Moneyball

Last save corrupted so having to start again . I'll be following the rules of my moneyball challenge and focusing on player development. That means no transfers this window and possibly none in the January window.

I've promoted some players from the reserves to give me a first team that looks like this.



I'm pretty happy with the squad and can't think of any position that'll need dramatic work (but I have a feeling the forwards may prove me wrong). My coaching staff is almost all set up and the scouting team will roam Europe, focusing on the home nations.

I've been given the freedom to play how I like and this is how we'll shape up.

Good luck Sean!

Cheers mate, hopefully this one doesn't die on me!

Mixed feeling about pre-season. We should have won the 3 games we didn't, they were the easiest on paper (excluding the reserve match).

Good luck and even though it's Celtic, I will be following as per usual.

Cheers mate, I find it just as interesting following a rival as it is your own team!

A good start to developing my own players, when we get some more money I'm going to try and improve youth recruitment and first team training facilities.

I like the amount of clean sheets we seem to be keeping. So this is how the leagues kicked off, three easy wins but Aberdeen made us work hard for the draw. We had to put in a good shift to reach the group stage too, the draws up in a few days. Hopefully its good to us.



League Table:

A very tough ask to reach the last 16, I'll happily settle to qualify for the Europa League. In the Scottish Cup we drew the Blue Brazil.

Champions League Group C:

Great Start mate! Tough Champions league draw even to finish 3rd! Have u finished Ross County?

Ouch, would have to be very lucky to finish third in that group. Good luck mate.

Yeah mate it is doing ok so far!


Yeah it is, all depends on the next match really.

Still undefeated in the league but we've threw away a few silly results. Great result away to Madrid but we threw away the lead over Shakhtar as we went 3 games without a win.

We set up a League Cup semi-final tie with Motherwell.



League Table:


Champions League Group C:

Finally we have a bit of money to spend if we need to.

Loving this idea. I'm going to have to give it a go. Love Soccernomics and Moneyball.

Cheers man, that's me just about finished Soccernomics the now.

We've been plagued by injuries the past few weeks and the squads pretty tired so I've sent the worst away on a break and promoted a few youngsters temporary.

It might not look great at first glance but the form was ok. We picked up draws against Shakhtar and Real Madrid but crashed out of Europe in the final round of fixtures. Our league form is getting better, still undefeated and hopefully can carry that through the rest of 2013.



League Table:


Champions League Group C:

Another step in the right direction.

These are the players who are under review. All of them are available for transfer if I can find a suitable replacement before they agree a deal with the club they are in discussions with.



Mouyokolo is talking to a few clubs only one of them is not a pre-contract so hopefully he chooses to go in January to get him off my wage bill. Bangura returned from loan to add to our list of mediocre strikers, I want his £20k p/w wage off my budget. Kayal is unhappy and I'm sure I could find a better and more versatile replacement. Stokes isn't playing well at all, although his goal/game ration looks good 4 of them came in cup games.

All season without a loss and the final game of 2013 it all falls apart.



League Table:


I managed to get rid of Stokes, Kayal and Bangura meaning I had about £4 million to spend on a striker and a midfielder.

I've got a replacement for Stokes and in the process of signing a midfielder.

This is my replacement for Stokes/Bangura. Fejzullahu fits all the rules and cost just £800k and salary is considerably less that a combined £30k p/w. This over the course of 4 years will save the club over £4 million on top of the profit from the transfer fees.

He hit 11 goals and 5 assists in 29 games for Djurgarden last season, hopefully he can hit at least 10 before the end of the season.



I'm still waiting on the decision from my midfield target and looking for a extra central defender.

A good link for us, meaning we have first choice of players like Smithies and Norwood. It also means I can loan out players to play at a decent level.

Pukki only managed to score 4 goals in Celtic colours so when Hertha came in with a bid I was happy to accept. He signed for £2.2 million in the summer meaning we turned a profit.



Up front was missing experience so I brought in Janko on loan until the end of the season. Hopefully he can net a few goals, he hasn't been the same as he was at RB Salzburg but if he can net a few I'll be happy.

Both strikers that you've signed look good, hope they can score goals for ye.

Yeah they look better than their predecessors anyway.

Davies cost £800k and is English, goes against one of the rules but he has resale value and I believe could turn out a bargain. He looks like he could be a decent deep lying forward.

My first signing that wasn't a forward and possibly my best signing of the window at just £600k from Barcelona. The only downside is he doesn't speak English so it might take a bit longer for him to settle but I have a few Spanish speaking players.

Probably my last deal of the window. I wanted to bring in Stefan Johansen but they wanted too much because its the January window, I think I can get him cheaper in the summer. Gomez adds a bit of creativity in the middle of the park and we're only paying half his wage.

I didn't strengthen the squad too much over the window but after 6 months I think there will be a massive improvement. I missed out on Johansson and Gary Mackay-Steven but managed to sign Tom Cairney on a pre-contract from Hull City.

Fejzulluhu has been a great signing so far netting 4 goals so far.



We had a decent start to the year, just two results messed up a good run. I don't know what happened, we went two games without scoring. We face Hamilton in the League Cup Final and Rangers or Dundee Utd in the Scottish Cup Quarter Final.



League Table:

I made one more signing mid-February. Israelsson look like he could be a real gem coming in on a free transfer. He's only 24 and scored 7 and set up 9 last season in the Swedish Premier Division.

This is the youth intake, nothing special. Bett looks the best of a bad bunch. I'll need to sign a few as the u19s are a bit short and will be worse next season. I'll probably keep on about 8 or 9 of the better youngsters.

I'd look at players in Scandinavia and also in Australia in the AIS.

Yeah Scandinavia always have a few gems, I think I've signed a few regens from the AIS before.

The second half of the season didn't go as smoothly as I'd liked but we still managed to wrap up the domestic treble. Hopefully we can't maintain this or even a double next season. We still managed to win the league by 24 points but I feel 11 draws is just far too many.



League Table:

Up front was a big problem this year. We simply didn't score enough goals, I want to be hitting at least 2.4 goals/game next season. So that will need improvement. The defence is pretty solid, we managed 15 clean sheets in the league but I want to see my full backs get more assists. Midfield is solid and won't need much adjusting, maybe one or two players in and a few fringe players out.