A Fulham story - Bringing life to the Cottagers

Welcome to my Fulham story. Affectionally known as the Cottagers, Fulham has been condemned to mid table mediocrity in recent seasons and have survived relegation with ease in most cases. At present, they are likely to get relegated in real life and I am looking to right that wrong in this story.

Just a brief intro about myself, I am Tshepo, a South African who has been addicted to the various incarnations of the CM/FM games since the early 2000's. Constructive criticism would be appreciated.

On with the story we go:



A brief look at our history pales in comparison to other London clubs such as Chelsea and Arsenal. I hope to change that.



Lets take a look at the team.



I have mixed feelings about the team. I feel we are too good to go down but I also feel the current team lacks the depth over the course of a season to challenge for trophies. There are a number of old heads that need to be gotten rid of and youngsters who don't seem ready for PL football. We have tons of central midfielders and no wingers. Need to strengthen there and maybe at the back if funds allow.

I was given a messy budget of 800K and I told the board that I would avoid relegation.

Key players:


My star player. On loan from Spurs and one for the future. Everything will go through this guy


Fulham's (risky) record signing. If we are to stay up this guy has to bang in the goals. Has nice technical traits. Look forward to seeing him in action.


Old horse with plenty of legs. Still has a lot to offer and will be first choice in midfield.

With my lack of wingers, I settled on the following tactics.



As I am sure you can tell, the tactics lack any width and both feature a AM. The aim of the narrow tactics is to firstly, accommodate my star player Lewis Holtby and secondly, as I mentioned I have tons of CM's and crappy wingers so I need to adapt my tactics for this.

Lets take a look at the transfers:


Tons of transfers out. Mostly letting the kids go out on loan to get some game time. From next season, I will focus on youth and building for the future. Many of my players contracts expire at the end of this season and this will provide the perfect opportunity to blood the youngsters.
The most notable transfer out was Ashakan Dejagah. He is a decent player but wouldn't fit with my system. A few clubs were eager to take him on and he settled for Dinamo Moskow.

In terms of transfer IN, I could only muster enough for to bring in one player; Giovanni Moreno. He was offered to me by his agent and looks like he has something to offer. He will either be backup to Holtby and when I use the tactic with 2 AM's he will play in the role.

I prefer a 4-3-1-2, with Mitroglou as a TM and someone helping him as a supporting DLF, with the attacking midfielder a trequartista or a just someone who can have that killer pass.

Preseason

Played tons of fixture to get the players acclimatised to the new systems. Mostly against lower stature opposition. Happy with how it went and it seems the players are rearing to go.

Also finalised the acquisition of new staff. Brought in Director of Football, Mike Rigg, to help out with the little things I am not keen on doing. I am pretty hands on in most respects though.

Lets get this season started:
August

Obviously not a good month. Lost all my fixtures with conviction. I blame the Southampton defeat for the rest of the defeats because my tactics got COMPLETELY exposed in that match so I tinkered with other tactics in the other fixtures meaning the players cannot adapt to any particular one. Poor showing all round.

Player of the month: No one deserves this.

September

Much better month. Credible draw against a formidable Liverpool side. Also managed to get my first victory in a match I dominated against West Brom. The lack of goals in really starting to concern my 2 goals in 7 matches is not cool. Need to change this. Will look at a new tactic or mess around with the player roles and match instructions.

Player of the month: Lewis Holtby. Class act this guy. Pulled the strings in midfield and scored both the goals we scored this month. Keeping him fit the entire season will be my toughest task.

Thanks Pauker. I may need to look into that option. Using him as an Advanced Forward is not working out for me. Perhaps its due to his lack of pace.

October

My second victory-less month. Didn't expect to win against Arsenal or Man City but the Hull City defeat was a real blow. After last month I thought we had turned the corner. Only goal of the month came from youngster Larnell Cole. Definitely one for the future.

Still no goals from my strikers. This month I went with the 2 upfront tactic. Bent and Mitroglou have yet to score or assist. Totally unacceptable.

Player of the month: Larnell Cole. Showed signs that he will be a key player for my in the coming seasons.

19th on the log and starting to fear for my job

November

Started the month of quite well with some crucial victories the slipped back into our normal losing streak. Switched up the tactics as both my strikers have STILL not scored much to my annoyance. Goals came from Lewis Holtby and William Kvist.

Player of the month: None

Here is the new tactic:

Counter attacking tactic that aims to squeeze possession from the opposition by flooding the middle of the pitch. Pretty much came up with this tactic based on my players and their preferred roles.

Welcome to another update of my Fulham story.

December



Another shocker of the month. To be fair, the matches I lost I wouldn't expect to win. Bent and Mitroglou have yet to score for me. Mitroglou has picked up an injury and will be out for 2 months. Cant say that will make much of a difference because he has been poor. I will need to look at a new tactic that is more free flowing. This lack of goals is going to cost me my job!

Board requested a meeting with me, I thought I was going to get an ultimatum but it was to tell me to solve John Arne Riise's bad form.
I requested some transfer funds from the board and was given 2 million to spend. Excited about this. It will be make or break for me. Looking to get a striker, a winger and a left back. Hopefully I can push a loan or two through as well.

Here is the final league position going into the new year:



Languishing in 19th position. A couple of wins will drag me out of the relegation zone. I am still optimistic of a mid table finish.

Next update to follow soon...will discuss January transfer and results of the month...

On the subject of a striker,try and get Rhodes now or at the end of season, he is a real goal,getter, but for,now maybe try and loan someone good in.

Good story so far. Fingers crossed one of your strikers pulls himself together and starts finding the net. Fulham have quite an old squad, but with that an experienced one. Are you bringing through any youngsters other than Larnell Cole? Could be the kick up the backside some of the so called first teamers need!

Thanks for reading guys and for your responses.

Captainbrickarms - I had a look at him in desperation but he was valued at around 4.5 million. Way more than I can afford sadly. Will definitely go in for him at the end of the season.

McMonkey - My striker situation is giving me grey hairs. In December Rodallega scored a couple of goals and I thought he might be the man for the job. He then had his leg broken and is out for 4 months.
In terms of youngsters, Kasami and Dan Burn are the only other young players getting a game.

Time for an update as I find myself in a real relegation scrap. As I mentioned in my previous post, I wanted to get a striker in (for obvious reasons!) a winger (so I can change from my narrow tactic to include wingers) and a left back (frankly because John Arne Riise sucks!)

Lets look at the transfers:



Managed to get Luca Antonelli off the transfer market for a bargain at under 300K. Solid left back with good physical attributes

Next I managed to loan in Jimmy Briand from Olympique Lyonnais. He's got tons of gas to burn and high teamwork which is what I need

Finally...a striker and I got ex Liverpool and Bolton striker David Ngog from Swansea. I won't dare pretend he was my first option but I'll take what I can get for 850K. He's only 24 and can only improve from here.

While on the subject of strikers Rodallega is out for a few months with a broken leg, Mitroglou is a month or two away from returning from his injury and Bent couldn't score in a brothel. I even tried Moreno upfront and toyed with a 4-6-0 tactic. No luck.

Results time:

January

4 losses, 2 wins and a draw in a busy month. Knocked out of the FA CUP so all hopes of silverware are indeed gone. Good thing is I managed to score in all but one of the fixtures. Have changed to a new tactic:

Similar to the famous tika tika tactic but more defensive and aiming to catch teams on the counter

Player of the month: Lewis Holtby. This kid continues to be the only shining light in the black hole of despair (dramatic much?!)

League position: 19th

February

My best month yet! Got 7 points out of a possible 10. Really starting to think I can make it out of the relegation zone. Before the Sunderland match there were murmurs that that might be my last match in charge.

Player of the month: Giovanni Moreno. Scored in each match that we won

League position: 17th

Hope you enjoyed the update and please feel free to leave a comment.

March

TERRIFIC month. Crucial victories against teams around me in the relegation zone. Also picked up the biggest win of the season in beating Man City. It gets better....guess who scored the goal.....none other than Kostas Mitroglou. I honestly didn't think I would win the match so I gave him a run and he duly delivered. He also scored in the match against Cardiff. Could he have turned the corner? Certainly hope so.

Player of the month: Jimmy Briand. Looked like he was going to be a flop after a few questionable performance but has settled in nicely. Scored against Cardiff and picked up a few assists. Honourable mention goes to Dan Burn and Brede Hangeland who are my favoured Centre Back pairing

Here is how the league table looks:


Moved up to 14th and feeling much better. We are 6 points from the drop zone with 6 games to play. Of concern is that 4 of those fixtures are against Newcastle, Spurs, Chelsea and Man Utd. I need to win against Villa and Swansea who make up the rest of the fixture

Nice two months, keep it going and you will be safe. Also Mitroglou scored?!?!?!?

Keep it going mate

Almost end of the season and another update coming soon. Thanks for reading captainbrickarms and uni3.

This story is definitely different to some of the other one's where people win all types of things season after season LOL