apillinga (English 22)
RMC: Chris Duffy (English 29) Lee Weddell (English 32)
AMC: John Howard (English 29) Jason Purcell (Irish 27)
FC: Lee Bradley (English 19)
Chris Gordon (English 19) Andrew Dallas (Scot 27)
Glen Kirkwood (English 24)
Don’t feel bad if you don’t recognize any of these players. Most have kicked around their home league in the lower divisions. That’s why, for the most part, they came cheap. Some like Brian Mitchell retired years ago, but decided to play one more time. Only a couple of these players are youth prospects with bright futures ahead. I chose to go with age, unless a youth player showed superior talent- which admittedly didn’t take much. Another decision was reached prior to the first game. We would not accept uniform advertising, which is banned in the US, so we weren’t going to do it here. We would offer other forms of advertising to possible sponsors.
Opening day arrived amid little fanfare. We hadn’t sold any season ticket packages, so many people had to stand in line to get their tickets. All told, a decent sized crowd of 1183 showed up at Yankee stadium for our inaugural match. Thankfully, it was a bright sunny day and hot too- hot for England that is. The thermometer showed 82 degrees. It was a perfect day for the official debut of AXFC. I’m sure that our gleaming new blue uniforms dazzled many in the crowd as the starters and bench players were introduced. As Bradley was still out with a twisted knee, Dallas took his spot in the lineup. Dag and Red were probably impatient to start the mach, but we held up the beginning of the match for opening day festivities. The game did finally commence about a half hour after the announced time.
By all that is good and proper in sports, Dag and Red should have done more than they did. Our initial performance was terrible. We spent most of the first half on our side of the pitch and couldn’t get the ball out of midfield. However, the one ball that got out was carried into enemy territory by young Fatid, who lobbed a pass to Howard, who was rushing forward to take advantage of the break. On 19 then, Howard fired a laser beam into goal to score AXFC’s first competitive goal and to give us our first lead: 1-0. The Redbridge side continued to dominate possession and to control the game at will. Browne had to earn is meager paycheck a couple of times in the first half, coming through in superb style. Meanwhile, the veterans on our side were calmly soaking up the Redbridge attack. Then, in injury time near the end of the half, Fatid directed a free kick to somewhere. The ball bounced free until Thornber picked it up, drew a bead, and blasted it into goal to put AXFC up 2-0. During halftime the lads were excited, but I reminded them that Dag and Red were kicking our ass every way except the score-line. But they didn’t listen to me, they were all too excited. I had had them playing defensively since our first goal and that didn’t change. The second half saw Dag and Red continuing to dominate all phases of the game. By game’s end, they had held the ball 70% of the time. Not only was that, but 40% of the match spent in our side of the field, with the opposition holding the ball most of the time. Still, our defense held firm. Browne made one spectacular save and then, on 73, cracked, letting in a Redbridge goal to make the score 2-1. In all this, Thornber managed to injure his knee and was replaced by Cooley. The last five minutes saw Kirkwood coming in for a fatigued Dallas as we fought to preserve our eventual 2-1 victory. Although it was sweet to win our first ever game, we couldn’t rest on our laurels as we had a game at mid-week against Morecambe at their pitch.
No major news happened UN the run-up to the Morecambe game. We went after a few more players, including a young 18 yr old forward who may have the talent to start right away for the first team. The evening of Tuesday August 21 was a cool one at Christie Park. Only 850 showed up to watch the game. Several of my players were relatively unfit for duty, so backups Chandler, Ward, Driver, Apilinga and Kirkwood all got the start. Thornber and Bradley were still out with injuries, Thornber a twisted knew and Bradley a calf strain.
We started out much better against Morecambe than we had in our previous game. Although the home side eon the possession battle throughout the game, we were able to move the ball better and created more chances for ourselves. However, it was Morecambe’s Rogan who opened up the scoring on 20 when he took a McFlynn pass and blasted it past Browne. We remained calm and composed, taking advantage of Morecambe’s cautious style of play to speed up the pitch and take our shots on goal. On 35, we earned a corner. Mutchell took the corner, swung it in to Kirkwood, who rose in the air and nodded the ball past Mawson to tie the game at one-all We went into the half felling good about our play. I told the team to play defensively in the second half and see if we could earn a point form this game. On 53, I pulled a struggling Gordon for Dallas. We were ably handling Morecambe, who seemed unwilling to take any risks that might jeopardize the tie. Of this was their intent, it went for naught as at 75, Mitchell took a vicious free kick that found a wide open Howard, who slotted the ball in to give AXFC the 2-1 lead. Fifteen minutes later that was the final score, as Morecambe were unable to rally. This was a much more satisfying victory and it gave us confidence and hope heading into our next game, a home contest against Telford on Saturday.
The following days prior to the Telford match saw a bit of a first team shakeup. 31 year old Englishman Neil Lyne was signed to provide depth at the LMC position. He would back up Young for the time being. To make room on the roster for him, Driver was sent to the reserves. Several other players joined us as well and the roster was getting fairly full. Most of the reserves could be easily released if it came to that as nearly everyone was on 5,000 pounds a year contract.
Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium was a hot humid affair. The mercury hovered at the 81 degrees and the wet grass was steaming. The entire regular lineup minus Thornber and Bradley, who were replaced by Ward and Dallas respectively, took the pitch to face league leaders Telford. Only 960 some fans showed up, a disappointing number considering the previous total on opening day. They got to see a team in disarray.
The game started well enough for AXFC. We were holding Telford at bay and got two chances in the first 20 minutes. We scored on one of those chances when Gordon took a short clearance and ran through a confused The Telford defense, rounded the keeper and put the ball into the net to give us the 1-0 lead. Telford soon asserted them however and we quickly found ourselves with our backs against the wall. Telford was without mercy in their attack and only brilliant play by Browne kept the scoreboard blank throughout the first half. At halftime, the trainer looked over Howard and told me he was hiding a possible groin injury. Not wanting to risk Howard farther, I sent out Purcell in his place for the second half. The second half was all Telford. They attacked and continually exploited our slow defense t take shots on goal. Browne heroically rose to the occasion, but even he was having trouble as Telford put seven second half chances right in there. Telford scored on 64 and in injury time to win 2-1. Quite frankly, we were outclassed in this game, but all we could do was to put it behind us and move on to the next game four days away at Aldershot.
I'm really enjoying this game so this story should run much longer than my last couple of efforts. Thanks for the high praise Suma. I'll try to keep posting regular updates. And Mark, a "Proud to be an American" slogan would work very nicely.
The run-up to the Aldershot game saw the arrival of youth phenom Gareth Law, a superb finisher. People in the AXFC offices were betting that he would be a first team regular by the end of the season. In addition, we had made a contract offer to another young talented forward, Dom Elliot, who appeared to be the total package of forward skills. If he signed was well, there was a good chance he would be a first team regular by the end of the year. Not a bad way to help forget about the recent loss.
Wednesday saw us travel to Aldershot for a Conference match. It had rained heavily the night before and the pitch was still damp by the afternoon kick-off. Bradley had recovered from his calf strain and took his place among the regular starting eleven. Thornber was still out and Ward continued to hold down his spot in the lineup. Nearly 1500 fans crowed the bleachers to watch. What they saw was not overly impressive.
Neither team did much in the first half. Both team were testing each other out and consequently did not take many chances. What chances they did take were wasted and the score remained at 0-0 by the halftime break. Aldershot took control of the game in the second half as they held possession of the ball 63% of the time. On 53 I saw that Young was struggling and lifted him for Lyne. The move didn’t stop Aldershot from dominating, but we stubbornly hung on, hoping to get at least a point. On 80 I put in Purcell for Duffy and the move backfired eight minutes later as Purcell inadvertently deflected a free-kick into his own goal. Aldershot ran out the remaining five minutes and walked off with a bizarre 1-0 win. After the game Purcell was crushed to have cost us a point, but I pointed out that was just the breaks. These things have a way of evening out as we returned home for a Saturday contest against Burton Albion.
The Exiles Abroad 
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