retired_sahba

Eleventh Season: 15/16 - Premiership

I began my busy summer by tracking down Njazi Kuqi. It took a while but eventually I found him training and completing his coaching badges in his native Finland. I offered him a 2 year contract to return to the club as a player-coach, which he accepted.

With Njazi back on board, I set about remolding the squad for the new season. The likes of Hobbs, Martin and others were immediately recalled to the first team squad and given new deals.

I transfer-listed a raft of players due to the oversized squad and astronomical wage bill, including Rijkaard signings such as Gjerlow, Hartmann, Karlsson, Egan, Sand and Lang who were all quickly sold-off. Also outgoing were long-term reserve players such as Hosni, Kotenko, Jackson, Commons and Diarra. The final category of outgoing players were youth accademy graduates who had no place in the first-team's future, including Harper and Darren Martin.

These, along with the retirements of Henry, Owen and Gardner, made for a significantly smaller squad. The only addition I made was a young Croatian right-winger by the name of Ivan Bilic.

Moneyw as tight, after Rikjaard's free-spending followed by relegation, and the ongoing costs of improving the stadium, and in an ideal world I would have liked to have bought one or two other players, but still I was looking forward to the challenge of taking the club back to the Premiership.

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This was the squad with which I leg the charge on the Championship title in 2015/16:

Goalkeepers

Lamperti

Hammer

Buric

Defenders

Left

Carragher

Marshall

Right

Richards

Rincon

Alexis

Centre

Hobbs

Upson

Kuchar

Webster

Midfielders

Left

Martin

Nurmi

Right

Bilic

Wright-Philips

Hleb

Centre

D'Laryea

Campos

Arzu

Attackers

Fryatt

Vestergaard

Kuqi

Nam

Smith

Joyce

As you can see, a few of Rijkaard's signings stayed on as squad players, but the bulk of the squad were the same players who had been playing in my time in the Premiership with the club. In goal, the battle between Hammer and Lamperti to make the position their own looked set to continue. I had found myself without a specialist left-back, and though I intended to play Carragher in that position, his age meant I needed cover, so I brought in Blackburn's Peter Marshall on loan. At centre-back, the partnership of Hobbs and Upson would start the season, with Rincon pushing Richards at right-back. Martin continued where he left off as first choice left winger, with Nurmi as his understudy, while newcomer Bilic was given a chance on the right ahead of the ageing SWP and Hleb. D'Laryea took up his place in the middle, and I hoped to give Campos a chance ahead of him since he played superbly last time we were at this level. Up front, Fryatt was planned to lead the line. Who would play alongside him was a problem though. Kuqi is too old and unfit to start every game, and I don't know whether Vestergaard can adapt. I hoped Smith and Joyce, or at least one of them, can take a step up to first team level after a few outings last year to help out, and the Korean Nam was another option.

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It took a while to get accustomed to being back in charge of the team I loved, but by the time the first game of the season came around, I felt ready. We entertained Southend at Valery Park (which, by the way, is looking better than ever) on August 8th. I was expecting a comfortable win from a Premiership standard team, but was disappointed as we were held to a 1-1 draw. Things went from bad to worse a week later as we travelled down to the midlands to take on Wolves and were beaten 4-3.

It was clear that the defence wasn't settling well, but I was mystified as to why. Carragher and Upson had a wealth of experience between them, Hobbs has always been magnificent for us and Richards grows as a player all he time. For the first two games they had been playing in front of Hammer, so I gave Lamperti a game at Luton in the third game and things improved greatly, as the defenders seemed much more confident playing ahead of him, and his own performnces were markedly better than Hammer's.

With Lamperti taking his place in the team our form improved dramatically over the coming weeks as we reached the 10 game mark with 6 wins, 3 draws and a solitary loss and hovered towards the top of the table. In the league cup, we progressed through the first round easily against Haliax, with youngster Jim Smith scoring his first ever senior goal in a 2-0 win, but were eliminated at the second hurdle by Manchester City in a closely fought 3-2 defeat.

As I has hoped, Fryatt led the line brilliantly, with a supporting cast of Kuqi, Campos, Vestergaard, Nurmi, Martin, Hleb and Bilic rotating in the other attacking positions. Kuqi has slowed down a lot as he's got older - he turns 33 this year - and his goals have dried up, but he still adds a lot to the team when fit. Campos, as I had hoped, has stepped up and is having his best season since he led our promotion charge back in 2010/11. Martin is back to his best, Vestergaard and Nurmi have proved more tha adequate support, filling on a number of occasions and doing well, and over on the right Bilic and Hleb have both done reasonably well when played.

As usual, the team has revolved around the captain Jonathan D'Laryea, who has been superb again this season. The other story of the season has been the emergence of eighteen year old Jim Smith. He established himself early over the summer as the better of the two young strikers, and has played a number of times in the early stages, starting both Leagu Cup games and making 2 stars and 3 substitute appearances in the first 10 league matches, and has bagged 3 goals along the way. His future as a top player for the club seems secure, though it remains to be seen whether Joyce will follow him. He has the natural ability to match or even excede Smith, but doesn't seem to have the same hunger. Only time will tell whether he has what it takes.

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After our good run put us up where I was hoping we would be, pushing for the Championship title, confidence was high. However, problems started to creep in. The age of our back line was showing, with Carragher, Webster and Upson all starting to run out of steam and increasingly backup blayrs such as Marshall or Kuchar would have t be used, or else Richards moved inside and Rincon played on the right. All this rotation had a negative effect on the back line as we bean to concede goals again with increasing regularity and drop points. Going forward we were still producing, but results were being thrown away, more than once we were winning a game only to concede late on and draw, or worse, lose.

By January, atomatic promotion was looking increasingly unlikely. Perhaps I had been overconfident in expecting to take the club straight back up to where we had been. After all, with star players like Kuqi past their best, and most of the new signings that had come in also veterans, this was essentially the same side which had been struggling when I left only without youth on its side.

One player with youth on his side is 18 year old striker Jim Smith. This has been a real breakthrough season for him, as he has been starting more and more games and doing extremely well. He is also doing superbly for Scotland Under 21s, and won his first senior cap in a January friendly against Cyprus. It has been a remarkable rise for him from breaing into the first team here to full international level in just a few months.

Our FA Cup run went much the same way as our League Cup run had, as we coasted through the third round against inferior opposition only to be knocked out at the second hurdle in a close game against Premiership opposition, in this case Aston Villa who beat us 2-1 at Villa Park.

Meanwhile, things continued much the same in the leaue as we remained in the top half but automatic promotion slipped away from us. The play-offs became the primary aim as I was determined to return Prescot Cables to the Premiership where I felt they had come to belong.

At our lowest ebb we had slipped to 11th, and even the play-offs seemed an unattainable goal, but we rallied and a good run of late results saw the team rise back to within reach of a play-off place. This run was in large part due to the defence settling somewhat. With Upson and Webster both injured, loanee Peter Marshall and Rincon began to fill the full-back spots while Richards and Carragher rotated alongside Hobbs in the centre, with Richards also occasionally moving back out to his preferred position on the right.

With 4 games to go we were in 7th place and only 1 point outside the play-off positions, and good results in those games would put us in with a good chance of making the play-offs, dependent on other results. However, we blew it, picking up just 4 points from those 4 games and finishing a disappointing 8th place.

I had believed we had what it took to win the division, so to not even make the play-offs was a disappointing end to a disappointing season. However, I knew I still had the makings of a top team, and was determined to try again next season. I knew with a few key signings - one or two younger defenders, a classy right-winger - and without some of the dead wood that was still weighing the squad down, I could get this team back up, and I set about yet another busy summer.

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Twelfth Season: 16/17 - Championship

First I just want to note that in the heading for last season, it should have said Championship, not Premiership

After planning my actions over the summer, I went about putting my plan into action. First I cleared some space on the wage bill by releasing a number of reserve players who had come through the system but never looked like making the first team, amongst them John Parry and Steve Henry. Also out was Alexis, who had been pushed out of the team with the emergence of Richrds, and was sold to Celta Vigo for £2 million. Wright-Philips and Upson both announed retired, but since a new defender and winger were in my plans, I was prepared for this. I also sold Andy Webster to Wolvs for £200k, as he didn't feature in my plans for the backline next year. Finally, Arzu was released from his contract. He had only been a back-up for D'Laryea in case of injury, and he was demanding wages I wasn't prepared to pay. Youngster Simon Abbott can step up, I think, to cover for D'Laryea in that position if called upon.

To restructure the defence, I needed two players. I renewed the loan of Peter Marshall from Blackburn after he put in some strong performances towards the end of last season. I had hoped to sign him, but Blackburn did not want to sell. I als had Richards and Rincon at right back, Hobbs and Carragher at centre back, and Kuchar as back-up. I felt I also needed a new starting centre-back, since Carra's age prohibited him playing week in week out. I found what I wanted in tough tackling Croat Bruno Buncic, who was a snip at £900k from Southampton, who had spent nearly 2 million on him just a year earlier. I considered signing another defender, but decided none was needed.

We did need a new right winger though, with SWP gone, Hleb getting older and Bilic disappointing. I turned to Lionel Ainsworth, a player who had been performing well in the Championship for years at a number of different clubs, and at 29 still had a lot to offer and was well worth the £2 million asking price.

The only other signing of the season was veteran Scottish international Kris Boyd for £150k from Norwich. I didn't expect him to play a lot of games, but I felt we needed an out and out striker for cover, since with Joyce going out on loan, the only options upfront incase of injury to Smith or Fryatt were the ageing Kuqi, attacking midfielder Vestergaard or left winger Nurmi. Of the cheap but proven striking cover on offer, Boyd seemed the best choice as he was looked up to by our starlet Jim Smith.

Buncic and Ainsworth settled well into the first team squad in pre-season, and Boyd conducted himself well. I had high hopes that I had found the right formula to take us back to the Premiership.

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It seems to have become a feature of Cables' seasons that the first couple of games don't go according to plan, and this year was no different as we crashed to a 3-0 defeat away at Hartlepool and followed that up by only managing a 2-2 draw at Wolves. Things improved somewhat from there though as we went on a free scoring run over the next few games, picking up a number of points along the way. Fryatt and Smith get better and better as a partnership all the time. By the 10 game mark this season they had scored a combined 18 goals (10 for Smith, 8 for Fryatt) as we sat comfortably in the play-off places. Njazi Kuqi has also been having his best season in a while, relishing his new position as an impact substitute to cause havoc in tired defences in the second half. In October, Njazi came to see me after raining and told me he was ending his playing career after this season, but would like to stay on in his coaching capacity, which I immediately assured him he could.

No player has given more to the club than he, except maybe Jonathan D'Laryea. With 147 career goals for the club, he is our greatest ever goalscorer, despite the for much of his career here he has played as a support striker, and has probably set up even more goas than he's scored himself. It will be a sad day for the club when one of its true legends hangs up his boots, and I hope he can reach the 150 goals landmark he deserves before then. It's funny to watch him, Fryatt and Smith train together, as they represent the club's glorious past (Kuqi), its present (Fryatt) and its bright future (Smith).

That said, Smith is also very much a player for the present. Last season he played understudy to player of the season Matty Fryatt, but this season he has been even better than Fryatt.

In terms of league form, this season has been very much reminiscent of last season, with a poor start, a good run taking us up near the top of the table, followed by a slow slide down out of the play-off places. Goalkeeper is still a problem position, and Lamperti's poor form has played a big part in our slump which has taken us down from 5th to 9th. Buncic, unfortunately also hasn't been the success I had hoped for at centre-back. While going forward we have been doing superbly well, with not just the strikers but the supporting cast of Campos, Ainsworth and especially Lee Martin performing well, our attacking style has left a shaky defence which has been punishd too many times.

In the league cup too, this season has mirrored the last one, with an easy win in the first round followed by a disappointing narrow defeat in the second.

Going into January then, we had achieved some great results - a 5-0 victory over championship contenders Bolton and a 6-1 away at Barnsley stand out - and were probably the most attractive attacking team in the league, but the promotion pushw as not going according to plan, and I was becoming increasingly worried that we would be spending a third season in the Championship.

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I'd like to take a moment to talk about the Prescot Cables youth academy. Since club owner Jim Graham opened the academy way back in 2008, it has been a huge success for the club. Academy times have been doign consistently well recently, particularly notable being reaching the FA Youth Cup final in 2014/15. The academy has turned out some quality players - two first team regulars and a whole load of near misses - Harper, Parry, Blackwell, Henry to name but a few. Of those that have come through, Richards with his immense energy and commitment has become a cornerstone of the defence, while Jim Smith is widely regarded as one of the best young strikers in Britain right now. The thing I'm most excited about though is the academy's future. The nest generation of players has some real gems - defenders James French and Martin Moore, midfielder Simon Abbott and striker David Wall in particular.

Back to the present though, and our struggle to qualify for the play-offs. With the transfer window opening, I took the oportunity to strengthen my shaky defence. Peter Marshall hadn't been performing as I hoped, and I was concerned about Kuchar's ability as a back-up centre-back, so I set out to find a player who could be used as an alternative for Marshall at left-back as well as step in if eneded at centre-back. On the recomendation of Hleb, I checked out Charlton's Bulgarian international Krasmir Simeonov, and I was impressed. I snapped him up for £1.2 million. With him in, I loaned out Kuchar to Ranegrs as he was no longer needed. I also loaned young defender James French out to League Two neighbours Tranmere to gain some experience.

Also in January, our FA Cup run came and went. Again, it closely mirrored last season - easy win in the tird round (3-1 away at barnsley) followed by narrow defeat to a Premiership side (2-1 at home to Chelsea).

With both cup competitions going the same way as last season, and the league closely mirroring it so far too, I began to fear we were once again destiend to miss ou on the play-offs. Simeonov's presence seemed to have a calming effect on the defence, as we began to be more organised. Again it went down to the wire. With three games to go, we sat in 7th place, but three wins and other results going our way could easily still see us in the play-offs.

The first of these matches was away to Preston, and it started badly as we wen behind early. By half time we were 2-0 down and sinking fast. I knew that if we lost here, we abandoned hope of promotion, so I had to really inspire them to go back out. I gave a big team talk, reminding them they were a Premiership club, were Premiership players. They deserved to be back up in the top-flight, and to roll over and accept defeat here would be to deny themselves that right. What I said worked, as they looked a different team in the second half. Smith pulled one back, and then with 20 minutes to go, on came Mr. Prescot Cables himself, Njazi Kuqi. Within two minutes of coming on, he nodded a Martin cross into the path of Fryatt who tapped it home for the equaliser, and then, with 83 minutes on the clock, D'Laryea took a corner and Kuqi rose above everyone else to power home a header - his 150th league goal for the club, and the one which gave us a real chance of promotion after it looked out of our reach.

We were still two points behind West Brom though, and had to beat Ipswich and hope they lost to Portsmouth to move ahead of them into the play-off places. Bouyed by the comeback at Preston, the boys coasted past Ipswich, 2-0 with the goals coming from Fryatt and Nurmi. After the match I found out that West Brom-Porstmout had finished 2-2, leaving us level on points, but still behind them on goal difference by a mere one goal.

The last game of the season came up against Bolton. Bolton were pushing for automatic promotion, and beating us would gaurantee them second place. For us to book our place in the play-offs, we needed to win, and win big, since West Brom winning too would see goal difference come into play. The game against Bolton turned out to be one of the greatest performances my team had ever come up with. The defenders and keeper kept a very good Bolton side out for 90 minutes, and Martin, Smith and Ainsworth scored in the other end. A 3-0 win was huge for us, and put us into 6th place, but I didn't know for how long. West Brom played later that afternoon, and if they won by three clear goals we would be forced to spend another season in the second tier. Our luck continued though, as West Brom were held to a draw by Norwich, and we were in the play-offs.

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Re-opened by request

retired_sahba

Thanks Terk. And sorry to any regular readers I might have for the long gap - I was travelling around Australia.

The play-off draw once again saww us up against Bolton. I was concerned going into the first leg at Valery Park that our recent prevention of them gaining automatic promotion would give them the extra fire they needed to overcome us. I was proved right as they ran rampant in the first half, outplaying my boys all over the pitch and netting twice to give them a strong lead. Although our second half performance was much more organised and improved, goals proved elusive and the game ended Cables 0-2 Bolton. We were faced with an uphill struggle at the Reebok Stadium 3 days later, needing to win by 3 goals away from home to make the final, against a strong Bolton side. After a slow start, Cables rose to the challenge magnificently, going in at half time a goal ahead thanks to Smith and dominating posession. Shortly after half time, Fryatt made it two. Despite our continued pressing, the required third goal was not forthcoming, and I had to endure a nailbiting 30 minutes of extra time on the touchline. When that also ended without the game being decided either way, it was time for penalties. Bolton seemed to collapse in the penalty shootout, failing to net once and we won comfortably with conversions from Smith, D'Laryea and Campos. We had booked ourselves yet another day otu at Wembley, facing Ipswich for a chance to rejoin the elite of the Premiership. After 120 minutes of extraordinarily dull football, we were faced with another penalty shootout. Ipswich proved more adept than Bolton, but we were bouyed by our recent penalty success and all 5 of our takers (Fryatt, Nurmi, D'Laryea, Kuqi and Martin) put theirs away for a 5-4 victory. We were back in the Premiership once more

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Thirteenth Season: 17/18 - Premiership

I was reasonably pleased with my squad heading int the Premiership, and wasn't prepared to spend big for the first season back up. There were only a few gaps, I felt, in the squad. With Kuqi retiring, along with Scotish veteran Boyd, Joyce failing to mature into a first teamer, and neither Nam, Nurmi or Vestergaard making the step-up, a new striker was a priority who could genuinely compete with Smith and Fryatt. Also with legend Jamie Carragher announcing his retirement at the grand old age of 39, and Peter Marshall returning to Blackburn after two seasons here on loan, a new left-back was a priority, with only Simeonov capable of fulfilling that role. Finally, Jasmin Buric requested a transfer, so a new back-up goalkeeper was also on my shopping list. Following Buric through the exit door was Nam Cheong-wu, the Korean forward who had failed to command a first team place, and Alan Joyce, another bright academy prospect who had never quite reached his potential. The first signing I completed was the new striker, snapping up Italian U21 international Fabio Marchetti from Aston Villa where he'd had limited opportnities, but was regarded as one for the future, for £6million. The other major signing I competed was left-back Francoi Baco, another youngster at 21 but a fully fledged Cameroonian international and an outstanding attacking full-back, for £6.5 million. With the season nearing, and no back-up keeper signed to replace Buric, I plumped for Newcastle reserve Goncalo Felguiras on loan for the season.