After a poor first season; I wasn’t at all surprised to lose my job as manager of Manchester City. I had expected my team to battle it out for a place in the Champions League, and to secure a UEFA Cup spot at the very least; 11th position certainly wasn’t what I’d been hoping for however, and when I was sacked after a 2-0 final day defeat against relegated Stoke City, the news that I’d been sacked didn’t take too long to sink in at all.
The season started so well, I found myself hovering in and around the top four, and with about a third of the season gone was looking towards reaching my target of finishing inside the top four. Never were the top four clubs too far away, and at one point I did in fact find myself in third position.
Christmas came and went reasonably soundly, and although November had been fairly poor with four draws and only one win; December was once more quite special, and a number of promising wins were achieved.
January was not too shabby; three wins, one draw, and two defeats; a 2-0 win against Middlesbrough on January 17th however was to be our last until April 12th.
Nine games we went without winning in the league, seven of those games resulting in defeat. By this point it was just too late; we’d lost too many, morale was shot, and all we had was a slim chance of making the UEFA Cup. The one consolation during this period was the fact that we knocked Chelsea out of the UEFA Cup. Ajax saw us out of the competition in the quarter finals however and there was little left to salvage from the season. Manchester United had defeated us 3-2 in the 5th round of the FA Cup, a weakened team had lost a penalty shoot-out 12-11 against Carlisle in the League Cup, and whilst there was still hope in the league; a winning streak was vital, and we hadn’t had much of a winning streak since the very early days of the season.
In the final seven league games of the season we won three, drew two, and lost one. A 1-1 draw with Manchester United was perhaps the highlight of the season; it was a lively game and we could even have won it late on, we didn’t though, and we just had to settle for the draw against our bitterest rivals the Red Devils.
I felt that I performed pretty solidly on the transfer market, bringing in David James, Ledley King, and Gareth Bale amongst others; the fans didn’t appreciate so much my capturing of Ronaldo on the free though, and although he did score the winning goal against Chelsea in the UEFA Cup; his only other goal for the club was against Carlisle, and he did admittedly get injured an awful lot. Still, the fact he scored the winner against Chelsea was good enough in my books, and although he may not have been a star signing; he was still a pretty reasonable player on his day.
Gareth Bale was my star player during my season at Manchester City; I tried him at left back, and as a left winger also, and on the left wing was most certainly where he played at his best for me. Since I’ve been gone though Bale has been given a part to play at left back, and is playing pretty solidly there now also. The new manager has spent £75 million on new players, dropped David James and Ledley King to the bench, and halfway through the season has his Manchester City team sitting pretty in 5th. He’s making pretty decent use of my signing Francois Clerc, has given his side a more defensive set-up, and is admittedly achieving far greater success than I ever managed.
Javier Clemente was the man to take over from me at Manchester City, and me? Well, I’m now managing Huddersfield Town in League One. The team was second bottom when I took over twelve games into the season, and slowly but surely we’re making progress and climbing our way up the league. The last manager left the club in a bit of a mess, I think I’m building my team together pretty well though, and as long as I’ve still got the job next season then I’m confident that we can make a push for promotion. The players are beginning to gel rather well together, draws are turning into wins, and I feel that definite progress is being made. Morale could be a bit better, at least we’re not in the relegation zone anymore though, and I now intend to drag the team into the top half of the table.
Will Huddersfield Town make the play-offs this season? I very much doubt it, and for not managing to achieve that I may well be sacked. When I joined as manager though the team was in a real state of disarray; the best players were injured, the rest weren’t performing, and Huddersfield Town was losing games left, right, and centre. Changes have been made though, players have been brought in, and we’re now a much stronger and far more confident team.
Next season we will push for promotion; I feel that if we were to achieve promotion this season then as it stands we wouldn’t be able to survive in the Championship. Give me another season though and I’m sure that a team can be built that will achieve promotion from League One, and battle away with the best of them the following season in the Championship.
Arsene Wenger achieves great things with kids at Arsenal, and whilst my Huddersfield Town team aren’t quite up to Arsenal standards; I do believe in my ability to create a youthful Huddersfield team that can really push for the top.
The Champions League is a long way off yet for Huddersfield Town, the Championship however is where we will soon be heading.
The future’s bright, the future’s blue and white.
