Jump to content

An FM Career - Now With Added Bitterness.


hursty2

Recommended Posts

stoke-city-badge-1.png

STOKE CITY FOOTBALL CLUB - THE POTTERS

NAME: Stoke City FC

NICKNAME: The Potters

SINCE: 1863

CHAIRMAN: Peter Coates

STADIUM: Britannia Stadium, Stoke-On-Trent

CAPACITY: 28,384

BUILT: 1997

RECENT HISTORY

Stoke have probably experienced their most successful period in recent times. They were promoted in 2008 to English Premier League and have sinced remained in England's Top Flight, with finishes of 12th, 11th and most recently 13th. This has been down to Stoke making their home ground, Britannia Stadium 'a fortress', with opposition managers claiming it the hardest place to go to. Stoke have their fans to thank for this, providing arguably the best atmosphere in the EPL. An FA Cup run to the Final last year also granted Stoke the opportunity to play in Europe for the first time since 1975 and it is a tribute to their recent success.

The recent transfer window saw Stoke make big money signing in order for them to bulk the squad out in preparation for Europe. They signed Peter Crouch (10M), Wilson Palacios (8M), Cameron Jerome (Und.), Jonathon Woodgate (free), Matthew Upson (free).

OPENING SQUAD

[TABLE=width: 100%]

[TR=class: rowLight]

[TD]1[/TD]

[TD]Asmir Begovic[/TD]

[TD] Goalkeeper[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowDark]

[TD] 3[/TD]

[TD]Danny Higginbotham[/TD]

[TD] Defender[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowLight]

[TD] 4[/TD]

[TD]Robert Huth[/TD]

[TD] Defender[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowDark]

[TD] 5[/TD]

[TD]Danny Collins [/TD]

[TD] Defender[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowLight]

[TD] 6[/TD]

[TD]Glenn Whelan[/TD]

[TD] Midfielder[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowDark]

[TD] 8[/TD]

[TD]Tom Soares[/TD]

[TD] Midfielder[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowLight]

[TD] 9[/TD]

[TD]Kenwyne Jones[/TD]

[TD] Striker[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowDark]

[TD] 10[/TD]

[TD]Ricardo Fuller[/TD]

[TD] Striker[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowLight]

[TD] 11[/TD]

[TD]Mamady Sidibe[/TD]

[TD] Striker[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowDark]

[TD] 12[/TD]

[TD]Marc Wilson[/TD]

[TD] Midfielder[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowLight]

[TD] 14[/TD]

[TD]Danny Pugh

(on loan to Leeds )[/TD]

[TD] Midfielder[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowDark]

[TD] 15[/TD]

[TD]Salif Diao[/TD]

[TD] Midfielder[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowLight]

[TD] 16[/TD]

[TD]Jermaine Pennant[/TD]

[TD] Midfielder[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowDark]

[TD] 17[/TD]

[TD]Ryan Shawcross[/TD]

[TD] Defender[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowLight]

[TD] 18[/TD]

[TD]Dean Whitehead[/TD]

[TD] Midfielder[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowDark]

[TD] 19[/TD]

[TD]Jonathan Walters[/TD]

[TD] Striker[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowLight]

[TD] 20[/TD]

[TD]Matthew Upson[/TD]

[TD] Defender[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowDark]

[TD] 21[/TD]

[TD]Andrew Davies [/TD]

[TD] Defender[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowLight]

[TD] 23[/TD]

[TD]Michael Tonge[/TD]

[TD] Midfielder[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowDark]

[TD] 24[/TD]

[TD]Rory Delap[/TD]

[TD] Midfielder[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowLight]

[TD] 25[/TD]

[TD]Peter Crouch[/TD]

[TD] Striker[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowDark]

[TD] 26[/TD]

[TD]Matthew Etherington[/TD]

[TD] Midfielder[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowLight]

[TD] 27[/TD]

[TD]Carlo Nash[/TD]

[TD] Goalkeeper[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowDark]

[TD] 28[/TD]

[TD]Andy Wilkinson[/TD]

[TD] Defender[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowLight]

[TD] 29[/TD]

[TD]Thomas Sorensen[/TD]

[TD] Goalkeeper[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowDark]

[TD] 30[/TD]

[TD]Ryan Shotton[/TD]

[TD] Defender[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowLight]

[TD] 32[/TD]

[TD]Diego Arismendi[/TD]

[TD] Midfielder[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowDark]

[TD] 33[/TD]

[TD]Cameron Jerome[/TD]

[TD] Striker[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowLight]

[TD] 35[/TD]

[TD]Ben Marshall [/TD]

[TD] Striker[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowDark]

[TD] 36[/TD]

[TD]Matthew Lund [/TD]

[TD] Midfielder[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowLight]

[TD] 38[/TD]

[TD]Florent Cuvelier[/TD]

[TD] Midfielder[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowDark]

[TD] 39[/TD]

[TD]Jonathan Woodgate[/TD]

[TD] Defender[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: rowLight]

[TD] 40[/TD]

[TD]Wilson Palacios[/TD]

[TD] Midfielder[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

LEAGUES LOADED -

England --> Npower League 1

Spain --> Liga Adelante

France --> Ligue 2

Germany --> Bundesliga 2

Italy --> Serie B

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • Replies 508
  • Created
  • Last Reply

JULY - OCTOBER 2011 UPDATE

TRANSFER NEWS

First thing I did when took over as Stoke, was to look through the all 3 squads and figure out what I was working with and what I needed to do with it all. I noticed the sheer amount of deadwood in the reserve side and full first team squad, whilst also noticing a couple of promising youngsters. I was only given about 300K to spend on transfer markets so I had to sell if I wanted any players to come in to the side, in hope of improving it. Therefore I sold Tom Soares and Carlo Nash, as well as sending out no less than 10 players out on free transfers. This gave me an extra 1M to play with in the transfer market and after careful scouting and deliberation I signed a 19yr old Danish AM/ST, Rasmus Falk. He was definitely a signing for the future but also allowed me another option up front because of my seemingly injury prone strike force.

RasmusFalkOverview_Attributes.png

PRE-SEASON

This saw me go on a tour of Holland (Netherlands, whatever you want to call it) and play a few other decent teams just to slowly build up the fitness and bring them back up to speed. Overall, however it was quite a disappointing set of results and not really setting out as I mean to continue!

PREMIER LEAGUE

Only 6 games into the season but I sit in a poor 14th position, with 1 win, 2 draws and 3 losses. Although I have to say that it has been a difficult start in terms of teams we have played. A disappointing performance against Tottenham was the only heavy loss, whilst in other games it has gone right down to the wire.

EUROPA LEAGUE

After convincingly making it through the qualifying rounds of the competition I got drawn in, in my opinion, the group of the death. Schalke, Anderlecht and CSKA Sofia. Two great results in the first two games leaves me top of the group and in a good position to qualify for the knockout rounds.

LEAGUE CUP

ManCityvStokeInformation_Overview.png

A great comeback from my side and a well fought victory against Man City, up yours!

CURRENT SQUAD

StokeCitySquad_Players.png

New signing Palacios has done well, slotting in brilliantly with his determined attitude and workrate, he has dominated midfield and scored a few on the way.

Link to post
Share on other sites

you going to play the stoke way or try and implement your own tactics and change the style of play?

I will be adopting their way of play at first but will slowly transition into my own brand of football. They don't really have the players to play any other way at the moment. :D

Best of luck. Delap's throw-ins are sure to be killer in this game.

Thanks and I hope they are!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Great thread so far! Will be following

Wahey!

OCTOBER - FEBRUARY 2012

League Table

We've had some mixed results so far this season, with big results against Fulham, Blackburn and Swansea. However we've been on the end of some big defeats from Sunderland and both Manchester clubs and this has been the story so far this season - really good results and some shocking results. At one point we were 7th in the league and only 2pts away from Arsenal but now I'm sat in 11th place with all mid-table teams lingering around.

League Cup

After that great 3-1 victory over Man City, we came up against Carlisle from league 1 and somehow managed to draw 3-3 after extra time. This then took it to the dreaded penalty shootout and there we lost, a disappointing result against lesser opposition.

FA Cup

Here we came up against fellow Premier League side Norwich drawing 1-1 in the initial encounter, then Norwich came out 2-1 victors after the replay which sent us out of the FA Cup, with the board angry at my efforts in this competition. They felt I could win it.

Europa League

Perhaps the most surprising set of results came in Europe! I managed to win five out of six games, only losing to Schalke 3-1 after I had beat them 2-0 away from home. This meant that I finished top of Group L and will now face Ukrainian side, Metalist in the first knockout round.

January Transfer Window

In this recent transfer window I felt that throughout the first season I didn't have enough cover on the wings, so I set out to purchase two wingers for both sides of the pitch. This saw me purchase Yassine El Ghannassy (1.5M) and Bjorn Helge Riise (1.3M). Marc Wilson became unhappy at the lack of first team opportunities and wished to be transfer listed but I couldn't sell him, therefore he went out on loan to Fulham for a fee of 160K with a view to purchase at 2.4M.

YassineElGhanassyOverview_Profile.png

BjrnHelgeRiiseOverview_Profile.png

Link to post
Share on other sites

Falk and Ghannassy are all part of my plans to play 4-1-1-3-1, into the next few seasons. Hopefully it works well with the current aging crop of players, making the transition slightly easier.

EURO CUP UPDATE

Metalist 3-3 Stoke

Stoke 2-2 Metalist (Away Goals)

Stoke 2-1 Dynamo Kyiv

Dynamo Kyiv 1-2 Stoke

Next Round - Trabzonspor

Here we go!

Link to post
Share on other sites

END OF SEASON UPDATE 2011/2012

And my first season in charge of Stoke has come to an end, thank god for that. A shambolic run of form in the latter half of the season meant we were confined to no success at all. Who said FM is too easy?! In summary I found my first season full of ups and downs, a great effort in Europe halted by a poor effort in the league. Oh and it didn’t help that my strikers alternated the times in which they were injured/wanted to score. Ten million pound signing Peter Crouch was injured for the majority of the season and didn’t even score one goal. Yes, you heard right, no goals in the whole season. Goodbye, Mr. Lanky.

PREMIER LEAGUE – A mid table position, 12th in fact, is very poor in my opinion. We started so well but results dwindled towards the end of the season as players tired and morale dropped significantly. At home we lost games we should have won, which is disappointing to say the least as I wanted to make the Brittannia a fortress.

EnglishPremierDivisionOverview_Stages-2.png

EUROPA LEAGUE – As you will have seen earlier in the thread, I got knocked out in the quarter finals on away goals, to Trabzonspor. That was a real kick in the teeth for the team and I feel as if that was the downfall of our season, when morale dropped. Although, I can take real positives out of these performances against quality opposition such as Schalke and Dynamo Kyiv.

SQUAD OVERVIEW – The squad is obviously aging and several contracts of the older players run out now so this leaves me with a great opportunity to overhaul the squad, or at least add some fresh faces. The older players were always complaining about lack of playing time too, players such as Jonathon Woodgate, Matthew Upson and Tomas Sorensen. I need younger players that can do the job when they step in but won’t moan at the lack of playing time. I was disappointed with the input from Kenwyne Jones too and I just couldn’t find the right role for him.

KEY PLAYERS

Ryan Shawcross – He was always dominant at the back and score quite a few goals from corners, the good old Stoke way. Chelsea and Tottenham are interested in him but I will do all I can to keep him, or if a huge offer comes I may have to accept.

Ricardo Fuller – In the games he played, especially in Europe, he delivered with a few goals. It’s a pity that he’s always injured and with his contract coming to an end, I’m not sure that I’ll be negotiating a new one.

Jermaine Pennant – An architect to most of our goals, he really turned it on in Europe and when he got injured, our form hurt too.

Wilson Palacios – Integral part of the team, when he played well so did the team.

PLAYER PROGRESSION

Rasmus Falk – He has progressed well and will become a pivotal part of my formation next year, hopefully slotting into the AMC position nicely. 4-1-1-3-1 FTW!

Yassine El Ghannassy – What a name, I always have to check when I type it up! Yassine will also be a part of my new philosophy for the club, playing AML, adding some much needed spark to my lacking forward line.

TRANSFER TARGETS

Seydou Doumbia – Will probably break the bank but I will do everything I can to sign him. I see him as a perfect player to play up front by himself, strong quick and a great finisher.

Ciaran Clark – The young rotation player I am after in defence, 22yrs old and only playing reserves for Villa.

Wilfried Zaha – A young striker that I have been scouting for a while, one for the future.

SeydouDoumbiaOverview_Attributes.png

Link to post
Share on other sites

JULY - OCTOBER 2012 UPDATE

TRANSFER NEWS

I did have 3 targets that I had identified in the previous season, Seydou Doumbia, Ciaran Clark and Wilfred Zaha. I opted against them as firstly Doumbia was going to cost me 12M+ and Clark 5M, then finally I didn’t see Zaha fitting in. Instead I signed 3 different players in the form of, ST Jordan Ball (375K), CB Darnel Situ (1.7M), CM Rasmus Elm (6M) and finally ST Gary Hooper (9M) from Celtic, spending 17M in total. On the out were several players most on free transfers but players sold for cash were; Cameron Jerome (1M), Thomas Sorensen (250K), Glenn Whelan (1M), Dean Whitehead (500K). Some teams definitely got some bargains as I’m finding it very hard to sell not needed players. I even tried to sell Crouch for 5M but no one was having it.

RasmusElmOverview_Attributes.png

GaryHooperOverview_Attributes.png

PRE-SEASON

This season we went on a tour of Italia, playing 4 matches in total against Chievo, Fiorentina, Atalanta and Lazio, then coming back home to play Burnley, Sporting CP and Celtic. We won no games at all, yet another disappointing pre-season.

PREMIER LEAGUE

A decent start, 6 games played and an equal amount of wins, draws and losses. That’s 2 for those that are struggling to work that one out. I have been very inconsistent though which is worrying.

LEAGUE CUP

Two games into the league cup and two wins against rivals Crewe and Sheffield United. I’m using it as an opportunity to give some games to my second string.

SQUAD OVERVIEW

I’ve gotten arid of a great deal of the older players in order to give youth a chance, as well as freshening up the side in hope of more energetic performances. Daniel Bachmann at only 18yrs old becomes my second choice keeper and had to play the first couple of games of the season because of an injury to Begovic. Overall, I’m reasonably happy with my squad as I seemed to have depth but not sure whether it is GOOD depth.

StokeCityTactics_Overview.png

Link to post
Share on other sites

Hooper looks to have got off to a good start. I signed Elm for for of my saves last year and thought he was pretty good, have you signed him for the long throws though to keep up the Stoke name :D

Hehe, they work! :D

And Hooper is doing very well so far. *touch wood*

Im a big fan of almost all of your signings, especially Rasmus Elm, he's quality :)

Yeah my scouts picked him up in the Euro's, I saw his stats and had to sign him.

I've now got two Rasmus' in my team.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Hey, I'm doing a stoke save too (because i support them )

have only sold Danny collins, listed nash.

Signed Ben alnwick (300k), as Nash wants to leave :thdn:

as well as jack robinson on loan from liverpool,

Zenden (Free) [has ripped the prem apart ]

Macheda on loan from man united scored 5 goals in four games :D

However,

My results are:

Stoke 5-0 Slask (Europa league 3rd round quali.) 1st Leg

Slask-0-2 Stoke (Europa leagure 3rd round quali.) 2nd Leg

Stoke 3-0 Newcastle (Premier League)

Helsingborgs IF 1- 3 Stoke ( europa league 4th round quali) 1st leg

Stoke 2-1 Helsingborgs IF (europa league 4th round quali) 2nd Leg

Stoke 0-2 Chelsea (premier league)

Aston villa 0-2 Stoke (premier league)

Stoke 4-0 FC vaslui (europa league Group H)

Manchester City 0-1 stoke (premier league) :applause:

Next fixture is blackpool away in the League cup

then swansea away in the prem

then H. Tel aviv in Europa

Thought you'd like to know :cool:

Link to post
Share on other sites

Some good signings there! Especially that Rasmus, he looks quality. Interesting formation as well, good luck with the season :thup:

Cheers, update on the way! You'll be able to see how my season is going.

Hey, I'm doing a stoke save too (because i support them )

Thought you'd like to know :cool:

Doing well so far!

Link to post
Share on other sites

OCTOBER – JANUARY 2013

Transfer News

I have brought in three new signing and one player on loan. Andras Nagy, Felice Natalino and Manuel Almunia were agreed before January whilst Tomas Hubocan came in on loan from Zenit. I have high hopes for Nagy as he has been labelled as a future star of the club. The other signing Felice Natalino is a young player I got for free, who is also one for the future. Almunia comes in as my backup keeper.

AndrsNagyOverview_Attributes.png

TomasHubocanOverview_Attributes.png

Premier League

Well what a shambles it has been so far, I went on a run of 13 games with only one win and at one point lingered around the relegation zone. At the moment I’m 12th and need a top half finish to satisfy my promise pre-season. This is definitely not what I was expecting and I believe it is somewhat down to my formation therefore I’m going back to the good old 4-4-2!

BarclaysPremierLeagueOverview_Stages.png

League Cup

I got knocked out in the quarter final to Liverpool, losing 1-0 but I wasn’t really concentrating on this. Ok maybe I was…

FA Cup

In the third round I came up against Sheffield United and won 2-1 in a scrappy game within the midst of my form slump. I almost lost this one too!

A very poor first half of the season and hopefully we pick ourselves up now and strive on to Europe spots but I find that highly unlikely.

Here’s to not getting sacked!

Link to post
Share on other sites

90th minute vs QPR, scores tied 2-2. Nagy comes on for a cameo appearance... 92nd minute, PENALTY - Huth is tripped in the box after a corner. 94th minute, 1 minute already over injury time...

AND IT'S NAGY WHO STEPS UP TO TAKE THE PENALTY. The 18yr old has got some balls! He takes a deep breath and slots it into the right corner with ease, HERO!

Link to post
Share on other sites

END OF SEASON UPDATE

Well again, what a rollercoaster ride of a season! This season to be quite honest was harder than the first, a lot harder. At one point I hadn’t won a game in the league for 13 matches, yet somehow I still managed 7th in the league and a Europa League spot! But I really never had a chance of climbing any further up the league. It was the same old story regarding the squad, players would go through periods of games where they would have an amazing run of games – then proceed to play the rest of the season as if their job had been done.

PREMIER LEAGUE

7th in the league was not reflective of how the season went. Any other season we would have been lucky to finish in the top half of the league and had it not been for the top four teams smashing others around us, it would have been a different story. Man Utd romped the league running away with 100 points and their third consecutive league title. Surprisingly Aston Villa were relegated along with Norwich and QPR suffering from second season syndrome. My new signing top scored for me in the league with 9 goals, 6 of them coming in the first 10 games of the season.

BarclaysPremierLeagueStats_PlayerStats.png

FA CUP

We managed again to get to the fifth round but then disappointingly losing 2-0 to Bolton. However, I’m not too bothered about this as I ended up getting a European spot anyway, thanks to Chelsea finishing one spot above us in the league but somehow also winning the Champions League.

LEAGUE CUP

You can see how I did in a previous update.

KEY PLAYERS

Ryan Shawcross – Again he was a stalwart in defence and is attracting attention from all the big clubs, Tottenham reportedly willing to offer 15M to prise him away.

Jermaine Pennant – He led the assists chart in the Premier League with 16, again being an integral figure for my team much like last year. He is getting older now though and with both him and Riise 30, it might be time to look for some promising youngsters or if I can find an established player on the cheap.

Gary Hooper – He was banging them in at the start of the season and then went over 11 hours of football without a goal. His start of season form though was lethal!

Andras Nagy – Not so much a key player but he scored two important goals in the league to take us to 7th position and had it not been for him, we may not be in Europe now.

SQUAD OVERVIEW

The squad is starting to look slightly better now and a great deal younger, this will only be helped through the retirement of both Danny Higginbotham and Manuel Almunia. Although now I have to look for another back up keeper who will be happy with sitting on the bench as Begovic is outstanding, or maybe I should just sit Bachmann on the bench?

YOUNGSTERS

March came around and my youth candidates came through. Unlike last year some were quite good and helped my U18’s squad on their way to being Group 6 champions! Well done! Players such as Kyle Eastham and Steven Loy were integral in the triumph.

StevenLoyOverview_Attributes.png

KyleEasthamOverview_Attributes.png

FINANCES

We began to struggle towards the end of the season on the financial front, being claimed to be poor financially by the board. It seems as if I may have to cut back on wages this year and not spend so much on transfers. Hopefully though, I won’t have to sell key players.

AROUND THE WORLD

| La LigaLiga Adel. | BundesligaBundesliga 2 | Serie ASerie B | Ligue 1Ligue 2 | Eredivisie |

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...