kuwait08 Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 “July 8th 2008 was a memorable day for young manager Daniel Moran. It was just 3 days since Mark Hughes had been sacked by the clubs new owners and a mere 12 hours since his agent had rung him with the exciting news Manchester City wanted him as their new manager. An ex England International, notching up 19 goals for his country Moran had spent the last 3 years working for the BBC as a football pundit and, with little experience in the management side of the game many people questioned his appointment.” Shortly after the press conference was concluded I headed into my first meeting with my new boss, Khaldoon Al Mubarak. He made it clear to me that the club were not in the business of hanging onto deadwood and promised me full support in any decisions I make regarding staff or players. I was then offered £72M transfer budget and a wage budget of ridiculous proportions. After some short negotiations I convinced him to increase my budget by £29M and to reduce the wage limits suitably. With the help of my chairman and the assistant manager I had inherited I drew up a list of transfer targets that both pleased Al Mubarak and excited Bowen and I. It wasn’t just players I had to look at, my assistant suggested there were a few members of the coaching team that may need to be moved on in order for the club to progress in the way I wanted. That day the following staff left the club: • Stuart Millward (Physio) • Lee Nobes (Physio) • Craig Yuil (Physio) • Al Stewart (Youth Coach) • Jon Webb (Fitness Coach) • Glyn Hodges (Coach) • Carlos Roberto (Scout) This left the management team a little thin but I wasn’t worried, after listing the vacancies interest was already high with a number of promising applications arriving already. Unfortunately just a few days later a promising physio came into my office tending his resignation, he had received an offer from another club and wanted a change of scenery. That day Jim Webb (Physio) left the club however it wasn’t all bad news as I announced the acquisition of Derek Wright (Physio) from Newcastle and a particularly pleasing one, Arsenals Francis Cagigao (Scout) a very promising young man with a great eye for talent. The only player to have left at this stage was the transfer listed Michael Ball, when Middlesbrough came in and matched my valuation he begrudgingly acknowledged we wasn’t part of my plans and made the move to Teeside. For the remainder of July I continued to fill up my backroom team with the following people arriving: • Gary Lewin (Physio, Free Transfer) • Jose Manuel Ochotorena (Coach, Valencia) • Giorgio Pellizzaro (Coach, Juventus) • Franco Baldini (1st Team Coach, Free Transfer) • Inaki Bergara (Gk Coach, Swansea) • Dave Billows (Fitness Coach, Everton) I had however lost another one of my original physios with Alasdair Beattie leaving for horizons new. I wasn’t overly disheartened as I felt that we had too many physios and that with Lewin and Wright on board we were well equipped in that department. I had also demoted my assistant manager, whilst very promising I didn’t feel he was quite up to the role just yet and so he settled into the new regime joining my coaching team. July also saw my only other recognised left back, Javier Garrido, leave the club in a £2.9M move to Wigan. With the majority of business dealings revolving around the backroom staff the fans were growing impatient with a lack of big name signings. My first month also saw me play my first 5 games at the helm, the results were as follows: • City 8 – 0 Nistru Otaci (UEFA Cup 1st qualifying round, leg 1) Jo (2) Evans (2) Robinho Wright-Phillips Byoko OG Petrov • Oldham 0 – 3 City (Friendly) Zabaleta Fernandes Ireland • Coventry 0 – 2 City (Friendly) Johnson Evans • Glentoran 0 – 4 City (Friendly) Evans Caicedo (2) Dunne • Nistru Otaci 0 – 3 City (UEFA Cup 1st qualifying round, leg 2) Elano Caicedo Fernandes My first three signings of August were all staff. I now had the team behind I felt could help me propel this club to the level they deserve. They were as follows: • Brian Eastick (Youth Coach, Free Transfer) • Gerd Muller (Youth Coach, FC Bayern) And finally… I had my new assistant manager and was very pleased to announce Pat Rice formerly of Arsenal as my new right hand man. One of the positions I had highlighted required some work was that of goalkeeper. Whilst Kasper Schmeichel was a promising youngster I thought it would be beneficial for him to go out on loan to get himself some first team experience, on August 6th I was therefore delighted to announce to the fans the signed of Francisco Guillermo Ochoa from America MEX for a measly fee of just £1.4M. Ochoa was a goalkeeper of great promise, already first choice for his national side and I believed would provide an interesting battle with Joe Hart for the number 1 shirt. By August 20th no more players had come or go and the whispers from the fans had become a roar. They weren’t happy, the new all about my budget and wanted to know why I wasn’t spending it. Unbeknown to them however, the club were very close to the signatures of 10 players, all that remained was some final paperwork and they were ours. I had been asked on my opinion on the pitch and felt we needed to make it as long and wide as possible; I was going to be using wingers heavily and had 2 exceptionally good ones in Robinho and Wright-Phillips. A big pitch I felt would give them the space to exploit the opposition fully. I also had to choose my captain, the previous season Dunne had been captain, a good one at that and Rice suggested he was a popular figure in the dressing room. I decided to keep him as captain with Richards as vice, that situation would have to be looked at closely next year as Micah is the man I want to lead this club to the top. We had played a further 4 games leading up to the point where the team would finally look like challenging for a place in the top 6, the results were as follows: • Bury 0 – 4 City (Friendly) Wright-Phillips (2) Johnson Petrov • Chonburi 0 – 8 City (Friendly) Evans (2) Johnson Robinho Fernandes Jo Caicedo Ireland • City 5 – 0 Trnava (UEFA Cup 2nd qualifiying round, leg 1) Jo (3) Geri OG Wright-Phillips) • City 0 – 0 Bolton (Premiership) The next few days saw a flurry of transfer activity. No less than 8 players went on loan to gain some first team experience. One who I particularly wanted to see get regular games was Ched Evans, he impressed me in pre-season and I thought a season spent in the Championship could do him the world of good. The following players were loanded out: • Ched Evans (Charlton) • Kasper Schmeichel (Grasshopper) • Shaleum Logan (Doncaster) • Richard Martin (Oldham) • Felipe Caicedo (Grasshopper) • Daniel Sturridge (Grasshopper) • Kevin Etuhu (Coventry) • Glauber (Nottingham Forest) The were two other departures in August, Danny Mills had no future at the club under my management and after some of his pre season performances I wasted no time in terminating his contract. With both Vassell and Hamann on the transfer list I was eager to get rid of them before the deadline as I didn’t want unhappy players and the club and with the number of games I had envisaged they would play in, unhappy is exactly what they would be. St. Pauli came in with a £500k offer for Hamann which seemed a suitable price, the player himself wanted to be allowed to hold talks with them and so I granted his wish. He left just two days later. Vassell was on the verge of a £1M move to Hull before his transfer hit a hitch. He broke down in training and after being examined from our physios it became clear this was a serious injury. He was going to be out for 5 months. Then the arrivals began and the excitement surrounding the club grew day by day. On the 24th I was excited to announce we had secured the signature of Lassana Diarra from Portsmouth. It had taken some time to negotiate the fee with us valuing him at £7M and Portsmouth holding out for £20M, in the end I was pleased to bring him in for the tidy some of £12M. The following day was another exciting arrival with the young tenacious Spaniard Ignacio Camacho from Athletico Madrid coming in for £7.5M. Just the next day saw not one but two new arrivals, in came Sportings Joao Moutinho for £10.5M alongside the experienced Joan Capdevilla from Villareal for £11.25M. Barcelonas Martin Caceres was next to arrive in a deal worth £12.25M before Michael Owen swapped Newcastle for Manchester in a deal worth £8M. I was now content with my squad, I felt we had good strength in depth and there were just a few more players to arrive. With Capdevilla on board I had one recognised left back, I wanted someone young as an understudy, Joan was the wrong side of 30 and I needed somebody capable of challenging him within 12-18 months. Gareth Bale was the man I wanted; Tottenham seemed to have other ideas though and rejected all our offers. Our last offer had been for £16m and I wasn’t prepared to go any higher. In the meantime I welcomed 3 promising youngsters to the club, Jozy Altidore came from Villareal for just a snip at £5M with Brazilian striker Keirrison arriving from Cortiba for just £3.7M. My final signing of the deadline was Hernanes, a very promising young man who can play the anchorman in midfield or even on the wings if need be. At £13M wasn’t cheap but my chief scout convinced me he was worth the money. I was happy, exhausted but more importantly, finished for this window… It would appear my chairman had other ideas… Early on the morning of deadline day, September 1st, Khaldoon Al Mubarak called me into his office. He was very impressed with the signings we had made and wished me luck for the season ahead, he did however make one thing perfectly clear; he wanted the left back situation sorted. He said he would be more than willing to help out financially, I didn’t feel I needed it as I still had just under £20M in the kitty. I was sent away with one objective and I really didn’t want to disappoint him this early on. With just 3 hours left of deadline day we agreed a deal with Spurs for Bale! I was delighted, it was more than I wanted to spend but £19M had convinced them to part company with their left back. He was on the first flight to Manchester and with just 10 minutes of deadline day remaining he was ours. Our final 3 games in August were as follows: • City 2 – 4 Portsmouth (Premiership) Jo Petrov • Trnava 0 – 2 City (EUFA Cup 2nd qualifying round, leg 2) Wright-Phillips Zabaleta • West Brom 1 – 3 City (Premiership) Owen Ireland (2) Season so far review – With a busy end of transfer window and much disruption to the team I was displeased but not surprise by our early season poor form. The performances in Europe however were encouraging and I was hoping that with a bit of time the signings would settle in and we might begin to see that replicated week in week out in the Premiership. September: • City 5 – 0 Huddersfield (League Cup 2nd round) Owen (2) Goodwin OG Robinho Dunne • West Ham 1 – 5 City (Premiership) Owen (2) Robinho (3) • Maritamo 0 – 1 City (UEFA Cup 1st round leg 1) Robinho • Arsenal 3 – 1 City (Premiership) Moutinho • Everton 2 – 0 City (League Cup 3rd round) • City 2 -1 Everton (Premiership) Petrov Owen September review – I was pleased but not surprised by our convincing cup win over Huddersfield, I was absolutely delighted with our win at Upton Park and another away win in Europe meant September was proving to be a very successful month for us. We were totally outclassed at the Emirates and I was gutted to be out of the cup so early, particularly being knocked out by a team who I believe us to be better than. We had the perfect opportunity to put it right though and was chuffed to see the lads bounce back straight away. I’m particularly happy with the partnership developing between Owen and Robinho with 12 competitive goals between them already. 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kuwait08 Posted January 4, 2009 Author Share Posted January 4, 2009 I'm new to posting stories so any help/ advice on layout or content is much appreciated. Thanks and I hope you enjoy the read.. I'll be updated as regularly as I can. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kewell08 Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 That was really long . Nice start... First money City story I think. And a transfer budget of 100 million? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goofus Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Flesh out your stories. Far too much things in too little. For example, my story describes a match in four posts. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluebirds4life Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 Yeh well Goofus 4 posts for 1 match is too much I like it its short quick and gives out the basics good spelling I like it keep it up. And my 700th post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark wilson27 Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 Basically what there trying too say is spread it out alittle , if you doing monthly reviews. Do a month per post, Use a few more paragraphs, just so we don't get lost in what were reading if you catch my drift. Up to now good story even if it is about Man.City lol Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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