How I Become A Football Manager With No Previous Experience

I was always the last player to be picked for football as a child, so I never considered myself a good footballer. I dabbled in amateur football when I was in my late teens, but a spate of unforced emergencies including two broken wrists, a compound break to my arm and a sprained ankle saw me leave football and try other activities. I reached the age of thirty feeling I had never gotten involved in a sport in the way I would have liked.

I am a big fan of a well-known football management simulation where I have spent hour after hour trying to lead my favorite team to virtual glory. Notifying my aptitude for organization, planning and attention to detail I set about contacting local Sunday league football teams, asking if anyone needed help with running their club. After a short time I was contacted by a team who asked to meet me and discuss this further.

After meeting the manager I was installed as his assistant manager and my job was to fill in the team sheet, fill the water bottles before the game, help pick the team and ensure we collected all of our equipment at the end of the match. It was not glamorous, but I eagerly grasped the opportunity and thought to prove myself as a reliable helper.

The team manager left our club in the summer and rather than choose a new manager the players asked me to take over. I am now manager and in charge of the whole club. I was recently contacted by a team who play at a slightly higher level on a Saturday and asked to discuss joining their club in a management capacity. Their club chairman had noticed how I had improved the organizational structure of the club and this led to him getting in touch.

For those of you who may think that there is no chance of getting involved in football management if you have not had a strong professional or amateur football career then think again. It is possible and I would suggest it can be straightforward if you find out who the right people are to approach in your nearby league and offer your assistance to anyone who might be interested.

Running a grassroots football team is a time consuming task. Most clubs will be happy to accept your help. Always be punctual and reliable as this will be a huge asset to any club. You will be surprised at how difficult it is for managers to get their players to turn up to play on occasion, so having reliable management assistance will be very valuable to your new club.

You will find that these qualities are in demand right across the sport, so expect other offers to follow once word spreads that you are an asset to your club.

The 5 Best Engineered Cars

While the cars we drive to work and to the shops are themselves excellent examples of automated engineering, for the pinnacle of technical excellence you need to turn to racing and sports cars in their many forms. Check out five examples of the very best.

The Red Bull RB7 racing car. In the 2011 Formula One season, this was the dominant car, by far the best racing car on the circuit, winning both the individual driver's title and also the constructor's championship.

The RB7's achievements were the result of continuous development and innovation such as the introduction of its exhaust-blown diffuser, the addition of floor holes and special electronic engine maps that squeezed every ounce of power from the car's 2.4 liter engine. Often these technical improvements had to be refined in the one to two week window between races.

The Bugatti Veyron Supersport. In just a few short years, with its stunning styling and awesome performance, this magnificent road car has become a legend. For those brave enough and with the space to do so, the Veyron can unleash a top speed of no less than 267mph, reaching the 60 mile an hour mark in just 2.4 seconds from a standing start. Recognized as the fastest road car ever made, to buy one of these phenomenal vehicles you would have to part with £ 1.6 million!

The McClaren F1 road car is widely regarded as the ultimate super car, eclipsing the likes of legendary names such as Ferrari and Lamborghini. It first went into production some twenty years ago and some say it is still the most beautiful car ever built. With a top speed of just 241mph it may not match the Veyron for pace, but with a price tag as high as £ 2.5 million, when it comes to cost it leaves the Veyron standing.

The Audi R18 e-tron Quattro is the first of a new breed of hybrid that is making inroads into the world of motor sport, this year winning the world's most famous endurance car race - the Le Mans 24 Hour. To achieve success in a race that can last for over 3,000 miles, Audi engineers and drivers have to balance the quest for speed with the careful management of fuel, tires, engine, transmission and brakes.

The Citroen DS3 WRC may be the nearest amongst this list to the vehicle that you and I drive, but in the hands of its driver, eight time world rally champion, Sébastien Loeb, it's anything but. Unlike the other cars, which are designed to be driven on the road or flat race circuits, the DS3 has to combine speed, endurance and robustness to withstand the battering it gets from hurtling along narrow unmade forest tracks, being flung round hairpin bends, and the impact of landing after taking off over hump-back bridges!

And while these high performance cars may seem far removed from the family saloon, the engineering effort that goes into them ripples back to make the cars that we drive, safer, better and more efficient.