[FM14] Working Glass Hero

[Santander]

Database Version: Official 14.3.0

Database Size: Large + All Players based in Gibraltar

Changes Enabled: Official Gibraltar League

Leagues Loaded: England (Conference N/S), Northern Ireland (Championship 2), Ireland (First Division), Scotland (League 2), Spain (Segunda Division B), Gibraltar (Division 2)

Type of Save: Long-term (hopefully)

Background:

After writing his name into English footballing folklore by scoring the injury-time winner that kept Carlisle United in the Football League in 1999 as a goalkeeper on emergency loan from Swindon Town, Jimmy Glass' career never quite caught up to his cult hero reputation, ending in low-key fashion at the age of 30 at non-league Weymouth in 2004, then managed by the equally enigmatic Steve Claridge. After that, he went on to work in a variety of "normal" jobs, most recently as a taxi driver in Dorset. Football would never be far from his heart though, as he continued to play in Sunday leagues and in 2011 took his first coaching job at local part-timers Poole Town. One day in the summer of 2013 though, a phone call arrived from a purported third cousin with an intriguing job offer - to manage a young football club on the south coast of Spain that had ambitions of European football in the next 5 years. It all seemed a bit too good to be true, but after years of menial work away from football under the grey skies of England, this seemed like the perfect antidote. Besides, José Mourinho was once just a translator and André Villas-Boas was... well, Bobby Robson's annoying neighbour. If they could do it, why couldn't he, the man responsible for the 72nd greatest sporting moment ever, according to Channel 4?

It was only after landing in Málaga that Jimmy realized what he'd gotten himself into. Upon picking Jimmy up from the airport, his "third cousin" explained that he would be managing FC Olympique 13, a new amateur football club in Gibraltar, 2 hours down the road and not actually part of Spain. So new in fact, that Jimmy would be its first ever manager in its first ever season in the Gibraltar league system. He was then told that the only reason he was booked on a flight to Málaga was that the club couldn't afford to buy a ticket on BA to Gibraltar so they had to settle with Ryanair to Málaga, the nearest Spanish airport, instead. During the 2 hour car ride to Gibraltar, Jimmy and his "cousin" talked about the club, Gibraltar in general and of course, that goal. At one point, Jimmy asked, "Gibraltar? Do they even play football there? I thought it was just a rock and a bunch of monkeys." His cousin told him, "If you can even call it football. Sometimes I wish we could sign the monkeys because at least we could draw a crowd while playing rubbish football." Upon arriving in Gibraltar, Jimmy met with the board, who outlined their expectations of a top half finish in the Gibraltarian second tier and assured him that although he would be on an amateur contract with the club, one of the club's investors, the owner of a gentlemen's club in Cumbria best known for its "extra services", would personally ensure that all of his expenses would be taken care of during his tenure with the club. Jimmy mused, "Is this my translator job? Well, you have to start somewhere, I guess." And so on 30 August 2013 began the managerial career of James Robert "Jimmy" Glass...

[Santander]

FC Olympique 2013-14 Season Review

Competitions:

Division 2: Champions (48 pts) - Board Expectation: Top Half

Rock Cup: Winners (2-0 vs Lincoln) - Board Expectation: Second Round

Division 2 League Cup: Winners (3-1 vs Boca Juniors) - Board Expectation - Semi Final

Players:

Top Goalscorers: John-Paul Duarte (ST) - 14, Graham Alvez (ST) - 14, Liam Clarke (RM) - 9

Highest Average Rating: Liam Clarke (RM) - 7.45

Most Appearances: Neal Medina (CB) - 24 (3)

Most Starts: Ryan Casciaro (CB) - 26

A treble to start my managerial career! Upon taking the hot seat I dumped almost all of my players (one of the perks of being amateur) and brought in 12 players from Lincoln's reserves along with Sean Hendrick, a decent looking central defender from Lynx. Apparently, Lincoln is so far ahead of the rest of the clubs in Gibraltar that even their reserves could steamroll any other team. As much as I tried to coax Irish and Spanish amateurs to come play for me, I came up empty-handed. Asking the board for a parent club was also a fruitless endeavour as they couldn't find any club willing to partner with a club as pathetic as ours. I started the season playing with an extremely ugly target man-centred 4-4-2, but was scraping wins against teams I should have been comfortably beating with my team. After failing to win 3 in a row around 1/3 through the season, I switched to a more assertive 4-4-2, keeping the ball on the ground more and pushing my wide midfielders up more. This yielded much better results and I only lost one match the rest of the season, "away" to the 3rd place team. (there's only one stadium in the whole country) Red Imps, who were given 2000-1 odds of winning the league in the pre-season, held the top position for the majority of the season, finally relinquishing the top of the table after 18 matches. I thought the title would be decided on the last match of the season, where we were scheduled to play Red Imps, but fortunately they stumbled in their penultimate match, allowing us to clinch the title a few days early.

Other than winning the league and promotion, of course, has to be our Rock Cup win against Lincoln, the biggest club in the land. As most of my team is made up of their aging former reserves, it felt particularly sweet to get one over them! Not only does the £20,000 from our two cup wins make us richer than Lincoln (for now), but more importantly it allows us to compete in the Europa League next year. Here's hoping for a kind draw so that Gibraltar's newest footballing heroes can bring home lots of much-needed money from their European adventure!