13 replies to this topic

[ChrisOrmie]

Loaded up Italy, Spain and England. Time for a proper Career game and not a 'one-shot deal' like normal for me - wish me luck!

Barcelona hire young coach

Sky Sports News, on 7th June 2010 - 11:17 AM, said:

FC Barcelona have announced the arrival of former Welsh midfielder Chris Ormie as their new head coach. The 26 year old enjoyed a brief playing career before retiring early due to a spate of muscular injuries, and enjoys a growing reputation within the world of club management.

When asked on why he'd decided to start at Barcelona he said 'Why not? It's a great club steeped in history, tradition, and success. There is a great squad here and I'll be looking to make a few tweaks that will allow this club to dominate European football for years to come.'

Barcelona in shock as manager departs

Sky Sports News, on 20th September 2010 - 21:48 PM, said:

After just six games in charge Chris Ormie has stunned the fans of Barcelona by resigning from his post in charge of the Catalan giants. He made little change to the club in his time, signing just three players whilst letting two leave the club. He brought in Brazilian fullback Maicon from Inter Milan in a straight-swap deal for Dani Alves, then spent £15 plus winger Maxwell to Bayern Munich for French international Franck Ribery. His other deals include the £5m purchase of goalkeeper Oscar Ustari from Getafe and the £5m signing of highly-rated attacker Romelu Lukaku from Anderlecht.

In a brief statement read by his agent he said 'I am sorry to be leaving a club like Barcelona but I feel it is the right move. The players want more experience in charge and I feel that this move was the best one I could make for the players, fans, club, and myself too.'

The news comes after a 2-1 away win over Valencia which means Ormie leaves the club with an unbeaten record winning five of the six games. He also secured the UEFA Super Cup and Supacopa de Espana in his brief stint at the helm of Barcelona which means he will probably be able to get another job sooner rather than later.

Troubled Toon turn to Ormie

Sky Sports News, on 21st October 2010 - 10:08 AM, said:

Newcastle have just announced that Chris Ormie will take over the role of Manager from Chris Hughton effective immediately. The troubled club has suffered a bad start to the season and the former Barcelona manager will need to work hard if he is to gain promotion with the Tyneside club, they are currently in 9th place after 15 games and 8 points off the leaders.

He inherits a highly-paid squad that is ambitious but lacking in quality up front. Hughton made some questionable signings in August and it is widely thought that Ormie will need to clear out most of these players and reform around a nucleus of the better players still at the club. Also a priority must be the lack of backroom staff in place at the club, which many experts are saying could prove more of a test for Ormie than rebuilding the playing side of the club.

He met the press at 9.30 this morning and seemed in a good mood as he gave his first interview as Newcastle boss. 'Yes I'm delighted to be back in management so quickly and I thank Newcastle for giving me the chance. I feel sorry for Chris (Hughton) in that things didn't work out for him here, but now I just have to try and put my stamp on things and get the club back where it belongs - in Europe. I realise we need to first get promoted but I like setting more long-term goals and realistically there is no reason why in two to three years time we can't be enjoying European nights at St James Park again.

I'll need to work with the players here for now, but I do have my eye on a number of targets that we will be pursuing for this and next season, some of which will be on loan deals. I hope that I can get off to a good start and I'm sure that the players will quickly adapt to the changes I bring about as they are a professional bunch.'

[localhero]

Howay Ormie. I do not expect to see another season in Division 1!!

[ChrisOrmie]

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How did Ormie do: A Season's Review

Transfers In:
There were some great deals done in January, but first it is important to talk about the loan signings made in the week following his arrival at St James Park. Man Utd youngsters Darren Gibson and Mama Biram Diouf joined the club until January and were huge successes, sadly the same cannot be said for young Chelsea midfielder Nemanja Matic - he spent all season picking up injuries and played just three times for Newcastle this past season. Towards the end of January the deal for Gibson was made permanent as his excellent displays in midfield were enough to pursuade Ormie to part with £4.5m for the talented youngster. Both other loan deals were extended until the end of the season at this point too, which proved to be great business in the case of Diouf.

On the first day of the transfer window came the important deals that helped Ormie to build a team judged the best in the Championship by every rival manager. First from Inter Milan came Victor Obinna for £850k, the pacy Nigerian striker formed a lethal partnership with Diouf up front and scored 18 in 22 games. Also in on the opening day was defensive midfielder Richard Hughes from Portsmouth to add steel into the midfield, the combative player became the link between defence and attack and was an important part of the jigsaw. Then in the following days came Belgian prodigy Axel Witsel in a £1.8m move from Standard Liege and Croatian dynamo Milan Badelj from Dinamo Zagreb in a cut-price £825k deal, these two provided all the creativity and forward thinking that was needed to drive the club forward and are both young enough to be a big part of any future success the club may achieve.

Transfers Out:
To recoup some of the outgoings (and also to cover the planned capture of Gibson) Ormie let a number of squad players leave the club for decent fees. Mike Williamson went to Celtic for £2.6m, Kazenga LuaLua left for Cardiff in a £190k deal, David Vaughan joined Rangers for £1.6m, Wayne Routledge joined Derby for £1.5m and Fabrice Pancrate joined Sporting CP for £950k. However the headlines were grabbed by two huge sales when Joey Barton left for Liverpool in a deal believed to total £4.2m and Leon Best joined Bolton for £2.8m following his goal spree of 8 in 6 games.

Championship Record:
1st - Played 46, Won 32, Drawn 7, Lost 7, For 97, Against 40, Points 103

After just 15 games we parted ways with former manager Chris Hughton and at that point we were in 8th place and 4 points off the playoffs, Ormie revitalised the club and we soon shot up the table till we reached the summit on boxing day. After the shaky start it was a great performance by the team and the new players provided the goals that had been sorely missing up until that point. Despite a valiant challenge from West Brom and Nottingham Forest, the Toon were only twice displaced from the summit in January and kept opening the gap once they regained the top spot as February began. It's a shame that Sunderland got relegated this season as we can no longer look forward to the games against our close rivals next season.

FA Cup:
3rd Round - Beat Southend 4-0 at home
4th Round - Beat Wigan 1-0 away
5th Round - Beat Cardiff 3-1 at home
6th Round - Lost 1-0 away to Everton

A solid set of results though no game was easy. Sadly Everton proved too strong this year and we departed in the 6th round whilst they went on to defeat Chelsea 1-0 in the Final.

League Cup:
2nd Round - Beat Coventry on penalties at home
3rd Round - Beat Swansea 2-1 at home
4th Round - Beat Reading 1-0 at home
Quarter Final - Beat Sunderland 2-1 after extra time away
Semi Final Leg 1 - Lost 2-1 away at Man Utd
Semi Final Leg 2 - Beat Man Utd 2-0 at home
Final - Beat West Ham 2-0 at Wembley

A fantastic achievement and the first silverware of Ormie's reign came with a fantastic performance where Leon Best scored the winner in extra time away to our local rivals Sunderland, and then the two-legged tie against Man Utd where Andy Carroll proved too much for Ferdinand to cope with! The final was a great occasion and seeing Steven Taylor lift the cup was amazing.

Round-up:
Championship and League Cup double winners, Premiership football again next season and also the Europa League to look forward to means that this season can only be seen as an unmitigated success. With last season's signings already looking ready for the Premiership and a transfer kitty rumoured to be in the region of £35m the season ahead looks bright. HOWAY THE LADS!

[White]

Outstanding performance in the League Cup which must have been a massive surprise for you. You made some quality signings in January like Witsel so you gave yourself a boost in the later stages of the competition. What formation were you playing? A few more additions to your squad and you should surely be aiming for a midtable finish first time out. KUTGW

[ChrisOrmie]

White, on 21 May 2010 - 09:46 PM, said:

What formation were you playing?

I'm playing a 4312 at home and a mix between 41212 and 4132 away from home, it suits the team quite well and allows for a more stable defence. I started off in a 451 but that was too prone to giving silly goals so I changed to the 4312 which has worked at every club I have managed on FM10 so far.

White, on 21 May 2010 - 09:46 PM, said:

Outstanding performance in the League Cup which must have been a massive surprise for you. You made some quality signings in January like Witsel so you gave yourself a boost in the later stages of the competition.

The League Cup was by far our best - and my favourite - competition this year and I was gutted when we drew Man Utd in the cup tbh. Both games were tough and we defended like beasts, but a last minute goal at Old Trafford gave me hope and we had a thunderbolt from Witsel and Gibson (who I had signed permanently the day before the second leg so he could play ) put on a masterclass in the return leg to see us through. The final was a bit of an anti-climax after that as I just couldn't get as excited! Still the result of the year must be the 2-1 defeat of the Mackems as it was as 50-50 as a game can be until Leon Best scored a wonderful strike to send us through - that and the 4 goals he put past former club Coventry are the reasons I think Bolton came in for him as a long-term option to replace Kevin Davis.

White, on 21 May 2010 - 09:46 PM, said:

A few more additions to your squad and you should surely be aiming for a midtable finish first time out. KUTGW

This season I have spent a little bit of money on some good transfer-listed players (again) and I fully expect to see us finish no lower than 14th - though as always I do have my eye on top-10 . Hopefully Mike Ashley can sell up like he says he wants to and we can move on with a Chairman that will actually help not hinder!

[Zabier]

I can't believe you won the League Cup whilst in the Championship. You are a master of the football management arts mate! You still playing on this one? Interesting to see how the season continues.

[ChrisOrmie]

Zabier, on 03 June 2010 - 11:10 AM, said:

I can't believe you won the League Cup whilst in the Championship. You are a master of the football management arts mate! You still playing on this one? Interesting to see how the season continues.

It's only my second final on FM2010 whilst in the Championship and my first win   I got lucky with the draw in places but when I needed a big performance my patented '5 up front' formation seemed to work well enough in the last 15 mins of a game to grab the result. I appologise to all my season ticket holders and can understand why most of them probably stayed in the pub until 65 minutes into the game due to the 'style' of football we played before changing to my Keegan-inspired tactics.

Yeah I got sidetracked with my personal site, another two forums (non-fm related) I post on, job seeking, a computing course, the FMV Tour and family crap - but should be updating this tomorrow or the weekend.

I am a season ahead and all I can say is that a big move happened (link in sig should make it obvious who to), good last season with Newcastle though and I think they have the right chairman now (ie Not Ashley) to keep them in the Premier. More to come on this soon!

[ChrisOrmie]

More complex update to follow soon, just been bogged down with errands and the like so not had the time to play FM for a while!

Brief Update: Robinho plays well, Newcastle finish in the top half, Ormie leaves for Real Madrid (Fans protest former Barca man), Ormie signs Robinho (Real fans protest).

[localhero]

Still can't believe you left us.  

[ChrisOrmie]

localhero, on 10 June 2010 - 06:06 PM, said:

Still can't believe you left us.  

The new chairman was lining up replacements and despite me bringing the bank balance up to £65m they'd only given me £4m transfer to get a CL place - stupid new chairman. Then Real offered me their job with a war chest of £160m and a three year deal - I'd have been stupid to turn that down, so I signed my top 3 players from Newcastle (including Robinho) and gave Newcastle another £50m. The Toon are a top 6 Premiership side with trophies in the cabinet, a 60k stadium, and £100m in the bank - I left them in a far better state than when I joined them so I have no regrets.

[ChrisOrmie]

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The Toon are back at the top!

This last year has been eventful as we saw the departure of Mike Ashley from the club and the new consortium led by Piero Camilli took over. Rumours abounded that a new manager was the preference of the new chairman as he looked to install Ancellotti, Mancini or Maradona in the hot-seat at St James Park. Understandably Ormie was disappointed by these rumours, "I understand that the new owners have to look at all aspects of the club's set-up and if they feel I need to be replaced then that is their perogitive. I'd be lying if I said I was happy with it but I will endevour to work hard and show them that I am still the right man for this club, I have one year left on my contract and I feel that I should be allowed to see out that year before a decision on my future is made by Mr Camilli and the board."

Following the interview by Ormie, the club released a statement that read "The board are glad to announce that Chris Ormie will be retained as manager of Newcastle United for the upcoming season, following which the board will look at the situation and decide upon a number of situations within the club."

2010 Transfers
This past season saw a number of new faces join the Toon as they geared up for their first season back in the Premiership. Nicola Possi (free), Arouna Kone (£1.2m), Nelson Rivas (free), Daniele Dessena (£350k), Jamie O'Hara (£1.9m), Abou Diaby (£3.5m), Cristian Molinaro (£1.7m), Stephan Lichtsteiner (£4.3m), Jonjo Shelvey (£1.8m) and Robinho (£16.5m) all joined in the summer of 2010 to provide much needed competition for the existing squad.

To make way for these new players Jonas, Ryan Taylor, Fraser Forster, Danny Simpson, Peter Lovenkrands, Andy Carroll, Kevin Nolan, and Richard Hughes left for new clubs.

Although a lot of pundits were worried by the large numbers of changes to the playing staff, Ormie was adamant that the squad he was putting together could take Newcastle to glory over the next few years - a point he was to be proved correct on.

2010 Competitions
The new signings quickly gelled and Newcastle shot up the Premiership table lying in 5th at the turn of the year. The fourth round exit in the League Cup was disappointing but it was more than made up for by excellent progress in both the Europa League and FA Cup, as well as the continued success in the league games.

With three games left of the Premiership season the Toon were lying in 5th position with games against 2nd placed Arsenal, 4th placed Liverpool and finally 3rd placed Tottenham. Three wins saw Newcastle rise to finish 2nd and guarantee themselves a Champions League place for next season. The 8 point gap between the club and Chelsea proves that a lot of work needs doing for next year.

In the Europa League final Newcastle took on Schalke in a tough game decided by two Robinho strikes (9, 86) to hand them their first European trophy since they won the competition in 1969. The game itself was marred by some reckless challenges and the physicality of Schalke that threatened -but never managed - to upset the flowing passing rhythm of Newcastle. The celebrations were long and plentiful following this success and the streets of Duline were awash with those in black and white drinking pints of black and white.

Following that memorable night in Dublin, the Toon Army marched to Wembley for an FA Cup final against West Ham. The game was quick paced and it only took 5 minutes for West Ham's Mark Noble to score a penalty and give the London side the lead. Two minutes later however the Newcaslte faifthful's hopes were restored as Victor Obinna scored from 25 yards to level the tie. Just before half-time Obinna rounded 4 players before slotting past the keeper to give Newcastle a 2-1 lead at the break. The game was end to end with glorious chances missed by Scott Parker and Mark Noble to equalise before Carlton Cole stole in at the far post with a diving header from Noble's cross to level things once again - and it stayed level until penalties. Cole, Parker, and Kovac converted their kicks for West Ham, whilst Robinho, Xisco, and Badelj's goals meant that Arouna Kone stepped up to claim the victory for Newcastle.

A new era?
Following the celebrations was the shock announcement that the Newcastle board would not be renewing the contract of popular manager Chris Ormie and instead were in advanced talks with David Moyes to take over the helm at St James Park. In a brief statement Ormie said, "I am happy with my successes on Tyneside and to have lifted Newcastle back to a position that the fans deserve. There is a lot of money in the club that I have helped generate, plus a very good squad to challenge on many fronts next season under the new manager. In my short reign here I have achieved much and so leave with my head held high." On 31'st May 2011 Ormie left the club for the vacant post at Real Madrid, with David Moyes installed as the new gaffer at Newcastle on the 3rd of June 2011. We wish both managers the best of luck at their new clubs.

[ChrisOrmie]

Real Madrid - 2011/2012

Quote

Real Madrid fans are said to be unhappy with the appointment of Chris Ormie as their new manager. Real president Florentino Perez has come in for criticism from vast swathes of the club's fans for hiring the former Barcelona manager.
The Welsh manager released a statement this morning to quell the fury of the Madridistas, "I am delighted to be named the new Real Madrid manager today and hope to bring a lot of success and trophies to the Santiago Bernabéu. I understand that my past appointment at Barcelona will be difficult for some of our fans to look past, but I can guarentee that my full focus and attentions are on the betterment of Real Madrid and that I will be looking to make an impact in both the transfer windows and on the pitch. A club of the stature of Real must be looking to win La Lige every year whilst also ensuring that our proud history in Europe and the Copa del Rey are upheld. I have signed a two-year deal to coach this great club and I hope to do enough in that time to prove myself to the fans and gain another deal here."

Transfers In:
Robinho from Newcastle for £25m
Giorgio Chiellini from Juventus for £35m
Moussa Sissoko from Tottenham for £15m
Mamadou Sakho from PSG for £18m
Igor Koyada from Newcastle for £10m (19 year old GK)
Shimon Haim from Newcastle for £10m (20 year old MC)
Aitor Bergara from Getafe for £5m (17 year old SC)
Pereira from Atletico Paranaense for £1m (18 year old DC)
Leandro from Cruzeiro for free (19 year old DLC)

Transfers Out:
Ruben De la Red to Genoa for £15m
Esteban Granero to Zaragoza for £8.5m
Marcelo to Newcastle for £10.5m
Alvaro Arbeloa to Inter for £8.25m
Raul Albiol to Fiorentina for £18m
Ezequiel Garay to Lazio for £13.25m
Lassana Diarra to Liverpool for £32.5m
Chinedu Obasi to Juventus for £21.5m

[upthehammers]

well done with newcastle matey and i wish you luck with Real, interesting to see youve bought a few players from your former club, including a Bernabau return for Robinho...will be interesting to see how this develops.

[ChrisOrmie]

Real Madrid - 2012/2013

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The honeymoon is over for Chris Ormie as Madridista's lined the street to protest about his style of management over the course of his first season in charge. The fans are said to be most furious with losing to rivals Barcelona 3-0 at the Camp Nou and also that the title was decided 5 weeks before the end of the season thanks to a 1-0 loss at home to Getafe.

The under pressure manager spoke on these issues during his end of season press conference today. "I do agree that during my time here at Madrid, the club has not hit the expected or required levels of performance and success. However I feel that this is down to a lot of changes in both the playing and backroom staff personnel which was needed to stabilize the future of this club. Our poor form cost us in our chase for the La Liga title this year and we could not catch up to an impressive Barcelona side. We did, however, improve towards the season's end with only one defeat in our last thirteen games meaning we closed the gap down to just 3 points by the time the season ended. I promise a vastly improved start to the next campaign and we will endeavour to bring home the League title that the people of this great city so richly deserve."

One highlight from last year is the clubs impressive showing in the Champions League where only a late goal from Mario Balotelli stopped Real from clinching a place in the final. The displays in this competition show that Ormie may indeed have the tactical knowledge and the players at his disposal for a successful season next year.

It simply remains to be seen whether the fans agree or not, and if they are willing to have the former Barcelona man continue at the helm of their club.

Transfers In:
Gaston Beniharg £1.2m (17 year old French regen Striker)

Transfers Out:
None

Pre-Season Update:
A solid start with 6/6 wins and not a single goal conceded, though a minor injury to Casillas did mar things a little. We put in some good performances against some good teams (Boca, River, Santos, Sampdoria, Spurs) and controlled each game - even when the youngsters and squad players were called upon.

August - September:
We got off to a flyer with a run of 5 games unbeaten (inclding a 2-0 win over Barca at home) which saw us rise to first place. Sadly Robinho broke his leg in training which saw him rules out for 7 months (and probably the season), and this was followed up by the loss of Chiellini for 4 months with ligament damage. Still we stayed within the top 2 throughout the opening two months and our squad looked strong enough to cope with these losses.

September - December:
The loss of Kaka (knee 1 month), Sakho (ankle 2 months), Sissoko (arm 2 months) and Higuain (hip 5 months) to injury meant that we were starting to get a little thin on the ground as far as our first team playing staff was regarded. This meant the return to the starting line-up for Guti and Raul, both of whom held things together through this difficult period.

Januray:
With money in the bank and a real injury crisis going on I decided to splash the cash on some quality players to get us in good shape again. I had lined up bids for Agger, Mascherano, Ribery, Balotelli and Dzeko when the unthinkable (to me) happened. It was all started by Lassana Diarra and Sergio Ramos who spoke to the press about their dislike for me and then the floodgate opened as quite a few of their team-mates joined their tirade. I was pleased to see none of my signings were a part of it but it was all for naught as finally Raul, Casillas and Guti added their voices to the throng and the board responded. After 18 months in charge and with just 6 months left on my contract they sacked me for losing control of the dressing room.

Quote

Today came the news most of Real Madrid's fans had expected - Chris Ormie has been relieved of his duties and sacked from his position of manager. It seems the players (led by fan-favourites Ramos, Raul & Casillas had had enough of his management style and the sweeping changes he had made to the club's staff. The players responded by protesting to the board who took the decision to oust the young Welsh manager from his position in charge of the club.

Ormie was not available for comment but a brief statement was read out by his agent on the matter: "Chris feels very aggrieved at what has taken place and is both hurt and saddened by the lack of honesty, ambition and understanding shown by the players and board of Real Madrid. He will be taking some time out of management but does plan to start searching for a job for the start of next season. He bears Real Madrid no ill wishes and hopes they will reap the benefits of his changes for the future."

So after a brief (but maddening) stint at Real I am looking for a new job for the next season. I am going to take a break from this save as I am currently playing another save where I have taken over the new-look Liverpool in August 2011. There are a few player changes, a new board and the new stadium to look forward too, so I am enjoying the rebuilding of this fallen European giant. I may or may not make a CG thread with that game, only time will tell.