Messages: Sheff Wed EC218

August 20th, 2007 by SM Dev (ste)

Greig Spence writes about his experiences with the Owls in EC218:

I decided to take on the challenge of taking over a small club, and trying to make them a half decent Div 1 side. As I were searching through the clubs in a recent setup which had been created I came across Sheffield Wednesday. They had a £15 million budget, a large stadium, and a half decent team - I took charge and was raring to go.

-In my first few weeks I bought a lot of cheap ‘golden oldies’ that made my average rating soar into the high 80s, but at the same time so did my wages and average age! As I were relatively new to the game I never thought anything of it. After the first month I were winning each game with ease, and beating teams by 5+ goals - halfway through the season I was top of the league by a large margin of points. This is when the Owls hit a stumbling block - my players fitness was low and most rating where decreasing. CRISIS?!?………. NO - I went out and bought 5 new old cheap players, and this helped me secure the league with ease.

As i started to become more switched on to the game, I started to realise that ‘golden oldies’ weren’t the way to go if I wanted to create a strong squad that would challenge in the higher divsions. I started to get really handy tips off the forum off some great people, and this changed my opinion and made me go for youth. Within a month I had shipped out most of the older players, and started buying decent young up-and-coming players. Within a few weeks I saw a large rise for some of these players, and made my squad started to become strong.

When Div 2 started I was turning over very high profile teams such as Charlton and Blackburn Rovers who had recently been relagated. I was starting to relax as manager , and managed to go a 15 points clear at the top within 25 games…CRUISING……DONT THINK SO!!!

As buying youngsters take up a large amount of your money, you can’t buy lots and lots of high rated ones. As a few injurys hit, I lost my first game of the season after 28 games, and for the next 5/6 games my rapidly improving squad lost their lead at the top and Reading were withiin 2 points of the Owls. After selling more older players, I had extra funds to strengthen in the transfer market, and this allowed me to buy another talented youngster - Royston Drenthe (and he made my average age drop to 24 from 30 within a season).

With talented youngsters such as Anderson, and Jullian Jenner, the Owls secured promotion and steadied out in the league. With three games to go the Owls looked set to win back to back leagues titles.

Being a manager of a smaller team is difficult, as you are tempted into buying old (but) high rated players, that give you quick success, but with that comes numerous problems. If I could give one tip - buying old is great, but don’t buy to many! Also join the wonderfull place of the SM Forum and you will get some amazing tips.

This article was brought to you by forum regular Greig Spence, and is part of the celebration by SM for reaching over 50,000 members.

Posted in: Messages, Member Success Stories

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