Football Management at 19

I had always felt i could make it in the football world one day when growing up, although admittedly i never saw myself as a manager. i grew up playing for youth teams dreaming of one day making it as a footballer but the breaks never came my way and i gave up. It wasnt untill i hit 18 years old though that i thought to myself, why not try and make it as a manager instead?

Okay i know what your thinking, 18 years old with no football experience - theres no chance in hell of you making it in management. My head said the same thing, but my heart said i could do it if i really wanted it. The question however was how do i even get started? Well i contacted the Scottish Football Association to enquire about gaining a coaching badge and before i knew it i was down in Glasgow learning the trade.

A year on and i had my coaching badge, it was a fantastic experience and one i'll never forget... but now i had my coaching badge what on earth was i supposed to do with it with such little experience? well to start with i had to make do with smaller jobs and i went to my local club to enquire about helping coach the youth sides and they took me on straight away which was great. okay coaching a youth side in the scottish highland league may not sound like much to you but it was a start.

Time went on and i was enjoying what i was doing untill one day i read in the paper about a new club forming called Celtic Thistle who wanted to make an impact on the footballing world with as little a budget as possible. They wanted to make an impact, make people sit up and take notice, and i thought.. what better way than to appoint a 19 year old as manager.. making him the youngest football manager in the world? maybe they'd see where im coming from so i decided to get in contact about the managerial job.

To my delight they offered me an interview on that very day and i went straight away. When i arrived i was greeted by two men in suits with big grins on their faces, "You must be Mr Stickle" one said. They took me inside to a small office where we sat down. First they told me how my enthusiasm really left a strong impression on them from our phone call earlier and they just had to offer me an interview. The interview went great and they told me about their visions for the club, whilst i told them about how much i really wanted to get involved in management and saw this as my best opportunity to do so. We got along great and after only 1 hour they had offered me the job.

amazing! i was now a real life football manager, and my enthralling journey with Celtic Thistle was just about to begin.