Managing Feyenoord, hoping Liverpool may pick up on me
Won the league in my first season, kicked out of the domestic cup in the 2nd round by a lower-league side. Dented the board's confidence quite a bit despite performing well in the League, finished 34 games - 90 pts (+52) without a game lost. Plus I finished up in the UEFA Cup final losing on penalties 3-0 against Man City (group phase opponent by the way).
On day 1 I offered a mutual termination of their contracts of all "sympathetic but pathetic" staff members, 'cept for Makaay - too expensive, considering budgets were pretty tight (huge loan-debt).
Sold a couple of players (including Castaignos to Chelsea €800K+cls.) for pretty good deals, opening up some space to recruit a replacing (mainly unemployed) staff.
I'm pretty happy with the capacities of my
current staff, though I've got my mind set on some attacking guru some time down the road.
Played 4-2-3-1 (a customized 4-4-2 DM) with a right-ft left winger throughout the season, but kept an open eye for my ass. manager's advice playing a regular 4-4-2 when needed.
Had a lot of control over match prep's mostly on team blend.
Besides a few backup free-transfer players, I got Mobi Okoli (23 yr-old NIG powerhouse) from Örebrö for €625, and a load of hot prospects (mainly domestic) of which Victor Hugo (19 yr-old BRA striker prodigy) from Santa Cruz for €450.
LB Michael Lumb relished on returning on loan - me too, he gave 5 assists in 29 games (avg 7.18).
I dont really build a tactic around my player's original positions, rather the opposite; I try to make them like my tactic, 4-2-3-1.
Now 6 games into Season #2, got myself Haris Medunjanin, technical gifted AMC rotting away somewhere in Israel, for €1.1M, and
he's shown some great things already! He may well create a creative tandem with Luigi Bruins, but the latter won't grow on stamina dammit.
Financially, the club's est. value went up from €42M (-35M loan debt) to €74M (-24M debt) in one year. Now let's see how how we'll do in the CL. They'd better lift up the seats capacity.
Current team (season 2011/12):
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e68/sulphurnova/Curent-team.jpg
