This is not FM Story related. This is a post I’m uploading just because I’m in ecstasy!
¡Hala Madrid!
Hey guys!
I have an announcement to make: the Manager: Bear blog will cease to be updated and at the end of the month will be deleted.
This is due to some copyright claims by a third party.
And for the last time, the traditional: Mow! ^_^
Here’s an in-depth analysis of all the teams in the Premier League this season. Read and enjoy if you’re interested.
Transfers In
North-London based club and Spurs’ fierce rivals signed some important players this season: Goalkeeper Oscar Ustari who will be their first choice for the goal, Ukrainian back Chyrgrynskyi adds depth and value to an already very strong defensive line (Heitinga, Beck, Vermaelen, Monreal, Koscielny, Song, Aurier, Clichy, Berra). Their defense looks unbeatable now. German 23 years old player, with an English descent, Lewis Holtby and free player Stephen Ireland (Bossman rule transfer from Aston Villa) will play as two of the three AMCs that Tony Mowbray (manager) uses. They also already have Gervinho, Nasri, Wilhere, Ramsey, Arshavin (transfer listed), Diaby, Menez and Vela to play in one of those positions. Again, high quality players, who will fight for a starting position. Guillaume Hoarau will provide back-up up front for Chamakh, Bendtner and Fatih Arslan (regen). The last two signings are hot prospects for the future from Italy.
Some of the most important players that left Arsenal this summer: Luca Antonelli (just 8 league appearances in 4 years at the London club), Henry Lansbury, Roderick Miranda and Denilson.
Tactics:
Bear’s Overall rating: Mowbray has a lot of quality players and practically uses the same tactic that I’ve used in the first two seasons of my reign at Spurs. They should be considered a serious threat and will probably be in the first 4 teams at the end of the season.
Transfers In
Some good transfers from Villa, but the one that really needs to be mentioned is the signing of Frenchman Ben Arfa. They also snatched McCann from Burnley, one of their best players. Romanian Marius Popa will be a back-up keeper. They lost Stephen Ireland on a free transfer (signed later with Arsenal) and full-back Alan Hutton (former Spurs man) to Ajax on a loan.
Tactics:
Bear’s Overall rating: Unai Emery (manager) should be able to keep Villa somewhere at the middle of the table. Young, Ben Arfa and Stanislas have enough quality to provide lots of good passes to super-goal-getter Lucas Barrios (formerly at Real Madrid). The defensive line, though, does not impress.
Transfers in:
Newly promoted Birmingham is nothing special, I tell you that. Transfers worth mentioning: left and right wingers Gueye and Eremenko. On the bright side they didn’t sell anyone important.
Tactics:
Bear’s Overall Rating: Andy Watson (manager) will have to do a lot of work to keep Birmingham in the top flight. Will Zigic, Gueye, Eremenko and Dorsin be enough to keep them up? Hard to tell. But they are one of the teams that lack enough quality.
Transfers in:
Gareth Barry on a season-long loan and Danny Guthrie are their best signings. Unfortunately they lost El-Hadji Diouf, Morten Gamst Pedersen, Benjani and Vicenzo Grella on free transfers. Even if they were all a bit old they could have still played at least an year at a good level.
Tactics:
Bear’s Overall Rating: Sam Allardyce (manager) has a lot of good players in his roster. Defensive players like Romanian Sepsi, Givet, Sigurisson, Dennis Appiah, Lustig, Massiela and Olsson. Midfielders like N’zoni, Goulon, Guthrie and offensive players like Giovani dos Santos (former “Spur”), Yarmolenko and Kalinic. Should be enough for a mid-table finish.
Transfers In:
I like what Avram Grant (manager) did here. He signed some good goalkeepers on free, as Bolton lacked quality in that department and bought versatile players, who can play in more areas of the pitch. They are not top players, but add depth to the squad.
Tactics:
Bear’s Overall Rating: Good Keeper (Alphonse), good center (Gary Cahill) and right back (Shpungin) and a really nice striker (Lacina Traore, with Ivan Klasnic as a back-up). Should have no problem staying up.
Transfers in:
Dennis Wise (manager) is doing a great job at this small club. Cunningham, Salomon Kalou and Borja Valero are great additions to Burnley.
Tactics:
Bear’s Overall Rating: I love this club. They have almost unknown players and yet, each year they don’t just avoid relegation, but finish mid-table. Their star player is striker Sabrin Sburlea, a former FC Brasov player. Ha actually jump-started his carrer in my home town. He, along with fellow striker Paterson are Wise’s favorite players. Some other players that are worth mentioning: Alex Nimely, S. Ebanks-Blake, Andrew Keogh, Morgan Schneiderlin. They lost central midfielder Chris McCann to Aston Villa.
Transfers In:
Interesting things happen at Chelsea. Yaya Sanogo, Ben Sahar and Artem Milevskyi will fight for a first choice position in Chelsea’s attack. Alexis Sanchez, Guido Marilungo, Neymar, Derdiyok also want that first team place. Now for the departures: Frank Lampard, Michael Mancienne, Florent Malouda, Ashley Cole, Daniel Sturridge, Salomon Kalou, Diego Valeri all left the club, most of them on frees.
Tactic:
Bear’s Overall Rating: Quique Flores (manager) lost a lot of players. Of course, they were on the old side, but still I think these loses will affect the giants. I still expect for them to be in the top 7 clubs when it comes to the end. Adil Rami, Muntari, Hangeland, Alex, Essien, Tosic, Kakuta are some other important names in the squad.
Transfers In:
Great transfers from David Moyes (manager) (as much as i dislike him, I need to agree that he snatched some good players). Central midfielders Inler and Palacios are very good additions for the blues, with Rodwell, Royston Drenthe, Mikel Arteta, Bilyaletdinov, Tim Cahill and Hubschman already at the team. Loaning Micah Richards from Spurs was a great move, as now Everton has three of the players who sometimes form England’s defensive line: Micah, Leighton Baines and Phil Jagielka. Didn’t loose anyone important. This is how business needs to be done.
Tactics:
Bear’s Overall Rating: Good transfers, good depth, especially in the middle for Everton. Can challange for an European Competition Qualification.
Transfers In:
6 players that are sub-par. That’s all I can say.
Tactics:
Bear’s Overall Rating: Miguel Angel Portugal (a former Real Madrid scout, coach and youth manager) got Leeds promoted to the Premier League, but I don’t think he can avoid relegation in his first season. Not enough depth and/or quality of the players.
Transfers In:
Great movement on the TL for Liverpool and Luciano Chiarugi (manager). Balotelli, Khedira, Zarate and Yohan Mollo signed for small fees. I have fond memories of Mollo from when I was managing Montpellier in FM 2010, where he, along with Kakuta and Ait-Fana formed the nucleus that brought the ECC to the French team under my management. The downside would be that they lost: Carragher, Poulsen and Joe Cole on frees.
Tactic:
Bear’s Overall Rating: Great depth, great squad. I think they will challenge for the title this year. More players worth mentioning: Agger, Skrtel, Lumb, Meireles, Aquilani, Gerrard, Housek, Rodallega (Liverpool’s last season goal-getter).
Transfers In:
Except for Tom Huddlestone, transfered from us, City bought only youth players this year. Plus, they lost Wayne Bridge, Kompany, Balotelli and Barry. This year they weren’t the big spenders they usually are. I found that weird.
Tactics:
Bear’s Overall Rating: They still have great squad depth and quality to be a serious title challenger. Javier Aguire (manager) will have to be careful not to upset stars like Lescott, Papadopulos, Kolarov, Rafael (former Man U player), Weiss, David Silva, Spas Delev, Adebayor, Caicedo. Players like Adam Johnson, Jerome Boateng and Maarten Martens are already transfer listed.
Transfers In:
Good movement by Steve Bruce (manager). They got rid of some players that were not playing first team football anyway.
Tactic:
Bear’s Overall Rating: Depth and Quality will make Man U a title contender again. Angel Di Maria, Scott Dann, Berbatov, Vertonghen, Carrick, Balzaretti, Jonathan Pereira are some of the names that will make sure that happens.
Transfers In:
Nothing special, nothing spectacular.
Tactics:
Bear’s Overall Rating: I’ll repeat myself now: nothing out of the ordinary. Manager Brian Laws will have a tough time holding them up.
Transfers In:
I don’t know what Billy Davies (manager) was thinking, but he signed one left back, Drame, a right back youngster and 5 strikers: Gonzalo Barreto, Racek, Poepon, Sears and Imanol. Add the fact that Leigh Griffith, Andy Carroll, Fred Sears, Aron Spear (loan listed) and Xisco (transfer listed) were already in the squad. That’s a lot of strikers for a team who uses two in their tactic. They lost Kazenga LuaLua and Nile Ranger on free transfers and Kadar Tamas left for Coventry.
Tactics:
Bear’s Overall Rating: Good depth in attach, but lacks value in the back and in the middle. They might be a relegation candidate.
Nottingham Forest
Transfers In:
Forest have retained all their best players, plus they brought some significant improvements to the squad. Bassong and Defour (both from us), Asley Cole and Frank Lampard (both released by Chelsea) are awesome players for the mid-table squad.
Tactics:
Bear’s Overall Rating: Chris Hughton (manager) will keep Forest fans happy this year and Mattia Destro will probably challenge again for the top scorer award.
Transfers In:
Tactics:
Bear’s Overall Rating: Bent, Gyan, Ryan Noble, Tim Matavz and Fraizer Campbel are the options that Martin O’Neill (manager) has in attack. Jamie O’Hara can always be a good option for the central midfield. Mid-table.
Transfers In:
New-signing Romanian Dacian Varga will provide back-up for the left wing, Guilherme will challenge for the left back position, while Alex and Audel are already important players.
Tactics: 
Bear’s Overall Rating: Roberto Di Matteo (manager) has enough depth to the squad to challenge for the 8th position: Gabriel Tamas, Somen Tchoyi, Marc-Antoine Fortune, Ishmael Miller, Giles Barnes.
Transfers In:
I like these transfers, especially the one of Colombian Marco Perez (good to great striker), Moses Victor, Marco Rossi and Kompany.
Tactics:
Bear’s Overall Rating: Mid-table finish with no problems for Hugo Sanchez (manager). Ludovic Obraniak, Ched Evans, Noble, Anton Ferdinand, all add depth to the squad.
Transfers In:
Nothing really impressive, except for Faubert.
Tactics:
Bear’s Overall Rating: Might relegate under the management of Steve Cotterill if they won’t impress.
Transfer In: click here, if you may ^_^
Tactics:
Bear’s Overall Rating: “We will win the title!”
Hello friends!
It’s time for the Transfer update from the start of the 2014-2015 season. As you may remember, chairman Ivan Diaz gave me a staggering 120 Euro to spend on new players. Also, in the previous winter period I signed 3 players on a pre-contract, so I had money to spare. Here’s what I used them for: (you can click on the players profile to view larger)
Arturo Vidal – 14M from Leverkusen
Chilean central midfielder who possesses a very high work rate, has good technique, tackling, marking and passing. He also is very determined, brave, creative and he positions himself well during the game. So I’d say he’s a complete central midfielder and with defensive instructions he can play at his full potential. I’m very happy with this signing.
French defensive midfielder with very high mental attributes and great physical stats. A leading DM, he’ll play when I need more defensive strength in the tough matches. 18.5M payed for him is a bit too much, but still, I regard this aquisition as a good one.
He scored 23 goals in 32 League appearances and was named 5 times MoM while playing for the Italian team. He’s not going to get too much time playing as a striker. I’ll use him more on the wide midfielder position, when Bale will be tired or injured.
Left midfielder from Columbia. He can also play effectively as a central attacking midfielder. He’s now rated only 2.5 stars and has a potential of 3 stars. So he’s not a star, but I like him a lot. He’s got good speed, he’s a great dribbler and possesses good technique. He reminds me of Santiago Solari. He’ll get plenty of playing time in Cup matches and against middle-table teams.
And now let’s bring out the big guns:
I told you I had a lot of money to spend. So why not spend it all? And why not spending a large part of it on truly amazing players. First super-star signing is Pastore. He might be the best AMC in the game. Look at his stats. I can’t even single out one important quality of his. And this is because he’s a complete playmaker. I can tell you, though, that we’ve already played 5 official games at the moment I’m writing this post and that I have fallen in love with this South-American. Ow! His dribbling is spectacular! I hope that he’ll play well with Paulo Henrique “Ganso” and the two will prove to be lethal against our opponents defensive lines.
Last year I signed Edin Dzeko on a free. My expectation of him was that he’ll be a goal-scoring machine. Even if he scored 16 goals I was not happy with his overall performances. Old Defoe put in better performances than him. This year I wanted a clinical finisher. Who better than Aguero? He’s exactly the type of player I was looking for. While Dzeko was a strong, massive forward, Aguero is my type of striker: extremely fast, with good technique and dribbling. Also he needs to have great Off-the-Ball positioning, creativity (+ shooting and passing), quick decision making and high flair (the ability to create magic, as it is sometimes called). I’ll repeat myself: he’s my kind of striker.
So, what do you guys think about these signings? Let me know in a comment.
Here are the players that left the club this season:
A long list of departures. After this year’s spending spree, all of these players were surplus requirements. Terence Makengo who left on a free is now playing for Zaragoza in Spain. David Bentley I released from the club because no one wanted to place a bid for him. Now he is a key player for Hearts. As for Edin Dzeko, after a disappointing first season at Spurs, he was transfer listed for 30M and was offered to clubs around Europe. The offers started pouring in the next day. But there was a catch! I don’t know how, but his minimum release fee was 60K. I must have not been paying attention when we negotiated the contract with his agent last year. So, that was a bit of a disappointment, loosing a player like Dzeko for a fee of 60K. Eh, life goes on.
Also, with the money that were left, I signed a lot of hot prospect youngsters.
One of these days I’ll write a post about the youngsters (the future) of Tottenham.
Here’s the complete roster of the Tottenham Hotspur first squad players:
I’m very pleased with the depth of the squad and the quality of the players. Veterans and all around great guys van der Vaart and Defoe will see less and less playing time and I intend to sign them in the short future in staff-roles.
This is all for now, a bit later I hope I’ll find the time to compose a post about the teams in the Premier League, complete with transfers (great transfers done by most of the teams) and their strengths and weaknesses. I think you’ll find it quite interesting.
That’s all folks! Mow!
Hey there dear readers!
I’ve reached the end of the fourth season with Tottenham Hotspur and it’s time for an extensive update containing: the last 15 games in the English Premier League, because that’s where we left of in one of the previous posts, the fixtures for the FA Cup, the League Cup final against Chelsea and the knock-out stages of the UEFA Champions League. I’ll also post information about player performances, some important awards, and the Spurs Best XI. So stick around, as things get interesting.
As you probably know, if you followed the blog until now, things were not looking to peachy for the North London based club that I manage, as our fierce local rivals, Arsenal, managed by all around good guy Tony Mowbray, were having a storming season, playing awesomely beautiful football and getting some absolutely mind-blowing scores as a result. Here you can find some of their results that impressed me. And here are my previous fixtures and the League Table, with only 15 more games to go till the end. We were 3rd, 6 points behind leaders Arsenal, but with one match less. Some of you have commented then that the Gunners will slip up and I’ll go on and win the trophy. Let’s see if this was the case.
The first game of these last 15 was against oil-rich Man City (by the way, if you click on the match pics, you’ll see them larger):
We totally dominated all aspects of the game, but only scored once. Luka Modric was appointed man of the match, scoring the only goal. He played as a left midfielder, replacing tired Gareth Bale and scored making an inside run from the left, much like Walcott does. In this match I fell in love with one of the Citizens, namely Omer Toprak a young German central defender, of Turkish heritage. He is a wonderful defender and to my shame, I never heard of him. In the future I’ll keep my eye on this talent.
Next game, West Brom Albion:
Same old story: total domination, lots of missed chances and a single goal after a move from a genius player. This time: legendary Defoe. 31 and still scoring loads of goals.
3rd fixture: close to relegation spots, Bolton.
The third game brought the first points lost in the race towards the title. I was pretty shocked by this result. All my stars were in the first eleven, everything went according to plan, Gomes had a good day, saving a few chances that the Wanderers created, blocking Lacina Traore, former CFR Cluj player and wonderkid, in two or three opportunities. Arsenal were still looking strong in their lead.
4 out of 15: Everton. I dislike playing against this team. You never know what to expect: one match they are rubbish and the next they play like Barcelona.
Luckily, this was one of the matches were they played rubbish. Home-grown players Defoe and Lennon sealed the deal: three points!
5/15 – a third of the race: Nottm Forrest. I like this team. Low transfer budget, low wage budget and yet they manage to stay up and even impress. Their star player is Italian Mattia Destro, a cold and clinical goal-getter. Has been for, I think, three seasons at Forrest and every season he ran for the top scorer award.
Jermain Defoe twice and lovely French player Moussa Sissoko sealed it for us. Galeano blocked Destro beautifully.
6th game was against almost relegate Wigan Athletic.
No surprises. They had 2 sending- offs, we did our thing and attacked, being a constant threat to their goal-keeper. We conceded twice because our players lost concentration in defense, but it was nothing to be worried about. Youngters David Marsh, Juan, Aldrich Mputu and Pavel Hosek also played in this match, the first two making their professional debut. All I can say is that the future looks bright. Wigan’s forward Boselli scored against us, keeping him in a good position for the top scorer trophy.
Game number seven, almost half of the run made us adversaries with title rivals, fierce local rivals and in great form squad Arsenal London. If we would have won it would have put us close to only 2 points to them.
And as you can see we did. Actually the game was extremely balanced and both of the teams could have easily tipped the balance. With a bit of luck Spurs tipped it in their favor. Solid central defender Galeano scored in the 45+1 minute of the first half from a corner xecuted by Rakitic and Defoe sealed the scoreboard in the 45+1 minute of the second half, after a speedy counter attack. We were only 2 points away from them and the first spot!
8th: Newcastle.
Missed a whole lot of chances, like we usually do against smaller teams, but scored once. Wallcot cut in from the left and scored from a tight angle. They failed to get even a shot on goal.
9th game was against Abromovich’s filthy-rich Chelsea.
A very pleasing display for the random watcher, but a frustrating game for any Spurs fan. In the middle of the race for the title, captain M. Dawson got sent off at the beginning of the second half and things went down hill from there. 17 year old regen Juan took Dawson’s central defender position and did a fairly good job.
Two thirds in the title race: Aston Villa and their winter transfer star – Lucas Barrios (formerly a Real Madrid player).
We only managed to get one point out of this home game. Barrios was fantastic for them before getting a second booking and being sent off. Man of the match: Defoe who scored two goals for us.
11th pinned us against Blackburn.
We didn’t score, but their player, Jones, did it for us. We thanked him, ironically at the end of the game, in the press conference. The reserves did a good job in this game.
12th and only three more to go.
Giants Manchester United put up a good fight, but Lennon and Modric brought three point home. Juan played in the starting eleven.
13th – will we get lucky against Liverpool?
They dominated us in almost all aspects of the game. After we got the lead to 2-1 I instructed my players to Counter. Worked fine until the extra time, when Kuyt beat Gomes from inside the box. Bassong was sent off and this will seal his future at the squad.
14/15. It all goes down to this. Srna rallies the troops, everyone is eager to go.
We get six in. MotM: dear and personal friend Rafa van der Vaart. He proves that he’s still got it. But was this enough to win the title?
15/15 – last game of the Premier League.
Evans’ goals make us loose the last game. But have Spurs won the English Premier League once more. Well, I’ll tell you in a jiffy. Let the tension build up a bit.
Until I tell you, let’s go a bit to the League Cup. More exactly to the Final. Previously I’ve told you that I qualified for the final and that we were drawn against Chelsea. Here’s how it went:
So it went well. We won the LC and added the 4th trophy of the season to our cabinet, after the Community Shield and the European Super Cup (that I’ve discussed here) and the Club World Championship (see all matches here).
Now let’s see how we did in the FA Cup. The fixtures:
We played in the FA Cup final against Chelsea (Again!), which we beat, but got there by defeating the likes of Man Utd and Blackburn. Paulo Henrique was awesome in this competition. So the 5th Trophy of the season was ours! Could we keep this up?
The UEFA Champions League followed. I told you about the group faze in this post. The knock out stages were pretty tough. Tougher than I expected, actually.
In the round of 16 as you know we were drawn against one of my liked teams O. Marseille. We didn’t manage to score and ony got through to the next round on penalties. A pretty stressful tie. Then we eased past AC Milan and barely defeat FC Bayern at home to get to the final. The other finalist was my favorite club in the whole wide world Real Madrid, just like the year before.
Not our (or theirs for that matter) best game of the season, but I’m really happy that we won this for a fourth time in a row! Galeano’s goal following a corner kick gave us this trophy!
In the press conference after the game I declared, laughing, that I’m a special one. +1 to the trophy cabinet of this year = 6 competitions won. Ow! And Gomes won the Best Player of the CL award:
OK, OK. I know you want to know if I managed to beat Arsenal for the title. The truth is:
Yes! For the fourth time in a row! Just like the UEFA CL! The ultimately perfect season! We’ve won everything that could be won! A great… Scratch that: the PERFECTLY PERFECT season for the lads!
You guys were right. Arsenal did slip up in the end, loosing points against weaker sides like Burnley, Aston Villa and Bolton. They finished only third behind Liverpool.
Wigan, Portsmouth and sorry Fulham got relegated to Championship, while Spurs, Liverpool, Arsenal and Man City go to UEFA ECC, and Man Utd, Chelsea and surprising Blackburn go to the Europa League.
Jermain Defoe won the EPL Top Scorer award, again. With 24 goals scored, just like Destro, but with fewer matches played. Srna was the best tackler in the League, while Kofi Agyei was in the top five players with a high percentage of passes completed and Rakitic was in the top ten players with most assists – 12. Galeano and Shawcross were 2nd and 3rd in the top average rating table.
Now for the traditional Best XI, Best XI Extended and the Overall Best XI.
And the Overall Best Eleven, for the last four seasons:
Pavlyuchenko still is regarded as the second most best striker the club has had, after Defoe, even if he only played 55 games under my command. Other than that everything seems just normal. Notice that Defoe scored 138 goals in 187 matches played and that Rafa van der Vaart is the club’s second most prolific goal-getter.
This was a surprise however. Srna was named fans players of the year and it’s the first time in four years when Defoe doesn’t win the award. Good for Srna, one of the best -if not the best- fullbacks in the game.
The roster with games played, goals scored, assists made, average ratings and Assistant Manager recommendation looks like this:
Note that M’Vila, Vidal and Suarez just joined the squad in this transfer period. That’s why they have no stats.
Also chairman Ivan Diaz, the Peruvian multimillionaire (billionaire!?) keeps improving every aspect of the squad:
Plus a sneak peak of what the next post will be about:
And because I want to make a lot of transfers this season, I booked a lot of friendlies to facilitate the team’s blending:
To sum it all up, me and the lads had a great to perfect season, we scored lots of goals, we missed lots of opportunities, we lost a lot of points in matches that we should have won, but overall no one can complain about this season. Scratch what I said earlier. This truly was a perfect season. And I can’t wait to spend all that money on transfers, getting in whoever I want and making Tottenham Hotspur dominate England and Europe for years to come, either under my management, or under somebody else.
Thanks for reading this long post and please leave whatever is on your mind in the comment section bellow, I’ll be sure to answer to every one of your comments!
Traditionally: Mow! ^_^
