Blarney

Peaches and cream.... right? So everything so far seems like it's all rainbows and skittles and Bridlington is just a perfect area for a grand football club. A resort on the ocean with plenty of land to build a giant stadium and lots of potential supporters around. You do have Middlesborough to the North, Hull to the South and Leeds to the West that all have clubs playing in the Championship currently, but that just means that the opportunity is there if we can take it. And if we go by what is really happening there, the current club - Bridlington Town - really isn't a bad little club at all. The current owner has been in place for 20 years - a lifetime in English football it seems - and took a club that was badly in debt, paid everything off and has been solvent for years. Granted it's run like a very small business with limited staff and ownership that basically takes on the role of 3 or 4 people... but it makes enough money to pay the players and what staff they have and put a little back into the club as well. That's not a bad thing. So that's the good. So what is the bad? Let's not pretend that Bridlington or really anywhere in that area is a mecca for the sport. As we said you do have Middlesborough just to the North and Hull just to the South that both have quality clubs... but other than that the area is littered with small-town clubs that are just barely surviving. And it's not an overly populated area either. Hull is decent sized and by far the largest town in the area but they already have a good club that's playing in the Championship so you're probably not pulling much support from there. So basically with a small town, limited resources and starting from nearly the basement of the English Pyramid......... you're just hoping for baby steps. This should be fun!

It looks lovely. I've done my due dillegence and have read up quite a bit about it and watched a few videos just to see what the town was like, I'm sort of crazy that way when doing a save. It looks like a nice place, whether it's a viable place for a football club, that's up to FM24 to decide. But I certainly think the area is ripe to have another decent club.

More about Brid Bridlington or Brid as it's known by the locals is a sea-fishing port in Yorkshire. It is the largest lobster port in all of Europe with over 300 tonnes of the tasty crustaceans gathered there each year. It is also somewhat of a resort town in England with summer tourism being one of it's biggest industries. There are 2 main beaches in town (25 total) -- the North Beach and the South Beach. Someone thought long and hard about those names! It's the 2nd largest coastal settlement in Yorkshire and the 2nd largest settlement in East Yorkshire. There is a 2.5 mile man-made dyke called Daynes Dyke at Flamborough Head in the area that dates back to at least the bronze age. There is also evidence of a Roman road most likely built during the Roman Britain era that runs from York to Bridlington... which also suggests that Brid may have been a port used by the Romans to access other parts of Yorkshire. Ancient Roman coins and 2 greek coins that date back to the 2nd century BC have been found in and around the Bridlington harbor. Treasure hunt anyone? Apart from the fishing industry the town used to be a major port for transporting corn and the 1826 Corn Exchange is still at Market Place. And where there is corn... there are mills to grind it. And where there is ground corn... there are breweries. Unfortunately, like a lot of small towns around England (and the rest of the world) population and affluence declined as industry failed or declined. The fishing port remains - albeit not as active as it used to be - but the lobster trade itself is a muilti-million pound industry with exports all over Europe. Along with Bridlington Town AFC (now defunct and being replaced in my world) there is a junior football club, a Rugby Union football club, a cricket club and a hockey club all playing in Brid. That's a lot of sport for a small town, but it's also good to see the town supporting all those sports.

This is Bridlington

230 miles North of London in the county of Yorkshire - famous for pudding - and along the Eastern shoreline of England lies the small town of Bridlington. Never heard of it? We don't really blame you. It's not a particularly large town -- sitting at around 35,000 inhabitants at last count. But it is the second largest town along the Yorkshire coast (behind Scarborough - which I believe is famous for a fair according to Simon and Garfunkle) and the largest town in Eastern Yorkshire. Don't ask me why Scarborough isn't considered Eastern Yorkshire since it's just about 19 miles North of Bridlington, but it is actually considered in Northern Yorkshire. Also don't even get me started on the differences between cities and towns in England.... because technically Hull is in Eastern Yorkshire - about 30 miles South of Bridlington as the crow flies - and is by far larger at just under 300k people.... but since it's a city, Bridlington is still considered the largest town in the area. Oh... and if you care - and I know you do - the largest cities in Yorkshire in order are Leeds, Sheffield and Bradford.... and then Hull and York. Hull's population alone is larger than the next 10 largest settlements in Eastern Yorkshire - just to show you how loosely populated the area is. However, in terms of being able to draw supporters... the area is also densely populated as far as small towns and settlements and could draw around 400k bodies within just 30-ish miles of Bridlington. But we are really getting ahead of ourselves. Let's start with why Bridlington and what's the story. That part is easy. After the failure of my last save - and most of my saves before that (I'm really good at this game) I decided to do something much more difficult, because why not. And instead of just taking some National League club or some other club in the Football League I decided I wanted to start my own club in the lower tiers and see what I can do with that as it seemed like several others were having a grand time doing somewhat the same with their own saves. But wait you say... Bridlington has a football club and you said you wanted to start your own club. And certainly a small town isn't going to be able to handle 2 clubs at once. Well if you know me you know I did my research and guess what..... Bridlington's club is for sale. That's right, the current owner has decided to retire and is trying to sell Bridlington Town AFC. So in my little make-believe world Bridlington Town AFC is going out of business and a new club is going to be formed in it's place. Brilliant... isn't it? I looked high and low, up and down and all around England trying to find a good place to start a club. I thought about Wakefield at first because it's a huge town or city or settlement or whatever you all call it across the pond but they already have a small club there, so that didn't work for me. I really wanted a place that had no football team... something I have discoverd is REALLY DIFFICULT to find in England. But alas I did in another nice locale - Gravesend. Their club went out of business many years back and folded into Ebbsleet, which left a nice hole to fill there. But then I found that they actually do have another small club - Punjab United - playing there as well, so that ended my dream of putting a club just outside London in a very densely populated area. I know I have a very specific need and was trying very hard to stick to that. So I kept looking and I came across Bridlington - which as I said technically does have a club but since it's up for sale I could make my story work very easily. And just like that.... ding, ding, ding.... we had a winner! So the next part was actually figuring out how to start a club through the game since I'd never done that. Coming up with the name - Bridlington United - and our nickname - The Mariners... which harkens to our seafaring history - was the first part. Then I created the kit and named the stadium and created a new manager with a backstory which we will get to. And I think that gets the story and the save started. I fully expect it to crash and burn a very fiery death much sooner rather than later given my history with not being able to finish a few seasons before being fired. But we'll see, it sure would be fun to not have that happen. Thanks for following. Oh and if anybody here actually is from Bridlington or the area.... I'll try very hard to do the town proud - even though in truth I know absolutely nothing about it other than what I've read. Feel free to correct me at will.

Back-to-back promotions... ahead of schedule... and sacked. I don't know that I deserved it but it doesn't seem realistic. I would think that I would have been afforded more time to turn things around even though the club was playing horribly. Where did it go wrong? We got promoted too quickly. If we had another season in League Two my young players would have had more time to develop rather than be thrown to the wolves in League One. On top of that my contracts got out of control. Every "decent" player on my squad cried that they thought they were being underpaid and demanded new contracts and I capitulated to many of them.... to the fault of mine, obviously. I had multiple contracts that were just wholy ridiculous and players that were way overpaid and not performing... and I couldn't get rid of any of them. Those are obviously good reasons in real life that there would have been concerns, but even still I'd think that there would be enough good graces there to afford me a little time to work things out. But nope... another save, another wipeout. Thanks for watching!

And that's Game, Folks

And Another Board Meeting.....

Southampton Job Offer This just gets more interesting. We're sitting at the bottom of the table, fighting relegation and I've had a SECOND Premier League Club come calling for my services... all while the Notts Board is considering firing me. This really makes no sense. None. First off.... I'm a year ahead of where the board expected us to be in the first place. Who cares that we're struggling this year... we shouldn't even be in this position and if it wasn't for me we wouldn't be... so to be hounding me and threatening my job, no they wouldn't be and shouldn't be unless they thought I was the problem. Second... it's humorous that a League One club is threatening to fire me and not one but two Premier Clubs are begging me to take their managerial position. I'm still not going to take it, I'm going to see what happens here, but it's just making me laugh.

Match 23

Second Chance?

Board Requests Meeting

Match 22

Match 21

November Review Schedule Is there really anything to say here. It's our worst month ever. Not only did we not win, we just played horribly. 4 goals scored in 6 league matches, while giving up 19... including 6 in one match. Just terrible. Table Needless to say we are where we deserve to be. League Team Stats There's not much to say other than we're just not good right now. Our defense is just terrible. Our offense is even worse. League Player Stats Notts Player Attacking Amazingly, Scott's numbers aren't horrible but he's about the only guy on the team on the attacking side having any sort of a good season at all. Barry was signed to make a difference and the only difference he's made so far is costing me a lot of money. We just promoted Benjamin up from our U21 squad and he's had a couple of good games but we'll see if it makes a difference. Notts Player Defending As depressing as the offensive numbers were, the defensive numbers are just as bad. Mair has a 71% save rate... Kova has a 66% save rate. Just terrible. Our tackling has been the only thing we've been good at but otherwise........ we're not good. Finances And to make matters even better (sarcasm)......... we continue to lose money.

Match 20 Postgame Presser You've just completed what may be arguably your worst month of managing professional football. You were winless for the month, losing in 5 league matches and then the FA Cup and your 3rd match in the Papa Johns Trophy. At times your players looked absolutely mentally drained and sluggish on the pitch. Rather than ask what the attitude is in the club, which is somewhat obvious... at this point are you concerned there is no coming back from this? Can't think that and honestly don't think that. We couldn't have done what we did the past 2 seasons and not have it in us to fight back when things aren't going our way. We've come back from too many matches where we were facing defeat. Now, I know the season isn't one match but it shows what we have in us. I have to believe that my guys know they're better than this, we just need something to go our way. Are you worried about your job? Again, can't be. That's out of my hands. Have you had conversations with the club about your position here? There were reports that West Ham came calling and that you accepted an invitation to sit down with them and discuss their opening and that maybe you were even offered the job. No, I have not had conversations with the board about my job here and I don't plan to do so. The job here is mine until I'm told it's not so worrying about it or asking about it solves nothing. As far as the West Ham job, a Premier League club came calling and I talked to them because I was curious, mostly because that's our goal here at Notts County... but I was never going to take that job, not at this time. I will not go into whether the job was there to take or not.

Match 19

Match 18

Match 17

Pizza Northern Section Group B Match 3 Postgame Presser After winning your first match it seemed set up that you would advance past the group stage yet 2 bad losses in a row means you're going home in this competition. You've failed to advance in any competition this season, out in the first round of the FA Cup and Carabao Cup and now out in the group stage of the Papa Johns Trophy... this can't be what the board or you intended. I'll take that as a question and respond with a no, it's not what any of us wanted. Next question. So far really nothing seems to be working as planned in league play or otherwise... are there plans to make any changes? We have to stay the course inasmuch as we have what we have here and we need to make it work. Any and all changes will come from within.

FA Cup First Round Postgame Presser Out in the first round much like with the Carabao Cup has to be a little disappointing. What's the attitude in the changing room currently? Yeah we're disappointed. But moreso because we know we're better than this. Honestly, maybe it just gives us a better opportunity to focus on league play which is much more important at the moment, but it's notl ike we didn't want to win here.

Match 16

Match 15

Job Offer Wow... I really didn't think they'd offer me the job. I can't imagine how they'd think I'm qualified after just 2 seasons in charge at Notts -- albeit 2 straight promotions, but facing relegation this season with the way we're playing. My only reason for even talking to them was to get the Notts board to start paying attention to things we need to fix but they haven't even said a word in the 2 weeks that this has been going on. I don't really want to go to West Ham as my whole function here was to get Notts to the Premier League but we're really struggling here right now and I think with how fast we got promoted and how quickly our wage budget got out of hand we're probably 2-3 years away from fixing this. I think I'm going to take the night to figure out how to proceed.

This is getting interesting The funny thing is the Notts board hasn't said a word. Hasn't requested a meeting. Hasn't told me to lay off. Nothing. Strange.