Another year, another FM, another Career – But I’m really looking forward to this one!!!
1st July 2019 – I open my email and start writing to clubs without managers who play close-enough to me to make commuting a non-issue. So I picked 4:
Glenrothes – Eos First Division B
St Andrews Utd – EoS First Division A
Burntisland Shipyard – EoS First Division A
Crossgates Primrose – EoS Premier
But what’s all this “EoS” malarkey I hear you all cry. Let me tell you
The East of Scotland Football League sits below the Lowland League in the Scottish Football Pyramid at steps 6 (EoS Premier) and 7 (EoS First Division/Conferences A & B) and it saw an influx of former Junior (Non-Pyramid Scottish Football) teams in 2018/19
The plan is to gain experience at these low levels (Personally I’d say the EoS First Divisions would be on a par with Tier 9/10 in England), get some silverware over the first few seasons before maybe getting a Lowland League management role. From there the possibilities get more diverse – I’d love to go to Scandinavia after managing in the Scottish League 1/League 2 but above all it would need to work in the real world – I’m not moving to Oslo for £300/wk
However out of the blue I get a hasten-to-say ‘buggy’ offer from Ireland on 2nd July
WTF! Cobh Ramblers ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobh_Ramblers_F.C. ) have a lot of history and are most famous for spawning Stephen Ireland and a certain Roy Keane!! I start this game with no coaching badges and Sunday League experience as a footballer, Cobh are a 2nd tier team in the Republic…. Lets take the interview anyway (N.B. I lived in Waterford for 2 years so I know that beautiful part of the world quite well, and if the wage is right I wouldn’t say no…….)
So that went well – it looks like there’s a c £1,850/wk wage budget there, and all they want to do is stay off the bottom of the First Division………… and then stay in the First Division for the foreseeable. Doable.
OK – I didn’t in any way foresee this. Job Offered, £300/wk, but IRL (this is the honest truth) I’m contracted to a company in Waterford City, so the wage isn’t an issue. Let’s have a quick look for Rental Property in Co. Cork.
Daft.ie is usually a good slight to go to, like Rightmove/Zoopla in the UK, and there are plenty of properties in Youghal at around €800/month – However that’s 40 minutes drive East and almost on the Co. Waterford border. The nearer to Cork City you go the more expensive things are – I’ll settle for a property in Passage West (A few minutes drive but a short Ferry ride) at €920/month
So I’ve take it – £300/wk plus 20% Promotional Wage Rise (Which they obviously think there’s no chance of) – Bloody hell, I’m moving (back) to Ireland 🙂
Because of the Irish football calendar we are parachuted straight in to the middle of a season.
There are definitely the haves and have-nots in this league – We have 9 games left so everybody plays each other 3 times, and we need to stay away from Limerick – Then we can rebuild 🙂
The posts for FM20 will be mainly monthly – I will continue my match-by-match detailed posts for my FM19 because that is a real labour of love, but this blog I want to be a bit more diverse, looking at the new features in FM20, looking at how we can get data out, transform it and use it to manage.
Next Time I’ll take a look at the squad & staff and play our first game(s) – I’ll schedule a friendly before we take on Cabinteely (just above us) a week next Friday in game (19th July) – see you then.