Hello everyone and I am delighted to bring you a new Football Manager Story featuring South coast club Southampton. I hope that this new adventure will be as entertaining for you as my previous Cambridge story and again my apologies for the somewhat rash decision to end that story early. Still, out with the old and in with the new.
Southampton are very familiar to all of you so I won’t go into the details of the club, their ground and so on other than to say I take over as they mark their 125th anniversary. In terms of objectives I hope to take the club to the Premier League.
On meeting the board their expectation is that the club wins promotion and in order to fulfill that I was handed £500,000 as a transfer budget and £105,000 for salaries.
Southampton look to have a pretty strong squad but there’s always room for improvement and I decided to build from the back. My first signing was a central defender as I had an aging CB whose pace and acceleration was below 8 so Brazilian Eric Botteghin joins us from Dutch side FC Zwolle. I spent nearly all my transfer budget on this player and there was much competition for him especially from Spanish clubs. As my current best central defender Jose Fonte is Portuguese he should pair up nicely with Eric.
This time around I’ve made a departure from a flat back four as you will see later and so I needed a RWB and acquired one on loan from Man City. Javan Vidal is no stranger to the FM aficionado’s.
With wing backs I was going to need someone solid to sit in front of the two CB’s and help support the defence. In fact I feel I did a good job in finding two anchormen to plug this hole, one from Iceland and the other from France and here are their profiles.
With several options already available to me in midfield I felt it was unnecessary to buy a player but I did loan Jordan Mutch from Birmingham for the season and he can rotate in and out as required.
On the wings I found a decent player on my U’18’s squad and put him right in the first team. I’ve already received offers for Alex from Chelsea which I’ve rejected and have signed this 16 year old to a new contract.
On the left wing I already had Adam Lallana but then noticed that Jason Puncheon was on loan which I immediately terminated as he’s too good to be playing for anyone else in my opinion.
So here’s the complete look at the transfer situation prior to the start of the season. You will notice Fred Sears on the list whose loan I terminated almost immediately. Although he’s got great attributes he’d just be one striker too many.
Tactic:
As I mentioned earlier I’ve changed my tactic for this story which I’ve lovingly called “The Jarren” as it’s somewhat based on a combination of Johnny’s and Darren’s current tactics. The formations and set up is a little more daring than I would normally go with but as you will see from pre-season it wasn’t too bad and was very entertaining to watch. Hopefully this will carry on in League One action!!
Results:
So, as I said I’m pretty happy with the way things went and even the loss to Ipswich is I think somewhat misleading as we really should have won that game based on our performance.
Fixtures:
The season will begin away to Charlton followed by a League Cup encounter with Barnet.
Finances:
Things are looking quite healthy with a very tidy bank balance and so far the board appear to be unperturbed that we are £10,000 over the weekly salary budget!
That completes my first update of this new story and I look forward to having you follow along and reading your comments.
Kevin.
Johnny Karp
6 сентября, 2011 at 13:25
I think «The ManBullOna» would have been a proper name for the tactic :) I am flattered that you considered taking inspiration from my tactic and I must say that the result looks quite impressive. The squad is good as well so I expect a successful season, best of luck!
Kevin
7 сентября, 2011 at 17:53
LOL, that’s a great name. I wish I’d thought of that!
Jakefog
6 сентября, 2011 at 13:42
Great to see you back making another story, I was worried that you may have lost interest after resigning from Cambridge but I’m delighted you made a new story :D
Nice looking tactic as well, not seen very many like it before so good luck and I hope you achieve your season goal of gaining promotion :D
Kevin
7 сентября, 2011 at 17:55
Hi Jakefrog
I was tempted to wait until FM 2012 but this game is very addictive and I enjoy writing!
onecapwonder
6 сентября, 2011 at 14:20
Looks like you’re very well set up for a tilt at back to back promotions. Southampton seem to be a very strong club in FM and should have an excellent youth setup if its representative of reality, so perfect for a long campaign.
The formation looks fun, its in shape the old W-W/ metodo used by a number of teams in the 30s-50s, Italy won two World Cups using it. It ticks quite a lot of boxes defensively, and against 4-4-2s, which I’m sure most teams in League 1 it should be solid, both forwards being marked, the wingers covered by wing backs and 3 in midfield to dominate the opponents 2.
You may be interested in this
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2010/oct/26/the-question-barcelona-reinventing-w-w
Vidal and Gislason look like excellent players for their positions, and Gislason should make a great tutor for young midfielders.
Good luck with the season, I reckon the hardest challenge will be keeping the vultures off Chamberlain and Lalana both should become excellent players.
Kevin
7 сентября, 2011 at 17:58
Hey onecapwonder
Thanks for taking the time to leave an extensive comment and good spot about the tactic. I started reading about Englands 6-3 defeat to Hungary ion 1953 and so the tactic went from there with some input from Johnny and Darren’s tactics. Thanks for the link too!
Michael Grantham
6 сентября, 2011 at 15:37
Hi Kevin,
Great to see you starting a new sotry before FM2012, Southampton are a great side and Im sure you will bring success to the club. Best of luck for the new season, I hope the new tactic works wonders in league one!
Kevin
7 сентября, 2011 at 18:31
Thanks Michael. This new tactic is pretty aggressive so we will see :)
Laxeyman
6 сентября, 2011 at 16:13
Good choice Kevin, Southampton have a great setup and are all geared up for Championship, if not Premier League, football already and hopefully you can take them there. Your new signings are good and I like the adventerous new tactic, it should bring you a lot of goals :) Good luck!
Kevin
7 сентября, 2011 at 19:22
Southampton do have a quality club so hopefully I can take them back to where they should be.
nielsneutron
6 сентября, 2011 at 17:40
I look forward to your story.
Niels
Kevin
7 сентября, 2011 at 23:23
Look forward to bringing it to you
Darren Smith
6 сентября, 2011 at 18:57
And he’s back, great to see you start a new story so quickly mate. Southampton are a brilliant side to manage and I loved playing with them for the short time I did. Two little pointers mate, Puncheon was a beast from the right wing and Lallana was the best playing in League One form the left. They have an incredible side and you have made some wonderful additions, especially that new CB!
Like Johnny I am flattered to see you taking inspiration from my tactic, yours does look daring but also defensively sound…its quite bambuzzling when you consider if it’ll be more attacking or defensive :)
Kevin
7 сентября, 2011 at 23:59
Yes, Southampton are a great outfit — I chose them as I have three cousins who live there :) Thanks for the tip on my two wingers, I’ll give that a whirl for sure. Happy you like my tactic set up as well though we shall see how it will do in regular competition.
Sears
6 сентября, 2011 at 21:24
Really glad to see you back Kevin, and best of luck with new story!
Kevin
8 сентября, 2011 at 00:00
Cheers Sears and thanks for sticking with me!
George Dobson
7 сентября, 2011 at 07:12
glad you came back kevin I think your team was very good and youve made some good adddtions to it in the transfer market as well so good luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kevin
8 сентября, 2011 at 00:00
Thanks George, and I’m delighted that you like my new recruits!
Lye
7 сентября, 2011 at 08:23
Hi Kevin,
Great choice in managing Southampton. Glad to see you opting for a more attacking formation as well. There should be more shots at goal and you’ll have fun. Good luck for a great start.
Kevin
8 сентября, 2011 at 00:02
Hi Lye
I’m happy that you like my new team. Normally i’m very cautious with tactics so I thought I would end FM 2012 in style!!
Ko
7 сентября, 2011 at 09:38
I was playing Southampton too. It has very strong squad and shouldn’t be a problem to promote. Just have a look at your players… I guess, you may think of getting a new keeper.
Is Kelvin Davis still there?
I reckon he’s much better than Bialkowski. Or, you may try to lure somebody like Joe Lewis.
Kevin
8 сентября, 2011 at 00:03
Hello Ko
Greetings from Canada and thanks for leaving a comment. The tow GK’s ares till there and I will look into Joe Lewis as a replacement. Cheers!
Dan
7 сентября, 2011 at 12:17
I’m gone for a week and a half and everything has changed! :o
Good choice in Southampton though, or as some of the daily papers are calling them ‘a certain south coast club’, since they fell out with the chairman! I really like the tactic too, full backs are meant to be attacking! Good luck! :)
Now I’m off to read what happened in your Cambridge story :)
Kevin
8 сентября, 2011 at 00:04
Hi there Dan
I had a sudden rush of blood to my head and it was game over for Cambridge. glad you like the tactic and i hope you will follow along to see how far I get with this story.
vaibhavc
7 сентября, 2011 at 16:00
Hey Kevin
Your back, I was afraid that you wouldn’t start a new story until FM12. It is good to see you combine both tactics, I would like to see what happens there. Have fun!
Kevin
8 сентября, 2011 at 00:06
hey vaibhavc
It’s good to know that I have such friendly support. I’ll try not and disappoint you and will endeavour to bring you a good read!
Sibo373
9 сентября, 2011 at 11:10
Interesting tatic mate! Good luck, with the story, Southampton are way too good for League One and you should be good enough to compete in the Championship with the players you have so this season will not be a problem! :D
Nice to have you back. :D