Hi all, a quick message before I get on with my story. I just joined this group about an hour ago(!) and am very impressed with the whole site. Cheers to fmgeek for recommending this to me. May I please state this is only part 1, if I posted my whole story no one would read it as it's too long!! If I get any positive feedback I will post another part. Cheers


''Martin O' Niell has left the club by mutual consent'', ''Roy Hodgson has been sacked as manager of Liverpool'', ''Avrum Grant is to watch his last game in charge''.

We hear it all the time. In the paper, on the news, on the radio. But I wanted to know how it really felt to be clubless. This was my challenge. But I had to start from scratch.

I have to admit, it was an emotional task having to tick the 'start unemployed' box. And having to select 'sunday league footballer' as my past experiences made me really ask myself why I was actually doing this.

The first few weeks went past. No offers from anyone. I had a look at the premier league table, to see who was in the bottom half and who to expect an offer from. Fulham and Blackburn were the bottom two with no wins. I began to think what I could do with those two teams, and how I would turn Johnson and Zamara into a goldon partnership. Who would I employ and assastant manager? And what formation would suit us best?

I pressed the spacebar in the hope it would be my last time doing so as a unemployed manager. How wrong was I? The weeks went past. No job offers. Surely this was a joke? Was there a bug in the game?

It wasn't until about mid december when I actually got a job email at all! 'Bambrook sacked from Farsley Celtic' What? Who? Farsley Celtic who are they?!? I clicked on the club. 24th in the Blue Square North, 6 points from 23rd! What was even more confusing was why I was even sent this worthless email! It wasn't even a offer for the job! I clicked continue like before presuming that that email wasn't meant to be sent to me and they just got the wrong address or something.

Alas, a job offer! However, it was from this Farsley Celtic. If there ever was or will be a major low point in my life, this was it. After believing I could transform Fulham to Premier League giants, I was being offered a job by a team bottom of the Blue Sqaure North. I do admit, though, I did take the job. After about 4 months game time (around 5 hours real time), I really couldn't wait any longer.

This is when I first thought about the real managers. If after 5 hours of sitting on the laptop, feeling as if the spacebar is the only key that exists on the keyboard, I was desparatly bored and had to be happy with a job from Farsley Celtic, I feel real sympathy for the proper managers. Every day must feel like a year, every week a decade, and every month a century! I accept anyone reading this would love to be in their position, earning thousands a day, it's just when they aren't employed it must feel like hell.

Anyway back to my game, and I must admit I was secretly pleased with the message of welcome from the board, even if I was only given 1,000 a week wage budget and no transfer money. The background email I got really made me laugh though, it was a sentance descriping their non league history.

'Haden to attend first conference'. Wow. This really made me excited. A real press conference! Maybe I was rather enjoying my time as Farsley Celtic boss and this 4 month wait was worth it. Then I saw the first question.

'You sit here as the new manager of Farsley. Is this your dream job?'

I serously didn't know whether to cry, laugh or just yell. My options were;

- I am absoulty delighted to be hired, it really is a dream come true
- I am pleased to have the chance to work here
- I don't think it's appropriate to discuss whether this job is a dream or not
- I wouldn't consider it a dream but it's great to be here
- I have my dreams, but this is just a great oppertunity
- No comment
- Storm out

I could not choose - should I be disrespectful or should I chance it and risk the fans thinking I was taking the mickey of their club. Well it seemed I choose the wrong option indeed when I saw the headline of my email the next morning...

End of Part1 (Any feedback - good or bad - would be much appreciated)