Season 11 – Northampton Town, Championship
Board Expectations: Battle Bravely Against Relegation
Players In: 0
Players Out: 12 for 1.2 mil
The new season in the championship should have been a cause for celebration but the board offered me no transfer funds and a lower wage budget than last year, even though most players wages had gone up due to the promotion.
I was a vast amount over my wage budget and I had to sell, sadly the first out the door was the overpaid centre mid that had shone the previous season but needs must.
Another two of the previous seasons first eleven had to go and for the three combined I got just over £1m, but with us losing 500k a month this seemed like a drop in the ocean.
A further six left on bosmans and with zero players in we were weaker than the previous season and now facing vastly superior opposition.
But we did great! We got off to a great start and due to an amazing step up yet again by my youth, we pulled off a remarkable 13th place finish.
Our home form was excellent and made all the difference and we pulled off remarkable wins against vastly superior opposition as Sixfields became a fortress.
Dreadlock ST was fantastic yet again but he’s only got one year left on his contract and is refusing to sign a new deal. Losing him would be catastrophic.
In terms of finances it had gone from bad to worse and we were well in the red even though on three occasions the board injected 700k, I just wondered how long this would last.
Pos | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts |
13th | P46 | 13 | 19 | 14 | 56 | 53 | 3 | 58 |
Cups – straight out in both cups, although in hindsight it probably did us good in terms of the league.
Season 12 – Northampton Town, Championship
Board Expectations: Battle Bravely Against Relegation
Players In – 4 for 0k
Players Out – 3 for 520k
A new season and the finances were looking bleaker than ever but at least the wage budget was finally under control so they couldn’t blame me.
The stadium was finished so that was a plus, but again 3 of my better players including mr comb-over, on a free, left the club and the latter will be sorely missed and there’s no obvious replacement.
Again I couldn’t sign anyone to come straight into the team but I did get a couple of young Spaniards after a successful bit of scouting.
Our home form again was great but away from home our kids just weren’t up to it and we took some beatings but always managed to turn it around at home.
Come January Dreadlock ST was sold to Rangers to help balance the books for a cool £2m plus some pretty healthy clauses, but even this and more board investment didn’t quite do it.
Our pattern of form continued throughout the season and again I was more than pleased when we finished 12th, again youth had come good and some not so good but I’m optimistic for next season as we seem to be pretty much filling the stadium and the sponsorship renewals are up this year.
Pos | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts |
12th | P46 | 16 | 12 | 18 | 66 | 63 | 3 | 60 |
Cups – Out early again after a deliberate rotation.
Season 13 – Northampton Town, Championship
Board Expectations: Mid Table
Players In – 3 for 200k
Players Out – 7 for 0k
This was to be my last season with Northampton I had told myself, unless there was real movement one way or another.
I had made big promises to the board (like I had done previously) in an effort to extract some more money for transfers and wages and made my first cash signing for quite a while, a left winger from Scotland who I’d had my eye on. Also I got a nice freebee DM who slotted right into the starting line up.
We started really badly as our home form that had been so good in recent seasons deserted us, this was partly down to there being no real replacement up front.
I rotated between a few players but never seemed to get the right combination. Dreadlock ST had been quite a big strong guy and we missed him leading the line.
By January we had lifted ourselves away from the relegation places as another youngster (GK) who had been out on loan for the previous two seasons was starting to come to the fore.
By the end of the season we had dragged ourselves to 17th but with the combination of six or seven of our better players wanting to go to bigger clubs and the promise I’d made to myself at the start of the season, I wanted away.
Another depressing point was that my captain and my most expensive (and most indispensable) player were at loggerheads dragging the squad harmony to an all time low.
You can imagine how impressed the board were with a 17th place finish and I duly jumped before I was pushed.
The only plus point was that the financial situation seemed to have “levelled out” and had it not been for my conscious decision to take us above the wage budget we would have broken even.
Pos | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts |
17th | P46 | 13 | 16 | 17 | 55 | 63 | -8 | 55 |
Cups – again sacrificed for the greater good.
I’m quite excited now to see where my career will take me after finally deciding to leave Northampton. It was a sad decision to make after such a long time but I felt I’d taken them as far as I could. I’m really keen to manage abroad so fingers crossed the job hunt goes well this summer.
For those who are interested these are the leagues that are loaded
Large Database
All from:
- England
- Wales
- France
- Germany
- Spain
- Portugal
- Italy
- Holland
And the top two divisions from Brazil.
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