The Accidental Manager

There is a layer beneath the surface of the Junior Football Experience. What really happens at junior football, away from the nice positive messages and sound bites from the clubs and leagues about equality, respect and fair play? What is the harsh reality of managing a junior football team, and what actually happens each Sunday around the football pitches up and down the country, whilst the children play? This book delves into real-life, first-hand accounts looking into the reality for the coaches, the officials, the parents and the children playing.

The violence, intimidation, cheating, players being tapped up, politics and corruption.

“Mate can you do me a favour and come back to mine; he’s following me home.” 

We are now behind ‘Thug Dad’, but he had not spotted us. We pull up to some lights. Our parent is at the front, Thug Dad is behind him, followed by me. The boot pops open and out gets the dad. He walks to the back of his car where he has a set of golf clubs in the boot; he reaches to grab one the clubs…

This is the very uncomfortable truth about Junior Football. 

S. Compton once took his son to the local junior football club with no intention of getting involved, but before long found himself managing a team. An emotional journey of highs and lows, he took the team from children to young adults; an experience he shares in The Accidental Manager. S Compton lives in Essex.

M Jones is a football loving dad from Essex who got involved in junior football when his son showed a keen interest at the age of 6. He ended up managing his son’s team for eight years channeling his own love for football to help children develop on and off the pitch in a journey that he explores in The Accidental Manager.