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Old 06-30-2010, 11:08 PM   #1
Radii
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
FM10 - From the Bottom Up

Add me to the list of people who have seriously gotten into FM for the first time in a long time thanks to the world cup. I just completed league play in my second season, so we'll pick up in May 2011 entering the offseason. But first, a little history to catch up:



Welcome to Woking FC. As a diehard Cubs fan, I never thought I'd manage a team nicknamed the Cardinals in any game ever, but here we are.


2009/10

When I took over Woking, they had just been relegated out of the Blue Square Premier league. I found them in Blue Square South with the hopes of earning promotion right back up.

I had one great gift already in place when I took over. Woking had a loaner at GK for the entire season, a reserve from a higher squad by the name of Lee Butcher who was 4 or 5 times better than anyone I was paying full time. I brought in a striker with my second year long loan option, paired him up with one of my own full time guys, ST Giuseppe Sole (bolded as that one is gonna be worth remembering), and worked the short term loan market to keep talented guys in the midfield and defense during the rest of the season.

2009/10 record: 24-12-6, 62 for-39 against (+23 differential) - 1st BSS

We were in the top 3 of the Blue Square South from start to finish, ended the season on a nice tear and had clinched the top spot with about 4 matches to go, earning promotion without having to fight through a playoff. we met our goals in the FA Trophy and FA Cup competitions.

2009/10 Stats Leaders

Goals: ST Giuseppe Sole - 22
Assists: ST Giuseppe Sole - 11
Avg Rating: ST Giuseppe Sole - 7.14


Yeah, a name worth remembering.


2010/11 Season

A comedy of management errors. I fired most of my coaching staff and learned how hard it was to find better. I ended up with an average at best GK coach, a fitness coach(which I didn't have in my first year), two general coaches and an assistant. Only two scouts, and a physio who wasn't rated all that well at all. This was a smaller staff than I had in season 1, primarily done as an effort to lose less money.

I didn't renew contracts of a lot of my backups, letting 7 or 8 guys leave the squad, and attempting to bring in a couple big impact free transfers. Instead of taking on another loaner GK, I brought in GK Kevin Lynch to try to develop into a full time goalkeeper. Two other offseason signings that I thought would have a major impact, I brought on 32 year old DC Bilal Sidibe, who looked better than anyone I had on defense, and FC Zepherim Zoko, a veteren Forward from the Ivory Coast. Sidibe was decent but not a starter by the end of the year. Zoko was a complete disaster. He never settled in with the squad and was unhappy to not have any countrymen to hang out with. I ended up giving him away in the middle of the season to clear his salary.

I started out in a relegation position after just a few matches and stayed there most of the season. It took a couple months for me to work out any loaners at all, but they finally started coming in and helping. I made two stellar free transfer signings, MC Joe O'Sullivan and DC Nick Fenton. also, I finally came to the realization that my star scorer from last year, ST Sole, could still play at this level too.

At around the 30 match mark I got out of bottom 4 spots in the table and never looked back. I only made it up to 17th (21st-24th get relegated), but I slowly built up a lead over the dreaded 21st spot and secured a stay in the Blue Square Premier league with about 4 matches left.

2010/11 Results: 14-10-22, 60 for/65 against, -5 diff, 52 points - 17th BSP


I didn't win a single game in FA Cup or FA Trophy qualifying, disappointing the board.


One last key point about last season. One of the turning points was when I had brought too many players onto my roster, was running about 1k/week over my salary budget... I took 5 guys who weren't regular first teamers and offered them all away for free. I dropped a good bit of salary, renegotiated a bunch of my guys cheaply, and my smaller squad seemed to gel much easier as a result.


Hopefully, I have learned from my mistakes and will keep my team more settled and will get off to a better start next season. I think I brought in some quality full time guys during the year and if I can get some quality loaners in around them a top 10 spot in the table should be very reasonable, a playoff position not impossible.


2010/11 Stats

Goals: ST Giuseppe Sole - 20
Assists: MC Joe O'Sullivan - 9
Avg Rating: MC Joe O'Sullivan - 7.13


Next up, we'll go over the roster. At the end of the 10/11 season I'm still carrying my loaners, a couple of which I'd love to have back, but that seems unlikely.


Last edited by Radii : 06-30-2010 at 11:08 PM.
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