The Alan Thompson Chronicles

Such a great story.

Such a unique, awesomely written story! I havent seen anything like this before dont stop!!

A flight from Goa to my city takes only 36 minutes. I expect you to stop by every couple of weeks. With that salary, I doubt it'll be a problem
I'M NOT THE CURRY GUY!

2013-05-07 15:20#98442 Akash : I'M NOT THE CURRY GUY!

You are and you know it!

Great update Andy, looking forward to seeing how Alan will get on in Goa. Make sure you ask him to visit me, Karnataka is just across the border


btw Akash - your curries suck.

Great mate. Love how simplistic it is. Doesn't need to be fancy to be a good story, just well written out.

Great story mate!

Enjoyed the stream, esbech, you should do it again sometime.

Part 6: Fire Sale! Everything must go

Alan had phoned for an international moving company in Dublin, as he once again was uprooting his entire life and was moving to India. He was now on his way to the airport to catch a connecting flight in Heathrow, he would be on his way for 24 hours. All of these travel arrangements had been paid for by his new club. This was definitely something he had never thought he would experience. He was going over the papers that SC Goa had emailed him the night before. It had everything, the history of the club, including its affiliation with Sporting Lisbon, a list of former notable players (Alan hadn’t heard a single name before), and a full list of the staff at the club. Alan skimmed the board members’ profiles and started reading about the club’s coaching staff.

When Alan was done reading the reports about the coaching staff he was close to landing in Heathrow, he couldn’t believe how far he had come since he had moved in with his mother just a year ago. It was quite surreal that he was on his way to India to coach a professional football team. His wages there were quite surreal as well, Alan had never dreamt of making that much money.

As soon as Alan had boarded the plane to India he took out the folder containing the reports on the club. His future assistant manager had written a 3 page report about the state of the team, what system they were used to playing, and what he thought would need improving. The assistant manager also added a few of his own personal thoughts on playing style, which Alan agreed with. When Alan put that report aside he looked at the other folder he had printed out. Each player had a 5 page report on them, the first page, Alan had noted, contained all the vitals: name, date of birth, strengths and weaknesses, physical build, wage, contract expiry date. Everything that is good basic knowledge for a manager to have.

Alan flicked the next 4 pages of the first report just to see that the future assistant manager had written a one page report on the player and the following 3 pages where reports from some of the coaches at the club on each little part of his game. Alan glanced back at the staff report and saw that every coach had contributed to the report. As Alan had finished reading all the reports, having skipped the basic information on each player, he went to sleep.

He woke up 2 hours before landing in India, he had never slept well on a plane. He picked up the financial report and saw that the wage budget was more than maxed out. He set out to see where the most expensive contracts were and would look into whether these players were worth it. He found out that out of the €22,500 budget two players were on €10,000 a week. That meant that about 89% of the wage budget were used on two players. Alan looked at the reports and the entire staff agreed that both players would need to go as they weren’t good enough for their wages. Alan looked at their basic information, both players had contracts until the end of June, which was only 2 months away. “Great” Alan thought and was quite pleased that the budget could stabilise itself quite quickly. A sudden idea went through Alan’s head, he might not be able to renegotiate other players contracts when the budget was maxed out like that. That might mean that he stood to lose 4 or 5 players if the former manager had made a good enough job of spreading the contract lengths out.

He hadn’t. As Alan looked through the basic information he quickly learned that only 3 players had more than a year left of their contracts and the rest of the player’s contracts ended sometime in May. Alan let out a silent swear word, which caused the elderly lady next to him to look up at him and frown. Alan quickly got a notepad out and started scribbling a few ideas of how he would approach the board, that he never had met, to allow him to increase the wage budget to twice it’s original amount for a month. As the plane landed Alan had only one argument on the paper that he thought was valid, hopefully the board would accept his idea.

Liking the last update, curious how Alan will fare in India

Part 7: Cups galore

As the strong midfielder Peter Carvalho stepped up to take the last penalty, Alan’s heart raced with adrenaline. The few seconds felt like hours and as Carvalho placed the ball on the spot, Alan thought back on the past 4 months he had been in Goa. When he arrived he was faced with the overwhelming task of keeping a squad together. After a lot of effort discussing with the board Alan finally got them convinced that he could resign some of the players in the team despite going a lot over budget. The only reason the board agreed with this was that Alan had promised that he would keep the wage expenses down for the next season. Alan though that even a hollow victory was a victory. He had been well received by the rest of the staff, everyone seemed to like him immediately. The chief scout had come up to Alan and given him a list of 5 players who might make it big. Among these a certain goalkeeper name Venkatesh Afonso. Alan had found out that this was the bargain of a century. As soon as Afonso pulled on an SC Goa shirt Alan noticed his rough talent. Alan was absolutely sure that this kid would make it to the Indian national team.

At this point Carvalho was trying to get rid of the opponent goalkeeper who had come out to try and psych him. The referee seemed to move in slow motion in order to tell the keeper that he should get back on his line. “This is going to end up just like the Durand Cup” Alan thought and for the umpteenth time he wiped the sweat off his forehead with his shirt sleeve.

In India the cups are played before the season actually starts, SC Goa participates in two of these cups. The first one Alan encountered was the Durand Cup, a regional cup or that was what Alan had gathered from the participating teams. It was expected of SC Goa to win this cup, however it all went badly as SC Goa lost out on a place in the semifinals to goal difference. It was a single goal that split the two teams.

The ref had finally gotten the Pune keeper back to his line. Carvalho was measuring his steps, he had been subbed on just before the penalty shoot out and despite the fresh legs he ended up as number 7 on the penalty takers list. Pune had hit the first 6 of their penalties but had missed the 7th. Carvalho had now finished taking his steps he looked up at the Pune side of the crowd who was booing and jeering. Alan had hoped to win the coin toss so that they could be in the same end as their own fans, but luck didn’t favour them that way. The Fed Cup had gone a lot better than the Durand Cup and it would be infuriating to have that end at such a late stage. SC Goa had won 2 of 3 games in the group stages and drawn the last. Doing so they played some great football, or at least the best that Alan had coached.

Carvalho started his run up. Alan knelt on the touchline as he gave into the suspense. Alan closed his eyes and listened for any crowd reaction. All he could hear was booing. Even though Alan had anticipated a large cheer it still struck him by surprise, he opened his eyes and immediately saw the Pune fans had gone silent, he looked onto the pitch and saw Peter Carvalho rushing towards him, his face was one big smile. Alan got pushed in the back and nearly fell as the entire SC Goa dugout ran past him. Alan stood up and it dawned on him what had happened. SC Goa was going to the final in the Fed Cup against the Churchill Boys. He put two fists in the air and let out a scream of victory.

Was it a good penalty or was Alan not watching?

Haha, such a big suspense. I never normally read the whole thing when it's a long update, but it was quite interesting Good luck in the Fed Cup final

2013-06-03 16:49#108409 Louis O. : Was it a good penalty or was Alan not watching?

He wasn't watching. Would you at such a critical time?

2013-06-03 16:50#108410 tokenginge : Haha, such a big suspense. I never normally read the whole thing when it's a long update, but it was quite interesting Good luck in the Fed Cup final

I usually try to make my updates about an A4 page long. It might be a bit too much to some, but I do hope that there are more who enjoy these long ones.

*Lets out a scream of victory* *loses*

Wow, more quality updates. Good to see this story progressing and good to see alan finally coming into some luck. Keep it up.