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I stupidly saved over my Everton game with my Celtic one so have to start again.



This game will be all about implementing my philosophy to the club. It will probably take a few seasons to get the team and tactics I want set up but here it is:

1. Bring in young players for the first team (something the board agrees with).
2. Look for players from Glasgow/Liverpool.
3. Re-vitilise the squad every 3/4 year.

My three year plan for Everton is:
1st season: Play the tactic most suited to the current team and qualify for the Europa League. Bring in a few decent youngsters that will feature in the first team by season three.
2nd season: Maintain a Europa League spot, hopefully lift some silverwear and start implementing my 'goal' tactic.
3rd season: Qualify for the Champions League and have my squad set up.

I brought in four players however Souttar went back to Dundee Utd on loan. Zivkovic and Gauld will play for the u21's this season mostly and might get a debut in the second half of the season. Townsend was one I brought in for the first team to offer some competition for Mirallas.

This complies with the boards policy of singing young players. I had a total of £14m to spend along with £190k p/w free for wages after a few a sales.

A great pre-season for us, it gave me the chance to mess around with tactics and rotate the squad.

Going with a fast, direct, pressing 4-5-1 as it suits the squad best the now. I hope to eventually go for a short passing, slow tempo with space in front of the players. I've got the centre/attacking midfielders passing it short with the younger players learning to dictate the tempo.

A good start to the season for us, we took 7 points from 9 and progressed in the Capital One Cup. Lakaku got off to a great start to his loan scoring in his first two games.

Another good month excluding the loss to Sunderland. Man City played most of the game against 10 men, Lakaku scored and own goal and the got the equaliser on the 85th minute from a corner. Ouch.

A tough tie coming up in the Capital One Cup. If we can beat Man Utd then I reckon we have a good chance of winning it.

I arranged to sign two players from the Scottish Premiership at the end of the season. Celtic keeper Fraser Forster and St. Johnstone striker Stevie May. Forster should provide good commutation for Joel to replace Tim Howard and May gives me some extra options up front for very little wages.

Not a good month but we finished it strong. I've been continually making small adjustments to the tactics to get it how I want it for now, slowly getting there.

Tip: Using man marking corner at corners seems to get more fouls against the other team.

A lot of shock results in the last round, if we can beat Chelsea here surely we must go on and win it.

I've now got my midfield sorted. I swapped my ball winning midfielder with a defensive central midfielder and all the midfielders are playing short passes, excluding Barry as I want to just let him play his natural game. The tempo is still fast, but now I have Mirallas slowing things down a bit when he gets the ball.

The next thing to do is to concentrate on the defence.

Like the style of this, good luck!

Cheers mate hope you follow. Wanted to try something different.

Step two of the coaching improvements complete. The refused to upgrade the youth recruitment but I'll try again soon. Next us was the scouting team. As I had sacked most of the scouts leaving just two I brought in a few of my own.



This is how the scouts are set up..
Ian Atkins (chief scout): Scout next opposition and the whole of the UK & Ireland for players with 4.5 star potential.
David Hamilton: Scout England for u21 players with at least 4 star potential.
Paul Montgomery: Scout England for players with at least 4 star under the age of 27.
Kevin Cruickshank: Scout Scotland for players under 23 with 3.5 star potential.
Gwyn Williams: Scout Ireland, Northern Ireland and Wales for any player with 3 star potential.
Soren Lerby: Scout Scandanavia for players under 25 with 4 star potential.
Michael Piwowarski: Scout Central Europe for players with at least 3.5 star ability and 4 star potential under 27.
Bojan Krkic: Scout Eastern Europe for players with at least 3.5 star ability and 4 star potential that are under 25.
Emerson Thome: Scout South America for 3.5 star players between the age of 21 and 27.

I've decided that if nothing major happens I'll just update the fixtures at the end of every month with the league table.



Things got off to an OK start with two wins in four. I'll be looking to build on that and hopefully go the full pre-season undefeated. I've taken some huge positives from the first few games...

1. Nikica Jelavic has a real strikers instinct when the ball is loose in the box scoring a double from blocked shots against the u21s.
2. The wingers are getting in on the action with Steven Pienaar, Kervin Mirallas and new boy Gerard Deulofeu all scoring.
3. Leighton Baines is getting forward a lot and has set up two goals so far.

I'm looking at Franco Zuculini on a free transfer. His wages would be rarely cheap and my options are limited due to the lack of a transfer budget. He also has a good 10 years left.

I've offered him a trial until the end of pre-season to see what he can do.

Will this be enough incentive to finish in the top 6 and at least reach a cup final? I think this is fairly realistic aims for the first season.


This is a list of the players who's contracts are up at the end of the season. Ideally I'd like to hold on to them all but that might not be possible. Three of them are loans that are finishing. I think I could convince Gareth Barry to stay if he does a good job. Not so sure about Robelu Lakaku or Gerard Deulofew though.

We still went undefeated and depute the lack of clean sheets. showed more good signs..

1. Ross Barkley showed his ability to arrive late in the area and hit the top corner with three spectacular goals.
2. Some youth players took the chance and netted.

I tied down John Heitinga on a four year £60k p/w contract, a £5k p/w wage rise. I did manage to save some money (about £200k) by asking him to sack his agent.

Looks good Sean, ill be following !

Cheers Jack, good stuff!

I brought in Franco Zuculini on trial and will give hime a run out in the friends before I decide to sign him or not. Hopefully he impresses, could be decent cover for Leon Osman.

Now that pre-season is finished time for an update..



Pre-season was rounded off undefeated. It would have been nice to keep more than one clean sheet but we did manage to bang a fair few in. Pre-season gave me a chance to rotate the squad and choose my first choice starting XI.



An easy draw should see us in the next round of the League Cup.

I've changed the training from fitness to balanced for the beginning of the season, still a bit of work on the tactics before I can change to teamwork/attacking movement.


We didn't have a great start to the season drawing all of the opening three fixtures. We there away a two goal lead against both West Ham and Cardiff. The League Cup 2nd Rnd was much tougher that I expected, but it gave me the chance to rotate the squad.



Another good draw in the League Cup, hopefully the draw keeps being kind to us.

I finally got my man on the 31st of August, there was competition from a few foreign teams but I think the lure of the Premiership was too much. He had a good trial showing his ability to pass a ball and put in a tackle.

Not much went on this month thats why I've left it to the end of the month. Next update will probably be the end of October.



So a pretty good month if you take who we faced into account. A 92nd minute penalty gave Chelsea the full three points, another late goal conceded against Man City. This time the 94th from a corner, will need to work on defending set pieces.



A tough draw for the Capital One Cup puts us up against Arsenal at the Emirates.



Not the best starts in the league but we've got a few tough fixtures out the way and put in good performances in both.

Great signing mate! Also a very tough draw in the coc!

Shit. I just went to load this game and accidentally saved over it with my Celtic game.

I'll have to start again. I'll just delete these posts to save opening another thread.