The following are excerpts from the diary of a young man named Abraham Tan. It follows his journey from being a bum living with his mother in his hometown of Singapore to the beginnings of a career in football management.
NOTE: This story contains foul language and might be considered offensive towards certain ethnicities/nationalities. Please understand that it's a fictional story and is not intended to insult anyone.
6 Jan 2009
My Career Begins
I've sent out my job application, and I begin my career not far from home at Kendari Utama, an Indonesian First Division team. First Division is the lowest league out of the three major football leagues that Indonesia has, the second is the Premier League and the top is called the Super League.
My objective is to spend at most one or two seasons managing this club, hopefully get a good result under my belt and move on to a more promising club. The date is 6 Jan 2009 and the league runs from August 09 until Jan 2010. I'm will be arranging loads of friendlies during this long off-season period and I will refrain from getting too involved in the everyday running of the club, letting my assistant handle the games.
I've been given a budget of 2.7k and 850 p/w to strengthen my squad, and with this money I hope to fix the weaknesses in my side - fullback, left wing and striker.
25 Jun 2009
Singapore Beckons
Well interesting news, there's just been a job opening in my hometown Singapore. DPMM FC is now looking for a manager, and I can't help but think that if I get this job it's going to boost my career by miles. The media have labeled me a favorite for the post, and the reporters are jamming up my phone asking for a comment. I told them I'd make a decision by the end of the day.
Some real thinking to be done here.
26 Jun 2009
Drama Days
Well Mr Marati (my chairman) is flipping a shit over my declaration of interest but I couldn't half understand what he was saying anyway, the slimy fuck. My grasp of Bahasa Indonesia is still basic which is probably good because I might've told him "I quit" if I knew how to.
To tell you the truth I'm hoping I'll get to go back home in the near future.
30 Jun 2009
Stuck in a Rut
DPMM picked Syed Neo over me. Motherfucker. I'm pretty disappointed, but what are you gonna do. Back to work.
15 Aug 2009
I Fucking Hate Own Goals
In our second league match of the season my supporting midfielder, Agus Riyanto put the ball into our goal for us off a corner, causing us to lose our 1-0 lead on this game.
We had this match against Perseta by the balls and I'm thoroughly pissed off.
6 Sep 2009
Suckers!
Hahahaha, good news, in our 5th league game against Persitoli, I thought it was over for us as they got a penalty in the 86th minute.
But the sucker missed from the spot! That gives us our third win in five games and puts us on top of the league. Whoop!
15 Nov 2009
Dry Spell
We haven't won in 8 games and with 9 games to go till the end of the 1st phase, I desperately need our form to pick up if I'm going to aim any higher than 6th place. We're not doing poorly, out of 13 games we're 3-8-2. But it's just not good enough and I am really expecting more out of this team.
21 Nov 2009
Wheelin' Dealin'
Here is a list of my transfers for this season. I'm quite pleased with the deals I made here, although I think I was a bit too generous with my offers. Oh well finances are the least of my worries right now, I have ambitions damn it!
Here's a team report from my assistant, looks to have quite a few stars in it but he is an idiot anyway and what does he know.
27 Nov 2009
Unbelievable
Somehow or another, my application for a vacant spot at Geylang Utd was exposed by the media. Naturally the board weren't too happy and after the big hookah about the DPMM job a few months ago, they decided that they'd had enough and gave me an ultimatum - apologize or resign.
As much as I'd have loved a move to Geylang, which would be brilliant for my career, I wasn't ready to leave Kendari yet.
I had no choice but to make a public apology. How humiliating. Bastards.
20 Feb 2010
Season Wrap-up
Well all my whining paid off as we came away with a decent 4-2-3 in the last 9 games of the season, giving us a respectable mid-table position and $35,000 in prize money. I'm annoyed because if we weren't so goddamn half assed in our finishing we could easily have made third, and that's $15,000 more.
I mean come on we drew so many times against terrible opposition and so we're 6th instead of 3rd by goal difference? Damn.
I'm doing a lot of thinking as to what the future holds for me. As I've mentioned time and again I don't want to be stuck here in Indonesia and if I had the opportunity to move I would love to. But I'm also afraid to lose my job here at Kendari. Mom would kick my ass if she found out I was unemployed again.
I just wish someone would come to me with an offer, but I guess that luxury is only available to guys like Fergie and Mourinho.
Maybe one day I'll get there.
NOTE: This story contains foul language and might be considered offensive towards certain ethnicities/nationalities. Please understand that it's a fictional story and is not intended to insult anyone.
6 Jan 2009
My Career Begins
I've sent out my job application, and I begin my career not far from home at Kendari Utama, an Indonesian First Division team. First Division is the lowest league out of the three major football leagues that Indonesia has, the second is the Premier League and the top is called the Super League.
My objective is to spend at most one or two seasons managing this club, hopefully get a good result under my belt and move on to a more promising club. The date is 6 Jan 2009 and the league runs from August 09 until Jan 2010. I'm will be arranging loads of friendlies during this long off-season period and I will refrain from getting too involved in the everyday running of the club, letting my assistant handle the games.
I've been given a budget of 2.7k and 850 p/w to strengthen my squad, and with this money I hope to fix the weaknesses in my side - fullback, left wing and striker.
25 Jun 2009
Singapore Beckons
Well interesting news, there's just been a job opening in my hometown Singapore. DPMM FC is now looking for a manager, and I can't help but think that if I get this job it's going to boost my career by miles. The media have labeled me a favorite for the post, and the reporters are jamming up my phone asking for a comment. I told them I'd make a decision by the end of the day.
Some real thinking to be done here.
26 Jun 2009
Drama Days
Well Mr Marati (my chairman) is flipping a shit over my declaration of interest but I couldn't half understand what he was saying anyway, the slimy fuck. My grasp of Bahasa Indonesia is still basic which is probably good because I might've told him "I quit" if I knew how to.
To tell you the truth I'm hoping I'll get to go back home in the near future.
30 Jun 2009
Stuck in a Rut
DPMM picked Syed Neo over me. Motherfucker. I'm pretty disappointed, but what are you gonna do. Back to work.
15 Aug 2009
I Fucking Hate Own Goals
In our second league match of the season my supporting midfielder, Agus Riyanto put the ball into our goal for us off a corner, causing us to lose our 1-0 lead on this game.
We had this match against Perseta by the balls and I'm thoroughly pissed off.
6 Sep 2009
Suckers!
Hahahaha, good news, in our 5th league game against Persitoli, I thought it was over for us as they got a penalty in the 86th minute.
But the sucker missed from the spot! That gives us our third win in five games and puts us on top of the league. Whoop!
15 Nov 2009
Dry Spell
We haven't won in 8 games and with 9 games to go till the end of the 1st phase, I desperately need our form to pick up if I'm going to aim any higher than 6th place. We're not doing poorly, out of 13 games we're 3-8-2. But it's just not good enough and I am really expecting more out of this team.
21 Nov 2009
Wheelin' Dealin'
Here is a list of my transfers for this season. I'm quite pleased with the deals I made here, although I think I was a bit too generous with my offers. Oh well finances are the least of my worries right now, I have ambitions damn it!
Here's a team report from my assistant, looks to have quite a few stars in it but he is an idiot anyway and what does he know.
27 Nov 2009
Unbelievable
Somehow or another, my application for a vacant spot at Geylang Utd was exposed by the media. Naturally the board weren't too happy and after the big hookah about the DPMM job a few months ago, they decided that they'd had enough and gave me an ultimatum - apologize or resign.
As much as I'd have loved a move to Geylang, which would be brilliant for my career, I wasn't ready to leave Kendari yet.
I had no choice but to make a public apology. How humiliating. Bastards.
20 Feb 2010
Season Wrap-up
Well all my whining paid off as we came away with a decent 4-2-3 in the last 9 games of the season, giving us a respectable mid-table position and $35,000 in prize money. I'm annoyed because if we weren't so goddamn half assed in our finishing we could easily have made third, and that's $15,000 more.
I mean come on we drew so many times against terrible opposition and so we're 6th instead of 3rd by goal difference? Damn.
I'm doing a lot of thinking as to what the future holds for me. As I've mentioned time and again I don't want to be stuck here in Indonesia and if I had the opportunity to move I would love to. But I'm also afraid to lose my job here at Kendari. Mom would kick my ass if she found out I was unemployed again.
I just wish someone would come to me with an offer, but I guess that luxury is only available to guys like Fergie and Mourinho.
Maybe one day I'll get there.
