FM Story: Lennard takes over from Fergie - A new era

[pleno1]

Starting a year earlier than real life, Sir Alex Ferguson has decided to step down from management and after interviewing former players such as Paul Ince, Steve Bruce and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, David Gill and the Manchester United board decided that none were the perfect fit for the club. They invited fans of Manchester United and Football itself to send in applications and after a staggering 77,888 applications, I was lucky enough to be in the final 100.

Drove to Old Trafford to sort out previous footballing history and basic football knowledge, 7 were dropped at the second hurdle meaning that there were 93 vying for a job of a life time. After tactical tests, meeting with the players, media training etc I finally passed all of the criteria and was given the leading role at the Theatre of Dreams.

I have promised the fans of this illustrious club that I will make sure we finish above our rivals from down the road and I am looking for the best young players in the world to join me on this exciting road to success.

I am looking to build the team around Wayne Rooney and Phil Jones who will be my eyes and ears both on the pitch and in the dressing room. I will be employing the best scouting system that the world has ever seen and be looking to bring in young quality players from the get go. My transfer policy is that I will never be bribed by agents or by clubs. I will not pay $16m for a player that I believe is worth $15m, I will not pay extortionate wages without a very big reason to.

I am currently doing a full player review and will be posting in the thread about who I am looking to keep, who I am looking to get rid of and potential transfer targets.

[Horneris]

sounds real difficult

[pleno1]

Hello BH,

I understand what you are saying, but I think vs City's check book and my insistence on playing young players with very limited experience who enjoy to play a very attractive yet for the premiership perhaps not direct enough style will make the challenge a lot tougher than it looks on paper. I know the press will be calling for my head after day 1 and keeping huge personalities such as Rio, Wayne and even the older guys such as Ryan and Scholesy on  my side of the dressing room is going to be difficult. I understand that the fans could lose patience very early and may struggle to get behind the team if we don't get a dream start.

[pleno1]

I have decided to pick a formation and desired player attributes for each position


                 gk

rb     cb        cb      lb

        cm  cm  cm

rw                    lw

             st


Goalkeeper

Steady, not erratic, young and vocal, distribution very important


Left Back

Good on the ball, main distribution outlet form the goalkeeper, good aerially is desirable, acceleration and tackling both very important

Right Back

As above, crossing also desirable.

Centre Back 1)

Ball playing centre half, great reading of the game. Passing, heading, tackling, marking all very important

Centre Back 2)

Ball winning centre half, very good aerially, will get me 8 goals a season, good at set pieces from both ends and drives the rest of the team through, ideally my captain


Centre midfield 1)

Tall, strong, athletic, great stamina and work rate whilst good enough on the ball to start attacks

Centre midfield 2)

Box to box midfielder, great stamina, generally tall so can be good aerially but also good at getting into the other opponents box and scoring goals

Centre midfield 3)

Deep lying playmaker, starting attacks and moving the ball from our defensive third into the middle third and generally out to our wingers. Can be a more experienced player in this position so initially Giggs and Scholes could be perfect here

Attacking midfielder left

Both footed ideally, able to play as an inside striker or an out and out wingers, high flair, high pace, acceleration and crossing very important, looking for Nani and Ashley Young to play in this postion

Attacking midfielder right

Similar to above, happy for one of them to be a little more hard working

Striker

Looking for this guy to get the majority of my goals, 30 goals a season man, Rooney springs quickly to mind

Must have subs

Goalkeeper - Older, more experienced and trustworthy. Able to be unphased if called upon in a big match
Goalkeepeer - younger, plays in cup games, gaining experience and learning from the two ahead of him
Full back - Both footed, able to play either side and very dependable
Centre half - Generally good centre half who can fill in and do a great job, also good in the oppositions box
Defensive winger - Away to City, home to Liverpool, maybe we have to mix it up and I'm looking for this player to be able to work very hard and use his impressive stamina to help us grind to victory
Central Midfielder - Back up to the 3 midfielders
Striker - Small, fast, poacher
Striker - Tall, target man

[pleno1]

I've sat down with the board, and agreed that we should put up a great title challenge to City. We are the bookies second favourite for the title and with City being linked with some huge stars who will only strengthen their team we realise that we are probably going to start out as second favourites, I've agreed an 18m budget with the board to hopefully bolster the ranks a little bit.

[pleno1]

From early training sessions we can see that we have a fantastic group of players here, why should we be underdogs? We are the premier league reigning champions, we have a brilliant new modern manager and we have a fantastic set of fans.

From early impressions it looks like De Gea is going to get the number 1 shirt.

We have a great problem at right back, both Fabio and Chris Smalling would be brilliant for this position. Depending on form and our opposition we will rotate these two youngstrers.

Patrice has the number 3 shirt as his own at the moment, he is getting a little old and perhaps this will be his last season in a Red shirt.

Vidic has been phenominal in training, without being face up to him you don't appreciate how much of a monster he is. He will be my captain from the season and a fixture in the first 11.

The second centre half position is open for contention and we may even look at bringing in an extra body here.

[pleno1]

Moving onto the midfield.

Although Fergie preferred to use Park Ji Sung as a back up player, he is going to be in the heart of my midfield as a box to box midfielder. I may use him as a defensive winger in certain games or in second halfs, but he has the stamina, work rate and ability that i was looking for in my B2B midfielder.

Either side of him will be a deep playmaker starting attacks and a bigger midfielder with more physical presence.

We have Paul Scholes and Michael Carrick in contention for the playmaker position and at the moment it looks like Phil Jones may be ideal for the ball winning midfielder role.

We have Ryan Giggs, Antonio Valencia, Nani and Ashley Young as wide options and then upfront we have a healthy trio of Rooney, Hernandez and Berbatov.

This leaves lots of other options that we haven't spoke about yet such as Anderson, Johny Evans and Tom Cleverely.

I'll report back at the end of pre season

[NigDawG]

haven't managed utd but hernandez always crushes the prem on all my saves. criminal to not play him and rooney together imo

[jackinbeat]

Starting a year earlier than real life, Sir Alex Ferguson has decided to step down from management and after interviewing former players such as Paul Ince, Steve Bruce and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, David Gill and the Manchester United board decided that none were the perfect fit for the club. They invited fans of Manchester United and Football itself to send in applications and after a staggering 77,888 applications, I was lucky enough to be in the final 100.

Drove to Old Trafford to sort out previous footballing history and basic football knowledge, 7 were dropped at the second hurdle meaning that there were 93 vying for a job of a life time. After tactical tests, meeting with the players, media training etc I finally passed all of the criteria and was given the leading role at the Theatre of Dreams.

I have promised the fans of this illustrious club that I will make sure we finish above our rivals from down the road and I am looking for the best young players in the world to join me on this exciting road to success.

I am looking to build the team around Wayne Rooney and Phil Jones who will be my eyes and ears both on the pitch and in the dressing room. I will be employing the best scouting system that the world has ever seen and be looking to bring in young quality players from the get go. My transfer policy is that I will never be bribed by agents or by clubs. I will not pay $16m for a player that I believe is worth $15m, I will not pay extortionate wages without a very big reason to.

I am currently doing a full player review and will be posting in the thread about who I am looking to keep, who I am looking to get rid of and potential transfer targets.

Mini SAF imho.