Hey guys and welcome back to my FM 2011 Brighton & Hove Albion story. My last update consisted of The Seasider’s completing a memorable title win and promotion to the Championship. All sounds great doesn’t it, well if you remember rightly the clubs bank balance was tipping below the black line in May. I can confirm that before the board announced expectations and budgets for our first season in the Championship my balance had dropped £900K in the red. All my upgrades were cancelled and this set the stage for my transfer budget.
The Brighton hierarchy had spoken, they wanted us to avoid relegation and seemed rather negative. But then came my turn as I announced my plans for a mid-table finish. This didn’t earn me a proper transfer budget as every option showed £26K, a pointless amount IMO. However, this did allow me some breathing space in terms of wages. I had £24K a week to play with and would try to extend that as much as possible.
Now we’ll jump straight into transfers and the players that left Brighton. There was one major departure this season which created up raw from the fans. Rule number one is to always know your rivals, I fell victim to this when selling right winger, Bennett. The 22 year old is promising but I could find better players and desperately needed cash to get out of debt. After offering the youngster out my only decent approach was a £2 million bid from Portsmouth. I licked my lips and accepted the bid, a few days later the deal was done and I was greeted by the message below…
Whoops!! Ow well, they will forgive me eventually. Most of the other departures left on a free and were released due to lack of quality. However, I found a good right back and decided Moutaouakil could be offered out, this led to his sale for £200K. I also sold El-Abd for nothing and Elphick for £100K expecting at least 2-3 new CB’s to enter the club…that was a huge mistake I’ll explain later!! On the whole we raised £2.3 million from players sold, a welcome sum considering our terrible financial state.
OK, its time to see how I improved the squad. The first two signings were confirmed last season and therefore came out of my 2010/11 budget. Ambrose and Colin Doyle were available from the transfer list and many top clubs were lurking around so I decided to make an early move. I also confirmed two brilliant free transfers in Bodor and Hadouir before pre-season. All was looking great until my budget was announced. We may have had a good wage budget but most of it was taken up when those four signings joined the club. That was when I realised the club was left with two DECENT defenders and one decent striker. :( I tried to correct this with the signing of Sonko but couldn’t find another good CB and failed in my attempt to sign a good striker.
New signings — Goalkeepers
With Ankergren my only decent keeper, I had to buy someone better. Colin Doyle may not be the best, but he’ll do OK in the Championship after falling out of favour at Ipswich. I thought the £55K fee was warranted.
New signings — Defence
OK we’ll start with the problem area, centre back. After selling 3-4 fringe defenders I eventually realised my budget was too thin to replace them and left myself in turmoil. I did find two excellent players but one rejected Brighton for a better offer and the other was Sonko who will be key to my plans this season. Sonko will start in CB alongside Greer, not a bad partnership but I have no replacements bar Painter who isn’t a natural CB and Greer has a slipped disk, meaning he will miss the first few months!
Now onto the brighter news, I desperately needed to strengthen my full back positions and did so in style. We bought Zubiaurre on a free transfer to play right back, he is 28 years old but knows the game well and has an excellent free kick. Then my best signing was new left back Corrales who has great pace, can handle most Championship strikers and gets forward well also. LB was our weak spot last season, whereas this year will see it our best.
New signings — Central midfield
We had a good midfield last season, but the Championship is far more advanced and I knew at least two of these players would need replacing. I made an early bid for Bodor, who will be used as a defensive midfielder or supporting, central midfielder. The 28 year old is a real all rounder and has the ability to go toe to toe with the best players in this division, only problem is a pesky clause I missed. Bodor’s wage must match the highest earner at our club which means no matter when a new player joins, if the wages are more than Bodor’s, his wage will rise also.
Alongside Bodor, I found Hadouir. The 28 year old will be used as my main advanced playmaker and should light up the Championship. His passing, dribbling and general attributes caught my eye, but I failed to see the highest earner clause yet again. This will haunt me for the next two seasons I’m sure. Ow well, you can’t put a price on quality lol :)
New signings — Wingers
With very strong wide players already at the club, I just needed to find that extra bit of quality. First of all I paid £45K to Crystal Palace for Darren Ambrose. Some may say I like his first name, but its the versatility that caught my eye. The 27 year old has brilliant technical skills and I’ll rotate him between the wings and advanced playmaker role. My other signing was on a free, Vonlanthen will be my number one right winger and bought so I could move Soukouna to be rotated as the lone striker with Brandy. Those two strikers aren’t enough in my opinion and don’t hold the quality required, but I’ll have to make do as all my wage budget is gone and every club demands an upfront fee for loan signings which I don’t have.
There you have it, the new and improved Brighton! Below you can see my squad alongside a coaches CA and PA star rating for each individual player. Those current ability ratings would suggest I may be in for a long and difficult season, but I’m here for the long haul, so what ever happens I’m ready. :)
Before I explain the finances let me share Brighton’s pre-season Friendly results. With the club mounting some debt, I decided to organise three high profile matches to be held at our new stadium. After drawing with Rangers, we battled through a 1-0 defeat to Liverpool before gaining a heroic 1-1 draw against the Spurs. These matches did help financially, but I wanted to enter the new season in form and arranged three easier matches before the first official ball was to be kicked. We won all three of our remaining friendlies with ease.
As mentioned, the club were in more than £900K of debt come the start of pre-season. But after selling a star player for £2 million and with the new stadium reeling in season ticket sales the balance started to look good. We finished pre-season with £2.8 million in the bank and looking far more stable. This figure will decrease through the season, but I just want to avoid any debt come the seasons end.
That is all for today’s update, but please join me next time as I reveal Brighton’s form up until the end of December. I honestly couldn’t predict if we’ll be battling around mid-table or for a top six finish, so the season is bound to be a thriller. Until then please feel free to ask any questions and I look forward to reading your comments.
Johnny Karp
30 августа, 2011 at 19:32
The squad doesn’t look too bad in my view but you really do have a problem in the centre of the defence, another centre back is needed quite badly! Don’t you have a Premier League parent club to get a loanee for free? If you don’t you might want to try to ask the board, that might be the only solution at the moment. Anyway, I’m sure that you will overcome the difficult period until Greer’s recovery, good luck mate!
Darren Smith
30 августа, 2011 at 19:48
Yeah CB is a major problem but I’m going to battle it out and wait for Greer’s return. He’s already done 1 month of his injury and could be back within 6 weeks maybe. My parent club are Liverpool but they won’t give me anyone/none of there players want to join. My board won’t budge at all due to my wage budget been over its limit but hopefully we’ll survive.
Laxeyman
30 августа, 2011 at 20:11
Well, you brought in some good players there Darren, particularly in defence which now looks very strong, meaning you’ll be hard to beat. The midfield looks good too, although your forwards are a bit weak. However, on such a tiny budget its impossible to be strong in all areas, and I reckon you’ve done pretty well on such limited resources :) Hopefully you can get at least a top half finish, or maybe more, who knows! Good luck!
Darren Smith
30 августа, 2011 at 20:20
Thanks Laxeyman, sometimes we wind out signings players we’re not keen on due to restrictions but I can honestly say I have a plan for all my signings and see them doing well in this league. I didn’t have enough cash to strengthen every area but think the club have jumped from relegation candidates to a top half finish because of the signings so I’m happy.
Birdy
30 августа, 2011 at 21:20
Good work in the pre season. The squad still looks pretty good. I hope you can bring them together and win promotion again
Good luck
Darren Smith
30 августа, 2011 at 21:29
Thanks Birdy, I hope we can challenge too.
vaibhavc
30 августа, 2011 at 21:35
Hey Darren
Your new signings are good. Darren Ambrose and Corrales seem to be the best players. The finances have improved so much with the 2 million. Just wait till you get promoted, then you will have so much money.
Darren Smith
30 августа, 2011 at 21:40
Thanks Vaibhav, while the finances have improved they will now decrease until the seasons end due to my wages.
Sayam Khan
30 августа, 2011 at 21:49
The signings you did sign are quiet good! Like you said you need a new CB, maybe try and loan one from the PL without paying any wages? Your squad isn’t too bad and good enough for promotion I feel.
PS: your fans should understand the ammount you got for Bennet’s sale was unrejectable.
Darren Smith
30 августа, 2011 at 21:59
Unfortunately there is no option to loan any players without paying a fee, I’ve tried them all! I’m not too worried about the fans reaction to Bennett’s departure as they’ll soon forget if we start the season well.
Vineeth
31 августа, 2011 at 05:18
Hey Darren,
Nice work in pre-season… you really need a CB & ST though…maybe you should pull a Gardiola and play one of your midfielders in CB…and Ambrose/Hadouir as a ‘false No.9’….. :D
Good luck for the season Darren…. :)
Darren Smith
31 августа, 2011 at 12:01
Yeah I agree Vineeth, although don’t underestimate the speed of Soukouna and Brandy upfront ;) My money and budget is gone meaning no more signings till winter but I’m sure I’ll find a way around the issues.
Lye
31 августа, 2011 at 07:26
Hi Darren,
I thought you did really well despite a tight budget. The match higher earner clause is something we will miss easily. That haunts me a few times as i always overlook this clause. The lack of central defender may cause a few problems if injuries mount at that area. Meanwhile you have to look for the whole team to help out on the defence. Your squad looks good to go. Good luck for a great start.
Darren Smith
31 августа, 2011 at 11:58
Thanks Lye, we managed OK with the budget but could have used a few more faces. I’ll certainly try offloading those ‘match highest earner’ players in the near future.
Sibo
31 августа, 2011 at 09:47
Woah.
I was expecting a very, very tough pre-season with that budget (which was understanadable considering the clubs financial state) but you managed to make a lot of good signings and I think they are good enough to make your gamble of banking on a mid-table finish pay off.
Well done and good luck Darren, hopefully you beat Portsmouth to make the fans forget about that player sale! :D
Darren Smith
31 августа, 2011 at 11:57
Thanks Sibo, I have gone way over my wage budget but had no choice if we’re to challenge in this division. Lets hope Brighton can find some surprises.
Kevin
31 августа, 2011 at 10:06
Hi Darren
Excellent post. This was a very well balanced update that was very informative and structured nicely. You certainly turned that back balance around which you seem to have a flair for and i especially like Corrales out of your new signings. That’s too bad though about your CB situation and I myself found Liverpool not the best of parent clubs in my game also. your pre-season results were very good indeed which hopefully you will carry-over into the start of the season — I’m sure you will :)
Darren Smith
31 августа, 2011 at 11:56
Thanks Kevin, glad you liked the post. My CB position is good but I fear the finances are misleading. They look good now but with no more season ticket sales to go that figure will fall. Lets hope we can make a good go of it though.
Mikey
31 августа, 2011 at 10:14
good ..I’m just finishing the 1st season with Brighton. Top of the table, loads of goals scored but lot of them conceded as well so it’s more of a «gun ho» style but I still score more than I concede :) (95 goals scored, 40 conceded with 10 games to go) Goalkeeper is crap, central defence is okay but full backs are forgeting to return sometimes. Will see how I do in championship.
Darren Smith
31 августа, 2011 at 11:54
Looks like we both may have defence problems in the Championship then :)
Mikey
31 августа, 2011 at 12:03
Yeah…ussualy I concede in like 4th minute, the I score two, then I concede again, then I score etc…
BTW Brandy has been amazing, Soukoma as well but the best is Bennett…but I might be looking to sell him for the same reasons as you did.
Sears
31 августа, 2011 at 16:37
Great signings mate, hopefully you’ll challenge for a promotion spot.Good luck!
Darren Smith
31 августа, 2011 at 18:24
Thanks Sears, hopefully a promotion challenge is possible.
cak
31 августа, 2011 at 20:58
Hey Darren
Upsetting the fans already, I like your style :D although the CB area is a problem, the CF position isn’t too bad. The current strikers that you have should manage for now until the cash flow turns itself around. Good luck with the rest of the season and hopefully you should be able to achieve a top 6 finish :D
Darren Smith
31 августа, 2011 at 21:19
Thanks mate, I agree about my FC position and believe those two strikers will surprise a few readers. In fact I’m fairly optimistic about the entire squad but luck will play its part.
CsAtlantis
2 сентября, 2011 at 07:33
Brendy and Soukouna will surprise quite a few teams, they should do fine in the championship for now, but your two frees are going to be a pain, match highest earner at 10k per week at 100k wage budget is not fun at all :(, the team looks good though, great job getting in doyle and ambrose on really cheap fees, you actually have a 4th defender but i assume McNulty is just going to be used when things become really desperate :P
Darren Smith
2 сентября, 2011 at 11:47
Thanks mate, I agree that those two strikers will surprise the Championship but not looking for more than 20 goals a piece. I think the squad is ready and you’ll soon find out as the latest post is published. McNulty is just awful and won’t get a game unless the worst happens.
Mikey
2 сентября, 2011 at 11:32
Hey Darren so I finished my 1st season at Brighton on the top of the table with 98 points and 117 goals scored.
Sold Noone in the pre season for 1.2 mil and other players in total for 1.6 mil, kept Bennett and did some sighnigs in total 525k.
Wage budget is 83k for mid table finish and my balance is around 3 mil after all trasfers so not that bad in regards of finance. Will push board for some youth improvement.
Here are my transfers: .
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/594/brightonandhovealbiontr.png/
Here is my team:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/685/brightonandhovealbionbr.png/
and here are my finances:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/36/brightonandhovealbionbo.png/
Darren Smith
2 сентября, 2011 at 11:53
The squad and transfers look good Mikey, I’m just about to publish my first half of the season ;) Will be interesting to see the difference if there is any in our second season as the first one was similar.
Mikey
2 сентября, 2011 at 12:18
it’s gonna be hard in championship ..but let’s see.