Mike_Cardinal Posted July 2, 2012 Author Share Posted July 2, 2012 I'm really excited about this season. We might not run away with the league or anything, but I really think we have a good shot at promotion, though there are some very good teams in this league now, some of my signings really should help take us to the next level. These are the changes that I've made to the team over my time at the club so far, but I'm done for this pre-season, so here's how we'll be looking to line up this year: Incidentally, Price is the right back newgen who came through my academy, and O'Connor is the striker that has seemingly limitless potential, both will hopefully develop into very good top flight players with the club. Odion Ighalo is the man I'm thinking ought to fire us to victory, he's far too good for this division, and hopefully he'll quickly retrain and adapt to his role as Inside Forward coming off the right wing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SBAndy Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 Finally got going properly with a Cov save, and doing pretty well for a long term project as it stands. Picked some brilliant players up for relative peanuts in the first season, and added to them in the second season with a multitude of freebies. GK: Frank Fielding (£800k), Damian Martinez (Free), Jamal Blackman (Free) RB: Craig Thomson (Free), Steven Saunders (Free) LB: Joe Bennett (£325k), Tamas Kadar (Loan) CB: Martin Cranie, Ryan Shotton (£1m), Matthew Spiranovic (Free), Cyrus Christie DM: Sammy Clingan, James Perch (Loan), Richard Hughes (Free) CM: James McArthur (£800k), Ross Jenkins (£90k), Scott Allan (Free), John Bostock (Free) AMR: Nathan Redmond (£1.6m), David Bell, Zeli Ismail (Free) AML: Gary McSheffrey, Andrew Driver (Free) ST: Ahmed Soukouna (Free), Tamas Priskin (Free) First season I bought Teko Modise for £190k and sold the following summer to Palermo for £2m. Bigirimana and Thomas both out on loan this season. The team is together to challenge for promotion soon enough, will take this season as a badding season for the new signings and target a top half finish, but many of these players will be able to step up to the Premier League as well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike_Cardinal Posted July 5, 2012 Author Share Posted July 5, 2012 Looking good there SBAndy, McArthur is a particularly brilliant signing at that price, given that he can progress to become maybe the best British Deep Lying Playmaker in the game. Really nice business with Modise as well, I've never really thought of paying for players in the short term to make a long term profit, but it seems like a great strategy to use with Cov. How are things looking financially, did you have to pay for any of those transfers over a longer period of time or was it all up front? EDIT - Oh, and how did you do in the first season? Incidentally, my pre-season is over and we're set to kick things off against Middlesbrough. I also forgot to mention that my chairman approved a boost to the club's training facilities, which should be completed quite soon and help me with my development of youngsters. Also, we're finally onto the second page of the thread, woohoo! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SBAndy Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 To be honest, at this stage of the game I pay for everyone over 48 months because of the high player turnover of the squad. The transfer balance of payments leave me in profit as it stands each month, but with Southampton almost finished paying for Jutkiewicz I am going to start adding an £100k loss pcm to the accounts. But as the game progresses there is less need to spread payments as I will only be signing 2 or 3 a season for a fee, and I'll still sell if the offers are there. Bell and one of Martinez/Blackman will leave in January hopefully for a reasonable fee to tie me over til the end of the season, when the debt repayments stop. Finances are pretty healthy anyway, with just under a £4m balance, and I've managed to get the board to agree to upgrade the youth facilities. Now all I need is the young players to actually turn up! First season I was very happy with overall, finishing 8th. Soukouna finished top scorer with 26 league goals, but has been hopeless so far this season (granted I'm only 9 games in). Modise was a star performer, and I was planning on keeping him as a more attacking option, but the chance to turn a £1.8m profit in a season convinced me otherwise. So yes, I'm not bothered about the performance particularly this season, and come the end of the season these £500k debt repayments will be off my back and I can focus on buying the stadium and upgrading training facilities. I'm looking to go the same way as last year's FM, but a hell of a lot slower. Last year I was winning the Prem within 6 seasons, running at a ridiculous loss (about £12m pcm) and had about a -£50m balance. But it was all good, Gary Hoffman bought the club and became an underwriter. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike_Cardinal Posted July 5, 2012 Author Share Posted July 5, 2012 Fair enough. To be honest, that sounds more effective than my transfer strategy, given that although I pay for players exclusively up front, I spent most of last season in the red, which drags out the loan repayments as they're only paid when you're in the black - my debts certainly won't be over by the end of this season. We still turned an overall profit for the first year, but it was reliant on the money we got at the start and end of the season for season tickets/sponsorship/the league's payment for participation, and losing money every month in between is something I'd really rather avoid. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronaldo Beckham Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 Mike you should volunteer to be the researcher for Coventry. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SBAndy Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Well, I finished my second season a few days ago. Finished 7th, literally one goal off the playoffs! The final day came, and I still had a match against Peterborough after the end of everyone else's season, as it had been postponed twice because of a waterlogged pitch. Needed to win by three goals. Half time, 1-0 up. 55 minutes and we make it 2-0. 65 minutes and we get a penalty, Thomson steps up and misses. Fuming. Peterborough pull a goal back, before McArthur scores a screamer (his only goal of the season) with three minutes to go. We can't find that fourth goal and it's another season of Championship football for Coventry. Somehow managed to arrange the sale of McSheffrey for £24k even though his contract was all but up. Also sold Bell, Priskin, Martinez and Bostock for a combined £850k. Spent just £240k on Johannes Geis from Furth, he's straight into the first team and when I get the chance to sell Clingan I will. Ultimately the aim is to build a really young team, low-ish on wages, and go up to the Prem as a team who can develop in the future. Brought in Josh McQuoid on a free to replace Priskin, and two regens on frees called Tobias Kamp and Jorgen Simonsen, who both have Premier-quality potential. Those two have a combined value of £2m already. Soukouna had a good second half of the season. Only scored 6 goals in the first half of the season, then banged in 17 in the last 19 games. Brought in James Forrest for £425k in January 2013 but he broke his leg after 2 weeks so he hasn't had a chance to impress particularly. Oh and I let Richard Hughes go on a free in Jan '13 as well. Going for a top half finish again this season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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