Have just finished season 06/07 and thought i would share my experiances:
Players in (pre-season):
Warren Beatie, Midfielder, P/Ex
Teddy Sheringham, Striker, Free
Kasper Schmeichel, Goalie, 250k
Players in (January):
Geoffrey Jourdren, Goalie, 50k
Players out (pre-season):
Miles Addison, Defender, P/Ex
Morten Bisgaard, Attacking midfielder, 120k
Players out (January):
Lee Grant, Goalie, 95k
Marc Edworthy, Wing back, 7k
Loans in:
Dong Fangzhuo, striker, 3 months for 250k (bad bit of business, only played 2 matches and scored 2 goals before getting injured for 4 months)
Jack Hobbs, Centre back, whole season.
Also a few younger players loaned out to Port Vale my feeder club. (picked up a Belgian feeder club towards the end of the season.)
My starting 11 for most of the season: (Playing a pretty standard 4-4-2 using the wings a lot)
GK: Stephen Bywater - performed well every time he needed to. Schmeichel was relegated to the bench following an injury and was never able to push back into the first team
RB: Tyrone Mears - for a 23 year old was stunningly reliable, with only Seth Johnson playing more games. Arranged a 1m pound transfer through the clause in his loan to get him in for next season.
LB: Seth Johnson - played in every game except the final match of the season, for which he was suspended. Regardless of me training him for LB, he is still "ineffectual" there but he averaged 6.83 so not too bad.
CB: Lewin Nyatanga - now worth 2.1 million at the age of 18, was a star performer. Awesome to have a fast defender who can also tackle...
CB: Dean Leacock - another youngster, only 22 but worth just under a million. Was steady and reliable, but nothing spectacular.
LM: Ryan Smith - worth 2.6 million (on the 17th May 2007), averaged 7.23 and was a blisteringly fast asset down the left. Still only 20.
RM: Giles Barnes - another of Derby's young superstars. At 18 is worth 2.4 million, was being chased by Portsmouth and Aston Villa and managed to play 50 games in the season.
CM: David Jones - can't say much more than worth 3.4 million, 8 goals, 9 assists, 5 MoM's, an average rating of 7.34 and 5 caps for Wales at 22. Was an inspiration.
CM:M att Oakley - the second oldest of my first XI at 29. Wasn't quite as brilliant as Jones, but was reliable and warrented his place with ease.
ST: Steve Howard - aged 31, was a pensioner compared to most of my squad. Scored 22 in 45 games (12th in the league scoring charts) and was a perfect partner for Lupoli.
ST: Arturo Lupoli - i only have one problem with Lupoli. How do i keep him for next season? 29 goals in 44 games, and 27 in 39 in the league (3rd top scorer), he's now worth 6 million and was a joy to behold through the year.
Throught the season i was in the top 4, but West Brom ran off with the title with a couple of weeks to go - Curtis Davis playing out of his skin - and it was between me and Sunderland as to who would take 2nd. During the pnultimate match ( vs Sheffield Wednesday) i went 1-0 up with 15 minutes to go, putting me two points clear of Sunderland, only for S. Wed to come back to 2-1 and leave me one point behind Keano's team with one game to go. I had West Brom away, great last fixture..., but i managed to scrounge a 2-1 win, however while staring at the latest scores board i came to the conclusion that Sunderland had also wontheir match, leaving me to have to play in the play offs as they were 2-1 up with 2 mins to go. I resigned myself to this fact, only to find, after the game, that Ipswich had pulled a goal back to put me into second, and going up into the Premier League. Pathetic as it sounds, it's the first time i've ever been promoted in football manager (most of the time i take charge of a small premiership side) so it's a nice feeling
Thanks for reading, just fancied posting my thoughts somewhere. Am looking forward to survival in the premiership a whole lot.
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