A Legend Returns... (A Manager Merry-Go-Round Story)

Pre season update



First of all, the board expects me to finish in the mid table, which i think is a lot to ask for compared to the scrappy ammounts they gave me to spend.
View attachment 339072

Finances

View attachment 339071
As you can see our transfer percent is only at 20... It's time to ask the board for more.
And they gave me more! Our transfer percent has been almost doubled to 35%, which is more than i expected.
View attachment 339073View attachment 339074

Some other great news is that West Ham announced a profit of 9,25M!

View attachment 339075

That must be enough finances for one day. Time to look at which players i have available.


Squad


We have a great squad. But by the looks of it, we are going to improve the goalkeeping position.

View attachment 339076View attachment 339077


Transfers Out

Jussi Jääskeläinen
View attachment 339078
The old premier league veteran has to go. He's too old, and doesn't really seems to be good enough for this level anymore.


Frédéric Piquionne
View attachment 339080

This old fella is like Jussi, not good enough for this level anymore. He have been in the reserves team sucking up wages.

Both of these players have their contract runing out along with some reserves.
View attachment 339082


Loans returning

We have two players returning from loan.

Modibo Maïga
View attachment 339083

He could be a great backup striker. He's earning just as much as Carlton Cole, but i rate him higher, so i might just see Carlton Cole walk out the door for this man to stay.

Alou Diarra
View attachment 339084

He's a great player, but his wages are a bit high. I'm wondering if i should offload him, but i'm not sure yet.


Transfer targets


First things first. I need new goalkeepers.
I need to buy a new first team goalkeeper, and then i also wish to buy a young backup keeper, whom eventually could come into the first team.
As i have a scrappy budget i will look for free transfers. I have these two targets for a first team keeper:

Mickaël Landreau
View attachment 339085

He's a bit old, he can prob last a couple of seasons on the first team. But he's a cheap option. He's on a free agent.

Tim Wiese
View attachment 339087

He's a bit younger than Landreau is. But his wages are also a bit higher. He's also on a free agent.

I'm also looking for a young keeper, and i have put my eye on some sweet regens.

Miguel Perdomo
View attachment 339088

He's not on a free agent. But i think that this one, will become a world beater. Anyhow... he's the expensive option of the two i have lined up.

Miles Acosta
View attachment 339089

The cheaper option is Miles Acosta. He's on a free agent, and he seems promising! I'm very much in doubt of which of these two wonderkids i should choose.



Anyway at the moment my team looks like this:

Goalkeeper:
Stephen Henderson (24)(For sale)
Raphael Spiegel (20) (young keeper. Not good enough)

DC:
Winston Reid (24)
James Collins (29)
James Tomkins (24)
(No need for backup here. We got some great defenders here.)

DR:
Jordan Spence (22)
Joey O'Brien (27)
Guy Demel (31)
(This position could use improvements, but only if the transfer budget is good enough for it.)

DL:
Lee Wallace (25)
Danny Potts (19)
George McCartney (32)
(Will prob sell McCartney, because Danny Potts seems like the better choice for a backup left back.)

MC:
Jack Collison (24)
Ruben Yttergård Jenssen (25)
Mark Noble (25)
Mohamed Diame (25)
Alou Diarra (31)
(We are very strong in this position, but i don't know if we have too many good players here. Maybe i will sell Diarra and loan in a youngster as a backup.)

Wingers:
Kris Commons (29)
Matty Taylor (31)
Petter Vaagan Moen (29)
Matt Jarvis (26)
Ricardo Vaz Té (26)
Joe Cole (31)
(We have a lot of wingers compared to what i'm going to use. I will prob sell one or two of these players.)

Strikers:
Alexander Søderlund (25)
Nicklas Helenius (21)
Carlton Cole (29)
Modibo Maïga (25)
(A lot of strikers for my taste too. I will prob offload one, and bring in a wonderkid.)

Update with transfers and friendly matches coming later this week.


​
 
Last edited:
More transfer targets


I have just discovered some more free transfers, that i'm considering bringing in.

Marco Pirker

View attachment 339385

This litteraly BIG wonderkid would be a good player for the future. I'm considering bringing in a new striker and offloading Carlton Cole or Modibo Maiga.

Scott Henderson

View attachment 339386

Another wonderkid striker. Also a conteder for the future.

Simão

View attachment 339390

As i'm looking to offload Alou Diarra. Meet his future replacement!
He prob won't ask for as many wages as Diarra, and he's much younger.

Kevin Gomez Nieto

View attachment 339391

A right back for the future! If he comes in i will prob offload either Jordan Spence or Joey O'Brien.

Sam Johnstone

View attachment 339392

He doesn't seem to be as good as the other goalkeeper options. But he would be a good option if the others aren't willing to join us. Also he is english!


Feel free to come with your opinions on these transfer targets.

​
 
Really like the Austrian striker and the Spanish full back. Not sure the others look good enough, even potential wise.

Think the French GK would do a better job as well (from your earlier post)

Looking forward to who you buy and how the season starts.
 
NorthanMonkee said:
Really like the Austrian striker and the Spanish full back. Not sure the others look good enough, even potential wise.

Think the French GK would do a better job as well (from your earlier post)

Looking forward to who you buy and how the season starts.
Click to expand...

I bought in the french GK Landreau.
And i had some problems with getting the wonderkids to join me. They couldn't get a work permit.

Anyway a transfer update should be up soon.
A little teaser is: Out with the old, in with the new.
 
Transfers out

I had to get rid of some old players. They were sucking up the wages.
So players i got rid of are:
Jussi Jääskeläinen, Frederic Piqu, Alou Diarra, Carlton Cole, Joe Cole, Jordan Spence, Matty Taylor & Stephen Henderson.
View attachment 339898View attachment 339899View attachment 339900View attachment 339901View attachment 339902View attachment 339903View attachment 339904


Transfers in

Mickaël Landreau (Free)
French keeper which i think will do well for the season. He's a bit old, but on a free transfer i would say he's good. He got a 1 year deal.
View attachment 339905

Loris Karius (Loan)
A backup keeper, because i didn't get to secure me a wonderkid. They were all from Amerika, and couldn't get a hold of a work permit for them. Anyway here's a young german keeper for backup.
View attachment 339906

McDonald Mariga (Free)
Because i couldn't bring in Simao, i bought in this guy instead. He's a replacement for Alou Diarra.
View attachment 339907

Amedeo Sforzini (850k)
Here's the only wonderkid i got to bring in. He's VERY good for such a young age. This guy will be our topscorer in the next couple of years.
View attachment 339908

Andreas Cornelius (4,5m)
The best signing of this transfer window. He looks like Helenius. But he's the 2 years younger version of him. I'm really looking forward to see what this guy can do.
View attachment 339909

Here's our transfers:
View attachment 339910


Friendly matches

We had a good run of games with only 1 loss and 1 draw. We even won our friendly cup against Reading & Atalanta. Here are the fixtures.
View attachment 339897


August

QPR away
View attachment 339911
A perfect debut for Cornelius! He didn't need more than 10 mins on the field to score his first goal in England. A great win here to secure some vital points to start out with.


Newcastle home
View attachment 339912
A boring draw here, but it's still great to get some points in the league.

Colchester away - Capital one cup 2nd round
View attachment 339913
Dissapointed that we had to go into extra time to settle this. But super-sub Helenius scored 2 to secure us a spot in the next round. West Ham youngster Robert Hall also had a fantastic game here.

Sunderland away
View attachment 339914
A bit dissapointed to go away with nothing here. The first loss of the season. And it's a bitter one, considering how many chances we had here.

Here's our fixtures.
View attachment 339915

September/October update coming soon.​
 
September

It's been a tough month!
Insane fixtures got me on a losing streak.

Man City away
One man team City beats me up pretty bad. Falcao had a amazing game here!
View attachment 339925

Man Utd home
So close to sealing some points here! I'm really gutted, going away with nothing after this.
View attachment 339926

Birmingham away - Carling cup 3rd round
Dissapointed to again go into extra time, and almost penalty shootout, if it weren't for Robert Hall's late goal!
View attachment 339927

Tottenham home
Amazing win against arch rivals spurs! With Diame getting a red after just 4 MINUTES! I still managed to win this. A lovely suprise for a West Ham team with no so high moral.
View attachment 339928



Did you think that was tough? Then have a look at my upcoming fixtures.
View attachment 339929
As is City,Utd and Tottenham weren't enough.
I have Arsenal, Liverpool and Everton waiting for the next 3 fixtures.
I hope i can get some points from these games. My goal would be 2-3 points.


Also Mariga is out for 3 months, after picking up a injury in the Birmingham game.
View attachment 339933​
 
Tough start, but 2 big wins, especially the win against Tottenham.

At least once those games are out the way there should be some easier games!

Landreau and Cornelius should be good singings for a few seasons at aleast, and the wonderkid looks great!
 
agree with the above - some really good signings. Disappointed to see Jordan Spence leave - he was a very promising right back.

Am loving Cornelius. Having him, Helenius and Soderlund upfront gives us lots of options :)


any chance of some screen shots for say next cup match? tactics? league table? squad in general?


be nice to see those things.
 
NorthanMonkee said:
agree with the above - some really good signings. Disappointed to see Jordan Spence leave - he was a very promising right back.

Am loving Cornelius. Having him, Helenius and Soderlund upfront gives us lots of options :)


any chance of some screen shots for say next cup match? tactics? league table? squad in general?


be nice to see those things.
Click to expand...

We got Huddersfield in the next round of Capital one cup. So we got pretty lucky. ;)
 
October


A great, but hard month!


Arsenal - West Ham (Premier league)
A hard fought game where we should be happy with Arsenal not scoring more than 1.
View attachment 341015


Liverpool - West Ham (Premier league)
Not fun to see Liverpool draw late in the game, but great game for us, and a draw that we can be proud of. We even had the most chances.
View attachment 341016


West Ham - Everton (Premier league)
The last fixture of our hard fixtures. Amazing late goals, but we ended out on top. 3 goals in 3 minutes! A very even game where we were lucky to win. But great work from the boys.
View attachment 341017


Huddersfield - West Ham (Capital one cup 4th round)
After going into extra time in the last two capital one cup fixtures, i wouldn't put up such a bad team against a Huddersfield who kicked Everton out of the tournament. So we managed to secure a great win here. Two goals from Maiga which will make him see more first team opportunitis.
View attachment 341018


I think we can look at these fixtures with pride, and look forward, for some not so hard opponients.
View attachment 341059


Next in Capital one cup we're up against Crystal Palace! AGAIN we got so lucky in this draw! with teams like Arsenal, Chelsea, Man Utd & Man City still in the tournament, it's truly a miracle that we didn't draw them. Next round will prob be tough, if we get that far.
View attachment 341060


We are currently 10th in the table, which is satisfying. On another note i don't feel too bad about losing to Sunderland seing they are 3rd in the table. Also Stoke in 2nd is pretty weird.
View attachment 341061


As you can see the board is happy with our perfomances, we also managed to get further in Capital one cup, than what was expected. I'm aiming to get far in the cups so that i can get some money to spend.
View attachment 341062


Here's also a screen of the squad as it looks now. Ruben Yttergård Jenssen is the best player so far in my opinion.
View attachment 341063


In other great news...
Andreas Cornelius is the 2nd best young player in October!
View attachment 341064


​
 
Good month, especially performance wise. Unlucky not to get a win against Liverpool.

Win against Everton is great, looks like a crazy few minutes haha, 10th is quite good, maybe we can get a top half finish!
 
November

West Ham - Aston Villa (Premier league)
A boring draw here. Our defence did great, but it was a even match.
View attachment 341727


West Brom. - West Ham (Premier league)
Goals: Helenius, Tomkins, Collison
a real nail biter here! We had a bad game, and West brom. deserved to get out on top here. Heartbreaking to have Carlton Cole score the last goal in the 85th minute!
View attachment 341728


West Ham - Norwich (Premier league)
Goals: Jarvis, Collison
We were pretty lucky to come out on top in this game. Norwich had a lot of chances, but our defence did really well to keep the clean sheet here! Our young talent Chris Waistle also got his debut here. After the game he was named the youngest West Ham player ever.
View attachment 341729View attachment 341730


Ipswich - West Ham (Premier league)
Even though we dominated this match, we didn't come out on top. It ended as a boring draw.
View attachment 341731



December


Crystal Palace - West Ham (Capital One Cup Qtr Final)
Dissapointing exit against a weaker oponient. They got 2 lucky goals, and we couldn't score any. I'm very dissapointed considering that we were very lucky in the draw.
View attachment 341732


Nottm Forrest - West Ham (Premier league)
Goals: Reid, Helenius, Cornelius, Maïga, Collins
Dominated the last bit of the match. Jarvis had a really good game here.
View attachment 341733


West Ham - Watford (Premier league)
Goals: Cornelius
We should have ended out on top here. But it was still a even match.
View attachment 341734


West Ham - Southampton (Premier league)
Unlucky game. We had the most chances, but Southampton were lucky and scored a late goal here. This was the first defeat in a while, ending a run of being undefeated in 5 matches.
View attachment 341737View attachment 341738


Stoke - West Ham (Premier league)
Goals: Helenius
Stoke dominated us completely here. But them being 2nd in premier league made me a little more happy about this defeat. We had no chance against a great playing Stoke side.
View attachment 341739


West Ham - Chelsea
Goals: Hall, Helenius
Game of the season! I choose to park the buss, and play very defensively. That resultet in a boring game with no chances at all. But we had a great performance, with a clean sheet, that we can be proud of!
View attachment 341741


Here's our fixtures.
View attachment 341747


In the FA cup we got drawn against Norwich. A tough test for the first game.
View attachment 341752


We are 10th in the league, which is very satisfying. I must admit that we i would love to see us focus on the cups now. Here's the league table:
View attachment 341755


I have 3 tactics that i'm using. I'm very proud of the 4-2-1-2-1 tactic, which helped me to beat Chelsea & Tottenham! Here's my tactics:
View attachment 341756View attachment 341757View attachment 341758


Here's the squad: Ruben Yttergård Jenssen has been the best! A wonderfull purchase.
View attachment 341759


And a look at our finances:
View attachment 341760

I now hand over the save to Steve. I'm hoping he can bring in a wonderkid, which i had problems with getting, because of work permits. Good luck!

​
 
Right, apologies for the delay on this one, I have finally finished my half of the season and am ready to hand the reigns over to Andrew to begin start off Season 3. Sadly the final half of season two didn't have a great deal to talk about, I will be providing a lot of screenshots to summarise - but there wasn't much drama or excitement. I took the liberty in these 6 months of looking after set goals.

1. Finish higher in the Prem than last season
2. Sign players on a free that will improve the team for next season
3. Reduce the dead wood
4. Improve the financial stability of the club
5. Progress in the FA Cup



So number 1. Finish higher in the Prem than last year (target to beat... 13th)

Ding! Target achieved :) only very narrowly, but still, a win is a win, and our team managed to progress by 1 spot. The key word being progress. And here is how it was done...


One set of league fixtures, I took over at the beginning of Jan and started things nicely with a fine win over QPR, from there everything settled into a predictable rhythm sadly and our team never really got a groove going. The highlight had to be the london double where we picked off Arsenal at home and then for the 2nd season running, took 3pts from White Heart Lane. This time, a little more convincing than the last. (i do like the idea of being Spurs bogey team! a must win location next year boys ;) )




Number 2. Sign players on a free that will improve the team for next season



Ding! Target achieved :) A couple of really good players I feel that will add strength and depth to the squad and also some experience and quality. Very happy to bring these three players to the club for 0 expenditure, barring their wages of course.





Number 3. Reduce the dead wood.


I'll let you be the judge, a couple of the players made their own decision to leave, a couple I could have gotten higher fees for if I had waited but they were all judgement calls to improve the club financially.




Number 4. Improve the financial stability of the club.


Ding Ding! Target achieved :) i'd say this has been our biggest achievement so far. All managers have spent wisely, have thought about wages and have sold at the right times. This shows as we are a club that has gone from 10m in debt to nearly 20m in the clear and our projected balance is to be closer to 50m. Our board even contacted us to say they were extremely pleased with our financial situation and our new found financial freedom. We were rewarded with 28m budget to spend on transfers and 100% of all transfer recouped. A big win for a club looking to remain and progress in this league. Place the right foundations in, and build from there.



Number 5. Progress in the FA Cup. Massive fail - 2nd game in charge for the new year, and we lost 3-0 at home to Norwich. (next season eh!)




On a lighter note, I have also acquired these 3 players into our club and have shown great restraint in not spending the whole budget :)



View attachment 344839View attachment 344840View attachment 344840



Andrew - enjoy the next 6 months. You have 20m to play with and a few key areas to improve for the team.

​
 
Wow we have a lot of strikers now! I'm glad we're finally out of that debt.
 
July

Upon getting the save back, I had a good team, but I felt I would need one or two more players. I first tried to sign future star Mostafa Omar, at £850K however he failed his work permit upon appeal. I also tried to sign Miguel Perdomo however he also failed his work permit, which led me to signing Gomes on a free transfer, due to only having one first team goalkeeper.

I also signed Wesley Lautoa as a back up to our centre backs.

The World Cup was played over the summer, which saw Portugal win the final 3-2 against Brazil. England came 3rd after beating Scotland 1-0 in the 3rd Place Playoff. However the big news for us was this...

View attachment 345561

Our very own Andreas Cornellius won the Goal of the Tournament!

In our friendlies, I arranged a West Ham Tournament for us to host, which we came 2nd in, which was a result of playing a weakened team.

View attachment 345562

----------------------------

August


We started the season well but then the rest of August wasn't something to be proud of.

West Ham 2-0 Aston Villa
Matt Jarvis (2)
View attachment 345568
Jarvis grabbed both goals from corners, and puts off to a good start.

Liverpool 3-1 West Ham
Johnson, Suarez, Azpilicueta - Hooper
View attachment 345570
Gary Hooper got his first for the club, but Johnson's goal just before half time left us hurting, and although things looked up when we got one back, we never deserved anything from this game.

Gillingham 0-2 West Ham (2nd Round of Capital One Cup)
Juhasz, Hall
View attachment 345571
A team with a few youth players saw us through into the next round of the cup!

West Ham 0-4 Tottenham
Vertonghen, Borini (3)
View attachment 345572
Couldn't believe this, we got demolished. Stats wise, we probably didn't deserve such a loss, but we were poor.

---------------------------

September

Norwich 1-1 West Ham
Ziegler - Jarvis
View attachment 345574
We probably deserved the point despite a defensive display, we defended well. I'm considering changing my tactics a bit...

West Ham 1-0 Burnley
Hooper
View attachment 345575
Well we controlled the game better, but I feel we should be winning the game by more.

Cardiff 1-2 West Ham (3rd Round of Capital One Cup)
Rosenborg - Hall, Coleman
View attachment 345576
We started badly, but then a goal either side of the break saw us break into the next round of the cup.

QPR 2-0 West Ham
Faurlin, Zamora
View attachment 345577
Disappointing again, will be looking at tactics ready for the next game.

----------------------------

Well I think we have been disappointing, however there is lots of potential in the team, and I hope to turn it round next month.

View attachment 345578

We could struggle in the Capital One Cup as we are set to play Chelsea which is going to be tough to make it through, but we will try our best!

View attachment 345579

Although we find ourselves down in 15th, what we can say is, we're above the champions! We will hopefully be able to turn this poor start around and move up the table, and personally, I'll be hoping City struggle ;)

I'm on holiday for a few days starting tomorrow, so I will try and get an update on one of the nights if possible, however there should be one by the end of the week :)​
 
Hey who signed Seamus Coleman? :P

It doesn't seem like Cornelius gets that much play time? Don't you guys want to use him? He's been good for me.
 
I didn't buy Coleman, was on the save when I got it :)

I think I've been using him as a back up to Hooper really, but I've changed tactics to have 2 upfront so I can make use of him more now hopefully.
 
October

This month was always going to be tough given the fixtures, however I feel we should've gotten more than we did in the end.

---------------------------

West Ham 1-2 Chelsea
Juhasz - Torres, Thiago
View attachment 349228
I feel we should've got a point here, but a awful defensive error cost us late on, so this was an unfortunate loss.

Man City 4-0 West Ham
Dede, David Silva, Falcao (2, 1 pen)
View attachment 349229
Awful. That's all I can say about this game.

West Brom 1-2 West Ham
Yacob - Collins, Jarvis
View attachment 349230
We didn't really control the game and got the goals on the counter attack, but a wins a win!

West Ham 1-0 Chelsea (Capital One Cup)
Helenius (pen)
View attachment 349231
Massive win here, the penalty was clear as day, and we probably deserved to go through.

-----------------------

November

This month I tried a change of tactics, and at first it worked, but then I went on to have possibly the worst month possible.

West Ham 4-1 Everton
Wallace, Helenius (2), Mason - Michu
View attachment 349232
A change of tactics against a team that was 4th going into the game, and we smashed them!

West Ham 1-2 Swansea
Hooper - Coleman (og), Carroll
View attachment 349234
I thought we were unlucky in this game, but it began our downward spiral for the rest of the month.

Arsenal 4-0 West Ham
Wilshere, Sagna, Giroud (2)
View attachment 349235
Overall we probably didn't deserve to lose this badly, but a horrific 2 minutes sent us down to 3-0. Leading up to Sagna's goal I felt there was a blatant foul as Ramsey dived in on Jarvis from behind.

Stoke 2-0 West Ham
Ince (2)
View attachment 349237
This was a disappointment as I felt we had a good chance coming into the game, but then we never got a shot on target.

Wigan 3-0 West Ham
Boselli (3)
View attachment 349238
Now this is ridiculous, I have no idea why we played so badly.

---------------------------

December

We improved this month, but I still feel we are far more capable.

Stoke 2-0 West Ham (Capital One Cup Quarter Final)
Scannell, Xulu
View attachment 349240
We should've performed a lot better here, but to drop out the cup is always a disappointment.

West Ham 2-1 Southampton
Coleman, Collinson - Schneiderlin
View attachment 349241
Finally! Our first win for 5 games. Hopefully we can get back on track!

Fulham 2-1 West Ham
Toivonen (2) - Hooper
View attachment 349242
Disappointing loss, especially with the timing of their winner, although we were down to 10 men due to a Matt Jarvis injury.

West Ham 1-1 Manchester United
Tomkins - Jelavic
View attachment 349243
We had just 1 shot on target, but that was all Tomkins needed. Another late equaliser stops us getting a big win, and it's starting to annoy me...

Aston Villa 1-2 West Ham
Brahimi - Hooper, Collins
View attachment 349244
We did it! Late goals benefit us for once, as we come back in the final 10 minutes to steal the 3 points from Villa!

Newcastle 1-1 West Ham
Cisse - Jarvis
View attachment 349245
We managed to get an equaliser, with our only shot on target once again, but we deserved the draw.

-----------------------

League Table
View attachment 349246
A disappointing position to be in as I send the save over, but 3 points and we would move up the table quickly as it is tight.

Review of my 6 months

I was disappointed that numerous transfer targets failed to get work permits, as well as being so low in the table. The team just seemed be hit and miss constantly for me, so when I next get the save I plan to look at my tactics and try and get some better ones to help us move up the table.​
 
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