Managerial Reversal

Hi Guys , I thought I would post this up on the SI games forums. I have been running the experiment over at Life In FM. Please tell me what you think I have only done it for 9 years on the game.

To kick off the series I wanted to know an answer to a question; Is it the team which makes the manager, or the manager which makes the team? To find out I have given a few top manager and a few unproven manager new employees. To put it all together I used the data editor to change the database, non of the managers attributes have been changed so they all have the same skills they had in the original database, the only thing to have changed was the top managers egos, they were brought down a peg or two as I reduced their reputations.

Top Four

Manchester United - Manager: Roy Keane

Roy Keane had been touted as being the next number 2 at United in training to prepare himself for the big job once Ferguson retires, but the call never came and instead he joined former Ireland team mate Niall Quinn at Sunderland to save them from Championship relegation and jump them into the Premiership. Now Roy has his chance of proving to Ferguson that he is just as good as he is, returning to Old Traffod prawn sandwiches are off the menu.

Dennis WiseChelsea - Dennis Wise

The little man’s pure grit has seen him take a Leeds side who at the start of the season were in negative points. If we didn’t take those points into consideration he would be clear at the top of the league and certain of a promotion place back into the Championship as Leeds try and rebuild a sleeping giant. But at Stamford Bridge, despite the masses of foreign players that have graced the pitch, non are loved as much as Wise the cheeky chappy Londoner will hopefully bring some success for an English manager once again.

Arsenal - Tony Adams

Adams currently on an apprenticeship with Pompey one eye on management sometime soon. The former Arsenal captain has already tried his hand at management with Wycombe who under his guidance were relegated. After that Tony thought he needed more work so went to Holland to train. Under the wheeler dealer Redknapp has Adams been a good student?

Liverpool - John Aldridge

Compared to the others John is an experienced manager. Aldo is a fans favourite at Tranmere Rovers, just across the Mersey. John had some good spells with the Rovers getting them to an FA Cup final, but in the end couldn’t prevent them getting relegated in 2001. He hasn’t been back in football since, so Liverpool will be his first chance to see if he has what it takes to take on a big club.

Italy

Inter Milan - Paul Ince

The MK Dons boss has done his managerial career properly, starting from the bottom saving Macclesfield Town and looking favourites to take the MK up. Ince is ambitious and has stated his ultimate dream is to one day manager Inter Milan and why not? So I have given Mr Ince a helping hand, don’t bugger it up.

The Lower Leagues

Sunderland - Sir Alex Ferguson

Ok not really lower league, Ferguson gets it easy and he is still in the Premiership but Sunderland have struggled this year in the Premiership under Keane. It is now time for Ferguson to show Keane how management is meant to be done.

Colchester - Jose Mourinho

At the time of writing Colchester are sitting bottom of the Championship, so who better to gift a new manager too? And who better then Jose, the special one. A guy who was able to take a mediocre Porto team and make them champions of Europe and also brought back glory to Stamford Bridge. Can the guy save Colchester?

Leeds - Avram Grant

Another swap, Wise for Grant, there was no reason behind this other then I thought I was a bit unfair on Leeds getting rid of their saviour and not putting in place another manager that can take them forward. Grant is best known for his youth development skills and he will need them for Leeds.

Tranmere Rovers - Rafa Benitez

Rovers are the Netto of Merseyside, if Everton are Tesco that would make Liverpool Sainsburys maybe? But with the American owners Asda? Either way I have been going to a few of the Rovers games laterly, basically because its cheaper to watch a lazy league one side rather then a lazy Premiership side. Rafa is settled in Merseyside so I thought that I would give him a chance to whip this lazy lot into shape with his great man management skills.

Luton Town - Arsene Wenger

I started thinking about charity cases when I was dishing out the top managers and no one is more worthy than Luton, forced to get rid of players, failing in the league and money troubles threatening the clubs future, but still managed to give Liverpool a fight in the FA cup. Wenger knows what it is like to be on a tight budget before the new stadium was built The Gunners weren’t making too much money. But he is also a fantastic manager and he is my gift to you Luton Town.

Crewe Alexandra - Fabio Capello

The new England coach has a CV that would make anyone proud, he has done wonders reshaping the fortunes of some of the sleeping giants such at Milan and Madrid. But Crewe will be a real test of tactical knowledge for the Italian, he better get that English course finished he will need it when he gets to Crewe they haven’t got the money to employ an interpretor.

So there is the managers in place, I have to admit that when I was editing the game Lippi was meant to have taken charge of the MK Dons but a slip of the button I managed to make him the chairman instead, ah well lets hope he has some money he can put into the squad from his many bonus, pay off and excessive salaries. I will now run the game on holiday for a few seasons and examine the results. It will be good to see if they are able to attract big players as they have already built up relationships with. Use their tactical knowledge to dominate teams, but can the top 4 survive without a proven manager? Only time will tell.

interesting idea... the it'll be proven to be the club rather than the man...

Who doesn’t know anything about Sir Alex Ferguson? He is in charge of one of the most famous and supported teams in the world and that is most probably because in Sir Alex’s reign have won 27 cups of all different varieties, including the Champions League in 1999 when they performed the famous treble.

Although it could be said that Sir Alex is Mr Manchester United, he did have a successful career before coming to England and joining up with the red devils. Alex started his footballing career as a player, scoring regularly for amateur teams such as Queen’s Park, St Johnstone were he scored a hatrick against Rangers. It was when he signed for Dunfermline that he became a professional footballer scoring 66 goals in 88 games and later joined Glasgow Rangers although it wasn’t a very good experience for him he reluctantly left after being blamed for losing a cup final. Falkirk was the next stop for Ferguson were he had the most successful part of his careers making over a 100 appearances for the club before ending his playing careers at Ayr United.

Ferguson’s first managerial job was at East Stirlingshire on a part time basis and quickly came into his own style as a disciplinarian, Alex started showing signs of his tactical intelligence and his team quickly improved in the league. St Mirren was his next job were again he was able to turn a clubs fortunes around. But after some alleged breaches of contract St Mirren became the only club to sack Sir Alex Ferguson. 1978 came along and a new club for Alex, this time it was with one of the biggest clubs in Scotland at the time Aberdeen. Things didn’t start to well and Alex who was relatively young for a manager struggled to gain any respect. But after a long stint of 24 years without a league trophy Alex managed to clinch it and then again another two times. Alex also found European success at Aberdeen winning the European Cup Winners Cup in 1983 before joining up with Manchester United in 1986 which famously didn’t start off to well and threatened with the sack, but if he was he would never have become the most successful manager in England, well done United he wouldn’t have lasted five minutes in the latest climate.

Ferguson has had many of his own players make the step up to managerial positions in Premiership club, Coppell, Bruce and Hughes to name a few and one of them touted to become the future successor of Sir Alex is the former outspoken captain Roy Keane. Sunderland haven’t had the best of starts in the top flight, so I have given Alex a chance to show Roy how to do it properly seeing if Ferguson can take over at Sunderland work wonders there.

Season 2007/08

Sir Alex obviously felt in his first season that he had the squad available to him to fulfil the goals of the first season, the papers said 16th place should be a realistic target and to do that the only signings that came in was 19 year old Jordy Buijs and Costa Rican ageing midfielder Centeno both coming in on a free, but the latter being released in the March. Out the door straight away were former players of Manchester United, Cole and Yorke who obviously are not on the right side of 30. A safe mid table finish for the season finishing 12th, the highlight of which was a 2-1 victory against Arsenal even though they played the majority of the game with 10 men Jones and Wallace both finished their chances in the first half enough to seal it, Arsenal only able to put away a penalty kick. Craig Gordon was the highlight of the season meaning that Sunderland weren’t punished by to many silly goals, it seems that it is up front in which they lack. Jones being the only consistent scorer but only putting away 13 goals says it all, but in Alex’s first season in the North East his team was voted as the over achievers of the season.

Season 2008/09

The good year obviously saw the books improve as Sir Alex began to splash the cash, spending £22 million and bringing 18 players in. He brought a lot of experience to a side that was lacking in such Anders Svensson, Pablo Contreras, Tottenham’s Tanio, Paulo Ferrieira, Gokhan, Brazilian Edu Dracena, Diego Gavilan, Martin Stranzla and Ivan Alonso all raising up the average age of the club to 27. Although he did balance the side out with Steven Lennon, Barnetta, Gary Glen, Augustyn. Da Costa from PSV was the highlight of his transfers at a fee of £5 million. Conor Clifford from Chelsea and two United youngsters Eikrem and Cathcart completed the squad fodder.

But it was the older guys that made the difference to the season and pushing Sunderland further up the table this time they finished dead in the middle at 10th. Ivan Alonso grabbing 21 goals and the best signing of the season award, Da Costa playing well throughout the season. Most of the players in the squad were consistent, the secret of the success Sunderland were enjoying. A lot of the transfers that came in were to add depth into the side and experience on the backline to keep it plugged. But once again it was the strikers that were failing to pull their weight, other then Alonso it was hard to see were else a goal was going to come from. Sunderland did show there class in the FA cup managing a semi final finish until West Ham dumped them out.

Season 2009/10

Alex did more culling of the squad this season then bringing any one in. This time it was only £7 million spent in the transfer market, the majority of that spent on Juan Manuel Vargas (£6.25 million). The Peruvian proving a sure hit in his first season finishing the best player in the team with an average rating of 7.30. It was more squad fodder that arrived in the form of Pavel Pardo on a bosman, Mario Bolattie and Duran who went straight back out on loan.

Ivan Alonso had another good year but at 31 is showing his age Alex will be looking for a longer term replacement for him. The improvement this year was that Sunderland were able to find goals from all over the park instead of just relying on the strikers to find the net, Vargas taking 7 himself and few goals from other parts of the field mounted up to take Sunderland to an 8th place finish in there continuous improvement and a European Vase position. Martin Stranzl also seemed to peak this season continuing a decent defensive backline again, something becoming of a trend of this side and for the first season Sunderland finished with a positive goal difference.

Ferguson though was getting on himself and decided to retire after this season safe in the mind that he had placed down the foundations for a successful Sunderland side which Adrian Boothroyd would take control of.

After Ferguson

Boothroyd looks like he is to go for the big push now spending large amounts of cash as the Sunderland position improves. A good bit of business saw Craig Gordon leave for AC Milan for £28 million and Craig Cathcart leave for Reading for £6.75 allowing Sunderland to spend £28.5 million in the market himself. First in was Munich’s attacking midfielder Julio Daniel Dos Santos, Clint Dempsey arrived from Championship side Fulham and Bolton allowed captain Kevin Nolan to negotiate terms with Sunderland for £6.5 million. To help improve the striking situation in came Ewerthon on a free transfer a good buy for someone in top class form. The most expensive signing of the season was defender Hubschman who arrived from Pompey. But the most exciting transfer of the summer was Parma’s Luca Cigarini the central midfielder who arrived for £7 million and looks a decent player to fit into Fergie’s squad into the central midfield.

Sunderland continued there assault on the Premiership this time improving again hitting 6th in the table Jones finding his goalscoring touch again putting away 15 goals while Ewerthon and Alonso both finished with 17 a piece, improvements in the midfield with Vargas and Cigarini made the difference contribute 27 of the assists to the goals. Sunderland were also able to make it into the UEFA cup from the European Vase, managing to get to the knock out stages until meeting Champions League drop out’s Lyon who battered Sunderland 8-1 over two ties. The extra burden of Europe and league glory affected there cup competitions losing to Coventry in the league cup 3rd round before going out to Chelsea in the FA cup. Sunderland kept on spending money but the continuous improvement didn’t carry on into Boothroyds second season and Sunderland were back to the middle of the table. With the help of prolific striker Stancu one of Boothroyd’s purchases Sunderland slowly climbed up the table again finally finished 4th in the final season played.

But I can’t help but think that it was mostly down to the foundations laid by Alex Ferguson that brought the success to Sunderland, without his part in building up the reputation at The Stadium of Light I don’t think they would have been able to attract a top manager such as Boothroyd to take over when the big guy retired. Again I feel it was the managers that made the difference in this squad and I got to say the improvement of Sunderland has been the most interesting of quests so far.

This looks good i will be following it. KUTGW

Ince is the only manager on my shortlist that has left our small Island for the big boot in the sea. Paul Ince who had spent two years at Nerazzurri before, signing in the season of 1995/96. He had a successful period in Milan becoming a Milano favourite, this was more down to his commitment and charm as while at the San Siro Inter didn’t manage to win a thing finishing 7th and 3rd in the two years. But Ince had a helping hand in getting them into the UEFA cup final which was lost to Schalke 4-1 on penalities. Now Ince has returned to finish the job he had started, to win something with Milan.

Season 2007/08

Paul’s first season couldn’t have been any better winning Serie A title with ease, something that we seen as a trend at the moment. Nerazzurri finished the season 15 points clear of their ground sharing rivals AC Milan, Ibrahimovic instantly becoming a favourite of Paul’s scoring 32 goals and an average rating of 7.88, in the league over 35 games out of 38 he averaged 7.92. Paul also won the Italian Super Cup against Roma and Italian cup defeating their rivals in the semi final of the Italian cup to setup a tie with Cagliari in the final Viera’s extra time goal securing the win. The signings that actually came into the side never made much of a difference surprising when £22 million was spent on two players Makoun playing only one game and Palombo coming in for £12 million from Sampdoria played 25 games not really making much of a difference in any of them, taking the runners up award for the worst signing of the season. Why Ince felt that he had to spend so much money in the defensive midfield position when he still had Viera and Cambiasso in the team I don’t know. In the Champions League Inter found their way to the quarter finals before they hit any real challenge, which proved too much, Sevilla’s two goals in Spain canceled out Chivu’s first minute strike at the San Siro. Other awards for the Inter team Stankovic took the foreign player of the year, Ceaser the goalkeeper of the year and Ince naturally took the best manager award.

Season 2008/09

Ince must have had a shocking amount of money to spend in his second season as he dished out £87 million on players, but if Paul had read review of the Inter team at One FM he would have learned that throwing money at his team is not the way Inter have found success. This season was no different as Inter only managed a third place finish. Looking at the league table Roma managed to win the league with just 68 points a close affair this season which Ince should have capitalised on with the quality of his new signings Palermo finished second on 65 and Inter 64. A majority of the big buck were spent on Giuseppe Rossi for £34.5 million and with 33(8) games he scored 15 goals only 9 of them in the league, meaning his goal fee ratio was £2.3 million for every goal. Rossi managed to keep out Suazo who only managed 3 goals himself all of them shadowed by Zlatan’s 29. It was a poor performance from the rest of the team that saw Inter lose their way this season, Chivu the only other putting in a performance worthy of the Italian giants. The rest of the budget was spent on Pedretti (£10.25 million), Huntlaar (£16.5 million), Rafinha (£10.25 million) and Belluschi who had spent a year with Palmero came in half way through the season for £15.75 million. Notably leaving was Zanetti who mutally terminated his contract to setup a pub in Spain. Adriano also left in the January to Sevilla and finished with a good display in Spain himself. Milan did better in Europe this season managing to progress a stage further to the Semi Finals, again they were undone by another second rate Spanish team. They did manage the Italian cup final but lost out to Lazio, three goals from a bargain bought Adebayor, earning him the best signing of the season, made it a cupless season for Ince. It seems the trend at the moment is that Ince is spending millions on players who are just not performing. Maybe he got lucky with his first season and in his attempt to reshape his team has unsettled everyone.

Season 2009/10

Another season of spending, £87 million being the magic number again, surely the board wouldn’t settle for anything other total world domination with figures like that, Ince has totalled £195 million in spending, obviously we have a patient board at Milan. But Serie A definitely produced some surprises in this season, both Milan and Fiorentina failed to make European places. Runners up last season Palermo were 2 points shy of the drop. But the biggest shock of them all was newly promoted Cagliari who were relegated in the first season came straight up to win the league by 3 points ahead of last years champions Roma, 4 points behind on 67 points was Inter. It was actually the Ince’s former assistant Sinisa Mihajlovich who lead Cagliari to victory. In the market Ince made a mixture of big signings and quiet squad fodder. Xabi Alonso broke Ince’s transfer record spending £35 million. Lucas (£12.75million) followed Xabi, Marchisio commanded a total of £16 million between two team to arrive at the San Siro and FM/CM legend for all the nostalgics Saviola signed the dotted line. Former Juve midfielder Nocerino tied up the rest of the big names coming via Villarreal (£14.5 million). Daniele Federici came back to the San Siro after a season with Pro Sesto, a free transfer who is a natural in five different positions all over the pitch. Palombo left for Valencia for a healthy profit surprising Valencia saw it fit to spend £18 million for him.

It was a better performance from Ince’s signings this season, Ibrahimovic again had an excellent season finishing top goalscorer once again. Rossi the winner of the seasons young player award, partnered Zlatan gaining 16 goals and a fine performance this season to eventually start paying back his bill. The partnership between the two seems to have something to build on for next season and hopefully will save Paul’s job. Xabi, Saviola and Belluschi have all settled in well the latter getting 15 goals from the midfield to establish him as a first team player unfortunately Huntlaar didn’t see a single minute of action making him a very unhappy guy indeed. Unfortunate really because I am sure that he could have added something to the team once he had been around for a year or two. Paul did manage to win the Italian cup once again Reggina in the final this time Ibrahimovic’s fine display won a scrappy game. The Champions League is another competition which Paul seems to be forever improving, passing Manchester United to setup a quarter final tie with Liverpool but Torres was too much at Anfield.

Season 2010/11

For 2010/11 season normal play resumed. Finally after another £39 million of splashed around Paul Ince took his second league title, helped no doubt by the 49 goals that the Rossi and Ibrahimovic partnership produced. The league title is getting closer and very unpredictable Fiorentina taking second 5 points behind Inter and AC Milan managed a UEFA cup place in 5th. It seems like the players who struggled when they first arrived have now gelled together and both new and old are producing the goods, Maxwell and Chivu putting in the performances needed to win the league this season. The new guys were Abidal (£11.75 million) who arrived from Barcelona after three successful seasons, Derby made a profit with Dervite who at 22 still has a bright future and arrived for £12.75 million although the Italian press gave him the worst signing of the year award, something that seems common of Ince’s dealings. The strangest signing and the biggest of the season was right back Behrami £14.25 million, he looks good on paper but he hasn’t really put the performances in on the pitch to warrant such a high fee. Nocerino went the other way to join Barca after not really making it at Inter, playing only 8 games over the two season, being disappointing, but after 12 games with the Spaniards seems to have found his calling.

Paul’s biggest success of the season and his Inter career so far has to be his Champions League win. Knocking out Real Madrid and Arsenal on the road to Klagenfurt were Inter met Barcelona. a tight game which over 120 minutes only produced 10 chances a piece. Injury to Ibrahimovic in the 29th minute must have had the fans heads in their arms, But it was his replacement Saviola who in the 95th minute broke the deadlock and brought European success to the San Siro. Maybe it was Internazionale’s early exit in the Italian cup to Genoa that gave them that little more time to prepare and concentrate on Europe. Zlatan took the player of the year award and Ince took manager of the year.

Season 2011/12

Ince must now feel that he has the team how he wants it all the windows are in and the building is complete. But Inter continued there strange yo yo like form as this season they finished 9th a disappointing season, I think it was only last years success that has meant that Ince wasn’t sacked, but after talking to the board he took the decision to resign. He made two signings this season, Forsyth a backup goalkeeper arrived on a Bosman and Brazilian Kardec joins the collection of strikers at the team for £11 million. Rossi and Ibrahimovic still dominated scoring 41 goals. It was the defensive side of the team that let everything down this season Chivu having his weakest season yet and non of his other colleagues making much of a reputation for themselves. With exception of Maicon who continued his good service to the club. Spartak Moscow made sure that Inter couldn’t defend their title after beating them both home and away in the 1st knockout stage. Juve also dumped Milan out of the Cup making, the only success in the season the Club World Championships and winning this can’t be construed as a successful season. Out went Lucas and Rafiniha after very few games at the club.

After Ince’s departure,l Inter have failed to perform, since winning the Champions League Milan have failed to qualify for the for the competition until the former Chelsea assistant Steve Clark took over and finished 4th in 2015 and winning the Italian cup in 2014. Reggina winning the league and Napoli and Genoa all becoming the title challengers, Parma and Palermo all seeing relegation between the periods, just showing how interesting the Italian league is for just throwing up unpredictable results. 33 year old Ibrahimovic slowly seen a decline in first team minutes, but even still his performances continued to dominate. The same season that saw Ince resign saw former Manchester City coach Tommy Soderberg and Martin O’Neill come and go in the same season before the settled with Clarke. Ince although hasn’t retired in football has yet to manage another club and still waits in the wing for the perfect chance for him to come back, maybe he is waiting for the Liverpool or Manchester United job?

So does Paul Ince answer are conundrum, Is it the manager who makes the team, or the team who makes the manager? Well I would like to think that without Ince Inter Milan would have dominated Serie A consistently instead of winning the odd title. It was probably the vasts amount of money that was spent by Paul on players that managed to get him any success at all, that and the gem that is Zlatan who was able to dominate Serie A all on his own rarely finishing top goalscorer. So in this case I would say it was the team that made the manager, sorry Paul.

Fabio is about to name his first England side at the weekend and I am sure that it will be full of surprises, rumours have it that there will be no place Beckham to earn his 100th cap and we might see some of the young guys get a chance like Bently and Young. Capello has been known for his hard line attitude with the players, picking sides that want to play and will perform becoming something of a tactician. But will these skills put him in good stead when taking over at Alexandra Road.

Capello has been successful at nearly every club he has been too, granted he has never worked at any club other then the top flight where he has had money to spend or talented squad already. But nevertheless he has shown that he can win cups and leagues, many people have taken up the Don Fabio challenge to charter his career through Football Manager 2008. Capello started off as a successful player grabbing 40 caps for his country and winning titles with Roma in the late 60’s.

His managerial career started off at AC Milan winning the title four out of five tries going 58 league games unbeaten at one stage. A move to Spain for a season in 1997 at Los Merengues saw Capello lift another trophy nipping Barcelona to the post by two points and bringing in players that are now have legendary status such as Roberto Carlos and Clarence Seedorf. A second spell at Milan wasn’t so successful not even lasting the season, Milan only finishing 10th that year ending the poor season. A short break out of football to get his thoughts together before Capello moved to the Italian capital Rome. Fabio didn’t make any fans at Roma despite winning the title in his first season, the Roman fans to this day have a hatred for him feeling that he had a hand in sabotaging the club by selling many of their key players. A feud with the Roma golden child Totti did not help things and after Roma nearly found themselves relegated and debt ridden, Cappello went to Juventus. Capello did win titles in Turin, but after the match fixing scandal Juventus were stripped of their trophies and sent down to Serie B. Capello jumped ship and took a few players with him back to Real Madrid were he ended a long spell without a trophy when he had a fantastic second half of the season to take La Liga. Although he had success it wasn’t without controversy, first of all dropping Beckham, Ronaldo and Cassanno to the disgust of the Madrid fans and was forced to recall Beckham who then had a major part in the title win. Capello was sacked by Madrid for his defensive way of playing football, Fabio believing that the beautiful attacking game is dead and only winning will do, no matter how it is done.

So Capello’s career has been far away the depths of League One so can he put into practise what he has learnt at the top level to The Railwaymen? The media predicted that Crewe should be capable of finishing 12th, but Fabio was only able to finish one place under that prediction in 13th. Looking at the statistics from the season Crewe lacked goals, not a single player in the team was able to score mpre then 10 goals. Capello used his already established affiliation link with Liverpool to loan strikers Lindfield and Moroccan international El Zhar both had decent seasons the latter finishing as top goalscorer with 9. Andy Carroll the huge young striker looked the best player he brought in, but Andy only stayed a few months playing 5 games and scoring 3 in that time. Fabio did spend well though Millwall’s Senda and Chad Harpur the South African keeper both looked and played well. Senda probably being the best Crewe player of the season. Maynard may have had a better role to play in the first season and pushed Crewe up the table, if only he wasn’t on the injury table for a total of 6 months. Most interestingly was the way that Crewe lined up in a very counter attacking fashion, something unheard of in the depths of the English leagues. 4-2-3-1 with nobody in the middle of the field, he surely was placing his Italians ways onto the team. Highlights of the season though was a semi final finish in the Johnstone’s Trophy, before Rotherham stopped them in their tracks in a shock win. Crewe enjoyed 72% of the possession in that game but was only able to convert that into 7 shots and only 1 goal. Rotherham using the rest of the possession much better and winning 2-1. Wins against Leeds and Carlise though showed that their is some potential in the side.

But unfortunately Capello didn’t last long after that leaving just before Christmas making him the first manager from my shortlist to change post. While still at the club though he still invested into the team bringing in Werling from Barnsley, former Bolton striker Pedersen and another goalkeeper Jalal to replace the departure of Ben Williams all three players arrived for £40k each. The big buy of the summer was Bolton youngster Gbemie, obviously Capello still has the big club mentality as Gbemie came in and then went straight out on loan to Kidsgrove and £95k was spent on the player. But a much, much better performance from Crewe this season finishing 3rd in the title race only a point behind the 2nd place and 2 points behind winners Orient. Signings Pedersen and Lindfield in his second spell at the club gaining 38 goals between them the 33 year old scoring 20 goals making his 40k price tag well worth the investment. Capello’s record before he left was 11 wins, 4 draws and 9 loses not too bad. and bearing in mind the final standing of the season was 20 wins, 14 draws and 12 loses he played a huge part in getting them into the position they are. Although Crewe finished top of the play off places it was Southend who went into the Championship Nicky Maynard’s equaliser forced the game to extra time where Gary Hooper took his second goal to send them up. Bizarrely after such a great season for Pedersen in which he was runner-up in the best signing of the season, he didn’t see any action until the 114th minute by which time it was too late.

Capello was poached by Premiership strugglers Bolton and only lasted till March before he was given the boot, unable to save Bolton from the drop. Although Capello’s appointment did seem to have an affect on Bolton’s results although it wasn’t enough though and Bolton finished a point shy of safety. After his disappointing attempt in the English top flight Capello moved back to similar surroundings, trying his luck at Empoli were he first managed to lead them to a 8th in his first season but the next Empoli were relegated to Serie B that forced hos retirement as The Don thought he was getting too old for it all and not the success he used to be.

After such a good season before Capello left Crewe, they were relegated under Capello’s successor John Ward and for Crewe it wasn’t until Alex Ferguson’s son Darren took over that they managed to get themselves back into League 1 two years later, it was under Darren Ferguson they dominated League 2 and became champions. Before going back down a after another successful season in League 1 and having a yo yo affect over the remaining season played.

So this adds something to the theory that it is actually the manager that makes the team, without Capello and his strange Italian tactics I fail to see that Crewe would have managed their 3rd place finish, as with more or less the same side they were relegated the next season Leon Knight supplying more or less the same amount of goals that Pedersen did. It is just a pity that he couldn’t prove that rule elsewhere managing relegation twice himself. During his brief spell at Bolton though I think it was just too late for him to make any sort of difference and the impatient board didn’t allow him the time to develop his own team.

Jose at Colchester

Jose has footballing blood throughout his body, being the son of Felix Mourinho the Portuguese goalkeeper. Jose was never very good at football himself and took a more academic root finally getting a degree in physical education. Jose first real big break into professional football was at Sporting Lisbon were he acted as an interpreter for Sir Bobby Robson, following him to Porto and then into Spain when he took the Barcelona job. Bobby got the boot and Mourinho stayed were he gradually gained more responsibilities with the team coaching Barcelona B side at one stage.

Jose got his first management role at Benfica were he was only in charge nine games after elections at the club saw a new president come in who had already lined up a new manager. Jose quickly found a job at União de Leiria and led them to their highest ever position to 5th and a place above Benfica. A year later Jose took the reigns of FC Porto and radically changed the way the team worked, but it came up good when he won the league, UEFA cup and Portuguese cup in the same season. The following year Jose led the outsiders Porto to a Champions League win beating Manchester United along the way and met Monaco in the final. Mourinho then moved to England, Chelsea were he was able to win everything but the Champions League, putting Roman’s millions to good use until he surprisingly left in September 2007.

The special one returns to England sees him in the less glamourous part of the South East, in a place which claims to be the oldest town in Britain, Colchester. He has proved that he can change clubs fortunes with or without money, but can he do it at relegation favourites Colchester?

Season 2007/08

The first season Colchester were predicted to finish 17th, a safe distance away from the relegation zone but nothing spectacular. The first thing Jose was to do when arriving at Colchester was to appoint some new backroom staff, bringing in a Portuguese national coach Peixe as a scout, a guy that looks good at spotting the stars of tomorrow Peixe interestingly as well was a former player of Leiria. Jose also brought in a few scouts and coaches to help build his Colchester team. The first player to come through the door was the cousin of a player that Mourinho heavily pursued in the Premiership, Anthony Gerrard. Another Everton graduate arrived from Walsall with Gerrard, Daniel Fox. In from Northern Ireland Mark McAllister a young striker who I wish I could tell you more about but stupidly I masked the attributes but Mark looks to be a giant at 6′5â€. Jose must have spent alot of time in Northern Ireland during his time out of work as he brought in another player from Larne, goalkeeper Chris Keenan who looks like a decent player. Mourinho seemed to favour the younger players another young sprite came in the shape of Oliver Lancashire travelling from Southampton. Brendon Moloney who came in from Forest to complete the youth transfers. The oldest signing that arrived came from Portagual Bruno Mestre in January after starting well for his team Olhanense.

Non of the signings particular played well, or even played at all. By the looks of it all the signings were made to build a team for the future. Kevin Lisbie was one of only a few players that actually played well grabbing 16 goals from 46 appearances, Karl Duguid another player to have a decent season but at 30 I wonder how long he will actually be at the club for much longer. It would be impossible to mention Colchester without mentioning their 42 year old striker Teddy Sheringham who seems to be rotting in the reserves transfer listed as Jose seeks the younger players. But he did manage 17 games scoring 7 goals so there is life in the old guy yet. Colchester only managed to miss the drop to League one by a point above Plymouth and two points above Hull. A rather disappointing season in truth, but the board are sticking with Mourinho’s plan and he stays in post despite the relegation battle. But results against Wolves, Sheffield United and Crystal Palace showed that there is potential there and they are able to beat the bigger clubs in the league. A conservative 4-4-2 formation was the choice over the season showing the Jose is playing it simple.

Season 2008/09

In the second season Colchester were busy in negotiations throughout the summer, Daniel Fox left on loan, Kevin McLeod was sold to Rotherham, Kemel Izzet to MK Dons and Jose seemed to be making a profit for the side selling Oliver Lancashire for £110k to Wigan and Mark McAllister went to Scotland, Falkirk paying £26k for his services. Showing Jose’s ability to not only spend money but bring it into a club. Mestre though didn’t make much of an impact at Colchester and was released from his contract in January Rotherham jumped on him picking up another of Jose’s players. Using the extra cash Jose splashed out £250k to help plug his leaky defence with Hungarian Bela Balogh, Bela looks fantastic for the Championship side with strong attributes across the board, nothing special but he will do his job well . After a few years in Spain former Watford striker Gifton Noel-Williams arrived on a free transfer was an inspired signing. Mourinho continued bringing in his youngsters Andy King arrived from Leicester, Marc Twaddle from Scotland, Jack Ainsley, Aaron Doran, a Manchester United regen Joe Dudgeon and the Norwich young striker Cave-Brown. Completing the transfers over the season was Babayaro who joined up with his former manager on a loan basis from Newcastle and former Porto Goalkeeper Ribeiro who was a free agent in the summer.

After last season the media didn’t have high expectations for Colchester believing they would finish just above bottom of the Championship. But Jose made some improvements from the previous season finishing 19th even though it was with fewer points then last season, it helped by Noel-Williams who was by far the best player of the season scoring 20 goals and made it as the runner up of best signing of the season. The usual suspects were also consistent this season Lisbie again contributing to the cause with 15 goals again many of the new player didn’t see much action apart from Bela who made the most appearances of any player in the season and doing pretty well along with the Ribeiro who looks like a good bit of business between the sticks. In the FA cup Jose met up with his former club Chelsea in the 3rd round at Stamford Bridge. It was a good day for him as he stepped out once again on the pitch were he had won so much for Chelsea. Colchester were strong and it was only a Scott Sinclair penalty that broke the deadlock. Not a very eventful season and Colchester plodded along, but I feel that Jose is plotting behind the scenes to take the league by storm, he won’t be happy until he is able to turn the fortunes around. The problem though why Colchester aren’t breaking up into the top half is because the defence is just leaking so many goals, keep it tight at the back and Lisbie’s and Noel-Williams goals should send them up the table.

Season 2009/10

Another bit of business again in the summer again making a profit for the Essex town club. Chris Keenan who could only manage 5 games during his time at Colchester was allowed to leave on a free transfer and Moloney leaving for the league below going to Huddersfield for £55k watching Colchester turning into a money making project as it seems, I wonder if Jose is pocketing a bit of these profits that he is making, Andy King also left for £55k making it a total of £110k in the bank. The total spending of £44k in the summer the majority of the young regens from the big clubs. Sportings Celestino arrived on a free transfer to go straight into the central midfield was the most exciting prospect for the coming season.

Again the media didn’t have much hope for the U’s believing that they will be again fighting for a survival. But it was the opposite that happened as Mourinho’s three year plan came together and catapulted Colchester up the league finishing as Champions by four points the sured up defence this time contributing and I am sure the 73 goals didn’t go a miss. Noel-Williams securing himself in the hearts of thousands at Layer Road having a excellent season finishing with 24 goals with Mark Yates on the wing being the supplier of many of the goals, Jamie Guy a youngster who was at the club when Jose arrived made the step up and was seen to be favoured in front of Kevin Lisbie whose days seem to be coming to an end although the Jamaican still managed 12 goals. Bela again had a decent season and when he arrived for a mere £250k looks like a bargain now. Although winning the league well this season they didn’t manage to transfer that success to any other competition going out early in both the league cup and FA cup.

But with that success Jose was sure going to attract attention, and he left in the June of that same year leaving for Newcastle United. Steve Coppell took over at Colchester and despite spending £13.5 million was unable to keep them up in their first season in the top flight, Coppell was able to bounce back though through the play offs. Colchester continued to go up and then down and up again and then down again unable to establish themselves as a Premiership side, Coppell eventually stepping aside for Steve Bruce and then Alan Pardew to complete a hatrick of English coaches.

Jose in his second season at Newcastle was able to break them into a top 4 finish in the Premiership suggesting that Newcastle fans should look to the future of the club instead of digging in the past appointing Kevin Keegan. The next season wasn’t so great finishing 7th but finally he delivered some silverware winning the League Cup to give them a place in Europe once again. Jose continued to have success at Newcastle finishing in an European place once again and reaching the Semi finals in the FA cup and quarters of the UEFA cup. Mourinho was able to take Newcastle further in the UEFA cup in 2015 but lost out to English opponents Tottenham but were able to win the league cup once again in the same season.

Jose has been a great advocate in this game for the managers being the critical part of the team, taking a team like Colchester to the big time spending just over half a million. He bought well and tactics were great and was able to make champions of relegation fighters and there was many better squads in the league. Even when he went to Newcastle he was able to bring them trophies and European cup final spending well again. The most interesting about Jose’s time in the game is how he used his experience and knowledge bringing in players from back home as well as trying to relying on building a squad gradually.

Dennis Wise at Chelsea

now lets turn are attention to one of the Premierships big four (which doesn’t include such small clubs such as Everton). Chelsea a team that has showed how alot of money can change the fortunes of a club when the arrival of Roman Abramovich, which saw the coincidental win of 5 trophies. But before Roman’s reign Chelsea was a team with such high promise with the likes of Zola, Guillet, Villia, Di Matteo and Wise, but yet they were unable to achieve much in their time.

Wise who played at the Stamford Bridge club for 11 years and made 445 appearances for the club putting himself in the top 5 most capped players at the club. Wise is probably best known for his cheeky chappy cockney attitude, which seen him in trouble a few times, his disciplinary record and accusations of biting players and assaulting taxi drivers tarnished his Cheslea career seeing him stripped as the captain, yet he still remained a loved figure at Stamford Bridge.

Wise’s managerial career started at Millwall were he took a player-manager role were he was able to stir the Championship club to the FA cup final, but disagreements between the board meant Wise left. His next job a brief caretaker role with Dave Bassett at Southampton before George Burley was appointed. Dennis fell to the depths of League Two for his first full managerial position at Swindon joining up for the first time with former team mate Gus Poyet. A good start at the club sought attraction from Leeds, who were destined for relegation to League One. In the current season Leeds started their campaign for promotion with a 15 point deficit, but regardless of this Leeds climbed up the table and look favourites for promotion, if the negative point difference wasn’t taken into consideration Leeds would be clear at the top by 2 points at the time of writing. After a short time in management Wise made the surprise move to Newcastle taking up an executive role advising the board on footballing matters and working along side Kevin Keegan.

Season 2007/08

Dennis’s first season didn’t start off well, a 2-0 loss to Manchester United in the Charity Shield, but it was probably that spur Wise on to do better as the start of the league began, 7 wins in a row with three 4-0 victories would setup the season well until Arsenal abruptly stopped the run with Sagna’s late goal gaving the home team the win. Again Wise was able to win the majority of their games until he was faced with another one of his main rival’s United who went to Stamford Bridge and battered Wise’s team, which had summed up Wise’s first season at Chelsea as they finished 2nd in the league. The only thing stopping Chelsea from winning was the inability to beat the teams around them at the top. Arsenal were they only top team to suffer a defeat to Chelsea, the rest of the points were dropped at Middlesbrough and Pompey further hampering any challenge. Chelsea have a great side and why would anyone want to shake it up too much? The only signing of the season was Mutu who cost nearly £20 million. Mutu who had already spent some time at Stamford Bridge before his problems with the white powder fitted in well up front rotating between Drogba and Andriy who all had a brilliant season contributing plenty of goals to the cause.

Although Chelsea didn’t manage the league Wise still kept up with winning traditions claiming the FA cup in his first season, although to be honest he was very lucky to only meet up with one Premiership opposition team along the way until the final that being Derby. West Ham were waiting for them in the final who were able to dispose of Villa, Blackburn and Arsenal along the way. Droba’s goal was the only difference between to the two teams in which Chelsea dominated.

Season 2008/09

The second season saw Chelsea improve this time managing to beat all the top teams throughout the season, all results reading 2 goals to 1. Drogba and Mutu being the thorn in the side of many of the top clubs as they were always the names on the score sheet. No surprise that Drogba scored the second highest amount of goals in the season although he was way behind Berbatov’s record. Captain Terry lead the way and finished with the average rating of 7.57. This time around though Wise didn’t feel like he needed to spend a single penny of Romans money to take the league. Wise had found his feet, knowing what would work and the players he wanted, but he didn’t just stop of the league, but he even went further to lineAbramovich ’s pockets by taking the Champions League. Looking at the teams that Chelsea had to face along the way to European glory Wise well deserved his win, knocking out Italian giants AC Milan before taking on a hatrick of Spainish teams, Real Madrid were first to go before Barcelona and Valencia in the final, Mutu and Drogba again dominating everything that Chelsea did. Before the final where it was an extra time penalty by Essien that brought the honours to Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea did manage the League Cup final, but just like any big team now Chelsea took it as a chance to rest first players and develop the young players, many of the fringe players putting forward their case for a first team place. Especially Sinclair and Sahar the latter scoring the only goal for Chelsea in the game before getting sent off, but it was Villa that came up victors as they looked for a return of the Millions O’Neill had spent over the seasons. The FA cup didn’t turn out as good as the rest of the season Liverpool in the 4th round dumped them out, but then that freed up much of their season to concentrate on Europe and the domestic league, the domination of Chelsea showed in the awards, Drogba finished top goalscorer in all competitions, Wise was the manager of the year and Mutu put his bad past behind him and claiming the players of the season.

Season 2009/10

For the second season running Wise kept his hands out of Roman’s wallet, but as a result the rest of the league used this to spend their cash improving their teams in order to catch up on Chelsea and it showed. Chelsea having a disappointing season and dropping to a 6th place finish and in a turn it was probably because Drogba and Mutu had a bad season, the latter even being dropped from the side in favour of Sahar and Sinclair who both had brilliant seasons finishing behind Didier in the goal scoring chart. Dennis was shown the hard way that sometimes you do have to spend some money, as teams that did such as Spurs, Villa, Everton dominated Chelsea, winning by significant margins. Ipswich and Liverpool in the FA Cup and League Cup respectively made sure that Chelsea were unable to find any success at home.

In Europe though it was a different matter, this time it was Drogba and Sahar that were dominating teams Ben scoring an hatrick against Lyon and goals against Real Madrid and Roma also saw Chelsea to the final were they would meet Valencia again in a repeat of last years final. Valencia were seeking revenge this time after just missing out last season. Yet again it was another tight affair, but the difference was the fact that Valencia were able to convert their chances, a 3-1 victory completed the revenge campaign by Valencia, helped by former Chelsea player Steve Sidwell who was quickly sent packing as soon as Wise arrived, he again must have shared the search of vengeance against Chelsea which attracted the top Spanish side.

Season 2010/11

In attempt to get back to winning ways Wise started splashing the cash, spending £47.5 million on two South Americans. Most of the money was spent on Dani Alves (£38 million) the Brazilian right back whose attributes show that he probably one of the greatest players in game able to do anything which was shown as he started paying back his fee straight away finishing as the best player in the team over 51 games he averaged out at 7.53. Trejo who arrived at the club for a small fee of £9.25 million and another one of the signings from Wise that made an impact straight away finishing Chelsea’s joint top goalscorer with 20 goals. Chelsea’s front line contributed 69 goals in total Sinclair having the best game goal ratio at 34 games and 20 goals. Belletti and Shevchenko both left at the end of their contracts. But Trejo’s goals weren’t enough Chelsea only managed a 4th place finish, better then last season and again they will play in the Champions League. But we know how demanding Russian Billionaires can be and by christmas Wise was shown the door to be replaced by Martin O’Neill. It was Chelsea’s inability again to beat the top teams that saw meant that they were unable to compete for the title. finishing 12 points off the pace if they were converted into wins against the top four then the season would have been theirs.

Martin did lead Chelsea to the FA cup final, beating former club Villa along the way, but again Chelsea didn’t really face any major competition on the Road to the final and it was Derby they met at Wembley. a 1-1 draw in a game that Chelsea should have came out victors, seen it go to penalties in the lottery Mikel and Trejo were unable to convert and Derby were able to place all but one shot into the back of the net. In the UEFA cup Lyon were the team to seek revenge this season knocking Chelsea out at the quarter final stage.

Martin’s first season in charge was another trophyless season for Chelsea again finishing outside the top four in 6th place, even after carrying on his trend of spending big bucks. But after saying goodbye to O’Neill, Drogba and Mutu. Steve Clark took brief control of Chelsea before he left to take the Inter Milan job as you already know from Paul Ince’s story. Spaletti then took control and the three managers combined brought the league back to London in 2012/13. The next season Spaletti was able to keep Chelsea in the top four finishing 2nd some way off the pace but it was encouraging that they weren’t having the same yo yo affect as we seen at Inter. Another Champions League win came against Valencia in the final for the third time, Abebayor an O’Neill signing was able to separate the two teams. From then Spaletti constantly kept Chelsea in the top four and visited the Champions League final again at Sevilla which they lost and were never to win a trophy again since the last European cup win.

Dennis Wise didn’t get back into management after Chelsea and probably is showing his executive qualities somewhere after he resigned from football management in 2014. So what does this show? I am not sure, again Wise’s story is very similar to what happened in the Paul Ince scenario, who is Wise’s favoured personnel, maybe they both share empathy with each other. But it was definitely the quality of the team he had that made him successful, but it is hard to say being the fact he couldn’t find the a job afterwards even with his Champions League medals. In the transfer market, he was able to add quality to an already quality team, but for any football manager regular, the scouts at Chelsea will always pester the manager to pick up Mutu and Alves and with their power of money can pick them up easily and the money spent on them you would expect results. Although I feel that Wise did made some good choices in bringing through Sinclair and Sahar and the spot of Trejo to bolster his talented squad.

{b]John Aldridge at Liverpool[/b]

Although John Aldridge was born in Liverpool and has an undeniable Scouse accent he managed an 11 year International career with the Republic of Ireland managing to gather 69 caps. Aldo spent the majority of his early career in an amateur league playing for South Liverpool before getting his break signing for Welsh side Newport County and then later Oxford United and scoring for fun at both clubs and at the U’s becoming the first second division player for 19 years to score over 30 goals in a season. His prolific form started to attract attention from his boyhood heroes Liverpool, when he arrived the pressure was already put on his shoulders as he was seen as the player to fill the boots of Ian Rush who was leaving for Italy. John was able to fulfill his expectations and in great fashion and in 1988 when Liverpool won the league comfortably he put away 26 goals. Following was the famous 1989 season when Michael Thomas’ last gasp kick took the league to London robbing Liverpool, John made the switch to Spain becoming the fist non-Basque player to have sign for Real Sociedad he again was on a good run of form, but John’s family found it hard to adapt in Spain and returned to Merseyside, this time over the Water at Prenton Park and after 5 years at the club became player-manager before taking up full time management two years later scoring a magnificent career total of 476 goals. But his managerial career was very up and down, he was strong contenders for Promotion and even took his team to a FA Cup final, but when the bad times hit Rovers they were relegated where they still remain to this day, John never returned to football after resigning and now works mainly in the media.

Season 2007/08

But I have persuaded Aldo return to management with the lure of the Liverpool job, I was surprised to see him still on the database but while he was he went straight in. John wasn’t very active in the transfer window in the first season instead relying on what he already had at the club and getting to know the place before any major changes. But looking at the average ratings of the players, in general you wouldn’t call it a successful season going on the stats alone. Carragher finished as the best player with a rating of 7.38 from 50 games and only 6 players in total were able to get over the bench mark rating of 7. But despite the fact that few individuals stood out, as a unit they were fantastic finishing the first season top of the table by six points, proving me wrong when I thought that Liverpool really needed improvement in the game before they could reach the top. The key to success was that there was good players in key positions starting with Reina at back and moving down the spine of the team to the strikers who all four were able to find the back of the net, Torres as you would expect finished top of the clubs goal tally with 17 goals, Crouch and Kuyt also taking 14 and 13 respectively, Vorinion and Gerrard both scoring 10 goals, showing why Liverpool were able to win the league. At the other end of the pitch a strong defense which has a been a trademark of the new Liverpool for years now, making sure that the goals Liverpool were scoring weren’t being canceled out, only Chelsea finished with a better goal difference.

Liverpool were also able to get important results from games, only dropping 2 points against the top 4 clubs, Chelsea were the only club able to take away a point. The league came at the expense of cup competitions, losing against sides that Liverpool really should have beaten and where does that sound familiar? Fielding a second tier side against League Cup opposition Middlesbrough meant that Liverpool were kicked out of the cup at the third round as Boro managed a 2-1 victory. The FA cup was a little bit more bitter as local rivals Everton were able to dispose Liverpool in the third round reply, Andy Johnson striking twice in a 3-0 victory for the people’s club. In Europe John was able to get past the first round but in a fairly easy group with Lyon, Schalke and Salzburg. But Liverpool were only able to reach 2nd place in the group which set up a hard draw against Real Madrid, which the Spainards won without contest. But what more can be asked? Liverpool fans have been calling for more focus in the league for some season now instead of settling for cup wins and John was able to do it at the first opportunity. At the award ceremonies Steven Gerrard took the footballer of the year and John manager of the year.

Season 2008/09

Come the second season Aldridge was more active in the transfer market spending £29 million on British talent. First to arrive was Manchester City’s young midfielder Michael Johnson who commanded £16.5 million fee, Gareth Bale was the only other signing of the season. Riise who was moaning about wanting a new challenge made the switch to London along with Arbeloa to replace Bale. After a season in John is starting to develop his own squad, Hyypia, Leto and Auriello were all other names to see the door.

The new signings didn’t really make to much of an impact on the side in their first season, Kuyt and Torres continued there scoring records Kuyt finishing top this time topping Fernado by two goals scoring 18. But Liverpool weren’t the force this season as they were last when goals flew in from all round the pitch. This showed in the league position finishing 7 points behind Chelsea who clinched the title as the more observational readers would have realised. But the season saw more individual performances improving and youngsters such as Hobbs, Lucas, Antwi and Insua seeing more time on the pitch, it looks like the Aldridge is keen in developing the youth players in the side. But I am glad to see that it wasn’t just me that had plenty of the Liverpool stars moaning at me, this time it was Xabi Alonso which isn’t good news as he has been on of the better players over the past two seasons.

Under John Liverpool have definitely dropped there Cup team reputation, Chartlon this time in the 3rd round taking down Liverpool 2-1. In the FA Cup after beating QPR and Chelsea 3-0 in the FA cup to reach the 5th round it was Mansfield that were able to take a 2-1 win at Anfield, Kuyt only able to score from the spot. It was the same situation in Europe, but with a tougher group this season it was Munchen that trashed Liverpool in the first knock-out stage.

Season 2009/10

Manchester City seems to have become a big breeding ground now for Liverpool players as John snaps up two more guys from the team, first of all Luis Jimenez who had come via Manchester from Inter. But also Croatian right back Corluka who seems to be a hit with the big teams and able to command a huge over rated value of £24 million, it might have something to do with the defender being able to tackle well as well as get up in the air on paper he looks the part, I have just never seen him put it into practice. Toni Kroos was the final signings of the summer who at 20 looks a bit of a free kick specialist, bringing a bit of style to the Liverpool midfield, unusual for a German. Lucas was allowed to leave for Inter Milan along with Xabi Alonso before he stunk out the dressing room with his constant moaning about wanting to leave the club. I am sure that John wasn’t too fused when he was given £35 million to spend on new players.

First game of the season could not have been harder, Champions Chelsea came to Anfield in a game which could prove to shape up the rest of the season. Javier Mascherano hit first blood just 11 minutes in before another defensive midfielder Sissoko headed it into the back of the net. Drogba tried his best to get Chelsea back into the game but Liverpool were 3-1 up before Kewell saw a red card and Drogba took a second. The first win of the season would prove vital. Derby were sandwiched in-between another one of the title contender, Arsenal the two main strikers Kuyt and Torres gave Liverpool another huge advantage in the title race. The wins continued with the odd blip in the Midlands not being a great place for Liverpool to go losing points to both Villa, Birmingham, West Brom and Coventry. But the wins against the other top 3 meant that Liverpool made up ground and took the Premiership on goal difference. The last time a team won the league on goal difference was 1989 when Liverpool were on the losing end of the difference, it was 3 crucial goals that placed Liverpool ahead of the second place side.

John had his best season yet, managing to take a double. It may have only been the league cup that he won domestically but every game counts. Down the route Chelsea were easily disposed of making the team of professionals look like a lower league side and it was Arsenal in the final, which showed how seriously the Premiership sides were starting to take the League cup title. But Kuyt’s 2nd minute goal was enough to see the cup go back to Anfield in a tight battle. A good run in the FA Cup seen Liverpool get to the Semi-finals, but when Liverpool once again suffered from the curse of the Midlands and Aston Villa with the help of Gareth Barry waved Goodbye to the Reds. The Champions League drew Liverpool with a decent group of supermarket products, Chicken Kiev, down the cleaning aisle Ajax and the herb Basel. Finishing top of that group for the first time in two years meant that Liverpool were given an easy first round tie with Panathinaikos, then a quarter final clash against Paul Ince’s Internazionale a 1-0 win for Milan at the San Siro wasn’t enough to take to Anfield were Babel and Torres set up a tie to Valencia were the curse of the Midlands expanded to Spain where Villa struck three times over two games in a 5-1 aggregated win.

It was the usual suspects that made it for Liverpool Torres, Kuyt and Gerrard. Fernando enjoying his highest goal scoring season in England taking 27 goals 10 ahead of Kuyt. Scott Carson enjoyed a good run in the Liverpool team and was able to put in some good performances to keep the Liverpool goal difference as high as possible, doing his bit between the sticks with Reina. Stephen Darby was another youngster that saw more time in the Liverpool team doing well his last 5 games in the side seeing an excellent run of form. The only new player to really make much of a difference to the Liverpool side was of course money bags Corluka who after 37 games was just shy of a 7 rating Michael Johnsons having a terrible debut season and won’t look like moving Gerrard and Mascherano out of the starting line up for some time. Kroos only 20 managed to gain around 25 starts but was far from amazing, but John Aldridge again took away the manager of the year award.

Season 2010/11

Michael Johnson’s first season in the Liverpool team was to be his last as John realised his mistake and shipped him of to Villa in an attempt to end this dam curse, his price halved and Liverpool took £8.5 million. But during the January John made up for losing money on Michael as he mugged the Italians when Roma came in for Jimenez for £19 million for a player that really didn’t show his talent at Anfield. To strengthen the Premiership winning side John looked to get in some more experience, a player with a bit of flair, Argie D’Alessandro who had shown at his time at Zaragoza that the Premiership missed out when Pompey failed to sign him. But at 30 Andres was still at the top of his game and commanded £12 million and exciting prospect holding high attributes across the board most notably for his dribbling, technique, his off the ball work not to mention his creativity and flair. Another 30 year old Argie arrived with Andres from Spain, Barcelona’s Milito who had also played with D’Alessandro at Zaragoza so maybe the two signings are linked together. To balance out the side two young players were brought in, Roma striker Okaka arrived on a free transfer, at 6′1†looks good in the air and getting himself into those position to head the ball, but still has plenty of work to do before he can break into the side, but has potential. In January Dutchman Aissati arrived from Newcastle another player who is starting to become a finished article and looking good.

Another title winning season for The Reds, but this time Liverpool were able to win it but 10 clear points, dominating the league, but it was a much lower points score by all teams this season just showed how competitive the whole Premiership can be, despite the 10 point deficit between Liverpool and Manchester United. There was plenty more draws in this season against the likes of Chelsea, Derby and Colchester. which reflected how hard the season was. Once again it was the spine of the team that spur the side and again Corluka trying to earn back his money. Okaka was only able to get 9 games in the season but with 7 goals you couldn’t ask for more. John continued with his promotion of Liverpool home grown players, Paul Anderson managed to break into scoring 10 goals himself and Gareth Bale improving this season and looks like it will only be a few season before he is a top Premiership player. But signing D’Alessandro didn’t get much playing time and not showing his skill when he did opposed to he Gabriel Milito who played an integral part in the centre of defense along with Carragher although the guys in the know begged to differ as they voted both Milito and Aissati the worst signings of the season, Voronin who went the other way was voted one of the best.

Liverpool were also able to retain their League cup title at last able to win in the Midlands, Aston Villa were beaten by a Liverpool team full of youth and fringe players, Crouch and Toni Kroos able to cancel out Gardners goal. A derby game awaited in the next round, Everton were able to take it down to the wire but couldn’t cope with the pressure at Anfield as it went to Penalties both Cahill and Jagielka missing. Birmingham were brushed aside and Tottenham who played their own Derby in the Quarter finals against Arsenal, awaited in the final. Crouch and Okaka brought Liverpool back from behind to retain the trophy. But it was disappointment in the other cups, after struggling to Rotherham at home were they were taken to a reply which Liverpool won. The trip down to London was tight, The Gunners playing great possession football, which Liverpool still managed to match them in terms of shots. Gerrard’s 89th minute goal wasn’t enough as they were beaten 3-2. In Europe, once again in an easy group but Liverpool finished on the floor of the group in a terrible season in Europe.

Season 2011/12

After a successful first season with Liverpool, Okaka made a 100% profit as he attracted attention from many top clubs. it was FC Bayern that won his signature in the end and saw him leave Liverpool for £13.25 million. John also cashed in on Liverpool talent as Insua went to AC Milan for £11 million. Contracts were up for Joe Cole and Juan Manuel Mata who arrived at New Anfield. The only cash splashed was on Moutinho who spent a few unsuccessful season with AC Milan. Mata was sent straight back out the club on loan at AA Gent

Fernando Torres again finished the top goalscorer, but the surprise package of the season was Peter Crouch who for years in the shadow of Torres began to come into his own light, taking 15 goals and performing well all season making himself a good alternative to Dirk Kuyt. Corluka continued to grow in stature as a player and again performing well over 43 games. D’Alessandro and Aissati though had an improved season, they mainly played a part as backup’s but when called upon did well. Joe Cole had one of his best season in recent times, although not fantastic it was consistent and valuable to the team. Moutinho though continued his dreadful performances but still managed 22 games, I feel that Andres would have done his job a lot better. But even still all the squad did enough to win the league comfortably once again this time 6 points clear and back to winning ways and scoring for fun. It was consistency beating the teams below the top 4 that won Liverpool the league this season as it was pretty even at the top as three points gained at Arsenal at the start of the season was canceled out later on, which was the trend for much of the season making it all important to beat the lesser sides.

The cups were again the same old story, unable to transfer winning ways into the FA cup and Champions League. Easy draws to Peterbrough and Sheffield Wednesday were easy games Crouch managing to score in each game, but when Liverpool arrived in West Bromwich, Peter Crouch’s goal wasn’t enough as Billy Sharp scored in the 80th minute to create the cup upset. Moutinho didn’t do himself any favours when he was sent off. The league cup Liverpool lost to more respectable opposition, Manchester United in 4th round managed to take the game at Old Trafford to extra time before Darren Fletcher broke the deadlock. A much tougher group in Europe faced Liverpool then they had ever seen in recent years, previous winners Valencia and Struttgart gave a challenge to Liverpool as well as Boavista. This time Liverpool were able to progress below Valencia before crashing out to Roma. At Anfield Liverpool were able to take a fantastic 2-0 victory, Gerrard and Sissoko thinking they had secured a place in the next round. But an amazing performance in the Italian capital crushed Liverpool, Roma scored from half of there shots a 5-0 victory was more then enough to cancel out the 2 goals scored at Anfield. But Liverpool are still winning leagues, the fans placed John Aldridge in there heart and is now recognised as one of the favoured personnel, the fans have been calling for a league title for years and now three in a row John can do no wrong in Liverpool. The reds cleaned up at the award ceremony Torres was top goalscorer and player of the year, but most notably goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis was voted the best young player of the season. But it won’t be surprising that Moutinho was voted the worst of the signings made in the season.

Season 2012/13

No new signings were brought in for the new season, but why should they? Don’t fix what isn’t broken right? Out went Mata, who had a decent season at Genk was allowed to leave the club on a free transfer, Paul Anderson and Scott Carson were given mercy transfers leaving for a cut price in search of regular football. But although Liverpool didn’t strengthen their side, everyone around them did. A dreadful start of the season drawing at Leeds, and losing the next two games, it didn’t get much better losing 13 games all season which despite beating Manchester United away from home wasn’t enough and John failed to qualify for a Champions League place for the first time in his reign. Finally finishing 8th most bitterly Everton finishing above them in the League. Torres stayed consistent getting 25 goals and the goals came from other areas as they always did Kuyt and Amoo getting in on the action Aissati getting a number of goals in a good season for him. But defensively Liverpool were let down, maybe it had something to do with the little experience that they had between the sticks as Dean Bouzanis was given his chance as the first choice keeper. The two guys in the centre Agger and Corluka weren’t the rock that Carragher and Hyypia were, although it is a partnership in the making.

But lack of success in the league meant that the cups were a distraction, an early exit again from the league cup though again from tough opposition, this time it was Chelsea in the fourth round, Mikel’s only goal was enough to see them through. But in the FA cup a competition that had eluded for some years. Easy draws in the early rounds meant that Liverpool could quickly progress Leeds in the sixth round proving the only real challenge to the final, but in the reply Torres proved too powerful to stop. The final game at Wembley was to Iain Dowie’s Reading, were Torres and Crouch continued their great seasons scoring two goals within the space of 5 minutes to put Liverpool’s name on the cup. The final season in the Champions League for Liverpool before a season break was a tough ride, Real Madrid and Italian leaders Reggina along with Zenit Peterburg were in Group F. Liverpool fought gallantly to again reach the next round were the Italian Champions Fiorentina awaited. Fernando Torres and Dirk Kuyt mirrored Liverpool’s performance on each leg winning 2-1 in both games. Barcelona were then beaten easily 5-0 on aggregate, but it was Sporting Lisbon that was able to stop the run to the final. A bogey side for Liverpool in Europe managed to score 4 goals in Lisbon crushed John’s dreams of European glory.

But after failure in the league John felt that he had done all he can at Anfield and it was time to hand over the reigns. John again moved back to Europe taking up the Fiorentina job where once again he was able to win another league title in his first season, but a demanding and harsh Italian board showed no mercy and despite winning games was sacked in the favour of Mihajivoic, John Aldridge didn’t manage again.

German Felix Magath fresh from a year at AC Milan took the Liverpool job, the Wolfsburg manager had already had experience at Middlesbrough and Spurs. Bringing in Portilla who certainly added something to the team among others, his first season with Liverpool he managed to scrap them back into the Champions League, but was able to find European success in the UEFA cup beating his former Italian employers in the process. Felix seemed to be able to spot talent in the transfer market, bringing in another influence on the Liverpool side in Payet. Making further progress with the Liverpool squad he took them back up to 3rd, but again meeting Roma in the Champions League and being dumped. Felix continued with his spending spree up until the last season where he spent £63 million and 2nd place in the league.

It can’t be missed then that John was a great tactician over 38 games, he was blessed with a great Liverpool side, but he was still up against some arguably better players and the signings he did bring in rarely made the difference, so not the best of talent spotters, which leads me to believe that John Aldridge has some tactical nous. But not just doing it with a side at Liverpool but being able to transfer his knowledge to Italy and doing the same in Florence. So to go back to the question we set out to answer, is it the manager or the team that brings success? I think that this time it was the manager, who was able to prove me wrong and winning the league in the first season with The Reds, I am sure that the team he had helped, but Manchester, Chelsea and Arsenal all had stronger sides on paper especially in the first season and looking at the overall average rating for the best eleven.

I'm glad you're seeing this one through - it's a very interesting experiment and very well written too

Rafa Benitez is probably the mold of manager that all English managers should look upon when thinking about their own careers, Benitez learned his trade the long way round and it has proved very successful. After his playing careers was over, Rafa went straight into management, but he didn’t start at any top clubs first team as you would see many of our players doing such as Southgate and Coleman, who have pressure thrust upon them from the off. Instead Rafa took the job as the Castilla Youth B team and then progressed to Real Madrid Youth B and moving his way up the ladder taking control of many different Real Madrid sides until taking his first full team management job at Real Valladolid. Rafa managed 4 other teams in the La Liga before taking the job that would thrust his name onto the World stage, as he took the helm at Valencia in 2001. He won over the club by his attacking style of football that he adopted at the club and after a year in charge won the La Liga the first time Valencia had done for 31 years, quite a contrast to the more defensive football he later developed. He then did it again along with the UEFA cup in 2003/04, but that season also seen his departure of Valencia when he had a disagreement with the guys above him, in true Rafa style it can be summed up in this quote; “I asked for a table they bought me a lampshade†and join up with Liverpool replacing Houllier.

Rafa quickly became a Liverpool favourite as soon as he arrived at Anfield as he showed how prolific he was in the Champions League winning it with a Liverpool side that boasted such talents as Djimi Troare and Milan Baros, In a thrilling game Liverpool came from 3-0 down at half time to win on penalties, joining a club of a managers that had won the UEFA cup and Champions League in consecutive seasons but the first manager to do it with two teams. Rafa famously has gone out and won all the cup competitions during his time at Liverpool and reaching another Champions League final only for Milan to take the cup this time, but he is yet to convert that success into league performances and has only managed at best a 3rd place position.

With Aldo taking on the Liverpool side now I needed to find a new home for Rafa and so that he didn’t have to move to far he took a job at a mediocre League One side Tranmere Rovers which is only a trip through the tunnels under the water playing at Prenton Park. It will be along way away from any European Cup finals were promotion to the bigger leagues is in no terms certain.

Season 2007/08

Rafa came in and didn’t waste any time in making changes to the squad, first out was aging Jamaican international and Rovers captain Ian Goodison, young player Mike Jones got closer to the Mersey when he moved up to Stockport. But Rafa surely showed his shrewd business sense as he managed to get Tremarco and Craig Curran to raise some money to bring in his own players. In total, Rafa only spent £44k after making £140k on players going out, in came Costa Rican defender Roberto Flores the 21 year old who came in as a free transfer looks pretty good for a league one side and could potentially a decent player if Tranmere were to go up. Hartlepool striker David Foley arrives as squad fodder and will make more appearances in the reserves as he has alot of players to compete with in his position. The first Spaniard arrived in the January attacking midfielder Marcos Guill arrived from Cartagena for £5,000 at 24 he will be looking for time in the first team and again looks like a good spot by Rafa a player to bring flair to League One. While in Spain talking over terms with Guill, Rafa also spotted another player who wasn’t attached to any club, former Albacete defender and a giant of a man giving some strength to the back line Miquel Buades, Ryan Dickson and David Fox complete the signings for the season.

In the first season Chris Greenacre was the player to steal the show for the Rovers grabbing 26 goals for the season 23 in the league allowing him the opportunity to wear the golden boot. Adding to that was Calvin Zola’s 15 goals and right winger Shuker took 10 himself and in true Benitez style Tranmere Rovers also kept it tight at the back, adopting a very narrow 4-4-2 diamond tactic Rafa was able to support his talented strikers while keeping his defense strong. Tranmere performed well in a competitive league were only 5 points separated top spot with the bottom of the play-off places. Nottingham Forest were able to take top spot but separated by a 2 goal difference Rovers finished in the second automatic promotion spot. Shane Sherriff had a huge involvement in getting the team up assisting 11 goals from the back showing how dangerous they could be this season. Many of the new signings made an impression on the Tranmere side, David Fox having the best season from all the newcomers a good passer of the ball in the midfield.

In other competitions it was only a 2nd round place in the League cup, meeting Premiership opposition Birmingham and taking them to penalties before getting dumped out of the cup. But in the first FA Cup game Southend made it a convincing win at Prenton Park winning 2-0. A little better in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy but it was once again penalties that was the downfall of Tranmere after drawing 1-1 to Capello’s Crewe, coming from one down from the spot where Curran was able to convert, but when it came to the pressure of the shoot out it got to much and he missed.

Rafa will certainly have to improve though if he is to stay in the Championship, apart from a good number of strikers Rafa is short of depth and experience from players who have played higher up the leagues may prove crucial. It was impressive to see promotion in the first season, he seems to do wonders first time around but can a squad that is more prone to relegation in FM, survive in the Championship?

Season 2008/09

The media didn’t think that Rafa’s Tranmere side would last long in the Championship, although they did believe that maybe they might just tip it and stay up after a fierce relegation battle. A few players were let go, ageing Welsh striker Gareth Taylor left on a free transfer and later retired as did Buades after a season with the Rovers. To help sure up the side for the new league, Rafa looked for experienced players and brought in 9 players only spending £30,000 all was put on Scottish striker Andrew Barrowman who arrived from Ross County. Shaun Newton arrived first, but in fact never made a single appearance all season. Looking to add some fellow Spaniards to the squad Gerardo from Real Sociedad a 34 year old full back and 10 years younger Alberto arrived from Gatefe, the giant midfielder will give more presence in the midfield, his height though doesn’t stop him from being quick and looks a good player for the side. Nicky Butt and Lee Carsley complete the experienced Premiership players. Younger players came in the shape of loanees, Darcy Blake arrived from Cardiff to give more numbers to the squad along with promising defender Matthew Bates came from a Middlesbrough.

Rafa’s strategy pulled off and his experienced players helped Tranmere to a fantastic first season, Greenacre again was the star of the show managing 21 goals, the only player to come close to his scoring tally was right winger Chris Shuker who got 10 goals, the rest of the strikers were fairly disappointing when it came to finding the back of the net, but Chris had handed in a transfer request, after Rafa had refused to offer him an improvement on his £900 a week contract showing how tight the board was. David Foley got more action in the squad though and is looking a decent player, taking 4 goals out of 5 appearances. Butt had a good season and so did Zola even though he couldn’t convert his chances he made his contribution in other ways, Alberto had a good season creating chances and the big midfielder looks very much a play maker, able to stick himself on the ball, hold up play and supplying crucial passes which helped Rovers finish 11th earning the title of overachievers of the season.

The League Cup ended were it did last year, this time to another Championship side Ipswich who actually finished were it was predicted Tranmere should have done. But penalties were again the downfall Nicky Butt being the only player on the pitch unable to convert his spot kick. In the FA cup Rafa met with another one of the managers that took part in the experiment, Avram Grant’s Leeds United was able to put 2 past Rovers at Elland Road in the 4th round after Rovers defeated Premiership opposition Coventry City, young Barrowman got a chance against Coventry and took it scoring the winner after Shuker grabbed the lead.

Season 2009/10

With Tranmere doing so well in their first season it was now time for the tough second season. As is inevitable bringing in the older players they are not going to stick around for long, Lee Carsley and Nicky Butt both retired, Flores was let go, not able to make an impression on the Championship, the most surprising departure was David Fox who left for £50k going down south to Plymouth. Welsh goalkeeper Danny Coyne lacking in any first team action and reaching the age of 36 left for a £1,000 moving way down the leagues to Rochdale. Benitez has really got into this lower league management stuff and become a shrewd businessman relying on free transfers and loans as the chairman just doesn’t put any money into the side, he didn’t spend a single penny this season. a young player from Spain arrived Cristopher Martin and went straight out on loan to Vauxhall Motors to have a fantastic season, two more Spaniards arrived to Merseyside to add more to the first team at Prenton Park, a player that had been roting in the Betis B side Jose Manuel Canamero who looks like a good rounded player for a Championship side looking a sure improvement on David Fox. The other fellow countryman was another player who has lacked any first team action, Defender Oscar Ramirez who looks like a strong player in at right back replacing Stockdale who left in the January, a good tackler who will keep his concentration throughout the game looks steady player who can play in the centre. Andy Wilkinson, Gary Mason, Jamie Stewart all arrived on the bosman ruling and Jason Roberts arrived to replace the experienced lost from retirements. Of the players that arrived on loan was most notable Chelsea defender Anthony Grant and Lee Molyneux. Jonathan Hayes and Kyrstian Pearce were other players that graced Prenton Park on a short term basis.

With such a good first season the media predicted another comfortable season for Rafa it didn’t start well it wasn’t till Christmas that Tranmere really found their stride again Beating both Bolton and Fulham the highlights of the Championship season, it was the fact that Rovers were able to grind out results that they stayed at mid table and finished 14th to establish themselves finally as a Championship side. Top scorer last season Chris Greenacre was left out of the squad and David Foley finally got a regular spot in the team and did well taking the top goal scorer crown from Greenacre with 16 goals. What made this season a success was that Tranmere were able to once again regain goal scoring abilities from other players. The player of the season was Jason Roberts the experienced striker managed 9 goals and played as a good target man along side Foley, Andrew Barrowman managed 8 goals. Antony Kay looks like a player that is about to reach his peak playing in the centre of defense Kay had his best season yet and looks like a player that can take Tranmere forward. The worrying thing that I do see in the Tranmere Rovers squad is that many of the young players aren’t getting a chance in the squad and it doesn’t look like many home grown players are coming through. If Rafa wants to continue with his success without spending any money then he is going to have to rely on players coming through the youth system.

Rafa who came something of a cup specialist during his time at Liverpool seems to lack that touch with Tranmere as once again Rovers fail to move further than two stages through any of the cups. After a 4-0 victory at Doncaster in the League Cup Tranmere met Notts County in the next round were they were destroyed by the League One side 3-0 away from home. In the FA Cup it was a little bit of a better season, going to the Reebok stadium Tranmere were able to find the net when it most mattered. Seeing only 30% of possession, when they got the ball it had to count and David Foley was able to convert 2 goals to put them through. But a trip to another North Western side, Wigan at the JJB ended in the Rovers exit. Flahavan was able to keep out 18 of Wigan’s shots but it wasn’t until defender Emmerson Boyce managed to header home from a corner that the deadlock was broken at the start of half time.

I am beginning to think though that the lack of spending is going to come back and bite Rafa on the backside, the team lacks that one major signing that could take them further up the league, be that a 30 goals a season striker or a top midfielder who will battle for everything instead of bringing in players that are roting in other side reserves or players close to retirement they seem to be short plugs keeping the team a drift.

Season 2010/11

Another season of not with not much money being flourished by the Rafa only £2,000 this season, surely the books must be balancing with the lack of spending and the time now they have spent in the Championship as well as money coming in from players going out. The only notably departure this season though was Calvin Zola who left to go back down to League One joining Ipswich for a fee of £14k. The only permanent signing of the season was another Spaniard Francisco Peinado a youngster from Badalona. The rest of the arrivals were on loan. Oliver Lancashire, Tony Kane, Steven Brown of Reading, Robbie Blackwell, Harry Arter all arrived to add some options for Rafa.

Not such a good season, not improving on the squad too much that he had to take the team forward Tranmere stuck around the same mark as last season finished 15th. But nevertheless there was good signs, Jason Roberts again finished the best rated player of the season but with his age he only managed to get 20 games. Foley though was able to play a huge number of the season and is forever improving taking 18 goals and again the top scorer for the side. Chris Shuker returned to goal scoring form and scored 11 goals. But the problem with the squad is that is it mediocre and when it comes to when they need to show what they are made of they can’t. Great at home and can probably beat anyone at Prenton Park but away form really needs to improve if they want to progress, maybe a player who can get 30 goals may improve that away form as the problem is not coming from conceding goals, its scoring them, Rovers scored only 17 goals away less then anyone else in the league.

At last though Tranmere were able to impress in cup competitions. It was the usual story in the League Cup 2 rounds and out, Chesterfield were passed easily before Tranmere met Aston Villa who won 3-1. But in the FA cup Tranmere were able to live the cup dream and go on a decent run. It was fellow Championship side Bristol City first, a Steven Davies penalty was the difference between the two teams in a game Bristol looked a lot more dangerous. Then it was the other Bristol team and even though Tranmere dominated the game they demonstrated how they couldn’t score away from home and were taken to a reply which was won easily. Then it was Tranmere’s first real test and they don’t come much tougher then Manchester United. The game was closely contested at Prenton Park, United controlled the game, but Flahavan made heroes performance and kept everything that Tevez or Dolye could throw at Tranmere, obviously United underestimated Rafa’s team as they put out a weakened side but one that still should have been capable of winning. Chris Shuker got the only goal from the spot, penalty kicks seems to be something of a familiar occurrence at Prenton Park. But at the quarter final stage, Reading weren’t going to underestimate Rafa’s squad, Steven Davies managed to grab the lead but only for 5 minutes as Reading began and onslaught and won 3-1, in what was actually a close game.

Season 2011/12

Again Rafa never had any money to spend despite the financial status being okay. Jason Roberts who was now reaching the age of 34 with attributes dropping like a lead balloon left on a free transfer to Lincoln. The old Premiership players arrived in the shape of Paul Konchesky, Russell Anderson and Geovanni all coming to the end of their career and not coming any real great form. Nill De Pauw arrived from Belgium a 22 year old who doesn’t really look like the player that Tranmere really need. There must have been a major scouting mission in Belgium as Franck David arrived from FC Brussels, younger than De Pauw and looks alot better stats wise and room for potential. Brain Sarmiento finished the transfer from Racing as Manchester United youngster Sean Evans and West Brom’s squad fodder Tininho arrived on loan.

It was pretty much the same story as it was last season, apart from this time it wasn’t away were they couldn’t find form as they manage to fix this, but in doing so at home Tranmere couldn’t win, not being able to keep the ball out of their own net, again finishing 15th no real improvement from the previous seasons. Players are now unhappy at the lack of progress star players David Foley and Shane Sherriff both complaining and wanting to move on to bigger clubs, Foley placed on the transfer list by request. Goals weren’t flying in either, De Pauw managed to top the chart in his first season with only 10 goals and his countryman David took 8 while Foley finished inbetween them both, but it was encouraging to see that goals came from all over the field again if only they would pay a little bit of money and a out and out goal man. Paul Konchesky had a decent first season playing 50 game showing that he still got it in him to play regular football. Worrying is that one of the better defenders in the squad Oscar Ramirez who has been consistent performer since he arrived has agreed a contract with Plymouth on a free transfer.

At last Tranmere were able to get past the 2nd round of the League Cup, but when they were put up against Mansfield and Macclesfield then I would hope they would do. Manchester City were the only challenge which they couldn’t get past losing 2-0. In the FA cup Rovers were able to get the 5th round by passing Everton on the way before Bolton destroyed Rafa’s team 4-0, 2 goals by an aging Anelka and David Nugent took Bolton through. But this season would be Rafa’s last before he got some attention from some Premiership teams, Portsmouth won out and he left in the March and former Pompey player Sol Campbell took the helm at Tranmere.

After Rafa

Tranmere continued as they went on, spending little money meant they couldn’t progress and it was only a matter of time before they were going to get relegated Sol seen the return to League One, they did at one point look like they were going to take them in the right direction, Foley continued at the club and continued playing well be a certain 15 goals a season, Canamero was another player that was impressing at Prenton Park, but Tranmere just couldn’t develop young players or bring good players in as they wouldn’t spend any money so it was inevitable they were going down, but if the game was played for another 5 years I think that some of the young players that Rafa brought in could have actually got somewhere with the team he does have an eye for potential with a scouting potential stat of 19, as many of them were still plying their trade with feeder sides.

After Tranmere Rovers

Rafa left for the Premiership taking over Pompey in the March and was able to gain a decent mid table position and in his second season Portsmouth were involved in a relegation battle, seeing money again definitely sent him mad as he splashed out £19.5 million in his first season but he spent it on decent players despite what the league finish suggested. But despite spending so much money he obviously wanted to return back to the Championship were he had spent so much time and Pompey were relegated in his second full season. Rafa was unable to get back up the Premiership and never showed much of a challenge to do so.

So concluding what Rafa did is hard because he took Rovers up which was a success in itself he was able to do so with very little money and establish Tranmere in the Championship, I think the lack of funds held him back as some of the players he brought in did pretty well and kept them in a stable position. But then when he left to Portsmouth he wasn’t able to use the money that he had avaliable to him to keep Pompey from the drop and couldn’t take them back up either which was a big failure in itself. So I will leave it to you to conclude how his performance.

This is an absolutely fantastic experiment, very well written, detailed, and interesting.

Arsene Wenger at Luton Town

Arsene Wenger has been in charge for more games at Arsenal then any other manager and as a result of winning the majority of those matches he is also the most successful manager in Arsenals history. But things could have turned out a lot different for the Frenchman. Wenger played football as an amateur player, at the same time he was studying for an Engineering degree and then did a masters in economics showing that can put his hands to anything. After his degrees he did become a professional footballer playing for his hometown Strasbourg as a defender but he didn’t make many appareances for the club, but did contribute to two games in a title winning season. Wengers management career started at Nancy but again that didn’t bring much success and actually Nancy were relegated, but things really started to kick off for Arsene in 1987 when he got the job at Monaco and after a year in charge managed to win the French league and able to attract names such as George Weah, Klinsmann and Glenn Hoddle to the squad. After a poor start to the season in 1994 Monaco sacked Aresne after he turned down offers earlier in the season to go to Munich. Aresne moved on to Japan with Nagoya Grampus Eight again he was successful in Japan transforming a side from the bottom three to the runners up and winning the national cup in Japan. After 18 months he returned to Europe were he was to start his time at Arsenal and to date has won 3 Premiership titles and 4 FA cups.

So who is better suited to lower league management then Arsenal Wenger? He is able to bring in young players that no one has heard of and turn them into world beaters. He is able to put a side together with next to no money bringing his economics degree, all this and maintaining a top 4 finish with an Arsenal side the is worth a fraction of the price compared to teams around them. He is also been known for his tactical knowledge and able to turn games around playing entertaining attacking football. So can he do this in practise? Now we will get the chance to see as Arsene steps up to the Luton job, a team that is in financial trouble and needs a really bit of luck.

Season 2007/08

The first task for Arsene Wenger was to get some players into the side that could actually help them reach the goals that the board have put upon him. Luton who have recently just been demoted from the Championship are expecting to bounce back up and use Wengers skill to keep them there. First in was a big money transfer at £200k, Jason Puncheon to play on the left at 21 looks like a good all round player who is going to work hard for the side but blowing most of the transfer budget on him he will need to be good. Another attacking winger was also drafted in for the other side Tommy Black arrived from Southend to replace David Bell who left for Burnley for a princely sum of £450k so with Blacks fee only commanding £22k and not much between the two players it was a good bit of business. Ian Pearce came up from Fulham to add a little experience into the side and Everton graduate Nick Chadwick was snapped up. But Arsene didn’t forget the youngsters Medi Elito at 18 was a free transfer coming from Jose Mourinho’s Colchester. Going the other way alonh with Bell was Irishmen Stephen O’Leary, Lewis Emanuel and Paul Underwood were all deemed surplus to requirements at 34 and was allowed to leave the club.

Arsene’s first game in charge was against Gillingham away from home and things didn’t start well with a 2-0 defeat, but thankfully his first game Kenilworth Road against Crewe finished 2-0 to Luton which before losing 4-0 to Forrest kicked off a winning sequence. But as you maybe have already known from the last managerial reversal the league one competition was tight and there wasn’t many points between each club in the league and Luton were definitely up there with the best of them but missed out on a play off spot by one point a loss to relegated Doncaster on the last game of the season pushed Luton down the league at the last gasp a draw would have been enough on the day to take them into the play-offs. Luton also enjoyed a good cup run in the league cup going all the way to the 2nd round before meeting Aston Villa who took a 2-1 win a late goal from Maloney sealed the progression for Villa. The highlight of the run was beating Reading at home in a 2-0 victory. The FA cup was much different as Mansfield dumped them out at the first time of asking. Then the Johnstone’s Paint Trophey went to the the last four in the south beating the Posh at first but Bristol Rovers proved to strong and knocked them out in Luton’s own backyard.

Arsene Wenger opted for a conventional 442 were Sam Parkin was the star of the season and by a far way, scoring 25 goals in 49 games and scoring an average rating of 7.24. Dean Morgan the second striker who finished with 12 goals for the season has become really unsettled demanding his agent find him a new club, demanding to leave immediately, believing that he is now bigger then the club. Wenger did well in the transfer market though Puncheon contributed with 8 goals and 12 assists in a great debut season for the 21 year old. Nick Chadwick also played well as a backup in the side playing only 11 games but was able to able to score 5 league goals.

So overall it was an encouraging season, a few more players into the side and Luton really could push for promotion. I think it was really unlucky that they weren’t able to take a play off place this season, but Wenger will be looking at the side in the long run and not a short term. All Wenger really need to do is win those games that he should be winning, losing to Doncaster really showed a lot of what was happening in Luton’s season throughout.

Season 2008/09

The first move of the season was going out the door, another Irishman leaving, Keith Keane left for Scotland as his contract ended, money was made on a free transfer from last season Richard Jackson who left for £100k and also Alan Goodall who didn’t make many appearances last season. As with any lower league side, free transfers are the life blood of any squad. Wenger looked at his home country first an experienced right winger Fabrice Fiorese from Lyon and then a young Congo international Jina Lelo formerly of Marseille and free agent. Most of the budget went on former Newcastle man Kris Gate who arrived from Mansfield after a season commanding £325k. The right back looks a decent player but has plenty of time for him to improve and will have to judging by his statistics, a good tackler but could work harder to make decisions and concentrate, but at 24 has time on his side. The most notably signing was Gary Doherty a 29 year old who for a while didn’t know what position he was best at, he has now settled to play as a center back but with plenty of top football experience with Norwich and Spurs should be a snip at £40k and arrived in the January. Wenger also went out and signed the offspring of one of the most prolific strikers of recent times. Charlie Sheringham, who shares the same genes as Teddy, arrived from Crystal Palace to live up to his dad’s name working under one of the best managers of recent times.

Again everybody was expecting a title challenge and maybe even taking it at the play offs, but it wasn’t to be in what must be deemed as a nightmare of a season as Luton only finished 16th in the league table, maybe it was in coloration to Sam Parkins poor season in front of goal only scoring 9 goals although he did put performances in just not the ball, maybe he had put himself on strike as he was the latest player demanding a transfer to a bigger club. But goals did come from other players, Nick Chadwick managed 15 along with young Drew Talbot who actually had the best shots on target ratio. So not only can it be seen that this Luton team can get goals from up front but the two wingers were able to score 23 between them, Puncheon carrying on his scoring fashion and new signing Fiorese showing that Arsene definitely does have a talent of finding new players. But it was again the fact that Luton just conceded to many goals that killed off any title challenge, Dean Brill who is only 23 looks a decent goalkeeper but I think he hasn’t got what it takes yet to command his defense, Kris Gate played well but captain Chris Coyne was also a weak link in the defense a few signings in this area could do huge improvements for the Luton side, maybe the signing of Gary Doherty who arrived in the January window will sure up the back.

But Wenger did find some success at this lower league level, winning the lower league trophy, first beating Millwall at the Den, dispatching Brighton, Torquay and Swindon all with relative ease until they met Carlisle, which was the easiest game of them all. Wenger’s first visit to Wembley since the rebuild, he made sure the occasion was a time for his players to perform. Nick Chadwick really came to his own game scoring two goals in the final before Tommy Black nailed the final nail in the coffin to take the first piece of Silver back to Kenilworth for Arsene Wenger. The League Cup campaign ended though two rounds in, to Championship opposition Norwich, but the game was taken to penalties after a close match, but Mark Furlong wasn’t able to convert the 7th penalty in sudden death, and Joe Keenan scored to knock the side out. The FA cup was a better story though were Luton were able to get to the 4th round beating Ipswich along the way to set up a tie with Manchester United, a great day out for the lads and a chance for Arsene to remember what days at Old Trafford are like. United through played the young lads mixed in with the best first team regulars, and fringe players, it was a side that really should have done Luton some damage. But Luton were able to give a fight and came close to scoring on a few occasions, but it was an early goal from Fraizer Campbell that Luton were unable to get over.

Season 2009/10

With the poor season Luton was running out of money to spend and once again Wenger had to look around at the bargain bucket and clubs he could borrow from in order to find players for the new season. Able to keep all the important players there wasn’t any notable departures. In came another defender in order to sure up that defense which has been causing so many problems Andy Butler whose contract has ended at Scunthorpe, even though he played regular football he failed to agree terms, but he could come in handy for the League One squad. After the scouts went out to Eastern Europe to see if there was any hidden gems in that part of Europe they came up with Smajic from Bosnia a real short attacking midfielder who could play well anywhere across that midfield as long as he could hit it on his right foot, pacey and able to put a decent cross in or long shot would work well in the side and had been doing brilliantly in Bosnia. Michael Aspin was the last free transfer that came to the squad before Arsene looked in the Premiership to borrow some players who arrived towards the end of the calender year, Derby forward Anthony Robertson spent a few months at the club in August and Liverpool FA Youth cup winner Craig Lindfield arrived from Liverpool in October, a player who was marked as the best player of the League One season when he spent it at Crewe.

The media didn’t expect much this time around predicting a mid table place for Luton Sam Parkins had yet to leave Luton and doesn’t look like he is going to anytime soon, but his outburst earned him a place in the reserves only to be replaced by Sheringham who managed 10 goals equal with Drew Talbot. The performances overall from the side had been very little improvement on any of the previous two seasons. But the fact that they could again get goals from the midfield, as well as keeping it tight at the back earning them 81 points, enough to clinch the second automatic promotion spot and only two points behind The Posh. Both the loaned players were able to contribute 15 goals to go with the rest of the squads Puncheon continuing with his great form and Nick Chadwick showing his determination through the season. Passes from the wing backs Kris Gate and Sol Davis showed just how Arsene was playing, everything started at the back. The defenders being expert passers and completing the majority them all season to set up plays throughout the field. In the cup competitions there isn’t much to report, Luton being knocked out early in all of them and not in any spectacular fashion, maybe not being involved in the competitions kept there concentration on performing in the league.

Season 2010/11

To keep Luton in the Championship it was obvious that Arsene Wenger was going to have to make changes to the squad and out went alot of the previous seasons signings that had helped them get to where they are. Lelo was allowed to leave after not showing any promise at Luton, but more surprise came when they didn’t renew many of their players contracts. Maybe it had something to do with the change of league made them demand high prices but Smajic left on a free after a season were he performed well, he went to Championship rivals Nottingham Forrest for nothing. Fabrice Fiorese retired, Sol Davis went to Stockport, Sam Parkins was at last allowed to get out of his contract and later signing for Brentford, Tommy Blacks contract was not renewed either. Captain Chris Coyne left along with Gary Doherty who traveled to Scotland. The only player to actually make some money for the team was Andy Butler defender departed for Hull at a fee of £275,000.

But out with the old and in with the new and again with money tight it was careful consideration to who to bring in. The change in personnel also brought down the average age of the squad to just 23. The first young player came from Monaco, Guillaume Gigliotti a small center back who looked pretty average at the moment. Definitely not the player to replace Gary. Nicolas Cheryon also came from France, a wing back that looks really good at 22 will be an improvement on Sol Davis and a freekick expert to get those all important set pieces. Aston Villa graduate Barry Bannan came to add depth into the midfield along with a few other youngsters that were able to come straight in and back out again on loan. Looking to France again Loic Antheunis was another defender who arrived who looked like another young defender that could go along way. Luton added an array of younger players that were going to drop into the reserves for a few seasons. Adding a bit more to the first team was striker Nathan Tyron and Andrew Davies from Leeds, Steve Finnan brought a little experience, but at 35 it is doubtful if he will play many games.

The media predicted relegation for Luton this season, so they didn’t have much to live up to. So anything other then relegation in the season will be seen as success and at 19th they just missed it by two points above fierce rivals QPR. But with the season staying in the Championship alot of good came out of it, first of fact that Charlie Sheringham had a great season able to score 18 goals, Tyson also had a good season scoring 10 goals and to show that Luton won’t miss Drew and Perkins who left. Puncheon also proved that it wasn’t just League One in which he could get goals in, Puncheon is proving to be a legend at Luton, consistently performing each season. 19 year old Montserrat international Harvey Smith also showed signs of more great players Wenger has spotted. But what could have proved really crucial in the season was the strong two defenders that Cheryon and Nestor whose defensive duties probably saved Luton’s Championship status.

Season 2011/12

Luton have kept themselves in the Championship, now it is time for them to strengthen to give them a little more security in the league. But yet again Arsene decides to stick by the players he already has available at the side in the hope that they develop into a better side. Two players arrived in both on free transfers, first of all Kevan Hurst a huge attacking midfielder who will add to a growing amount of talent on the wings. Also Aaron Burton arrived after being released from Sheffield United he will go straight into the reserves. Again it was more players from the League One days leaving as contracts end. Nick Chadwick was allowed to leave, youngster Elito, James Dayton never impressed the French manager. A little bit of money did come in to the club, but not much £18,000 in total. Shelton Martis and Dominic Searle leaving to Walsall and Dagenham and Redbridge respectivley.

But obviously Wenger has a talent for spotting ability as his attributes and performance suggest so the team that he has been building for the last couple of season was always going to perform for the former Arsenal manager. Charlie Sheringham continued to develop into a prolific striker scoring the same amount of goals in the league as he did last season but adding to his goal tally in other competitions for a total of 21 goals. But Charlie’s success hasn’t been too good for Luton as he becomes the latest player to want to move on to a bigger better stage and judging by his performances a Premiership side will snap him up sooner or later. It was the same old players that were putting in the performances once again as Wenger has developed a consistent squad and added to it well when he has brought player in. Kevan Hurst was only beaten by Sheringham as the best player statistically this season, grabbing 10 goals from the right wing and also being a player that is setting the goals up aswell matching each goal scored with another set up. The press did expect another relegation battle this season, but Luton were able to prove them wrong managing to finish 10th, bringing together what they were good at in League One, the ability to win when it matters and grind out results with a steardy defense, wins against Wigan and results against Reading the top players in the league really showed what they were made of.

Luton also enjoyed a good cup run in the FA cup after being dumped out early of the League Cup by Bournemouth. But in the FA cup it looked like an early struggle at Colchester drawing 1-1 at home, it wasn’t until Luton went down to Essex till they turned there game on Hurst and Sheringham scored either side of the half to set up a tie with Southend. Again it was Sheringham that disposed of Southend scoring the winner to get Luton into the 5th round, were Arsene would meet his former employers Arsenal. The Gunners fielded a team of youngsters for this game as they often do for any cup game underestimating Luton Town, but many of these players in the side had worked under Wenger before, many of them being his signings when they were unheard of, but he knew how to hit them. Which they did Sheringham continuing his scoring run in the Cup and knocking out Gunners with a brilliant performance. But Charlton didn’t underestimate Arsene Wenger when they went to Kenilworth Road and two early goals by Papadopoulous made it hard for Luton to come back and they finally lost the quarters finals 3-0.

Season 2012/13

Again another season of tight budget handling, but plenty of players movements in the squad and it’s not the fact that they have no money as the clubs value is rising every year and taking out a loan they have got money in the bank to spend, but Arsene would rather do it his own way. A new deal with Napoli as a feeder club means that they will be sending their players to England. First in was Domenico Zanardini. Most of the signings that arrived to Luton were young players that were going to make up the squad of tomorrow. Shaun Cooper arrived as squad fodder along with a 33 year old Malbranque. Defender Pat Baldwin from Nottingham Forrest another backup for the defenders and Kieran St Aimee another attacking midfielder that can play across the field and coming to that age were he is beginning to put those performances, attribute wise he looks average though. But it was a sad day for Luton as Jason Puncheon left the club again another good player allowed to leave for nothing along with Gigliotti and Kris Gate. But the fans are trusting Wenger, he is very good at seeing when players are past their best and getting them out of the squad.

But even though some of the best players of the past have been able to leave in Gate and Puncheon, Luton also had there best season under Wenger and managing to get themselves into the last play off place winning it by a point separating 6th and 9th. But it was surprising when you consider how bad Luton’s home form was, if they would have improved the home form could have easily improved league standings and maybe pushed for automatic promotion to the Premiership. So it was Luton’s away form that was the secret to the successful season that Luton enjoyed and an impressive defense which was probably a secret to those away games playing on the counter. Sheringham was hit by injury through alot of the late season and he wasn’t performing like the player he was in previous season and only managed 7 goals all season, Tyson and Harvey Smith did try their best to fill the gap that Sheringham left and did it well and it was Giannone another Napoli player that was drafted in late in the season that give Luton the push they needed late in the game to push them up the league. Wenger carried on with a long tradition of good signings as St Aimee had a great debut season. Cheyron and Neston continued in good form the latter being named as a favoured personnel for the Luton fans. It was Coventry in the play-offs and it was again the home form that let Luton down and kept them out of the final, losing at home 1-0 and only able to take a draw at the Ricoh Arena. Harvey Smith’s early goal was cancelled out 10 minutes later, but it was surely a good sign for the future that Wenger is able to take the side from League One to Championship play-offs in such a short time.

The improved league performance came with an improved cup performances, a League Cup quarter finals first disposing of League One opposition in the form of Preston 2-1, before facing their first Premiership opposition in the 3rd round. Derby at home were able to take Luton to all the way to a penalty shoot out before former Newcastle striker Andy Carroll missed to make it 5-4 as all the Luton players were able to take the pressure. Wolves next again at Kenilworth road, showing that Luton knew how to win games at home but couldn’t transfer it to the league, Luton was another side the went to penalties and again Luton didn’t miss. Everton were next and scored early through David Bentley, but once Cheyron was sent off followed quickly by Harvey Smith which made it impossible for the fight back, Karim Zani sealed the victory. The FA cup threw up some difficult ties for Luton and got the fans excited when first of all Tottenham were knocked out, fielding a strong side to go out and win after seeing what Luton were able to do against their rivals last season, but Sheringham was out to prove a point to show the Spurs fans that he is just as good as his dad who scored so many goals for Spurs. After Briant was able to convert an early penalty it was Sheringham who in the space of a minute was able to put two goals past Paul Robinson to knock them out. The next round in some bizarre fate pulled up Arsenal for the second season running for Arsene Wenger. After last seasons lesson The Gunners put out a strong side, but again it wasn’t enough, Arsenal just like Spurs went in front first but on loan striker GIannone quickly equalised before Harvey Smith came off the bench to fire the ball past Akinfeev. But when it came to playing a side on the same level Luton failed losing to Cardiff with no reply in the 5th round.

Season 2013/14

Once again Luton failed to tie in any of the top players into long term contracts, Tyson left to join the Wigan reserve side Kevan Hurst which also leaving which meant that around 25 goals were lost for nothing that the players were able to contribute between them. Napoli continued to send players, but no one of any real quality to fit into the Luton squad. To replace Tyson, Wenger went for a young player and looked to France Marc Cloarec arrived, a player that will thrown himself at every ball, run at defenders and has the pace to do so. In fact it was a French player that also replaced Hurst as well 21 year old Larrieu came from Metz. Jerome Thomas was the token experience former Premiership player for the youth to look up to and Portaguese striker Tomane joined in Feburary as squad fodder. So most of the signings were basically to add a bit of depth to the squad, Wenger will be looking to get more out of the young squad this season.

Luton were now an establish Championship side and there was no question of any relegation battles this season and Wenger’s plan again coming together as you would think. It was two young strikers that stole the show for this season, Harvey Smith and new arrival Cloarec both lethal in front of goal. It was more or less business as usual, the two wide players getting in on goal and doing well in front of goal as usual and play starting at the back with brilliant passing from the defenders. Overall a good season for the players who performed well and the young players coming through especially. But nevertheless Luton didn’t improve their league performance finishing with 68 points which was one less then last season, but with all the other sides around them spending money on their squads improving them enough to move the teams forward and Luton finished 9th way behind the play-offs this time, showing you just can’t rely on youth players coming through to take the club forward. The casualty of the season though was Charlie Sheringham after causing some unrest about wanting to leave last season has dropped down the pecking order and actually only played 5 (9) games at 26 now and sitting on the bench this could really hamper his career.

The League Cup campaign started off at Hereford, the League Two side was passed easily in 3-0, before Stoke took a trip down to Luton in a tricky tie which was won on penalties, something that Luton seem to be an expert when it comes to cup competitions. But Luton were unable to live up to their giant killing status which they have earned in the last couple of seasons, meeting Aston Villa this time in the 3rd round, Agbonlahor and Dia scoring goals in a game, Luton dogged with injury and dismissals. The FA cup only last ed two rounds this time, Preston again meeting Luton in the cup and losing 2-1, Sheringham trying to make a point to Wenger and managed to grabbing both goals. The next round was against Fulham in a close game Luton almost took it, Harvey Smith scored early in first half before Preston gained a penalty. David Nugent though had different ideas and at the last shot of the game managed to put Fulham through.

A consistent season for Wenger and to improve they need to start spending money as has often been the case with a few of these sides unable to take clubs forward due to lack of funds from the board. But Wenger will not see any part of the next season as come June he decided at 65 it was time for him to retire, he had set the foundations at the club it was down to the next manager to take them forward.

After Arsene Wenger

The guy that was in charge of taking the club forward was Stuart Gray and Stuart was dogged again by lack of renewal of contracts, Sheringham was out and left for Plymouth and St Aimee went to Huddlesfield and again Gray didn’t splash the cash. After two good season in the Championship, Luton finished rock bottom in the league, Stuart Gray was quickly replaced by the goals kept coming for the team, but the tight defense that has come so evident of the Luton side crumbled losing them games and putting them back in League One. But with the drop of the league came a mass exodus of players and in the last season and although Mick was able to recruit well, it wasn’t enough and Luton stuck at mid-table in League One, but there is still plenty of potential in the club and they would be more than capable with the right leader and a few more players of getting back into the Championship once again.

If there was ever any evidence to show that clubs are made by their managers and not the players it is here, Arsene was able to put a squad together who played well and on their day could beat anyone. Wenger established a side that was in the Championship and looking for promotion to the Premiership in a few seasons after spending only £650,000. Then when it came for him to leave and for a new manager to take over they couldn’t perform the wonder Wenger did and soon took the team into League One once again.

Roy Keane at Manchester United

Roy Keane, one of many Manchester United's legends, captaining the side during a very successful period in United history, using his passion for the game and aggressive style to spur his players on and terrify the opposition in his wake. Keane who was born in Cork 36 years ago, started his career at Irish side Cobh Ramblers, not staying their long in 1990 Keane was picked up by Nottingham Forest, playing under one of the greatest managers of modern times Brain Clough, a manager who was in a similar mould to Keane himself with a passion to win. Clough was one of the few people brave enough to have a go at Keane and actually punch him, but Roy didn't hold any ill feelings. Forest though, in 1993 were relegated and a hot prospect such as Roy Keane was not going to stick around, funny enough I was reading a local newspaper not so long ago that had been kept by my mother due to my appearance in it, I was shocked to see that Blackburn were initially the favourites for Keane's signature, but a day before the paperwork was due to be complete Keane cancelled as Alex Ferguson was able to persuade him to come to United. There he stayed for the majority of his career playing 323 games and part of the treble winning side at the Nou Camp. Full of controversy during his career, bust ups with managers and opposition players reinforced his hard man image. Keane spent a brief period at Celtic before he ended his playing career.

Keane has only been in management for a short time and he went straight to the top, touted as being the next number 2 at United to train him up for the top job once Alex retired as every former player is, or as a successor to Gordon Strachan at Celtic. But instead he went to struggling Championship side Sunderland joining up with former Irish team mate Niall Quinn who had previously been the manager as well as chairman. When Keane took over, Sunderland were at the foot of the table, but Keane was able to turn the tables and win the Championship in his first season and now looks safe to keep them in the Premiership for a second season.

So with him touted as the next United top boss, now with winning experience with Sunderland can Keane transfer this to the club he captained for 8 years he has alot of respect in Manchester, I have given him the chance to prove that he has what it takes to push United for more titles. Keane looks like a decent manager tactically and the quality of players should mask any deficiencies he has in this area, able to motivate the side for those big occasions and spot players of all different kinds from miles off.

Season 2007/08

Sir Alex Ferguson has probably put together one of the best squads in Manchester United history, boasting the talents of Ronaldo, Rooney, Tevez and Ferdinand just a handful of talent at the squad. Keane didn't feel any need to disrupt that team, deciding instead to bring in a Norwegian striker of 16 Joshua King, who arrived on a free transfer and looks a pretty good player to put into the youth set-up. The rest of the youth players found themselves out on loan to get valuable first team experience.

Roy's first game came in the shape of a Charity Shield game, a win against title rivals Chelsea would surely set up for a good season, both fielded strong sides for the game and Manchester United came out on top, Rooney and Tevez both scoring early in the game to record the first win. In the league the start wasn't so sweet, United had to travel to The Riverside, a team renowned for getting results at the big four, Rooney was sent for an early bath and once that happened they lost any lethal striking ability, they had the chances but Tevez had a terrible game allowing Middlesbrough to take a point. Things weren't looking good once again as at home Bolton were allowed a early 2-0 lead Anelka and Diouf scoring early, but a Nani hattrick being the saviour of the game as United came back. The next game at Old Trafford wasn't so easy, at West Ham another side that Manchester United were expected to win but The Hammers were allowed to dominate play at Old Trafford something the fans didn't want to stand for West Ham took a 3-1 victory back to London. But games started to pick up and Keane managed to put a string of 3 wins together before losing to rivals Liverpool again at Old Trafford. When it came to December a string of 7 wins did propel United back up to familiar territory of the top four, but any challenge for the league looked dead and buried especially as they only took 4 points from their rival sides for the title and failed to even beat Manchester City. Keane's Premiership season would be seen as one to right off as a learning curve, a side like the one available should be able to see out the mid table sides which really did hamper the season. United did end up with 4th place quite a distance away from Blackburn who took 5th, but miles away from winners Liverpool.

The poor season could be seen through the average ratings of the players, the spine of the squad Rooney, Ferdinand, Ronaldo and Tevez all finished well but the rest of the squad failed to deliver, Anderson played 10 games and took a rating of 5.90 unacceptable in any top side. Tevez finished at the top scorer taking 20 goals were as top performer was Rooney who scored 14 himself, but played the target man superbly. Keane looked at a few youngsters allowing Fraizer Campbell a few games in the side and he scored 5 goals and it will be interesting to see more of him next season.

In cup competitions though it was much different, Keane managed to reach the final of the first competition he ever won as a player, the League Cup. First of all Owen Hardgreaves was able to lead a weakened side to a 1-0 victory, a freekick was fired past Muller for the only goal of the game. In a week that seen United play Wigan twice they were able to get consecutive wins against them at the JJB the young players were allowed on the pitch, Campbell and Brandy both went out to gain first team places and comfortably beat Wigan. The quarter finals was against Boro and this time they were not able to hold on Tevez and Giggs both punished the Teeside club to set up a side to against Championship promotion hopefuls West Brom. In Bromich amongst a strong wind and heavy downpour the nancy boys of United refused to play, missing Ronaldo and Tevez just incase they got their hair wet, West Brom were allowed into the game, but the difference of the two sides showed when United were able to absurd most of the pressure. Again the young players were called upon and Campbell and Hardgreaves gave United the goals they needed for a trip to Wembley. Arsenal awaited in the final and in a closely contested game Ronaldo was the only difference between the two sides scoring on the 70th minute before Giggs was sent off, but the goal advantage allowed United to see out the rest of the game.

The FA cup wasn't so successful after beating Blackpool 4-0, Saha faced his old club Fulham at Old Trafford and again the theatre of dreams became a theatre of nightmares and two goals in the first half from Fulham was enough to see them through. The Champions League saw familiar rivals drawn together as United would once again travel to Rome. Despite losing in Italy United managed to finish top of their group and faced Valencia in the next round. But the Spanish club were to strong and United made an early exit, again it was failing to win at Old Trafford that was the cause of the problems.

So not a good season for The Red Devil's the fans will want to see a turn around quickly if Keane wishes to take United to the same places he did while he was wearing the shirt of the field.

Season 2008/09

Again another quiet season in the transfer market for Keane, two young players arrived from Brazil while some of the young guns were allowed to seek first team football elsewhere. Which again allowed Roy to concentrate on getting the current breed of players to the top of the league. But the season started just the same as it did previous season, a win at home to Blackburn was hopeful, two draws against Wigan and Liverpool both at Old Trafford had the fans thinking whether this guy the right man for the job? Manchester United were again unable to beat the mid table sides at home and again this was the root of all the problems. On the road United were fantastic only Chelsea managed a better record and again United finished 4th and this time the gap between the other teams was closing, a vast improvement would be needed to keep hold of Champions League football. Looking at the record section at the club, United went through 19 unbeaten games, which shows how hard they are to beat but with Ronaldo, Tevez and Rooney in the side they surely should be winning more games and it wasn't through a lack of trying Rooney and Tevez combined scored 57 goals and there was plenty of players available to supply the goals just not when it most mattered.

It was a better overall team performance Rooney again finished as top performer and the young players are still coming through and looking good, Ben Foster eventually breaking in the first team as the aging Van Der Saar sees the his career winding down, while Campbell continues to score goals when called upon. But Roy did continue winning traditions in cup competitions, the League Cup campaign began at Bolton, this time the home tie wasn't something to fear and Carlos Tevez's struck twice along with Carrick, a 9th minute wonder strike sent United through comfortably. Disposing of Charlton in the next round, Villa came up to Old Trafford for the quarter finals, a game played right down to the wire United came from 2-0 down in a magnificent first half. Villa didn't play to well but again United were unable to convert their dominance into the game and it went to the lottery of penalties. Aston Villa converted all their penalties while Vidic and Giggs both had shots saved sending them out.

The FA cup began with a few easy draws a game at Preston won 2-1 Tevez's double strike, Wengers' Luton were next and again at Old Trafford United failed to convert chances, but Campbell made sure his side wouldn't face humiliation. It was the big boys next in the cup and to arrive at Old Trafford was Arsenal, this time the United team looked like that of old as Tevez and Ronaldo punished Arsenal for not getting a grip of the game. Next was a familiar sight in Aston Villa this time they would meet in the cup at Villa Park, The game was just as hotly contested as the League Cup clash, Kieran Lee managed to get his first goal for the club. But a Luke Moore goal gave the club a tie at Old Trafford. Where again the game went down to the wire and it was penalties again, this time there was no Giggs and Vidic was able to convert his spot kick. Misses from Maloney and Petrov meant that United went through to face Spurs in the semi finals. Two late goals from the stars of the season Rooney and Tevez sent United to the final where they would play West Ham. In a strange game were both teams could have won and if West Ham would have made more of their chances they could have, but Dean Astons goal was cancelled out by Evra's goal to take it to half time, with United losing Ferdinand and O'Shea after two yellow cards it looked like the ball was in the Court of West Ham, but an early goal in Extra time from Tevez secured the win and West Ham were unable to make the two man advantage count.

The Champions League draw gave United an easy ride as they had Spainish side Sevilla, Club Brugge and Rapid Vienna needless to say they reached the next round top of the table and faced Benfica in the knock out stage and this time the away leg came first. United definitely enjoyed their time away from Manchester, maybe all the rain there had made them lazy, but while at Benfica the Portuguese were thrashed 4-1 after The Reds went behind early in the game, with that it looked unlikely that Benfica would score 4 goals at Old Trafford and in fact Tevez and Rooney scored goals to secure a double. But when it came to some real competition United were no match and this time the tables were reversed as AC Milan beat United 4-1 at the San Siro and a poor display at home meant that United failed to progress.

Season 2009/10

Roy Keane finally got the cheque book out and spent some money, but it was only on the one player, Ecuadorian international Antonio Valencia, who after a brief season in the Premiership went back to Villarreal, not really looking exciting and has yet to reach the potential his attributes suggest. But Keane was still willing to pay £14.75m for the player. Romanian, Nicolae Mitea also decided to join up with the side when his contract was over at Ajax, The 25 year old looked good to take Giggs' place who sadly ended his long career at the end of the season, but will stay in the game as a coach. But what was surprising that a few of the talented youngsters were let go, Ben Foster signed for free with Barcelona and young defender Pique went to Valencia, it was also a shock to see that Roy decided to send Nani out to Belgium to get some first team access as well, he was definitely gambling now.

After winning the FA cup Keane returned to the place he started his Manchester management career, at Wembley against Chelsea in the Community Shield. The game went pretty well once again as it did two seasons back. Wright-Phillips put Chelsea into the lead, but it wasn't for long as a minute later Evra hit back from a counter attack from the spot. Tevez scored two goals to finish the game off and take the shield back to Manchester. But the league didn't start off to well a defeat by Newcastle 3-0 in the opening game just reflected the whole of Keane's reign. United only gained 3 points against West Ham and then losing to Spurs. Keane seen something had to be done and the prawn sandwiches were removed from the staff canteen which kicked off a great run of form and United were unbeatable and taking out Arsenal along the way. It was only league winners Liverpool that were able to stagger the run. It was a good season for Keane able to put wins together, home and away and putting together one of the most consistent sides in the league Keane looked to have found his feet, putting in a Premiership winning performances. But Liverpool were the thorn in United'a side and the only team to take a maximum of 6 points away from United all season. This proved crucial when it came to deciding the league as United were unable to capitalise on the bad form that Liverpool had at the end of the season, because of dropped points against the Red's and also Reading. This meant that Manchester United had to settle for 2nd separated only on goal difference.

But it was an encouraging season for Keane, the team was going in the right direction and performing more consistency having the second best Home record in the league. Rooney as usual being the better player and this time getting just as many goals as Tevez. The whole side was brilliant this season and Keane's signings impressed the fans, Valencia lined up on the right and partnering Ronaldo on the left gaving United that killer punch. Valencia actually finished the 2nd best player of the season gaining a 7.28 which went along way towards his price tag. More players were showing promise for the future, Kieran Lee continued his rotation status, but like a defender in a Brazilian mold, getting himself up to put the ball into the path on a oncoming striker.

Unfortunately though for the first time it was a trophyless season, an early exit in the League Cup to Birmingham didn't bare well with the fans, when it came at Old Trafford, the fans thought it was the same old problem. It was a better story in the FA cup as three easy draws against Championship sides were disposed easily, Campbell again using the competition to show that he can compete against Tevez and Rooney for some time on the pitch. But it was the common enemy Liverpool that disposed of United in the 6th round. John O'Shea was sent off early and when Wes Brown was brought on for Tevez, United lost any attacking flair to their side, Kuyt and Torres punished the side and went dominated the game at Anfield.

It was the same old story when it came to Europe though, one of the cup competitions that Keane couldn't progress to far in. In the group stages United met up with Valencia once again and the Spanish club continued to cause problems and in the group stages United failed to beat them losing on the trip to Spain. That meant that Keane's side finished runners up in the group with also contained HSV and Dinamo Bucharest. The draw pipped United against former Manchester United player Paul Ince and his Inter Milan side. The first tie was in England at Old Trafford and Paul Ince must have loved the chance to come back to the stadium where he played 206 games. Inter were strong in a game that Man U as usual dominated. But on form Julio Cesar was able to keep both Rooney and Tevez out of the goal and take a clean slate to Italy and at the San Siro for the second consecutive time Keane's European dream was dashed, but it was all left so late as Tevez put United into an early lead in a close game, the Manchester United fans were biting their nails even when Rossi fired in late on the 80th minute, but at the time with the away goal United were through. But as the 90th minute drew closer Javier Saviola turned the tables by scoring a second goal at the San Siro and watched United fall at the knock outs once again.

But with another season without a league victory, United have now gone through their longest spell without a title winning season. This Roy Keane fully knew being a part of the winning team for so long. The fans pressure was too much for the hard man and Keane decided that he wasn't up to the job and left the club at the end of the season.

After Roy Keane

It was Mihajlovic who took over at Old Trafford next, with a track record of winning Serie A with Cagliari a season after winning promotion, Paul Ince's former number two looked the best candidate to take over an already talented squad of players. Even after spending some money on the team Sinisa was unable to shift that runners-up space. United finished 2nd for four years running before Deiter Eiltis came in from Italy and was the manager able to push the squad that little further up and took the league, with actually fewer points then the last two seasons, this though came to the relief of the fans to see the familiar trophy return home. Eilts left to manage his home country and Hugo Sanchez continued winning ways and taking the league twice and returned United to English dominance once again. Roy Keane never returned to management have resigning from Manchester United.

In conclusion then Roy Keane isn't the man to take the top job in Manchester, he looked good on paper although he didn't put his scouting skills into practice to bring in new players, although Valencia was a really good capture giving his side balance in a more attacking minded game at home, which came through in his final season. But with the players he had and the tactical ability his attributes suggested Roy Keane really should have been a little more competitive when it came to taking the league off Liverpool. But Keane was going in the right direction maybe if he didn't leave the side would have took the league eventually. But looking at United's best eleven I think that one of the problems that the team had was down the left hand side. Until Valencia came in there wasn't anyone down that side that gave the club balance, when Fletcher and Kieran Lee get into the the best eleven it shows you what problems a lack of spending can give you. Keane had the money value to put into those positions some of the best players in the world which could have meant the difference between second and first place.