Darlington career - Is McRedneck the right man?

After the ageing Jimbo McRedneck made the decision to return to football management for one LAST attempt at making the big time it seemed fate that his boy hood heroes, Darlington, were manger less and struggling and in need of a new manager.

Now 4 years later and 3 league titles, McRedneck finds himself reflecting on what went wrong in the closing stages of Darlington's bid for a spot in Europe. Yes you read correctly, this once poor and bottom tier minnow is indeed fighting for a place in Europe's top flight..

Career highlights include to date:

2008/09 - L2 Champions

2009/10 - L1 Champions

2010/11 - Championship winners (promotion to the top flight)

2010/11 - FA Cup semi finalists

2011/12 - 6th place finish in the premiership and a spot booked in Uefa (I think?!?)

The lack of cup success is really playing on McRednecks mind though.... surely his team can perform in the knockout format. Whats going wrong? Squad depth? Player fatigue? Formation issues?

Results (played primarily with a 4-3-3):

Games played: 210

Games won: 129 (61.4%)

Games drawn: 44 (21.0%)

Games lost: 37 (17.6%)

Goals scored: 425 (2.02 p/m)

Goals conceded: 207 (0.99 p/m)

(The win % took a dive as Darlington attempted to compete at the top level, 2012/13 season should hopefully see this push back closer to 65%)

While the board were a "little disappointed" with the current season Jimbo McRedneck could not figure out why, he was asked to avoid relegation in his first season in the premiership and with a very very modest wage bill and transfer budget (£0!!) he managed to finished 6th and secure a spot in Europe (albeit UEFA cup not champions league)..... hmmm....

It could be the end to his season, with 5 games remaining Darlington sat 4th with a game in hand only to lose 3-0 to Newcastle (18th), Lose 1-0 to Arsenal, Draw 1-1 with Liverpool, lose 2-0 to Blackburn and draw 1-1 with Reading (20th). So dropping from 4th to 6th by picking up two points out of a possible 15!

Now in the off season the squad has been strengthened considerably with 8-10 solid, young, additions mostly via the Bosman buy out rules while the excess fat has been trimmed or demoted to reserve grade football and the team should now provide more consistent results. The defence which leaked a considerable amount of goals in the prior year looks more solid and Rodwell at CD is set to retain the Captaincy and be the cornerstone of the Darlington defence.

Arsenal have joined Baraca in the chase for Jonathon De Guzman's signature - offering £27 million but with added financial support from the board McRedneck has managed to renew his star players contracts over the summer (Rodwell, Wilshire, De Guzman, Campbell) and remove the big club release clauses ensuring his squad will be free from poaching unless it is on his own terms.

McRedneck turned down a bid for De Guzman of £27 million from Arsenal and has rebuff two offers in the low £20m's for his star striker Campbell.

The future at Darlington looks bright if somewhat confusing..... the board expect the club to avoid relegation (we nearly made top flight Europe last season) but win a cup?!? Will 2012/13 bring cup glory and a first premiership title for those from Darlington? Is McRedneck the man for the job? Only time will tell!

nice start, should be interesting

Quite cool, i want to write something like this too, its just that im too lazy to think up a story line..

2012/13 finished as an improvement for Darlington FC on many fronts however there were still a few disappointments.

The premiership standings were as follows:

Points 75 1st - Man City

Points 73 2nd - Man U

Points 72 3rd - Liverpool

Points 72 4th - Darlington

Points 68 5th - Chelsea

Points 66 6th - Arsenal

A more respectable premiership finish of 4th place, has also ensured Darlington and Jimbo McRedneck will both have thier first furore into Europes top flight in the upcoming 2013/14 season.

The board were elated with a top 4 finish and entry to Europe have given McRedneck the task of merely avoiding relegation his management of the club far exceeded expectations.

On the task of winning a cup however there was a very different story. For a number of reasons (injuries/suspensions/unhappiness/general under performance) Darlington was eliminated in the early stages of all three cups they participated in:

League cup - 4th round - Charlton

FA cup - 3rd round - Chelsea

UEFA cup - 3rd round - Valencia

Jimbo McRedneck when quizzed on his teams performance had this to say:

"Early injuries to our star midfield - De Juzman out for 9 month and Wilshire out for 3 months meant the opening part of this years campaign was a struggle. We found ourselves languishing in 10th place at the start of January and already on our way out of some cup competition.

I also found this was not helped by my decision to release/transfer a number of players. While these players were imo past their best they had served the club well over the past few seasons and as a result the majority of the squad were less than please after the summer transfer windows. You ask did this have an impact on performances? My answer is for sure, you will see our results in the second half of the season dramtically improved and we went from 10th spot to within one win of the premiership title."

The future at Darlington indeed looks bright if McRedneck learns from his 2012 summer transfer mistakes and keeps the current first team in place.

On the development of the club McRedneck has highlighted he now has an academy squad of 7-10 VERY PROMISING (as in ready for the first team) youngsters 15-17 y/o plying their trade either on loan or in the Darlington reserve team.

Player of the season were: Fraizer Campbell - star striker (injured for 3 months) 19 goals

Young player of the year: Javier Cano (17y/o) 10 goals in 34 goals and with a current value of £14.5m shows the development team is working

Disappointment of the year: Jack Wilshire CM - never was the same after his injury and in the second half of the season lost his starting place to Jerome Roberts CM (17y/o value £8.25m 8 goals 8 assists) who was just pipped by Cano for young player of the year.

Will 2013/14 bring Darlington their first premiership title and that elusive cup victory or will they continue to perform admirably but with little reward? Only time will tell.

its gd gd, im intersted, wanna know how it finishes. wish i had the tym and effort to rite sumthin like this tho :s

No text speak mate, sorry but that's forum rules