It looks like Swansea need some help

Good luck at your next club, it is a shame that it didn't work out at Oldham!

MisterLister:I know that I can’t take the club any further so I am better to abandon that part of my journey and start afresh somewhere else.

Walter:My club of choice will be revealed soon. Thanks for continuing to read the story.

TaroMisaki:I am not going to give any hints away as to which club I decide to take on.

ncryanek:I can officially rule Swansea out.

Justice:It is a shame but it was a necessary decision.

With me now being out of work, I have been desperately trying to get myself straight back into football management. Fortunately, around the same time of my resignation from Oldham Athletic, a number of other opportunities became available. I probably didn’t go around my applying for the jobs in the correct way with me declaring interest in a number of jobs which can put a lot of chairman’s off as they don’t think you have the correct commitment necessary to lead their club.


I started by declaring interest and applying for two jobs which were at Atlético Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur who had both decided to Marco Silva and Diego Simeone. Unfortunately I sent in my application for the Spurs job too late and I was informed that the application stage had been suspended and the interviews had already taken part. Within a couple of days Spurs had replaced Simeone with Gianfranco Zola who left his job at Sunderland to take up the manager position at the North London club. There was a different result from my application to manage the Spanish based giants. I was invited to interview which I gladly attended. I had thought I had said all the right things but they decided to give Diego Simeone a second chance at the Madrid based club. I can’t blame them for that decision; if I was them I would have gone with Simeone due to his experience. So these two jobs weren’t supposed to be but a couple of others did come available.


Both the Reading and Stoke City jobs became available. Both clubs had been experiencing very contrasting seasons with Reading second in the Championship and Stoke City floundering in the relegation zone of the Premier League. I am beyond confused why Reading felt the need to sack Graham Westley who was doing a great job at the club and had guided them to a comfortable position in the league; a very bizarre decision. Tony Pulis’ time at Stoke City had had to come to an end with an abysmal performance so far this season which had found them in the middle of the relegation zone. Despite only being two points from safety, the chairman had felt that a change was needed at the club and had given Pulis his marching orders.

I declared interest in both jobs, I applied for both the jobs, I got interviewed for both. Which one did I take?

Stoke would be a great team to manage!

You would've done miracles at Atlético, too bad that didn't happen. Regarding Reading and Stoke I'd probably pick Reading out of the two and give myself the rest of the season to prepare for that next season in Prem

I'd certainly pick Reading personally, good luck to you with whoever you chose

2015-02-28 08:44#209293 TaroMisaki : Stoke would be a great team to manage!

They would be a great club to change the fortunes of. Reading are in a great position to be promoted with or without me. A tough decision that's for sure.

2015-02-28 12:40#209316 sieninen : You would've done miracles at Atlético, too bad that didn't happen. Regarding Reading and Stoke I'd probably pick Reading out of the two and give myself the rest of the season to prepare for that next season in Prem

I am quite gutted that I have now been interviewed twice for the Atlético job and not been given an opportunity. I am more than happy to settle for either Reading or Stoke City mind.

2015-02-28 18:57#209347 Justice : I'd certainly pick Reading personally, good luck to you with whoever you chose

Why would you pick Reading? I would be interested to know.

I personally hate Stoke. No matter who manages them or who plays for them I will always regard them a long ball club. Whether they have Xavi and Iniesta, they're a long ball club and to that I can only say...Ew.

Pick Reading yayay!!

2015-03-01 01:01#209381 AaronHJFT96 : I personally hate Stoke. No matter who manages them or who plays for them I will always regard them a long ball club. Whether they have Xavi and Iniesta, they're a long ball club and to that I can only say...Ew.

Pick Reading yayay!!

I do think that is a reputation that they are slowly leaving behind them but they can resort to that style of football if they need to!

The decision to become Stoke City’s new manager ended up being quite an easy one. I had got a taste for the Premier League with Oldham Athletic and it was something that I was desperate to continue to experience. Now I do expect Reading to gain promotion from the Championship with or without me and I was really tempted to take the job from a selfish point of view as it would be another promotion on my CV; this of course would benefit me when I wanted to move onto a higher reputable club. I am very confident in my own ability to turn around the fortunes of clubs that have not had a good start to the season; when I joined Oldham Athletic they were in a precarious position and I ended up guiding them to the Premier League.


As you can see from the club’s recent history, they have not had the best past few seasons under Tony Pullis who in my opinion should have left the club after he didn’t get the club promotion straight back into the Premier League. Instead he was allowed to stay at the club which did it not favours and he has not left it in a good position for the rest of this current season. The club does possess some quality players and if I manage to find a good tactic that will accommodate the better players, I am confident that we will retain our league position and I will then be given the summer to strengthen to club and we will start a fresh.


As you can see from the player records, it is a club with a good history. Heck, Sir Stanley Matthews played for the club and is undoubtedly a legend of the club and that could just be for him playing at the age of 50 years old! I can’t believe I am saying this but we are lucky to have Mame Diouf at the club and fingers crossed he can achieve a 7.43 average rating by the end of this current season. The rest of the players mentioned in the players records are no longer at the club.

Where are they now? Who do we have at the club?

Peter Crouch funnily enough is the assistant manager at Hereford United after ending his playing career a couple of seasons ago. I am not going to go down the route of employing former players as my backroom staff but instead will look at some of my staff at Oldham Athletic to come in and rejuvenate the club, specifically, the training sessions. Asmir Begovic is a goalkeeper I do rate in the real world of football but unfortunately in game he was signed by PSG two seasons ago for a reasonable fee of £12 million. Solid centre back and sometimes controversial when defending corners Ryan Shawcross has also left the club with Everton signing him for a low fee of £3 million. In order to replace him the club invested heavily in the defence with the likes of Danny Wilson (former Liverpool and Hearts centre back), Fabio (former Manchester United and Cardiff City left back) and Francis Coquelin (former Arsenal defensive midfielder) joining the club.

I am excited to see that Jordan Ibe is on the club’s books but his development has been hindered by Fulham who I admittedly have an unwarranted hatred for. Ibe has only played 10 games in the past three seasons so it is going to take a lot time to get out of him what he is doing in the real world of football at present. Diafra Sakho, who is doing so well for West Ham United this current season, is also on the club’s books but he is playing second fiddle to Mame Diouf who is leading the attack with youngster Julien Ngoy.

After reviewing the playing personnel I am very confident that we can avoid relegation with ease and instead make our way higher up the league where a club like Stoke City belong. Let’s get started...

Great choice! And Jordan Ibe hopefully works wonders for you...

Stoke is a more interesting choice than the rest i think. Can't wait for some games

Good luck with Stoke!

Good luck at Stoke!