Career of Ian Collins - Pre Season 2007

This will be my first post of many updating my ongoing saga in Football Manager 2008. For those interested in settings, I'm playing with all leagues active in England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland on a large database with all players from the U.S.A. loaded. Although I'm not elite or experienced enough to be a true LLMer, I do try to keep some things within reality. The main aspect in that mentality is to disable my use of the player/staff search function other than those either scouted or listed for transfer or loan. Also, I do not allow transfer budgets within the first window. Be aware that there will be a considerate amount of "tipping" in my blog as I will be using the real names of players in my updates.

Going along with the supposed reality of the "fantasy" world, I've decided not to use myself in the real form as a manager in the game. Would a twenty-something American with little actual football experience ever get a job in the United Kingdom? I think not. Instead of making up a fictional character, I used an actual person that is obscure enough not to be included in the game - University of Kentucky's coach, Ian Collins.

A native of Bridgnorth, England, a 22-year-old Collins became the youngest head coach in Division I soccer when he accepted the head coaching job at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. During his playing days, Collins earned a spot on the English School Boy Under-18 National Team. Collins also spent three years in the Northeast Professional Soccer League. Arriving in the Bluegrass as an assistant coach in 1992, Collins has been a part of the University of Kentucky family for 12 of its 13 years. He spent just two seasons as assistant before taking over the reins as head coach in 1994. Read his full bio on the UK athletics website.

Continuing on with this so-called "reality", I figured it would be fitting if Coach Collins would take over the managerial duties of his hometown team. Not being from or ever visiting England, it took me a while to do some research into Bridgnorth and the county of Shopshire. The best squad I could find with some aspect of stature (I apologize for not wanting to start my career in the Blue Square) was Shrewsbury Town in Coca-Cola League Two. They just built New Meadow, a 10000 seater starting this year, the chairman loves the club and the finances are in order. Add the fact that my board is only looking for a respectable place within League Two as a long-term expectation and it seems like a pretty good job to me.

My first order of business was to sort out the staff and without a transfer budget I pretty much have to remain as is. I'm already one coach over my board's recommendation and that includes my third keeper also being the team's GK coach. My lone scout isn't very good (8/6/10 on judging CA, PA & tactical knowledge) so I placed an ad to supplement him hopefully with a decent unattached regen within the next few months.

The squad itself is not in great condition though. Three of my starters are currently out on long-term injuries (3-5 months) and the rest of the bunch are a mix of the fairly young and fairly old. My defensive line is pretty solid, although slow, but up the pitch there's not great technical ability. Highlighted players on my team include:

Kelvin Langmead: Center Back (vice-captain); heart of the defense

Stewart Drummond: Midfielder (captain); determined deep playmaker

Jimmy Ryan: Midfielder (on loan from Liverpool; set to transfer in Jan 2008)

Glyn Garner: Goalkeeper; experienced rock guarding the goal posts

Stuart Nicholson: (on loan from West Brom) pacey striker with the moves

After setting up my pre-season fitness regimes, giving my staff assignments and evaluating my current (non-injured) squad of players, it's time to draw up a simple home & away tactic to start out for our four scheduled friendlies. Besides a rock solid defense for this level of football and a pretty above-average paced striker with ability, there's not much technical skill. Most of the youngsters on the senior squad are in the 19-21 year-old range and haven't developed much ability other than their raw talent. Add all this together with our media prediction of placing 10th in the league, I'm sure we're going to have to use our defense as a road to our victories. My wingers are pretty pacey though so I drew up tactics that focused on having most players behind the ball and using my midfield passers to link up direct with the attackers making forward runs. This "pass-and-chase" long ball style will definitely not be pretty to watch but if we concentrate on not conceding goals for at least the first portion of the season, we may be in good enough shape. KISS (keep it simple stupid) seems to be the correct way to go with this bunch. Some 1-0 victories against the bottom half and scoreless draws against the top I would consider to be a success until the transfer window.

L.A. Galaxy playing in Australia - Does anyone care?

The L.A. Galaxy a.k.a. the David Beckham show started their international tour of Australia yesterday with a 5-3 trouncing against Syndey FC. Although injuring his left ankle, Beckham gave the fans what they paid for in the Galaxy's only first-half goal in front of the 80,000+ in attendance. The A-League encounter was the team's first exhibition outside North America and was televised internationally. The question remains whether or not Alexi Lalas' vision of having his L.A. Galaxy squad become a world-reknown powerhouse in the likes of Beckham's former club, Real Madrid, is the right approach to helping American-based football as a whole.

The tour is heavily based upon modern "brand" marketing strategy with the Galaxy reportedly selling over 20,000 jerseys in Australia to date. Gaining a foothold in the international market as a so-called "powerhouse" seems to have launched as a success not withstanding using the aging David Beckham as the anchor behind the hype. Although billed with worldwide television coverage, this Australian friendly was not even available on any North American programming outlet and is being covered by virtually no American media source. This addresses a key flaw in Lalas' vision - why should foreigners care about a squad who cannot even generate enough interest in their own home country?

Although many football pundits here in the United States tend to criticize Lalas, especially after shedding his well-known locks and goatee for a more corporate suit-and-tie approach, I am not one to abhor his attempts of elevating his squad with a friendly tour. He must first come to realize that his supposed "powerhouse" failed to even qualify for their domestic league playoffs. With Beckham or without, American fans tend to quatify success in the standings and it can easily become laughable for them when a team at the bottom of the pack is being used to promote their product. The NFL's version of this marketing strategy was a success in American's eyes when the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins visited England last month as it produced an affair between two teams that this country actually cares about on a more national level. While no MLS squad has that level of appeal being that the sport is more of a niche in the United States, it doesn't help matters.

A more fitting approach than having the L.A. Galaxy or any MLS team for that matter go abroad would be to cement their appeal within their own borders first. Invite foreign-based club squads to have friendly matches in U.S. stadiums during our winter months. There must be financial benefits for English Premiership teams to even send their reserve squads over and gain more of a foothold in the lucrative U.S. marketplace. Lalas has claimed over the summer that the MLS is on par with the European leagues which was met by silenced guffaws across the ocean. Instead of trying to prove them wrong over on their home turf, why not first show Americans that we have a product to be proud of and support?

National pride and patriotism has been pushed to the forefront on many occasions. I believe that you must have the full backing of the American people (or at least the armchair fans) before claiming to be better than the 3rd-tier league status that the world views us. Even if then the MLS doesn't meet expectations and fails to realistically compete against world class giants like Barcelona, Chelsea, Inter Milan, etc. at least there will be American journalists covering the story and I can watch it unfold live in my living room at home in the United States.