Revenge of the Bloods!

After a couple of extremly hectic days I've come up with my replacements:


A fimiliar face for those who have made their way up in GB, a bit pricy, but these were extreme times


Usually I would see this capture as a huge bargain and all would be well... but considering that Mwala didn't leave huge shoes to fill, but jumbo-jets it's yet to be seen if he can rise to the ocasion!

shame about the board acepting, happened during the fc scout project last year that the major problem came up against it. There is little you can do without cheating the game. Anyway good luck with the new recruits and game, keep it up!

Sometimes this life just pisses me off! Just blame it on the black guy...

Money won't be an issue next year thanks to my (if I may call them) extraordinary transfer-skills... Due to a crash (and yes I swear it was a crash!) time was turned back and Mwaba signed on for Fiorentina which meant I got the €6,25mil the initial was supposed to give me... Next in line of great transfers is my Ben Amos swap replaceing Luis Mejía!


I just picked up Amos on a free-transfer. Seeing he is at least one step above Mejía class-wise I realized that Mejía would spend most of his time at the bench from now on and thus decline in value. I picked him up on a free-transfer two years ago and now I'm selling him for a mil bringing this years transfer-income to a total of €11mil! And still staying around €30k under my wage-budget.

And so we're here once again, but on a bigger stage compared to what we're used to!

The conditions are sound and clear, win and get promoted or don't and get dragged into the play-offs. Radebe seems to finnaly have found his way scoring seven goals in our last six games, wich has been vital... as I mentioned a long time ago, you simply can not put wins togather all season long with out a goal-scorer up top who delivers the easy goals. The three remaining fixtures arn't perticulary hard ones, but as I've seen thorugh out the season, anyone in this leauge has the capability of beating us unless we bring our a-game!

A bad red card taken by O'Tool against Luton held us back to a draw. After that followed a comfortable win at the Butch against Bristol.
Radebe has continued his great form scoring all three of our goals in these games. Now it all comes down to the last game of the season, Reading on the road.
The top of the leauge is a real bi-nest with four teams batteling for the two instant promotion-spots. This is what the table looks like:

I'm not sure how to form my gameplan as I am forced to win but usualy play a bit more cautious away from home... but come gameday with Eminem in the speakers you can rest asure I'll come up with something!

2873 days, 421 games, 224 wins and 5 promotions later we've finlly made it to the popular kids' party!

The Butch couldn't have been graced with a more joyful farewell. I'm very sad to know that I'll never roam it's catacombs again, but at the same time I know it's a necessary sacrifice in order to become a true PL-side!

Once again the leauge-stretch was nothing for fans with weak hearts! The top of the leauge was tremendousley tight for a long time and at the end 13 goals seperated us from third placed Sheffield Wednesday, one point from fourth placed Blackpool and two points from fifht placed Everton! Here's the complete table:


The individual stats reminds me of the painful memory of a true hero: Mwaba. He played a modest 27 games and still became top-scorer of the Champoinship totaling an impressive 30 goals! To put this in contrast second-placed Hines played 44 games!


And finnaly, the second big victory of the season, even though it came to the highest of prices: Mwaba, along with some other players as well.

And so begins our biggest challange yet! We've been underdogs for a long time, but this is the first time I agree with the critics. Not to say we don't have a chanse to stay up, but we do have a weaker squad then most teams and this will be a though year.

After som nagging I've made sure to get a youthfacility, improved traningfacileties and improved youthrecruitment along with the new stadium. I want to build this team in a way I always wanted, but never executed, with homegrown players as far as possible and if there's nobody inside our organisation up to the task I'll look for an Englishman our at least Britt to fill in. I'm not saying the team will be "all-english", especially now in our first year when resourse and stature limits causes a shortage in the quality avaliable to us.

Taking the step into the big time caused a lot of changes with many players going both ways through the pipe, here's the summary from the last couple of months:


One thing that impresses me is the fact that we've taken the step into the PL, bought alot of players, but managed not to take it out of our sponsor or TV-money but money made through a smart transfer-policy! Looking over my eight seasons at the Bloods I've spent €19.75mil on buying players but also slod players for €19mil!

My biggest signing of the year is probably Sebastian Marin, a young hard-working defensive midfielder with talent in sheadloads. I'm really looking forward to see him develop in the Bloods-shirt!


There's definetly new times coming to Droylsden. I don't think anything proves it as much as Droylsden stadium!

This is what the Butch looked like in it's last season of use. I've witnessed it undergo some major re-construction during my years at the club, but it was old and just wasn't going to be enough to host a PL-side

However the towns new pride does! Hosting an impressive 18009 capacity giving me no less then €400k in gate-recipts on opening-day against Arsenal. Four times our previous record! I wish i could have made the night even more special by taking our biggest scalp yet, but much do to an early red card we never got really close, though we did make a good hustle going down only one goal short.

So with all gears working at max, everybody at Droylsden Stadium is looking to make the Bloods a classic part of the PL!

would like to hear some thoughts on liking songs to the posts, I know it's not conventional but as a musician I really don't know any better way to shear my feelings in the posts !

And so the first party with the popular kids is over. We managed to stay away from passing out in the bathroom, throwing up all over the floor or going home with an ugly chick!

Looking at the table it seems like it was a close ending to the season, however this wasn't the case as we made sure to secure our PL-spot with about 5 games to go. I'll admit we had a slow start spending our time in or just above the relegation-zone. But as the team got more gelled we found our flow and started putting wins togather. Just to make time pass faster I decided to let my assistant take care of the remaining games which didn't bring any success what so ever, but didn't really cost anything either. Here's the final table:


The economical growth from last year has not only continued, but evolved even further, raking in a enourmus €2.5mil every month! I can't help feeling proud when looking at my 'information'-screen. When I took the rains at Droylsden it was an obscure club in BSN worth well under €100k. Today we are a household name nation wide and valued at €51mil!


Summing up my transfers from last year the one thing that sticks out is the fact that I for the first time in my career feel that I might have waisted money. Not that any of my players wasn't worth their fee as individuals, but looking at the roles some of them recived at the end I might have been able to find some cheaper alternatives without losing anything at the field. However there has been no catastrofies so I guess I don't have that much to complain about. Here's the summary:

So taking on the next season I've decided to stick with my current philosphy: winning the ball as fast as possible and putting the ball upp front where my speedy strikers execut lightning counter-attacks. The only diffrence is that I've decided to change my playmaker at AMC to a classic centretank with the hopes that he'll win some headers as I felt we had a tendency to lose way to many man on man duels up top during the past season. The man for the job is a Manchester-native (Droylsden lies about 6km from Manchester city centre): Graham Myers


My main concern during my pre-season hunt for players has been MCs, I need strong, defensive, hard-working woriers who can shut down my opponents, win the ball back and initiate my counter-attacks. Martins whom I purchased last summer has played well but needs more support. Hopefully teaming him up with Ndlovu will be enough for us to push further in the leauge this year.

Here's the rest of my transfers:


There might be some slight changes of personell during the season but this is the structure I'm starting off with and I hope it'll bring success!

And so, with the end of yet another season, I've hit the ten-year mark at the helm of the Bloods!

It was with out a doubt a good year, and before I lose half of the readers I want to give some credit to Evo, not just the man who inspierd me to start the story, but also the man behind my 'new', winning tactic.

You can find it here: Click
I usually try to stay away from "the wondertactics" of the site and try and find my own way instead. But looking for ideas I saw one in particular and realized it was based on having a squad similar to mine and decided to give it a go. We tryed it out at practice for a couple of weeks and as soon as we started to use it in games as well the points started to pour in.

With some luck this could have been the year we made our way on to the continent, but due to some unexpected winners in the domestic cups our 7th place wasn't enough to clich a ticket.

Looking at the table you'll see that we were an offensive juggernaut the past season, outscoring all teams except for Man United and City (and the tie with Chelsea). The table also reviles this years biggest weakness, as so many years before: the defence. We conceded far more goals then any other club at the top half, even though our goalie Mwanza had a great season and was voted as the reserve to "Players' team of the year". I'm not sure how to tackle this as I'm very fond of our starting CB's, but if this continues I guess it's a sacrifice we'll have to make...

The success on the field continued off of it as we managed to turn a profit almost every month. Combinig that with the €11mil position-bonus from the FA we totaled a staggering +€23mil profit this season, making the club concidered as 'rich'. The stadium was expanded as well with another 9000 seats and now has a capacity of 27013. We are yet to see our first sell-out, but I'm confident it'll happen next season.


As far as individual preformances I would like to praise almost every starting player, but a couple of players stand out more then the rest: Mwanza, as I mentioned earlier was concidered one of the best keepers in the leauge last season. Adam Radebe made the team as well as he almost had an avrage of one goal per game (19 goals/23 games in the leauge and 21/28 overall), but he missed around 15 games due to injury. In his absence the Manchester-native Graham Myers carried a heay load up front outscoring Radebe with a total of 22 leauge-goals, but had much more time to score them as he only missed one leauge-game this season. Renato Gaúcho has been a bit inconsisten on his right-flank, but his 13 assist but him amongst the best in the leauge and this can not be ignored. Finnaly we have the powerhouses and foundation of my new tactic: My MC and DMC Abram Ndlovu and Sebastian Marin who have fought like warriors all season long defendig their ground in the middle of the pitch! Here's the summary from the intire leauge:

Impressive I must admit.
You have quite a story here already and I over-enjoyed reading this. I have a question if you may answer me.
In your early days, back on Blue Square Bet South, how did you managed to find some "decent" players?

You used your Scout staff? Searched for yourself? Already knew some of these names? Or perhaps you used a scout tool?

Thanks in advance and can't stop admiring this one :3

Well I use a combination of "player search" and try to find an assistan who has a decent CA, if I can't find an assistant with good CA I try to find a scout instead... When I find a player who looks interesting in player-search I send my assistan/scout with high CA to check him out. In the report I only look for consistansy, imp. matches and controversy, as far as other attributes goes (the ones in the playerprofile), you should be able to see who is good enough and who isn't on your own... If I have good economy I'll find my self a scout whom I send out to search the nearest areas, as you can usualy find enough quality near by to make it in the lowerleauges... But really it's mostly about YOU knowing what you are looking for in your players... the tip, as so many other has said, is that the most important attribute in the lower leauges is pace and acc, as speed makes up for most weaknesses the player may have