So how did we prepare? Well I brought in a few extra players. Mainly young defenders as I was happy with most other areas...oh...and Darren Bent as player/coach :D His stats looked fine for the SPL, at least as an impact sub. I didn't want to bring too many people in as I wanted a fairly stable team.
Not a terrible start considering. Took a while to scrape the points we wanted but the team looked to be pulling together. An importantly we didn't look completely out of our depth.
End of the Regular Season
We hit some bad patches and we had to make a few changes. First of all our plucky Scottish keeper was relegated to the bench. With barely a handful of clean sheets to his name I gave the french stand in a go and he was much better. I think by the end of the season he had still shipped plenty but it felt like some damage had been avoided.
We also changed tactics. We moved to a 4312. It hadn't worked for me in a previous career save but I think that's because it needed some slight tweaking...and the right players. Things started to improve with it.
Annnnnnnnnnnnnd...safe. The remaining games were pretty much dead rubber in terms of survival. And I was capped in terms of how far up the table I could go. They were just for pride and a few 100k in prize money.
End of Season
And that will do nicely. Not exactly the heights of the SPL that we reached but good for a newly promoted team (history aside) trying to operate on a shoe string. What I'm probably most proud of is the fact we never dropped into the relegation place. We kept out head above water all the way through the season.
Again the same names came up to help us. Byrne took to the SPL almost as well as he did the division below. His value has shot up but I don't fancy cashing in on him. I don't think I could replace him.
What next?
Ideally build for next season. Shore up the team, which means gradual improvement. I think we could stave off relegation again next season so I don't feel there is a desperate need for whole sale changes on that front.
What will cause a bit of a change though is the financial situation. The board keep injecting money to keep us afloat. At one point we were 2m in the red. The prize money and a cash injection put us back into the black once the season finished but it won't last. The wage bill is too high, attendances are too low and it's a long way till our next lot of prize money. We need to somehow cut out some fat in our wage budget whilst improving the team. It's probably going to be quite hard.
Do I want to stay? I'm a little ambivalent. I think I could make a real go of it here with Aberdeen. It might take a while but the SPL title isn't impossible. The problem is it could take a good long while. So I think I'm going to carry on but maybe put a cheeky job application in if there is something or somewhere I can't resist.
At the moment the MLS has caught my eye (something different) and Portugal would be interesting. Likewise so would a mid sized team in a 'bigger' league. Or a team that has the potential to be big but is stuck near the bottom of a league structure....alternatively I could always try to go back to 'Tuna City! They've managed to survive and hold on in the First Division Elite without me. I think every season has involved a Wigan-esque great escape but they've done it.
But we shall see.
No comments:
Post a Comment