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Glory back at White Heart Lane PDF Print E-mail
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Written by k8oylos   
Thursday, 25 May 2006 18:54
I've been a superfan of the CM series and have owned all titles since 00-01. So naturally when 03-04 came out, I went and bought. I was on my winter vacation in Europe, so it wasn't hard. I live in the States and follow the Premier league like a true fan. I also play for my university as AM, highly technical but rather slow-footed and aggressive. Here is how I won the Premiership with Tottenham in a way like never before.

I began my career in 03-04 in charge of Tottenham for two reasons. I respect the other managers and don't want them to get the sack for my sake, and this club was prominent once, so I wanted to bring glory back at White Hart Lane.

Now what I instantly saw was that Spurs have two things on their side: some deadwood and some promising youth . I wanted to get rid of the players going nowhere for as much as I could. I offered them very cheaply and listed the likes of Anderton, and Taricco. I also received a few bids for some of my young upstarts. I accepted some, rejected most. I worked ceaselessly to get two players to come to my squad.

Young and ambitious, as well as skilled, Jerome Rothen of Monaco and Mikel Arteta of the Rangers. My transfer funds were exhausted. I got lucky and sold Chris Perry to 'Boro, as well as got listed J'Flo Hasselbaink and Mario Melchiot from the Blues for Anderton and Redknapp. Good riddance, except Jimmy would only net 4 goals for me and be listed by the end of the season. Melchiot got better with time. I signed on a free Hatem Trabelsi who agreed to join me in the spring, but lost the battle for Mexes to Man. United.

Arteta would have a pretty weak 1st season, but explode during the final games, and play on that the following season. Now for practices, I tried to put together the best regime I could think of, one I would like to play in. It wasn't good enough. I started on fire, 1st place after 8 games but 10th place on Boxing Day.

I had to do something, to change something. Dean Richards made the England squad, Anderton joined Leicester, Taricco went to Birmingham and my funds were sometimes growing impressively to 12 million. Of course, I would end up negative 400k at season's end, but receive my paycheck from the league.

Here is the miracle that happened as the final stretch showed itself. It began with a momentous 3-1 drubbing of Arsenal at Highbury. Then during the final ten games I lost once to Villa, a stumbling block for many teams. That incredible streak saw me finish 5th in the league, from 9th at the start of it. I couldn't believe it. How did it happen?

Alarmed by my insuccess, I changed practice. Lots of set pieces and overloads, very light running, and some skill based training along with lots of emphasis on the mental part of things. The other, was the pair of Robbie Keane and Helder Postiga that kept scoring timely goals. Postiga was a bit inconsistent but scored goals in bunches when he had the chance. Chelsea would buy him from me in the off-season for some much needed rubles (12mil).

My tactics were simple. I set the preset to every position, and team instructions at attacking, closing down own half and off-side trap as well as zonal marking. The mental training improved position on these guys so it was happening. I also had a young and fast team that was playing amazing football, particularly Mbulelo Mabizela at left fullback since Christian Ziege was a huge dissappointment and a sell to Bayern for 950k in June. Also I picked up a goaltender that played his heart out for me, Bogdan Lobont, cheap 750k from Ajax plus incentives.

Defense was holding well together, the mid-field saw youths like Ricketts and Marney get their one share of football, but I was out of domestic cups by Christmas, and didn't care much for them anyhow- I was gunning for Europe, and Inter-toto. I figured, I needed the experience before trying for the Champions League.

I surprisingly made it to 5th place, and it would have been 4th if Arsenal didn't lose, and Liverpool won. But that's footie. The fans were delighted, the board was too. I needed to get rid of Richards however, he was making way too much. And did. My centre-backs would be Ledley King and Garry Doherty. In the off-season, I got lucky and beat Inter and Werder Bremen to Mirel Radoi who came on a free refusing Steaua. He would play a pivotal role as a back-up centre-back in the upcoming season.

However, to shock the fans I had something else in mind. I poached Alan Smith and Wayne Rooney using the 15 million I got at the end of the season. How? Both Everton and Leeds had gone into receivership- it was honorable that I even spent so much money for these guys.

Unhappy Frederic Kanoute went for 6.7 mil to Valencia, a worthy sell I'd say, and then I stuttered and didn't offer for Paul Robinson who could had been had cheaply too, but Lobont had played so well and he would continue to the following year.

During the off-season I unloaded all extra salaries. I took a blow when Jimmy Neighbour, whom I had made my Asst. Manager left to manage relegated Everton and then Peter Suddaby my next Assistant would follow suit a year later and beat me to the Manchester United job where I helped Sir Alex get the sack by expressing my interest in the job when his seat, in 5th place, had become shaky.

Now here is the reason I wrote all this stuff. The following season with Rooney and Keane, sometimes Smith, up front, I dominated like I had never before in the game. 23 league games without a loss!!

Keane finished with 33 goals, Rooney with 28 and Alan Smith with 16. My entire defense and mid-field would improve tremendously and fans would beg me not to leave Spurs. Well I didn't, and kept on, winning the English Premiership with 2 games left to play and losing only 4 games all season, tying 3.

In the UEFA I faced tough opponents right away, Lokomotiv, Genk, and Monaco in the spring. I lost to Liverpool who eventually won the cup and were 2nd in the league for the longest time until the end of season when Man. U., Arsenal, Chelsea, them and Newcastle kept trading places but couldn't de-throne the 1st placed Spurs.

Here is my winning squad:

[tt]Keeper: Lobont- Continued to make the most of his chances. Enigmatic player, but consistent!
Right-back: Trabelsi- Came free and improved to star status. A very worthy buy.
Left-back: Mabizela- Amazing player whom I had no idea could play so well on the left flank.
Centre-back: Doherty- My captain and rock on my solid defence.
Centre-back: Radoi- Liked Dohert and unlike idiot Lobont, learned English very quickly.
Right-wing: Davies- Not very consistent, but capable of memorable performances.
Left-wing: Rothen- Extremely consistent, gets only 8 all through season.
Middle: Arteta- Began to play better gradually, another highly wanted player with playmaking skill.
Middle: Blondel- Improved tremendously. Became my playmaker after Dalmat left. Refused all bids.
Striker: Keane- Exploded during his second season, his best out of his career yet! 24 yrs old too!
Striker: Rooney- nothing short of amazing. Really came into his own. Great future ahead of him!
Keeper: Burch- promoted him from Reserve squad. Played well in limited action.
Defense:King- improved more than Doherty or Radoi but didn't play as well as them.
Left: Ricketts- improved and was splitting time with Rothen. Also played well in the middle.
Right: Marney- refused to sell him to several teams, he was worth keeping around.
Forward: Smith- valuable goal scorer, helped team win games when others couldn't.
6thman: Melchiot- very steady performer. I used him in the middle, on the right and at centre D.
7thman: Kovacevic- sold him to Liverpool. Signed free. 10 goals in 11 games, but 70k/week ?
8thman: Dika- thanked me for making Cameroon side. Picked up on a free, 1st season.
9thman: Bunjevcevic- Good 1st season, but clearly old during second season. Went to Bolton. [/tt]

The beauty of it is, now I've the confidence that this squad which is relatively young, has the money and players to be good for a very long time. Blondel, Keane, Doherty and Mabizela will form a foursome that I'd like to compare to Scholes, Giggs, Keane and Beckham at United, that helped that team dominate the 90's.

The next season I will face a new challenge- the Champions League.


 
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