Playing With Fire

After the euphoria of promotion had subsided, a period of reflection was necessary, especially as my contract ran out in the summer. So I asked myself how far I could take Oxford, bearing in mind that I was competing on a lower budget than even the teams high up in League One (Season 4 spendings: Oxford 140k, Preston and Ipswich both around 4M). My stats are good, except for "Ambition", which has fallen to just 2. So I wondered if a Premier League team would accept me (Like Paul Ince going to Blackburn IRL).

With impeccable timing, West Ham sacked their manager, so I rejected Oxford's contract offer and applied to West Ham. A nervous wait followed as I wondered whether I'd aimed too high - my reputation was only "regional" after all. You'd think that two promotions on a shoestring in four seasons would get you noticed! Sure enough, West Ham rejected me.
Happily, Oxford came back with an improved offer: Wages of £2,300pw instead of £1,000pw, and an increased transfer/wages budget. I accepted, so have another three seasons to see how far I can take Oxford. An interesting stat to note here: West Ham's new manager is on just £2,000pw.

Once the Championship TV money came in, the budget was raised further. I now had about £1M to spend on players, and £51k per week on wages (last season: £34k, so an increase of 50%). I was over-budget with wages last year, on around £38k, but suddenly that problem was removed.

Now that I'd got the money and the new contract, it was time to prepare for life in the Championship. I needed new players in almost every position, otherwise, as my assistant manager helpfully informed me, I'd sink without trace. Wheeling and dealing follows in the next post...

Season Four: 2008/09

A very successful season, as my Oxford side reached the top 2 on a wave of good from in about November, and stayed there after a record-breaking winning streak. At one stage, the gap was 10 points, but that was whittled to about 3 by poor form, possibly due to being distracted by the prospect of an FA Cup 3rd round tie with Portsmouth. Form was renewed in the Spring, however, and with three games to go, Oxford were 7 points clear of 3rd-placed Preston, with an away match against lowly Stockport. The result was not the expected one! I'll let the picture tell the story:


So with two games to go, the gap was four points... a home game against Wycombe, another bottom half team. For the first half-hour, Oxford completely dominated, but Wilson and Cárdenas missed several chances. Then on 38 minutes, Wycombe break away from an Oxford corner, and Chadwick outruns the defence and slots the ball home. 1-0 to Wycombe, and that was the half-time score. Wave upon wave of Oxford attacks followed, until finally on the hour mark, a sweeping 13-pass move was finished by Anderson Silva blasting the ball in for the equaliser. Then, with just five minutes remaining, Madjid Bougherra hit a long ball from the edge of his own box, and suddenly Barrett was in the clear, one-on-one with the goalkeeper... GOOOOOOOOOOOAL! Not just a "punch the air" moment, a "punch the air and shout loudly" moment. As the text commentary said, "That has to be the winning goal!!!"
BUT.
In the 91st minute, a hopeful Wycombe ball finds Chambers in the penalty box... he squares for Adonis Shala with an open goal... and the ball is in the Oxford net. 2-2. Bugger.

BUT BUT!
The flag is up! Shala was offside - no goal!
The air gets another good punching, and after a few nervous minutes, the game is over... Oxford 2-1 Wycombe, and promotion to the Championship!
The final table, and the key players:



As you can see, the stable backbone proved very important. Centre-back Madgid Bougherra finished with the best average rating out of the permenant players; Striker Kyle Wilson not only weighed in with 33 goals, but also the most assists (12); and youngster Cárdenas was so impressive, he was listed in the League One team of the year. His 14 goals were very important. In addition, midfielders Anderson Silva and Sebastian Larsson (the latter, mainly used on the left, was signed from Arsenal on loan for a season, and then permenantly once the loan had finished) contributed several assists each as well as a good tackling average. Also worth a mention is Graham Barrett, who only started 18 games (coming off the bench 13 times), but scored 13 goals, including the one that sealed promotion.

Meanwhile...
Arsenal won the Premier League for the 2nd season in a row, and add the FA Cup to complete a fourth Double. Newcastle beat Chelsea to the last Champions League spot, and Man United won the European Cup. It's not all good news at Old Trafford, however: they finished 7th in the league and were knocked out of the FA Cup by losing 1-0 at home to non-league side Bradford Park Avenue.

Promotion!
Up next, a busy summer with a few surprises...

Season Three: 2007/08

The backbone brought me success, and I spent much of the season in the top 6. However, I missed out on the play-offs on the final day after a poor run-in of just four wins from the last nine games (see below), and results not going my way on the final day. If I had managed just one extra point, I would have been in the play-offs, but I didn't rate my chances too highly anyway because of my poor record against the rest of the challengers.

Young Stars
This was the year when my strategy of signing promising young players started to pay off. Moses Reed was used sparingly in the previous campaign, but became a key player this time around, making 39 league appearances despite being just 18 when the season started. He was mainly used as a left back, but can also play in the centre.
Then there is Sherman Andrés Cárdenas, a 75k signing who had just turned 18 at the start of the season. Due to his youth and frequent international games for Columbia (he got his first cap at just 16), he was used in rotation with Sweeney, but quickly began to outshine the Englishman, with 9 goals and 6 assists from 30 league appearances. His stats (to be posted later) are amazing. I'd be interested to hear how good he is on FM08.

Meanwhile...
Oldham and Leeds reach the Premiership, and Sven Goran Eriksson leaves the England manager's job after winning the World Cup and the European Championships. He is replaced by Sam Allardyce.

Strong Backbone

Now that my place in League One was consolidated and I had some money to spend, my team was beginning to come into place. I decided to build my promotion charge based around a strong backbone of players running through the central area of the pitch, like top teams have done in the past. This backbone consisted of:
Solid GK: Anthony Silva, one of my first signings, who instantly bolstered my defence.
Strong DC: Madjid Bougherra, Algerian who plays for Charlton IRL. The first name on the teamsheet.
Consistent DMC: Anderson Silva, another South American signed on the cheap. Pass accuracy is always more than 70%, and he makes 3-4 tackles per game.
Creative AMC: Anthony Sweeney, an Englishman who got 12 goals and 10 assists in Season 2.
Lethal ST: Kyle Wilson, my top scorer in Season 2 with 22 goals.

I initially used Anthony Sweeney on the right wing, until I signed a few wingers at the start of Season 2, and could therefore move him to his natural position in the centre.

August Transfers
After his impressive start at Oxford, Premier League clubs quickly became interested in Anthony Silva. During the August transfer, I was inundated with enquiries, and Silva started to get unsettled by them, so I felt that I finally had to sell. In the last week of August, Birmingham came in with a £1m offer, which I accepted, and the base of my backbone had gone. I quickly used the money to sign a goalkeeper of similar stature, Richard Lee, who IRL is Watford's first-choice goalkeeper. He had similar stats and cost me just 275k.

Lee has now been at Oxford for two years, and Silva has moved on to Galatasaray after failing to get into the Birmingham team. As you can see from the above, there is little to choose between them, and Lee has better Handling, Aerial Ability and skill with One-on-Ones. He has had a few injuries, but has conceded just 66 goals in 70 games so far. Silva averaged slightly more than one goal conceded per game in about 60 games for Oxford.

Season Two: 2006/07

Consolidation was the key word here, as I adopted a more defensive approach. Details are a bit hazy as this was some time ago, but I remember a 4-1-3-2 formation with two wide midfielders and one forward dropping back behind the other one. I had a fairly strong start, but couldn't cope with the leading clubs in the second half of the season, and eventually slotted into mid-table.
I reached the third round of the FA Cup for the first time, even holding Premier League side Spurs to a 1-1 draw, although their class told in the replay as I lost 5-1. Spurs went on to win the cup.

Key Transfers


Remember that loan signing from last season, Kyle Wilson? Well, he scored 3 goals in 3 starts, so I liked him enough to buy outright from Crewe. He would become my top scorer in the 2nd season, and is still in the squad now. Still no money to spend, but the signings did include another two players who had once played for Arsenal: goalkeeper Michael Jordan, and forward Graham Barrett, whom I signed and fielded as a right winger. Youngster James Smith would quickly break into my team and become an important figure at right back.

Meanwhile...
Everton and Newcastle both went straight back up, and Chelsea took the title. Two of the cup finals were identical to what happened in the real world: Arsenal vs Chelsea in the League Cup (although Arsenal won this time), and AC Milan vs Liverpool in the European Cup (Milan won, thus denying Liverpool a third successive win).

I'll continue this soon with season 3, where I attempt to build a promotion challenge around a strong backbone, and bring South American class to the midfield...

Season One: 2005/06

Success in my very first season, as after a poor start I was promoted to League One. Not so successful in any of the cups, however: I only won two cup ties all season, one each in the League Cup and LDV Vans Trophy. One of the main reasons for promotion was the success of fans' favourite Steve Basham, who earned the golden boot, finishing with 28 league goals and 30 in total.

Key Transfers
The summer brought only a couple of loan signings. Promising youngster Kyle Wilson was snapped up from Crewe, and Johannes Djourou was brought in from Arsenal, the first of many former Arsenal players to come to Oxford.
In January, I bought an entire new defence! Goalkeeper Anthony Silva was outstanding, whereas the defence was bolstered with experienced players including Fabian Wilnis. There was also the purchase of promising Swedish youngster Moses Reed, although as he was only 17, he didn't feature in the first team in 2005/06.

Meanwhile...
Elsewhere in the FM world of 2006, England won the world cup, beating Croatia in the final. Surprisingly, Iran finished 4th. Liverpool finally won the league, while neighbours Everton were relegated along with Newcastle and Fulham.

Hello world

I've been playing a football manager game on and off for years, mainly during summer holidays. I'm actually using FM2006, so although I'm currently in my 5th season, it's still only Autumn 2009. The first few posts will thus be a quick catch-up on my achievements so far.

Introduction
I'm an Arsenal fan, but I didn't want to start right at the top, so I went with my local team: Oxford United. This means starting in League Two, with a transfer budget of zero. In real life, Oxford got relegated in 2005/06 (the first season in FM2006), although they did almost get to the play-offs in the previous season. How did I fare? All will be revealed in the next post...