FM13 - Spurs doing it the hard way

[MadDog]

History

Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Spurs, is an English football club based in Tottenham, London, that plays in the Premier League. The club's home stadium is White Hart Lane.

Founded in 1882, Tottenham won the FA Cup for the first time in 1901, making it the only non-League club to do so since the formation of the Football League. Tottenham was the first club in the 20th century to achieve the League and FA Cup Double, winning both competitions in the 1960–61 season. After successfully defending the FA Cup in 1962, in 1963 it became the first British club to win a UEFA club competition – the European Cup Winners' Cup.[2] In 1967 it won the FA Cup for a third time in the 1960s. In the 1970s Tottenham won the League Cup on two occasions and was the inaugural winner of the UEFA Cup in 1972, becoming the first British club to win two different major European trophies. In the 1980s Spurs won several trophies: the FA Cup twice, FA Community Shield and the UEFA Cup in 1984. In the 1990s the club won the FA Cup and the League Cup. When it won the League Cup once more in 2008, it meant that it had won a major trophy in each of the last six decades – an achievement only matched by Manchester United.

The club's Latin motto is Audere est Facere (lit: "To Dare Is to Do"), and its emblem is a cockerel standing upon a football. The club has a long-standing rivalry with near neighbours Arsenal. Matches between the two teams are known as the North London derby.

My aim:

To win the Champions league, FA cup, League cup, Premier League, Club World Cup and European Super cup with Tottenham but here is the catch: I can only sign players from the British isles (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland). I will be relying a lot on my youth academy to produced players.

Information:

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t48/cambridgecelts/2012-10-22_00003.jpg[/img]"]Key player

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t48/cambridgecelts/2012-10-22_00004.jpg[/img]"]Future star

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t48/cambridgecelts/2012-10-22_00006.jpg[/img]"]Club overview

We will be going on a tour of the United States in pre-season and I will be looking to test out some players and youngsters then.

Transfer targets

1. Leighton Baines
   
2. Phil Jagielka
   
3. Ashley Williams
   
4. Aidan McGeady
   
5. James McClean
   
6. 
   

[Hypanimz]

I like the idea of only signing British and Irish players. Are you going to be selling the foreign based players or letting them stay?

[deltablue]

Interesting way to do things.

[Paolo Willenté]

Like it! Good luck.

[MadDog]

I like the idea of only signing British and Irish players. Are you going to be selling the foreign based players or letting them stay?

I'm going to be keeping them but gradually phasing them out. So by season 2-3 I should have only a couple of non-British players left.

[Austinho]

Nice idea... But don't ruin my beloved Tottenham! Also, winning the Champions League should be achievable within a few years.

[B.W.G]

An interesting idea,hope you can stick by the rules and succeed.

[SRL88]

This makes things more interesting now that you can only sign British

[MadDog]

Preseason

Not the best but I was trying out a lot of youth players who struggled in some of these games, we really turned on the heat vs San Jose, though!

Here are my transfers

Both players brought in are backup really, Ridgewell has some decent stats but lacks a bit of pace so he will be my backup LB this season. Ashley Williams has good pace and passing but isn't great in the air - I'm hoping Williams will slot in for Gallas when he most likely leaves the club at the end of the season.

Our first game of the season is away to Norwich where we are looking for 3 points.

[MadDog]

Europa League group stage draw:

Not bad, only Lazio should cause us any problems

[MadDog]

August

Vs Norwich

Vs Stoke

2 games, 2 wins! Good start although the team hasn't fully jelled yet. Bale was our player of the month with some terrific driving runs and 2 good finishes vs Norwich.

Here's the table.

[abulezz]

For while in the mid 2000s, Tottenham was my team of choice to manage! Had many a one club saves with Hotspurs, thoroughly enjoyable

[MadDog]

Decided I'll do a January and then an end of season update rather than month by month update

[THX1138]

What are the training facilities like at Spurs, now they have the complex up and running?

[MadDog]

Season 12/13

Results

Norwich (A) WON 3-1 Bale x2, Sigurðsson

Stoke (H) WON 1-0 Defoe

QPR (A) DREW 0-0 N/A

West Brom (H) WON 1-0 Adebayor

AZ Alkmaar (H) WON 4-0 Lennon,Bale, Defoe, Sigurðsson EUROPA LEAGUE

Wigan (H) WON 2-0 Defoe x2

Chelsea (A) WON 4-3 Livermore, Lennon, Defoe x2 CAPITAL ONE CUP 3rd round

Sunderland (A) WON 4-1 Caulker, Lennon X2, Sigurðsson

Lazio (A) DREW 0-0 N/A EUROPA LEAGUE

Man Utd (H) WON 3-1 Parker, Adebayor, Caulker

Fulham (H) WON 3-0 Kaboul, Dempsey, Defoe

Helsingsborg (H) WON 2-0 Assou-Ekotto, Dempsey EUROPA LEAGUE

Everton (A) WON 3-1 Dembele x3

Charlton (H) WON 4-0 Dawson, Dempsey, Bale x2 CAPITAL ONE CUP 4th round

Reading (A) WON 3-1 Defoe, Lennon, Bale

Helsingsborg (A) WON 2-1 Townsend, Adebayor EUROPA LEAGUE

Southampton (H) WON 5-0 Adebayor x4, Bale

Chelsea (A) LOST 0-3 N/A

AZ Alkmaar (A) LOST 2-3 Townsend, Dembele EUROPA LEAGUE

Arsenal (A) WON 3-1 Townsend x2, Sigurðsson

Newcastle (H) WON 1-0 Caulker

Lazio (H) LOST 2-3 Lennon, Dempsey EUROPA LEAGUE

Man City (A) DREW 3-3 Lennon, Adebayor, Sigurðsson

QPR (H) DREW 0-0 WON ON PENS N/A CAPITAL ONE CUP QUARTER FINAL

Liverpool (H) WON 4-1 Adebayor x3, Lennon

Aston Villa (H) WON 1-0 Adebayor

West Ham (A) LOST 1-2 Sigurðsson

Swansea (H) DREW 1-1 Sandro

Norwich (H) WON 3-2 Defoe x2, Lennon

Stoke (A) DREW 0-0 N/A

Bolton (H) DREW 1-1 Lennon FA CUP 3RD ROUND

Norwich (H) LOST 1-3 Sigurðsson CAPITAL ONE CUP SEMI FINAL 1ST LEG

QPR (H) DREW 1-1 Defoe

Bolton (A) DREW 1-1 LOST ON PENS O.G FA CUP 3RD ROUND REPLAY

Wigan (A) WON 3-2 Dawson, Adebayor, Townsend

Norwich (A) LOST 0-1 N/A CAPITAL ONE CUP SEMI FINAL 2ND LEG

Sunderland (H) WON 5-2 Townsend x2, Huddlestone, Dembele, Defoe

Man Utd (A) DREW 1-1 Townsend

Everton (H) DREW 1-1 Dembele

West Brom (A) WON 1-0 Caulker

Reading (H) DREW 0-0 N/A

Fulham (A) WON 4-2 Sigurðsson, Adebayor x2, Bale

Southampton (A) WON 2-1 Adebayor, O.G

Chelsea (H) DREW 0-0 N/A

Aston Villa (A) DREW 2-2 Kaboul, Adebayor

Newcastle (A) WON 3-1 Adebayor x3

Arsenal (H) WON 5-0 Bale x2, Lennon, Defoe x2

Man City (H) WON 2-0 Williams, Bale

Liverpool (A) WON 3-0 Adebayor x2, Lennon

West Ham (H) WON 4-1 Sigurðsson, O.G, Bale x2

Swansea (A) WON 1-0 Bale

Premier League - CHAMPIONS!

Europa League - Crashed out in the group, we needed one point from our final 2 games and lost both

FA Cup - Lost on penalties after a 3rd round replay vs Bolton, both games ended 1-1

Capital One Cup - Lost in the Semis 4-1 on Agg to NORWICH, in fairness I did play the kids throughout but still :o

Transfers

Ashley Williams - Was rotated throughout the season but had a storming end to the campaign including getting the crucial 2nd goal to see of Manchester City

Liam Ridgewell - Was solid throughout if anything, kept an average rating close to 7 but wasn't up to European football. Will be looking to move him on.

Jermaine Pennant - Brought in for 1.5m in January from Stoke and he really struggled in the handful of games he played in before ruling him out for the rest of the season with injury, a flop.

Key players

Adebayor - Had a great season despite starting the season as Defoes understudy soon seized the No.9 position

Caulker- Had an outstanding year which led to him winning young player of the months 5 times!

Bale- Had about 3 months on the sideline with injuries but when he was fit Bale was devastating

Lennon- Used his pace to good effect bombing up and down the right hand side all season, scored a fair few goals too

Young Hotspurs

Andros Townsend - Did really well when filling in for the injured Bale bagging 8 goals in all competitions.

Kyle Walker - Didn't do as well as I hoped but really shone in our final title push.

Jake Livermore - Had a superb start to the season but fell away towards the end getting very little game time post Christmas.

Youth Intakes

2012/13- Dave Fielding YP01 - 5 star potential

Manager thoughts:

I'm absolutely delighted we won the title, we were level on points with United going into the final day but with inferior goal difference. I feared the worst as we struggled to break down a compact Swansea side, but when Gareth Bale smashed in a shot possibly (probably) from an offside position I thought we had done it, only for Rooney to score for Man Utd in the 92nd minute. But then up step Stewart Downing to curl an immediate reply for Liverpool in the seasons final minute to hand us the title. We didn't fare so well in other competitions but I'm delighted with Tottenham's first Premier League title! We started the season with a 4-2-3-1 before changing to a 4-3-3 but our main success came towards the end of the season when we reverted back to 4-2-3-1 with Sigurðsson or Dembele in the hole. We often played an all British defense but at the minute in central midfield we are playing a lot of foreigners. I will be bringing in a bit more quality this season for the Champions league and replacing a few such as Dempsey and Vertonghen and I am releasing Gallas, Friedel and Gomes (couldn't get a work permit) on frees.

26 SEATS!!!????!!!!11

[crumps]

HAHAHA 26 seats!!!!!