Millwall - A fight for promotion

[scottyrfc]

Millwall FC

​

First off I'd just like to take the time to say thank you to each of your for taking the time to check out this blog. I was contemplating blogging about this season so unfortunately I have played up to October, I'd be grateful if you comment if you guys want monthly updated or half season updates. This is my first ever Football Manager blog so suggestions to improve my content would be much appreciated!

Why Millwall you ask? I was looking for a challenge in the Championship and after looking at all the teams I decided on Millwall. They are predicted to finish 20th so I'll have a big task on my hands to finish in the top half never mind the play-offs.

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Key Players

Andrew Keogh
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Andy will be my star striker this season, he'll be playing as a poacher and I'll be looking to him to help me in my push for promotion.

Liam Trotter
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Liam has the ability to control the midfield and I expect him to contribute in creating goals. I'm playing him as a central midfielder on support just now as his fitness is an issue I'm currently working on then he should be bossing midfield as a box to box midfielder.

Transfers

So I was given a transfer budget of £200,000 it was quite a struggle with transfers and I had quite a weak squad, much improvement was needed therefore I sold who wasn't in my plans. Very much buy and sell, my team was very weak in defence and the midfield wasn't very attacking minded so I took this into account and went shopping.

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Luigi Bruins
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Liam O'Neil
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Damien Boudjemaa
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Birkir Saevarsson
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Sam Johnstone
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Scott Allan
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Zeki Fryers
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Tactics

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Using a Balanced 4-2-2-2 formation on attacking mentality with shorter passing, everything else is left on default. This has been my formation for many teams and it just works for me.

Story so far

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After August and September I've secured 5th place, I could be top but in the games against Sheffield Wednesday and Blackburn I conceded a 90th minute goal in each game but I'm happy none the less.

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My team were greatly demoralised by the 5-1 defeat to Hull but they managed to put that behind them and go on to smash Watford 6-1! I was delighted by this result. Having 4 players with a rating over 9 is incredible and is a first for me.

I feel that the team is gelling well together and we seem to have a decent form having 4 wins 3 draws and 1 loss, but being realistic I can't see this being the case all season and it will be a tough fight to try and grab a play-off spot.

 

[Williammclaughlin]

awesome bro

 

[scottyrfc]

October started off with a victory against Leeds. However James Henry was injured and was out for up to 5 weeks, having Middlesbrough, Birmingham, Wolves and Leicester ahead I knew without my star winger it was going to be a tricky task.

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As I anticipated in the previous month, I couldn't see my run of form lasting and took 3 consecutive defeats. This left us 9th in the table 9 points behind league leader Hull. The fans are already voicing for me to go but I've been assured by John Berylson that I have his full support.

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Before my final game of the month against Leicester I noticed I had lost the dressing room and that the lads were completely demoralised. I gathered them all together, myself and Paul Robinson said what had to be said and I decided that we were getting predictable in our tactics so I got the lads training on a new tactic and it paid off.

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We have a bit of confidence going into November having drew with a tough Leicester side I feel that we are ready and could go through November undefeated. But in management you never know and any team can cause an upset, I just hope out poor results this month don't cost us in our aim for a play-off spot.

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It's not all been bad this month, Andy Keogh has managed to keep his goal scoring form up and is tied top goal scorer this month, it's going to be hard to keep him come January but his loyalty to the club should ensure he stays at The Den.

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As always feedback is much appreciated and I should get another post up either tonight or early tomorrow, thanks for reading!

 

[banger93]

good start, i think you should be hitting play offs this year

 

[scottyrfc]

November Review

Been quite busy for the past few days so that was why there was no update.
Unfortunately we failed to go unbeaten in November but it was a good month for us recording 2 loses and 4 wins.

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Just 1 point outside the play-off spot but we have to keep up our good run and get as much victories under our belt as we can.

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Looking ahead to December and it will be a tough month for The Lions. I predict a few losses but I hope the harmony of the squad and the run we are on could boost our morale and help us grab those vital 3 points.

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Andy Keogh managed to rack up 9 goals this month making him a stand-out this month, he's took over Charlie Austin in the top goal scorers for the Championship

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Stay tuned for the next update and thanks for reading!

 

[scottyrfc]

Mr Berylson pulled me into his office and informed me that some of our fans are unhappy that I choose to avoid press conferences, he wants me to work on that but other than that he informed me that my postition as manager is "very secure." I finished the month of December with 3 losses and 4 wins against tough opposition. Managed to scrape a few 1-0 victories towards the end so I'll need to look at why the team is (in my eyes under) performing.

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Extremely happy here. We've reached mid season and are sitting in 7th place, 5 points behind 2nd place. It's been a great first 6 months in charge or The Lions and I can see it continuing into the summer and I'm feeling more comfortable about finishing in a play-off spot. My prediction is that I'll finish 5th but we will need to see.

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I'm now in January and my goal difference is worrying me so I'm going to try and sell a few players in order to gather some funds and perhaps sign players on a pre contract for next season but I'm definitely looking to loan in an experienced defender to help out my back 4.

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Thanks for viewing!

 

[Williammclaughlin]

i would look more towards the free agents

 

[scottyrfc]

So Results and Feburary fixtures before I get into the transfers. I was more than happy with this month, only suffering 1 defeat which was a lucky 90th minute goal for Brighton. I wasn't too focused on the cups this year which is why I've never drew any attention to them but The Lions have made it to the 5th round and we face a very tough game against Tottenham, I'm predicting a heavy loss but we will do our best.

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Managed to crawl our way into the play-off spot and we're going to fight for our right to stay here. This is where I told the board I expect to finish, with my defence I really can't see us getting any higher in the league.

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Okay onto the signings, unfortunately I wasn't given any more transfer budget so I was relying on players leaving and then using the funds gathered from them to improve the squad. Sadly that was not the case and I only managed to offload a few players on loan and free up some wage budget and then proceeded to sign Bebe on a free transfer. As I'm expecting to stay in the championship next season I signed John Daly on a pre contact for 2 years. His experience should help my team and his stats are better than Keogh who seems to be on top form but I can't keep relying on him and need goals to come from else where. I tried to sign John Mensah on a free transfer but I ran into complications and the deal fell through as deadline day ended.

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Not much else to report but the February update will be up very soon so thanks for reading!

 

[scottyrfc]

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Nothing interesting really to report this month. Holding on for 6th position but we're getting quite sloppy. I was unhappy with how the Tottenham game played out as we had 2 goals disallowed which would have had the game tied 2-2 at half time but it wasn't to be the case as we were dumped out 3-2.

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Quite worried going into March, with Burnley hot on my heels we need to ensure we don't drop point but the fixtures look tough with away games at Wolves and Bolton. Anything other than a draw will be a bitter disappointment in our promotion hopes, the lads need to step up this month.

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[scottyrfc]

Sorry for the lack of updates!

First off I'd like to apologise for my lack of updates I've been quite busy with work and having a busy week.

I'd like to wrap the season up in this post on move on to season two.

Undefeated month of March for The Lions and we take 11 points out of 15 which is a massive boost to our play-off hopes. Again Andy Keogh proving how dominant he is in the Championship.

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This was it, the last 7 games for the lads. It's been a long season with our ups and our downs but with this last push I'm confident we can get into the play-offs. I was fairly disappointed at the draw to Peterborough as during the game we had more possession and more chances but we just couldn't finish.

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We did it! With our last push we managed to finish 1 point ahead of Brighton and clinch second place and allow us to miss the play-offs and go straight up to the Premier League! I'm so proud of my players and I'm hoping for more of the same next season but this is going to be a tricky season for us and I hope we can dig in and survive.

John Berylson was quoted in the Sun as saying;
"This is a fantastic achievement for Millwall Football Club and myself and the fans are delighted with the team and manager Scott Truesdale. I have decided to renew his contract until 2016 and we have given him a vast sum to ensure that Millwall can become a dominant force in England and hopefully we can put a smile on our loyal supporters faces and grab some European football in the seasons to come."

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He wasn't lying 9 million is a fantastic sum of money and I will be looking to strengthen the team and look to the future when the transfer window opens.

Thanks for viewing!

 

[scottyrfc]

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I couldn't capture all of the transfers out but it was only really a few loans here and there.

I managed to get some youth prospects all with a potential of 4 stars or more (those from Dinamo have 4.5 and 5 star potential) so I'm happy with the business I did. I brought in two new goal keepers, Vito Mannone of Arsenal who has had some Premier League experience and veteran goal keeper Lukasz Zaluska of Celtic.

I was mainly looking at who was transfer listed and I stumbled across Ismael Traore who was rated 4 stars and managed to negotiate a price of 1 million. Miguel and Wooton were purchased as cover for Robinson and Traore but I will look to them to play some games as the both have a 4 star potential. Brought in two full back, we bought Zeki Fryers for 3.5 million and we got a real bargain in Javi Chica who is 4.5 stars ability for a mere £725,000. I decided to bolster my midfield and get rid of those just not good enough for the BPL, got rid of Liam Trotter and James Henry for a combined fee of 6.4 million. I then replaced them with Andrew Shinnie an exciting player from Inverness and Tongo Doumbia from Stade Rennais. Doumbia was loaned in with a future fee of 3.5 million, the reason I did this was he was having lots of injuries last season and I didn't want this the be the case for my team.

Horrible pre season, left it to my Assistant manager which was a huge mistake so I organised a final friendly against Hayes & Yeading to end pre season on a high. The month of August just looked horrible and I expected to loose all the games except Peterborough as we defeated and drew with them in the Championship.

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We're sitting last right now on goal difference but I hope we can turn it around.

I'm going to be doing it on a two month basis as it gets the season done quicker and allows me to talk about the fixture more. Would you guys like to see me type the fixture out for example;

Millwall 1-0 Arsenal
Andrew Keogh 21st minute

Or just have individual graphics like I did in a previous post against Watford?

Thanks for viewing!