I'm managing Blackpool in the Championship, trying to get them back to the Premier League. It's not going so well. With 16 to play we are 15 points out of a playoff spot....sitting 18th in the table, just 12 points clear of relegation.
Blackpool doesn't have a lot of money and the squad is old, so I decided early on that I would go with a youth movement, hoping I could still snag a playoff spot. I invested heavily in scouting with the limited funds that I had and aimed to find some good players on loan.
Gone from the club are
ST Gary Taylor-Fletcher (moved over the summer when a good offer from Derby came in)
CM Keith Southern (gone in August when it was clear we had enough midfield depth)
LM Bojan Djordjic (old, slow, and now a league 1 side's problem)
CB Matt Hill (we hardly knew ya)
ST Brett Ormerod (complained incessantly about playing time, so I cut him)
ST Daniel Bogdanovic (terrible at keeping possession. Now he works at the Pizza Pizza).
These moves served to lower the wage bill, get me some much-needed flexibility in transfer funds, and reduce the average age of the team by about 7 years.
Since we were already light on strikers, I went out and got Federico Macheda, on loan for the season, from Man United. He's been great - 9 goals - but his wages are kind of high, something I wasn't paying close enough attention to initially.
I spent the bulk of my transfer money on Danny Rose from Tottenham, who is young enough and talented enough to spend money on (rated 71 at the start of the game, which puts him in rarified air in the blackpool locker room). He's been playing both LB and LM for me as I try to decide which position is the better fit. Incidentally, his rating has gone up 2 points since I got him, and now sits at 73.
I've seen similar rating increases for some of my other players, the younger ones I inherited. It's neat to see them improve; too bad I can't say the same for my own play, which is still quite lousy.
We are the kings of mediocre , having drawn 15 times already. So much for a quick return to the top. This is looking like a two year project.
Back on the transfer market, I also picked up a Spanish striker, a young GK on loan for backup, and a couple of free agents (one CM/LM and one CB).
Things went poorly in the early part of the season as I was learning to play. We got knocked out of the Carling Cup in the second round and put ourselves in such a hole in the league that even an undefeated November and December didn't do us much good.
In the January transfer window, with it readily apparent that hoping for a playoff push would be unrealistic, I accepted an offer for the team captain, Barry Ferguson. He will be missed, but I replaced him short-term with another loanee, Chelsea's Josh McEachran.
In better news, my youth academy is going strong, with no less than five good prospects already signed. I have three scouts looking for more now, and I'm hoping, with the funds I've reserved, to pick up at least another seven prospects before the end of the year.
By far the best part of the season has been FA Cup. We got Man United in the first round, a double whammy because not only are they amazing, but my best player is ineligible to play against them. Didn't matter. After slamming us with shots all match, United was only up 1-0 (they even missed a penalty) when I scored a late equalizer to force a replay. And on that replay, out of nowhere, we scored two goals inside the first 24 minutes and went on to win, 2-0. Berbatov, Anderson and Rooney all missed sitters and in the two matches, United out shot me 28-5.
This was by far the best win we had all year, and my most enjoyable win in any FIFA game I can remember. Wish me luck the rest of the way.