The SAF Challenge

Suberb mate, well done, what are your intentions with Cowdenbeath now?

Well done on this! Looking forward to your trip to England, if and when it happens!

Fantastic work here mate! It's unfortunate that the challenge requires you to win the Europa League! Came pretty close this year, hopefully the lure of CL football will attract better players for you, then you MIGHT drop out into the Europa again.

Good luck!

Thanks mate, it's a huge achievement and I didn't expect it to all happen so quickly!



Thank you!





I'm looking to stick at Cowdenbeath for a few more years, give Europe a good crack and maybe try and claim the SPL title a few more times, as well as a cup or two and then move down to England!



Probably will be a few more seasons and then I'll see what jobs are available in England.



Yeah, I'm hoping for either a good run in the CL or to drop into the Europa from it. If not, I may have to leave that part of the challenge for the time being!

Thank you all for the good comments, it's great to see that so many people read this!

So, here's a summary of the awards for this year's SPL season:



Very well deserved after a superb season, and he also won goal of the season for a goal he scored in January against Dundee United. He came second in top goalscorer, two goals behind Chris Wood.



I also got "Writers' Manager of the Year" and it was the same order for second and third.


Dustin Matuschak and Elliot Bannon were both named in the team of the year.

good luck this season mate ! Very busy summer

So, I've got round to the next season of the SPL and after a busy summer across the world of football due to the 2018 World Cup, I've managed to make a lot of very good signings, and lost some players to other teams on the way.

In the World Cup, which was eventually won by reigning world champions Portugal who beat Brazil 1-0 in extra time in the final, 4 Cowdenbeath players were present. Elliot Bannon had a good campaign for Scotland, helping them get to the last sixteen where they were knocked out by Brazil. Bannon scored 3 goals in the World Cup groups, including a double against Australia in a 4-0 win. Emre Can's Turkey also made it to the last sixteen but were beaten by Uruguay 2-1. Devon Stewart and new signing Oshane Lawrence both played for Jamaica, however they were toppled in the group stage by Spain and Croatia.

The end of the World Cup squad saw me linked to the Scotland job following Strachan's resignation. I was also heavily linked to a vacant Liverpool job, but want at least one more season at Cowdenbeath before moving to England.

Here's the list of players who left the club:



Matt Gilks retired from football aged 36 but has since returned to the club as a goalkeeping coach. James Keene wasn't good enough for this level and at 32 wasn't going to get many chances this season and Ian Allison's prospects at the club weren't great so they were released. Allan Fraser and Benjamin Siegrist were both picked up on pre-contract agreements after I saw no reason to renew their contracts. Davey, Malpas, Bonner and Chicksen were all replaced by better players so were no longer needed at the club. I was gutted when Eduardo left for Twente as he had a minimum release fee in his contract that I didn't realise about. Ivor Lawton wasn't getting much game time and I felt we did well to get £725k for him.

Here's the players I've signed:



I needed to build a good squad instead of just a good starting eleven so tried to sign players who could provide cover.

Hayes: A 31 year old who should provide good cover for the left midfield role.

Wright: A 21 year old goalkeeper with tons of potential to go on to bigger and better things.

Milne: A lot of questions were raised from the press about this one. Lewis Milne returns to the club he left just 18 months ago for Leeds, who he made just 23 appearances for. I'm hoping he can provide good competition in an already strong centre of midfield.

Park: A 21 year old who is already at his 3rd Scottish club after playing for Falkirk before signing for Hamilton. A good prospect who can play left back and left midfield.

Lawrence: 22 year old Jamaican who already has over 50 caps for his country. Lawrence should provide good competition in that central midfield role.

Rost: Another young German for the future, and another central midfielder. At just 18, he joins after previously playing just 3 times for former club Schalke.

Barbour: A good right back who should provide good competition and should be able to hold down a first team place.

Wagstaff: A 28 year old right midfielder who joins as back up.

Pascual: 18 year old Spanish u-21 international who can play all across the defence. He's got a massive future in front of him.

Green: A free loan, but I can't see him playing much as he plays CAM and I don't use that position often. May get a cup game or two.

Olivi: A seventeen year old Italian goalkeeper with bags of potential for the future.

Wotherspoon: 28 year old Scottish right midfielder who joins after 5 years in England playing for Peterborough, Huddersfield and Hull.

Kouakou:: Our new number 1, and at just 23 years of age the Ivorian may hold down that position for years to come.

Elford-Alliyu: I think I paid too much for this fella, but he looks to be a good partner for Bannon. At 26, he joins on a 4 year deal after many years in the English League One.

A lot of signings to hopefully go for the title again.

Here's how our pre-season friendlies went:



A very busy pre-season but I wanted to test out the whole squad in a number of different formations and combinations. Delighted with the win over Liverpool!

So, onto the 2018/19 season!

Good luck for the season, hopefully you can bring even more silverware to Cowdenbeath.

Just out of interest are you on the clubs favoured personnel list yet?

Thanks mate, I wanted more depth within my squad to be able to deal with poor performances and injuries/suspensions!

Just looked and I'm not favoured personnel, I'm an icon! Along with Elliot Bannon. The only other changes is that Djebi-Zadi and Budak are in favoured personnel from my reign. Should hopefully become a legend soon...

Great news on you being an icon.

The CL group looks tough, but you did well in the EL last season, and also won the league title, so anything is possible.

Not the best start with the loss to Inverness, but at least we made up for it against St Mirren and Aberdeen. Hoping to push on from this now and get far in all competitions we are entered in!

Here's how the table looks at this early stage:



Hoping to make it easier for ourselves this year and make it easy in all competitions for us!

Here's the Champions League group:



Some difficult trips to Ukraine and Portugal but we might be able to scrape through. I didn't think we'd get through the group in the Europa League last season and we got to the semi final so you never know what could happen!

Heavily outplayed against Leverkusen and unlucky against Celtic, but other than that we've had a good month. We were 1-0 down at half time against St Johnstone but a quickfire double from superstar Bannon meant that we got the win. Good for Ilias to get the two in the cup against Livingston because he's not played as much as I'd have liked this year.

Just thought I'd also say that Dustin Matuschak has played his last game for the club after moaning to me about wanting to move to a bigger club. He's been put in the reserves and transfer listed, but I'll only let him go for a significant fee. There are many teams across Europe interested including Ajax, Celtic and Villareal.

Here's how the table looks:



Hoping we don't drop off, but we're weak in defence until some of our younger players reach full potential.

Also forgot to add in the last update that on deadline day, young goalkeeper Liam Courts left for Shrewsbury for £7k and John Paul McMullan joined East Fife on a free transfer. Junior Ogaga and Jonathan Bond have been loaned out to Inverness and Leeds respectively.

Next game is at home to Shakhtar so I hope they're very jet lagged!

Other than the loss against Porto, a perfect month! Delighted to have beaten Shakhtar at home in the Champions League and to be through to face Motherwell in the Semi Final of the Scottish League Cup after beating our closest rivals Celtic 3-1 thanks to a double from the returned Lewis Milne.

Stand out performers have been Lewis Milne and as always Elliot Bannon (Bannon was named player of the month).

Here's the table:



Looks like Celtic and ourselves are going to break away from the rest of the pack. We're the only Scottish team in the Champions League (Celtic and St Mirren are in the Europa League).

Here's the Champions League group:



Still a huge chance to qualify, if not then drop into the Europa League and maybe go further than last season.

Still not recieved any acceptable offers for Matuschak, the highest offer was £6m from Ajax which I negotiated and they couldn't match my asking price. If I get offered £6m again I may take it and get rid of him for a good fee.

In other transfer news, 21 year old English striker Simon Harvey has joined the club on a free transfer from Man United and has been loaned out to Ross County for three months to get some first team action. He's a big prospect for the future.

Also thought I would add that new Ivorian goalkeeper Ousmane Kouakou has returned to the Ivory Coast on indefinite leave after suffering from home sickness. Ciaran Wright has become the new first choice goalkeeper in his absence.



Elliot Bannon deservedly winning player of the month, should also note that fellow academy product Peter Dyer came third in young player of the month.



Another 5 points!

Christ big offers ! the Southampton one looks very enticing good luck in whatever you do

An okay month, unbeaten one in the SPL. The 4-0 win over St Mirren was very good as a few players were rested.

The results in the Champions League show that we still have a very long way to go to match some of the other European sides.

Here's the table:



Three points of Celtic, hoping to stay up there all the way this season and challenge again.

Here's the Champions League group, not that it matters much!



Hoping not to finish bottom of the group with a good result from our final game against Shakhtar!

Talking about the rest of the season with Cowdenbeath, but I'm extremely tempted by this:



The transfer budget and the wage budget are the things that tempt me the most. I'm going to delay the offer for a week and see where I think is best for me.

I didn't think I was going to move south of the border so soon, but this really tempts me!

So, on top of the offer from Southampton I've received the following news:





The Chelsea job would seriously tempt me if they offered me it, and the Southampton offer probably tempts me more than the Newcastle one.

Some serious thinking to do about my future!

So, after Chelsea hired Vitezslav Lavecka from Spartak Moscow as their new manager I had the choice between Southampton, Newcastle or staying at Cowdenbeath.

Congrats on your Job Decision dude!! looking forward to the rest of your updates

Cheers man, a lot of work needed on the squad so will be a big summer for transfers again!

So, this is the results of my first month in charge of Southampton. Need to try and pick up some consistency in order to try and be more of a threat in the Premier League, but this season I am just looking to start to build my team and see who fits and who doesn't. Against Liverpool we were completely outplayed and we have to step up.

Here's the table:



Sitting pretty in 11th, with pretty much no chance of relegation. This season will be very much a thrills-free season, aiming for mid table. Maybe we can do something in the FA Cup but we have Liverpool in the 3rd round so that may end short.

On the transfer front, I've already announced two new signings:



Jimmy Jensen has joined for £2.2m from Sunderland. He seems a good centre back and adds to my squad depth which was needed.

As soon as I joined Southampton, I signed this guy:



Not letting other people manage him! I'm very happy to get him here, although he cost me £15m which was a huge chunk of my transfer budget but I really hope he can guide this team to glory like he guided my Blue Brazil to glory!

Some good results there, defence may need to be looked at to see if we can stop conceding so often. It's just 1 goal a game mainly but if we can cut that out we can get more wins.

Elliot Bannon's debut was against Tottenham and he scored a marvellous header, but got injured in the game against Man United and was ruled out for three weeks. He should hopefully return soon. We now have no realistic chances of winning a competition after Liverpool beat us 1-0 in the FA Cup so we can focus on trying to finish as high as possible in the league and build for next season. I always knew that this season would just be a building season so hopefully we can do well.

Here's the table:



Sitting pretty in 9th, which is a lot better than 15th place which was where we were when I joined. My main aim is a top half finish for this season.

I won my first manager of the month award in England which I was very pleased about!

There were a lot of transfers both to and from the club in the January window. First the players who joined:



Bannon and Jensen I've already said about.

Addy: A young German striker who can provide back up straight away and has bags of potential.

Lawless: Needed to try and steady the defence so signed this youngster from Hull for a bit more than I wanted to spend but I needed to get somebody in. At just 22, he can provide back up and hopefully challenge for a first team spot this season.

Pepin: A Spanish attacking midfielder with a huge future. I'll probably look to loan him out for the rest of this season and maybe next season and then see him start to come into the first team here at Southampton more.

Valdes: I needed a sub goalkeeper as all I had was Alnwick who wanted a way out and a couple of 16 year olds, who were talented but we were running low so I brought in Barcelona legend Valdes, now at Inter, on loan for the rest of the season.

Here's the players who left us:



Some deadwood already getting cleared. Sinclair was nowhere near the first team and I was happy to get £1.5m for him. Varty had no future and I accepted the offer received from Luton. I had many players better than Shelvey so didn't need him at the club and would rather have the £3m coming in for him. Knight again had no future so he went, as did Seagar. John Flanagan was being used purely as back up and when an offer of £5m came in from Fulham I couldn't say no. I was going to get rid of him in the summer anyway so just thought I'd accept it now. Finally, Nathaniel Daly didn't want to be at the club any longer and my old club Cowdenbeath were the only team to match my asking price of £5m so he went up there, probably to replace Bannon.

Expect to see some more deadwood cleared in the summer!

Need to work on our consistency. We are better than Watford and should have beaten them easily, and I think we should have done better against Reading also. We need to work on this if we are to improve for next season. Derdiyok is starting to clamp down a first team place after some good performances.

Here's the table:



Still 9th with 10 games left. Hoping to stay in the top half of the table.

One more signing since my last update - 19 year old Marcel Derwall has joined on a free transfer. The ex-Dortmund academy player, who played 4 games for Dortmund in the Bundesliga and scored 1 goal for them, can play right midfield and central midfield and should fit straight into the first team.

A difficult month but I'm disappointed we couldn't get a win from somewhere, especially the Arsenal game where we went 2-0 up early.

Here's the table:



Still 9th. Not much to talk about the table this season really.

Also thought I'd add that Eren Derdiyok got player of the month and Elliot Bannon got young player of the month (he may not have scored many goals, but he's been getting assists more than goals).

good work so far mate ! And bringing Bannon back was great

Well done on the move to the Prem, mate.

Southampton s a good side to build on!

Congratulations on the move to Southampton, it looks like your going to be a success down there.

It will also be interesting on where Cowdenbeath finish this season, and how they do in the coming seasons, especially with you taking Bannon with you.

Another good month, except for the draw with Huddersfield. Did really well to fight back from 2-0 down against City to win 2-2. I'm excited for next season with this team!

Here's the table:



Might be able to catch Liverpool and finish 8th!

Awards:



He's had a quality month! Same with Jack Cork - my two central midfielders have both been a rock in midfield. Bannon had a good month too, with three goals in four games.

Thanks, and yeah should be interesting to see if they slip back down the league!

Thanks, and yeah I couldn't leave him behind! I made sure I signed him!