retired_bbcarr

Cheers, Damien It was nice to go up in our first season, I just hope we can stay there now.

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Summer 2005

The chairman supplied me with a budget of £13M plus whatever I could bring in from player sales to make sure we were ready for the challenge of the Premiership. If I was honest, I felt the squad needed some pretty major surgery if we were to stand a chance of survival.


Players Out:
Name [starts(subs), goals, assists, rating]

Fabián Estoyanoff [15(25), 8, 10, 6.83]
Fabián came to me in the days after the play-off final demanding a rather sizeable new contract. He already had a 5% annual rise under the terms of his current deal, but evidently that was not enough. The wage he was asking, however, was far more than I was willing to pay for an eight goal striker, and so when Villarreal came in with a £4,000,000 bid, I was only too happy to accept.

Alan Mahon [19(4), 5, 11, 7.52]
Alan had been very good in our promotion campaign, indeed he probably deserved more game time than he got, and the £1,000,000 fee we got from Man City may not seem too much, but I felt there were better players available, and I was determined to be ruthless in our pursuit of success.

Andreas Johansson [22(11), 3, 6, 6.97]
Andreas was very inconsistent in his form and with a whole host of midfielders joining the squad, he was very much surplus to requirements. I would have liked to bring in a little more for him than the £1,000,000 we managed from Ipswich, but it would have to do.

Released:
Emerson Thome [29(0), 0, 0, 7.41]
Matt Jackson [20(1), 2, 2, 7.29]
Ian Breckin [35(1), 0, 0, 7.19]
Nicky Eaden [21(1), 0, 0, 7.36]
Gareth Whalley [19(11), 3, 1, 7.37]

retired_bbcarr

Players In:
Name [Age, Position, Nationality, Caps, Goals]

Pieter Collen [25, DRC, Belgian, 1 cap] free transfer from Feyenoord
With four defenders leaving, bringing new and better ones in was paramount. Pieter was far from the fastest defender you’d see, but he was good in the air, strong in the tackle and with the versatility to play on the right or in the centre, I felt he’d be an important part of the backline.

Kenny Lunt [25, AMRLC, English] free transfer from Crewe
Kenny was, to be honest, signed as someone for another season in the Championship. Whilst he was a good player, I began the season worried that he might be a little out of his depth, though his versatility played well in his favour.

Marcio Junquiera [20, AMRLC, Dutch] free transfer from Emmen
Given that he was available on a free transfer, Marcio wasn’t much of a risk, but there was certainly not guarantee that he would be up to the job. Quicker than lightning he may have been, but there was nothing to say he knew what to do with the ball when he beat the defender to it.

Anders Svensson [29, AMRLC, Swedish, 52 caps, 10 goals] free transfer from Southampton
Brought in as a direct replacement for his countryman, Andreas Johansson, Anders looked the better player in pretty much every department. Experienced and good on the ball, I was expecting him to be a big player for us in our battle to stay up.

Steven Hammell [23, D/DML, Scottish, 1 cap] £130,000 from Motherwell
With Jacob Lekgetho failing to float my boat and Ryan Garry returning to Arsenal – where he looked to have won a place in the first team squad – I needed a left back to provide competition for Leighton Baines. I was surprised that Steven was still at Motherwell, his talents deserved a much bigger stage, but I wasn’t complaining as it meant he was available for a very small fee.

Aaron Lennon [18, AMRLC, English] £1,400,000 from Leeds
After Aaron’s successful loan spell with us I expected Leeds to put up more of a battle to keep hold of him. Maybe I had misjudged just how badly they were doing financially though, as they accepted my first bid, leaving my wondering whether I could have got him for an even smaller fee. Anyway, he was a quality young player and a big part of my plans.

Alou Diarra [23, DMC, French] free transfer
Released by Liverpool after spending a year on loan in France, Alou was attracting interest from a wide variety of clubs. We had to move fast and offer slightly more in wages than I would have liked, but he had obvious quality and was no doubt better than Arnau and would compete with Miel Mans for the holding midfield role.

Nyron Nosworthy [24, D/DMR, English] £1,000,000 from Gillingham
As well as having one of the best names in English football, Nyron had excelled for Gillingham, and I felt he’d deserved a place in the league’s team of the year. I was alerted to a release clause in the new contract he’d signed at the turn of the year, and with Nicky Eaden travelling in the opposite direction, I needed someone to compete with club captain David Wright, and Nyron fit the bill.

Arnold Kruiswijk [20, DC, Dutch, 15 U-21 caps, 3 goals] £1,200,000 from Groningen
My scouts had watched Arnold a good four or five times during the previous season and each time had reported that he really was a player we should try to add to the squad. Outstanding in the air and quick over the ground, he was regularly captain of the Dutch Under-21 side and had all the attributes to succeed in England. I was expecting a solid partnership at the back between himself and Collen.

Fernando Cavenaghi [21, SC, Argentinian/Italian] £6,000,000 from Spartak Moscow
The last of my signings before the time of pre-season friendlies arrived, Fernando was a far better player than I thought it would be possible to attract to the club. With Fabián Estoyanoff leaving for Spain, I had been looking for a new striker, but to be honest I was merely looking for a decent back-up to Bent and Tuyp before Fernando came across my radar. We had to move quickly with Deportivo known to be interested, but a three year deal was quickly signed and I knew I now had the men to score the goals to keep us up.

retired_bbcarr

2005-06 Squad

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| Pkd | Inf | Name | Position | Nat | Age | Value | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Lee Grant | GK | ENG | 22 | £475K | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Magnus Hedman | GK | SWE | 32 | £500K | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Hayden Mullins | SW/D C | ENG | 26 | £1.1M | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Pieter Collen | D RC | BEL | 25 | £875K | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | David Wright | D RC | ENG | 25 | £1.5M | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Arnold Kruiswijk | D C | NED | 20 | £2.2M | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Joleon Lescott | D C | ENG | 22 | £1.2M | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Nyron Nosworthy | D/DM R | ENG | 24 | £1.3M | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Leighton Baines | D/DM L | ENG | 20 | £1.7M | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Steven Hammell | D/DM L | SCO | 23 | £1.2M | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Miel Mans | DM RC | NED | 27 | £1.6M | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Arnau | DM C | ESP | 22 | £550K | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Alou Diarra | DM C | FRA | 24 | £1.8M | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Ashley Young | AM RL | ENG | 20 | £2.5M | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Marcio Junquiera | AM RLC | NED | 20 | £2.1M | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Aaron Lennon | AM RLC | ENG | 18 | £2.3M | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Kenny Lunt | AM RLC | ENG | 25 | £1.5M | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Anders Svensson | AM RLC | SWE | 29 | £1.8M | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Kevin Cooper | AM LC | ENG | 30 | £950K | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Kenneth Perez | AM LC | DEN | 30 | £2.1M | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Kevin Thomson | AM LC | SCO | 19 | £2.7M | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | Wnt | MartÃ*n Ligüera | AM C | URU | 24 | £5.5M | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Darren Bent | S C | ENG | 21 | £3.8M | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Fernando Cavenaghi | S C | ARG | 21 | £10M | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Jack Tuyp | S C | NED | 21 | £3.3M | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre>

retired_bbcarr

August 2005

With pre-season wins over Bayer Leverkusen (3-2), Boavista (6-1) and Oldham (3-0) – during which time Fernando Cavenaghi announced himself to the JJB crowd with a total of five goals – we headed into the season with confidence pretty high. There was some disappointment though, with Kenny Cooper suffering a torn groin muscle in the Oldham game which would keep him out of the first month of the season.

Our Premiership campaign began with a home tie against last season’s surprise package, Norwich. Tipped for relegation, they had ended up finishing a highly creditable twelfth, and had strengthened their squad well over the summer. Indeed, in the first half they were far better than us and deservedly lead through Leon McKenzie. We were further in trouble when Anders Svensson, a 56th minute substitute, was shown a straight red card in the 62nd minute for a horrible foul on McKenzie. However, cometh the hour, we introduced Cavenaghi into the proceedings in place of Bent, and by the full time whistle, the Argentinian had netted himself a debut hat-trick.

With Svensson suspended for three games and Aaron Lennon picking up a groin strain, I had to change the midfield around a little for the trip to Fulham seven days later. Cavenaghi was obviously given the start and rewarded my decision with a tenth minute goal to give us the lead, but Claus Jensen and Sylvain Legwinski replied for Fulham to give them the lead at the break. Collins John made that a two goal lead early in the second half, and it wasn’t until Jack Tuyp replaced Cavenaghi up front that we fired again, the Dutchman scoring twice to earn us a point.

The opportunity to bring better players in is never to be missed, and amidst much competition, we managed to land the season-long loan deal of Joe Cole from Chelsea. He went straight into the side against Tottenham at the JJB, but even he could do nothing against Spurs’ fighback. Darren Bent scored early in the second half to put us in front, but we could only watch as the London side turned on the class; Defoe, El Hamdaoui and Robbie Keane all thumping shots past Magnus Hedman to inflict our first defeat.

The final game of the month saw us on the road down to Southampton, and just as we had been against Spurs, we were taught a footballing lesson. Brazilian striker Amoroso got the home side off to a good start with a poacher’s finish from the edge of the six yard box, and though they had to wait until the second half to add to that lead, it was pretty evident that they eventually would. It was Marian Pahars who grabbed that second, and a deserved third was added by Brett Ormerod in the final minute.

League Position: 12th


Players In:

Joe Cole [23, AMLC, English, 19 caps, 2 goals] Season-long loan from Chelsea
Although our midfield was already heavy on the numbers, the chance to bring Joe in was simply too good to turn down. Looking for first team football after making only seven first team appearances for Chelsea during the previous campaign, Joe would add a touch of class to our play, I just hoped we could make the deal permanent come the summer.

Jan Lastuvka [23, GK, Czech, 17 U-21 caps] £4,200,000 from Shakhtar
The first games of the season had made it clear to me that Magnus Hedman was not good enough for this level of competition now, and that left us with only Lee Grant – with whom I had been very impressed. However, a top quality ‘keeper was high on my agenda, and come deadline day we managed to force through a deal for Jan, who looked every bit a Premiership quality goalkeeper.

retired_emsta12

Some awesome signings there, Lastuvka from <STRIKE>Bordeaux</STRIKE> Shaktar, Cole, Cavenaghi, Nosworthy, Hammell. I think you should be fairly close to Europe (providing your defence in strong enough).

retired_richcoble

This is a good read, please post more!

retired_w0lfpack1

That had me laughing my tail off. :thup:

retired_bbcarr

Obviously I knew Lastuvka from flip's tale, but I've never bought him on this version of FM before, so I'll be interested to see if he's as good for me as he was for Ed Allen.

Hope you continue to enjoy, Wegason

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September 2005

With the transfer deadline closed, I was more than happy with the squad at my disposal, and gave both the new signings, Cole and Lastuvka, starts at Crystal Palace. Kenny Lunt came in for the injured Alou Diarra, but it was Svensson, back from his self-enforced break, who came up with the only goal of the match, twenty-one minutes from the end.

Man City were our next opponents, their short trip to the JJB attracting nearly 25,000 fans. Marcio Junquiera, who netted his first goal for the club in the pre-season friendly against Oldham, got his first competitive effort when he slid home from ten yards in the eleventh minute. We looked the better side, but an inability to kill City off cost us dear, as twice in the last fifteen minutes they struck, first through Derek Riordan and then through Richard Dunne, and walked away with the points.

We entered the league cup at the second round stage against Sunderland at the JJB Stadium. To be honest, the visitors from the north were the far superior side, but Lee Grant was in stellar form and kept them at bay throughout. Svensson saw red as the game ticked towards its close, picking up his second yellow card in the ninetieth minute, but just as both sides were preparing for extra time, Bent nicked in at the near post and stuck the ball away for the win.

We rounded out the month with a short trip to Everton in the league. The game began brilliantly for us, Cavenaghi netting his fifth of the season in just the third minute. By half time we were two up, MartÃ*n Ligüera drilling a ball in from twenty yards after Cole had brilliantly laid it into his path. Everton couldn’t break us down in the second half as we threw men behind the ball, and walked away with the two goal victory.

League Position: 9th

retired_bbcarr

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | | Arsenal | | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 18 | 7 | +11 | 16 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Man Utd | | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 14 | 5 | +9 | 16 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Liverpool | | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 2 | +8 | 16 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Charlton | | 7 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 11 | 6 | +5 | 15 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Fulham | | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 14 | 7 | +7 | 14 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Chelsea | | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 11 | 5 | +6 | 14 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | | West Brom | | 7 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 11 | 9 | +2 | 12 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | Newcastle | | 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 8 | +1 | 10 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | WIGAN | | 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 11 | 12 | -1 | 10 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Middlesbrough | | 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 10 | -2 | 10 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 11th | | Tottenham | | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 7 | +2 | 9 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 12th | | Aston Villa | | 7 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 6 | -1 | 9 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 13th | | Wolves | | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 14 | 15 | -1 | 8 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 14th | | Norwich | | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 10 | -4 | 8 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 15th | | Man City | | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 12 | -5 | 8 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 16th | | Crystal Palace | | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 7 | -2 | 6 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 17th | | Southampton | | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 13 | -9 | 6 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 18th | | Bolton | | 7 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 12 | -6 | 4 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 19th | | Everton | | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 12 | -7 | 4 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 20th | | Leicester | | 8 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 16 | -13 | 2 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre>

retired_bbcarr

October 2005

The first of the month gave us the chance to add a third straight win after the disappointing defeat to Man City, and the visit of West Brom was our first home game in the league since then. So I was doubly determined that the big crowd would go home pleased, and we were set well on the way with Ligüera’s first half effort. We weren’t helped when Joe Cole limped off with a groin strain, but second half strikes from Ligüera and Cavenaghi, either side of West Brom’s solitary goal from Rob Edwards, sent us up to seventh in the table.

The last time we had visited the Riverside, we had battled back from a bad start to show the world we could compete at this level, and in the process shot ourselves towards an F.A. Cup semi final. This time, it was us who made the bright start, and Middlesbrough who provided the fightback. Within four minutes we were two goals up, Bent netting inside twenty second and Kevin Thomson curling in a fourth minute free kick. However, by the time another ten minutes had passed, the scores were level, Andrew Davies and Massimo Maccarone taking advantage of our slack marking.

Middlesbrough continued their fightback with a Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink goal to give them a half-time lead, but if they thought they were safe, they were wrong. Thomson netted his second after six minutes of the second half, and when Ligüera scored from the penalty spot on the hour, we once again had the lead. This time there would be no comeback from the home side, and Junquiera made the points safe in the 85th minute.

A triple injury blow hit us for the visit of Aston Villa, Ligüera suffered a neck injury, Kruiswijk twisted a knee, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to ask how Kenneth Perez sustained his wrist injury that would keep him out of our next two fixtures. We were still the better side, however, and kept Thomas Sørensen busy throughout, but the Dane was up to everything we threw at him, and deservedly took a point back to Villa Park.

It had come to light that Liverpool were showing a strong interest in the services of our brilliant Uruguayan midfielder, MartÃ*n Ligüera. Scorer of twenty-two goals already in a Wigan shirt, we decided to offer a lucrative new contract (£46,000 a week which would make him the club’s highest paid player) and he quickly put pen to paper, commiting himself to five more years at the JJB.

We travelled to Leicester with Kruiswijk and Ligüera back in the side, but Perez still nursing his wrist, and again we peppered the opposition goal with shots all day, only to find a particularly stubborn goalkeeper at work. Graham Stack was the man this time, but at least we did beat him once, Kruiswijk heading home early on from a corner.

Liverpool were our opponents in the third round of the league cup, and surprisingly given the team we were facing, the crowd at the JJB was sparse. That missed a cracking game, however, end to end stuff from start to finish with Bent and Baros supplying the goals that took it into extra time. We still couldn’t be separated, however, until Cavenaghi scored the winning penalty in the shoot-out, sending Jerzy Dudek the wrong way with a fine strike.

The month ended with a visit from star-studded Chelsea in the league, and to be fair I wasn’t at all unhappy with losing by only a single goal. That goal came from Spanish international Xavi in the seventh minute, but after that we held our own, and our attackers caused Petr Cech a few nervous moments in the Londoners’ goal.

League Position: 5th