[retired_Andrea]

Shall We Sing A Song For You

The new phenomenon in virtual football has hit home, and it's about to unravel a world like you've never seen before.

'Shall We Sing A Song For You' is for managers who aren't content with just beating the AI, they want to take their skills and thrash other players with them left, right and centre.

Starting with a randomly selected club in the Coca Cola Championship, our <STRIKE>victims</STRIKE> volunteers will aim to reach the Premier League and glories that await them.

Good Player Guide, Downloaded Tactics and Training and third party applications are strictly banned in what promises to be a heated environment only for the most dedicated players around.

Four times a week these men will pit their wits against each other: Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Rest is for the weak.

It can take ninety years to build a legacy, it only takes ninety minutes to end one. On the Internet May 20th.

[retired_Andrea]

Joining The Clan

If you want to join the clan, we advise adding either Luke or myself to MSN. All game chat is done on MSN at the moment, although IRC is being looked into.

You *must* be able to commit to the times for an extended time scale. We are looking to build a good player base now for the release of FM 2008 to really push SWSASFY into the Established Clans and offer a solution for players who don't want to play Tuesdays (which seems to be a mainstay in most clans, despite Champions League and Football League fixtures).

The times are as follows:
* Sunday PM 8.30 - 11.00 GMT+0
* Monday PM 8.30 - 11.00 GMT+0
* Wednesday PM 8.30 - 11.00 GMT+0
* Thursday PM 8.30 - 11.00 GMT+0

Absence upon occasion will obviously happen, but we ask for a day's notice wherever possible so that we're not waiting on you before starting. Notice can be given to any member of the clan to be passed on to the rest.

The Rules

Starting clubs in Shall We Sing A Song For You are chosen at random. Each player can nominate one club which they will be afforded a re-roll if they are allocated this club (no one wants to manage their IRL club's local rival) but they must accept the re-roll.

If a manager is sacked, his job will be opened for other managers to apply for. If nobody else wants the job, he may add a new manager at the same club or any club lower in the league structure than that club. If the job is applied for and taken, he must add a new manager at a lower club. When a new manager is added, a numeral will be added to his last name to signify the number of times a player has been sacked.

Use of the Good Player Guide to build squads is prohibited. One or two players is understandable but we don't want the game being skewed by this. Downloaded tactics and training are also prohibited.

Managers MUST post a weekly update to this thread. There is no point in us trying to build a reputable clan if our members are unwilling to post updates. Each member will be assigned a banner and should use this banner at the top of his/her posts.

Last but not least, have fun, and try not to enjoy your visits to my ground too much.

[retired_thebug816]

First Days on the Job

Well, at first I was a little disappointed to have drawn Leicester as my team, as I was looking at them I noticed there was a large amount of debt looming over the club.

I took the job and looked at the transfer budget, I had 1 million to spend, and with Cadamarteri banned until November (Global Ban) and a thin midfield I knew my team needed a lot of strengthening to support a 4-5-1 formation.

The goalkeeping situation is also terrible at Leicester, the need for an experienced decent keeper will hopefully be filled by Jerzy Dudek, Mart Poom or Kalac, there is potential with the young keeper, but he isn't suitable to play a full championship season yet.

Having found out what was needed for the club, one of my fellow players was looking to offload Eastwood, but he was out of my price range with just a 1 million transfer budget so the deal I could have brokered at the time would have put me worse off than before, so I began looking for unattached players.

After having signed Matt Jansen, Black and a couple others on free transfers, as well as Steve Lomas for 12k up front I was still interested in Eastwood as he fit my tactics perfectly I felt.

I petitioned Milan Mandaric for extra transfer funds, thinking I had no chance in hell, but even if I just got an extra 200k I'd be able to table some sort of acceptable bid for Eastwood if it included Wesalowski as a part exchange. To my surprise Mandaric increased my warchest from 1 million to 3.9 million, and has automatically put me in contention for promotion with a budget like that.

We only have gotten a week out of the way, and there is much more transfer activity lined up, I've already lost out on Giovanni to Coventry (another user team) and Sheringham snubbed my offer, the leicester team is looking much healthier now and has more depth; however, there is still a few key players needed before we're promotion material.

[retired_joemcguinness]

Enter: Dan Brett

After the announcement of my draw as Coventry City manager, I was filled with mixed emotion. While Coventry still harness the power of being a major force in English football, I knew it would be a tough task.

With the Coventry squad being very small, I have drawn up an ongoing shortlist of players to add to the already signed Asmir Begovic, in an attempt to try and secure Premiership football for next season.

I hope to finish in a playoff position, but I realise that this could be a stretch too far in just the season.. but hey, you've got to have a go, right?

[retired_Andrea]

Southend's Gimmick May Just Pay Off...

Following the shock resignation of his manager Steve Tilson, Southend United chairman Ron Martin called an emergency board meeting to discuss the replacement of the prized asset.

Fellow board member J Johnson came up with the clever idea that Chelsea's 'Football Icon' had not only allowed them the pick of free players but also the ability to cherry pick from a number of willing applicants.

Unfortunately for Southend, Martin didn't laugh it off.

'Who Wants To Be A Football Manager' kicked off on Sky Sports, and winner Matthew Doughty had to compete in rounds involving tactics, coaching, motivation and even who could give the best Alex Ferguson-style Hairdryer treatment (he scored well on that test).

Cutting a long story short, Doughty took the hotseat at Roots Hall, much to the fans' dismay, and their outcry was heard at the end of the pier when his first action was to shift club favourites Foran and Freddy Eastwood to Crystal Palace and Leicester City respectively, bringing in a combined £2.1 million and young hotshot James Wesolowski.

Doughty went on to sign young defenders Charlie Lee and Nuno Morais from Tottenham and Chelsea respectively, saying that he was building for the future, but not satiating the angry fans. Lee Peltier and Adrian Pettigrew followed, along with Belgian anchorman Rúrik GÃ*slason, but the fans were not impressed with Doughty's youth strategy, saying that this would never save them from Relegation.

Signing Dougie Freedman from Palace for a nominal fee and Danny Haynes on loan from Ipswich has certainly eased worries slightly, but Doughty will have to be more convincing if he wants to win over the Roots Hall faithful.

[retired_thebug816]

Activity in July

Well, I've now completed my pre-seasons with mixed results, but these were in the hands of my assistant so I haven't put too much thought into the results, July has been a very active month in terms of transfers for my club; 9 players already in and 2 out.

Free transfers were Tommy Black, Matt Jansen, Khalilou Fadiga & Tony Sanneh. I was unable to get any of my three goalkeeping targets, this has pushed me to much more exotic parts of the world and my goalkeeper is the Venezuala first choice Dudamel, 33 years of age he has the experience I need, and I expect in the Venezuala team he's used to having shots pouring down on him

Razvan Ochirosii is a player with a bright future ahead of him, signed for 230k from Steaua he won't make the first team this season, but he will provide sufficient back up. Dong Fangzhuo is my back up for Freddy Eastwood, and provides different options should Eastwood be rendered ineffective upfront.

Still to come in is a highly talented left back who cannot be named for possible transfer hijacking reasons, as well as either Sergei Shtanyuk or Danny Higginbotham from Stoke. Salif Diao from Stoke is another target of mine, although the 800k transfer demand is making me think twice, but with his sheer strength [18] and moderate pace, when any team comes knocking with their strikers, Diao in defensive midfield will comfortably put them in their place.

I've sold perhaps my most talented defender Kisnorbo for 500k and let my young, talented Defensive midfielder go in a part exchange for Eastwood, so the back lines are getting a bit thin, but the money from Kisnorbo is funding a better quality player at about a quarter of his value before I even come to signing Higginbotham.

Current Keyplayers:
Tommy Black
Freddy Eastwood
Dudamel

Media Prediction: 12th
Own Aims: 4th - 6th.

[retired_thebug816]

Competing with Europe's Finest

Having failed to get Shtanyuk, I began to scour the world once more for potential defenders, I found four defenders who were clearly of premiership standards, and had no interested clubs at that time besides myself. I submitted bids for them all at the time, only to find that shortly afterwards one of my targets was being lined up by Chelsea, Inter Milan, Fiorentina and Valencia - it became immediately apparent that I had already lost the race to sign this player and as he signed for Inter Milan my hopes were resting on other players. The same followed suit with two of my other defensive targets, the transfers hijacked by some of Europes bigger teams and the final defender attracting the interest of Sienna, Watford & co the lower end of top flight teams.

Having now sold my only decent central defender, the back line of leicester is very shaky and this has shown as we were unable to prevent Cardiff and Ipswich's domination in the final third, 3 points from the first two games isn't the start I'd hoped for but the rest of the team is settling, however, no one has yet scored for my side and the chances are few and far between.

[retired_Andrea]

An Indifferent Start

With pre-season expectations simply to battle against relegations, some fans had already expected the drop before the season started, especially with old favourite Steve Tilson no longer in charge to keep them up, but I made no delay in bringing in new players:

Leon Barnett - Luton Town - £1.5M - A central defender, 20 years old, who I feel will one day be a Premiership-class player.

Yves Makabu Ma Kalambay - Chelsea - £55K - A goalkeeper who was never going to cut the grade at Chelsea but looks handy and level headed.

Ionut Stancu - Rapid - £80K - A Romanian full back with the quality and technical ability needed to play on either side of the pitch.

I had little time to mold the team before playing against Sandie's Birmingham side, Campbell-Ryce cancelling out Birmingham's early opener to finish an unspectacular game 1-1. The next two games were losses, first an unlucky 2-1 defeat to Plymouth Argyle and next a 4-1 tonking for my assistant at the hands of QPR.

Continuing our run of not failing to score, light seemed to emerge as we not only dominated Sunderland at Roots Hall, but thanks to strong centre back Barnett, took a 1-0 win against the high spending Mackems. The fans singing "Five mil, and he's done f*** all" summed up the feelings on Sunderland's high profile signing of Jason Koumas.

A win against Northampton Town in the Carling Cup, coming from a goal down to win 2-1, certainly showed a level of spirit abnormal to players of such a young age and also saw Danny Haynes take his first goal for the club. If we can keep playing like this, we could be in for a fine season.

[retired_ewunia_23]

Female Manager causes a Stir

After winning over fellow managers Dawson has still to win over Birmingham Fans. With Pre-Season matches going all in her favour the pressure was on to win the first game against experienced manager Matt Doughty and his Southend team. Ended in a draw...bland. Dawsons tactics may leave a lot to be desired but grinding out results will surely get her team to the playoffs.

First 5 games in the Championship:
DWDDW
Seems pretty consistant.
Also proving the team can score more than one goal per match, winning a confident 4 nil over Shrewsbury in the League Cup.

In the Transfer Market, it looks as though Dawson is happy with her current squad. Only taking in 4 players, only one making a full cap so far.

[retired_shekedia]

After being appointed Hull City manager i found that little funds were available as my predecessor had spent most of the clubs previous transfer budget. With a measley 400k it was hard to find the right type of players that would provide me with the ne3cessary power to push me towards the playoffs, so using my resources and knowledge of Spain i bought in a couple of released players from la liga clubs such as Serrano signed on a free transfer from Real Zaragoza. Along with Serrano i followed in Reading's footsteps by bringing in a couple of proven goalscorers from the irish league who were Philips and O'Flynn both scored 15 goals in 22 games in the irish league. Hopefully their goals between them will help me take on some of the lower teams in the division as my task or my objective you might say is to keep Hull City in the division.

I Started off with a very good win against Crystal Palace in my first game but then things got back to how they were before with a loss to Ipswich. So going into the next game it is my job to get my players fired up and make them believe they can be a force in this league.

If ican stay in this diviosion this season i believe with a few quality signings we can make a good push for promotion next season.