jambowambo - Comments

Superb! We really showed what we are capable of and upstaged Wolfsburg in the DFB-Pokal. Brilliant performances all over the field.

Now we need to take form like this into the league.

Very disappointed with a loss here. A game that we had a couple of clear chances that went begging. Disappointing.

Really looking forward to this one! Good luck

A bit of a mixed month. Good wins over Man City and Stoke and a good draw with Bayern, but poor performances against Arsenal and Aston Villa mean it's not a very good month.

Here's the table:



4 points away from Everton but 4 points clear of Chelsea. Looking for a secure top 4 finish. My aim each season is to improve on the last one so hoping to finish above 4th.

Here's the Champions League group:



Hoping we can go through into the knockout stages from this group.

Quite a mixed bag of a month, good form in the league with 3 wins from 3 but a loss in the Captial One Cup, albeit with a weaker side. We did well to beat Fenerbahce 3-0 but should have beaten 10-man Marseille and was very disappointed to lose where we should have won.

Here's the table:



Sitting in 3rd after 6 league games. Our form slumped a couple of times last season and I want to make sure that that doesn't happen again. We need to be consistent this season.

Here's the Champions League group:



Was hoping to beat Marseille and be 6 points clear but we were poor against Marseille.

Tommy Paynter got 3rd place in young player of the month and Cowdenbeath's new manager Steve McLaren won manager of the month up in Scotland. Grayson left Cowdenbeath to join Celtic despite winning the league with Cowdenbeath last season.

Cheers mate, hoping to be up near the top again! Want to be winning the league in about 2-3 seasons maximum, just need to build a squad good enough to do it and I think my current squad is pretty good. We're still classed as a mid-table team by the media so clearly after last season they don't know what they're on about!

A great start to the month, although I would have liked to have beaten Watford. Dropped points against much weaker opposition could come back to haunt us.

Brilliant win over two legs against Benfica, especially the second leg where Charlie Austin was on fire. Also a very nice Fergie time winner against Hull with a very dubious penalty in the 96th minute that Austin tucked away - typical Fergie!

Here's how the table looks at this early stage:



Can't tell much this early on.

Here's my Champions League group:



Quite a difficult group with Bayern Munich and Marseille who could cause us problems and stop us progressing. I'd like to see us beat Fenerbahce home and away.

This one is gonna be a big update so prepare for it!

I'll start by going through players who have joined and left the club:



Short list of players who have joined the club, including my newest signing Páez.

As always I'll go through each player individually:

Matuschak: A player I signed for Cowdenbeath and he became one of the stars of my team that won the SPL. Hoping he can perform like he did under me at Cowdenbeath as he was a rock in defence then.

Abdurrahman Durak: Should be a leading striker in the future. The nineteen year old from Dortmund has a strange mullet/pony tail hair style:



Strange looking!

Causevic: Seventeen year old German who can play all across the defence. I paid a little more than I wanted for him but pleased I got my man who should have a big future.

Robinson: A top class Welsh defender who forced his way out of Swansea after they were relegated. I'd been looking at him for a while and when I saw that he wanted out of Swansea I offered for him immediately. At just 22, he is already first choice and still will improve.

Pjanic: Delighted to get this man on a free transfer. He's 31 now but brings bags of experience and is a top class centre midfielder who should add plenty of competition to an already strong centre of midfield.

Gomez: 26 year old Spanish attacking midfielder who was previously a one club man with Villarreal. He should again provide good competition within the squad and to be honest what I was hoping for was a profit from a future transfer of him.

Donaghy: 23 year old left back from Northern Ireland who has never really settled down, with us being his 6th club in 10 seasons. He started his career at Linfield, moved south of the border to Shamrock Rovers, then joined Wigan for 2 seasons before signing for Newcastle for two seasons. He then has last season at Tottenham before moving here where I hope he can finally settle down. Hoping for a lot from him at left back.

Ekrem Baran: 19 year old left Turkish left midfielder who I'm hoping will go into the first team in the future. I've sent him to feeder club Doncaster Rovers for a season in the Championship for him to gain some experience and so he can learn English.

Páez: A 21 year old left midfielder who has some really impressive stats (crossing 18, determination 19, first touch 17, acceleration 16 being the main ones) who will be my long term replacement for current left midfielder Matt Phillips. He will also provide cover as previously I put left back Shay Carlin there if Phillips needed a rest.

Now for the much longer list of players who have left the club, although the majority are out on loan:



Stafford Screen was only ever used as back up and since I'd signed much better centre midfielders, I felt that he wasn't needed and he was the first of three of our players to join Championship side West Brom. Thibaud Paris never really got a place in the first team as he was kept out by better players and after I'd signed Charlie Austin he wasn't even getting on the bench so I thought I'd let him go to West Ham for £6m.

Neil Taylor had aged significantly during my time at the club and I didn't see it fit to renew his contract. He has since joined West Ham. Samba Diakite had put in some good performances but he was too old and had been replaced by better, younger players. Willi Biada's potential fell significantly and after poor performances out on loan to Doncaster and Ipswich, I thought I'd get rid. When I signed Dermot Lawless, I was hoping that he would be able to get into the first team but after many poor performances in the first team it was clear he wasn't good enough so I let him join Burnley.

Jake Stapleton wasn't showing enough potential to challenge for a first team place so I let him join West Brom. I was extremely surprised when Hull offered £10m for Ross Edwards as I don't think he's worth anywhere near that so I accepted straight away. Arjan Vangjeli joined purely as a back up player for £850k and I was delighted to get £10m for him.

The other transfers are younger players going out on loan to get experience in first team football and so they can come back as better players. Pepín has joined Valencia for a second time in order for him to get more first team football and so he can spend a season in his home country to increase his morale. We also get some good money from it so two birds one stone really!

Right, onto pre-season friendlies:



An unbeaten pre-season but too many draws for my liking. Great win over Barcelona, but they only brought Messi on for the last 15 minutes where he scored and hit the post so I can't imagine what the result would have been if he had played 90 minutes!

August update to come shortly.

Another draw means we end the season in quite a bad run.



Man Utd won the league and we finished in 4th. We're in the Champions League for next season but we're not in the group stage straight away which is unfortunate.

In Scotland, my successor Simon Grayson led Cowdenbeath to their second SPL championship, meaning I'm not the only manager to do so for them. Celtic seemed to have a shocking season as they finished 4th, behind Dundee United and Rangers.

Onto next season!

Another awful performance from us. Starting to fall away from it just where we didn't want to unfortunately.



Can't win the title now but can push to finish above Everton if we beat them in our final game of the season. We've finished in the top four which makes it a good season I guess.

Cheers pal, can see us falling away at the last stage this season but hoping to give it another go next season!



I know, couldn't be any other team!

Shite performance from us puts us 3 points away from top. Luckily, Everton lost as well so we remain 1 point ahead of them in 2nd.

A mixed month really, hoping our form doesn't drop down suddenly at the most vital part of the season.We were lucky in the quarter final of the Europa League that we won 4-1 in the 1st leg because we were absolutely shocking in the 2nd leg. We were also crapp against Newcastle in the Semi Final of the FA Cup and in the Semi Final of the Europa League against Arsenal.

Hoping for our league form to stay and hopefully get three vital wins in our remaining three games against Man Utd, Arsenal and Everton.

Here's the table:



Man City have slipped up a bit and it looks like a three way race now. I'll do the three next matches as game by game updates highlighting the results of the top four teams.

Perfect month in all competitions. Charlie Austin has really stepped up well, scoring some very important goals. 10 goals scored and just 2 conceded shows that we have a really good squad.

We got past Valencia rather easily and next up:



You couldn't make it up! Back against the team that I single-handedly took to the top of Scottish football.

Here's the league table:



Still very close between the top 4. The Premier League trophy hasn't been outside Manchester for the past 6 seasons but ourselves and Everton have a great chance to take it. Our game against Everton on the last day of the season could be vital. Our last four league games are against Chelsea, Man United, Arsenal and Everton so a really difficult run through but hoping we can hold out.

Very brave decision to get rid of Messi! Looks like it's doing good for you though!

A good month again - 3 wins from 3 in the league and we progressed in the Europa League and the FA Cup. We weren't good enough in the Capital One Cup final and our midfield didn't create enough.

Here's a full overview on the final:



The first half was very boring with barely any chances. I tried to push forward in the last 10 minutes but nothing came of it.

Here's the table after February:



Very tight at the top and also looks very interesting at the bottom. Gonna be an interesting end to the season!

I finally got my first manager of the month award with Southampton and Tommy Paynter won player of the month after a very strong showing.

Cheers mate, really enjoying this season! Good to know you're reading

I follow Gladbach quite closely and ter Stegen is a quality keeper, definitely a future no. 1 for Germany.

Completely missed this comment, sorry!

Cheers, was a good group and qualified well!

Bannon is doing really well and still has a lot of potential! He's always reliable to score a goal.

Thanks for the comment mate, appreciated

A very good month bar the game against Aston Villa. We're in the Capital One Cup Final against Man Utd so could see my first silverwarre as Southampton manager. Also through to the 5th round of the FA Cup against Aston Villa. Some really good performances in this month, and I was happy with the draw away to Man City.

Here's how the table looks:



12 games to go and I want to try and challenge for the title as much as I can. I want to at least get a top 4 finish.

Tommy Paynter came second in young player of the month.

A few more transfers happened in the window. Brazilian central defender Ivan joined for £3.1m from Santos. Ivan is just 18 and already has 10 appearances for Brazil u20s. He is going to be a star in the future.

Spanish wonderkid Pepín complained that he wasn't getting first team football so he's moved back to Spain to play for Valencia on loan until the end of the season, in a move that gets us £160k per month which is a great deal for us as it gets Pepín some game time and gets us some money in.

A couple of players have signed pre-contract agreements with the club to join at the start of next season. 26 year old Moi Gómez has signed from Villarreal. Hómez is an attacking midfielder who will be a great addition to the squad.

Bosnia & Herzegovina international Miralem Pjanic has joined from Roma where he has been for 10 seasons. Pjanic, 30, is an attacking midfielder who joins an already strong midfield.

Some very good results here in a very congested month. Especially impressed with the wins against Chelsea, Arsenal and Arsenal but wasn't happy to throw away a 2-0 lead away to Man Utd.

Here's the table:



Top currently but with Chelsea and Man City with games in hand I don't expect to stay there.

Two players have left the club. Anass Achahbar has been sold to West Brom for £10m. He had only appeared once all season and I was delighted to get the sum of money that I did for him.

Mikhail Aivazov has joined Galatasaray for £5m. Aivazov joined on a free transfer 18 months ago but hasn't been a first team regular and I couldn't reject a £5m offer when it came in.

One player has joined the club. Jordi has joined for £325k from Barcelona. The twenty year old midfielder has been capped at u21 level 8 times for Spain and has bags of potential to improve.

Also, Dustin Matuschak has signed a pre-contract agreement from Cowdenbeath to join at the start of next season. Matuschak was a good player at Cowdenbeath and I'm happy to get him on a free transfer.

A very good month. Very happy to beat Chelsea and get to the Europa League Semi Final where we face Everton. Elliot Bannon has done really well after returning from 3 months out.

Here's the table:



Looking good to finish in the top four this season and get a Champions League spot for next season to build on our finances.

After beating Austria Wien 2-0 thanks to goals from Will Hughes and Charles Austin, here's the Europa League group:



We're through to the knockout stages to possibly face Cowdenbeath, which would be the perfect draw for me!

Despite 3 wins from 3 in the league, no awards for us this month.

Some very good results. We very nearly had an 100% month. Bernard Addy stepped up very well and had a superb month, winning young player of the month in the Premier League. A lot of players were rested for the game against Hull and we managed to scrape through to the quarter final to face Chelsea after beating Hull on penalties.

I was astonished to beat Man City 5-2, if you look at the stats:



They had over 3 times the amount of shots! Shows that we were more prolific which is good to see.

Here's how the table looks:



Sitting in 6th again but I think we can finish higher than that.

Here's our Europa League group too:



Look set to get through to the knockout stages, where we may face Cowdenbeath!

Not been on this for a few days because I've been busy over the weekend, but here's September:



Delighted with the win over Lille and happy to be through in the Capital One Cup. Our league form hasn't been the best and we definitely need to perform better if we want to match or beat last season's finish. Was happy with the win against Villa, although it should have been by more but we're surprisingly struggling in front of goal, should be improved when Bannon comes back from injury.

Here's the table:



Hoping for better results in the league in future!

I'm currently unemployed so spent a day in the garden on Football Manager haha

That's my stint done, just sending onto Jack now.

Accidentally went one day over but not played extra games or anything.

A WIN! We're all but safe now so we should now look to build for next season.

Third draw in a row, at least we're not losing all the time now! Junior Ponce with his 3rd goal in 3 games.

Quite a good draw against 2nd placed Ingolstadt but hoping we're not dragged into a relegation battle soon.