[FM10] Stoke City - Now including proper football

[mackemforever]

Some of you may be following my Backwell United story at the moment, but that is currently on hold as my computer is too slow to run it properly 9 season in with all English leagues loaded, so I have decided to start a new story while I am waiting to upgrade my computer, so here I go.

I am only running the English leagues down to League 2, but with a large database and all players from Europe loaded.

Club History

Formation - Stoke City F.C., considered to be the second-oldest English football league club, formed in 1863, under the name Stoke Ramblers, when pupils of Charterhouse School formed a football club while apprentices at the North Staffordshire Railway works in Stoke-on-Trent. The club's first documented match was five years later, in October 1868, against an EW May XV at the Victoria Cricket Club ground. Henry Almond, the club's founder, was also captain, and scored the club's first ever goal. During this period they played at the Victoria Cricket Ground; however, they switched to a nearby ground at Sweetings Field in 1875 to cope with rising attendances.

In 1878, the club merged with Stoke Victoria Cricket Club, and became Stoke Football Club. They moved from their previous ground, Sweetings Field, to the Athletic Club ground, which soon became known as the Victoria Ground. It was around this time that the club adopted their traditional red-and-white striped kit. In August 1885, the club turned professional.

Stoke was one of the twelve founding members of The Football League when it was introduced in 1888. The club struggled in their first two seasons, 1888–89 and 1889–90, finishing bottom on both occasions.

Recent Years - 1997–98 saw Stoke move to its new ground, the Britannia Stadium, after 119 years at the Victoria Ground. Chic Bates, Macari's assistant, was appointed manager for the club's first season in the new ground. He did not last long though, and was replaced by Chris Kamara in January 1998. Kamara could not improve the club's fortunes either, and he too left in April. Alan Durban, previously Stoke's manager two decades earlier, took charge for the remainder of season. Despite his best efforts, Durban was unable to keep the club up, as defeat on the final day of the season consigned Stoke to relegation from Division One. Brian Little, formerly manager of Aston Villa, took charge for the 1998–99 season. Despite an impressive start, the team's form tailed off dramatically in the latter stages of the season, which led to Little leaving the club at the end of the season. His successor, Gary Megson, was only in the job for four months. Megson was forced to depart following a takeover by Stoke Holding, an Icelandic consortium, who purchased a 66% share in Stoke City F.C. for the sum of £6.6m. Stoke became the first Icelandic owned football club outside of Iceland. Stoke appointed the football club's first overseas manager, Gudjon Thordarson, who helped Stoke City win the Auto Windscreens Trophy and earn promotion to the First Division in 2001–02 the springboard to the Premier League six seasons later. Thordarson had, in fact, been the primus motor in getting the consortium together.

The Auto Windscreens Shield was won in the 1999–2000 season, in April 2000, with a win over Bristol City in front of a crowd of 85,057 at Wembley. Thordarson achieved promotion at the third time of asking in 2001–02. A second successive 5th-place finish ensured a play-off spot. Cardiff City were defeated in the semi-final before a 2–0 win against Brentford at the Millennium Stadium secured promotion. Despite achieving the goal of promotion, Thordarson was sacked by Gunnar Gislason only days after the club won promotion.

Steve Cotterill was drafted in as Thordarson's replacement prior to the start of the 2002–03 season. Cotterill quit in October 2002, after only 4 months in charge. Tony Pulis was appointed as Stoke's new manager shortly after. Pulis steered Stoke clear of relegation, with a 1–0 win over Reading on the final day of the season keeping the club in the division. Pulis was sacked at the end of the 2004–05 season, following disagreement between himself and the club's owners.

Dutch manager Johan Boskamp was named as Pulis' successor on 29 June 2005, only a day after Pulis was sacked. Boskamp broke the club's transfer record in signing Sambégou Bangoura for a fee in the region of £1m. Despite his spending on new players, Boskamp's side was inconsistent and only a mid-table finish was achieved. Boskamp left at the end of the 2005–06 season, amidst a takeover bid by former-chairman Peter Coates. On 23 May 2006, Coates completed his takeover of Stoke City, marking the end of Gunnar Gislason's chairmanship of the club. Coates is a former shareholder of the catering company which supplies to the majority of Northern England's football grounds, Stadia Catering, as well as being the chairman of Bet365, the betting company which provides services in many sporting venues, albeit not including the Britannia Stadium. Coates chose former manager Tony Pulis as Boskamp's successor in June 2006. Pulis took Stoke close to a play-off place, however an eventual 8th-place finish was achieved in the 2006–07 season.

Top Flight Return - Stoke won promotion to the Premier League after a goalless draw with Leicester City on the last day of the 2007–08 season, putting them in 2nd place of The Championship, thus earning automatic promotion. The promotion earned Stoke £35 million for the 2008–09 season, and a minimum of £60 million over the space of three seasons.

Despite poor-runs in both the FA and Carling Cups, the club exceeded expectations in terms of 2008–09 League performance. A defeat to Bolton Wanderers on the opening day of the season did not bode well, with bookmaker Paddy Power paying out on Stoke to be relegated, but fortunes quickly changed. In Stoke’s first game of the season at the Britannia Stadium, the team managed to pick up all three points against Aston Villa, following a 3–2 win, and notably, on 20 September, held Liverpool to a 0–0 draw at Anfield. Wins also came against Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Sunderland and West Bromwich Albion, all before the end of November, however on 15 November, league-champions Manchester United gave Stoke their largest defeat of the season, with a full-time score of 5–0.

In the following months, Stoke’s quest for silverware came to an end after being knocked out of the Carling Cup by Derby County in the quarter-finals, and the FA Cup by Hartlepool United in the third-round. The New Year brought further points in the league though, with draws against Portsmouth and Aston Villa, and a 2–0 win against Bolton Wanderers. From the 21st March, Stoke scored points in four consecutive games, only dropping points to Newcastle United in this time. After a 2–1 win at Hull City, Stoke confirmed their place in the Premier League 2009–10, and reached a league high of 11th place after defeating Wigan Athletic, 2–0. A defeat to Arsenal away meant that the Potters finished 12th in their return to the top flight.

Reputation

In recent years Stoke City have got a bit of a reputation as being a bit of an industrial side who tend to park the bus too much and rely on long balls and Rory Delap's arms to get them goals. The aspect of the club that gets the most respect at the moment is definitely their supporters, with the stadium being full almost every week no matter where they are sitting in the table.

Long Term Aims

I only have 3 real aims as manager of Stoke City and they are as follows:

1) Get the team playing proper football, getting the ball down and playing it properly, rather than simply bombarding defences with long balls.

2) Use as much talent from our youth system as possible and help secure the future of English football by utilising as much English youth as possible.

3) Make Stoke City one of the dominant sides in European football.

Initial Assessment

Squad - Quite a large squad to start with but one that I will be making sweekping changes to this season. In order to get my team playing good football I wil be making quite a lot of changes this year but hopefully keeping things more stable in the future. The first step I need to take with the squad is to sell all of my wingers as I never use any formations that need them. I will also be getting rid of a good number of players who I don't think are good enough to play the style of football I want to achieve but whose sale will help to fund some better signings.

Transfers

Transfers - I had a budget of £6m and so had to fund almost all of my signings by selling existing squad members. I think that the signings I have made could really help this season, and possibly next, as there are some old players in there who will not last very long, but I do think that there is a good mix of first team players and good backup.

Rivaldo - One of the short term measures. Will have to be used sparingly so he doesn't get too worn out, and he could be tricky to manage due to his poor attitude to hard work, but I still think he could give the team a real edge going forwards.

Vincent Enyeama - A solid goalkeeper who will be first choice to begin with and hopefully can do a good job between the sticks.

Guti - Another short term measure. Was transfer listed and so I thought it was worth a shot. Was amazed when he signed but hopefully him and Rivaldo playing as a pair of AMCs can do very well together.

Fabio - An OK player currently, but still my best left back. However, I'm not particularly bothered about him this season, what I am happy about is the option to sign him for £5m which I will probably take as I believe he could become very good in the future.

Lasha Salukvadze - Will be used as backup for the whole defence. Is good defensively and could be very useful as he can fill in anywhere at the back.

Grygoriy Yarmash - Pretty good technically but what attracted me to him was his outstanding work rate and teamwork. Will be one of my starting defenders and I have high hopes for a good season from him.

Freddy Grisales - The last of the old signings. Isn't the most technically gifted midfielder in my squad but is good enough in all areas to fill in any of the central roles I use, so will probably spend most of the year on the subs bench.

Romelu Lukaku - Arguably my best signing. He signs a full contract at £39k p/w in May 2010 but is great value for now. Will probably be thrown straight into the first team at every available opportunity and I have high hopes that despite his age he could be very successful this season.

Friendlies

Oldham 0-3 Stoke City (Ricardo Fuller, Ben Marshall, Diego Arismendi)

Millwall 0-2 Stoke City (James Beattie(2))

Dungannon 0-1 Stoke City (Ricardo Fuller)

Dunfermline 0-3 Stoke City (James Beattie, Tuncay Sanli, Glenn Whelan)

Stockport 0-0 Stoke City

Scunthorpe 0-1 Stoke City (James Beattie)

Stoke City (Salif Diao(2), Fabio) 3-0 GH Academy

While it was nice to not lose any pre-season games, I would have liked it more if my assistant had arranged some more demanding matches. We dominated every single game and so my defence is pretty much untested coming into the season.

Next Update

The season begins.

[Corkey]

Will follow this, great signings, RIVALDO!

[mackemforever]

Will follow this, great signings, RIVALDO!

Yeah, I have had him in this game before (playing as Sunderland) and he was brilliant, even if he never made it past 60 minutes.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Cotterill is a cock.

I'll be watching this one. It is Stoke after all.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Ha, I'm surprised that didn't censor.

[mackemforever]

August 2009

League: Stoke City 1-3 Manchester City

A shame to start the season this way but I'm not surprised given the difference in quality and the 10 players making their debuts for me. Adebayor opened the scoring for Manchester City with a powerful header from a corner. In the second half we started brightly, with Dean Whitehead scoring after 54 minutes, but we faded towards the end with Adebayor bagging a second on 77 minutes and Craig Bellamy wrapping up the 10 minutes from the end.

League Cup: Stoke City 1-0 Millwall

One of the most uncomfortable games of football I have ever watched. We dominated the game but kept on missing the easiest of chances. The game started poorly, with Romelu Lukaku being stretchered off after only 27 minutes, luckily its not a major injury, and it took till the 90th minute for my players to put together a good move, ending with Dean Whitehead slotting home for the win.

League: Blackburn 0-0 Stoke City

At last, something close to a good performance. Match was even on chances but we dominated the game in midfield, however failed to find a goal. The new signings are yet to click and until that happens points could be hard to come by. Our best chance came in the 68th minute when Romelu Lukaku was clearly fouled in the area but no penalty was given.

League Table - Too early to judge anything, except to say that I would put money on Burnley finishing last.

Player of the Month - Fabio - One of the few players who has looked dangerous. Has made lots of useful runs down the wing to free up more central players and keeps on putting very good crosses into the box but unfortunately Lukaku hasn't quite found his range with headers yet and hasn't converted any of his good crosses.

Transfers - Abdoulaye Faye - Lazio - £6.5m - Not a popular move with the fans, but he was my 3rd backup for my central defenders and so I couldn't turn down this offer. Nice profit of £4.2m in one season.

[mackemforever]

September 2009

League: Fulham 0-6 Stoke City

Our first really great performance so far. On paper the game was quite close, but our finishing was so deadly that the result never looked in doubt. Things got off to the perfect start with Romelu Lukaku opening his account after only 17 seconds before scoring a second only 8 minutes later. Things then settled down for the rest of the half but then the floodgates opened. 5 minutes into the second half Lukaku skinned 2 defenders before lobbing Schwarzer in the Fulham goal to complete his hat-trick, Freddy Grisales then made it 4 with an absolute screamer from well outside the area, before Lukaku was gifted the ball by a poor back pass and bagged his 4th of the game (and his career), with Tuncay Sanli completing the rout 2 minutes from time.

League: Stoke City 0-0 Birmingham

A game that we dominated but just couldn't find the final pass and we had very few real chances.

League: Sunderland 1-2 Stoke City

Another good away performance. We controlled the opening period and were rewarded after 16 minutes when Romelu Lukaku was bunded over the in the area before slotting home the resulting penalty. 8 minutes later Darren Bent levelled the game up after Vincent Enyeama made the wrong decision to come for a ball over the top and was beaten for pace, but moments before half time Lukaku was perfectly set up by Guti to give us the lead again, and that was how things remained for the rest of the match.

League Cup: Tottenham Hotspur 1-3 Stoke City

We were completely dominated in this match and were very lucky to get anything out of it but, a wins a win so I won't complain. We fell behind early on when Roman Pavlyuchenko scored after 22 minutes with a pinpoint lob, but we struck back only 9 minutes later when Romelu Lukaku beat Gomes to the ball to get us back in the match. We then spent the next hour with our backs to the wall, holding on by the skin of our teeth to take the match to extra time. Deep into first half stoppage time Lukaku beat 2 defenders before being brought down by Gomes and he took advantage to score his second penalty of the season, before Dean Whitehead applied the finishing touch to a brilliant counter attack with 4 minutes to go to secure victory.

League: Stoke 1-1 West Ham

Another home game, another poor performance, but I will put this one down to my team not having recovered from the epic against Spurs only 3 days earlier. It was pretty close up until the 60th minute when Alessandro Diamanti gave West Ham the lead with an absolute screamer from 35 yards. It wasn't till the 73rd minute when we drew level through a well placed finish from Tuncay Sanli.

League Table - A confusing table at this stage, only 2 points at home but 7 away. Hopefully we can keep our away form up but get a few more points infront of our home supporters, although if we can remain around our current position I will be very pleased.

Player of the Month - Romelu Lukaku - 8 goals in 5 games this month and has been constantly dangerous. A great start from the youngster and hopefully he can continue to bang the goals in.

[mackemforever]

October 2009

League: Bolton 1-2 Stoke City

A good performance from the team, despite some major tactical changes before the match. The game was fairly level but we took our chances pretty well and looked the more convincing team. Things got off to a good start when Guti applied the finishing touch to a well worked move after 11 minutes. Unfortunately my defence fell asleep in the 17th minute, allowing Johan Elmander to latch onto a long ball over the top to level things up. Then after 74 minutes Tuncay Sanli split the Bolton defence perfectly to allow Ricardo Fuller to get his first goal of the season. Things then got difficult with Dean Whitehead being sent off 15 minutes from time and it was a real backs to the wall situation to hold onto our lead, but the guys dug in deep to give us a good win.

League: Stoke 0-1 Arsenal

Despite the loss I am very proud of the way we played today. We deserved to get a point out of it and we could have won the game if Almunia hadn't played quite as well as he did. The only goal came in the 81st minute when Robin van Persie got the jump on my defence to latch onto a good through ball. Closer inspection revealed that he was infact offside by about half a yard, but these things happen so I'm not going to complain about it.

League: Manchester United 3-0 Stoke City

I think its fair to say that this could have gone better. We were neve in the match and it was clear from the very start that we didn't stand a chance. It only took 4 minutes for Man Utd to take the lead with Nemanja Vidic heading home from a corner. We then took an absolute battering, although somehow it took till the 59th minute before Wayne Rooney added a second with Anderson finishing things off only 10 minutes later.

League Cup: Blackburn 0-1 Stoke City

Another match, another completely new tactic, but despite this we put in a good performance and did well to win against a much stronger side. We controlled the game for the first 90 minutes but I gambled by making 3 substitutions late on in the hope of grabbing a goal and this backfired in extra time, when it left me with too many knackered players on the pitch and it looked like Blackburn would take advantage. In the 96th minute we were handed a golden chance with a penalty but Glenn Whelan blasted it straight down the middle for an easy save. It wasn't until the last minute when Rory Delap banged in a screamer from 30 yards to set up a quarter final tie with Man Utd.

League: Stoke 1-3 Chelsea

Er, what can I say about this? We were awful from start to finish, most of my players were still very tired from the epic against Blackburn, and we were lucky to only concede 3 goals. Amazingly it took 34 minutes before Chelsea opened the scoring with Michael Essien beating 3 players before calmly lobbing the keeper. Chelsea then put the game beyond doubt with a rapid fire double from Daniel Sturridge and Michael Ballack just before half time. Somehow we managed to stop them scoring any more and in the 82nd minute Salif Diao grabbed his first goal for Stoke to give us a bit of credibility from the match, but all in, an awful days football.

League - Only 3 points in the league this month which is pretty awful, but at least we have got plenty of the really hard games out of the way, and we should have a bit of an easier time of things next month. Still yet to get a win at home but I'm sure it'll come in time.

Player of the Month - Ryan Shawcross - Despite the fact that we have struggled for points this month and have conceded plenty of goals, Shawcross has been very steady at the back and things could have been much worse if it wasn't for him.

[mackemforever]

Ok, this looks like its over due to my computer going tits up.

Essentially when I tried to uninstall the logitech software for my mouse it decided to crash my computer and then when I started it up again I was missing about 50gb of files which it had deleted seemingly at random, and that included all of the data in My Documents, which meant that all of my fm saves, screenshots, tactics, training schedules, everything, is gone.

If I can get that stuff back then I will continue this save, if not then I may start it again, although this has ****ed me off so much I may just call it quits with FM till the next version comes out (yes I know it isn't FMs fault but I'm fed up with the fact that every time I start a save on FM something goes wrong and I have to restart it).

[mackemforever]

Ok, its possibly back on now, I think I've managed to get everything back.

Turns out that the scale of the **** up by the logitech software was even worse then I thought. It deleted just over 60,000 files pretty much at random from my hard drive.

[mackemforever]

November 2009

League: Liverpool 0-0 Stoke City

A good away performance from the guys. We had arguably the better first half but faded badly after the break with Liverpool coming very close to scoring on several occasions but we managed to hold on to take a point against the odds.

League: Stoke City 3-0 Everton

An odd match this one as on paper it looks like we were by far the worse team, but we just looked more likely to score when we had the ball. We looked far more dangerous early on and after 17 minutes Robert Huth headed home from a corner to give us the lead. This was followed up 15 minutes later when Romelu Lukaku beat the last defender before calmly rounding the keeper to slot home. Despite then having to withstand heavy pressure we kept our 2 goal advantage and in the 59th minute Freddy Grisales scored an absolute screamer from outside the area to more or less guarantee victory.

League: Stoke City 2-1 Burnley

A must win game against a team destined to be relegated, and one that we just about managed to win. We dominated the game but a combination of poor finishing and a great performance by Diego Penny in the Burnley goal gave them a chance. Things got off to a good start when Romelu Lukaku skinned 2 defenders before calmly slotting home after only 11 minutes. We then wasted chance after chance and were punished in the 51st minute when Steven Thompson got the ball 35 yards from goal and took a hopelessly optimistic shot which somehow found its way into the back of the net. Then despite continuing to dominate we were unable to find the net until the 6th minute of extra time when Robert Huth popped up at a corner to give us the win.

League: Aston Villa 1-1 Stoke City

A game I was expecting to lose as Aston Villa are in good form right now, having scored 12 goals in 4 games with only 1 conceded, but I was very pleased by the way we played. We took the lead in the 60th minute when a shot by Lukaku came back off the post, straight to Guti who just passed it into the back of the net. Unfortunately our lead was short lived because 10 minutes later James Milner caught Shawcross sleeping and was left 1 on 1 with Enyeama, and Milner won that little battle.

League Table - Much better month than last, with 8 points from 4 games. Currently comfortably mid table but its still close enough so a run of a few good or bad results could make a big change to the table.

Player of the Month - Robert Huth - Has made some real goal saving tackles at the back, a few clearances off the line and has chipped in with 2 goals. All in, a good month.

[Corkey]

Mackemforever, How come it's 2010? I thought the game started in 2009???

[mackemforever]

Mackemforever, How come it's 2010? I thought the game started in 2009???

ssshhhh

Wow that was stupid of me, i'll go and change them all back to 2009

[Corkey]

ssshhhh

Wow that was stupid of me, i'll go and change them all back to 2009

Haha Okay, was getting confused Enjoying this though In your End of season review do you reckon you could show us your starting eleven, always facinates me

[mackemforever]

Haha Okay, was getting confused Enjoying this though In your End of season review do you reckon you could show us your starting eleven, always facinates me

Don't worry, I will. Every season will have my starting XI, overall best XI and season best XI on.

[mackemforever]

Haha Okay, was getting confused Enjoying this though In your End of season review do you reckon you could show us your starting eleven, always facinates me

Don't worry, I will. Every season will have my starting XI, overall best XI and season best XI posted up.

[Corkey]

Don't worry, I will. Every season will have my starting XI, overall best XI and season best XI posted up.

Sweet, look forward to it

[mackemforever]

December 2009

League Cup: Manchester United 3-0 Stoke City

We were never really in this game. I knew that we didn't stand a chance and so played a weakened side to make sure my first team was fit for our next league match. The biggest surprise of the game was that it took 35 minutes for Man Utd to open the scoring, with Mame Biram Diouf climbing above Shawcross to head home a cross. We then held them off till half time, but then Dimitar Berbatov scored from an impossible angle to really put us out of the match, with Nemanja Vidic sealing our fate 3 minutes later from a corner.

League: Stoke City 2-0 Hull

Resting my best players for the league cup match was a good decision based on this result. We carved out plenty of very good chances and could have easily scored a few more goals, but some of the finishing was awful. Thing got off to a good start when Guti giving us the lead after only 9 minutes, and adding a second with a screamer from 30 yards in the 73rd minute.

League: Wolves 0-2 Stoke City

If I'm being honest, we were lucky to get anything out of this game. We looked very fragile at the back and were let off on several occasions by Wolves when they failed to take advantage of defensive errors. Luckily Romelu Lukaku took the chance he was given by the Wolves defence in the 24nd minute when Ronald Zubar misjudged a backpass and ended up playing him in perfectly. Then despite being outplayed for the remainder of the match, Mamady Sidibe maaged to grab a goal in stoppage time to give us a win we, quite frankly, didn't deserve.

League: Portsmouth 0-1 Stoke City

We played better here than we did against Wolves, looking far more efficient going forwards, and a bit more solid at the back, however I do think that we should have scored more goals than we did. Our only goal came from an optimistic first time shot from just outside the area from Romelu Lukaku in the 68th minute.

League: Stoke City 3-0 Wigan

Another game which should have been a lot closer than it was. For once our shooting was accurate and that gave us the edge we needed to take the 3 points. Romelu Lukaku continued his great run of form with a fantastic solo effort in the 18th minute and a cool lob in the 51st. Things went from bad to worse for Wigan in the 58th minute Paul Scharner was sent off for a two footed tackle on Freddy Grisales. This seemed to spur Freddy Grisales on and in the 77th minute he somehow scored with a header from just outside the area.

League: Tottenham Hotspur 1-2 Stoke City

Things are definitely coming together now, our great run of form continued with this convincing victory over Spurs. Both goalkeepers played fantasticly to keep their side in the game, but we managed to pull through in the end. We were the better side at the start after 23 minutes Romelu Lukaku latched onto a perfect through ball from Tuncay Sanli before calmly rounding the keeper and passing the ball home. Spurs answered back just before half time with Aaron Lennon beating Vincent Enyeama to a long ball and passing it to Luka Modric who had an open goal to aim for and he made no mistake. After half time we both had plenty of good chances but it wasn't until the 68th minute when Robert Huth popped up at a corner to give us the 3 points.

League: Manchester City 1-1 Stoke City

Our best performance of the season. We easily matched City in every area and managed to create far more good chances while restricting them mainly to long shots. After 17 minutes City got a free kick which was lofted into the box and in the confusion that followed the ball eventually dropped to Emmanuel Adebayor who powered the ball through the mass of bodies infront of him to give Man City an early lead. We had several good chances to level things up but were left to rely on the head of Robert Huth in the 80th minute when he bagged himself another goal from a corner.

League: Stoke City 3-0 Fulham

Another good performance and a game that could have easily turned into a complete mauling of Fulham if it wasn't for Mark Schwarzers heroics between the sticks. It took 30 minutes for the deadlock to be broken when Lukaku beat 2 defenders before perfectly setting up Guti to give us the lead. We continued to press for a second goal and were rewarded only 12 minutes later when Rivaldo was brought down in the area, with Romelu Lukaku making no mistake on the resulting penalty. Then a few minutes from time Robert Huth got his 3rd goal in as many games from another late corner, to round off a good day.

League Table - A fantastic month in the league, with us finally discovering some good home form with 3 wins from 3, and only dropping 2 points away from home. I'm expecting us to get a bit dizzy, being this high up, and start to slide back down the table soon, but I'm sure we will enjoy it while it lasts.

Player of the Month - Romelu Lukaku - Has hit some good form this month, with 6 goals in 8 games. Has shown remarkable composure infront of goal for such a young striker and hopefully can keep getting better as the season goes on.

[Maw74]

Doing a great job with Stoke, good win against Spurs.

[SwiftyBlade]

mackemforever I love your style and layout of how you are doing this, I am currently reading through some to get ideas for my own Career Update when I start one in a week or so time. This thread actually kept me from going to bed, and more importantly going to the loo which I desperatly need Sorry about that. Anyway, I really loved reading this and will definatly be keeping a regular check on here, keep it up, nice work

[parsfanjamie]

This has been a great read so far. I'm hoping you don't have a bad patch and lose momentum and morale. KUTGW.

[SwiftyBlade]

KUTGW.

May I ask (and hopefully get an answer ) to what 'KUTGW' means?

[Murrayzoster]

May I ask (and hopefully get an answer ) to what 'KUTGW' means?

Keep up the good work

[SwiftyBlade]

Keep up the good work

Ah, cheers mate

[Nobby_McDonald]

6-0 at Fulham.

[mackemforever]

Thanks for the posts guys, its always nice when you see that somebody is actually following your story.

January 2010 (Got the year right this time Corkey!)

FA Cup 3rd Round: Everton 0-3 Stoke City

God only knows how we won this game so convincingly. We were outplayed from start to finish but somehow managed to get a great win to take us through to the fourth round. Things started quite well with us taking the first chance we were given, with Robert Huth continuing his good form from corners to give us the lead in the 11th minute. Guti added a second in the 29th minute with a neat finish from a quick counter attack, before Lasha Salukvadze cut inside his marker to get onto the end of a nice pass from Whelan to get his first goal for the club.

League: Everton 1-1 Stoke City

Our second match away to Everton in a week, and one that we should have easily won. The reason I say we should have won is because when Tim Cahill got injured 30 minutes from time Everton had already made 3 substitutions, so played the rest of the match with 10 men. In the first half there was no real action until near the end when Fellaini was stretchered off the field. Then shortly after the break Yobo was also stretchered off with a broken leg, however in the 54th minute Everton got a break (pardon the pun Joseph) when Tim Cahill found some space in the area to give Everton the lead, but things immediately got much worse as Cahill injured himself while shooting and had to be taken off, taking Everton down to 10 men. We should have then gone on to win the game but failed to take advantage of the extra man and could only get a draw, thanks to a Romelu Lukaku goal 10 minutes from time.

League: Stoke City 2-1 Blackburn

Another game that we were lucky to win. We gave the Blackburn strikers far too much respect and time and time again allowed them space to shoot from the edge of the area, we just got lucky that they were having an off day. Things started badly in the 17th minute when Nikola Kalinic was given the space to turn and shoot from 10 yards out, and Enyeama had no chance. We answered back 9 minutes later when our corner specialist Robert Huth made another appearance to head home and level the game up. Both teams then had good chances to take the lead but it wasn't until the 57th minute when Romelu Lukaku pounced on a missed interception by Nelson to give us the 3 points.

FA Cup 4th Round: Tottenham 1-2 Stoke City

This is becoming a bit of a speciality of ours in the FA Cup, getting wins when we really didn't deserve them. Spurs controlled the game from start to finish and took 23 minutes to take the lead through a great individual effort from Jermaine Defoe. Their lead didn't last long though as Rivaldo scored his first goal for the club with a 30 yard free kick only 2 minutes later. It took till the 70th minute for there to be another goal, luckily it went out way. A corner was cleared, but only as far as Dean Whitehead 10 yards outside the area, who had the time to blast a shot back in, which was deflected past the keeper by Luka Modric.

League: Stoke City 3-1 Sunderland

A game that was pretty close on paper but our finishing was fantastic and gave us the edge we needed to record another good win. We started brilliantly with Freddy Grisales giving us the lead after only 8 minutes, with Rivaldo scoring another long range free kick only 3 minutes later. Sunderland did manage to get themselves back into the game 10 minutes before half time when Liam Lawrence was completely unmarked in the area when a cross came in and scored what is possibly the easiest goal of his career. In the second half Sunderland came close to levelling the game up several times, but in the 84th minute Robert Huth put the result beyond doubt from, you guessed it, a corner.

League: Birmingham 1-2 Stoke City

A tricky game this, Birminghams recent form had been very good and plenty of my players were struggling for fitness after a very busy couple of months. We traded blows for the opening hour but we got the first break with Tuncay Sanli giving us the lead 57 minutes in, with Romelu Lukaku skinning 2 defenders to score only 5 minutes later. Things got very tense from then on as my players were really struggling and Birmingham took control of the game for the last 30 minutes but despite allowing Roger Johnson to get them back in the game after 83 minutes we managed to hold on for another win.

League Table - Still keeping up our amazing position near the top of the table having taken 10 points from a possible 12 this month, and keeping up our unbeaten run, with our last defeat being to Man Utd in early December. At this stage I'm going to stick my neck out and say that I believe we will qualify for Europe, as even if we hit a bad run of form we can afford to drop a lot of points before falling out of the European spots.

Player of the Month - Lasha Salukvadze - Has had a good run of form in the first team recently and has been very impressive. He's been solid at the back, showing great positional awareness time and time again, and has been good going forwards too, repeatedly sparking off good attacks and finding space to put in decent crosses.

Transfers - There have only been 3 transfers this January. The first was loaning out Mamady Sidibe to Sheffield Wednesday because he wasn't going to get many chances in my first team and hopefully he will move on permanently by the end of the season. The second transfer was not one I wanted to make, but was forced to. Oswaldo Sanchez was signed on a free transfer to fill in for Vincent Enyeama who is playing in the African Cup of Nations with Nigeria. I thought that Nigeria were quite likely to go all the way in the competition so I wanted somebody competant to fill in while Enyeama is away. Last was signing Alex Smithies for £2.5m. He is a young, exciting keeper, who with the right training could do a very good job for Stoke for a long time to come.

[SwiftyBlade]

Nice work in the Fa Cup I hope your run continues and that is a quite astonishing league position! I look forward to seeing how this season will end and next season aswell (praying you get in Europe!)

Oh, you couldn't do us a favour, when the Quater Final of the Fa Cup comes out, just tell us what the fixtures and results are please (same for the Semi's and Final Thanks alot.

E.g just put, Sheffield United 0 - 2 Blackburn Rovers

[mackemforever]

SwiftyBlade, I will put up the results from the later stages of each cup competition (including European competitions).

Also, for those of you who think I am scoring too many corners, I'm not doing anything special from corners at all. I'm simply floating them into the 6 yard box where Huth and Shawcross (both brilliant in the air) are waiting for it.

February 2010

League: West Ham 0-2 Stoke City

A bit of a lucky escape here. We were again guilty of giving our opponents too much time on the ball and we were very lucky they didn't punish us for it. The first goal went in after 26 minutes but despite West Ham controlling that period of play we took the lead with our only corner of the match, with Ryan Shawcross out jumping the defence to get his first goal of the season. West Ham continued to dominate the match though and if it wasn't for Scott Parker being sent off in the 67th minute I don't think we could have held out for the rest of the match. However, due to the 1 man advantage we made a good push for another goal towards the end of the match and in the 82nd minute Daniel Gabbidon handled the ball in the area and Romelu Lukaku secured the victory with a well placed penalty.

League: Stoke City 3-1 Bolton

Our best performance of the season and the only disappointing part of the result is that we only scored 3 goals. It only took 8 minutes for Freddy Grisales to open the scoring with a screamer from well outside the area, arguably one of the best goals of the season. We then took complete control of the game but just couldn't increase our lead and we were punished in the 47th minute when a rare defensive error by Robert Huth set Matty Taylor up perfectly to level the game up. It didn't take us very long to take the lead again, 8 minutes to be precise. Guti was bundled over in the area and young Fabio stepped up to take the penalty and get his first goal in professional football. A short while later Robert Huth made up for his earlier mistake by finding a bit of space from a corner (as per usual) and powering a header past Jaaskelainen in the Bolton goal.

FA Cup 5th Round: Stoke City 1-2 Liverpool

Absolutely horrible game to lose. This was easily our best performance in the FA Cup so far and arguably one of our best performances so far this season, and despite doing enough to at the very least take the game to a second leg we were dumped out of the competition. We were the poorer team at the start and it only took 11 minutes for us to go behind. Ryan Shawcross made a complete mess of dealing with a long ball and left Fernando Torres with an easy 1 on 1 to give Liverpool the lead. We had no shortage of chances to level the game up but fell even further behind only 5 minutes from half time when we over reached a bit and got hit on the counter with Albert Riera applying the finishing touch. In the second half I still believed we could get back into the game and in the 63rd minute Rivaldo showed some great skill to control a cross first time and round Reina to get us within striking distance of a replay. Unfortunately despite continuing to be the better team we were unable to get a second goal and were put out despite our best FA Cup performance so far.

League: Arsenal 1-2 Stoke City

What a way to bounce back after the gutting loss in the FA Cup. The guys played their hearts out and in the first half we controlled the game. 5 minutes from time we were rewarded with the goal we deserved when Ryan Shawcross appeared in the Arsenal area seemingly at random and scored a real strikers goal, making a fool of William Gallas and powering a shot past Almunia. It only took 3 more minutes for us to double our lead when Romelu Lukaku curled an absolute beauty in from just ouside the area. In the second half Arsenal made some tactical changes and, if I'm honest, we were completely unable to cope. It only took 9 minutes for Arsenal to get back in it with Eduardo heading home from a perfect cross by Sagna. From then on it was a real back to the wall type performance with Arsenal carving out chance after chance but a combination of some solid work from Huth and Shawcross and some fantastic saves by Enyeama gave us an absolutely fantastic victory.

League Table - Things just keep getting better and better, although they will be getting very tough soon. Our next 3 leage matches are against Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool, so I'll be happy if I get 2 points from those 3 games, but on paper we then have quite a simple run to the finish, so I would be very disappointed if we dropped out of the European spots now.

Player of the Month - Robert Huth - Has been an absolute rock at the back this month, only missing 1 tackle and 4 headers this month. Has also been doing a great job of cutting out dangerous passes and cutting out attacks before they have a chance to really begin.

[SwiftyBlade]

SwiftyBlade, I will put up the results from the later stages of each cup competition (including European competitions).

Also, for those of you who think I am scoring too many corners, I'm not doing anything special from corners at all. I'm simply floating them into the 6 yard box where Huth and Shawcross (both brilliant in the air) are waiting for it.

Thanks alot mate I always like to know whats happening in competitions I'm not competiting in, just like in real life

Who is your corner kick taker? I'm guessing its either Guti or Rivaldo, who more than likely have a top rating in corner kick taking... And I think you have found the next 'Rory Delap' but this time in corners... although it is a little odd that its always Huth scoring, unless I'm miss-reading

[mackemforever]

Thanks alot mate I always like to know whats happening in competitions I'm not competiting in, just like in real life

Who is your corner kick taker? I'm guessing its either Guti or Rivaldo, who more than likely have a top rating in corner kick taking... And I think you have found the next 'Rory Delap' but this time in corners... although it is a little odd that its always Huth scoring, unless I'm miss-reading

Well it wasn't until a couple of games ago that I started putting Shawcross in the same place as Huth. Also for some reason Huth always seems to be slightly closer to the corner taker than Shawcross and so Shawcross only gets a chance if the defence & Huth miss the ball.

As for my corner taker, its Rivaldo from one side and Dean Whitehead from the other. Whitehead is actually a worse corner taker than both Rivaldo & Guti, but those 2 are both left footed players and Whitehead is my best right footed corner taker, so by doing it like this I'm always able to get the ball curling in towards the far corner.

[SwiftyBlade]

As for my corner taker, its Rivaldo from one side and Dean Whitehead from the other. Whitehead is actually a worse corner taker than both Rivaldo & Guti, but those 2 are both left footed players and Whitehead is my best right footed corner taker, so by doing it like this I'm always able to get the ball curling in towards the far corner.

Ah right, nice one mate! After reading yours and having a gander at others I can't wait to get mine started! I've been thinking about what downloads I need etc with the differant leagues and facepacks and deciding who to be, and after not being able to I came to the conclusion, Sunday League Footballer Unemployed was the best bet, now I just need to get home to beautiful England... Of course

[mackemforever]

I used to love doing proper lower league saves, and journeyman saves on past FMs but my computer isn't really powerful enough to continue a save with a good number of leagues past about season 3 or 4 so at the moment I am trying to do 1 club saves as much as possible. Hopefully in the next couple of months I will upgrade my PC a bit and can do a proper journeyman save on fm2011.

[Maw74]

You keep beating Spurs. Nevermind a look at the table with Spurs 2nd makes up for that.

Stoke in 3rd, you are doing such a great job.

It was a good run in the FA cup, unlucky against Liverpool.

[SwiftyBlade]

I used to love doing proper lower league saves, and journeyman saves on past FMs but my computer isn't really powerful enough to continue a save with a good number of leagues past about season 3 or 4 so at the moment I am trying to do 1 club saves as much as possible. Hopefully in the next couple of months I will upgrade my PC a bit and can do a proper journeyman save on fm2011.

I've never really gotten into an FM game, most I've ever done is got Sheffield United promoted, steered clear of relegations the 2nd and 3rd season, then mid table 4th season and just missed out on Europe 5th season then gave up, went on it a couple of months down the line but didn't really care about it and ended up in the relegation zone eventually getting sacked. Took over Southampton but wanted United back so I created a new manager, at that point I realized there was no point in carrying on... deleted the game. That was on FM08, the best FM to ever come out, once got Sylvan Ebanks Blake for Solihull Moors first season on loan, scored about 40/50 goals in a 4-5-1 formation.

Oh by the way, I tend to ramble, you will figure that out as you get to know me Wether its a good or bad thing, is yet to be decided...

[mackemforever]

March 2010

League: Stoke City 1-2 Manchester United

A game that I felt we deserved to get a point out of, but I can't be too disappointed given that Man Utd are leading the league. Things started well with Romelu Lukaku giving us the lead after 20 minutes. We only held onto our lead for 15 minutes before Darren Fletcher out jumped Shawcross to get onto the end of a cross and level the game up. We then had to wait till the 58th minute for another goal, this one coming from a Michael Carrick penalty. From then on we were on the back foot for the rest of the match and despite a late flurry of attacks when Darren Fletcher was sent off we were unable to get back on level terms.

League: Chelsea 1-0 Stoke City

A game that could have been so much worse if it wasn't for a Man of the Match performance by Vincent Enyeama. Chelsea controlled the game from the opening second and it only took 57 seconds for Michael Essien to put Chelsea ahead. We then took a bit of a battering for the rest of the match and Chelsea could easily have had another 3 or 4 goals if it wasn't for some great saves by Enyeama and well timed blocks by Huth and Shawcross.

League: Stoke City 0-0 Liverpool

A really good match this. Either team could have won it and I think a draw is a fair result. There was absolutely nothing to seperate us over the course of the 90 minutes and so I can't complain at not getting the win.

League: Burnley 0-3 Stoke City

A terrible performance despite the win. Burnley could have easily had a couple of goals and we were lucky that they didn't have more chances given their control of possession. Things did get off to a good start for us though with Guti scoring with the very first chance of the game. Things were then pretty tense until just before half time when Robert Huth took advantage of a Burnely defence that is fairly weak in the air to head home from another corner, taking his tally to 10 in all competitions this season. Then 10 minutes from time Burnley were again punished from a corner with Huth getting a second goal.

League Table - Very close for the last 2 Champions League spots, but I do think we have a good chance of holding off Arsenal as we have an easier run to the finish. I think we are more of less guaranteed European football next season, its now just down to finding out which competition we will be in.

Player of the Month - Vincent Enyeama - Has done a brilliant job recently, he has conceded quite a few goals in our last half a dozen games but most keepers would struggle with a run of 5 games against top teams. Despite not keeping clean sheets recently he has made some fantastic saves to keep our goal difference competitive in the league and give us a real chance of staying in the top 4.

Major Competitions

FA Cup Quarter Final

Cardiff 1-2 Manchester City

Blackburn 1-2 Sunderland

Liverpool 0-0(P) Wigan

Aston Villa 3-2 Arsenal

League Cup Quarter Final

Blackpool 1-1(P) Sunderland

Man Utd 3-0 Stoke City

Chelsea 4-0 Everton

Hull 0-1 Newcastle

League Cup Semi Final (aggregate scores)

Manchester United 2-0 Newcastle

Chelsea 4-1 Sunderland

League Cup Final

Manchester United 1-0 Chelsea

[SwiftyBlade]

Brilliant job mate! Really wan't you to beat Arsenal to the Champions League spot (I don't mind Arsenal just would love to see what you could do!) If not then I'd still be delighted at getting into Europe! Love reading your Career Updates, keep it up

[mackemforever]

April 2010

League: Stoke City 1-0 Portsmouth

How this game only finished 1-0 I don't know. We should have easily got a couple more but our finishing was pretty awful if I'm honest. Our only really good chance came in the 15th minute when Romelu Lukaku beat 2 men before beating David James at his near post. Other than that most of our chances were from impossible angles, long range or through a crowd of bodies.

League: Stoke City 3-1 Aston Villa

A very slick performance in this match, completely unlike against Portsmouth. We controlled the game and created lots of very good chances while restricting Aston Villa to half chances. We took the lead after only 3 minutes when Romelu Lukaku found himself under a long goal kick from Vincent Enyeama and managed to lob the keeper with a header from 35 yards out. Complete fluke I think but I'm not going to complain! Romelu Lukaku then added a second on the half hour mark when a perfect pass from Guti put him clean through on goal. The win was then pretty much guarenteed after 64 minutes when Grygoriy Yarmash found himself in space about 5 yards outside the area and smashed the ball into the top corner to make things 3-0. Villa got a consolation goal in the 70th minute when a corner bounced around the box for a while before falling to Ashley Young to tap in at the far post, but they never looked like coming back into the game.

League: Hull 2-2 Stoke City

So after a great performance against Aston Villa we forgot how to play again in this match. Hull controlled the start of the match but in the 13th minute we won a free kick right on the edge of the Hull area and Rivaldo curled the ball beautifully into the back of the net. Just before half time Hull were allowed back into the match when Fabio handled the ball in the area and Stephen Hunt was successful from the penalty spot. 5 minutes after half time things got even worse when Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink capitalised on a mishit clearance by Shawcross to give Hull the lead. It took us another 25 minutes to get back on level terms through a lightning fast counter attack with Romelu Lukaku applying the finishing touch to the move.

League: Stoke City 3-0 Wolves

An odd match, plenty of positives and negatives. Our finishing was pretty good and we controlled the midfield, but our defence gave far too much respect to the Wolves strikers and allowed them far too much time on the ball throughout the match, and we were lucky they didn't punish us for it. It took till just after half time for the deadlock to be broken when Romelu Lukaku cheekily lobbed the Wolves keeper from just inside the area. 20 minutes later Diego Arismendi doubled our lead with an absolute bullet of a shot from 30 yards out, and Robert Huth secured victory 10 minutes later from a corner.

League Table - So 2nd place is out of the question with Spurs 3 points ahead with 2 to play, and a huge goal advantage. The only real battle for position at the top of the table is between me and Arsenal. Both of us could still take 3rd place and it will be very tight at the end.

The runs to the finish are as follows:

Stoke City

Wigan (Away)

Tottenham (Home)

Arsenal

Sunderland (Away)

West Ham (Home)

I can't see Arsenal dropping any points in the last 2 matches so I think I need to win both games, including my last match against 2nd place Spurs. This could be a very tense last couple of games.

Player of the Month - Romelu Lukaku - 5 goals in 4 games and within striking distance of getting to 30 goals for the season. Getting better and better as he adapts to the role he is being expected to play in my side.

[SwiftyBlade]

This is a top quality save mate! You have done outstanding this year and I can't wait to read more, love what you have managed to do! Keep it up! Brilliant stuff

[Nobby_McDonald]

I'm liking it. Stoke's highest ever finish is 4th and you should top it...

[SwiftyBlade]

I'm liking it. Stoke's highest ever finish is 4th and you should top it...

And that was in 1936 and 1947

[mackemforever]

May 2010

League: Wigan 1-2 Stoke City

A very tense match this. We were the better side but not by enough to make me relax. Things started well though with Guti bagging his 8th goal of the season in the 8th minute and then on the stroke of half time Romelu Lukaku doubled our lead. Despite going into the break 2-0 up I was still worried about a Wigan comeback and in the 54th minute Stelios Giannakopoulos gave Wigan a way back into the match with a nicely placed finish from a floated in free kick. Luckily we managed to organise ourselves properly at the back after that and Wigan only had 1 more real chance in the match.

Arsenal Match - Sunderland 1-1 Arsenal

A fantastic result for us. Sunderland were expected to be comperehensively beaten but managed to take a point away from a match that Arsenal absolutely dominated. This result effectively guaranteed us 3rd place, as it gave us a 3 point lead with a 4 goal advantage over Arsenal. However despite this I wasn't going to relax as I had a very tricky final day tie against Tottenham to come.

League: Stoke City 1-1 Tottenham

This felt like my millionth game against Tottenham but I hadn't lost to them yet this season, but despite this my hopes were not high. Turns out I was right to be a bit wary of them this time, they took control of the match and in the 23rd minute Luka Modric ran straight through the middle of my defence to give Spurs the lead. They continued to dominate and when half time arrived we had only had 2 shots, both from long range. Needless to say I gave my team a bit of a kicking at half time and they reacted as well as I could have hoped. We could have easily had several goals early on in the second half but Gomes preserved Spurs lead, however it he couldn't keep us out forever and in the 77th minute Lukaku put a pinpoint cross onto the head of Tuncay Sanli to level the game up. We then sat back to try and hold on to the draw as we knew that a point from this game was enough to give us 3rd place, and despite a couple of scares late on, we managed to keep things level.

Arsenal Match - Arsenal 1-0 West Ham

Arsenal went into this game needing a big win to take 3rd place and I think the pressure got to them a bit. They struggled from the start and never looked like getting the goals they needed. In the end it didn't matter as I got the point I needed, but I think that the Arsenal squad will be very dissappointed that they were unable to put in a great performance when they needed it.

League Table - Who would have believed it. Stoke in 3rd place. Absolutely delighted with this and especially proud of the fact that we had the 3rd best defence in the league. For a side predicted to finish 15th I think you could call this a success.

Player of the Month - Romelu Lukaku - 2 very big games at the end of the season and he handled them brilliantly for such a young player. Got an absolutely vital goal against Wigan and set up the goal that got us the all important point against Tottenham. A great end to a great season.

Major Competitions

FA Cup Semi Final

Aston Villa 1-3 (e) Manchester City

Sunderland 1-1 (P) Wigan

FA Cup Final

Wigan 1-2 Manchester City

Euro Cup Quarter Final (aggrerage scores)

Roma 4-7 Genoa

Valencia 2-4 Arsenal

Fiorentina 2-1 A.C. Milan

Ajax 2-3 Lazio

Euro Cup Semi Final (aggregate scores)

Lazio 3-4 Fiorentina

Genoa 0-2 Arsenal

Euro Cup Final

Arsenal 1-2 (e) Fiorentina

Champions Cup Quarter Final (aggregate scores)

Sevilla 2-4 Chelsea

Barcelona 3-4 Real Madrid

Inter Milan (a) 2-2 Juventus

Liverpool 1-4 Manchester United

Champions Cup Semi Final (aggregate scores)

Manchester United 0-4 Chelsea

Real Madrid 4-2 Inter Milan

Champions Cup Final

Chelsea 1-0 Real Madrid

[SwiftyBlade]

Well done mate. Cracking job you have done with Stoke City, a team we all seem to like Coming 3rd was a masterclass in every department, tatics, team selection and signings, which were brilliant. Lukaku looks like the real deal, he is a pretty amazing capture there and with Enyeama top quality keeper. Give your sen a pat on the back cos this has been a brilliant read and you have done an amazing job. Thanks for the quality stuff really can't wait for more!

[mackemforever]

Season Report

Competitions

League - Unbelieavable performance. I wasn't expecting to get anywhere near this far up the table and although we didn't always perform as well as I would have liked, we just kept on grinding out wins and somehow managed to avoid any real slumps in form. All in all, I'm absolutely delighted with the way that the team played this year and hopefully we can do as well if not better next season, once I reinforce a few parts of the squad.

League Cup - Not a bad run I suppose and while I would have liked to have gone further, theres no shame in losing to the team that won the league this year (and the FA Cup, and League Cup).

FA Cup - Another OK run, knocking out 2 good teams and only losing very narrowly to Liverpool. Again, I would have liked to have gone further but despite this I think we did ourselves justice, even when we were knocked out, as we played some great football.

Squad

Squad - A good mix of youth and experience I think and one that I don't think needs any major changes for next season. I will need to reinforce the squad as some of the backup is far too weak at the moment, and Rivaldo will be getting much less playing time next year, but I don't see the need for any major changes.

Transfers - Only 1 transfer since January and that was the sale of Tuncay Sanli right at the end of the season. He wasn't really good enough to be in contention for a regular spot and I would like to replace him with some younger, hopefully English, talent for next season.

Key Players

Vincent Enyeama - Did a brilliant job this season. Kept us in so many games that we didn't deserve to get anything out of and time and time again pulled off brilliant saves to keep us in contention. Without the stunning saves that he kept on making I think we would have really struggled to qualify for Europe.

Robert Huth - Unbelievably solid at the back, very rarely lost a header and was brilliant at cutting out dangerous passes before they could cause us problems. Also kept on making a fool of defenders from corners, not doing anything special, just jumping damn high!

Ryan Shawcross - Partnered Huth really well and did a great job as a covering defender, tracking back to deal with any balls that made it past Huth and putting in lots of great last second tackles and blocks.

Fabio - His first season playing regular first team football and he was an absolute star. On paper he didn't do that much, with only a couple of goals and assists, but he was a constant pain for the opposition with his runs down the left, drawing defenders out wide and giving the central players more room to play, and making defenders work with decent balls into the area. Was also surprisingly good defensively and did a great job of preventing opposition wingers getting the space they wanted.

Freddy Grisales - Was signed as backup to begin with but was such a hard worker when he was given a chance I decided to stick with him. Not the most technically gifted player but a decent all rounder and never stopped running. Averaged over 13km per 90 minutes and seemed to be involved in almost every play, everywhere on the field. He also had a habit of scoring a blinder from range when we really needed it.

Guti - On paper he had a pretty average season, but in reality he was very important going forwards. Always seemed to find the space he needed to have time on the ball and once I figured out how best to play him later in the season he was fantastic at playing in Lukaku and he was another player who had a habit of banging in a goal from long range when we were under pressure.

Rivaldo - An odd one this. He was pretty awful for the first half of the season and I was very close to dropping him and playing Tuncay Sanli instead but then I got him playing in a way that just worked and in the second half of the season he was brilliant. Was a constant nuisance for defenders and worked brilliantly with Lukaku.

Romelu Lukaku - You wouldn't know this was his first season playing professional football. Brilliant number of goals for such a young player and already seems to be able to beat the offside trap at will and is unbelievably calm infront of goal, rarely missing a 1 on 1 chance, and playing some lovely cheeky lobs just for the hell of it!

Player of the Season

In my opinion its got to be Lukaku. He is so young he wasn't even on a professional contract till May but was expected to be pretty much our only goalscorer, and he slotted straight into that role like an old pro. Always seemed to come up big when needed, showing some great individual skill when under pressure, but also doing a great job of holding up play to allow others to catch up and get involved in the attack.

Awards

English Premier Division Top Goalscorer - 2nd place - Romelu Lukaku - 26 goals

English Players' Young Player of the Year - 2nd place - Fabio

European Golden Boot - 2nd place - Romelu Lukaku - 26 goals

English Players' Premier Division Select - Robert Huth

Manager of the Year - 3rd place - Alex Shaw

Club Awards

Fans Player of the Year - Robert Huth

Best XI - Now this doesn't make much sense at all. Whitehead didn't play a single game as a DMC, Guti didn't play a single game as an MC, and Sanli never started a game and only ever came on at around 60 minutes.

Other News

Stadium Expansion - Very happy about this. Will take my capacity up to that of a top half Premiership side, at just below 40,000.

Shawcross International Debut - Very pleased this has happened. He has been the best English defender in the Premiership this season and hopefully he can establish himself as an England regular now.

Lukaku International Debut - No surprises here. Was fantastic all season and is easily the best available to Belgium at the moment. Will have a bright future at international level I think.

All Competitions (For cups I have shown as many rounds as I can)

English Premier Division

Coca-Cola Championship

Coca-Cola League 1

Coca-Cola League 2

FA Cup

League Cup

Johnstones's Paint Trophy

English Community Shield

European Super Cup

European Champions Cup

Euro Cup

I think thats everything covered, if you want to see any screenshots or think I've missed anything then just ask and I'll sort it out for you.

[Nobby_McDonald]

I see Romelu Lukaku has taken a liking to a certain strip club in the city centre.

[SwiftyBlade]

That is a top quality end of season update, really is a nice touch to look at the other competitions

But there is one problem, I hate to nag but Sheffield Wednesday got Promoted whilst Blackpool got relegated? Now, don't try and pull the fast one because it aint gonna work

[hrbfcrule]

Well done on doing incredibly well with Stoke

Also great updates

[mackemforever]

That is a top quality end of season update, really is a nice touch to look at the other competitions

But there is one problem, I hate to nag but Sheffield Wednesday got Promoted whilst Blackpool got relegated? Now, don't try and pull the fast one because it aint gonna work

Lol.

You know why Wednesday got promoted and Blackpool didn't? Wednesday usually scored more goals than they conceded. Now, that may seem like a bit of an odd strategy, but it did seem to work for them.

[SwiftyBlade]

Lol.

You know why Wednesday got promoted and Blackpool didn't? Wednesday usually scored more goals than they conceded. Now, that may seem like a bit of an odd strategy, but it did seem to work for them.

Hrm, interesting. I may have to try that tatic sometime, but do you not think its too risky? There are some obvious flaws in it which you should be able to pick out

[mackemforever]

2010 World Cup

Group Stage

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

So, only 2 real surprises in the World Cup this year. The first came in Group C where Ivory Coast finished last without a single point or even a goal. The other big shock came in Group E where Spain drew all 3 games and finished behind Sweden and Algeria.

The other thing that caught my eye was North Korea, finishing with a goal difference of -18, having lost 9-0 twice. How ****ed off must Kim Jong-il be about that!

Knockout Stage

Knockouts

So the tournaments surprise package, Algeria, made it all the way to the semi finals, and almost more impressively Ireland almost took their game with Greece to extra time. In terms of the final, no real surprise here, 2 teams with plenty of talent got there but it was very one sided in the end and England were lucky that it was only 2-0 to Brazil.

Awards

Best Player

Best Keeper

Golden Boot

Dream Team

[mackemforever]

2010/2011 Pre-Season

Transfers

Transfers - I had a budget of £25m to begin with but ended up selling pretty much every single reserve player and almost every player who had less than 10 games last season, and then I spent almost every penny of what that got me. I didn't actually sign that many players but all of my signings are pretty young and so hopefully can play a role for a fair few years to come, and so hopefully I will be able to spend less in future seasons.

Fabio - Was on loan last season and was very good, so I took up the option of buying him for £5m during the loan. He played far better than his attributes suggest he should, and I think with the right training he could become very good.

Guglielmo Innocenti - At first glance he looks like he could become a very good player, but there are certain areas that I will have to work very hard on. Physically he needs some work but the biggest problem I can see is that his attitude needs to improve, as I think he may be a bit of a slacker on the pitch. Hopefully a year of tutoring by Grisales, a tough, hard working midfielder, will help get things moving in the right direction.

Pablo Mouche - Was signed to take Rivaldo's place alongside Lukaku and is good in all the right areas to do well in that role. His only real offensive weakness is his aerial ability but the role he will be used in very rarely requires him to head the ball as most of the time he will be the one crossing the ball into the area. Could be very good this season and hopefully can improve even further with good training.

Adama Bamba - A big gamble I think. He is technically and physically very advanced for his age, but mentally he is extremely weak. Hopefully as he is only 15 he can make significant improvements to that side of his game, but if he doesn't then I don't think he will ever make it as a top level striker.

Mark Randall - Another gamble, isn't that great at the moment and isn't the youngest around so he will need to put in a lot of work in training but he seems to have a good attitude and hopefully can take advantage of the coaching setup I have put together here and work his way into my first team.

Jack Rodwell - I probably payed over the odds for Rodwell but I think he could do a great job in the center of the park and he also fits into my eventual aim of building an all English team and so I was prepared to bid a bit more than I needed to, just to make sure that I got him.

Ibrahim Afellay - A bit of an impulse purchase here, and I really did pay too much for him, I probably could have got him for around £6m if I had tried, but I saw that he had requested a transfer away from PSV and I got a bit overexcited thinking he could be a replacement for Guti after this season. The fans were very upset with how much I paid for him so he will have to put in some great performances to win them over.

Brandon Smith - Only 18 years old but already a great defender technically and mentally, but horribly weak physically. Will spend this season following his own individual training schedule focussed almost entirely on the physical side of his game as technically and mentally he is already better than all of my existing defenders, but the physical side of his game is nowhere near good enough to top level football.

Youth Intake

A pretty average bunch of youngsters came through my academy this year, except for one obvious exception.

Paul Smith - A natural AMC and MC and very good for a 16 year old. Will need a fair bit of work on his physical side but other than that I think he is pretty well rounded and I am very confident that he can become good enough to become a star for us in the future.

Full Squad

Squad - I'm very happy with my current squad. I don't think we have any weak areas and I think that a good portion of the squad are still able to improve over the next couple of years. There are only 3 players who are getting too old for the team and could struggle to play a lot of games, but for all of them I have youngsters who I am confident can step up and do a good job when called upon.

Friendlies

Shrewsbury 0-4 Stoke City

Stoke City 2-0 Cardiff

Stoke City 0-2 Blackburn

Stoke City 1-1 West Ham

Didn't play many friendlies at all and I used a lot of youth players in the games I did. I didn't really pay much attention to them as I was busy trying to complete all my various signings. I didn't actually play a single match with my current starting lineup, so the start of the season could be a bit of a mystery, although hopefully it won't be too much of a shock as I'm only changing a couple of members of my starting XI.

Season Aims

1) Finish in the top 4 in the league.

2) Go further than I did last year in both the League Cup and FA Cup.

3) Don't finish last in my Champions League group.