Liverpool F.C - The Road to Europe v2.0

I know this is probably the fifth story I've created in weeks. I can't find to see a certain club to stay with for long periods and not go bored, after I abandoned my five-season-running Liverpool save. I decided to start a second Liverpool save & story to see what things I'll do differently. This time I'll try not to purchase all those players that EVERYONE purchases e.g. Carlos Fierro, Yaya Sanogo and instead get more unique players in. Also, this story is with the LFCMarshall update while the last story was the normal 12.2 update. I sincerely apologize if you are fed up with all the stories I'm making.

Liverpool F.C - The Road to Europe v2.0

With Liverpool finishing an alarming 8th in the league last season, this left chairman Thomas Werner with little choice but to sack former-player-turned-manager Kenny Dalglish, known affectionately by the Liverpool fans, or 'the Kop', as King Kenny.

In what some may deem to be a surprise appointment, Englishman Glenn Tham, the head coach of Liverpool's Reserves team, has been promoted to manager on a 2-year contract earning him 28.5k per week.

Manager Background
Glenn Tham


Born in Exeter, England to a family of Asians, Tham is a passionate soccer fan who has a bit of experience in professional football, playing for hometown club Exeter City for two years between 2001 to 2003. Released by Exeter after the end of the 2002/03 season, Tham decided to quit as a professional player and instead find a job in coaching. He worked as a youth coach at Exeter for three years before re-locating to Merseyside and finding a job in local club Liverpool as a youth coach. Promoted to head coach of the Reserves last year, Tham will now have to be at his best to manage Liverpool back to it's former glory.

Board Meeting


I arrived at the meeting room hurriedly, and out of the many seats available, took the seat that was directly facing the boss, Thomas Werner. One-by-one, the rest of the coaching staff streamed into the room, and everyone took a seat as the meeting began.

"As you all know, we have decided to give Glenn the opportunity to be the manager of this great club," Werner began solemnly. "Glenn, I trust you have what it takes. The Reserves team finished pretty high in the Reserves league last season, didn't they?"

"Uh, 3rd, sir," I offered.

"Yes, that's it. 3rd. I am very impressed and hope you can do the same tinkering with the senior team. That's why I appointed you as the manager of this team," Werner's face was so very solemn.

I was about to say that the senior team wasn't the Reserves team, the Reserves league wasn't as competitive as the Premier League, but I chose not to say anything.

"What do you think you can accomplish this season, Glenn?" Werner eyed me.

"Well, I think we have the quality to get into the Champions' League-" I started, but Werner cut me off immediately.

"Yes, that's it! The Champions' League. That shall be my expectation for this season, for you to finish 4th or higher. With that I'll be giving you a transfer budget of 35 million for the task to strengthen any areas required. You will also be given complete control over the staff and can choose to fire or hire anyone you wish."

"I've prepared a list of the staff I don't want, Mr. Werner," I said nervously, forcing myself not to look at any of my fellow coaching staff. Taking out the list, which had about 17 names, I passed it to Werner. The Liverpool chairman took a look at it for a good two minutes. By the end of the board meeting, 17 members of the coaching staff had accepted mutual terminations of their contracts and left the club effective immediately.



As the remaining staff left the meeting room with me, coach Rodolfo Borrell said to me, "I hope you've got your own staff in mind Glenn. We already had a shortage of staff and then you began mass-firing everybody so now you definitely have to bring in some backroom faces."

"Of course Rodo," I assured the Spaniard. "I've already got a lot of names in mind."

We'll never get bored of your stories Glenn!

#62607 Kiwi : We'll never get bored of your stories Glenn!

Speak for yourself, Kiwi. I am bored
Looking forward to a story without the usual signings - but make sure you don't even scout Fierro and Sanogo, as your rivals will notice them. I made that mistake and now City have Niang

Press Conference


I was nervous, experiencing my first press conference. I had always seen Kenny attend all those press conferences but I never really took a leaf out of his book so I didn't really know what questions the press would throw at me, and how I had to answer them.

I walked up to the podium, greeted by numerous flashes of the reporters' cameras. Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard and owner Thomas Werner stood beside me and we took the three seats on the podium. I sat in the middle and took the mic to speak to the assembled journalists.

"You arrive at the club as a replacement for Kenny Dalglish who was unable to bring success to Anfield. Do you feel that you are the right person to take Liverpool to the next level?" A journalist from The People asked.

"Yes, I feel I can bring success to Liverpool," I said, trying to sound as confident as I could. "We have a great squad of players and I don't see why we can't take Liverpool to the next level."

"The facilities of the club are fantastic, are you excited about the opportunity to work in such an environment?"

"Yes, the facilities are great," I smiled. "But old-fashioned hard work is equally important!" Those were the facts, and my philosophy. Old-fashioned hard work.

"Do you already have an idea of which players are in your plans, and which players aren't?"

I was reluctant to answer but I did anyway. "Yes, I know who is in my plans and who isn't. Expect some transfers over the coming days," I promised. This would excite the fans for sure.

After answering a barrage of other questions, the press conference ended and when the journalists had left, Werner shook my hand.

"Your handling of the press is very good," said the American. "I liked the way you answered their questions. Very good, very good."

"We all look forward to working with you boss," Gerrard grinned.

"Alright," I said, satisfied, as the staff I brought in stood behind me in the meeting room. Thomas Werner sat there, looking closely at the staff. They had all been recruited by me in the past few days and I was confident they could do an excellent job for the club. I introduced each and every one of them to Werner personally.




A few days ago, my coach told me of a particular Scottish keeper being chased by both Manchester City and United as a reliable backup keeper. This man was Craig Gordon, 28, released by Sunderland after five years at the club where he only made 95 appearances. In his prime though, Gordon was a quality keeper. I decided to join in the race to sign him as Queens Park Rangers had submitted an offer for our Australian keeper Brad Jones and I didn't feel as Doni was a very reliable backup. In fact, I think I might look to sell him as soon as possible.

I didn't think I had much of a chance to sign Gordon as I thrashed out a contract with his agent that would see him earn about 25k per week. Manchester City could offer him way more, but I guess both City and United were unwilling to pay so much to an injury-troubled keeper. Gordon joined Liverpool on a four-year deal, and will be second-choice keeper to Pepe Reina this season.

After the press conference where I unveiled Gordon as my first signing of the summer, I posed with him for a photo as he held up his Liverpool goalie jersey.

"Welcome to Liverpool, Craig," I shook the Scot's hand warmly.

"Thanks for giving me the opportunity to join such a big club like yours boss," Craig nodded, smiling. "I hope my performances can help Liverpool get back into the Champions' League, somehow, even if it means playing backup."

The next day Gordon joined up with his new teammates and they immediately hit it off in training. I found that he was also a spectacular penalty-saver, as the boys took penalties in their training today to test our their new teammate. And boy, were all of them impressed. So was I.

I couldn't have asked for a better pre-season!







Fabio Borini, who had been brought in just before my appointment as Liverpool manager, really shone and so did youngster Raheem Sterling. New boy Craig Gordon was also very good in the three friendlies he played and even got named Man of the Match in the match against Porto where he made a couple of quality saves to deny the Portuguese opposition.

Nene, the Brazilian left winger in Paris Saint-Germain, was transfer-listed by the club, and I moved in to get him on loan with a 2.5 million future fee, but Inter Milan was also in pursuit of him and eventually he went to Inter, albeit on a permanent transfer. Shows me that you don't win every transfer race.

I am set to make my managerial debut against M. Tel-Aviv in the Europa League Third Qualifying Round. One of my aims for this season will be to win the Europa League and I am confident the boys can demolish Tel-Aviv easily, they have been training really hard and are very excited to be back in Europe again even though it's not the Champions' League.

My first match ended pretty well!

We traveled to Israel to face Tel-Aviv in the second leg of the Europa League qualifying round, and we demolished them 4-0 with Fabio Borini and Raheem Sterling grabbing two goals each for themselves.

As we returned to Merseyside, I took a good look at the squad training. They had all been superb and were very good, both in training and in matches. I decided that as of now I would go along with Kenny's squad instead of trying to re-shape it. The only guy I want out really, is Doni. I deemed him surplus to requirements, and I didn't like his attitude either. The Brazilian was always the latest to come to training, and also very much of a slacker. I had two better goalies in Pepe & Craig at the club anyway.

A striker in my Reserves squad, Michael Ngoo, has been sold to Sheffield Wednesday for 200k, and John Flanagan followed on loan for the rest of the season. Peter Gulacsi signed a loan contract at Sporting and will play in Portugal for the rest of the season for a fee of 80k, while Brad Jones has officially completed his 1 million move to Queens Park Rangers. The Australian was very professional, and although he admitted he didn't want to leave the club, was quick to agree to a move. As he bid farewell to the boys, he shook my hand and wished me good luck in my Liverpool career.

Watching a bit of television on a Friday evening, I saw that Liverpool had been drawn against Videoton in the Fourth Qualifying Round of the Europa League. I had never heard of them and rang up my assistant manager Tony Coton, who told me that Videoton was a pretty solid club in the Hungarian league. Checking up on them more on the Net, I discovered that they had actually won the Hungarian league, or OTP Bank Liga, last season. This would be a challenge... or would it?

a fairly straight forward draw against Videoton. a match u should really be winning but be careful when you play them away it could really be a banana skin tie

My first league game as a manager was against Fulham and I was excited all right. However we only managed to get a point as Martin Skrtel's 20th minute header was cancelled out by Clint Dempsey's 69th minute stunner.

Liverpool 1 - 1 Fulham
Reina, G Johnson, Skrtel, Agger, Jose Enrique, Lucas Leiva, Henderson, Suarez, Bellamy, Gerrard, Borini
Skrtel

We next faced Videoton on the first leg of the Europa League qualifying round and we won 1-0, although we really should have got a lot more goals, with 3/4 of our shots off-target, I'll need to work with the boys on their finishing.

Videoton 0 - 1 Liverpool
Reina, G Johnson, Skrtel, Wilson, Jose Enrique, Spearing, Gerrard, J Cole, Downing, Carroll, Pacheco
J Cole
J Cole

On the day of my 30th birthday, just a few days after the Videoton match, the lads insisted to throw a party. We had a great time hanging around at the local club. Other managers probably wouldn't hang out with their players at clubs and bars but hey, I was the youngest manager in the league.

I headed to Anfield early next morning just to draw up tactics, have a chat with the coaches about the youth players. The players had the day off today.

As I was working, there was a knock on the door. I shouted for the guy to come in, and in came the chairman Tom Werner. "Hello, Glenn, how's work?"

"Good," I nodded. "What brings you here Tom?" It must be something important, I thought, for the chairman to come down to the manager's office like this.

"Well, Glenn, we've just received a bid for Suso," Werner said. "Suso. Suso Fernandez. Juventus are willing to pay 2 million for him, plus future incentives. What's your view on this?"

"I don't want to sell him," I said adamantly. "But it'll be up to the player to decide."

"He doesn't want to," Werner explained. "I already sent him a text. He says he doesn't want to move to Juventus and would rather stay."

"What's the problem, then?" I smiled. "Tell Juventus their offer is rejected, and every other offer they make, unless of course they want to bid 50 million."