So we finished 6th after all with Liverpool right behind us (they won the FA Cup by beating Manchester United). I guess it’s not bad for the first Premier League season, we qualified for the Europa League and earned a total of 69 points.
Here’s how the player stats for the season look like, sorted by average rating. Lucas Biglia was both the heart and brain in our midfield, he’s a creative hard worker, any manager’s dream for a midfielder. Goalkeeper Sergio Romero was absolutely fantastic, I didn’t make an exact count but I guess he earned us at least 20 or 30 points with his spectacular saves. Guilherme was our top goalscorer, he scored 24 goals through the season. I hope he’ll be over the 30 goals scored mark next season, he surely has what it takes to do that.
I’m more or less satisfied with each player’s performance but a thorough analysis is absolutely necessary for the next season. I think that we’ll have to strengthen the squad in order to face all the four competitions that we’ll have to play, the league, the domestic cups and the Europa League. Let’s get on with a quick analysis right now…
Sergio Romero will definitely stay with us, he’s done well so far and I see no reason to replace him at the moment. Ben Amos will probably be allowed to leave, he wants to play first team football and I guess he deserves it.
Gergely Varga is growing, he becomes better and better and despite the numerous offers that are coming in for him I think I will keep him. Martin Martinez could provide decent backup but maybe I’ll bring in another promising youngster for that role.
Eric Abidal will definitely leave, I shouldn’t have signed him in the first place. He was a huge player when he was younger, now he’s just a complacent and mediocre player. Alberto Morgado might leave too but only if I will find two good left backs. However, buying a solid left back will be one of my main goals during the transfer window.
I’m pleased to announce that I just signed Havard Nordtveit, he was on a loan to buy deal from Arsenal and I bought him for the agreed fee, around 4 million pounds. I will surely keep Martin Caceres, he’s a reliable player. I don’t know about Djourou, he made quite a few errors this season and I never felt comfortable with him in the middle of the defense. Marc Muniesa will probably leave, the coaches tell me that he can’t make any progress. Buying a good world class centre back is a must.
My two wonderkids Bonetti and Hinshelwood are the envy of all the big clubs in Europe, I’m receiving offers for them every week. I won’t let them go, they are my children and they still have to grow before leaving.
Agnaldo still has a great future ahead of him and he is already a first team regular. Sneijder will probably remain at the club too, he’s a solid backup alternative. I will look for another right/left winger though, probably another hot prospect or an experienced player to tutor the youngsters.
Biglia and Tinga will definitely be staying with the club, no question about that. Youngster Carlos Martinez will probably remain too while Mellis and Smallwood have a good chance of packing their bags. Rodriguez will return to Juventus when the loan finishes, he didn’t convince me.
Guilherme will be our star next season too, he will stay at the club for a few more years. The bad news is that I couldn’t sign Zigoni, he wanted to go back home to AC Milan once the loan deal ended. I felt quite bad about that but not too much, I found a good replacement for free! (more about that in a few seconds). Szalai will leave, he had a disappointing season. Sburlea will stay, he is a good backup player that does his job and doesn’t complain. If I succeed in bringing another world class striker Tomas Pekhart will have to go too.
I already signed two players, they joined the club on the 1st of June. Both of them came on free transfers after their contracts expired. The first one is Scottish international midfielder Kevin Thomson from Glasgow Rangers. He’s an experienced player and a hard worker, I think that we needed such a player in our midfield.
The second is Bolivian striker Marcelo Moreno from Shakhtar Donetsk, a strong experienced target man that could team up well with Guilherme. I also have another couple of free transfer strikers in sight, we’ll see if I’ll be able to snap them up.
The club received around 15 million pounds for finishing 6th in the Premier League and the board decided to invest all of that into the stadium and the training facilities. Meadow Lane will have around 10 thousand more seats, I’m quite happy about that.
I hope there will be some money left for transfers though, I’m sure that our sugar daddy chairman will find some spare change in his loose pockets again. That’s about it for now, I’m going to delve into the transfer market for the next few hours and try to find some good deals. I’ll also have to watch out for the home grown players restrictions, I’ll have to have at least eight in the 25 men squad for the Premier League and the same thing goes for the Europa League registration… Thanks for your support folks, see you later! ;)
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Majk
30 января, 2010 at 16:05
Great work there! Too bad about Zigoni, though Moreno looks very reliable.
Hope you have some luck with the left-back. It’s tricky to get good full-backs without having to pay overprizes for them. I don’t really know why that is. Great central defenders can always be found rather cheaply if you knwo where to look. ..or maybe it’s just my imagination.
I’ll have to go through the same thing with Millwall if I qualify from the championship. Mostly players on loan, fells like the board won’t let me spend any money even if i» play in the PL.
/Majk
Johnny Karp
30 января, 2010 at 16:15
@Majk
Thanks for the comment and welcome to the blog! I agree about the full backs, it’s hard to find good ones. There’s not a single good full back with an expired contract right now, so I guess I’ll have to spend some money for a solid left back. Good luck with Millwall!
Bilal Ahmad
30 января, 2010 at 16:21
How comes in almost everyone’s Football Manager 2010 Season Arsenal always flop? You’r really unlucky to lose to Aston Villa you had more possession! Too bad that your losing Zagoni!
Kevin Mayo
30 января, 2010 at 16:36
Hi Johnny
Well done mate on achieving a respectable 6th place in your first Premier League season and qualifying for Europe;not bad at all.I’m glad you are keeping Hinshelwood as he’s my favourite player on your team. He seems to pop up now and again and at just the right time too.Moreno attributes look great so a good replacement for Zigoni.
TheZiggy
30 января, 2010 at 16:55
Well done on achieving 6th place. An excellent first season the Premier League. Shame about Zigoni, but Moreno looks like he should be able to do a great job for you next season.
I have to agree with other comments that getting really good full backs is hard. It’s something I need to look at, and even had a bit of crisis at one point. The left back position in particular seems to be very difficult. To get really good players, it seems that spending a lot of money is the only way. My full backs are decent, but they it’s worrying at times how easy it is for the opposing winger to get around them. That said even world class full backs, get done at times.
Hope your search for full backs proves fruitful. A top quality central defender will also make a huge difference, but again they rarely come cheap either.
Good luck, and look forward to seeing what other signings you make before the start of the next season.
Johnny Karp
30 января, 2010 at 17:02
@Bilal
About Arsenal, a possible reason in my game is that they sacked Wenger and got Mancini instead :)
@Kevin
Thanks mate, Hinshelwood is one of my favorite lads too, I hope he won’t be unsettled by the numerous transfer offers that are coming in for him.
@TheZiggy
Thanks for the comment. I’m currently having a headache after looking for a left back for the past couple of hours… Aston Villa have a great youngster but they are asking 22 million pounds for him, plus 50 percent of a future transfer! That’s quite a lot. The problem is that I have to find a home grown one because of the restriction, that makes it even more difficult.
Majk
30 января, 2010 at 17:15
I love to share my findings and might have some for you aswell. Though you seem extremely good at scouting players.
Some slip under the radar though.
A very good CD — Dmitriy Verkhovtsev (I checked the spelling like 4 times!) Had him with Reggina and played equal to the likes of Zapata, Masiello, Rodwell etc.
Miles Addison — DC,DMC,MC -seems to be a bit on the expensive side though.
And how mch would Kyle Naughton go for? ( i know he’s firstly a right-back.
Brittish left-backs are a pain. Joe Mattock is prolly one of the sharpest one. (that’s affordable)
/Majk
Johnny Karp
30 января, 2010 at 17:33
@Majk
Thanks for sharing the information mate. I’m currently negotiating for Mattock, I hope to get a decent price tag. Naughton is at Werder Bremen at the moment and they won’t let him go easily. Addison is pretty expensive and he’s mainly a CM, I don’t need another one. As I said, I’m looking for home grown players because of the restriction.
Lye
30 января, 2010 at 17:47
Hey mate, you are always 1 or 2 places above my predictions(i predict you will get 7th) Really great job there, Moreno looks like a perfect target man for you. I believe you got a bargain there.
You had retained most of your players so i think there is no issue of understanding problems on adding 2 or 3 new players in the first team. Looking forward to your new signings as they will surely be very exciting player. Hope to see your transfer news soon.
Calum
30 января, 2010 at 17:59
Superb, as always, Johnny. Well done on a great season and I hope you can qualify for the Champions League next year. By the way, I have started a fresh on my blog as I lost interest in Everton. Thank you.
Johnny Karp
30 января, 2010 at 18:12
@Lye
Thanks mate, I’m eager to see your prediction for the next season :)
@Calum
Thanks Calum, good luck with the fresh start, I’ll drop by from time to time ;)
Laxeyman
30 января, 2010 at 18:54
Well done Johnny, great first prem season there! Moreno is a pretty good player, shame about Zigoni though. A world class DC and a solid full back are probably what you need to challenge for the title, but they are difficult to get and would be expensive.
Martin
30 января, 2010 at 18:59
Well Done Johnny, Good Final Position.
Hope You Can Get A Good Left Back, But I Haven’t Got Any Suggestions:P
By The Way, Radu Hasn’t Posted In A While, I Wonder Why? Hmm..
Johnny Karp
30 января, 2010 at 19:16
@Laxeyman
Thanks, I’m working on the centre back now, the left back is solved :) But it’s not Mattock, Tottenham wanted 30 million pounds for him!
@Martin
Thanks mate. I don’t know about Radu, he’s disappeared… I hope he’ll come back sooner or later or at least give us some news.
Majk
30 января, 2010 at 19:24
Then I’m guessing its either Baines, M.Olsson or Warnock that you managed to get ;P Ahh.. Don’t tell. Don’t spoil it ^^
I forgot earlier that Martin Olsson is a home-grown player. A Good pacey choice for left back. We’ll just have to see who you picked. I’ll be looking out for a left-back in the future for Millwall aswell.
Though I think i’ll put a foriegner in that hard to fill position.
//Majk
Laxeyman
30 января, 2010 at 19:47
Can’t wait to find out who they are Johnny, you were right not to spend that much on Mattock.
As for Radu, he might be ill or very busy so we will wait and see, hopefully he will post soon.
Johnny Karp
30 января, 2010 at 19:54
@Majk
You could consider regens too :) Baines is extremely expensive, not an option for me.
@Laxeyman
You’ll find out who that player is tomorrow :) About Radu, I guess there’s nothing more to do than wait and see, hopefully he’ll tell us something soon.
Majk
30 января, 2010 at 19:58
You have a good eye for new regens I tell, so it wouldn’t surprise me.
What year are you in at the moment. You had a straigth way up trough the leagues to get promoted to PL right? This is your second stint in the PL aswell?
Come in and comment on my blog any time. Or let me post on your site instead! :)
Laxeyman
30 января, 2010 at 20:10
Majk it is in the title ‘May 2013’ so that is the year Johnny is in. It is the fourth season and his first in the PL.
Majk
30 января, 2010 at 20:19
@Laxeyman
umm.. right. *embarrassed* I tend to get caught up while writing.
well then it’s an amazing feat to challenge many of the top teams right off the bat.
Johnny Karp
30 января, 2010 at 20:29
@Majk
I already checked out your blog but didn’t have the time to read the posts carefully. I’ll come back some other time, I’m busy with the transfers now :)
Laxeyman
30 января, 2010 at 20:36
Majk, don’t worry about it, it’s not important. I quite like your blog as well, although like Johnny I haven’t had chance to look in depth yet.
Johnny, can’t wait to find out your transfers, hopefully they will push you further up the table next season.
Luke Emery
31 января, 2010 at 12:09
Great final position Johnny, you’ve done brilliantly there. Am I right in thinking that Tinga has been at Notts County since the league 2 days? If so then what a buy he was!
Luke Emery
31 января, 2010 at 12:10
Also looking I see that Miles Addison was mentioned to you. How good is he in your game because hes a derby player!
Johnny Karp
31 января, 2010 at 12:51
@Luke
Thanks mate. Tinga came at Meadow Lane during my first season in League Two, he’s a very good player and a consistent performer. He’s one of my favorite lads, that’s why I gave him the number 10 shirt. Addison is a good player, I think he’s somewhere in France now in my game.