The Luke Henderson Story

Peter is a huge upgrade on Canas. You're doing pretty well so far.

#083 - Not spectacular at all

22/05/2033 -- I didn’t complete a whole season before in only three updates I think. It says everything about this very first season with Spurs. It just wasn’t spectacular at all. After our early knock-outs in both the League Cup and FA Cup; the Europa League didn’t brought us any success either. Of course the draw was not the best we could get, but we played two really good games against Juventus I would say. As usual we were quite unlucky, especially in the return game in our own stadium. After only ten minutes I had to make two substitutes already because of injuries and just a couple of minutes after half-time I had to make my last one as well. We were still in the lead thanks to a brilliant goal from Peter, but we didn’t hold stand. They scored the equalizer with thirty minutes to play, but I couldn’t force anything because of all those injuries... So, my bad luck is still following me, although I wasn’t really angry about this elimination to be honest.

In the league we had a really solid run of games until the end of the season. We only lost the away game against Manchester City, but celebrated a marvelous 1-0 victory against Liverpool at Anfield. This was one of the very few victories in my whole career we didn’t deserve at all, but my goalkeeper played a brilliant game with some awesome saves. Although he wasn’t awarded for it, because his rating was still under 7… We didn’t score many goals in the last thirteen matches, but we also conceded barely a goal. At the end Purton took care for 22 clean sheets this season, which is very good I would say. We ended fifth in the league (just as the former manager did last season), wherefor we are qualified for the next seasons Europa League group stage again. It was the best we could achieve I think, so I’m pleased with it.








Squad performances
The main reason why I flew quite rapidly throughout this season was not only because of a lack of some battling for the different competitions, but even more because of my current squad. I still can’t associated myself with a handful of players who are still here. They are irritating me heavily and if I gave one of them a chance at some point none of them is paying me back with some good performances. So I guess the upcoming transfer window will be very intense again!

First I will go through the performances of the squad this season, as I’m normally doing at the end of every season! This will automatically end up in which players definitely not pleased me and which guys will stay here next season. I’m starting with my goalkeepers. I can be very shot about them. Adrian Purton proved his abilities for being one of the best goalkeepers in the world. He is 29 years old now and most likely he will end his career with us. At least as long I’m in charge. Reserve goalkeeper Mark Awuni played a good amount of games in all of the Cup tournaments. He is a very solid replacement for Purton and still young as well. He will also stay.



The most problems in the squad are in the last line. None of them is from world class level, not even close to it to be honest. At least you should have one world-class defender in my opinion if you want to battle for the Premier League title at some point. So I could say everyone is possibly going to be replaced within the next few seasons. Grieco is a very talented youngster from Italy who might be staying, and the same counts for Frantisek Valenta. This Czechian guy is 22-year old now, so there is some space to develop himself a little bit more I think. His big benefit is that he can play at every position in our defensive line, which can be very useful. On top of that he can play with both of his feet! You don’t see it very often a defender can do this, which is an extra ability wherefor I can keep him at Spurs. All the other defenders are replaceable. Ibañez, Navarro and Villafene (all from Argentina) are welcome to stay, but if some good bids are coming in I’m not doubting heavily about letting them go. Only Villafene could be a problem because of there are currently very few decent left fullbacks available on the worlds transfer market. O’Keefe is also a youngster, but I think he is not good enough for being a back-up centre back and right fullback Calvin Smith is doing his job, but I’m expecting a little bit more to be honest. So, all summarized we could definitely expect some transfer activity in our last line for sure!

I’m playing with a defensive midfielder for the first time this career and the guy who is filling in this position is English international Nohan Kenneh. He is one of my best players, but with being 30-years old already, the end of his career is starting to begin. But his successor is already here. Austrian guy Fabian Gasser is rated as the best player at the club. He didn’t achieved much last season to be honest, but he is also quite young (23-years old) and I used him mainly as a central midfielder although he is more like a defensive midfielder. So, Kenneh and Gasser are definitely staying. I hired Stavros Georgiou from Manchester United last season as a back-up. He played a decent amount of games, most of the time he performed quite good as well. But he will return to Manchester.

The other central midfielders we have are Brian Sauer, Josh Wilson and Teddy Ashby (all non-foreign players). With all of them having more or less the same qualities. Not very spectacular, but not very bad either. Ashby is the best player on paper (and an international as well), but Sauer and Wilson are still quite young and can develop themselves a little bit more. Those three guys are probably staying, firstly because they are from England and secondly because our focus for upgrading the squad isn’t focused in our central midfield currently.

The two wing-positions are a little bit of a concern. Nobody of them is a right- or left midfielder from origin; all players are more like attacking wingers. But I don’t want to use this positions right now. Flavien Peter was our first signing last winter to improve the qualities at the left hand side of the field. He played almost every game so far. Not very notable until now, but at least he scored a goal (three actually) which his predecessor (Cañas) didn’t. He is still only 19-years old, so we give him some space to develop himself even more. Currently we didn’t have a decent back-up left midfielder, so we are going to search for it this summer. The right hand side of the field is worrying me heavier. Both Martínez and Murillo are just shit (and foreign as well) and so irritating me heavily. Both are valued around £60,000,000 but they are terrible to be honest. I will get rid of them for sure. Yeboah is a very good player, but as already said he is more an attacking winger rather than a right midfielder. Currently he is learning his new position, hopefully it sorts out. Some of the central midfielders can play as a right midfielder as well, but it wasn’t very convincing so far when I did. So, I’m probably searching for a new right midfielder as well.

The strikers are my last concern I think (beside of the goalkeeper!). Bernard and Parrott are here for ages now, but the end of both their careers is starting to begin. Bernard is 32 years old right now, Parrott 31. Bernard (from Argentina) proved himself as a very reliable finisher (actually he is almost a world class striker I would say) but I feel Parrott is already starting to decline. He had a good start of the season, but currently he hasn’t score a single goal in the last fourteen matches… I think I’m going to sell Parott if there is any interest for him, his contract is expiring as well within a year. Colombian youngster Luis Martínez is a really promising striker. He was on loan for most of the season at Atlanta United in the MLS, that’s why he didn’t play very much, but when I gave him some playtime at the end he didn’t convinced me that much to be honest. I’m going to search for a new striker for sure, but it’s depending heavily on the circumstances by the time what decision I will make for both Parrott and Martinez.





The upcoming transfer window will be a busy one again I guess, hopefully ending with starting the new season with a squad that is fitting me way better. There are two things I have to struggle with this transfer period: the club is still a subject for a possible take-over which can affect our position on the transfer market and the board took some £60,000,000 from the initial transfer budget at the end of the season which turned it down to around £65,000,000 in total. I really don’t know why, there is still £250,000,000 in the bank… I earned it all myself last season but now it’s taken from me without any reason. It’s for this kind of stupid things I turned on the in-game editor function when I started this career. I didn’t make use of it until now, and I rather prefer to keep it like that, but this doesn’t make any sense. So, if I run out of money to complete a deal for a player I really wanted, I will make use of the editor to make it done (of course only when it’s realistic and doesn’t exceed the £60,000,000 that is stolen from me). I will make notice of it when I do so, hopefully you can understand me why I’m actually doing this…

#084 - Transfer-time

05/08/2033 -- No, I didn’t make use of the in-game editor at the end (luckily). Yes, we paid £28,000,000 for a toddler who barely left elementary school and no, the club isn’t taken over yet. So poor Daniel Levy still can’t enjoy from his old days… He will probably die in his office at some point I guess. Oh and we played some pre-season matches as well of course, although that wasn’t really important, first I need to re-assemble this squad further on. So, that’s where we going to start with today, transfers!

Las update I carefully revealed a few players who I preferred to see going elsewhere rather than staying with us. Which happened. Partly. One of the players I wanted definitely leaving us was Felipe Murillo. A Colombian guy or so (I don’t even know exactly anymore; because almost the entire squad and reserve team contains dozens of guys from South America). He played some very good matches in our pre-season run last year, but in any official game he played just awful all the time. Soon he was downgraded to a player which I made use of if nobody else could play. So I’m very glad he was already sold before the season officially came to an end. Promoted Championship side Burnley was ready to pay £44,000,000 for this 29-year old fool. I’m very glad he’s gone now. The other guy I was pretty much done with is called Adrián Martínez. He plays at the exact same spot as Murillo did, but never convinced me either. Although he played a good amount of games I want to get rid of him as well. At some point Young Boys Bern came in with a bid of £53,000,000 but he rejected the contract offer... It took me two months to wear him out, but nobody wanted to pay that amount of money anymore. After some very hard negotiations German Bundesliga side Hoffenhem was willing to pay £35,000,000 but only if we took care for a part of his wage. Definitely not a favorite manner, but anything better then keeping him here.





We sold another two South Americans. Central defender Dante Navarro was on a one-year deal yet and I wasn’t really impressed by him last season to be honest. There was a lot of interest for this Argentinian guy, with several clubs making an offer of £26,500,000 but at the end he chose Sheffield United. I know exactly why, they are paying incredible wages. In total even more then we do… Although they finished only 16th last season. I wish him al the best. He is a good player, but most of his key attributes in a role as a central defender are not really breathtaking as you can see below. The other guy we sold is called Edwin Hernandez. A 22-year old former talent who was on loan last year. He didn’t developed himself enough to take part of the first team. At the end some kind of team from South America made a good offer, which I accepted.



We sold two other guys who were on loan last year as well, called Mihovil Kukec and Olivier Bodézon. They are not good enough for having a future at Tottenham, so we said goodbye to those two as well and picked up some extra money. There was one other big deal. Club legend Troy Parrott has left the club. A little bit with pain in my heart because I like club legends who stayed for almost their entire career at just one club. This Irishman is a very good player, but sadly I didn’t make use of him very often last season, mainly because he is an attacking left-winger, a position I didn’t use anymore. He can play as a striker as well, but Bernard is better. So there was only one option left: searching a new club for him. Newcastle United gained promotion into the Premier League again and was able to pay £44,000,000 for him. A very good amount of money I would say for a 31-year old guy who is declared superfluous.






Our new guys
I sit back and was thinking what I could possibly do with £175,000,000 + another £60,000,000 as a leftover from last season. We definitely need to strengthen our squad, so storing all those notes in plastic bags in an empty office next door, and counting it over and over and over again (although that might be really fun I think!) is not an option for sure I guess. So at the end we decide to spend almost all the money that was coming in. The first guy was already contracted in the winter but we didn’t took him over before this summer, hoping Bournemouth was giving him some playtime till the end of the season. They did, so at the end it was a good choice. 18-year old Toby Godden is our new center back. He looks very promising, but technically he definitely needs to improve a little bit more. Searching for decent English defenders is a pain in the as currently. I took a look in the national squad and they are all shit! Really, I don’t want anybody of them, not even on a free! England is going to have a big problem the next few years I guess. Although that will be good news for Godden, I’m expecting he will called up for international duty very soon.



If you take a look in the transfer overview already you probably spotted a guy called Aboubakary Dianéssy. A 18-year old Senegalese player. He wasn’t mine, obvious. The manager before me contracted him. I really don’t know why, he is never going to be a decent player who will reach into the first squad, or he has to develop himself spectacular from now on… I send him on loan because I’m not able to sell him immediately again. No, I bought two other defenders who are much more promising. I really needed a new left-back because we had only one last season. I made an offer for two guys, one being a French guy from Monaco and the other one a Dutchman from Ajax. It was one of the toughest decisions ever in my career so far. I hope I made the right one. 22-year old Stijn Bredewolt joined us for £48,500,000. Maybe I paid a little bit too much for him, but I really need this guy. Physically and mentally he is brilliant, technically his key attributes are pretty good, but I hope he will develop himself a little bit more. The main reason I preferred this guy above the Monaco one is because of his abilities to play in a role as an attacking wing-back as well, with decent attributes for dribbling, crossing and passing, although he isn’t really the paciest one sadly. But, you can’t have anything right?!



Next: my sweet little toddler. I love him already. And he didn’t even play a single match in his whole career yet! Although that wasn’t barely possible, he is just 16! One of my scouts found him and I wanted him immediately the first time I saw his attributes. I have never seen such an amazing player in Football Manager before at the age of 16. Scottish guy Ronnie Adams is ready to kick some ass. He is a center back from origin, but I will turn him into a right wing-back because he isn’t tall enough. He can play as a center back in emergency, but I think he can do much more better as a winger. Physically and mentally already amazing and his technical skills are looking very promising either! Imagine he can develop himself for the next six years as well when he is still only 22 years old! I will give him as many playtime as I possibly can, and if he is doing alright, it’s not unthinkable he will be a starting player already at some point this season. Oh, we had to pay Newcastle £28,000,000… We don’t talk about that. Our youth intake was terrible again (I’m pretty much used to it) so if we want youngsters we have to pay for it I guess.



As a big club you need to do at least one big transfer every year I would say. This year our star is called Carl Cordner. A 22-year old striker from England. Our new Harry Kane has just arrived. We had to pay around £70,000,000 for him, but if a player is an Englishman I’m prepared to pay a little bit more rather than flying somebody in from Romania for instance. He is an international already and played a good amount of Premier league matches so far for Brighton, although sadly they get relegated last season. A good opportunity for me to pick him up. He has everything a good striker needs, maybe even more than that. For instance he has a great technique and is working his ass off without having the ball. I will slightly bring him into the team, in the first place Bernard will be my first choice for the time being.





That was it. Although there is still a lot of money in the bank available for doing transfers but I couldn’t find the right players yet. I still want a new right midfielder and a decent left midfielder as a back-up for Peter. But for the upcoming season I will make use of a couple of promising youngster who were on loan last season. I promoted Francis Ayuk from French into the first squad and Englishman Stephen Olaitan as well. Olaitain played some really good matches in the pre-season run to be honest, so I think he will be useful as a reserve player. I also decided to keep Luis Martinez with us, having only two strikers is just a little bit to less I think.






Season expectations
Our pre-season run was solid, but not very convincingly to be honest. Although I was spending much more time for searching new players then I did at the training pitch… I made some tweaks in our tactic as well, hopefully it sorts out. In the last half of the past season we acted like Atletico Madrid with Simeone at the wheel. Concede nothing, score just enough. Not very attractive, but it suits the current players really well. I will go on with it for the time being, but most likely I will go more attacking at some point (which the board is expecting as well). The expectations for this season are pretty clear: just do better than last season. Then my position will be secured I think and making progress is rewarding the steps we are making to help this club forward.

#085 - Too good to be true

24/10/2033 -- Five Matches. Two of them against Liverpool and Arsenal already and we gained the maximum amount of fifteen points out of it. We are first after five playing rounds! Could you believe? But it was just too good to be true. After a bad game against Stoke City away our form suddenly dropped heavily, with a terrible 0-2 loss at home in the third round of the League Cup against Swansea City and a tremendous 4-1 loss visiting Burnley… With Felipe Murillo scoring twice. This fool achieved completely nothing when he was with us last year, but now he took care for two goals and one assist in only one match… Precisely against us he unleashed himself.

I was preparing myself for lowering down the expectations for this season a bit, but that was before our solid and very welcome victory over Manchester City with 30-year old defender Diego Ibáñez banging in a brilliant goal just inside the box. I’m currently still asking myself what he actually did over there because there was no set-piece situation going on or something. But I’ll definitely take it! In the next league game against Swansea City we took revenge for our loss against them in the League Cup, bringing us back at the top of the ladder. Only Arsenal is above us currently.





In the meantime we played three matches in the Europa League as well. I used my complete reserve team in all matches and it sorts out quite good with two victories and one draw. We are finishing first in the group anyway I think, all those teams against we are playing are not from our level. Not even close. We definitely belong in the Champions League I would say. But yeah, for joining the big clubs we first need to make sure we are ending within the first four in the league or winning the Europa League! With a little bit of luck it should be possible. At least the current squad feels much better to me than last year. There are just one or two players left I want to get rid of if possible. The couple of youngsters I brought in from the reserve team are performing not bad and the guys I bought are not bad either. Especially my left-back Stijn Bredewolt is doing bits. He was definitely the right choice rather than the guy from Monaco I suppose!

Hopefully the form is back on track now. The signings you made look impressive!

#086 - Everything is going perfectly, except…

12/01/2034 -- Okay, this is not exactly what I expected at this point to be honest! We are battling for the league title I guess! We are first in the league currently, although Liverpool has a game in hand and could surpass us if they win, but so far it’s a brilliant outcome for all the business we did last summer. After the win against Swansea we played a very solid run of games, with only losing once. That was against Everton, the ever lasted Premiership’s number seven. You can loss a game like this sometimes, so it’s nothing to worry about. As long we are not losing against the big team in the league there is not much to complain about either. Until now we played six times against the other big five, from which we handled to win 3 of them and played a draw three times as well. Definitely not bad.







We also won our other three games in the Europa League group stage, which results in finishing first. Not really surprising though. The draw for the next round is not done yet, hopefully we are not playing against one of the European giants immediately, like last year. I’m not sure yet if I am going to play with my reserve players in the next few round as well. It depends a bit how these matches are scheduled and which opponent we are facing. A long as we are battling for the league title I want to prioritize that of course.

Currently the winter transfer window is open. I’m not expecting firework, but there might be a chance I will spend some more money. Not because we need a new player that hard, but because of the club has finally taken over. The new board pumped directly another £150,000,000 into the club from which a big part is added to my transfer budget. To avoid a big profit at the end of this year and so paying a lot of taxes I’m thinking about spending around £90,000,000 for some talented youngsters or one world class player who has proved himself already. It depends a bit who or what is available and if they are interested in joining us of course.

Spoken about the take-over. My most worse nightmare has come true… Daniel Levy sold this beautiful club to a group of American investors… I’m truly sad about it. I wasn’t thinking about leaving the club immediately because of that, but I doesn’t like it either. For them it’s not about the football. Those Americans don’t even understand football at all. Let them play basketball or ice hockey or such. It’s only an investment for making money. Nothing more nothing less. Although I have to say I will accept them for the time being. Firstly it wasn’t in my hands at all, secondly just a couple of weeks before this take-over I already extended my contract at the club for the next three-and-a-half year and as a third they agreed with me for a couple of proposals I did, in which Levy wasn’t interested at all.

One of them being the first expanding of our stadium since it was completed in 2019. We are fifteen years further now and almost every week it’s entirely sold out all the way to the roof. I’m not sure how they going to realize this enlargement, but that’s something the engineers have to discover. The total capacity will increase to somewhere around 77,500 the exact figures will follow if the plans are final. It’s a big improvement for sure and when ready this nameless stadium (why not White Hart Lane again? It sounds epic. Although the Americans are more liking IBM Dome or such an awful reference to some kind of company…) will be the largest in the competition with surpassing Old Trafford by just a couple of hundred seats. Those Americans, really everything is a competition for them… I like them already!


Note: Although we are performing pretty good currently, it isn't because of all those new kids over here immediately Scott! Hopefully they will pick up some form at a certain moment, otherwise we lost a lot of money...

Keep it up is all I can say! Those pesky Americans though... that's a shame.

#087 - The treble is still alive!

01/04/2034 -- Although the results are starting to choppy a little bit we are still battling for all the prices currently. We qualified ourselves for the Europa League quarter final after a 4-3 win on aggregate against Monaco. In the next round we are facing Paris Saint Germain, probably the biggest team alive in this cup. Again a tough draw, but if we have a good day we are definitely not written off in advance. In the FA Cup we are already in the semi-finals now. After a tight win against Doncaster Rovers (2-1) we eliminated Burnley after penalties in the fifth round and defeated West Ham United in the quarter finals with 2-0 after extra time. Now we are playing against Liverpool in the semi-final at Wembley. That will be a heroic match for sure!





Our results in the league weren’t that great to be honest. We lost 3-1 against West Ham after we played with 10 men after only nine minutes and five minutes before half time our team was even reduced till 9 wen Yeboah collected his second yellow card... In the meantime Cordner forced the opening goal surprisingly, but it was nearly impossible to hold stand for another 45 minutes. West Ham took advantage from the large spaces and handled to turnaround the game resulting in a 3-1 for them. We also lost against Liverpool and Manchester United away (which could happen) but the 3-0 loss against Sheffield United was just terrible. Although they are swimming in their Korean money this team is struggling heavily in the league. But not today. After we collected an early red card again they outplayed us completely sadly. All those bad matches has not result in a huge downfall at the table yet, but all of the teams below are smelling us now with Liverpool slightly taking some distance. We could probably forget thinking about winning the league given the fact we have to play against Chelsea and Arsenal away within the last seven games. Our form is not great either currently, so I think we need to take care for not being surpassed by all our competitors below us (who are winning almost every game currently). Missing Champions League football next year after such a good first half of the season would be truly disappointingly. Although I’m not surprised either if that happens given my bad luck all the time throughout the years... Ending fifth with only one point short (or even one goal) or so…

But, if we can win the FA Cup or even the Europa League I can live with it (missing Champions League football next season I mean). Although winning the Europa League will result in qualifying for the following season Champions League anyway. That happened already twice for Spurs over the last decade. Otherwise they didn’t play Champions League for as long as eleven seasons in a row and still counting. Quite bad to be honest, isn’t it? However I prefer to win the FA Cup. I’m not really interested in the Europa League, even more because Tottenham has won this trophy already in 2026 and 2031. On top of that, I think the fans are more satisfied winning the FA Cup instead of the Europa League. But, it’s only speculating right now! First we have to make sure we are reaching in some of those finals in the first place. That will be tough for sure I guess…


Winter transfers
I was hoping to spend some big money in the winter transfer window. I was heavily focused for contracting one specific player. A former Spurs youth talent who was sold for only £3,000,000 six years ago to West Ham United. Unbelievable they did. Such a good player… He is a king now and I wanted him really much. He is a creative central midfielder and English as well. But even a bid of over £230,000,000 was turned down immediately… Although I’m not paying that much for a player for sure, but I just wanted to see how much they actually wanted. More like £500,000,000 I guess… However, we have a 40% sell on fee clause when we sold him, so a huge part of the money flows immediately back into our own pockets, ha-ha! That can make a difference for the amount of money I want to pay, but right now it’s completely crazy what they are asking.

So I shifted my interest for somebody else. One of my scouts found a talent from Japan who is an international already. On top of that, having a player from Asia is very interesting in terms of marketing, although that isn’t the most important fact for me, it’s just a bonus. But I think Moriwaki is definitely talented. Just 19 years old and overall very decent already I would say. If he can develop himself a little bit more he can take part in my first squad in about two or three years I suppose. I send him on loan immediately to Ipswich Town, everything is better than playing with our crap under-23 team… By the way, the youth intake was just shit again, as usual… Or actually one kid seems interesting for just a tiny piece, but guess what. He is a right full-back. Just the one and only fucking position on the pitch I smashed £28,500,000 down for a 16 year old boy from Newcastle United last summer… (who is playing quite frequently already in our first squad). The game is really playing with me, I’m pretty sure of it.

#088 - Yesss!

28/05/2034 -- 33 years. That’s the time Tottenham had to wait until the next victory in the FA Cup. Luke Barra Henderson and his soldiers made it happen! The relief was felt everywhere. It was definitely not the most remarkable final but who cares. Silverwork is the only thing that counts and after so many years we realized it. It’s a great success in either way. It is my first major trophy I can celebrate, after I won the Scottish League one already twelve years ago and the Scottish League Cup seven years ago now. So the next one is probably coming in over six or seven years again. Spurs has be warned!

We reached into the final after a great 2-0 victory over Liverpool in the semi’s. It was a tough game but at the end we deserved the win. Our opponent in the final looks a bit easier on paper but don’t underestimate Chelsea at all, despite they are struggling for years already. Again it was a close game, but Purton saved our asses in the first five minutes with two magnificent saves. Short afterwards good old Sebastian Bernard (33 years old now) scored the 1-0 after he made room for himself to take a shot after a couple of good moves. He found the net and granting us the lead. After that goal nothing huge happened. We controlled the match completely and in the second half we had some good chances for doubling the score. Which we didn’t but luckily Chelsea wasn’t able to force a late equalizer. So at the end club legend and captain Sebastian Bernard, with five goals also the top goalscorer in this cup, could raise the trophy above his head!

Winning the FA Cup was a very welcome result because the final run of the season was quite bad to be honest… We played a solid match against Paris Saint Germain in the quarter finals of the Europa League, but after they scored a late goal (2-1) in our home game I knew the return game will be tough for sure. And I was right. We couldn’t create anything and those overpaid Frenches repaired their loss with us being knocked-out as a result. I was hoping for something more of course, but at the end I wasn’t heavily disappointed about it.

Our last seven games in the league weren’t much better. Firstly we played a terrible game against bottom half side Southampton (0-0) but it was followed by a solid 2-0 win away against Aston Villa, also low positioned at the table. With five matches yet to play, and still the away matches against Chelsea and Arsenal ahead of us, it doesn’t seemed very hopeful at all. We gave Chelsea a good game, but at the end we kept behind without points after a late winning goal. The next match against mid-table side Birmingham City was one of those games you have to deal with at least once during a whole season, but it couldn’t come in on a more worse moment this time… After ninety minutes we were still in a 1-0 lead (although it should have been 3-0 already in our advance) but Birmingham punished our lack of scoring goals in the 90+1st and 90+6th minute… Although there were only four minutes added by the ref… Of course this can only happening to me and after this game all our competitors jumped over us at the table, suddenly wit a gap of three points as well… This is going horribly wrong isn’t it? After such a good start of the season.

The next game against Arsenal is a very important one now. We need to win this game to come aside with them, both having 72 points then, although the goal difference is slightly in their favor. But Arsenal scored an early goal and in the 40th minute everything seemed lost after we granted them a penalty kick. But Purton showed his skills, shoots the ball directly to the right hand side of the pitch to Yeboah, who finds Bernard and our Argentinian veteran showed his precision: 1-1. A very important minute for sure. After the pause we played more attacking because we need three points. We created some good chances, but it lasted till the 65th minute when Bernard hits the goal again with his 17th league goal this season: 1-2. I decide to go full defensive immediately and we hold stand! With two rounds to play we are still battling, although we probably still need some help from one of the other clubs to finish fourth.



That luck was given to us by Arsenal again. We played two terrible last games, with losing our very first game in our own stadium this season against Stoke City, and saving three points very narrowly against Derby County, who are relegated at the end. But Arsenal played two draws and therefor we finished fourth in the league, just one point ahead of them. Finally some luck has come in. It was definitely time for it after thirteen conceding years without it… Arsenal manager Thierry Henry was fired because of they missed the Champions League qualification. I had to laugh about it loudly because he criticized my work at Spurs quite often during the last two years. Good luck Thierry for finding a new job!







Although it was an excited end of the season it wasn’t the most solid one at all to be honest. The whole second half of the season was some kind of a long struggle that never ended. Very changeable results, none of my players having a really good run of games and it became also clear to me that a squad size of 23 players is just a little bit too small on this level of football. Especially when you have to play in several cup tournaments till the end. I’m not expecting a really busy transfer window, but I definitely want to splash some cash. We have more than £300,000,000 in the bank and our transfer budget is almost as big.




Judging our players
After my second season this squad felt much better to me now, but we are not there yet. Mainly the squad depth is some kind of an issue. We have to many youngsters who are not on a certain level yet which is the main reason we didn’t performed stable enough during the season I think. But there are no promising players left in our under-23 squad and also the players we send on loan are not good enough to participate in our main squad next season. So I can be very short about the performances of all my players last year: everybody is staying in the first place until we have reached a squad size of 25. From then on I’m trying to replace players if a better one is coming available. But it isn’t just as simple. In my philosophy about running this club at least half of the squad needs to be English. Currently we have twelve of them. With a squad size of 25 we need at least twelve of them as well, but in a perfect situation even thirteen. As already said the English national squad is on his way back. Almost everyone is above thirty, so there are not much good players available. And the few good ones who could strengthen us are most of the time already contracted by one of the other big five clubs which makes it even harder to attract them.

I will see how things are sorting out during the next few months. I rather prefer to change two or three players in my current squad, but it isn’t a big issue if I have to deal with them for another season. They are not that bad. Although I have to lowering down my expectations for next season just a little bit maybe if that is the case. If I have to reveal my wishes: I prefer to have one new world class central defender, a new decent central midfielder and a back-up right midfielder. Underneath I’ve shown the squad statistics over the last season, as well my own profile this far. I’ve completed the fourth star in my reputation now! That’s all it for now, hopefully I can bring you some transfer news in the next update, stay tuned!

Most points in 12 years and CL for first time in 13 A very productive season and unlucky having to face PSG in the Europa League. It's going to be interesting to see how you progress here!

Congratulations on winning the FA Cup and achieving a top-four finish. The second-half of the season was a lot harder than it perhaps needed to be, but you just about did enough. Well done!

Can't believe I haven't noticed this story before, great detail in your updates and a thoroughly enjoyable read!

#089 - Not busy right?! Forget my words…

06/08/2034 -- Actually we went completely nuts! Blame my scouts, they found just to many good players and young prospects. And blame Bayern Munich and Olympique Lyon as well for cooperating with me. And not to forget the current board, for providing me a shitload of money. And last but not least our tremendous youth academy for bringing in nobody. It’s even called world-class… Could you believe? So at the end I couldn’t ignore the call of buying anymore. But, as long as it means we can improve the squad even further we just have to do it I guess. Otherwise we are never going to win the league for sure! Okay, I will take you with me through the renewed squad line by line, starting with my goalkeepers.

Goalkeepers
Didn’t I say earlier before we have two brilliant guys already? I did huh!

Defenders
Some major changes has going on in my last line. Not even because I wanted so in the first place, but mainly because there were some good bids coming in for players who are used as a back-up player anyway. At the end it paved the way to bring in a couple of new youngsters. Actually I was only searching for a world-class center back, but I couldn’t find any of it. Mainly because 90% of them are over thirty years old already, expensive in terms of wage money and nearly impossible to buy anyway because they are all joining a European elite club (which we aren’t yet in all my honesty). So I set focus for a very talented youngster. I spotted him earlier before already, but now the time was right to make an offer. After some hard negotiations French wonderkid Florent Guittard from Olympique Lyon is coming over for £26,5000,000. He is tall, his main attributes are very decent, he only lacks a bit of bravery I would say. I will bring him in slowly and hopefully he can develop himself into one of my key players in the nearby future.



We bought another guy from Olympiqye Lyon. For the exact same amount of money 22-year old Belgian international Marc Mballa is joining us. He can be used as a left or right wing-back. Mentally and Physically he is very good and technical on a decent level as well I would say. He is not one of my starting players yet, so you can describe him as a luxury back-up player!



The fact I contracted Mballa has everything to do with the leaving of Villafene and Smith. I want to get rid of Villafene already before I played the very first match with Tottenham because he was one of the so many South Americans over here. But nobody was interested and he played not bad at all to be honest. But last year I used him more like a reserve player because I have more faith in Bredewolt, and when I gave him some playtime he wasn’t very good to be honest. With just a one-year contract left and Mancherster City making a bid of around £53,000,000 it was an easy call for letting him go. Also one of Spurs club legends has left the club. I’m quite amazed he played such a long time at the club when you look at his history. He did just nothing over the last decade… Terrible average ratings year after year and his goals and assist ratio are way too low in modern football for a back. He should be better if you look at his attributes but it doesn’t sort out in either way. On top of that he will lose his place in my starting eleven next season in favor of my beloved toddler Ronnie Adams, who is developing himself amazingly. With Smith on a one-year deal left, over thirty years old already and Barcelona coming in with a very solid bid (£32,500,000) I decided to let him go, although with a little bit of pain in my heart because he’s a club hero and English as well. But we have to move on and cannot be left behind with romantic thoughts only.









That’s still not anything. We sold another four(!) players in my defensive line. The first one is the guy (Dianessy) who was bought by the manager before me, but joined us last season. To be honest, he seems really good, but I haven’t any feelings for him because he’s not mine. He is foreign as well, and on top of that I will place all my bets on Adams for the right-back spot. Bournemouth came in with a good bid and I decide to sell him. He didn’t play a single match for Tottenham. We wish him all the best in his further career. Remember I said we had just one talent from our youth academy last March? And he is a right-back as well? Yeah it was. So there is most likely no future for Saunders at this club with Mballa and Adams being way better already. When Brighton was prepared for paying £4,400,000 with a 50% sell on fee we decided to say goodbye to him and so not hinder his development.

The third guy is center back Michael O’Keefe. He can also play as a central midfielder, but he isn’t really good to be honest. I barely made use of him over the last two seasons so I decide the time is right for letting him go. Brighton again paid £17,500,000 for him, good money for a player who has become superfluous. The last one we sold is Diego Ibáñez. Also one of those many south American guys. He played a good amount of matches last season, but he isn’t our future. He passed thirty as well, was on a one year deal left and it wasn’t my intention at all for extending it at the end of the season. And as long Sheffield United is liking old players who are not going to help you any further they decided to buy him. Logic that only appears in Sheffield I guess because they did before. They were prepared for showing me £44,000,000 for him. I laughed my ass of when they signed this deal!









If you can count you probably find out we get rid of six guys and only brought in two for our defensive line. That sounds horrible actually. But I rather prefer to have quality instead of quantity. All the dead wood has gone now, but we are kept behind with only seven players for four positions. Not great, although I have some midfielders who can fulfill the two center back positions as well if needed. The transfer window is not closed yet, but I don’t think there is coming in another defender. We have to deal with it and keep our fingers crossed not to many injuries are happening throughout this season!

Midfielders
We had a bunch of midfielders already, but nearly all of them are just decent and not very spectacular. When the possibility came by for buying some mid-twenty superstars it felt like I just had to go with it. The first one is French world class central midfielder Nathan Reyes. Bayern Munich wasn’t much impressed I think, although he played a very good amount of games over the last two seasons and produced some brilliant statistics. We paid a record breaking amount of money of around £88,000,000 but I think he’s definitely worth it. And those German side helped us with another guy. Our first and only Britain signing this season (sadly). I know Craig MacDonald for a long time right now, because I wanted him in his very early days already when I was at Hearts. But we were not able to do so by the time. He played very good with Celtic until Liverpool picked him up, but couldn’t convince them completely. Bayern took him over and also in the Bundesliga he wasn’t a key player, although his statistics seems very good last season in only twelve matches he played. I’m charmed of this guy from Scotland so I decided to give it a go (just because we have the money for it, ha-ha). His attributes are amazing and his amount of goals in international duties are quite remarkable for a player who isn’t even a striker. Hopefully he can become a star at Tottenham and finally can confirm his capabilities for being a good footballer!









We are still not done yet in Munich. We brought them another £19,500,000. Also a player I spotted earlier before in my very first few months at Spurs, but at the end he chose for Bayern. He played a lot of games in their reserve squad, but apparently they don’t give him a proper chance in the main squad at all. So 21-year old Italian right-winger Guglielmo Tocci was placed on the transfer list and as soon as I could I grabbed him! I do believe in this guy really much. He is fast, he has some good mental skills, but most important he can dribble and give a proper cross! A combination you don’t see very often. Or a guy can dribble but not cross, or a guy can cross but not dribble. Tocci controls both of them. On top of that I really needed a second guy who can play as a right midfielder, because none of the central midfielders I tried over the last season impressed me that much to be honest. The last guy I signed is another Italian. Alessio Ferraro. He is a sort of a gamble. Well, let me say he is a lot of value for money. I found him by accident and decide to give it a try. If he fails we can sell him easily for three times the money we paid for him.





We didn’t sell any of the midfielders we have (if we don't count O'Keefe as a midfielder), we only loaned out a couple of guys who are not making any chance for having some playtime because of all the new guys. I probably have to many midfielders currently, 13 players for only 5 spots. Although a couple of them are capable for playing as a central defender (not ideal, but it’s possibly) or a striker. We will see how it sorts out, it’s not unlikely a couple of those midfielders will be send on loan in the winter period.

Strikers
Oops, I spend already everything for defenders and midfielders! No, only joking! There is so much money over here I can’t even spend all of it. On top of that, I’m quite pleased with my strikers we already have. Cordner is improving himself and is ready to replace Bernard, who is almost 34 years old. Most likely this will be his last year with Spurs. Beside of that Colombian guy Luis Martinez is developing himself surprisingly well, although he didn’t play much last season. This season I will give him more playing time to see if he can compete with Cordner for the long term.




Pre-season results
Okay, all summarized it was a very busy transfer window, which I never expected to be honest. But at the end we definitely have improved our squad. There is a really good mixture of players, although I have broken my non-foreign rule sadly… From the 25 players in the first squad only eleven of them are English. I’m a bit sad about it, but it’s just so hard to attract players from other English clubs… They are asking ship tons of money for talented players who not even proved themselves yet. And as long our own youth academy is bringing in just nobody… But, if I count my two Scottish guys as well we have thirteen Britain’s right now. Problem solved! For the time being. Although we probably still have the most English players in our squad compared to all the other teams in the Premier League… At least the big clubs though.

Our pre-season run was not bad. We did a Brazilian trip and played against a couple of well-known Brazilian clubs. I gave everybody a good amount of playing time, although we could not use everybody from the beginning because of the 2034 World Championship. England finished third by the way. Probably the very last result for a while, because nearly everybody in the squad is over thirty now. Even Declan Rice and Ryan Sessegnon (as a left wing-back!) are still there after so many years. It says enough about the lack of talented players in England currently, especially defensively…

That’s all it for now. Underneath I’ve shown our pre-season results together with the 25 players who needs the job to be done for me next season. As always I want to see improvement: perform better than last season. That means finishing third in the league (or at least scoring more points) as the most important goal. Reaching into the final phase of one of the cup tournaments is always depending on a bit of luck, the draw(!) and the form on that moment. But I definitely want to survive the group stage of the Champions League. Which is the very first time for me to compete in this career by the way. Our very first game of the season is against Liverpool, so we are battling immediately for the first prize this season, the Community Shield!






Note: You are not entirely right ML Scouter! Spurs did qualified for the Champions League after they had won the Europa League. Twice. But never directly via the league indeed, which is definitely a shame I would say. Thanks Scott! Hopefully we can slightly build further to become a serious competitor for winning the league some day! Also thanks to you FM-LD, you're definitely welcome to join this story!

Ah yes, I now notice my mistake

The calibre of player you are attracting is very exciting and that Nathan Reyes looks unbelievable!

#090 - Doubtful start

01/11/2034 -- After all the business it’s time to harvest something, to start with the battle for the Community Shield against Liverpool. Liverpool has done just nothing this transfer window, they only sold a couple of left-overs. Apparently Thomas Tuchel is very delighted with his squad and he might be right. You can see the automatisms in their way of play and their was not much doubt about that Liverpool was the best team today. But somehow we managed to score a late equalizer and therefore we squeezed the penalty lottery out of it. But we are not very good in taking penalties to be honest. The best guy has 16 for penalty taking (who was on the bench as well) the next one only 12 and soon afterwards it’s dropping under 10. Purton saved the first one, but there after my guys took some terrible shots… Liverpool won the shoot-out even before the ten penalties were completed. So, we didn’t won our first Community Shield since 1991, when we had to split it together with Arsenal after a draw. Now already 43 years ago…

Our start in the league was not that bad, but not really great either. In the fourth playing round Liverpool outplayed us again in their own stadium with 3-0. I think they are going to win the league for sure. They performed amazingly during the last season and they are still on fire. But I could live with the result, in all my honesty I have to say we are definitely not on their level yet. The most horrific result was against Southampton. And we didn’t even play bad! They just promoted their only three shots on target into a goal with a deadly Lynch (appropriate name!) taking care for a hattrick. He on his own scored the exact same amount of goals in only one match as we concede over the whole last season in 19 home games… We were the better team over the other 89 minutes, created a couple of sitters as well, but apparently it was not our day today… It’s because of these kind of matches that we are not able to battle for the league title yet. Our level of football is just not stable enough throughout the season and it seems it isn’t going to be better soon despite all the millions we spend…





Call the newspapers! After so many years we had some kind of a very easy draw for the Champions League group stage. As far as you can speak about easy in this cup tournament, but it could be way more worse. And so far we did alright. We have won the toughest match against Monaco away already with 3-0, also beat Dutch side Vitesse with only 1-0 in a game I played most of my reserve players and we also defeated Athletic Bilbao at home with 1-0. The maximum amount of nine points out of the first three games is really good I would say. Qualifying ourselves for the next round seems already secured. An easy draw can things looking far more nicer. You’ve got the point?