FM11: Aston Villa Thread - Life after MON

[JamboLad]

End of Season 2

Cant really be bothered doing a wee report of last season but there was not much of note with a 6th place finish and no cup wins

Here is how I go on this season

League Table

I never thought I would finish 2nd to be honest and was quite gutted to lose 3-2 to Liverpool to pretty much hand them the title.

Squad Stats

Gabby won footballer of the year, Ashley Young second in the players player of the year, Gabby Runner up in top scorer of the season, Eden Hazard won Young player of the year, Delph popped in with 2nd place in goal of the season and then myself in 2nd place of manager of the year. Not a bad season for awards.

Delphs goal -

[JamboLad]

Transfers

Season 1

Season 2

As you can see season one was all about Hazard really and season 2 was all about the new defence. Season 3 is heading towards attempting to build some depth and add quality whilst keeping an english core in the team.

Here is the future transfers lined up

Any suggestions on transfers? Im hoping with my 2nd place finish and champions league that Im given a decent budget

[JamboLad]

Anyone ever been taken over whilst at Villa?

Fans trust looking to buy the club! I'm worried for some reason...

Edit - Randy just told them to hurry the hell up to make sure I can operate in the transfer market! Go on Randy!

Edit again - 1st July has come round and im still embargoed this sucks

Edit - 3rd of July new guy at the helm but no new investment as of yet

[Spike]

My first season is completed, and with the exception of the Premier League it’s been pretty disappointing.

The season started with a number of young talented players being brought in to compliment the experience already in the squad.

With the January transfer window coming round and us sitting in top spot I decided to ask for some more transfer funds, as John Carew was out with a long term injury. The board agreed and Edin Dzeko was brought in. He scored 12 goals in 12 league games, but unfortunately we came up agonisingly short of a dream Premier League title.

We performed awfully in the domestic cups, with my second string going out to Swansea & Cardiff respectively. The Europa League was slightly better, as we topped our group before going out to Juventus in the second KO round.

Overall the squad performed very well, with Gabby & Ash leading the way.

I have already signed Ibrahim Afellay and Marco Amelia on free transfers. I now have a £35m budget to spend on a world class Centre Back, and a quality Right Back & Defensive Midfielder. Petrov, Friedel & Carew have already been offloaded, with Heskey & Beye about to follow.

[CMOZZA]

Still no mini-me yet so still no game

Really want to get stuck into a Villa save. Everyone seems to be doing well and given the success I managed with Villa in FM10 I'm looking forward to replicating it in FM11.

[Daffie]

Any suggestions on transfers? Im hoping with my 2nd place finish and champions league that Im given a decent budget

Selling Ireland is a HUGE mistake imo...

[Daffie]

I finished 4th in my first season, out in second round knock out phase of the Euro cup and early exits in league and FA cup.

But unfortunately no champions league in second season due to number 5 winning the CL

Now halfway into the second season things are going pretty well !

Im also still in all competitions, including semi finals of league cup and second round of euro cup. Only lost 1 game this season so far!

The team I managed to do this with :

I will ofcourse keep you updated on the end of the season.

Oh, and the board agreed to expand the stadium and upgrade the youth facilities

And if you are wondering where the Fonz has gone, he is on loan at Bolton (4,8 million euro loan fee !!!)

[JamboLad]

I feel like my whole team is falling apart in season 3, Ashley Young and Gabby want to move to bigger clubs, I finished second and im playing in the champions league What more do they want!

[JamboLad]

Season 3

Transfers

I've been drawn Real Madrid, AC Milan and Panathanikos in the Champions League Tough group!

[artvanderlay]

yeah i got taken over & the guy that did it was useless!!! he put me in massive debt by securing loads of loans against the club!!!

Anyone ever been taken over whilst at Villa?

Fans trust looking to buy the club! I'm worried for some reason...

Edit - Randy just told them to hurry the hell up to make sure I can operate in the transfer market! Go on Randy!

Edit again - 1st July has come round and im still embargoed this sucks

Edit - 3rd of July new guy at the helm but no new investment as of yet

[Daffie]

I feel like my whole team is falling apart in season 3, Ashley Young and Gabby want to move to bigger clubs, I finished second and im playing in the champions league What more do they want!

Here the opposite is happening

I finished 2nd season as champions with 88 points. I bought arturo vidal for a strong DMC, garry bocaly as a strong right back, stekelenburg and aissati on free transfers. Reo-Coker on loan, cuellar and ochoa are out because of this.

I had some troubles with people wanting to go to bigger clubs too (young, dunne + paulo henrique) but I just refused, they settled after a while.

Oh, and just a week after I posted these screenshots I got offered the job of Tottenham, which I declined ofcourse and abit later I got offered the Belgium job, which I took

9 out of 9 points first 3 games in the world cup qualification.

And in my 3rd season halfway im second 5 points behind man utd, and in the CL I got 16 out of 18 with a group Zurich, Real Madrid, Panathinakois (2 wins against Real !)

Got to play Juventus now and still in all cups. Lets see how the rest of the season goes

Oh, and almost forgot, I managed to sign Dzeko on a free transfer for next season !!!! Whoohoow!

[SteveHill]

Started a Villa game and currently in March.. Not done too much in terms of transfers and stuff.. so far I've signed:

Park -£4.5m from Man United

Goodwillie - £4m from Dundee United

Fabio - Year Loan - Man United

Haven't sold any players but sent a few out on loan.. Currently sitting top of the league by 2 points, Just won the League Cup after a 1- 0 against Birmingham and in the 2nd knockout round of the uefa cup and the 6th round of the FA Cup as well.. so the season is going fantastic at the moment.. been a bit shakey the last few games though so it'll be interesting to see if I can hold off the competition or fall at the last hurdle as what normally happens!

Second season I'm bringing in:

Hart - £6m Man City

Diarra - Free Real Madrid

Coentrao - £5m Benfica

So early indications are that i'll be a stronger outfit than I am at the moment when it comes to next year

[KevinThomson'1]

Cany someone please put up a few screenshots of Marc Albrighton ? i'm considerin buying him for Spurs but not sure how he develops and his pace isn't great for a winger :\

[Daffie]

Lets see how the rest of the season goes

Halfway I was 5 points behind man utd, at the end of the season I was 10 points behind, finished 2nd.

Man utd was pretty unbeatable finishing with 90 points and winning the FA cup in the last season of Sir Alex before his retirement.

In the meantime I got offered the Arsenal job and when Alex retired also the Man utd job. Declined both times.

I want to win the CL with Villa before even thinking about joining another team!

I also managed to get to the QF in the CL 3rd season, semi finale of the league cup and early exit in the FA Cup.

Board is also expending stadium again with more than 8000 seats, but my finances are pretty bad at the moment.

I only did some bargain transfers in the beginning of the 4th season getting albiol and alderweireld for € 3,5 million each. Also Las Diarra on a free transfer from real and ofcourse Dzeko on a free as already mentioned.

Lets hope I can win something this season again!

[Marc Albrighton]

Good luck getting contreao for 5m in the second season btw bayern munich snap him up pretty quickly. I was 3 seasons in with two 2nd place finishes but today i chose to start again as i think im a bit more used to how 11 works and who to get early etc.

Bought in both hazard brothers and areola for my future number 1 spot, sold beye and carew now lets see how season one goes. By the way do any of you recruit your own staff instantly? I was thinking about getting in a really good assistant manager but i couldnt think of who to look for or even if its needed any suggestions would be welcome

[Andyp]

So, after having to restore my PC thanks to a pretty evil virus I've had to start allll over again. Again.

My plan this time is a good 4-5-1 (though as I'm playing a flat 3 in midfield with the two wingers, the game believes it's a 4-3-3 but so be it). To be able to do this, I'm adding some more skill and guile to the mid, with Steven Defour (£5.5m) and Mahamadou Diarra (s/long loan £100k fee). Also managed to get Tranquillo Barnetta in for £7.5m as the wings do feel a little under strength. I'm always concerned by Friedel in Footy Manager so Guillermo Ochoa is in for £4.5m and - because I could and he looks like a BEAST - Oguchi Onyewu in for the season to add to my defence (fee of £400k).

Slightly annoyed at not being able to find a good young left back. Bringing in the players I have, the only position I'm really short in is full back. L.Young and Warnock are good enough to last as first-choice for a couple of seasons at least, but in my experience Beye is rubbish and I don't have any other left backs available. Saying that, I've used Bannan there a few times before and he's actually not that bad.

I want to be able to use an actual squad in this game, so I'm not letting anyone go (this season), but have Cuellar has gone out on loan to Napoli to free up some wages. I was tempted to sell one of Carew/Heskey as I'm only planning to play 1 up front, but I want a strong option on the bench if we're struggling and I need to go 4-4-2.

Couple of questions for everyone:

- From what the long-term players here have found, who's the better centre back out of Davies and Collins? They both have positives which the other lacks: Davies has better pace, determination, anticipation, positioning whereas Collins has better strength, heating/jumping, aggression and bravery. I can't decide!

- Anyone here figured out training schedules yet? I'm always terrified of trying it out myself after the great injury-plagued save of FM09...

- Delph looks the business. Shame about the injury. What are people's experiences with him?

- We all know what potential Bannan and Clark possess, but unfortunately don't really look that exciting in this game. How do they develop? I'll be happy for them to be decent squad players but obviously anything more will be a bonus.

- Albrighton and The Fonz have great starting attributes considering their age. Is this as good as it gets for them, or do they have some kind of PA to grow in to?

[Daffie]

Couple of questions for everyone:

- From what the long-term players here have found, who's the better centre back out of Davies and Collins? They both have positives which the other lacks: Davies has better pace, determination, anticipation, positioning whereas Collins has better strength, heating/jumping, aggression and bravery. I can't decide!

- Anyone here figured out training schedules yet? I'm always terrified of trying it out myself after the great injury-plagued save of FM09...

- Delph looks the business. Shame about the injury. What are people's experiences with him?

- We all know what potential Bannan and Clark possess, but unfortunately don't really look that exciting in this game. How do they develop? I'll be happy for them to be decent squad players but obviously anything more will be a bonus.

- Albrighton and The Fonz have great starting attributes considering their age. Is this as good as it gets for them, or do they have some kind of PA to grow in to?

- Well, I sold Collins this year at start of 4th season. Davies is my first team regular. 7.22 overall avg. is the worst he did for me in 4 seasons, enough said.

- I kept the schedules that are standard in the game, just raised the intensity a little.

- Delph is playing pretty good now for me, use him in my rotation squad.

- I sold Bannan, but he is an ok player. Clark is playing quite good now and is the only youth player really getting first team play. He has 14 on almost all key attributes, he is pretty much my replacement for Dunne. But due to arrival of Albiol he is not in my first team choice.

- I sold Albrighton, not using attacking wingers and he is quite rubbish in the game, mainly due to not playing at his clubs I think. The Fonz is Ok but nothing amazing. He has 3 stars.

[CMOZZA]

Baby was born Wednesday

Should start playing FM11 tomorrow or Sunday

[Marc Albrighton]

Gratz mate and good luck.

[Daffie]

4th season was something special !

Managed to win the premier league for a 2nd time and.... I have won the CL !!!!!

Now the funny thing : Couple of days before the final of the CL i was offered the Real Madrid job, after Mourinho got the sack (he only won 1 title and 1 Spanish cup).

I asked for a week delay and now I still don't know what to do !?

I saved the game at the decision point and saved again after continuing at Villa. That way I can always go back and try to get Real back at the top.

What do you guys think? Do I leave Villa after giving them everything I could give? Or do I stick with them and try to win more prizes.

Let me know what you guys think

[eldeniro]

I'm in season 2 where I took over Villa in pre-season, really enjoying it. I got Balotelli in a very questionable transfer and he partners Robbie Keane up front, I raided Spurs for Bentley, Kaboul and Palacios as well.

[Microlite]

Holyyyyyy craaaaaap! Get NECID! him and abgonlahor upfront! their unplayable to far for me!

[ReggaeBwoy]

If your talking about youth, Daniel Johson plays for the Villa U18. If you nurture him well he will turn out to br a brilliant player IMO. He use to go to my school whilst he was living in South London before he moved over to the Midlands. If people didnt realise he has appeared as a sub for Villa several times on the bench this season. Only 17, have a look guys

[Marc Albrighton]

If your talking about youth, Daniel Johson plays for the Villa U18. If you nurture him well he will turn out to br a brilliant player IMO. He use to go to my school whilst he was living in South London before he moved over to the Midlands. If people didnt realise he has appeared as a sub for Villa several times on the bench this season. Only 17, have a look guys

Yep him and gary gardner are probably our best prospects in the youth team, not sure what their potential ingame is but they should be decent players at the least.

[ReggaeBwoy]

Yep him and gary gardner are probably our best prospects in the youth team, not sure what their potential ingame is but they should be decent players at the least.

Yes, i think Johnson got the potential to be a good player, he is rated quite highly in FM but how is Johnson progressing for you in your U18 and reserves, keep me updated please

[CMOZZA]

Ok, finally got to make a start and I'm just approaching the first game of the season. My Transfers look like this:

In

Guillermo Ochoa - £3m

Oguchi Onyewu - £850k Loan Fee

Adil Rami - £6m

Yaya Sanogo - £225k Loan Fee

Romelu Lukaku - £7.5m

Christopher Drazan - £3.1m

Patrick Van Aarnholt - £250k Loan Fee

Roque Santa Cruz - £750k

Renato Augusto - £7.5m

Out

Isaiah Osbourne - £350k

John Carew - £2.6m

Richard Dunne - £5.25m

Eric Lichaj - Loan

Shane Lowry - Loan

Ciaran Clark - Loan

Wouldn't have normally offloaded Dunne and Carew but needed to get some players off the wage bill and they totalled £100k+ p/w and those sales enabled me to bring in Augusto, who I think is going to be a great addition.

I'm way over my wage bill but I'll try and deal with that by trying to get the likes of Heskey, Sidwell, Beye & Davies out on loan for the season.

I'll keep an update regularly

[JonCox]

Well i thought i'ld give this posting thing a go...

Players In

Edin Hazard - £20m over 48 months.

Joel Matip - £10m over 48 months.

Eden Dzeko - £25m over 48 months. 90k a week...the greedy bugger.

Joe Hart - £20m over 48 months. 90k a week, plus 30k clean sheet bonus!!! (Not too many of those thankfully )

Lucas Digne - £5m over 48 months.

Players Out

John Carew - £2.9m.

Habib Beye - £1.5m over 48 months.

Carlos Cuellar - £4.2m.

Stewart Downing - £375k Loan Fee, £7m purchase option.

Formation

4-4-2 with advanced wingers called Fantasticna, i'm useless with formations and this is a pretty solid 4-4-2 that i found on the forums.

Position - Main / Backup

GK - Joe Hart / Bad Friedal

RB - Luke Young / Eric Lichaj

LB - Stephen Warnock / Lucas Digne

DCL - Richard Dunne / Curtis Davies

DCR - Joel Matip / Curtis Davies

MCL - Stiliyan Petrov / Stephan Ireland

MCR - Nigel Reo-Coker / Moustafa Salifou (Scarily enough NRC is darn good and Salifou is good cover)

AML - Eden Hazard / Barry Bannan

AMR - Ashley Young / Marc Albrighton

STCL - Gabby / Fonz

STCR - Edin Dzeko / Fonz

Pre-Season Friendlies

A Villa Reserves : 5-0 H

Plymouth : 5-2 A

Scunthorpe: 4-1 A

Reading : 5-1 A

Pisa : 3-0 A

Monza : 0-0 A

Vicenza : 3-1 A

So a nice morale/confidence boosting pre-season. With Gabby bagging 12 in 7, Dzeko 2 in 6 and Fonz 6 in 7.

As always with my luck i get the nice easy fixture of Man Utd away for my first game in the league

August

Man Utd : 2-2 A (Rooney 34, vidic sent off 43, warnock og 60... theres me thinking ohh joy. Then hazard pops up in the 63rd and gabby seals the point for me in the 78th)

CSKA Sofia (Euo 4th Qual) : 5-1 A

Newcastle : 2-0 H

CSKA Sofia (Euro 4th Qual) : 5-0 H

Bolton : 2-1 A

September

Fulham : 4-3 H (Joe Hart realllllllllly doesn't want his clean sheet bonus does he)

Villarreal (Euro Group) : 3-0 H

Wolves : 2-1 A

Leicester (Lge Cup) : 5-0 H

Liverpool : 3-2 H

BATE (Euro Group) : 2-0 A

October

Arsenal : 2-1 A

Stoke : 1-1 H

Leverkusen : 2-0 H

West Ham : 1-1 A

Portsmouth (Lge Cup) : 2-2 Won on penalties.

Birmingham : 3-1 H

So i'm heading into Novemeber now unbeaten in all competitions 1st in the league, 3points clear of chelsea! Dzeko is out injured for Novemeber and December so i'm running on 2 strikers (Heskey is in the reserves ) Got given an extra £10m at the end of october due to good finances, so i'll be trying to sign a good striker or good fullback to cover young/warnock.

[Marc Albrighton]

Those wages and monthly payments could push you over the edge

[CMOZZA]

Players In

Edin Hazard - £20m over 48 months.

Joel Matip - £10m over 48 months.

Eden Dzeko - £25m over 48 months. 90k a week...the greedy bugger.

Joe Hart - £20m over 48 months. 90k a week, plus 30k clean sheet bonus!!! (Not too many of those thankfully )

Lucas Digne - £5m over 48 months.

So i'm heading into Novemeber now unbeaten in all competitions 1st in the league, 3points clear of chelsea! Dzeko is out injured for Novemeber and December so i'm running on 2 strikers (Heskey is in the reserves ) Got given an extra £10m at the end of october due to good finances, so i'll be trying to sign a good striker or good fullback to cover young/warnock.

Those installments and wages will cripple you in the coming seasons, if I were you I'd look at offloading players rather than bringing more big names in tbh.

But each to his own, I hope you continue to do well

[CMOZZA]

Well it's slow progress for me in terms of game time but I'm 6 games into the season and sit in 10th with 9 points, which I half expected as I get the new players to gel and get the team used to my tactics (Which currently is my slightly tweaked version of Mr Hough's 4-2-2-2.

Results so far:

Man U (H): 0-1 (Macheda with a 93rd min goal, like that'd ever happen )

Anothosis Famagusta (A): 2-0 (Medina OG, Fonz)

Stoke (H): 2-0 (Sidibe OG, Warnock)

Anorthosis Famagusta (H): 2-0 (Fonz x 2)

Arsenal (A): 0-3

Blackpool (A): 0-2

Olympiakos (H): 1-1 (Cuellar)

Stoke (A) (LC): 3-1 (A.Young, Cuellar, Diao OG)

Newcastle (H): 3-0 (Santa Cruz, Agbonlahor, A.Young)

Wisla Krakow (A): 2-2 (Collins, Santa Cruz)

Fulham (A): 2-1 (Santa Cruz, Agbonlahor)

Some decent results and a couple of poor results and then that shocker away to Blackpool, but I'm happy enough atm, Rami is a beast at the back. Well worth £6m. Santa Cruz and Agbonlahor look like they are starting to gel, only thing is Augusto seems to be having trouble fitting in to my team, and Lukaku has been unfortunate with injuries and then Santa & Gabby starting scoring, so hasn't had much of a look in really.

Habib Beye is currently keeping Luke Young out of the side as well, Young got injured and Beye has come in and taken his chance and is performing pretty well, which has suprised me.

[CMOZZA]

After 10 Games now in 7th place on 16 Points, so I'm heading in the right direction:

Bolton (A): 1-3 (Agbonlahor)

Liverpool (H): 2-1 (Drazan, Santa Cruz)

Salzburg (H): 2-0 (A.Young, Ireland)

Blackburn (A): 0-0

Man Utd (H) (LC): 1-2 (Agbonlahor)

West Brom (A): 1-0 (Lukaku)

Basically, I'm 7th in the PL, out of the League Cup & Top of my Europa League group, so all in all I'm fairly happy with the way the season is shaping up and I'm content that I have a Squad capable of challenging in the top half of the league at least

[JonCox]

Those installments and wages will cripple you in the coming seasons, if I were you I'd look at offloading players rather than bringing more big names in tbh.

But each to his own, I hope you continue to do well

I keep track of my payments and plan accordingly As long as i have £20m each year, for the next 4 years put to one side not to spend i should be safe. The wages i have covered within my allocated budget, I'll be getting rid of Heskey 60k, Friedel 50k, Downing 45k, Sidwell 40k, collins 35k and a few reserves which should free up about 250k of wages. And i should hopefully get 10-15m in total for those guys.

To be honest its my first time spending big at the start, ever since cm/fm moved onto the PC and you could properly find young talent i always bought youth for the first season and then spent big in the following season.

The only problem was 5 minutes after i posted, my dad turned off all the fuses without prior warning, so i've got to replay my last four matches.

[Daffie]

I'll be getting rid of Heskey 60k, Friedel 50k, Downing 45k, Sidwell 40k, collins 35k and a few reserves which should free up about 250k of wages. And i should hopefully get 10-15m in total for those guys.

No, you won't, you will need to pay most of these guys a piece of their current wage to even leave you....

[Marc Albrighton]

Heskey wont leave because nobody ever bids for him even for free or loan. Just started my second season after a 3rd place finish and im 8 games in w5 d2 l1 including away wins at citeh and chelski. Bough in Hart, Lukaku, Poli and Taiwo (free) been a great summer of business for me tbh hart was unhappy so he was only 5m lukaku 7m and poli has incredible attributes and potential and hes only 21. Suprised i havent seen more about him on the various fm forums to be quite honest.

[CMOZZA]

Few ups and downs as I've hit xmas. Agreed to sign Jenas on a free in January just to add a few numbers to my midfield as I'm a bit lightweight there. But unless I sell, there'll be no more business for me in January.

Salzburg (A): 0-1

Tottenham (H): 2-3 (Lukaku x2)

Man City (A): 0-1

Birmingham (H): 2-2 (Agbonlahor, Albrighton)

West Ham (H): 1-1 (Agbonlahor)

Wigan (A): 1-0 (Santa Cruz)

Olympiakos (A): 3-1 (Heskey x2, Agbonlahor)

Sunderland (H): 0-1

Wolves (A): 3-1 (Delfouneso, Lukaku, A.Young)

Wisla (H): 2-0 (Augusto, A.Young)

Chelsea (A): 2-1 (Agbonlahor, Collins)

Everton (H): 1-2 (Augusto)

Those results saw me into the knockout stages of the Europa League, even with only playing relatively weakened sides throughout, and stay in 10th Place in the league. Have had a mini injury crisis with Rami, Collins, A.Young, Santa Cruz, Reo Coker & Petrov all picking up injuries that left me short for a number of weeks. Now most of my squad seems to be back and hopefully I can push on into the european places in the league

[Sparky_07]

Started my Villa save yesterday signed Landon Donavan, Christian Erikson and Alex Smithies doing well in league and both cups also in Europe looking to bring some through of the youth I'll update more when at home and on game tonight

[Neil Train]

well isnt this the coolest thread? just bought fm11 so i'll be posting here as soon as i've set up a decent villa team. i already notice renato augusto isnt as good as he was in 10.3 but could still be a purchase worth making. i tend to sell the whole squad except warnock, young (a), the fonz, delph and albrighton. too much dead wood. cant wait to get stuck into this new game. which reminds me......what am i doing here, i should be up and running....) speak soon, neil

[BigAndyT]

Hello people, i started a Villa game and have just reached feb first season

At the min im 5th in the prem (2 points off 3rd) and into the quarters of FA cup with forest at home (easy!) The one disappointment is my defence and the ueafa cup compain

only winning one game and finishing 3rd. Dunne and Cuellar have been poor as well as Warnock, Gabby has been great but i lost him to knee injury for 3 months over xmas and Carew and Hesk have chipped in well in his place. Ireland has only 2 assists in the seaon so far but an av rating of 7.12 so finding it hard to drop him. Gonna need a new keeper next seaosn and looking for Ochoa to be that so fingers crossed.

Ins

Miralem Sulejmani - loan

Park Ji-Sung - loan

Cristian Zapata - 9 mill

Outs

Habib Beye - 1mill

Salou - free

Weinmann - free

Nathan Baker - 100k

Andy Marshall - free

Hopefully i can secure 4th and the cup and have a good season.

[CMOZZA]

That Everton result started a run of 4 straight defeats over xmas and new year, but I've picked up the pieces a bit since then, and even though I went out of the FA Cup to Man City in round 4, I'm still in 9th place in the league with most of the big teams out of the way.

Stoke (A): 1-2 (Delfouneso)

Arsenal (H): 2-4 (Vermaelen OG, Agbonlahor)

Man Utd (A): 0-2

Millwall (A) (FAC): 0-0

Blackpool (H): 2-0 (A.Young, Delfouneso)

Millwall (H) (FAC): 2-0 (Delfouneso, Jenas)

Bolton (H): 3-2 (Agbonlahor x2, Lukaku)

Man City (A) (FAC): 1-3 (Augusto)

Fulham (H): 4-0 (Collins, Agbonlahor x2, Drazan)

Newcastle (A): 1-0 (Coloccini OG)

Liverpool (A): 2-2 (Agbonlahor x2)

Now into mid february and as predicted I had no other movement in January, but have arranged moves for Albin, Affelay & Cristian Ledesma all on frees. Imo they are the best players out of contract that I could have hoped to get at the end of season 1, I know Mexes and Ibrahimovic are out of contract but neither even wanted to speak to me, but in fairness, I didn't really want either.

[tottivillarossi]

Great read everybody, keep it up. I'll be starting a new game soon with the .2 patch. Glad to see you finally got the game CMOZZA How is Augusto doing for you and how do you use him?

[ß@tU]

At first, must buy a good goalkeeper(egg.Sergio Romero).Then buy a good MC/AMC and buy a good DR.

You can sell Downing and Salifou(and maybe Bannan).

[CMOZZA]

Great read everybody, keep it up. I'll be starting a new game soon with the .2 patch. Glad to see you finally got the game CMOZZA How is Augusto doing for you and how do you use him?

Augusto started off poorly and I had to drop him a couple of months in a his performances weren't up to scratch, but that was playing him as a winger. When I brought him back in I moved him into CM as an advanced playmaker and he began to pick up a few goals and assists, that was during my mini injury crisis where sidwell was actually getting regular games. Now that I'm back to a full compliment of first teamers (Albeit Ashley is out for 6 months with a broken leg) he's playing on either flank set as an inside forward (Support) and his average rating has gone fromaround 6.5 to 7.07.

Taken a while to settle, but has been excellent since Youngs injury and looks to be worth the £7.5m

[JBC#1]

Starting a Villa game now with the new patch, asked the game to pick me a club and I'm pretty relieved Villa were the first to come up as they are a useful side.

Trying to offload Beye, Dunne, Heskey and Sidwell to free up wages.

[Marc Albrighton]

Ive just started a new save due to the new patch, nice to see pires added he could come in useful considering the small squad weve got and ive also noticed carew being wanted by a few clubs which never happened in the transfer windows in the old patches so thats good. Also suprised not to see bannan and clark in the full squad to be honest they have been 2 of our best players this season so far!

[Sparky_07]

Started my Villa save again with the new patch, really enjoy being them as they have got a decent squad and money to play around with. Signed Defour, Smithies and Donavan. Playing a 4 2 3 1 formation with wingers. First game away to Blackburn won 1-0 Bannan great goal. Signed some decent scouts and coaches looking to get rid of Carew, Marshall, Salifou and maybe Heskey.

[JBC#1]

Looking to sign a central midfielder in the "Cattermole" mould if anyone has any suggestions?

Also a creative central midfield partner would be useful if anyone can reccommend?

[Marc Albrighton]

Finally got through the pre season stage and have played my first league game winning 2-1 at home to bolton, not convincing but my tactic is very awkward atm waiting for eveything to become fluid before i expect anything special. Transfers: http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/7580/astonvillatransfershist.png

The hazard signing was for the future so ignore that one the other 3 go straight into my squad, very impressed with poli aswell great player.

[tottivillarossi]

Looking to sign a central midfielder in the "Cattermole" mould if anyone has any suggestions?

Also a creative central midfield partner would be useful if anyone can reccommend?

Reo-Coker (central midfielder - defend) for the Cattermole mould and Ireland (deep-lying playmaker - support) for the creative role?

[Kay-Ole]

As usual I started my first game on a new FM with Villa, and my my what a season. Best first season I've ever had, and does anyone else think this years version seem a bit too easy? Well, anyway, on to my game:

Quickly got rid of Carew (£2.8M to Liverpool) and Sidwell (£2.7M to Everton) because of their high wages. Maybe I could've got more cash for them, who knows, but released much needed space in the wage budget. Also let Beye go out on a loan, when I got Rafael in for a season long loan, wich gave me another £30k less on the wage budget. In the end I also sold Cuellar, as I one of Collins, Cuellar and Davies had to go. Ended up with Dunne and Davies pairing up, and Davies came on the team of the year, so happy with not choosing to sell him! Clark as a fourth choice rarely had to step in.

Brought in Renato Augusto (£8m) and Steven Defour (£5.75M) early on to get more options for the 4-2-3-1 formation I had plans about playing. Romelu Lukaku for £6.5m also seemes like a good deal, the guy could turn out immense if he develops good. Needed a cover for Warnock, and brought in Dodô for £1.3, could also become a great player, and was at least sufficient as a cover for season or two if not. At the end of the transfer window I brought in Raphael Varane, as my scouts told me he'd be better than Dunne. Good in my book, £4m for the 17-year old.

Season started with two home wins, and two lost on the road, and made some tweeks on the tactic, and suddenly I found myself top of the table after 7 games. 2-0 at Emirates the best game so far. Got some good results and come january I find myself 2nd place, looking to fight for the title. ManU does seem very strong though. On third, and the team who seems to be my biggest competetor this season we find none other than Bolton, with Elmander playing fantastic. Hmm.

In January good old Randy thought we had to much money, and told me to spend some more. £10m became £24M transfer budget. Good new years, I thought, and started to search for a big signing. As we were still leaking goals, I though about bringing in a great centre back, but my targets had no intention of joining Villa, going for the title or not. Neither would the right backs or the strikers I was looking at. At a point Edin Dzeko seemed like a good idea, but with Gabby scoring for fun in a poacher role, it seemed like unnesecary money to spend for a few goals extra. Suddenly my scouts came knocking, and told me about these two kids, called Eden Hazard and Adem Ljajic. "These are gold", they said, while jumping up and down in pure amazement. "Just throw £12m or 15m at their clubs, and we'll have world beaters running around Villa Park", they continued, claiming they'd even be better than Ashley. "Is that right?", I said, and thought I'd buy Eden Hazard. I mean, I guy called Hazard has to be good, right? Paid £14m, and promised them £2.5m more if he did certain stuff the way I wanted, and boy was my scouts right. At the end of the season he ended with 16 league games, 7 goals, 9 assists, 3 MoM and 7.69 rating! I have my left attacking midfielder for the rest of the game, I assume.

Very well, the season went on, and I kept winning games. Defour had so far been a bit in and out of the team, when I thought I'd give the tactic a little look. The two CMs didn't seem to have quite the same idea as me of how to play, mainly because I happened to tell them strange things in my tactic. Changed things around, and told Defour to act as a box-to-box man, something he seemed to like. Defour suddenly started scoring and assisting, and while Petrov tackled and had a pass accuracy of 90%, those two guys really made things even better.

Suddenly I found myself beating Chelsea 1-0 on Wembley, and the League Cup went to Villa Park for the first time since 1996. Supporters where happy. Good things.

The FA cup also went well, and beating Birmingham 3-1 after being 1-0 down in the 6th round tasted oh so sweet! Cardiff in the semi didnt give me much problems, though, and suddenly I found myself a second time on Wembley meeting Chelsea. More about that later.

The EURO Cup is of course fun, and Porto was beaten 4-1 at home in the first knock out round, so losing 2-1 in Portugal was no problem. Juventus turned out to much of a opponent though, and the second knock out round was as far as we got. Good riddance, players where at this point really getting tired, and a continual rotation system was necessary for guys like Dunne and Petrov not to fall over and die on the way home from hard matches. Would've been a shame.

The league went on, and after a fantastic run after the arrival of the great Hazard, we had a run of 11 unbeaten league matches, and found our selves still fighting for the title come April. But then, ManU just kept on winning too, and Bolton kept sniffing our behinds on the table. Teams like Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal also seemed to have gotten their stuff toghether, and where at times only few points behind. Could this go?, I asked myself on late nights. Or will we tremble under the pressure and lose the CL spot we really needed, as I've promised teams all over the world to pay them for years to come for players like Renato Augusto and Lukaku, who found themselves sitting on the bench more often than not?

No, we wouldn't, it turned out. And with three games to go, I found myself sitting 6 points behind ManU, and with an amount of points down to 5th more than the FA would be willing to give out during the two last games all the other teams would play. So I thought there was no chance in winning the title, but still hoped for a very strong 2nd place. My three last games where ManU (A), Chelsea (H) and Blackpool (A). ManUs last games where Liverpool (A) and Bolton (H). Hmm, what do we have here? If I beat them... Oh my god.. Things could still be on! Off to Old Trafford!!

Richard Dunne had a little accident early on, and found my team 1-0 down after 26 minutes. That was it, I thought to myself. But a certain hazardous person from Belgium wanted none of it, and put in 1-1 soon afterwards. The game went on, and a little yelling and stuff in the dressing room after ManU had thought us a couple of lessons in attacking football, and we had thought ourselves a couple of lessons in how to not to get a shots on goal, we suddenly found ourselves running the match! Woodworks where hit, shots where fired, and 10 minutes before the whistle blew, Dunne made it all well when heading in a corner, and making it 2-1! And suddenly we where only three points behind, with a game in hand!

The game in hand was Chelsea coming to visit, though. Not much to say about that match, I think there where something like 4 key moments shown. 3 shots, 1 on target for us, 4 shots and 1 on target for them. The difference was that our shot on target was also a goal, and suddenly we're joint 1st with ManU! They had a slight better goal difference, though, something like 20+ goals on us, so Bolton would really have to do us a favour in the last round.

But before that, an FA Cup Final had to be played. Very strange indeed, that the cupfinal being played before the last round of the league, but newspapers reported some days later that the FA had been out of their minds drunk and on hard drugs when making out the schedule. Some also reported heavy heartaches, and it was all a tragic display really. Very well! 2-0 down at halftime on Wembley against Chelsea can make harder men than me give up (most people probably are harder men, but anyway..), but not this lad! I DEMAND A RESULT!!, I shouted, and suddenly things where happening. 30 minutes later it was 3-2 for the mighty Villa. 15 minutes later again, it was 4-3 for the less sympathic Chelsea team. I hurried on, having a last round of Premier League football to play.. cried a bit though, must admit.

So, last round. Blackpool was long relegated, and if we didn't beat them I was ready with a hacksaw for some instant amputations of limbs and other things humans need to play football. At my side I had a little screen telling me other results, focusing on things happening in Manchester, naturally. After 10 minutes it ticked in. 0-1, Elmander! The Villa fans went mad, and the Villa manager found himself standing on his sofa. And when the Villa players also started to score goals, everything was going our way. Suddenly, just after half time, some idiot called O'Shaw or something made it 1-1 at Old Trafford and I saw the PL trophy groving legs and start to sneak away to Manchester. But another guy named Davies, and yet another guy with a funny accent called Gardner scored a couple of goals, and all was well. As Steven Defour made it 4-1 just before full time, Villafans where going mad with pleasure streaming through there bodies, and when the ref put things to an end, Villa found themselves Champions of the Premier League 2010/2011. The Aston Villa manager celebrated with a cigarette outside in the Norwegian snow.

[CMOZZA]

My season finished off exactly as I predicted it would, my team gelled really well after xmas and I finished 5th, 4 points off a CL spot.

Litex (A): 1-0 (Sanogo)

Litex (H): 5-2 (Collins, Delfouneso, Ireland, Bannan, Heskey)

West Brom (H): 2-1 (Agbonlahor, Drazan)

West Ham (A): 3-1 (Santa Cruz x2, Delfouneso)

Lille (A): 2-0 (Dowing x2)

Lille (H): 2-0 (Rami, Jenas)

Blackburn (H): 3-1 (Agbonlahor, Collins x2)

Man City (H): 0-0

Juventus (A): 1-1 (Agbonlahor)

Birmingham (A): 5-0 (Cuellar x2, Drazan x2, Santa Cruz)

Juventus (H): 0-1

Tottenham (A): 1-2 (Agbonlahor)

Wigan (H): 1-0 (Cuellar)

Sunderland (A): 4-0 (Santa Cruz x2, Agbonlahor, Jenas)

Chelsea (H): 3-2 (Santa Cruz x2, Agbonlahor)

Everton (A): 3-2 (Agbonlahor, Augusto, Delfouneso)

Wolves (H): 0-0

Managed to get to the quarter finals of the Europa League with pretty much second string teams out for the most part, other than when injuries forced my hand.

Close season I was offered a 4 year deal which I accepted and was given £29m to spend for a top half finish. Let a lot of players leave on free's just to get them off the wage bill.

Transfers so far:

Outs

Heskey - £500k (Fulham)

Stieber, L.Young, Salifou, Guzan, Friedel, Marshall, Sidwell, Davies, Herd, James Collins (Young one), Devine, Parish, Hogg, Baker - All released on frees.

Ins

Andy Carroll - £2.3m

Van Aanholt - £1.2m

Juan Valera - £550k

Darren Bent - £6.25m

Cristian Alvarez - £230k

Ibrahim Afellay - Free

Juan Angel Albin - Free

Cristian Ledesma - Free

Still plenty more to do I think, Villa park is being expanded to around the 50,000 mark, I want the youth facilities upgraded and some feeder clubs added