Season 2: Preparing for the Prem

Hello and welcome back to my Middlesbrough FM 2012 story. Last season we managed to win the championship and gain promotion to the English Premier League; having gained my main aim, i was determined that we were not going straight back down and would make a good account of ourselves in the prem.

Transfer Market:

For a championship team, we had a strong squad but i was doubtful that we really had enough strength in depth to survive in the prem. Going through the transfers, most are young players to add depth to our squad. Pogba joined the club full time after a promising season long loan last season. I managed to snap up Mexican wonder kid Carlos Fierro on a a free which i was incredibly happy with. Branescu is a talented young keeper who i imagine to be my number 1 for years to come (my first choice would have been Luis Guilherme but it is impossible to get a work permit for him..); having such a prospect keeper it is hard to find a backup as i don't want another young keeper as he will be wasted because he won't get much, if any, game time so i opted for a seasoned professional in Jerzy Dudek who would also act as a goalkeeping coach. The two other big signings, that were made in January, are Yaya Sanogo and TTdV. Sanogo is another promising striker to pair up with Fierro and TTdV is a really promising midfielder.

After brining so many new faces in i embarked on quite a large clear out to complete the rejuvenation of my squad.

I didn't make as much money as i would have liked but i had to clear the deadweight; mostly made up of players from my youth squad who had no future at the club. When West Brom offered 3m for Steele i just couldn't turn them down as i was already looking to get a keeper with more potential ability. Lots of players went out on loan as well to gain valuable first team experience.

Preseason friendlies:

I was invited to take part in a preseason tour of Belgium as apparently Boro have quite a following there. The preseason was a mix of calamitous defending and squandered changes. I was mixing things up and it would take time for the new faces to settle in so overall, i wasn't too upset by the way our preseason went.

Looking forward to see how we get on in the prem but i think my relatively young and ambitious squad can do quite well; my main aim is to make sure we do better than West Ham and Portsmouth who were promoted from the championship with us.

Your comments are always welcome and if you want any screenshots or have any questions, i'll answer/show them as best i can in the next post.

Thanks,

Atokous