Nothing left in the tank [2032/33]

Not a thing left in the tank at the end of this season. I don't think I've ever had a team look so knackered for so long. Now the season's over they've perked up a bit but even with rotation I think my squad hit their limit. We had a fair few games to play but not so many that we should be this tired. I think it was due to the scheduling of some that meant we struggled to recover. There was a period where we had  3 SPL games and two important cup games in a fortnight...and then one of the cup games had to be replayed....3 of these games (4 with the replay) were against Celtic.

League Cup

At the start of the season I would have picked this as the cup we could forget about. Little kudos and no European qualification attached to it. But it was the one we did the best in. Mainly because of Dean Dalziel. We scored 10 goals, of those he got 6. In the semi finals we were 2-0 down with 10 mins to go. He scored a hat trick.

That took us to a final against Celtic. I rested some players in the SPL game before hand. You can't turn your nose up at a cup. Celtic put us under pressure for about 30 mins and then we turned it around completely. The rest of the game was ours and we completely schooled them. Dalziel popped up with a fine goal, and then Snodden got a scrappy but important one to send us two clear.

First cup with Hearts! First cup in a long time!

FA Cup

We had another good run here. And I was more excited about this as it was a better rep cup with some reward in terms of Europe. Again Dalziel did the work. Of the 11 goals we scored he got 5. We made heavy work of the cup progression in the quarter finals as had to face Celtic twice because of a replay. When we were at our most tired. In the replay we played some fantastic counter attacking football, buoyed by the League Cup win against them the game before.

Inverness in the semi-finals were a breeze and we set up a final against Rangers. They were on form in the league and slowly but surely becoming more of a force in the SPL. Could we beat the Old Firm in both cup finals?

No. And this was perhaps the most frustrating cup final I've ever seen. We out shot them, three to one when it came to on target shots, but they grabbed the goal, defended and we ran out of steam. It was absolutely gutting. So close to a cup double.

SPL

Were things better in the league? Not really. We were tired because of the sheer amount of injuries. I had to check to see if anything was wrong with the training but I was just unlucky. Players were getting injured, coming back and then when they were finally match fit they be back in the physio room or someone else would take their place. I think in the course of the season I played my first choice 11 together ten times.

It sounds like a bit of a weak excuse (for what's coming) but it's relevant. It's difficult to make progress when injuries pull the rug from under you.

Compared to the first half of the season our form got worse. We dropped embarrassing points and still struggled against the likes of Celtic. Aberdeen were close behind us and they capitalised on pretty much every mistake. When the league split Celtic were one game away from the title and we had dropped into 3rd place.

This is where we picked up a bit. We beat Rangers and Kilmarnock, and drew with surprise package Ross County and then champions Celtic. Our last game was against Aberdeen. A real show down against my former team!

They were 2nd, but only on goal difference. A win against them would put us 2nd and into the Champions League rather than the Europa. It wasn't to be though. They beat us 2-1 and the scoreline if anything flattered us.

End of Season Review

Well we'd met board expectations but we'd missed out on the Champions League. But there's always next season. Scotland went up the coefficients so next season the title winner will go straight into the group stage and general seeding/stage of entry will improve. 2nd place next season will be worth even more.

And I think we can do it. I've learnt a couple of things.

1) MORE PLAYERS! I NEED MORE! We had a horrible run of injuries that meant we couldn't hit a good run of form. Players went out, moved position, and weren't fully fit. More players should fix that and if we keep fitter I think 2nd should be ours.

2) No matter how good I think I am Celtic won't agree and they'll attack. So I need to go to counter attacking against them. Late in the season we did better against them by going to counter attack rather than the control I favour. I need to do this from the off.

39 goals in 50 apps for Dangerous Dean

3) One man teams are bad. We weren't quite a one man team but pretty much all the goals were coming from Dalziel. And he's not getting any younger. Also when he wasn't doing well we were noticeably toothless.


The team in general did well though.

Everyone played. Even back up keeper O'Dea when McCluskey went out injured. All of the squad is straying apart from Zander Coyne who's jumping ship to Motherwell. When he announced that I benched him and started to rotate Quirke and Forde in. They both did well so we'll not miss Zander despite the cool name.

Warren might go next season but we'll be reinforcing the middle of the team anyway.

I've got lost of screenshots for players but I won't stick them all here. I will mention one player though. Bobby Scoular. I promoted him to the senior team with the aim of giving him a few games. Slowly introducing him. But before the season started he said he wanted to go on loan so I sent him to Championship Derby. Before he left he was worth about £16k and looked like a promising though not developed rightback.

Things changed...

Thanks Derby for adding over £3.5m to his value

He's a beast. I owe Derby one. He even got capped for Scotland with them. Next season he can fight with Simpson for a start. I might try sending Derby a few more players...

Another honourable mention should go to Simpson and Kearney.

2nd and 3rd place isn't bad.

I seem to be attracting attention too....

I was slightly tempted but I'm with Hearts for the long haul. And I've a plan to satisfy my wanderlust...more on that later.

Next season should be good.

Would everyone please stop getting injured? [2032/33]

A slightly shorter post as most of the transfers were covered in the last one! Basically I was feeling fairly happy when I started the season. I'd reinforced the team, sent young players out on loan and set up tutoring and training for my stars.

I was a little unhappy initially as we found that we'd missed out on the champions league by a year. Next season 2nd place would earn a berth in the playoffs. It just meant there was more to play for this season.

Europa League

So we were in Europe! Not for very long though. We drew Trnava in the 3rd qualifying round and breezed past them but then came up against the stronger AZ side. They beat us twice but I was left fuming. We outplayed them in both legs but didn't finish it off.

We dropped out of Europe and sudden our financial forecast looked a little lighter.

SPL

We started fairly well but we hit a bit of a hiccup. Last season we had done really well against the big sides like Celtic but we just couldn't take points of them this time, and we dropped points against Rangers as well.

We were still in a good position but I already felt like Celtic were getting away.

We might have been able to take points off them if the team had been fit and ready but we've had some terrible luck injury wise. My dream midfield of Magill, Snodden and Kearney only managed about four games before Snodden and Magill got injured for several weeks. The Simpson got injured too. They gradually came back but they're not fit...and Magill picked up another injury! Every time the team settles and clicks someone keels over.

One player who doesn't seem to care who's playing around him though is Dalziel. He's bagged 21 goals in 22 games so far. He's 32 and he's terrorising defences. He's approaching his 50th goal in two seasons (or a season and a half I guess).

Transfers

I had a lot of players on my shortlist that I was following but I wasn't in a rush to buy them...until other clubs started coming in for them. I didn't want to lose out so they forced my hand I went in for two players, Gillan and Ferguson.

 I'd been unsettling Ferguson at Hamilton for some time but considering I'd already poached Simpson from them they held firm a little longer. I think he'll be a good left back in the future and I can rotate him with Lowry.

Gillan from...yes, Linfield. Soon they wouldn't have a single player left. A little older than I'd like for the money spent (£500k) but the scouts raved about him, he fits in with the other N.Irish players and I need to think about replacing Dalziel at some point.

Starting to take shape [2031/32]

The first three games hadn't gone well so I was dreading taking on Hibs, rivals, in the next game. Especially seeing as I had changed tactics around a bit from the previous games now I had the players for a 352. They were a long way off being familiar with it. I needn't have worried though. It was a bit of a scrap but we gradually started to out play them and by the end of the game we were all over them.The pressure paid off and we got a well deserved win against our arch rivals, away from home to boot.

It gave us a great boost, peaking with us beating league leaders Celtic a few games later. In fact against the big teams and rivals we did well. In the open season we played Celtic twice, Hibs twice and Rangers once. We won every game against them. If only we'd kept that going...

For some reason we kept slipping to silly losses and the smaller teams and it hurt us. Before the split we were still in second but we were left with a lot to do if we wanted to overhaul Celtic. 7 points wasn't a huge gap, it would drop to 4 if we beat them but Celtic still had the upper hand. We'd have to win pretty much all of them and they'd have to drop points.

Almost there...

We were in a good position though otherwise. We only needed a win really to secure a European place which meant no matter what we had at least met board expectations.

Nice run of form at the end but it wasn't enough

We started well. We breezed past Kilmarnock, beat Celtic for the 3rd time in a row and brought the gap down to 4 points. A thrashing of Hamiliton brought us even closer as it was paired with a loss from Celtic...and then things went a bit wrong. I was screwed by my old team, Aberdeen. The Dons had been on red hot form and were really pushing me for 2nd place. We couldn't break them down and to be fair they probably should have won. But even scraping a draw didn't help - we dropped points, Celtic won and then by the time the Rangers match came around the title was theirs.

It'll do...

In a similar fashion to last season with Plantanias I shouldn't feel disappointed with 2nd, we've vastly overachieved, but we have missed out on a golden opportunity. The title could have been ours. We beat Celtic three times! We had the quality but we lost it against the lower table teams. We need to be able to finish games off.

End of Season Review

We'd more than met our aims. We'd qualified and qualified well.

Everyone loves playing on a Thursday

The squad was shaping up and the players that had been brought in had done well.

We needed to build on this next season and get the squad exactly where we needed it. At this point we had a lot of players leaving, and still plenty that needed to leave (an £11k a week player for example). I wanted to cut the wage bill, balance the squad size/make up, get in line with my new transfer policy of mainly home nation players. And I wanted to do all this and improve the team. I wanted to make sure that when we played next season that we had the players to beat the likes of Falkirk and Celtic. I didn't want to waste points like we had here.

Despite point wasting we had some good players in the team. Many doing very well.

Dean 'Dead Eye' Dalziel

 Dean fired the team forward almost single handed. He made good use of all the good service he got and was lethal in front of goal. He's getting on and I'm normally against older players but you can't argue with his performances. I've no good reason to replace him so he'll be key next season.

Dougie 'I have a more Scottish name than you' Donald

Dougie was originally a bench warmer of sorts when I arrived but I gave him a chance and he got better as the season went on. There were one or two games where the defense was shaky but that was usually despite his best efforts.

'Unbelievable!' Geoff Harding

I thought Harding might be a risk but he settled in well. Admittedly he didn't grab the same volume of goals as he had in league 2 but I was playing him more as a DLF, and he was sending plenty of dangerous balls through. I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do over an entire season.

Gareth Howells

A bit like Dougie. I brought him in to the starting 11 due to an injury and he pretty much stayed there until the end of the season. Defensively better than his stats suggest and he offers something going forwards.

Jon Karlsson

He didn't play much so I'm not including him here as a key player. I'm just showing off how much he's improved through training. Going full time has made a big difference and I'm going to give him and  Lifbom some cup time next season.

Eddie 'Leg Breaker'  Kearney

Kearney started playing straight away and set about ruining players.  Strong in the tackle and he constantly close people down. Even though he spent most of the time just as a MC-s he controlled the midfield from top to bottom.

Philip Lifbom

Like Karlssson Lifbom's stats have shot up. He actually grabbed a winning goal against Celtic! Again he's going to be rotated in and given cup runs but I can see him becoming a good striker very quickly. He just needs the opportunity.

Stuart McCluskey

 Initially McCluskey worried me. In the first 3 games he was at fault for a lot of the goals but he picked up and over the course of the season ended with the most clean sheets. He still got some years left in him and his experience at the back should really help.

'Mickey 'Sick Note' Snodden

Bought at the same time as Kearney he ended up in the Physio room from day 1. Once he'd recovered though he started and there was never any doubt as to why. He picks out some amazing passes and is very compose in midfield.










 At this point I'd normally end but I thought I'd put the transfers on here for the start of next season, seeing as most of them were completed before the season ended.

Transfers

A lot of players were shipped out. I finally managed to get rid of the players on the stupid wages and the over all wage costs dropped like a stone, even with all the players below recruited. At the start of the new season we were only spending £85k a week on wages. Below our £110k limit, and a lot of teams around us. We didn't need to be so frugal but in the long run it would only help.

Chris 'Magic' Magill

 Magill arrived and would now be the AP in between Kearney and Snodden. I can't wait to see them playing together. Magill is creative and dangerous. I'm expecting him to be involved in a lot of goals. Especially seeing as he cost the club, overall, £3.4m!

Gavin Guy

Coyne and Donald only have a year on their contracts and they aren't playing nice in contract negotiations so I started to recruit defenders just in case. Guy is young and doesn't look like the finished article yet but the scouts and coaches think that he'll make it in time. I've sent him on loan for a season to see how he does.  If it doesn't work out then I can happily write off the £60k fee for him.

Matt Lowry

I had been chasing a Scottish left back but Hamilton wanted an obscene amount for them so I just got Lowry for £300k instead. He looks well rounded and when you consider his age I think he's only going to get better. I'm very happy that he's actually a WBL as well rather than a defender I have to train.

Neil Forde

Forde was bought as part of the defensive replacement drive. It helps that he can also cover midfield. He'll be back up and will rotate into the squad.

Pat Quirke

Like wise for Quirke. He'll be cover this year with a view towards being a long term replacement. And if it doesn't work out? Then he and Forde only cost about £150k in total.

Raymond Neil

Buying strikers is fun. Signing ones released by Arsenal is just as fun. They let Raymond go so I decided I would snap him up and send him to Raith, our feeder club, the league below to see how he does.

Richie Vickers

Bought Vickers for the cheap sum of £80k during the season. He then torn a muscle and spent the rest of it recovering. He might not be the player he was or could potentially be, when I signed him. He's still injured and I think I'll keep him at the club when he's able to play so I can build his fitness up.

'Rocket' Rory Simpson

Simpson is going to be great I think. He has what it takes to terrorise teams down that right hand side whilst helping keep clean sheets. I bullied Hamilton until they let me sign Simpson for the cheap price of £575k. He had been a SPL regular for a good team (Hamilton and Aberdeen are top 5 teams now) and he is a regular international. With him, Lowry, Snodden, Kearney and Magill I have a huge N.Irish contingent. They form the backbone of the starting 11.

Erwan Robert

And here's Erwan the back up to Simpson. Got him on a free and although he is not a WBR I think he can be shaped into one well enough.







And that was it really for signings. I had plenty left in the wage budget, and about £800k left to spend. I also had a watch list of about 5 or 6 good young (ish, younger than 25) 'local' players. I didn't want to splash the cash on them though as I thought I had a nice balance to the squad.

 Good players for each position. Plenty of promising cover and depth. I also got two players sent to me on loan by Spurs as well; a German defender and an English striker dubbed the new Rooney! I was sticking to my transfer policy too and I only have, discounting the loan player, 3 non-British or Irish players in the first team.

I'm hopeful for the coming season. We have a good team, money to spend in January if need be and wages to spare. We're in the black and we have Europe to look forward to.