Please delete

I've taken up Rick87's The Sir Alex Ferguson Challenge and I will be doing it 'The Fergie Way', well sort of. I will be updating it every few months or if anything drastic happens.

I will follow two of the rules to the letter:

1. Fergie's rule #1, No player is bigger than the club! If any player, no matter how good, wants to leave. Then he can go.
2. A strong focus on youth development, bringing quality players in young and gradually placing them in the squad.

I've started as Patrick Thistle, who are predicted to finish 5th, they have a small but good, young squad. With a few additions they could become a very good squad for this level.

Here's a view of what the squad looks like on the first day of the job.


Strengths
We have a large midfield filled with quality players, hopefully this group can dominate the physical side to Scottish football. We also have some good options up front to compliment this. The clubs finances are all in order and are working on a tight wage budget.

Weaknesses
We have no transfer budget and could do with strengthening at the back. I will have to look into the loan and free transfer market for a solution to this.

Best of luck mate, I'm PT as well at the moment so we'll see who gets to the SPL first!

Cheers mate. They look like a decent side!

First to be shown the Fergie treatment was young right back Steven O'Donnell who thinks it's time to move on. He has requested a transfer and been placed on the transfer list, however nobody's interested in him.



We played a few pre-season matches and preformed pretty well, this also gave me chance to mess about with tactics.


The highlight of pre-season was the draw SPL side Ross County, we fought back after going behind twice to seal a good result. The Cumnock result was disappointing as it would have been good going into the first competitive fixture.



Two players have joined the club to give the defence a boost.


First in was Scott Morrison to give us an extremely good choice at left back, between him and Aaron Sinclair. He joined on a free transfer and has the option of an extra year, if he reaches 20 games.


I brought in another right back to offer me an option if I lose O'Donnell. The club are paying half of Mark Bradley who has joined from Rotherham until the end of the season.

My plan of playing good old fashioned ball up the park football is working well. We've started the season winning 10 of the 13 opening fixtures, leaving us sitting top of the table. Everything has gone well in the cups so far, we progressed in both the Challenge and League Cup including a win over SPL side Hearts.

I also added two more defenders to the squad before the end of the transfer window.


Bradley Donaldson joined to booster our defence and offer us an extra option at both centre and right back. He looks like a no nonsense defender who can win a ball an clear it.


Scott Rumsby also joins on loan until the end of the season, another central defender to thicken up our back line.


I tried to flog Stephen O'Donnell despite his potential, however I received no offers and he has been placed in the reserves until he apologises or his contract runs out.






We have another youngster getting too big for his boots and has been placed on the transfer list. Aaron Sinclair will remain in the first team unless he acts up like O'Donnell.

Good start here mate, Shame about the players acting like dicks. Good players as well!

We had two tough cup ties against either side of the Old Firm, along with defeat to Queen of the South in the Scottish cup, taking Rangers to penalties in the Challenge Cup was a good result. The matches boosted the clubs coffers with over £150k, with two sell outs. Our league form hasn't been great causing us to slip to 2nd place.

I made two signings and found a nice little loop-hole that allows us to play trialists for up to 3 matches which could come in handy when our squad is knackered. We missed Kris Doolan this month who was ruled out for 2 months injured.


Derek Riordan joined until the end of the season with an extra year if he plays 15 matches. He has a bad reputation in the world of Scottish football, but hopefully I can get him in line for his final few year. He made an instant impact scoring a brace on his debut.


Another former Celt, Jean-Joel Perrier-Doumbe, joins the cub until the end of the season also with the view to an extra year. He will replace the departing Stephen O'Donnell, who sits in our reserves for misconduct, and is joining Plymouth for £12k. It's not much but it will free up £200 wages and we have a 20% sell on fee for a player who would leave for nothing in the summer.


Maceo Rigters gives us a new dynamic to our attack. The Dutchman put us over our wage budget, hopefully we can shift some deadwood in January.

Cheers, over half the squad are out of contract in the summer. I cant afford to tie all of them down so I'm in for a tough year next year.

Again our league form is unpredictable meaning we've dropped another place to 3rd and will need to win a few matches in row to climb back to the top of the table. Kris Doolan came back from injury with a bang scoring 5 goals.

I noticed that our balance had been dropping dramatically so I had to ship out a few players. I also brought in two new players as replacements at no cost for the club.


A product of Celtic youth academy, Mark Fotheringham joins until the end of the season with Ross County footing his wage bill.


Aberdeen youngster Clark Robertson fills the void left by the wantaway Aaron Sinclair. Again like Fotheringham his wages are paid by his parent club.

Some great signings there mate, hopefully they will be able to help you finish highly.

Do you plan to resign at the end of the season, regardless?

Cheers! If there's a job suitable available will resign. When I choose Patrick Thistle, I completely forgot about the first part of the challenge. If I don't get promotion I hope to take over the relegated SPL side and if I win the league, I'll move on to the next stage.

Yeah I had the first part of the challenge in mind when I chose Airdrie. Wanted a side that has little or no chance of promotion and hopefully finish high enough in the league but not get promoted. 2nd would be ideal!

I'm getting sick of all the spammers in the FM sections of the board, ruining peoples careers.

I know mate pain in the arse. Hopefully the mods can delete it.

Could any mod that see's this delete the thread as I have posted it again because of the volume of spam.