galah Posted November 9, 2010 Share Posted November 9, 2010 With a good blend of experienced English players and youngsters, I still find myself with a big task ahead at Upton Park. With A LOT of dead wood in my team, it seems that 'just staying up' will be an achievement. And as a new rookie manager, I concur. Dyer, Faubert and Kovac were shown the door. But due to my financial restrictions (£700k transfer budget and loan debts of over £70m) I felt I had to keep a lot of players I didn't really want (Behrami, Spector, Illunga and co.) Perhaps foolishly, I adjusted my budget so that I could bring in Joe Mattock from Leicester for £3m. I also signed (and it would transpire that they'd be quite bad signings) Olivier Kapo and Denilson on frees. Denilson was a bit of a nostalgic purchase, just so I could say I have the 'once world's most expensive player' in my team. I've realised that signing the likes of Kapo and Denilson was exactly how West Ham got into trouble in the first place. Federicho Macheda has joined me on a season-long loan though. Starting out with a 4-5-1 defensive formation, we showed absolutely nothing going forward and as a result lost 2-0 away at Everton and then 1-0 away at Newcastle. A disastrous start. Getting taken to extra-time in the Carling Cup at Bradford didn't help matters either. I soon ditched this formation and went with a standard 4-4-2 and introduced Macheda to the front line with Carlton Cole. Together they proved to be a revelation, leading us on a 6 game unbeaten streak which saw us rise to as high as 6th. We suffered a few blips along the way, but to everyone's surprise we were winning matches. Strangely, it took until our 15th league match before we drew a game. Now 22 games in, we're 7th in the table with one eye on Europe. In January I was given the option to change my expectations for the second half of the season and said we'd be aiming for a mid-table finish to be on the safe side. Somehow they found £8m for me to spend in the JTW. Currently weighing up my options as to who I can buy. I have signed Valter Birsa on loan for the rest of the season, which I'm delighted with because I think he's quality. Looking at Chris Gunter, but may consolidate and wailt until the Summer. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark wilson27 Posted November 9, 2010 Share Posted November 9, 2010 galah welcome to FMS, A good start but it reads more like a career update in truth. If you say do a monthly report to make it alittle more bulky to read if you catch my drift. Its just you've covered from the start of the season to mid season in one small post. Look at some of the work in the forum to see what I mean..If you need any tips etc just pop us a PM and I'll be glad to help out Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
galah Posted November 9, 2010 Author Share Posted November 9, 2010 Hi Mark, thanks for the welcome. Yeah, I tried to just set the scene as to what I've done and what's happened so far, but I didn't see the Career Updates forum. Perhaps it should be moved there! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gavrenwick Posted November 9, 2010 Share Posted November 9, 2010 I'll move it there for you, galah. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
galah Posted November 9, 2010 Author Share Posted November 9, 2010 Thank you Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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