davidbr

Claire and I went our separate ways, and I wandered over to join Darren. Upon learning the identity of my little stunner, his face paled.

“The chairman’s daughter? **** me, Mick, that’s a bit close to the wind even for you.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t know who she was, did I? I didn’t even know he had a daughter. Come on, with a body like that you’re not gonna ask for her family tree, are you?”

“I guess not, but I’m being serious, Mickey. You’re gonna have to slow down a bit, you and me both. We’ve got the reputation of the club to think of.”

"Repu..!! Darren, we’re in a town whose proudest boast is that, two centuries ago, they once strung a furry little critter up by the balls! What fecking reputation??”

“I’m not sure they strung him up by the balls, mate, but I see your point.” He put his had firmly on my shoulder.

“But if Mr Hodcroft ever finds out you’ve shagged his daughter, it’ll be you getting strung up by the balls, not H’Angus.”

davidbr

“I’m sorry, Mickey, but there just isn’t any more money I can free up for you.”

“Come off it, Ken, forty grand for transfers? Your car cost more than that!!”

Now I know we’re not Arsenal or Man Utd, I wasn’t expecting to be playing with seven figure sums, but I sure hadn’t expected this!

The upshot of our meeting with Ken was that I had £39,000 available for transfers and a wage bill of £25k a week – that allowed me just short of a grand for bringing in new players. Ken was only asking for mid-table respectability, and we should be able to do that, but I had half an eye on promotion and to say I was disappointed would be the understatement of the year.

Still, I was here to stay, and I’d just have to make the best of it. With that, it was off down to the training ground; pre-season training resumed today. Our stadium, Victoria Park, holds just over 7,000 and quite frankly I’ve seen bigger rabbit hutches, but thanks to the generosity of the ex-sponsors the club’s training facilities are excellent, probably among the best in the division.

davidbr

Paul Stephenson, our lone coach, was already there putting the players through their paces, and we’d decided ahead of time that he’d be taking the first few training sessions – I wanted to see exactly what I had to work with. Paul was a decent, hard-working ex-pro, teetotal apparently, and he’d bring the discipline to our set-up that Darren and I certainly lacked.

Another thing I had to do was arrange us some friendlies. Ken was all for ringing up Arsenal or Man U, but the last thing I wanted was to go into the new season on the back of some real hidings. No, “winnability” was the pre-season friendly buzzword down here, and the only phone-calls I made were to the head honchos of those football luminaries Abbey Hey, Aylestone Park, Northallerton, Milton Keynes (City, not Dons), Bristol Manor Farm and Almondsbury. No I’d never heard of any of them either, and if we can’t beat that bloody lot we really are in trouble.

My first ever day as a football manager passed quickly, and towards the end of it my mind was on other things; I had a date with the lovely Claire. Risky, yes, but then as Kevin Costner said in Robin Hood, some things are just worth dying for.

davidbr

Friday 15th July 2005

It’s the end of my first full week in charge, we’ve played (and won) two friendlies, and I’m gradually beginning to settle in here. A first half Adam Boyd double helped us to a very easy 4-0 win over Abbey Hey, and although we only beat Aylestone Park by a single goal (Boyd again was the man to get it) I was very pleased with the way we bossed the midfield in both games.


What I’m not doing though, is feeling any more optimistic about the chances of this team making an impression at the top end of League One. As of yet I haven’t made a dent in our £39k transfer kitty, but I did make attempts to land several up-and-coming stars on loan. I started with Aston Villa’s Steven Davis: Villa said yes, he said ”on yer bike.”

The response from Arsenal’s Quincy Owusu-Abeyie was along very similar lines, likewise Gary Cahill whose agent actually laughed down the phone at me. I’ve made a note of you, pal, one dark night there’s every chance we’ll meet again…

We’ve got four more pre-season games arranged, starting at home to Northallerton tomorrow afternoon (all the games are at home, by the way, I couldn’t be arsed with too much travelling around) and I’m going to make a tactical change. For the first two matches I stuck with a standard 5-3-2, but that’s not how I like to play my football. What we don’t have here is a lot of width, so tomorrow we’ll line up in the Christmas tree formation; flat back four, three holding midfielders, two further forward and a lone front man.

If it works, it’ll cause teams at this level all sorts of problems – the question is can we make it work with the quality (or lack of) we’ve got down here? I’m sensing there’ll be quite a few tactical reshuffles before the serious stuff gets going.


One thing I’ve been thinking very seriously over is whether or not to register myself as a player this season. I was playing amateur football for a local team in Cyprus and I know I could still hack it technically at this level, but physically it’s another matter – fitness was never exactly a strong point of mine even when I was meant to be in regular training, and six years of Jack Daniels and Moroccan woodbines haven’t done a lot for the old lung capacity.

In the end I decided against it – player/managers rarely cover themselves in glory, and given my lack of experience I could do without the distractions.

readingfanman

Great start, and a good story to boot.

davidbr

Thanks readingfanman, all comments are appreciated and taken on board. I should perhaps add that I don't live in Hartlepool, all information about the club history/town/bars etc is taken from the official town website so blame them if I get anything wrong!

HD

I don't know about anyone else, but I, PM7 and a few others at least tend to put technical info in the 2nd or 3rd post as you have. It lets people get into the story off the bat. Nobody cares what leagues you're running if they aren't interested in what you're saying, so don't feel you have to sort that!

I like this, there's a whole bunch of good new stuff on the forum lately. :thup:

Terk

Very nice start

davidbr

Thanks Terk and HD for the encouragement and advice, I just hope I can keep it going

I'll try to post updates regularly, but there's a certain sporting event in Germany coming up very soon so apologies in advance if those updates aren't as frequent as I'd have liked

davidbr

Off the field I’m still in my hotel room and so, very frequently, is Claire Hodcroft, the chairman’s daughter. I know I’m playing with fire, from talking to Ken I know all too well how protective he is of his daughter, but I just can’t seem to keep away. I’m realising what a special girl she really is and, though I never thought I’d say it, I think I might be falling for her.

Yes that’s right, me, Michael Milligan, a man who’s as shallow as a worm’s grave. I know it’s not been a fortnight since we first slept together but we’ve seen each other every night since (away from the club, I mean) and for me that’s going some. I just don’t do relationships, period, haven’t ever had one that’s lasted more than a couple of dates. It’s not that I’m short of offers, far from it; without being boastful I’d say I’m a pretty good-looking guy, and as they say girls just love a bad boy.

No, I just seem to lose interest, and I’ve left behind me a string of broken hearts wherever I’ve been. I’m not even sure why; psychologists might point to my unhappy childhood, the women in question would probably say it’s because I’m a heartless bastard, I’d say it’s just that I like my freedom. Whatever the reason, if I’m going to do this I know I’d better get it right, or my stint at Victoria Park could be a very short one.