Convinced Shawcross to stay, but lost Tom Ince to Man U for £24m in the January window.
I had signed Milner from City for a mere £1m, so when United came calling with a £24m offer, I took it as we have plenty of depth at wing between Shea, Milner, Bonaventura, and Walters, and with no money left to spend having splurged on Sandro and Sturridge in the summer window it made sense. I used the available transfer funds from the Ince transfer to bring Kyle Walker in from Spurs for £16m to fill the hole at right back. Shotton had done a fair job in the role, but I see him more as a rotation player than a starter.
Anyway, as of February 2nd we remain undefeated in the Premier League, sitting first in the table with 18 wins and 6 draws, putting us 5 points clear of Arsenal, with a game in hand. In Champions League action we're through the group stages and into the first knockout round, matched up against Porto. We won the Club World Championship against Internacional and the UEFA Super Cup against Dortmund earlier in the year. We've been eliminated from both domestic cups, unsurprisingly as I've put pretty much all rotated/reserve squads out there.
In addition to Stoke I've taken over as manager of Ireland since their elimination from the World Cup Quarterfinals (a surprising run for them since they emerged from a group featuring Germany, USA, and the Ivory Coast, and saw them defeat Uruguay in the 2nd round before losing out to Brazil). As Ireland manager I've recorded 5 wins and a draw, 2-2 against Georgia, 3-1 friendly win over Montenegro, 1-0 friendly win over England, and 2-0, 2-1, 2-0 wins in European Championship Qualifiers against Moldova, Denmark, and Austria. We're currently ranked 10th in the world. I have a full fixture list scheduled for 2015: friendlies against United States, Turkey, Japan, Greece, and Italy, the 4 nations cup with Scotland, Wales, and N. Ireland, and Euro qualifiers 2x Lithuania, Moldova, Denmark, and Austria.