Part 19: Chapter the Fifth: Unemployed in Greenland.

Chapter the Fifth: Unemployed, in Greenland
October 1, 2014



Ouch, I didn't realize it right away, but I got fired for asking the board to consider a lower points goal.



It's frustrating as the board confidence wasn't even that low. My own fault for lowering the owner's stats, I suppose. In most cases, i.e. if your owner isn't an asshole, you won't get fired for this level of performance.



So I'm unemployed. Time to take a vacation. I've set it to apply to jobs for me as they come open, and I'm making saves at each job offer so we can pick which one we want without being pressed to accept the first that comes along. I'll be looking for job offers until the end of the year, and then write up the offers we get.



Hey, I'm a hot property on the market! I've only been unemployed for eight days and I'm being offered job interviews.




Job interviews give you the chance to tell a team how you want to play. I tell Macclesfield about my plan for domination via youth, and that I believe we can finish mid-table with their 12k/wk budget. I decline to ask for any improvements in the facilities or youth setup, as Macclesfield quite simply cannot afford it right now (their finances are “Insecure”- which means if things get much worse they'll be put into administration). They'll get back to me with their decision shortly.



Hey, you wanted to interview me, remember? What sort of crap is this? (It's the game telling you how much chance you actually have of getting an interview, there's three levels of interest from very little to some to being high on their list of potential hires).



And now you offer me a job right after you slagged me? Well, they're going to be one of our options.



The vast majority of our job applications will be unsuccessful, we did well with Tackleford but we don't have that much of a reputation yet, and are virtually unknown outside of English football. Nocerina and Halle, both 3rd division foreign teams, reject my application out of hand.



Hey, I've got to pay the bills somehow guys. Every day I'm not managing is a day my virtual family is on the dole.



An interview with Aldershot, also in the Skrill Premier, falls through when I ask for a little more than the 5,000 pounds they initially offer as a transfer budget. I'll be less greedy in the future.



Well, I'm flattered that they're flattered.





Wrexham, at the time of interview on October 22, 2014, are in 13th place in the Skrill Premier. Their board is slightly unfavorable towards developing players through their youth system, so I offer to focus on set pieces since that's something they want to see to balance out my philosophical requests.



A couple of days later, Wrexham offers us a job, accepting all my perquisites. It's now late October, and we've got 2 job offers.



Another job offer doesn't show up until December, when Torquay, a League Two side comes calling.



Hereford also approaches with a job offer just before the new year, giving us a grand total of four options to choose from. Despite several interviews we weren't offered jobs at any foreign clubs, which limits our choices to three Skrill Premier and one League Two teams.


The Moss Rose

Macclesfield Town
22nd, Skrill Premier
Nickname: The Silkmen
Wage Budget: £12.2k/wk
Current Wages: £12.3k/wk
Transfer Budget: £0
Financial Status: Insecure
Goal: Mid-table finish
Start Date: October 9, 2014

Macclesfield is a small city of about 50,000 an hour east of Liverpool. The club needs some serious rebuilding. Half their salary is in players who are on their reserve squad, and most of those players are transfer listed. The budget is miniscule, less than 1/3rd what we had at Tackleford. The only bright side is that they've accepted my goal of bringing in young players, but even that will be difficult seeing as we have literally zero transfer budget. We're charged with getting a mid-table finish out of a team that's roughly half loaners and that's teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Macclesfield Town is not an especially distinguished position, the club was formed in 1874 and has, but for one season when they were immediately relegated, never played higher than League Two. For the vast majority of it's history the club has played in the regional leagues. The team is presently owned by a pair of Kurdish brothers who don't have much money but are fairly patient.


The Racecourse Ground

Wrexham
13th, Skrill Premier
Nickname: The Red Dragons
Wage Budget: £32k/wk
Current Wages: £26k/wk
Transfer Budget: £15,500
Financial Status: Okay
Goal: Top Half Finish
Start Date: October 24, 2014

Wrexham is a town of 40,000 souls about 45 minutes south of Liverpool in Wales. Wrexham FC, founded in 1864, carries the distinction of being the oldest football club in Wales and the 3rd oldest professional team in the world. Wrexham has a long history in the Football League, having played 87 years consecutively prior to relegation in 2008 in divisions as high as what is now the Championship, along with winning a record 23 Welsh Cups. The current team is is relying heavily on loaned players from higher division teams, and has a fair amount of dead weight on it's reserve side. Wrexham also has a purpose built training field that rates as “top training facilities.” The team is fan owned, with a patient board chairman who has an exceptional level of business accumen and who can marshal a surprising amount of resources for a fan trust.


Plainmoor

Torquay United
22nd, League Two
Nickname: The Gulls
Wage Budget: £18k/wk
Current Wages: £22k/wk
Transfer Budget: £19,500
Financial Status: Okay
Goal: Avoid relegation.
Start Date: December 18, 2014

Torquay is a seaside town in southwest England of about 65,000 people. A fan owned team, Torquay United was founded in 1899 and has stuck around the lower divisions of the Football League since the 1920s. The club is owned by a rather penurious fan trust, and has a very low wage budget. The Chairman doesn't want to see us relegated, which should be possible as we only need to avoid finishing in the bottom two for that, but we'll be operating under a tight budget to start with. The team's finances are not strong, and we're under orders to shave it even more during the upcoming transfer window.


Edgar Street

Hereford United
20th, Skrill Premier
Nicknames: The Lilywhites, The Bulls
Wage Budget: £13.5k/wk
Current Wages: £13.5k/wk
Transfer Budget: £5,000
Financial Status: Boned.
Goal: Avoid Relegation
Start Date: January 2, 2015

Hereford is yet another small English city of just under 60,000 people, located in cattle country near the border of England and Wales. The team, founded in 1924, is dead broke, with over £500,000 in debts at the present moment. Hereford has spent most of the last fifty years flitting betwixt league and non-league football, with it's last stint in the Football League ending in 2012. It's owned by a local businessman of few resources and little talent. The team itself is not that impressive, but unlike other squads does not depend heavily on loaner talent. It's also dealing with a lot of injuries, but most of those should resolve themselves soon.

I'll be leaving things up to a fan vote, the vote will end tomorrow at 5pm EST. And then I can finally get back to playing the game. Your options are:
The Silkmen of Macclesfield.
The Red Dragons of Wrexham.
The Gulls of Torquay.
The Lillywhites of Hereford.