So I finished my first season with W.B.A:
- Finished 11th so the board are happy enough seeing as my objective was to stay around the middle of the table
- Won the F.A. Cup, beating Stoke 3-0 in the final, Dorrans getting MoM with two brilliant goals
- In the close season was offered jobs at Sunderland and West Ham, who both finished a few places below me (quite realistic offers then) but because I received about £4m for my F.A cup run, £6M for finishing in the league and about another £8M from the board for completing my season objective it was a no brainer to stay at West Brom now that I had about £20M to play with on new signings!
Over the summer:
- Sold off any underperformers (
here's looking at you Ricardo Fuller) and loaned out any promising youngsters to free up the wage bill.
- Said goodbye to Macheda, Wilshere and Gibbs who were all fantastic on loan the season before. Macheda finished as the clubs top scorer with 14 goals!
- Made Scharner captain for his never say die performances and impressive goal contribution (6 in all competitions)
- I'm now a 1.5 star manager on £7K a week, I now this is pretty irrelevant but it gives you a little bit of role playing scope - so far I've earned £300K for when I retire!
New signings and season:
- No 1 priority was a man I just missed out on the deadline day of the January transfer window and who I was sure would be a reliable week in week out goalscorer - John Carew. It was here I was very impressed with the new transfer system. In January Carew was rated at about £6.5M and Aston Villa wanted £8M. Six months later he was now £6M and I eventually signed him for £7.5M so its nice to see player prices fluctuating. So far he has 3 goals from 2 games so looks promising.
- Behind Carew in the No 10 position I signed Fabrizio Miccoli from Palermo for £7.1M who looks brilliant so far, fast, skillfull, pops up everywhere with a shot and scored some proper scorchers in pre season. Had to give him a pretty beastly wage of £55K/week though!
- Next I set about looking for some pace and crossing ability on the wings to make the most out of Carews power and heading ability. Here I found searching by speciality really great. Amusingly I ended up bringing in Beckham for £5M - now rated at 78 and pretty slow but has 2 goals in 2 games and is absolutely lethal from free kicks and crosses so I think its a gamble that will pay off. I also signed Felipe for £3M who is has the dribbling speciality and Apodi for £2.6M who is a RWB, 24 years old 71 ovr with the speedster speciality (92 acceleration!). I have my formation set up so that he overlaps Beckham and so far they are tearing up the right wing.
- Last minute deals included bringing in Frimpong on loan from Arsenal and Pierre for £1.2M (71 ovr, tactician speciality) from Palmeiras to rotate in the 2nd CDM position alongside M'Bia in my new 4-2-3-1 formation, F. Borini from Chelsea on a free and Michel a CAM on a free.
So a busy summer then!
So far I lost unluckily 2-1 to Everton, drew 1-1 away at Chelsea and destroyed Bolton at home in the league and am 8th. The team feels much more creative offensively which was where I faltered last season. Just got beat knocked out of the league cup by Wolves but I think it will be a blessing in disguise as now that I'm in the Europe League the games are coming thick and fast!
Sorry for the EPIC post - really enjoying manager mode this year, even if it is somewhat simple!
Anyone else care to share how they are doing?
