The Sky is the Limit 2009

Hello and Welcome to The Sky is the Limit thread. This is the first addition in what I hope will be many seasons of the thread but first and foremost we will have to see if this is successful before we can guarantee anything yet.

One thing I can guarantee is lots of thrills and spills along the way and good banter which is the most important thing. There maybe times where arguments happen due to results and pressure of being a football manager but whatever the outcome it will be exciting and a roller-coaster ride you will want to hold on tight to until the bitter end.

We have two leagues loaded they are –

England – The Barclays Premiership and Coca Cola Championship

We have 6 members of the clan. The Teams and Managers in the clan are the following: -

Days/Times

Friday – 6.00pm – 10.00pm

Sunday - 6.00pm – 10.00pm

Rules

1) No using FM Scout or cheat machines

2) Committed players only of 18+

3) If you can't make a session, an e-mail in advance would be useful.

4) Start with past experience reputation set to automatic

5) You MUST have Hamachi

6) Random Teams selected with no Top 5 clubs allowed – Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City and Man United.

7) No unsettling other Manager's players when you're not actually interested in buying the player

8) All members of The Sky is the Limit must keep forum posted weekly.

9) Use Msn to chat during times, banter is fine, but NO foul insults, so keep it a friendly game

10) If you get sacked or resign for some reason you must wait as unemployed for 3months and if you can't get a job after that time you may retire and pick a random championship side.

11). Matches must be played Highlights Mode "Key" or "Only Commentary". Match Speed must be at full. Replays must be turned off, You will be allowed to play 3D matches aslong as they don’t slow the game down

12) "Show Player Pictures", "Show Background Pictures" and "Show Badges" must all be unticked

13). Assistant Manager must take control of friendlies in pre season and timer will be set to 2mins for transfers. During season timer will be set to 30seconds unless end of August and January where timer will be set longer (maximum 2mins) if requested by a clan member.

14) If you have a problem with any of the rules, speak to me, don't go whinging about it.

15) Email Me if you wish to join the clan of which you will be put on a waiting list and if or when someone decides to leave the first person on the waiting list will take there place.

Hope you all enjoy this thread and I hope to keep u posted as and when we go.

I got the unfortunate draw of Wet Brom. But I remain optimistic in my bid to stay up. I will give you my transfers and tell ou how I'm doing during tomorrows session.

Good Opening post mark

Good luck with this Chewy, lets hope you get a good game up and running as your commitment is superb.

At the start of the season I knew my only real goal was to survive in the Premier League. But I also knew we had to get players in, here are the players I

Signed:

Thomas Gravesen (Free) - Signed as cover, and seemed decent enough cover especially as free transfer.

Juninho Paulista (Free) - Same as Gravesen, but after a bit I realised he was not up to scratch.

Darren Bent (4m) - Thought I had a bargain here. How wrong I was. He was a complete flop, and in January I managed to get 6 miliion from City for him.

My pick of the signings at the start of the Season was this man:

Young Billy Jones, a consistent rock in Defensive Midfield and is decent cove for the defense. Great signing at 1.9m

In January, I sold Darren Bent for 6m. I bought in 17 year old Mascio for 60k, and brought in Ched Evans on loan to help increas my firepower up front, and I signed this youngster:

Georginio Wijnaldum, A wonderkid in my eyes and already into the first team. He cost me 3.3m.

I also signed Hossam Ghaly for 2.6m.

How The Leagues Going...

34 games in, and we're doing reasonably well, on 37 points, 12 points clear of the relegation spots, and with only 16 points left to win, I'm confident we can survive and not be in to much danger of going down at any point. So I want to ensure our safety by winning our next 2 games against Everton and Bolton, both games I feel we are capable of winning or at least geting something from. I've also secured some players coming in at the end of the seaso including promising youngster Damien Le Tallec, alongside some decent players and some squad players. And I laso aim to get rid of some dead wood during the summer.

At the start of the clan I was one of the unlucky members who got one of the worst teams to have. With hardley any quality in my squad and I pathectic 5m budget I knew it was going to be a very hard season. The objective at the start of the season was to avoid relegation and the media prediction was 18th so I was not that confident.

In the summer I managed to make a lot of signings although alot were on free transfers the pick of my signings were

By the time the January transfer window had come around I was already adrift at the bottom of the Premiership and looked like I was certain to go down. However I did manage to sign one of the greatest strikers in the world over the last 10 years. Aswell as that impressive signing I managed to sell Gera for 5m and instanly buy a quality replacement. Here were the pick of my signings in January

Some of the other signings during the transfer windows I made were

Following Ronaldo's Arrival i felt more optimistic for avoiding relegation. Early signs were promising with Ronaldo scoring 6 goals in his first 5 games however teams around me also started winning aswell so things didn't change much.

After 34 games and a shocking defeat to one of my closest rivals I decided enough was enough and I stepped down as Fulham manager even tho I knew my next job would be a Championship side I just felt I needed a new challenge

Finished 17th:thdn:

Well not the best of seasons from my point of view and even after taking over West ham after about 10 games, lying in 17th position, i thought i would have been able to at least contend for top half. But this wasnt to be.

With Ashton out for 4months and Behrami out for 7 months (possibly my 2 best players) i realised it was going to be difficult after all.

Well, taking over after the transfer market meant not being able to make summer signings, but the major signings made whilst i wasnt there were:

ON LOANDone a pretty good job for the team and brought lots of experience

Bought for around 4mVery versatile, young and potentially brilliant player also had a good season, one of my better players

Come january i was glad i could make some of my own signings but with 6m to spend, i had to sell first of all which is where i made a big big mistake. I sold faubert to manchester city for 15m which at the time i thought was a great sale, but it turned out it was awful business by me. he was one of my most consistent players in the squad and i shud probably never hav sold him.

Nevertheless i took a gamble on Mark's Zoltan gera to take up his position, bit of a flop buy to say the least lol.

Bought for 5mNever done as well as i would have hoped throughout the season.

Another signing was a player i am very fond of as i support Everton Fc and whilst he was at everton he had alredy scored about 14 goals by christmas.

Bought for 13m Got off to a slow start but banged in the goals when put up front on his own

Overall, a quite disappointing season but hopefully i can do a lot better and build the team up for next season.

SMITH steers pompey to mid table safety

September 2008

Scene: My living room, SSNews on in the corner, East London

I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

I didn't know who to ring first.

Did I actually need to ring anybody at all as they would hear soon enough anyway?

Peter Storrie had just offered me the job as manager of Portsmouth Football Club. For real.

It turned out that Tony Adams had hit the bottle again and had had his Contract of Employment terminated due to gross misconduct. The owner of the club decided to invite anyone who wanted the job to apply and he would take all applications seriously. Naturally the papers saw this as nothing more than a publicity stunt and the new manager would be someone with experience in the game.

I thought "what the hell, nothing to lose" as I had always fancied being a football manager. It seemed so easy on the computer and Mr. Gadyamak was extremely impressed with my CV. 2nd prize in a beauty contest, winning a crossword competition and not to mention being in possession of a 'get out of jail free' card.

So when the phone rang and it was Mr. Storrie the CEO offering me the job I thought it was some kind of wind up! Well wouldn't you? Sat there in your house and you are just about to be offered a job paying £11,000 a week A WEEK!! to manage a Premier League football team!

It wasn't long until the papers got hold of the story, most people were checking to see if it was a late (or early) April Fools Joke but I was determined to grasp this opportunity with both hands and was already driving down the A3 on my way to the ground.

Scene: Manager's office - Fratton Park - October 2008

Pompey were in 15th position and not far off the relegation places. Results seemed to show inconsistency but there was no doubt that the team were under performing. With players like Diarra, Krankjaer, Defoe and Crouch in the squad, I was sure we would be able to climb up the league.

I radically altered the training regime, brought in new staff to scour the world for future players and made sure I kept on the right side of the media. I was determined to bring style and panache to the team. I was also determined to get rid of that fat bloke who rings the bell for ninety minutes.

The club were also in Europe and had been drawn in a Euro Group with Red Star, AEK Athens, Udinese and Sevilla (two times winners of the competition in recent years).

Here is a rundown to how the team fared in the various competitions during Season 2008/2009

PREMIER LEAGUE - 10th W12 D14 L12

FA CUP - Lost at home to Arsenal in the 4th round 2-1

LEAGUE CUP - Lost away at Chelsea in the 4th round 1-0

EURO CUP - Lost in 2nd knockout round to Sporting Lisbon 4-3 on aggregate

Despite all the jokes I had to put up with during my first season from the fans/media and alike, there was no doubting that I had done a reasonable job in my first season. Steering the club to safety, producing good attacking football and having a successful journey in Europe where notable scalps included the yellow submarines, Villarreal CF.

Particular results which stood out in the League were draws against Liverpool (3-3), Arsenal (3-3) and Man Utd (1-1).

A slight concern was only managing one win in the last eight games but by then, safety was assured.

Overall record reads as follows: P42 W14 D15 L13.

Hopes of the new season

Well I've managed to clear the decks of some absolute rubbish at the club and the winner of the 'Sit on your backside and pick up your salary of £85,000 per WEEK' goes to...

SOL CAMPBELL

Sol has finally left and at the age of 34 it's hard to see anyone paying him £380,000 a month! I know he was good once, but not that good!

Other departees include Glen Little and Jerome Thomas as well as Sean Davis who has joined Wigan on a free transfer.

I've picked up Eugene Seleznyov and Jonathan Urettaviscaya for a combined fee of £3.7 million and these two players should be exciting additions to the team. They are already enrolled in Basic English Language Classes so they can bond with the team and understand my instructions.

A potential problem could be that my star player Lassana Diarra is being courted by some of the best teams in the world but I'm hopeful he might stay with the Club for one more season. I don't want to stand in the way of his dream though and if the right bid comes in, obviously that is something we'll have to consider.

The squad is definately on the small size and some good loan players have now left the Club but with hopefully a sizeable transfer budget and a wage bill now drastically reduced in the sum of approximately £120,000 per week, the finances can only get more healthier and with a possible ground improvements due imminently, the future is looking bright for Pompey and I'm optimistic for the season ahead.

Perhaps other teams might follow Portsmouth in offering the job to unknown and inexperienced managers because I've certainly took to the challenge and if I was to leave the club now, I've certainly left them in a better state than when I found it and the board offered me a new, improved two year contract in the summer which I gratefully accepted.

hey guys when is the next session i have been away over christmas so sorry if i missed any

i`m hoping he says this thursday(8th) and you havent missed any session we haven`t played since before christmas

I was in charge of Spurs until i had about 5/6 games left and then got sacked after getting them to 10th in table and then the big boot but here is a few of the tranfers i brought in while i was there and the ones i arranged to come in the summer ready to do better before they sacked me

Lads hope you all had a good christmas and New Year, we will be returning from the christmas break this weekend Sunday the 11th January 2009 I will be on msn around 5.50 and I will load the game up at 6pm Hope to see you all then

SMITH GEARED UP FOR NEW SEASON

Ben Smith put the finishing touches to his Portsmouth FC team tonight with his side all geared up for the opening fixture, at home to Manchester United. Smith, who then takes his side to last season's surprise package, West Bromwich Albion, was all smiles when asked about his two high profile acquisitions during pre-season.

The major signing for the Hampshire based team is Ivan Rakitic who has joined from Schalke.

Rakitic, who his 21 and hails from Switzerland, is an attacking midfielder who can play on either wing of through the middle. Rakitic, who started his career with FC Basel. In Euro 2008, playing a strong role against Turkey in the quarter finals of the tournament, Rakitić went on to miss one of the three unsuccessful penalties in the shootout, thus leading to a victory for Turkey.

The second signing of the summer was the midfielder, Angel Di Maria, an Argentine footballer who joined from S.L. Benfica and is known as "The Little Angel".

On August 23, 2008, in perhaps the best moment of his career so far, Di Maria scored the game-winner, a chip over the keeper from the edge of the area, in the 57th minute of Argentina's 1-0 victory against Nigeria to capture their second straight Olympic Gold Medal in the final game of the Olympic tournament.

With a first choice midfield of Krankjaer, Diarra (still the subject of intense interest from Europe's major clubs), Rakitic and Di Maria, fans at Fratton Park should be witnessing some creative flair.

after a narrowly avoiding relagation last season i have had to make drastic changes to the boro team gareth southgate had previously made no signings so it was my job to bring in some fresh faces my main signing was rodrigo palacio

i also purchased juan manuel mata from valencia along with hedwidges maduro on loan

also i have sold stewart downing for a whopping 25 million there is only one team that stupid so iwont bother telling you who i sold him too

We made it into Europe last season after finishing 14th. We made it into europe via the Fair Play system! So I had to get rid of a LOT of dead wood and get in some decent players:

Transfers In:

| Date               | Person             | From                    | Fee                | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1.7.2009           | Porter, Chris      | Motherwell              | Free               | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1.7.2009           | Licata, Alexandre  | AS Monaco FC            | Free               | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1.7.2009           | Cesar, Bostjan     | Olympique de Marseille  | Free               | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1.7.2009           | Le Tallec, Damien  | Stade Rennais F.C.      | Free               | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1.7.2009           | Ca, Bocundji       | FC Nantes               | Free               | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1.7.2009           | Dillon, Seán       | Dundee Utd              | Free               | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1.7.2009           | Genghini, Benjamin | FC Sochaux-Montbéliard  | Free               | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1.7.2009           | Cappone, Lionel    | FC Lorient Bretagne Sud | Free               | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1.7.2009           | Wilkie, Lee        | Dundee Utd              | Free               | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 14.7.2009          | Banega, Ever       | Valencia                | £5.25M             | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 16.7.2009          | Bruins, Luigi      | Feyenoord               | £2.3M              | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 17.7.2009          | Goitom, Henok      | Murcia                  | £4.8M              | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 22.7.2009          | Mattock, Joe       | Leicester               | £2.6M              | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 23.8.2009          | Rivière, Emmanuel  | A.S. Saint-Etienne      | £4M                | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 24.8.2009          | Ramón              | AZ                      | £4.5M              | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
|                    | Total              |                         | £23.5M             | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
|                    |                    |                         |                    | 
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 

Transfers Out:

| Date               | Person             | To                     | Fee                | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1.7.2009           | Hodgkiss, Jared    | Falkirk                | Free               | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1.7.2009           | Kiely, Dean        | Hamilton               | Free               | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1.7.2009           | Hoefkens, Carl     | Central Coast Mariners | Free               | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1.7.2009           | Pelé               | Blackpool              | £180K              | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1.7.2009           | Gravesen, Thomas   | FC København           | £550K              | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1.7.2009           | Juninho Paulista   |                        | Free               | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1.7.2009           | Daniels, Luke      |                        | Free               | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 9.7.2009           | Bednar, Roman      | Q.P.R.                 | £1M                | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 9.7.2009           | Olsson, Jonas      | Sunderland             | £1M                | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 11.7.2009          | Dorrans, Graeme    | Q.P.R.                 | £675K              | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 11.7.2009          | Koren, Robert      | Sunderland             | £4.5M              | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 11.7.2009          | Robinson, Paul     | Tottenham              | £2.3M              | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 12.7.2009          | Miller, Ishmael    | Ipswich                | £3M                | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 14.7.2009          | Brunt, Chris       | West Ham               | £5M                | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 16.7.2009          | Borja Valero       | Everton                | £3M                | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 17.7.2009          | Mascio             | Sheff Wed              | Loan               | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 18.7.2009          | Hancox, James      |                        | Free               | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 18.7.2009          | Homes, Ashley      |                        | Free               | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 24.7.2009          | Jones, Billy       | Everton                | £6.5M              | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1.8.2009           | Kim Doo-Hyun       | FC København           | £625K              | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
|                    | Total              |                        | £28.5M             | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
|                    |                    |                        |                    | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 

Tables 2008-2009

Here are the tables for last season.

Ben (Portsmouth) - Ben had a fairly decent season with Pompy and managed to guide them to a high mid table finish he will be hoping for more of the same next season.

Shaun (Newcastle) - Shaun had a pretty much the same kind of season as Ben and managed to guide the toon to a high mid table finish and just come behind ben. However after losing Michael Owen to Villa in the summer Shaun will be looking to strengthing his team and hope for the same kind of position next season.

Tez (Tottenham) - Although tez took charge mid way through the season he will be disappointed that he couldn't finish higher with a decent spurs side. He did pay the price for a mid table finish as he was sacked in the summer.

Adam (West Brom) - Adam had probably the best finish out of all the members of the clan although he finished 14th in the league he still had one of the weakest sides on paper and many pundits and clan memebers thought he would struggle to keep them up. He did however stay up quite easily in the end and even managed to get in the UEFA Cup as a result of his side finishing top of the fair play league.

Iggy (West Ham) - Iggy joined half way through the season and he had mixed results in the league and up until the last month of the season thought he might go down. He did however stay up after a really good run of results.

Mark (Fulham) - We'll all in all it was a pretty bleak season for myself bottom of the league for most of the season in April i decided i couldn't take the fact i might go down and resigned as Fulham manager

In pre season we had some new members join the clan they are

Me and Tez also both got new jobs

While we lost two members of the clan following none attendance they were Ben who was in Charge of Portsmouth and Shaun who was in charge of Newcastle United

i took over coventry city in Coca-cola championship in pre season and had a transfer budget of over £5 million pounds and the main signing out of that money was Amr Zaki for 1.5M and so the season started with high expectations from me on getting into the play offs but that wasn`t to happen as after a run of 20 games without a win we ended up routed to bottom of the table and then it win lose for the next 2 months or so and then with over half the season gone the coventry board decided to terminate my contract with immediate effect and they wished me well for the rest of my career and i wished them thanks for giving me the opportunity to manage The sky blues and then the search began fo a new job

News on that new job will follow later

Started the season alright, winning at Liverpool 4-1. Elmander is my top goal scorer in the league with 17 goals. Also got to the 6th round of the FA Cup before losing to Arsenal. Currently sitting around 13th, so doing find. My bid buys for the season include;

Juan Angel Albin - AML - £8m from Getafe - Great buy. Had him in other saves and hes been immense. Really gave me an option on the left.

Tom De Mul - AMR - £2.5m from Sevilla - Again, very consistant. Came in January and has slotted into the right mid role great. Hope by next season he'll be at the peak of his game.

Ben Alnwick - GK - £1.5m from Totternham - Not played many games with Jussi and Manua ahead of him, but should play more come next season when Jussi is sold off.

Adem Ljajic - AMLRC - £2.5m from Partizan - One for the future. Another buy in January and for those Manchester United fans out there, yes it is the one whos came along with Zoran Tosic - whom I'm also after.

Andres D’Allessandro - AMC - £6.75m from Internacional - Brought in to give me the formation I wanted. Been quite consistant and scored a few crucial goals. May be sold in the summer.

Gustavo Manua - GK - Free - Needed a back-up keeper as Al-Habsi was rubbish. Done alright. May be sold in the summer.

Ignacio Gonzalez - AMRC - £2.9m from Valencia - Cheap and good back-up to D'Allessandro and De Mul. May keep due to young age.

Troy Archibald-Henville - DC - £3m from Tottenham - Needed a good DC to play centre with O'Brien. Will surfice till summer where he'll become 3rd choice.

Andres Lopez Rodriguez – RB – Free from Athletico Madrid - Immense player. On a free he's been held the 1st place RB spot from Nicky Hunt.

Arturo Lupoli - ST - £950k from Fiorentina - On the cheap striker. Quick and fairly young-ish. Should do well given a season or two.

Javier – AMC – Free from Barcelona - Jumped at the chance as he was free. Not lived up to expectations so may be sold.

Here are the two main signings that i made in january

steven davis cost me quite a lot of money but has been worth it as he has been awesome since signing

kevin doyle hasnt been brilliant since signing but to be honest he was only bought for backup and the majority of his appearances have been off the bench

I am currently in 7 th place in the league and have my sights set on uefa cup but with four clubs nipping at my heels including E.Ts sunderland and some tough fixtures coming up it is going to be a difficult task

this is my team sheet so you can see some of my players statistics through the season

My best players have been my goalkeeper and my two centre backs who are Asenjo Wheater and Gioda

Premiership: 16th Not great to be honest, but we fluked a way into Europe once again via the fair play system And I feel I'm building a decent side so I think we could challenge the top half next season.

FA Cup: Nothing special, lost in 4th round to rivals Aston Villa

League Cup: Heart break after we lost on away goals to Man City in the semis...

UEFA Cup: Dissapointment here as we went out to dodgy refereiing decisions in the 4th qualification stage.

Here are my players of Season:

Top Scorer: Henok Goitom 21

Assists: Georginio Wijnaldum 13

Top Av. Rating: Meite 7.27

Best Signing: Henok Goitom

Fans Player: Meite

But half way through the season, I managed to become the new manager of Ivory Coast And I reckon they've a decent side, good enough to get me to improve my reputation there.

Targets for next Season:

- Sell dead-wood

- Gain in depth

- Finish in top half

- Progress well in UEFA Cup

- Do well with Ivory Coast

In the summer after I resigned as Fulham manager i managed to get the Sheffield Wednesday job I soon relised that the squad I had at my desposale wasen't good enough so I seen pre season as a way to bring alot of new faces in. Although I didn't have a great transfer budget I managed to sign two real quality players they were -

Jerome Thomas

Ken Fagerberg

the other signings i made were

At the start of the season I was obtimistic that the signings I had brought in could help us push up the table from the season before where they finished 20th. The optimisim soon turned into negativaty as the results just weren't coming and I soon thought this was a bad idea leaving Fulham just before the end of the previous season.

Soon enough with results not coming and most of my signings aswell as the old crop looking worse and worse as time went on in Ocotber I saw a vacant managers job to go back down to London this time it was at The Valley and in my eyes Charlton Athletic were a bigger club than Sheffield Wednesday so I thought I would go for it.

Days that followed after I applied for it, I was sacked as Sheffield Wednesday boss only to get the Charlton Athletic job a day after good times I thought. I will keep you updated soon

In October I took over at Charlton Athletic following my decision to leave Sheffield Wednesday. When I took over at the Valley I was looking at a side fighting relegation, I knew it was going to be a hard job to try and keep them up as they had a thin squad and they were also 2m pounds in debt.

As soon as I took over I made a few loan bids and here are some of the transfers I managed to do

In January I managed to pull off two good signings who could still play in the premiership in my view they were -

Stancu

Ronaldo

With all of my transfers made I felt that I had a much better side than when I took over and I thought if I could get Stancu and Ronaldo on form they could keep me up with there goals.

I started good with a win in my first game although that was a glimmer of light that soon went out which saw us go on a 18 game run without a win. I started to again feel that I had made a bad choice in going to Charlton and wondered how much longer I could cope with the type of results we were getting.

Soon enough after only 3 wins in 5months I decided it wasen't the job for me and I resigned.

So far in the clan I have had 3 clubs in 2 seasons (alot I know) and none of which have been great clubs to be at hopefully my next club will be better and I can start getting the results I know I am capble of and prove myself as a good manager.

Well for my first post in this season clan i joined on 29th jan at spurs who was lying in 15th not much time to make signings or sell players but i did manage a couple i sold srna to madrid for 25mil and managed to bring in a young colombian striker falcao from river plate in Argentina for 9.25 mil and Carlos Eduardo for 10 mil after results all over the place wins and defeats here and there we managed to keep in 15th place but on a plus point after beatin Man u in the QF and West ham in the semis we got a trip to Wembely to play Chelsea in the FA cup final but it was not to be Spurs year and we lost 2-1. hoping to sell and buy in the summer if money is given to me and make the team my own for the coming season.

Well after an awful season with west ham i knew i needed to strengthen the squad and for that i needed money. After not getting any money and the board selling my best players (marcelo, faubert) i decided to stupidly ultimatum with the board and so i was given the boot.

My new team = BIRMINGHAM

I took over birmingham after they had played about 10 games and they found themself in 15th place. I could see that they never had anywhere near a strong enough side to challenge for top half and so come january i decided to bring in some bargains and loan deals with limited funds:

TRANSFERS

Danny Shittu - Bolton - Loan

Antonio Maldonado - Middlesbrough - Loan

Steven Robb - ST. Mirren - £50k

Kily Gonzalez - Racing - £80k

Nwanko Kanu - Wigan - Loan

Francesco Toldo - Inter - £70k

Jay Simpson - Arsenal - Loan

Things started to pick up a little with the help danny shittu and the experienced francesco toldo as teams started to found it hard to find an opening but this soon changed when shittu got injured for 2months and we went on the worst run we had been on.

We where 16th and falling coming up to april but i knew i was safely staying up as i was about 18 points ahead of the relegation zone and so i just started to change tactics and team selections.

With 7 games left i found the team and tactics that worked for me, winning 6 out of 8 games and drawing the other 2. Hopefully the players can carry the late form on and go on challenging for the playoffs.

FINAL LEAGUE TABLE

Season Review 09/10

With the appointment of manager E.T. Allen, Sunderland finished a respectable 10th. Even though it looked like we were destined for a UEFA cup place mid season we started to slip. The team is as inconsistent as they come. Going into next season I hope to find some consistency in the league. I do believe that in the next season with my targets a UEFA cup place is achievable.

In both the Domestic cups was unfortunate to run into Chelsea though giving them a good fight both times we were eventually defeated.

Top Goal Scorers

Darren Bent 21

Kenny Cooper 14

Radek Sirl 8

Most Assist

Raek Sirl 15

Darren Bent 5

3 tied at 4

Most MoM awards.

Craig Gordon 8

Transactions in US dollars

Players in

Kenny Cooper 3.4 mil – The American Striker has been good for us providing a good change of pace coming off the bench most of the season.

Diego Buonanotte 16.25 mil – The Brazilian made 24 appearances in the league and was a good player for the most part. He still has some learning to do, showed flashes of brilliance in a couple goals.

Darren Bent 9,75 mil – Proven him self to be an amazing signing, in fact was the signing of the year. Had 24 goals in the 25 games that he ended up playing. Including a debut hattrick and 4 against West Brom to end the season.

Cleber Santana 3 mil - Couldn't get a work permit transfer is being arranged for next season

Christan Portilla 1.5 mil – good value signing for a needed position.

Asier Del Horno 3 mil – Came in did a good job before getting injured look forward to more production next year.

Tiago Dautra , Josh Burrows free – young prospects that will be going to Wizdew to get permits.

Jason Allen 3.4 mil – 18 year old American that surpised came in and earned his way to becoming a starting midfielder has great play making skills.

Vagner Love 3.7 mil – Work Permit surprisingly not given, stayed on the Bench will either sell him or loan him to Wizdew in hopes that eventually a work permit will happen.

Robert Aquafresca, 3.5 Mil- Still has not found his stride in the squad I have high hopes by next season he will be a top asset to the team.

Spent 58 Million

Players out – Daryl Murphy 3.3 mil, Teemu Tanio 4.6 mil, Nyron Nosworthy 8.5mil, Grahme Kavamagh 190k, Carlos Edwards- 2.5 Mil, Danny Collins 1.4 mil, Russ Wallace 2.8 mil. Dean Whitehead 6.75mil, Kalonas 1.1 mil, Kiernan Richardson 7.5 mil, Kenwyne Jones 12 Mil. Total of 54 million out

Current Squad

GK – Craig Gordon, Martin Fulop,

Defenders – Pascal Chimbonda, George McCarthy, Anton Ferdinand, Paul McShane, Phil Bardsley, Greg Halford, Jonas Olsson, Asier Del Horno

Midfield – Diego Buonanotte, Grant Leadbitter, El-Hadji Diouf, Radek Sirl, Jason Allen, Steed Malbranque, Anthony Stokes, Christan Portilla, Andy Reid

Forwards-Darren Bent, Robert Aquafresca, Kenny Cooper, Vagner Love, Michael Chopra

Goal For next season, With a decent starting block built I have sent my scouts out mainly to Italy and Spain to see if I can find some good buys. My hope is turn Sunderland into a international brand. The only way to do that is to get a International talent. I have my eyes set on a few key additions with them and maybe losing some dead weight I should qualify for Europe.

End of Season Review 2009/10:

Here are the tables for the previous season

Premiership

Matt (Middlesbrough) - Matt had a great season and was just unlucky to finish outside the european places, he will hope he can strengthing his current side and challenge for a top 6 finish next season

E.T. (Sunderland) - Like Matt E.T. had a great season and he was justified in finishing in the top half, he will be hoping to build upon his current crop of players and push up the table.

Makka (Bolton) - Makka's first season at Bolton he managed a midtable finish but he was sacked in the summer after talks over a new contract were put on hold. Is this the last time we see Makka at Bolton? watch this space to find out.

Matt M (Spurs) - After taking over at the end of January matt had a hard task in trying to meet tottenhams expections of a european finish. He brought in a few players and managed to steady the ship after quite a few managers of spurs in a few years. He guided them to a mid table finish and was unlucky in the FA Cup Final against Chelsea.

Adam (West Brom) - Another steady season from Adam although he didn't do aswell as he did in his first season he still kept West Brom from the drop and took his side into the UEFA Cup following being the best fair play side in England. Again next season he was top of the fair play league so yet again he will be going into the UEFA Cup but this time hopes he gets to the first round or at least the group stages.

Coca-Cola Championship

Tez - (Coventry City/Hull City) - At the start of the season tez was coventry boss and didn't enjoy any good luck and was rock bottom for his whole time as manager which resulted in him getting the sack. To everyones supprise in the league after a few months out tez was back in football but this time at recentley relegated Hull City, with Hull in mid table and no chance of promotion tez started to pick up better results and guided them to a high mid table finish.

Iggy (Birmingham City) - After leaving West Ham United in August, iggy joined Birmingham City with 10 games gone, he started promosing getting a few good results he then hit a slide and like tez guided Birmingham to a mid table finish.

Mark (Sheffield Wednesday/Charlton Athletic) - I had a mixed season started at Sheffield Wednesday and never really got the results I wanted so after 3 months decided to declare interst in Charlton, after leaving for Charlton Athletic again results never really happened and I decided to resign as Boss with 9games left with Charlton just in the drop zone. Hopefully my next club will be more successful and hopefully I will complete a whole season next year.

Half Season Review: 2010/11 Season Ivory Coast

Summary: So some easy wins there, but we still have to ensure we win our remaining group games to secure safe passage to the African Nations, and if we get there, it's a great opportunity for us to win something and for my reputation to soar. I expect an easy job in qualifying for the tournament.

Summary: Well we're doing alright in the league, not far of the European spots, and we're still doing fine in the UEFA Cup, looking like going through to the knockout stages of that, we're still in the League Cup, so everything at the moment is going ver well for WBA. My target for the end of the season is to get in the European qualification positions in the league, and to progress well in the UEFA Cup, a bonus would be to do well in either the League or FA Cup.

Start of Season 2010/2011

10 games into the season it has been a roller coaster ride for the Black Cat's faithful. With the team managing to go 5-0-5 in the League with a win against Liverpool but losses to two of the Bottom 3. While the strike partnership of Darren Bent and newly acquired Rodrigo Palacio. With that said they have some downfalls including losing back line player Anton Ferdinand and it is said that a offer for Darren Bent has been accepted. “I hope to keep Bent, he wanted to negotiate with Lyon though. We have offered him a very nice contract in hopes that he will stay. I think he will do will if he goes to Lyon but I feel he can become a legend at Sunderland” Manager E.T. Allen was quoted. The exit out of the Carling cup to Southampton has also lead to criticism of Allen. “I admit I did not play my squad for my ambitions the Carling Cup was nothing more than a chance to play my youngsters.” Despite the bad the good is that Sunderland do lie in 8th place

Transfers in

Fabio, Peters,Mineilli Ligori,Croci, Jackson, Nunez, Vandevyver, Bertin,Grox,Leitao – are all youth players that I feel could help with the youth system if nothing else they came on a free show potential and I can see making a profit on them.`

Ewerthon – has yet to show him self on the team. I think Palcio coming on might have hurt him but his appearances as a sub he has been disappointing

Mats Hummels- While he has been disappointing has a Center of the Defense he has been showing strides has a defensive midfielder.

Jack Rodwell – Has been a good up and coming defender when he has been called upon

Rodrigo Palacio – While I am sad of the circumstances. Palcio has been absolutly amazing him and Bent might become the best combo in the BPL if we let them go.

Of the Transfers out

Anton Ferdinand – It hurts to let him go especially so close to the transfer deadline I was hoping not to put so much on the youngsters.

Diouf wanted out other than that most of these players did not have work permits or were a surplus. On the bright side we have signed Craig Gordon to a nice new deal.

Team Leaders

Goals

Rodrigo Palcio – 9

Darrent Bent -7

Assist

Jason Allen – 4

Carlos Diego – 3

Radick Sirl - 3

Man of the Match

Rodrigo Palacio – 4

Next 5 BPL Games

Chelsea, @ Man United, Arsenal, @ everton, Derby

my goal at the start of the season was to build my team to achieve uefa cup next season but after a dodgy start i find myself in the bottom half and cant perform consistently, which is due to the fact that half my players are unhappy because the big clubs have been tapping them up i had to sell my top scorer from last season to ET for a cut down price. some of my signings this summer are

James Vaughan 15.25M

Klaas Jan Huntelaar free

Antonio Valencia 6.5M

Fabrice Muamba 6.25M

Vaughan and Huntelaar are doing ok but doyle is out performing both of them. Valencia has been a quility signing he has my best average rating so far muamba was bought as backup and has only ever started on the bench

This looks quality, I'd love to be a part of it again but I can't do Thursdays! Gutted...I'll follow it though, nice to see Fulham go straight back up without Mark

Season Review: 2010/11 Season Ivory Coast

Summary:Well an easy season for Ivory Coast and we've qualified for the African Cup of Nations. Hopefully next season we can put in a serious bid for that trophy, so at the moment, I'm happy with how things have gone, and hope it continues, as if i do well here, perhaps eventually I can get the England job, but let's wait and see...

Half Season Review: 2010/11 Season West Brom

We were struggling in 17th, I was frustrated, knowing that we could and should be doing better. We were in the Q/Fs of the UEFA Cup, but then... The Tottenham Hotspur job came up after a good friend matthew morrison left it, and I thought tomyself, I can make that side into a top 4 challenging side, maybe better in the long term. And here at the Albion, I felt I'd taken an average side and turned it into a decent side, and could do no more with them, so I applied, and soon became the new Spurs manager!

I arrived at Spurs delighted to know they were in the Legue Cup final and, that they were in the FA Cup 6th round. Sadly we were 12th and not looking like getting into the European places, but if we won one of the domestic cups, that could be our route into europe. So i went into the League Cup final against arch enemies Arsenal, eager to win. We went 1-0 up due to a Guillen penalty, much to the delight of me and all the Tottenham faithful, but in the last minute, Arsenal got their equaliser, Tymoschuk with a cracker, to devastate the fans. Then in extra time we lost out to a Oleg Husyev goal. Sad, but now it was time to concentrate on the FA Cup. In the 6th round we were up against my old side, West Brom, and a return to the Hawthorns saw us draw 0-0. But in the replay we won comfortably 2-0. Then we were up against Man Utd, and it seemed like another domestic cup was going out of our reach when Tevez put us 1-0 down. But then, finally luck was on our side, and Falcao equalised for us in the 89th minute, after we went all out attack. But we didn't stop there, 3 minutes into stoppage time, Luke Modric volleyed home to give us a another chance at a Domestic trophy. This time we were up against Chelsea. This certainly was an eventful final, as in the 29th minute, we broke the deadlock. Falcao with the goal, but I missed the goal due to lag lol. Then just as were going into half time, my power cut. So i missed the rest of the game. But thankfully we wenton to win 1-0 and get our spot in the UEFA Cup, also securing the firs trophy won so far in the Clan.

Targets:

- Challenge for African Cup of Nations

- Challenge top 4

- Sell dead wood and sign a lot of quality depth and youth.

- Win another trophy

- Bring in some WBA players

We'll at the start of the season I had another side to manage, this time it was Preston who were a decent side in the championship. I thought I had a good transfer kitty that could push us into a top 6 side. In the transfer market I managed to sign two promising youngers called Nicolas Medina and Antonio both from south America. Medina from Argentina and Antonio from Brazil.

In the league we started really badly and were sliding down the table so promotion looked a long way away, by the end of december we were mid way in the league and relegation was a real possibility which was totally unexpected at the start of the season. I was under pressure as I felt this side was capable of the top 6 and that was my aim.

We managed to pick up results just after christmas and this helped us stay well clear of the bottom 3 but as we had gone long periods at the start of the season without a win the top 6 was out of reach. We managed to finish 15th which I wasen't totally happy about. In the cup competitions aswell we didn't do too well. In the carling cup we managed to get to the 2nd round only to be knocked out by Sheff Utd 2-1 and in the FA Cup we got to the 3rd round just getting knocked out 3-2 to Bolton.

I thought next season would be better and I was looking forward to bringing in more quality players. But because of the pressure from the fans and only getting offered a 1 year contract at the start of my rein in charge the board decided not to renew it and I was looking for yet another job.