Here we go again – Another interview offer, this time with Peterhead, like Stirling Albion & Berwick in League 2
30th Dec 2019 – DECISION POINT – PETERHEAD OFFER AN INTERVIEW
Peterhead :
+ League 2, 1.5 Star Rep, Ticket Price £12 (£2 for Civil Service), 49 Season Ticket Holders (13 for Civil Service), Okay Finances, Av. Attendance 593 (121 Civil Service), £200k/annum Salary Spend (£37.38k Civil Service), Owns own ground
– Relocation required (5 hour round trip), 8th, just 6 points off bottom, Some v Expensive Wages that need a cull.
Quite a decent club all in all – looking at the locality on Rightmove you can get a nice semi-detached for £700/month rent. A good resource for looking at how much rent you should be looking at as a percentage of wages is here: https://www.turn2us.org.uk/About-Us/News/How-much-should-you-be-spending-on-rent – and i’ll use this if and when we relocate in the UK, be it Peterhead or anybody else.
OK, lets interview.
OK – A wage budget of almost £7k/week is a bit of a step up. Start this season, cull some dead wood and remake in my own image sounds pretty appealing TBH. £12k transfer budget as well, which I doubt I’d use. There are a couple of player well above £350/wk that need to be gone I think, unfortunately one is contracted until 2021…And is 33…And is on £800/wk!!!!
Interview done – we shall see how it plays out – I’m very doubtful that I’d get it but we shall see, Peterhead is fairly out of the way geographically 🙂
OK, and now the tough one
And I’ve declined the talks. Its been a good year and a half so far, but I need to move on at some point. Hopefully we can part amicably when it comes to it.
A month-end has passed – Stats-time 🙂
Not much change from 1st December. Interesting as its been a very strong month training-wise. Liking Kieran Balfour’s Decision Making now.
Jamie Innes is now 172cm tall (5ft 8in) & Fraser Burnett is now 80kg.
With our change to Wing Play our Stats DNA has changed somewhat. Our passing has dropped considerably. We are also playing without a playmaker per se, so Kieran Balfour passed the most with just under 37 passes completed be game. Crossing is intersting. Mark Burbidge really does throw them in – Just under 20 attempts per game for 3 complete doesn’t sound amazing but it is the most completions per 90 out of the team. Regan Lumsden continues to be the heading tsar, 17 Key Headers and a 61% completion rate for a CF is mad. Andy Mair’s 5 assists was superb also in a month of 3 Wins, 1 Draw, 1 Loss, 12 goals scored. Lewis Hunter only played once last month, i will start him in place of Niang v BSC as I think he deserves the chance. Lastly we are being caught offside so much less now with our standard lines, though I may move these up slightly this month.
The transfer window has opened. I have room for a loanee, and I think Centre Mid needs strengthening.
Loan offer in for Sean McKirdy (21, 5ft 10in) who wants first team football. Yes please 🙂
And so this post rattles on – another interview offer, this time Berwick Rangers.
1st Jan 2020 – DECISION POINT – BERWICK RANGERS OFFER AN INTERVIEW
Berwick Rangers:
+ League 2, 1 Star Rep, Ticket Price £12 (£2 for Civil Service), 149 Season Ticket Holders (13 for Civil Service), Okay Finances, Av. Attendance 384 (121 Civil Service), £73.26k/annum Salary Spend (£37.38k Civil Service), Room for Loanees (Only 1 currently)
– Relocation required (4 hour round trip), 7th, just 6 points off bottom
So relocation would be required. Looking within 20 miles of Shielfield Park, home of Berwick Rangers £450/wk would get you a rural bungalow so proce-wise its a little bit better than Peterhead. Lets go to the interview.
Ok, a fair bit smaller than Peterhead – £2.2k/wk budget and £4k transfer budget, which I’d again not use TBH. Interesting, we will see how it goes.
3rd Jan. Turned down by Peterhead. Bugger.
3rd Jan 2020 – DECISION POINT – BERWICK RANGERS JOB OFFER!!!!
Tight so-and-so’s – I’m on £325/wk at the moment!! And its all they will offer!!!! So 16 games to make a mark, knowing its possibly a sacking if I don’t, on £50/week less than I’m on at the moment. Now, I work from home and could continue to do so Part-Time if we relocated……I’m taking it!!!
I’ll end it there for today – see you next time for a meet-and-greet plus (maybe) our 1st game in charge Away at Elgin, our friends from the Scottish Cup this year.