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| 6 years in the making |
It's Saturday night & as a 23 year old you'd expect to find me out getting drunk using hashtags such as #YOLO (No? Me neither).
But no I am sat on Xpert Eleven flicking through page after page. This has brought me to my own profile where I seen that it was the 27th of this very month SIX YEARS AGO that I started my great quest on this site. I very nearly missed this great milestone and it made me take a little nostalgic walk down memory lane so I thought I would share it with you all. Here it goes...
So 6 years ago I was in college when a couple of friends asked me & a few others to come & join them on a brilliant football manager site. Obviously anything was better than work or revising so we all agreed. I signed up on 27/02/08. I didn't really buzz about the game at first to be honest. I liked the idea of battling against my friends in a league, & the dirty tricks were brilliant. There were actual occasions were some of us would fall out over the use of a dirty trick costing a result! I can't even remember what the dirty tricks were can anyone remind me?
So this went on for a few months before the friend who created the league told me about the rest of the site - how you could manage a team in an official league etc. So, on the 21/05/08 I was unveiled as the new boss of Borgis FC. They were a team full of talented, but ageing players & relegation was already confirmed in Division 6:55 after a number of relegations previous to that one. Not the easiest of starts, hey? The best feeling I remember, & is probably where my love of Xpert Eleven came from, was when I played my 3rd or 4th game against the top team who were not only full of crazily high-skilled players, but were unbeaten. I somehow managed to win & I remember the feeling of absolute ecstasy!
Back then I didn't really have a clue of what I was doing to be honest. Sure, picking a team was easy. Trawling through the transfer market looking for young talent to develop was very interesting. But the actual dynamics of the game were a mystery to me as I didn't look into them (this is probably still quite true). I remember many seasons in being a manager & finally noticing the options to cheat and to apply pressure etc on the side in tactics. I wasn't stupid, honestly, I just used to come online & pick my starting 11 & write pressers.
So if you look at my career at Borgis FC, the only Xpert team I have ever managed since joining the game, it started really poorly & was always pretty stagnant - well except for the fact I won Division 7:87 in S19 & then Division 7:82 in S21 (a relegation in between them really took the shine off things). But I then spent 6 seasons in Division 6. The last of those seasons I was relegated again & I vowed to quit the game as I became disillusioned with the whole thing. I made a press release in the middle of the season saying I was going, & I honestly meant it. We played the last game of the season & I spent the whole night looking at my team, seeing the players I had signed & made into greats, the amazing games I had witnessed, the two trophies I had won. A wave of emotion came over me & I just couldn't quit. I felt a sense of I owe it to the players.
So I changed my mind. I then went on to finish 2nd twice & eventually win promotion back to Division 6:33. I finished 2nd again & won promotion to Division 5:18. I finished 3rd but the season after won the league & then again came top the next season in Division 4j - 2 more divisional titles to add to my cabinet. I had finally reached Division 3 after about 17 seasons, making a new record for the club.
During all this time I joined the Xpert Ladies too. I have also taken part in many private leagues & made many friends along the way. But looking over my history tonight made me feel a little depressed. As I spoken aloud the many seasons I played, I realised the pinnacle of my hard work was only Division 3? Am I a failure?
And then it clicked. Perhaps I am not 1 of the great managers who you hear about taking a team from a lower division all the way up to the the top. Perhaps I haven't won a major trophy or took part in the XCL. But not many Xpert Eleven managers do. I don't know the true stats but for all the managers on the game only a few of them ever grace real success. So therefore I am part of the majority of managers who love to play this game, part of a majority who like to develop youngsters from a 17/4 to a 23/12, part of a majority who will win the occasional divisional title. Now I realise that's okay.
6 years on Xpert Eleven haven't been a waste. I still manage Borgis FC in the Xtreme League. I manage Cervélo FK in the Xpert Ladies. It's also a year this month that I have been a reporter in the Xpert Daily which is fantastic & helped me to meet more people.
So I will continue to play my part on Xpert Eleven and hopefully one day, perhaps in another six years, I will see my name in the headlines - ADAM MORAN WINS THE XPERT CHAMPIONS LEAGUE!
Until then, the dream continues...
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