Getting Southampton to the top!!!

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SanderDeclerck

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Hello everyone.

Let me first quickly tell you who I am: I am a Belgian student in Computer Science, I'm 23 years old, and for the moment I'm in Kokkola, Finland, as an exchange student.

This is my first story, so please don't shoot me if I'm doing something wrong!

I wanted to start with a Championship team because I wanted a little challenge. I chose Southampton because of the fantastic facilities they have (state of the art youth facilities, top training facilities). The challenge is to get from the Championship to the top of the Premier League.

Southampton already had a few good players, the best ones are:
Jack Cork
View attachment 229535

José Fonte
View attachment 229536

Ricky Lambert
View attachment 229537

Iago Falqué (on loan from Tottenham)
View attachment 229538


I bought some players who I believe will help me to get the promotion:
View attachment 229542

I can divide may incoming players into 3 categories:
Players for the first team:
  • Stephen Carr (DR)
  • Julian Speroni (GK)
  • Alessio Sestu (AMR)
  • Jordy Craddock (DC)
  • Cédrick (AML)
  • Hendry Thomas (DMC)
Backup for the first team:
  • Djibril Sidibé (DMC)
Talent for the future:
I only put a screenshot in of Sanogo, if someone wants screenshots of other players, just ask me!

The tactic I'll be using is a 4-3-2-1 with the striker being a target man, my wingers should supply crosses for my target man. This should be my standard starting team:
View attachment 229547

These are the results so far:
View attachment 229548
We started with some promising results in friendly's, but the season didn't start so good, with 2 draws, a loss, and we already got kicked out of the League Cup. Luckily, we got 2 wins in row the last games, and I hope to keep the form as it is. The bad start might be because of my wingers, Sestu got a 3 match ban early on, and Cedric only played 1 match so far because of the late transfer.

League table:
View attachment 229550
As you could already see, we didn't start out to well, but we're still in a good position to play our way to the promotion.

Now I'm going to try to set up the training for both senior and youth squad. I'll also try to give Sanogo some playing minutes. Let's hope wins are coming in in the next few matches and the transfer pay off!

Don't hesitate to comment, because this is my first story, and I don't know if I'm doing ok.
 
Lallana not starting? Player of the Year for me. 14 Goals and 38 Assists in 50ish appearances in the championship.
 
I'd like to see screenies of Sestu and Cedric. Can't remember seeing Sestu anywhere,but Cedric seems vaguely familiar. How's things in Kokkola? My friend also studies there, but atm he's somewhere in Scotland for a exchange semester as well.
 
NiallC14 said:
Lallana not starting? Player of the Year for me. 14 Goals and 38 Assists in 50ish appearances in the championship.
Click to expand...
I know, he wasn't in my starting team at the start of the season due to poor form. Now he's playing every game.


Quasit said:
I'd like to see screenies of Sestu and Cedric. Can't remember seeing Sestu anywhere,but Cedric seems vaguely familiar. How's things in Kokkola? My friend also studies there, but atm he's somewhere in Scotland for a exchange semester as well.
Click to expand...
Here are the screens for Sestu and Cédrick:
View attachment 229773View attachment 229774

Everything's going well in Kokkola :-).

I think I'll be halfway the season by this evening, so tonight you can expect an update on my season!
 
Right now, we're halfway trough the season, it's not going so well, the board basically hates me, and they don't let me get extra coaches.

These are the results since the last update:
View attachment 229836

And the table looks like this:
View attachment 229837

I set up my training with tug's training schedules, I got a few coaches, but as you see, I still need 3 more:
View attachment 229838

I guess I'll have to ask the board once the results become better (if they don't fire me first ;))

I also quickly made an iOS app to see how many stars a trainer would get, if there are people interested, I might add some features to the app (ex: generating of individual training schedules) and offer it in the app store for free. But if nobody's interested, I'm not going to make it of course, just let me know...
 
SanderDeclerck said:
I also quickly made an iOS app to see how many stars a trainer would get, if there are people interested, I might add some features to the app (ex: generating of individual training schedules) and offer it in the app store for free. But if nobody's interested, I'm not going to make it of course, just let me know...
Click to expand...

I'm interested!
 
My luck is finally turning around, since the last update, I only lost 1 match, and although it will be hard to get the promotion, everything's still possible with 7 points behind the 2nd.

Here are some results:
View attachment 229971

This makes I'm currently 6th in the league:
View attachment 229972

And now, the most important thing:
IM IN THE QUARTER FINAL OF THE FA CUP!!!!
View attachment 229974
I didn't have any really difficult matches, but still, I'm in the quarter final, which is a nice achievement for a team like Southampton.

After these results, my job security went from very insecure to stable, which is also nice :-).

The only issue for the moment is a problem with my strikers, both Sanogo and Lambert are injured for the rest of the season...
 
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WE DID IT! WE'RE IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE!

First we had a big no-losing streak, we went like 15-20 matches without losing, and then we had a bad series, where we only got 3 points out of 5 games. Then we won against Millwall, and the last game against Watford was a real thriller, I got a goal in less then a minute, but after 27 minutes, the score was 1-3, which meant I would've lost my 2nd place in the league table, I had to win the game, then, Sestu scored the 2-3 after 32", and Lallana made the equalizer at 37". At half-time it was 3-3. The 2nd half was a lot less exciting with the first and only goal after 62 minutes, Tadanari Lee made it 4-3.
View attachment 230056
View attachment 230055

In the FA cup we lost in the quarter final against Fullham, which isn't so bad, but we had a lot of great chances, and missed a penalty, we could've won.
View attachment 230060

This is the final league table:
View attachment 230061

Also, Sestu won the Championship player of the year award.

We're very happy with the result from this season, especially because we worked our way up from the 12th position. However, if we had a better first half of the season, we could've ended closer to the title or even may have won.
 
Last edited:
The preparation for the new season is completed, we bought a few new players to help us stay in the premier league, unfortunately we had to let Jack Cork go for £8M. However, with the new additions to the squad, we should be able to replace him (Beram Kayal should do that).

These are my transfers:
View attachment 230127

Screens:
Dedryck Boyota came on a loan, to make my central defense stronger
View attachment 230128
Beram Kayal should be able to replace Jack Cork
View attachment 230129
David Albelda, ok, he's quite old, but it's a free transfer, and he's more than strong enough for my team!
View attachment 230130
Billy Jones came because I really needed a DR, it was a position I already struggled with last year, I hope he can solve that problem
View attachment 230131
Carlo Cudicini is a backup for my goalkeeper Speroni
View attachment 230132

I'm still looking for a DL and if I can do some good deals on bosman transfers, I won't hesitate of course!
 
So far, I have played 10 games this season, so it's time for an update on my first season in the premier league.

First, let me introduce 3 new players:
  • Frederik Stenman, this will help me a lot on the DL position, as I didn't have any good player there. I know he's not the youngest, but I have an excellent talent in my youth academy.
    View attachment 230580
  • Michael Ballack, everyone knows this player, right? I got him on a free transfer, it was too get to let this pass.
    View attachment 230581
  • Gonzalo Rodriguez, also a free transfer, should bring extra rotation options to my defense and backup if I should get injuries.
    View attachment 230582
Ok, let's get to the results now:
I had a really good start with draws home against Aston Villa and a draw on Blackburn, and then I won home from Man U! After that we had a lot of hard games with Liverpool, Tottenham and Liverpool again in the League cup.
View attachment 230584

So this is the league table, I'm in a pretty good 12th position, so far it looks like I'm going to avoid relegation.
View attachment 230585
 
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