Gimnastic career

So, I'll give you a quick introduction.

I started with Rangers in the Scottish 3rd Division, winning the League, League Cup and Challenge Cup in my first season. The season was incredibly tedious and boring giving the strength of my team compared to my rivals, and as such I resigned after the first season. During my time out, I applied to a number of jobs - ambitiously the likes of Fulham and Standard Liege - to no avail.

Then, one sunny July morning, I was offered the job with newly crowned Spanish Second Division B3 winners Gimnastic Tarragona SAD. The clubs ambitions for the season are to consolidate themselves in the second tier of Spanish football - the Liga adelante - and it was a challenge I decided to accept.

The budget was a modest 56k p/w for wages, and 1m for transfers. The previous regime had left no backroom staff at all, so my first port of call was the recruitment of my new assistant, coaching, scouting and medical teams. This also meant that my scouting knowledge was poor, and as such I was peeing in the dark to be blunt on a lot of my initial targets.

The playing staff itself isn't great. I reckon that getting out of the league will be a 2-3 year job, and as such I decided to secure some better quality players to consolidate ourselves in the league initially.

Date Person From Fee
1.7.2013 Clavero, Rafa Huesca Free
27.7.2013 Martínez, Nicolás Free Transfer Free
29.7.2013 Larena, Jorge Free Transfer Free
30.7.2013 Suler, Marko Legia £190K
31.7.2013 Luque, Jorge Free Transfer Free
1.8.2013 Zaradoukas, Giannis Free Transfer Free
5.8.2013 Dikgacoi, Kagisho Crystal Palace Ln Fee £5K p/m
6.8.2013 Daniel Carvalho Free Transfer Free
20.8.2013 Keita, Sidi Free Transfer Free
Total £195K


Date Person To Fee
30.6.2013 Bezares, Juanjo Free Transfer Free
30.6.2013 Peragón, Roberto Free Transfer Free
30.6.2013 Virgili, Albert Free Transfer Free
28.7.2013 Mairata, Pedro Alavés £30K
Total £30K

If anyone wants to tell me how to properly screen grab from the game that'd be great.

But anyway, I had to scour the free transfer market looking for near enough a full team to help push the team on. I'm a bit disappointed at the lack of a real striker, or a second centre half to add to my squad.

As for tactics, I'll be adopting a 4-3-3 with a defensive midfielder in the form of Kagisho Dikgacoi being integral to the plan. My makeshift striker for now will be Nicolas Martinez, a skilful attacking midfielder from Argentina. I am hoping to play a high pressure, quick counter attacking system eventually, but the wingers I have do not really have the pace to make it work just now so I will be adopting a standard approach to the tactics. I'm hoping my new scouting team will help me find a player or two to add in January to help push us in the right direction.

Good luck mate

Sounds like a fun one to follow!

Alt + Printscreen and Ctrl+v into an editing program?

Cheers guys!

Had a couple more games and a couple of signings but not really enough to write my next update I think. Looks like it'll be a slow one during the weeks whilst work is so busy, unfortunately. One thing I will say about the league I'm in is the quality of players are really a lot better than I thought! Manucho is one of the top scorers, as is Bojan playing for Barcelona B. I don't think I've got any chance until I can get myself a similar marquee signing, especially since some of the clubs coming down were selling players for 10-15m and re-investing it all.

Oh well, onwards and upwards (hopefully).

So, about half way through my season now.

Had a bit of a mix bag. Got off to a decent start in the league, and that has provide a platform to stay away from the media predicted relegation zone ever since. Feel as though I could have had a few more points in the league as some of the goals have been absolutely bizarre (Hitting crossbar then the back of my keepers head to turn a win into a draw for one). I've continued to invest in good free agents, and my tactics are evolving to either a 4-2-3-1 or 4--3-3 depending on opposition. Ulises Davila has probably been the pick of the players I have picked up, a young, skillful attacking midfielder who was released by Chelsea at the start of the season. Had my scouting been up and going by the time I started, I imagine I would have a much better team given some of the gems floating around just now.

Going into the new year, I am confident we will finish mid table - somewhere about 12-17th would be my prediction - which would exceed my boards expectations. Speaking of the board, my chairman is actively looking to sell now, so if anyone has Sheikh Mansours number please get in touch.