Life in Football Manager

So you have already seen the season as it played out in the challenge and I only managed to get two managers sacked throughout the season, so I am going to do a review of the clubs, how they did and why they weren’t sacked to see where my failings where. Rob at The Portal ha pointed out a flaw that may have caused me to do so badly in the challenge, the fact that I didn’t play the game in full detail. I haven’t had a chance to look over that possability as of yet, but I think I will have to go for a second round if that is the case and it will be interesting to see how both games differ.

Arsenal

When I set up the Arsenal team that would get rid of their players basically I didn’t get rid of one of the best players in their side Adabayor meaning they had a goalscorer to take them up the league, plus the fact that I didn’t place a fee in the editor and as a result the game made up it’s own fee’s seeing Arsenal make £295 million, round two will definity all the best players leaving on a free transfer basis.

Aston Villa

I don’t know what was happening within the game here, Martin must have used his charisma to gain the confidence of the board and fans even though Villa only just survived the drop, I thought for sure that the board would have got rid of Martin earlier in the season but the guy managed to survive.

Birmingham

Maybe the lack of skills regarding the chairman meant he was more patient and couldn’t make the decision to get rid of Alex McLeish despite hovering over the drop zone. He was never under pressure at all, but bearing the fact I think the board itself must have had low expectations and anything other then bottom of the league would have kept him in the team.

Blackburn Rovers

Blackburn were quiet through most of the season, subtly finishing in a decent 10th. But anything that I changed at Blackburn was altered by the AI. Hughes got a wage rise and it wasn’t obvious weather he liked the club or not. His love for management was enough to keep him in the job, even if he could have moved elsewhere, maybe next time I will make his job preference for management rock bottom.

Bolton

Height and Weight didn’t seem to have much of an affect on the squad if anything it made them a better side and seen them get into Europe once again. I was just a bit gutted when the main goalkeeper Jussi was tampered with to keep a decent height and weight in goal. Plus they did bring in the buy of the season in Tote, hopefully at full detail these attributes will come into practise.

Chelsea

Maybe the lack of ambition and the lack of money making from ticket sales meant that Roman Abramovic was the guy who left and not Grant. 3rd place was a decent result for the side and I think I really needed to do much more in terms of editing the squad or Grant himself to get hiom out the job.

Derby

God dam overachievers, Paul Jewell is a god and if he hadn’t of incured a 9 point penalty in the league he would have finished 5th and in a European place. Instead they finished 7th and are financially crippled, Paul was under pressure because of bad money management but did wonder with what he had available at the club. But Derby’s loss is Preston gain as they are now valued at £794 million.

Everton

An up and down season for The Blues, one minutes they were near the drop zone and then the next they were challenging for a European place until then mixing in with the relegation crowd once again. The 3 defender tactics never really took off at Everton and it was just Moyes own doing that made it such a up down season for him as it played with 4 at the back all day long.

Fulham

Apparently Fulham can pay a manager £100,000 a week, who managed tp get them involved in the relegation battle and will still offer him a new contract. Roy’s ambitions obviously makes him think he can take Fulham to the top of the league, I was disappointed that he was offered and accepted a new contract.

Liverpool

So the question is answered that it is possible for Liverpool to do well without their main players. No one wants any of the top players like Torres and Gerrard and they are roting in the reserve side. Crouch was able to get a run in the side and did pretty well bagging 13 league goals. Runners up in the league shows that Liverpool have great depth in the side.

Manchester City

With no players to choose from and at one point only 11 players in the whole squad to pick from City did well to stay up. Cavani did well to get some goals for the side in the late part of the season to keep Manchester City up. But the City side showed great potential Michael Johnson had a great season Ched Evans the Welsh striker gaining some young player awards through the course of the season as he got the luck of the draw to start.

Manchester United

Maybe it had something to do with his failing eye sight or at 86 Alex Ferguson wasn’t as scary as he usually is, but the Manchester United side never challenged for the title and were trying to hold off Newcastle for 4th spot. As a result the guys at the top didn’t think it was right to keep the old man in and parted company with Fergie.

Middlesbrough

Another success as Boro were relegated meant that Southgate had to go, it just meant that each loss hurt more then normal as it was against rivals. It was then a downward spiral as the morale dropped and it was hard to pick the players up again.

Newcastle United

Another change that came back and bit me on the backside, the change to the defenders to get them to push up whenever they could didn’t leave holes in the back, instead it made more goals for the Newcastle side and Jose Enrique finished at the top supplier for goals at the club. A European place for Newcastle meant that Keegan once again is a hero in Tyneside.

Portsmouth

Harry’s signings this season had to be said that they were hit and miss and he wasn’t able to spot those bargains, splashing £10.25 million on Feindouno who has yet to make a league appearance which is unlike Harry. But his bad signings weren’t enough to get rid of Harry, although he did have a few near misses.

Reading

Finished bottom of the league, a manager that was under pressure and yet was not sacked, despite splitting his priorities with the England job. I thought it was a sure thing that Reading would get rid of their manager yet he survived and England reached the finals of the European Championships before losing to France.

Sunderland

Another side that was relegated but yet Roy Keane kept his job, increasing his reputation abroad without raising it at home didn’t really make much of a difference, in fact I think the computer balanced it back out. So he didn’t attract much attention from abroad. If Sunderland though got relegated this season I can’t see Quinn getting rid of Roy he hasn’t definitely got alot of out a side in a short space of time.

Tottenham

Another manager who diced with relegation, but managed to recover it by the end of the season. Although they finished in mid table, it was close and Ramos did come close to getting the boot, but just not close enough. In his description it said that he was a legendary manager, I thought that this could at least force him into a move out I think in round two I will play the other leagues plus make it that Ramos has been at Spurs for 10 years to see what his loyalty card says about that.

West Ham United

They were voted the over achievers of the season taking 8th after a poor start of the season. Being an injury prone player it seems doesn’t really mean that you may get many injuries through the season and the appointment of Nanni meant that West Ham had a decent physio to handle any injuries. But throughout much of the season they hardly had any injuries. I think I may have mis understood the injury prone status, putting this statistic at 20 must mean that they are less prone to injury. I was confused, round 2 should clear this up for me.

Wigan

Seemed to put differences apart and work together, but survival was only just as they finished 2 points above the drop. But yet Steve Bruce was never in trouble of getting the sack or under pressure. Pity though Wigan could have been a winner for me.