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2014 The Unemployed Challenge: We meet again


Sunny
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Again, it's come to a point where every single save I try to start and play becomes dull, boring, and repetitive after the first few months. So what does that mean? Well it's definitely time for a challenge!

 

My past attempts of the unemployed challenge have been pretty successful, apart from 1) National teams seem to always pick native managers even though the best manager in the world applies for the job and 2) I'm often clumsy with saving and accidentally replace the unemployed challenge save with another career :blink: . After observing Russia appoint Laudrup and Sweden appoint an Italian manager, I regain hope that I could complete the challenge :P and with the ability to save on iCloud, I won't have to worry about losing the save when I'm 15 seasons in!

 

My past experiences tell me that it's quite difficult to get out of Scotland, which has often been my choice of the other nation, so feeling rather confident (and perhaps being a bit cocky :ph34r: ) I've decided to go with Holland, where (correct me if I'm wrong) I'd have to manage 2 teams, namely Ajax Amsterdam and PSV Eindhoven, along with the other required clubs and nations. 

 

While I might start off the career in a diary-ish style I'm also aware that I'll probably be too busy to continue updating like this after school resumes, so I hope you'll all understand my situation :lol:

 

Anyway, here we go :cool: Oh and if you haven't heard of the challenge before, checkout this thread.

 


 

The Unemployed Challenge: 4th attempt

 

 

Season 1, Part 1

 

Season 1, Part 2

 

Season 2

 

Season 3

 

Season 4

 

Season 5

 

Season 6

 

Season 7

 


 

The List

 

England:
Arsenal
Chelsea
Manchester City
Manchester United
 
Spain:
Barcelona
Real Madrid
Valencia
Real Sociedad
 
Germany:
Borussia Dortmund
Bayern Munich
Schalke 04
Bayer Leverkusen
 
Holland:
Ajax
PSV
 
Nations:
Spain
England
Italy
France
Portugal
Holland
 

 
Prologue
 
 
 
I grew up in a not-so-typical Hong Kong family. My father, an Englishman, met my mother, who was from Hong Kong, while she was on vacation in the UK, and - according to my dad - it was love at first sight. I'm sure you all know what happens after that.

 

 

My dad loved football - a true Gooner in fact - and I naturally picked up his love for football as well, though I fell in love with another club - Borussia Dortmund. I used to play football all the time, so much that I didn't spend enough time with school work, and all the teachers at school reckoned I'd fail my A-levels for sure, and so my dad took me back to the UK where the competition wasn't so strong, just as every HK family would do if their children didn't do well with their studies. I was well aware that I'm perfectly capable of doing better, yet something about football kept me addicted, so much that studying no longer seemed important at all.

 

 

As I kept on playing the beautiful game in the UK, I came upon the chance to join the youth team of Leeds United - the best club in England back then. The rest is history. I steamrollered my way up the ranks, and soon I was about to be the youngest player ever to play for Leeds at senior level. My name was soon embedded into the minds of every Leeds fan - as the best young player in England back then. 

 

 

"Typical English press," I thought. I felt weirdly calm before my Premier League debut, treating it like every other reserve game. I eventually won the Man of the Match Award for that game as well, bagging a goal and an assist. No longer was I a player only known by Leeds fans, 'Sunny Lin' soon became a household name in England, with Eriksson, the national team manager back then sending scouts to keep an eye on my progress as well. My story spread throughout the country within a day.

 

 

What they didn't know was that, towards the final minutes of that match, I felt a weird pain in my ligaments. Of course, I was too excited to care about that at all.

 

 

The manager wanted me to start the next match against Bolton as well. "It's just Bolton, should be an easy win."

 

 

Or so I thought.

 

 

While doing a light jog before the game, I heard a slight tear in my ligaments. Worried, I called a physio over immediately, who tells me that I'll be out for 2 months; no problem, I'll be back in no time. As the rising star of the best club in England, they rushed me back after a month, and during a match against Barnet, I felt the tear again but it's bigger, maybe even career-threatening. 

 

 

After spending 1 year on the bench, much to the fans' disappointment, I decided to retire.

 

 

Of course, this wouldn't be the end of my story. The manager at the time said that I'd make a good manager myself. I pondered on this for a while, and decided to enroll myself into the LMA College in London. During my time there, I made a few friends, each of them having unique thoughts on every area of the game, and so we agreed that we'd form a team and work together after we graduate. 

 

 

You might ask, what would be my specialty? Well I was known as "the brains" of the squad back when I played for Leeds, and it was probably this quality which the manager saw in me. I was a brave tactician, with concepts and ideas which would be deemed insane and unorthodox back then, but they often worked brilliantly - at least, on paper.

 

 

After a gruelling 2 years in the College, I passed with flying colours and soon applied for a job at Wycombe Wanderers, who were without a manager. They accepted me and my team - and this is where the story of a legend begins.

 


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Season 1, Part 1

 

 

As soon as I received the Letter of Appointment, me and my team began studying the squad. The board expected us to avoid relegation, but I immediately promised them promotion. With that goal, we were allowed around £300K for transfers. We all agreed it was a rather tight budget for a rather limited squad, but after all, where's the fun when there's no challenges, right?

 

 

Seeing that we lacked decent wingers, I decided that we'll be needing wing-backs for width as we'd be playing a narrow game - trying to overload the midfield against our opponents. While wing-backs were rare, my team soon gathered information on possible targets and soon spent nearly all of our funds. It was a busy transfer market, but of course, the real challenge has yet to begin.

 

 

I started with a basic 4-3-2-1, inspired by Ancelotti's Christmas Tree at AC Milan, but playing a balanced and direct style with technically limited players. It was quite a success, overwhelming a number of opponents in friendlies, who usually played their usual 4-4-2 against us. Soon came our first League 2 game, and again, while my team was pretty hyped up, I felt pretty calm and confident. And as expected, we thrashed our opponents, Cheltenham, starting the season with a 5-1 win away.

 

 

While we were knocked out by Newcastle at the 2nd round of the Capital One Cup, we did put on quite a fight:

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Undeterred, the team went on unbeaten throughout September-December, holding a firm position at the top of League 2. I decided to switch to a 4-3-1-2 for most matches as we lacked creative midfielders but had quite a number of strikers to choose from. It worked well, perhaps even better than the 4-3-2-1, which I liked to call "the Kraken". ;) 

 

 

Our first challenge came in the FA Cup, where we faced Burnley in the Championship. I was too happy with the performance with the team that I didn't really give them special instructions at all. And only did I realize our achievement after the match when the players rushed to me and celebrated.

 

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I remembered that we were only a League 2 team, yet we pretty much dominated the match against Burnley, supposedly way better than us. I understood that the team had potential - I reckon they were absolutely capable of even winning League 1! And so, I began to take our big matches seriously, doing research on the style of play, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of our opponents. It came to my conclusion that our success was largely due to our amazing goal-scoring midfielders and the fact that most teams still played with a 4-4-2 formation, so I decided to keep our current style, despite the fact that we faced criticism that we lacked width in midfield. We didn't need wingers anyway, as our wing-backs McCoy and Bermingham were absolutely fantastic!

 

 

Soon came our next challenge in the JPT South Final - Swindon. While they were only in League 1, they had excellent players and I believe they were perfectly ready for Championship football. And as expected, it was a tough match, but we emerged victorious, perhaps with a little luck as well:

 

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We also experimented with a wide formation in the league, but that didn't turn out very well. I'll leave that for next season, that is, if we get more wingers  :unsure: 

 

 

Then came the important match against Reading. They were a club I applied for before managing Wycombe, but they simply laughed off our application. Reading were only relegated from the Premier League this season, still retaining much of their good players at the club, and the press believed we faced the impossible - which I once again proved wrong, thanks to an absolutely amazing performance from Cauley Woodrow, a young, strong striker we scouted and loaned in from Fulham during October:

 

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It was a thrilling match, with our enthusiastic supporters going crazy as Woodrow scored the first goal! I kept shouting at the lads to hold in their, and Reading pounced back right after they conceded the first goal. Still, our new Portuguese goalkeeper did great as well, managing to save every attempt from Reading until the 80th minute. We managed to keep it together and lasted until the last second of stoppage time, holding the record at 2-1 and winning the match. Serves them right for snubbing our application :cool: 

 


 

Transfers as of February:

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The League:

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Stay tuned for more!

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Really good sunny. It's up to you, but I'd really encourage you to keep up with the diary style, regardless of how far you get behind with the updates. I'd much rather wait for quality :)

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Like yourself I've started many careers and ended up losing a bit of interest in them after a few months. The longest I've played was two and a half seasons but all other attempts to stick with a career ended up after January/February. But my case is much worse than yours...I've only played with FC Porto :D Yes, that's right, I've attempted a FC Porto save close to 10 times already... So hard to manage our own team. You don't want to let anyone go, and when a big offer comes which you can't refuse, you end up regretting it :(

 

I've also noticed a lot of foreigners get national jobs. I even got the England job (while being portuguese) in season 2. And I thought about trying this, yet again. You've inspired me!

 

Seems like you'll have some competition in the UEC Sunny! I think...one can never be too sure when starting careers :D

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Like yourself I've started many careers and ended up losing a bit of interest in them after a few months. The longest I've played was two and a half seasons but all other attempts to stick with a career ended up after January/February. But my case is much worse than yours...I've only played with FC Porto :D Yes, that's right, I've attempted a FC Porto save close to 10 times already... So hard to manage our own team. You don't want to let anyone go, and when a big offer comes which you can't refuse, you end up regretting it :(

 

I've also noticed a lot of foreigners get national jobs. I even got the England job (while being portuguese) in season 2. And I thought about trying this, yet again. You've inspired me!

 

Seems like you'll have some competition in the UEC Sunny! I think...one can never be too sure when starting careers :D

 

To be frank, I have a weird feeling I'll get bored or mess something up when I get to like the 20th season or something :P Good luck with your attempt mate, though honestly I feel that it's easier than previous years, disregarding the national team thing.

Sunny, are u using ur own 4-3-1-2? Can u share with us mate?

Well after all I'm supposed to use my own tactics lol I'll try to get it up later :)

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Sunny, are u using ur own 4-3-1-2? Can u share with us mate?

 

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I felt that it was rather unsafe at the back towards the end of the season, where I seemed to concede goals almost every game. Then again my GK kind of threw a tantrum after a few games conceding 2 goals and kinda just slumped and never really improved.

 

Used same team instructions with the 4-3-2-1, and with an AdF up top

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Season 1, Part 2

 

 

While we managed to beat Reading away, we were simply outclassed by Tottenham Hotspur, ending our journey in the FA Cup prematurely. Tactics only help you so much, and at the end of the day, player quality will forever be the determining factor to the outcome of a game. A lesson learnt from this defeat I suppose. 

 

 

Our star goalkeeper, Antonio Filipe, also began to slack after the defeat. While he was doing ok, he just didn't seem to be willing to stretch another millimetre to save a shot, and never kept another clean sheet after that 0-1 defeat against Spurs. Sensing danger and always preparing for a plan B, I asked Franklin, my head scout, to keep an eye on any potential bargain goalkeepers, for I did not trust on Antonio to stand guard between the goalposts in League 1 

 

 

Still, the FA Cup was never our main target, though honestly, I secretly hoped that we could make it into the quarter finals. Our focus soon returned to the Johnstone's Paint Trophy, which we managed to get into the final against Wolves. I decided to keep our direct, simplistic approach in the 4-3-1-2, as Wolves played a 4-4-2, which would allow us to dominate the centre of the park. Nevertheless, Wolves did have a decent squad perfectly capable of Championship football, whereas we only had the average League 2 squad with limited quality and resources. It was obviously going to be a tough game.

 

 

The big day soon came, yet things didn't really start in our favour, as Leigh Griffiths soon grabbed the opening goal for Wolves in the 4th minute. Then things start to turn against their favour. George Elokobi was sent off in the 9th minute, leaving Wolves with 10-men for the remaining 80 or so minutes. Gaining the numerical advantage, I yelled at the lads to keep on pressing, confident that our hard work would soon pay off. And as expected, we soon scored the equaliser in the 32nd minute and even took the lead in the 52th minute, thanks to a goal from our star midfielder Matt Bloomfield.

 

 

Just as the fans were about to celebrate our first trophy of the season, the match got out of control. Antonio Filipe, our star GK, clipped Zeli Ismail's in the penalty box, and Wolves were awarded the penalty. And in the dying minutes of the match, Leigh Griffiths scored the goal that kept them in the game, despite the immense pressure. The Wolves crowd went wild, and contrastingly, our fans fell dead silent. While we dominated the match in general, it seems that today, luck just wasn't on our side.

 

 

Or was it?

 

 

Tristan Plummer scored for us first, yet Leigh Griffiths, obviously Man of the Match basing on his performance in the last 90 minutes, missed his penalty. We went on to score all the remaining penalties, having the last laugh of the game. 

 

 

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And as you'd expect, we went on to win the league 5 or 6 games, remaining unbeaten:

 

 

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The fans were thrilled and my team was feeling accomplished, having survived our first season in management. An understatement, obviously :P 

 

 

Feeling rather confident, I was about to ask for extra funds for next season on a celebratory dinner. However, the board members hinted at me that, to my disappointment, they weren't prepared to offer extra funds for next season. They thought that we would drop back into League 2 for sure. Just as I started to get attached to the club, I'm told that the club does not have any ambition whatsoever. It was obvious that with a board like that, we won't be fulfilling our potential, and it was probably a good idea to start looking for another job. Still, being professionals, we began work and scouting immediately, as we will really need to dig deep to find the best bargains for League 1.

 

 


 

 

The Manager:

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The Board:

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The Season:

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I'd say a rather satisfying first season :P Will post second season soon

 

And in other news, I believe I might have stumbled on a bug, or I may just have managed to make a pre-contract agreement around 2-3 seasons ahead on FMH 2014 :wacko:

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You're doing great! JPT and undefeated in League Two. I doubt anyone in League One will be able to deny you from promotion to Championship next season!

Looking forward to your next Update.

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Sorry for the long wait, been in a camp and honestly, much has been going on in Season 2, but anyway, here you go ^_^

 


 

Season 2 - Moving On

 

 

 

With limited resources, we really had to dig deep into all the profiles of players all around Europe, as well as looking for possible loans/Bosmans outside Europe. Even while I was on a short vacation to take a break from excitement and work, I assisted the lads in scouting as well - in the beautiful country of Croatia.

 

 

In the world of football, Croatia has produced a number of fine midfield creators like Modric, Kranjcar, Kovacic, etc. Lacking a creative midfielder at Wycombe, I headed straight to Stadion Maksimir to observe a public training session. And there I found the perfect signing for the season - Josip Pavic. 

 

 

Josip was unlike most midfield creators - he does not position himself high up the field in "the hole", nor does he drift to the wings, but he was a hardworking and restless midfielder with tonnes of creativity, who also packed a powerful shot. One might even compare him to Toni Kroos, but Pavic would also make the odd run into the box when he sees the chance. The best part? Dinamo didn't really value him that much, especially with Alen Halilovic in their team. I immediately called Franklin, and soon Pavic joined us. A crucial signing for us, but we still needed to beef up our defense, especially when League 1 football would be much more competitive than League 2. We turned to the Iberian Peninsula for bargains, and there we found young GK Ricardo Ribeiro who was eager to play in England, as well as two talented defenders, Mika and Vitor Bastos, who I reckon were ready for Premier League football already. Our final signing was striker Danny North, who we we've keeping tabs on since last season, as we needed another striker to add more options up front in case of an injury crisis.

 

 

Looking at our squad list, I decided that we should switch to a 4-2-3-1 for the coming season, as after all we did have the final, missing piece of the puzzle in Pavic. And it turned out to be a brilliant decision, surprising teams and holding a firm position on the top of the table from August to October.

 

 

Still, while Pavic was incredible and soon caught attention, he still won't be able to last for the whole season playing every single game, and our form soon dropped after he sustained an injury and was ruled out for 3 weeks. I didn't want to rush him back into action and risk destroying his career like mine turned out, and feeling desperate, I gambled on young Welsh Wizard Jack Philips, who was lighting up the Welsh Premier League with Bangor City at the ripe age of 17. Some even compared him to the retired Ryan Giggs, both being capable of playing in the middle or on the wings ;) Philips was aware of the work my team has done at Wycombe, and we soon managed to sign him for a mere 30K, who soon turned out to be our saviour in our darkest hours.

 

 

Still, our efforts were no match for an in-form Doncaster, and we soon lost our first place to them. But being confident in my squad, we kept our cool, and with American inside forward Pittman returning from injury and North finally finding his form at Sligo Rovers, we soon caught up with Doncaster, putting pressure on them.

 

 

With my aim for the season being promotion from League 1, we put our focus on the league, but still worked hard in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy, and just as last season, we ended up in the finals fairly easily.

 

 

Finally getting the team to gel together, my name was praised continuously in the local newspapers, and this soon caught the attention of Championship team managers, especially Watford and Derby, who were on the lookout for suitable managers. I was linked with both jobs, and I applied for both as well. Of course, the board wasn't too happy with this...

 

 

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But with my fantastic performance as manager, they did not sack me for being disloyal to the club. Obviously, I wasn't too eager to stay at the club either, as with the resources available, I could see that Wycombe won't get anywhere further than the Championship. And soon, Derby County came along with an offer...

 

 

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...which I happily accepted  ^_^

 

 

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The board was lenient and accepting, only requiring a mid-table finish as they acknowledged the fact that the team needed time to get used to their new manager, but being the competitive manager, I never settled with a mid-table finish, and secretly aimed for promotion to the Premier League. It wasn't impossible, as we were at 7th place, and I was confident that our team could catch up with the others even though there were only 9 games left. This was supported by the fact that the squad I was presented with was a perfect fit with my trusty 4-2-3-1 tactic...

 

 

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And needing no time at all to get used to my tactics, the team went on to win every single game left in the season, reaching 5th place in the league, as well as securing a playoff spot:

 

 

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With squad morale at an all-time high, we soon made it into the playoff finals, beating Bolton 3-2 on aggregate. The finals was a tough match, as Cardiff retained much of their squad from the Premier League, but we managed to last until extra time, holding a result of 2-2 after 120 minutes - which meant our fate would be decided by penalties...

 

 

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...which we managed to win by 6-5 :D

 

 

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And that's how, ladies & gentlemen, I ended up in the Premier League after 2 seasons of management :cool: 

 


 

The Season:

Wycombe:

 

 

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Derby:

 

 

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The World:

 

5267941E-D2AB-48BC-AD23-B622D76C8418_zps

 

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EDEF374E-E305-44FC-8237-6A68A7252A01_zps

 

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3B71C590-8DF4-4600-96FC-1FE0600B752F_zps

 

9F93BB53-59DA-487D-A667-F39BDFE53946_zps

 

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The Board:

Wycombe:

 

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Derby:

 

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The Manager:

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Excellent job mate getting to the bpl after just two seasons brilliant effort keep up the diary entries their class . Dont worry about falling behind its quality not quantity. Good luck in season 3

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Johnny Russell  :wub:  +1, think he scored like 7 goals in 2 consecutive games before I rested him, Hughes is a beast as well :wub:

 

And I finally get some decent money to go shopping :D A teaser for you all :P:

 

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My advice to you: don't take any of the jobs. If you're lucky, the manager of one of the clubs you must manage will take the vacant spot and you'll get a new vacant spot in a club relevant to this challenge :)

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Season 3 - I'm National!

 

 

 

When the Derby board first appointed me, they never expected promotion. In a matter of months, I've transformed from the young, rather inexperienced and fearless manager into the miracle worker, not only securing back-to-back promotion for a poor, unambitious club, but turning the mediocre Championship club into the team worthy of top tier football as well. Naturally, the fans would be hyped and the media would follow my journey closely, comparing me to managers like David Moyes and Roberto Martinez, known for their success with tight budgets. But deep in my heart, I knew very well that I was going to do much better than they did. 

 

 

First things first, the squad naturally needed an upgrade. I assured the board a respectable league finish, but of course I'm just being safe. Still, I was given around 15M pounds to spend, despite the rather tight wage budget. Not bad, wasn't going to be a problem anyway as I had my brilliant scouts with me  :cool:. A few players were sold to gain extra funds and make room in the squad.

 

 

I first swooped up a couple of bargains, including Mika and Vitor Bastos back from Wycombe, who were available for less than 100K, as we needed some quality back up behind. Next was Bebe, the flop from Manchester United. He was a free agent, and despite his rather disappointing mental qualities, he was a technically gifted player, and we soon agreed on a 3-year contract with him. I also invested in another Greek box-to-box midfielder and a Belgian wide forward named Psarianos and De Pauw respectively, as both played crucial roles in my preferred formation, and both were available for less than 1M pounds. Jeremy Debuchy also agreed on a 3-year contract with us, adding more options in the DMC slot. South African GK Darren Keet was brought in to provide competition for Legzdins, and only costed us slightly less than 1M.

 

 

With enough depth, I started to add quality to the squad. First came Aidan White from Leeds, a decent left-back who was available for 4M, as we lacked true attacking full-backs on the left. Then I invested in another Belgian wide player named Maxime Lestienne, who was young and was a great runner on the left wing, where we had limited quality apart from Michael Jacobs.

 

 

The final piece of the puzzle was a creator. While Hughes was literally our Wilshere, we still needed more flair and creativity. My mind immediately flew to the German Bundesliga, where attacking midfielders thrived, and soon we came up to Japanese set-piece master Hiroshi Kiyotake, who had provided 13 assists and scored 6 goals in the previous season. Knowing that Nuremberg had financial troubles, we were able to get him for a mere 3.5M, a sum of money which turned out to be well spent.

 

 

The board wasn't too sure about us spending that much on so many players, especially when I was going dangerously close to the maximum wage budget. They're well aware of the case of Spurs, who have miserably failed despite their activeness in the transfer market. Still, we really needed an upgrade, and as we all know, in this capitalist driven world, money comes along with success, and I was sure that we'd make much more money than we did in last season such that we'd be able to cover any money we were losing by going over budgets.

 

 

Anyway, our first Premier League match was against Norwich, who have now established themselves as mid-table regulars in the EPL. As one would expect, we easily beat them 3-0...

 

 

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...and Kiyotake soon proved himself worthy of the Premier League by bagging a brace on his debut :D But our first challenge came along when Arsenal challenged us at home...

 

 

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...but we managed to hold our position against them. But our unbeaten streak was soon broken by an in-form Southampton... :( 

 

 

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Still, that was the least of our worries, as we soon faced our toughest run of games (Which we managed a record of W2 D1 L2 :ph34r: ):

 

 

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I was well aware that much of our success was due to our star striker, Johnny Russell, who was our top scorer, and I often praised him in front of the press. He was also instrumental to our triumph in the Capital One Cup:

 

 

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Besides from being the first trophy I've won with Derby, this also meant that we've secured a EURO Cup spot, and boosted not only the club's reputation on the international stage, but also my reputation as a manager, attracting the attention of other clubs as well. Near the end of the season, managers of Spurs and Liverpool were sacked, and the media listed me as one of the favourites to take over. Liverpool even came along offering 65M for me to spend, though expecting me to do even worse than I was doing with a third of that with a newly promoted club  :blink: 

 

 

All in all the season was rather anti-climatic and less challenging as all would expect, and we managed to finish 5th in the league, though 1 spot away from a Champions League spot, we truly out-performed ourselves, and it's obvious that we're looking into a very bright future for Derby :cool: 

 


 

The Season:

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The World:

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The Board:

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The Manager:

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Sadly, none of the jobs I need in England are available, and while I'm sure I've seen Atletico and Schalke pop up at some point, it's quite obvious that I'm not famous enough to move to other countries just yet  -_-

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