FM11: Aston Villa Thread - Life after MON

A Very Brief History

Aston Villa were formed in March 1874, and are one of the founding clubs of the English Football League, and since then several world class players have played in the famous Claret & Blue at the Mecca of football and Villa have provided the English National team with more players than any other club (69 in total).

Over their 136 Year history Villa have become one of the most succesful clubs in England have amassed a very respectable amount of Trophies including:

7 First Division (Old) Championships

2 Second Division (Old) Championships

1 Third Division (Old) Championship

7 FA Cups

5 League Cups

1 Charity Shield (Shared)

1 European Super Cup

1 European Cup

Our recent successes have mainly been in the domestic cups, culminating in League Cup successes in 1994 & 1996. Whilst we were runners up in the 2000 FA Cup, & 2010 League Cup.

The aim of taking the Aston Villa managers position is to bring back the League title after a 29 year wait, and to bring back the European Glory nights back to Villa Park.

Facilities & Information

Est. Club Value: £94m

Finances: Rich

Stadium: Villa Park

Capacity: 42,640

Top Training Facilities

Average Youth Facilities & Youth Academies

Above Average Youth Recruitment

Season Ticket Holders: 32,646

Average Season Ticket Price: £450

Average Matchday Ticket Price: £34

Continental Competion: Europa League

Media Prediction: 7th Place

Transfer/Wage Budget

Top Half Finish: £18m/£900k

Continental Qualification: £23m/£900k

Title Challenge: £25m/£900k

Winner: £25m/£900k

Looks good but is very deceptive.

A huge chunk of the transfer funds available will have come through the sale of James Milner, but the allocation for wages hasn’t increase due to Stephen Ireland coming in & taking up a hefty £55k p/w, so your starting wage bill is already a hefty £894k of the £900k you have available. So if you are to increase your wage budget you will have to sacrifice some of the transfer funds or offload players (Which won’t be easy to start with).

Squad Analysis

First of all it’s extremely important to recognise that several first team players have less than 2 years left on their contracts, and if you want to keep any of them then this is an issue that will need addressing sooner rather than later. The most notable are:

End Of Season 1

L. Young

J. Carew

B. Guzan

B. Friedel

S. Sidwell

C. Davies

N. Reo-Coker

B. Bannan

End Of Season 2

C. Cuellar

E. Heskey

H. Beye

A. Young

G. Agbonlahor

N. Delfouneso

M. Albrighton

From those players, It is my opinion that Ashley & Luke Young, Cuellar, Agbonlahor, Delfouneso & Albrighton all need to have their contracts renewed as priorities. The rest of the players are somewhat expendable and you should probably look to offload them and get as much money for them as possible to re-invest in the squad.

All in all though I think that the current squad is capable of acheiving the 7th Place media prediction and you should probably only take top half finish from the options, as even with strengthening key areas, anything higher than that will be difficult.

Anyway onto the current squad, the ideal set up with the players available would be either 4-4-2 or 4-5-1:

Goalkeepers

1st Choice: Brad Friedel

Back Up: Brad Guzan

Youth Prospect: Benjamin Siegriest

This is a positon that will require some attention during the first season as based on previous editions of the game Friedel will decline fairly quickly, and imo Guzan is not good enough to step into the breach.

Suggested Targets: Vincent Enyeama (£250k), Guillhermo Ochoa (Valued at £1m)

Right Back

1st Choice: Luke Young

Back Up: Habib Beye

Alternative: Carlos Cuellar

Youth Prospect: Eric Lichaj

This is an area that is pretty much covered in season 1, I’d even go as far as saying that Beye is someone who can be offloaded and bring Lichaj through as back up.

Targets: None

Left Back

1st Choice: Stephen Warnock

Back Up: Luke Young

Youth Prospect: Shane Lowry

An area that you need to invest in back up/youth imo. Having Young to cover injuries etc is handy but not ideal as you will weaken the other fullback position by doing that, and the youth coming through here isn’t of sufficient quality.

Targets: Roberto Carlos (£500k – Short Term), Fabio Coentrao (£2.5 - £5m depending on your game)

Centre Back

1st Choice: Richard Dunne, James Collins, Carlos Cuellar

Back Up: Curtis Davies

Youth Prospect: Ciaran Clark

A position that is healthily covered, with 3 very good centre halves, Curtis Davies as back up and Ciaran Clark coming through the ranks. You can even maybe afford to send Clark out on loan to gain experience.

Targets: None

Centre Midfield

1st Choice: Stilian Petrov, Stephen Ireland, Nigel Reo-Coker,

Back Up: Steve Sidwell, Mustapha Salifou, Isaiah Osbourne

Youth Prospects: Fabian Delph (Inj), Gary Gardner (Inj), Barry Bannan

An area that looks deceptively strong, but lacks quality. Stephen Ireland is the only player of genuine quality here, but you would probably be able to manage a season without strengthening. Bt don’t pass up any bargains you may be able to pick up here. Also if you can get any money for Salifou, Osbourne & Sidwell then I’d take it.

Targets: None to start with.

Right Midfield/Wing

1st Choice: Ashley Young

Back Up: Marc Albrighton

Youth Prospect: Marc Albrighton

Ashley Young is undoubtedly the star of the team, no matter what position you deploy him in, and if you choose to move him infield or across to the left, then Albrighton is adequate cover but wouldn’t be a first choice for me.

Targets: None to start with.

Left Midfield/Wing

1st Choice: Stewart Downing

Back Up: Ashley Young

Youth Prospect: Barry Bannan

Downing isn’t my favourite playerby any means, but is able to do a job here and you can always have Ashley Young there if needs be. Bannan wouldn’t be natural in this position but both looks like he could developed into a decent winger.

Targets: None to start with.

Strikers

1st Choice: Gabby Agbonlahor, John Carew, Emile Heskey

Back Up: Nathan Delfouneso

Youth Prospect: James Collins, Any Weimann

Here is a position that I think needs a re-shuffle. I’d look to offload Heskey & Carew if possible and bring in a fresh face or two. Also look to send the two youngsters out on loan if you get the opportunity as I think both can develop to be decent players.

It is vital that Delfouneso gets game time in order to aid his development.

Santa Cruz & Jo from Man City both could be potential bargains at the start of the game, as could Hugo Almeida if you want to take the gamble on him as he’s not exactly the most prolific of strikers.

Targets: Roque Santa Cruz (£2.4m), Jo (£4.4m), Hugo Almeida (£1.8m).

Staff

Ass Man: Gary McAllister

1st Team Coaches: Gordon Cowans

Coach: Kevin McDonald

Youth Coaches: Sean Verity, Ben Petty, Tony McAndrew & Mark Delaney

Physio's: Stuart Walker, Alan Smith & Paul Rastrick

Scouts: John O'Hare & Mel Machin

The staffing issue does need addressing as there is a lack of quality coaches in both the senior and youth ranks.

Ass Man: Your choice but I believe that there are better Ass Mans than McAllister.

Coaches: I'd look to bring in at least one person of quality to cover each area (Goalkeeping, Defending, Midfield, Attack) during the first season. For at least the first season though I'd keep hold of the current coaches and add others, rather than trying to do a complete overhaul.

Scouts: The clubs is in need of scouts though and quality ones, any that you can find that are of decent quality in the short term would be welcome additions.

Physio's: This area should be ok and won't need much improving in the immediate future imo.

I think that's everything covered, tried to keep it as simple as possible.

Best of luck to all of you on your quests as Aston Villa manager. Do us proud.

Nice one mate

Whats the potentials of the youth team of Villa like? Who's the ones to keep etc?

From the younger players in the first team/reserves then I'd look at Siegrist, Clark, Albrighton, Bannan, Delfouneso, Delph and possibly Gardner, Weimann & Collins. The last 3 will probably be borderline as to whether to try and develop them or let them go.

There's the potential for a decent young squad at Villa imo

Having played the demo as no team, I wanted to see how Villa got on.

December 20th: 3rd.

Additions: Only Robert Pires.

Star players: Agbonlahor, Warnock and Pires.

Was quite surprised that no-one esle came in, but shows the strength of the squad is capable of doing well. Maybe they have programmed in the post-Christmas dip in form!

I have just finished playing the demo on the 2nd of january and i am currently 3rd in the league and i am through to the knocout stages of europa league , semi final of league cup.

Transfers In:

Robert Pires - Free

Rouque Santa Cruz -free

Igor Akinfeev - 14m

Roberto Carlos - 575k

Philippe Mexes - 5.75m

Transfers Out:

Ciaran Clark - Loan

Shane Lowry - Loan

Stillyan Petrov - Loan 200k view to buy 3.8m

Arseino Halfhuid - Loan

James Collins - Loan 250k view to buy 4.8m

The only reason i sent petrov out on loan is because he fell out with me when i took the captins arm band off him wasnt happy about it said he hated me so i didnt want him in my squad.

Formation i have been playing is bellow:

Pires got injured for a silly amount of time and is still out for 3 months but albrighton has covered well at AMR i prefer him to downing.

I have been supprised at Gabby he has banged in 15 goals in 20 league games, he was also voted 3rd in world striker of the year !

Stephen Ireland has been playing shocking for me so i have had to revert to Bannan playing in CM he has been doing really well.

In january im trying to offload a few players like hesky and sidwell because wages are running way too high so i will be looking to rid of fringe players on high wages.

I found Van Nistelrooy at £1.8 million an absolute steal for my Villa team in the demo, it made me regret splashing £2 million on Almeida.

I've found Gabby to be my best striker but he's quite inconsistant, had him score a hat-trick against one team and struggle to even get the ball against Stoke, he's also had 3 injuries in 6 weeks. Thank god Van Nistelrooy is equally adept as a poacher and a target man to cover for him.

Also managed to get Albin for £5 million, Wijnaldum has been a star player coming in on loan for a small amount, took Lukaku on loan as a backup but he's not played well at all. There's a Spanish right back on the transfer list, Bruno or something? He's took Luke Young's spot as he's pretty good technically.

Titley - How did you manage to get Santa Cruz for free? I've tried in 3 different attempts to get him for less but £2.6m is the lowest I've managed so far?

I must also say that spending £14m on Akinfeev is a bit excessive imo. There's better areas that kind of money could be spent in fairness and keepers that would probably do just as good a job for less money. But each to his own, well done for getting to 3rd by the end of the demo

I can see that Villa are going to be a challenge this time around... Heskey, Sidwell, Ireland, Dunne, Carew and Beye are all on way more than they're worth, and the way this game works with shipping players out, there is no way to get them off your wage bill.

As this is the demo, and I don't have to worry about this, I bought in:

Akinfeev - £12.5m

Coentrao - £3m

Galeano - £3.5m

Paolo Henrique - £9m

Giuliano - £11m

Vidal £9m

Which means I am currently £200k/week over my wage budget... lol.

In the full game, I would rather be able to sell Sidwell, Salifou, Osbourne, Heskey and Beye to get them off the wage bill, and replace them with cheaper alternatives/the players above.

I admit that Paolo Henrique is not needed at all, but I wanted him and Giuliano in the same team

Well no one went in for santa cruz so he got offred towards the end of the transfer window for free so snapped off there hands and the only reason why i payed that much for akinfeev is because im a massive fan !

Finally getting round to having a proper crack at the demo, just approaching the beginning of the season and my transfers in are:

M.Diarra - £2.5m

Jo - £4.4m

Maxwell - £4.6m

Albin - £4.2m

Only player going out are on loan and they're Siegrist, Bannan, Clark, Baker, Lichaj & Parish. I'm way over my wage budget by £110k but considering it's the demo I'm not too worried, just wanted to see if any of these players are worth signing. Haven't had a chance to look at the staff just yet either, will probably wait for the full game to address that.

Great O/P

Will start a Villa save when I get bored of my Man Utd save. Really enjoyed my Villa save last year but this year it's more tougher so it will be a challenge but I'm up for it

This will probably be the first save I start on the full game. Picked up Ji-Sung Park on the demo for around £4.5m and he'll probably be one of my first targets again.

Really struggling with a formation for my villa save playing a 4-1-2-2-1 that worked wonders for me on fm2010......have bought turan 8 mill, M.Diarra 2.4mill, santa cruz on a free and Coentrao for 3 mill, pre season didnt go great lost only 1 but games i won were really poor performances so fellow villians any ideas on the tactic front

Really struggling with a formation for my villa save playing a 4-1-2-2-1 that worked wonders for me on fm2010......have bought turan 8 mill, M.Diarra 2.4mill, santa cruz on a free and Coentrao for 3 mill, pre season didnt go great lost only 1 but games i won were really poor performances so fellow villians any ideas on the tactic front

I'm actually struggling in the demo too with a suitable formation, the team struggles when I play one up top and is too exposed when I play 2? Can't seem to buy a win in the league at the moment?

My defence is very good i aint conceding but goal scoring is a massive no no for me........playing 2 up front now but come on villa why wont u score!!!!!

Great OP mate, hope to start with my beloved Villa soon

Bought Tony Morley. He's great getting those crosses in.

I have decided to start a game with Villa and I am going to play a 4-4-2 or as the game call it 4-2-4.

I will mainly focus on recruiting British players so do anyone have any tips on any British wingers?

Nice OP.

This game already seems a fantastic improvement on last years effort that I just couldn't get in to.

I thought I'd try and concetrate on getting a decent, young English squad and build up over a few seasons.

I sold Salifu, Osbourne, Beye and Carew (I didn't really want to sell him, but as he was on his last year of contract I attempted to negotiate a new one and he wanted astronomical wages.)

I bought Rodwell, Stanislas (He has been fantastic so far, but I've only played my friendlies) Clyne and Ochoa (going against my English plan, but I couldn't find a keeper that I deemed good enough for as little money as Ochoa, who was 4.75 over 4 years).

So far I've won the majority of my friendlies resoundingly, by at least 3 goals, but there was the odd inconsistent performance.

Using a standard 4-4-2 to get up the wings and knock crosses onto Heskey's head seems to be working well, he's even got 4 goals in 7 friendlies! Delfouneso has been an absolutely super sub, coming on for a floundering Gabby Agbonglahor and scoring 5 in 7 from the bench.

That's all for now, I'll post an update after season 1.

Good luck all!

Mattewas,

Stanislas! He seems very promising.

Scout rating of 2.5 stars but potential for 4. Cost me 5.5 straight up.

started one with villa this morning & got some great buys.

santa cruz - season long loan. (man city)

hutton - straight swap for downing

neves - 6.5 million (al ????)

bouanotte - 2.4million (river)

defour - 6.8 (standard)

mori - 1.5 (river)

paulo henrique ganso - 15m (santos)

mexes - 7m (roma)

david luiz - 7.5m (benfica)

ochoa - 2.3 (america)

most of these deals were over instalments. i also managed to get rid of some of the clubs high earners. carew - 4.8m (liverpool) sidwell - 1.5m (everton) habi beye 1m (seville) friedel - free (lens)

just about to start the busy xmas period & im in 3rd place behind chelsea & man utd.

Played a season as Villa and won the league cup, in the europa league semi's and lost to Liverpool, out the FA cup quite early and managed to finish 7th in the league.

Pretty good season and at the end the board upgraded my stadium by 12500 seats and also improved the youth facilities whilst giving me a bit more in the middle of the season to spend

Played a 433 formation and seemed to work well with Gabby, Delfouneso and Carew up front.

Here's come screenshots for you all

Squad Stats

http://img259.imageshack.us/my.php?image=11062010192701.png

Transfers In and Out (some of the fees are lower than i would of wanted but i was really just testing it as I have got Villa in the OTF FMO)

http://img261.imageshack.us/my.php?image=11062010192830.png

League cup run

http://img261.imageshack.us/my.php?image=11062010192920.png

FA cup - I went out on pens 9-8!!

http://img261.imageshack.us/my.php?image=11062010193010.png

Europa League run

http://img261.imageshack.us/my.php?image=11062010193121.png

Future transfers

http://img513.imageshack.us/my.php?image=11062010193226.png

Not sure what to buy next, possibly a replacement for Petrov/reo-coker but im not sure who meets the mold of a quality defencive CM.

how much did they give you during the season? also how much have they give you spend in the 2nd season?

thanks in adavance..

Played a season as Villa and won the league cup, in the europa league semi's and lost to Liverpool, out the FA cup quite early and managed to finish 7th in the league.

Pretty good season and at the end the board upgraded my stadium by 12500 seats and also improved the youth facilities whilst giving me a bit more in the middle of the season to spend

Played a 433 formation and seemed to work well with Gabby, Delfouneso and Carew up front.

Here's come screenshots for you all

Squad Stats

http://img259.imageshack.us/my.php?image=11062010192701.png

Transfers In and Out (some of the fees are lower than i would of wanted but i was really just testing it as I have got Villa in the OTF FMO)

http://img261.imageshack.us/my.php?image=11062010192830.png

League cup run

http://img261.imageshack.us/my.php?image=11062010192920.png

FA cup - I went out on pens 9-8!!

http://img261.imageshack.us/my.php?image=11062010193010.png

Europa League run

http://img261.imageshack.us/my.php?image=11062010193121.png

Future transfers

http://img513.imageshack.us/my.php?image=11062010193226.png

Not sure what to buy next, possibly a replacement for Petrov/reo-coker but im not sure who meets the mold of a quality defencive CM.

I got given an extra 10 million during the season which was Lukaku pretty much and Ive just been given a budget of 1.1 million wages with 32million to spend and that was aiming for a european place

Aiming to sign a back up keeper, top quality central midfielder and possibly a target man as im not sure if Traore and Lukaka are ready for it yet.

Im just playing with tactics and stuff atm so havent seriously started my villa career yet, good post though and yea its quite a job to take as you say a few positions need to be filled and contracts need to be sorted. I think my absolute priority is a goalkeeper the rest i could live with for a season.

I'm going to restart now with my proper career game starting as Villa with a bigger database and leagues How is everyone else getting on? Villa is a great game!

edit: Im going to go for a much more UK approach! Keep in line with a realistic was Villa go!

First of all, brilliant OP. Great work!

I got myself FM11 today, and went straight into a game with Villa, hoping for a repeat of the perverse levels of success I had in FM10.

Transfers:

Streit - quick, good delivery and good with the ball at his feet. Abysmal mental attributes mean he is far from a first-teamer, but should be a good impact sub.

Park - Utd put him on list and with me being a huge fan of his IRL I had to have him. His technical attributes are hilariously bad, but he is a total workhorse which should prove useful in the middle of the park (no pun intended).

Barnetta - I had a choice between him for £8.75m or Landon Donovan for £7.5m. In the end it was Barnetta's all-around game which won it over Donovan's versatility.

Carlos - I needed a second left-back and noticed that Roberto Carlos was gettable. I could have got him for less but what can I say, I got excited. He looks fantastic considering his age.

Selling Carew for such a relatively low price to a team I'm hoping will be a rival may prove a bad bit of business.

Tactics:

I'm happy to see Gabby picking up where he left off in FM10 (so far 8 in 3 friendly games). The Fonz looks useful as well. Hopefully this means the lone striker position is pretty much sorted for the next, what, 9-10 seasons? Other players in the squad who I'm hoping to keep hold of for the forseeable future are A.Young, Davies, Ireland and Barnetta. Everyone else I'm planning to eventually replace but I'm always open for players to make a name for themselves (like Sidwell in FM10 who became a brilliant midfield destroyer; Delph who turned into my Mr Dependable in the AMC position - scoring so many long range goals to make even Paul Scholes jealous, and Reo-Coker, who when moved to RB to cover for an injured Luke Young and stayed there for 3 seasons until Barcelona bought him for £8m).

Can I ask why you play so direct? Is it to try and catch teams with a high defensive line out by using Agbonlahor's pace? And also, why do you choose to play so rigid and disciplined?

I have also started a game with Villa, spent my budget on Renato Augusto and Gary Cahill.

Cahill could develop into a very nice CB, but he has decent technical stats so maybe even a DM. Renato Augusto has the stats and potential to become top-class, and he can play all across the midfield and is reasonably two-footed. I haven't sold anyone, and I don't plan to; I'll try to complete an overhaul in the second season, maybe replace the likes of Carew and Beye in January with some English youth. I would have liked Ninis to come in though, but I only have £1million in the bank.

My initial idea was to keep a tight ship and not mess around, as the Villa team aren't the best passers of the ball... Sadly despite this working wonderfully in the pre-season (cumulating in a 2-0 over Rangers), I just lost 4-1 in my first League game - away to Spurs. It was 4-1, but that really doesn't tell the full story: they got 4 thanks to van der Vaart getting a hattrick (2 of which were free kicks); and we hit the crossbar twice and Streit managed to miss two ridiculously easy tap-ins (one he decided to take a touch instead of hitting it first time, allowing Gomez to collect and the other he managed to get nearer to the corner flag than the back of the net... both from inside the 6 yard box).

Bad loss, but promising signs.

I remember Renato Augusto from something like FM08, and he became amazing. Looks the part in this version as well, good buy. Brilliant work bring Cahill back! Fingers crossed he grabs himself another wondergoal against Small Heath

Sounds unlucky against Spurs. What is your first choice CB pairing?

Was Streit an agent suggestion? I think I had him suggested to me.

My first league game was a 0-0 draw at Villa Park against Man City. Not a bad result - Ashley Young constantly got the better of Kolarov, which resulted in him receiving two yellows, and thereafter Man City's 10 men shut up shop. Next up is Lezurn in the Europa (a comp I'll be using my b-team in), and then we host Wolves. Hopefully by the T/W deadline I'll have offloaded Carew and got in Kevin Davies (I like a good target man, don't judge me!).

My first Youtube upload!

How is everyone planning on getting Delfouneso's determination up?

Gary Cahill is a great shout, i scouted him instantly and am definitely going to get him in for the aging dunne in the next few seasons as we never should have sold him in rl. By the way guys im not sure if it will be the same in your saves but i got jenas for free and i think its great business as we could do with a decent player in the centre and for free who can ague with that?

Bannan, delph, albrighton and clark all have great potential so its going to be good to see if they develop into first team stars!

I've not fully decided on my first choice CB pairing yet. In the sours game it was Dunne/Davies. Dunne is the no-brainer (captain and scored) but Davies was rounded all too easily by VDV for the first goal (Spurs' only one from open play) so I'm going to try Cuellar next as his positional sense is better than Collins.

Yeah Streit was an agent suggestion. Although those misses were criminal, I'm still confident he can do a job.

How much do you reckon you'll get Davies for? I can't imagine it being any less than £9m at best, which is probably too high considering his age and limitations.. You might be able to get Klose for less?

Tord Grip, my scout, reckons I could get him for £3.3million, but I can't offload Carew so it's irrelevant now.

Just lost 2-0 at home to Wolves. Didn't create a single chance, and their goals had me fuming: Jarvis beat Warnock on the flank, then crossed it in for Steven Fletcher to beat my two CBs and Luke Young to a header and scored; the other was a penalty which Dunne was completely stupid to give away.

Just finished my 1st season with the villa, finished 8th and lost in the euro cup final to lille on pens.

Not a bad season overall, Here are some screenshots.

Final League Table

Formation

Transfers

http://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz192/colonel99/Transfers.png

Good first season (Y)

Who is it you play on left wing? And could you post a screenshot of Lichaj pls?

Downing is on left.

Eric Lichaj

Doesn't look like he has improved all that much, which is discouraging. Does he perform well when he plays for you? I've used him a bit and he's done okay for me in the Europa.

Haven't been as active in this thread as I'd have liked, but that's due to me not getting the game yet

Was just about to buy it on friday and the girlfriend says, Oh I've ordered that for you already. "Great" I thought, thinkin that I'd have it some stage this week. But no, she says it's a present from our child for when its born. The baby isn't due until the 26th, so I'll be FM-less until around then

Haven't been as active in this thread as I'd have liked, but that's due to me not getting the game yet

Was just about to buy it on friday and the girlfriend says, Oh I've ordered that for you already. "Great" I thought, thinkin that I'd have it some stage this week. But no, she says it's a present from our child for when its born. The baby isn't due until the 26th, so I'll be FM-less until around then

The child is already the bane of your existence. You should buy it now and play it, otherwise you'll resent the CMOZZA jr. for the rest of your life for denying you two weeks of FM goodness.

But, then again, if your gf goes into labour I don't think she'd appreciate having to wait to be taken to the hospital because "the League Cup final went into Extra Time".

Waiting is probably for the best.

warnock had a poor run of form so i tried him out for a few games and he played ok. I think ill stick with him for the 2 season hoping he can improve with a good run of games.

Anyone been using delph or the fonz in the first team much? Ive tried sending them out on loan but they tend to refuse because they want to stay and prove themselves, then when they get the opportunity they dont play very well :/

Anyone been using delph or the fonz in the first team much? Ive tried sending them out on loan but they tend to refuse because they want to stay and prove themselves, then when they get the opportunity they dont play very well :/

Delph is still injured on mine atm; Delfouneso, I bring him on as a sub in games and play him in the cups. He hasn't improved that much - I want to assign him a tutor, but I don't know how.

Delph is still injured on mine atm; Delfouneso, I bring him on as a sub in games and play him in the cups. He hasn't improved that much - I want to assign him a tutor, but I don't know how.

You have to interact with the player you think will be a good tutor to the younger player, its there in the options when you are in a meeting with him.

Having fun with the game I just started.

I bought in Park to play MR. Then I went a little crazy and brought in Santa Cruz (on loan), Kadlec and Roux after selling Carew. No one can score but Agbonlahor though.

Also tried to go cheap on the GK and picked up Oswaldo Sanchez, which has been a disaster. Ochoa or someone on that level will be my priority for the January window.

Also picked up Bassong on a free from Spurs, mostly just because I could. Probably wasn't really needed.

Haven't been as active in this thread as I'd have liked, but that's due to me not getting the game yet

Was just about to buy it on friday and the girlfriend says, Oh I've ordered that for you already. "Great" I thought, thinkin that I'd have it some stage this week. But no, she says it's a present from our child for when its born. The baby isn't due until the 26th, so I'll be FM-less until around then

:D

Now you have an excuse for not doing your fair share of baby duties when it's born though. "I can't, I'm catching up on the time the baby cost me playing FM." Congratulations btw

Having fun with the game I just started.

I bought in Park to play MR. Then I went a little crazy and brought in Santa Cruz (on loan), Kadlec and Roux after selling Carew. No one can score but Agbonlahor though.

Also tried to go cheap on the GK and picked up Oswaldo Sanchez, which has been a disaster. Ochoa or someone on that level will be my priority for the January window.

Also picked up Bassong on a free from Spurs, mostly just because I could. Probably wasn't really needed.

In the January transfer window I've just picked up F. Vilar for £1.7million and Alex Smithies is coming at the end of the season for £700k.

I plowed all my money into getting Dzeko, got Javi Martinez as well for a tighter midfield, finished the season 4th and won europa and league cup, Dzeko is scoring for fun, half way through the second season with a much adjusted squad and top of the table. The contract situation is a nightmare after my spending spree though, had to let most just fall away to other prem clubs.

The child is already the bane of your existence. You should buy it now and play it, otherwise you'll resent the CMOZZA jr. for the rest of your life for denying you two weeks of FM goodness.

But, then again, if your gf goes into labour I don't think she'd appreciate having to wait to be taken to the hospital because "the League Cup final went into Extra Time".

Waiting is probably for the best.

Yeah, I could imagine seeing a frying pan coming toward me out of the corner of my eye!!

:D

Now you have an excuse for not doing your fair share of baby duties when it's born though. "I can't, I'm catching up on the time the baby cost me playing FM." Congratulations btw

Thanks man, I don't mind waiting I suppose, gives me a good chance to have a look round atwhat everyone else is doing and kind of gives me a head start when I get the game

Once more I try to get my beloved Villa to the summit of the Premier League!! Mind you Im crap so no doubt ill be hounded out after a couple of seasons!!

Anyway. Trying a bit harder this year, I dont get as much time as I used to due to getting all grown up & having a family. I used to play the old CMs non stop, completing 3/4 seasons a weekend, no sleep & lots of chinese & beer was had. Its a wonder I ever met someone never mind got married & became a dad. He is just a bit to young for FM at the moment but he does shout for the Villa, He is 3 next Monday.

Anyway on to the game, taking my time & have acually set up 3 tactics & quickly set up my set pieces as well, never done this before, couldnt be arsed.

Playing 4231 deep with 4231 ( CMs pushed up) with 424 as my 3rd. Fired McAlister & brought in Patrice Bergues as my ass man. Hired 7 scouts & a few more coaches. Heres hoping I have more luck. I just want to play the game now!

Transfers so far

Sidwell to Everton 2.9m

Carew to Liverpool 2.9m

Beye to Sevilla 2.5m I have to pay him 4k a week as he wouldnt go!!

Baker to Blackpool 250k I tried to get him tutored by Dunne & he went nuts!! Feck that...Out you go!!

Osbourne to Forrest 800k

In

Park from Utd 4.4m

Pires Free

Pienaar from Everton 5.5m

Paulo Henrigue from Santos 20m (couldnt get him cheaper) looks the buisness though.

Roberto Carlos from Corrinthians 800k

Sergio Romero from AZ 11m

Most of them over 48months.

I asked the board for more money & they gave me an extra 10m so I upped my squads wages to 1.1m per week.

I need to get Friedel sold as he on 50k though.

Heskey doing ok in pre season played 3 scored 2 1 assist av 7.40

Im trying to get Veron ( Just love him as a player) so far no go. Im hoping if I try enough he might sack his agent so I can at least offer him a deal!!

Played 3 pre season won 2 lost 1. Just about to play the 1st league game against Wolves at home. Wish me luck!!

Here we go...