retired_rozi

Ah damnations! I'm on shaky LLM ground then. Will have to jump ship. Again

retired_pmetzger1

Rubbish, you were offered the job fair and square. That transfer pot should last you a while; good luck trying to entice any player of real value!

retired_rozi

Season 06/07

Gretna (8th: Scot Div 2) to Walsall (19th: Eng Div 2)

As was pointed out by mkus, good, even average, players were hard to attract to Gretna. I had started the season in confident mood, but soon found that my team were not up to the task of promotion that the board expected.

Despite some outlandish fees paid to young SPL and EPL cast-off's (80k + future fees on a 19 year-old striker, and 40k on a 21 year-old keeper), they were no more up for the job than the shabby wasters already in-situ. Damn scouts!

A lack of goals and a sieve-like defence, left us lying in 8th, already 5 points adrift of 7th, going into December. That's when I was touted as as the leading candidate for the Walsall vacancy. I told the gathering media I would be interested (much to the chagrin of the Gretna board) and a few days later the offer arrived. I took it.

Lying in 19th but not in serious danger, the board gave me a budget of 120k and told me to get mid-table security.

I quickly found that the squad, although small, was packed full of talent; 2 good keepers, 2 strong central defenders, 2 excellent midfielders and 5 good strikers! Even some of the peripheral players would be good enough.

3 players in during January (including a youngster I'd signed up at Getna but was transfer-listed), and so began the journey up the table. By end of Feb we were in 14th, middle March up to 10th and then April we hit the dizzy heights of 4th and with a real opportunity of catching 3rd placed Blackpool.

But end of season jitters kicked in and a poor run of draws at home and losses away pegged us back to 6th. Into the play-off semi's, we took a 3-1 lead, over Leyton Orient, going into the home leg. 89 minutes of chances either end resulted in a thrilling 0-0. But with time ticking, my defence went to sleep and let in 2 goals in that final minute to take it to extra time. Then penalties. Which we won.

But that's where our luck and good play ended, loosing in the final 1-0 to Southend. League One football will have to wait.

League Two, 6th: P 46, W 18, D 17, L 11, PTS 71

FA Cup- Out in 3rd round to Forrest (who reached the final)
Other cups- out before I arrived. Shame.

creative36

Scottish 3rd Division <<< English League Two.

retired_rescume72

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by crosbysleftear:
IRL Gretna are loaded. They used to play in England I believe but then some local big shot bought them, took them north of civilisation and inteneds to get them into the Premier League in some ridiculously short time scale.

The bit about moving from England to Scotland may be ******** but the rest is true. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The "local" big shot is actually from Carlisle
They did play in some english league (Unibond or DR Martens I think) but gretna is actually in Scotland anyway.

And yes they have money to burn. In the Jan transfer window they managed to take a player from Aberdeen. They are certs for promotion to D2 this season and I reckon they will go straight up to D1 the next season.
Getting from D1 to the premier may take them a little bit longer (but possibly not)

retired_rozi

Season 07/08

Walsall- English League 2

After the narrow miss for promotion in the previous season, we are installed as joint 6-4 favourites for the title. I'm not ashamed to admit it, but I thought this was out of my reach. Transfer kitty was a healthy 500k but our wage structure was still over-budget and we had a very small squad (so small as to have just enough players to fill a match day squad, and a few under-18's)

After loosing out on several key targets, I took the bold decision to axe some of the top earners. This meant selling the backbone of the team- two strikers with good goal/game ratios, a top-class midfielder who should have been at a higer profile club anyway, and an effective left/centre back. The strikers and defender went fairly quickly (doubling the tranfer kitty), but the mid got crocked with cruciate damage during the pre-season, so nobody would take him. He, unfortunately, was also the highest earner of all and I was still over budget.

My scout picked out some unhappy League One players and with a bit of wheeling and dealing, I managed to get them to join, within our wage structure. After a mediocre start, and with the board already getting anxious, we suddenly started on a run which saw us rocket to the top of the table. At christmas we were in a 3 way battle with Lincoln and Bristol City. Both Lincoln and us hadn't lost all season. Our form took a turn for the worse in the new year, when we stumbled to 3 straight losses and slipped down to third.

Form picked up with the introduction of a youth player, picked from the under-18's in an injuty crisis, who scored for fun, and we once again took top spot. There we stayed for the rest of the season and ended up 11 points clear of second placed Lincoln.

League Two, 1st: P 46, W 28, D 12, L 6, PTS 96

Cups: League Cup- out first round, Swansea 1-0
LDV- out Northern Quaters, Morecambe 2-2 (3-2 pens)
FA- out 2nd round, Swansea 2-1

retired_rozi

Season 08/09

Walsall- League One

Despite the small squad, I decide to not rush out and spend some of the £750k transfer kitty. I believed that the core group of players is good enough to achieve mid-table mediocrity. I did pick up one player on a free (young mid) and wasn't planning anymore transfers. That was until a major injury crisis began. Our physio's room, resembling a scene from M*A*S*H, was fully booked with 5 first team players and 3 reserve/youth players; out from as little as 2 months up to 6 months for my key striker and central defender.

So scouts are scrambled across the country, and I pray tactics and good luck will see us through. And they did. Full of the mediocrity I expected from a fully-fit team, we rose to the respectable mid-table region. The scouts brought back word of fabled "good" players from lower divisions, who were quickly double scouted then duly signed. With the addition of a defender, another midfielder and a keeper, and several injuries clearing up, a shot at a play-off place wasn't beyond the realms of possibility heading in to the xmas/new year period

But, alas, it was not to be, as inconsistency reigned at the Bescot Stadium. We'd win a few, then inexplicably loose 3 or 4 on the bounce, only to win 2 or 3 again. By the end of the season we had given up hope of a ply-off spot and were well out of any relegation struggle, so our modest aims were complete. The board were delighted, some of the players a little less enthused however, with several asking to leave.

An overhaul in pre-season looks to be on the cards.

League One- P 46, W 18, D 11, L 17, F 64, A 54, PTS 65

Cups: League Cup- lost to Aldershot, 1st Round
LDV South- lost to Bristol Rovers, 2nd Round
FA Cup- lost to Blackburn, 3rd Round (got the pay day, so happy with the youngsters for that!)