Towards the end of 2015, after growing frustrated with FM16, I made the decision to get back to CM 01/02. One of my favourite ever games was when I dominated Europe with Rangers – so I thought a good way of getting back to the game was in the SPL with Hearts. Follow my story here.
Busy summer
So having restored the club to the black in season one, I was excited about the summer and a period of genuine recruitment.
I’d already began searching for players that I wanted. My first priority was to fill the two wing back positions, as I felt those were the ones where adding quality would have the biggest impact.
In came Jamie Victory (100k) and Mike Duff (250k) as my first cash signings on the save on June 2nd, before a young Brede Hangeland (200k) joined them from Viking.
The next area to strengthen was up front, and finding a 25 goal a season striker that neither Kirk or De Vries really convinced me they were capable of.
The main man was Marcus Rosenberg (500k), but I also ended up being tempted by Scottish youngster Martin Bavidge (450k).
I perhaps let my heart rule my head with the signing of Kennedy Bakircioglu (275k) on a min fee release for old time’s sake, before attention turned to signing a solid central midfielder.
Kenny Lunt was first choice, but I ended up with Michael Tonge (625k) after delaying twice. It was a bit of a punt to take him on, but we’ll see how we get on.
The exit of Gordon’s back-up goalkeeper Roddy McKenzie on a Bosman to Partick, saw me turn to the loan market for Thomas Myhre, to give competition in the pegs.
Experienced midfielder Lee Carsley came in on loan too, providing quality but also perhaps showing that I wasn’t 100% sure on the deal for 19-year-old Tonge.
With all that business done in pre-season, here’s how we lined up for the first game of the new campaign against Dundee:
This story first appeared on the champman0102.co.uk forums.
