Bristol City - Journey to the Prem

[Gratland]

As a Bristol City fan, the best I'm currently going to get in terms of Bristol City getting promoted to the premier league is on football manager...

The season started fairly well. I was playing a standard 4-4-2 formation, going from left to right:
James
McAllister, Fontaine, Stewart, Hunt,
Rose, Elliot, Skuse, Campbell-Ryce,
Haynes, Clarkson.

As Maynard was out injured for a good few months, there was a great need to bring in another striker, unfortunately I couldn't find one that would suit the transfer budget. Other areas I decided to strengthen were the midfield and the defence.
I got Gregoire and Zenoni on free transfers who were both decent experienced wingers. Both begun the season promisingly but come January I needed to make huge changes to the style of play and both were sold. More on that later. I bought Minelli for £850k at centre back who did prove to be a very solid defender. Very good heading stat. Strengthening the centre midfield, I bought in two loanees in Pacheco from liverpool and Emmanuel-Thomas from Arsenal. Pacheco wasn't performing upfront, very poor goal scoring record so I had a stroke of genious to retrain him to a centre midfield, having him as a supporting advanced playmaker, and by January he had accomplished it and became a vital asset to the team. Emmanuel-Thomas was very impressive from the start, only had a 3 month loan deal after bringing him in in October but bought him permanently in January for £1m. So that was the transfers pre season, next to come, the long winded story of the first half of the season.

 

[LP94]

All I can say is, thanks for the beast that was John Akinde XD
Good luck I suppose

P.S - What did you make of Gavin Williams when he played for you?

 

[Gratland]

So pre season went well and the team sheet now read.
James
McAllister, Fontaine, Minelli, Hunt
Gregoire, Elliot / Skuse, Pacheco, Zenoni
Haynes, Clarkson

The first 5 or so games went well. We were holding a playoff spot and gregoire was playing outstandingly. Then everything went downhill. The season was a huge up and down, and I wish I could show screenshots, but I'm into my second season and only just decided to start the story. Anyway. So the results weren't coming in, I was dropping points whether it was home or away. I brought in Emmanuel Thomas on a 3 month loan, to add physical presence to the midfield. He played well, but he couldn't improve the fortune of the results.

January came and I was sitting in 19th. Now seeing as I told the board I'd get them promotion, they weren't happy. I honestly thought for the first time on football manager that I would be sacked. So big changes needed to happen if I wanted to keep the job. First was the defence, James was a top keeper but if the defence kept letting them through he couldn't keep all the shots out. So with some help from the board I brought Stearman in from Wolves for 1.7m, which turned out to be a vital signing. I bought Emmanuel Thomas permanently for 1m, and bought a striker, Tommy Bechmann for 130k from Freiburg, who for that money actually turned out to be a decent signing. After the signings I also decided to change the formation from a wide 4-4-2 to a narrow 4-1-3-2. Players were coming back from injury and I was much happier with my team sheet:
James
McAllister, Carey / Minelli, Stearman, Ribiero
Cisse
Skuse / Elliot, Pacheco, Emmanuel Thomas
Maynard, Bechmann

I then won 5 consecutive games in a row, and lost to leeds. Then game a 14 games unbeaten streak, and I'd managed to climb back into playoffs. The season finished with me placed at 8th, if you'd have offered me 8th at the start of the season, I'd have been dissappointed, but considering we rose there from 19th half way from the season, I couldn't have been happier with the players. So that was the first season, it was summarised rather briefly and I intend to go into far more depth in the second season. More to come...

---------- Post added at 04:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:41 PM ----------

All I can say is, thanks for the beast that was John Akinde XD
Good luck I suppose

P.S - What did you make of Gavin Williams when he played for you?

Haha, oh John Akinde... I've never been a fan of Gavin Williams on the game or in real life. Couldn't be happier when he left the team in january this year, and on the game I let him go when his contract expired.