Does anyone even know who I am?

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SeanKeaney

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This is my story, a story of a young lad trying to make his way in the management game.

I will start out at a low English club and basically I will see where the game takes me, whether that be achieving meteoric success with said club or whether I am a journeyman and travel the world. I have no restrictions, I will just play this game as I do and see where it takes me, this will be my last save until FM2016 so let's make it a good one!

I have used LFC Marshall's Update plus it's up to date as of today with a bit of editing I have done myself, no CA/PA changes though, just transferred players.

I hope to make this as enjoyable for myself and you guys as I can.

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A bit about me

My name is Sean Keaney, I have always had aspirations of being a professional football, but then again who hasnt?! I have been playing football as long as I can remember and I feel I've always been useful on the pitch.

I have had spells at Reading and Southampton academies but unfortunately I have never made the cut to be professional. Then when you get to the age of 20 you realise you may just never make it.

Here I am now at 24 years of age and my professional football dreams are all but past me, but there is still one side of the game which interests me greatly - management. I have always understood the game and I watch a LOT of football from across Europe and take great interest in different formations.

I have a few contacts in football due to friendships and coming across coaches at training camps and academies. That being said, I have found a club that is willing to take a chance on me, an inexperienced but enthusiastic 24 year old manager without any coaching badges yet.

This will be my new place of work (lets see if anyone recognises the stadium)

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FC Halifax Town

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Most of you guessed it, I'm impressed! FC Halifax Town have hired me on a one-year contract.

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Halifax history

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So my first club will be the Shaymen of Halifax Town. Once an established football league club, they were re-established in 2008 and are a club on the up.

My first aim? To make FC Halifax Town a football league club again. This won't be easy as this is a fairly average Conference club, below is the pre-season odds.

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So we're predicted 9th place which is just above mid-table, we have an outside chance of promotion but there are much stronger teams in this league such as Tranmere, Grimsby, Cheltenham and the ever improving Eastleigh. If I'm honest I would settle for a top half finish in my first season in charge, but I'm obviously aiming for the playoffs.

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All of the players agreed that aiming for a respectable finish in the league was achievable. It's good to get all of the players on board so early on.​
 
Good luck, just did it (promotion) with Wrexham. But Halifax aren't a bad side either. Watch out for Gateshead.
 
Team Overview

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Now it's a chance to introduce the squad, which to many of you won't be that familiar. Like I've said before this is a standard Conference side but I'm hoping to get the best out of these players and push for promotion.

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As you can see, on paper the spine of our team will be Matty Brown, Elliott Whitehouse and Scott Boden. Seeing as I'm no expert on the Conference I will go with my assistants reports until I can gauge a better understanding of my platers. Whitehouse does look the stand out player with 4.5 stars, he's a former Sheffield United midfielder and is still at a young age meaning he can develop further, I'll be expecting big things from him. Looking at the above report I think it's clear that we need to improve on the wings and the depth in the middle of the park, that will be the first thing I'll be addressing in the transfer market.

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I will be sticking with the current members of staff as they have a much greater knowledge of the club than I do, we have quite a few coaches anyway with only 3 of us being full time, but as this is a part time club that can be expected.

Now a look at our scheduled friendlies;

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Not too many tests to be honest with you, not the ideal build up to the season but these were scheduled before I took the job so what can you do. Oxford will prove our biggest test before we play lower non-league sides before we kick off our Conference campaign, which begins like this;

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Not the toughest start on paper, with newly-relegated Cheltenham Town looking like they could be our biggest test on paper, but as we all know, football isn't played on paper...​
 
Transfers & Friendlies

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The squad needed strengthening so I took my first dip into the transfer market and signed a couple of players that I'm hoping can push us towards those play off places. We don't have a lot of money to spend, in fact we have no transfer budget so we are relying on free transfers and loans.

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Tim Chow and Manny Panther have been signed to add depth and quality to our midfield. Chow is a loan signing from Wigan and he looks like a very good player for this level, Panther has a lot of experience in the Conference and League 2 and that could be invaluable for the season ahead. We needed numbers so I'm happy to acquire these two.

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Esteban Lopez and Keiron Morris have been bought in to add real quality to our wings. They are both potentially signed to start for us as this was our weakest position in the team. I still think we may need more players in these areas but we'll see how these two get on.

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Tony Capaldi has really been signed as back up to the first team. He brings great experience and as we only had one left back in the squad we needed someone to cover. He can also play in the middle of the park if needs be so he should be a very useful signing.

Friendlies

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All in all, a very poor pre-season. 3 defeats and 1 win is just not good enough from winnable games. We played a 4-2-3-1 for most of pre season which really didn't work, we switched it to a 4-4-2 against King's Lynn in our last match and the goals flowed in. We need to improved a lot and with only a week until the season starts we need to get to the training ground...

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Here we go, my opening month as manager. I was nervous as ****, I really wanted to impress the Shay faithful, but we started with a trip to Dover. Our first match at the Shay would be against Aldershot Town.

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A great opening day victory, topped off with a clean sheet! Our striker Ross Dyer and sub Scott Boden scored the goals to secure the 3 points for the Shaymen. Matty Brown was a rock at the back though and secured man of the match after keeping Dover out.

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My first game in front of the Halifax crowd and it ends in a draw. I got a great reception and it was much appreciated - a rookie manager stepping out for the first time, I guess our opening win at Dover helped with the reception I received. Andy Bishop scored today meaning that's 3 different strikers who have scored already. I'm really unsure who our strongest striker is at the moment, that's something that will become apparent as the season goes on.

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Going into this match Torquay had just lost 7-0 at Grimsby so their confidence was very low. We took advantage of that to secure a 3-1 victory and our second away victory out of 2. Ross Dyer got a brace and man of the match with it on a good day at the office for him, also nice to see our captain Hamza Bencherif score his first Halifax goal.

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Cheltenham are just relegated from League 2 so we knew this would be a tough game. We managed to secure the victory in front of a crowd of just over 1,500 and in doing so being my first win at home. Scott Boden scored the winning goal but it was another good defensive display, especially from Matty Brown who picked up his second man of the match award already this season.

There was some bad news as a result of this match though...

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Star midfielder Elliott Whitehouse will miss the next 4 to 5 weeks, what a blow!

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We recorded our 2nd home win on the bounce with a 2-0 win over Woking. Ross Dyer continued his fine start to the season by scoring another goal. Tim Chow has had a great start to life in a Halifax shirt, pitching in with a couple of assists and in doing so he recorded man of the match today. An almost perfect start to the season by the boys.

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And we come crashing back down to earth with this heavy defeat at the hands of Lincoln. We were never in this game and the less said about it the better - I just don't know where this came from considering our start to the season.

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We sit in 4th after the first month of the season, way too early to be looking at the table to be honest.

Player of the Month

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Young Player of the Month

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Manager of the Month

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Me and Tim Chow picked up 3rd place awards in Manager and Young Player of the Month. It was the least Tim deserved after his fine start to the season, if it weren't for that battering at Lincoln I'd have probably won Manager of the Month, oh well...

We made one more signing on deadline day.

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Another winger as Jamie Frost comes in on loan from Burnley for the season. He looks good enough to compete for the first team squad which is exactly what we need.

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In September we face tricky fixtures against Wrexham and Tranmere in particular.​
 
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I was asked by BBC Radio Leeds if I would attend an interview to discuss my first month in charge...

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Reporter: Hello Sean, thank you very much for giving BBC Radio Leeds your first ever radio interview since you took the job at FC Halifax Town.

Sean Keaney: No problem, it's my pleasure. I'm always keen to do these interviews as it brings me a little closer to the fans.

Reporter: Brilliant, what are your aims for this season?

Sean Keaney: When I took the job I received a lot of support around the game and the general consensus was that this wouldn't be the easiest job to take on. Make no mistakes about it, my initial aim is to gain a respectable league position, both me and the chairman have the same ambition in the long term - promotion. Growing up Halifax were a league club who I always kept an eye on, I want them to become a league club and hopefully push them up the leagues towards the promise land where every manager and player wants to be.

Reporter: Ah so big ambitions then! With the aim this season being consolidation, how would you rate your first month in charge? I mean, you've won 4 out of the first 6!

Sean Keaney: That's a funny question, had you asked me a week ago I'd be sitting here telling you how great our start has been and how we need to push on, but considering we lost 4-0 yesterday I sit here in a much more sombre mood. Yes, have won 4 out of 6 but Saturday's result can't be tolerated and believe me when I tell you that the players are aware of that!

Reporter: A few choice words in the dressing room then?

Sean Keaney: I'm not one to kiss and tell, that's between me and the players.

Reporter: I'm not one to pry! How do you feel your new signings have adapted early on?

Sean Keaney: I feel they have all bedded in to the group very well, we have a very strong close-knit group of lads here and Tim (Chow), Manny (Panther), Keiron (Morris), Tony (Capaldi) and Esteban (Lopez) have all fitted in perfectly. Esteban's English isn't the best and there's a lot of jokes around the subject but it's all in good humour. On the pitch I feel they've all adapted well, I've been very impressed with Keiron's pace and ability to beat a player, just what we needed on that left hand side. Tim Chow is too good for this league, it's as simple as that. He controls most games he's involved in and when he's ticking he's very hard to stop.

Reporter: Yes I agree Chow has been fantastic! I know the fans have already taken to him, does this please you as a manager when you bring in a player that the fans instantly adore?

Sean Keaney: Of course, I'd be lying if I said otherwise. I knew Tim would fit in here, I had plenty of discussions with him before he came. The fans like to see players who make things happen and it's clear to anyone who has watched a Halifax game this season that Tim is a puppet master in that midfield.

Reporter: Okay, back to your transfer activity, you signed a young lad on loan from Burnley this morning... Jamie Frost? What will he bring to Halifax?

Sean Keaney: I've been looking at Jamie all summer to be honest with you, it's a bit of a pain that it's taken this long to get it over the line. He's a similar type of player to Keiron (Morris) in that he has bundles of pace and loves to beat a player, I have no doubt that he will be a great addition to this side.

Reporter: The fans will be glad to hear that! We're almost out of time, before you go do you have a prediction for the Macclesfield game on Tuesday?

Sean Keaney: I'm not one to make predictions, I can guarantee you that our team will be up for the fight and ready to bounce back from our defeat at Lincoln.

Reporter: Ah spoil sport, no chance of a prediction?

Sean Keaney: Nope, no chance! Thanks so much for having me, I'll look forward to your next invite to be on your radio station again.​
 
Following. Looking forward to seeing where this goes. Best of luck.
 
Tactical Overview

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I think all of us as manager know how we want our teams to play, even if the players don't always show that on the pitch. I think it's a bit short sighted if you have a set way of playing and won't change it no matter what.

I am all for using a 4-2-3-1 formation or some variation of this. Having judged my squad I feel this wouldn't work for us as we have an abundance of strikers. I have decided on playing a 4-4-2 formation which I will vary from game to game. Below is the basic formation and roles.

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I've found in the first month of management that the front 2 link up really well using this formation. Defensively we're far from complete so we do jig things around but this is the foundation of our formation for now.
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