Second Half Of The Season

After the recent run of poor results, I started the New Year by holding a team meeting to allow everyone to have their say and clear the air, to help us move forward. It went very well indeed and the team emerged with renewed heart.

Given the next match was against Chelsea, I still had limited expectations. I changed up the formation to a 4-3-1-2 dropping the DM for an extra CM,  in case teams were getting wise to our tactics, and to my joy we took a precious 3 points at home with a 3-2 victory with a brace from Kweuke and a header from Ryan Bennett seeing us home.  

Then disaster struck, as Kweuke got himself injured for 4 weeks (though we’d have lost him to the African Nations anyway). A kind FA cup tie away to Championship Blackburn in theory allowed me some respite, so I rested some players, but we were dreadful and lost 1-0 to a late goal, annoying the board. However a second consecutive league victory 2-1  (away to Newcastle: Sidibe and Holt) eased the pressure and kept us comfortably mid-table exceeding the boards expectations in that area at least.

In on loan: Inter's right back Jonathan

                                                           

My scouts had been out and about working hard and having carefully looked at all the reports I signed a few players on pre-contracts (if you’re not a footy fan this means they would join us when their contract expired in June). Acquired in this way, all on very sensible wages, were target man Denis Stracqualursi (long term Holt replacement), goalie David Ospina, and right back Nelson and I felt they would all help us next season.

My 4-1-2-1-2 was working well, and I mixed it up with 4-3-1-2,  4-1-3-2 and 4-2-2-2 so I finally felt safe to shed my last wide players. Snodgrass and Pilkington joined Championship teams reflecting my view of them (in the game not real life I hasten to add) for a total of 4 million plus add-on clauses. Surman joined Reading for 1.3 million, and Chris Martin, whose contract was winding down, joined Derby on a free getting his wages off the bill.

Trying to solve the problem right back position I loaned Brazilian Jonathan from Inter. He played brilliantly on his debut before getting injured in the second half putting him out for 6 weeks. Oh well, back to Stalteri!

                                                                 

                                          Portugese U21 International Bebe joined on a free

Back in the league our consistently inconsistent form continued with a 1-1 draw at Everton (Morison getting some game time with Kweuke injured),  a 1-0 loss at Stoke and then a 4-2 victory at Southampton (Hleb and a Grant Holt hattrick).

As the transfer window closed I brought in Sully Muntari on loan. In retrospect I think this was a mistake as the loan fee and wages were high, and centre midfield was an area we were strong in. On deadline day another I picked up Portugese U21 international Bebe on a free. I couldn’t quite accept someone Man Utd had brought in could be useless, so I thought I would give him a shot. 

With no cup games, and the transfer window shut, it was just league games between now and seasons end. The team took a well deserved rollocking after losing 1-0 at home to Wigan and so it was with enormous relief that I welcomed Kweuke back into the fold for our next match, at home to Manchester City.

                         

                                      Sulley Muntari came in on loan but didn't make much impact                            

Whether it was the rollocking or Kweuke’s return, I don’t know but we were a team on fire. We beat City 2-0 and we deserved it. Kweuke, of course, scored on his return and Howson got the other. You can view the goals here.

Draws at West Brom (1-1  Holt) and QPR (2-2  Hleb + og) followed by a 2-1 victory at Sunderland (Kweuke and Jonathan, excellent on his return from injury) continued the mini run and barring a miracle I knew we would achieve our base-line goal of avoiding relegation.

About this time I became aware of a clause in Michael Turner's contract meaning I would have to pay 500K to Sunderland if he played 5 more games for us, and so I used him sparingly.

 I didn't see him in my long term plans and felt I'd rather keep the 500k for other players. This gave Ryan Bennett a chance to continue his excellent development.

Losses to Tottenham (2-1  Kweuke) and Liverpool (3-0) were at least understandable, but after we then contrived to throw away a 2-1 lead against Reading to lose 3-2 (Kweuke x 2), I held them back in the dressing room afterwards and didn’t mince my words.

I called another team meeting the next morning and it cleared the air. Everyone agreed a 4^th loss would be unacceptable.

Swansea were on the receiving end of that determination as we ran out 4-1 winners (Kweuke the goal machine 2, and Hoolahan 2).

Our final 4 games saw us perform our usual Jekyll and hide act with losses to Fulham (3-5  (Hoolahan 2,  & Bennett..who was developing very well) and Arsenal (3-0) sandwiched around wins against West Ham (2-0 Garrido and Jenssen) and Villa 3-1  (Kweuke, Holt and Butterfield).  View the goals here

To my delight we finished 10^th, exactly mid-table (and 2 places higher than Paul Lambert achieved the previous year).  W  13  D  11  L  14

Kweuke was selected as the Premier league buy of the season with a record of:

Played   31   Goals  17    Assists  4     Rating  7.38 

Now I could begin to play the transfer market and try to push on for season 13-14.