Once again it’s election time! No, I’m not talking about the Obama v McCain election; I’m talking about the real election that’s going on - the race for the England NT job!

Seen by some as the biggest and toughest job in TM, the England NT job is a position which can make or break a manager. The job comes with the highest of expectations from a country with over 10,000 TMs, but yet still manages to attract a high number of hopeful managers from home and abroad looking to take this nation to the next level.

The Contenders

The biggest contender this year was once again the Swede and current English national coach Johan Frank of IFK Norrköping. Frank has experienced possibly two of his worst seasons in TM over the last couple of seasons, firstly being relegated after leading IFK to back to back Premier League titles and then last season finishing 2nd in Division 2.1 but losing in the dreaded playoffs. But despite that he was still seen by many as the number one choice after leading England to the last 8 of the Season 10 FITA World Cup.

One of the other main contenders for the job was the highly rated FC Chute. FC Chute, managed by Marcus Poole, are now entering their 7th season in the top tier of English football, which is some achievement in itself. Straight talking Poole was hoping to take England in a new direction from that of Frank and was seen as the biggest threat to IFK‘s chances of retaining the job.

Another early candidate for the job was fast moving Old Coulsdon Jets or OCJ. OCJ are one of the more ‘newer’ managers to TM having only joined in season 8 as a Division 9 team. But promotion after promotion has seen the club quickly climb into the 3rd Division. Manager Bernie Marsh was quick to point out that the position shouldn’t just be for Division 1 managers stating ‘‘for me the most impressive managers are the ones who work there way up the leagues and not those at the top from the early days. Of course that isn't to say the managers who started early are all no good, they just have a big advantage.’’ This was quickly played down by FC Chute who again spoke out that experience was the key to managing a NT.

Massey Marvels were also one of the first clubs to put their name forward for the job. With such an impressive debut season in the Premier League (finishing 4th and also reaching the Quarter Finals of the Cup) it was no wonder that  Dennis Bergkamp would feel like having a pop at the NT job. The tactically astute and general all round nice guy may seem like an outside bet for the position but stranger things have happened in the world of TM!

Respected Division 3 side Lunar Assassins also put forward his name stating that his biggest achievements thus far came in the shape of consecutive promotions, very much like that of OCJ. Both sides started in Division 9 all the way back in Season 8 and again like OCJ had to deal with the fact that their ‘inexperience’ may end up counting against them.

One of the late candidates for the job was another highly respected manager Wellingborough Titans. Titans managed by Greg Heywood, have already proved that they could be a success following the two England games in which Haywood took charge of earlier on in the season. Heywood was quick to state that he would judge players on specific skill points and not on the overrated ASI. Titans like FC Chute began back in Season 3 and although their climb to the top Division was a much slower one ,and shorter, the Wellingborough Titans are by no means a team to be ignored.

Nominations Begin

Twenty-two days after the election process began the actual nominations procedure started. It took IFK a while to except his nomination as the Swede was still mulling over whether he wanted to take charge of the NT for a 3rd time. Eventually once all the teams above had been nominated and accepted it was time to vote for real.