Holliday game

First match of the month saw us compete with fellow promoted Wimbledon. After an evenly matches first have we fell behind. Andréa Fileccia scored the equalizer with 20 minutes to play. Both sides tried hard but both goalkeepers stood firm. With time running out Yoshiaki Takagi score the winner, netting his first goal of the season, after a well played counter attack

Johnstone's Paint Trophy didnt have my name on it this season. We fell 2-0 behing within 10 minutes. We clawded one back behore the brake but couldnt quit make it in the end. Kind of a dissapointment because i felt we could go far again in this competition.

Against Carlisle we couldn't hold on to the lead twice, giving away the goals almost immidiatly after we scored ourselfs. But we didnt lose again. 2-2

Against Crawley we played a near perfect first halve. Going up 2-0, only to find out it wasn't enough in the end. One of the worst second halves i seen this season let them back, and they even could have won it.

We outplayed Sheffied United, only thing we can blame ourselfs this match is that it took over an hour to score the first. In the end Nicola Fiore netted the second with a blast from 30 meters out. But 2-0 wasn't nearly as good as our preformance.

Last match of the month was against bottem of the league Preston. We started of Fast And Furious, getting a goal disallowed after 10 minutes, for reason i am still guessing about. But only a few minutes after that Renaldo Jongebloet scored from a well waorked play to 1-0. After that te team seemed to switch off, and i fell asleep bored.

Now two months without league defeat see us climbing into the play-off spots. And that is what i aimed for at the start of the season. But maybe things can still get better. There still a lot of games we failed to close the game down when we are in winning positions. If we can improve on that we might even be in contention for direct promotion.

Time moves on and so do we. But not without trouble. This month we seemed hopeless going forward, we are in controle in most of the matches but are having trouble getting our shot away. And even if we manage to fire its either a blanc or its blocked. Anyhow we are not getting on the scoresheet enough. Even against BSN outfit Harrowgate we failed to score (in two matches) in normal time. If our goal scoring doesnt improve it could turn out to be a tough bettle to stay in the play-off spots.

Another couple of decent months, still drawing a few but its still seeing you pick up points!

December has been a packed month with no less then 9 games played, icluding a away trip for 5 matches in a row. We started with a home loss against Notts County, conceding the only within the minute.

After this disappointing result and other disappointmant game. Not getting past Aldershot at home for the FA-cup.

The Notts game proved learning moment for the team, because Renaldo Jongebloet score the only goal after just 18 seconds. Altleast a good start for our 5 games away from home trip.

Next two games ended in 1-0 losses including the replay agains Aldershot for the FA-cup. A shame because a win would have seen us play West Ham away.

But the team bounced back battering Bournemouth 1-4. With the first 2 goals within 5 minutes. The only goal Bournemouth scored was an unmarked clean header in the top corner by Daniel O'Reilly

And Daniel O'Reilly score an other own goal to give us a 1-0 defeat against Portsmouth.

Next league leaders Stevenage and with most key players to jaded to play a hard game to get. But With most of my second eleven on the pitch we ran away winning 2-1 Sinan Keskin scoring the winner making his first senior goal.

A victory against Leicester would leave us in a good league spot going into the new year. And my team delivered, a solid 1-0.



The board also made more funds availeble if i upgraded my season expectations, so i went from mid-table to top-half. Giving me money to spend. Now i have to think if and how i want to spent.

Very nice budget now to work with during January, looking good to compete for another promotion on the bounce!

I reached my second century as Salisbury manager in the month januari.

The transfer deadline has past and we have been busy finding new addions for the team. But the sad news first. Both Renaldo Jongebloet as Joeri de Kamps have accepted offers from other teams and will be leaving us after this season. Further did i sell both Victor Zapata-Caicedo and long serving Christian Kabeya, who has been with us since i took charge of Salisbury. Both went on free transfer with a 50% sell on clause.


Ofcourse we also brought in some new players. I preparation of the departure of Renaldo Jongebloet i bought Diogo Rosado for € 350k. Further did i manage to bring in Wes Hoolahan on a no cost loan deal till the end of season. And when you can sign Ronaldinho do you hasitate? Well I did but he is on a player/scout deal and low wage. Hoping to use him later to get some South-America reports in when i can scout overseas.




My good preformances as a manager are starting to get noticed more and more. I got two new job offers this month. One was very temting, who doesn't want to spend a lot of days on Teneriffe. But in the end turned both of them down.





We also played so footbal in januari. We started of the month great with 3 wins and a draw. Especialy pleasing was the 1-2 win over Tranmere who where league leader at thet point. After those 4 matches it went downward a bit losing two and drawing one. But we are still well heading for a play-off spot and can even dream about direct promotion, altho it is a wild dream.

Nice to see the clubs lining you up and what a signing Ronalhdino is!

Febuary only held three matches. Nothing special happened we won our home match drew and lost away from home. So thats basicly as you would hope for. Last match we came back from 2-0 down left back Kai van Hese scoring both goal identical with a diaginal shot across the face of the goal.

The result during the closing of the season has been mixed. At some point we dropped out of the play-off spot but we worked or way back in. The biggest problem is our ability, or rather the lack of ability to score goals. Most our goal are from set pieces. My strikers are on a near season long goal drought. Andréa Fileccia last goal came 24 october 2015, and Martín Kozhuharov scored 21 november his last goal.

All in all we had a good season. We reached the play-offs which was my personal goal. Now we have to see if we can pull off an amazing 4th promotion in a row.

Well done hitting the playoffs come the end of the season buddy! Theres a part of me hoping you don't get another promotion, I feel the Championship would kill you and possibly face relegation following four promotions on the bounce!

I share your worries, if i get promoted and get a decent budget i probably have to reshape the whole squad. Off loading most players i have now and bring in new (improved) players. As some of the ones on the pitch have been with me since the BSS.

With my team reching the play-off i am very pleased. An eventho it probably better if we dont win the promotion, we you get there you wan to go for it.

First up is Crewe Alexadra.


We had to start at home which is considered a disadvantage. But I don't think it is that bad. As we aren't on a great run ending the season, a good home tie can set up your team to sit back away and play reactive football.

The first chance of the match fell to Crewe from a corner after 3 minutes. Luckily the ball came of the crossbar and bounced out of danger. 10 Minutes later Crewe got there 2nd and last chance of the match. A long shot was fumbled by the goalkeeper and my defender cleared the ball against the opponents striker. The rebound felt to him but he put it on (for me) the right side of the post. After that we kept them away from our goal. But going forward nothing realy happens till just before halvetime when Yosiaki Takagi curled a free kick against the post. Second halve we got an open oppertunity, bu Wes Hoolahan blasted it over. I was happy keeping a clean sheet at home but would have loved to score one.



Knowing that the 2nd leg we needed to get atleast a draw and atleast score once I deced not to sit back and persue the goal imidiatly. And it payed off, an early ball in from Kai van Hese was headed home by Nicola Fiore. And like the first match, we where evenly tied, and both hopeless going forward. So without anything happening till a scamble are our goal at the verge of the final whistle, we went true to the final.



With the final at wembley approaching, it became clear i had to miss out on three players due to international duty. Martín Kozuharov, Daniel O'Reilly and Jack Byrne. Our oppenents where Portsmouth, and we beat them a month ago at an very important stage of the competition when we needed a win to stay in the play-off spots. So we knew it was doable.



First halve saw a good chance being wasted by Yoshiaki Takagi. He got a knock early in the match a I had to take him off before halve time. Besides a couple of scrambles before both goals from corners nothing realy happened any further. Second halve Portsmouth can out firing and put up a lot of preasure on our goal. It payed off when they went ahead on the hour. With nothing to show for going forward, Andréa Fileccia broke lose on the 85th minute. His shot went against the woodwork, but Diogo Rosado follow up and aimed just a bit lower to equalize. Sending the game into overtime. Right from the kick-off Diogo Rosado wiped in an early cross, Nicola Fiore beat his man to the ball and headed home. For most of the overtime we looked more likely to score a second them to concede. But a game aint over till the final whistle and on the 119 th minute we got a final scre with a triple save from my goalie to win us the 4th promotion in a row.



That concludes an incredible season end. And leaves me with a massive challenge to see if i can keep my team up in the championship. Last notable thing, eventho my strikers had one of the worst seasons i have ever seen, Yoshiaki Takagi had a great season, and got elected in the the players team of the year.

Great job to receive the promotion. Hope you will stay up. Will be a difficult season. Good luck with it.

With 4 promotion in a row it is time to re-shape the team. Altho the option where there to aim higher then avoid relegation i opted not to, even if it would give me higher budgets. I off-loaded a shipload of player and got some decent signings in. I am still working on a big name striker signing, which i can hopefully complete soon.



A brilliantly strong GK:


And back-up GK with groth potential:


To bolster my midfield:


Great right winger, payed € 200k for him:


Hopefully a more succesfull striker, then the two I played last season (both i sold):


I also brought in a young striker but due to homegrown status he is out on loan. But i have high hopes he will be good for me in the future:


Sadly our 1 year old stadium is under going rebuilding to get rid of the standing places. Leaving us without our own stadium for 10 month. But we found decent replacement housing as we share St. Mary's with Southampton this season. If we can get that stadium (32689 seats) filled it would be a nice boost to our financials.

Pre season went mediocre. With a couple of big name teams to play we didnt manage to get a single victory. But had some decent results.



And i still have all tranfer money in the bank so i am still looking for some oppertunities to get a great deal in. But my wage limitations make it hard to get the best of the best. ut i feel my squad should be able to stay out of relegation troubles. Personaly i am aiming for a mid-table finish.

Salisbury stuns world of football



Newly promoted npower Championship team Salisbury manager Jörgen van den Berg conferms the signing of the 52 times english international Jermain Defoe. Jörgen van den Berg seemed all over the moon, Jermain is a big capture for the club, he has a proven record goal scoring and I am sure he will come up big. Altho some scepticals think Jermain Defoe is over his top. The Salisbury manager think he brings a lot of experiance to the club.

Question about why he joined Salisbury, Defoe answered: Salisbury is a great team with a lot of potential. The aren't moving up through the league's for no reason. I feel this club can achief great things and I want to help them achiving them.

Wow well done winning promotion yet again buddy! Championship will be tough, lets hope an ageing Defoe can still fire you away from the relegation zone!

A more then decent start of the competition in my opinion. To aviod relegation you need to gather the mostly at home. From our first three home games we got 4 points. And with 1 point away from home we away from the relegation zone, altho it is just with 1 point. We got a nice first round win in the Capital One Cup but went out in the second round against Wigan away. Still think we have enough to get through this season savely.

The month started of ok. A draw against Reading, who out played us during pre-season. Then a away draw, and points away from home are always good. Next we got hammered by Swansea 4-1 and that wasn't even a good reflection of the the match. 7-1 or worse was also a possibility. With an unlucky home loss against Bolton, the home game against QPR became a must win fixture. With 9 games without a win and dropping towards the relegation places, we needed a big morale boost. In an evenly matched contest we came on top a winner. Last match was an other unlucky loss. We played better then and had more oppertunities then Birmingham, but they got the goal and we didn't. And that is what matters in the end. I feel our up comming fixture are of great importance for how the league will go for me. I think we must get 7 points of our next 5 matches not to get into trouble.

Defoe hasn't scored yet, thats a little worrying, this season was always going to be tough following all the promotions on the bounce!

Non of my strikers have score yet, most goals i make are from set pieces. So that is a worry.

As we are struggling and i still had some money to spare i tried to boos the squad with a new signing. Mehdi Abeid released by Newcaste United to bring more strenght in my midfield.




The month started of well. We got a win against Bristol City. Young striker Colin Gordon opening the score, and is the first striker to score for me this season. Bristol City tied the match just before the end of the game. But Nicola Fioro sent the fans into rapture by winning the game on the whistle.

Against Nottingham Forrest we went ahead by a goal from a corner. Forrest netted two in a row after halvetime. Jermain Defoe thought he had clinched a point scoring his first goal for the club after 88 minutes. But no cheers in the end as we had to leave all the point in Nottingham after a dramatic goal 2 minutes into stoppage time.

A 6 pointer next against fellow relegation candidates Stevenage. We got of to a flyer with Bilal Hamdi scoring after 3 minutes. Ina match we totaly controled we still let in the equalizer. But a very good display was rewarded when Kai van Hese scored what proved to be the winner.

Next match we where slaughtered by Sheffield Wednesday. Only positive point is that Graham Burke opened his account scoring the consolation goal..

I wanted 7 points from 5 games. This the last game should bring in the draw to complete the goal. And everything looked good as we played very well. But 3 mistakes at the back saw us falling behinde three times. And eventho we had chances we couldn't score an equalizer three times. Worst thing Yoshiaki Takagi got seriously injured, and we be missing him for 3 months.

Last match of the month was against West Ham. They had very mixed results so it was hard to predict what would happen. Getting 5 bookings with 30 minutes left everyone walking on thin ice and in the end West Ham got the goal, which they probably deserved.



We hanging on on a very slim thread. Standing just above the relegations spots, but the team underneath have games in hand. We need to get some kind of string of results going or we could be on for the drop.

In total november has been a very pleasing month. Winning both my home matches and getting 4 points from4 away matches, including my first away victory. Maybe my players are getting used to the higher pace, and better opposition. I brought in an other player to strenghten our defence, because we where getting some bans due to accumilated booking.



First up was Cardif away, we took the lead by an early goal of Stéphane Madeira from a corner. We just couldn't hold on and just before the break the scores where level again. After the break we did hold on to a away point.

Next up where two home matches we both won. Especialy the one against Millwall was very pleasing as they where second in the league at that time. It also gave a nice morale boost which we carried into the next game, enabling us to crush Peterborough 3-0. Mehdi Abeid scored his first goal at the club.

In an evenly matches encounter against Blackburn we went ahead again, Mehdi Abeid scoring second game running. Blackburn was more decisive in front of goal and ran away 3-1. But we took the good things from the game into the next one. We left Leeds no chance, winning 0-2 and putting in a superb display.



Ten points total in november steared us away from the relegation zone. But we are not save, and we need to keep our eyes open not to be leapfrogged.

I december our good run continued. We started with a very important away win against league rivals Brighton. Jermain Defoe netted a late winner.

League number two Wigam got slaughtered by Mehdi Abeid scoring a hatrick. Chuck Aneke finished the game off giving us a 4-0 win.

Next up league leaders Fulham. They have watched our progres and game out sharp, putting us behinde 3-0, Jermain Defoe score a late consolation.

A good 3-0 win over relegation candidates Blackpool, realy got us clear from the relegation zone. And a late winner against Tranmere made the month complete. With an excelent 12 out of 15 points.



The job offers come fast and thick these days. But the offer i recieved from Wolves was the best so far. At the moment i got a wage of 1.8k a week, wolves offered me the amazing amount of 32k a week.

First after lifting the transfer window I brought in more depth and strenght in my defence. Signing expirianced r ight back Pedro López on free transfer.





Not much matches in januari. We continues our good run winning at home in a close battle against Sunderland. We went up early, but they hitted back hard taking the 1-2 lead just before halve time. But we managed to score the equalizer on the whistle. Second halve both teams had there chances but Mehdi Abeid gave us a going away present before he left to play the African Nations Cup.

Next up was Reading, with most players still tired from previous match and with the big match against Tottingham ahead i rested all my starting eleven. The 2nd team couldn't pull an upset 2-0.

FA-cup tie against premier league high flyers Tottingham was next. We where slaugthered by them during pre-season, so we knew had to do something special to get to the next round. Bilal Hamdi scored the 1-1 and gave us the lead with a total fluke in the 66th minute. But Tottingham turned it up a notch and prevented the shock result scoring 3 more times.

Against Charlton we went up 2-0 in the first 10 minutes, but it was all square again at the break. After the break it was one way traffic towards Charlton's goal but i took us till the closing stages to get the winner in.



We now sit safely mid table and we closing in on a lot of teams above us. On the transfer deadline day i bought a striker who i think can step into Jermain Defoe foot step next year. I payed 70k for Simone Zaza I hope he can come up big.

A month of sloppy football. First match against we start of weak, but manage to get a goal. At halve time we trail 1-2. Secong halve we play much better and score the equalizer. When Chiró N'Toko score the 3-2 in the 83th minute i believed we edged out the game. But Swansea hit back 3 minutes into stoppage time.

Next a well played match against Bolton, we go infront 0-2 from penalty and a corner, but a few minutes before the break we concede a penalty. After the break Bolton hit us on the counter, but only a few minutes later Chuks Aneke put us back infront, and that proved to be the winner.

Against QPR only the first 15 minutes where worth watching, 3 goals and 2-1 for a bore loss. Birningham out tried to out counter us. We had 62% of the ball but they had more shots on target (4 to 6). It ended 1-1, i could live with that.



We holding on save at mid-table and i dont think we need to worry about the drop anymore.

Missed a few months but doing brilliant, December looked to be a great month for you, your February update had the fixtures twices instead of the league table! Keep going and secure a spot in this division for the next season!

A month of mixed feelings. First match was like a horror show. We where unable to do anything right right, and big mistakes at the back let them in time after time. 3-0 and a night without sleep.

Next match against bottem of the table Stevenage gave an easy victory, and Jermain Defoe found the net again after 11 hours without a goal.

Nottingham Forrest where behinde after only 2 minutes, but in front after 30 minutes, again 2 big mistakes at the back. at the break we where back on level terms. And got the deserved win, Mehdi Abeid scoring 2 goals.

An other horror match next. Playing very pleasing first halve and 3-0 up, a easy victory seemed in the making. But we fell asleep and they made four second halve goals. Leaving me wondering what happened.



Kai van Hese has deceded to leave the team after being around from the start in the BSS. Only 1 player that i had signed at the start of my career now is still at the club and holds a spot in the first eleven (Chiró N'Toko)

With the end of the season approaching the team put down a very good display. Especialy away from home we did amazing. It gave me even the manager of the month title.



And because we did great and other team struggled a bit we even came close to a play-off spot. I hope we can take this kind of form into the next season, and then maybe we can be realy in contention for a play-off spot.

Season ending shows us as the overachivers, also we made the two best signings of the season Chuks Aneke and Mehdi Abeid.



Chuks Aneke's preformance this season awarded him a spot in the season's players Team of the Year.



Besides the good preformance of our team a second highlight was that the reserves won the group 2.



Eventho my stadium is only 2 years old it will already undergo its second renovation to keep up with the first team. North stand will be expended, altho in my opinion it isn't enough. The stadium will grow to around 8.000 seats by i feel we can fill atleast 12.000 spots.



And last but not least I tried to extend Jermain Defoe's contract but he decided to retire after reaching 500 league matches. He maybe didn't score as many as i would have like but he played very well and was important in the build up play and setting up our midfielders.



During season end i signed one youth player. Probably won't be in my first team next season but still have high hopes for him in the furure.



On the the next season.

We had decent result going in the pre-season, some might have been better but some where great.



With Kai van Hese who left on a free transfer and Jermaine Defoe who retired, our main objective was to fill those spot. Further I wanted to add depth on my right back, right wing and defencive midfield. I got decnt tranfer funds and wage budget as the board expect me to finish atleast top halve table.



I sold Yoshiaki Takagi because i couldn't get him to sign a new contract. And at the start of the season i can atleast get a decent price still. 1.5Mil + 10% on profit of resell. SO with a fill wallet i went to see what was out there.

Left back i found on a free transfer a good youngster who i play imidiatly in starting eleven:



For the striker position i had to pull my wallet. For 2.2Mil i bought a talented youngster:


Right back on season loan
Right wing on free transfer
defensive midfielder on free transfer

With still some money in the pocket i can bring in some more players if i feel its needed but this is the group i will start with.