Completely addicted to my Crewe game now. Driving the missus up the wall. She goes to bed and I stay up till the early hours hunting for bargains! Just signed a pre-contract agreement with a Swedish youngster - his contact is up in summer and City wanted him, but I got him! No idea how, they just didn't make a bid. Probably confident they can pluck him from me if he turns decent.
Just had the Jan transfer window slam shut. Brought in 11 new players after my board allowed me to renegotiate the budget because we were top of the league. Bought in mainly 16/17 year old kids as I had only 9 home grown and I need 10 by the rules, and brought in Lewis Buxton + Isaac Osbourne to boost that quota.
Also brought in a left winger from Celtic, 21 yo, to replace my French winger whom Levante and Livorno were both chasing, but he rejected terms with both! Was pushing him to leave, a cool half a million if he had left. Now I'm stuck with 3 wingers who all expect to play week in week out.
Collins John injured again, surprise surprise, so brought in a Romanian striker called Danalache - a good target man but can't hit a cow's back side with a banjo - and also a young Croatian u21 international whom I'm playing behind Danalache and is a great prospect, far too good for this league and very lucky to have found him (only got him as agent offered him to me and so took a gamble based on the stats I could see).
Still top with 20 games to go in the league, but not pasting teams like I was earlier in the season. Into 5th round of the FA Cup thanks to an ultra-lucky draw - Stalybridge in the 3rd and Brighton in the 4th. Just awaiting 5th round draw. Also got the Johnstone Paint Final coming up, Peterborough.
Elsewhere, City have climbed to 4th and spent £70M in January - Bryan Ruiz for just £4.1M, Contraeo (sp) for £11M, and at last, as expected Srna, for £14M. Other signings were Nuri Sahin for £18M, a CB who I have never heard of for £9M and I can't remember the rest! Liverpool were bottom with just 5 points until recently, now they are moving up the table unfortunately, and Leicester have sacked Sven as they are 16th and expected a promotion push.
Plan is to sell a good few in summer - I have over 30 full time players on the books now - and I think that will bring in somewhere around the £1million mark. But I'm going to need a better left back, a new DM to replace my OAP Dutch tackler Van Den Leegte, and maybe a new RM to replace 35 year old Martijn Reuser - his physical stats are dropping by the week! But in general I think my squad can do well in L1, so I think I am expecting a push for the play-offs next year. League 2 to Championship within 2 seasons? That's my self-set challenge now.