retired_maggie123

oh dear bottom and conceded 10 scored 3! Back on the training ground I think as my tactics are shocking, aswell as my players!

Hurry up Kone!!!!

See you guys next season after i win The Championship Tradition aint it?

retired_eddyloin

retired_ongjesse

Average Start to the Season

Well here at the Cottage we have had an ok start but it has been hard work. We have only manager one win and that was home to Goat’s Man City. The rest of our points have come from three draws along with two losses.

Our first game of the season was at home against Ben’s Newcastle. We battled hard and took the lead in the first half and due to some poor finishing we were unable to take the chances that were handed to us on a silver platter by Steve Harper. These missed opportunities came back to haunt us as Newcastle were able to get a point from the game. I honestly felt that we should have got all three points but I was just glad to get points on the board.
We then travelled away to Portsmouth and after taking the lead through Moritz Volz in the first half Portsmouth just like Newcastle were able to find an equalised in the second half thanks to Kanu. We battled hard against Portsmouth and with both teams playing some nice football I think that we both deserved to take a point away.
Our next result was our first loss when we played Charlton at the Cottage. We never seemed up for the game and played some horrible football. When Darren Ambrose took the lead in the 17th minute we tried to get that goal but just couldn’t string any passes together to give the front men the balls they needed. I was very disappointed as be fore the game I was hoping to walk away with the three points.
We then travelled away to Goodison Park to face Mo’s Everton. This was our first match with new signing Brede Hangeland in defence and I think he helped us pull through. We went to Everton and once again battled to earn ourselves the point which was a great success after Everton had a total of 14 shots on our goal.
Fulham got their first win of the season when we played Goat’s Man City. Both teams were playing some great football but it was City who took the lead first but we were able to get the equaliser just before half time. Sadly my FM crashed at half time and the match was in the hands of Steve Kean. We were able to pull through and win the game 2-1 and from what I have heard from Goat we deserved it.
I would rather not talk about the next match as we crashed and burned in a 3-0 loss to Sunderland in the Carling Cup 2nd Round dashing the dreams of winning that cup.
A game to the Reebok followed where we played a formation that was too open for the style that Bolton play. After they had got to grips with the tactic they were able to bang in three goals and take the three points with them.
With two 3-0 losses in a row I hope the team can pull together and get some points from the next few games. It has been an ok start but nothing great. The good thing is that we have got points and are not sitting in the relegation zone. With nearly all the season to go many things can change and if our form could improve we will find ourselves rocketing up the table.

retired_ongjesse

Ooops sorry Niall just said that it was Mo's Everton.

PS Sorry for the bad layout.

retired_bethx

A Mixed Bag

Spurs are currently lying 7th after 14 games.

Highlights of the season so far, are defeats to Everton (1-0) at home and away to Aston Villa (4-0).

The Everton game could have gone either way, but clinical finishing proved to be the difference. Everton proved to be more resilient than previous opponent ruining Spurs pristine 100% record.

With the manager taking a sabbatical, the team struggled through September, however progress was made to the group stages of the UEFA Cup.

The return of the manager in October resulted in a four match winning run, which was rudely halted by an excellent Villa performance. To be fair, the reserve GK didn't help as everything Villa got on target hit the back of the net.

The team went through a rough patch after this, but recent form is good with European football next season being a realistic goal.

The team have already qualified for the UEFA Cup with a game to spare and have to meet local rivals Arsenal in the League Cup Quarter Final.

retired_ongjesse

Fulham Continue with Steady Form

Well we are now 21 games into the season and Fulham are sitting in a comfortable but not safe 14th position. So far we have won five, drawn nine and lost seven. With a total of 24 points we are still short by about 20 of the points that I feel we need to be safe and stay in the Premiership for another season. We have certainly not been playing badly we have just struggled to score which is why we seem to have drawn so many when we could have got wins.

Since the last update we have won four games. These came away at Vicarage Road against Steve’s Watford taken over by his ass man, away at West Ham, away at Ben’s Newcastle and at home against Portsmouth. Against Watford we outplayed them and the score line only grew to 4-0 because they were down to nine men after having two players sent off. Away at West Ham we deserved our 3-1 win even after having Franck Queudrue sent off, and it seemed that Collins John was beginning to hit a bit of form. Away at Ben’s Newcastle we were maybe fortunate to come away with a win but the results was down to our strikers being more clinical and finishing the game off with two goals. At home to Pompey the match was controlled by us and we held a 2-0 lead until the last ten minutes of the game when Portsmouth came to life and scored with Kanu in the 86th minute but it was too late to get another.

We have only lost five games since the last update of which three of them were against Man Utd, Arsenal and Liverpool. The other two losses were against Middlesbrough and high flying Reading. Against both Man Utd and Arsenal we were outplayed and lost the games 4-0 and 3-1 respectively. Against the European champions we were able to hold on but eventually lost 1-0 to a strike from Daniel Agger in the 84th minute. When we went away to Pagi’s Boro I felt that we could have come away with a point but in the end we lost 1-0 in a game that Boro seemingly had just enough to see us off. Against Reading we took the lead in the 49th minute through Wayne Routledge but they were able to fight back and win the match 2-1.

In the six draws that we have had since I updated last the best match in that collection was at home to Chelsea where we drew 1-1 but I felt that we could have nicked one and walked away with the three points.

Well that is how the season has gone so far and I think that we still need to battle and keep picking up the points as we do not want to be in a relegation battle at the end of the season as the games at that time do not favour us at all what with them being against Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea.

retired_teresa assis

No Pagi please you tube don't relegate Boro, I need something to work with when I get back.

Working on getting the internet sorted at home so don't worry, I'll be back

retired_eddyloin

Bit of a Rollercoaster

Progress
It’s been an incredibly tough season here at Vicarage Road, with a lot of thumpings, both home and away. For the most part, we’ve pretty much struggled to get anything from a game, let alone any kind of form, and for the first part of the season my Assistant grabbed most of the points as I was away with academic duties. Yeah, OK, that includes drinking. Alright, it was almost all drinking

There have, however, been some highlights, and a bit of a change in fortune of late, namely since finally getting a decent 4-4-2 tactic working, as we gave Spurs a 4-2 humping at the Lane in the 4th Round of the FA Cup, then beating them 2-0 at home in the league. This sparked some good form, with wins at Fulham and drawing with Sheffield Utd, sandwiching a 3-1 home loss to West Ham (which was hard on the team as I was booted out just before kickoff and thus my assistant handled the match ).

We find ourselves in 16th place in the table with 26 points, with a small cushion above the scrap at the bottom and four points off of Dave’s Fulham in 15th. As long as we can keep this rich vein of form and get some solid results, we should be safe before having to play Arsenal, Chelsea, Man Utd and Liverpool in the last 6 or so games of the season.

Cups
We reached the 5th Round in both the League and FA Cups, before being dumped out by Everton and then Liverpool respectively. Our match against the ‘Pool was marred by a stupid red card, our 11th!! of the season, and this highlights a problem that is beginning to get out of hand - the patch can't come soon enough.

Players
On the individual side of things, there has to be some special mentions for great performances. King Marlon is setting a good example with 12 goals and some excellent progression in training, and Luis Jimenez, who seems to blow slightly hot-and-cold, has chipped in with 9 of his own. Cesar Villaluz has contributed 6 assists (and 2 red cards ), and Danny Shittu and Jay DeMerit have been really reliable in defence, with Jay scoring four goals so far this season. Our on-loan keeper, Ben Foster, has been playing out of his skin and is an excellent stopper: I hope to sign him permanently, if we can afford to do so, come the end of the season. The same goes for Denilson, on loan from Arsenal – he has been a rock in midfield, scoring 3 crucial goals and being our best performer. At only 19 he is an excellent prospect, and hopefully we can afford to make a reasonable bid for him. However, he is out for two months at the moment with strained knee ligaments, but with Al Bangura making a timely return from injury, it hopefully won’t have too big an impact on the team.

Finances
Finally in this roundup we look at finances. We started the season £2.5m in the red, and I am really pleased to say that we now have nearly £8m in the bank, even after paying out over £5m on players (some of this was of course recouped by the sale of players). This is really down to the sensible, if restricting, wage structure of the club. With this, TV and prize money on the way in the coming months, and the stadium expansion set to be complete in June, it all looks good for a better future in the form of a more flexible wage structure and a bigger transfer budget for next season, as well as a great prospect for the fans.

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The run-in to the end of the season is going to be quite tough, but I feel we have enough in the tanks to secure our future for next season. Mo’s struggling Blackburn side have been playing better of late, but I feel that this fixture could provide an extremely important 3 points for us. :p

retired_maggie123

Gibson to step down?

Well as if matters on the pitch weren't bad enough(and it's very bad) matters off it are just as shaky given the recent revelation a takeover is imminent. Middlesbrough charman Steve Gibson declared that he is considering stepping down from his position and handing the club over to a fan's consortium if newspaper reports are to be believed.

Quite how this materialised I dont know as I only spent the transfer budget that was allocated to me by Gibson, a large portion of which was raised from the sale of players, and for the majorty of the season I have been 100k+ p/w short of the wage budget. Although since January time we are level with the budget, post transfer arrivals.

So why are we £8m+ in the red? Surely Gibson is the one to blame here?

If Gibson does depart, my job is surely in the balance relegation or not!

With regards to the team's performances of late there has been a steady improvement and we have managed to claw ourselves away from the gaping jaws of relegation. Courtesy of wins over fellow relegation fodder Watford (H)4-1 and Blackburn (A) 1-0 respectively. Although in fairness Mo's Blackburn deserved a draw at the very least.

This season has been a very tough one for me and the players. The first team have struggled for consistency with Viduka and Ashley Young the only players performing anywhere near their potential. Having said that I have been tactically naive myself, with may consequently result in poor performances. I have been below-par tactically in all honesty but it does take me a good season to be fully equainted with a new FM. Usually that learning curve involves relegation but looks like I could just about scrap it this year.

retired_eddyloin

Relegation

Following the last update, everything went tits up. Heavy losses to Pagi’s Boro, and Man United, left us in 18th with 3 games to play. Those games were Wigan at home, Arsenal away, and Chelsea at home. A bit of a shuffle on the tactics front was made, as trying to use a target man up front just wasn’t working, and some inspirational media items got us ready for the seemingly impossible…


The Run-in

First up, Wigan. We showed our intent here with the team placed above us, going 2-0 up within 10 minutes. Marlon King then got injured, rather a setback, but his replacement, Kosstadinov, made it 3-1 before half time. Following the break, we were well and truly dominant, and added two more goals for an emphatic 5-1 win. We moved above Wigan into 17th, and some luck would see us stay up.

Next, Arsenal. We had a fabulous start, going ahead on 3 minutes and dominating the first 15 minutes. On the half hour, Baptista equalised on the break, and then Rosicky blasted in a free kick minutes later. Things were looking dodgy, until on the stroke of half time, Cesar Villaluz bended a freekick past Costil in the Arsenal goal, who had replaced the injured Lehmann. In the second half, Adebayor came on, and then RvP appeared for Henry. He wasn’t on the pitch for long, before he got injured, and Arsenal were down to 10 men. On 65mins, a great corner saw a goal mouth scramble, resulting in Vassikiri Diaby knocking the ball into his own net – WOO! We had to endure a 3-2-4 attacking Arsenal formation for 25 minutes, but the defence and Ben Foster held firm, and we had another three points – surely we are nearly safe? Unfortunately, Wigan also won, thumping Mo’s Blackburn 4-0, and so they went ahead of us in the table on goal difference.

Finally, Chelsea. We lost 2-0, although the game went a bit haywire on me and I wasn’t in control for much of the second half. Two Ballack headers sufficed, Wigan also lost 2-0, and so we were relegated whilst they stayed up.

This year’s run-in does highlight my absurd ability to create nail-biting finishes to seasons; the battle this year definitely gives the 5-5 fest when I was at Sunderland, playing Palace to stay up in the last incarnation of EPL, a run for its money..


Relationships

The board and fans have been delighted with my performance the entire season, and despite relegation and a poor run of results, I am one of two human managers with Secure job status. I have been given a new 2-year contract, with £135k/week and £5.9m for transfers, and hope to be able to strengthen the squad and bring the lads straight back up next season.


Transfers

The first thing I did was look to get Ben Foster on a permanent deal, and we are delighted to have achieved this for a fee of £3m from Man.Utd. I will be looking at a number of loan signings, such as Denilson for a second season, as well some more experienced heads. A new left back and left midfielder are needed, and may be on the cards, with the remaining £2.9m I have at my disposal. However, I will see how we start the season before jumping into the market – it may be for the best to save the pennies for bigger players for 2008-9, assuming we are in the Premiership again then.

Several youngsters have left on free transfers during the off-season, and I will also be looking to offload several fringe players during the summer, such as Gavin Mahon and Darius Henderson, both of whom were backups for the team last season.


The Season Ahead

I feel that I’ve done a good job with Watford, despite relegation; I was half expecting them to be down and out by Christmas, but I managed to keep the dream alive ‘til the very end.

I’m confident we have the quality to bounce straight back up this season, but this of course will depend on fitness levels and injuries, which I will hopefully be able to keep clear of. The average age of the squad is 23, and the small size of the squad would mean that injuries will force me to look into the reserves and U18s, which simply is not a good idea, as the youngsters here are nothing short of terrible…

Anyway, “chin up, son,” etc. etc… Here’s hoping for a good season and a spot of luck! :thup: