Harvey Leigh is an ex professional footballer, having retired only 2 years ago at the tender age of 30. Having come up through the youth ranks at Chelsea, he made his career predominantly playing in the Championship and League One for the likes of Middlesbrough, Brentford and Gillingham, making over 400 appearances in English league football. A big lad at 6ft 6", he was once described as a 'beast of a centre back' by Claudio Ranieri who oversaw a lot of Leigh's development as a youngster at Chelsea.
Leigh moved to West Brom at 28 and enjoyed two years of Premiership football before he retired. There was no big injury or anything like that. Harvey Leigh simply had an itch that needed scratching. He had always had a fascination with the management side of the game and was once quoted as saying 'I'll be the best manager ever one day, you'll see'.
A big statement that it seems Leigh will now have a chance to prove...having spent 2 years away earning all of his coaching badges, Leigh is now fully qualified to a Continental Pro License level, and with plenty of playing experience behind him as well, the chances of him landing a half decent job from the off are pretty good.
Currently unemployed, it remains to be seen as to where Harvey Leigh will turn up, but we'll be watching his career with interest!
I've only been available for a matter of a week and already three clubs have come in and offered me interviews;
Gillingham - English League One
Bury - English League One Bradford City - English League One
I rejected the interviews at Gillingham and Bury as I didn't fancy either job. I did however attend the interview at Bradford, but was rejected due to the fact I asked for a higher wage budget to take over the role. At interview they mentioned that they had a current wage bill of £65k and wanted me to work with a budget of £60k, meaning I would have had to go straight in and trim down the squad.
It takes 3 months before I'm even offered another interview. Simply, nobody was getting fired and jobs just weren't coming up! October hits and Phil Brown is sacked at Southend United. They come in for me to attend an interview, but I reject the opportunity. I'm not interested in joining a small club, stuck 21st in League One and only a struggle ahead of the manager who takes over.
There's a handful of managers now in precarious positions and with some half decent jobs around the corner, I'm happy to bide my time and wait for the right opportunity.
As we reach mid November, a whole host of jobs have become available in the English Championship. I submit applications for Nottingham Forest, Reading, Derby County, Norwich and Aston Villa. There's some big clubs here that have started the season dreadfully and are all massively underachieving, hence why they've sacked the managers I guess!
Within days, I've had interviews at Reading, Derby and Forest! Norwich and Villa seemed to be ignoring me!
The Forest job really isn't of interest to be honest. A small transfer budget of £500k, a target to avoid relegation and an awful chairman that I'd have guaranteed run ins with further down the line.
But the Derby and Reading jobs were right up my street. 17 games into the season and Derby sat 17th, with Reading further down in 19th. Both had good squads capable of much more, and the chairmen both had higher aspirations than that of Forest just looking to stay in the league. Appreciating the poor starts, both clubs were now looking for a mid table finish (despite both of them probably hoping for a playoff spot pre season). Both clubs were out of the League Cup already, and were both willing to offer me transfer budgets in excess of £5 million to improve the squad in January. I await the feedback from both the interviews with great anticipation.
I take over with the club sitting 19th in the Championship table, having lost 9 of their opening 17 games. The goal difference of -9 is the second worst in the league with only Sheffield United worse off.
Yann Kermorgant has some top stats for a Championship striker, but has only played 2 games so far this season having just returned from a hip injury. I'll need to get the best out of him if we're going to turn our form around.
Oh dear! Not exactly the start I had in mind. The whole game was a struggle from start to finish as Bolton walked all over us! Welcome to football management Mr Leigh!
A better footballing performance from the team today, but we still found ourselves on the losing side as Wednesday took their chances better than we did.
My first win comes in an unlikely game away at 5th placed Sunderland. We defended really well and took our chances in a pretty even game to pick up my first 3 points as Reading manager.
Gutted to lose this one as we were dominant throughout, creating 17 chances at goal without scoring. Cardiff punished us for our poor performance in front of goal.
The strikers let me down again against bottom side Burton. We created 21 chances in this game, 4 of which were clear cut and failed to take any. Disappointing result in a game where we really needed all 3 points.
Finally, we find our scoring boots. Bristol City were 22nd in the form table coming into the game and we capitalised on their poor morale and piled on the misery with a convincing victory away from home.
Our poor form through December sees us finish the month in 21st place, only 3 points above the relegation zone. If I don't pick this up soon, I can see my first job in football management being a very short one.
John is creating plenty of chances for the team through the centre of the park. Unfortunately, he isn't racking up any assists as our strikers are letting him down by not finishing off those chances!
FA Cup Draw
We drew Bristol City at home in the 3rd round of the FA Cup. Hopefully we can give them another thumping!
Our New Year's Day fixture ends in a home defeat. Just when it looked like we'd snatched a draw in the 94th minute, a lapse of concentration allowed them a winner in the 96th! Unbelievable Jeff!
We gave a really good account of ourselves against the promotion chasing Tigers. The usual lack of quality in front of goal ultimately cost us again though and a single goal for Hull was enough to take all 3 points.
Despite being the better team on the day, creating more chances and having more of the possession, we crashed out to the Premiership club with a 2-1 defeat.
Although we remain in 21st position, the couple of wins this month have seen us put a gap of 5 points between us and the relegation places. If we could just string a couple more victories together next month, we could lift ourselves to a much more comfortable position in the table.
Nobody was fantastic this month, but Dejagah has worked his way into my team despite not being an original starter when I took over and is starting to repay the fait with some good performances.
Transfers
Players Out; Newcastle came in for John Swift with an £8 million offer. I went back to them asking for £13 million and they matched it. The offer was too good to refuse so Swift has moved on to the Magpies. Vito Mannone was definitely not good enough as a first choice keeper, so I decided to put him up for sale. Middlesbrough have snapped him up for £1.1 million. Adrian Popa was moved on for just over half a mil, as he was ****** at not getting enough football. A couple of other reserve players were also moved on and a couple of youngsters left the club on loan.
Rob Green is a seasoned goalkeeper with experience at the highest level. Despite being 37 years old, he still has plenty to offer and is a much better option than Vito Mannone who has been moved on.
Name: Dominic Solanke
Position: ST
Signed From: Liverpool
Fee: Season Long Loan
I needed more options in the central attacking midfield role, but it's a bonus that Chung-Yong can play down the right as well. He'll prove a valuable squad player I'm sure.
European Transfers; The biggest deal of the window saw Matthijs de Ligt join Arsenal in a £28 million deal from Ajax. Arsenal also splashed the cash on RB Leipzig's Marcel Sabitzer as they bolster their squad for the 2nd half of the season. Dries Mertens joins Manchester United. Kieran Tierney joins Liverpool from Celtic in a £24 million deal. The Chinese clubs are still picking up players from Europe for big fees.
We've been hit with a fair few injuries this month. Gutted to lose Green for a couple of months, after he got injured in only his 3rd game for the club. Yann Kermorgant is also going to be out for a few months.
I can't believe we drew this one. We had 27 shots to their 5. Poor finishing for us cost us dear and a penalty for them was enough to share the spoils.
A similar story to the Millwall game at the start of the month. **** poor finishing costs us again as we fail to find the back of the net despite having 17 shots on goal. Sheffield United only had 5 of their own but took one which was enough to take a massive 3 points in this relegation clash.
We finally get a win on the board this month in what was a must win game against 22nd placed Nottingham Forest. Solanke finally bags his first goal for the club since joining on loan.
An excellent home win and a great performance to match against a side that I could very easily have ended up managing back in November when I took the Reading job. Solanke gets on the scoresheet for the 2nd game in a row and I hope this is him finding some goalscoring form for the run in. After all, that's what he was brought here for!
Those two wins at the end of the month proved crucial in getting us out of the relegation places and up to 20th in the table. Lots of teams have now been drawn into the relegation battle with only 3 points separating 15th to 22nd. Nottingham Forest and Burton Albion look certain for the drop and Leeds have opened up a 4 point gap at the top of the table.
Player of the Month; Liam Kelly (Deep Lying Playmaker)
Kelly has been in inspired form this month with some ultra consistent performances. Chipping in with a couple of goals and assist as well has secured his player of the month award.
Other News
Spurs win the Carabao Cup after beating West Ham on penalties in the final.
The biggest and best win of my career so far comes against 2nd placed Wolves at their place. We were really strong throughout and clearly the better side. This result was no fluke.....we really deserved it.
As we move clearer of the relegation spots with our 4th win on the bounce, Bolton head further down the table and into real trouble. Lee Chung-Yong grabbed his first goal for the club since signing in January.
Despite giving a good account of ourselves, the league leaders were just too strong for us in this game. They were really solid defensively and we struggled to break them down and create any really good chances.
Callum Harriott was a man on form today and turned in an excellent performance, scoring two cracking goals to earn us a draw away at fellow strugglers Norwich. A pretty even game and the result was probably a fair one on the balance of play.
We finish the month with an absolute cracker of a result against QPR and put a real dent in their outside chances of sneaking a playoff place towards the end of the season. A solid attacking display sees us bag four goals with plenty of attacking flair on show.
10 points picked up this month has moved us right up the table to 15th and well away from the relegation battle. We now have an 8 point buffer, meaning a couple more wins and we should be safe from the dreaded relegation and probably the sack for me. For a long time, survival has been the aim and it looks like we're very nearly there!
What a month the left winger has had, scoring 4 goals in 5 appearances. He really has come alive this month and is making a strong case for keeping his place in the team, with Roy Beerens on his way back from injury.
Other News
Our improved form was recognised by the league as Harriott and Solanke picked up the player and young player of the month awards.
The youth prospects have been brought in and a couple stand out immediately. Especially 16 year old striker Abdul Aziz who already has stats of 15 for finishing, 12 for composure and solid dribbling and pace too. He could be a handful in a couple of years time.
