My Journey So Far...

Back Story

17th July 2012 - I was controversially appointed England manager despite being only 25 years old and possessing no discernible experience or qualifications
15th August 2012 - The press ridicule the FA for my appointment after my first game in charge ends in a humiliating 1-0 defeat to Slovenia at Wembley, My decision to drop experienced stars such as Rio Ferdinand and John Terry in favor of a younger generation is also criticized.

7th September 2012 - I switched from 4-5-1 to my now signature 5-3-2 for the opening World cup qualifiers against Ukraine and Moldova which is utilized to great effect as we out winners in both games 3-2 and 3-0 respectively.
12th October 2012 - A very experimental side runs out 7-0 winners against San Marino with goals from Ryan Shawcross (x2) Steven Gerrard, Peter Crouch (x2), Charlie Austin and Jay Rodriguez before Peter Crouch strikes in a 1-1 draw with Montenegro in Podgorcia to give us ten points from a possible twelve so far in qualification.
14th November 2012 - A Ryan Shawcross header and a brace from Darren Bent see us come from a goal down to beat Scotland in my first encounter with our oldest rival.

6th February 2013 - The monstrous height and strengths of Stoke team-mates Peter Crouch and Ryan Shawcross are the difference against mighty Brazil in this friendly as the defender opens the scoring with a typical header from a corner before Crouch scores twice in five minutes to effectively finish off the five time world champions before half time with us winning 3-1 in the end.
26th March 2013 - Rooney and Lampard strike to give us a 2-0 win over Poland in Warsaw before a drab 0-0 draw with Ukraine in Kiev as WC qualifying continues.
14th August 2013 - A shock friendly defeat to Wales raises eyebrows as my squad contained nine debutants.
6th September 2013 - We make up for the defeat to Wales with a 4-0 win over minnows Moldova (Rooney, Crouch x2, Shawcross) before Crouch knocks in the only goal in a 1-0 win over Poland to put us on the brink of Brazil 2014.
11th October 2013 - A 5-1 win over San Marino (Shawcross x2, Howson, Crouch, Le Fondre) ensured my boys would be flying to South America next summer, but just for good measure we smash Montenegro 6-0 (Le Fondre x2, A.Cole, Crouch x2, Bozovic o.g) to complete the qualifying campaign in style.

15th November 2013 - We're quickly brought back down to Earth by a dreadful 3-0 defeat at home to Uruguay, before going an beating Holland 1-0 (Defoe) in Amsterdam just three days later in a decidedly mixed week.
8th December 2013 - We learn that we will be playing South Korea, Nigeria and Paraguay as the World cup draw is made.


4th March 2014 - Aston Villa midfielder Ashley Westwood makes a dream debut for the Three Lions as he belts home a screamer after just six minutes against the Republic of Ireland which turned out to be the only goal in Dublin.
26th May 2014 - The final month before the world cup sees us suffer a shock defeat to Northern Ireland in Belfast before beating Ghana 4-0 (Crouch, Austin x2, Lampard), Colombia 5-0 (Lampard, Rooney, Wiltshire, Shawcross, Clyne) and Japan 3-0 (A.Cole, Rooney, Lampard) to complete an encouraging pre-tournement schedule.
16th June 2014 - We kick off our World cup in less than emphatic style as we are held to a 0-0 draw by Nigeria in the Maracana.
21st June 2014 - A 5-1 win over Paraguay (Lampard x2, Crouch x2, Silva o.g) in Morumbi gets the ball rolling in earnest for us as we go into the final game against leaders South Korea knowing that a win would see us win the group.
26th June 2014 - Wing back Nathanial Clyne produces the performance of the tournament as he is twice at the right place at the right time to bring us from behind twice before crowning an amazing day by setting off on a mazy solo run, culminating in our 92nd minute winner as the Southampton youngsters hat-trick snatches first place out of the Korean's hands right at the death to set up a second round clash with Christiano Ronaldo's Portugal. Not bad for someone who only made his international debut a month earlier.

30th June 2014 - Portugal are unable to cope with the sheer size of Peter Crouch as the 6'7 target man completes a hat-trick which is complimented by a Steven Gerrard strike to see us emphatically through 4-0 to the quarter finals against Italy with things really starting to get serious.
5th July 2014 - With Spain, Brazil and Argentina already eliminated everyone left in the tournament really believes they have a genuine chance of fulfilling the ultimate dream of every footballer and lifting the World cup. This excitement is evident as Italy and ourselves knock seven bells out of each other in a tense game which is settled by a single Wayne Rooney strike mid-way through the first half. We spend most of the second defending as if our lives depended on it but manage to hang on to set up a semi final against that most dreaded of opposition....Germany.
9th July 2014 - Easily the most nervous I have ever been during a game on FM, the tension was killing me as the Germans started brightly and forced Joe Hart into several good saves, dominating possession, however the speed of our counter attack proved a most effective weapon as Nathanial Clyne sprinted at pace down the right flank in the 17th minute to tee up Wayne Rooney perfectly to slot home and send the English half of the stadium into raptures, just moments after they had been holding their breath for a German corner.
As the game wore on Joachim Lowe's side became more and more dominate in terms of possession but my five man defense (Clyne, Shawcross, Cahill, Jagielka, Cole) repelled everything that was thrown at it, finally in the 85th minute English footballs 48 years of hurt came to an end as the Germans allowed us to get revenge for the semi final heartbreaks at their hands at Italia 90' and Euro 96' as a Mats Hummels planted the ball past his own goalkeeper to send the Three Lions into the world cup final for the first time since 1966 with surprise package Belgium waiting.

9th July 2014 - This is it, the Big one. Strangely I was far more relaxed for the final than I was in the last couple of games, perhaps it was because Belgium don't quite hold the same level of intimidation as Italy and Germany do, but that by no means meant that we could afford to take a team containing Edin Hazard, Vincent Kompany, Christian Benteke and Maroune Fellaini lightly.

Belgium started their first ever World cup final brightly with Hazard causing Nathanial Clyne problems cutting inside from the flanks, the girth of Benteke was neutralized by the equally physically impressive Ryan Shawcross and Gary Cahill as we absorbed the pressure, the Belgians began to get frustrated at their inability to break through our defense which had only conceded three goals in the entire tournament, and they were all back in the group stage. Finally we punished their impotency in the 41st minute as Peter Crouch chested down a long ball from Clyne midway inside Belgium's half before knocking the ball bast Thomas Vermaelen to go clean through on Thibault Courtouis's goal where he calmly slotted the ball beneath the dive of the Chelsea keeper to score the most important goal in English football since Geoff Hurst in 1966, a goal which ultimately proved enough to see captain Steven Gerrard lift footballs ultimate prize before the 76,000 strong crowd inside the Maracana stadium.

Crouch's six goals see him finish second in the scoring chart behind Javier Hernadez, Joe Hart is crowned best goalkeeper and is also named in the FIFA dream team alongside Crouch, Ryan Shawcross and Nathanial Clyne. Crouch is now just six goals behind Bobby Charlton in England's all time scorers list.
5th September 2014 - In our first game since the World cup we took on Leo Messi's Argentina at Wembley with the World champions running out 1-0 winners thanks to a Jermain Defoe strike midway through the first half, It was then off to the chilly Faroe Islands for the first of our Euro 2016 qualifiers where Mark Noble scores on his debut before Defoe, Danny Graham and Shawcross complete the simple 4-0 win over the minnows.

10th October 2014 - A 5-0 win over Bulgaria (Shawcross, Defoe, Wilshere, Rooney, Crouch) and a credible draw against Turkey in Istanbul see us sitting pretty at the top of our group.
19th November 2014 - We defeat the Auld enemy from the North 4-0 as Peter Crouch and Steven Gerrard net either side of a Jack Wilshere brace to sink Scotland in this now annual friendly.
26th November 2014 - Since winning the World cup I've had several job offers, however non of them had interested me until now, Southampton were bottom after thirteen games having not won a single game and amassing a measly five points, many were already saying the Saints were doomed to relegation, having looked at their squad I could see so much potential amongst their ranks I knew I could help them out and accepted their offer, with no England game scheduled until next March I had time to give it a good crack without distraction.
30th November 2014 - My first game in club management ends in a 3-1 triumph over Aston Villa as Pablo Osvaldo scores twice and midfielder Jack Collison nets the third to see us come from behind for our first win of the season. I immediately deployed my trademark 5-4-1 with my England charge Nathanial Clyne and youngster Luke Shaw as wing backs which proves immediately successful as we go on a five game unbeaten run, including draws with Chelsea and Manchester City and a 3-0 win over Tottenham.

31st January 2015 - With my side continuing to climb away from trouble with just two defeats in my first twelve games (to Liverpool and Arsenal) I make liberal use of the transfer market, selling off players who don't fit into my system such as Gaston Ramirez to Bayern Munich for £12.5M and Diego Fabbrini to Inter for £6M, raising over £30M in funds. I use this money to bring in Mikel Arteta for a bargain £375k from Arsenal, former world player of the year Samuel Eto'o on loan from Chelsea, Newcastle's defensive anchor Steven Taylor for £2.5M who will partner Ryan Bennett who arrive for £10M and Forest midfielder Chris Cohen (£8M), all three of who I have capped for the national team.
7th February 2015 - As our surge up the table continues we achieve one of the biggest shocks in Premiership history, smashing Manchester United 3-0 with goals from Arteta, Osvaldo and Collison.
21st March 2015 - Back in England colors we lose for the first time in almost a year, going down 2-1 to Spain in a friendly before a Wayne Rooney hat-trick sinks Armenia 3-0 in the Euro qualifiers. I could be accused of bias as four of my Southampton stars play against Armenia, including young James Ward-Prowse who has been immense since I gave him a regular spot in my Saints team.
6th May 2015 - Such is our revitalization since I took over in November we are now just a point behind Stoke City in seventh place with two games to go, if we overtake the Potters we will have gone from being bottom without a single win to qualifying for next seasons Europa League in a whirlwind six months, we defeat Liverpool at St. Mary's as Stoke lose to Fulham, we suffer a final day 1-0 defeat to Manchester City but as Stoke only managed a draw in their game we take seventh!
5th June 2015 - Adam Le Fondre who has just become a saints player scores the only goal in a narrow 1-0 in Geneva over Switzerland before netting a brace in a 4-0 rout of the Faroe Islands (Ashley Westwood and Danny Graham got the others) as we move three points clear of Turkey.

30th June 2015 - After 119 caps for the three Lions and over 500 appearances for Liverpool, Steven Gerrard decides to call time on his illustrious career, I'm disappointed he didn't stick around for another year in order to break Peter Shilton's all time England caps record but still, he goes out on the high of joining Bobby Moore as a World cup winning captain. I decided to appoint Ryan Shawcross as the new national skipper, the Man City man has only missed one game since making his debut against Slovenia in 2012.
6th August 2015 - Our Europa League campaign gets underway with a qualifier against Motherwell, we win the first leg 1-0 thanks to a scorching strike from Ricky Lambert but lose the second 1-0, sending the game to extra time and eventually penalty's where we triumph 3-2, Ryan Bennett scoring the decisive kick. My rejuvenation of the squad continued as the Premier League player of the year Victor Wanyama departed to Italian giants Napoli for £17M, I was disappointed to see him go but the money allowed me to strengthen my side with the likes of Adam Le Fondre, Jordan Rhodes, World cup hero Peter Crouch and Man City's Javi Garcia amongst others.

12th August 2015 - A Wayne Rooney brace is enough in a 2-1 friendly encounter with the USA in New York as we gear up for what could be the decisive Euro 2016 qualifiers against Bulgaria and Turkey next month.

England Players debuted under me (caps/goals since)
I've been quite experimental with my squad selections, particularly in friendly's, as long as a player is in form for his club at the time his reputation doesn't matter to me;
Charlie Austin (11/4) Nathan Baker (1/0) Ryan Bennett (6/0) Ryan Bentrand (6/0) Jack Butland (2/0) Sam Byram (3/0) Lee Cattermole (2/0) Steven Caulker (3/0) Tom Cleverley (2/0) Nathanial Clyne (24/4) Chris Cohen (2/0) Jack Cork (7/0) Aaron Cresswell (7/0) Frasier Forster (11/0) Danny Graham (15/3) Tommy Hoban (2/0) Grant Holt (2/0) Johnny Howson (13/1) Will Hughes (9/0) Tom Ince (1/0) Adam Lallana (1/0) Adam Le Fondre (6/6) Matthew Lowton (1/0) Mark Noble (5/1) Jay Rodriguez (1/1) Danny Rose (2/0) John Ruddy (6/0) Ryan Shawcross (36/11) Jason Steele (1/0) John Stones (5/0) Steven Taylor (2/0) James Tomkins (8/0) James Ward-Prowse (4/0) Ben Watson (2/0) Ashley Westwood (5/2) Mike Williamson (1/0)

Nice work so far. Do you still have Lallana at Southampton?

So that brings us right up to date on the eve of the 2015/16 season as we prepare to face Liverpool at home, first let's take a quick look at my Southampton squad for the coming campaign.

Goalkeepers

Swiss international Yann Sommer will be my number one as he was last season, Jake Kean will likely be my cup keeper whilst young Will Piortrowski provides cover should anything happen to them.

Center backs

As I mentioned before I utilize a wing-back system so I need three solid center backs to hold the fort at the back whilst the wing-backs get forward, Steven Taylor is my new captain and will be the rock around which the defense is built, Ryan Bennett and Spanish international Jordi Amat are my preferred partners for Taylor with Winston Reid and Gary Medel offering solid rotation options, young Frenchman Cileus Joachim looks a great prospect for the future after we snapped him up from PSG this summer.

Wing backs

England U21 James Husband is a new arrival after we swooped to bring him from Doncaster Rovers where he had requested a transfer to improve his chances of selection for England (on my advice)
Nathanial Clyne is now a house hold name after his sterling performances throughout the World cup triumph, he and Luke Shaw who himself may get his first call up from me soon are equally adept at getting forward as they are defending. I'm in the process of training Andy King to play in the position as he seems to have all the attributes required and proberly won't get much football in his natural central midfield role considering the wealth of talent we have ahead of him in the pecking order.

Midfield

We don't lack for talent in this department, Spaniards Javi Garcia and Mikel Arteta will run the show from the middle of the park, both are capable of defending as well as supporting the attack, enabling James Ward-Prowse to drive forward and become almost a third forward.
Jack Collison and Chris Cohen are both good at holding the ball when needed whereas Jake Livermore is a talented ball winner who will be useful when playing a team who play possession football.

Forwards

With six forwards on the books it may be difficult to keep them all happy, although it will be good to have plenty of cover for our Europa league campaign, Usually I play a poacher with a supporting targetman which Jordan Rhodes and Peter Crouch fit the bill perfectly for, as do Adam Le Fondre and Ricky Lambert. Pablo Osvaldo and Jay Rodriguez were also a good partnership last season and were largely the reasons we were able to climb away from danger so fast.

No he departed for Newcastle in the Summer before I joined Southampton.

Wins over Bulgaria and Turkey have ensured we will be participating at Euro 2016 as we qualify with two games left to play...

Both games were tight, however we were able to grind out the results we needed, beating Bulgaria 2-0 in Sofia (Wilshire, Rooney) and then just about getting the upper hand on Turkey thanks to a second half Nathanial Clyne strike. Eight games down and not a single goal conceded is a testament to the strength of my back line which new captain Ryan Shawcross is marshaling magnificently.
There were two debutantes in the squad this time, Liverpool's Jonjo Shelvey came on as a second half sub against Bulgaria and impressed enough to earn a starting place against Turkey, could he be the heir to Steven Gerrard? My very own left wing back Luke Shaw also came from the bench in Sofia, he has been consistently excellent for my Southampton side and deserved his chance on the big stage, whether he will hold of Leighton Baines, Ryan Bentrand long term remains to be seen but with Ashley Cole now retired he has a good shot.
Euro 2016 qualification might not have finished yet but we already know who we will be facing as we begin our defense of the World cup next year;

We're already familiar with the Faroes and Bulgaria as we have faced them in our current group, Wales will undoubtedly be the biggest game of the bunch, last time we met the Welsh won out 2-1 winners in a 2013 friendly.

On the Southampton side of things we've had a decent enough start to the new season, a draw with Liverpool on the opening day was certainly a good result, losing to champions Man Utd was to be expected, however I was left disappointed only to get a point at home to Hull despite dominating throughout the game.

In the Europa league a 3-0 home win against Danish side AaB gave us enough of an advantage to see us through to the group stages of the competition after a 1-1 draw in Denmark, the draw however has not been kind to us;

16th October 2015

We have now completed our Euro2016 qualification schedule, our final two games saw us travel to Armenia and Switzerland, both of whom still had a faint hope of snatching second, ourselves of course having already won the group.
Perhaps the fact that we were already through made us complacent or perhaps we simply just underestimated Armenia who we beat 3-0 at Wembley back in March, but we just failed to move up through the gears in this one as we played out a dreary 0-0 game where neither side seemed capable of stringing three passes together. defiantly one that won't live long in the memory.

Thankfully we did sharpen up as we the curtain fell on qualifying back in London as we completed a straight forward 3-0 win over the Swiss, finishing the group without conceding a single goal throughout the ten games, in fact our defense hasn't shipped a goal in a competitive game since the 3-2 win over South Korea in the group stage of the World cup over a year ago.


Wayne Rooney moved a step closer to Bobby Charlton's goal record for the Three Lions, the Manchester United forward has 46 strikes to his name, three behind Sir Bob, Peter Crouch is also closing in on the landmark on 44, who will get their first?

My Southampton starlet James Ward-Prowse also found the net against Switzerland, although he still has a very long way to go to catch up with Rooney or Crouch. JWP has been playing out of his skin ever since I gave him his big chance in the first team and earned himself a place in the England team for the first time earlier this year.

There are two more fixtures to fulfill this year for England as we head to Dublin to take on Ireland before the Scots visit Wembley for our annual friendly, then of course I'm going to have to think about booking some pre-tournement matches to warm up for Euro2016.


At St. Mary's things are going quite well, we have our first Premiership win of the season under our belts after beating Newcastle away from home before getting another three points in an impressive 3-0 demolition of West Brom in addition to taking a point against West Ham.

Two wins, three draws and two defeats have us lodged in mid-table with a game in hand which is more or less where we are expected to remain throughout the campaign, I'm hopeful we can qualify for the Europa league again however.

Talking of the Europa League, we've got off to the best possible start in our continental adventure, a win over Maccabi Haifa in Israel was probably expected but a beating Fenerbache will have surprised many people, the toughest game of the group is undoubtedly the trip to Rome which is up next, if we can get something from that I fancy us to qualify for the next round.

The league cup draw has pitted us at home to Millwall which I fancy us to win, the winner will face a home game with West Ham in the fourth round.

All in all, things a re looking good for both club and county.

1st November 2015
I've just fell victim to perhaps the harshest sacking I've ever encountered on FM;

Admittedly results hadn't been great recently but with us cruising towards the knockout stages of the Europa League after beating Roma in Italy, not to mention the miraculous revival I initiated to save the club from relegation back to the Championship last season, I thought I would have been given a fairer chance in my first full season in charge.

I'm really shocked and gutted to be forced out as I thought I could build something special with my team full of talented young English players, many of whom are establishing themselves in my England squad.

Oh well, at least now I can focus fully on preparing for Euro 2016 with England and perhaps go back into club management after that.

Good read mate, I recently started a side game as England and glad to know I am not the only one who picked players based on form and not just reputation. I mean I even gave Felipe Morais a start for England based on form lol. I contemplated starting a thread but felt all the updating would probably take the fun away from just playing.

Our World Cups went similar except I lost my semi to Germany 4-0 and Belgium won the final 2-1.

I resigned afterwards though and now manage Columbia in the Copa America before I will move on again.

Some of the players I gave games to were Austin(has 10 goals in 14 apps now FREAK), Tom Ince, Smithies, Giles Barnes, Richard Eckersley, Luke Shaw, Nick Powell, Gary Hooper, Tom Hately, Luke Freeman, Fraser Foster, John Ruddy, Kevin Nolan, Kyle Walker, Jack Robinson, Ross Barkley, Sam Byram, Michael Bostwick, Lee Naylor, Shane Hill, Will Hughes, Richard Martin, Manny Smith, Rob Jones, Nicky Law, Gary Taylor-Fletcher, Dean Lewington.

Manny Smith he played for Walsall a few years ago.

International football can go both ways, it can be a lot of fun or tediously boring, I think a lot of it depends on how you select your team, I get far more enjoyment from seeing inexperienced England players like Adam LeFondre or James Ward-Prowse score a winning goal than Wayne Rooney or one of the old guard.

Have you picked Ryan Shawcross? He is a beast for me (40 caps, 11 goals)

1st December 2015

So, Back to managing the national team full time; The final fixtures of 2015 were both friendly's against our fellow home nations Ireland and Scotland, a drab 0-0 with Ireland in Dublin was compensated for by a brilliant second half performance against the Scots at Wembley.

Gary Hooper had a dream England debut after coming off the bench in the 65th minute, assisting Le Fondre's seventh goal in eight games for England before being rewarded with two of his own. Cardiff wingback John Brayford also came on to collect his first cap against Scotland.

In other news, the draw for the Euro's has been made and I'm feeling confident;

I've arranged warm-up games against Greece, Macedonia and Finland to prepare for the group, can we follow in France and Spain's footsteps in 2000 and 2012 and capture the European title straight off the back of winning the World cup?

I made Shawcross my captain when Gerrard handed it over. He partners Caulker generally for me. Caulker is also a beast.