From the Bottom to the Top: Blyth Spartans in CM2008

[TDouglas23]

Blyth Logo.JPG

Sun, 01.07.07
"Right this way, Mr Vines. This will be your office." It never occured to me how dreary England was when it wasn't sunny out. I only knew a little bit about the "Northumberland" portion of the country, and the wind coming in from the sea alomst made me choke whenI stepped out of the cab. I grew up loving soccer, or "football" as I should say. Watching Blyth kill off teams in the FA Cup made me scratch my head; this team wasn't even on television, how did they beat Stoke City? "You should find that everything is up and running. Is there anything else I can get you?" "No, that'll be all." It took me ten tries to log in before I gave up and called her back in, sure enough first try it worked.

Blyth is a lot different than it was back then. The town lost a lot of business and it is still trying to restore itself. I pulled up the email service that the club had taken the liberty of signing me up for prior to my arrival. I checked off all the spam messages I had gotten, despite the fact I have never even logged on or given the address to anyone. There was one from the president however.

TO: James Vines
FROM: Tommy Hedley
SENT: Sunday, 01.07.2007
SUBJ: Welcome to Croft Park
Let me be the first to congratulate you on your new postion as the Blyth Spartans' first team gaffer.

Times are tough here at the club, we are in a tight finacial situation. I dont want you to think however that you must save money. The only way to bring in talent and money is to spend it.
 
At this time there is no money available for new signings or to manuevere in the wage budget. You will have to sell players or wait until the season starts to get money for transfers. The transfer winow is open though so the quicker you make money the quicker we can incorporate what will hopefully be a promotion for the club.
 
I am certain that you have the talent to bring success in the current finacial climate and I personally promise to keep the board off your back as soon as our situation improve.
 
I have the upmost confidence in you,
Tommy Headley
Chairman of Blyth AFC

I never was a very good coach. Most teams that have hired me only did it because their assitant coaches were dumber than doornails. I usually get paid by the game and find myself unemployed by the end of the season. All of those teams usually were relegated or they would disband due to poor management from above my head. For once I got the chance to be signed on at the beginning of the season. It was my team, of course I am barely older than some of older players though so respect will have to be earned. I stared out the window for a minute, there was a bad storm coming and odds are the town would still look the same as it does now afterwards. It would appear to be a long road ahead for me. "This is for you, sir. It's from the board." "Thanks, just put it over there on my desk."

The board would like to extend their gratitude for this sudden request for you to come to England.  We jsut know that you are the man for the job and as long as we aren't relegated we will be pleased with any results.  The team already has five fixtures planned before our season opener against Southport.  We have no money to spare for you to make transfer although it is your team so make whatever cuts and trades you have to get us talent.  We are young and ready to go forward for year's to come.

I couldn't promise them anything but an attempt to help them out. Odds are if I do bad I lose my job, if I do good I will have my job until we finally get relegatd or until they think the level of competition has gotten "too high" for my abilities.

[TDouglas23]

Blyth Logo.JPG
"Good morning, my name is James Vines, and that is what you shall call me. Not coach, gaffer, manager, sir, etcetera; I have a name and that is it. I already know what formation we will use, the only question is who will be in it. Up until our first match we will use friendlies to gauge yor skills and decide who deserves to be on the starting XI." It was a bit complicated for such a young team, 4 in the back, 2 defensive midfielders, a center midfielder, 2 forwards and a striker alone up top. defense only went up when we were down, midfielders when it was tied or we were down, and the attackers were by themselves.
Roster and Tactics.JPG
We have a match in 1 week, if we lose it you will all run around the pitch for days. I came here to solidify this team as a unit and to move you up to the top. There will only be 23 players that will make it through on opening day, the rest of you will be sold off to the first team that says they are interested.

[TDouglas23]

Blyth Logo.JPG

"Yes?" I announced as I heard a knock on the door. "I have the preseason reports done, sir." I listened as she went on about all these big name signings to clbs that had millions of dollars lying around. Chelseas wants this player and Real Madrid wants that player.Boston seemed busy, they got 4 players in under a month, how much money could a team have in this division? "As far as Blyth goes, nobody seems to believe in us. The media have predicted that we will find ouselves relegated by season's end. TalkSports.com predict we will draw with Solihull today 2-2. To wrap things up we will be in the FA Cup Qualifier vs Dunstable and our youth team beat Hyde 1-0 earlier this morning." "Inform the team I want them ready to be on the pitch in 2 hours, we need this win badly."

@ Solihull Moors.JPG