Widge is Wandering Again

[Widge]

2 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

How has Parish survived?!

That's a fair question and the only answer I have is, £575/week and he hasn't played a single game for me in 2 years. To be fair, Clark is now approaching 30 if not already, so goalkeeper is on my summer list of transfer targets.

[Widge]

July - September 2022

Slight lack of updates as I've been busy at work and moving house, but I've found the time to play a few months of FM and have decided I'll probably shift to 2 monthly updates to keep things ticking over.

Scottish Premiership 

Started off perfectly, hit a bit of a snag somewhere in the middle, not helped by Rangers and Celtic back to back. The Rangers game especially pissed me off since we had played European football on the Thursday night yet had to play Saturday afternoon, how does that fixture list work!

Anyway in unsurprising news Dan N'Lundulu is going Big Dan things and scoring goals regularly. Most pleasing result is the one against Hibs as I rotated my entire midfield and gave Ross Stewart his first league start as a wide target man. Resulted in him scoring 2 goals and grabbing an assist, maybe I'll need to play that tactic a little more from now on. 

Leaves the table looking like this early doors..

Another season another top 6 challenger, this time it's Livingston. Once again Rangers and Celtic are too strong their net spend is mental and there's zero chance anyone can keep up the pace. Looks like it's a 5 way scrap for 3rd this season and I'll be damned if we don't get there! Biggest surprises so far this season are Hibs and Aberdeen. They're both awful, says a lot when there's very few of their players I'd look to sign up if they did get relegated. 

Scottish League Cup

Still in the competition. An easy home win against Aberdeen set up a QF with Championship Ross County with the prospect of Championship St Mirren in the semis if we win. Avoiding both the Glasgow teams so far has been great, it'll most likely be one of them in the final, but we've got to beat them at some point and we're an excellent cup team right now. 

Europa League Group Stages

Turns our European football wasn't ready for the Ross Stewart off the bench show!! Terrific first win over Olimpija and then a comeback win over Rosenborg has left us in really good shape. The games against Bilbao were always going to be a write off, didn't even get close to laying a glove on them.

I mean that's about as tight as it comes. It'll all come down to the game against Rosenborg away I think and we hope that maybe they both drop points against Olimpija and we dont!

[Widge]

October - December 2022

Apparently the world cup is a thing and a shut down occurs, ohh well good to see Mexico of all teams lift the trophy.

Scottish Premiership

Ok, so that's a bit more like it with some form finally appearing and us scoring plenty of goals. The Partick game was a disaster, 1-0 up and Jamie Lindsey decides to get sent off whilst giving away a penalty. We don't speak of that game, luckily we had a few European games after to make amends. Annoyingly we cannot keep clean sheets though, we've only had 4 or something like that in the league so far. Even the Livingston game we should have conceded several and their xG was better than ours. It's just as well Zander Clarke is a shop stopping machine virtually, as he certainly isn't in real life.

Leaves this the table..

2-11 is all pretty tight and anyone can beat anyone. Rangers have reverted back to beast mode and are destroying everything in their path again thanks to Kent and Daniel James on the wings and it wold appear this is the season Hamilton fail to beat the drop. Also no idea why the teams at the top have played less games than the rest, still we've never finished above 4th so maybe this is the season!

Betfred Cup

Well we don't like making things easy for ourselves, 4-0 with half an hour to play I took 2 of my best players off to give them a rest and it nearly backfired. Still Livi in the semi's next.

Europa League

Well didn't see that coming!!

Helped totally by the fact Rosenborg were as shit as they were when we faced them in 2014. We didn't lay a glove on Bilbao though and there's still some big teams left in the competition that scare me big time. Still a welcome financial boost, but a not so welcome fixture headache and it means I'm definitely going to need to bolster my squad with better squad players in January since the likes of O'Halloran is simply not even good enough for league matches now.

I do however play LASK of Austria in the next round, which on the face of is one of the easier draws we could have faced, so there's potential this fairytale isn't over yet!

Transfers

Just the one player coming in to the squad so far, a player I've tried to sign numerous times and had on trial as well before he finally realised he'd been without a club for 6 months and wanted to play games. So finally after dropping 5k of his wage demands, Callum Lang joins up with the squad and gives us much needed competition and options up top and out wide. He'd ripped the league apart on loan at Motherwell, with a dozen goals and the same number of assists, so I'm hoping even if he hits 5/10 combined I'll be happy. He's got a tough ask getting in ahead of N'Lundulu and McCowan in my front three; however the left wing spot is still up for grabs with Ross Stewart injured and McLennan very streaky. It'll probably mean the end for O'Halloran for good, he's wanted by teams in Australia, so that's a nice place for him to retire. The last of the old guard is breaking up as well, with Liam Craig retiring, Wotherspoon looking to move on and drop down the leagues and Scott Tanser requesting to leave as he's now third choice left back at best.

[oneteaminglasgow]

What has happened to Hamilton this season? 

Also, yours is the only save I’ve seen where Thistle end up in the top flight again, so I’m enjoying that.

[Widge]

34 minutes ago, oneteaminglasgow said:

What has happened to Hamilton this season? 

Also, yours is the only save I’ve seen where Thistle end up in the top flight again, so I’m enjoying that.

No idea, they sold Jamie Hamilton for £1million but other than that didn't lose anyone of note. They seem to have a lot of loans this season, but most are decent enough youngsters from down south.

Aye, Ian McCall has gotten them up the leagues and playing well. Barely spent a penny, but they're holding their own, Rudden is on something like 7 goals in 12 league games so if he keeps that up you'll be well clear of relegation.

Not going to lie, it's depressing seeing Rangers bulldoze their way to the title again, I can't compete with it, they've players on almost my entire wage budget. So I suspect I'll keep the saints save for myself long term and with this one look to jump around after winning a trophy or two, I'd like to try and make a name for myself elsewhere that's for sure. 

[Widge]

January 2023

Thought I'd do a January update since quite a lot has gone on in a short month, but the fixture list was absolutely mental and had me playing 3 games in a week which was unmanageable at times and more than half a dozen of my players needed to have a rest from training never mind the games. Why the league stops for 6 weeks for the world up is beyond me, I mean I'd have lost 2 players to the international games (McCann & McNamara) who I'd probably have managed to off set with Smith and Lindsay. I get that Rangers and Celtic would have lost a lot more players, but then they're squads are so much further ahead it might have made the league more interesting. 

Transfers Out

Few players moving on who've been around a while. O'Halloran is off to sunny Australia when their transfer window opens up and the fact I got a few for him, no matter how little is quite remarkable. Same is said for Tanser, he was 3rd choice and moaning weekly about game time. I didn't want to keep him around when he wasn't happy so off he goes to Ireland for a modest transfer fee. It also frees up £2.5k in wages which I will happily spend elsewhere to try and bring some better squad depth to the team.

Tried to get some youngsters out on loan as well to get them good game time. 

Transfers In

Lang and N'Lundulu I've spoken about already.

Jordan Ryan - young 17 year old goalkeeper who is already rated at 3 stars and is the long term future goalie at the club. Tried to get him out on loan, but failed so he's now back up and Parish has been banished to the reserves. Did I overpay for him, probably. Is he getting a stupid wage for a teenage to sit on the bench, definitely but Clark is now 31 and slowing down a little, in a few seasons Ryan will be first choice and will have played in cup games, etc. or that's the theory, who knows if I'll be around to see if he ever reaches his potential. 

Anthony Gordon - young winger on loan from Everton. He's played a few first team games in real life and has decent stats to cover any position across the front 3, more back up than anything so don't expect too much from him. 

Scottish Premiership

Well that's not a bad run of form, but added to the other games we had to play in the month of January, we totalled 10 games in 31 days. I don't have the squad depth to cope with that! Still we played extremely well, beating our main top 6 challengers when we faced them, took 2 commendable draws off the old firm and only a total disaster away to Hibs cost us an unbeaten month. Games are starting to catch up with us though and if we add Europe into the mix I'm not massively confident we won't pick up injuries and poor results. McCowan and Stewart have both picked up knocks and I had no available left backs for one of the games, had to revert to a 3 at the back formation and play wide in midfield which worked but not amazingly.

I don't see us catching Celtic. The league is gone for them however so you just never know!

So long as I keep picking up wins in line with the Edinburgh teams I'll stay best of the rest, which we are and by quite a distance. I'd like to achieve at least a third place finish with saints before I consider moving and if I did go elsewhere then I'd be leaving behind a very good young squad with plenty of potential and high value left in it. 

That's a first for me! Great to see our forward players all getting mentions, especially since none of them played full matches or every game and there were periods where they all got a rest at times.

Scottish Cup

Less said about this the better. The warm up to the League Cup final didn't go according to plan and we tumble out the Scottish cup at the first attempt. It's a tad annoying seeing the likes of Bonnyrigg Rose and East Stirlingshire in the draw only to end up going to Celtic Park, but it is what it is I guess. 

Scottish League Cup Final

Well how about that!!

My first trophy as manager and arguably the easiest one to get anything from ever. We played really, really well but still needed a penalty in normal time and then penalties to secure the win. Praise goes to Zander Clark for the win, he saved 2 penalties to win us the game. We rode our luck a little in the end and had to batten down the hatches in ET given nearly every player was in red fitness due to our stupid run of games, but we squeezed over the line. Turns out that £200k I paid for Ross Stewart was an absolute bargain after all!!

[\spoiler]

[Widge]

February - March 2023

Right so firstly lets just say that these months were mental. Much in the same way January was hectic, we played a lot of games in a very short space of time. Not helped by the fact my players got very tired very quickly and started to pick up injuries. Indeed a few went away on international duty and came back with knocks, etc. I had to turn to the old guard to help out and special praise to Liam Craig. The stalwart is retiring at the end of the season and had played very few games, but he managed to sit in the middle of the park with his 3 pace and dictate a couple of games for me. 

Scottish Premiership

Just to highlight how many bloody games we played over the two months!

So started off impeccably. taking our winning run to 9 in a row which took us well clear in the league of our nearest challengers. Then we hit to skids! Ohh boy did we start to struggle, tired legs and poor mistakes meant we went 5 games without a win. Not helped by the fact we did play 4 of the stronger teams in the league. I think the one positive I can take from this month was the form of Ross Stewart returning from injury against Hamilton. Dan N'Lundulu is looking tired and his goals have started to dry up a little. I'm not too worried as he's a young kid and is missing chances so it's not a supply issue, he just needs another goal to kick start his play. Stewart was out for 2 months and only played 30 minutes against Hamilton in the first game so he hit 5 goals in 120 minutes of play, not bad! I'm not sure our form is back though, as Hamilton are dead last and in the second game we only stared playing when they went down to 10 and only took the lead when they went down to 9 men!

Leaves the table looking like this...

 

Not sure who I want to go down. On one hand I'd love to try and get Allan Campbell from Motherwell, on the other Alan Forrest always scores against me. In terms of Hamilton, not sure even new manager Derek McInnes is going to get them to 25 points!!

Europa League

The fact we even got through a knock out round was a major plus for me. It did take penalties and I'm not sure we'd have gone through if it had gone to a second leg, but who am I to complain, we actually made the last 16 of the Europa League. Yes we were totally outclassed in France and it could have been a lot worse, but we gave it a good go and I'm not sure we'll get that far again any time soon given the way the group and 1 match knock out draw went. Still who knows, we lasted the longest of any of the scottish teams so flying the flag!

[Widge]

April - May 2023 (End of Season Review)

Scottish Premiership

Safe to say our form nosedived off a cliff towards the end of the season!!

Pretty much meaningless games, but have shown me where we need to improve and what we can do going forward. I'd like to put a special mention to Liam Craig, finally became our record league appearance holder and decided to score a 25 yard thunderbolt on his last ever start for the club against none other than Hibs. What a great way to end his career and made it worth it.

I did kind of rotate and give other players a chance to impress, safe to say the only one who did was Jordan Ryan my 18 year old sub goalkeeper, who came in and was excellent. 

A good looking table from our point of view, but I'm looking at it and it's utterly pointless to ever think I'll achieve anything more than third. When Rangers and Celtic lose a combined 8 games between them, with 4 of them being against each other it's simply not going to happen. We don't have either the finances or squad depth to compete. My squad is excellent against everyone else in the league, but they've both got 5 star players in every position when compared to my squad.

Players Stats

So that's the end of season stats, special mention to the below players -

Dan N'Lundulu - Once again big Dan scored plenty of goals this season, not as many as I'd have hoped for towards the middle of the season, but he's improving all the time and whether or not I stay at saints, he's going to make the club a lot of cash as he's a goalscorer.

Ross Stewart - More goals than  starts, that's not bad for a signing! Whilst he didn't play every game for me, when he did he was a menace. Helped to compensate our lack of goals towards the end of the season which certainly helped us.

Danny McNamara - What an improvement this season, he's become an excellent right back and is quite rightly wanted by foreign clubs. Now Irelands right back, he's got ability and has added consistency to his game.

Teden Mengi - Another years loan and another imperious season for the young centreback. He's a hell of a player.

 

[oneteaminglasgow]

7 hours ago, Widge said:

A good looking table from our point of view, but I'm looking at it and it's utterly pointless to ever think I'll achieve anything more than third.

What's your plan for moving on? Is there anything else you want to do with Saints first, and what leagues have you got loaded up?

[Widge]

10 hours ago, oneteaminglasgow said:

What's your plan for moving on? Is there anything else you want to do with Saints first, and what leagues have you got loaded up?

That's what I've got loaded or loading next. I'm not wanting a top flight team, there's little to no fun in that, so somewhere on the continent in a second or third tier is most likely I'd say. I'll eventually move around the world and load/unload more leagues outside Europe after a while and do it as a journeyman. It becomes a lot easier after leaving a team with sentimental attachment!

As for saints, not sure that there's anything further I can do other than win the Scottish Cup. It's going to take 5/10 years to break the OF dominance in my head and nobody wants to see me struggling for years to do that. I'll keep that struggle as a separate save for my own time. 

[Widge]

Me right now after resigning at the end of the season.......

[Widge]

EDIT

Had a crash dump and have been trying for the last 3/4 days to restore it with no luck. Thankfully had only played 4 weeks at Hull; however I'm going to have to go back to the start and sim it again, so will no doubt end up somewhere totally different now. 

Stay tuned!

EDIT 2

Never mind, the Hull journey is back alive, stay even more tuned folks!!

Edited March 8, 2021 by Widge

[Widge]

November - December 2023

So I've resurrected my saved data and I can safely say that I'm still at Hull. I've always said it's one of my least favourite, if not the least favourite places to work, but the world works in mysterious ways!

I was going to do a brief overview of the squad, but realised that I can probably do it in one word. Shite.

Our best players are all defenders (which means there's a solid base). Our midfield is poor, aging and slow, highlighted by the fact Greg Docherty is our best central player. Our wingers are either crap or very very sporadic and somehow the squad had only one natural striker in it, a 21 year old who's rated as 2 stars. There's not a lot of budget, but they made decent money in the summer and at the very least should of had a better squad. It's going to be a tall order to firstly reel in the teams ahead of us let alone catch them and avoid relegation. Especially when it looks like I'll be relying on loans, transfer listed players and anyone decent who's out of contract. Even more critical to this is trying to shift out the deadwood in the squad without pissing them all off, which is proving tricky so far!

English Championship

For a team that only had 1 win all season in the league when I joined, that's definitely positive. We managed to score in all but 1 of our league games this season, admittedly we also only kept 1 clean sheet, but it was in a game that mattered. 

I think the most worrying aspect is a good one at the same time. We had 8 different scorers and not one managed a goal in more than a single game. All our goals are being scored individually and not in a great amount. James Daly is the striker in the squad and he's awful, he misses a lot of chances so I resorted to playing my best winger up top instead (Samuelsen) and it at least paid dividends towards the end of the month.

Think I know the positions I'm looking for in January, strikers x2, wingersx2 and at least 1 if not 2 central midfielders. The rest of the team is good enough to steer us clear I think. Whether I find the right players is another matter!

That leaves the league table like this, I can't be bothered showing the entire thing since it's huge, these are the teams that matter. If you want to see anything further just let me know.

 

Edited March 8, 2021 by Widge

[Widge]

January Transfer Window

A big window for the football club based in Hull. I wasn't exactly backed by the club put it that way and I also may have made a slight error by not realising I can only have 5 loan players in my squad at once! Oops!

It should be noted that this squad is an absolute nightmare, so many old players on big wages who are influential figures and the moment you try and get rid of them you face a squad backlash against you. It's almost as if that's the reason that the club is languishing at the foot of the table, overinflated egos and not enough talent on the pitch!

Transfers Out

The majority are garbage or youngsters with little or no potential. Of the ones worth mentioning -

Emmanuel - Decent right back but that was all. For some reason the fans saw him as some sort of hero and his teammates as the next coming of Shaun Rooney. Either way he was back up for a reason, I've got a better right back and he was moaning, maybe undervalued him in the sale, but I wanted some cash through the door in this window and his wage off the bill.

Reece Burke - The only know that I was sad to see go. He was my best centreback and Leeds bid for him on deadline day about 3 hours before it closed. He wanted to go and I managed to get him to agree to move for 8million, which was a good amount of cash for us to bring in don't get me wrong, but it left me scrambling for a first choice centreback.

Transfers In

So no money to spend, very little in the way of wages unless I shipped players out and the real threat of relegation over the heads. I did what any sensible manager would do and look short term for quality and pray to god that I hit a few gems. 

Callum Robinson - With no natural strikers in my squad I had to be on the look out and Robinson fitted the bill. He can play up top or out wide as well, but he's better than what I had and has a bit of an eye for goal so hopefully he can chip in with a few when needed.

Kyle Edwards - Mercurial winger, but he was cheap and isn't on huge wages. Looking back  on this one, I didn't actually need to make the signing, I just saw him transfer listed and thought why not. Doubt he'll start many games, but you never know. 

Jamie Lindsay - Will sit in the reserves and probably play about 5 games. However given I let a few midfielders go and I tend to play with 3 of them, the cheaper the back up the better.

Gordon Henderson - 18 year old kid on loan from Liverpool. He's actually my best hope of scoring goals this season. Primarily a striker, his finishing isn't the best, but my god he's got pace to burn and in the short glimpses I've had of him, he's skinned teams for fun, admittedly he's also then missed, but I'm hoping he can cause some carnage at the back for the opposition.

Thomas Hill - Cheap back up who can play in about 17 positions naturally, good for squad depth and isn't expecting to play much, with potential to improve next season.

Theo - Enigmatic playmaker from Arsenal. I'm not sure how I'm going to use him, but will allow us to change the shape if needs be. Technically very good already, not sure he's ready for a relegation dogfight though. 

Owen Otasowie - Was originally meant to be my last minute replacement for Reece Burke; however I actually noticed he was better as a deep lying playmaker so he actually goes straight into my midfield trio as a very key component. The young American has bags of potential and the physicality to match it.

James Tarkowski - The reason I can move Otasowie into midfield. Didn't think in a million years I'd manage to get him given I'm bottom of the league, but my god I'm praying his experience can help us out big time. With hundreds of top flight games and still only 31 he's got plenty of legs left. I'm not usually one for signing aging players, but I think this could be the one that saves us. He's still got terrific defensive stats, very high mental stats and his physicality has held up really well too, still got plenty of pace. With such a young squad, an older head might just make the difference. I'd love to get him permanently if this all goes well, not sure I can get close to his 8 million asking price and £65k/week wages though! 

[Widge]

January - February 2024

Make no mistake about it, the Championship is a cut throat league to say the least and we're awful. The players moan when I'm too critical, they moan when I give them a rest from training and they even moan when I bring in better players to try and stay in the division, heaven forbid I replace the dross with slightly less dross!

Either way there was a lot of games to be played in the last 2 months and a lot of points up for grabs, so it was crucial we at least started to claw back the teams at the foot of the table. I've also accidently played an extra game into march so I've included that too. 

English Championship

Now that looks like pretty grim reading from just looking at it; however we robbed 3 points of title chasing Sheffield Utd, beat Huddersfield who were directly above us and picked up points away at times where we shouldn't have gotten anything (Crystal Palace & Bristol City), one game in particular the opposition finished with an xG of 4.7 and we got a point!

Now the biggest game in that list was the Pompy one. Losing at half time and they're sitting within distance of us for sure, I threw the kitchen sink at them second half. We got a deflected equaliser then lay siege to their goal, missing chance after chance until the 95th minute when captain Lewis Coyle found himself up from right back in acres of space, a kind deflection fell to him and he powered it into the bottom corner. Huge goal, huge moment and one worth celebrating.

Leaves the table like this...

9 big, big games left. I'd say it's in our own hands, but I think we're going to need some help from the teams above us. We're still not winning enough games for my liking, although we've reeled in at least 5/6 teams who were way ahead of us when I first took charge, albeit they're all pretty poor too. The only ones who've stepped it up are Luton who're dragging themselves well clear. I think we'll catch Oxford and for the first time Millwall are in touching distance, which is interesting cause I don't think I've had the pleasure of playing them yet. Either way it's going to be nervy heading into the final few months of the season.

FA Cup

It would appear we're quite a good cup team, especially when I played weakened teams in both the games against Championship opponents going for the title.  I mean we've got zero chance against Liverpool and I firmly expect Erling Haaland to put about 5 past us by halftime, but we'll give it a shot. I wound Klopp up in the press so that's always good fun. I think nows the time to end the run in the cup, it was a good distraction and good for morale, but I need all my players fit and match sharp for the final 9 league games of the season if we're to avoid relegation.

[Widge]

March - April 2024

So with the final run in, it's worked out nicely that there is a solitary game in May which leaves this on a cliff hanger.

English Championship

That run in March was massive. Playing teams around and above us we somehow managed to pick up 4 wins in 5 games and went unbeaten in 6 in the league. The team shows spirit at least, with 2 stoppage time winners included in there. It then hit the buffers somewhat, 3 successive losses, albeit 1 was against the champions who were crowned that when they beat us annoyingly. The game against QPR really annoyed me, we were by far the better team for the entirety of the game, we missed chance after chance and just couldn't score a goal. Kind of summed up our season; however they bounced back in the best way possible, beating Oxford who were directly above us in the league convincingly. Gordon Henderson (aka the next Michael Owen apparently) finally showed me what he was actually capable of and slammed in the most important 3 goals of his short career to date. 

It left the table looking like this..

So it's a straight 3 way shoot out for relegation. We play Brentford (11th) away from home, Portsmouth have Reading (4th) at home and Oxford have Cardiff (16th) at home. I'd say we're at a disadvantage based on the games to play, but at least it's in our hands. If we win we're safe, if we match one of their results we're safe!

Nail biting stuff, but at least we've clawed our way from the bottom and given us a fantastic opportunity to save ourselves from League 1.

FA Cup

Respectable, move on, nothing to see here. 

[oneteaminglasgow]

What’s the board expectation of you? Are you likely to be punted if the final day doesn’t go to plan, or are they vaguely realistic based on the nonsense you inherited?

[Widge]

3 minutes ago, oneteaminglasgow said:

What’s the board expectation of you? Are you likely to be punted if the final day doesn’t go to plan, or are they vaguely realistic based on the nonsense you inherited?

They expect to avoid relegation, so I suspect that they'll punt me. I'd not be too bothered, if they do go down and keep me on, it's a total rebuild and start again. Mind you if we stay up it's probably an even bigger rebuild since there's a number of players in the squad I want to punt and it'll be a challenge to find suitors for them. 

[Widge]

End of Season 2023/24

So with 1 game left or the season and us inly a single point above the safety zone, we knew a win would keep us safe. Did we manage to get it...

Nope and the fact our goalkeeper was man of the match probably tells it's own story. We didn't win, but at lease we didn't lose. Annoyingly it took it right out of our hands, 2 wins for the other 2 teams and we'd be relegated. So how did they do...

No, no they couldn't!!

Portsmouth lost their match meaning we avoided relegation by a single point on the final day of the season. Normally I'd be delighted, but I dunno I'll need to see what I get given for the season ahead because I don't fancy another relegation battle with an average at best squad. I've also got little appetite for trying to tackle Hull in the Premier League if it ever gets that far, I'd rather go get a tan somewhere with a beach!

I'd put up  an end of season squad review, but frankly it's not worth it, none of them stand outs except for the goalkeeper Devonshire who's on loan from Arsenal. Little or no chance of keeping him, but you never know he's a hell of a player for 19!

[\spoiler]

[\spoiler]

[Widge]

Summer Transfer Window 2024

8 million quid to overhaul an entire squad. That's all I got, we only had about 14 players signed up for the season, wasn't looking forward to trying to build a squad and so it transpired, I did not have a lot of luck at all. Just about every first choice player either wanted to much to join, couldn't get a work permit or chose someone else over Hull. Not that I can blame them at all. If I had the choice I'd have filled the squad with loanees, but that's not allowed so I had to try and sign as many players as I could from the transfer list and those who were out of contract. Issue being the only players interested in joining us wee all from the league below and Scotland. My ambitious attempts to sign Christian Eriksen and Ousmane Dembele on a free transfer were somewhat foiled by the fact they could see how crap the squad was!

Transfers out

Mostly deadwood and those out of contract, I couldn't even get rid of all the players I wanted since I'd be left with literally nothing to work with. In the end after all the players had departed and loans ended, I was left with zero goalkeepers, 1 centreback, no strikers and the same patchy wingers that I've always had. It was going to be a rough rid. Still we got some cash for a couple of the players and freed up a little more in terms of wages which won't exactly go a long way.

Alfie Jones the only one who might have have been worth keeping around, but realistically he was 5th choice centreback and 6th choice midfielder at best. 

Transfers In

A long list of players coming in as you'd expect, a lot of loans, feeebies and cut price transfer listed players. 

Milton, Birch & Capitao - All 17/18 year old regens from the big clubs in England. Not expecting much from them, but if even 1 of them manages to meet their potential, then they'll be worth a fortune. Capitao is probably the most likely to make the grade, a young striker from Finland who didn't make the grade at Man City.

Luke Mbete-Tabu - Was actually on loan at us last season, but had to drop out with the loan rules for the second half of the season. Picked up on the cheap from Man City and he'll actually be my starting left sided centreback as he's left footed and nice and quick, very pleased we managed to get him properly.

Teden Mengi - Would it be me if I didn't sign Mengi. I'd actually already agreed his 4th loan deal at saints last season before I left, but he was available and I'm not even sure I waited a day before snapping him up on loan again. As before he's joined me and automatically become my best player, a 4 and a half star centreback is never to be sniffed at. What you don't see is that I actually extended James Tawrkowski's loan as well. I probably didn't need to and he's an expensive player to not even make the bench, but hindsight is a wonderful thing and Id rather have 4 furst choice centrebacks.

Ethan Hamilton - Relegated with Pompy, I needed some more legs in the middle of the park. He's better than what I've got and is a decent age and on cheapish wages. He's never going to be brilliant, but at the same time he's the sort of solid signing we were missing last year.

Kieran O'Hara - Sub goalie, nothing more to say about that.

Ken Devonshire - Our goalie of last season is back, I wanted him permanently, Arsenal were having none of it. A bit annoyed I had to waste a loan spot on the goalie, but I'd rather have him than not. Interestingly the player I did want Jordan Ryan (Who I'd signed for saints) ended up moving to Chelsea for a potential 20 million, turns out the £300k I spent on him was a master stroke!

Rhian Brewster - I'm hoping the answer to my goalscoring problems. I had lined up Rafa Mir to join, but he went back to Spain. So I've brought Brewster in to bag goals, he's not cheap and he's not even ours but fingers crossed he picks up 15/20 goals this season as my main man.

Gylfi Sigurdsson - Cheap back up in the middle of the park. Still technically excellent, so if I'm losing and need some magic I'll throw him on. Plus his dead ball ability might come in handy.

Alex Mowatt - The second Scottish midfielder to join us. Another solid player, but a little more attacking than Hamilton. Annoyingly he s now injured for 3 months, but I'm hoping he can provide some spark from midfield.

Adam Devine - Cheap backup across the entire back 4.

Tyler Roberts - Interchangeable forward on the transfer list at Rangers. He wasn't massively expensive and I needed another player to  come in and play there as I was a little short. Gives good pace and skill from out wide and will probably end up in my starting line up.

So there we have it, my transfer dealings to far. If I sign anyone else once the season has started I'll let you know. If there are any players stats you want to see or anything you want to know, then again just ask and I'll put something up or answer as best I can.