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Torino Update My last update at the end of February saw us rise up the table to 13th, but just 2 points clear of 19th placed Sampdoria. With only 3 competitive games in March, I decided to wait until the end of April to provide this update: We started March with a 1-0 defeat to table-toppers Milan. We held our own for over an hour, before Brahim Diaz struck the winning strike. We followed up the defeat with a very good win over 9th placed Bologna. Goals once again from Lukic and Vlasic giving us a vital 3 points. We rounded off March in the league with a point away to Verona, with Pellegri scoring for us. We headed in to April in good spirits and it showed with the absolute thumping of Sampdoria. Schuurs, Buongiorno and Vlasic gave us our most complete win of the season. We then followed it up with an extremely important away win against Salernitana. Linetty, Buongiorno and Miranchuk on the scoresheet this time. A spiritied 2-2 draw away to Udinese followed, with Pellegri bagging both goals to put us 2-0 up early on. Unfortunately, we just couldn't hold on, but I'd have taken a point if you'd offered me that before the game. I would have wanted more than 1 against Empoli, but I was happy to keep our unbeaten run going, especially with the next 2 fixtures in mind. And those 2 went as predicted. We held our own again for a long time against Lazio, but an 80th minute Zaccagni strike killed us off. That blow took the stuffing out of us right before the Turin derby and Juve's quality told, comfortably putting us to the sword. However, over the 2 months, we racked up 3 wins, 3 draws and 3 losses in 9 games, with the 3 defeats coming against those in the top 8. This has left the table looking like this: With 6 games to go and us sitting 9 points above and with 4 teams separating us from the relegation zone, I'd like to think we are pretty safe. We do have Napoli, Sassuolo and Atalanta still to play, but we also have Brianza, Spezia and Cremonese, so I'd like to think I'll be able to pick up the extra couple of points that should see us through. Buongiorno has definitely stepped up, with the left-footed CB earning himself a long-term contract. I can see the rest of the squad having quite the upheaval in the summer though, with Singo wanted by the likes of Dortmund, Rodriguez and Linetty wanting to explore their options when their contracts run out in 2024 (so do I cash in this summer?) and Miranchuk, Vlasic and Radonjic to return to their parent clubs.

Saving Torino So we moved in to January sitting just outside of the relegation zone on 15 points after 18 games. We didn't really make any moves in the window, with me already being well over in the wage budget and not having the depth in order to really lose anyone. We headed in to what looked to be a very tough month of fixtures, with Roma, Inter, Atalanta, Salento and Fiorentina standing in our way. Here's how we did: Where we were lucky is that 4 of the 5 games were at home and I knew we had to use that to our advantage. Miranchuk got us off to the perfect start against Roma, but an Abraham penalty meant we shared the spoils. Boyed by a good performance, we headed to the San Siro with a plan to get in and get out with a point. And if it wasn't for a lazy pass across his own box by Buongirono that went straight to Lukaku, we would have got away with it as we defended excellently. The real pain came when we lost at home to Atalanta. I was caught in two-minds as to whether to stick with my defensively-solid outlook, or take it to them as we were at home. The indecision cost me, with us rarely laying a glove on Atalanta, with them taking all 3 points home with them. That meant that once again, our final games of the month were must-wins. A visit from bottom-placed Salento seemed the perfect game, but when they took the lead early on, I feared the worst. Goals from Vlasic and Pellegri had us 2-1 up, but the away side scored on the hour mark to peg us back to 2-2. Thankfully, with just a few minutes left, Vlasic scored a crucial third to ensure we took all 3 points. The morale-boosting win give us a great bounce going in to Fiorentina at home where we were defensively excellent. We didn't offer too much going forward, but thankfully a silly foul by the away side was punished from 12 yards by Lukic. Those results meant the table looks like this going in to March: 7 points in February has shot us the table, but there's just 4 points separating 19th and 11th. We've done well and we look much better defensively, mainly down to now settling on a back 4 of Singo, Djidji, Buorngiorno and Rodriguez. Hopefully we can keep the defensive resolve up going in to March, with 3 of our 4 fixtures coming against sides sitting above us in the table.

Saving Torino So as stated above, I took the reigns at Torino with the club sitting in 19th place having just picked up 2 wins in 13 games. I came in to the club during the world cup break and I used the pre-arranged friendlies to try and figure out tactics and best 11's: The aim moving forward is to try and make us solid at the back and with confidence and morale within the group almost rock bottom, I knew it was going to be a tough task. We took the lead against Piacenza, but our weak bench options cost us. We just couldn't compete with West Ham, whilst away at Angers we blew another lead. We absolutely battered Hannover with our returning World Cup players, but couldn't get the goal and once again, couldn't keep the clean sheet. It didn't bode well for the upcoming league games, so I tweaked the formation slightly, alternating between a 4-1-4-1 and a 4-3-3 (DM Wide). I made the tactical switch of moving Schuurs in to a CDM role, to try and give us some protection in front of the back 4. Here's how January went: Brianza were a team flirting around the bottom 3 with us and when we took an early lead through Vlasic, I was hoping for the perfect start. However, as per the friendlies, we surrendered the lead, but all in all, not the worst point. Especially as we followed that point up with 3 at home to Cremonese. Buongiorno, Linetty and Karamoh found the back of the net and quite frankly, I knew it was a must-win with the run of fixtures we had coming up. And that worry became true. We held our own against Inter going in to half time, with us being just 2-1 down. Unfortunately, our lack of quality in depth meant that as we made changes, they steamed ahead to take a 4-1 win. Then, disaster hit. With 4 games in 10 days, my regular core were tired and the fringe players, well they did nothing to enhance their chances of breaking in to the first team. The 6-1 defeat was embarrassing and made what already seemed an impossible task in the next game away to Napoli even harder with morale so low. I almost just wanted the Napoli game to be over before it started. I knew that the most important game of the month was the final one, at home to fellow relegation candidates Spezia. A Lukic pen and a Rodriguez free kick was enough to secure a massive 3 points and leaves the table looking like this after my first month in charge: Well we are out of the relegation zone for now! Empoli do have 2 games in hand, but we've managed to double our wins this season and have now also got 2 very tough away games out of the way. We do have a very tough looking February coming up, with games against Roma, Atalanta, Inter and Fiorentina to navigate. / As for the squad, about 9 of the 11 are now nailed on. I sent Lazaro back to Inter to cut down on or wage bill and released 22 year old French Midfielder Michel Adopo, but we are still operating at £45k over the wage budget. We've made a decent start, but need to keep chipping away to ensure we survive and then look to rebuild in the summer of 2023.

Hey Guys, After simulating as unemployed through to the break for the World Cup, I trawled through the managerial vacancies and decided the team I wanted to save from their dreadful start was Torino. Here's how the table looks at the point of my takeover: As you can see, the club find themselves in the relegation zone after a very poor start. Furthermore, the wage budget is £82k in the minus, meaning there will need to be some outgoings before any new signings in the upcoming January window. My aim is to make us tight at the back, hard to beat and then slowly work our way back up the table.

World Cup 2022 Break - Season Update For those of you that understand the reference, if my current season was to be summed up by a song, it would be The Middle by Jimmy Eat World! Played 15. Won 5. Drawn 5. Lost 5. Position - 10th. I mean come on! I couldn't do that again if i had tried! Even our goals for and against are only 1 off each other! This is how we got there. A very difficult looking start to the season saw us face Montpellier, Strasbourg and Lyon away from home in the opening month, yet we came away 8 points from the opening 5 fixtures, with the only defeat a 3-0 humbling by PSG. We were straight back on track in September with a win over Metz and a solid draw against OM, but again we finished the month being humbled by a superior team. That result unfortunatley hit us a bit harder, sending us on 3 game losing streak. We arrested the slide by beating Brest at home and should have won away to Angers, but I'll never be disappointed with a point on the road. A good 2-2 battle against Nice filled me with confidence going on the road to Lille, but unfortunately our attack was blunted and for 85 minutes the same happened at home to Dijon as it looked for all the world like we were going to end the first part of the season with a poor result. Thankfully, Guilavogui and Ui-jo provided a quickfire double to ensure we took the 3 points. As you can see, we really are just a mid-table team in every sense of the word. We could do with scoring more, but also conceding less (as per pretty much every team in football)! But when you consider that this summer was mainly converting last season's loans in to permanent transfers, we didn't really get chance to add quality on top of what was already here last summer. With that in mind, I just have to check myself now and then and remember that this is a slow building process. The aim this season is for mid-table security with anything higher being a bonus. Hopefully I can start to look to add some additional quality in Jan or next summer which will then in turn hopefully take us to the fringe of European Qualification. Stand out performers so far this season have been Ahmedhodzic, Nkounkou, Adli, Ellis and Onana, who all currently sit on an average rating of above 7. The World Cup break will be used to eye up some potential additions as well as looking to shift on those who are now no more than just bit-part squad players.

The 2021/2022 Ligue 1 season has finished and FC Girondins de Bordeaux have finished bottom and subsequently, relegated to Ligue 2. After holidaying through to early November unemployed, I took a look to see what jobs were available. There were some major teams seeking new managers, Atletico Madrid, Valencia and Lyon to name a few, but it was the club sitting on the west coast of France that caught my eye. It didn't take me long after doing some research on the club to decide that this was the perfect challenge for me, so having sacked their manager for a poor start to the season, a new appointment was made: Eyebrows raised in deed. To ensure the club didn't follow suit of their real-life counterparts, Bordeaux made the change, but instead of going for a somewhat "typical" appointment, they turned to the highly-qualified, yet unexperienced Welshman. I've signed on a deal that will initially take me to the end of next season. Let's have a look at the situation we find ourselves in: One win in 13 games has seen the club sit in the relegation zone throughout the opening of the campaign. The 6 draws has thankfully meant that we aren't too far adrift, which has led the board to requiring a mid-table finish this season and that's exactly what I'm aiming for. The Aim: The aim here is to finally enjoy a long, well-thought out save. I want to add to the club's trophy wall and build the club up to be consistent challengers for the Champions League places within Ligue 1. I want to bring through youth as much as I can and build a solid, self-sustaining team and club. Inspired by @MattyLewis11's (yet again) excellent thread with Lyon, I'm looking to go in to more detail with my players and any potential signings.