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Telegram Sam
2013/14 GOALS
- Finish in the top-half of the league table and potentially push for a European spot.
- Go on a decent domestic cup run.
- Resist interest from bigger clubs for our better players, especially the home-grown ones.
- Bring through some young players into the first-team.
I think we could potentially qualify for European football within our first season but much of that could depend on how some of the bigger sides fare, so for my debut season I would be content with finishing somewhere between 8-10th place. I'll also be taking the domestic cups seriously as Southampton haven't won an awful lot in their history and we could potentially get into the Europa League through winning a trophy.
LONG-TERM GOALS
- Qualify for the Europa League within two seasons.
- Qualify for the Champions League within four seasons.
- Win the Premier League within six to seven seasons.
- Maintain a British core to the squad.
- Play an attacking and possession-based style of play.
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NEXT UPDATE: Pre-season, transfers and tactics
Dan
George14brfc
Tommo.
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I let my assistant control the side for most of my friendlies although I did take charge of our 3-1 win away at Braga which was probably our best result in the off-season. Gaston Ramirez grabbed a brace in that game and I'm sure he'll be a big part of any success we are to have.
TRANSFERS
After being handed a transfer budget of sweet fuck all at the beginning of the season I was always going to have to sell at least one key player if I was to invest in the playing squad. I was reluctant to let any of my English core leave so in the end I was happy to see Morgan Schneiderlin go to Monaco for £20m. They started the bidding at just over £8m but I held out and eventually managed to get over double that with it all being paid up front as well. He's a great player but we also have Jack Cork and Victor Wanyama who can play in defensive midfield in his absence.
The rest of the departures were just kids who have been sent out on loan to lower league sides whilst I terminated Forte's £11k p/w contract because he's utter shit. Jos Hooiveld also left to Birmingham on loan as I felt he was surplus to requirements in the centre of defense.
Even though I was now rolling in the Schneiderlin money I thought I'd push my luck and ask the board for some more money, and to my surprise they agreed. I can't remember exactly how much they gave me but it was something around £15m, which was far greater than I expected. With all of this cash at my disposal I was able to strengthen pretty much every position I felt we were lacking depth in.
That said, the first player I bought was Will Hughes and we didn't really need any more central midfielders. He's a great prospect though and seeing as I want to help maintain and build an English core I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get him cheap. I already have James Ward-Prowse in the centre of midfield who is ahead of Hughes in the pecking order but he'll still get plenty of game time.
I managed to get Andre Hahn on the cheap who will provide more depth in the wide positions. I also couldn't resist the opportunity to bring Eduardo back to the Premier League on loan from Shakhtar. There weren't many good striking options so I opted to go for someone more short-term. He's a different sort of player to Lambert and should hopefully bag a few goals this season.
My favourite signing, however, is Hakan Çalhanoğlu, who cost me just over £10m from Hamburg. Not only is he a potentially top class midfielder, but his ears are also comically huge. They should help keep the squad's spirits up if we hit some rough patches.
NEXT UPDATE: The season begins
Tommo.
Telegram Sam
The season started against Arsenal at home and unfortunately they came away with a 2-1 win. It was a pretty close game and we edged them in terms of possession and attempts on goal, but in the end their quality showed. Giroud scored an early brace and both teams had chances but in the end the difference was they took theirs and we didn't. I brought Eduardo on and he scored a nice goal against his former club but it wasn't enough.
Fulham away is the next fixture with United coming to visit the weekend after.
Telegram Sam
Thanks. I've still got some money left over as well with the money invested by the board but I think I'll hold onto it until January.
Telegram Sam
We responded well to our opening day defeat with a hard-fought win away at Fulham. It was a tight game in which both sides had chances but on the whole we were the better team and just about deserved the win in the end. Rickie Lambert scored the only goal of the game with a trademark header and I hope it's a sign of more to come. With all of the new signings it might take some time for this side to gel but we began to show signs of the possession-based, high-pressing game that I think will work as well as it has done in real life for the club.
However, it wasn't all good news...
George14brfc
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Gutted to have lost him. Luckily we have a few players who can cover him there though.
Telegram Sam
Dicked on Chesterfield in the League Cup. Sam Gallagher - the subject of bids from Liverpool and Arsenal - scored his first ever professional goal before James Ward-Prowse scored a lovely free-kick. Andre Hahn scored his first goal for the club with a beautiful drive from a tight angle.
Unfortunately, it turns out that Manchester United are a fair bit better than Chesterfield.
We defended fucking terribly. Mostafi gave away a penalty in the second minute and van Persie scored. A bit later on, Mostafi then made another shit tackle and gave away another penalty. Luckily van Persie missed it (cunt) and we managed to pull level through Lovren. However, in the second half we defended awfully and gifted van Persie a couple more goals to really finish us off. The sad thing is that van Persie scored three despite missing a penalty and having a goal disallowed.
After the game I pulled Mostafi into my office and told him he needs to defend better, to which he responded that he thought he defended well. The arrogance.
I never thought I was a reactionary manager but with only two days remaining of the transfer window it turns out that I most definitely am.
Moreno joins for a decent price so Mostafi can sit in the reserves for a month or seven to think about what he's done. He actually looks very good, to be fair, and I'll bring him in for his debut away at Newcastle after the international break. After two home defeats in our first three matches we need a response.
Telegram Sam
After losing two of our first three Premier League games we managed to get a vital win at St. James' Park with a 2-1 win against Newcastle. Andre Hahn scored a beautiful winner five minutes from time after skinning the full-back and firing his shot low into the corner.
We didn't deserve to win, mind. Newcastle absolutely dominated us in the first half but we managed to grab an opener just before the half-time break as Jay Rodriguez scored his first goal of the season. It came after Clyne hit in a great cross, Rodriguez controlled and drilled it past Krul on the half volley. I thought we were going to hold on to a 1-0 win before Artur Boruc decided he might as well let a tame effort from Shola Ameobi slip through his hands. The new defensive partnership of Moreno an Lovren looked good but unfortunately our goalkeeper was shit.
The winner came thanks to all three subs combining - Will Hughes picked up the ball from deep before passing it up to Lambert who proceeded to turn and lay it on for Hahn who did the rest himself. Newcastle are one of the clubs who will want to finish in the top half alongside us so it was a huge result.
The league's looking a bit better now after winning both of our away games. I'm hoping that this side will get better as the season goes on as we have a lot of new faces but with the quality in the squad I'm confident we'll have a good campaign. Our next three leagues games are against Hull (H), West Ham (A) and Stoke (H) so we should at least hope to win our first home game after that run. We've also got an away trip to Norwich in the Capital One Cup after the Hull match.
Telegram Sam
Cunts.
Franck
Telegram Sam
We went down 2-1 to Norwich at Carrow Road to go out of the Capital One Cup. I fancied us for a cup run this season so fielded a decent side but they were the better side on the day and deserved their win. I kept trying to mix things up but nothing worked.
Despite going out of the cup we maintained our great start away from home in the Premier League and picked up our third win on the road with a 5-2 win over West Ham at Upton Park. Upon my scout's recommendations I started with a narrow 4-2-3-1 with Lallana, Hughes and Çalhanoğlu playing as the three attacking midfielders. It worked brilliantly and we played some great football. Whenever we won the ball we broke in numbers and our passing was intricate and quick. Çalhanoğlu scored his first goal for us against Hull last week and scored a break early on with a header and a right-footed drive.
Somewhat predictably we conceded a number of chances to West Ham and Artur Boruc did his very best to make sure they stayed in the game for as long as possible with another shit performance. I'd drop him if my only other option wasn't a 36-year-old Kelvin Davis. Thankfully our attacking play was so good the fact he spilled a shot into the path of Carlton Cole didn't matter. Çalhanoğlu sealed his hat-trick from the penalty spot early in the second half before Adam Lallana combined well with Rickie Lambert to fire in stunning shot to make it 4-2. Lambert then sealed a great win with a 30-yard free-kick that nestled right into the top corner.
The defensive problems remain but I'm hopeful that the Moreno-Lovren partnership will begin to blossom and will hopefully mitigate for Boruc's shitness. If we can also start playing this well at home we might be able to push for Europe this season.
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SUMMARY
It's been an up-and-down start to the season with our perfect away record in the league being marred by poor performances at St. Mary's Stadium. That said, I'm pleased that we're sitting 6th in the league and given the next few fixtures we have coming up I wouldn't be surprised to see us slip into the bottom half by the end of November. I'm seeing signs of progress though and if I can get the tactics right and we get a bit of luck we might be able to take some points off of the bigger sides.
Telegram Sam
The latter just scored a hat-trick for me! Not many other teenagers have done that in the Premier League. I'm almost spoiled for choice in the attacking midfield positions at the moment and am going to have trouble accommodating Ramirez back in the side.
Hahn is great too and a bargain at £2.1m.
Dan
Shedender
Johno
SR67
Chewy92