The Posh

Here's the deal. I have tried twice to get into a major save this edition of FM and haven't been able to do so in both attempts. So, I took a break from doing a story and simply followed the stories on the site instead. Now I feel very confident about running a save up until FM15. So here it is. Going to do updates very differently to my previous stories on the site in order to keep things fresh for myself. That's the deal.



Nice looking squad. Tommy Rowe is of course the big talent at the club with the likes of Assombalonga and Payne not far behind. Some very decent young talent in the squad too in the form of Jermaine Anderson, Charlie Horton and Kgosi Ntlhe, among others (should point out the left-hand set of stars is ability and the right obviously potential, made the mistake of cutting off the column headers).



This is the tactic I'll be rolling with. Big fan of 4-3-3. The thesis behind my variation of the 4-3-3 features ideas from this post on Marcelo Bielsa's Bilabo side. It is not completely reminiscent of the formation of course, but I borrowed ideas from the playing style; particularly the tempo and pressing aspects of the game. I've had a lot of success with 4-3-3 in the past but haven't tested this particular variation, so here's hoping.



And we're off.. 'mon The Posh.

Pre-season summary

Pretty content with the pre-season results in my first term as Peterborough gaffer. Thumped our Under 21s (as most teams should) and went ahead twice against Burnley but were unlucky to lose the game in the end. Elsewhere we won comfortably against Dagenham & Redbridge, Queen of the South and Tamworth, whilst avoiding a scare after falling 2 goals behind versus Conference side Grimsby.



As I said, I was content with the pre-season results.. but the pre-season transfers? I'm thrilled. We managed to prize the young talent Jordan Rossiter away from Merseyside for a mere £1,100,000 fee, convincing him he was a big part of the plans for the future of this team. Other deals saw us bring in another young prospect in the form of the Italian, Fabio Bertoli from Brescia. Finally I brought in center half Josh Meekings from Cally Thistle for £2,000,000.



Players:

Good luck with this pal! Will be following as Peterborough are the team I support.

Got to ask though where did the money come from for nearly £4m worth of transfers never had a budget that big with Posh when I have started as them. I mean who have you sold to get the budget?

Thanks mate. Hopefully I lead them to glory for you!

Had an initial £1.5m budget along with a £6.5k wage budget but seeing as Rossiter is only on an £80 a week youth contract and Bertoli £280 a week I was able to adjust my budget quite sparingly. Also, I asked the board for an increased transfer budget and they handed me another £1.7m.

2013: 3rd August - 1st November

After a shaky start to the campaign it wasn't until late September/early October where we found some really winning form and maintained an unbeaten streak. Out of the 19 games played in all competitions since the beginning of the seasons we've only found ourselves losing 3 games in 90 minutes (Watford knocked out out of the Capital One Cup on penalties) which I'm happy with. A very decent opening 3 months to my time with The Posh.



This is how the league table looks as of November 1st. Pre-season favourites Wolves have already established a 3 point gap at the top of the table, with us 4 points adrift of them (they and Rochdale do have a game in hand, however). With 4 draws at this stage, that does not disappoint me - more so the teams we could only manage draws against - Crewe, Bristol City, Shrewsbury and Swindon. You can't win them all I guess.

Good start mate!

Going to have to remember that one for future reference haha!

Good luck pal started well.

2013/14: 9th November - 1st February

Quite a few red dots on the list of results from this period. You'll notice that on the 18th January in the 6-1 drubbing we handed Tranmere, that Diego Contento scored. Yes that is right, I secured a loan deal to bring a Champions League winner to League 1, London Road (screenshot at bottom of post). I only pay 10% of his wages, combined with a 40k monthly fee, not bad. His signature enable me to shift Tommy Rowe from left back to center midfield, for the most part. We held Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup third round having led the game from the 60th minute until the 87th - cruel. Assombalonga is very hit and miss at the moment. Does nothing for games on end then scores 3 or 4 in a single game. Strange.



Somewhat surprised (pleasantly surprised) to find us top of the league despite losing 5 league games in a relatively short period of time. We've been lucky in the sense that when we have faltered, Rotherham and Wolves have done also. However this has allowed several teams to bridge the gap between themselves at the top three - leading to a gap of only 7 points between 1st and 6th. That being said, I will now look to try and cement this top spot and make it ours come the end of the season.



Diego Contento:

Shame about the JPT, always a competition you fancy your chances in but fantastic in the league!

Certainly is a shame Dan, especially bowing out to local rivals MK Dons! Cheers pal.

2014: 8th February - 3rd May

Here are the results for the rest of the season. The first few results show us again struggling to maintain an unbeaten record, but this swiftly changed as we went on to be unbeaten in our last 10 games. A couple of exciting draws featured across these games, with a 2-2 draw and two 3-3 draws. Disappointing defeats against Stevenage and Bristol City marred a good end of season. So, where does this leave us in the league? Well the 21st April saw a 3-0 win against Carlisle become very significant...



Peterborough United FC are going up to the Sky Bet Championship as League 1 champions! Delighted with the performance of the lads my first season here. Do feel as though we were slightly lucky to pick up the title relatively comfortably despite losing 10 games and drawing 9 along the way - however I will not complain one bit.



This is how the final league table shaped up. Ourselves and Bradford made the automatic promotion spots with Brentford, Wolves, Rotherham and MK Dons finishing 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th respectively, securing their play-off spots. Oldham, Gillingham, Port Vale and Crewe were the unfortunate teams to slip down to the 4th tier of English football with Coventry ending up safe on goal difference despite starting the season with a 10 point deduction.



'mon The Posh.

Great season mate. What are your plans for the Championship? Creating a team with experienced heads or a younger side that will take a few seasons to come together?

Thanks pal. Generally speaking the experienced heads want a higher wage which I cannot stretch to so I'm opting for the youngsters. Ideally I want to be out of the Championship in a few seasons as I already have a decent squad.

Brilliant run in at the end of the season! And well done on the league title!

Pre-season summary

Fantastic pre-season results for us ahead of our first season back in the Championship. Included wins over sides we really shouldn't be beating such as a 2-0 win over Nantes and an incredible 6-1 thumping of a full strength Hull side. Would've been the perfect pre-season if we had have avoided losing 2-0 against RB Salzburg in a game we controlled. Oh well, still excellent results.



Pretty busy transfer window for us this season. 4 players leaving Posh on a free transfer, with a multitude of players leaving on loans to aid their development. In terms of paid transfers, Lee Tomlin sadly left us for Middlesbrough as he had a release clause in his loan deal with them that I had no idea about, I tried offering him a new contract but he favoured Boro. Young goalkeeper Charlie Horton is off to Celtic Park after The Bhoys paid us £2,000,000 for him.. he only has the potential to be a leading goalkeeper in the Championship and frankly my ambitions are higher than that. 4 players joined us this summer. Center back Harry Maguire signed from Sheffield United with Harrison Reed coming in on loan from the Saints. Finally we picked up Eric Tié-Bi and Will Keane on free deals after their contracts ran out with Evian TG and Man Utd, respectively.

Thanks Dan it was a very satisfying string of results!

Good signings and a strong pre-season! What happened to Hull?

Thanks mate. Peterborough happened!

£2m for Charlie Horton!!! Blimey. He ain't that good.

Good luck for the season.

2014: 2nd August - 8th November

A good start to life in the Championship saw us start with a win against fellow newly-promoted side Brentford. No real consistency being shown in the league as of yet but that was to be expected trying to adapt to life in this league. Good wins over Palace, West Ham and QPR, however. Assombalonga finding some good form early on in the season which is encouraging. He's my talisman up there so need him to deliver.



So we find ourselves 8th in the league in this first update. The media predicted us to finish 21st and my board objective is to 'consolidate in the league' so I'm chuffed to be as high as 8th. We have a goal difference of 0 which is slightly concerning as we do score a lot of goals as a team so this indicates to me that we are shipping far too many. But as I said, new league, tougher opposition, so no real complaints. Viva la Posh!

Wow doing brilliantly in the new division pal!

Great start in the championship mate!

Cheers Dan!


Cheers George!

2014/15: 8th November - 14th February

Second batch of Championship results. Assombalonga really starting to put them away now, being the decisive factor in a lot of my games. We haven't managed to secure more than 2 wins on the bounce which is a bit concerning but something I did anticipate. Managed to get past Stoke over 2 games in the FA Cup but Swansea was a bridge too far sadly. Good wins over big teams such as Palace (again), Reading and West Ham (again)! Hopefully we can maintain some form in the final part of the season as we seem to be so good at doing.



Ooooh, hello.. Posh are flying high! Coming into the final third of the season and Peterborough United are in a play-off spot in the Championship. Can't say I expected this to happen but looking at the quality in our squad it isn't absolutely outrageous that we find ourselves here. Blackburn lead the way pretty comfortably thanks to Jordan Rhodes scoring about 8 goals a game.. let's hope we can stay this high in the league come the season end.

Flying mate, keep it up!

Thanks t-mase, I'll certainly try to!

Great Start In Championship Sam

Cheers George mate.

2015: 21st February - 2nd May

It really does amaze me how incredible we become as the season nears an end. In the final 13 games of the season we notched 34 goals and conceded a mere 10. Britt Assombalonga was playing as if he learnt everything he knows from Messi. The whole team was outstanding and we were turning over teams with utter ease. Even the Millwall game which was lost 4-2 we dominated the game and the scoreline ended up being a very, very harsh one. But I have no complaints with how we finished the season. Incredible.



The final league table. Our ridiculous form toward the end of the season saw us finish only 3 points off an automatic promotion spot. I'm disappointed we didn't win promotion automatically but when you finish 18 positions above where you were predicted to finish you simply cannot be disappointed. We ended up with the best goal difference in the league and secure a play-off spot in some style.



Ah. Not ideal. Went down 2-1 to Birmingham in the first leg of the play-off semis.. just how important could that 90th minute goal from Jack Payne be? 2-0 I would've felt there was no coming back from but 2-1 I remain confident of overturning the deficit. Payne has been an unsung hero all season so it's nice to see him really making his mark.



Second leg update will be with y'all tomorrow. Viva la Posh!

Super season and good luck in the second leg.