First half of the Season!

Hiya guys! I've finally got to the mid-point part of my first Season in Football  Manager 2010! Firstly, I hope u have been enjoying following the story so far, and I promise to continue the way I have been presenting my blog up to this point after this, trouble was I had gotten too far ahead and out of sync with my blog I am sorry to say...basically I was just coming to the end of August in the blog, but on my game itself I have just entered January 2010! So this is the 'changing point' where after every game on my game, I will do a post about it, the depth and detail to the post will probably depend on 1, the final result, and 2 the meaning and 'landmark' of the game!

Anyway, I'd just like to say a personl thanks to those of you have shown your interests in my story, and the kind, helpful comments you have been posting...namingly Mcgeady and Andy! :D It's important to me that i have an audience as you are the main reason I do the blogging. :P

Now onto the show...

Final Transfer 'INS' and 'OUTS'...

LEAVERS...

 

Lee Holmes - I sold this guy even though my staff were telling me to keep hold of him! Personally, I just didn't rate him...I thought he didn't have much about him and wasn't 'electric' enough for a winger in league 1. So I made sure I got a good price for him (£250,000) and had him out to Super-spending Notts County where by the way he has been performing good.

Good start - Holmes for Notts County in League 2.

Simon Gillett - Now, the former Southampton reserves captain had to be sold, as he wasn't in my plans...all I saw in him was great work rate and teamwork...but I already had Morgan Schneiderlin and Dean Hammond, which had nearly as good attributes in Teamwork etc, but offer much much more! I got him for a nifty price too in £210,00 from Championship Club

Coventry! Notably though, Coventry find themselves 18th in the League and Gillett hasn't performed well...finding himself making only a handful of appearances so far.

Less than impressive - Gillett's first 6 months at Coventry.

Also though hot prospects for Saints, I sent young Oscar Gobern and Matty Paterson out on-loan to League 2 Clubs... so they can show me what they are capable of, Gobern has an average rating of 7.27 after 21 games. Paterson however has been phenominal! He's currently the top scorer in League 2 for Northampton and has scored 14 goals from 22 games! I'm intereted to see how I could put them into my team :P

ARRIVALS...

 

Febian Brandy - I did sign young Man United Striker Brandy on-loan... just for his interesting pace and acceleration, but he didn't impress at all missing a lot of one-on-one oppertunities and I soon terminated the loan after a month or so.

Learning curve - Brandy didn't impress on-loan at St Mary's.

For all the other transfers I bought, take a look at the individual posts on them...

Results and League Table...

After the delightful win away at Premier League team Burnley, everything went terrible, we couldn't score winning goals, and we let goals in at the end of games...We scraped through to beat Wycombe on penalties in the JPT... but even more annoying was our slip in league form.

After the Burnley victory...

We had a bad away draw at Stockport, won against Wycombe in the JPT, Drew at home to Colchester, and also lost away at the Valley against Charlton!

We did however beat Yeovil comfortably 5-0 at home, which was expected...

That should have been the turning point, but unfortunatly we had to come against Middlesborough in the Carling Cup Second round and lost to a 1-0, although we played well and arguably matched them, we didn't match them in the goals department...

Arca scores to send Saints home empty handed.

We bounced back at home to Gillingham, with an impressive performance finishing it 4-0. Still though this was not the turning point in form! We came up against an easy looking tie at home to Cheltenham, who we won against in pre-season at their ground winning 1-0 through Rickie Lambert, but we crashed against them and lost on penalties! Knocking us out in the JPT.

Embarrassing - Saints lose to League 2 Club Cheltenham on Penalties!

As you can see though, ever since I went mental after the Cheltenham game, my players have really took what I said onboard and pulled their socks up! After the embarrassing defeat, we have now won 11 times out of 17 games, drawing 4 and losing just twice!

Play-off hopes - after Saints' form has been impressive I now expect us to get a Play-off spot!

Top scorer in League 1 - Leeds Poacher Jermaine Beckford with 16! Closely followed by Saints Striker Marek Saganowski.

 We are now just 6 points off 6th place! Which would take us into the play-offs...But I can't help thinking what would be possible if the FA didn't deduct us 10 points at the start of the Season for going into Administration last year...We'd actually be Second! Grrrrr :P Damn you Rupert Lowe!!!

Anyway... at the start of the Season I said my thoughts on my top 5 players for this season, and who I thought they would be...

I am delighted with the performances by Rickie Lambert, Morgan Schneiderlin and Dean Hammond...

Lambert has been in sensational form since day 1 and I think he would be the Top scorer in the League if he hadn't had about a total of 2 months out with injuries. He's scored 13 goals in 17 appearances in all competitions and assisted 4!

Morgan Schneiderlin though looks to be a real player. He's amazing in creating goals for the team, great passer, creative, and has scored some real world-class goals definatly capable of a higher level! The best part though is that he's improving all the time in training which is great!

Dean Hammond has kept Paul Wotton out of the team, who by the way looks to be slowly fading into the shadows...maybe I will get rid of him in January, who knows? But yeah, what I love about Hammond is that he does the basics right. That's why Dean and Morgan are great together in the middle...because Hammond is the 'engine' of the team, where as Schneiderlin does the real genious stuff to make a real difference.

As for Marek Saganowski, he's scored a few goals too, 20 in all competitions to be precise, which is great...but he doesn't seem too consistent which irritates me!

Here is my most frequently used starting IV...

Anyway, Play-offs is the target, I HAVE to get there! Also be sure to check back to see if I make any changes to the first team and with the January transfer window beckoning, check out if I bring in any new players, but I wouldn't expect Wayne Rooney or Crisitano Ronaldo arriving soon!