Football: The Journey of a Coach

2. The Croydon FC

The current English league system is very complete. Starting from the English League, English Championship, League One, and League Two are competitions for professional teams. National League Football Association, Super League North and South Football Association, Super League North Group , Super League South Group and Isthmian Super League In league group, in turn, Super League North Group, most of them are amateur teams, and only slightly higher levels have professional or semi-professional teams.

 Croydon FC was recently established, only a few decades old, considered to be a very young team in the Croydon region, currently participating in the Isthmian First Division, this is the Isthmian League, Isthmian League, in the later levels of the Super League, there are only serious amateur teams, and few players can pay a part-time salary.

There is basically no amateur team like this that can pay the salaries of its players. They also call it the weekend team. Everyone is usually busy and has no time. It is basically impossible to achieve integrated training. Only on weekends do they have time to train.

Daniel Ward's idea was to change the status quo at Croydon FC. The team's strength needs to be strengthened. Relying on players is unreliable because clubs have no money and can only rely on training. Through training, team strength can be improved How to increase training effect? !.

First increase training time.

Daniel is very familiar with Croydon's team, this is his hometown team, he often goes to clubs to watch games, his uncle works for the club, not to mention his father who was originally the left-back of the team.

The club's management knows him, so do the players in the team. After breakfast and packing his luggage, Daniel hears a car horn outside the door.

This is Wayne Collins' uncle taking his cousin Joey to pick him up and go to the club.

    "Hi, Danny! Good morning!". Joey is a tall man who is close to 1.9 meters tall. She is eighteen years old and has just graduated High School this year. Produced by Royden Youth Academy, he is currently also a part-time player in the team.

 Daniel Ward has a relatively close relationship with several cousins, and Joey and he are very close because of playing football. After all, both have more common languages. They had met many times in the past few days. Play football together.

    "Hello, Joe! From now on you should call me boss!". Daniel and Joey pretend to be serious after boxing.

    Many head coaches in England are called "bosses", but here in Croydon, we're all neighbors everyone is still talking about this.

    Wayne Collins first laughed in the taxi, "Hahaha, Danny, you're getting into the role fast!" "

   " Good morning, Uncle Wayne, the weather's great today!". Daniel Ward was talking on purpose.

    Everyone laughs together.

    Wayne then started the car and drove to the Neighborhood club where Daniel lived not far from the club, about 4 miles away, and it took over ten minutes to drive there.

    "I thought you'd turn down this job!". Wayne probably never imagined that his nephew would accept the position of interim head coach, asking questions while driving.

    “I am unemployed now, why did I refuse this job?!”. Daniel laughs.

 “You sent a job application email to Crystal Palace, but haven't got a reply yet?!”. Ask Joey next to him.

Daniel Ward shook his head, the cover letter sent by Daniel, Faizal Haris has this memory, now it seems like applying for a job in a professional team is not as easy as imagined, but it is not as easy as it is, daniel's previous part-time job was to coach a team of amateur kids. Otherwise, this is a youth training camp, and there is no solid resume.

    "Actually, it's not bad to do it here first!" Wayne said intentionally or unintentionally.

    “I think so too, Uncle. You can tell Mr Smith that I can be the official head coach!”. Daniel said frankly.

    "What do you say is true ?!" Neither Wayne nor Joey could react.

    "Ha, then I don't think Robert would agree!" Collins laughs. The Robert he was talking about was Robert Smith, the elected chairman of Croydon. Croydon FC's income usually comes from donations and sponsorships, which is not too much.

As for Croydon FC itself, despite the low level of play in the league. But the club has everything it needs to be professional, even and there are youth training academies and the like, venues, daily training equipment, etc, money to hire full-time staff?. None, they are all part-time jobs from top to bottom, and all are unpaid.

 Since no other team had any money, Robert Smith obviously did not want him to spend any money.

    “Not possible if it's free!”. Daniel's parents also left behind a treasure of hundreds of thousands of pounds, and he was not short of money for now, so he for a while was not confused about money.

    “So what you said is true!” Wayne believed at this moment that what his nephew was saying was true, and he was actually talking about the condition just now.

    "Of course, this is true!. But the team has to be built in my own way. Now the team is too loose!. Even if we are an amateur team, we can do better!" Said Daniel.

    "You!!!, huh. after all, it's young!. Don't you understand that this moment is actually good enough for the team!" . Wayne Collins said with a smile, and through the rearview mirror he could see both Daniel and Joey confused.

    "Danny, we're a community team. We do not pursue the pleasure that results bring. Most of us are chasing the excitement of football!. Also, didn't you know that once we improved, our operating costs would increase tremendously?!. That's not a small amount!. Better not to increase than to increase! ”

 Daniel and Joey don't know much about team operations, and what Collins says can now be said to be an eye-opener for him.

Daniel understood, according to his Uncle everyone was not paying too much attention to the performance, they mainly wanted to have fun, and the upgrade would increase the cost, and the team might go bankrupt after the upgrade.

    " Damn it! ". Daniel scolded in his heart, it seemed like he really thought too much.

After more than ten minutes, we arrived at the club. Daniel Ward also thought about a lot of things, but anyway, because he agreed to be the temporary head coach and this is the first time he's led the team, he has to do his best.no matter what, no matter what, if the training is done well, the team at least cannot be relegated right?.

The Croydon FC Football Club office building is connected to their home stadium, and there are also youth academies, high schools, training grounds, and so on.

Wayne parked his car, and Joey went to practice with his gear.

Wayne brought his nephew to see Robert Smith first. Smith is an old man in his sixties, short and fat, he grew up watching Daniel, who was also at Croydon youth training camp when he was young.

    "Daniel, I'm glad to see you again!". Smith held Daniel Ward's hand and said, "Your father was one of us at first. Now you are willing to become a part-time head coach, which is very helpful!. I don't want Croydon FC to be the laughingstock of other fans ".

 Robert Smith intends to say that he fears Croydon FC relegating the team to Division Two. What Wayne Collins told Daniel Ward is that people don't really care about promotion, but it's also true that they don't want to be relegated, so the team can't play around and let it go.

You Croydon doesn't want to be promoted, but that doesn't mean that the other teams in the Southern League are like-minded. They work hard, and if you don't work hard, it may be you who is actually relegated.

"Mr Smith, hello, I only temporarily served as head coach. I can only say that I will do my best so that everyone is not left behind during this difficult time!". Said Daniel.

Daniel Ward doesn't really want to be head coach of Croydon FC right now. Why, very simply, because everyone has an attitude of not relegation or promotion. What future could be here?, it is better to take a decision and wait for the end of the interim head coach term to apply for a job in a professional team.

With so many professional teams in England, Daniel Ward doesn't believe he can't find one to accept it. Don't forget that he came from a few years later, and he has a lot of good things in his head.

Daniel Ward, an ordinary middle-class office worker, gradually regained consciousness. He now feels it makes no sense for him to be the head coach of top-certified clubs, and he is doomed to fail. He lacked experience, so it was better to do this job now and gather a year or two of coaching experience before talking about other things.