Vauxhall Motors FM 2011 Story: The Journey Begins

Hello dear friends, it’s time to move on to the actual business, the Football Manager 2011 pre-season with Vauxhall Motors FC. As you have read in the introductory post yesterday the club is rather poor, it’s reputation is the lowest among English clubs, so I had a huge task ahead of me in order to improve the squad. As you know I also enabled «player attribute masking» to make things even more difficult, let’s see what I managed to do.

You already know my style, I swept up the squad by releasing 23 players including a worthless bunch of kids from the youth squad. I only managed to bring in 12 new players, I would have wanted to get more but the low wage budget prevented me from further strengthening the squad.

Now, instead of just introducing the new signings I thought that it would be a lot better to present the whole squad, player by player. So let’s see who will wear the Motormen shirt during this season. Just a quick mention before that, I am going to use the same tactic that I employed in FM 2010, the Notts County 4-4-2 which should produce aggressive and attacking football. That’s at least in theory…

Goalkeepers

Well, I just have one goalie… I tried to bring in a better one but since I was already over the wage budget after signing the other players I had to surrender. My goalie is 26-year old Scott Tynan, a player that I found at the club when I arrived. He has some experience in League Two and Blue Square Premier and some decent goalkeeping attributes. What he doesn’t have is speed and that could well cost us quite a few goals… I just hope he won’t get injured, if he does I will have to use an amateur goalie.

Right Backs

I made no changes to this area of the squad, I was quite happy with the two right backs that were already at the club. My first choice should be 24-year old Andy Taylor, a determined lad that should do a decent job at this level.

Brian Moogan will be the backup right back but not only that, he should be a good utility player because of his good versatility. He can also provide cover as a right midfielder or as a central midfielder.

Left Backs

My first choice left back is a new signing, Joe Lamplough, a 20-year old player that was released by Hull City. He is a quite tall lad with some margin for progress.

The backup left back will be Lee Dames, a player that I found at the club. He is a hard working player that should provide great backup and maybe even challenge for a spot in the first eleven now and again.

Centre Backs

There was a lot of work to do in order to improve this area, I needed pacey defenders since I will use a high defensive line and the offside trap. I brought in three new centre backs and the best of them seems to be 20-year old Welsh defender Craig Tawton. He was released on a free by Sheffield Wednesday but he should do a good job for us. Unfortunately he missed most of the pre-season games due to an injury so I will have to be patient with him until he reaches a good level match fitness.

The man who should team up with Tawton at the heart of our defense is a well known player for those of you who followed the Dorchester story: Ryan Carolan. He was one of my favorite players in FM 2010, a born leader that should do a good job at this level. He came through the youth ranks at Crystal Palace but never got the chance to play in a competitive game before being sent on loan at Chelmsford last season.

Gerwyn Jones should provide good cover for the first two, he is a 19-year old Welsh prospect that could maybe achieve some progress along with the club. He was released by Tranmere in 2009 and didn’t manage to get a contract for a whole year, I hope he will understand that I gave him a big opportunity to come back into professional football.

Tom Hannigan is not really my type of centre back, he is much too slow, but I had to keep him as an emergency backup. He can also play as a central midfielder so he should be a good utility player. Go to the next page to see the rest of the squad.

Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.

Wingers

I found good left wingers at the club but no decent right wingers so I had to bring in quite a few new faces in that area. The new first choice right winger should be 21-year old Dean Mason, a determined youngster that might be capable of working hard to stay in the first eleven.

The first choice left winger is a player that was already at the club, Neil Prince, an experienced player with decent skills at this level. He was a Liverpool player in the early days of his career but he never managed to succeed at a higher level.

The backup right winger should be Pietro Palladino, an 18-year old youngster that I snapped up on a free transfer. He is a very skillful lad, fairly quick and good on the ball, but he probably is the shortest player in the whole league.

The backup left winger is Paul Brown, a player that I found at the club. This will be his second season at Vauxhall Motors, his experience should be beneficial to the club.

Last but not least, an exotic transfer: fresh Somalian international Mukhtar Mohammed. He will provide cover in both the wingers and strikers area, a hard working lad that was released on a free by Sheffield Wednesday.

Central Midfielders

The central midfielder area is quite important in my setup so strengthening this area of the team was my top priority. The best CM that I managed to bring in is 23-year old Welshman Rob Davies, a determined lad with decent passing skills.

Davies should team up well with Darren Dunning, an experienced midfielder that came on a free transfer. He had some League Two and League One appearances in his career and his mental attributes should make him a reliable player at this level.

Another new signing that should boost the quality of my midfield is Norwegian youngster Alex Stockinger, a player that just turned 18. He was released by Reading but I believe that he has good potential that could make him a first team regular sooner or later.

Josh Wilson is one of the players that were already at the club, he should be a good backup and a great utility player since he can also play as a centre back or as a striker. Go to the next page to see our strikers and also highlights from a friendly game.

Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.

Strikers

The best striker is a new transfer, 21-year old Rhys Henry. He was released by Southend but I believe that his skills might make a difference at this level. Unfortunately he picked up a long term injury during a friendly game and he won’t be available for around six weeks.

His partner upfront should be another exotic signing: 18-year old Tanzanian striker Suleiman Leluu. My scout believes that this lad has good potential but I reckon he should be a first team regular right away. Unfortunately he picked up an injury himself during an international game with the Tanzania Under 20s squad and he might miss the first month of the season. He was a Coventry player for two seasons but didn’t manage to make any appearances in the first team.

Craig Mahon, the team’s captain, is one of the players that I decided to keep at the club. He has good mental attributes and a few League Two appearances despite his young age.

The last of the 22 players is Obi Anoruo, a young striker that I found at the club on a loan deal from Wrexham. He has good technical skills and decent speed, I hope he will prove himself this season.

Here’s an overview of the whole squad, as you can see we have already been hit quite hard by injuries. I tried to move all the players on full time contracts before the start of the season, that way I believe they will train better and fulfill their potential.

The assistant team report looks pretty good but I am still trying to find a new assistant with better skills.

The friendly games went pretty well overall, we got a couple of beatings but the last few games went well.

The very last friendly game was a great surprise both for me and our fans, we managed to beat our parent club 5-0! That’s quite a good win considering that Tranmere are playing in League One!

Check out the five goals in the video, I liked Craig Mahon‘s goals quite a lot :)

That’s about it for now folks, thanks a lot for reading this post. It’s difficult to predict where we will finish the season but I hope to grab a top half spot at the end of it. Where do you think we’ll end up?