So much time, and so little to do!

By: Mike | January 28th, 2009

…Scratch that, reverse it.

We’ll start off with a little about me…
I’m Mike, I live in Boston, MA. I’m Italian, thus a die hard Azzurri fan. I’m also a die hard AC Milan fan as well!
I’ve been a long time reader of The Offside and WCB and I finally have my own blog!

Now onto the meat of this post, the story so far… sorry if this post is all over the place, there’s a lot to be said.

I’m into my second season coaching Man City, and to say the least I’m much better than Mark Hughes. I chose Man City because, well, they have all the money in the world, really. Now cut me some slack, this was my first time ever playing Football Manager or anything like it, so I wasn’t about to start with Pro-Vercelli, but I didn’t want to make things too easy and start with Barca. Before I took over, City was a mediocre club, but at this point, almost through my second season, we’re a real powerhouse.

In my first season, the press predicted I’d finish 9th. Low and behold we ended up in 5th and qualified for Europe. Oh, did I mention we won the League Cup? That’s right, I brought home silverware in my first season! And it sure as hell wasn’t easy. I had to go through Newcastle United, Chelsea, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Walsall and Liverpool to win it. Stacked odds much?

After a very successful first season, my Boss upped my paycheck and my contract. Going into season 2 I promised Europa League qualification through the Prem, which lead to my transfer budged being raised to a staggering £198m. Believe me, I spent it well. But we’ll get to transfers after. This season started well. We were doing great in the Prem, the League Cup, and in the Europa League. Fast forward to right now. Somehow I managed to snatch first place from Man Utd. and we’re slowly pulling away from them on 78 points to their 71! On top of that, we won BACK TO BACK LEAGUE CUPS! But that wasn’t really my doing. My schedule was really packed and the race for first was tight. I couldn’t decide if it was more important to go for the Cup or to try to keep ahead of United. So I went on holiday for one day and let my ass man (Mark Bowen, who I can’t complain about) take over the team. Low and behold we won!
So here’s the League table right now…

So 29 games into the season, League Cup won, onto the 6th round of the FA cup against Blackburn (Only to play Man Utd after…) and we’re in the quarter finals of the EURO Cup (AKA UEFA Cup, soon to be Europa League) against Olympiakos.

Onto transfers…
I’ve spent £160m in my two seasons, with almost all of my transfers working out very very well. Here’s a shot of all my in’s and out’s for two seasons.

In the first season Petrov and Elano were constantly bitching and playing terribly, so I let them go, and now they’re missing out. Brought in Tim de Cler as a D/WBL and he’s been fantastic. A really solid player. Also brought in Yury Zhirkov who’s been truly amazing on the left wing, and (Thanks to Daryl) Pavel Pogrebnyak. In 09/10 I brought in Brazilian wonderkid Kerrison who has been fantastic, and who was free. Fabio Daprela is an 18 year old left wingback who’s already as good as 30 year old Tim de Cler, and was only £4m. And my biggest transfer was for a whopping £49m. It was totally worth it though, as Sergio Aguero is FANTASTIC, and anyone with that much cash laying around should pick him up.

I figure I’ve given you plenty to soak in so far, and I need my nightly fix of Football Manager, so that’s all for this post. If you want to know about any of my players or transfers just comment and I’ll fill you in.

OH! Almost forgot to mention…
Nigeria asked me to be their manager, and going against my better judgment, and Daryl’s example, I said yes. So far I’ve only scouted a few matches, but the squad looks pretty solid, and I think I can work with them and do well in the African tournaments, if not the World Cup qualifiers!

Edit: Sorry about the formatting and picture issues… This is my first time with WordPress, so I’m experimenting and trying to figure out how to use it!