retired_blondielovespink

We crashed out of Europe, which gave me my first-ever supporter's protest. I defended the team. But it was clear that they had not played their best. I decided that the time had come to make a tactics change. So I implemented an entirely new formation, and the team took to it immediately. I installed it after a 1-0 loss to Paris SG which was disappointing to management and myself. We've since embarked on a club record 8 match winning streak that's seen us right back into firm contention for the top of the table.

The media labelled us "outsiders" to win, but I informed them that I was confident in our ability to take the title. And my confidence increased when I swiped a budding star of an AMR from Auxerre due to the fact they refused to protect his contract. It cost me my first contract in excess of 20K to do it (25K a week, to be exact). And I had to pay Auxerre my largest ever fee (3.8 million). But it's paid off already. He took the right midfield spot in the new formation, and he's been a terror.

We're into the League Cup 3rd round and the French Cup 10th round. We're 4 points back in the league and charging, and the supporters are happy again. Perhaps most importantly, we've done this on the road for the most part. So we're going to have a nice stretch of home games to follow this up with while the leaders go travelling. This could bode well indeed for us.

I had yet another player go AWOL, a Danish DL I signed last season. I free transferred him. But then I found a South Korean DL to replace him, and it works well, as he can play wingback, which is what the new formation requires.

I'm still applying fairly regularly at various clubs, but no one's so much as nibbled on my application yet. It may very well be that I'll have to look for a poorer team than I'd like to take, and that may hurt my reputation. But I have until after next season before I "have" to move.

That said, despite our 8 match winning streak, the board expressing it's pleasure at my confidence in our chances to win the title, and the general quality performances of the club, the board is still "pleased" in my general performance as manager. Remember when they instructed me to "stay clear of relegation" at the beginning of the season. I guess they meant WAY clear or something. I actually dipped down to "generally satisfied" for a little while, and we were still in the top 7 at that point. I love my board. [IMG]/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif" alt="roll eyes[/IMG]

retired_blondielovespink

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> ************************************************** ********************************************** French First Division - Saturday 29th January 2005********************************************** ************************************************** ================================================== ============================================== 2004/5 Table============================================= ================================================== =Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Lyon 20 9 2 0 19 4 6 2 1 19 12 49 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2nd Toulouse 21 7 1 1 18 9 7 2 3 16 13 45 3rd Paris-SG 20 10 1 0 23 4 3 4 2 15 13 44 4th Sochaux 21 8 2 2 29 15 4 2 3 10 11 40 5th St-Etienne 23 10 1 0 20 6 2 3 7 12 20 40 6th Monaco 21 7 2 2 17 8 3 3 4 15 15 35 7th Bordeaux 22 5 3 3 23 14 4 3 4 12 12 33 8th Lens 21 7 3 1 15 5 2 2 6 10 21 32 9th Châteauroux 22 7 2 3 24 14 2 2 6 8 16 31 10th Beauvais 23 6 1 4 18 13 2 3 7 10 18 28 11th Laval 21 5 3 0 19 11 3 1 9 11 25 28 12th Nantes 23 6 4 3 16 10 0 4 6 9 17 26 13th Lille 23 4 3 3 15 13 2 3 8 12 27 24 14th Bastia 20 3 4 2 10 8 2 4 5 8 19 23 15th Rennes 22 4 2 4 19 16 2 2 8 12 21 22 16th Lorient 23 4 3 6 19 21 2 1 7 14 24 22 17th Guingamp 21 3 4 5 15 15 2 1 6 9 12 20 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------18th Marseille 21 2 5 3 13 12 2 1 8 7 21 18 19th Strasbourg 22 4 2 4 15 14 0 3 9 5 23 17 20th Auxerre 18 3 2 4 8 10 0 4 5 8 15 15 </pre>

retired_holden

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by shawng1:
I had yet another player go AWOL, a Danish DL I signed last season. I free transferred him.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I don't know what's worse! Your board or your players!!

Sounds like a great challenge though!

I say win the league then resign in style [IMG]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="big grin[/IMG]

retired_blondielovespink

My thoughts exactly. [IMG]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif" alt="wink[/IMG] I've pretty much decided that whether or not we win the league, I'm leaving after the season. I don't care where anymore. Just OUT. I'm sick of this board. [IMG]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="big grin[/IMG]

retired_blondielovespink

Well, I resigned at season's end. And it wasn't a bad season. We won the League Cup over Lyon, 2-1 in extra time. The board told me 5 days later they were "generally satisfied" in my performance. This despite giving them their first recent triumph in a Cup competition and we were in 2nd place, 5 points back with 2 games in hand and our last match against Lyon for the title. Make sense to you?

Oh, they said not to concern myself with the fans requesting my head either. I asked them "What fans asking for my head. OH, you mean the ones who gathered to sing my name the other day when we won the Cup? THOSE fans. The only ones I didn't hear support the side after our Cup win was...the Board. Figure the odds.

We had a franchise record 9 match winning streak, and League unbeaten streak that spanned most of the 2nd half to take us to within 1 point of Lyon in the last match. Then we played the final match of the season, at Lyon, for the title. We scored in the 17th minute, our star striker scored his 36th goal of the season. I had promoted him for the Greek National Team the week before (another action that brought the fan's favor with the board saying nothing). We were leading 1-0, threatening consistently, and then....

Our star striker broke his leg. We lost any ability to score after that, and Lyon punched through a late equalizer to end the match 1-1, sending us home in despondancy and losing the 1st Division by a single point.

I resigned immediately after the match. I had one offer from a Danish team, but I turned it down. It's July and I'm still unemployed. I finished the season #4 in France (but "superb" in reputation), and #216 worldwide. But the national rating was wiped clean when I resigned, and the worldwide reputation is slowly falling. Here's hoping I get a job soon.

retired_blondielovespink

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> ************************************************** ********************************************** French First Division - Saturday 21st May 2005********************************************** ************************************************** ================================================== ============================================== 2004/5 Table============================================= ================================================== =Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1st C Lyon 38 15 4 0 35 10 11 3 5 39 31 85 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2nd Toulouse 38 13 5 1 38 16 12 4 3 32 21 84 3rd Paris-SG 38 14 4 1 39 16 7 7 5 29 30 74 4th Sochaux 38 11 6 2 40 22 8 4 7 27 28 67 5th St-Etienne 38 16 2 1 36 14 4 3 12 18 32 65 6th Lens 37 12 5 1 24 8 3 7 9 17 30 57 7th Bordeaux 38 8 7 4 36 25 7 4 8 23 23 56 8th Châteauroux 38 12 4 3 38 21 3 7 9 15 26 56 9th Nantes 38 11 4 4 25 12 3 8 8 22 29 54 10th Monaco 38 8 6 5 22 15 6 5 8 29 31 53 11th Bastia 38 9 5 5 29 21 3 6 10 17 36 47 12th Lille 38 9 5 5 30 24 4 3 12 20 38 47 13th Rennes 38 7 6 6 34 31 5 4 10 23 34 46 14th Laval 38 9 5 5 37 29 4 2 13 15 35 46 15th Guingamp 38 7 5 7 29 22 4 6 9 21 25 44 16th Marseille 38 5 6 8 24 26 5 1 13 14 33 37 17th Lorient 38 7 4 8 29 32 3 3 13 24 44 37 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------18th R Beauvais 38 7 2 10 27 27 2 4 13 15 34 33 19th R Strasbourg 38 7 4 8 28 26 0 7 12 14 35 32 20th R Auxerre 37 5 4 10 25 29 0 5 13 12 30 24 </pre>

retired_blondielovespink

I need a verdict of the LLaMa court.

I have all of Europe active, so there's approximately 7000 active managers. I've been applying all over the place, and I got, with the current ranking of 215, the most unexpected offer.

Nigeria. Can I take it in good conscience? I'm still applying at clubs, but it's October, and no club takes my offer. I can't understand that at all, that clubs in Russia and Turkey turn me down flat but I get an International offer? [IMG]/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif" alt="roll eyes[/IMG]

Anyway, what's the verdict?

retired_holden

You can take it. Nigeria have had far worse and more unknown managers than what you would be after your efforts with Toulouse.

retired_blondielovespink

Good, I've actually never had the chance to manage internationally before. Even when I played a "big club." This was the 1st offer I ever received.

Also, I'd never seen expectations of "The FA expects you to defend the nation's honour in the forthcoming matches" before. [IMG]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif" alt="wink[/IMG] I'd like to see what that looks like.

retired_blondielovespink

Following the advice of the court, I accepted the Nigerian position. We've been 2-1-0 since my takeover. The draw being a thrilling 2-2 match vs South Africa in which we overcame a dive in the box by one of their strikers to earn our share of honors. We throttled Zambia 5-0, and we came back from an early goal to dispatch the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon 2-1. This match wasn't nearly as close as the score, we racked up 20 shots in the match, 14 on frame. The Roonies had 3, (you guessed it) 1 on frame. Both of our goals came after the 70th minute, but we should've crushed them.

In further news, I am back in France, in fact, I am back in one of my old haunts from my CMS days. Namely l'Abbe-Deschamps, I've been named boss of AJ Auxerre. Ahh, but if you scroll up a ways, you'll see this ain't your father's Auxerre. This version is looking pretty sorry. I've taken them over in 10th place in the second division, minus super striker and their star center back pairing, plus a whole list of typical Auxerre prat symbols (unh appears everywhere). I have 3 players demanding transfers, another 8 saying they want 1st team footy and don't merit it.

We have dodgy goalkeeping, even for the second division, no defense to speak of, and no finishers up front worthy of the name, certainly no one in the typical Auxerre vein. We have some quality in MF, and I'm adding to that, but my attempt to raid my former lads for a striker failed, as the Danish #2 striker from my Toulouse side, who wants to leave, turned down the move. I looked to the free transfer wire for a replacement from Africa, but he isn't on board yet. I also signed a 30 year old DC/coach to try and shore up my backline. And adding him as a coach gave me three coaches, 2 of them player/coaches. I have 2 more on order, as I have no goalkeeper coach. But this is not the Auxerre I played in my CMS days to be sure.

The board's expectations are "respectable league position." At least I had 16mil in the transfer kitty when I took over, because come December, I'll be burning the transfer wires to save this squad. I'd like to get back to the 1st with them this season. But it's iffy at best.