jambowambo - Comments

So, on top of the offer from Southampton I've received the following news:





The Chelsea job would seriously tempt me if they offered me it, and the Southampton offer probably tempts me more than the Newcastle one.

Some serious thinking to do about my future!

An okay month, unbeaten one in the SPL. The 4-0 win over St Mirren was very good as a few players were rested.

The results in the Champions League show that we still have a very long way to go to match some of the other European sides.

Here's the table:



Three points of Celtic, hoping to stay up there all the way this season and challenge again.

Here's the Champions League group, not that it matters much!



Hoping not to finish bottom of the group with a good result from our final game against Shakhtar!

Talking about the rest of the season with Cowdenbeath, but I'm extremely tempted by this:



The transfer budget and the wage budget are the things that tempt me the most. I'm going to delay the offer for a week and see where I think is best for me.

I didn't think I was going to move south of the border so soon, but this really tempts me!

Beat Offenback and Wehen and I think we're up!

Best of luck to you and Charlie in the remaining games!

In with a great chance of promotion there, some great results!

Who are our games remaining against??

Other than the loss against Porto, a perfect month! Delighted to have beaten Shakhtar at home in the Champions League and to be through to face Motherwell in the Semi Final of the Scottish League Cup after beating our closest rivals Celtic 3-1 thanks to a double from the returned Lewis Milne.

Stand out performers have been Lewis Milne and as always Elliot Bannon (Bannon was named player of the month).

Here's the table:



Looks like Celtic and ourselves are going to break away from the rest of the pack. We're the only Scottish team in the Champions League (Celtic and St Mirren are in the Europa League).

Here's the Champions League group:



Still a huge chance to qualify, if not then drop into the Europa League and maybe go further than last season.

Still not recieved any acceptable offers for Matuschak, the highest offer was £6m from Ajax which I negotiated and they couldn't match my asking price. If I get offered £6m again I may take it and get rid of him for a good fee.

In other transfer news, 21 year old English striker Simon Harvey has joined the club on a free transfer from Man United and has been loaned out to Ross County for three months to get some first team action. He's a big prospect for the future.

Also thought I would add that new Ivorian goalkeeper Ousmane Kouakou has returned to the Ivory Coast on indefinite leave after suffering from home sickness. Ciaran Wright has become the new first choice goalkeeper in his absence.



Elliot Bannon deservedly winning player of the month, should also note that fellow academy product Peter Dyer came third in young player of the month.



Another 5 points!

I've been looking absolutely everywhere for Football Manager 99 online but can't find it anywhere. What a game that was!

Best of luck, always love a classic!

Doing very well in Latvia mate. Are you hoping to return to Scotland to carry on with the challenge after or has that gone now?

Heavily outplayed against Leverkusen and unlucky against Celtic, but other than that we've had a good month. We were 1-0 down at half time against St Johnstone but a quickfire double from superstar Bannon meant that we got the win. Good for Ilias to get the two in the cup against Livingston because he's not played as much as I'd have liked this year.

Just thought I'd also say that Dustin Matuschak has played his last game for the club after moaning to me about wanting to move to a bigger club. He's been put in the reserves and transfer listed, but I'll only let him go for a significant fee. There are many teams across Europe interested including Ajax, Celtic and Villareal.

Here's how the table looks:



Hoping we don't drop off, but we're weak in defence until some of our younger players reach full potential.

Also forgot to add in the last update that on deadline day, young goalkeeper Liam Courts left for Shrewsbury for £7k and John Paul McMullan joined East Fife on a free transfer. Junior Ogaga and Jonathan Bond have been loaned out to Inverness and Leeds respectively.

Next game is at home to Shakhtar so I hope they're very jet lagged!

Not the best start with the loss to Inverness, but at least we made up for it against St Mirren and Aberdeen. Hoping to push on from this now and get far in all competitions we are entered in!

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



Hoping to make it easier for ourselves this year and make it easy in all competitions for us!

Here's the Champions League group:



Some difficult trips to Ukraine and Portugal but we might be able to scrape through. I didn't think we'd get through the group in the Europa League last season and we got to the semi final so you never know what could happen!

Just looked and I'm not favoured personnel, I'm an icon! Along with Elliot Bannon. The only other changes is that Djebi-Zadi and Budak are in favoured personnel from my reign. Should hopefully become a legend soon...

Thanks mate, I wanted more depth within my squad to be able to deal with poor performances and injuries/suspensions!

So, I've got round to the next season of the SPL and after a busy summer across the world of football due to the 2018 World Cup, I've managed to make a lot of very good signings, and lost some players to other teams on the way.

In the World Cup, which was eventually won by reigning world champions Portugal who beat Brazil 1-0 in extra time in the final, 4 Cowdenbeath players were present. Elliot Bannon had a good campaign for Scotland, helping them get to the last sixteen where they were knocked out by Brazil. Bannon scored 3 goals in the World Cup groups, including a double against Australia in a 4-0 win. Emre Can's Turkey also made it to the last sixteen but were beaten by Uruguay 2-1. Devon Stewart and new signing Oshane Lawrence both played for Jamaica, however they were toppled in the group stage by Spain and Croatia.

The end of the World Cup squad saw me linked to the Scotland job following Strachan's resignation. I was also heavily linked to a vacant Liverpool job, but want at least one more season at Cowdenbeath before moving to England.

Here's the list of players who left the club:



Matt Gilks retired from football aged 36 but has since returned to the club as a goalkeeping coach. James Keene wasn't good enough for this level and at 32 wasn't going to get many chances this season and Ian Allison's prospects at the club weren't great so they were released. Allan Fraser and Benjamin Siegrist were both picked up on pre-contract agreements after I saw no reason to renew their contracts. Davey, Malpas, Bonner and Chicksen were all replaced by better players so were no longer needed at the club. I was gutted when Eduardo left for Twente as he had a minimum release fee in his contract that I didn't realise about. Ivor Lawton wasn't getting much game time and I felt we did well to get £725k for him.

Here's the players I've signed:



I needed to build a good squad instead of just a good starting eleven so tried to sign players who could provide cover.

Hayes: A 31 year old who should provide good cover for the left midfield role.

Wright: A 21 year old goalkeeper with tons of potential to go on to bigger and better things.

Milne: A lot of questions were raised from the press about this one. Lewis Milne returns to the club he left just 18 months ago for Leeds, who he made just 23 appearances for. I'm hoping he can provide good competition in an already strong centre of midfield.

Park: A 21 year old who is already at his 3rd Scottish club after playing for Falkirk before signing for Hamilton. A good prospect who can play left back and left midfield.

Lawrence: 22 year old Jamaican who already has over 50 caps for his country. Lawrence should provide good competition in that central midfield role.

Rost: Another young German for the future, and another central midfielder. At just 18, he joins after previously playing just 3 times for former club Schalke.

Barbour: A good right back who should provide good competition and should be able to hold down a first team place.

Wagstaff: A 28 year old right midfielder who joins as back up.

Pascual: 18 year old Spanish u-21 international who can play all across the defence. He's got a massive future in front of him.

Green: A free loan, but I can't see him playing much as he plays CAM and I don't use that position often. May get a cup game or two.

Olivi: A seventeen year old Italian goalkeeper with bags of potential for the future.

Wotherspoon: 28 year old Scottish right midfielder who joins after 5 years in England playing for Peterborough, Huddersfield and Hull.

Kouakou:: Our new number 1, and at just 23 years of age the Ivorian may hold down that position for years to come.

Elford-Alliyu: I think I paid too much for this fella, but he looks to be a good partner for Bannon. At 26, he joins on a 4 year deal after many years in the English League One.

A lot of signings to hopefully go for the title again.

Here's how our pre-season friendlies went:



A very busy pre-season but I wanted to test out the whole squad in a number of different formations and combinations. Delighted with the win over Liverpool!

So, onto the 2018/19 season!

I used the formation already up, I thought I'd stick to that and see how it went and it seems to work well!

I think we may need a back up left wing-back though as Blum may get injured and we have no replacement.

My last game of my 2 month stint ended in a disappointing draw against Halle. Still, we're in a good place in the table:



There's the top half of the table, looking like we will be able to challenge for promotion well.

Who do I upload to now?

My impressive run keeps on going as we hammer Stuttgart's B team 5-1. Johan Plat scored a hat trick in 6 minutes to ensure the win!

Another good win! Halfway through my two month stint now

So we've been taken over. Hopefully he can get us out of our financial problems.

A 3rd win in a row, despite finishing with 10 men. Completely dominated from start to finish and could have won by more.

A quick double in the 2nd and 4th minute ensured victory for us.

The two injuries weren't serious and both Klement and Blum are available for selection for the next game.

A much better second game, beating top of the table Wehen. Bad news is that Litmanen is out for 3 months after tearing his hamstring.

A crap first game, defensive errors and a lack of clinical finishing meant we were convincingly beaten 3-0.

Hoping for better in my next game...

When do I play until?

So, here's a summary of the awards for this year's SPL season:



Very well deserved after a superb season, and he also won goal of the season for a goal he scored in January against Dundee United. He came second in top goalscorer, two goals behind Chris Wood.



I also got "Writers' Manager of the Year" and it was the same order for second and third.


Dustin Matuschak and Elliot Bannon were both named in the team of the year.

I'll get this done over the weekend, hopefully I won't mess up our good start!

Thanks mate, it's a huge achievement and I didn't expect it to all happen so quickly!



Thank you!





I'm looking to stick at Cowdenbeath for a few more years, give Europe a good crack and maybe try and claim the SPL title a few more times, as well as a cup or two and then move down to England!



Probably will be a few more seasons and then I'll see what jobs are available in England.



Yeah, I'm hoping for either a good run in the CL or to drop into the Europa from it. If not, I may have to leave that part of the challenge for the time being!

Thank you all for the good comments, it's great to see that so many people read this!

So, we had to get at least a draw from Celtic to win the SPL.

Here's what happened...



I'm on holiday until Friday now so will start the new season when I'm back!

A Zach Clough quickfire double meant that we only have to draw against current champions Celtic to win the league, although that is still a tough ask. I'd have preferred to have won the league by now!



the next update is the big one!

I use Serbian FM 13 logos, downloaded from here:

http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/club-competition-logos/106621-serbian-football-manager-13-logos-download.html

Bannon is quality but Sunderland have constantly been interested for years, as have Reading. It will be hard to keep him although if we win the league he may be persuaded!

Here's his stats:

Another draw means we drop more points and Celtic close the gap to two points with two games to go.

Here's how the table looks:



Really hoping we don't throw this away!

Celtic have closed the gap to 4 points after we could only manage a 1-1 draw with Rangers in a game that both sides had chances to win.

Our last game of the season is against Celtic which could be the decider depending on how the next two fixtures go.



Really hoping we can hold onto this!