Before starting the next game I feel obliged to point out that despite my protestations to Naka-san, Sonic will continue to be a very high-paced hedgehog...
End of Season 2: The Club:
I started the season with the board and the supporters expecting a reasonable league position, 12k of transfer money and a wage budget that had dropped since last season - probably because the club had dropped into the red. Not very auspicious!
The Squad:
Started with almost exactly the same first team squad as I finished the last season with (minus the deadwood reserves I was carrying that I mentioned earlier). Only major additions were a keeper who looked to have a lot of quality for the level but was unproven, and two loanees - one midfielder from my favourite club and an exceptionally talented striker from a Premiership team. Later in the season I added a pair of young wingers with a view to taking them into my reserve team next season if I could gain promotion. I was most worried about my defence but could not find sufficient talent to bring in to actually improve it, so I decided I'd "keep faith with the players I had". Honest.
The Season:
Fortunately, a flying start carried on throughout the entire season - my philosophy was that at this level the most important thing is not to lose matches rather than go all out to win them, and so it proved. I was never out of the top three and managed to come out on top of a massive scrap with Maidenhead to win the division by four points with a record of 23 wins, 14 draw, 5 losses.
Even more of a success were the cups - whoever said cups suck a$$...
Lost in the second round of the FA proper to a league two side wearing Dr Marten boots, and made the final of the FA Trophy where a nervous penalty shootout saw me overcome Gravesend. Star players included both loan players, the new keeper, and my existing number 1 striker who seemed galvanised by the presence of the loanee, despite the fact that my tactic only allows 1 of them to feature at any one time.
During the course of the season I turned down three jobs - Hereford, Leyton Orient and the MK Dons (bring on the "manager comment about chairman" feature so I can abuse Winkleman! Does he even KNOW who I support???
).
The Future:
So - first season in the Conference National.
Wage Bill £3200 (back to original level).
Transfer budget 20k.
No new players as yet except a couple of 18 year olds, given a chance to prove themselves now I hope to have a reserve team (although it might get tough to afford one at this rate). Not sure how long I'll last with this wage budget and the board refusing to spend to improve facilities - but lets just see what happens.
Bring it on!
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