kccircle Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 Challenge: London Domination Challenge 1: Get all London clubs into the Premier League for one season Challenge 2: Get all London clubs into the Premier League for the same season. Now, I'm a Northerner and my idea of what is in London may differ to yours. For the purpose of this challenge I am including the following teams Arsenal Tottenham Chelsea Fulham QPR Crystal Palace Millwall Watford West Ham Brentford Charlton Leyton Orient Wimbledon Barnet Dagenham and Redbridge I don’t think I have missed anyone – never sure about Watford Before anyone mentions anything about why this isn't in the challenge forum - the simple reason is that I wanted this as my career thread as a way to finish this game off before the next edition comes out. For the purpose of this challenge I will be starting at Charlton as they are a promotion candidate and should allow my managerial reputation to develop. My initial aim will be to give them a push into the Championship before dipping back into either League 2 or League 1 to try to push another team up a division. I doubt I will ever need to manage any of the big boys as in theory they should never be relegated My game only covers the English divisions down to League 2 so if a team drops into the Conference then they will be eliminated from the challenge. Likewise, if a London based team pops up from the Conference into League 2 then they will be added to the challenge There will be a main update every season with additional updates at the end of each transfer window to look at the individual teams progress I will score the game based on the minimum number of seasons it would take me to complete this challenge. I understand that some teams will be promoted or relegated without my influence so this will either make my challenge easier or more difficult At the start of the challenge it would take me a minimum of 19 seasons to complete the challenge. I will use this as a benchmark to see how much progress I am making Season 2011/12 August Transfer Window At the start of September Charlton are still unbeaten. The window proved fruitful with £200k available to spend. I added some experience in Brian Howard and Andrejs Rubins who should be too good for this division. Additionally I added another central midfielder in James Ashton from Chelsea who is more one for the future. Transfers We are still in the League cup following two great wins vs Brighton and vs Cardiff – the latter a 6-1 thumping. As for the rest of London, then in League 2 Dagenham, Wimbledon and Barnet are in the bottom half of the division. In League 1 Leyton Orient are currently sat in the play-off positions with Brentford sat in mid-table. In the Championship West Ham are in the play-off positions with Palace not far behind. Watford are sat in mid-table. In the Premier League Chelsea are struggling in 16th place but with only 3 games played the league tables generally look a little odd. For Charlton money is tight. Aim for this season is to take them up and take on someone like Brentford / Barnet etx Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kccircle Posted April 3, 2012 Author Share Posted April 3, 2012 Season 2011/12 - January Window Update During the early part of the season Charlton were unbelievably good. Winning games was no effort at all. The team were scoring for fun, but did concede one or two more than I wanted. With a strike force of Bradley Wright-Phillips, Danny Haynes, Yann 'penalty chip' Kermagant and Paul Hayes goals would always come and score we did. in 10 out of 11 games we scored three or more goals and went on a winning streak of 5 games and then 4 games as we sat comfortably top of League one. Then the normal brick wall happened as the winning streak turned to win one lose one, win one draw one, etc. Money was a struggle with the board injecting additional funds on two separate occasions. Initially they added £500k followed by an incredible £3.5m which game me £2m in transfer funds. I was top heavy with strikers moving into January so off loaded Yann Kermagant to Brescia for £200k. I wanted a little more midfield so splashed out on Davide Petrucci and Liam Bridcutt to get me through to the end of the season Charlton Squad Transfer History As for the divisional placings then initially the challenge could be completed within 19 seasons if promotion was delivered by whoever I managed. At the end of January the league placings are as follows As you can see the London teams in the Premier League all still look reasonable safe from relegation. In the Championship West Ham have every chance of getting back into the Premier League with Millwall not a million miles away from the play-offs. In League 1, Charlton are currently in the automatic slots with Orient around the play-off slots. However, Brentford look likely to be relegated and are 12 points from safety. League 2 sees Wimbledon threatening the play-offs but D&G are in danger of going out of the league. Whilst I don't want them to go it would certainly make my challenge easier Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kccircle Posted April 4, 2012 Author Share Posted April 4, 2012 Season 2011/12 - End of Season Update Charlton managed to secure promotion to the Championship. In the end they did it with ease and but for an end of season drop in form they would have gone up as champions. Saying that, Sheffield United, the other promoted team, was the venue for the last game of the season where the winners would walk away with the Champions tag. Alas, it was not meant to be and despite scoring early we had to come back from behind to snatch a draw. There were chances at the end but we just could not score that winner Sheffield United vs Charlton Athletic As for the Charlton squad then my player of the season was Bradley scored for fun but oddly for someone with so many goals and assists he only won 4 MoMs. As for the rest of London, in League 2 AFC Wimbledon finished the highest of the 3 London clubs in 10th place. They did have the chance of flirting with the play-offs but this never materialised. Barnet were the next best placed in 15th. They had early season relegation worries having spent game weeks 16 and 17 in the last spot but a cracking end of season run saw them home to safety. Dagenham and Redbridge never moved out of the bottom half of the table. In fact they hovered around 16th for the majority of the season before an end of season saw them slump to the bottom three around game week 40. A late flurry saw them finish in 18th. Moving into League 1 then in addition to Charlton we had London representation from Leyton Orient and Brentford. Brentford were relegated with about 10 games to spare it seemed. They finished in last place and never moved out of the bottom two after game week 12. Leyton Orient on the other hand are in a play off slot. They face Bournemouth in the semi finals with Notts County facing Huddersfield in the other tie. Other news from the bottom two divisions saw Charlton take some silverware home by winning the LDV or whatever guise it is called these days. A 3-1 win vs Huddersfield was tainted by the ridiculous message from the board stating that they expected us to win it anyway. No gratitude! The Championship featured four London clubs: Watford, West Ham, Crystal Palace and Millwall. West Ham romped the league winning by 15 points in the end. Their season saw them concede only 32 goals and despite scoring only 76 they won in style. Millwall had an up and down season drifting between 3rd and 15th. They ended up overachieving in 6th place and face Blackpool in the Play offs. The other tie is between Reading and Birmingham (the other team promoted was Southampton) Premier League details to follow. Two London clubs are in a chance of the title going into the last day and one is certainly not one you would expect. Also to follow will be Millwall and Leyton Orients play off results. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kccircle Posted April 4, 2012 Author Share Posted April 4, 2012 Season 2011/12 Championship Playoffs - Millwall Millwall faced Blackpool in the play off semi final. In the first leg they took an early lead but three goals from Blackpool game them a huge task of overturning a two goal deficit. A task they were unable to complete, although they did try. A 0-2 win away saw them disappointingly crash out on the dreaded penalty shoot out. Darius Henderson and Ryan Mason missing penalties whilst Blackpool scored every one Leg 1 Leg 2 League 1 Playoffs - Leyton Orient Leyton Orient were up against Bournemouth in their play off campaign. A home leg ended in disappointment with a 1-3 loss (a similar theme here). The away leg left them a lot to do but another defeat, this time 2-0 saw them go out 5-1 on aggregate Leg 1 Leg 2 Premier League Moving into the last week of the Premier League season both Spurs and Fulham had a chance of Premier League glory. Spurs with their 3 games in a week challenge and Fulham had to win and hope Man Utd slipped up away to Liverpool. It proved a tall task as Spurs lost two of their last three and defeat for Fulham at home to Stoke saw Man Utd clinche the title at Anfield on the last day following a 1-0 win. Chelsea managed to secure a European place by finishing in 6th with Arsenal finishing in 8th awaiting the outcome of the European competitions before finding out whether their season might start early at some random European backwater. QPR avoided relegation on goal difference. A 65m equaliser by BobbyZamora clinched a last day draw vs Aston Villa. Newcastle slumped to a 0-2 defeat vs Spurs to get relegated once again. They should rip up the Championship next season but wanted tags are attached to all of their big name players so an end of season exodus could prove disastrous to their chances of a quick return At the start of the season I said that it could take me 19 seasons to complete part 2 of my challenge. Part 1 of the challenge now sees the following teams playing a season in the Premier League Arsenal Spurs Chelsea Fulham QPR West Ham by being promoted will be the 6th to get their Teams yet to feature in the Premier League are Millwall Crystal Palace Watford Charlton Leyton Orient Brentford Wimbledon Barnet Dagenham and Redbridge. This means that with promotions to West Ham and Charlton (in addition to a relegation for Brentford) my challenge has potentially reduced to a minimum of 18 seasons (based on the unlikely event that every London club I manage gets promotion and none get relegated) Aim for 2012/13 is to leave Charlton and get one of the League 2 clubs up a division with some good young players to allow them to progress Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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