Mandy42 Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 I've previously attempted the Sir Alex Ferguson challenge. With Leicester. I liked the premise. But must admit I felt little connection to the Foxes, and it faded after a few seasons. So I started again. Anyone unfamiliar with the challenge. You have to replicate the exploits of Alex Ferguson's managerial career with Man Utd. Which begins by simulating the opening season to November the 6th (the day he took over Man Utd) and become the manager of the team sitting 19th in the league (the position Man Utd occupied when he became manager.) The rest they say is history. Now, what makes this save interesting? That come November the 6th 2021. Arsenal were 19th in the Premier league! As a Chelsea supporter I'm not going to lie I was conflicted. But getting into the squad. The youth potential at Arsenal could easily rival or surpass Ferguson's class of 92. Thus the challenge begins! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted August 4, 2022 Author Share Posted August 4, 2022 Football is a funny ole game sometimes. I'm not quite certain what had befallen Arsenal. To see them sat 19th with 10 games played. A solitary win to their name, four draws and five defeats indicating a tale of woe. That's seven measly points for the mathematically challenged. Only Brentford are in worse shape. Five points and a minus 13 goal difference. At the dizzying heights of the other end of the table. Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea and Tottenham fill out the top four, with just four points separating them. Then its Liverpool, Aston Villa, Everton, Brighton, Newcastle and Norwich to round out the top 10. Its even more confusing when, in our first home game. The day after I take charge. We smash five past West Ham for no reply. I didn't even dare change the tactical system. I didn't think there was enough time for it to make a meaningful improvement on proceedings. I just picked the best performing players from those available and crossed my fingers. After that first game I got the chance to look at the transfer business. And it began to make some kind of sense. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted August 5, 2022 Author Share Posted August 5, 2022 Looking more in depth at the results before I took over. Opening day was a 2-0 defeat against Man City at the Etihad. Not the best place to go for game week one. But is there ever a better week? The other defeats were a 3-2 defeat away to Southampton at the end of September. Three 2-1 defeats on the bounce, either side of the international break in October. Against Spurs and Wolves at home. With an away defeat by Burnley sandwiched in the middle. The solitary win came away at Brentford. A 2-0 ray of sunshine in an otherwise pitch black sky. The draws were 0-0 against Liverpool and Leicester at home in August. 1-1 against Watford at home in September. And the final game, a 2-2 draw away to Leeds. We are still in the Carabao Cup. 3-2 away win against Championship Fulham in the second round. 3-1 win against Aston Villa also away in the third round. Then a 2-1 away win against Watford in the fourth. Though only due to a 90+5 penalty conversion by Alexandre Lacazette. At the point I took over the team had scored a total of 10 goals in the league: Alexis Sanchez, signed from Inter Milan in August for £8.75M leads the way with four. Alexandre Lacazette has two. Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith Rowe, Martin Odegaard and Nicolas Pepe all have one. There has been no further transfer activity in terms of players coming in. Going out is another story: Eddie Nketiah was sold to West Ham at the end of July for £7.25M. Zak Swanson was sent on loan to Crewe for the season. The likes of Hector Bellerin, Pablo Mari, Lucas Torreira, Konstantinos Mavropanos are all on long term loans away from the club. Matteo Guendouzi is also on loan, and isn't coming back. With a transfer agreed at the end of his loan period with Olympic Marseille. While I'm not suggesting the players away from the club could have rescued the poor start to the season. The first thing that stands out after the poor results. Is just how young, and thin on the ground the squad appears. While Arsenal don't have any continental football this season. I'm still not sure its going to be good enough. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted August 5, 2022 Author Share Posted August 5, 2022 Only three games in November, and with a two week gap between the first against West Ham, and the second against Newcastle due to the international break. I figured I could begin to introduce a tactical style of my own. It was a no brainer for me to go with a 4-2-3-1 formation. Limited striking options, exciting young wide players and a young talented presence in the centre of the pitch gave me reasons to be optimistic. Off the pitch, FC Bayern and Real Madrid were both circling for Gabriel. And he wanted to go. Apparently I was holding back his career by not letting him play Champions league football. From my perspective, he could have Champions league football, just as soon as we qualified for the competition. He was going nowhere. Another player who was beginning to annoy me was Mohamed Elneny. He was behind Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey in the queue for my defensive midfielder slot. But he still felt he deserved a contract that better meshed with his ability. I didn't think much of his ability so I didn't even both holding a meeting with him to discuss it. Instead I transfer listed him the next day. Because there is no money for me to do anything with the squad in January. Basically because I've had to juggle the finances around to bump up the wage bill! Thus anyone who even looks at me funny, and isn't putting in the required effort, will be moving closer to the door so I can begin the reshaping process. Back on the pitch come the 20th of November and we go to St James Park. While the 5-0 home win against West Ham in the first game was great. I didn't dare believe that whatever problems had plagued the club were simply gone that easily. So I sent the lads out with a very cautious, lets keep it safe and see what happens attitude. We managed to silence the home crowd, get into the game. And in the 16th minute we profited from a defensive mistake. A missed clearing header allowed Sanchez to ghost in at the back post and put us ahead. The game descends into something that really isn't worth watching. There are glimpses of potential from both teams. But a decisive pass is always just a little sloppy, or the understanding between the players just isn't there. No understanding is required when the ball breaks for Xhaka on the edge of the area following a corner. He smashes it on the half volley and it flies into the top right corner. A game and a half in, seven goals scored, zero conceded, crisis? What crisis. I'm still going to walk on egg shells though. I might have been inclined to tell the players not to switch off and get complacent in the second period. But I figured the fragile atmosphere at the club could do with some praise. So they got a well done for their first half efforts. Before I quickly adapted the formation and mentality to basically park the bus in the second half. Which had the desired effect. The periods of unwatchable play grew longer and longer. Which suited me fine with a two goal cushion. Newcastle had more of the ball, but were unable to get into even half decent positions to do anything with it. They began to commit more and more players to their attempts to break through. Which resulted in Lacazette, on for Sanchez in the final stages. Finding himself one on one with the Newcastle keeper with just a minute of normal time left to play. He sits the keeper down as he goes round him and finishes into the open net. 3-0 Ecstatic! Less so two minutes later, when a lazy ball to beyond the back post is steered goalward by Allan Saint - Maximin and our clean sheet is gone. The game ends 3-1 and while a second win in a row, away from home is good. Literally the whole team switching off before the final whistle because they felt the game was won, unacceptable. If I needed anymore signs that this wasn't going to be an easy ride. They came in next game. At home against Brighton seven days later. Whether the players were uneasy about playing in front of the home fans due to their poor performance so far this season. Or whether it was simply an example of just how badly they were playing as a team in general. But we were very very poor. Brighton were ahead after 28 minutes with their version of Granit Xhaka's goal from the Newcastle game. The part of Xhaka was played by Alexis Mac Allister and his thunderbolt went in the top left corner, not the right. But otherwise it was basically the same. With their goal scored. Brighton's intentions became clear. Make the game as difficult and frustrating as they could for us. We had all of the ball, and none of the quality to do anything with it. Either a simple lack of ideas, or the inability to execute them. Which very quickly led to the frustration of players taking shots at goal that were destined to be blocked, or go flying over the bar. I shuffled the pack with substitutions and tried adjust the tactics to make us use every inch of the Emirates pitch. In an attempt to create the space needed to find a way through. But nothing. Then on 80 minutes a deep free kick is lumped into the box level with the back post. Emile Smith Rowe cushions the ball towards goal on the volley, with the inside of his right foot. It strikes a Brighton defender and deflects into the bottom corner of the net. Completely wrong footing their keeper, who looked odds on to simply catch it. 1-1 Its better to be lucky than good it seems! An unbeaten month for my first as Arsenal manager. Hopefully the only way is up. But I remain unconvinced. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted August 7, 2022 Author Share Posted August 7, 2022 After the relatively easy task of three games in November. Reality well and truly struck with seven fixtures in December. Elneny went to Al-Ittihad for £2.2M on the ninth of the month. With him gone, the next player in my sights was Alexandre Lacazette. 30, big wages in relation to the rest of the squad, not performing at all. And developed a sports hernia which side lined him for at least six weeks. Transfer listed! Crystal Palace away was the first game of December. Alexis Sanchez might not be the player he was during his first spell at Arsenal. But he certainly seems more interested than pretty much everyone else at the club. Four minutes into the game and he's on the scoresheet. Charging into the box in the fullbacks blind spot. Just to dart in front of him at the back post to head in from a pretty much unmissable angle. Palace seems to have been expecting us to be more like our early season pushovers as they didn't seem to be able to get a foothold in the game. We were on top for the first 20 minutes, to the point where I began to fear we would rue not converting anymore of our chances. Just as the possession was starting to even out. Bukayo Saka doubled our advantage on 22 minutes. Cutting in from the right he got to the edge of the box and hit a low bobbling drive that beat the keeper to the far post and crashed into the net. Fool you once shame on me, fool you twice, well that's your problem. Saka did pretty much exactly the same thing on 29 minutes. 3-0 up. Any momentum Palace had been attempting to muster was gone. I calmed the lads down, kept the ball till halftime and got them in the changing room. With a three goal cushion I removed Alexis. Figured I'd need him again soon, but pointless flogging him in the second half for no reason. I also wanted to see what Mika Biereth the 19 year old Danish striker they signed from Fulham. He finished the previous season as the top goal scorer in U18 Premier league south with 21 goals and 13 assists. He scored his first senior Arsenal goal two minutes into the second half. Saka, having an absolutely blinder of a game, slipping him in behind for the striker to calmly stroke home to make it four. We conceded twice in the last 15 minutes which made me a bit edgy. But 4-2 and a continuation to the unbeaten start kept my spirits up. Three days later we were at Carrow Road to play Norwich. We didn't get out of the blocks anywhere near as well as the previous game. Pukki hit the post twice and we were fortunate to still be in the game by the time we actually started stringing passes together. Alexis was once again the difference maker. Rolling back the years with a trademark burst of pace which saw him explode into the corner of the box between the central defender and wing back. A rocket of a shot across the keeper saw us 1-0 with 33 minutes played. I thought that would be that. But in stoppage time at the end of the first half we had a free kick, middle of the pitch, just outside of the D. Of all the players I thought would step up. I didn't expect it to be Xhaka. But straight as a die. Under the wall as it jumped, clipped the inside of the right hand post and went in! 2-0 at halftime, 2-0 at the end of the game. We kept it tight and closed down in the second half and didn't give them much of anything to work with. Think that is going to be our season. I don't have the strength in depth to keep going deep into games. Hopefully we can get into the habit of getting games done with in the first half, and manage them in the second. A week later it was Frank Lampard's Everton at the Emirates. Seemed like an age ago we played a home game. And after the less than emphatic performance I can't say I was looking forward too it. I sent the lads out to attack, because I wanted them to get used to going after teams in the first half. Plus I wanted the crowd to see the intent and hopefully get behind the players. Everton did their level best to frustrate us. But our mentality enabled us to play the majority of the first half in their territory. Even if the clock was winding down and we had nothing to show for it. That was when they finally seemed to switch off. Nicolas Pepe tapped in from beyond the far post. After he got on the end of a testing cross from Kieran Tierney. 1-0 up after 44 minutes played. That however left me in a bit of a pickle come halftime. A one goal advantage wasn't exactly what I had hoped for. But we had big games coming up at the back end of the month and I couldn't see Alexis being able to churn out too many high intensity 90 minutes back to back. So I replaced him at halftime with Biereth. Well both me and the Dane were beaming from ear to ear at full time. The lad had netted twice, running us out as 3-0 winners. Three wins on the bounce, six games unbeaten! Youth was coming good at the Emirates. Next up though. Spurs in the Carabao Cup Quarter Final... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted August 9, 2022 Author Share Posted August 9, 2022 Spurs at the toilet bowl stadium. This was exactly the sort of game I wanted my in form players fresh for. As while the board didn't see this competition as important at the beginning of the season. That was when they had their sights set considerably higher up the table. While they still didn't consider it a priority. To me it was a golden opportunity to boost morale and get a reward for hopefully not much effort. (Plus I need to win four of them as part of the challenge.) But, then we draw Spurs, and turn a low priority quarter final into a North London derby. Which once again changes the complexion of the fixture. I was 15 in October 1997 when England went to Rome needing a point to qualify for the world cup. 90 minutes and a blood soaked Paul Ince later. And I felt like I'd lived through some kind of right of passage. Think it was the first time I experienced a football game that on one hand I couldn't tear my eyes away. But at the same time made me feel sick to the pit of my stomach until the final whistle sounded and the objective had been achieved. Now don't get me wrong. Spurs vs Arsenal in December 2021 was no repeat of that classic night in Rome. But my feelings were the same. I very much doubted our chances. And if someone had offered me the lottery of penalties at kick off. I'd of jumped on it. Every minute of the game was a miniscule movement towards that goal. Its not like Spurs battered us. But I feared if we went behind, we didn't have the quality or guile to get ourselves back into the game. Someone must have been looking out for us that day as it came down to penalties. That's if you think a penalty shoot out is in anyway doing someone a favour! Pierre - Emile Hojbjerg is first up for Spurs. He looks confident, and he hits it well towards the bottom left corner. But Ramsdale gets a great launch, guesses the right way and gets his hands down to push it away! Who else would I allow to take our first kick other than Alexis Sanchez? Sends the keeper the wrong way, bottom right corner. Advantage us. Harry Winks is next for Spurs. At this point, with the pressure on I would have liked us to be kicking towards our supporters. But the 3,000 or so Arsenal fans are segregated somewhere near the halfway line. Either way, Winks scores to make it 1 - 1. I stick with the South American connection. Gabriel Martinelli is our next taker. But he seems to rush his kick with a short run up. And once Lloris guesses the right way he has a save at an easy height for him. It remains 1 - 1 Dejan Kulusevski scores for Spurs and I must admit it feels like the tie is creeping away. We've been provided the required fortune to this point and haven't taken advantage of it. Now surely we will be punished. 2 - 1 Thankfully Albert Sambi Lokonga has no such thoughts. Run up from the edge of the box and slams it into the top right corner. 2 - 2 Lucas Moura is next. With one of those annoying stutter step run ups that try make the keeper blink first. Ramsdale hangs on but eventually leans too much one way and Moura strikes it after our keeper is already committed. The ball runs along the ground, and dribbles wide of the right hand post. Moura must have been watching Ramsdale more than the ball and mis queued it. 2 - 2 Mika Biereth. I only put the 19 year old Dane on the list because he looked the most pumped of the lot. I wonder if that still holds true when he has a chance to give us the advantage late on in proceedings. He hits it hard, looping up to the top left hand corner. Lloris is going that way but the ball is too well struck and enters the net above his outstretched hand. 3 - 2. Emerson Royal is taking Spurs last penalty. He seems in a rush but committed at the same time. He scores, guess he wanted the whole thing over with before he could change his mind. 3 - 3 So it comes down to this. Nuno Tavares is our final taker. Or at least I hope he is. Score this and we go through. Miss and we go to sudden death. The amount of noise that assails him is immense as the Spurs fans try support their team in the only way remaining to them. He begins his run up and hits it. The ball starts off going right, but lazily curls back towards the middle of the goal. The height is dead on central as well. If Lloris just stands there it probably hits him, nevermind him having to catch it. But the Spurs keeper doesn't stand still. He's diving to his right, he frantically attempts to get a trailing leg up, extend his toes beyond their physical capability. But to no avail. The balls in the net and we are into the semi final! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted August 13, 2022 Author Share Posted August 13, 2022 If the 0 - 0 draw against Spurs in the Carabao was some form of epic battle of wills where we endured to come out victorious. Then the 0 - 0 draw at home against Man Utd three days later. Was just horrible. From our point of view it was an examination in exhaustion. The only criteria that went into picking the starting XI was which players were the least likely to come off the pitch injured after 90 minutes. From Man Utd's perspective, they just didn't seem to want it enough. Either they thought they would roll us over without effort. Or were suffering from their own later December congestion. As they had both ample possession and opportunity to take all of the spoils back north. But I don't remember Ramsdale having a single difficult save to make. The game away against Aston Villa on Boxing day was the complete opposite. Perhaps the players were just full of festive energy. More likely it had something to do with the biggest gap between fixtures in the whole month. Thomas Partey set the tone just a minute into the game. Having sweetly struck a knockdown on the edge of the Villa box. Somehow it smuggled through the packed penalty area and deposited itself in the bottom corner. 1 - 0. The players seemed unsatisfied with such a fast start. As they quickly pressed the ball away from the home side from the resulting restart. Miguel Azeez our 19 year old English academy prospect, making his debut. Wasted no time in wanting to make an impression. He marauding forward from midfield. Only a scything tackle on the edge of the box from Ezri Konsa was able to bring an end to his run. Up step Martin Odegaard, a whipped, curling free kick that only ever looked destined for the top corner. The only question was whether Villa keeper and ex Gunner Emiliano Martinez could prevent it from going in. The answer was no 2 - 0 with only two minutes played! Villa were completely shell shocked. And for the time being, it seemed we were happy with the start we had made. The game settled down. Azeez and Odegaard combined again with just over five minutes left in the first half. The former slipping a delicious through ball into the area for the latter to get onto. The ball was perfectly weighted, Odegaard was always favourite to get too it first. But it was just at a distance that tempted Martinez to come and get it. The keepers situation was compounded by not wanting to give away an penalty. His indecision as to how committed he could be in coming for the ball. Left him off balance. Allowing Odegaard to smoothly round him and slot into an empty net. 3 - 0 38 minutes played. Now I'll never have a bad word to say about my team scoring a goal. However, Villa had been trudging along towards halftime showing nothing. Now, having gone a third goal down. Some spark of indignant pride had been rekindled. And they came at us in the remaining seven minutes like they had a point to prove. With the added three minutes of stoppage time, and our comfortable three goal cushion mentality. Ollie Watkins managed to sneak in from a corner and head in a rather soft goal for the home side. 3 - 1 45+3 The second half was a completely different beast. As is my way with the current squad. I dialled back our intensity and focused on controlling and protecting the lead our first half efforts had afforded us. I must admit I didn't expect Villa to be as up for the second half as they were, based on the quality of their first period showing. They came out and absolutely hammered us. In complete contrast to the Man Utd game, where we were never really in any threat. This game we needed every ounce of luck we could muster. Watkins had the ball in the net just three minutes into the second period. But was chalked off for the slimmest of offsides curtesy of VAR. Villa would not be dissuaded, hitting the woodwork a total of three times during the second half. We battled hard, for every attempt they got on target, we foiled at least two or three more. Finally though a crack in the dam appeared. Who else but Watkins peeling off the back of Gabriel's shoulder to score on the half volley. 3 - 2 with 78 minutes played. Strangely the goal seemed to take some of the urgency out of the Villa attack. Whether they felt it was just a matter of time now before they got back on terms. The problem being, they ran out of time. We somehow survived without conceding in those final 12 minutes and came home with all three points. Which brings us to the last game of the year. And at the time, possibly the most complete performance under my fledgling management. We entertained Burnley at the Emirates on the 28th of December. Miguel Azeez's performance in his debut earned him a first home start. Once again he didn't disappoint. On 14 minutes he appeared in the area to stroke home a cut back from Nuno Tavares to put us in the lead. Joel Ideho, our 18 year old Dutch winger doubled our advantage on 25 minutes. Cutting inside from the right and thundering a drive across the Burnley keeper to silence the last vestiges of the visiting supporters defiance. But we weren't finished there. Azeez, bossing the game just behind Biereth at the head of the formation. Collected the ball in a pocket of space just outside the D of the Burnley area. Chesting the ball down, he opened his body up to create space. Before hitting it on the volley with his right foot. Curling wickedly it struck the underside of the bar in the top right corner and dropped into the net. Azeez would go on loan to Derby on deadline day of the January window. Those two goals his only tally for the club to date. But that goal, was the fans pick for goal of the season come the end of the 2021 - 22 campaign. What made the performance probably the best so far. Wasn't just the fact we had a three goal advantage at half time. But that we still had it come full time. I pulled the plug for the second period. Instructing the players to keep the ball, play out the half, save the legs and be ready to go again in the new year. Burnley couldn't lay a glove on us. Fantastic! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted August 13, 2022 Author Share Posted August 13, 2022 January, and the clear out continues. Lacazette has been in contract talks with Lille for most of December. Finally on the opening day of the transfer window a deal is struck. £20m, which I really don't think is too shabby for an injured 30 year old. Cedric follows on the eighth of January. £8.75m to Mexican side Tigres. He simply wasn't good enough to be in my plans. And I needed both the money and the wiggle room in the wages to make some changes. The rest of the January departees are all loans: Kido Taylor - Hart > Middlesbrough Omar Rekik > West Brom Omari Hutchinson > Jeonbuk Charlie Patino > Hull Miguerl Azeez > Derby Ben Cottrell > Crystal Palace Jordi Osei - Tutu > Bristol City The sales allow me to bring in three players, two permanent and one on loan. Franck Kessie is a player I've had my eye on over multiple saves. But as I'm usually playing as Chelsea, by the time I'm in the market to replace Kante. He has been snapped up. He comes to us from AC Milan, for £20.5m, potentially rising to £22 with addons. He will hopefully provide a younger, better version of Granit Xhaka. Sticking to Italy, and indeed Milan. I pay £3m for Ivan Perisic from Inter. He was available for signing at the end of the season due to him not being willing to renew his contract. But there was plenty of interest for him. Less for paying money to sign him. My threadbare attack needed some bolstering. Especially down the left where Emile Smith - Rowe is both playing wonderfully, and is exhausted all the time. Finally, a bit of a panic signing. Liam Delap comes to us on loan from Man City. Just as I again worry about the depth of cover up front over the back half of the season. Plus, as much as Mika Biereth has been wonderful up until now. He is still young and as such not a guarantee to perform every time I call his name. Happy with the performance in the first transfer window. Hoping to go from strength to strength as I begin to put my own stamp on the squad Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted September 5, 2022 Author Share Posted September 5, 2022 (edited) In December we'd played seven games, won five and drawn two. Scored 15 and conceded four. So while the prospect of playing eight games across three competitions in January was a daunting one. I felt we were in pretty good shape to start the new year. One of those December draws had been in the Carabao quarter final, against Spurs. Which we went on to win on penalties. So a new years day trip back to the Spurs stadium didn't seem like that bad a place to pick back up again. Unfortunately, we played like we'd been partying into the night long after the fireworks had died down. A Martin Odegaard free kick in the 84th minute gave us a touch of respectability on the score sheet. But two goals from who else but Harry Kane had seen us dead and buried a long time ago. Three days later and its Carabao cup semi final time. Its still over two legs, which might not be the case next year due to the Qatar dog and pony show. We play Newcastle, and have the first leg at home. I tend to be more aggressive at home in the first place. But even more so in this situation. I want this game over and done with as a contest before the second leg. A goal from Emile Smith Rowe on 15 minutes, and a brace from Mika Biereth before the end of the half had us well on our way. Though now I was stuck between two conflicting mindsets. Usually I would shut up shop and protect the hard work done in the first half. But in reality, the whole 90 minutes here were the first half, so I should keep going and put this game to bed. I kept the foot on the gas, while at the same time Newcastle came out with nothing to lose. On another day, we could have had six or seven. If not for tight offside calls, and being denied by the frame of the goal. Biereth got his hat trick on 63 minutes. The only problem being Callum Wilson scored for Newcastle either side of our fourth goal. So by 70 minutes it was 4-2. It was a cracking game, even more so for the neutral. Even I felt suckered in and wanting more. With every end to end swing it felt like we could put the ball in the net and increase our advantage. So I never called the dogs off. The game finished 4-2, whether we would have come away in a better position if I'd parked the bus. Guess we will never know. First week of the new year, third game, third competition. As we welcomed Championship side Fulham to the Emirates for the third round of the FA cup. They were going strong in the Championship and looked like they would be in the mix at the end of the season. So I approached it like any other home game. Hit them hard early on and get too far ahead before they even have chance to think about recovery. Gabriel Martinelli and Emile Smith Rowe scored in the first half. Rowe's goal hurt, coming just before the stroke of halftime. When Fulham might have been feeling optimistic at only going in a goal down. After the Newcastle game I reverted to type and cooled the lads down in the second half. A Martinelli back post tap in from a corner, on the hour. Was the only real chance we fashioned in the second period. But at 3-0 the tie was over and we didn't need to do anymore. Three days later and its Carabao cup semi final time. Wow, talk about deja vu! At St James Park. I wanted to approach the game like the second half of a home tie we dominated. Keep the ball, shut down the game, frustrate the opposition. I figured worse case scenario, if we tried play open attacking football, they would mug us on the break and get themselves back in the game. Then they would only need to steal a second and we'd be out on away goals. What followed was a 90 minute education in frustration. Newcastle had a high frequency of low quality chances which never really threatened. Leading them to commit more and more of their team forward in an attempt to make up for it. Finally the deadlock was broken, in the only minute of stoppage time at the end of the 90. Alexis Sanchez giving us the win on the night, as he latched onto a clearance from a Newcastle corner. The only player in the Newcastle half beyond their keeper. Who he went round to finish into an unguarded net. Which meant we would be playing in the final come the end of February. But for now we were 11 days into the new year, and still had four Premier league games left in the month. Edited September 5, 2022 by Mandy42 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
oche balboa Posted September 6, 2022 Share Posted September 6, 2022 Not a bad story. Keep it going 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted September 6, 2022 Author Share Posted September 6, 2022 12 hours ago, oche balboa said: Not a bad story. Keep it going Thanks for reading and thanks for the feedback! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted September 11, 2022 Author Share Posted September 11, 2022 Back end of January and having navigated progress in two domestic cup competitions. I've now got the daily grind of the Premier league until the end of the month. Leeds at the Emirates on the 15th is our first of four games left in the month. We are nowhere near as purposeful or energetic going forward as we usually are at home. And not surprisingly, after Leeds weather our initial luke warm advances. They find themselves ahead on the half hour mark. A Patrick Bamford header from a wide free kick. Not happy! Which I manage to translate to the players in the form of harsh language and interpretive dance from the touchline. Four minutes later and we are level, thanks to one of those seemingly time defying teasing crosses that looks so simple for any number of players to get a touch on it as it comes across the box. But in reality its angled just right for Saka to hit it in stride at the back post and steer it into the net. Which is doubly infuriating. Where was that cut and thrust before we were a goal down! Especially as we almost instantly devolve into the same lacklustre rubbish as soon as we are level. We are playing Leeds again in just a few scant weeks in the fourth round of the FA cup. And I don't want them thinking they are going to have an easy game. So I keep the heavy hitters on for longer into the second half. It pays off as Alexis Sanchez turns in a Saka cutback right on the hour mark. And while we still aren't setting any houses on fire in the remaining 30 minutes. Leeds seem to have run out of juice as well and the game whimpers to a 2-1 finish in our favour. Chelsea at Stamford Bridge is next. Sanchez looks on his last legs as he starts. Having played the second half of the Newcastle second leg. 75 minutes against Leeds just three days ago, and now he's leading the line here. He might look sluggish, but he still has the ball in the net after just four minutes. A back post bundle across the line after Chelsea couldn't clear from a corner. When you score in the fourth minute, you don't expect to be equalising. But we are. Romelu Lukaku had scored from a Chelsea corner just two minutes into the game. Being a real life Chelsea supporter I was already conflicted enough about this game. If its going to be this back and forth for the full 90 I don't know if I will cope! We are hanging on for the majority of the first half, Chelsea have the better chunk of possession, the better chances, and deserve to go ahead with a Mason Mount placed effort from just outside the box, just before the end of the first period. I can't fault the players. They are trying, but our lack of experience and depth is really showing through in these protracted runs of fixtures. What we lack in experience and consistency we make up for in youthful exuberance and flashes of brilliance. After a player of the game performance against Leeds, Saka is at it again. This time he takes the game by the scruff of the neck, charging past multiple Chelsea defenders as he cuts in from the right. Finishing low across the keeper to bring us back into the game. 2 - 2. Decision time, well not really. I have to bring players on who I'm not certain I can count on to see us over the line and get a result. Are they young, yes, are they talented, without question. Are they reliable, not sure. Especially as top goal scorer Sanchez has to come off as a substitute before I'm going to be bringing him off on a stretcher. Martinelli is on up top, and Perisic replaces Smith Rowe on the left. While he isn't at all young. He is still finding his feet and gelling with the rest of the squad. So I doubt he is going to be the difference today. While the lack of chemistry at the sharp end means we are unlikely to add to our tally. As the game drags on, it doesn't seem we are going to concede either. I'll take a point with bells on! But then the fourth official holds up the board for six minutes of stoppage time. No idea where that number came from. But it stirs the home supporters out of their apathy as they roar for their players to see us off in the additional time. That galvanises the Chelsea team and the atmosphere shifts to suddenly feeling like this isn't over. Chelsea spend the majority of the stoppage time camped in our half, with multiple back to back corners. Somehow we don't concede and I'm beginning to think we will take the point with us. When Tierney unceremoniously lumps the ball clear out towards the left hand side of the halfway line. Perisic is there, he gets on to the ball and pushes it on into the wide open space of the Chelsea half. Reece James comes across to try cut off the angle. He likely could have tracked our aging winger all the way down the line. But for some reason he goes to ground, sliding to try win the ball, put it into touch and end the threat right there. He misses, leaving Perisic unchallenged as he continues into the Chelsea half. He cuts in from the left into the penalty area. The angle is tight, one of those where the keeper knows he has to go across him to the far post, but he can't leave too much of the near post open. Because Mendy knows that Perisic knows, he knows the higher percentage chance is curling it to the far post. Which is why Perisic tries lift it in at the near post, picking a tiny triangle of space between Mendy's right shoulder and the angle of bar and post. The Chelsea keeper gets a hand too it, pushing it up, onto the bar, via the post, it bounces down and out into the box. Where it evades two backtracking Chelsea defenders, and falls to Gabriel Martinelli just shy of the penalty spot. He calmly side foots it into the roof of the net, in such a way that neither defender has a hope of stopping it. We are winning 3 - 2 with 90 + 5 minutes played. I don't believe it. When the final whistle goes and we have won the game. Nobody expected it, and I guess that is a big part of why it happened. Sometimes it seems its better to be lucky than good. Three days later on the 22nd and we weren't either of those things. We were just exhausted and terrible. That might not be fair. The team was very very heavily rotated and there was little to no chemistry in the starting XI. Wolves it seems hadn't brought their shooting boots with them. And the game ended in a completely forgettable 0 - 0. Which brought us limping and heavy breathing to Old Trafford on the 26th of the month. For our third away game on the bounce. It seemed as though it was going to go the same way as the Wolves game. I was in full contain and frustrate mode. A midfield duo of Franck Kessie and Albert Sambi Lokonga camped in front of our back four. Man Utd for their part seemed just as strung out as we were. Lacking in the enthusiasm or vision required to break us down. As though they looked at our formation and tactics and just shrugged. "If they can't be bothered to turn up and play football, then neither can we" kind of attitude. That frustration boiled over just three minutes before the end of the first half and resulted in Mika Biereth being shoved from behind at a corner and us winning a penalty. Emile Smith Rowe converted from the spot. Resulting in me doubling down on our rear guard approach for the second half. If the Man Utd players had been capable of harnessing the howls of derision their fans flung at us they would have blown us away in the second half. But they just couldn't break us down. Mika Biereth's goal on 90 minutes from a long through ball by Kessie. Was probably our only time in the Man Utd half during the second period. 2 - 0 flattered us. But I wasn't going to complain. So played eight, won six, lost one, drawn one. I should have been happy with January. And I suppose in one regard I was. I think my main concern was the unplanned, haphazard manner of it all. The only consistent part of it all for me was the lacklustre periods of play. We had them in every game. Sometimes, like the Wolves game, it would be for the whole 90. Others we would have flashes of brilliance and quality. But I had no real idea of what the catalyst for such moments was. Or how to nurture more of those moments going forward Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted September 22, 2022 Author Share Posted September 22, 2022 February, the shortest month of the year. Has the potential to be very sweet indeed. As it brings us to the first cup final of my tenure. Even the Carabao cup seemed a world away when I took over with the club languishing 19th in the league. But no chickens can be counted. As we play none other than run away league favourites Man City in the final. And no getting ahead of ourselves. As there are four games in the month before the final. First up is Leeds at home in the FA cup fourth round. I think I said when we played them in the league. That I didn't want them to feel like they would be getting an easy game. They obviously got the message and took their ball and shooting boots home with them. We ain't half been involved in some crap games this season. While results are going our way, and the board are upgrading the laughable "avoid relegation" to a "mid table finish" expectation. I'm still not winning many fans due to the fact I'm failing on the desired club vision. We just aren't entertaining. And this latest game against Leeds was just another example. We are hard to break down, very difficult to take the ball off. But we don't actually do anything of substance with it the vast majority of the time. Saka scored the only goal of the cup tie in a breakaway effort on 19 minutes. Other than that we barely created a sniff. The story remained the same four days later when we welcomed Aston Villa in the league. This time it took 88 minutes for Saka to escape the Villa defence and blast past the keeper. But the 1 - 0 score line in our favour was eventually the same. No such luck at Anfield on the 12th of the month. We staggered and clung to the ropes like a punch drunk prize fighter. But somehow escaped with a point. Which left two games in the month, the cup final at the end against Man City, and a home game in the league a week before. Against... Man City. In true FM fashion the first time I would face the likely league winners, would be the game before I played them in a final. I will admit to a level of gamesmanship in these two games. To me, the bigger game of the two was without a doubt the cup game, for many reasons. Firstly our league campaign was non-existent. To the point that I didn't want to finish as high as possible, seventh or eighth would do fine. IF we won the Carabao cup. Because our squad is that young, and that thin on the ground. That I didn't really fancy the added problems that come with competitive continental football. Give me the Europa conference league, in which to blood the youth, and no fan really gives much of a rats scrotum about and I'd be happy. Dump us in the Europa league proper and we might get teams we'd be expected to field a competitive side against. Or even worse, try and use it as a route to the Champions league. Plus, in order to complete the SAF challenge. I needed to win at least four league cups. So that's the long way round of saying I fielded a weaker side in the league game. And with only two minutes played it looked like I was glad I did. A ridiculously soft touch in our box and City have a penalty. Dispatched by Kevin De Bruyne to give them a very early lead. Whether they had an eye on the cup final as well. But they didn't push their advantage as much as they probably could. And we seemed content to let them run rings around us, as long as we didn't give them an easy route into our area. Two minutes left into the half and some smart work from a throw in just outside their box. Saw Smith Rowe work some room for a speculative shot. His effort looked like it was wide from the start. But curled, curled some more. It became the little ball that could, curling just enough to sneak in the bottom corner and send us in at the break all level! Now while I was over the moon at the score being 1 - 1. 20 minutes into the second half when Rowe was bundled over in the box. I was both ecstatic and cursing. We had a chance to go ahead. But playing most of a second string XI. I had Pepe taking the penalty. Someone who I hadn't seen take one all season long. He had more confidence than me and sent the keeper the wrong way before stroking home. 2 - 1! We reverted to our now typical second half home performance. Frustrate, try keep the ball, sit in and settle for what we have. And by George it was working! Time seemed to slow to a standstill. But even at 10% of normal speed, time kept ticking forward. Inch by inch until we were into stoppage time at the end of the game. Credit to City, they carried themselves like the champions elect they were. Never giving in, relentlessly chasing anything that could get them back into the game. As we played out the three minutes of added time. We looked absolutely battered. We'd long since given up any hope of touching or keeping the ball. Any time an Arsenal player so much as made contact with the ball, our fans would cheer as if we'd won the league. In the final minute of the game, Phil Foden tapped in one of those trademark back post Man City goals. Where the ball just seems to slide across the box on a wire and someone is there at the end to finish it. They just wouldn't stop coming, and in the end they had one more quality ball than we had the energy to defend. 2 - 2 it finished. I refuse to consider it more a defeat and two points lost than one point gained. Despite there only being 10 seconds played after their goal went it. We played the best team in the league and we hung in their as long as we could. See you again in seven days for a riveting cup final! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
oche balboa Posted October 6, 2022 Share Posted October 6, 2022 Keep going Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted November 19, 2022 Author Share Posted November 19, 2022 Think I posted in other threads when I reached this point. That this is my first cup final BUT its only the Carabao Cup final. None of that this year. Any success is what this team needs. Build belief, and start the culture of winning early with these young generation of players. The only thing standing in our way is a pretty impressive Man City side. That said, we haven't lost to them under my stewardship. Arsenal lost to them in their woeful run before I took over. But we are played one drawn one against the mighty Manchester machine. Just need to go one better than that at Wembley. Plus that draw was with our "second string XI" or rather I rested as many of our big hitters as I felt I could. With the cup final being very much the priority. (Have I mentioned I need to win four of them for the challenge!) It was one of those big hitters who saw us off to a great start just five minutes into the game. Ivan Perisic, brought in to provide a season or two of experience and mentor the plethora of young talent. Plus, in reality he needed to carry some of the workload on the left for Emile Smith - Rowe. Its a strange one. Smith - Rowe is my go too, first choice attacking midfielder, either for the left or centre of the pitch. But he just can't handle a consistent high turnover of minutes. Bukayo Saka on the right wing is both first choice and can play almost every game if I needed him to! But back to Wembley. Perisic comes in from the left, shifts the ball and smashes it with his right foot. Low along the ground the entire way and in the back of the net! There was no sitting back from City, like they had a week ago. They flung themselves at us in a ferocious display of clinical passing and off the ball movement. Within six minutes of going behind. They were level. Phil Foden, the villain of the piece from the league game. Strikes again here. This time, ghosting into the penalty area to stroke home from basically the penalty spot. After a cut back from De Bruyne bypassed three of our defenders to find him. And that, was that. Maybe City were paying the price for fielding the same team as they did for the league game, compared to our fresher XI. Maybe our early goal in this tie, and the fact we had led in both fixtures, had them doubting whether they could exert their dominance. Whatever the reason, neither side forged a chance of real quality for the rest of the game. That's not to say it wasn't worth watching. It was tactically fascinating to be involved in. The constant mental pressure coming from walking the tight rope between being too defensive, or risking opening up and trying to win the game. Every time we went forward I hoped this would be the chance we would convert to win the game. Then every time we gave the ball away I crossed my fingers that this wouldn't be the opportunity they needed to play through us. Other than some numbness in my overly crossed fingers, we escaped the 90 minutes unscathed. That's two full games of football and nothing to separate us from Man City. Though unlike the league game a week ago. Today a victor had to be declared. So we would go straight to penalties. Ilkay Gundogan would be Cities first spot kick taker, after they won the toss and elected to go first. He strode up confidently, and buried it in the bottom right corner. After his success in the league game. Nicholas Pepe would take our first penalty. Carbon copy of the Gundogan effort, and the opposite of the way he went a week before. Same result though. 1 - 1 Riyad Mahrez next for City, his runup seemed more at home in the triple jump than on the Wembley pitch. But he scored, waiting for Ramsdale to move before placing it down the centre. 2 - 1 Gabriel Martinelli for us. Short run up, lots of power, top left corner. 2 - 2 Kevin De Bruyne, all the calm, and smoothness you'd expect from such an experienced player. Whips the ball with the inside of his right foot, looks from the shape of his body when he hits it like its going to go right. But spins round and into the bottom left corner. 3 - 2 Emile Smith - Rowe, on at the pointy end for a flagging Perisic. Bottom left corner, Ederson looked like he might get a hand on it, but it wriggles past him into the net. I release a breath I didn't know I was holding. 3 - 3 John Stones, my first eyebrow raise and thought, we might have a chance of stopping this one. No such luck, power and placement, top right corner. 4 - 3. Albert Sambi Lokonga, ironically our fourth taker was the first I had doubts about as well. Sheer power, no placement, cannons off the underside of the bar and somehow drops the net side of the line. 4 - 4. I can't take much more of this! Otavio for City, no messing. Head down, impossible to get over the ball. No disguise, long run up and bang. Bottom left corner, Ramsdale is going that way but its past him. Might have broken his hand if he'd have gotten too it! 5 - 4 Thomas Partey is our fifth. He takes his time, making sure the ball is exactly where he wants it on the spot. Turns his back on the ball and walks calmly to just outside the area. Rushes into the box at pace, shapes to hit it, the side foots it with complete coolness into the bottom right corner. 5 - 5 and we go to sudden death. Which at this rate, might be mine! Joao Cancelo is the first sudden death taker for City. He doesn't seem to relish the opportunity and his shot isn't the best. Ramsdale gets a hand too it and pushes it away. But he hasn't got the angle right and his push only manages to send it into the net. 6 - 5 by the skin of their teeth! Bukayo Saka is our first sudden death taker. The reason I didn't put him in the original five was because he didn't look up for it in the pre penalty team huddle. A luxury I cannot afford now. To his credit he sends Ederson the wrong way and puts it in the top half of the net on the right hand side of the goal. Not great, but good enough. 6 - 6. Alfonso Pedraza is the next City kicker, the Spanish winger looks less than comfortable. He does however send Ramsdale the wrong way. And I'm looking down at my notes to see who our seventh taker is when I hear the crack. The ball hits the outside of the post and ricochets wide. Still 6 - 6! Takehiro Tomiyasu is our would be hero. I pump my fists at him as he begins the long walk to the penalty spot. I've no clue whether he saw me. Nor whether it would make any difference! Ederson is hopping up and down on his line, attempting to put him off. Tomi takes as little notice as possible and smashes a bullet straight at the bottom corner. Ederson goes the right way, but.... he can't get there and its in the net! 6 - 7!! A wall of red and white noise explodes from around Wembley stadium. In quiet moments I can still hear it to this day. 19th in the league when I took over and still fighting to get back to where we are expected to be. But today we are the victors! My first, I mean our first silverware. May it be the first of many! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted November 23, 2022 Author Share Posted November 23, 2022 The Carabao cup was at the end of February. 27th to be exact. Meaning that our first game in March was all of three days away. I think so far in this story I've made it perfectly clear, that for this season at least. The league can kiss my arse. In favour of more short term success in the cup competitions. What would have been perfect after our first lifting of silverware, a throw away league game I didn't care about. Instead what had the fixture gods delivered to us? An FA Cup fifth round tie away to Spurs. Fantastic. Looking back now, the shift in my mentality when it came to the cup must have been evident to the players. We had the dubious fortune of playing Spurs in both our cup runs that year. Both of them at their place. The Carabao quarter final we held firm and went through on penalties. Conversely, the two league games we lost 2 - 1, both home and away. I didn't know this at the time, probably should have paid more attention. But Spurs had lost 5 - 1 to Everton at Goodison Park on the 19th of February, and then battled Man City to a 2 - 2 draw just three days before the Carabao final (maybe a contributor to why City were not at their best when they played us at Wembley). I know why we played poorly in that FA cup tie, we were knackered, and coming down from the high of lifting a trophy. Now I've got an inkling of why Spurs were equally bereft of ideas. I think if it had been anyone else but a rival London club, we'd have come away from that game with nothing. But we dug deep due to the opponent, stretching to make blocks and tackles in the rare moments they showed a glimpse of quality. While with the ball, we did what we could to neutralise the game. I was getting a building reputation in the press as a manager who "hung on for penalties". Which, while we hadn't lost a shoot out so far this season. More accurately, I hung on to not lose. Penalties was just the end result of that process. I'd have loved to not need them in this particular game. Especially as (unlike the Carabao cup) we would have to endure 30 minutes of extra time to get to them. Martin Odegaard's unceremonious toe poke from just inside the box. Past a shattered and badly sighted Hugo Lloris gave us the lead after 114 minutes of deadlock. We didn't so much as march but crawl on to the next round. Three days later and we had another London rival to play. Chelsea in the Premier league, at home. So that's Man City at Wembley, Spurs away and Chelsea at home in the space of nine days. I fully expected us to struggle. And a Trevor Chalobah headed goal from a corner just eight minutes into the tie signalled just how tired and lacking focus we really were. I think they sensed that we weren't at the races. And with three competitions to play for this month, they took the pragmatic option and looked to hold what they had. We generated pretty much nothing from open play. A curling Gabriel Martinelli free kick into the bottom left corner from just outside the box. Restored parity with 24 minutes of the game played. After that Chelsea never seemed able to shift their mentality, and we didn't have the energy to do anything but trundle along and hope for the best. It ended a rather drab draw. Which suited me fine. An eight day gap for the return of continental football was just what we needed. Though it gave me cold sweats about what might befall us next season. We had been steadily climbing the table, which when you start at 19th is the only way you want it to go. We already had a locked in European place due to winning the Carabao. But there was an outside chance of us finishing in the top six. Which would be a level of competition I didn't really want. In my opinion the squad was nowhere near ready to have to battle on multiple fronts. But that's what happens when you have the audacity to win trophies. Our return to action on the 13th was away to Everton. A rather horrible tackle in their box led to Frank Kessie putting us ahead from the spot. The fact it was only two minutes into the game the only probably reason why the hosts weren't reduced to 10 men. Everton were flying that season, they ended up finishing 6th. Mainly due to Dominic Calvert - Lewin's 25 goals over the season. And it was he who restored parity. A slashing drive from the edge of the box after a knock down from a corner. 1 - 1 after 30 minutes of the game played. Once again, that looked like it would be that. At least from our side of the equation. Don't get me wrong, Everton threw the kitchen sink at us and looked like scoring every time they came forward with the ball. They left us hanging around, unable to finish us off. And in that football tale as old as time. Paid the price. Ivan Perisic ghosting into the area on the shoulder of the last defender. To dive in front of him and toe poke a low driven cross into the net. 2 - 1 to us with 94 minutes on the clock. Of the 96 to be played. Final game of the month was back to the FA cup. Quarter Final. We'd drawn Southampton at home, avoiding Chelsea and both Manchester clubs in the process. Like us they had been strongest in the cup this season. Their league form hadn't been great to start with. And had tailed off considerably. Taking only 12 points from their last 10 games. That had finally seemed to affect their cup run. Only beating Championship side Luton by a single goal in the fifth round. We brushed them aside 3 - 0. Something I can't say we did to many teams over the course of that season. Just happened to play them at the right time. That left us with the prospect of Brighton (who had knocked out Man Utd), Chelsea or Man City in the semi final. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted November 25, 2022 Author Share Posted November 25, 2022 April sees us playing five league games, and an FA cup semi final. We didn't have to wait long to see who our Wembley opponent would be. We got Chelsea, meaning Brighton would try make it two Manchester clubs in two rounds, in order for them to get to the final. Speaking of Brighton, they were our first opponent in the league this month. It had been two weeks since our FA cup quarter final game. And the rust definitely showed in the match at the American Express Community Stadium. Brighton didn't seem capable of putting us under too much pressure. But at the same time we lacked the energy or quality to make a breakthrough. It seemed the game would run out a rather boring draw. Until a rather hopeful cleared ball saw Gabriel Martinelli surge onto it and get in behind their defence. A deft finish low past the keeper gave us the lead with just nine minutes left in the tie. Four minutes later, with Brighton scrambling to try salvage something from the game. We scored again, with almost a carbon copy of the first goal. Martinelli doubling up and putting us 2 - 0 up with just four minutes left of the 90. We would hold on and take all three points home with us. When I talked about the Southampton FA cup tie last month. I said that we brushed them aside. And that, such circumstances didn't happen very often. But this month, it seemed we were building towards that more regularly. Our next league game, against Norwich. Was less a brushing aside and more a demolition. 7-0 it finished, four of the goals before the half. Six different scorers with only Mika Biereth doubling up. Odegaard, Perisic, Kessie (from the spot), Martinelli and Pepe were the others. We continued that form into our next home game just four days later. Crystal Palace were the visitors. Alexis Sanchez bagged himself a brace either side of a Liam Delap goal. The promising English forward had come to us on loan from Man City. A speculative deal as I looked to see about raiding them for him if he showed appropriate promise. Long story short, he didn't and would be going back at the end of his deal. That 3 - 0 result against Palace saw us score 12 goals without reply over a 10 day period. The circumstances of the beginning of my tenure appeared to be vanishing in the rear view mirror. West Ham were next, away, just three days after our Palace game, and a further three days before the semi final. I once again wanted to show our strength at Wembley and felt we could get a result against the Hammers regardless. Actually, I wasn't exactly bothered about the league games and just didn't want a result which would jeopardise morale before the FA cup game. With Alexis Sanchez still performing on program (playing the first 45 - 60 minutes of games and scoring more often than not) we took a 1 - 0 lead into the half time interval. West Ham kept chipping away, and a rather rash Rob Holding challenge saw us concede a penalty. Jarrod Bowen converted and we were all square again with just 22 minutes left to play. I was annoyed, that we hadn't put this result to bed, and that anger obviously filtered through to the players. My expressive sign language might have helped. As Martinelli restored our advantage just three minutes later with a blistering long range effort. But the Hammers weren't done. And it seemed that anything we could do, Bowen could do. He produced his own long range "worldie" on 89 minutes, ensuring that the hosts retained a share of the points. Not the momentum builder we could have used going into the FA cup semi final. Which might be why Chelsea took first blood in the tie. A slowly bubbling affair, it took an Antonio Rudiger header from a deep corner to give them the lead after 24 minutes. Both teams created, but nothing frequent or definitive. And it looked like the half would end that way until Saka cut inside on his left foot and sent a low teasing cross into the box. It curled away from Sanchez who was trying to get on the end of it, but it ended up curling so much it snuck into the bottom corner of the net. Much to the chagrin of Mendy the Chelsea keeper. 38 minutes played and its 1 - 1 40 minutes played and we lead 2 - 1. Sanchez bullying and harassing the Chelsea backline and forcing them into a very poorly planned back pass. He gets onto the loose ball before Mendy and flicks it over him as the keeper desperately slides to try clear the ball. Possibly the luckiest two minutes of my managerial career. And it ended up seeing us in the FA cup final. The second half played out to a dead heat. We had no interest in trying to get anything more from the game. And Chelsea couldn't break us down. Man City saw off Brighton the day after 2 - 0. To set up our fourth meeting with Man City this season, the second at Wembley. Though seven days later when we played Newcastle at home in the league. I was too conflicted to be thinking about the FA cup final. We lost 1 - 0 to a Callum Wilson finish on 75 minutes. A completely uninspiring toothless display. Which was not the kind of football I wanted to see. However, it did halt our league momentum and reduce the chances of us finishing inside the top six. Which I was desperate to avoid! With that, we go into the last month of my first season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted November 26, 2022 Author Share Posted November 26, 2022 May saw us with our four final league games, and a cherry on top with the FA cup final back at Wembley. Now, when I were a lad, the FA cup final was played after the final day of the season, as basically the curtain fall over the whole job lot. But for some reason. The final isn't our final game of the season. We play Watford in the league eight days after our day out at Wembley. Now, for a bit of tension, spectacle, and well tradition. I'll be covering the league in this post, and the FA cup will get its own update afterwards. Chronological order be, well damned. But before we get into all that. We've got a couple of league games to play. Firstly we have struggling Brentford. They are on the cusp of being relegated and shouldn't really pose us much of a threat at all. A position they compound by having Ivan Toney sent off and giving us a penalty. Which you might be forgiven for thinking they were the same incident. But no, Toney is off the pitch on 23 minutes. We have the penalty on 27. As I'm not playing a first string XI Kessie isn't on the pitch. So it falls to Nicholas Pepe, who converts. That obviously puts Pepe in the mood, as he scores again nine minutes later. And we take our one man and two goal advantage into the half time break. Smith - Rowe makes it 3 - 0 just after the hour. But then we blot our copybook slightly. Stephy Mavididi getting one back for Brentford following one of their sporadic forays forward resulted in a corner. We shut down the game after that. But when Sanchez came on in the last 10 minutes, to stretch his legs and shake off some cobwebs. He figured he might as well put some effort in. He scored in injury time. 4 - 1 the end result. Three days later and we played Leicester at the King Power. Wesley Fofana rose highest from a free kick on 27 minutes to give the foxes the lead. And we never did anything to change that. Once again, slightly concerned that is our second 1 - 0 defeat in our last three games. But it likely does enough to rule us out of finishing too high up the table. Another three days later and Southampton at home are our penultimate Premier league opponents. Martinelli scores for us on eight minutes. A well struck shot from just inside the box, right in the middle after a cut back from Saka. Sanchez makes it two on 88 minutes. A typical surging powerful run in behind seeing him 1 v 1 with the keeper. Normally I'd be a little put out by leaving a team hanging around and in the game for that period of time. But Southampton offered literally nothing between those two events. Which takes us to the final game of the season. One that in reality, I just wanted done. The highlights of this month had been the spectacle of the FA cup final. And edging ever closer to getting to recall and work with the various first team players who would come back from loan. Which saw a rather damp May day at Vicarage Road playing Watford run out rather blandly. Josuhua King profited from a flick on after just eight minutes. Beating Holding to the ball and firing first time past Ramsdale. Pepe levelled for us on 32 minutes. And it seemed that each team produced a slightly theatrical shrug of the shoulders. As if suggesting, we've turned up, we've both scored. What more do you want? And 1 - 1 was how it finished. Which saw us end up in 7th place in the league table. Unfortunately with this being written almost two and a half years posthumously. There isn't a record of the final table. But having been 19th when I took over. I'm rather chuffed. Roll on next season! Well, after the FA Cup final. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted December 10, 2022 Author Share Posted December 10, 2022 Must admit I felt a strange sense of deja vu as I came out of the tunnel at Wembley for the start of the FA cup final. Strange in the fact that we were here again, playing exactly the same opponent. With the stadium set up exactly the same with the supporters blocked in the same seats. But the emotions around the occasion were starkly different. I'd aimed for the Carabao cup, our previous visit to Wembley against Man City. And maybe because I had been so invested in winning a trophy to get something out of the season. I had been rather nervous. Plus we were playing easily the best team in the division. Now however, the FA cup final felt like a bonus cherry on the top of the cake. Plus, having played City twice during my fledgling managerial career. We were yet to lose to them. I wouldn't go anywhere near as saying we were favourites. But what had started as a natural fear of being blown away by them. Was slowly turning the corner into a fascinating rivalry between the two sides. The opening exchanges weren't anything to write home about. Watching the game back later the commentators would call it cagey. Which I'd take as a huge compliment, if I actually valued a single thing they said. We were happy to be there, while City had the end of season lag which comes from only having secured the title the week before, whilst being involved in the business end of the Champions league. Neither side had managed a shot on target by the time we were given a free kick in a promising position on the edge of the area. Martin Odegaard stood over it. He did Ederson with his eyes, and his body position. Looking for all the world as though he would whip it up and over the wall into the left hand corner. Instead he went for power, opening his foot up and blasting it for the top right corner. Ederson's momentum had carried him too far across his line and he couldn't do much more than watch the ball balloon the net directly above where he had been standing moments before. 1 - 0 after 15 minutes. I expected an instant reaction, and we got one. City camped in our half for the next 20 minutes, but their end product just wasn't there. As long as we could live without touching the ball, we seemed able to contain them quite easily. Of course I didn't feel that happy on the touchline, I felt a single goal advantage wasn't going to last us the 90 minutes. As while I might be undefeated against them, we hadn't kept a clean sheet in either previous game. Into the last ten minutes of the half and City had finally began to show signs of running out of steam. We had the ball a few times before that. But not with any regularity or intent. Then Saka got on the end of a long thrown out clearance from Ramsdale. He charged up the right touchline before holding the ball up. He fed Odegaard in a hole just outside the box. Though the hole was quickly filled by a lunging John Stones challenge. The City defender took all of the ball and at least some of the man. The referee was in the process of bringing his whistle to his lips when Thomas Partey reached the loose ball and smashed it towards goal. It cannoned off the underside of the crossbar and slammed into the net. Ederson hadn't even been able to think about moving! 2 - 0 37 minutes played. To say I was over the moon was and understatement. But I did my best to contain those feelings in front of the players. They were no strangers to my shut up the shop, park the bus, second half expectations. And this was the bus of all buses that needed to be parked. No need to muddy the waters with me seemingly happy with events at the halfway stage. If there was any doubt we would be on the back foot in the second half it was quickly dismissed when City kicked off. The game was once again solely in our half. City had introduced Jack Grealish at half time and I waited with baited breath for the inevitable penalty. While the lad had undeniable talent. He falls into the category of player who is frequently touted as "the most fouled player in the Premier league." which translates in my head at least to "the player who throws himself on the floor the most." Fair play to him though, when he received the ball on the edge of our area just 11 minutes into the second period. He danced past two of our defenders like they were standing still, before finishing smartly under an oncoming Ramsdale. 2 - 1, 56 minutes played. I rolled the dice a minute or so later. Not only with my personnel choice, but also with a tactical ploy I'd been dying to try out. Neither of which I feel I'd have been in the mindset to try if I hadn't seen this cup final as a reward at the end of a difficult and trying season. I brought on Alexis Sanchez. Which I can count on one hand the number of times Alexis had come on from the bench, especially in games that I wanted to win. He was my starter, my number one "get the job done in the first half" player. But this was likely his last appearance for the club, as I wasn't going to extend his contract, at least not at the wages he was hinting he wanted. Same with Thomas Partey, he'd been in the side from kick off alongside Franck Kessie, to give us some much needed defensive cohesion. But he was also in the side to get an appearance in the final in likely his final game before I tried sell him during the off season. Now to the tactical ploy. I gave the necessary hand signals when Sanchez came on, he kinda jogged onto the pitch and showed next to no interest in where the ball was or what was going on. To set the scene appropriately, the ball is on the far touchline, about a third of the way inside the City half, waiting to be thrown in for a City throw. We hadn't pressed the ball in the City half since the opening 20 minutes of the game. But the hand signalling was to give the go ahead for a blitz like swarm on the ball once it was back in play. Ideally I wanted the ball back at the feet of the throw in taker. With limited time, he'd look up, see a lazy looking Sanchez as the only Arsenal player in the City half (other than those pressing the throw in). The ball comes infield to Stones, our players who pressed the throw in divert towards him, blocking off his passing lanes up the pitch. While Sanchez stays in Stones blind spot and advances up the pitch, his fake lazy attitude shrugged off. Stones plays a rather rushed ball to Dias his central defensive partner. Thinking that nobody is anywhere near him and not having the time to make sure this is the case. The problem is, Sanchez is all over Dias by the time the ball gets to him. Takes the ball away from him and charges the short distance into the area. He smashes the ball like a rocket, low across Ederson and finds the bottom left hand corner. 3 - 1 just two minutes after City had scored! Then we hung on. Sanchez's energy at the top of the pitch helped keep City honest. And we managed to hold firm deep into the second half. Grealish netted a second on 87 minutes. When City had been uncharacteristically reduced to hopeful shots from the edge of the box. This one took a wicked deflection off Gabriel which gave Ramsdale no chance. 3 - 2 with three minutes plus injury time to play. But in the end. The late goal only provided some cruel hope to the City fans and players. They renewed their fading efforts but couldn't force a third goal over the line. We held on for our first regulation time win against the Champions, and our second trophy of my first season! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted December 11, 2022 Author Share Posted December 11, 2022 (edited) And so after a very successful season (if I do say so myself) we come to my favourite time of the year. Hilariously, when we ain't playing any football. Do I like cup finals and trophies, crunch games in knock out football or versus rivals upon which the fate of a season can swing? Of course I do. But all those are either endings or waypoints on the journey of a campaign. The off season, where I stop and take stock of what I have, what is coming back to the club from loan, and what I need. That's a beginning. Where the plans are hatched, whether, like last season. I brought in Perisic for short term reasons. Or moves in the market are based on schemes that might take years to come to fruition. This time of year is where the vision takes shape, the rest is just overcoming the daily obstacles as you nudge that vision towards fruition. The first key problem, was the fact we were 500k over the wage budget when all the loan players returned to the club at the end of the season. Not only is that a spectacular fail when it comes to managing said budget. It also provides zero space in which to make positive changes to the squad. When it comes to said changes, I have a few very simple precepts that guide my decision making process: Three out of five stars for a players rating on the match day team selection screen is considered "Decent" standard for the competition they are being picked for. Now while I understand that these ratings are subjective based on other players at the club, and the staff doing the assessing. I don't see that as an issue. If your two stars compared to the five star player. Then the five star will play, and you likely never will. And my staff might not know their arse from their elbow, but that applies across the board to every single player. So at least the appraisals are consistent. I don't like older players, nor do I like high wages for said players. If you aren't a superstar with your best years ahead of you. You ain't getting paid big money. I like to have a first XI and a second XI, preferably made up of entirely different players. So that each XI develops positional chemistry, rotation of the squads is easier and hopefully injuries are less frequent and severe. All of the above results in the following actions: If your potential ability isn't at least three stars, then I'll pack your bags for you and send you on your way. If you're over 30 then your days are numbered. If you're trying for a one year contract every year. No dice you can go. I'll bring in high potential young players, either from other clubs or from the youth setup. As they are cheaper, and they will get playtime in the second XI to gel together as a unit. Unless I'm going for a current world class player, nobodies contract is more than "squad player" level. Because that's what they all are. A squad of players who gets rotated appropriately. I'm not against fibbing at contract time (especially with new signings) and making them feel important or first team player. But as their appearances don't tally with their expectation. When they come to me, they get told. You're a squad player now, if you don't like it. Tough. That mindset resulted in the following business being conducted in the pre season transfer window: June: Alex Kovacevic - Huddersfield (15.75k) Ovie Ejeheri - Stevenage (6.5k) potentially up to 21k Josh Robinson - Barnet (7.5k) Taylor Foran - Bristol Rovers (22k) Elian Quesada - Thorn - Boreham Wood (4.4k) potentially up to 15k Ryan Alebiosu - Kano Pillars (Free) Reuell Walters - Fulham (28k) Zane Monlouis - Nottingham Forest (135k) Alex Kirk - Blackburn (23k) potentially up to 36k Jonathan Dinzeyi - TP Mazembe (Free) Jimi Gower - Hull (17.75k) Nothing to write home about, just culling the herd. The only notable name to leave the club in June was Bernd Leno, who went to Newcastle for 17m. In the "In" column I signed Yusuf Demir, a young Austrian attacking midfield player who had all the makings of a potential superstar. He came for 14m from Rapid Vienna. I say came, we loaned him right back to them on a season long loan to keep his wages off the books for another year. Which allowed me to splurge pretty much all of our allotted transfer budget for the year on Dominic Calvert - Lewin. I've no idea why Everton took 57m for him. When he'd netted 25 times for them in the league last season. I had been buttering him up in the media for like, forever. But Everton had finished above us in the league. Still he wanted to come, and I think the pressure of him demanding to leave made it possible for that price. Which is fantastic as I didn't have another penny more. And none of the nobodies (no offence) I'd sold so far even scratched the surface of the wage deficit we had. July Matteo Guendouzi - Olympic Marseille (9.5m) Henry Jeffcott - Cardiff (Free) James Sweet - Burnley (Free) Charles Sagoe - Preston (Free) Mauro Bandiera - Lusitania Lourosa (21.5k) Lino Sousa - Brighton (145k) Granit Xhaka - West Ham (Season long Loan 900k) Jordi Osei - Tutu - Bristol City (Season long Loan 21k) Pablo Mari - Rennes (6.5m) Omar Rekik - Crystal Palace (Season long Loan) Nicolas Pepe - Barcelona (Season long Loan 900k) Karl Jakob Hein - Preston (Season long Loan) Konstantinos Mavropanos - Borussia Dortmund (13.5m) Hubert Graczyk - Lincoln (9.5k) Lucas Torreira - Benfica (36.5m) Hector Bellerin - Celtic (11.25m) Luigi Gaspar - Ferroviaria (12.75k) Quite a few more recognisable names on that list that were shown the door. Matteo Guendouzi's transfer had been agreed before my arrival to the club. Which frustrated me as he fit my requirements for a young, decent potential player on not too much wage money. Xhaka and Pepe both had mandatory transfer fees in their loan deals, meaning neither would be coming back to the club at the end of the year. Torreira, Bellerin and Mari were all moved on to free up wages, and provide room for younger, cheaper, higher potential players. Rekik and Hein were given season long loans to see if they could develop potential which would allow them to stay at the club next year. The rest simply weren't good enough. Now for the incoming signings, which is a much shorter, and cheaper list. Boubacar Kamara from Olympic Marseille joined us on a free. And is the only good thing to come from the Matteo Guendouzi agreed transfer. In that I was stalking around their squad trying to find a way to cancel said agreed transfer. When I came across Kamara and pounced on him. Speaking of agreed transfers, Matt Turner comes to us from New England for 5m. No idea why anybody thought this guy was a good or needed signing. But there we are. Finally Rafael Garcia a free agent central defender came to us completely on a free. Which means we spent a total of 62m on transfers in the opening transfer window of this season. And we made 79m on the players we moved on. Time to get the players ready for the new season to come! Edited December 11, 2022 by Mandy42 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted December 16, 2022 Author Share Posted December 16, 2022 I think I've mentioned before that I'm writing this after the fact. Well, obviously, because if I was writing this before it happened, well, my talents would be wasted as a football manager. What I mean is, I'm currently sat on the team bus heading up to Deepdale. We are playing Preston away in the Carabao cup. Its 2023, and I can't tell you how this game goes, because it hasn't happened yet. And I'm not jumping ahead to cover it, because there is some AMAZING stuff to come before today. The problem is, I didn't know it was going to be amazing at the time. Nor did I know just how much the details would enrich the story. Otherwise I'd have noted more of them down. So I'm making a note to myself, in these notes to others, to make more notes. No finer example exists than the pre season friendlies of the 22/23 season. I barely remember who we played. Let alone who I put on the pitch for each game. This is as much to do with my lack of interest in friendlies as competitive fixtures. They are there for fitness and tactical repetition. So everyone usually plays some of if not a half in every game. I do remember, just like the FA cup coming a game early and messing up the flow at the end of last season. The Community shield was scheduled almost exactly halfway through our set of friendlies. Talk about a change of pace... So looking back at my notes, trying to read my own chicken scratch, we played Real Hispalis for or first game in preparation for the coming campaign. The starting XI was an amalgamation of new signings, and players who felt like new signings. IE those back from loan who I was hoping to make use of. In what would become somewhat of a trademark for our season. We scored within the opening minutes of the game. Dominic Calvert - Lewin finding the net after just three minutes played. We created some more chances in the first half, but didn't score again. Then at halftime I swapped the whole XI. While we didn't play awful in the second period. We didn't play as well as the first half. Which meant no more goals for us. Nabil Fekir restored parity for the hosts on 84 minutes and that's how the game ended. A decent run out, and no injuries sustained. So not bad. Then we went to America for our training camp. While there we played Sporting Kansas City, and the Colorado Springs Switchbacks. Now I'm a strong believer in circumstances having an affect on a players ability to perform, which could translate into having a romantic view of football. Either way, when it came to that first America game. I decided I would start with Folarin Balogun our American striker leading the line. He'd been out on loan last season. And he was potentially going out on loan again this season. But I figured he should have an opportunity to show what he could do. And well, what better motivation than to do so in your home country. He scored the only goals of the game. In the first and 38th minute. And we came away 2 - 0 winners. He didn't manage to score in the game against Colorado, but enough other players did. We ran out 4 - 1 winners, with goals from Emile Smith - Rowe, Ivan Perisic, Alexis Sanchez and Gabriel Martinelli. Ashleigh Smith, an Englishman of all things, got Colorado's consolation goal late on. And just like that, the US training camp was done, friendlies were put on hold. Because 11 days after the Colorado game came the Community shield, and the nemesis Man City. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted December 16, 2022 Author Share Posted December 16, 2022 Now to be clear, as much as I'd dined out on (or at least tried) the fact that I'd not lost to champions Man City during my tenure. I in no way considered us to be their equal. I felt more like the squad was mine this season. That we could play more the way I wanted too. But the problems would be that we were expected to do not just better, but considerably better than last year. And do it while being involved in continental competition as well. Luckily, the board seemed to share my sentiment where City were concerned. They considered the Community shield as a game in which we should "be competitive" which I guess could be translated to, "don't be an embarrassment." They didn't care about the Carabao, wanted Europa league football through the league, semi final of the FA cup and final of the Europa league. Made last seasons start 19th and see how high you can climb, seem like a walk in the park by comparison. I also can't believe I didn't mention this sooner. But my counterpart at City isn't Guardiola. About halfway through last season, Liverpool sacked Jurgen Klopp after a very lacklustre campaign to date. Now, they weren't 19th or anything, but seemed the Anfield faithful had well lost the faith. No more than a fortnight after that, City (who were flying high already) swooped in and hired Klopp, sacking Guardiola in the process. Pep then, either simply out of spite, or because the seat was empty. Went and took the job at Liverpool! I've talked about my signings for the coming season. None of them made as big a splash, both in terms of cash or media exposure as City's major signing. Erling Haaland came to the Etihad and I think I mentally gave City the title right then and there when I read the article. I figured at the least it would make for a fascinating year. Us looking to close the gap by building a younger, cheaper, higher potential squad to become a better sum than their individual parts. City just smacking down "Godzilla" money and levelling tall buildings with a single purchase. Haaland cost 125m with another 20m in potential addons floating around in the contract. They would go on to sign Divock Origi, Roberto Firmino and Tammy Abraham before the transfer window closed. Totalling 227m.... that's 3.5 times the amount we spent on bringing players in. Hilariously, none of those players featured in the Community shield. But the fact City had gone out and signed four attacking players in the same transfer window. And the cheapest two were players from their managers previous club. I think that unsettled their current crop of players. At least in the short term. Because they didn't play with the same cohesion that typified their play. As if each individual player wanted to make sure they stood out, and thus wouldn't be the one to be pushed aside by one of the new recruits. In the end, the game came down to two headers just a minute apart. Ruben Dias scored from a corner to put City ahead after 55 minutes. Then straight from the kick off we got the ball down the right with Saka, whipped it into the box and Dominic Calvert - Lewin got himself to the ball first and levelled the scoring on 56 minutes. The rest of the game passed without much of anything. Some half chances, City probably had the run of the game and on another day would have pulled away. I envisioned the monster they would be when all their new signings gelled. But on that day at Wembley, almost inevitably, we went to penalties. This time we went first. Bit shocked looking at my notes that Albert Sambi Lokonga went first for us. Must have been something about his body language in the huddle while we were waiting to take the kicks. But he scored so that's what matters! Kevin de Bruyne uncharacteristically missed, giving us the early advantage. Which new signing Dominic Calvert - Lewin capitalised on by scoring our second 2 - 0. Bernardo Silva sent Ramsdale the wrong way and put City on the scoresheet 2 - 1 William Saliba smashed his penalty into the top right corner, another strange pick looking back at it. 3 - 1 Gabriel Jesus threw his cap in the ring to stay in Klopp's striker plans by converting his penalty 3 - 2 Martin Odegaard, cool as you like with a side foot into the bottom corner 4 - 2 Into must score territory now and John Stones does just that with an absolute belter. Ramsdale had no chance 4 - 3 Bukayo Saka for us, score and we win, miss and City have their final penalty to have the chance to pull level and force sudden death. Saka chooses the former option, scoring, going some way to exorcise the demons of his international penalty miss. 5 - 3 and another trophy in the cabinet. Still unbeaten versus City, and yet to lose in a penalty shootout! Haaland you should have signed for us! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted December 17, 2022 Author Share Posted December 17, 2022 (edited) I don't hold much stock in preseason friendlies. Like a love struck fool whose been hurt too many times when the woman he's enamoured with is stepping out behind his back. Good results in preseason flatter to deceive. Till you end up sucker punched and sick to your stomach on the touchline come opening day. After the Community shield. We had Red Bull Leipzig and Ajax at home. 4 - 0 against the former, Mika Biereth another striker in a similar boat as Folarin Balogun, bagged a brace. While Saka and a returned from loan Reiss Nelson, completed the scoring. As the friendlies get closer to running their course. The selection process for the starting and back up XI's has been going on in my head. What starts out as 45 minutes for each XI in friendly one, slowly develops into 60 minutes for the first XI and so on. Players in form might force a closer look and push into the first XI. But above all, fitness and match sharpness is the primary goal of the process. With that achieved, by the time we get to the final friendly against Ajax. Its basically competitive match practice. And with that confusing string of words I mean the first XI starts, and despite the unlimited number of subs allowed due to it being a friendly. I only make three, as thought it was a competitive league game. Calvert - Lewin, Smith - Rowe and Frank Kessie scored for us against Ajax. While Steven Berghuis scored a consolation for them some three minutes from the end of the game. 15 goals scored, four conceded, won five, drawn one, won a trophy. I'd say we were ready. Ready for what exactly remained to be seen. I didn't always dislike August, I mean its my birthday month. So there has been a shift from youthful excitement and fond memories to a more sombre reminder of my own mortality. But from a football point of view. Having to breath life into the fledgling embers of a competitive campaign, while juggling finding one or two more signings. Or even worse slapping away people who want to steal your assets. Its flaming stressful! I was drawn to Germany for the last two additions of the squad in this transfer window. Jamie Bynoe - Gittens an Englishman playing in the Borussia Dortmund II team came to us for 875k. On the 8/8/22, which I have only just realised when checking my notes now, was his 18th birthday. Gittens, our latest member of the double barrelled brigade had started life playing at Reading, gone to Man City, then the Dortmund first team. Not really making much of a showing anywhere. He fit the profile of player I was looking for, young, promising, cheap. The other signing came from FC Bayern II. And he didn't exactly fit the same mould. Though I guess 9m for something you want in the modern era of football is likely considered cheap. Marc Roca was a 26 year old Spanish central midfield playmaker, and I hoped he would bring some finesse to the middle of the park. Which would make a nice foil for the more direct minded Kessie and Partey. On the outgoing side of the sheet, there were no sales, but another issue with August, is that for some, their part in the vision is at an end. Either because they are being released, or being sent elsewhere on loan for a chance to try again next term. August Tyreece John - Jules - Forest Green (Season long loan) Folarin Balogun - Crystal Palace (Season long loan 145k) Jack Henry - Francis - Cambridge (Season long loan) Zach Awe - Tranmere (Season long loan 20.5k) Khayon Edwards - Watford (Season long loan 8.75k) Mazeed Ogunbo - Preston (Season long loan 4.3k) Charlie Patino - West Brom (Season long loan) And in the midst of all that. We had our opening four Premier league games to play. And we went straight in at the deep end on the 5th of August at Stamford Bridge. I was pretty nervous. This is the first start of a season for me in this job. And the squad I inherited couldn't hit the broadside of a barn last year until I took over in November. Whose to say this lot wouldn't do the same thing? Plus, I'm a Chelsea supporter remember, I'd of liked the opportunity to psyche myself up to go into "my" clubs backyard and try get something from the game. Dominic Calvert - Lewin needed no such warm up. His head once more made contact with the ball in the opening moments of play. From our first corner, he got up at the back post and drilled the ball down and in. 1 - 0 after only two minutes played. What followed was 88 minutes plus stoppage time of the most horrendous tripe you've ever seen. Both teams were disjointed and horrible. Which on the day, suited me fine, but as an indicator of what might be yet to come this season. Love sick fools are us it seemed! Leeds at home a week later wasn't much better. We had to wait until the 25th minute for Rob Holding to head us in front from a corner. Only for Alfredo Morelos to peg us back with a deft back post finish just four minutes later. Then the tripe descended again. It took an 89th minute Mika Biereth scramble from another corner to give us all three points. We were yet to even come close to looking like we could score from open play. 20th of August, Aston Villa away. A Frank Kessie penalty after seven minutes saw us take all three points home with us. But man was it dull to watch. Which brought us to Spurs at home on the 27th. And the only game of the month I actually enjoyed. We won 2 - 0, another Frank Kessie penalty set us on our way with 50 minutes played. Our 5th goal of the season and still not one from open play. Calvert - Lewin took care of that on 72 minutes. Latching onto a through ball in behind from Saka, as Spurs left space as they tried chase a way back into the game. It was the first time all month we played alright. The other games both teams had been poor. But against Spurs while we weren't free flowing in attack, it was because we were controlling in midfield and defence. Spurs could have played us for 900 minutes and they wouldn't have scored. Which was awesome. In reality, so was the fact we had played four, won four, conceded only once. But man it had been an ugly four games. Preseason this certainly was not! Edited December 17, 2022 by Mandy42 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted December 23, 2022 Author Share Posted December 23, 2022 Amusingly, after fretting over our August fixtures. We were doing better than City. Well that's a rather sweeping statement. We were doing better than City in ultimately, the premium currency, points. City had rather comically drawn their last game of August, away to Brighton. So with our maximum point haul, we were above them. That is where our "superiority" ended. They'd scored 12 goals, conceded just twice. Haaland had scored seven goals in three games. They looked lethal. Which made the Brighton result all the more amusing. As they laboured to a draw, with only a Yves Bissouma own goal to save them from losing. But I was in no way thinking about a title challenge. So comparisons with City (except when they failed to beat us when we played each other) were rather previous. Into Septembers fixtures. And we had the unglamorous task of dispatching Doncaster at home in the Carabao cup. We rolled them over 3 - 1, Rob Holding starting us off early from our first corner of the game after just two minutes. Mika Biereth took advantage of not being sent out on loan to get himself on the scoresheet just before the hour. And Jamie Bynoe - Gittens scored our third with more or less the last kick of the game. Not bad for someone who'd only been at the club just over a week. Aidan Barlow for the Dons on 81 minutes gave the visiting supporters a glimmer of hope in an otherwise stoic but doomed performance. Four days later away to Wolves in the Premier league, the wheels well and truly fell off. I mean with the ugly, uninventive football we were producing at times, those wheels didn't have far to fall. But a very lacklustre performance saw us crawl to a draw. The same sort of form followed us into our first European game under my stewardship. Europa league action, away in Turkey. The giants of Istanbul, Galatasaray. As places to dip your toe back into continental competition, I could think of a lot more welcoming. 28 year old winger Emre Kilinc certainly had no problem turning the screw. Galatasaray were ahead and good for it inside 10 minutes. And we looked lost inside that cauldron of noise. If I'm completely honest, the competition was confusing me. Probably as mine and the boards ideas about it were at odds. I wanted to play the kids and focus on the league. They wanted to get to the final in continental competition. I'd thought about meeting them halfway and trying to take the group by the scruff of the neck, be qualified and able to play whoever I liked in the later games. Then we went on a four game winning streak to start the league campaign. And I reverted back to playing the kids in the none league competitions. They looked shell shocked for the majority of the first half. Nothing much better happened in the opening exchanges of the second period. Till we finally started to get on the ball. A smart interchange outside their box saw a speculative low shot from Reiss Nelson fizz into the bottom corner! Game on! Well not really, the crowd didn't like that at all, and we spent the last 20 minutes of the game cowering in our box with our tails between our collective legs like a whipped dog. We escaped out of Turkey with a point. Which we didn't deserve, but I'd take all day long. Three days later back home in the Premier league, and we were awful. Luckily it looked, just like the Wolves game, that our opponents Leicester, weren't much crack either. Until just about halfway through the second half and they were handed a gift. Gabriel was caught the wrong side of Jamie Vardy and clumsily bundled him over in an attempt to get back in. Penalty, which the aforementioned Vardy dispatched to give the foxes the lead. I thought that was the game. We hadn't looked like having anything, let alone a way to get back into the game. The forehead of Calvert - Lewin came to the rescue. An absolute peace of a cross from Tomiyasu, skipped through the corridor of uncertainty in the Leicester box. And Dominic's diving bonce met it beyond the far post to drive the ball across goal and in. 1 - 1 on 90 minutes! I cheered like we'd won the game, then nearly cried. Someone might have mentioned that "champions find a way to get results when they aren't playing well" I probably slapped them. Back to back Europa league games would see out the month. Both at home, which in one regard was great. But if we didn't get the results. I didn't want to be going on the road twice and needing points. Best get the job done at home! Saint Etienne were our first opponents, and on paper the weakest team in the group. A brace from Reiss Nelson, currently our only scorer in the competition, saw us get a much needed 2 - 0 win. He was another player definitely taking his opportunity to play for the parent club having been away on loan. Final game of the month was Fiorentina. They completely played us off the park in the first half. We were lucky to only be the single Nicolas Gonzalez goal down. I gave the lads a stern talking too at halftime and we came out playing better almost instantly. Ivan Perisic pulled us level just before the hour. The Croat getting his second some 20 minutes later. Both were typical goals for him. Vanishing from his marker to appear in exactly the softest spot of the defence. The Italians were flagging, and Martinelli put the result beyond doubt with five minutes left to play. A smart jinking run in behind and a cool finish round the keeper. Undefeated across all competitions, I probably had less reason to be grumpy than I was. But I didn't like how we just seemed to switch off for, sometimes it seemed whole games. The disparity between our quality in our ok performances and the lack of it in our bad games was just unacceptable. And I say ok performances because I'm certain we haven't played anywhere near our best yet. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted December 29, 2022 Author Share Posted December 29, 2022 NINE games in October.... N I N E ! As we try contort ourselves to fit in the Middle East Christmas Corruption Association. First up we have newly promoted, and odds on to be instantly relegated Coventry in the league. While they haven't exactly been playing quality football. They've also struggled to adjust to the less physical Premier league. In that I mean, challenges that might have been allowed to stand in the Championship have been drawing cautions in the top flight. Case in point against us, as Gustavo Hamer applies too much gusto in his challenge on Emile Smith - Rowe. Only 11 minutes played and the Coventry man sees red. It probably was always a case of "how many" but with 10 men its even more so. We rack up 7 for no reply. Including a bit of disrespect from me. As I let Aaron Ramsdale take a penalty on 26 minutes with the score only 1 - 0. He converts. Odegaard gets two, Calvert - Lewin one. But the pick of the performance has to be Smith - Rowe's hat trick. Not a bad start to October. There are only three days between most games this month. Which means rotation is key, regardless of the competition. Turns out the next game is Newcastle in the Carabao. So the second XI would have played anyway. Its a win, though nowhere near as convincing as the Coventry result. We run out 1 - 0 with a Mika Biereth goal after 23 minutes the deciding factor. I'm happy we are solid at the back even without our first selection defence on the pitch. West Ham at home another three days later. Five days since his first hat trick against Coventry. Smith - Rowe bags a consecutive hat trick in the game against the Hammers. Two in the first half and the third with 10 minutes of the game remaining. The hammers have no reply. Four days later and we are at home again in the league. This time its Southampton. Not sure, looking back, why I kept the first XI in. Maybe because we were toe to toe with City. And it had always been my plan to have the first XI play the league games. But back to back games seems unlike me! Luckily the lads got the game sown up in the first half. A typical Calvert - Lewin fast start saw us in front after a minute played. A Smith - Rowe and Odegaard sucker punch within the last four minutes of the first half saw Southampton slink into the changing rooms. They didn't really emerge in the second period. I made some much needed changes to keep the legs as fresh as possible and we closed out the game 3 - 0. Halfway through the month and we played Brighton in the league. Away for the first time this month. The second XI came in, and carried on exactly where the first XI had left off. Four goals for no reply. A Perisic brace either side of a Biereth strike with Reiss Nelson putting the icing on the cake some five minutes from time. That's 18 goals in five games across two competitions, for no reply. There might be something to this constant playing lark! A majestic five day gap between the Southampton league game and our next fixture. Away to Fiorentina in the Europa league. Maybe it was the time gap, or the fact it was the furthest we had travelled this month. But we were sluggish. An Ivan Perisic tap in just before the halftime whistle stood us in good stead. But I wouldn't say I was confident. I think Fiorentina sensed it. As the second half drew on they kept attempting to apply pressure. Just as they were on the verge of giving up in frustration. A whipped ball into the corridor of uncertainty bounced off a sliding Rob Holding and into our net to make it 1 - 1 with only three minutes left. The home crowd went ballistic and they more or less sucked the ball into the net from a corner just two minutes later. Nicolas Gonzalez, the scorer from the previous group game, at it again. Rising highest at the back post to score Fiorentina's second, and send us home from Italy with nothing. Not just that, but due to Saint Etienne having beaten exactly nobody. It meant we went from top of the group, to third. With Fiorentina on seven points like us. With Galatasaray on 10. We had Etienne next, and Galatasaray last. So much for me being able to rest players to see out the final group games. Back to the league three days later. And Mr consistent Smith - Rowe. His third hat trick of the month! This time at home against Burnley, Odegaard got himself on the scoresheet. Wout Weghorst for Burnley had started the scoring on the 20th minute. As it looked like we might suffer from "continental hangover" which is ridiculous as none of the players on the pitch had played in Europe. But the four second half goals saw us stretch comfortably away. Etienne away four days later was a completely different story. The French side had nothing to play for but pride. And they gave it everything. We looked devoid of ideas, and quickly becoming frustrated by their well attempts to frustrate us. As the end of the game came closer, so did our time in Europe this season. Fiorentina were seeing off Galatasaray to put both of those teams on 10 points. If we couldn't beat Etienne, what hope did we have against the Turks in the final match. As I contemplated this, Fred Kabangu for the French side got himself sent off. Surely now, with just over 30 minutes left in the tie we could force something. But no, on and on it dragged. Nothing coming for us, into injury time at the end of the game and a clumsy slide by the keeper on Perisic saw us given a penalty! Ainsley Maitland - Niles stepped up and fired life back into our European campaign with basically the last kick of the game. We stole away 1 - 0 winners with a 90+4 penalty conversion. Which brought us to the 30th of October and the last game of the month. Everton away. It took us a while to get going. But almost inevitably, Smith - Rowe put us ahead with his 11th goal of the month on 52 minutes. It didn't seem like it was going to be our afternoon after we gave away a penalty just 10 minutes later. Dele Alli converting from the spot to make it 1 - 1. 11 minute later and we had the lead again. If Smith - Rowe scoring had been in the script. Then Calvert - Lewin returning to Goodison Park and securing the points for us was likely they to be in their somewhere as well. 2 - 1 it finished, maximum points in the league. And still in the hunt in the Europa. Only a paltry four games to play in November. Plain sailing surely? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted January 21, 2023 Author Share Posted January 21, 2023 Four games in November, all squished into the opening fortnight. With every international manager and fan holding their breath after every "robust" tackle. Which in this day and age translates to any challenge that is followed by two rolls on the floor, not just one. First up was the final and crunch game in the Europa league group stage. It was simple, win and we qualified. Due to our head to head record against Galatasaray and Fiorentina. If we beat the Turkish giants in our last game, then our record was equal or better against them. And would see us finish top of the group. You would have been forgiven to think that such a scenario would prompt me to field a strong team, especially with board expectation being we reach the final. And I'm usually all about the board expectation. However, I had my eyes set on over achieving in the league. The board wanted European football secured via league position. While currently we were challenging for the title. Neck and neck on 32 points with City after 12 games played. Though we had the slight problem of them having a considerably better goal difference than us. Thanks to one Norwegian striker they'd signed who you might have heard of in passing. Luckily, or perhaps inevitably, the kids got it done in continental competition. James - Bynoe - Gittens continued his impressive start to life at the club with a goal in each half. His and our second came in the 68th minute. And as we so often do when on top, we heaped an extra helping of hurt on the opposition, scoring our third just two minutes later. Reiss Nelson showing he wouldn't be outdone when it comes to scoring in Europe. 3 - 0 it finished and we ended my inaugural continental group stage top of the shop. So just three league games to go till the enforced break. All four games to be wound up and done by the 12th of November. We welcomed Norwich to the Emirates on the sixth. Man they were frustrating. Sitting in and with no desire to do anything but stop us from creating a decent chance on target. We put them under enormous pressure for the first 20 minutes. With the consecutive corner count reaching six on multiple occasions. But as much as they would bend and buckle, we couldn't break them and the atmosphere inside the stadium began to turn. Especially as news of an early goal in the Man City game saw our title contenders losing. While there was still a lot of football to be played this season, and it was very likely quite previous for us to be using the words title contenders when describing ourselves. It was clear the fans felt this was an ample opportunity to lay down a marker and we had to take it. The frustration began to build and build, both in the stands and on the pitch. A few daft challenges and cards for our team as the first half staggered along. But then inspiration struck like a thunder bolt. As doggedly as Norwich defended, you just can't stop a worldie. A curling, dipping, rasping drive from Martin Odegaard from outside the box on 33 minutes destroyed the frustration in the stands and sent the fans into raptures. The fact he did it again on 62 minutes was even better! Both strikes were from so far back in the top draw they made Thomas Partey's 35 yard no nonsense bullet of a daisy cutter on 78 minutes look routine. We finished 3 - 0 victors, and although City had scrambled back to rescue a point. It had lifted us top of the table with a two point cushion! Title contenders? While the rest of the club basked in the excitement that came with going top of the league. My frustrations continued to grow. Not at our or Norwich's performance. But at the ineffability of the fixture organisation committee. We had just six days left till the Qatar break. And for some reason they thought it was a good idea for us to play both Man Utd and Liverpool away within that time. Now either they were doing us the disservice of considering us a none runner, and thus an easy mark for those two clubs. It being an irrelevance when we played them, or if we played them back to back, because we just weren't that good. Or they'd decided that with over a month of distraction before the next round of Premier league games. Two potential top of the table blockbusters back to back were just what the fans needed to keep in the back of their minds to remind them of the domestic leagues relevance and ability to produce a spectacle. Neither possibility overly filled me with much joy. Nor did our performances. Over that six day period, we went from top of the table possible title contenders. To second spot likely also rans. Two 2 - 0 defeats with little to no resistance sent me into the break in a foul mood. Diogo Jota and Mo Salah scored for Liverpool in the first half of that game. With Paul Pogba and Cristiano Ronaldo scoring for Utd in the second half of the other. City won both their games. So after 15 league games played. We sat second, four points behind the leaders. But they had the ridiculous Haaland (already on 27 league goals in 15 appearances) to bolster their +35 (we had +24) goal difference. Absolute mountain to climb.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted January 23, 2023 Author Share Posted January 23, 2023 Looking back at these notes I think I've made it pretty clear that I'm opposed to the Qatar World cup. In reality its boils down to the principle of the corruption and human rights violations. Not the disruption of the domestic game. I understand that might be the equivalent of saying I wouldn't mind going camping, except for the part about being outside and sleeping on the floor. Basically, the logistical and tactical pressures it placed on me as a manager were quite intriguing. In the normal four year cycle with the summer tournament (as far as Europe is concerned). Its at the end of the season, so who you may or may not want in your plans for the next season are more solidified. Plus the transfer window is just wide open. It even extends into the first month of the regular season, giving you time to find an emergency replacement or backup for anyone unlucky enough to be injured on international duty at the sharp end of the tournament. I'd say now imagine cramming all of that into the middle of the season, in just a 31 day period. But you don't have to imagine it, because it happened this year. As much as I didn't really want anything to do with the World cup. It would be unprofessional of me to not have my scout team keeping an eye on the tournament. Seeing if the stand out performances were the real deal, or just born of the passion of playing on the international stage and hyped beyond the realms of reality. For the most part it seemed to be the later. Which made my task considerably easier. There was no panic required. No need to get into an elbow out argy - bargy with another club at inflated prices. Just stick to the plan of replacing older expensive players, with cheaper, high potential younger ones. I say it was an easy task. But it looks like I wasn't as focused on it as I normally am. Because I don't have the players coming in and going out in date order like I usually have. In fact I don't have a clue what order they are in. They just appear to be names scribbled down on a sheet of paper. So in no other order than they come up on these crumbled pages in front of me. Out Best start with the players we let go, as you can't really spend money till you've made money: Runar Alex Runarsson - Legia £3.2m Auston Trusty - Brentford £4m Rob Holding - AS Monaco £22m Daniel Ballard - Lyon £5m Thomas Partey - FC Porto £40m Alexis Sanchez - Lyon £7m Ivan Perisic - Lazio £5.75m With the forced signing of Matt Turner, I basically didn't need any goalkeeper who wasn't good enough (Runarsson) was too old (Leno) or was going to complain about not getting enough play time, which was most of the others. Trusty and Ballard were young enough, not unlikely to be ever good enough. Holding was old enough to be expected to be better than he was. While Sanchez and Perisic were the oldest outfield players in the squad and the two highest paid. With Partey not far behind them. All three of them also wanted more money, which was a no go. Its that second fact, that they were all willing to run down their deals because I wasn't giving them further cash, that surprised me we pulled in the money we did. £7m for a 34 year old Sanchez felt like good money to me. I never expected Partey to go for anything near £40m. So I was well chuffed. IN Illia Zabaryni - Dynamo Kiev £30m Joe Gelhardt - Leeds £27m Complete polar opposites these transfers, and not because they play at different ends of the pitch. Zabaryni was a 19 year old Ukrainian central defender who was a direct plug in for the first XI. A literal younger, more promising upgrade for the departing Rob Holding. No qualms at all about the money I spent on him. Joe on the other hand. Think he's the closest I've come to a late January transfer window panic buy. He was making rumblings that he wanted out from Elland Road. And my back room team rated him very highly. But more definitively, I had in the back of my head a tactical style and formation that meant I needed more attacking midfielders who could play multiple positions. The tactical plan derived in some aspects from my love and study of American football. But more on that another time. It was basically strikerless, which yes, probably is a very daft idea having spent £50m on Dominic Calvert - Lewin less than six months earlier to lead the line. Either way, to cut a rambling story slightly short. Those factors culminated in me purchasing a young player, for probably more than I should, with not really anywhere to play him regularly inside the current squad. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted January 31, 2023 Author Share Posted January 31, 2023 With the Qatar nonsense winding down, we had to get ready to go again. So we had three friendlies in December before the restart of the league on boxing day. Bit of a mixed bag on the friendly front to be honest. But then the same could easily be said about the squad. The games were basically there to bring in some cash, and to turn the legs over of the players who hadn't been selected to represent their respective countries. A Gabriel Martinelli brace was enough to see us past Red Bull Leipzig. Even with Albert Sambi Lokonga achieving the impressive feat of being sent off in a friendly game. Brian Brobbey had scored for the visitors on 20 minutes. But they showed little to nothing else. So even with a man advantage, even for only eight minutes, they couldn't find another gear to go up into, No such problem for Paris St - Germain, Frank Kessie put us in front just before 20 minutes played. But Marco Asensio equalised just 10 minutes later. And a back from Qatar Neymar saw the French side beat us. Mainz 05 away was our final friendly, bit cruel sending the players away just four days before Christmas, but there you have it. Dominic Calvert - Lewin scored the only goal of the game in the second half. We hadn't blown anyone's socks off, but while we didn't look like we were quite at the level we had been before the break. We looked to be heading in the right direction. At least that's what I thought. Until we fizzled out like an indoor firework at Craven Cottage on boxing day. A drab 0 - 0 draw saw us look completely disjointed. Man City on the other hand won 1 - 0 at home to Southampton. The scorer, who else but that Norwegian chap. We still sit second, six points behind now. Might as well be seven with their goal difference. Hits home that we've only lost two games. Shows how close to perfect we are likely going to need to be in order to start lifting the title. Break is definitely over though. Eight games across three competitions coming up in January! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted January 31, 2023 Author Share Posted January 31, 2023 Monday the 2nd of January, Bournemouth at home. While being so good yet so relatively far away from City was frustrating. I think I need to make it clear that the progress we'd made compared to my first season is simply night and day. That said, there's a minimum required amount of effort. And we hadn't reached that against Fulham. So while I was in high spirits, which can be discerned from my blasting music from my office. To be fair I'm always blasting music, I'll probably be deaf before I retire. Which might not be a bad thing with how horrendously tedious press conferences are. But if I'm singing, likely very badly, then I'm in a good mood. So in the run up to the Bournemouth game I was singing along to Iron Maiden - The Wicker Man, specifically Your time will come! Repeatedly, in reference to our ability to win a title. The lads certainly started the new year with a bang. Four for no reply. Emile Smith - Rowe and Dominic Calvert - Lewin in the first half, then Bakayo Saka in the second saw us coasting with a 3 - 0 lead. Which is probably why I left Aaron Ramsdale take our injury time penalty at the end of the second half. Also because as soon as we won it, he came running out of his area doing jumping jacks. He seemed to definitely got the taste for it after I let him take the last one against Coventry. My mood couldn't even be soured by the fact Man City had won 3 - 1 away to Everton. The Scandy bloke getting himself a hat trick. Third round FA cup action was next, and the fixture gods had been quite kind to us. We'd been drawn Cambridge at home. Which suited me fine, especially as our next two games were both away to Man City! With no Continental competition to occupy them, the kids got a run out in the domestic cup. They seemed to be just as keen as they were in Europe. With Byone - Gittens and Nelson scoring, the first on the half hour and the later with nine minutes to play. Strolling into the next round, which is perfect. Etihad round one, 10th of January, Carabao cup quarter final. I was in two minds in the run up to this game. On the one hand, the plan had always been to focus on the league. But realistically, even if we beat them home and away in the league, we'd still need to at least match their record (and they hadn't lost yet) plus not only outscore them, but make up the goals we were already behind. In reality, I saw the league as having gone regardless, so I'd go back to trying to fill the trophy cabinet. On top of that, if the first choice XI didn't play in the Carabao game, then they would have been on a 12 day rest by the time we played City in the league. That length of time didn't sit well with me. Either City didn't care about this competition, or they didn't respect us. Because they fielded a second string team. Now don't get me wrong it was still a strong side. I guess I was just affronted that Haaland wasn't starting. He hadn't featured at all in the Community shield, and sitting their top scorer on the bench against second in the league felt insulting. If our players felt that way, they didn't show it, Man City looked like they could have put their grandmas on the pitch and we wouldn't have been any better off in the first half. It dragged out to a goalless snorefest. It must have been bad, as I remember laying into the players a bit at halftime. Something I try to avoid in away fixtures. But we'd been disrespected, and regardless of that, we needed to show them we had what it took to give them a run for their money in the league (even if deep down I didn't believe that.) The message must have gotten through, as straight from the kick off we surged forward. I say we, Smith - Rowe on the left got the ball halfway inside their half, skipped past two of their players and buried the ball in the bottom corner from just inside the box. 1 - 0 with just a minute of the second half played! City woke up a bit, but nothing we couldn't handle. And we slowly began to grind towards the semi final. A Calvert - Lewin header from a 77th minute corner doubled our advantage and we looked to be home and hosed. I'm also pretty sure that the bookmakers cut their odds on a double barrelled Arsenal scorer on a daily basis. But back to the game, as our players peeled away towards the corner of the Etihad with our fans in it. A certain blonde Man City substitute was getting his studs checked by the fourth official. He was on from the restart and it took him all of five minutes to get a goal. 2 - 1 with eight minutes left to play, and to be honest I thought we were not only going to be pegged back, but beaten. Haaland just handled our back line, and only some smart stops from Ramsdale protected our slender advantage. Which is pretty awesome from the lad, seen as he'd had more or less nothing to do for the previous 80 minutes. Just four short days later we were back at the Etihad in the league. Now I was nervous that our first XI had a full 90 minutes in their legs, while City were going to come at the game fresh. And a fresh Haaland scared me. Right from kick off the atmosphere was completely different. This wasn't a game for the "other" English cup competition, this was potentially for all the marbles. If City saw us off today, then they had a nine point plus goal difference advantage over us. Their fans knew it and they gave us a right roasting as kick off came closer. But that only seemed to galvanise the players, as though they too realised this was a proper game, with an appropriate crowd response. Calvert - Lewin, once again from a corner, went a long way towards quietening the crowd. Problem was, if scoring a goal away from home to take the lead is indeed a problem, was that only eight minutes of the game had been played. While City didn't seem to have made any adjustments to their defending at corners. I'd come up with some plans to try stop Haaland from giving me kittens every time he touched the ball. Mainly to have Franck Kessie follow him all over the pitch and be there to help out the back four. Only issue there was, I didn't want City doing anything cute like pulling Haaland way out of position and then exploiting the game that Kessie following him would create. So the second part of the scheme was we parked the bus and sat on the edge of our area. That way there wasn't really a gap for them to exploit. It certainly got the crowds back up, the howling and chanting returned. Our 3,000 travelling fans had a blast chanting "1 - 0 to the Arsenal" amongst other things. Never mind not being a threat, we didn't even get out of our half for the next hour. And just as it looked like we were going to get the ultimate reward for our tenacity. Serge Gnabry skilled off the right touchline, exchanged a swift one two with Kevin de Bruyne and curled the ball past Ramsdale into the far bottom corner. 1 - 1 with 72 minutes played. Now I didn't know whether to stick or twist, I doubted the team could go from zero back to anything near a high enough gear to get a goal. Plus there was a chance that going for it now would open the flood gates and City would run away with it. Know what made up my mind? the jubilation of the City supporters in the stands. They were celebrating as though they'd just won the league. And while part of me thought they might have if we didn't take three points off them here. I wanted to wipe those grins and cheers right off their faces. So we went for it. Haaland had scored on 82 minutes just four days earlier, in what turned out to be a meaningless event in the context of the game. There was nothing meaningless about the goal which came on 82 minutes in this game. Saka exploded down the right, getting to the by line and cutting the ball back. Calvert - Lewin had made a run to the near post and his presence in the box had drawn three City players towards him. Smith - Rowe had ghosted in from the left and, as the ball bypassed Calvert - Lewin, was there to stroke it home with his right foot from near enough the penalty spot. 2 - 1! eight minutes to play! And I had to hold myself back from going full Jose down the touchline to celebrate with the players. City seemed shell shocked, they had nothing in the final minutes of the game and for the second time in four days we beat them by the same score line! A scant three days later and we were back at the Carabao cup. No idea why the fixtures were so squashed? Everton at Old Trafford. And while Richarlison had taken 80 minutes to score his sides consolation goal against Man City in the league. It took him only seven minutes to put his side in front against our second string XI. The next decisive moment in the match would come from another of the Everton Brazilian contingent. But not in a way they wanted. Allan, their defensive midfielder went in two footed on Reiss Nelson, resulting in him seeing a red card. From there, it only ever seemed like a matter of time until we would emerge victorious. Jamie Byone - Gittens pulled us level on 38 minutes. He would score again on 81 minutes, with Reiss Nelson having bagged himself a goal on 65 minutes. Due to some kind of fixture congestion, the semi finals were only being played over a single leg this year. So we progressed to the final at the final whistle. Which just left the small matter of three Premier league games in seven days to round out the month. City played before we did, beating Fulham away 3 - 1 to restore their six point advantage. Three days later on the 21st we hosted Newcastle. At this point in the month the first and second XI had kind of gone out the window. I was playing an amalgamation of basically whichever players were fit enough to feature. Though this reduced consistency between the players on the field meant we started slowly, once we scored through Kieran Tierney on 37 minutes, we never looked back. We ran out 4 - 0 winners with Byone - Gittens, Saka and Folarin Balogun putting them cherry on top. Three days later and I was fuming, midweek evening game against Coventry, and we just ran out of steam. Though even with no steam and one leg tied behind our back we should have been able to see off the bottom of the league club. Instead we dragged out a draw, gifting them only their fourth point of the whole season to press. Man City squeezed past Liverpool at Anfield 1 - 0 with that blonde haired idiot securing the points. Claw back three points at the Etihad, throw away two on the road just two games later. GAH! Last game for us came at home against Liverpool. Franck Kessie swept home from just outside the box inside the first 20 minutes to put us ahead. And just like the Newcastle game we never looked back, we didn't score anymore goals. But we didn't ever look like giving up the lead. A token revenge for them beating us 2 - 0 at home in November. We played Saturday, City didn't play Coventry until Sunday. So for 24 hours the gap at the top was a scant two points. But Coventry couldn't muster the same response two games in a row. They capitulated 4 - 1, a Kevin de Bruyne free kick and a Haaland hattrick... Felt like a lot of work for only chipping a single point off the difference between us and City in the league. We had another cup final to look forward too. And while February wouldn't see the return of continental football. We still had the joys of finding out who we'd play in the first European knockout football of my stewardship. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted February 3, 2023 Author Share Posted February 3, 2023 Shortest month of the year and yet we still played seven games! First up was Brighton in the league, with Crystal Palace to come in the FA cup fourth round waiting in the wings. I had a long hard think about match priorities and which XI to pick for which game. Realistically the second XI could probably have handled either fixture. Or rather, I would have expected them too. And while we are talking about expectations, the board wanted us in the final of the FA cup, while being content with continental qualification through the league. Sitting second, just about on the coat tails of Man City more than met the league expectation. But the FA cup was, well a cup, you never knew who you were going to get in the next round, or how hard they were going to be willing to fight to progress. Fielding the second XI in the league, would feel like a capitulation, and while mentally I'd probably already made that choice. I wasn't ready to be seen to definitively show that through my match day selection. Be that in front of the fans, the board or just myself in the mirror. Plus, and this is probably what swung it at the end of the day. Our Carabao cup final opponents were Brighton, so I wanted to put the fear into them in the league, so when it came back around at the end of the month, they wouldn't be looking forward too it. So first XI in the league it is, and they didn't let me down. Saka dancing his way through the Brighton defence to finish with panache just two minutes into the game. Illia Zabaryni, on his debut no less. Soared highest from a second half corner and headed us 2 - 0 up with just 55 minutes of his Arsenal career under his belt. He ran over to the corner flag kissing the badge, which felt a little much, but the Ukrainian teenager certainly has heart. He got an assist just under half an hour later. From another corner, with no angle to turn his header towards goal, he knocked it back across the penalty area for Calvert - Lewin to apply a simple finishing touch. 3 - 0 with 82 minutes played. Slightly disappointed from there to concede in the last eight minutes of play. But to Brighton's credit they had never really given up, kept trying to play football. And finally they put together a passage of play that saw Alexis Mac Allister in space in our box. His low drive from the left hand corner whipped across and past Ramsdale into the bottom corner of the net at the far post. 3 - 1 it finished. City managed the same result, hosting Spurs. Haaland got them off to a flyer, not as fast as Saka did for us mind. But they were 1 - 0 inside 10 minutes. Rodri made it two just before half an hour of play. Kane pulled one back for the visitors midway through the second half, and Spurs looked worthy of drawing level as the game marched onwards. But they over extended themselves looking for the equaliser, and Rodri bagged his second just two minutes from full time, which settled the contest. Palace in the cup, and all that worry about whether the other team would be "up for the cup", and they didn't even look like they were up to playing the game. The first half was one of the most boring 45 minutes of football I'd ever seen. Then in the second period Folarin Balogun just took over the game. On another day, with a little more luck, he could have scored five. But he settled for a brace, which was more than enough to ease us into the fifth round. There was nothing easy about our league game at the London stadium four days later. West Ham had been having an absolute mare of a season, finding themselves languishing in 15th and in real trouble of continuing to slide further south. All pre season aspirations were well and truly out the window and they were just looking to survive. If that survival came at the expense of damaging another London clubs chances of catching the league leaders. Well all the better. The crowd was loud, hostile, and not just at us, they were fed up with their team and wanted to howl their frustrations at everyone. Dominic Calvert - Lewin put us on the front foot eight minutes into the game when he latched on to a Martin Odegaard through ball. In other circumstances that might have subdued the home fans. But it had the opposite effect here. They got louder, more irate and the atmosphere began to turn pretty nasty. I was glad to get in at halftime and get a bit of shelter from the noise and just vitriol of the crowd. Second half got underway and both teams looked like they wanted to be anywhere but in the middle of all that negative emotion. Ivan Toney, brought in by West Ham on deadline day from Brentford, had obviously had less time than anyone else to get weighed down by the fans negativity. He smashed the Hammers level on 68 minutes. Which if you listened very carefully, might have caused a change in the tone of the crowd. It didn't last long though, all of four minutes later we were back in front from a by now almost trademark Calvert - Lewin header corner conversion. 2 - 1 with 72 minutes played. To be fair to the West Ham players, they didn't buckle under the pressure of being behind, or the noise of their own fans. They kept working away at it, and probably deserved a draw from the balance of play. It just felt unfair the way it came about. A Declan Rice hit it and hope from outside the area, cannoned off William Saliba as he attempted to block it. What would have been a tame strike that Ramsdale would have scooped up 100 times out of 100. Now completely wrong footed our keeper and sailed into the net. 2 - 2 90+5 minutes, and that's how the game ended. Due to Champions league commitments, City didn't play, and while I dreaded when they would actually capitalise on their game in hand. I always prefer having the points on the board rather than in the back pocket still to play as it were. The gap was now four points at the top of the table. Three days later we played Man Utd at home, and I wanted blood. We'd gotten revenge on the only other team to beat us so far this season. Liverpool had been undone by a Franck Kessie goal. But to me, the Man Utd loss was worse. It had been our last game before the enforced winter break, so I'd had a long time to ruminate over it. That and the fact I felt that result had been the nail in the coffin of our title challenge. To drop three points against Liverpool would have been manageable. Dropping six points with the defeat against Utd, that seemed like too big a gap. We absolutely battered Utd at home, in every way except on the scoresheet. And as the game came into the final minutes it was somehow, ludicrously still 0 - 0. Even worse, City were two goals to the good at home to Aston Villa, looking to pull six points clear, with a superior goal difference, and a game in hand. I think my face was the colour of a Man Utd home kit as I continued to urge and gesticulate the players forward. Though how much further forward could they get, what with us having played most of the game in the opposition half. In what seemed like a blink of an eye, the fourth official was holding up the injury time board, and we were in the last minute of the 90. We had a free kick on the left side of the box. Odegaard stood over it. He whipped it in, curling in a way that it looked like it might go in all on its own. De Gea didn't know whether to come or not, with our players running across the ball threatening to get something on it and change the flight of the ball. The ball bounced, and it became clear that it just wasn't going to curl enough to go in at the bottom corner of the far post. But before it could skim on out of play, Dominic Calvert - Lewin ghosted in beyond the back post, sliding to make contact with the ball and redirecting it into the roof of the net! 1 - 0 with 90 minutes showing on the scoreboard! I was over the moon, not only with what turned out to be the final result. But with the big money acquisition I'd made at the beginning of this season, exactly for this reason. To be counted on to score goals, when goals were needed. He'd scored four goals in his last three starts. Putting us ahead twice in the West Ham game, which we only lost due to a deflection, and now securing three points in the final minute of regulation. Worth every penny of his £50m transfer so far. Leeds away three days later was a second XI outing. Which could mean only one thing. Goals for Byone - Gittens and Reiss Nelson, one a piece in the second half saw us win 2 - 0. Once again City didn't play due to European football, meaning we had closed to within a single point. But they had two games in hand. 18th of February and our last league game of the month. We went away to Newcastle. I kept the second XI in, which due to the signing of our new Ukrainian central defender, saw Gabriel moved to that XI. He opened the scoring for us on 21 minutes. Only problem being, that only pulled us level from a Callum Wilson goal for Newcastle in the first 10 minutes. Luckily once we got level, we didn't look back. Balogun and Martinelli putting us 3 - 1 up before the end of the half, Martinelli's goal coming in the 45th minute. Then before Newcastle could regroup at the start of the second period. Reiss Nelson grabbed our fourth goal just four minutes after the restart. Newcastle had no answer and 4 - 1 was the final score. City for some reason played Spurs twice in the league in the same month. This time away, and just like the first game, Spurs had sections of the game where they looked like they were going to run away with it. Kane once more scored for them, but this time he was the first name on the scoresheet. Phil Foden pulled City level, arguably against the run of play, just before the half hour mark. That looked like how it would stay, until who else than Haaland scored twice in the last 10 minutes of the game to make it 3 - 1 and secure the three points back to Manchester. City played Leicester on the final weekend of the month, while we prepared to defend our Carabao cup trophy in the final against Brighton. A Haaland and Raheem Sterling hattrick saw them emphatically win one of their games in hand 6 - 0. Restoring the gap at the top to four points. Meanwhile, in London we put the slog of the league behind us and did our best to enjoy the day at Wembley. While there were a few groans in the stands from pockets of fans listening to City game on the radio, and when it became clear that Brighton weren't going to lift the trophy, their fans began to try goad us that we couldn't be considered to be in a title race. The rest of the day was pretty awesome. It might only be the Carabao cup, but its going to always have a special significance for me, as its the first trophy I won as manager of this club. So to defend that trophy 3 - 0 was again, pretty special. Smith - Rowe and Odegaard scored in the first half, with Calvert - Lewin putting it beyond doubt late in the second. Only five games in March, still across three competitions, as the Europa league knockout stages begin. We've been drawn at home against Juventus, after they crashed out of the Champions league. Not exactly the easiest draw there was. But at least its at home, and only at home, some efforts to reduce fixture congestion for some reason. No idea why.... 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Mandy42 Posted February 5, 2023 Author Share Posted February 5, 2023 Marching on, alone, towards second place. Well, not straight away, firstly we had the slight detour of hosting Juventus in the second knockout round of the Europa league. The Italian "old lady" had definitely been showing her age in Europe this season, having only managed to beat bottom team Dinamo Zagreb. They drew one and lost one against both of the other group occupants, Ajax and Man City. Leaving them in third place with eight points. City topped the group with 16, and Ajax went through with 10 points. Which meant they came to us on a balmy spring evening in March. Whether they hadn't gotten the memo regarding it being a single night affair, and were sitting in expecting to go home and beat us there. Or they simply didn't want to be there, either way they basically didn't turn up. Gabriel put us ahead with a header from a deep free kick on 24 minutes. Our other Gabriel, Martinelli, finished smoothly from a wonderful team move just 12 minutes later. 2 - 0 up at halftime and they didn't lay a glove on us in the second period. Into the quarter final at a canter. Is it possible to have a continental hangover, when you play at home? And win? Well, the way we played against Chelsea at home just three days later, seemed to suggest you could. Interestingly, well maybe not, but we had played Chelsea on this exact date last season. On that occasion we had gone behind early to a Trevor Chalobah header from a corner. Martinelli had then pulled us level with 24 minutes played. Fast forward a year to the present day and we were stumbling through a rather poor first half showing. Luckily for us, Chelsea weren't fairing any better, and we got into the half with it still 0 - 0. Man City were playing Norwich at Carrow road. The loudest cheer at the Emirates in our first half performance came when the news filtered through that Todd Cantwell had bent a free kick beyond Ederson and into the top corner in the second minute of stoppage time at the end of the first half. Which you might of thought might galvanise our players into action, maybe they thought that an inevitable Haaland second half hattrick would cancel out the Norwich goal so what was the point. The roar of a Ben Gibson header doubling Norwich's advantage swept round the stands, but didn't have much affect on how the players were going about business on the pitch. In almost typical fashion, with City loosing and the opportunity to close within a point (their game in hand and goal difference not withstanding), we ourselves fell behind. Another corner, another header, this time Thiago Silva nutted Chelsea ahead. Finally, this seemed to be the straw across our collective backs that woke us up. Still, with the lead, and the knowledge they were preventing us from capitalising on Cities calamitous performance, the Chelsea team gleefully parked the bus. With their fans just as gleefully cheering them on. You can't stop class however. Franck Kessie, with an absolutely lightning bolt from 35 yards, aided by the fact the Chelsea team were trying to stay as compact as possible. Mendy was completely unsighted in the opposition goal, and by the time he knew his goal was under threat, the ball was past him and we were level. 1 - 1 85 minutes played. Human mentality is a strange thing, we'd known City had been losing 2 - 0 since the 49th minute of their game. Their situation was still the same in the last few minutes of that fixture. We'd been losing for 20 minutes before we dragged ourselves level. But only then, with five minutes plus stoppage time remaining did it appear we ultimately believed we would win, and City would lose. The change in the way our players addressed the ball, the movement they made, Chelsea tried keep the ball from us, but now it was as though they'd played 180 minutes, and we had just charged out of the tunnel for the first half kick off. When Jamie Byone - Gittens swept home from close range in the second minute of time added on. It had all the hallmarks of theatrical inevitability. 2 - 1 at the final whistle, City lost 2 - 0, we were a single point behind! Three days later and it was the FA cup fifth round. Once again, the priority dilemma was first and foremost on my mind. Because who did we have next in the league? A scant three days after this FA cup game? Only Man City at the Emirates. If we won that game, we'd go two points ahead of them and top of the league. Yes they had their game in hand, but we'd have done everything in our own power to stay competitive. And surely, actually being a competitive force in the title race would be enough compensation in the eventuality that we came out of the cup? Well! I sure hoped so. All of which led to a rather cagey game as the second XI tried to negotiate their way past a Leeds side who were definitely more determined than we were. We just about managed to keep them at arms length. Byone - Gittens, who had begun to flag in the second half, probably due to him being introduced late on against Chelsea, was replaced on the hour by Gabriel Martinelli. Perhaps angry that he'd been left out, the Brazilian took only five minutes to put us ahead. Latching onto a wickedly inviting low cross in behind a retreating Leeds back line. 1 - 0 on 65 minutes and that was enough to put us in the hat for our second quarter final qualification of the month. Right! Our fourth home game on the bounce. Culminating in Man City in the league. City's game against Norwich had been only their first league action of the month. Competitions were all over the place, they'd played their FA cup fifth round game while we put Juventus to the sword. And while we were in the FA cup, they had crashed out of the Champions league, 1 - 0 at home, 3 - 0 on aggregate against Real Madrid. Which meant across all competitions they had lost 50% of their last six games, and were 180 minutes of football without a win when they stepped out on to the pitch to face us. And it showed, not in anyway that gave us the advantage, they came out like a wounded animal backed into a corner. Looking to strike first, and strike hard! Phil Foden's back post tap in on 24 minutes was less an isolated moment, and more just the first opportunity they'd managed to convert out of a myriad of similar situations that had gone begging to that point in the game. They had completely and utterly blown us away and I've no idea how we were still within sight. We limped in at half time and the team collectively looked at me expecting to be laid into. But in reality, they hadn't played badly, they simply hadn't played as well as City. I told them to keep going, keep working, and either we'd get back into the game, or it wasn't meant to be. There was more than a little confusion on the faces of the players as they went back out. The same could be said with the City players as we started the second period. They probably expected a knee jerk reaction, an attempt to grab hold of the game and get back into it. Whether they began to run out of steam due to their frenetic first half display, or were sitting back because they expected us to be more proactive. We steadily grew into the second half, not by wrestling it out of their hands, but by building on our fundamentals. Which is why Calvert - Lewin's equaliser in the 65th minute came in the way he'd scored the majority of his goals for us so far this season. A no nonsense downward header, from a towering leap at a corner. Then once again, our belief took over. Before this game, we'd only lost to City once in seven games. That 2 - 0 defeat had been before my tenure as manager. Meaning in six meetings, the worst we'd managed was a 2 - 2 draw. The last five in a row we'd emerged victorious, including a Carabao cup final and a Community shield. This season we'd played City twice in January, and the result had been 2 - 1 both times. So it was no surprise when Gabriel Martinelli fired us 2 - 1 ahead with just four minutes of the 90 remaining. Top of the league, by two points, with a bang! We had a full week to recovery before our final game of the month. 18th of March and we were playing Aston Villa away in the FA cup quarter final. Perhaps it was the weeks gap and thus disruption to our momentum. Maybe it was being away from the Emirates for the first time in nearly three weeks. Or perhaps because I'd doubled down on my focus on the league. You can't not keep your first XI fresh for a competition where you find yourself top with just 10 games remaining. All of those factors culminated in us not finishing the game off. An Emile Smith - Rowe goal on 22 minutes had put us on our way. Rowe, a first XI stalwart, was recovering from injury, which saw him fielded in the second XI to get some minutes. But his contribution was cancelled out by Ezri Konza on 84 minutes, as we failed to see out the game and let Villa back into it. Extra time it was, what we didn't really need with a hard league and continental campaign coming up. Which is why I didn't turn to my first XI players on the bench, but introduced Folarin Balogun. His goal on 102 minutes saw us fall, battered and bruised into the semi final 2 - 1 after extra time. April, three competitions yet again, as we would face mortal enemy Spurs in our Europa league knockout game and Liverpool in the FA cup semi. Tough fixtures, not what the doctor ordered when we looked to focus on the Premier league. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted February 6, 2023 Author Share Posted February 6, 2023 International break at the end of March meant we were done by the 18th, and not back in action again until the third of April. Which when we had to cram eight games into the month, once again seemed like international football was giving us the finger. Fulham at home in the league was the first game. I'd felt nothing but building tension over the two weeks with no football. It was one thing to go top of the league, yet another kettle of fish when it came to staying there. The players could feel the tension and I needed to find a way to try keep it light, keep it fun. Which after Byone - Gittens put us a goal to the good just eight minutes into the game. Then we got a penalty just a couple of minutes later. I felt letting Ramsdale take it, set the tone of keeping things level. He was beaming from ear to ear when I gave him the nod. His previous two conversions had been when games were out of sight. This one, at only 1 - 0 up and a little over 10 minutes into the game, was a little different. My point was, have a bit of fun, and if it goes in, it goes in. Well, it went in, and we saw out the game 2 - 0 with little to talk about in the remaining 78 minutes of play. Even better, a day later, City were held at Elland road 1 - 1. Obviously Haaland scored for them, but Bryan Mbeumo's second half equaliser carried us four points clear, and out of range of City's game in hand. Three days after our Fulham game, we were on the other end of a 2 - 0. Away to Spurs in our first leg of the Europa league quarter final. It stung, the first competitive match we'd lost in four months. Compounded by the fact they didn't even play their first XI. Tyrese Campbell scored both their goals, within four minutes of each other midway through the second half. In the two years since he's joined them from Stoke, he's made eight appearances and scored only three goals. Two of those, were against us in that game. I felt with the right approach we could overcome the deficit in the home leg. So it wasn't over yet! With no continental football of their own, City played before us in the league. They were angry, and Jurgen Klopp must have put the fear of something into them, as they came out and annihilated Chelsea at home. When the dust settled, they'd won 7 - 0! Nothing so emphatic in our game the next day. We played Norwich away. Maybe we had the thought that this was where City had come unstuck, or we were in the doldrums over the Spurs loss. But we were sliding on our way to a 0 - 0 draw, with the pendulum swinging back to City. When Reiss Nelson capitalised on a Norwich defensive mistake and gave us all three points in the first minute of stoppage time at the end of the game. Champions find a way even when they aren't playing well? Though that was not the case in the following game, Spurs at home in the Europa league second leg. Saka got us on our way with a great finish on 23 minutes, and we looked set to take a stranglehold on the game and at least push it to extra time, if not win it out right within the 90 minutes. But Spurs offered nothing going forward, deciding to use all their energy to stifle us in and around their box. We couldn't force a second goal, and annoyingly, having beaten Juventus, and seen Atlanta put out PSG, crashed out ourselves to on of our biggest domestic rivals. To win a game, but not progress in a competition was a new situation for me. Didn't really know what to say to the players. Plus with the FA cup semi final next, I was beginning to get the feeling this could be "one of those weeks" in football. Ones where you enter full of hope and in every competition, and come out the other end destroyed and only with the league left to play in. But for all my mental troubles, it seemed Liverpool were having some competition problems of their own. Only three days before they'd had to fight tooth and nail to get past Borussia Dortmund in the Champions league. A 4 - 2 aggregate result didn't really tell the story of Dortmund leading 2 - 1 across the tie with just 20 minutes to go. So when Liverpool played us at Wembley, they looked exhausted. Marc Roca, Dominic Calvert - Lewin and then Joe Gelhardt scored for us. Liverpool had no reply, and we made it into consecutive FA cup finals. Where we would face who else, but Man City. Must say to get those two cup games out of the way, as disappointing as coming out of the Europa league was. That week really cleared the fog of war. Now our next seven games were all in the league. Then the FA cup final, then the final day of the season. Speaking of Man City, they won their game in hand 4 - 0 at home against Burnley, to bring them to within a point of us. But, just like we beat them, and then dropped points to Coventry. They seemed to have clawed themselves back into contention, to only go and lose away in the Manchester derby on the 22nd of the month. With it being a heated derby, they were in the early lunchtime kick off. So we had time to celebrate Cristiano Ronaldo's 27th minute goal and ultimately match winner, before we went out to play Southampton at St Mary's. A Franck Kessie brace saw us come home with all three points. We now had a four point advantage, we'd played each other twice, and both had played the same number of league games. In short, we sat top with our destiny completely in our own hands. Must admit I was terrified! Three days later we head to Bournemouth, and we were completely out of sorts. A George Baldock own goal after 10 minutes of play was a stoke of luck we didn't deserve. It also seemed to take some of the spirit out of the home team. A sense that it wasn't going to be their day, despite them having us on the back foot until that point. Yet we still couldn't pull away, and it took a Martin Odegaard direct freekick on 68 minutes to double our advantage and allow me to breath somewhat easier. Man City beat Wolves 4 - 1 in their game to keep doing all they could to stay in touch. Last game of the month was Everton at home, and once again, we were shot. It was whomever was fit enough to play. Which is probably why, after another slow and ponderous start, we found ourselves behind curtesy of a Richarlison strike on 29 minutes. But as often as been the way this season, right at the moment we needed a boost, we've gotten one. A rash Michael Keane challenge just a minute later saw Ainsley Maitland - Niles put us level from the penalty spot. Being top of the league and a goal down was a very different kettle of fish, sorry Aaron Ramsdale! But from there we settled down, and made it to halftime. In the second half we were much improved and the better side. Goals from Charlie Patino and Reiss Nelson just four minutes apart on 54 and 58 minutes respectively saw us take control of the game. Obviously once Nelson had scored, it was only a matter of time before Byone - Gittens found the net, which he did on 78 minutes. Everton and Keane had the last word with a consolation goal on 87 minutes, but our fans couldn't hear it, as they were too busy chanting about winning the league. Which brings us to the final month of the season. Five league games, and an FA cup final to navigate! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted February 7, 2023 Author Share Posted February 7, 2023 Four points is the difference, we each have five games left to play in the league which means there are 15 total points available. Their goal difference is significantly superior to ours. So we need to stay ahead the old fashioned way, otherwise we might as well kiss the top of the table goodbye. Here are our comparable fixtures We play: Aston Villa (H) Leicester City (A) Burnley (A) Spurs (A) Wolves (H) City play: Brighton (H) West Ham (H) Everton (H) Newcastle (A) Bournemouth (A) First up against Villa, I wanted to set the tone, so first XI was out, and I think we managed that. We won 6 - 0, all of the goals coming in the first half as we blew Villa away, and got "slippy" G sacked in the process. Calvert - Lewin bagged a hattrick, his first getting us going early on just six minutes. Saka was next up on nine minutes and we were 2 - 0 up before 10 minutes had been played. Calvert - Lewin scored the last from the penalty spot on 37 minutes, with Illia Zabarnyi and Frack Kessie getting in on the action in the meantime. City got themselves a no nonsense 3 - 0 against Brighton. So 12 points to play for, lead of four. Not gonna lie, I'd have taken five 1 - 0 wins rather than putting all those goals in the first game of the month. As, while that pulled our goal difference towards City, we were still a long way from parity. Points win prizes, and our prize was hopefully going to be a maiden Premier league title for me. No more was this the case than at the end of the Leicester game. We looked like we'd given our entire months worth of energy in the first half against Villa. We created nothing in the first half at Leicester. It took until the 56th minute for a bit of Martinelli magic to put us a goal to the good. But we still looked nervous, and when Patson Daka equalised for the home side with just 15 minutes left to play. We couldn't find a way to bring all three points home with us. City beat West Ham 5 - 0, two for Haaland, two for Sterling and a Kevin de Bruyne effort somewhere in the middle. Nine points left to play for, gap only a single solitary point. Burnley away, and be were back to being hot in the first half. A Calvert - Lewin brace put us in control at the half. But the wheels came off again just a minute before they had done in the Leicester game. Cole Palmer, on loan from Man City no less.... pulled a goal back on 74 minutes and I began to have kittens. We dragged ourselves over the line though. And took three priceless points. The City game against Everton only had a single goal in it. Shame it was for Haaland on nine minutes. Six points to play for, gap of a single point. I don't think I've any nails left to bite at this point. We went to Spurs, the last team to beat us during a competitive fixture. Albeit at the Emirates, with the media reminding me (like I'd somehow forgotten) that if results went our way, we could be champions by the end of the game. You don't say! I very much doubt it. But I'd be jumping with my heels together like Dick van Dyke if that happened. Six minutes into the game, and blow me down and call me Dick. We were champions. Calvert - Lewin had us ahead on six minutes. While at St James, Allan Saint - Maximin had Newcastle ahead. Haaland had them back level on the half hour mark. But as things stood, we could get a draw at home and win the league by a point, regardless of what they did at Bournemouth. Games of football aren't ever done after 30 minutes though. Pierre - Emile Hojbjerg certainly had something to say about us cruising into the final game week with one hand on the trophy. Shame he said it with two feet. Meaning he was shown a red card and off for an early bath on 42 minutes. A goal to the good and against 10 men. Everything was coming up roses. Into the second half and Spurs had no production at all, but then they were back in the game from really the only avenue they had available, a direct free kick. Oleksandr Zinchenko (on loan from Man City no less) scoring a boomer which drew Spurs level. We still had 40 minutes against 10 men to grab another goal. But as time drew on in our game, news filtered through the stands that City had a penalty in the 70th minute. Haaland converted it to put them 2 - 1 up. Meaning they would go above us by a single point as things stood. Now I'd have bet my mortgage on them winning their final game. But in reality, if things stayed the same, they wouldn't have too. With their goal difference, all they had to do was match our result, heck they could even lose if we drew. Oh how things change so quickly. We hurled the kitchen sink, harsh language, and a couple of midgets at the Spurs backline. But we couldn't get through. De ja vu from the Europa league quarter final, we needed a single solitary goal, and we couldn't get it. The final whistle went and that was that, we had come so close to fall at the final hurdle. I dashed out onto the pitch to round up the players and get us out of there. As no surprise the Spurs faithful were relishing the fact they had likely denied us the title. Halfway down the tunnel and suddenly it was our fans making the noise, the City game was still going on. A pretty horrendous challenge had seen a length stoppage for injury, and ended with Fernandinho being show a straight red for the champions elect. The resulting free kick was whipped in and Odsonne Edouard had headed the magpies level! 2 - 2 at St James park in the 87th minute. We contemplated charging back up the tunnel to celebrate with our travelling supporters, but that seemed more than a little crass, what with us not having been able to get the job done ourselves. That was my message in the dressing room before we left. Don't celebrate this, because we didn't achieve it, we had been handed a lifeline by another team. Our destiny was back in our own hands. But we would have to turn up and perform in the last game of the season against Wolves! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted February 16, 2023 Author Share Posted February 16, 2023 All set to deal with the final game of the league campaign. See if we would be able to take advantage of the surprising situation we found ourselves in. Top of the table, more by luck than better judgement, with a two point advantage on Man City. They still had a superior goal difference, so if we drew and they won, then they'd best us. But if we matched their result, then we'd be champions in my first full season in charge! However, rudely, the league season showdown would have to take a slight Wembley detour as we were due to play the FA cup final. Who are our opponents you might ask? Well fittingly, we play Man City. To say it was a strange atmosphere, is a bit of an understatement. I doubt there are many factors where two sets of opposing supporters would "get on", but this wasn't a rivalry born of years of needing to come out victorious for bragging rights, like the North London derby. This was a forced rivalry simply from this being the eighth time we would face each other, all in domestic competitions, in a span of 15 months. That's an average of once every eight weeks. This would also be the fourth of those occasions where silverware was riding on the result. In the previous three meetings where the winner hoisted a trophy at the end, City had come up short. Then when we weren't playing for a trophy, City had one point out of a possible 12 against us over that time period. Safe to say they didn't like us very much, and frankly that we didn't care. Where it got weird, was the timing. The league was due to be resolved some eight days later, and while we had one hand on that trophy as well. It was anything but a foregone conclusion. Both sets of fans, who usually have plenty to say to each other, and have come up with some new simply yet witty specific chant for the occasion, were keeping it very civilised. They weren't subdued, this was still the FA cup, the greatest domestic cup competition in the world. It just seemed that everyone was looking to enjoy a day out at Wembley in the English summer sunshine, and if they appeased the football gods with some good behaviour, perhaps they'd get to cash that favour in come the final day of the league. The first half had an air of inevitability about it. City were cautious in possession, and even more so without the ball. They'd lost the last six against us on the bounce, the last three by a 2 - 1 score line. In those six losses, they'd only scored first twice, so I could understand them not wanting to fall behind and repeat the same pattern once more. From our side of things, I don't think we'd ever gone into any of those six games (I certainly hadn't) thinking we were automatically going to win. But today we did, or it seemed like it from our play. We went about or business professionally, but there was no rush, panic or annoyance to our play when we didn't instantly get a reward. This wasn't a puzzle we'd failed to solve in the past (like scoring enough goals against Spurs....) as long as we kept going it would, as it always had, come up in our favour. Which is why it only took a small chink in the City armour for us to break through. With the first half drawing to a close, they seemed to take a collective sigh of relief that they'd made it this far. Raheem Sterling got caught in possession in his own half, and in trying to win the ball back gave away a free kick in a promising position. From that free kick, it was the story of the season so far, Dominic Calvert - Lewin header, goal, 1 - 0 to us with 43 minutes played. You can never underestimate the power of moments like that in games. I'd had two halftime team talks in my head, when that goal went it, there wasn't a question which one I was going to deliver. "Keep working, like you have in the last three games against this lot, you've done it before and you're about to do it again. You worked hard in those previous matches, and you got your reward. You'll score again in the second half, they'll likely score, they're a quality side and its unlikely we can keep them off the scoresheet for the full 90. But its going to be 2 - 1, just like it has been the last three times. As long as you work to make it happen, you take it for granted for one second and they'll rip that trophy out of your hands before you can blink." And with that, I sent them back out. In the other dressing room, Jurgen Klopp was having to find a way to tell his players to scale a mountain they'd been unable to climb over in the last six attempts. I didn't envy him. Mainly because he's German, not for the situation him and his players found themselves in. The second period was much more disjointed and clumsy from both sides. Neither team knew whether to stick or twist. They say the most dangerous score line is a 1 - 0 and I can believe it. We couldn't relax into our lead, nor could we justify going all out to get another if it meant presenting City an opportunity to level. Likewise, they wanted to get back into the game, but not at the expense of leaving the door wide open for us to steal another from the hen house. In the end, another header turned the tie. On 72 minutes, from a corner, Illia Zabarnyi put us 2 - 0 up. The moment was almost too much for him, its one thing to know you're playing in a cup final, another to be told by the homegrown players how much this competition means in this country. But playing in your first edition, at only 19 years of age, as he wheeled away to celebrate his goal. The exultation coming off the roiling mass of Arsenal supporters struck him like a physical force. His arms dropped limply to his sides and he allowed himself to be mobbed by his teammates. And that was the game, well almost. Raheem Sterling scored for City very late on. It wasn't quite like Geoff Hurst in 66, but it ultimately had the same effect on the result, nothing at all. Aaron Ramsdale joked with me after that he'd only let the goal in to ensure my half time team talk had come mostly true. He was just as quick to inform me that, technically, as Sterling's goal came in the 92nd minute, we had managed to keep them off the scoresheet for the full 90. That was one of many things that put a smile on my face that day, as we retained our FA cup trophy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted February 17, 2023 Author Share Posted February 17, 2023 Game day 38, and we play Wolves at the Emirates. On paper, not the hardest game we could be given, or is it. This is the fourth time we'd play Wolves under my tenure, and we were yet to record a win. Having only scored a single Alexis Sanchez penalty in the previous three attempts. Oh dear. By comparison, City were away at Bournemouth, who were in the process of yo-yoing their way back down the championship. They'd been newly promoted at the beginning of this season, and already 19th on the final day, needed a miracle to stay up. Having been 259 minutes of play since our last goal against Wolves, it was a relief in every possible way to be a goal up just three minutes into this tie. Illia Zabarnyi's goal in the FA cup final eight days earlier must have left its mark on him. As he scored pretty much a carbon copy from our first corner of the game. We were on our way! Who else but Erling Haaland scored for City on the 10 minute mark in their game. Franck Kessie put more than just one hand on the trophy for us with a penalty conversion in the 25th minute. Then with Wolves still reeling, Bukayo Saka wiggled his way through their disjointed defence to put the icing on our champions cake just three minutes later. We were 3 - 0 up with just 28 minutes played. City got a second through Raheem Sterling on 51 minutes in their game, but realistically, they could score as many as they liked, if we didn't lose our game it didn't matter. Its a wonderful position to be in, when the main factor behind making substitutions is getting players who you feel deserve to soak up the atmosphere of becoming champions, onto the pitch with the result well in hand. Most of the first team were on the pitch, so I sent in Marc Roca and Reiss Nelson, who I felt wouldn't likely be here next season, so should at least get to revel in their success now. Finally Jamie Bynoe - Gittens was sent in late on, not just because wherever Nelson went he went, but because he'd been the standout player for me in the second XI, and had been a significant factor in our ability to continue to produce the required results. The final whistle came as both a joyous and bitter sweet moment. In that we were now champions, but at the same time, if you'd offered me the chance to stay a little longer, on the cusp, being champions in all but name, I wouldn't have said no. The reality was, it wouldn't be long until we would be being judged on achieving new targets, and this success would be shrugged off. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted February 17, 2023 Author Share Posted February 17, 2023 Few days after the confetti and fireworks had rained over our heads at the Emirates, I was sat in the back office looking back over the past season and taking it all in. Truth be told I also was spending quite a bit of time standing in front of our recently refilled trophy cabinet. Strange how you never really know in football. At just before the halfway point in the season, at the Qatar enforced break, we'd trailed City by four points. At that juncture they hadn't lost a game, and Haaland was already setting goal scoring records. I thought our best chance of taking a trophy would be, ironically, the one piece of silverware we failed to win, the Europa League. Probably because the domestic juggernaut that was City, scared me to death. After a dodgy draw in the tumult of Turkey against Galatasaray we managed to string home wins together against Saint - Etienne and Fiorentina. Then a defeat away in Italy put getting out of the group in jeopardy, we relied a little too heavily on other results going our way, needing a soft stoppage time penalty away in France to take all three points. Before securing the group in the last game with a 3 - 0 win over the Turks. We got Juventus in the knockout round, over a single leg due to fixture congestion. A 2 - 0 win saw us progress, with PSG being knocked out by Atlanta, we were beginning to look like one of the dominant forces in the competition. Unfortunately that is where our journey ended. Spurs saw us off over two legs, scoring twice at the Emirates and then frustrating us with their rear guard action back at theirs. We went out 2 - 1 on aggregate. Athletico Madrid ended up winning the competition, beating Atlanta 2 - 1 thanks to goals from Riyad Mahrez and Luis Suarez. Moving on from the trophy we failed to win, to the thankfully longer list of ones we did. The community shield saw us come from behind against Man City, with new signing Dominic Calvert - Lewin scoring just a minute after Ruben Dias had given the Northern club the lead. We'd run out 5 - 3 winners on penalties. Across the five games of the Carabao cup, we scored 12, conceded four, in a competition where I generally played the kids and or second XI. The only deviation from that theme was the quarter final against Man City, which came just three days before we played them in the league. The Premier league title still felt like a mountain to climb, so I wanted to give our best showing in the cup competition. Our other opponents in order were Doncaster, Newcastle, Everton and then the final against Brighton. Similarly in the FA cup I played mostly the second XI, here we also scored 12, conceded just twice. With us not conceding a goal until the quarter final against Aston Villa where they took us to extra time. By that point, Cambridge, Crystal Palace and Leeds had already fallen by the wayside. The semi final against Liverpool and the final versus Man City I brought in the first XI. Liverpool surprised me by being bowled over 3 - 0, Man City we beat by our signature score of 2 - 1. Coming to the league, at the break in November, I said if we were going to challenge we would need to be nigh on perfect. We didn't lose another game in the 23 league fixtures after the world cup ended. City on the other hand lost four times, twice to us, the other two coming against Man Utd and Norwich. Even then, counting just our own efforts we would have come up short, once again failing to get the pivotal goal past Spurs, as their 10 man rear guard held us to a draw in the penultimate game of the season. It took an Odsonne Edouard goal at St James park in the 87th minute to hold City to just a point. Sending us into the final day with an advantage we wouldn't give up. Calvert - Lewin scored 19 goals for us in his debut season, less than the 25 he scored for Everton which is what enticed me to go out and spend £57 million to sign him. Haaland unsurprisingly took the golden boot scoring a ridiculous 52 Premier league goals for City. Enough reminiscing now, time to build towards the new season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted April 8, 2023 Author Share Posted April 8, 2023 So, having won four trophies last season, securing the FA cup and Premier league title double in my first full season in charge, which is important for the Ferguson challenge! Where do you go from there? Well obviously, you attempt to keep building on that success and become a consistent performer, then transition into a dominant force. Guess the more pertinent question is how. You see, when I finished that takeover season, I had a solid idea of who played well, who didn't and what we needed to do in order to improve. I suppose, when there are lots of areas to improve, then making some level of progress is easy. But after you've picked off the low lying fruit, its harder to firstly identify, and then acquire the required pieces of the puzzle which will continue to move you onward and upward. I sat and ruminated for quite a while, probably not as long as the gap between this entry and the last, but a fair while. Before I made the following decisions: I'd commit to the change in formation and tactics that I'd been building towards last season. This was partly down to me wanting to score more goals, but mainly due to me feeling that I couldn't rely on Calvert - Lewin to produce as an out an out single goal threat. I also decided that it was unlikely I'd ever outscore Man City with the players we both had at the current time. Meaning that if I ever wanted to be on the positive side of a goal difference battle with them. I needed to make the goals I did score, count for more. Meaning I would look to strengthen my defence before the upcoming season. So with that in mind, lets take a look at the business we did before the start of the 23/24 season: Out Amario Cozier - Duberry - Kings Lynn: Loan (23.5k fee) Nikolaj Moller - Bolton: Loan Zach Awe - Burton: 200k Harry Clarke - Burton: Free Tim Akinola - Cambridge: Free Giovanni Reyna - Borussia Dortmund: Loan Kaleel Green - Hereford: Free Brooke Norton - Cuffy - Aston Villa: 4.3m Alan Potter - Norwich: 92k Mazeed Ogungbo - Preston: 54k Nicolas Pepe - Barcelona: 41.5m (end of loan clause) Granit Xhaka - West Ham: 42m (end of loan clause) Khayon Edwards - Watford: 175k If you've been paying attention your like, hold on! Giovanni Reyna, where did he come from? Well we bought him from Dortmund at the end of the 22/23 season, with an agreement to loan him straight back to the Germans for one more season. In Giovanni Reyna - Borussia Dortmund 35m And that concludes the business June, and what I consider the end of the previous season. With friendlies starting in July, and the squad returning for the new campaign, I see the signings I make after this point as new season signings. Sounds daft? You're probably right. But it works in my mind. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted April 8, 2023 Author Share Posted April 8, 2023 Here comes the new season, and the movement of players was only just getting started! Out 1/7/2023 Rafael Garcia Real Irún Free 1/7/2023 Jordan McEneff Bohemians Free 1/7/2023 Boubacar Kamara Sevilla £25M 1/7/2023 Matt Turner OL £3.6M 6/7/2023 Omar Rekik VfL Bochum Loan - £1.1M Total Fee 6/7/2023 James Olayinka Fleetwood £115K (£160K) 6/7/2023 Tyreece John-Jules Blackburn Loan 7/7/2023 Zak Swanson Reading £600K 9/7/2023 Marcelo Flores Barnsley Loan - £45K Total Fee 10/7/2023 Marc Roca AS Monaco £20M 11/7/2023 Folarin Balogun SV Werder Loan - £1.1M Total Fee 14/7/2023 Reiss Nelson Leicester P/Ex 15/7/2023 Jamie Bynoe-Gittens FC Augsburg Loan - £1.2M Total Fee 19/7/2023 Mika Biereth Nottm Forest Loan 27/7/2023 Mirko Čulina SV Werder Loan - £1.1M Total Fee 31/7/2023 Jack Henry-Francis St. Pat's Athletic Loan - £2.2K Total Fee Its amazing what you can achieve when you workout how to print from the in game engine to a webpage and then copy the table over! Though it prints the transfer history page in chronological order, so the empty lines are where I've had to manually remove the incoming players. So I can then put them in the "IN" section. I don't know about anyone else, but I tend to get attached to certain players, and in certain saves I don't get rid of them, or sulk when I do! There was a little of that in this window, but not as much as I expected. I moved on Boubacar Kamara and Marc Roca, players I'd bought. Which usually makes me feel I made a mistake, as they've not stayed at the club long at all. Though in the case of the Kamara transfer, I picked him up on a free, so 25m of profit is definitely a nice piece of business! The loans of Jamie Bynoe - Gittens, Mika Biereth and Folarin Balogun were a different story. This was the consequence of the formation shift. I was going strikerless, meaning that those two talented youngsters had no real place in the current setup. So they were loaned out. I had no idea whether I was trying to increase their value before selling them, or if they'd be back after a season with the formation change having been a failure. Bynoe - Gittens went on loan for a similar reason. Calvert - Lewin could play as an inside forward on the left side. Meaning Jamie went to third choice in that position and thus would benefit from development elsewhere. In So who exactly did we bring in? 3/7/2023 Jude Bellingham Arsenal £101M If your going to go big on making yourself tougher to beat, then you can't go wrong with signing arguably the best young defensive midfielder in the world. I like to think that me letting Reyna go back to them on a one final year loan helped develop the good will that saw this deal done. On top of everything else, he's homegrown! Was over the moon when he decided to sign. 14/7/2023 Wesley Fofana Arsenal £50M - P/Ex I didn't think I'd get a defender of his calibre. Basically there wasn't enough money for both him and Bellingham in the pot. But we wheeled and dealed back and forth with Leicester before settling on a fee and Reiss Nelson in part exchange. I half expected Nelson to reject his contract and thus torpedo the deal. But we got this one over the line as well and I began to feel pretty darn hyped about the increase in our defensive quality. 19/7/2023 Mirko Čulina Arsenal £3.4M (£3.9M) Again the observant amongst you will see this gentleman's name appearing in the out section of the transfer list. He came to us from Dynamo. He's an 18 year old Croatian phenome who can play pretty much anywhere in our half of the pitch. He's very much a purchase for the future, so he went out on loan just a week after signing for the club. 27/7/2023 Charlie Sayers Free Transfer Free Not sure why some players are showing up on the "from" list, while some are only showing up on the "to" list. But guess I can look at that going forward to accurately show the transfers a bit better. Either way, must admit that Sayers was a bit of a panic acquisition. On reflection he might never be good enough for the first team. The problem I had at this point in the window is, Ainsley - Maitland Niles wants to leave to improve his chances of getting in the England squad, and Nuno Tavares wants a new contract. The first I'm not opposed too, but Man Utd don't make an offer worthy of not being laughed at. The second, Tavares has plenty of time on his current deal and isn't worth what he is asking in his new one. All in all, my wing back prospects are not as rosy as they were. Hence Sayers. 2/8/2023 Miguel Gutiérrez R. Madrid £19.5M Slightly more thought out here, but for pretty much the same reason as the Sayers buy. Miguel is an accomplished left wing back, and at 22 fits the mould of being young and full of potential. I feel slightly better about my back line options than I did a week or so ago. 31/8/2023 Christian Marques Free Transfer Free 31/8/2023 David Button Fulham £115K Bit more panic here. Always wanting to have an argument with me. Gabriel stormed into my office and demanded that I give Nuno a new contract. I refused, but we did compromise on me promising to treat the players better in future. I see this as a no win situation, as in my mind, I treated Nuno as well as he could expect to be treated. I mean I didn't laugh in his face. So its only a matter of time until I fail this promise and have to look to replace Gabriel. Marques is not that replacement, not even close. I mean he could be, he's 20, Swiss and full of potential, and he's free. But he's not ready right now. As for David Button, ever since I managed to shift Matt Turner my DoF has been stomping around trying to sign any person willing to put on a pair of goalie gloves. A long time ago I made sure I had the power to make final signing decisions on any incoming transfers. So I basically get to veto all the useless dross that attempts to be signed. While Button is pretty useless, he's the least awful prospect that we went in for. And as he's only going to see action if Aaron Ramsdale literally dies, then I guess I can live with him being in the squad. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted April 8, 2023 Author Share Posted April 8, 2023 (edited) Lets see what the month of July had in store with regards fixtures and results. July 2023 Sat, 15/7/2023 20:00 Club Brugge true A 3 - 0 Martin Ødegaard (3), Gabriel Martinelli (55), Charlie Patino (89) Friendly While we are getting closer to the present day with regards catching up on old results. This is still long enough ago that it no longer lists the starting line ups for each squad. I can't remember if Fofana started this game, just a day after he completed his move to us. I vaguely remember Bellingham was nursing a niggling injury when he signed, so pretty sure he didn't play. A pretty solid performance against a team who had an outside chance of getting into the Champions league. Also a strong performance from Charlie Patino, who was amongst a number of young midfield players who needed to show they had it within themselves to step up and play. So they didn't get loaned out again come the start of the regular season. Sat, 22/7/2023 15:30 Nantong false A 7 - 2 Dominic Calvert-Lewin (8, 32), Albert Sambi Lokonga (15), Bukayo Saka (22, 41), Charlie Patino (74), Yusuf Demir (84) Friendly First problem, the schedule view doesn't show the scorers when other teams dare to put goals past you. Another reason to keep the number of occasions that happens too a minimum. In order to spread the love, this year I chose to take the squad to China for the pre season training camp. While it was unlikely to result in any meaningful competition. It allowed us to show off the club to a completely different selection of supporters. Playing at the Rugao Olympic Sports Centre. We were five goals to the good before Xie Ziran gave the home crowd a goal of their own to cheer about. Not that they hadn't been cheering our performance to that point! Good to see that Calvert - Lewin could score goals from his inside forward position, though I should probably hold out for more difficult opponents before making that conclusion definitively. Patino made it two in two. And Yusuf Demir, someone we signed in 2021, but only joined the club at the end of last season due to his loan deals, gets himself on the scoresheet. Thu, 27/7/2023 19:30 SH Shenhua true A 4 - 2 Martin Ødegaard (21), Emile Smith Rowe (25), Ainsley Maitland-Niles (pen 44), Gabriel Martinelli (55) Friendly Very different complexion to this game. Chang Shenlong had the Hongkou Football Stadium in a frenzy when he put the hosts ahead on 17 minutes. Even after Odegaard levelled some four minutes later, the hosts were back in front on 22 minutes with a Lautaro Rodriguez effort. We finally did get a handle on the game and ran away with it. But definitely more of a contest than I expected. Maitland - Niles, while still at the club, needed to keep his fitness up so got some time. Edited April 8, 2023 by Mandy42 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted April 9, 2023 Author Share Posted April 9, 2023 Just to clear something up before we go any further, the "false / true" entry is regarding whether the game was shown for TV or not. In case anyone was wondering. Moving into August and we had five games to play. Two friendlies, the Community Shield, and our first two Premier league games. August 2023 Sat, 5/8/2023 15:00 Venezia true A 3 - 0 Franck Kessié (pen 3), Bukayo Saka (46), Illia Zabarnyi (73) Friendly I've probably mentioned before, but the further through the preseason I get, the more action the first XI gets. Yes I need everyone as ready to go come matchday one as possible, but the first XI especially. Which is why Franck Kessie is back on penalty duty, and Maitland - Niles is on the bench. We looked sharp when we needed too, but realistically, we won this one at a canter. Wed, 9/8/2023 20:00 Villarreal H 7 - 0 Bukayo Saka (1), Emile Smith Rowe (9, 31), Franck Kessié (12), Dominic Calvert-Lewin (28, 30), Jude Bellingham (45+2) Friendly Returning home after almost a month playing away and what a statement. This wasn't against (with all due respect) some Chinese team, this was a Spanish outfit accustomed to going the distance in continental competition. Don't think I've ever seen a half of football quite like it! Sat, 12/8/2023 17:00 Man City true N 0 - 1 None Community Shield Which is what had me so fuming about our first duck of the season. Not only did we squander our first chance at silverware this campaign, but my undefeated record against Man City is gone. I can have no qualms about the goal we conceded. A penalty is a penalty regardless of when in the match it occurs. So when Serge Gnabry danced into the area just four minutes into the game. Smartly shifted the ball, Kieran Tierney missed the ball and caught the player. Haaland converted from spot and we found ourselves a goal down. Not the first time City have jumped on top of us, but unlike all the other times we didn't get back on level terms. A couple of times in the first half, their goal seemed to be leading a charmed existence, and during the second period they definitely made a conscious decision to hold onto what they had rather than risk anymore. I took some solace in the fact they created little to nothing in way of their own quality chances. If we hadn't given up the penalty it likely would have gone to penalties. Which bodes well for the coming season. Just frustrating to lose. Sun, 20/8/2023 14:00 Aston Villa true H 3 - 0 Jude Bellingham (37, 46), Yusuf Demir (59) Premier League No such trouble on opening day! I count the Community shield as a competitive fixture. But it seems the match engine doesn't. As it credited Jude Bellingham as scoring on his debut. Did for a while in the first half wonder if the goal was ever going to come. Would we regret going in at halftime being completely dominant and only a goal up? Thankfully no, as straight from kick off we secured the tie with a second, then finished it with a third as Villa tried come out a little and get themselves back into it. Sat, 26/8/2023 15:00 Brighton false A 2 - 0 Gabriel (34), Dominic Calvert-Lewin (87) Premier League Last game of the month and this one was frustrating. The whole game was played in the Brighton half, as they put everyone behind the ball and did their level best to keep us out. To my relief and eventual amusement, we scored both our goals from corners. Which was probably inevitable, the high number of blocked chances resulted in us having nearly 20 of the flaming things! Also relieved to get off to a perfect start in the Premier league, yes its only two games! But I'm always nervous that smashing preseason is setting me up for a reality check when the actual competitive fixtures start. While the Man City result was demoralizing for me. Seems it galvanized the players to get the job done. Sure there will be tougher tests to come, but for now we are off to a great start. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy42 Posted April 14, 2023 Author Share Posted April 14, 2023 September 2023 You know you're back underway when you suddenly find yourself playing six games across three competitions in one month. I've also managed to spectacularly lose my glasses (no idea where they are!) So its very likely the increased font size is here to stay! Sat, 2/9/2023 17:30 Man UFC true A 3 - 1 Dominic Calvert-Lewin (10, 45+2), Illia Zabarnyi (18) Premier League With all due respect to Villa and Brighton, our first true test of the season came at Old Trafford in our third game. Gabriele Milano, left Juventus to become the Man Utd manager at the beginning of last season. He's brought in a plethora of young talent: Roger Ibanez from Roma Dominik Szoboszlai from Red Bull Leipzig Darwin Nunez from Benfica Marcos Leonardo from Santos. All to compliment the raft of experienced world class players (Pogba, Ronaldo, Varane and De Gea) already at the club. They are likely to be a force going forward. Why I'm very happy with the result we got at their place. I was slightly worried about how Calvert - Lewin would take to being deployed as an inside forward. But he seems to be loving the role. A lot of his goals for us have been headers, and in this setup he thrives on ghosting in at the back post on the back of full back and just dominating in the air. Darwin Nunez got one back for the Red Devils on 17 minutes, a perfect Pogba through ball allowing the speedy Uruguayan to latch onto the pass in full stride, dispatching the ball past Ramsdale before he could properly set himself. Parity was short lived however, Illia Zabarnyi's header from a corner saw us back in front just a minute later. I only noticed a few days ago (when checking the board opinion and club vision) that we were being judged on maximising set pieces. I did wonder why we were spending so much time on them in training. Now I know, and now I understand looking back why we've been scoring more goals from dead ball situations! The benefits of having the staff take responsibility for the majority of the day to day workings at the club! Calvert-Lewin's second was almost a carbon copy of his first, drifting in to head home when the Man Utd team seemed to already have their heads in the locker room. It is interesting to see the difference between how Smith - Rowe and Calvert - Lewin play the same position. Smith - Rowe stays wider, driving into the box if he feels he can take the defender on, the wingback staying deeper in order to provide an easy pass. By comparison, Calvert - Lewin plays further infield, more in the channel than the wing, and the wingback overlaps him to create a 2v1 situation that facilitates either a cross, or a cut back inside the area. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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