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Your Shout: The Easiest Job In Football

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Welcome to the first article in the ‘Your Shout’ series, hopefully there will be many more to follow this one. Many thanks to PoolieJohn who has submitted the following

Your team are struggling badly, your out of all the cups and looking relegation square in the eye, the current incumbent has ‘lost the dressing room’ with regular first teamers going through the motions week in week out, the team sheet shows more name changes than the artist formerly known as Prince, the dreaded vote of confidence has been and gone and the fans are organising campaigns and painting slogans on used bed sheets.

Then one day the manager gets the chop, you’re summoned to the chairman’s office and ask if you would like a temporary promotion, you jump at the chance, after all you’ve been working towards your coaching badges for the last couple of years and a spell in charge will stand you in good stead for the job you ultimately would like one day in the future.

The players welcome you with open arms, you tell them the slate is clean and everybody is on a level playing field. Your first training session is a light hearted affair; the entire squad appears to have had a huge weight lifted from their shoulders and the smiles are returning.

The press are keen for interviews, you tell them the past is gone and everybody has to pull together for the good of the club, what’s done is done. You ask the fans for their support and encouragement and you start to plan for your first game in charge, sleepless nights are no problem, you’ve got plenty of videos to watch anyway.

The week goes by and training is a breeze, the players are enjoying the change to their old routine and you are starting to think about formations and tactics for the fast approaching weekend game. You decided to go back to basics and keep it tight at the back with a traditional 4-4-2 formation. You call on a couple of the squad’s more experienced players to come back into the fold and bring some much needed guile and old fashioned commitment.

The game goes well; you keep a clean sheet and nick a goal at the other end. The atmosphere in the stadium is excellent, the fans are vociferous, the players responsive and the press talk about a new dawn, out with the old and in with the new. After the game you thank the players and the fans and tell the press that you are taking it one day at a time and you’ll continue in your new role for as long as the chairman requires you to, you even go as far as saying you are not ready for the job fulltime and you just want to do the best you can for the club and the fans.

Welcome to the world of the caretaker manager, the easiest job in football, pressure? What pressure?


PoolieJohn

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