SR67 - Comments

A borad takeover but us back in the black, taking out a £2.7 million loan.



Fixtures


We maintained 2nd place but went out of the French Cup.

November was erratic. It started well and finished amazingly but inbetween, not so. I think if we lost to Liverpool at home I would have been sacked or close to it. Nonetheless we've moved up two places in the table, by the end of the year I hope to be at least 7th.



A single early goal claimed the points as Paul Lambert's men visited. A trip to the Britannia was never going to be easy against a very physical Stoke. Chelsea dominated the game from the off with their attacking midfielders dominating, and running out 3-0 winners. I claimed my first Merseyside Derby victory and possibly bought myself some time to turn things around. Leighton Baines scored a brace, one from the spot and Mattia Destro got the other to claim a vital victory. The win should do wonders for the players' moral, which has slumped recently.

It seems we have finally turned things around despite going out the League Cup. The new players seem to be setting in and the forwards seem to have found thier form.



Late goals in either half, Nacer Chadli in the first and Nikica Jelavic in the second, was enough to secure the three points at Upton Park. An excellent win over Fulham including a hat-trick from Mattia Destro gave us two away wins in a row and boosted us up the table. Four goals in the second half brought us back from 4-1 down to claim a point against Reading at home. We threw away a 2-0 lead and went on to be beat on penalties in the League Cup 4th round at White Heart Lane.

Another frustrating month leaves us flirting with the relegation zone. We need to pick up a run of wins in the league and turn it around. I did however manage to complete the transfer of Gylfi Sigurdsson for £8,000,000.



The slump continued, failing to win a single game in 90 minutes, failing to beat the likes of Wolves and Hull is unacceptable. Mattia Destro picked up decent form, scoring in the final three fixtures. The League Cup tie against Swansea too over 120 minutes and penalties to progress to the next round.

A sh*t month! We lost to a terrible QPR and were put out of the Europa League. The only good thing this month was capturing Jack Butland with Craig Gordon going the other way.



After a good start beating newly promoted Derby, Ademilson missed a penalty before being taken off injured, ruling him out for up to three month. Wellington Nem was also taken off and faces four weeks on the sidelines. We went crashing out of the Europa League to dutch side Roda. During an unexpected loss at Loftus Road, Leon Osman tore his hamstring and could be out for 3 months.

My top priority was to secure Marouane Fellaini on a new contract, I tied him down until 2018. We will receive over £50 million in TV Rights, which should put us back in the black.



With such a poor budget I had to invest in the coaching staff to get the best out of the players I have. Ricky Sbragia was promoted to assistant manager after Steve Round rejected a new deal. Andrew Cole and Fernando Redondo joined the club, Redondo named reserves manager.

David Weir joined the youth set-up as assistant to Duncan Ferguson, along with David Bowman from Dundee United. David Hamilton joined from Swansea as a scout and Bryan English and John Porteous joined the medical team.



Neal Eardley competed his £250,000 move and was joined by Carl Jenkinson at right back on loan form Arsenal as Seamus Coleman joined SPL side Celtic to gain first team experience. Kolo Toure replaced Sylvian Distan at under half his wages in the heart of defence. Mathias Jorgensen came in as a replacement for John Heitinga who only had one-year left on his deal, and wanted over £60,000.

Nacer Chadli completed his bosman deal and both Valerio Verre and Christian Tello joined on loan.Bryan Oveido and Steven Naismith, for £10,000,000, as they didn't justify their wage. Rivaldo signed a deal simialr to Jari Litmanen

Mattia Destro signed and Tony Watt joined Blackpool on loan for £2,000,000 over the season, covering the cost of his transfer to the club.



We had a very poor pre-season, the tour of Scotland was a disaster and the other fixtures just as bad. The opening day of the season we have newly promoted Derby and drew Roda of Holland.

Overall we had a good season, qualifying for the Europa League and adding quality to the squad. I would have liked to at least reached the Final of one of the cups. We were named overachievers and Liverpool were underperformers

Premiership champions Chelsea completed a treble the European Super Cup and Club World Cup. Arsenal were crowned Champions of Europe beating Real Madrid 3-0 in the Champions League Final and Marseille beat Napoli to claim the Europa League.

Wolves wont the Championship and promoted along with Hull and Derby. Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Napoli, PSG and Celtic all won their respective leagues.

The squad could do with a few additions but with the bank balance a few million under I doubt I'll have much of a budget to play with. I need long term replacement for Tim Howard and a potential replacement for Leon Osman. Nacer Chadli will looks to be an excellent successor to Steven Pienaar on the left wing.

We finished the season strongly thanks to a tweak in the tactics, I changed Leighton Baines to attacking and Neal Eardly to defensive both from support. Baines replied with 3 assists and a goal in the final games. We managed 6th place which means we're in the Europa League Playoff and I was awarded a new four-year deal.



It looked as if we were taking a point when Leighton Baines equalised in the 83rd minute with a trademark free kick from the edge of the area. Until Sergio Aguero clinched a late winner 2 minutes later. Newcastle also lost to Arsenal meaning that the fight was still on. Our last home game of the season and we bowed out in style goals from James Forrest, Nikica Jelavic and a brace from Marouane Fellaini sealed the win. Newcastle dropped vital points drawing at the Madejski, meaning it was in our hands. The final fixture of the season and 6th place was wrapped up at half time, but with Newcastle on our trail 1-0 up agains Manchester United, ultimately losing 2-1.

The month was all about cementing a Europa League place, Manchester United won the Capital One Cup meaning that 7th place is enough but my target is 6th. I tied up deals to bring Nacer Chadli and Matteo Destro in on bosman deals as well make Neal Eardley's loan permanent for £250k.



We started the month throwing away more points after going down to 10 men followed by another Merseyside Derby loss, but we still sit above them in the table. Newcastle's visit to Goodison was the biggest match of the season so far, as we battle it out for 6th place. Wellington Nem's 81st minute goal gave us the advantage. We slumped to our biggest defeat of the season at White Hart Lane, losing 5-0.

This was the month we really had to push for a Champions League spot, but we only managed 4 points. On the other hand I managed to tie down Phil Neville and Jari Litmanen for another year and young left back Luke Garbutt until 2018.



Two disappointing games to start March off, early goals from Chelsea meant we slumped to defeat and an own-goal looked to give us the win before Jonathan Walters scored an injury time equaliser. Our only win of March came over Wigan and keep us in 6th place.

February was a decent month, but we just cant seem to find consistency. We are still conceding too many goals which is strange as we have a fairy good defence and Tim Howard is a top keeper, so so tactical adjustments may be in order.



The month started with a big win over league leaders Manchester United at Goodison Park, we were brough back down to earth losing 2-0 to Reading a week later. We bounced back with a high scoring win over Swansea with Ademilson scoring a hat-trick.

An average month meant we maintained our league position, but went out of the FA Cup much earlier than I would have liked. Bryan Oveido missed most of the month with international duty.



Neal Eardlry was brought in on loan for free with the option to buy for £1,000,000 to replaced Tony Hibbert who wanted to move despite 14 starts. John Lundstram, Junior and Steven Naismith all left the club on loan for first team football.



The year got off to a good start picking up 8 points to put us in the driving seat for Europa League qualification. Nikica Jelavic's for dramatically improved as he hit the net 6 times. We beat Reading to progress to the FA Cup 4th round, eventually going out in the dying minutes to Arsenal.