1st steps in the big world
I was now officially the brand new manager of Parana Clube, could I honestly hit the ground running and gain promotion to the National 1st Division in one season? They were sitting 2nd but 11 games in and it was seriously tight.
I met with the staff who tried to explain in English, the club's finance is: 1m+. We did have amazing young talent coming through who I could/should consider as 1st team players... I think; there English was poor. This non-Portuguese speaking could be a real problem but as for now I had to prepare my players for the game this weekend against Cricuma! I worked on attacking movement, playing through the middle with short neat passes... Training was extremely hard, very little could speak English, I couldn't speak Portuguese.
The 1st game arrived and they were down to 10 men early on. The game dragged on with attack after attack from both ends. 3 minutes added on late in the game... PENALTY GIVEN ON THE 95TH MINUTE TO CRICUMA! 1-0 defeat. -.- Not impressed.
A couple of months into the job, I felt I was doing pretty good. I was sitting in the top 4 in a seriously tight league. Goal Difference will defenitely make the final call come the end of the season, and I had the best in the leage. Until a bad run of form jerked me halfway down the table and more. Without a win in ages we were sitting 16th on '0'0 Goal Difference. Bloody brilliant.
With one game left in the league I handed in my resignation and was again unemployed and looking for a job in Management.
