[FM09] Aston Villa (feels like it's 1981)

2 May 1981: Aston Villa seal their first league title for 71 years

Ron Saunders guided Villa to promotion to the First Division (as runners-up in the Second Division) in his first season as manager, also winning the League Cup. He established them as a strong First Division club, winning the League Cup again in 1977. In 1980-81, he guided Villa to First Division title glory for the first time in 71 years.

He resigned from Villa in January 1982, due to a disagreement with the board over his contract. At the time, Villa were mid table in the First Division but progressing well in the European Cup. His assistant Tony Barton took over, guiding them to European Cup glory four months later

February 1982 to June 2008

Graham Turner

Billy McNeill

Graham Taylor

Jozef Vengloš

Ron Atkinson

Brian Little

John Gregory

Graham Taylor

David O'Leary

Martin O'Neill

12 June 2008: Still waiting to win the league ...

This is where I come in;

Game version---------FM09

Database Version-----9.3.0

Edits-----------------absolutely none

Database Size--------small

Playable leagues

England (leag1) - Spain - Italy (B) - France - Germany - Turkey (div2)

View only leagues (Top division only)

Argentina - Brazil - Scotland - Portugal - Holland - Russia - Belgium

Board Expectations:

Premier Division - Achieve a respectable league position

FA Cup - 6th Round

League Cup - Quarter Final

Euro Vase - do not regard important

Transfer Budget: 5,39M €

Wage Budget: 30,5M €

"Behind every successful man there is a wise woman"

Behind every successful manager, there ARE good coaches, physios and scouts

I want to have the best staff (playing&coaching) available for the club at all times.

My loyalty will be only towards the success of Aston Villa and none what so ever to players or especially coaching staff.

The board will allow

9 Scouts

2 Physios

11 Coaches

1 Ass.Man.

Scouts : want all my scouts to have (adaptability, discipline & determination) stats = at least 13

and their reputation as high as possible

that way they can go scouting through the world with speed and not forget their acquired

knowledge

coaches : very hard to find 7star coaches, but will keep searching regularly till all training areas are

covered.

physios : (adaptability, determination, discipline, motivating, fitness, man management, working with

youngster) stats = at least 11 and of course physiotherapy=20

Staff Transfers

As you can see almost all the original staff have been sacked, the cheapest way to do it would be on your immediate appointment as manager, offer all a new contract but make sure the expiry date is as near as possible and once they sign, offer mutual termination. And don't be discouraged if your target is not interested in joining your club offer them double/triple what they're being paid and they will join you as long as A)their favourite person is not their current manager B)you're not a rival club

My Tactics

4-1-3-2

play the same home & away

make small adjustments within matches

*** and Finally the players ***

I want the best players in the world to play for Aston Villa, but with the budget I'm given and also reputation limitations fans will have to wait until next season, in the mean time with some creative accounting and tight manouvering managed to capture a few stars and of course some cheap talent.

when first starting the game, choose your start date (germany) and make sure you offer all 24monthly payments, no cash upfront, not even signing on fee other wise your transfer will not go through due to lack of funds.

I wanted to sell all the players to finance my own purchases but for some reason in FM09 you can't sell a player if its his 1st few months in the club even if you ask for "0 €" (extreme rare exceptions)

when buying pay monthly (24) but when selling try to get cash upfront, so that you have available funds immediately. Only transfer list a player after you've accepted a bid (turn off automatic transfer list a player when offered to club from manager options) than you can have more bargaining power.

apparently you can't have more than 4 images in one post (so no flooding here)

Squad analysis :

After the pre-season transfer extravaganza we're surely ready for a title challenge, two factors will be very important and only time will show if we're good enough

Squad gelling - injuries

- GK - weak

can't sell the two as they're both new transfers

targets = akinfeev + asenjo

- DL - chiellini top quality

subs are not as good as I'd like

nick shorey = will sell asap (1st season at club can't sell)

targets = budget permitting (j.m.vargas - maxwell)

f.monzon from boca will be a great sub for next season

- DR - weak

d.ferronetti cheap&useful but will definetly buy a class act

luke young = will sell asap (1st season at club can't sell)

c.gardner = will stay looking hopeful

targets = c.azpilicueta

could have had Srna but he chose ManCity

j.faubert from westham will be a great sub for next season

- DC - great(ish)

marcano & diakhate are both good enough to win the league IMO

c.davies = will stay looking hopeful

c.cuellar = will sell (1st season at club can't sell)

targets = Fazio & demichelis

- DMC - gareth barry (the best original Aston Villa player)

sidwell = will sell (1st season at club can't sell)

appiah = I've bought to sell him

p.c. skjelbred = can play DMC MC AMC MR - talented&young

targets = M.Flamini

- MC - D.Beckham *** our captain-playmaker-setpiece master (dont really rate him as much IRL)

if becks and barry get injured at the same time we might struggle

my priority transfer target for January transfer window J.R. Riquelme

and for next season planning huge surprise signings

- MR - M.Santana (great value buy imo)

the problem is he does get injured a lot

still looking for suitable back-up in JAN window

j.milner great sub for both wings cant sell his 1st season lets see if he can prove worthy to stay the next season

- ML - r.ochirosii - denilson - r.wallace (hopewilly rotating these 3 will be good enough)

y.zhirkov agreed to join but the 17M € transfer got cancelled in august, so I sold ashley young and now CSKA was asking for 22.5M € and guess what the transfer got cancelled again after zhirkov agreed (JAN transfer window target)

future targets= d.silva or robben

- Strikers - best duo in the league v.love & milevsky

heskey - will sell asap (1st season at club can't sell)

agbonlahor - very fast (will probably feature on the wing)

jan. transfer target = marquinhos

(budget permitting next season target - s.agüero)

2 talented youngsters

canales & fiorillo

will they make it into the 1st team this year?

ico1 is gordon cowans - I renamed him so not to release him as he is a club icon

1620 is bryan jones - he's no use as a coach but he's got 16 for judging player and 20 for potential so I use him to scout potential kids and also when looking at my own players' coach report

Current wage budget

We've got 32646 season ticket holders paying an average 512 €, average ticket price is 38 €.

Estimated Value 182M €

Media Prediction 7th

And without further ado ...

not the start I had in mind ...

please let me know what you think, i intend to play and update regularly

any suggestions are welcome