Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.

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Preparation

Preparation

After taking over as Team GB boss, my workload became excessive. Turning Feyenoord's fortunes around in the Summer would have been hard enough as it was- never mind managing at the Olympics. I knew the Olympics would be on at such an awkward time for season preparation at Feyenoord, but it's all in the day's job. I don't get paid five and a half grand a week to sit around and complain about the job. My chairman gave me permission to miss friendly matches for Feyenoord as long as I still handled everything else, and I very much appreciated. Top man. I first decided to select my eighteen players for the Olympics and get that tough job out of the way. I watched countless DVD's of players and analysed everything they did. Took notes, more notes and then even more notes. I probably could have selected stronger players for my three "non-u23's" but I was still pretty confident.

Goalkeepers:
Fraser Forster
Jason Steele

Defenders:
Phil Jones
Chris Smalling
Glen Johnson
Jack Robinson
Kieran Gibbs

Midfielders:
Jordan Henderson
Ross Barkley
Jack Wilshere
Gareth Bale
Tom Cleverley
Aaron Ramsey
Jack Rodwell
David Beckham
(Theo Walcott)

Attackers:
Andy Carroll
Nathan Delfouneso
(Theo Walcott)

Underlined are the three players who were over twenty three. Yes, they could have been stronger, but Beckham deserved it for being such a great sports guy and total legend. Forster played excellently for me at Celtic and I knew he was consistent. Glen Johnson gives some experience to the back line. After being drawn in a group with Ghana, Uruguay and South Korea I felt pretty confident. My next move was out of the ordinary as I organised friendlies again both Uruguay and Ghana. Normally teams don't arrange friendlies again soon to be competitive opposition, but I wanted to weigh what I was up against.

Friendlies

19th July 2012
Great Britain U23 2-1 Uruguay U23
Rodwell (15) Wilshere (21), Ramirez (19)

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Good performance from the lads against possibly the toughest test of our group. They rarely threatened yet still scored. Two great goals and we dominated.

21st July 2012
Great Britain U23 4-1 Ghana U23
Wilshere (13, 22) Rodwell (47) Delfouneso (69), Adiyiah (90)

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Ghana were more of a test than Uruguay yet we still ran out comfortable winners. There was quite a lot of 'heart-in-your-mouth' moments in this one and I seriously thought we may not win. Still, not only concede in the 90th minute was pretty disappointing. Next up, the Olympics.

***

The Olympics start in only a couple of days, so hopefully the lads can have a nice rest before then and be ready for South Korea. I'm hoping we can have a good run in this, and I'm pretty confident. Now's the time to shine as the whole world has it's eyes on exactly where I am- the Olympics.​
 
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Great start to your Feyenoord/Team GB story. Once again, love the mix of layout and the story telling!
 
Cheers lads. I have all the results for the Olympics, so hopefully I'll get another update on Tuesday/Wednesday :)
 
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Group D
26th July 2012
Great Britain U23 5-0 South Korea U23
Bale (1) Smalling (8) Wilshere (pen 14, 75) Jones (43)

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A great, great performance. Gareth sent us on our way after 39 seconds and we could have won by four or five more in the second half. Had it all wrapped up after about half an hour and I was so proud. Well done boys.

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Group D
29th July 2012
Great Britain U23 3-2 Ghana U23
Inkoom (og 19) Bale (22) Cleverley (83), Ayew (85) Adiyiah (90)

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Not the best performance in terms of ability, but the lads really showed heart. Ghana never gave up and kept coming at us. A much harder test than I predicted and in honesty, they probably deserved a point. Nevertheless, three on the board for us and we just have to draw with Uruguay in the final game to proceed.

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Group D
1st August 2012
Great Britain U23 3-1 Uruguay U23
Coates (og 15) Henderson (24) Jones (51), Cavani (10)

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Confident performance. Although they took the lead, they had nothing. A superb solo goal from Cavani put me on edge early on, but they never threatened following that goal. Through to the Quarter Finals where we've been given Spain!​
 
2nd August 2012

I woke up at about seven. I couldn't sleep and decided to take a shower and give myself a little relaxation time. I haven't had that in a few months now, not since leaving Celtic and joining Feyenoord. I had to get stuff sorted out for Feyenoord, and then taken over Team GB was a delight but very tiring. Spain is in a couple of days, so until then I just have training and hopefully a few transfers to sort out for my club. Brad Guzan, Tim Krul and Andreas Hinkel had already arrived. I still had several more to try and tie up, so I hoped to do that in the next few days.

After having a quick coffee and a bite to eat, I left for the training ground with the lads. We did a little defensive work, and then concentrated on being able to keep the ball. I thought that would be vital against a very, very strong Spanish side. We had to keep the ball, and make use of it while we had it. Take their game, and improve on it. Frustrate and tire them, then we'd strike. I planned to do shooting later, but I gave the lads a break as they'd only played yesterday. Whilst on that break, I headed back to my small office I'd been given for the Olympics and turned on my computer to see if any advances had been made. I only had two e-mail's, confirming Emmanuel Frimpong had recieved my approach for him on a free, and one from Martin Jol confirming my approach for Kasami on loan. I requested another coffee from my assistant for the day and sat back in my chair. My phone vibrated and I took it out. One new message:

"Hey, sorry about the unknown number. I seen you at the Olympics. Got talking to Niall Quinn and he gave me your number. Cheeky I know but you're super cute. Give me a text back? Taylor ***"

Okay. So not only did Niall get me jobs, he also seemed to now be my assistant in romance. Whether "Taylor" was a girl, or boy; I don't know. Hopefully a hot female- otherwise Niall may be getting a bad-worded text back from me. I simply replied:

"Call me sometime tonight. Got training now, I'll be free then. Carlos x"

and headed back out to training. We focused on small passes in and around the area until I sent the lads back to the hotel for the night. Just as I did, I felt another vibration from my phone. This time, it was ringing. I answered and it was confirmation that both Emmanuel and Pajtim had joined. Great!
​
 
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Quarter Final
4th August 2012
Great Britain U23 4-1 Spain U23
Walcott (15, 62) Jones (68) Delfouneso (89), Rodrigo (64)

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Very proud! Played keep ball and hit them hard. Walcott played excellently! Deserved MOM and we've got Brazil in the Semi Finals. Looking forward to it; hoping for another performance of this standard!
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Semi Final
7th August 2012
Great Britain U23 2-0 Brazil U23
Wilshere (24) Carroll (51)

View attachment 212494

Another great performance. It was much, much closer than against Spain as they had more clear cut chances than Spain did, but again, we played keep ball and hit hard when the chance arose. Fantastic! We have South Africa in the Final. A bit surprised they've got this far, but obviously they're here on hard work and aren't to be taken lightly.
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Final
11th August 2012
Great Britain U23 4-0 South Africa U23
Walcott (3) Delfouneso (16) Wilshere (47, 57)

View attachment 212495

Not much competition today. No disrespect, but South Africa didn't really turn up and we relaxed the whole ninety minutes. I told the boys to keep on their toes, but it was just a passing exercise with a few goals to knock in. Back to Holland for the second match day on the 15th. We won the first against De Graafschap, 2-1. I wasn't their, obviously due to the Olympics. I'd given my assistant the starting eleven and tactics and let him handle the first match. A good win, away from home without the normal manager.

***

After arriving back in Rotterdam, I looked at all of the transfers for the club over the summer. I must say, I was pretty proud to attract some of the players to the club:

In:
Oriol Romeu came in on loan from Chelsea.
Pajtim Kasami came in on loan from Fulham.
Tim Krul joined from Newcastle for £1,000,000.
Yohan Cabaye also joined from Newcastle for £3,000,000.
Andreas Hinkel joined after being a free agent.
Bakkal Otman also joined after being released from PSV. He spent last season on loan with us.
Brad Guzan joined for free after being released from Aston Villa.
Emmanuel Frimpong joined for free after being released from Arsenal.

Not many players left, a couple of young lads who wouldn't make the cut joined Jupiler League sides but that was about it. I'd wait until January for any further transfers, as that should give me sufficient time to analyse and fix any further weaknesses. Taylor is coming over in a few days to meet me again. We've only met once in person after that text as I've been busy, but now I'm back here in Rotterdam she said she'd visit me. Still can't believe it. Me, some little boy from Sunderland who many thought would make it nowhere, may be starting a relationship with Taylor Swift.​
 
Cracking story mate, especially at Celtic! Got me hooked, only thing though is maybe add screenshots of results? Maybe not all, but of big results like the Europa League final etc, just to prove any doubters wrong that you aint just making it up!

But other than that, cracking story!
 
All Blue Supporter said:
Cracking story mate, especially at Celtic! Got me hooked, only thing though is maybe add screenshots of results? Maybe not all, but of big results like the Europa League final etc, just to prove any doubters wrong that you aint just making it up!

But other than that, cracking story!
Click to expand...

Yeah I'll start mate :) Like the bigger games against PSV, Ajax etc I'll post, and any cups. Just don't like including them as it doesn't really fit in with the layout, but I'll stick them in from now on when needed :)
 
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15th August 2012
ADO Den Haag 1-3 Feyenoord
de Ridder (32), de Vrij (12) Ganea (56, 64)

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Great first result for me. The lads dominated at a very hard place to go. de Vrij looked strong at the back, and Ganea impressed up front on his own.

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18th August 2012
Feyenoord 4-0 FC Utrecht
Cabaye (16) Ganea (56) Kasami (78) Biseswar (81)

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First performance in front of the home crowd for me, and once again we dominated. Good, slick passes eased us on our way and a great strike from Cabaye was the perfect way to introduce myself to the crowd. Well done boys!

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22nd August 2012
Feyenoord 5-0 Heracles
Biseswar (3) Cabaye (16) Kasami (24) Romeu (79) Fernandez (88)

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It just keeps getting better! My first choice striker, Ganea, was missing after picking up a little knock before the game. He should be back by the next game, but Fernandez stood in well today for him. Again, possession football won us this one and they only had two attempts on goal; neither on target.

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25th August 2012
Go Ahead 1-3 Feyenoord
Nzuzi (10), de Vrij (14) Bakkal (46) Cabral (62)

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Pretty routine win. We were expected to win, and we kept it simple. Although we let a goal in, we never look threatened and kept the ball well. Currently sitting top, with PSV in second and we play them next at home.

***

After sending off my letter of resignation, I rang Taylor to see what time we were meeting. She'd stayed in Rotterdam since coming over here a few weeks back, but she'd went out shopping for the day. She didn't know what time she'd be back, so I turned on Sky Sports News to see what was happening. It had already been confirmed that I'd left the post of 'Great Britain U23 Manager'. No real competition would come until the next Olympics, and even then it would only happen if everybody agreed upon it again. Not long after sending my letter off, I received a phone call from the F.A...​
 
Jasonlfc96 said:
Great story mate keep it up, when will the next update be?
Click to expand...

Hopefully tonight! If not, definitely by tomorrow though :)

Is there much interest in this any more? I know it's the festive period and all, but interest seems to have dropped?
 
good good and im sure people are following just not commenting ;)
 
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Page last updated: 12:04 Monday, 27 August 2012

Peel appointed England U21 manager
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The F.A have appointed current Feyenoord boss Carlos Peel as manager of the England U21 side

​
The appointment comes only days after Stuart Pearce's resignation. Peel also guided Team GB when they won the Olympics earlier in the summer.

"I feel very honoured to be in this position. I've already worked with a number of these boys this summer and I hope I can continue my good work." Peel said.

"Whilst I have been linked to the senior squad, I believe sustainable progression can only come at a slow rate. I've won several trophies so far in my short career, but managing England is something you have to deserve"

"You look at Fabio. He's a prestigious man who was worked with the very best before-hand and has gained years of experience. To date, I've been a professional manager for less than a year"

Speculation has already begun, naming Peel as the long-term successor to Fabio Capello whilst slowly building experience up now with younger generations. That way, the younger players will progress with him.

More to follow.​
 
Excellent results as long as they are real haha. Now take the U21 to win the U21 World Cup!
 
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