[FM09] Working With Peanuts - A Northern Irish manager's Southampton experience

As possibly the only Saints fan from Northern Ireland, I have decided to start a new game on FM09 with Southampton. This is using the 9.3 update, but I do have a large database and have about 40 leagues in 15 countries selected

The board is being quite hissy and not allowing me any transfer money despite wanting a respectable position in the Championship. Looking at my squad, I have a lot of talent, possibly even good enough to be in the Premiership. My best players are my French U19 international Morgan Schneiderlin, on-loan centre-back J-P Saejis, and 20 year old English attacking midfielder-turned-striker Adam Lallana.

My first act as Saints manager is go through my squad and remove the dead wood. My eye is immediately set on selling Rudi Skacel and Wayne Thomas, and maybe even Jason Euell. Not only will it get me some money, but it will also give me a bit extra wage budget. I'm also looking at getting rid of a couple of coaches with bad attributes. And also I'm looking into improving my scouting network.

When I get going I will keep you all posted, and I hope you like this career! It's my first time doing something like this.

July 2009 Update

July could have gone a lot better. Started out nearly £1M in debt, so as I expected I had no money to play with. Sold Skacel and Euell for £1.6m and £100k respectively, but the board only allowed me to get 10% of the profit for the transfer budget, so I could only spend £170k.

Pre-season has been solid if unspectacular, with 4 wins out of 6, but drawing at St Johnstone and losing 4-0 to West Brom weren't great results.

In addition, a couple of my star players picked up injuries. J-P Saejis fractured his ribs in training and is out for 4-5 weeks. My biggest loss would be that of striker Marek Saganowski for 3 months with a slipped disc. I also lost my replacement striker Bradley Wright-Philips to a pulled hamstring, so I'll have to make do with David McGoldrick alongside Adam Lallana up front for a few games.

I did manage to bring in a couple of new faces. Snapped up a new Goalkeeper on loan for 6 months in the form of Blackburn Reserve goalie Jason Brown. Should prove to be a good stop-gap for trying to snap up someone better next season. To cover for Saejis' injury, I have brought in Pele from West Brom for 3 months. If he does well, I might extend it for possibly the rest of the season.

My one permanent signing was that of Belgian right winger Luwamo Garcia, who I signed from Dutch Eerste Divisie side RKC Waalwijk for £130k. I'm excited about his pace, but I am slightly apprehensive about his crossing into the box. Hopefully I am proved wrong.

Next up. The Championship. I am being tipped to be involved in the relegation battle, with the media predicting a 19th-place-finish. I'm thinking I can spring a few surprises and try and sneak a top-half finish. Then use that as a springboard for a promotion push next season.

August 2009 Update

Results

Preston 1-2 Southampton - Coca-Cola Championship

We went into the game with the media saying both us and Preston were evenly matched, and a draw seemed likely. And for the first half, that was the case, with both teams having chances. I was however disappointed at some of the players' performance, and demanded better after half time. Sure enough, we took the lead on 59 minutes, when a cross from the left by Lee Holmes was headed in by David McGoldrick. However on 69 minutes, Jason Brown was left embarrassed when Preston winger Chris Sedgewick cheekily lobbed the ball over his head into the net. I was livid, and thought we'd blown our chance to win the game. But on 76 minutes, substitute left winger Ryan Smith crossed in for McGoldrick to score an almost identical goal to his first. Staking a claim for a regular spot perhaps? Anyways, after another couple of Preston half chances, we held out to win 2-1. I was still unimpressed with a couple of players, in particular Adam Lallana who failed to make his pace pay off when attacking.

Cheltenham 0 - 1 Southampton - League Cup 1st Round

Another sub standard performance, with our only goal again coming from a header, this time from Adam Lallana. We were definitely being made to work by a rather stubborn Cheltenham side who had drawn their first match. If we want to do well at this level, we will definitely have to up our game. Unfortunately, Pele pulled his hamstring and had to come off at half time. That's him out for a couple of weeks, and our backup isn't too great. Let's hope we hold out.

Southampton 0-0 Sheffield United - Coca-Cola Championship

A boring draw with the only clear cut chance going to us. Luwamo Garcia making a run down the right and cut inside, with the shot getting saved by Paddy Kenny.

Sheffield Wednesday 2-2 Southampton - Coca-Cola Championship

With our defensive options starting to run dry, any result would do against a fairly solid Wednesday side. But as the game panned out, it became obvious that we deserved much more than a draw. We went ahead in the 11th minute when Michael Svensson volleyed a corner in from just outside the six-yard box. But 5 minutes later, it was 1-1, when another Jason Brown error allowed Ben Burgess to score into an empty net. The score was 1-1 at half time, where we had to take Svensson off as he picked up a knock, but nothing too serious. His his place, Paul Wotton cored an identical goal in the 56th minute, and that looked to have been it. But no. 4 minutes later, Darren Potter headed in a corner to equalise. We are definitely leaving ourselves open at the back too much. How I wish we weren't missing Saejis and Pele.

Bristol City 2-1 Southampton - League Cup 2nd Round

With our injury problems, I was not expecting us to walk the game, but I did expect a little better performance from the guys. We fell behind in the 3rd minute to a Marvin Elliot strike from outside the box. We held them at 1-0 at half time, but in the 59th minute we fell another goal behind, with Jamie McAllister heading in at the back post. Even after City were reduced to 10 en for the last 5 minutes, we only managed to score a consolation goal in the 2nd minute of injury time, with Paul Wotton heading in from a corner. I'm really doubting keeping Brown in goal, but I am prepared to wait until my defence is back to full strength. A cup run would have been nice though...

Southampton 4-2 Watford - Coca-Cola Championship

We have J-P Saejis back on the bench, and might look to use him in an emergency. We also have BWP back in the starting XI to replace McGoldrick, who has nose-dived in form since his opening game brace. Wright-Phillips should add some extra pace to our attack, and luckily for us, Watford are missing some first-teamers too. Unfortunately we fell behind to a Jobi McAnuff goal, but within 10 minutes we were 2-1 ahead, thanks to goals from Paul Wotton and Luwamo Garcia. However we did show another defensive lapse allowed an unmarked Tamas Priskin volley in a corner in the 75th minute. But again we were ahead within 3 minutes when Andrew Surman placed a rebound into an empty net. And by the end we were 4-2 up, when Paul Wotton scored a penalty. Mr Wotton has definitely given me something to think about with some of his performances.

Other News

Slightly later than I hoped, I cleaned out 5 backroom and coaching staff. However, thanks to a low transfer budget, I did have to settle for a load of unproven coaches to avoid paying for compensation, apart from snapping up Bolton Youth Coach Peter Farrell as Assistant Manager. Paul Wotton won the Championship Player of the Month, and Lee Holmes won the Young Player of the Month. My first month has been solid, but too many defensive lapses leaves me reconsidering my back line.

http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff177/cecil-swain/August2009table.jpg - Table

By the way, if you want to provide me with some ideas for the career feel free. I'm a bit of a noob at this.