The awoken giant - Marseille

I took a step out of my car and slammed the door, i looked up at the building infront... the marseille training complex! it doesnt get much better than this. my first day as marseille manager, i was a little nervous! but i was ready to meet the lads and get straight down to buisness before our first pre-season game, alot of hard work preparing for the new season is what needs to happen! I gathered the boys up for a team meeting to introduce myself, they all seemed happy and satisfyed!

"fitness today lads, we need you all to be working hard this pre-season! show me what youve got, show me why you should be here, as a marseille player!"

My first managerial position, and i couldnt wait!

Pre-season

So, one month into my career with Marseille and I am extremely happy with the lads...they have worked so hard in training and in pre-season matches. I can see each and every one of the lads want their place in my plans and want to be a part of the Marseille set up, the fight and tenacity is just unreal!

We started off with a bang against our reserves winning 3-0! I didn’t see it as much of a big deal until we got wins against Kapfenberger (2-0) and CSKA sofia (3-0) at this point I started to get a bit more confidence in myself and the boys, just before smashing 4 wins in 4 against: Ajaccio 2-0,Reading 3-0,Charlton 1-0 and Libourne 6-0!


I thought to myself ‘how?’ i couldn’t believe how well the lads had played throughout the course of pre-season and how much hard work they put in, in training! I was proud of them, and myself!

We did manage to conclude Four summer signings before the season started:

• Leroy Fer




• Evgeny Makeev



• Neal Maupay



• Donervon Daniels

AUGUST

So we started off with a great win against Bastia, payet and valbuena getting the goals!
i was very satisfyed with this win and it gave me a bit of confidence in myself!




I was dissapointed with a draw here as i felt we could of won it, i think we would of to had a deflected 25 yard shot not gone in for lorient! luckily we held are heads high and fer came up with the goods to get us a point!




We had a great start to the match with Fer getting a first minute then the points were wrapped up for us when the ball deflected in to the net off of sylvian armand! an all round great game!

SEPTEMBER

We pretty much dominated right from the off in this one, you could see montpellier would have know chance! Leroy Fer popped up with a well time volley from outside the box to secure the victory!




I was gobsmacked at half time! i couldnt believe we were 3-0 up and that Jordan Ayew scored a hat-trick in just 20 minutes! although, looking at the table usually beating a team in 13th place when you're 1st isn't such an achievment!




We kicked of our champions league campaign with a 5-0 win over pandurii, no ive never heard of them either! to be honest we dominated and scored lots of goals it ddnt get much more exciting.




Here i thought it would be quite tough... but wow, was i wrong or was i wrong? just like against pandurii we absolutely dominated from start to finish!




This was an epic game! We were 2-0 down at halftime but my little tweaks and team talk gave that lads new found belief and we absolutely ripped them apart with valbeuna getting 2 goals to earn us a point,respect and our place at the top of the table!




What i said about respect...well lets just say we didnt do ourselves any favours.

Monthly review:

An all round great month fo us, massivly dissapointed about the 4-1 loss but oh well, it happens! im also dissapointed that Fer was injured for 3 months against montpellier which was a real kick in the teath but performances from both Ayew's and valbuena is pleasing me especially in that game against PSG!

POTM:

player of the month goes to valbuena, hes been such an influental player so far this season and he did get those 2 goals against PSG! i could of given it to Jordan Ayew for his hat-trick but i just think valbuena was more consistent before that!


Sadly i dont have a screen shot of the table back in september because im currently about a month ahead but i will make sure it is in future updates!

Some nice signings and results

Some nice results apart from that thrashing by Guingamp. Nice start!

(Try to stick your images centrally and adding a header for your story to look clean cut)

2013-08-10 19:05#126797 P-KIDDY : Some nice results apart from that thrashing by Guingamp. Nice start!

(Try to stick your images centrally and adding a header for your story to look clean cut)

I know, im not sure what happened tbh... and ive just learned how to get headers in and how would i get pics in centraly?

Good start and some nice signings but as P-Kiddy said, get images central.

center image center. add brackets

OCTOBER

Proud of the lads after this win, they didnt put a foot wrong and dominated from start to finish! 1 step closer to our european dream...




I was really unhappy at half time! we were in the lead twice and both times they drew level, however i gave the boys a grilling in the team talk and they provided, valbuena once again winning the game for us.



so we were 3-1 up at half time and i told the lads to hold tight and dont give them a chance in the 2nd half... boy did it get nervy when they hit their second goal in from a beautiful free kick!





We were actually really unlucky, they got a penalty for 'them taking a free kick, then the ball going straight off for a goal kick'??? i have no idea then gingac really should have score late on but the ref blew his whistle 30 seconds early:/




So, again we absolutely dominated and scored loads of goals, thats something we have been really good at this season! we've scored the most goals in ligue 1 by about 10-15 goals andd are one of the highest scoring teams in the UCL

Monthly Review:

All in all, a great month... sometimes a bit nervy in defence but that didnt matter once our attack started scoring, slightly unhappy with the man united result as i thought we deserved a point but ultimately its not important as there is 3 more games to go in the UCL.

POTM:

POTM goes to Valbuena once again for his superb efforts in front of goal and his great playmaking skills that also assisted a few of our strikers!

NOVEMBER

This was a good game for us, just a routine 2-1 win and im happy to get more points on the board.




Apologies for the mix up, im currently further ahead than the story so its hard to keep track... this was the game united got the bullshit penalty.




Again, another routine win against an average side, luckily they didnt draw level but that was mostly down to really good defending from the likes of nkoulou and mendes




This was actually a really boring game but an i have noticed in past games (including this one) we are seeing a huge improvement from gignac




This was a chance to get some of the younger players on the pitch and didnt they do well? players like neal maupay and donervon daniels were brilliant.




So, valbuena once again won the game for us and towards the game it did start to get a bit nervy but we were completely in control.




Im not sure how this was only 1-0, we dominated from start to finish and really it should of been 3 or 4.

Monthly Review:]

This was a great month for Marseille winning 7 out of a possible 8 missing out on a win against united, i did feel we were very unlucky but united are a great team and its to be expected as a tough challenge!

POTM:

This month the award goes to gignac for his great scoring form that carried through the end of october to the start of november...he did calm down a bit towards the end of the month but he was still very good.

DECEMBER

A good win in my eyes, at this point they were 2nd in the table so i think it gives me the upper hand when we play them at the end of the season!





I really got annoyed when they drew level as 1 more goal for them would knock us out of the champions league and into the europa... however lucas mendes powered the ball in with his head from a last minute corner to seal 2nd place in our group!





Dissapointed we didnt win aqs this was one of the first games we havent scored in since my arrivaql at marseille.





Even with the mighty falcao they couldnt get past us! but my,my... i wasnt expecting such a good performance!!





So, we rounded off the perfect christmas for all marseille fans out there! not so sure about ajaccio supporters though...





Held to a second draw against lorient, not much we could do really it was even throughout the entire game.

Monthly Review:

4 wins out of 6 isnt bad but a team of our ability and stature really should of been winning the games we missed out on!

POTM:

This month Ayew wins player of the month award, his goals have been vital this month and hes been an integral part of creating goals and playing some important passes.

Ayew out?

Today, Andre Ayew revealed to his manager Aaron Hardy "He wants out!" Marseille fans around are said to be fuming at the disloyalty of the african star however Skysports news caught up with Hardy and Ayew to get their view on the matter!

Ayew: "I love Marseille with all my heart, they made me what i am today and i wouldnt be where i am without them... the supporters are brilliant and the atmosphere at home games is just insane! the only thing bugging me is that i want to get into european competitions and win things, i want to win league titles and here at marseille i dont feel that is possible within the next 2-3 years! i have spoken to Aaron about the issue and he promised we could win the league this year which i must admit we are almostt there! i said, if we win it this year I WILL stay.

Hardy:"Ayew is a fantastic player with great potential, and i can understand his need to get out and win things however i have asked him if there is anyway he would want to say and he replied "win the league title this year"and thats what we will do.

A number of clubs are said to be extremly interested in the wide midfield player with arsenal said to be favorites to sign him, despite marseille rejecting a package of £15,750,000.

Ayew Recently won African player of the year after scoring 4 goals in 6 games.

JANUARY

We kicked off the new year with a great win against relagation candidates Nantes in the coup de france 9th, a great performance from the lads!





Unfortunetly we couldnt carry that momentum into the semi final against st ettiene. i feel we were extremely unluck considering we were in control in the full 90 minutes but they some how managed to score a 120th minute goal to knock us out of the coup de le ligue





I cant quite get my head around this one, we were appauling and im not quite sure what happened.





Lucky draw to be honest they were in control from start to finish and we'll be thanking sougou for keeping that first spot reserved in our favour.





This was a fantastic win for everyone involved... im also glad sanago was able to score on his debut ( yes he's a january signing update below )

January transfers

Ademilson was our first signing signed for a fee of £13M, he will be a brilliant player with more game time and tutoring behind him!

We needed a strong powerhouse in the defensive midfield position and boy did we get one in the form of mulumbu. hes been an integral part of our defence in his early career with Marseille

This was mostly a signing just for the sake of it, we signed sanago on loan and although we have Gignac,maupay,J Ayew and ademilson he still has turned out to be a brilliant signing and youll see why in future posts. i will be looking to sign him on a permanent basis and also donervon daniels.

Monthly Review:

A very bumby start to the year 2013 however im sure we can overcome those results as players on international duty didnt help at all! especially with the big games we had!

POTM:

Player of the month goes to modou sougou for his goals against lyon and montpellier! he vertually kept us at the top of the table against montpellier and helped the likes of sanago score his first goal and win the match against lyon.

Other news we drew Juventus in the champions league! underperforming at the moment but a great side nonetheless.

Nice update mate, make sure that you keep him because he is insane on FM

2013-08-13 10:12#127637 joethequin : Nice update mate, make sure that you keep him because he is insane on FM

Oh dont worry mate, he aint going no where;) if you know what im getting at;) haaha, cheers bud.