Hello everyone and welcome back to my Football Manager Story which this time will update you on all the activity following our promotion in dramatic fashion to The Championship last season.
May 2011:
Following the exciting end to the season the players went on a well deserved break whilst at St. Mary’s I began planning for life in The Championship. We received a parachute payment of £325,000 from the Premier League but it was too early to look for other players as I had no idea what our transfer/salary budget would be and I currently had no money to work with.
We also signed a new kit sponsor deal that will bring in some additional revenue.
Until the meeting with the board I decided to get out my three ring binder, a pencil and buy myself a coffee to aid the process of reviewing the team. I spilt the players into two groups based on my Assistant Managers recommendations those being “Above and below 3 stars”.
Three and Above:
Below Three:
Some of these players below hardly featured last season and will tried to be sold or released though I can immediately see I should be looking for a new goalkeeper of two!
June 2011:
The month was long and hot but finally the meeting with the board arrived to determine this season expectations. The day began with a hefty sum of money from TV rights which topped almost £3 million. I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from the board and was surprised by their packages on offer.
***I accidently clicked confirm so ended up with this having meant to go for top half finish***
The new seasons’ fixtures were announced shortly after the meeting and we will open our campaign away to Derby County though the League Cup will feature in there somewhere.
The bookies give us a fair chance at promotion too!
July 2011:
With the money side of things organized I set about replacing some of those “below 3 star” players with the objective of bringing in most of the new faces before our pre-season campaign began at home to Woking.
The goalkeeper situation was quite troublesome so after much searching and rejections I settled on two players to fill this role. My new starter will be former Ipswich player Brian Murphy with the back-up being Elliot Parish from Aston Villa, Both were picked up on a free transfer.
The back four was my next area of focus and I picked up two players from Stoke City. Left back Carl Dickinson was released on a free and I paid £675,000 for central defender Andrew Davies. Gavin Gunning at Blackburn also caught my eye and he was acquired for £475,000.
In the right back position Javan Vidal returned to St Mary’s as a permanent player having been released by Man City and will be backed up by Richard Ekersley who we acquired from Burnley.
In the middle of the park I brought in Connor Clifford on a season long loan from Chelsea and to the delight of the fans snapped up Slovenian international Dalibor Stevanovic on a free transfer.
With Lallana, Puncheon and the up and coming Chamberlain already on my flanks I felt the need to add just one player here and that was Tom Cleverley who we signed for a season long loan from Man United.
As I had already decided on The Manchelona being my formation for the season which operates with a single striker I brought in on loan Cedric Bakambu from Man City after selling 29 year old Rickie Lambert to Wigan. Bakambu will rotate with Guly do Prado and Lee Barnard.
After all the deals had been finalized I felt that a pretty good job had been done in managing both the transfer and wage budgets which leaves some room for any unforeseen emergency.
Here then is the full squad (at the time of writing) roughly split between Defence and Offence.
Transfer Summary:
Pre-Season Results:
We had six games arranged for the summer and they all went exceedingly well winning them all and conceeding just one goal along the way at that was from a free kick against Woking. The Championship will not be so easy but at least morale is high going into the start of the season.
Well that concludes this update and many thanks for taking the time to read it. My next one will not be as quick as I’m back to a full week having taken a few days off from life in «big business».
If you haven’t already please feel free to vote for my next team which will feature in FM 2012…only 4 weeks to go!!
Kevin: "Which team should I be managing in FM 2012?"
- Plymouth (24%, 61 Votes)
- Weston S Mare (22%, 55 Votes)
- Ipswich Town (16%, 41 Votes)
- Truro City (12%, 29 Votes)
- Toronto FC (10%, 24 Votes)
- Bournemouth (8%, 21 Votes)
- Bristol City (8%, 20 Votes)
Total Voters: 250
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George Dobson
25 сентября, 2011 at 21:40
Well done Kevin good signings I hope you make the play offs this season
Kevin
25 сентября, 2011 at 21:41
Thanks George….me too!!
Sears
25 сентября, 2011 at 21:59
Good pre season Kevin. You made some astute signings and your well equipped to finish around the mid-top half of the table. Good luck mate.
Kevin
26 сентября, 2011 at 09:16
Thanks, I fell I’ve gotten a good balance and coverage for all positions
Lye
26 сентября, 2011 at 02:20
Hi Kevin,
Great pre-season signings. There is a good balance from front to the back and i feel you can achieve a very high position this season. Stefanovic is a brilliant signing and so do the others. A couple of good loans coming as well and i am feeling optimistic for you this season. Good luck.
Kevin
26 сентября, 2011 at 09:18
I was delighted to get Stefanovic so easily and he’s proven his worth already in pre season.
Johnny Karp
26 сентября, 2011 at 06:55
This was an almost perfect transfers campaign, you brought in good players and didn’t spend much either. I think that you have a good chance to be around promotion come the season end, good luck!
Kevin
26 сентября, 2011 at 09:21
Well, thanks very much. Even though I brought in nine players I was surprised myself when I noticed I had money remaining in both budgets
Martin - F.M.J.S
26 сентября, 2011 at 08:44
Some good players brought in Kevin. I hope Bakambu can perform as good for you as he has for Darren. Some good Pre season results too. Good Luck with the rest of the season.
Kevin
26 сентября, 2011 at 09:23
Bakambu will be my second striker for the season and I’ve put a lot of faith in this signing particularly as I’ve sold Lambert. Thanks for the good wishes.
CsAtlantis
26 сентября, 2011 at 09:21
Those are some very good players you’ve gotten in on the cheap Kevin, you have a good budget for a championship club, Bakambu looks like a beast, cleverley looks good, you are well equipped to challenge for a top half finish and further beyond (playoffs and automatic promotion don’t look impossible either)
With a marking & tackling of 5, why does stefanovic have DM listed as one of his roles :P, interesting that he can play all the central midfield roles though, haven’t seen many players who can do that
Kevin
26 сентября, 2011 at 09:29
Welcome back mate!
I’m very happy with the balance of the squad for sure and good point about Stefanovic. I did hesitate about signing him due to those low attributes but I won’t be playing him a defensive role. I’m not sure why he’s catergorized as being a DMC either? His duties will be more offensive in nature.
Darren Smith
26 сентября, 2011 at 12:04
Some excellent signings Kevin, I think you have a promotion challenging side there and let me offer you one more piece of advice, if Bakambu struggles to score then change him to a poacher role…I did that and the rest is history :)
Kevin
26 сентября, 2011 at 23:20
Thanks for the tip, I’ll keep a watch out for that. Happy that you like my signings too!
vaibhavc
26 сентября, 2011 at 16:02
Hey Kevin
Promotion is a good aim for this season, your squad certainly looks good. Based on Darren’s story, Bakumbu scores so much, so he is my pick of the signings.
Kevin
26 сентября, 2011 at 23:24
Thanks vaibhacv. I’m quite pleased with the depth of the squad and hopefully Bakambu will be as good as in Darren’s save.
Laxeyman
26 сентября, 2011 at 16:12
Hi Kevin, good signings there, it seems like you’ve got a strong squad now and I’d say that the play offs are a very realistic target, and if things go well then hopefully you’ll get automatic promotion, as that isn’t beyond you with the players you have. Good luck!
Kevin
26 сентября, 2011 at 23:25
Cheers Laxeyman. The squad is pretty decent I feel and should be able to compete with the rest of the division and hopefully we are in the top six at the end.
Dan
27 сентября, 2011 at 18:56
Hi Kevin,
Good signings and for once the FM bookmakers get it right! Seems like the play-offs should be the least you aim for this season. Good luck!
MDTM
27 сентября, 2011 at 20:33
Hey Kevin,
Looks like a good team! Good luck for the season and hopefully we will see you in the top 6!