Okay so I am now in my fourth season with Southampton FC in the game. My aim was to invest heavily in youth due to both the high standards of the facilities at the club along with the prospects already at the club. Along with this my aim was to continue Southampton's style of play, pushing high up the field keeping possession, very similar to the infamous style Barcelona are famed for.
I will firstly take you through my first three seasons at St Mary's with a few season review posts and then pick up the story in my fourth season, i hope you all enjoy and any feedback will be greatly appreciated!
As mentioned in my opening post the plan was to invest heavily in youth. We bought in a number of exciting youngsters who we believed had a bright future in the game.
I felt Doria, Balanta and Lucas Romero where all ready for first team football so they all went straight into the squad for the season, the rest all got sent out on loan to various clubs around the world to pick up some valuable game time.
There where no major departures though as I was happy with the current set of lads with Billy Sharp, Jos Hooievold and Maya Yoshida being the main players to leave for reasonable fees.
As you can see we defied all the odds by finishing in fourth place and grabbing the final Champions League spot, finishing just one point ahead of Newcastle who also had a great season. Chelsea where crowned champions pipping Manchester United by one point. Whilst all three promoted clubs where relegated with Hull, Palace and Cardiff returning to the Championship.
Footballer of the Year - Cesar Azpilicueta - Chelsea
Players Player - Wayne Rooney, Man Utd Players Young Player of the Year - Gaston Ramirez, Southampton
Manager of the Year - Jose Mourinho, Chelsea
Golden Glove - Petr Cech, Chelsea - 27
Top Goalscorer - Wilifred Bony, Swansea - 17
The Capital One Cup was also disappointing as we where defeated in the third round away at Reading. The second round had seen us knock out Blackburn with a 2-0 victory.
Winners - Arsenal
Runners Up - Manchester United
Elsewhere:
Uefa Champions League
Winners - Barcelona Runners Up - Juventus
Europa League
Winners - Dynamo Kyiv Runners Up - Freiburg
European Super Cup
Winners - Chelsea
Runners Up - FC Bayern
Ligue 1 - Paris Saint Germain
La Liga - Atletico Madrid
Bundesliga - FC Bayern
Serie A - Juventus
As you can see the star man this season was Gaston Ramirez cutting in from the right hand side, the Argentinean bagged 12 goals and 14 assists. At the back Doria settled quickly and became one of the leagues best centre backs forming a top partnership with Dejan Lovren. Another stand out performer was Victor Wanyama who really played above all expectations.
Fans Player of the Year - Doria
Top Goalscorer - Gaston Ramirez 12
Top League Goalscorer - Gaston Ramirez 12
Most Goals in a match - Gaston Ramirez 3
Most Assists - Gaston Ramirez 14
Highest Average Rating - Doria 7.29 (37 apps)
Most MOTM - Gaston Ramirez 5
England shocked the world by winning the world cup and beating Brazil in the final in front of there home fans. The three lions started slowly drawing all three group games but still managed to qualify before knocking out Spain and Holland respectively to reach the final.
After the success of last season I was keen to push on and strengthen the squad, we now also had Champions League Football to tempt a higher standard of player to Saint Mary's, however I still wanted to continue with our transfer philosophy.
The defence was heavily reinforced, we bought in Steven Caulker from relegated Cardiff City along with exciting full backs Jonathan Silva and Sebastian Corchia who would compete with Luke Shaw and Nathaniel Clyne.
Luciano Vietto had signed for Barcelona last year, he was sent back to Racing Club on loan where he bagged sixteen goals, we managed to swoop in and sign him without him ever playing for Barca. Gabriel Barbosa and Sebastian Driussi both looked very exciting prospects and where sent straight back out on loan, whilst Dennis Speight, James Upton and Joey Lamb linked up with the U18 squad.
This season we also managed to do some great business in the January transfer window. Both Etienne Capoue and Antoine Griezmann came in on loan, with Griezmann having only been at Real Madrid for six months after a 20 million transfer. Also coming in was his teammate Alvaro Morata for a bargain price of just 3 million, however 50% of his next transfer would have to go back to Madrid.
Again there were no major departures, we bagged 5 million for Emmanuel Mayuka who had impressed out on loan last season bagging twelve goals, Jason Puncheon was also sold after spending last season at Crystal Palace.
Elsewhere Real Madrid forked out 35 million for Liverpool's Lucas Leiva, Manchester City continued to spend big by bringing in Javier Pastore for 33 million. Chelsea also splashed the cash with nearly 50 million getting them Pedro and Manziukic. Surprise of the window had to go to AC Milan who paid 22 million for Stoke centre half Ryan Shawcross.
After last years overachievment Southampton finished the season in a more than respectable sixth position, again claiming European football but having to settle for the Europa League. Chelsea again were crowned champions and done it with relative ease. Stoke City had a great season narrowly missing out on champions league football. Whilst Norwich, Aston Villa and newly promoted Brighton where relegated.
Footballer of the Year - Antonio Candreva, Liverpool Players Player of the Year - Willian, Chelsea
Players Young Player of the Year - Eden Hazard, Chelsea
Manager of the Year - Jose Mourinho, Chelsea
Golden Glove - David De Gea, Man Utd - 19
Top Goalscorer - Willian, Chelsea - 19
Southampton made it through the group stages in there first ever season in the Champions League, albeit squeezing through in second place. However Spanish champions Atletico Madrid proved to strong in the 1st knock out round claiming a 4-1 victory on aggregate.
I managed to pick up my first piece of silverware at the club by capturing the FA Cup in what was a great achievement for Southampton. Firstly we beat Ipswich 2-0 in the third round, this was followed by a 3-1 victory over West Brom. The fifth round saw us pick up a very impressive 3-2 away win at Manchester City which was followed by another away win in Manchester with a 2-1 victory at Old Trafford. The semi final was decided on penalties after a 1-1 draw with Norwich before picking up the trophy with a 2-1 win over Liverpool.
We crashed out to Reading for the second season running this time in the quarter final. We had picked up wins over Wigan and Fulham in previous rounds before losing 2-1 to the eventual surprise winners.
Winners - Reading
Runners Up - Chelsea
Elsewhere:
Europa League
Winners - Stuttgart
Runners Up - Leverkusen
European Super Cup
Winners - Barcelona
Runners Up - Dynamo Kyiv
Ligue One - Paris Saint Germain
La Liga - Atletico Madrid
Bundesliga - FC Bayern
Serie A - Juventus
Mattia Perin who I'd loaned out to Fiorentina last season came in to take the number one jersey from Boruc and had a relatively good campaign. The back four was again very consistent with Balanta starting to challenge Dejan Lovren for a place next to Doria who was again superb. Victor Wanyama was now recognised as one of the leading central midfielders in the world after another fantastic season and the same goes for Gaston Ramirez on the wing who netted 16 goals.
Fans Player of the Year - Doria
Top Goalscorer - Gaston Ramirez 16
Top League Goalscorer - Gaston Ramirez 11
Most Goals in a match - Gaston Ramirez 3
Most Assists - Antoine Griezmann 8
Highest Average Rating - Victor Wanyama 7.24 (40 apps)
Most MOTM - Gaston Ramirez 6
We managed to pull of some fantastic transfers this season for some fairly cheap prices, however a lot of money was outlaid on add ons which would cost us a bit in the future. First up Ross Barkley, was just a bit of a punt at first as I never believed we could pull it off but we did and in doing so have secured the centre of our midfield for the foreseeable future. Also joining him in midfield was the signing of Marco Verratti from Juventus, he had only been there for one season which didn't go that brilliantly however he did pick up a Serie A title and a champions league runners up medal. I saw him as the perfect competition for Morgan Schneirderlin in the deep lying playmaker position.
The spending didn't stop there we managed to bring in Danny Welbeck from Manchester United to replace the outgoing Ricky Lambert and Pablo Osvaldo. Welbeck had scored 12 goals in 19 starts last season as well as making himself a key player for England but the Red Devils seemed happy to part company. Also adding some flair to the side was Brazilian wonderkid Bernard from Shakhtar who was coming of the back of two top seasons with the club, I believed this would be another stellar signing in the coming years.
We had a few first team players leave this season to balance the books as mentioned before Ricky Lambert and Pablo Osvaldo left, neither had been scoring that reguarly and with Danny Welbeck now here instead I felt it was the right move. Jay Rodriguez and Jack Cork also left the club, Jay had spent the end of last season at Arsenal and this was made permanent, I didnt see either player featuring that reguarley this season.
Elsewhere the biggest deal was Javier Hernandez's 27.5 million move to Chelsea. This was closely followed by Gerard Deulofeu's 26 million move to Manchester City, a player we was keeping our eye on before signing Bernard.
What a fantastic season this was, we finished in second place five points clear of Manchester United. Chelsea picked up the championship for the third consecutive season running. Whilst West Brom, Birmingham and Fulham moved down to the Championship.
Footballer of the Year - Eden Hazard, Chelsea
Players Player of the Year - Erik Lamela, Tottenham
Players Young Player of the Year - Jack Wilshere, Arsenal
Manager of the Year - Jose Mourinho, Chelsea
Golden Glove - Petr Cech, Chelsea 15
Top Goalscorer - Jordan Ayew, Stoke 24