SEASON 21 - (Division 3 - League position 13th )

After having a short rest from TOP100, I spent two part seasons in TOP120, I was offered this second opportunity in TOP100 with Monchengladbach, and I accepted immediately. 

Their recent history of the club is all in division 3 and is:

season  20 6th 14-15-9 57 points

19 9th 14-14-10 56 points

18 5th 16-11-11 59 points

The current 50 player squad has a “best starting 11” of “88”, so the previous manager Simon Thomas, seems to have continually over achieved.

I spent the week looking at the transfer market but unless there were any player exchanges, I would need to sell first. I decided to make a space by selling Beni Makouana(78) 20yo to external as I didn’t believe that he would get any rises this season. I also poked and prodded other managers for some deals but nothing doing and I had only been offered dross for my better players 

A deal suddenly turned up where I exchanged THAUVIN (87)30yo, who was on the Tfl, for a little cash and Jaouen Hadjam(81)20yo who plays regularly for FC Nantes. He will help our Youth team. 

THE CHAIRMAN AND I BELIEVE THAT A REASONABLE TARGET FOR US THIS SEASON WILL BE TO “Finish mid table”, although the “TOP100” stats suggested 16th

So we started the season with no new first team players from when I picked this club up so let’s see how we go.

Well, a great win in our opener at home winning 2-1 against Wolfsburg, and although I expected a narrow win, the stats sort of confirmed this. Our second match was on the road where we played a strong 90 rated Internazionale where we were not expecting anything and well, we managed to scrap out a 0-0 draw. The stats were in their favour and our keeper received MotM. A better than expected start, but it’s a long season.

I spent the first week trying to get some internal deals done and now for the second week I have spent time on the external market. I took a chance and sold MIna(87) for a cash offer as he was out of contract with Celta Vigo and had not yet found a club (this will help a division 5 club). I decided to take a bit of a punt on two players around the 23/24yo area and managed to find Pablo Ibanez(83) 24yo where last season he managed to break through into the CA Osasuna first team. This season he has so far played in all four of their matches so I was hopeful that he might make a couple of rises in the next 2 seasons. The second player was Shackleton(82) 23yo who plays IRL for Leeds and has been one of their better players. If he continues to play like this I can see him gaining some rises.

I decided to sell Jones(83)24yo and Nikolasevic(70) 18yo to external to make way for a couple of youths in Bosluk(75) 20yo from Trabzonspur and Archie Brown (76) from KAA Gent. 

We entered the youth cup with a “best starting 11” “78”, and had been put in a group with SS Lazio(78), Sampdoria(79) and Besiktas(75) although it has been suggested that not all managers had been honest with their ratings. We were unsuccessful.

One more player exchange where I released Sammy Braybrooke (70) 19yo in exchange for Tochukwu Nnadi (75) 20yo

We have now reached mid season and thanks to our good recent run of 6 games undefeated, have climbed back up to 8th spot with W7, D5, L7 and 26 points. We are one place and two points from the play offs. I consider the first half of the season to have been reasonable and we must concentrate and maintain our form to at least hold this position

Towards the end of the season we were in close proximity to the relegation zone and so we needed a few points. In the last 3 games we managed to beat FC Twente 2-1 away, drew 1-1 at home to Swansea and lost 1-2 at Sampdoria. 

Our final position was 13th with W12, D12, and L14 amounting to 48 points. We were a little below where Simon Thomas finished in the last 3 seasons, but it’s a stake in the sand for us

TRANSFERS IN (7)

JAOUEN HADJAM 20yo 81 D,DM,M(L)

PABLO IBANEZ 24yo 83 D,DM,M(C)

JAMIE SHACKLETON 23yo 82 D(R)DM,M(RC)

ARIF BOSLUK 20yo 75 D(LC)DM(L)

ARCHIE BROWN 21yo 76 D,DM,M(L)

TOCHUKWU NNADI 20yo 75 DM,M(C)

VALENTIN VIDAL 19yo 76 D,DM(C)

TRANSFERS OUT (7)

BENI MAKOUANA 20yo 78 AM(RL)F(RLC)

FLORIAN THAUVIN 30yo 87 AM(RLC)F(RL)

SANTIAGO MINA 27yo 87 AM(RL)F(RLC)

ISIAH JONES 24yo 83 M,AM(RL)

MIRKO NIKOLASEVIC 18yo 70 AM,F(RLC)

SAMMY BRAYBROOKE 19yo 70 DM,M(C)

MARCIO RAFINHA 38yo 86 D(RL)DM,M(R)

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HOW AM I DOING

Season 21 - We were better than the TOP100 stats but probably just about met mine and the Chairman’s target of “a mid table finish” (8th-13th)