Hello my friends and thanks for following my Football Manager 2009 stories with the ups and downs of my career as manager of the wonderful Blyth Spartans. The announcement that I have to make is in the «bad news» category :( Due to some personal problems I won’t be able to play my favorite game for a while. Don’t worry, I have the solution to the problems but it’s going to take 100% dedication and… time, from two weeks to a month. I will surely be back in business once things return to normal, the blog won’t be closed, I will continue to play FM and post my stories here.
With that said, let me tell you about the pre season, the long months after the great triumphs that we achieved last season. With some money in the bank the board decided to build a brand new stadium for the Spartans. It’s going to cost a lot of money and time but it was absolutely necessary, the old Croft Park wasn’t enough anymore.
Probably due to the large amount of funds for the stadium the board gave me only 34 million euro for transfers and I told them that we will win the title.
I wanted to sell some of the backup players anyway, so I grabbed a tidy sum for them to boost my transfer budget.
I signed no less than 15 players but most of them are decent youngsters with some potential, I always try to look at the future. Only 5 or 6 of these players will make it into the first team squad this season.
Now let me introduce the best of them one by one. First, my new left back, Spanish regen Igor Velasco. I had to compete with Arsenal for his signature and I’m very happy that he chose Blyth, I really needed a good alternative for the left flank.
Next up, my new young centre back, Italian Antonio Sebastiani. I’ve been following him since he was 18 and I tried to sign him each and every summer but I never had the money to do that. Now his contract expired and I grabbed him for free!
I needed a good left winger to boost my attack and I chose talented Romanian Razvan Ochirosii, he has great pace and ability with the ball and I think that he will do a great job for the Spartans.
I had to cover the right wing too and I chose Greek regen wonderkid Giorgos Liapis, he’s a great talent that could achieve impressive things with a good team like Blyth around him.
Last but not least I wanted a versatile midfielder to cover all the roles in midfield, a jolly joker, and I settled for experienced Chilean Mauricio Isla. He adds good depth to the squad and he could prove to be an important asset for the team.
That’s about it, I chose not to sign any new strikers as I already have three great ones, Nicao, Necid and Aquino, and a youngster that showed great signs of improvement lately, Pablo. My Blyth spent the largest sum this year on the transfer market, 58 million euro, with Crystal Palace in 2nd place. The transfer window isn’t closed yet though, so the big clubs could still provide some surprises.
The bookmakers believe that the teams to beat in the next season will be Arsenal and… Blyth! It will be difficult because all the teams will try to do their best against us, we’ll have to be focused and determined in all the 38 league games to win the third title in a row.
We’ll have two more cups to win in August, the Community Shield and the UEFA SuperCup…
But as I said in the beginning, I don’t know when I’ll have the time and peace to play those games. If things go well I’ll be back in two weeks, if not I’ll probably be back in a month. Thank you for following the story and for your continuous support. I might not be able to reply very quickly to your comments and emails, so please be patient. I’ll be back!
Siren
22 сентября, 2009 at 22:25
Johnny,
Although I may not have commented on many of your posts I have read every one.
I’ve also used your tactics, facepacks and kits — you have been a great help to me :)
Im sorry to read about your personal problems, just goes to prove there are some things that are even more important than Football Manager ;)
A huge congratulations on your success with Blyth and Chester — I wish I knew your secret.
Good luck with the future Johnny, and I look forward to your next post.
Ahmed Shah
22 сентября, 2009 at 22:43
Looking forward to your return Johnny, we understand, it’s not a problem! Congrats again, good luck with your personal life ;-) and some good signings there, especially Velasco looks good! Good Luck! :-)
eddie eddie
22 сентября, 2009 at 23:11
Oh thats a shame but there are things more important than fm so I look foward to your next post.
JohnnyKarp
23 сентября, 2009 at 09:58
Thanks a lot for your support my friends, it means a lot to me. I’ll do my best to be back as soon as possible.
Dave
23 сентября, 2009 at 19:59
Hey Johnny
Sorry to hear you have probs mate hope all works out for you.
Looks a good start you have for the new season so gives us something to look forward to once you are back up and running.
Take care mate
Dave
Necdet Celal Güner
24 сентября, 2009 at 16:07
Hi Johnny,
I hope you will easily get rid of your problems.
A joke ! I think your girlfriend is a little jealous about the time that you are spending in front of FM monitor :) I passed these girl’s tests a hell lot of time. Usually FM wins :) They don’t understand our emotions and sensibilities :)))))))
Take care mate. Take it easy.
JohnnyKarp
11 октября, 2009 at 23:22
Thanks for your support folks, things should get back to normal in a couple of weeks…
paine
15 октября, 2009 at 10:44
Ehi Johnny, sorry about your problems.
I’ve been away from my blog for some time too, every now and then real life strikes back…but I’m planning to come back for FM 10 with a new game and a new story.
For now I’m testing the brand new FM 2010 demo, did you dowload it?
Take care and come back soon.
JohnnyKarp
15 октября, 2009 at 12:32
Hello Paine! I didn’t have the time to try the FM 10 demo, I think I’ll play the full game once it will be release, I already ordered it. :)
Liversea
21 октября, 2009 at 04:36
Whoa! It’s been awhile!
I hope everything’s going fine in your life, hopefully it’s nothing too bad.
Lye
28 октября, 2009 at 03:18
Hi, Johnny will you be coming back to post your FM10 story 2 days later? Have you decided which team to manage? I will be posting my story in my blog http://www.fmstory.com. But the journey will start once i get my hands on the full patch game this friday. Please feel free to give me some comments as i am a rookie in posting in a blog or website. Thanks in advance..
Dave
30 октября, 2009 at 20:06
Hey all
While Johnny is still currently away (hope all is ok mate), just wondered if any of you have been playing FM2010. What are your thoughts — reckon Johnny may have a hard time with this one?
My one has still not arrived yet :(
eddie eddie
31 октября, 2009 at 19:00
It is very good for me tactics creator is great as backroom staff is to
JohnnyKarp
31 октября, 2009 at 23:42
Hello folks! Sorry for the long interruption, it was longer than I expected :( Things are pretty close to getting back to normal, so I should be able to resume posting starting… tomorrow. The question that I have is that with the new FM 2010 launched I don’t know if I should play the last FM 2009 season and then start playing FM 2010. What do you say? And another question: do you ahev any suggestions for the team I should manage in FM 10? Thanks for your support and commitment, I missed you a lot :)
eddie eddie
1 ноября, 2009 at 02:52
Hey jonny good to know soon things will be back to normal.
I want you to have 1 more season in fm09 and for blyth to win even more cups!
Also I want you to manage chester again I know that you will say no bt because of there poisition I wanted to see how you get on with them.
Lye
1 ноября, 2009 at 03:35
Hi Johnny, welcome back. I hope you can start managing FM2010, can’t wait to see your stories. I hope you can find some sleeping giants to manage like Nottingham forest etc.