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

[NorthanMonkee]

Hi guys, having taken inspiration (and pretty much the exact idea) from the guys over at Pass The Parcel. Myself, Hansi24 and AndrewPage14 have decided to do our own version where we are also taking over a recently promoted team...

TONY COTTEE RETURNS TO WEST HAM

.

August update to follow...​

 

[Hansi24]

Great! I'm really looking forward for my turn.

 

[MojoDex]

Who can win the premier league in the fewest seasons? The race is on

 

[Hansi24]

Who can win the premier league in the fewest seasons? The race is on

I think it'll take us a while. Right now we have many old players with crazy wages. We need to get rid of them first.

 

[NorthanMonkee]

My first task at the club was to reduce the top heavy nature of the finances. There were a lot of old players with extremely high wages who were bleeding the club dry. I decided to cut the highest paid players from the club, no matter the quality and begin again. This may dampen West Ham in the long run – but hopefully will allow them to be more competitive in the long run. This is what I was faced with on day one.


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First order of business - Carroll, Paulista & Pogatez all had their loans terminated. That released 120k p/w in wages. Then came transfers.

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Trying not to put ourselves in the exact same position that i've just worked us out of, I bought as high a quality players our budget would allow and kept in mind to keep the wages low. I made sure to continue in my quest to keep our wages respectable by also seeing the higher profile wage earners saw the exit door. Just to give us a much needed boost transfer wise, and to ease our finances.


Pre Season


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no real games of note in pre-season. Some average victories, some unexpected losses and draws - mainly building fitness.



August

Premier League & League Cup Round 2

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Manager Notes:
Its been a tough month, and I think its going to be a tough couple of months I think. Have had a couple injuries to cope with and the squad has seen a lot of new blood come in. Am not happy with the defence at all, so need to get them motivated. What I am happy with at the moment is the state of the clubs finances, which have improved dramatically.

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up next - September - will our league form improve and how will West Ham go in the 3rd round of the League Cup.



​

 

[Andrewpage14]

Not really heard of many of the signings, but if they're good what's it matter! Can't wait to get my go with the team and see if I can get us some big results

 

[Hansi24]

Great transfers!
It pleases my danish heart to see that you found some scandinavian players for our team.

Edit: Can you post a SS of your tactics?

 

[NorthanMonkee]

september - december

So we left West Ham in August having played 4 games. 1 draw and 2 defeats in the league and that solitary victory coming against Leyton Orient in the League Cup. With West Ham languishing in the relegation after 3 games, would the ship be steadied and would motivation be raised?

Lets take you through match by match...


september
technically the defeat to Stoke in the last update was also September, but I didnt realise till too late

West Ham 1 Wigan 0
(Chamakh)
an all too important 1st victory for the season. we were definitely up against it with Wigan and we were lucky to take victory.

Swansea 1 West Ham 0
rather worryingly - our away form was still something to be desired.

3rd Round
Peterborough 1 West Ham 4
(Reid, Helenius, Taylor, Bostwick OG)
a game we needed to win, and did in comfortable style.

​

West Ham 1 Southampton 0
(C. Cole)
another tight 1-0 victory at home meant we pushed further away from relegation up to the dizzy heights of 10th.




Game Of The Month

View attachment 337875
the need for this victory was paramount. We had a bad start to the season and we didnt have the best of games against Wigan, yet we still managed to get over the line and take the much needed 3pts. James Collins had an amazing game.










october

Tottenham 0 West Ham 2
(Helenius, Vaz Te)
game of the season so far. In a game where I expected nothing, I got everything. Facing a team who were currently topping the table, we managed to sneak a goal in the first half and hang on for dear life right up until 2nd half inj time where we sealed the deal. magnificent result.

Fulham 3 West Ham 2
(Soderlund, C. Cole)
disappointing game to be honest, especially after the high of the spurs game. Managed to take the lead through Soderlund (1st goal for the club) but Fulham proved too strong in the end. Away form still patchy.

​

West Ham 2 Aston Villa 1
(Helenius, Reid)
another important victory at home, giving us crucial points in our fight against relegation

4th Round
West Ham 2 Wigan 1
(C. Cole, Lee)
another tough victory against Wigan who took the lead. Cole managed to draw level before 1st team debutant Elliot Lee who had been staring in the reserves, took to the limelight. A proud moment for the youngster.




Game Of The Month

View attachment 337889
no doubt about it, a strong contender for game of the season with an away victory at White Hart Lane.










november

West Ham 0 Man City 3
a dismal display saw a tight 1st half collapse into ruin in the 2nd half. at the end of the day, City were just too good.

Newcastle 3 West Ham 1
(C. Cole)
a promising start saw West Ham go 1-0 up but an in form Newcastle side, who were coming off beating Man City 4-0 and drawing at Anfield 2-2 soon saw them come storming back.

​

West Ham 1 Reading 3
(C. Cole)
possibly our lowest moment of the season, definitely our lowest of the season so far. once again we were apart of it in the 1st half but fell away in the 2nd. Relegation threatened Reading had pulled us right back down into the mire

West Ham 2 Liverpool 2
(C. Cole, Wallace)
a much needed performance in a dire month. a battling draw saw us earning a much needed point.

Norwich 2 West Ham 1
(Vaz Te)
a month to forget for West Ham and another limp display away from home.


Game Of The Month
no game worth putting here.










december

West Ham 1 QPR 0
(Chamakh)
a much much needed victory. again it was tight but this was really needed to stem the tide.

Quarter Final
Derby 0 West Ham 0
(6-7P)
a scrappy quarter final came down to a tense and nerve wracking penalty shoot-out. And when no one seemed like missing, Jussi had a rare moment being the hero of the match.

​

West Ham 1 West Brom 0
(Vaagen Moen)
the norwegian winger scored his 1st goal of the campaign to round out yet another 1-0 home victory. Can't complain - 3 vital points.

Arsenal 2 West Ham 0
dominated start to finish - this Arsenal game would be the 1st in a quartet of very tough matches to round out the year.

Chelsea 1 West Ham 1
(Helenius)
an uneventful 1st half saw it scoreless at HT. When Helenius managed to bag a goal in the 71st min, the team could forgive themselves for thinking another upset may be on the cards. But Chelsea dug in and Torres equalised 9mins from time. Cant complain though, nobody expected anything out of this game.


​

West Ham 0 Man Utd 1
a tiring affair for the players and with injuries and fitness playing its part, Man Utd were able to overcome our West Ham side.

Everton 3 West Ham 3
(C. Cole, Vaz Te, Cairney)
a game for the spectators and a fine way to round out the year. tired defences were easy to see. Tom Cairney managing to pick up his 1st goal for West Ham in this open encounter.




Game Of The Month

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and extremely festive treat saw 5 goals come in the 2nd half. Definitely one for the neutrals.






Summary In Screenshots

League Table

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Fixtures (so far)

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Best Eleven (& Tactics)


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Squad

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Cup Draws

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Well thats it for me, for 12 months - I now hand over to AndrewPage14. Hopefully he can continue to keep us the right side of 18th place and have a stab at the League Cup semi final. There is still a lot of dead wood in the team (especially Joe Cole) I have also found our DM's (Noble & Diame) to be iffy at best. Often suffering from fitness and fatigue problems and never truly performing to their best.

Areas that def need review would be CM and GK - but that might be Jan or end of season.




Next Three Fixtures...

SUNDERLAND H

CHARLTON H

NORWICH A (1st Leg)

all the best AndrewPage14










​

 

[Andrewpage14]

Not doing too bad! Norwich in the cup I think I can get into the final hopefully.

Be interesting to see how to squad react to my change of tactics, be keeping yours as a back up as well though.

Hopefully be on the right side of the relegation zone as well. Ill review the squad and see if there's anyone who might bring in a bit of money to try and sort out GK and CM.

 

[Andrewpage14]

January

Transfer wise I didn't make any signings or sales. Kris Common's came in from the previous managers final signing, however he was suffering from injury and will be missing for up to 2 months.

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West Ham 2-0 Sunderland
Diame, Collinson
View attachment 338036
In my first game with West Ham Diame scored a screamer from the edge of the box, then on 92 minutes Collinson wrapped it up for us.

West Ham 3-1 Charlton (FA Cup 3rd Round)
Vaagan Moen, Collins, Helenius
View attachment 338037
A good win against Charlton, gave some youngsters a run out and they performed to send us into the next round.

Norwich 2-1 West Ham (Capital One Cup Semi Final First Leg)
Cole
View attachment 338038
We didn't manage to get control of this match, Cole equalized quickly for us, but overall Norwich probably deserved the win, hopefully we perform better in the 2nd leg.

West Ham 0-0 Stoke

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A boring game, poor finishing from both sides meant that neither side really deserved the win, draw was definatly a fair result.

Wigan 1-1 West Ham
Collins
View attachment 338041
If it wasn't for our poor finishing this would've been wrapped up quickly, but we failed to take our chances and in the end let Wigan back into the game, disappointed with this result.

West Ham 2-2 Swansea
Maguire, Cole
View attachment 338042
Maguire put us ahead early, but former loanee Carroll scored just before half time. Cole put us back infront in stoppage time of the 1st half, but we got pegged back late on. Yet again our finishing has cost us.

West Ham 2-1 Norwich (Capital One Cup Semi Final Second Leg)
Norwich win 3-2 on penalties

Helenius, Cole
View attachment 338043
Heartbreak in the semi final. We went 2-0 up early on, Helenius had a penalty saved after just over half an hour, which cost us a final at Wembley. First game we've controlled really well, and we still managed to mess it up!

West Ham 1-5 Nottingham Forest (FA Cup 4th Round)
Jaaskelainen sent off, Matty Taylor (p)
View attachment 338044
The red card cost us big time, gutted to lose like this. Need to focus on the league now and do as well as we can.

Southampton 0-0 West Ham

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We didn't control this match well coming off a big loss, what we did do well was defending, majority of their shots were from long range and unaccurate, Spiegel dealt well with what he had to do.

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League Table
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Unbeaten month in the league sees us move one place up from when I took over.

Player of the month
Nicklas Helenius
View attachment 338066
He scored some key goals for us, and although he missed the penalty that could've put in the Capital One Cup Final, he made up for it with other goals.

Overall month record - P9 W3 D4 L2

Review of the month
Unbeaten in the league, heartbreak in the Capital One Cup, disappointment in the FA Cup. Overall we didn't do too bad, however I would've liked to turn at least 2 of the draws into wins, and we came so close to being in a final.

While being out the cups is disppointing, we won't have as many games, we also have Cole and Chamakh returning soon, although Noble is likely to be out until next season with his broken leg.

February update will be either tonight or tomorrow
​

 

[NorthanMonkee]

great update - slight disappointment with the cups, but as you say it gives us less of a distraction heading into the latter part of the season.

I think the biggest win comes from the fact that you have solidified our position in the league table and given us a 9pt cushion over relegation. Key will be to get as many points in the league early on as the run in is quite daunting - think there will be Chelsea, Arsenal and Man Utd...

What tactics you using?


Really am liking Helenius - think he as a big future with the team. Cant wait for the next update

 

[Andrewpage14]

Yeah the Capital One Cup disappointed me more because we came so close, and should've won in the 2nd leg 3-1. FA Cup I was playing a couple of reserves because I had Southampton 3 days later and it was a big game for us.

At the moment I'm using your 4-4-2, but once Diame returns I might use my 4-5-1 for big games as it served me well on other saves. Helenius has been great, was just gutted he missed the penalty!

EDIT - Just seen Forest then also beat Chelsea in the FA Cup, don't feel so bad about it now!

 

[Andrewpage14]

February

A quiet month as we only had 3 games to play.

We went unbeaten once again, but disappointing results in the end.

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West Ham 1-1 Tottenham
Cole
View attachment 338177
This was a good result, but to take the lead so late just to have them draw level was disappointing. So close to doing the double over our rivals!

Aston Villa 2-2 West Ham
Vaagan Moen, Tomkins
View attachment 338179
We went 2-0 down in the first half, so to come back in the 2nd half I was happy with the result, it kept us level on points with them, only behind on goal difference.

West Ham 2-2 Fulham
Jarvis, Helenius (p)
View attachment 338180
The complete opposite of the Villa game, we had a 2-0 lead going into the final 10 minutes, letting it go in the last 4 minutes was abysmal, annoyed about that result.

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League Table
View attachment 338181
We've overtook Villa thanks to the draw with Fulham. We're 8 points clear of the relegation zone, with another few results, hopefully turning draws into wins, we can garentee safety before the final 4 games, which see us play Arsenal, West Brom, Chelsea and Manchester United.

Player of the Month

No one really stood out this month, we were disappointing, failing to win games due to conceding late on.

Review

2 of the games we should've won but let go late on, against Villa we did the opposite and came back in the 2nd half.
​

 

[Andrewpage14]

March


Horrific month here, although we did get a promising player in the youth intake.

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Onto the results

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West Ham 0-2 Newcastle

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Awful game, half way into the 2nd half we'd only had 2 shots. Tomkins and Collinson going off late on meant we finished with 9 men, although they won't be out for too long.

Man City 2-0 West Ham

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This loss was expected really, but with the damage done early, we began to defend well throughout the 2nd half. Could've done with that all game.

Liverpool 3-2 West Ham
Helenius, Cole
View attachment 338200
Awful defending first half, we pressured them in the 2nd half but it was too little too late. Jarvis is out for 4 months with a torn hamstring, but Kris Commons being back to fitness should help us through without him.

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League Table
View attachment 338209
Despite losing only 1 place, our 3 losses have cost us, as we are now only 5 points from the relegation zone.

Player of the Month

No one deserves this.

Review

We played awful at times which cost us, but didn't play well enough to earn a draw, except perhaps against Liverpool we might've deserved a point. Reading, Norwich and QPR are up next, I feel these are winnable games, and we will need to win them desperately.
​

 

[Andrewpage14]

April


After an awful month in March, we improved alot in April, in a month which saw us clinch safety in the Premier League!

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

Reading 1-4 West Ham
Helenius (2, 1p), Vaagan Moen, Collins
View attachment 338298
When we went 1 down at the hour mark, I was getting worried. A penalty allowed Helenius to get us back in the game, then in the final 10 minutes we ran riot and took the game 4-1.

West Ham 1-0 Norwich
Soderlund
View attachment 338299
This wasn't our best performance, we struggled, but Jaaskelainen saved the penalty early on, and we managed to grab an early goal in the 2nd half that we held on to win the game!

QPR 1-1 West Ham
Soderlund
View attachment 338300
Soderlund scored early here, and although they had more shots, we were the team in control. Kevin Nolan of all people scored in the last minute to equalise, unbelievable.

West Ham 1-0 Arsenal
Helenius
View attachment 338302
Going into this game Wigan only managed a draw in an earlier game, which meant that we were safe, 11 points clear with 3 games to go.

WOW! What a result! We dominated them, and deserved to be winning well before, and would've been but for an amazing goal keeping display by Szczesny. Sagna gave us a penalty for bringing down Helenius who converted it brilliantly.

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League Table
View attachment 338303

Big News!
View attachment 338304
View attachment 338305
Helenius managed to get young player of the month, becoming the first of our players to get that achievement, thanks to his fantastic displays up front.

I also came so close to being the Premier League Manager Of The Month, and perhaps would've claimed it if it weren't for Kevin Nolan!

My Player of the Month is going to be Helenius because in the games against QPR and Norwich he was a key player, against Reading he started and finished the comeback, and even though it was a penalty, he won us the game against Arsenal!

Review

An unbeaten month, and for once mostly filled with wins! Being safe from relegation was good news, as it allows us to play without the pressure in the final 3 games.

May update is on the way!
​

 

[Andrewpage14]

May

With safety garenteed, luckily as we had a very tough final 3 games, we were able to play without the pressure.

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

West Brom 3-3 West Ham
Soderlund (2), Helenius
View attachment 338307
In some ways I am disappointed, in another way I'm happy. We should've won the game given the shot comparison, but to come back from a losing posistion twice meant I felt we did well, although I'm disappointed we fell to a draw so late on.

West Ham 0-1 Chelsea

View attachment 338308
Well we lost, but we weren't played off the park, and if not for our awful finishing, we could've grabbed at least a point. In our defence, Thiago scored a wonder goal to put us down.

Manchester United 3-1 West Ham
Helenius
View attachment 338309
Not really how we wanted to end the season, but against United at Old Trafford, it was always going to be tough. This game was also key for them, as they had to win to have any chance of being Champions.

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

I'll put the final table in the next update where I hand the game over, which will have a review of the league overall, as well as my 6 months in charge.
​

 

[Andrewpage14]

End Of Season Review


Final League Table
View attachment 338330
The last day of the season was quite exciting. Manchester United were 2 points behind City, but City lost to Stoke 1-0, while United beat us 3-1 to become Champions. Chelsea drew with Norwich to put themselves out of reach of Arsenal for 4th place.

Relegation wise, Wigan played Fulham and West Brom played QPR. The winners of each game would stay up. QPR took an early lead against West Brom, but they got back into it, while Fulham took the lead just before half time. But West Brom and QPR were drawing 2-2, so Fulham were going down on goal difference. Lukaku had a penalty for West Brom that would've sent QPR down, but he missed, which meant Fulham were relegated despite winning, due to goal difference. Gutting.

Award wise, we only got close to one.
View attachment 338333
Carlton Cole's goal against Newcastle coming 2nd in goal of the season, which was in the first 6 months, under Steve.

View attachment 338332
The fans player of the year was James Tomkins, which is understandable as he has been a rock at the back.

View attachment 338334
Nicklas Helenius also won signing of the year, costing us just £1.5 million, and although he didn't score alot, he scored key goals, and I'm sure he will be a key player in West Ham's future.

The game of my 6 months was our shock 1-0 win over Arsenal, due to the fact that we were already safe going into it, and we managed to get one over on our London rivals on the same day!
View attachment 338335
(Exactly what I mean by Helenius scoring key goals)

Finally our Best Eleven for the season;
View attachment 338336
It has to be said that this best 11 is probably fair. Soderlund came into the team late in the season for me, and had I known what he could do, he'd probably be there in place of Carlton Cole.

My worst player throughout my 6 months was Joe Cole, he was consistent. At playing badly, if he started he ended up getting subbed because he was always below par, didn't deserve to be playing.

I now hand over the save to Hansi, so that he can pick his season expectations. I regret to inform him however, the board have only given us £156K to spend, which is a big disappointment.

Good luck!

​

 

[NorthanMonkee]

great update Andrew and fantastic results there. Consistent and not losing too many which is the key. Yes alot of draws, but thats points! As we grow as a team, those draws will become wins.

I feel bad for Hansi not having much budget as it will be sad to see Cairney go back to Hull when his loan expires. I think both Coles would be best seeking employment elsewhere, but as we probably wouldnt get much of the transfer fees received, not sure it'd be wise to whittle down our squad without being able to add to it.

I'll be interested to get the update for Hansi's pre-season and transfer dealings. I'd say that Jussi also needs to go - but all depends on finances.

 

[Andrewpage14]

Yeah the draws were ok unless they were late eqalisers then they annoyed me to be honest.

Yeah when it came up I was shocked, just looked on it quickly and it's on 20% transfer revenue made avaliable. I was looking at a few potentials in April and May, but then when that came through I stopped looking.

I agree Jussi needs to go, but at the same time we might not have any money to bring in anyone better so its a bit awkward. It's down to what Hansi thinks is best now though so will be interested in what he does

 

[Hansi24]

Yeah it's a bit scrappy on the transfer side.
I must say that the first priority is to bring in a new first team Goalie! Jussi just doesn't seem to cut it anymore.
I will come with a pre season update tomorrow morning.