retired_Brandon Scott

good story fella KUTGW though I wouldnt get too despondent at the thrashing at the hands of Man U-you've started well I reckon (with both your team and the story :thup

retired_tonytranbg79

Good stuff :thup:

retired_jeja111

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm going to post the ingame date each update starts at now so when I refer to dates you all know what I am talking about.

Tuesday, 21st September, 2004

League Cup, Round 2
Bournemouth vs. Aston Villa

I wanted to boost the squads confidence after the flogging at Man Utd, so I named a full strength side here. Although I told them to not go out at 100%, tackle softly and basically keep their energy.

They were playing well though, they were quite determined to give us a fight and that was exactly what they were doing. We were definitely not looking at conceding a goal but extra time was the last thing I wanted with regards to the players condition. We continued to pepper them, but both our shooting was shocking and their goalkeeper, ex Soton player Neil Moss, was doing a stand up job of keeping us out.

Coming to the 2nd half I decided to put the foot down, and end the charade. We were a Premier League side. Sending the players on long runs down the wings and sending them out with a direct passing strategy and an attacking mindset. It only took 5 minutes for quality to shine through - we started to dominate possession and Vassell quickly broke free and delivered a cross through to Juan Angel to give us the lead. We started to break their resolve and muscle the match into the final third however our shooting was just shocking and we couldn't hit the net again....what it took was Vassell once again showing Angel a great cross and giving him open view of the net from about the penalty spot to basically seal us the win shortly after the hour mark.

With the game looking won I decided to rest the players with yellow cards, and settle us down.

Maybe I got too confident though? With our players snoozing on the pitch they managed to break free soon after and peg one back on us. Though they tried, against a Premier League side they couldn't break through the gap and we held on to progress. As I might add, as expected.

Bournemouth 1
Connell 73
Aston Villa 2
Juan Angel 51, 67

Patrik Berger put in a stellar performance on the left wing, but there was a slightly bad sign and that was the goalkeeper, Thomas Sorensen, who over the course of 8 games this year (not including friendlies) has only averaged 6.25. I think we could be up higher on the table if we had a well-performing keeper...and with my scouts out and about around Europe and beyond, they were looking for one. One of the ones that caught my eye has been Ajax's goalkeeper, Maarten Stekelenburg...but I'm not sure if I will be able to prise him away from their hands for an agreeable price.

Back at training I was handed the paper...how the heck do the paper find out these things before me? I really should start going to the draws of these things...

Ahh, nothing like a derby to fire the players up. I have to be quite confident of going through there.

EPL, Game 8
Aston Villa vs. Chelsea

We had Barry and Solano back and though it was a tough decision for Barry's case they were both slotted right back into the lineup on the left and right wing respectively.

Hard tackling and quick tempo once again, if these prima donnas were going to get anything off us they were going to have to work for it. The stands were packed, I was looking for a better performance than our last league match, that's for sure...

The game started out with a frantic pace, and it didn't take long for things to hot up. The returning Gareth Barry brought down Joe Cole on the edge of the box to give Lampard a penalty after only a minute, which they of course converted to set us immediattely on the back foot. The game as being played at a frantic pace, just as we wanted it. Each player was working overtime for every ball, every pass and they weren't getting anything easy. We weren't letting them sit back and rest for 88 minutes....

....and after 20 minutes our persistence paid off as Thomas Hitzlsperger started to show some of his promise, just when I needed it. He lobbed a lovely ball over Mekelele's head into the path of Vassell, whose pace was causing Terry some problems...Vassell controlled the ball and put it passed Cech to put us back on equal footing to the delight of the packed house which had come to see us. The match started to even out a little more, our persistent tackling was starting to relegate them to far away shots and we were starting to look like a good attacking threat, although our players were tiring faster than theirs and this was something that might trouble us later. Once again though, luck and bad timing combined against us...Gareth Barry wasn't having a good day as a corner whipped in from Duff deflected off him after Cole hit it and it hit the back of their net...just as we were looking good once again we are reset back to square one.

We are conceding quite a few unnecessary goals.

After this I was glad to see out the next 15 minutes and got to half time a goal down, after a few more scares.

We came out in the 2nd half determined. Juan Angel broke free but blazed it over the goalkeeper...they were holding pretty strong but we were working hard. After an hour I brought the in form Berger in for Barry, who arguably, is to blame for both goals. We had our chances, Hitzlsperger hit the keeper at point blank range after Solano whipped in another great cross, that was the best of them, but our players were starting to tire and with only 15 minutes left I decided to revert to a 4-4-2 diamond strategy with Hitzlsperger playing a free role behind the strikers. We started to get the upper hand...more possession and the game was being played in their third...but they threw all their players back behind the ball and we couldn't break through. Once again a disappointing result, even more so this time because I felt we could have gotten something from this one.

Aston Villa 1
Vassell 21
Chelsea 2
Lampard pen 2
Cole 33

I had noticed that Sorensen put in another game to forget...a rating of 5 and his moral had hit rock bottom. The next day I called Sorensen into the rooms after training...this was my first manager-player talk...the first time I had to tell a player he was underperforming. It was hard...but i had to let him know what was coming from him wasn't good enough. I had already decided to give Stefan Postma a try for the next game, a trip to Anfield for a clash with Liverpool. I wasn't sure what Sorensen thought of my words because he had just kept a blank face through my speech, although I picked up the paper and read this...

Not to smile at poor form, but I was happy the fans agreed with me...I just hoped that Sorensen wouldn't toss the toys out of the pram and cause some squad unrest...which I could see potentially already. Afterall, the forwards and midfielders all had superb moral while the defenders had just average moral. I could see potential problems developing here...I didn't want a 3 game losing run against the top sides to tear our season to shreds...

The goalie has turned into a marshmellow!

retired_embartl

Ah not to worry about the Chelsea result. Still that's two tough games out of the way and forgotten! Can't wait for the League Cup clash though - looks very tasty

Not that I'd want to let real life intrude on my opinions or anything but even an off form Sorensen is better than Postma

Ah heck good luck firing him and the side up!

retired_joeliets

Great story KUTGW. Good luck with the villa

retired_jeja111

30th September, 2004

EPL, Game 9
Liverpool vs. Aston Villa

The big Dutch goalkeeper Stefan Postma was been given his debut after the decline in form of Thomas Sorensen. I can't see him being a decent option though and I have already started looking for possible replacements come the 1st of January, 2005.

I've drawn up a bit of a shortlist of possible targets, we've got around 3 months so make a move so I've sent out scouts to check them out.

Some on that list are better than others but all of them bar the top one, possibly, are realistic targets. With a transfer budget of 3.2M left over I'm sure I'll be able to nab one of them. That list really is in order of preference and the last 2 are last resorts, really.

Onto the game and we will go with what we have. Sorensen, in form and with morale, is a good goalkeeper.

Looking over the injury list, they have Kewell, Baros, Dudek, Rufete (new signing) and Gerrard all out suspended/injured. That is a tick in our column. Things started off with them surging forward to try and claim an early goal, but the wet weather was making it hard...we managed to get forward ourselves with my strategy of letting Vassell be the focal point up front instead of Juan Angel, maybe his pace will surprise them in the wet. Unusually i had adopted a shorter passing strategy in the wet, and it was causing them problems at spots....Solano having a good look at the goals after cutting through their slightly slower central defence of Biscan and Hyypia.

But once again I got ahead of myself...As Cisse let loose Luis Garcia on the left, who curled a brilliant shot passed Postma from a tight angle, and my right back Delaney really should have been there instead of leaving him with that much space. We did have opportunities to get the goal back and equalise, but their defensive tackling was right on the ball...and as if I was watching a replay of about 10 minutes ago, yet again Cisse let Luis Garcia loose on the left and he slashed a long ball passed Postma on the inside post. Postma, really, should have gotten that one.

Left extremely frustrated, I let the game drift on. I felt we weren't even playing that badly but we had made 1 or 2 minor mistakes and were punished to the full extent for them.

Then right before half time, finally, something to smile about! Young left fullback Jlloyd Samuel had gotten loose and whipped in a great deep cross to Juan Angel, who headed it past Kirkland to pull one back for us. That was a goal which basically came out of nowhere with that great cross...not to mention Angel who beat a 3 on 1 situation and headed it in...we managed to hold off the sleeping giants, who had awoken after sitting back and letting us come at them with their 2 goal lead, until half time.

Coming into the 2nd half I decided to tell the boys to come out swinging, hard tackling and closing down all the way to try and get level....but Liverpool had awoken and they countered. Xabi Alonso had gotten loose on the edge of the box and whizzed a shot passed Postma to recapture their 2 goal lead. This was painful...each time we thought we were in with a shout, we had a momentary lapse of reason, and managed to concede a goal.

After this they just threw their players behind the ball and waited it out....and it was working. We were totally falt and unable to break through...that was until 1 minute from time when the returning Charlton Cole was let loose by Angel and put one passed Kirkland to make the scoreline look respectable....and for those two minutes, looking for an equaliser, we managed to play with determination and vigour not seen for the whole match.

Liverpool 3
Luis Garcia 17, 25
Xabi Alonso 54
Aston Villa 2
Juan Angel 40
Cole 90

And with three straight losses we slide from 5 to 10th in three short matches. As expected we got nothing from three games in a row against Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool and I just hope that the morale didn't die and we can recapture our early form....

With two weeks off to regroup, I was hoping we could come back out the other end and reverse our form slump...

...meanwhile...I reading of the papers would see speculation mounting about new goalkeepers...

How did word get out? There must be some snakes in the club...after being spotted by my scout, Dennis Gentenaar has become my number one target although it will cost us 3.5M, I believe, he will be useful I believe, and his form so far in the Dutch league has been stellar.

After dropping Thomas Sorensen for a go in the reserves, interest has surfaced from Zaragoza in Spain for him. Despite his good stats, he hasn't been performing for me but he will get lots of chances to turn that around before the new year, but a deal with Zaragoza is a definite option for me if I manage to sign Dennis Gentenaar from NEC...

Now with the break almost over and transfer speculation taking a back seat once again, we prepare to host Crystal Palace, hopefully, to regain some confidence...

retired_jeja111

18th October, 2004

EPL, Game 10
Aston Villa vs. Crystal Palace

I really expected to win this one , but you never know in football, particularly with us coming off a three match losing run against the top sides. The pundits didn't agree though, and surprisingly with us sitting on evens and Palace the outsiders, Skysports.com predicted a Palace win. What had happened to moral? It had definitely affected some of the players.

I had decided to bring Cole in for Vassell and let Torrado have his first start for McCann who was suffering a few minor morale problems. I also decided to bring Sorensen back into the side to see if he could turn around some of his form.

The game started out with us taking possession forward, and with their 3-5-2 formation I wanted to go forward quickly and take advantage of the space on the flanks. After only 12 minutes things looked great when Solano whipped in a cross, and Cole was knocked over in the panic...but the spot kicker this time, Gareth Barry, whipped it straight down the middle at their goalkeeper Kiraly, and the opportunity was wasted...

...the thing was though, they weren't really threatening our goals so I tell our players not to surge forward so quickly, but to slow down and build the attacks a bit more. Our form did look much better than we had gotten results against the last three games, but we were still unable to get through their defense as their wingers came back and formed a large backline...but with their lack of full backs we had some opportunities, their wingers were tiring a little and Solano took full advantage by whipping in a deep cross to the far post which Charlton Cole tapped in a couple of minutes before half time.

For the 2nd half I decided to put on Vassell for Juan Angel and try and give them some more pace to deal with up front. I knew we couldn't rest, and with a third of the game being played in our forward-most third I was confident of a bigger lead. Our wide strategy was playing out well, particularly with Solano and Barry on the wings...and when Cole hit a long ball finding Solano on his own on the right who put it into the net and we had a 2nd, on the hour.

After being pretty confident the match was over I made a few substitutions, bringing Berger and Hendrie on for Barry and Hitzlsperger. After 70 minutes we had extended our lead again through another penalty, this time Berger put it in to give him his first goal for the club...

Following this we just shut the game down, with Thomas Sorensen showing signs of form once more...if he starts to capture his form again then deciding what to do with my goalkeepers will start to become a problem...particularly with negotiations coming to a close with Dennis Gentenaar, of NEC in Holland.

Aston Villa 3
Cole 43
Solano 61
Berger pen 73
Barry missed pen 13
Crystal Palace 0

So after 10 matches, here is the table...

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | | Chelsea | | 10 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 22 | 7 | +15 | 26 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Arsenal | | 9 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 21 | 4 | +17 | 24 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Man Utd | | 10 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 20 | 8 | +12 | 22 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Blackburn | | 10 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 19 | 12 | +7 | 20 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Aston Villa | | 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 17 | 14 | +3 | 15 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Southampton | | 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 11 | 8 | +3 | 15 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | | Tottenham | | 9 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 14 | 11 | +3 | 13 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | Middlesbrough | | 10 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 19 | 17 | +2 | 13 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | Liverpool | | 10 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 14 | 12 | +2 | 13 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Fulham | | 9 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 14 | -5 | 13 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 11th | | Charlton | | 10 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 16 | 15 | +1 | 12 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 12th | | Birmingham | | 10 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 10 | 12 | -2 | 12 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 13th | | Newcastle | | 9 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 11 | 11 | 0 | 10 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 14th | | Portsmouth | | 10 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 12 | 16 | -4 | 10 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 15th | | West Brom | | 10 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 12 | -5 | 9 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 16th | | Norwich | | 10 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 10 | 18 | -8 | 9 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 17th | | Bolton | | 10 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 14 | -8 | 7 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 18th | | Man City | | 10 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 11 | 20 | -9 | 7 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 19th | | Everton | | 10 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 15 | -9 | 6 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 20th | | Crystal Palace | | 10 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 23 | -15 | 6 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre>

Publically I was denying that Gentenaar would be replacing Sorensen but that was my plan. but Sorensen's stint in the reserves and his impressive form against Palace have boosted his morale once more, whats more at training he approached me and said he was feeling "superb".

I started to think that I may have acted prematurely in signing Dennis Gentenaar. There was still time to cancel the transfer but what would that do for my image? I was confident that Sorensen at his best was better than Dennis Gentenaar at his best (although Gentenaar had averaged 7.71 in the Dutch league so far whereas Sorensen had given me 6.33 so far). If I signed Gentenaar I would be saving on wages and I would pay for most of his transfer with Sorensen's possible departure...

Once again there was some thinking to do...

retired_suzannechua

R. Good!!! Keep it up!

retired_jeja111

Thanks. All the support so far has been great!

23rd October, 2004

I was confused about what to do with my goalkeeper situation - with Sorensen finding some morale and form again. What I decided to do was ask each of my staff for their report on him, and they all ackowledged his mediocre form. Roy Aitken, my assistant manager, told me he was "not overly impressed with his approach to the game and you should carefully consider what part the player has in your future plans". That seemed to be the overall consensus, that of a poor attitude. His work rate was extremely slack.

My decision to sign Dennis Gentenaar from Holland in the new year was vindicated somewhat, and I decided to go on with negotiations which were proceding with Zaragoza for the player.

EPL, Game 11
Aston Villa vs. Southampton

The same lineup was kept, with the well performing Gerardo Torrado holding his spot in the side over McCann and Angel and Cole starting up front. We sat on the same record as Soton, but their defence was much better than ours, statistically.

Despite the perfect conditions, their passing was slightly off early on which was hindering their ability to create attacking movements. No side could really break the other, 5th against 6th but both sides were being really, very cautious and the game was becoming a bit flat. It was going to take some individual brilliance to break this one open...

...and that is exactly what we got. Once again it was Nobby Solano with a brilliant cross, finding Charlton Cole who put it past Niemi to give us the lead. Solano was really a revalation on the right wing so far and his lethal crosses have been the main pillar of our attacking so far...the German, Thomas Hitzlsperger, while playing well has not been the attacking creative force I hoped so far.

Following the goal we kept pestering them, keeping them on the back foot. They threw their players back to counter, so the rest of the half was mainly played in our third, although we were unable to break through again...

Coming out for the 2nd half, I was delighted with the crowd, 40,000 as opposed to last time out, 28,000. The 3 match losing run to the top sides didn't really affect us too much as I can see, yet, which is a great sign for the players character. We could have had more, we were dominating possession and setting up some good chances but the conversion rate was shocking. The worst offender, Thomas Hitzlsperger, had sprayed at goal 7 times for 1 on-target shot, although this was slightly my fault as I had told him to go for the long shots whenever possible. Thomas was injured on the hour and I was forced to unknowingly make a decision on the squad - the younger Peter Whittingham or the older Lee Hendrie to replace him?

I brang on Whittingham - I am really impressed with this kid and I really consider him a player of the future whereas Hendrie - he may be on the way out if I can get something like 1M on the table.

With Soton looking really flat, they weren't really troubling our defense and with a quarter hour to go we doubled our lead and, probably, killed off the game when Cole passed it to Juan Angel who fired home from the edge of the box in what was, to be honest, a pretty lucky goal for us, if I were my opposite boss Steve Wigley I would be reminding them just that afterwards.

What followed was a lesson in what is called "shutting up shop" and the game finished exactly that way...

Aston Villa 2
Cole 25
Juan Angel 77
Southampton 0

I was quite happy with that win...but there was some bad news to come out of it...

This was bad news, but considering Solano had been orchestrating our attack it wasn't the end all. I was happy in a way that Peter Whittingham would get an opportunity to start a few matches - the first being another derby match, the 2nd of the year already, against Birmingham City in the League Cup.

After the public announcement of the signing of Dennis Gentenaar at the next window, what had to happen was the next logical step....a press conference was called the monday following the saturday win over Soton...present parties were myself, Thomas Sorensen, and Zaragoza manager Victor Munoz...

Now that things had gone public I felt quite confident that we can put it past us and get on with things. Although I did notice that there is a period due to the difference in transfer windows, from December 15 to 31, that we will be without Sorensen before Dennis Gentenaar signs. Postma would have to do - and a glance over the fixture list and there is a Midlands derby in that period!

So the goalkeeper swap is set...next up the 2nd Midlands derby of the year, when we host Brum in the League Cup...

retired_mika318

Still enjoying your trials and tribulations in the West Midlands, Taxman :thup:

I like (in terms of your story) the way you've dealt with the issues surrounding Sorensen.

KUTGW