Profit making challenge

Another forward soon followed ...


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Yury Voropaev signs on a season long loan from Zenit.

This should see us through for the attacking players, we now have him, Keita, Gameiro and Dybala all capable of starting up-front.

His stats aren't brilliant and we probably won't be a starter but hes certainly good enough to be an impact sub and start the odd cup game.



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We then had a spate of players leaving the club ...

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We started with the sale of Hugo Mallo who joined West Ham for £5 million.

The off for Mallo was just too big to turn down! I could have done with another right back in the squad to challenge Coleman but I'm sure they'll be a cheaper option out there somewhere.

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Watford then came in with a huge offer for center back, Mateo Musacchio! An offer of £14 million (which was all paid up-front) was enough for me to accept without hesitating.

Musacchio was one of the players over our £50k per week budget anyway so we had to look to offload.

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Vladamir Darida was the next player to leave, joining Torino for £4.8 million.

Darida was always going to be back up this season and with the signings of Cleverley and Alli he was pushed even further down the pecking order.
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Kevin Mirallas and Olivier Giroud were the final two players to leave (forgot to take screenshot).

Mirallas left for Nottingham Forest for £2 million, this was more to just get him off the wage bill.

The same applied for Giroud who left for Genoa for £1 million. Both payers were on huge money and had to leave.​
 
Just as I thought the transfer window was going well, I came into the office to find an offer from Tottenham ...

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Tottenham made a derisory offer for club legend Leighton Baines.

The offer of £1.4 million was rejected faster than I could say 'no'.

Rejecting this offer though didn't go down too well ...
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Bainesy came to see me after finding out about the offer.

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Leighton Baines - Gaffer, I've come to see you about the offer you've rejected from Tottenham.

Glenn Hoddle - You didn't seriously want to leave did you?

Leighton Baines - Yes! Tottenham is a massive step up and a team that could really challenge for the league title. Not some joke that finish 8th every season.

Glenn Hoddle - Bainsey, we'll be challenging this season I promise. Minimum will be top 4 - trust me!

Leighton Baines - Thats bollocks gaffer. Your signings have been a joke. We'll do well to finish in the top 10! Kevin Gameiro and Tom Cleverley, they're ****** useless.

Glenn Hoddle - We'll see. You're not going anywhere. Get used to that! ​
 
We put the transfer offer for Bainsey behind us to concentrate on Seamus Colmans testimonial ...

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I played our strongest available side as I wanted them to gel before the season started.

The tactic I've gone for isn't a standard one by playing 3 center backs and 2 wing backs instead of wingers. We then put a diamond in midfield with Odegaard being the man furthest forward with Balde Keita the lone striker starting just left of central.

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We played Munchen Lions who are a German second division side.

Although this was a disappointing draw the lads still played well and created plenty of chances. If we were to have one criticism then it would be our finishing which was well below par.

Coleman probably set up this friendly thinking it would be a goodbye to the fans as he only started a handful of games last season. I however have very different plans for Seamus, I see him as number one right back this season, lets hope he proves me right.

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The rest of pre-season wen pretty well with is scoring plenty of goals, albeit against weaker opposition.

We averaged over 3.5 goals per game just over 0.5 goals against.

A 3-1 win over Crew was probably the most impressive result closely followed by the emphatic 6-0 win over Crew!

Samuel Umtiti was one of the star players of the pre-season friendlies which really bodes well as it looks like I'll have to trust him at center back this season following the departure of Musacchio.

Balde Keita also had an impressive summer by scoring 6 goals in 6 games including a brace against Swansea and Bala.
​

With the season starting in less than a week, we made a trio of signings ...

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Saul Hernandez signs on a season long loan from Man City. He looks decent to say he's only 20 years old. Whats most impressive is his decision making and concentration with his tackling and marking also impressive. Just what you need for a center half.

I don't know if he'll quite fill the void left by Musacchio but he's certainly a good addition.

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One center back wasn't enough for me though as we signed another almost immediately after.

Kyriakos Papadopoulos signed from Chelsea for a fee of £4.3 million after failing to make his mark at Stamford Bridge.

Papadopoulos will challenge Hernandez all the way for the remaining center back spot and also puts Samuel Umtiti's place up for grabs. I would say Papadopoulos just nicks it at this moment in time but things can change before the season starts.

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The last signing before the season started was a bit of a risk and certainly one from left field.

Brazilian attacking midfielder, Robert signs from Fluminese for only £1.7 million. He's a real risk as he's a total unknown and has never had to perform at the highest level before now.

If nothing else, it looks like we'll make money on the young lad. We only signed him for £1.7 million with his worth now more like £7.2 million.​
 
OPENING GAME OF THE SEASON

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Surprisingly both us and Stoke went with the same formation for the opening day.

We only made one change to the side side that played in Coleman's testimonial, Papadopoulos coming in for the recently transfers Musacchio.

Papadopoulos just got the nod in front of Saul Hernandez, although there isn't much between them I think the experience of the Greek international may prove vital. There's still certainly time for Hernandez to change my mind though.

James Wilson and Valentino Lazaro look to be the danger-men for Stoke. Wilson is a new signing at the Britannia while Lazaro only scored 1 goal in 12 games last season.

We go into the game as slight favourites, Stoke only finished 17th last season and survived by just 2 points but they've always been strong at home so we can't take this for granted.

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WHAT A RESULT!

I really saw this as a tough game and hoped we just nicked it, I certainly didn't expect us to score 5 goals without return.

From start to finish we were absolutely brilliant and could have actually scored more.

Balde Keita scored the opener after just 9 minutes before new signing, Dele Alli, doubled the lead just a few minutes later.

James McCarthy then scored the third with a very good finish from the edge of the box.

It was then center back, Samuel Umtiti who stole the show by scoring two goals in just under 10 minutes. I managed Umtiti while at Tottenham where he failed to make an impact so I was skeptical whether he can perform in the Premier League ... he showed me definitely can.


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Just after that fantastic win against Stoke, Balde Keita came to see me in my office ...

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Balde Keita came to see me as he'd heard that Juventus were interested in signing him. His main reason for wanting to leave was to play in the Champions League.

I feel it's so important for me to keep Keita that I begged him to stay by promising to qualify for the Champions League, I don't think Keita particularly believed me.

The only way I could get Keita to stay was to promise him we signed better players during this transfer window. In reality I don't know how feasible this will be but hopefully we'll be challenging for the top 4 by then which might be enough to convince him anyway.​
 
The next game was us return to Goodison Park in the first home game of the season ...

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We still played pretty well here but failed to make our chances count.

We went with the same team that played Stoke last week but we just didn't have quite the same effect. Maybe we took Newcastle for granted after beating Stoke so confortably.

Balde Keita scored his second in 2 games to net the only goal of the game.
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The only concern from the game was an injury sustained to Balde Keita ...

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Keita was ruled out for 4 weeks with a twisted ankle, this is really bad news for us as Keita is without doubt our best attacking player.

This is bad news but things got worse almost immediately ...

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Fellow striker, Paulo Dybala was also ruled out for 4 weeks, this time with a pulled hamstring.

These two injuries really leave us short up-front. Our only options for the striker role will now be Kevin Gameiro, Yuri Voropaev and at a push Robert can play there, although he does prefer an attacking midfield role.​
 
The next game saw us up against Swindon away from home in the League Cup ...

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A very routine victory here.

I made a host of from our usual Premier League side. In came a totally different back 3 of Stephen Spencer, Botia and Sual Hernandez. Ryan Ledson and Brendon Galloway also came into midfield while Robert partnered Kevin Gameiro up front.

It was Robert who opened the scoring after just 9 minutes with a very well taken goal. Nicolai Boilesen then doubled our lead shortly after, Boilesen had also come into the side to replace Leighton Baines who I thought could do with a rest.

Our victory here ensured we made into the draw for the second round ...

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Swansea at home is a decent draw.

We beat the Welsh side 3-1 only a couple of weeks ago in a pre-season friendly so it will be interesting to see if we can beat them again now the season has started.​
 
The final game of the month was a real test, a trip to Old Trafford to face Man Utd who have won the last 3 league titles in a row.

This is how both sides lined up ...

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We restored our strongest side for the first real test of the season. We restored the usual defense and midfield while sticking with Robert as a lone striker with Martin Odegaard just behind him.

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How disappointing!

We took Man Utd all the way with what was a very even game.

Man Utd had chances which they should have scored from in the first half but Jason Steele was brilliant and kept it at 0-0 until just after the hour mark when Angel Di Maria scored an unstoppable effort from distance.

We had a couple of late chances with Dele Alli and Odegaard with decent efforts which were btoh well saved.
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This game brought with it the end of the month ...

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Early doors but after 3 games we find ourselves in 6th place with 2 wins and 1 loss.

I'm not too disappointed with that start, not many teams go to Old Trafford and get a result there just so dominant in this game.

The performances against Stoke and Newcastle are enough for me to be positive about the season.​
 
TRANSFER DEADLINE DAY


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Gossip Column: Wanyama, Iturbe, Roberts and more ...

Tottenham are close to agreeing terms with Manchester United over out of favour midfielder Antonio Candreva.

Man Utd will replace the outgoing Italian with Real Madrid winger, Juan Iturbe who is set to join for £13million.

Jordy Classie is said to have agree personal terms with Manchester City with the two side now just needing to agree a fee.

Tottenham still haven't given up hope of signing Leighton Baines from Everton and are set to increase their offer for the former England full back.

Another Everton player may also be on the move with James McCarthy set to be number one target for Southampton.


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One of the rumour involving our players turned out to be true, Tottenham never did increase their offer for Baines but Southampton did place an offer for McCarthy ...

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The offer came in but was instantly turned down, to only offer £6 million up-front is an insult. I highly doubt McCarthy would want to move to Southampton anyway, it's hardly a massive step up is it!

Just after the offer was rejected, McCarthy knocked on my door. Straight away, I thought he was going to complain about me rejecting this offer ...

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So in order to keep McCarthy at the club he wan't a pay rise. He's already one of our high earners and is classed as an 'over budget player' but I still agreed as he's so important to us.

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We tried to offer him a new deal and increase his wages but as soon as we entered negotiations his agent demanded £110k a week which couldn't be negotiated. my maximum wage I can offer on this save is £100k per week so we had to pull out of the deal and hope either the £110k reduced or that McCarthy sacks his agent some time soon.​
 
SEPTEMBER 2019

With Deadline Day being fairly uneventful, we concentrated again on our league fixtures, the first game of September saw us up against West Brom at home ...

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This is about as dominant as you can be!

We had 23 shots compared to West Brom's 1, with 10 of ours also being on target.

Martin Odegaard was on target just before half time to put us 1-0 before Vlad Chiriches scored his first of the season with a very good header at the near post.

Wantaway full-back Leighton Baines then capped off the scoring with a late penalty to make it 3-0. Although Baines is still unhappy and wants to leave, his performances have still been great and warrants his place in the first team.
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We then had another home game next, Southampton the next team to come to the Goodison ...

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This is the first game (apart from the Man Utd loss) where we were under pressure by being a goal down until late on. Not only were we a goal down but Southampton also missed a penalty which would have made it 2-0 and made it 'game over'.

With us 1-0 down and the clock ticking down, we threw on Dybala, Robert and Kevin Gameiro to play with 4 strikers and pushed both Dele Alli and Martin Odegaard further forward.

Shortly after coming on Kevin Gameiro managed to feed through Seamus Coleman (now also playing further forward) who slotted the ball beyond the keeper to draw level at 1-1.

Gameiro wasn't happy with just an assist though. He then struck the winner with only 3 minutes left on the clock after Robert teed him up on the edge of the box.
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The third game of the month saw us in the League Cup taking on Championship side Swansea ...

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This made it 3 wins from 3 in September in another game we dominated.

We beat Swansea 3-1 in a pre-season friendly only a couple of weeks ago so I expected a similar story, and that's what we got.

Leighton Baines scored again with a well taken free-kick before Samuel Umtiti doubled our lead and ensured we made it through to the 4th round.

The draw for the 4th round was made straight after the game ...

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Chelsea at home ensured we got one of the tougher draws in the 4th round.

Chelsea at home looks really tough on paper but they're currently 8th and already 6 points behind us. Its certainly winnable but will be one of the toughest games of the season so far.
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The final game of the month saw a return to White Hart Lane to face my old Tottenham side ...
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