From Rags to riches - A sheffield united story.

Saltydog1690

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In the past I've tended to manage big, established clubs with large squads and even larger pockets. Winning Cup after cup leaving the whole experience somewhat meaningless and hollow. So I've decided to test how good of a manager I actually am buy taking a lower league side who have financial problems and trying to transform them into a major european force! I've decided my only requirements in terms of club selection is that the club have an above average capacity stadium for the league their in so that club growth can easily be achieved regardless of poor finances.
 
on my save file I'm already 5 seasons deep with and I intend to list in order what happened each season.
First off I chose my club, sheffield united! They were sitting in league 1 with an amazing stadium and training facilities but with 2million in debt, this is my first time having no transfer budget so it was a bit if an adjustment. The first thing I did was trim the fat off the wages selling all my biggest salary players and signing as many hot prospects who I could pay very little for but who could all perform and grow at this level, my thoughts were that if i prioritise financial stability over league performance eventually my club could grow and succeed.
 
Everything did not go according to plan! My team were predicted to win the league 1 title but after 10 games played I was sitting in the relegation zone with mounting pressure from the board, unfortunately after one too many losses I was Fired! ****! Ordinarily I would just look for another club and start rebuilding but I had high hopes for sheffield united and I'd already spent a lot of time and scouting hours building for the future so I decided to retire and give it one more go with the blades, this time would be my last try.......
 
I retreaked my tactics and ended up scrapping out alot of draws and scrappy wins before finally finishing my first season midtable, my first season was a big learning curve!!!! Their was a lot of pressure from the board and my job security changed game to game my team would have to improve massively next season, the only possitive was that it was a profitable season.
 
Second Season and once again I focused on snapping up free transfers to either be key squad players or to sell on as a profit, some of my youth players came on leaps on bounds after a full season and were now beasts! I now had established some solid tactics that worked a 4-2-1-2-1 with two dm sitting in front of my defenders. With some of the money from the sales I signed carlos fierro for 1.2m and end of season 2 I won automatic promotion from league 1 finishing 2nd, losing out to the title on goal difference.
 
Third season in I now had a fast, strong and young team with a few million in the bank. All my transfer budget goes to signing young talented players all who can hopefully be key figures for years to come, sending south american gems on loan to belgium further helped me develop cheap world class players for the future. Media prediction was to finish mid table but I only went and won the league!
 
Fourth season in and I initially thought the jump to the premiership would be too much for my team to handle so i adjusted my tactics to be deeper, more disciplined and countering. This really back fired and I was on the end of some big losses to some mediocre teams so i decided to abonden this approach and revert back to my tried and tested 4-2-1-2-1 fluid, fast wide and direct tactic that did so well in the championship. Some high rep signings like david villa for free, and ryan bertrand as well as many others ended up seeing my team overperforming and finishing 7th just missing out on continental football. Not only that finances were solid and my players wer attracting alot of interest!
 
5th season and things were looking bright, the average age of my squad was around 22.3 and i was hoping that a european spot could be achieved this season and with a heafty budget for the first time i decided to spend big to address a weakness in my team. My team were tall strong quick and technical but not very creative I decided to spend big and brought in hyroshi kiyotake for around 15m and belhanda for 12m. I further tweaked my team tactics specifics to make small improvements and ended up finishing 2nd in the league just 3 points behind man city and claiming a european spot! I also won the league cup knocking out arsenal,man unite before beating man city in the final!!! Fantastic achievement and its safe to say the board love me!! Carlos fierro finished top scorer, with vydra not far behind playng on the left wing aswell as one of my regrens a 21 yr old greek Cb being in the pfa team of the year!
 
6th season and the bids came in thick and fast, my 21 greek defender was sold to porto for 15m. I initially brought him for 200k when i was in league 1! Now he could have easily stayed in my team the guy was a beast But I had a lot of up and coming beasts that needed game time so it seemed a no brainer, my finances took a hit the previous season with the big name signings so why not sell and rebuild making lots of profit!!!! I started the season with around 10million, but after selling players my balance sits at over 100million!!!!!!! Its safe to say the future of my club is safe. I decided to splash the cash effeciently buying high quality, cheap astablished players. I got Benzema for 8million from man utd, begovic for 10m, griezzman for 15m, oscar, jali, poli all on a free, sterling for 8m kyle walker on a free. I now had many creative, intelligent players in my team so decided to tweak my tactics to 4-2-3-1 attacking wide direct push up quick. Not only that my the board are building a new stadium and a takeover is on the cards. Pre season signs are good with big wins, especially a 7-1 win against sunderland let's just hope this season goes to plan!!
 
I'm going to update this regularly through this season has events happen, I would love some input from you all in terms of tactics/player selection and transfers :) Here is my starting 11: View attachment 358739
 
Sheffield United Takeover on the cards!

A local business man has put in a bid of 120m for the club, he claims to want to invest over 200m into the club! The future looks really bright.
 
Shaky start to the season!But there is hope.


The new premiership season kick started with some unlucky performances, sheffield united lost their first two fixtures 2-1 and 1-0 respectively to fulham and manchester united in games where they dominated all aspects of play.
 
Things took a turn for the better with a 1-0 win at southampton followed by a 4-1 win at leeds and a 4-0 dicking of Athletic in the champions league group stages. Unfortunately we were then outplayed by norwhich away losing 2-0 in a poor game.
 
Sheffield's Poor form continues!
AAnother disappointing month as we first lost 1-0 in the league cup to brighton, followed by a 3-0 away loss to juventus in the championsleague and a 0-0 draw with burnley and 1-1 draw with liverpool, the only redeeming result was a 3-0 home win at swansea.
 
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