seannn - Comments

Wage reduction since my takeover. The savings of over £350k p/w in wages should reduce the impact of relegation.

Great save so far, interested to see how the first season in the Premier League goes. Shocker about City!

Cheers Dan. Most results etc will just be a standard post however most of the major events will have a small news article or extended post.

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

I'm doing the same thing with Crystal Palace, its turning out to be a lot tougher than I expected.

Transfer In
Jamaal Lascelles: I was desperate for another centre back so snapped him up on loan from Newcastle, will probably be a starter this season and I will look to keep him if he plays well.
Kyle Bartley: Not the best or most exciting signing I could have made but he's big strong and relatively quick for a centre back.

We were well over our wage budget so I had a massive clear-out of anyone who didn't want to be there or wasn't in my plans for next season. I managed to cut over £200k p/w of the wage bill and still have about £5m to invest.

Miguel Ángel Moyà: I wanted to bring in a keeper who, if we go up, could also do a job in the Premier League. At 3 just 32 he still has a fair few years left in him between the sticks. For the wages and fee I paid, this might just turn out the be the bargain of the season. It should take some special Championship strikers to get past him.
James Wilson: As most of my forwards left I was desperate for a bargain to booster my strike force. He looks clinical and has the pace to play off the last defender. If the loan works out and circumstances permit I would like to take him permanently.
Jordan Rhodes: I needed a striker to replace Connor Wickham and with 97 goals in 179 Championship appearances Rhodes seemed like the obvious choice. He could fire us to promotion and make an impact in the Premier League.
Sergi Samper: Talk about a bargain. We pay nothing to take Samper on loan for the season and he added some much needed depth to our small squad.

Just a day after Crystal Palace were relegated and Alan Pardew resigned, Jamie Carragher was unveiled as their new manager. Pardew had decided along with chairman Steve Parish that he would step down despite the fate of the club next season.

Carragher played as a defender for Premier League club Liverpool for 17 years. His most recent role was a pundit on Sky Sports MNF. A one-club man, he was Liverpool's vice-captain for 10 years, and is the club's second-longest ever serving player, making his 737th appearance for Liverpool in all competitions on 19 May 2013. Carragher also holds the record for the most appearances in European competition for Liverpool with 150. His honours with Liverpool include two FA Cups, three League Cups, two Community Shields, one Champions League, one UEFA Cup, and two Super Cups.

As Chelsea were already crowned before their Champions League Semi-Final triumph over Real Madrid, most of the drama was at the foot of the table. Sunderland knew their fate heading into the final day. As they prepare for life in the Sky Bet Championship, it was between Norwich, Watford, Leicester and Crystal Palace who would join them. Unfortunately for Leicester and Palace fans it was a day they would like to forget as neither could get the points they needed despite Norwich's loss which could have seen them escape the drop.

It is understood that Claudio Ranieri and Alan Pardew will step down before the day is out. Early reports claim Pardew has already been spotted leaving the King Power Stadium. Both clubs are understood to already have a shortlist of managers lined up for the job, it has even been suggested Pardew had recommended who he feels should take over at Selhurst Park. It is not yet known if caretaker manager Andy Welsh will take over the reigns at Sunderland permanently as his tenure was as successful as he would have hoped.

Another piece of the puzzle, I think he could fit my Thierry Henry role, by Scottish Premiership standard anyway. He's quite quick, relatively skilful and has a good goal record. He was a big outlet but at only 23 I think he will be well worth it. As you can see we are still in very good condition financially anyway and I might have to make some big sales in the summer as a few players are attracting attention.

I've yet to set on a tactic this save, nothing seems to really click yet. I've tried all manner of formations and styles of play, most notably trying to get Gengenpressen to work but it just didn't happen. There was absolutely no consistency in the squad, however I also think being unable to settle on a starting XI due to the size of the squad hampered us. I'm using a 4-2-3-1 just now and things have got better over the past few games.

However my long term goal is to get a 4-4-2 working that resembles but doesn't copy that of Arsenal's Invincible's. I have and idea of where I want to go and the players I want to bring in combined with the players I already have. It will take a few seasons but I'm willing to wait it out. The players I have already who I think would fit into the system are:

Kieran Tierney (Ashley Cole): Great going forward and has a good end product and is relatively solid at the back.

James Forrest (Freddie Ljunberg): He's quick and will run directly at defenders and like Ljunberg if I am correct doesn't have the greatest cross. I want him to get into the box and put it across the 6 yard box.

Stuart Armstrong/Kristoffer Ajer (Patrick Viera): They will be the engine of the side. Working hard over the middle of the pitch and just linking things together. Armstrong lacks the physicality of Viera but Ajer isn't far off it.

Mo Elyounoussi Robert Pieres: This is one of the examples where I will vary from the Arsenal side, as I don't really know what to do to get the Pieres/Henry link up to work. However Elyounoussi is very technically gifted and a skilful player.



Mentality: Control & fluid
Team Instructions: Play out of defence, retain possession, be more expressive, work ball into box & roam from position.

Again we are underperforming this season, but in the past few games we have performed much better and are conceding far less goals. I tweaked the tactics and things are looking good. I'll go into this in a later post. Patrick Thistle, ICT and even Motherwell are right behind us. I'm looking for a strong january to try and go at least 5 points clear by the end of it. If it weren't for Leigh Griffiths goals I dread to think what the table would look like. He has hit 8 in 16 so far, not as good as last seasons 24 in 33 but not bad.



We done slightly better in the Group Stage this year narrowly missing out on the Europa League spot. The most disappointing thing was we dropped 4 points after the 80th minute. Our win came over Galatasaray in Turkey and we held them to a 1-1 draw at home. Next season we must finish at least 3rd.



Again on the transfer front I kept it minimum, I looked at the league table and there was one glaring problem. Hamilton who had been relegated scored 3 less than us and we almost conceded a goal per game. I figured it would be easier to solve the lack of goals than conceding. In came Andrija Zivkovic and Gary Hooper who have 11 between them so far, not quite what I expected but as you can see we are scoring far more. Just 9 off last years tally, my target for the season is at least 70. My only other signing was Scott Bain, he seemed like a more sensible back-up than Logan Baily. He's younger, on a lower wage and Scottish.

As for players going out, there was a huge clear-out. I was left with a massive squad, so some had to go. Fortunately I wasn't forced into selling anyone I didn't want to. I was surprised to get so much for Nadi Ciftci as he didn't have a good season at all. Callum McGregor and Saidy Janko both went out on loan as I want Janko to get as much game time as possible this season and I will make a decision on McGregor when he returns. There was also about 10 youth players who went out on loan, mostly to lower Scottish sides.

After my last save crashed I got right into another Celtic save. Halfway through the 2nd season and won the treble the first season. In the league we had a poor first season finishing with just 68 points. Far off my usual target of at lease 85 points per season. To be fair I did try to bed in a lot of youngsters, perhaps too many. However the shining light of this experiment was Kieran Tierney, who finished the season with an average rating of 7.83 in 23 games.

Hamilton were relegated and Rangers won the Championship, Motherwell beat Hibs over the two-legged Play-off Final to secure safety from the drop.



Europe was a big disappointment finishing last in the Champions League Group Stage. In all fairness it was a tough group but we should have got at least one win at home I expected us to give Shakhtar a better run for their money to claim the Europa League spot.



In the transfer market I kept it simple the first season, as I usually do. Alessandro Del Piero was signed as a tutor and late game changer in the cup but it wouldn't allow me to assign him as a tutor. Mo Elyounoussi didn't have the best start to his Celtic career netting just one league goal in 10 appearances. Younger Kristoffer Ajer made a hell of an impact. We were massively lacking an extra holding midfielder as we were very top heavy in this area. Both these players are massively important to my long term tactical plan that is slowly coming into place. How could I resist signing Ron Vlaar on a free transfer? I needed experiance in that area and he was the ideal partner for young Jozo Simunovic.

I tried to shift Derk Boerrigter as soon as I could. All I could get was 40% of his £24k p/w wage covered, but he wasn't going to play so at least it was something. Anthony Stokes found his appearances limited but the arrival of Elyounoussi was the final nail in the coffin, a massive upgrade.

I've been given a great budget to strengthen in January. I think my top priority is to bring in a right back, or a better holding midfielder. I was thinking a keeper at first but Mingolet isn't doing too bad and could wait until the summer. I hope to add to centre back too.

Yeah it has been, picked up now.



Thanks hope you do!

A bit of a mixed month for us. We done well to get the opening points in the Europa League and finished the month on a high. However we have already got Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal out the way.

Yeah they had a great, start. Not doing so well now.


I'm sure I got them on this site somewhere or maybe the SI forums.

The Norwich game highlighted a lot of flaws in my game-plan. I made a few tweaks, added the TI Be More Expressive and added to PI to a few players. Overall there has been a huge improvement racking up 3 on the bounce including wins over Man Utd and Chelsea.

Thanks mate!

A decent pre-season for us, hopefully the form can continue into the season against stronger opposition. I'm delighted with the amount of clean sheets we have kept. This was something I was concerned with as we play so aggressive.

Mentality: Attacking
Team Shape: Fluid
TI: Retain Possession, Play Out Of Defence, Push Up Higher, Close Down More, Prevent Short GK Distribution.

We have an above average squad at best. Quite a few positions need strengthening, my first worry is a keeper. I have a few ideas in mind, Jack Butland or Fraser Forster could be a good buy for us. A centre back, a holding midfielder - I will probably make a bid for Victor Wanyama - and a possibly a winger would help us also.

The build of the squad will be slow, adding one or two players each window.

So here's the philosophies I have been set, suits the way I plan on playing the save. I plan to emulate the way Klopp has Liverpool playing at the moment, keeping the ball and pressing the opposition hard. As for my signing policy I plan on signing mostly young players with the odd marquee signing when its needed. For example if I finish 2nd I won't be selling my best player I will bring in a big name who can push us to the title.