After 5 seasons away from T100 I returned for season 15. Having previously spent enjoyable and fruitful seasons at Hertha and Benfica this time I headed to the beautiful city of St Petersburg.

ZSP had finished 15^th in Division 3 the previous season and after assessing the squad I inherited I decided changes were needed but not immediately.

We brought in and let go a variety of players over the course of the season and transfer highlights are listed below

• Henrik Heggheim, DC age 20 – brought in for £340k from external. Highly rated in Norway but playing at a low level, the boy needs a move to a bigger league if he is to progress, worth a gamble.
• Martin Payero MC age 22 – bought from Banfield, quite highly rated in Argentina and has recently signed for Middlesbrough in real life, we have high hopes over time he will develop and rise in ratings enough to become a first team player
• Mathieu Valbuena AMRLC and Giovanni Moreno age 36 and 35 – both bought in from external purely as a rating, prior to my arrival we were using an 86 in the attacking midflield area and these extra rating helps boost the attack
• Giangiacomo Magnani DC– age 25 – another external signing, had decent game time in Serie A last season, could improve and raise to maybe 87 in a year or so, if not, not the end of the world we will let him go
• Ivo Grbic, GK age 25, surprised to see this lad external, definitely worth a punt in bringing in
• 3 x youngsters in Timothy Eyoma, Mads Bidstrup and Hianga M’bock – the latter is playing regularly in Ligue 1, Bidstrup looks like he could be used quite often by Brentford and Eyoma is a decent punt.

The season started pretty well for us and we managed to break the clubs unbeaten record by going 14 games without defeat. Unfortunately, we drew a lot of games – 17, which was the league’s joint highest figure alongside Lazio.

We missed out on the play offs by just 3 points but overall, on reflection I think it is progress for the side as we improved on last season.

Going forward we hope to compete for a play off spot again next season. Its great to see so many familiar faces still managing in here and good to see the social side is strong, I have been very slow socially this season but aim to pick up that side of things for next season.

Thanks for reading