Life in Football Manager

At the end of the last instalment I had just failed to keep Birmingham up and as a result I resigned, mostly because Brummie land wasn’t were I wanted to be it was a challenge when I took over the job to see if my tactical knowledge had improved enough to take the bottom side to safety in a few easy steps. I also resigned as I knew most of the major contracts were up for renewal and in the hope of someone losing their job for not fulfilling there goals I was ready to pounce. First job that came up was the Aston Villa job, Winfried Schafer the German manager once famous for once taking Cameroon all the way in the African Cup of Nations. Winfried thought it was time to retire leaving the post open for someone new. I applied, Villa took their time over a decision mean while Arsenal came straight in to ask me if I wanted to take up the management role at The Emirates. With a healthy budget of £109 million to help an under achieving Arsenal side win the league again. Since 2007 Arsenal have only finished in the top 3 once, so it was no surprise that they wanted someone who had constantly broke into the top 2 with Liverpool.

With £109 million to spend I was like a bull in a candy shop. But first on my jobs to do was to sort out the back room staff. Out went much of the Arsenal back room, Frank De Boer, Gerry Peyton and Craig Grant the only guys to keep their jobs, I did want to bring some of the staff I had at Liverpool especially Ricardo Moniz who I wanted as my assistant, but he obviously has his sights higher then Arsenal when he rejected my £16,000 per week contract the rest were happy at new clubs a few of them at Birmingham. So instead Rafa’s former number two was drafted in, Pako Ayestaran came from Liverpool’s rivals Everton to assistant in bringing glory back to The Gunners, Mark Kinsella was another coach that I will look forward to teaming up with who will take our defenders under his wing.

Looking at the team in as a whole we had plenty of great players, but lacked great players in depth, former Barcelona goalkeeper Olazabal came in last season and looks comfortable between the sticks and miles better then former number one Fabinaski who has been relegated to the bench, at 22 Olazabal looks like he has a long career in front of him.

Defence was the main problem in the team, mostly because of the lack of numbers on the right there was only one player Sagna a great player to have and will surely be number one in that position no matter who comes in. I am just looking for players to support Bakary in that role really a few Englishmen hopefully to fill the role and reclaim the capital. Clichy who is deemed to be the best full back in the team according to Pat Rice’s report, that was one of the reasons after he handed in his report I asked him to start looking for a new job. Clichy was good, but not great many other could do that role much better and the younger Traore was ready to put himself forward in the position, bids are coming in for Clichy and I think I will cash in and bring someone much better in. Centrally the main pair were going to be Barzagli and Toure the former I had recently promoted to captain with much pleasure from the rest of the team at 31 he is of the right age to start bossing around the younger players and he is also a highly influential player that will hopefully spur us on to victory. Toure himself is the best defender in the team high tackling, marking, decisions, anticipation and everything else it is needed to cement the wall of the defence. Again it is mainly number I need to make up, Djourou the third choice doesn’t look too bad but dispensable nevertheless.

The assistant seemed to think that the midfield was the weakest part of my team, maybe so but it doesn’t really reflect that quality that is in there. Silva commanded an attacking style of football down the left and when asked to could cross the ball to any blade of grass you asked him too. English talent was already available in the side as a backup for Silva in Downing and with Pedro also looking for a shot on the left hand side of midfield you can’t complain about that. On other flank was another Englishman, David Bently returned back to where he did his apprenticeship before leaving for work experience developing into a decent player. But he would play second fiddle to Hleb, I know when you say his name it sounds like your clearing your throat but the guy can do anything when he is on the ball and in my side will start on the right, for some unknown reason the guys before my preferred David before Hleb I don’t know why but I will restore that natural order. Centrally still commanding the midfield is playmaker Fabregas and Denilson has made the step up as a first team regular and Meirda seems a pretty good option to back us up or to play the more attacking I will score 4 if you score 3 football. What Arsenal surprising do lack is a defensive midfielder and when you think of some the greats they have had in that position such as Viera, Petit and Gilberto it is hard to see why, this will be a problem I will seek to rectify straight away.

Heading the attack is Walcott, if you remember a player that has caused me so many problems, hopefully he will be the one causing other people problem this time on my behalf, he still looks good and is English which is a bonus. Adebayor and Eduardo are still at the club that latter now becoming an English citizen meaning he is Brazilian born Croatian, Englishman. Adebayor hasn’t found the net much recently though failing to score more then 10 goals for the last couple of seasons, he still looks like a decent substitute or backup to keep him in the side. Same with Eduardo he doesn’t see much of the goal either. A nice surprise to see at the club though was Trejo, the only experience I had seen of the Argie was in the What if… Dennis Wise story were he made up a decent partnership at the Chelsea team so I will look to play him alongside Theo and try and bring in a proven goalscorer, with £109 it shouldn’t be too hard.

So the main aim then is to bring in some quality players to make the difference, match winners, proven players to bring instant success to an Arsenal club that has been starved of it for some years now. I will try and bring as many Englishmen as I can in and I have alot of them in mind that should make up a decent side so let the negotiations begin.