Bristol Rovers F.C. - Application

Dear Mr Higgs,

I'd like to offer my application for the currently vacant managerial position at Bristol Rovers F.C.
Below is my C.V. for your consideration.

Experience

Currently have no actual managerial experience outside of the realm of Championship Manager 01-02. But am confident that the skills I have acquired from this computer game will translate into the real world.

As a demonstration of my skills I have played the entire 2010-11 season with Bristol Rovers F.C. and following is the detail of how I got on:

First off, as a Welshman there is a bit of a rivalry between Rovers and the Welsh clubs, I also know a couple of mates who are City fans. I won’t let either of these factors affect my management of Rovers; I’m way too professional for that.

Anyway, let’s see what the board expects.

Board Expectations:

Pretty low expectations there; basically stay out of the relegation zone. My task will also be made harder than in real life because there will be no clubs doing us a favour by having 10 point deductions.

The Season:

July:

First thing to do is to sort out my backroom staff. Moses Underwood left and I brought in Andy May, Jason Dozzell & Martin Filson as new coaches. Darren Patterson was brought in as a new assistant manager; Warren Neil was reassigned as a coach to make room.

After looking at the first team squad, I was short a centre back, a left back, a left winger and 2 strikers – with £600K to spend.

I mistakenly bought Jason Euell from Blackpool for £300K after thinking he was an out and out striker, in reality he’s an attacking midfielder, probably should have checked that, oh well he’ll add some class to the squad. Anyway I got Plymouth’s Rory Patterson & Forest’s Dele Adebola in as proper strikers for a combined £115K.

Central defender Gavin Dayes and versatile winger Ashley Vincent were brought in from Dagenham and Colchester respectively for a total of £136K.

I was still short a left back but money had ran out, I could live with this as maybe money would become available later on.

August:

First game of the season was a thrilling 4-2 defeat to Hartlepool. Unbelievable Jeff.

Then it was league cup first round time. We smashed championship Leicester 5-2 at home!

After the opening day loss, we won every other game in the month, moving us up to 3^rd.

September:

Not bad league form again, then came the league cup second round game against Premier League Wolves at home. We outclassed them 1-0 in front of a bumper crowd at the Memorial Stadium. The gate receipts from that game gave some money I could spend on a left back. So managed to get Stefan Stam from Yeovil for only £55K. My squad was complete already. That is quite a rare feat at this level I can assure you.

We finished the month 8^th in the league.

October:

Decent month in the league again, finished the month still 8^th.

The league cup dream died with a 2-0 away loss to West Ham, we were outclassed.

The cup run meant I had £200K to spend on transfers, however there were no players I wanted at this point in time.

November:

A great month in which we went unbeaten, rising to 3^rd in the league. We also beat non-league Hyde 4-3 away in the FA Cup 1^st round and drew our 2^nd round tie away to Carlisle.

December:

Another unbeaten month, although this time mainly draws, we had a streak of 6 straight draws which included our FA Cup replay, which we disappointingly lost on penalties.

We finished the month 5^th. We also won our Johnstone’s Paint Trophy first round game 1-0 against Barnet.

January:

Not a great month, we won our second round Johnstone’s Paint Trophy match against MK Dons 3-0 at home. We however lost the next round on penalties to Southend.

Our league form wasn’t great we fell to 8^th by the end of the month.

On-loan goalkeeper Mikkel Andersen’s contract ended at the start of the month, so Leyton Orient’s Lee Butcher was signed as a replacement for £50K.

February:

We continued our league form and consolidated our 8^th place – I’m really confident we can make the playoffs at the end of the season though.

March:

League Table as at 8^th of March – the day after Dave Penney was sacked in the real world,

As you can see I’m performing much better than Dave, I’d be amazed if I would’ve been sacked based on the club’s league position.

A good run followed the above screenshot and we rose to 4^th.

April:

We’re in the playoffs, but need a good month to stay there by the end of the season, and we did. Finishing April in 4^th, with a playoff place assured, 3 points off the top 2 places with one game remaining

May:

We had a chance to win an automatic spot if we won our last game and Southampton or Huddersfield lost and Plymouth didn’t win. At halftime we were 2-0 up and the top two were drawing, so still a chance.

In the end we won our game but other results didn’t go our way so we finished 3^rd.

The 2010/11 League 1 final league table:

So we got Charlton in the playoff semi. To be honest it would be a travesty if we didn’t qualify, we were easily the best team in the playoffs. We drew at home 1-1, which was a bit disappointing, but we didn’t really deserve to win. Then in the return leg we dominated, but somehow only managed another 1-1 draw after 90 minutes. Then we conceded in the 7^th minute of extra time and never got a goal back – completely gutted. Often at this stage I would close the game down and try again, but let it show as a mark of my professionalism that I did not.

Transfers:

Roll of honour:

Club Most Appearances:

Rory Patterson              57 (out of 57!)

Club Most Man of the Match:

Rory Patterson              7

Club Most Assists:

Jason Euell                   14

Club Top Goalscorer:

Rory Patterson              29

League 1 Team of the year

Luke Daniels

Jeff Hughes

Gavin Dayes

Jason Euell

Fans player of the year:

Rory Patterson

League 1 Manager of the Month:

James Rees                  November

Attendances:

Lowest:              2,894  vs. Barnet          Johnstone’s Paint Trophy South 1^st round

Highest:           11,896  vs. Charlton       League 1 playoff semi-final (20 off capacity!)

Average:            8,647              (73% capacity)

Finances

Future

I’m not going to bother with another season, but here’s what I’d do:

·         Sign a goalkeeper and a left back. I should have just over £2 million to spend so may buy for other positions as well.

·         Gain promotion this time.

·         Improve the backroom staff if stand-out coaching talent becomes available and I can be bothered.

Summary

Made the playoffs after the board only expected survival. Should really have gained promotion but suffered from erectile dysfunction and couldn’t get past a semi.

As you can see, I would be a great addition to Rovers as my vast experience on Championship Manager has helped me learn a lot about man management, tactics & how to work with a limited budget. All of these could be translated into a real-world environment.

I think I’d also fit into the surrounding area, it’s not too bad a commute from Cardiff. Also, according to Wikipedia there are many famous Gasheads I admire: Ian Holloway, Roni Size & Rod Hull to name but a few.

I assure you that my knowledge is invaluable and you will not find a better (virtual) manager anywhere else.