salma

nice story.

Keep it up. I am hanged to it

:thup: :thup: :thup: :thup: :thup:

retired_sahba

So we were out of the FA Cup, but in 12th place in the league with eleven games to go. A good run-in could see us climb into the top half of the table.

We started the run in brightly, too, with a 3-0 victory over Ipswich, with van Nistelrooy, Wright Philips and Fryatt on the scoresheet.

However, that was followed up by two disastrous away day at Chelsea Arsenal as we went down 4-0 and 3-1 respectively.

From there on in though, things picked up. We went 5 games unbeaten, and climbed to eleventh place. Good results against Spurs, Bolton and LIverpool in the last three games could still put us into the top half.

Spurs at home was a vital game in terms of achieving our goal, and one we had a good chance in, and we staretd well, with Kuqi giving us a 1-0 lead early on. The game collapsed though, after Gardner was sent off early in the second half. They came back with two quick goals and we were unable to get back into the game, losing 2-1.

Our top-half dream finally ended a week later at Bolton, when we went down 2-0, but still, we wereguaranteed to finish higher that last season, in either 11th or 12th place, so progress has been made.

That left us with a dead rubber against Liverpool, who had already won the league. The match had an incredible carnival atmosphere, a local derby on a goriously sunny day at Anfield, Liverpool fans celebrating the title win, ours celebrating our highest ever finish. It helped too of course, that there was a lot of crossover between the two sets of fans, since half of ours have been poached from Liverpool.

The atmosphre continued onto the pitch, where it manifested itself as a free flowing display of attacking football. We went down 1-0 early on, but pulled level through van Nistelrooy, scoring in his last game before retirement, and then ahead through a Martin screamer. Liverpool equalised early in the second half, but again we pulled ahead, this time with a beauty from substitute Alvaro Campos. Once again, Liverpool levelled to make it 3-3, but at the death, the game got the dramatic ending it deserved as D'Laryea netted a free kick to give us the 4-3 win.

The match may have been mostly meaningless, but it was an outstanding game, and one I'll long remember. I'm pleased with 11th place in the league, and a few shrewd buys could even see us pushing for a place in Europe next time out. We'll have to see how it goes over the summer.

retired_sahba

Ninth Season: 13/14 - Premiership

Once again, the summer transfer window was one of activity. The first business was clearing otu some of the deadwood, to which end striking trio of Marrison, Moore and Yeates were released. All three will long be remembered by the club for their contribution, but there's simply no place for them in our Premiership squad. Following them out was defender Paul Huntington and goalkeeper Jan Habr: again, they just weren't needed any more. Misfit midfielder William Kvist was sold on to Hartlepool for £1million, and goalkeeper Sergio Alvrez was involved in one of the shock transfers of the summer after Real Madrid offered £5 million for him. I haven't been all that impressed by him, but obviously back in his native Spain he's though much more highly of. Also released were a number of youth graduates, amongst them one time top-rated youngster Daniel Blackwell.

The incoming transfers were a strange, but hopefully effecive bunch. First in was veteran Luca Toni, to add depth to our somewhat diminished forward line after the departures of RVN, Yeates, Moore and Marrison. Also signed for that purpose was £2million Soren Ulrik Vestergaard for £2 million from Burnley, who can also play in the hole.

Matthew Upson cam in from southampton to add another experienced head to the defence, and to replace the two outgoing goalkeepers, I bought Tottenham's Italian substitute keeper Andrea Lamperti, and Cables old boy Kotenko returned from Charlton as back-up.

Matt

Good story, keep it going!

retired_sahba

Thanks Matt and salma for the feedback, glad you're enjoying it. As far as keeping going goes, I have 9 seasons worth of material left, so even if its slow going sometimes it will run for a while yet.

With the new arrivals settling in well and a solid pre-season under our belts I had high hopes for this season. We had been progressing well and I felt as if this squad had the ability to push on up the table. I never would have said so in public, but in my head the aim was a top 8 finish.

My optimism, though, was hardly bouyed by a 5-0 opening day drubbing at the hands of Arsenal. Okay, so Arsenal, having won 8 of the last 10 league titles as well as being the current Champions League holders, are arguably the best club team in the world, but for a club of the stature I believe Cables to now be, such a result is still awful.

It also quickly became apparent that with Toni not in great shape and Vestergaard taking time to settle, another striker was needed to avoid overreliance on the partnership of Kuqi and Fryatt. There was no money left in the coffers, so I brought in Northern Ireland Under 21 star Gareth Cassidy from the Spurs reserves on loan.

Thankfully, things imrpoved after the Arsenal result, as we achieved a 2-1 victory over Villa and then went to newly promoted Plymouth and came away with a comprehensive 3-0 win. Over the following weeks, our form continued to be up and down. I soon realised that what was still lacking to push us into the next level was consistency. We were unable to put together a solid run of results despite the ability of the players, and I felt there was no way we could have any real Premiership success until we resolved this, but I struggled to instill this in the players. Some, such as D'Laryea and Hobbs, have always been models of consistency, but the team as a whole looks like a different side from week to week.

Cassidy proved invaluable, with Kuqi picking up an injury in September that kept him out for a few months. He slotted in alongside Fryatt as a regular starter and they formed a fairly effective partnership.

Talking of strikers, at around this time, I took a trip down to the accademy to watch the under 18s train one day, and the accademy director took me aside and told me he had something to show me. He hastily arranged a game and told me to watch the strikers on one side. They blew me away. Two 16 year olds, local boy Alan Joyce and Scottish Jim Smith. Joyce had come up through the accademy ranks over the years and at 16 his talent had taken off, and Smith had just joined from an accademy North of the border and was tearing it up. The two of them had been dominating the under 18s league already, and if they continue to progress as they are, they could easily both become stars. They were just unbelievable to watch that first time I saw them at the accademy, playing against defenders 2 years older and turning them inside out, and it seemed almost impossible that the partnership between them had developed in just a matter of weeks.

retired_sahba

The future of my forward line looked bright, but I was pretty pleased with its present too. Fryatt finally showed what he was capable of this season, becoming the predator I've always felt he could be. Cassidy had been a revalation too, not as prolific as Fryatt, but as a support striker he's been excellent, and even after returning from injury club legend Kuqi was forced to spend a fair amount of time on the bench due to Cassidy and Fryatt's partnership. I'll definately be looking into signing him permanaently next season if the opportunity arises.

Th cups hav always been a big part of our seasons, and this time out our first cup run of the season began against Plymouth in the League Cup 2nd round. I put out a strong side and was rewarded when we hammered them 5-1, with Fryatt, Cassidy (2), Alexis and Vestergaard on target. We entertained Southampton in the third round and again were succesful with a 3-1 win, with goals coming from Hleb, Martin and a rare goal in a rare appearance from Toni. Next up we were at home once again, this time to Chelsea, still a big club despite not having won a trophy in 6 years. We held them to a 0-0 draw, but were ultimately knocked out after a tense penalty shout-out. It wasn't too much of a disappointment though, since the league is and always will be my priority and the cups serve as a diversion, a role this run had served well as my players acquitted themselves excellently.

The FA Cup was not so good, as I fielded a weakened team in the 3rd Round tie with Barnsley and was punished. This game did have some pluses though. Smith and Joyce had been improving all the time and by this point were stars not only of the under 18s league but of the reserve league. They were scorers #1 and #2 for both leagues, an incredible achievement considering that, playing for both the were unavailable for a lot of games, not to mention they were both still only 16. I decided to reward them with first team debuts against Barnsley. Smith started the game alongside Kuqi, and was replaced by Joyce at half time. Of course neither set the world alight in this game, but they certainly did enough to merit hanging them their debuts. Also in this game, Daniel Richards, whose status as a youngster was somewhat undermined by playing alongside players almost five years younger, had both the highlight and lowlight of his career so far. His first ever senior goal was followed 7 minutes later by his first sending off for a professional foul. I think next season will be make or break for Daniel, as at 21 he is still struggling to displace the established right-backs.

Our league form continued to fluctuate as the season wore on. The season closely replicated our last two in terms of league form. Although of course I'm thrilled to have made the club an established Premiership side, it is frustrating not to be able to find what it takes to take that next step up to European contenders. 3-2 victories over Man Uts were followed by 2-1 defeats to Villa, and as often seems to be the case, we were held to a draw more often than any other Premiership side.

We eventually finished 10th - again an improvement and out higest finish yet, but still not the big step up I was hoping for. A number of the players - D'Laryea, Martin, Fryatt, Cassidy, Hobbs, Ferriera, Rincon proved themselved to be of the quality needed to be a top premiership side, but for some reason we still weren't there. Perhaps it was our ongoing problems finding a regular keeper - this season the perennially inconsistent Hammer and newcomer Lamprti fought for the shirt. Perhaps it was the inability of some of our most creative players - Avaro Campos, Jack Howarth Jr. and Shaun Wright-Phillips to perform consistently at this level. Whatever it was, this summer is going to be spent once again trying to rectify it. It promises to be a busy summer.

retired_sahba

Tenth Season: 14/15 - Premiership

After years of wrangling with my son and former star player, our professional relationship is as over as our personal one. His contract ran out this summer, and negotiations over its renewal were a short and pointless process. He was quickly on his way to Middlesbrough.

Unfortunately for me, my plans for a busy summer in the transfer window were dashed when the Chairman came to see me and told me that there was no stash of money availale for transfers this summer. He felt the money would be better spent improving facilities, and that with the money spent over the years we should have the squad needed already.

My hopes of signing Cassidy on a permanent deal were dashed, and an exploratory attempt to extend his loan for another year got nowehere as Tottenham, impressed with his performances in my side wanted him back for their own first team. With Luca Toni's retirement, that left me needing to replace two strikers and a right winger with no cash.

Remembering the success I'd had in the past snapping up big-name players in the last phase of their career, I decided to go down that route this season, and signed El-Hadji Diouff, Thierry Henry and Michael Owen on free transfer deals. While in discussions with Liverpool over Owen, I discovered another of their club legends was available, as veteran defender Jamie Carragher was not having his contract renewed due to his advancing years. I quickly added the versatile star to my defence. Anthony Gardner was fast slowing down and had already announced his retirement at the end of the season, so it would be useful to have another player with similar qualitites. Sekou Baradji was the other player out the door, as he never quite adapted to the premiership, and with Carra able to play left-back he was no longer needed to cover that position.

So the summer didn't go exactly as planned, but given the circumstances I was reasonably pleased with my free transfer dealings. With no money having been spent though, I can't see next season being the season we step up. I think I've done enough to maintain us in mid-table until we can afford to spend again though.

The big positive which did come out of the summer, was the first England call-ups of any Cables player in history. For a summer friendly against Slovenia Lee Martn, Jack Hobbs, Jonathan D'Laryea and, most surprisingly of all young Daniel Richards, who wasn't even a first team regular for us, were called int the squad, and all four came off the bench in the second half. We'd had a number of former England internationals - Fowler, Wright-Phillips, Gardner, Upson, Owen, Carragher. But these were the first to get call-ups while at the club and it was a proud day for the club as four of our own, players who'd been with us their entire careers, made the step up to international level.

retired_sahba

The season started badly. I was prepared for a shaky start after my failure to strengthn the side over the summer, but the start we had was worse than I had anticipated. After 5 games we had 3 losses, 1 win, 1 draw, and it took 8 more games to notch up a second win. This was by far the worst run the club had gone on since I've been here, with defeat following defeat. After 14 league games we had 7 points on the board and were sitting firmly in the relegation zone, not to mention out of the League Cup at the first hurdle.

All my hard work over the past decade was unravelling before my eyes. The usually solid Hobbs was eratic. The veterans surrounding him, Upson, Carragher, Gardner were all lacklustre, neither keeper was playing well and we were leaking goals.

Down the other end of the pitch, the new veterans seemed completely uninterested as they huffed and puffed around the pitch. Kuqi, I think, will never recapture his best form after last year's leg break. Combined with his age, it seems to have taken a toll and he has been unable to show any kind of form this season. Vestergaard still isn't showing the class I expected when I signed him. Fryatt has been the best striker, but heas had no real service.

As for the midfielders, Lee Martin is in the midst of his worst spell ever. After a couple of dazzling years on the left wing, he too is looking like a different player. Hleb, Wright Philips, Campos, Diouff and Commons have all been in and out of the team as I tried to find a winning formula, and none have shown any class.

The only two positives this season have been Daniel Richards and Jonathan D'Laryea. D'Laryea, at times, has been the only player doing anything of any worth on the team as he's tried to drag them out of the mire. Meanwhile, Richards has finally earned a run in the first team. After a poor performance apiece from Alexis and Rincon in the first two games of the season, I gave Daniel a chance and haven't looked back, as he's been our most consistent defender.

Ultimately though, I can't blame the players. I know they're all capable of better, and if a team is playing poorly despite a quality squad, there is only one person to blame: the manager. As much as it pains me to say it after how far I've brought them, by the end of October I began to feel I was a liability to the club I loved and who had taken me to their heart. After over 9 years and massive, unprecedent progress, I felt burned out, there was no more I could do with this club. I began to feel that they would be better off with new blood, that that was what they needed to progress. So it was that in November 11th 2014, after 9 years, 5 months and 1 day, 5 promotions and an FA Trophy, I walked out of Valery Park for the last time, to give them the chance to refind their spark with a new manager.

As for my, the plan was to spend the rest of the year away from the game and then look for a new club.

This isn't the end of the story, there's plenty more twists and turns to come in the saga of Prescot Cables and Jack Howarth

retired_sahba

It is 7 months since I last wrote here after walking out on Cables for what I thought was the last time. That turned out to be not qutie true, but more on that later. First I'll fill you in on the intervening time.

A few of days after I left Cables, legendary Dutch coach Frank Rijkaard was accounced as their new boss. I was pleased with this appointment. If anyone can sort their season out, it's someone of Rijkaard's expertise and stature, I thought. He was quick to make his mark on the club, dropping established stars such as Hobbs, Martin, Gardner and Ferriera. Even D'Laryea, the standard bearer and club captainw as no longer guaranteed a starting place as Rijkaard brought in a raft of his own players, initially, due to the closed window, only free transfers.

He quickly made himself pretty unpopular with the fans, dropping fan favourites without any real upturn in results. In January, he broguht a host of new players in, but the that just seemed to make matters worse, as what had once been a cohesive team became a bloated and disjointed colelction of players. Meanwhile, Ferriera was sold for £5million to finance this spending, and club legend Kuqi was unceremoniously released on a free transfer along with Diouf.

My intial view of Riijkard as saviour of the team looked more and more incorrect all the time, as his new signings failed to gel, results went from bad to worse, and the fans grew to hate him. He was booed at every game, and my name began to be chanted as fans remembered the good old days under my reign. Presumably they had forgotten that the rot had begun to set in while I was still in charge.

Meanwhile, I was enjoying my time off. I hadn't realised how stressful management was until I took a break from it and finlly got a chance to relax. The relief was immense. The best thing that came ou of my haitus though, was that after my resignation was announced I got a phonecall from my son. He apologised for the way he had behaved, and over the following months we rekindled our bond. We realised that we had let problems in our proessional relationship affect our personal relationship, and let problems in our personal relationship affect our professiona relationship in a vicious cycle until it got to a point where we were unable to have any kind of relationship. Free from the constraints of our working relationship, and with a change in attitude from both of us, we were able to become father and son again. He, meanwhile, had reinvented himself as a hardworking, marauding full back at Boro, and had finally settled.

Cables were relegated by early April, and come the end of the season Riijkard and his assistant were fired. As I read through the papers, reading about Riijkard's firing, I cam across some speculation on who would replace him. Big names were out, since they were now a Championship side, but a few well known Championship managers were linked with the job. Then I noticed my own name:

"Former Prescot manager Jack Howarth is believed to be a strong contedner for the job. He has proven himself a more than capable managerin his previous spell at the club, and has been out of work since he resigned in November. The circumstances of him ending his first spell at the club have been the subject of much speculation, but an inside source has revealed he would be prepared to go back if he was offered the job..."

I dismissed such speculation of course. I had let the club down, and couldn't imagine Jim, the chariman, wanting me back. Over the coming weeks though, I was linked with a return with increasing frequency, and in mid-June I recieved a phonecall from Jim offering memy job back. I was stunned to be given a second chance, but I jumped at the opportunity.

The squad I inherited was very different from the one I left behind, so I should give you a run down of what it looked like:

Goalkeepers

Andrea Lamperti - Italian who was in and out of the first team in my first spell

Nicklas Hammer - long time first team player but inconsistent

Artur Kotenko - veteran cover

Buric - signed by Rijkaard in an attempt to bring consistency to the shirt

Defenders

Hobbs - the rock upon which my defence was built, dropped by Rijkaard

Upson - veteran centre back

Gardner - about to retire

Richards - young star, one of few players to retain their place after I left

Carragher - veteran superstar still going strong despite age

Jackson - left back signed as cover some years ago, reserve

Rincon - good right back, can still do a job despite emergence of Richards and lack of playing time under Rijkaard

Alexis - third choice right back

Gjerlow - Norweigan left-back signed by Rijkaard, first choice under him

Kuchar - Czech back-up defender signed by FR

Hartmann - battled for left-back spot with Gjerlow under FR

Webster - Scottish veteran brought in by FR

French - promising youth promoted from accademy by FR

Moore - another promising youth promoted by FR

Midfielders

Martin - long time first choice left winger, dropped by FR

D'Laryea - club captain anchorman

Wright-Phillips - ageing right-winger

Hleb - ageing right-winger

Campos - eratic attacking midfielder, proven at Championship level despite inconsistency in Premiership

Diarra - anchorman used as cover for D'Laryea in my reign

Commons - back-up left winger

Karlsson - FR's Swedish first choice left winger

Arzu - anchorman signed by FR to challenge D'Laryea

Lang - FR's Danish first choice right winger

Bacis - another winger signed by FR

Abbott - promising youth anchorman promoted by FR



Attackers

Fryatt - long time goalscoring centreforward under me, in and out under FR

Vestergaard - attacker signed by me who has thus far failed to settle in Premiership

Henry - retiring veteran

Owen - retiring veteran

Nam - Korean centre-forward signed by FR

Nurmi - Finnish left winger/centre forward brought in by FR

Sand - Norweigan attacker, another of FR's

Egan - reserve striker signed by FR

Smith - very bright prospect from accademy

Joyce - very bright prospect from accademy

Obviously it was going to need to be trimmed down for our assault on the Championship, with a number of reserves and players signed by Riijkard making way, and a few new signings brought in. I had a busy time ahead of me, but I was just pleased to be back at the club.

retired_sahba

Three players missed off that list:

Hosni - long time back-up defender

Parry - youth anchorman brought into first-team squad and handed a debut by FR

Harper - right wing youth graduate on the fringes of first team squad over the last couple of years