You've Got To Have a Dream [FM 14]

[Tom Ashley]

I'm going to give story writing another go.  I'm playing FM 14, with a database that extends the English system down to the County Leagues.  I'm using "fake players," so all my characters are entirely fictional.  

My name is Tom Ashley.  I'm about to turn thirty years old.  I don't have a wife, a girlfriend, or a pet.  I do, however, have a job.  Actually, I now have two jobs.  That's how this story begins.

On second thought, perhaps I should back up a bit, to my days as a schoolboy.  I didn't usually have a girlfriend then, either.  I was too busy with two other loves:  football and my studies.  I was better at the latter than I was at the former, but I was good enough at both to attend an American university on a scholarship, and a good one.  I played at Davidson College, in North Carolina, and took a degree in history.  I liked the USA, but not well enough to stay there, so I came back home to Norwich and got a job teaching at my former grammar school.  I found the time and the energy to turn out for semi-professional clubs from time to time, and once or twice I was told I might be able to do better than that if I went all in and concentrated on my football.  Maybe I could have.  I'll never know, because I didn't want to risk quitting my teaching post, not making it as a footballer, and finding myself with no place to turn.

I suppose trying my hand at coaching was the next natural step.  I began taking my badges three years ago, and now I have a National A license.  

Don't get me wrong.  I love teaching history.  Every class, every day is different, and I enjoy the vibe, the atmosphere of a school.  But I've never let go of my desire to be part of the world of football.  I'm very lucky to have the chance to pursue that desire.  Fortunately for me, my headmaster is a football fan, and he gave me his blessing, more or less, to look for a coaching gig.  I figured I might land a spot on a club's coaching staff, maybe working with the youth teams.  

Instead, I got an offer to manage a club--and a semi-pro club, at that!

Diss Town Football Club has been willing to take a chance on me.  Diss isn't far from Norfolk, twenty minutes or so by car.  The team trains on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and the headmaster was kind enough to let me take a lighter teaching load.  It will make for some long and tiring days, but if my players can work at their jobs and come to training afterwards, so can I.  

There's a song from a Rogers and Hammerstein musical my mum used to sing to me.  It's called Happy Talk.  I've never forgotten one line from the song:

You've got to have a dream.  If you don't have a dream, how you gonna make a dream come true?

What's my dream?  Right now I'm not entirely sure.  I might want to go all in this time, pursue football management as a career, and see how far I can go.  I might want to keep teaching while I manage a smaller club like Diss Town, and do both for thirty years.  

I do think I want a pet, though.  Probably a girlfriend, too.

Let's see which of these dreams I can make come true.

[BluesGuy]

Excited to see how this story goes. Do you have any real life connection to Davidson College? 

[Tom Ashley]

@BluesGuy :  Thanks very much!  I didn't attend Davidson, but a good friend of mine did, and I spent some time on their campus.  My own alma mater doesn't play Division I soccer, and I wanted my character to have a decent playing career.

15 August 2013

I've been on the job here at Diss Town for about six weeks now.  At first I thought I might want to ask the chairman, Danny Bennett, to allow me to bring in a new backroom staff, but after some consideration, I decided to stick with the current situation.  They're all nice enough fellows, and good enough at their jobs, especially for a club in the County Leagues.

The best of the lot is Steven Williams, my assistant, who just hung up his boots at the age of 48.  He's a former center forward who would like to see us play an attacking formation like a 4-3-3, but I don't think we have the players for that style of football right now.  Steven knows the lads well, so I've been leaning on him pretty heavily while I get to know them.

Our squad is small right now--only sixteen players, and two of them are still schoolboys.  There's no money in our budget to bring any more in, unless I want to push my luck with the board.   And, what's more, the best player in the team is a non-contract player.  He's a Welshman called Rhys Collins.  I've been using Rhys at right back, but he is comfortable anywhere along that side of the pitch and at center back.  He can do a job at striker, too, so he'll be in my eleven as often as he's fit.

The goalkeeper looks like a good one, too.  His name is Norman McShane.  He's 19, and with some additional work on his positioning he'll possibly be too good for our league.  For now, he's an automatic choice for our number one.  He's also the only 'keeper in the team.

Center back Neil Clough is the club's captain, and our unquestioned leader.  Since I arrived, several clubs have tried to prise Neil from us, offering 25 percent of his next sale price.  I've turned them down, because I think we need his presence on the pitch and his steady play in the heart of our defense.

I've been tempted by the offers, though.  Center back is the one position where we actually have a bit of depth.  Besides Clough, we have James Cameron, a big lad who plays in the mold of an old school English center half, and Anthony Peers, the best in the team at marking and tackling.  The left back is Steve Adams, a well-rounded footballer who seems to do most things fairly well and nothing spectacularly.  I'll take that.

We've been training to play 4-4-1-1.  On the right side of midfield is Joe Collins, the team's elder statesman at 32.  Joe excels at the mental aspects of the game, and he is the club's vice captain.  Pacey Jamie Harvey mans the other flank.  

Our best central midfielder is Ryan Leggett, a tenacious player with a balanced set of skills.  Ryan can fill any role in our midfield, depending on who else is on the pitch.  He is a full foot shorter than the 6'5" Cameron, his best mate.  Craig Billings frustrates me.  He's got the physique of a decathlete, and more than enough technical skill for this level.  He's also a slacker of the first order, who usually looks like he's running uphill.  I like Chris Cooper's attitude a lot better.  Chris is a work in progress as a player, but his attitude is first rate.  

Leggett is well-suited to play the point of our midfield triangle, which means using both Billings and Cooper.  I can also use versatile Brian Middleton, who can do a job in any position from the midfield forward.  I've had Middleton in the first eleven most of the time during the preseason.

Collins is probably our best striker, but he's so much better than the alternatives at right back that he's going to play there for the time being.  We have other decent options to lead the line, including Martin Williams, a big, powerful striker, and David Bruce, who has more pace and can finish but otherwise lacks Williams' finesse.

A pair of youngsters round out the team. Simon McKie is a right-sided midfielder, a very athletic player who plays with verve.  

I nearly mistook the other lad for a Under 13 who had cheekily wandered over to senior team training.  I thought about shooing him away.  He might have been five feet tall.  Even Ryan Leggett has a few inches on him.   

I asked Steven who he was.  "That's Gavin Sturdy," he told me.

"He's how old?"

"Sixteen.  He's a scrappy lad, though.  He can play anywhere you want, except in goal.  That motor of his never stops."  

After the first week of training, I was already a fan.  Steven was right.  Gavin threw himself into every drill with gusto.  I could tell that his teammates respected his pluck, and wouldn't go out of their way to rough him up.  Still, when things did get physical, he picked himself up and went right back into the mix, and I soon saw that Gavin gave as good as he got.  Sturdy is quite a fine name for the lad.

We played seven friendlies during the preseason, all at our home grounds, Brewers Green Lane.   We did well, winning five, drawing one, and losing one (0-1) to a Histon side that plays in the Conference North.  Williams and Bruce each scored three goals.  Better yet, we only conceded two goals ourselves.  Is it too much to expect us to keep up that form as we enter league play?  Is that the first dream I'll have to put aside?

Again, we'll see.  The Premier Division of the Eastern Counties League awaits.