I was born in Münster in Germany so it’s a little ironic my mother took me to Munster, in Ireland, before I was old enough to start school. To Cork, to be precise, and even then West Cork. Scenic, picturesque, idyllic… Perfect except for the lack of love for football, or soccer, as they call it. Football where I grew up was Gaelic football. ‘The Gah,’ after the Gaelic Athletic Association; the GAA. Rugby took off as well, and there was hurling — of course — but soccer? Not that a big deal, at least not for organised sport
It was tough growing up. Sure, some people liked watching soccer — the Prem — and there were some teams, and ad hoc, pick up games, but not many girls playing, they were more interested in Gaelic football. Certainly not enough girls to maintain competitive sides throughout my teenage years. Instead I got involved in coaching. I now have my Continental C badge, and after years being involved with small Irish teams I’m now in another part of Ireland, Athlone, on the border of Leinster and Connacht, with me managing my first senior team.
When Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland all joined their Football Associations together, at least the domestic clubs within them, and founded the Celtic Nations’ League it was an opportunity.
For the Celtic Nations’ League and the domestic FAs they wanted to eventually rival the English Premiership as the most popular English speaking league in the world. Or at least get into the top ten leagues in Europe, then top five, from a provisional ranking of 19th — as decided by UEFA. As for an opportunity for me? Well… It meant teams were willing to take risks. The whole league is a risky new endeavour in football.
In combining the four football league systems from the four nations there were some winners and some losers. Of course Rangers and Celtic were expected to dominate. And the likes of Swansea and Cardiff — and even Wrexham — all abandoned the English leagues for a system that would better reflect their true heritage — as well as allow them to be bigger fish in a, for now, smaller pond.
But in an effort to balance teams from each part of the four nations across the various tiers of football, all seven tiers, and give them access to the increased money to quickly get up to speed, it meant some teams were ranked higher to provide a Welsh, or Northern Irish interest. And, of course, some were ranked lower, to balance out the Scots and, to some degree, the Irish.
Athlone, my team now, were one of the losers. Put in the fifth tier of the new Celtic League system, in the Tunnock’s League 3, they’re predicted to come second. Realistically they should be at least one tier higher.
With only one team in Tunnock’s League 3 predicted to do better than them, The Spartans — a Scottish team — the Athlone fans are all complaints, despite this new league growing their fanbase with new and renewed interest. The board, knowing this was an opportunity for silverware, however, decided to grab the opportunity with both hands. And that involved me…
I’m the first, and as far as I know, only, female manager in the entire, new system. I suppose it’s not all glory and greatness, though. If Athlone fail to get promoted it’s because of me, if they do get promoted then they’re where they should have been all along.
That’s not to say the league is a cakewalk. The bookies have the odds all the way down to the 11th team at only 11/1, while the fourth and fifth team are only at 5/1, ourselves at 2/1 in second.
It hasn’t stopped the board being ambitious, though, as they explained when they met me on my first day. Within four years they want two promotions total, an automatic promotion this year. Then another, all the way to the Tunnock’s Celtic League 1 within the next few years.
If you listened to the founders of the Celtic Nations’ League they want the top two leagues — The Tayto Cheese and Onion Premiership and the Kerrygold Championship — to be able to compete in European competition, while the three Tunnock’s Leagues beneath them focus on developing youth from their nations, and then the Titanic Leagues and the Welsh Lamb League beneath the Tunnock’s Leagues to focus on developing the individual clubs themselves.
And all that is basically where I am. Develop youth, develop the club, win promotion… All the things a manager should be doing. And this is with my first managerial job.
No small task.
Which bring me to my first day on the job… Yes, teams did have opportunities to prepare their squads for the new season, the first season in the Celtic Nations’ League, but did they focus on that? Did they hell!! They were all focused on lobbying for the best placing in their previous, final competition in domestic leagues, and so the best placing — and more money — in the new system.
These squad rules for the coming season were known in advance. Three under-23 players in a match-day squad, two under-21, no more than four foreigners. Foreigners being anyone from outside the EU and the British and Irish Isles.
There’s no Brexit rules for Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland; a concession the EU forced from the English parliament in Westminster, because you better believe this new Celtic Nations’ League goes far beyond football and straight into the heart of global politics, or at least European politics.
But enough about politics, I’ll leave that to our fans on social media. Onto our squad…
We’re fine for u21 and u23 players, at least for now, but the foreigner rule could hurt us. In an entire player-base of 26, including youth team players, we have seven foreigners, most capable of playing a part in a match-day squad, which isn’t ideal. It’ll involve some balancing of the squad to ensure we meet the registration rules.
Apart from that how is our squad..?
We’re a little weak at left full back. Of the two players that can start there one should really be starting on the right, and he is a proper starter on the right. Fully entitled to be in the starting 11. So that’s a problem.
It’s a similar story with attacking midfielders. We don’t have the depth we should have up the front of the pitch on the left and right wings.
After I bring up the players from the youth teams, which are certainly not that deep, we look a little better on the wings. We can get by. So the only immediate, stark, obvious issue at the moment is at left full back. Except when I look at some of the other Irish teams higher up the leagues no-one is making players available for loan. Not only that but we have no scouts. And as well as that we have no wage or transfer budget. And we can’t scout outside our division, our division we’re predicted to be in the top two of — not a lot of loan opportunity there.
With twenty teams in our league we could get by — with a lucky season lacking in injuries — so the problem is how many fronts we’re competing on. We have four competitions in total!
Outside the league there’s a typical FA Cup, we might not go far in that. And there’s the Kingspan Cup, which is between all the teams from Northern Ireland and Ireland, we could do a little better in that, depending on draws. There’s s similar cup for the Welsh and Scottish teams to compete against each other in, for silverware, called the New Parliament Cup — I told you politics was involved in this league.
And then there’s the Causeway Challenge Cup. That’s between all the teams in the lower down leagues. Teams who aren’t expected to fight very far in the other cup competitions. In fact it’s between the bottom three tiers, of which our league, the Tunnock’s League 3 is the highest. The league we’re supposed to be competing for glory in. The league we’re predicted to be second in. Which I guess makes us second favourites for the Causeway Cup? Is that how that works?
At least the board isn’t rating me on that…
But, for now, I have to get down to work. I have to come up with a tactic that will suit us. And I have some ideas…
You can’t go wrong with a 442, but as we’re predicted to be topping things I could maybe run with something a little more exciting? Get the fans cheering, and coming through the gates?
I wouldn’t mind a little advice on all this… Like I said the league is an opportunity, for all four nations, for all the clubs, and for me. It’s an opportunity for Athlone too. And if Athlone the team fail then it’s me — the manager — who gets the blame…
The crafty bollockses!
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You can find the database edit on the Steam Workshop here (which has the database edit for the main January transfer update from Sports Interactive.)
Or you can get both the old and new file — for both database versions — and check out some videos from content creators about the Celtic Nations League on the Sports Interactive forums. As well as find me explaining a lot more about the league setup, with images of how it’s setup, as well as me talking with people and answering their questions.
Lump Kickers Anonymous 