| Decent Youngster Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 2 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts |  2 Amazing years at Birmingham City
Rise of Birmingham City.
I've just finished my second season with Birmingham City. We won the League Cup, were FA Cup runners up and finished 5th in the Premiership just missing out on Champions League football by goal difference after losing to Bolton on the last day of the season. Still, it's a lot of success and quickly for one of the newly promoted sides...Heres how it all happened.
Season 1 - 07/08
I told the board we would avoid relegation this year and I knew that would be difficult. I've took the Birmingham job on many of the previous football manager editions but I feel this is the weakest represented squad for them on FM despite probably being their strongest in real life.
First things first I hired Jean Durand and Steve Martin as scouts. Get one covering central european youngsters and one in South America. Then I completely reshuffle the coaches at Birmingham and bring in Tottenhams excellent Muniz (coach) and steal Manchester Uniteds Dempsey by offering the youth coach a first team coaching job.
Now to the squad...Big problems at the back - Quedrue can just about do a job at left back so he stays, and Matt Sadler is showing potential. Djourou is a fantastic young centreback but he's only on loan til January. Rafael Schmitz is alright but Ridgewell and Jaidi aren't good enough. Stephen Kelly is ok at right back but overall none of the back four is really capable except for Djourou.
The midfield...
Right mid has to be De Ridder. Larsson is good but I know were going to have to have some pace when counter attacking and Larsson doesn't have any. Left mid is difficult but McSheffrey is ok. I decided to play with a defensive midfielder just in front of the back four and an attacking midfielder just behind the front two. I think this works well for defensive direct counter attacking teams which is the only way we can really get goals with a team like this. Muamba gets the nod at DM because I have faith in him improving as a young former Arsenal prospect. I sent Oubina back to Celta, he is a good player but surplus to requirements. Kapo is the obvious attacking midfielder with Cameron Jerome and Garry O Connor playing up front. Oh, and young Colin Doyle in goal over Maik Taylor.
SIGNINGS:
I didn't spend much money before the season. Skillful Morrocan left midfielder Mbark Boussoufa was signed for just over 2 million and I loaned Man Utd's Danny Simpson to give a bit more strength at right back. The scouts returned with some good players. I snapped up dutch 17 year old striker Genero Zeefuik and german attacking midfielder Marko Marin each for under 300k. They went straight into the reserves to get a little bit of playing experience. Zeefuik was touted as the next Van Nistelrooy and Marin as the next Beckenbauer!! One signing that I didn't need to make was the cheap 800k buy of Lloyd Doyley from Watford. I got him in to add extra depth to my weak defence, he did alright for the handful of games he played I suppose. Anyway, I'd left myself about 3 million incase I needed anything in the January window.
TACTICS:
So four at the back then DM, LM, RM, AMC, FC, FC.... Spent most of the season with a defensive mentality, counter attacking and tight marking using O Connor as a target man or sometimes Kapo as playmaker at home.
FIRST SEASON:
So after predictible scores in the friendlies it was time to kick off the season. Derby away first and we really should be taking 3 points but they equalise late and it ends 1-1. Not a good start but not a loss. Man Utd at home next and the excellent Birmingham some how hold them to 0-0! Great result but Chelsea are next and a really good effort sees us almost sneak something but they win 2-1. The F.A have really given us some tough fixtures to start and next up we have Liverpool at home. We almost held them to 0-0 like United but they get a late goal and we lose our first home game of the season. We then travel to white hart lane and somehow pull off a 1-1 draw against Spurs.
So, were labouring down in 17th at this point I think. Drawn 3 lost 2 and no wins but in fairness we've had difficult games. I was encouraged by some of the performances though and we weren't conceding lots to the big teams.
Bolton at home next and a convincing 2-0 victory sends us out of the relegation mire. Kapo and O Connor are the players scoring the goals with Jerome playing well but unable to score at all. Boussoufa is becoming key down the left flank too. Muamba and Doyle are working hard in training and becoming really good players too - this is very important to our success later on.
Blackburn away and we hold them to 0-0 which I think is a good result. Middlesbrough next away again and our dogged defending earns us a 1-1 draw. This is 3 matches unbeaten now! West Ham come to visit St Andrews and the Birmingham fans are treated to the second home win on the trot as we beat them 2-0. Our first away win of the season comes as we beat newly promoted Sunderland 2-0 and then hold on to a 1-1 draw at home to Manchester City. So that's 6 unbeaten with 3 wins and 3 draws...this had really helped our situation and gave me confidence that we could get enough points to stay up.
Why did we have to end our run at fierce rivals Aston Villa? It was an away fixture but I was sure our spirit could cause an upset. First they knocked us out of the Carling Cup 1-0 and then beat us 3-0 in the league - our heaviest defeat. The fans were getting on my back despite our previous great run and good league position - 12th.
Meanwhile my scouts had returned some gems from South America - Breno a wonderkid centreback was the one that I was most interested in. I arranged a deal to bring him to Birmingham for 4 million (with budget adjustment) in January. The ideal partner to Djourou if I could extend his loan or replacement if I couldn't. Back to the action....
I really didn't need a bad run after that morale-damaging loss to Villa. We drew 1-1 at home to Fulham and really should of won. Everton then beat us at Goodison 2-0. I was worried, I couldn't see us picking up points in the run up to Christmas but we needed another few wins to be safe really. A hideous 5-0 hiding at the Emirates from Arsenal worried me even more, completely outclassed. Then with a bit of luck we manage some great results leading up to Jan...
Wigan 3-3 B'ham
B'ham 2-1 Blackburn
B'ham 2-1 Reading
Nwcast 2-1 B'ham
B'ham 2-1 Portsmouth
3 wins out of five lifts us back up to around lower-midtable. Another annoying game with Derby away from home we draw 0-0 and this brings us to January. Breno arrives and unfortunately Djourou tells me he has no intention of staying the rest of the season at Birmingham. This was a big blow as he had been a rock. Mikael Forsell, Tebily, and Hall are all sold. Forssell went for a million and the others for much small amounts. I look at who I could get on a free transfer at the end of the season but there wasn't a lot of players interested in Birmingham. Vagner Love tells me that he will maybe talk about something later on in the year if nothing better comes along for me. This is exciting, a brazilian international who also has quality stats, but I didn't get my hopes up as I knew the chances of getting him were slim. So were thrown back into the Premiership away at Man United with Breno making his debut...
We were outplayed as expected and beaten 4-1. Can't blame Breno, he did alright. I was worried about how long it might take him to settle in not being English and coming in the middle of a season though. An expected but duly delivered 3-0 romp over Darlington in the FA cup sets the players minds a bit better and we go on another drawing rampage against the big teams, taking a point from games we had no right too..
Blackburn 1 - 1 B'ham
B'ham 0 - 0 Chelsea
Liverpool 1 - 1 B'ham
Ok, so Blackburn aren't big but it was away from home! The Liverpool result was brilliant and I couldn't believe we held Chelsea who had about 30 opportunities, and then we almost stole it at the end. So return to the season is starting well, but no wins yet...Except for beating Morecambe 4th round FA Cup and then Hull 5th round to take Birmingham into the Quarter Finals! Still, league points are much more important at this stage.
Annoyingly we draw at home to Middlesbrough after taking the lead. Then after previously holding them away, we lose 2-0 at home to Tottenham. Our first consecutive defeats now as we lose away at West Ham. We are slipping down the table and worry is starting...I knew we were aiming at the 40 mark by the end of the year. We went into January with 25 points I remember, now, after 6 more games we were on 29 points.
In the FA Cup Quarter we manage a rare away win against Fulham 2-1 which takes us to the Semis!! This is some relief to the battle we were facing in the League. We did manage to then go back to St Andrews and beat Sunderland 2-0 doing the double on them this year. Start of a good run maybe? Not in the Premiership...
Man City 2 - 0 B'ham
Bolton 5 - 1 B'ham
B'ham 0 - 3 Aston Villa (ouch)
Fulham 2 - 2 B'ham
B'ham 0 - 1 Everton
Arsenal 1 - 0 B'ham
Wow, 1 point taken from a possible 18. 5 losses out of 6. Were now only 4 points clear of the drop and not looking like getting any more points. We also lost our Semi-Final 2-1 to Newcastle during this period but the board and fans were pleased with the run...even if recent league form was a concern. The Villa did the double on us! 3-0 each way, I was embaressed. The only positive was despite the losses Breno had settled in well and was averaging over 7 rating.
4 games left now, we have 34 points. I can't see us winning 2 to make the 40 but if we can sneak a win and hope for good results elsewhere we could survive. St Andrews home crowd breathe a sigh of relief as we beat Wigan 2-1. We then lose to Reading away 3-1 and Newcastle beat us 2-1 at home. We'd survived though, one game left but Wigan, Sunderland and Derby were already relegated. So pleased to have kept the brummies up and we even pull off an amazing 2-1 victory away at Portsmouth to cap of a good season. We finished 15th.
Then, after months of enquiries and bargaining Vagner Love accepted a deal with us. I couldn't believe we'd got this coup. With the compensation too high we eventually struck a deal with the actual club and arranged a fee of 4.5 million in the summer.
This is where it becomes interesting....How do you turn the relegation battlers who finished 15th into a top 5 and trophy winning team? Well firstly, some of what I already had were to help...The ever-developing Doyle had become solid as a goalkeeper and Muamba as a defensive midfielder. Both were attracting attention from bigger clubs and I knew I might struggle to keep them
SEASON 2 08-09
I tell the board I'm looking to finish mid-table, we have quite a lot of money and they generously give me 18 million for new players.
The 1st July, transfer window re-opens and arriving at St Andrews...
Vagner Love (Brazilian star striker) 4.6m
Lulinha (Young promising brazilian midfielder) 2.8m
Andy Spooner (Young promising English Centreback) 50k !!!
and Yossi Benayoun 4.4m. Benayoun was floundering in Liverpools reserves so was keen to join, he was just the experienced and touch of class kind of player I wanted and was delighted with this purchase. I realised I had maybe overlooked defence as I now couldn't get a good right back or centre back without paying stupid money. Then I managed to secure Danny Simpson on another years loan from United and also Arsenals incredible new young signing El Mouraybet who was as good a centre back as Djourou in the first season. Two great loan signings.
I know it can be dangerous but another young brazilian that my scouts had found Eduardo was not only a hot prospect but already pretty good and could player anywhere on the left or centre of the pitch. He was signed for 2.5 million. Quedrue wasn't good enough anymore and 4 million was splashed out on Murcia and Portugese international Goncalves. Finally Atletico Madrid's young and excellent defensive midfielder Ignacia Camacho arrived for 2.1 million as backup for Muamba.
I moved my two cheap youngsters from the first year - Zeefuik and Marin to the first team to come on occasionally for some good experience. They were developing well and already getting interest despite not having played a competitive game yet.
Another look at the coaches sees us strengthen our training regimes and were ready for season 2. The team looking something like this...
Doyle
Simpson Breno El-Mouraybet Goncalves
Muamba
Benayoun Boussoufa
Kapo
Vagner Love Jerome
Definitely a team that could finish midtable i think. A completely new defense to the one I inherited and two much better wide players. So we begin with the friendlies, nothing to say except for a fantastic performance against Inter Milan which we just lost 3-2 at st andrews.
The premiership campaign started well enough with a 1-0 home win against Portsmouth and Vagner Love's first goal. Next was blackburn away and a very pleasing 4-2 victory over Hughes men. A sound 3-1 home victory followed over Everton who had previously beaten us home and away last season. Played 3 won 3 but we knew that it wouldn't last. Disaster struck when Benayoun got injured for a few months, his free kicks had been excellent so far, scoring two in the 3 games. De Ridder came in but he struggled. We so nearly pulled off a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge next, but a late winner ensured Chelsea got the points. I was geared up for another loss with Arsenal at home but again, resiliant defending earned us a 0-0 draw. Reading away was dissapointingly the same result 0-0. An excellent hard working 2-1 away win against West Ham saw us into 4th position after 7 games!
Jerome was constantly switching with sub Zeefuik who was performing better, and slowly became first team striker with Vagner Love. It was a good partnership. Injury also to Boussoufa meant that Kapo was forced out to the left wing and youngster Marko Marin played in the hole. Marin responded well to his earlier than expected call up and developed quicker through the first team appearances. His value had gone up to 4 million, and Zeefuik upto 2 million. Both signed for less than 300k.
After a bit of a dodgy 1-0 win over Yeovil in the 2nd round our League Cup took shape with a 4-1 destruction of Sunderland at home. We were also now much less direct when playing weaker opposition and were becoming to play some nice football.
A 1-1 home draw with over-performing Newcastle was alright I guess, but then we almost lost away to newly promoted Southampton. Showing character we clawed back to win 3-2. Just like last season we managed to hold Man Utd to a 1-1 draw at home. We've played 9 now and only lost 1, that was to Chelsea! Rivals Villa next with a lot of revenge needed for last season...
We got caught up in the derby and lost the game 2-1 at villa park. Played them 4 times now and lost all 4. This put a real downer on the fantastic season we were having. At this point I was still expecting everything to start going wrong at some point
We should of seen off Norwich easy in the League Cup 4th round but they kept equalising. Zeefuik got his first hat-trick and I noticed that the big clubs like United, Chelsea, and Real Madrid were looking into him. Infact, most of my team were becoming wanted by the massive clubs...
Doyle - Got unhappy when I refused a Chelsea bid.
Breno - lots of enquiries from the big teams
Eduardo - few 5 million offers
Camacho - few small offers
Muamba - Everton bid 11million refused
Marin - All the big clubs after him and all turned down, I set a price of 20million for the next Beckenbauer
Zeefuik - Couldn't let this one go either despite lots of offers
After scraping a win against newly promoted Burnley we then lost at Anfield 2-1 to Liverpool and drew at home 2-2 with Fulham. This was it, I was sure a bad patch would follow and we would sink towards midtable . At present we were moving in between 3rd - 5th. The boys responded brilliantly with our first really fantastic premiership result...
Tottenham 0 - 1 Birmingham
An away win against a big team, then another away win 2-1 in the league cup quarter final against Bolton. Benayoun came back into the first team but got injured again so De Ridder remained. Marin and Zeefuik were doing a great job. Occasionally Zeefuik would struggle but Garry O' Connor became a good substitute who would grab a few goals. Massive news broke - the League Cup semi final was to be between Birmingham and Aston Villa! Lost four out of four so far to them, so we needed to be better.
An expected 1-0 home win over Charlton followed and then our first successive defeats of the season. a 1-0 home loss to Man City was a terrible result considering our form and results against other teams. Then Middlesbrough beat us 2-1 away. We were still 5th though and very close to Christmas. Two home wins against Bolton and Reading took us to New year in 4th position. The fans and board hadn't got carried away yet but I was delighted. We were also in a League cup semi.
NEW YEAR:
I didn't want to get too carried away with what could be a fluke season so I got the scouts back out looking for talented young players. They found dutch winger Wijnaldum who I missed earlier. Tottenham had signed him and he was tearing it up in their under-18s. 2 million was enough for them to part with the player, who would later recieve bids of 10 million after playing for us. I really wanted to get the on loan Arsenal defender El-Mouraybet as permanent but he wasn't interested and Arsenal wanted too much. We offloaded Liam Ridgewell and Parnaby in this time too.
Back to the games!
Aston Villa Vs Birmingham (League Cup Semi - First Leg, Villa Park)
We went 1-0 up and I thought we were going to take it. The back and fourth match finally ended 3-2 to the Villa. We lost again but could at least be happy with 2 away goals. We'd not played them at home since the team had its summer re-design so who knows?!
Wijnaldum became the new right winger as Benayoun picked up a third long injury for the season! A great 2-1 away win against Man City made me think why we couldn't beat them at home earlier. We then lost stupidly away at Portsmouth, to be fair they were currently performing way ahead of us and while we were up there in 5th they were 3rd!! Nothing like a resounding victory to sort things out and 4-1 at home to Blackburn was probably the best one so far. Second leg time
Birmingham Vs Aston Villa (League Cup Semi - Second Leg, St Andrews) (2-3)
There's not much I can say. We dominated and a Vagner love first half goal would've been enough to secure victory on away goals. Genero Zeefuik stepped up though for our second and we beat them 2-0!! Were in the final! The fans were singing were going to wembley and the confidence meter for the game was maxed out. Things were going well in the FA Cup too - we beat Stoke to get a place in the 5th round.
Next we had 3 difficult games. I braced myself for the possibilty of taking no points from all 3. Hoped for 3 points out of nine but realisticly expected 1 or none. This could put us back down the table a bit...
Everton 2 - 3 Birmingham
Birmingham 2 - 1 Chelsea !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Arsenal 3 - 0 Birmingham
6 points and our best ever win - beating Chelsea. What a moment. We were up in 4th now and looking strong. We beat rivals West Brom in the 5th round of the FA Cup so -
Mid Feb
PREMIERSHIP - 4th
FA CUP - QUARTER FINAL vs Preston
League Cup - FINAL vs West Ham
Ok so we'd missed most of the big teams to get there but the final was now and we'd still had some good victories. Not least the semi with Villa. Ashton put West Ham 1-0 up and I thought we were going to lose. The partnership came good though -Zeefuik with a powered equaliser followed by a great Vagner Love solo effort won us the League Cup 2-1.
Unbelievably the board tried to tell me they expected it and to concentrate on other things now we'd won!!
The success was somewhat flattened by a stale 0-0 draw with the same West Ham team in the league. We then beat Preston to get through to the FA Cup semi's where we would face the difficult Portsmouth who were having a great season still in 3rd. 3 League games until then though and Zeefuik and Marin were becoming unstoppable - worth 7 and 9 million now respectively and going up every game. Vagner Love's value had also risen from the 4.6 we paid to 9.75m now.
Birmingham 3 - 0 Southampton
Man Utd 4 - 0 Birmingham (3 Cristiano Ronaldo penalties I might add)
Birmingham 1 - 0 Aston Villa (FINALLY!! A league win over the rivals, thats 5-2 overall now to them)
After going 1 down we came back to see off Portsmouth and book our place in the second final of the season. This one was to be tougher however, Chelsea were the opponents. We'd beat them once though, so could do it again. maybe? A terrible 0-0 away draw against premiership new boys Burnley followed, but then...
Birmingham 2 - 1 Liverpool - our second win over one of the top 4. We outplayed them too which was even better.
So were still in fourth and looking very strong. Arsenal have a few games in hand so all the points count now with only 5 games left. Then what a bad result to start this end period with - Fulham beat us 3-1 at craven cottage. We then bounced back with some really good football which saw us beat Tottenham at home 1-0 and romp all over Charlton with a massive 5-1 victory.
The situation was this...
PL PTS GD
4th Birmingham 36 64 +14
5th Arsenal 35 60 +26
All we had to do was win our last two games, then even if Arsenal won all their last 3 we'd still qualify for Champions League.
Birmingham - Middlesbrough
I was sure we'd mess it up at home to boro, but the boys did an outstanding job and after throwing away the 1 goal lead we managed to grab the final winner in the second half.
PL PTS GD
4th Birmingham 37 67 +15
5th Arsenal 37 66 +30
Arsenal had won two of their three. Last game of the season, we have Bolton away and they have Fulham away...
Arsenal went one up and I knew we had to win. After Bolton took the lead we tried desperately to get goals and left ourselves open at the back. It ended up being one of the worst results of the season 3-0 Bolton.
Still, I'd took Birmingham from 15th last year to 5th and European football. Not to mention the League Cup Champions and the FA CUP final we were about to play.
Unless they became permanent in the summer it was to be Danny Simpsons last game after two years at the blues and El-Mouraybets last after a year.
FA CUP FINAL - WEMBLEY
Birmingham Vs Chelsea
We started well, really well. We'd had about 4 or 5 shots before theyd had one. We were dominating possession and creating, there were two real bad misses first half from Zeefuik who usually slots them. Chelseas first chance, a corner was headed in by Lampard. 0-1.
I thought there was no way back from 1-0 to Chelsea, but decided not to change anything til half time. Just before half time Chelsea conceded a free kick just outside the box which 19 year old Marko Marin floated into the corner of the net. 1-1.
Second half was much like the first, our players tired, Eduardo came on on the left and Kapo for Marin to try and freshen it up but we couldnt find the net. With about 6 minutes to go Chelsea snatched a winner with Steve Sidwell. Final Score 2-1 Chelsea.
Can't be too dissapointed though with our achievements!
Birmingham are a very profitable club to be financially in the game turning over about 300k a month so with prize money and TV rights the board gave me 28 million to spend on the basis that we'd qualify for Europe again in my 3rd season.
I made 3 big signings, my previous biggest signing was Vagner Love for 4.6 million, I smashed that record...
Incredible right back Anthony Vanden Borre - 11 million
Pacey, promising english winger Theo Walcott - 8million
Then for a centre back to play with Breno rather than a loanee...I could get El Mouraybet permenant for 7 million. Ben Haim was available for about 4 million or Daniel Agger for 14 million. I really couldn't decide, but Agger's quality saw me sign him as my record fee for 14 million....
So far in the third season I've played 9, won 5 and drawn 4. We beat Liverpool again. I'll do another thing at the end of the season. but my first eleven is now....
C. DOYLE
VANDEN BORRE BRENO AGGER GONCALVES
MUAMBA
WALCOTT WIJNALDUM
MARIN
VAGNER LOVE ZEEFUIK |
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