Birmingham City Revival

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Really good story, i like the layout and really great achievement that season i look forward to the next update :)
 
Can i ask how you make the images fit to screen in your post. as mine are always small and can be enlarged :(
cheers

Also great story
 
i just double click them, then choose them as medium size, and the central in the post...
 

Back in the Big Time
2012/2013 Season


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Hello everyone, as you know we where crowned Champions of the Npower Championship last season, and this obviously leads to the Premiership, which can only mean one thing. Hard work.

Quite clearly my squad wasn't good enough to stay in the Premier league for the up coming season, so a whole new look to the squad was made. With loads of players in and out of the club, it will take a time for them all to settle and get used to our game, i have now finished all transfer activity and there are only 2 players from last years starting eleven who have managed to keep hold of their place, them being our Captain Curtis Davies and Emanuel Villa. Here is a look at the transfers.


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Like i said, A LOT of activity this summer. The owner's where very generous with the £30 Million they allowed me to use for transfers, must say i wasn't expecting that much! I would talk you through each individual transfer but to be honest id be here all night and so would you reading it! But here are my top 3 transfers (in my opinion of course)

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3) Kolarov. A great LB but is over shadowed my Gael Clichy at City. For just under £4 Million he is a great buy with good defensive stats, as well as offensive. Definitely has a lot to off Birmingham this year.



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2) Clint Dempsey. Scored 17 goals for Fulham last year, and with the form he is showing in real life for Fulham, £4.4 Million is a bargain. He has already scored a few this season for me. One being a brilliant lob.



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1) Valbuena. In real life he is an absolutely fantastic player, and he isn't too bad for me either! £1.3 Million loan fee and £3.5 Million future fee if both parties wish to make the switch a permanent one. Been playing him on the left wing, and even though this isn't he's favourite position he has been putting in great shifts and scored a great goal against West Ham.



Before i managed to make all of these moves, there was more speculation regarding mine and the chairman's future. A business man called Carlo Tavecchio was leading a takeover and if it was successful he was planning on appointing Andre Villas Boas as the new manager at St Andrews. There was a Transfer Embargo placed straight after i had received the news, and then i started worrying. Luckily the talks broke down, this is the first time something like this has happened to me since playing FM so if anyone has had this before leave a comment and let me know if you managed to keep hold of your job, or if you was let go :).



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Anyways thats enough about pre-season. Let the Premiership begin.....and so it did. In a horrible way



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This was by far, the most HORRIBLE game i have EVER played since playing Football Manager.....and that has been a long time. We got completely torn apart, i must admit though that it was mostly my fault. I was very naive with my tactics we played and almost kind of forgot who and where we was playing. But on the bright side, at least we had 3 shots..........:S
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Here's how we got in August and September


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Not too bad really played 8 in all competition, won 4 and got BATTERED in four. Well really 3 has the defeat at Bolton was very unlucky with all 3 goals coming in the last 5 minutes of the match. Like i said regarding my tactics in the United game. I more a less never changed them at all this month, expect for our playing mentality which was pretty stupid of me, but i have made new fresh tactics for away games so hopefully we should let in a lot less goals. 2 things learnt from our first month in the Premiership and they are....


1) We where absolutely useless away from home and that this issue needs to be solved
2) We are a good attacking force at home and look like most points will be picked up at St Andrews


Finally here's a look at the League Table at the end of September.


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Wow those are some shrude deals, some great bargains the three of them could keep you up alone they posses so much quality. Good start to the season hopefully you keep it up :)
 
Cheers mate! Yeah at the moment it looks like money well spent. Have to wait and see though. Next update will be tomorrow sometime!
 

October & November


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Decent start from us to the season considering we have a whole new squad, and a tricky start fixture wise. Was hoping we could keep it up, and not slip lower down the table as the season went on. Here are the results from the months of October & November.


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October wasn't a very good month. Only winning one out of three games, and with two of the fixtures being at home (Arsenal and Stoke) i was hoping to get something out of the two matches. On a positive note, we secured our first away win in the League this season against the team who finished 4th in the League last season, Blackburn?! I was surprised by this when i saw last seasons table. But we battled away and it looked like the game was going to end as a 1-1 draw, but Curtis Davies scored late on from a corner which gave us the 3 points.


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November was a the better month, we only lost one out of the four games and that was due to a late strike from Edin Dzeko. I was concerned going into this game because our record against the big clubs in the league hadn't been one to boast about, but we led at half time thanks to a nice goal from Valbuena. Some positives could be taken from this match despite the final score.

From then on we played Fulham away and Norwich at Home and secured two victories, the home win being the pick of the two. Al though we where the favorites we didn't let the pressure get in the way and dominated the game. Also first goals for Jelen and Turner in the match!


Jelen hasn't been impressive at all this season and has only netted once and that was just before December. He scored a hat-trick against England in the World Cup Qualifiers, which could of kick started his campaign for us. But still hoping he can come good this season for Birmingham!


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Sitting in 9th position with 13 games played. Cant complain really as staying up is 100% our main focus this season. Burnley have also had a good start to the season and we both look capable of avoiding the drop. 9 points a head of the relegation zone already and hoping we can stay as far away from there as possible!



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Updates for December and January will be up by tonight​
 

December & January


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Going to start this update with the transfers made, well when i say transfers, i mean transfer made. Wasn't busy at all in January simply because i had no money available! But here is who i brought in....


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Pretty self explanatory really. Everyone knows what Scott Parker has to offer, he is a brilliant ball winning midfielder and will be really important for us through out the remainder of the season. Definitely in the away matches as he is a very physical, determined and above all else a leader. 160K was all he cost me and can make it a permanent deal for £1.6 Million at anytime if that's what i choose to do. I signed Scott right at the end of January so he never featured in any of the fixtures you will see later on in this post.


On to the League. In October & November we gradually improved and was climbing up the table. I was pleased with how things where going, because at the end of the day we had just been promoted and the key objective for us was to maintain our Premier League status. But maybe i wasn't giving my team enough credit, we had made some brilliant signings in the summer and our squad certainly didn't look like one that could be involved in a relegation battle. Anyways, here is how we got on in December and January.....



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They where two brilliant months, with massive wins over Chelsea and Tottenham at St Andrews. We where playing some brilliant football and didn't look out of place in any of the games. With 7 wins in the two months, we kept creeping up the table and forget about a relegation battle, we could be in a battle for a Europa League place!


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As you can see we have been very competitive this season and have given most teams a very good game this season. Very proud of how we are doing this season as even i had just down to be battling for our lives. There a lot of players who have done very well this season but here is our top goalscorer Emanuel Villa....


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Signed him last season when we was in the Championship, was worried whether he would be able to play as well in the Premier League as he did in the Championship last year. But to be fair to him he has scored some really good goals for us, and with his good hold up play he is a real good team player and thrives from crosses into the box. He is currently the 5th top goal scorer in the league, and that is pretty good considering its his first season in the League.



Also during January, there was a new chairman at the club due to him buying the club. I was quite excited at the prospect of this as i thought he would allow me to splash the cash in the transfer window, but that wasn't the case. Hopefully he'll allow me to do so next season and really get our team going!


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Anyways at the end of January i think its safe to say, we will no longer have to worry about relegation this season. With us currently sitting in 7th position we could turn our focus to a Europa League spot, but i think that would be getting a little too carried away. Im just going to take each game as it come and with 5 games left of the season re-evaluate our goals and see what is capable!


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Next update will be tomorrow sometime, leave a comment and let me know what you think! Cheers!​



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WOW! You're doing very well in the league. To be honest I thought even though you made some quality signings in Dempsey & Kolarov you would struggle in the bottom half. Would be great if you could grab a europa position through the league.
 
Brilliantly done, good signings although u did have a lot of money, good luck getting to europe.
 
AnthonyAttacks said:
WOW! You're doing very well in the league. To be honest I thought even though you made some quality signings in Dempsey & Kolarov you would struggle in the bottom half. Would be great if you could grab a europa position through the league.
Click to expand...

Cheers dude, and i also thought it would be a tough season but things are looking good!
 
Cai123 said:
Brilliantly done, good signings although u did have a lot of money, good luck getting to europe.
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Yeah i suppose i was given quite a bit of money, but was spent wisely from how we are getting on in the league! Thanks for the comment anyways mate
 

February & March


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Good last couple of month's in the last update. Was hoping for the same, but i know that teams cant be keep playing at a high level all year and a dip of form was bound to come. Could say we had this during March, but we are still in contention for a Europa League place and i'm trying to stay positive!


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Nowhere near as good as the last update, which i was pretty annoyed about. Was worried that after the thrashing we received from Arsenal that it would have a real negative effect on our team, and i think it has because ever since then our football hasn't been as free flowing, tempo's slowed down and everyone seems to be a lot more careful and not as adventurous on the pitch. Here is a look at how Arsenal killed us....


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Not really sure how it went as badly as it did. Thought we had got over the thrashings we where receiving from the big guns in the league, after our wins against Chelsea and Tottenham. But both of those wins where at Home and the game against Arsenal was at the Emirates.

We also got to the Fifth round of the FA Cup but was unlucky in our 1-0 defeat to Blackburn. The game come at the wrong time for us as we was struggling.


Two of our players have stood out this season, and surprisingly they are two of the surviving players from our starting line up from our run in the Championship. Villa and Bressan.


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Villa has got himself 16 goals so far this season, and that is brilliant considering its his first full season in English football. He also came up through the Championship with us, but he has made the transition from a Championship to Premiership player very well and has far surpassed my expectations.


Another player who has been turning on the style is Bressan, he has the joint most assists with Luka Modric and they are both currently sitting on 12 each. He has also picked up the second most MOTM awards only just one behind Edison Cavani of Tottenham. Only one downside is that he doesn't score enough goals, and he hasn't registered a goal all season for us. If he can start hitting the back of the net he will be a true force to be reckoned with.



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All in all a pretty poor month, but hoping we have got over that now. Sitting 6th in the table, but our rivals have a game in hand over us, including the two Merseyside teams Liverpool and Everton. In all honesty i am expecting use to finish at least in the top 10. realistic target having looked at the current table. At least we will be a premiership team next season!


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Next update will probably be tonight, will i make the Europa Leage???​
 
Great story! I'm a lifelong bluenose so this is great as I don't have the patience for blues on FM.
Michael Wiseman probably wont give you alot of money, so you may have to start thinking about that :)

Also, how long in 'real' time did it take you to get to this point? And did you spend time on training,tactics etc.
 
Botty said:
Great story! I'm a lifelong bluenose so this is great as I don't have the patience for blues on FM.
Michael Wiseman probably wont give you alot of money, so you may have to start thinking about that :)

Also, how long in 'real' time did it take you to get to this point? And did you spend time on training,tactics etc.
Click to expand...


Cheers mate, and awww thats bad news about Wiseman. Was hoping he'd back us big financially! And i think i started this story on either tuesday or wednesday... I have 2 weeks off work so have been on it a lot! I have 3 tactics trained but only use 2 really...
 

April & May



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These two months would decide whether we would be playing in Europe next season. To be honest i wasn't bothered if we made it or not simply because we had just been promoted, and just staying in the division itself was the goal. But with us having played higher then most peoples expectations (including my own) we had a real shot at finishing in a Europa League place. Here is how we got on....


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One thing is for sure when you are managing Birmingham. You are either going to win or lose, we don't seem to enjoy drawing. The last 2 months in the league defiantly had some tricky fixtures in store for us, we was particularly unlucky in the away game against Manchester City. Conceding a late penalty from Aguero. We where getting battered and our backs where against the wall, but to not concede for 88mins then finally be shot down by a penalty was quite disappointing.

A highlight of the month, and a pivotal match in the chase for a Europa League place was against Dalglish's Liverpool. We where both 6th and 7th in the league at the time and a win for either side would sure help their chances of consolidating that 6th spot. We ran out winners in one of the most exciting games i have ever had on Football Manager, there was everything in this match, free flowing football, mistakes, own goals, brilliant goals, a missed penalty, and a converted penalty. It sure was a classic and was made even better as we ran out winners!


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Al though this was supposed to be a big win for us, it turned out being pretty insignificant due to our form after this game. Lost 3 on the bounce and this allowed Liverpool to over take us in the league.


Going into the last game of the season, either Liverpool, Everton or Birmingham could finish in 6th, and in doing so secure the final Europa League spot. I would have to win and hope results went my way, and sadly they didnt as both teams won their final game of the season, whilst we fell victim to Wolves at Molineux


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Final table cant be complained about. Great first season, although we need to sort our the amount of goals we concede. Finishing with a negative goal difference in 8th is quite rare and we kind of got a way with it. Looking to really push on next year and make Europe!

Emanuel Villa finished the campaign on 17 goals in 36 appearances. Which gave him the honor of becoming the fans Player of the Season.


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2013/2014 pre-season update will be posted shortly​
 
Just read the entire story to date. Brilliant! Really good first season in the Premiership, unlucky on not qualifying for Europe but the most important thing is to consolidate and stay in the league. Now you can push on and aim for European football this season. Keep up the good work, I'll be following.
 
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