Pre-season

Well to be honest, my pre-season was fairly average, with a good set of performances, but we didn't really play anybody majorly threatening with Hertha Berlin probably the biggest club we played against.

As well as friendlies, we were also very busy in the transfer market despite not actually having any money! Signing a whopping 13 players and only selling Papa Bouba Diop, I had a big squad, with a range of talents, so hopefully this will help me throughout the season when the injuries start to hit us.

As I said in my previous post, I also pulled off two major coups...

These two should be able to help us push to the next level for next season!!

Free Signings

As I have a transfer budget of £0, I have been resorted to looking for players who are currently without a club or a contract. As the owner has stated he will sort the finances out, the one thing I don't need to worry about right now is the wage budget. I'm only £60k under it right now, but with the sale of a few fringe players, and the hopeful reorganisation of the finances, it's looking like the finances may just be on the up so I'm not worried about going over it. The players I have attempted to sign on a free transfer are;

Ivan Helguera - Signed for another club
Lukas Zelenka - I pulled out of Negotiations
Christian Vieri - Didn't impress me on the 2 week trial
Dietmar Hamann - Agreed
Sol Campbell - Agreed
Mark Viduka - Agreed
Johann Vogel - Agreed
Danny Mills - Agreed
Boudewijn Zenden - Agreed
Michael Ball - Agreed
Andy Van der Meyde - Agreed
Ebi Smolarek - Agreed
Stephen Appiah - Agreed
Hamed Namouchi - Agreed

As you can see, I have signed 11 players there, but in that 11, I have Hamann on a Coaching deal after his 1 year deal, and I'm considering giving Campbell, Mills, Zenden and Viduka the same deals. Stephen Appiah has always been an interesting player, and I think Andy Van der Meyde wasn't given a good chance to show his ability for Everton, so hopefully he'll show his true value at a club with less pressure.

With these players coming in, I feel I have adequate cover for every position now and any other players will be big names that I will use to get fans excited!



BREAKING NEWS

Portsmouth FC have signed David Beckham and Landon Donavon for a sum total of £0 and they will both be moving from LA Galaxy in January! Due to their contracts being finished in January, I pounced onto the chance of getting two players that are capable of getting into practically any Premier League team. The rebuilding phase has begun!

Portsmouth FC...

Portsmouth Football Club... been a very successful team in the last fews, been in the Premiership now for a fair few years, and during their time in the Premiership, I have noticed one thing to stand out in particular; Whenever Harry Redknapp leaves, they struggle to stay up. Obviously, Tottenham grabbed HIM in November last season when they had 2 points from 8 games and ended up finishing 8th in May. However, when he leaves a place, he tends to leave them to struggle, making his achievements even more outstanding. He does this by taking the players he brought in to Portsmouth, and then manages to convince the Portsmouth board that they can sell a player worth £10 million to him for just £2 million, because otherwise someone bad like Arsenal will come in and offer £10 million and make him into the next Robert Pires. So, this will explain the squad I am about to tell you, which I have kindly been left at Portsmouth.
Here we go then...

Goalkeepers

David James - Star Player
Antti Niemi
Asmir Begovic - Hot Prospect
Jamie Ashdown

Quite well covered in this department, so I don't think I need to look for a goalkeeper any time soon, although I'm not too convinced by Jamie Ashdown, he seems a bit inept in keeping a clean sheet.
Star Player - David James is a brilliant Goalkeeper to have a club like Portsmouth now, he automatically adds that bit of faith into me that we have a chance to get a point from any game. Hot Prospect - Asmir Begovic is a big lad, at just under 2 metres tall, he is a very promising player, who I will get Antti Niemi to tutor, especially as Antti is also a Goalkeeping Coach at Portsmouth too.

Defenders

Tal Ben-Haim
Younes Kaboul - Star Player
Linvoy Primus - Club Legend
Anthony Vanden Borre - On Loan from Genoa
Hermann Hreidarsson
Mike Williamson
Marc Wilson - Hot Prospect
Steve Finnan
Nadir Belhadj

This area of the pitch concerns me quite a lot, with only one left back, who's really an attacking midfielder and two centre backs in Tal and Younes who are known for losing their concentration in big games, something I really can't afford to have, although I don't really have anybody to replace them.
Star Player - Younes Kaboul is a brilliant defender, of a similar mould to Ledley King, just without as many injuries, unfortunately, he is prone to being caught dozing, and he's not the bravest player, but he makes up for it in his calm approach and his ability on the ball is very impressive.
Hot Prospect - Marc Wilson is a bit of a new player to me, I've not seen much of him play, although looking over reports about him and his stats, he seems a very capable defender and at the age of 21, he's reaching the age where it's make or break for him regarding his Premiership career, because if he can't get in ahead of Tal Ben-Haim or Younes Kaboul, I don't see him getting in at another Premiership team.

Midfielders

Richard Hughes
Aaron Mokoena
Hassan Yebda - On Loan from Benfica
Hayden Mullins
Angelos Bassinas
Gauthier Mahoto - Hot Prospect
Papa Bouba Diop - Star Player
Jamie O'Hara - On Loan from Tottenham
Michael Brown
Kevin-Prince Boateng

The midfield is looking very central at the moment, with no real wingers, which is a major part of my game, so I'm slightly concerned about that. It's also a very defensive midfield, with 6 of the 10 players being Defensive Midfielders, and Papa Bouba Diop and Michael Brown very defence-minded midfielders too.

Star Player - Papa Bouba Diop, one of the most loved, and well remembered, names in the Premiership...just for his name and brutal physique, he is the closest thing to a human tank in the English game and I'm going to really miss him during the African Cup of Nations, but hopefully the next player I'll talk about will fill the gap rather nicely!
Hot Prospect - Gauthier Mahoto is a 17 year old defensive midfielder that has the mental attributes of someone double his age! He is looking like a real star of the future game, and he has the potential to become a mix of Lassana Diarra and Michael Essien, in the way that he has the ability to play his defensive role perfectly, but if he was asked to play in a different role, he has the attributes to play there comfortably!

Strikers

Tommy Smith
John Utaka
Aruna Dindane - On Loan from RC Lens
Omar Koroma
Frederic Piquionne - On Loan from Olympique Lyonnais
Danny Webber
Danijel Subotic
Nwankwo Kanu - Star Player

I'll admit it now, they are all the same style of striker, apart from Kanu, but nobody's like Kanu. The way I mean is that they are all quick and strong, but not very good at the most important job - putting the ball in the net. For this, I'm worried. Piquionne looked a good player on FM09, but he's the type of player I'd want to avoid at all cost; looks good, big price tag but can't score!
Star Player - Nwankwo Kanu is a very special player, the Dimitar Berbatov of the 90s, although not many Gooners will appreciate that comparison with the ex-Spurs man, Kanu still has the blessing of a beautiful first touch and near perfect balance, unfortunately the ex-Arsenal man has lost a fair bit of fitness and pace, which will limit me to using him as a sub or as a target man with two pacey strikers like Utaka and Webber alongside him.

Overview

Basically, the team has a strong core of James - Kaboul - Diop - Kanu which is very strong and athletic, unfortunately, the core is all there is. There are no fancy players to go around the foundations, there's no No.10 to it, which is quite concerning, but I have until the 1st September to sort it out, so I'm not too worried. I can see a top-half finish from this team if the right players are brought in and major players avoid long-term injuries.

Here we go....

Here we go then! Well, technically, I started it last night, got through 5 friendlies, 10 league games and a league cup game inbetween all of that, saved it, then turned my laptop off, expecting it to load up first time and to carry on from drawing 0-0 against an on form Man United. However, I came home, ran straight to my laptop, clicked that beautiful logo that is FM10, and clicked Load Last Game.....

THIS HAPPENED!! I was devastated! I will admit, it wasn't the best of starts to a season with heavy defeats to Aston Villa (5-1), Wigan (6-0!!!) and Sunderland (4-0) and a poor performance led to a 2-1 defeat to Bristol Rovers while the team was molding, but I don't use this as an excuse because the main bulk of the team had all pre-season to get to know eachother.

Nevertheless, I remember pretty much my record in the 11 competitive games and the 15 games overall, so for those of you interested, this was how it went;

Premiership - Played 10 Won 1 Drawn 6 Lost 3 GF 3 GA 16 Pts 9 17th Place
League Cup - Bristol Rovers 2-1 Portsmouth 2nd Round
Friendlies - Portsmouth Reserves 4-1 (W)
Havant & Waterlooville 9-0 (W)
Benfica 4-2 (W)
Marseille 2-0 (L)
Portsmouth Reserves 3-0 (W)

PL Top Scorers - Kanu 1, Piquionne 1, Utaka 1
LC Top Scorers - Piquionne 1


To make sure your not all waiting for too long, I'll try my hardest to get through pre-season quite quickly, and then I'll do a summary after every game month

Voting Closed!!!

FINAL RESULTS:

5. Blackburn Rovers
4. Hull City
3. Wolverhampton Wanderers
2. Fulham
1. Portsmouth

Well there we have it, Portsmouth FC will be the club I will attempt to take to glory. The game will start tomorrow, and I aim to try to play a month game-time in a week, depending on college work and other commitments such as my Man City season ticket. But let's hope we have a good season, and I can hopefully do the same as Paul Hart, or better, but with a lot more personality ;)

My Manager Profile

So, while I'm waiting for you to decide who I will be managing on Football Manager 2010, I think I'd best tell you about my style of management.

I am a very European styled manager, in the way that I like to play with a lot of freedom throughout my team, and I'm not the type of manager to stick with a system and hope it'll eventually work, because while it may end up working in 5 or 6 games time, you could well lose the 5 or 6 games you were waiting for the system to settle, so I tend to make sure I play a system that can be adapted very easily without too much change that it disrupts the players. My favoured formation is 4-3-2-1, AKA the christmas tree system, as it's very attacking in that it allows me to have 2 creative players behind a target man, but it's also very good defensively as it means I can get the two creative players back into deeper roles if I need them to be.

This has proven to be a very good tactic to me in Football Manager 2008 and 2009, for three different reasons;

1. I won the African Cup of Nations with Ivory Coast
2. I discovered a player that will never let me down - Rafael Van der Vaart
3. I won the Treble with Manchester City within 2 seasons on Football Manager 2008

So, thats my preferred system out of the way, now I'll let you in on my Football Manager CV;

Football Manager 2008

Manchester City (2007-2011)
Premier League winners - 2009,2010,2011
Premier League 5th place - 2008
FA Cup winners - 2009,2010
League Cup winners - 2008, 2009
EURO Cup winner - 2009
Champions Cup winner - 2011

Ivory Coast (2007-2011)
African Cup of Nations winners - 2008
World Cup Quarter-Finalists - 2010
African Cup of Nations Finalists - 2010

Auxerre (2007-2009)
Ligue 1 4th place - 2008, 2009
Coupe de France winners - 2008
French League Cup winners - 2009

Southampton (2007-2010)
Coca-Cola Championship winner - 2008
Premier League 8th place - 2009
League Cup Semi-Finalists - 2009


As my CV may look impressive, you may also notice that I have only ever been successful with one club abroad, and I've not mentioned the fact that I also had a spell at Seville, where I only lasted 6 months before resigning because I was 14th in the La Liga and I had been knocked out of Europe and the domestic cups. So don't think that I can work miracles - I can only do well if my managerial strategy fits the club I'm in charge of.

Football Manager 2009

Manchester City (2008-2014)

Premier League winner - 2010,2011,2012,2013
Premier League 2nd place - 2014
Premier League 5th place - 2009
League Cup winners - 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014
FA Cup winners - 2010, 2011, 2014
EURO Cup Finalists - 2009
EURO Cup Winner - 2010
Champions Cup Semi-Finalist - 2011, 2014
Champions Cup Winner - 2013
EURO Super Cup Winner - 2010, 2013

Bradford City (2008-2010)

Coca-Cola League Two winners - 2009
Johnstone Paint Trophy winners - 2010
Coca-Cola League One 2nd place - 2010

Newcastle Jets (2008-2009)

Australian Hyandui League winners - 2009

Motherwell (2008-2010)

SPL 2nd place - 2010
SPL 3rd place - 2009
League Cup winner - 2009
Scottish Cup Finalist - 2010

Honduras (2008-2013)

CONCACAF Gold Cup winner - 2009
CONCACAF Gold Cup Finalist - 2011
World Cup Group E 3rd place - 2010

As you can see, Football Manager 2009 was very good for me too, with 20 cup wins across 3 countries and international success with a moderately small nation, my careers on FM09 were very enjoyable ones indeed. However, like Football Manager 2008, Italy and Spain eluded me from success, with my closest efforts coming with Real Zaragoza, coming 2nd in the LIGA Segunda and Genoa, finishing 5th in Serie A and getting into the final of the Italian version of the FA Cup.

Let's hope Football Manager 2010 continues to be a success in England, and hopefully allows me to move on to foreign land to reap success.

Starting a Career on Football Manager 2010

Hi, my name is Dan and I'm a huge football fan. Having owned Football manager for the last 3 or 4 seasons, and after reading a few stories from other people, I decided I'd keep a record of how I got on, and make it available for you to read. To begin with, I have decided to let you, the readers, vote on who I take charge of. Voting will be open until 5th November, and then the story begins...

Possible Teams

Fulham FC
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Hull City
Portsmouth FC
Blackburn Rovers

Early signs tell me that I'm going to be enjoying the challenge of managing Fulham FC. They look like a tricky team to take charge of, with them having a transfer budget of just £500K, however they also have the blessing of being in a European competition, which itself should prove to be an additional challenge to achieving a media prediction of 10th in the Premier League

Portsmouth, who are currently 2nd in the poll, are quite similar with the transfer aspect, as they have a whopping £0 to spend, and no real owner in charge, they are a team that are in a lot of trouble, depsite being predicted to finish 13th.

Unlike the previous two teams, Wolves are a much more difficult prospect. Newly promoted, they have a young team and a fairly healthy transfer budget of £5.75m, will that be able to achieve a better position than the media predicted, and ultimately relegation-bound, 18th place?

Hull are a challenging team, who scrapped their way to safety last season, but can they be a bit more secure this season, despite being predicted 17th?