Notts County May 2013
Hello my friends and welcome to the last update of the season! We’re finally there, it’s been quite a nice journey so far. Thanks to The Ziggy’s analytical skills I found out that our Europa League place was not in danger even if we finished 7th because Liverpool and Man United were playing the FA Cup final. So the last three games were just a matter of pride, we could finish anywhere from 5th to 7th and I wanted my lads to do their best to finish as high as possible.
Hello my friends and welcome to the last update of the season! We’re finally there, it’s been quite a nice journey so far. Thanks to The Ziggy‘s analytical skills I found out that our Europa League place was not in danger even if we finished 7th because Liverpool and Man United were playing the FA Cup final. So the last three games were just a matter of pride, we could finish anywhere from 5th to 7th and I wanted my lads to do their best to finish as high as possible.
We played pretty well in the first two games, we could have won both of them with better finishing and a bit of luck. We only got one point though but I was satisfied with how the team played.
Despite our poor results we were in 5th place before the last game of the season, Arsenal lost two games in a row, first to Nottingham Forest and then to Liverpool!
The last game of the season saw us travel to Birmingham to meet Aston Villa while Arsenal were playing away at already crowned champions Chelsea. We had a chance to hang onto the 5th spot and we were leading 1-0 at the end of an entertaining first half thanks to a corner kick header from Zigoni. We were under pressure in the last 45 minutes though, Aston Villa kept coming at us with great determination and skill. We stood firm for a while but my defense cracked in the last 20 minutes. Meanwhile Arsenal drew 0-0 at Chelsea…
Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.
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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