Hello everybody and today I am starting a weekly blog that will take my real life and issues and also life in the Top 100 with Club Brugges in Division 5. There may also be a look at other stuff around the game world mainly anything that has caused an interest to me, but not necessarily to you since it’s my blog.
In this blog things probably won’t be that exciting since I will introduce the main people in my life, them being my family and my girlfriend (don’t judge me, it’s not something I’m proud of but the heart is a strong thing) as well as what interests me and what I do. I will then, as mentioned before, go o to this game world, which I hope will be a bit more interesting. I do guarantee though that as the weeks go on, it will be entertaining and I base that on the fact that my life is one big soap opera.

So let’s get this party started. You all know me as Gino. You just know me as another guy that plays my first love in entertainment, Soccer Manager. I have played since 2008, and it was my stepson that introduced it to me. I always remember playing in my first ever league as Derby County in Division 2 and after a couple of seasons winning promotion to Division 1, of which I was shit scared lol. I was convinced I would struggle near the bottom but actually done reasonably well and was delighted to finish 8th or thereabouts. I actually remember looking at this gold membership thing and thinking that the game was good but, me being Scottish and miserable, I would never pay real money for it. That actually lasted for just over 2 years before I decided that the international game looked good and I paid for a year’s membership (I think). Turns out the international game was boring but I enjoyed the gold worlds. The rest is history, and despite thinking of quitting a couple of times, I  am still here. What you will find as I do this weekly blog is that I tend to go off subject a lot. For those who are old enough, if you can remember the Two Ronnies on television and Ronnie Corbett on his big chair, he used to do the same thing so be prepared. Back to me, and I have been with my current wife, Alison, for almost 12 years. The kids are hers but you would think they were mine by just the way they act. They love me to bits and to be honest, I really wish they were mine such is my love for them. I work for McGill’s Buses as a bus driver. It’s a job that one day you can hate it but the next day you love it. My mood tends to go with the weather. When it’s nice and sunny, I love the job but when it’s wet and miserable, it’s not so good. I will tell you more about it in later blogs. My favourite sports, in order, are NFL, football and tennis. I love American football and I am a huge Dallas Cowboys fan. I went to see them at Wembley last year and it was a great experience. One of my ambitions is to go and see them in Dallas and it is an ambition I will realise. Football and Derby County are my number one club. I’m also a big Rangers fan. The tennis, I just like in general but for obvious reasons, I like to watch Andy Murray.
My family consists of my wife, Alison, stepson, Stuart(22) and stepdaughters Elise(21) and Janene(18). This blog will be completely honest and nothing will be dressed up to make it sound good. I say this because Stuart is an asshole. He is also the most boring person you will ever come across. There is only one subject he ever talks about – himself! He also is the type that uses 100 words when 1 will do. The biggest mistake you can make is to ask him a question. He then goes on for ages about nothing and how it affects him. Seriously it is zzzzzzzzz after 2 minutes.
Elise is a very strong willed person. She knows what she wants and can be quite difficult to handle. She will feature many times in the blog as she is hilarious in a dumb blonde sort of way but can also be quite rude. There is hardly a dull moment when she is about.
Janene is almost the opposite. She is short on self confidence and cries a lot. Recently I have noticed a change in her and she can be quite a feisty bird now. She is naive in life’s challenges and although she is 18, she seems more like 15/16. Her advantage is she is stunning. Taller than me at about 5′ 10”, long blonde hair and very slim. I don’t stand beside her when she is dressed up to go out as she wears heels and is over 6′ when she has them on. I feel like a dwarf.
Alison, my wife, has pain issues. When she was younger she had operations in both knees and they are still not right today. She can walk ok but if she is on her feet too long then she suffers for it. She is a nurse but she no longer paces the wards, instead having a 9-5 sit down job working for Atos and doing assessments for folk claiming disability.
The only other person close to me in my life is my girlfriend Gemma. I know I shouldn’t even have one but she is special to me. The thing that may have some of you thinking I am out of order, which I would understand, is that she is 22yo. That is 30 years younger than me. I first met her when she was 16 and she came on my bus and we got to know each other but that is a story for another week.
So that is the people in my life and I think that is enough to bore you about my personal life for one week. Next week will be a bit more of what has been happening in my life and a couple of stories from the past that should tickle you. I aim to have some pics to go with my talk but I will have to ask my wife and daughters for permission to put their pics up.

BRUGGES, BELGIUM: Life in Brugge is comfortable. We are lying third in the table despite some erratic form which I suppose doesn’t say a lot for the competition. At the moment we seem to be winning every second game but that will have to improve if we want automatic promotion. At the start of the season I sat with the chairman and we decided that this would be a season for building a team, getting the right players in and planning for the future assault on this league created by Frank Hirst. There is no doubt that we have exceeded expectations, rolling along quietly, managing to avoid any nominations for manager of the month. I mean, why is that? Is it an anti-Belgium thing. Does Frank just not rate Belgium and their clubs. There was a token focus on our derby with Anderlecht but even for the pre match interview, Frank turns up with a big hole in his tights. I know they talk about climbing Frank’s ladder to reach the top but surely this is not what they meant. Anyway, the interview actually went quite well if awkward. Maybe if Frank is allowed back into Belgium, he can wear a nice suit with suspenders.
We have some good players here at Brugges. Apart from Belgians, we have players from 13 different countries making us a multi-cultural club. We decided that for meetings and get togethers that every player should be able to speak the same language as then no one could have the excuse of saying they didn’t understand the instructions. It flopped at the first hurdle as I didn’t know how to speak Hebrew. We eventually settled on Australian. I managed that as it is very similar to English but I still need to work on my accent. I am trying to arrange elocution lesson with Michael Hudson but he is hard to track down. People have said to me to try the bush but I thought that was just too personal.
Our newest addition to the club is French striker Yohan Mollo. We hope to give him some playing time tonight in Argentina, where we take on Independiente who is managed by nikolas NIKKIS nikolaou. We have had a few meetings in the past but I am not sure of my record against him. Three points is the aim but it will be tough since they lie in 7th place and have promotion ambitons of their own.
We arrived in Argentina last night and the only thing on the players minds was to get some sleep after the long flight from Belgium. I agreed that they should get some sleep and then we would meet up for dinner. As it turned out, I couldn’t manage to nod off so I went for a walk along the corridors of the hotel. I didn’t get very far as my attention was drawn to quite a noisy sounding room. I thought, wait a minute, that is Javier Aquino’s room. He was bunking with fellow Mexican Carlos Fierro, one of our youth players. What was going on? They were all meant to be getting some sleep. The door was unlocked so in I went only to be met with the sight of the whole fucking squad playing strip poker with three senoritas. The first thing that came into my mind was to shout ‘BEDDOWS!!!!’ Surely this was his doing but then I thought, it can’t be Beddows as he would be in France with AC Milan. Ok, how do I handle this. I mean how dare they have a game of strip poker and not invite the world champion, me!! I had the last laugh however as when the senoritas lost, sparking a lot of excitement amongst the squad, they turned out to be senor’s haha. Down came the panties to reveal meat and two veg. Hahahaha, I was in stitches and so nearly were the senors, only in a different kind of stitches. They were chased out of the room by some angry players. If only they could translate that rage to the pitch then we might be top of the table. The whole situation will be dealt with when we get back to Belgium but the guys should expect some hefty fines.
So tonight, the players owe me a big performance and I am expecting a win and nothing less. I will have a couple of glasses of wine after the match with nikolas to help console him after the defeat.
Next week I will let you know how the game went, how I dealt with the players when we got back home and all the latest news from the inside of Club Brugges.

Well that’s me for the first of my weekly blog. Apologies if it was a bit boring but really this first one is just to lay down the foundations for the future ones.
Thanks for reading and I wish everyone luck for tonights games. I will be back with number 2 in the series next Thursday. Until then hope everything goes well for you in whatever you are doing the coming week.

Ciao