NewbyNaz

2012-13
Rochdale
Coca-Cola League 1

Board Expects: to escape relegation, i say mid-table!
Media Predicts: 24th
Season Tickets Sold: 7144!
Finances: fairly comfortable. 300-400k in black

Cups
FA Cup: 1st Round. loss vs Bristol Rovers (A) 0-2
Johnson's Pants: Winners! 5-1 in final vs. Yeovil, with awesome striker getting 4. we were 1-0 down after a minute too!
League Cup lost in first round vs Burnley (A) 1-3


The dream continues, as we spend a large portion of the season in the top ten, even troubling the play-offs! the bubble starts to burst in my now traditional February slump, which lasted til the end of season and saw as finish a respectable 12th. The JPT was a great boon, as a very favourable draw saw us play lower league opposition again and again. hooray!

At the end of season, my surprise young right winger was sold above my head for £1.8M, which was actually good news for me, as his contract was up only 15 days later and he was refusing to entertain the thought of re-signing. Sunderland must need their head examining, they could have had him for free a couple of weeks later!

My contract is up and i am faced with a dilemma. Crystal Palace (newly relegated from the Championship) and Go Ahead Eagles from the Dutch first both approach me. I am sorely tempted by both offers and delay and delay until I am forced to decide. In the end, i decide to say no to both the 'Eagles' and stay with Rochdale, signing a one year contract. I hope I made the right choice....

Final Position: 12th

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/n...ccl1201213.jpg


Oggersheim watch:

Oggersheim won their first 7 games but faded again, finishing off the pace in the RDW

So much for their 5 year plan to be a player in the 2. Bundesliga by the end of this season.

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/n...rsheim1213.jpg

retired_zoozoom

Good work, valencia. Which was the salary offered by Crystal Palace and Eagles, and your salary in your new Rochdale contract??

Oggers continue struggling in the german hell, as I see.

retired_tinkfaeree

Ingolstadt in the RDW?

NewbyNaz

Palace and Go Ahead were both offering me more money (not a LOT more, but more nonetheless), but I had kind of grown fond of Rochdale. I have NEVER been promoted twice in a row on FM, and I wanted to establish them in league one. Go Ahead really intrigued me (great name, kit and compact stadium), but both teams were in debt and needed a bit of rebuilding. I still feel positive about Rochdale so turned them down. having said that, after the start I've made to the new season, (update tomorrow perhaps) I'm not sure I made the right choice!!

I get too attached to clubs, and i dont like jumping ship. I had to leave Oggersheim as they were in Cloud Cukoo Land. Rochdale's board are more realistic.

retired_sandra

Good season there with Rochdale. :thup:

NewbyNaz

Cheers mate. I'm actually at a standstill in the game at the moment. I cant decide whether to jump ship or not, and haven't played the game for 4 days because of this!

Basically, I made few changes in the summer, expecting more of the same, and an assault on the play-offs. However, I couldnt have been more wrong.

The link below shows the current game before my self-imposed hiatus. The season got off to an absolute stinker and i was rooted to the bottom. Everything has gone wrong and my legendary striker has overnight become a very average league 2 player. At the point shown below, QPR are awaiting a response on the management job at Loftus Road. I am sorely tempted to take it, even though they are in debt and struggling in the championship. My Rochdale team have finally found a bit of form and I'm just above the drop zone (first time all season) but I'm out of all cups. I overdid it on the January transfers, plundering the teams from the division below, so the squad is in a bit of a mess too. There is hope for Rochdale but the lure of QPR is strong. I need to think it through....


http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/n...emidseason.jpg

creative36

The curse of the shop window...

retired_sandra

It's weird... I thought I had hit the glass ceiling at Bromsgrove, so starting hunting for other jobs. Nobody in a higher league, or bigger team in my league wanted me, so I soldiered on.

The team picked up, started winning with more regularity and we ended up going up through the playoffs.

Strange game is football.

NewbyNaz

for better or for worse, I decided to stay with Rochdale. My contract is up at the end of the season, so I may move on then. Things have got worse in the league. It's going to be touch and go.

NewbyNaz

2013-14
Rochdale
Coca-Cola League 1

Board Expects: to escape relegation, I say top half!
Media Predicts: 24th
Season Tickets Sold: 6526 - less than last year
Finances: good 700k in black

Cups
FA Cup: 1st Round. loss vs Walsall (A) 0-3
Johnson's Pants: second round loss to Carlisle (H) 0-0 pen loss
League Cup lost in second round vs Man Utd (A) 0-2

A stinker of a year. I don't know what happened. A catalogue of disaster. My tactics got found out, my legendary striker turned overnight into a lumbering oaf. Promising youngsters looked like inexperienced boys against men, my experienced veterans looked like tired old men and fate conspired to consign me to the lower reaches of the league. The cavalier confidence so characteristic of previous seasons evaporated and teams I had previously brushed aside instead stuck the boot in, snatching all three points in games I'd have earlier won more often than not.

In December, QPR offered me a tempting way out; A league higher but struggling themselves and in a mountain of debt. I felt they could go places. I dallied and didn't play the game for a week. in the end my loyalty won out as I felt I owed Rochdale another 6 months, despite the increasing clamour for my head at board level. what short memories they have!

January came and I panic bought, raiding League Two's talent pool. Years of frugal financial planning out the window as I splurged cash in a desperate attempt to stop the rot. Two new strikers (500k a piece from Gillingham and Carlisle), a new keeper and a new attacking formation. finally my team awoke and started the slow ascent from 23rd.

A grim season, the cups offered no respite. football can be cruel. In the relegation zone from September to April,with three to play I was three from safety

I don't know how, but I managed to scrape enough points to stay up. A nervous final day slog kept me up..just
my panic buy striker from Gillingham proved the saviour with an amazing 20 goals in 23 games. My tactics were up the wall ad games regularly finished in 7 goal shoot-outs. I didn't now my team from week to week. nerve-wracking and wildly inconsistent; a season to forget, I should have taken the QPR job....


Final Position: 19th

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/n...ccl1201314.jpg



Oggersheim watch:

mid-table mediocrity is becoming synonymous with the boys from Oggersheim

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/n...rsheim1314.jpg