League Two 2014/15 – Season 6

After last seasons rather disapointing relagation from League Two the board were expecting us to go straight back up, one problem was I again failed to bring in any new attacking players and was left to just bolster the defence.

We took another blow when my Captain Jean-Francois Christophe demanded a transfer, luckily I kept hold of him for the season with him leaving on a free at the end of the season.

We did get some good news when my Assistant Manager recommended two quality defenders to me - Centre Back Pedro Mendes from Sporting and Ajax Left Back Arjan Artoumian who both arrived on frees after trials.

Other initial transfers saw the arrival of Mark Fitzpatrick whos a natural leftback and centre back who was released by Sunderland and Defensive Midfielder Steve Patterson who was released by Reading.

Interestingly just before Jan my Manager Reputation must have increased as I could now attract players from Irish sides (even managing to sign a few players from youth contracts including 14yo right back Peter Reeves who looks like he'll be a class player)

I also spent the bulk of my transfer budget on a premiership potential midfielder Tom Ruddy from Bury and a striker Steve Ellison from Merthyr - Ellison picking up an injury before he signed for me didn't help him this season and his struggle for match fitness reduced his impact.

The season didn't quite go to plan, we again struggled for goals and would have to settle for a playoff spot.

The playoffs drew us against Barnet and we'd be without my Keeper Pedro who was injured in the last game of the season and stand in Captain John Simpson who got himself sent off in the last game also.

The first leg ended 1-0 to Barnet, in the second leg we took the game to Barnet with Sendoa evening things up on agg after the hour, but we couldn't find a second goal and extra time would be needed, where with injuries and international duty reducing my strikeforce I had to bring on Swedish Striker Rasmus Jonsson who hadn't scored in 1,146 minutes (since the second game of the season - nearly 13 games) to replace Sendoa who'd taken a knock and somehow he grabs two goals in 3 minutes to send us through to the playoff final (not the best goals mind you - scrappy tapins from a few yards out but they all count).

The playoff final would see us face Rochdale at Wembley and it appeared the occasion got to both our defences as they both just stood around ball watching leading to a 3-3 draw, which went down to pens that were won by Rochdale thanks to Fitzpatrick smashing his pen against the post :( - something weird happened to the pens this season before this season every pen involving my team was scored, this season saw one saved in a shootout, two were saved during a game (one for and one against me) and Fitzpatrick's was the first I've seen strike a post, just need one to go wide now.

Playoff Final Report.

League Table - Shrewsbury stormed the league claiming the title back in March, things didn't go too well for Morecambe or Oldham who were the early pacesetters. We had the best defence in the league, but our inability to score let us down again (and seems to let me down in the challenge every year).

POS graph - we had a good start to the season, not conceeding for the first 5 games, however we couldn't keep it up and once we lost the leaders we never caught upto them, whilst Rochdale snuck promotion out of nowhere.

Squad - my Keepers Pedro and Dawson were rotated this season as both were in fine form.

Defensively rightback Jai Gray had a fantastic season and is showing a lot of potential after being snatched from Oldham for £35K last season, and my faith in him let me sell Bentley to QoS for £100K at the start of the season, one worry was at the start of the season he moaned about first team football when he hadn't missed a league game when fit - rotating him could be a problem, on the left Arjan Artoumian was a rock aswell, as were my centrebacks Pedro Mendes and Mark Fitzpatrick who was given a chance when Christophe decided to leave.

In Midfield my wingers again proved to be a stong point with Gilligan and Coleman rotating on the left whilst Tamer Ross provided cover for Ramos on the right.

On the middle of the field John Simpson struck up a good partnership with Steve Patterson.

Upfront I may have finally have found my goalscorer - 18yo Irish Striker Paul Carter signed from Bray on transfer deadline day for what loose change I had lying around (the board just about let me pay £3K over 24mths for him) - with my other strikers underperforming or injured he was given a chance against bottom of the league Darlington and scored twice and didn't stop scoring since.
Sendoa Guarrotxena again lead the line, Swedish Striker Jonsson had a poor season, but his goals in the playoffs means I'll give him a chance next season before selling him.

Best XI and Overall XI - the Overall XI again is broken - Dawson somehow replaces Pedro in goal, Saganowski replaces Sendoa upfront and Allan who was onloan in the past, ousts Captain Christophe?

Snapshot - The cups didn't go that well this season - In the FA Cup we smashed League One Preston 4-0, but then went and lost 2-1 to league rivals Morecambe in the Second Round. The Carling Cup saw us lose to Newcastle, whilst in the Paint Trophy we beat Oldham on pens before losing to Bury yet again.
Also being in League Two is not good for our finances.

Manager Profile - Appartently I favour an attacking style, yet we cannot score.

Club Info and Club Facts - An Average age of 20 both good and bad - they have time to improve, but lack the fight sometimes. A low average wage also shows what we are up against.

So next season we need to make a run at the Automatic Promotion spots, otherwise I'll struggle to keep hold of my players and my job will be in doubt.

Career Overview
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2009/10	Blue Square North	1st	Promoted - Champions
2010/11	Blue Square Prem	5th	Playoff Final
2011/12	Blue Square Prem	1st	Promoted - Champions
2012/13	League Two	2nd	Promoted
2013/14	League One	24th	Relegated
2014/15	League Two	6th

League One 2013/14 – Season 5

So after somehow claiming promotion from League Two last season in our first season in the League, I wasn't feeling very confident of our chances in League One, our expectations were to try and avoid relagation, which was about all I was hoping for aswell.

Any chance of avoiding relagation would depend on who I could attract to the club - and our chances took two early blows when both Chadwick and Petrucci had no intention of returning on loan - it appears that no striker is interested in signing for me atall.

We seemed to have hit the point where the reputation of the club was too low to attract the kind of players that could advance the club, it appears my managers reputation was the only thing that was attracting players to the club and that only affected a few young players.

Another problem I had was the fact that the Irish and Welsh teams are far more active in the Transfer market than previous versions, they seem to have a Championship level reputation - Bobby Zamora joined an Irish team for half the money I was offering him.

I did manage to bring in a few players - Spanish Midfielder Alfredo Serra joind from a free from Denia, however he didn't really impress and when FC Dallas offered £140K in April I snapped their hand off.

Signing of the season was Spanish Right Winger Jose Manuel Ramos who has a premiership potential that lead me to spend two seasons worth of transfer budget on him.

Transfers out saw me get rid of various players who weren't upto League One standard.

The board picked this season to have a fan day, which apparently didn't go down well, despite it being one of the few games we actually won this season.

In the end my new signings didn't prove to be enough, as we ended up getting relagated, and with relagation confirmed with a couple of games left we collapsed and ended up finishing bottom of the league :(

On the plus side we were never outclassed, defensively we were solid we just couldn't score and in the end that killed us - doesn't matter how well your defence plays if the best you can hope for is a 0-0 draw

Squad - Keeper Pedro had an impressive season him and my defence helped keep the scorelines down, with my captain ex-Portsmouth youngster Jean-Francois Christophe being the rock that kept my defence together, well when he was on the pitch that was - 18 yellow and 3 red cards amounted to a fair few suspensions.

In midfield new signing John Simpson (ex-Everton Youngster) struck up a good partnership with Sam Togwell - though the game doesn't seem to rate central midfielders very well (possibly due to them both being natural DM's rather than natural MCs?), whilst another Spanish youngster Jose Miguel provided cover (its weird that players from Wales, Ireland and Scotland won't join me, but Spanish players will?)

The Wings were where we were the strongest and most dangerous Scott Gilligan was solid on the left only let down by his finishing, whilst Jose Manuel Ramos was devasting on the right I just lack the players to turn in his crosses and claiming the Fans Payer of the Year Award at the end of the season. Providing cover were two new signings NIrishman Colin Coleman and Tamer Ross - another youngster with premiership potential.

One of the most interesting signings was Swedish midfielder Stefan Berglund - who was born in Sweden but generated in Ghana, who was signed on trial after he turned up unattached in my player serach screen, he then recommended Helsingborg Striker Rasmus Jonsson who arrived on a free after a trial.

Upfront was a real problem this season, I was unable to bring in a replacement for Davide Petrucci and it was left to Sendoa Guarrotxena to lead the line, with him ending up top scorer with six goals - finding a partner for him was a struggle neither Saganowski nor Kee impressed, on loan Utd Striker Joshua King was useless yet again (why Man Utd keep on extending his contract I have no idea) in the end I recalled Italian Striker Marcello Trotta from onloan and three goals in six games was a better return than my other strikers.

Best XI - putting my backup left winger upfront tells it all.

Overall XI - Ramos and SImpson join after one season, whilst Petrucci and Wilson don't even make the bench any longer.

Snapshot - The cups didn't go all that well, we beat Stockport in the First round of the FA Cup 1-0, but then went out to League Two Grimisby 1-0. The Carling CUp saw us somehow beat Championship Nottm Forrest 2-1, before losing to Premiership QPR in the Second Round, but at least that tie brought in some money. The Paint Trophy saw us beaten by rivals Bury in the First Round.
At least we made some money this season, though Christophe tried his best to lead each player stat.

Manager Profile - the board gave me a new contract at the start of the season, so at least I didn't have that to worry about at the end of the season, whilst my National reputation (compared to the clubs Local) may have something to do with me being linked to every Championship jon going. Manager Info - Ramos transfer my biggest transfer by a long way.

Club Info - Sendoa drops off the fav. personnel list, whilst we really need to get our reputation upto Regional to stand a chance of ever reaching the Championship.

Club Facts - The Average and Highest Wages show how much out of depth we were this season.

Club Stats and Facilities that are slowly being improved.

So the plan for next season is to try and get repromoted whilst attempting to find a decent striker who can score goals and then fill in the gaps left by any players that leave the club after our relagation.

Career Overview
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2009/10	Blue Square North	1st	Promoted - Champions
2010/11	Blue Square Prem	5th	Playoff Final
2011/12	Blue Square Prem	1st	Promoted - Champions
2012/13	League Two	2nd	Promoted
2013/14	League One	24th	Relegated