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TheMazzeRunner
SBR
Dan
bmg033
SBR its been a bit too easy, although the Premier League will be a different animal.
Thanks Dan! I'm not really sure how its happened. I'm using the exact same formation as the one I used at Stoke so I expected to get at least mid table, but never the title!
bmg033
See if you can guess when we could no longer be mathematically caught.
Thats right, after the Millwall game!
Despite losing the last three games, which wasn't intended, we still won the league title by 3 points. I still can't believe how the season has ended up. To go from 1 win all season when I took over to league champions is brilliant!
The Middlesbrough board have set the initial budgets for next season. It was a lot more than I expected to get, so i'm going to be busy over the summer bringing in as many improvements as possible. I'm not sure where they got the money from, but I don't care!
TheMazzeRunner
SBR
Johno
bmg033
Johno I was surprised to see such a big transfer budget for a newly promoted team. I've put it to good use though and i'll update that when I reach the end of the transfer window.
Fixture list for the new season has been drawn. The first game of the season is away at Stoke City, my previous club. I wanted to win that game more than any other and i've got a crack at it straight away!
Also i have tried to sign a couple of players without success.
- Mangala was available for £5m from Man City but he rejected because he didn't think we could afford his wages. That was annoying, mainly because we could afford them.
- Musacchio of Real Madrid also rejected Boro because he didn't think we had the same ambitions as him.
- Fiorentina GK Beto wanted too much money, so that was a no deal.
- Tomas Kalas from Chelsea also wanted too much money, mainly in add ons, so I walked away and signed someone else. Shame, as he had a good season on loan with us last season.
bmg033
We had a good transfer window bringing in 7 players. Surprised at how cheap we managed to get Clyne and Samaris. Was supposed to get Samaris on loan, but noticed he was available for £1.5m and decided to buy him. Clyne and Chadli were half price as Arsenal and Spurs didn't want them. Rangel, Oviedo and Clark had little amounts of time left on their contract which made them cheap. Hanley was the only player we had to pay full price for.
SBR
Dan
bmg033
Anyway, we started the season away at Stoke with a 5-4 victory against my old employers. All was going well until we met Man City. They put 7 past us and as a result completely destroyed the teams confidence. Further defeats by Liverpool and Spurs left the supporters moaning that I was playing the wrong GK. I decided to listen to them as the next game was a cup game against Norwich. Bad mistake, he turned out to be even worse as we once again shipped 7 goals. A 2nd win of the season against rivals Newcastle followed that game, but unfortunatly we haven't won any of the 4 games since, including another bad defeat to Norwich.
At the start of the season I set a target of finishing mid table. If our form picks up a bit that should be no problem. I might need to think about bringing in a better GK or changing the tactics a bit though. We've been involved in 6 games this season where both teams have scored at least 3 goals. Kike and Tomlin have been the main reason why we aren't further down the table fighting in the relegation zone. They've either scored or assisted 31 goals between them in all competitions so far.
bmg033
- Jack Wilshere was for sale for £4.5m. His wage demands would pretty much drain our wage budget dry. Too risky to go ahead with that at this moment in time.
- Shinji Kagawa was available for £3.2m but he didn't think Boro matched his ambitions.
- Alexander Lacazette was going on the cheap from Chelsea, but once again, this was another greedy player whos wages we couldn't afford.
- Mohamed Salah would be a good fit for our side, but Chelsea wanted £35m for him. Not happening.
bmg033
Despite not being able to sign Wilshere permanently and also failing in a bid to get him on loan, we waited until deadline day and went back for one more try. Arsenal had reduced the monthly fee by £100k and also only wanted us to pay 30% of his wages, down from 50%. Chantome was a steal at £2m and I couldn't resist that price. Dani Garcia and Rhys Williams left for a combined £6.25m as a result.
We had a terrible run of games after the last update facing Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal & Everton. 3 points from those was acceptable I suppose. Since then we have been on a good run of form, except for a couple of dodgy performances against Rochdale in the FA Cup.
Those results have shifted us up a few places and I feel that an 8th place finish could be possible. Will be tough to get there but its not impossible.
EDIT: After the transfer window closed, I took a look at the players with expiring contracts. Initially I didn't see much worth signing. Then I noticed this guy. He is easily good enough for a starting spot in our team so I used pretty much all of our remaining wage budget to get him to sign.
Gendo
Dan
Johno
bmg033
Its not great Dan I know, but its the league games against the teams around us that are the most important.
Well its looking like the opposite now Johno.
Not many games in February and March, although there was still plenty on goals. Much like the 7-6 loss to Liverpool when I was at Stoke, we went to Anfield and scored an amount of goals that would win 99% of games. But once again we failed to take the 3 points after drawing 5-5. The positive from that game though is that we were 4-1 down at one point but came back to avoid defeat.
The games I expected to win were the ones we lost, but the games I thought we'd lose in, we took 4 points. Hopefully that kind of form stays until the end of the season because we will be facing Southampton, Chelsea, Man Utd, Everton & Arsenal during our final 8 games. Mathematically anyone in the bottom half can still go down, but I can't see anyone above Wigan being brought back into the fight against relegation.
8 games to go and out target of mid table is still possible. I wanted to get somewhere around 8th-12th so we aren't far away. As you can probably tell from looking at the table, we have scored the most goals in the league, but also conceded the most.
The Boro board obviously like what they see. They offered me a new contract and I accepted it.
Johno
bmg033
Yep, in the 2 games i've managed at Anfield, my side has scored 11 goals but only got 1 point.
bmg033
We had a very hard end of season run in. Southampton, Man Utd, Everton, Chelsea & Arsenal we coming up. We also had to play Norwich who are our bogey side, we've already lost 7-1 and 4-1 to them this season. Cardiff and Burnley were the only games I expected to win.
We did pick up the expected wins and also managed to get draws with Southampton, Norwich, Chelsea & Arsenal. I'm not too pleased with the Arsenal draw though because we were actually 3-0 up with about 15 minutes to go.
Unfortunatly we weren't able to get into the 8th-12th place target I had aimed for at the start of the season. But 13th place and 48 points in our first year back in the Premier League is a good start. We also finished as the leagues top scorers with 89 goals, but we also conceded the most with 97. Good entertainment for the neutrals though!
Lee Tomlin has been a beast for me since I joined Boro. He was easily the best player in the Championship last season and has gone on to have a brilliant first year in the Premier League. Thats not me being biased by the way, he has actually been named in the team of the season!
Kike didn't make the team, but i'll give him a special mention anyway. He played 43 times and was involved in 43 goals, 28 scored with 15 assists. This was his first ever season in a top flight league campaign anywhere. I'm just hoping no bigger clubs come sniffing...
Johno
bmg033
Amazingly there were actually 4 strikers who got more goals in fewer games. Kike's record would normally be good enough for at least a spot on the bench though.
Ferreyra = 35 games, 30 goals
Costa = 31 games, 26 goals
Higuain = 32 games, 25 goals
Sturridge = 32 games, 25 goals
Kike = 38 games, 24 goals
Balotelli = 30 games, 24 goals
Johno
Dan
bmg033
Summer Transfer Window
Initially I wanted to get Wilshere back on loan for another season. But I let a couple of fringe midfielders go so I had the funds available to sign him permanently. Deulofeu also arrived on a free from Barcelona and Declan Rudd was signed as backup for Mark Bunn. I sold my previous backup GK to Arsenal for £400k just 18 months after signing him as a free agent. Towards the end of the transfer window I let another fringe midfielder go on a free and managed to get Tom Cleverley in for just £3.1m.
Our midield is now looking quite strong. We have now got; Jack Wilshere, Tom Cleverley, Darren Fletcher, Sammy Ameobi, Clement Chamtome, Gerard Deulofeu, Nacer Chadli, Lee Tomlin, Emilio Nsue and Andreas Samaris.
KEZ_7
bmg033
I went into this season with a slightly different tactic to last season because we were scoring for fun, but conceding even more. The friendlies went well and I was confident that we could do well. Our first three league games were always going to be tough so one point was ok. But what followed was terrible. We were conceding much less than last season, but we were also struggling to score. After the loss to Man Utd meant we had gone the first eight games without winning, I changed back to our tactics from last season. This went well as we then battered West Brom 5-1 away.
Obviously due to the bad start, we are near the relegation zone. But like last season, I will be targeting a finish of 12th or higher.
Johno