FM11: Newcastle United Team Guide @ Sports Interactive @ SJP.com

[DandyDon]

After a little break from my Newcastle save I've finally gotten the 2017/18 season underway. Currently have the youth facilities and recruitment network being improved again, and hoping to try and add some decent feeder clubs to the rosta, if the board can actually find any.

Had a hard decision to make during the close season, Mario Balotelli had been with us for 6 seasons and in the previous season had lost his place to the goal machine that is Mohammed Abdel Hamid. In Balotelli's first four seasons for us he'd been the league top goalscorer 3 times, he was on the club icons list, 111 league goals in 155 league appearances and still only 26. However this was the last year of his current contract and he was our highest wage earner, and looking for an increase in wages to sign a new deal. With a heavy heart I decided to move him on, as if Hamid kept on scoring the way he had last season Balotelli would be a bit part player again, and I didn't want him disrupting a settled squad.

I offered him out for transfer and received bids from Napoli, Sampdoria, Arsenal, Valencia and a couple others. He snubbed most of them, and only agreed to sign for Sampdoria if we paid him 22,000 a week for the remainder of his Newcastle contract. Since he now had less than a year of that left I accepted and he moved to Sampdoria for 10 million, which I figured was a decent amount for a player in the final year of his contract, also meant we made a 2.5 million profit on him in the end.

Sergio Ramos also left the club at the end of his contract, I had tried to renew it, but his wage demands were massive and I wasn't willing to meet them. I had Diego Renan to cover at right back, plus the Spanish youngster Castilla (nabbed from Real Madrid the previous season) so I didn't mind too much when Ramos agreed a contract with Atletico Madrid in the end. Jack Butland demanded a transfer as he wasn't getting enough games and he moved to Fulham for 2.5 million. The other outbound transfers were a few loan deals for some of the more promising youth players in the squad. Captain Slow James May was off to Ipswich for the lure of first team football, Pascal Yussuf a fantastic looking left back off to Genk to help get his work permit and Erik Vosskamp probably our best U18 player was promised first team action at Leeds.

With that money coming in, I've not really touched the 26 million transfer budget this season having concentrated on signing a few talented youngsters. I picked up a 20yo English keeper from Hull to go into the first team as 3rd choice behind Joe Hart and Alphonse Areola. Another young keeper from Arsenal who goes into the reserves, and a 17 year old Spanish keeper into the U18 squad from Barcelona, that my scouts raved about. The other signings were a striker from Reading called Richard Davey who could be a promising target man, and Andrea Rosetti a very promising DM from Juventus, both 16 years old.

After the strikers filling their boots during an easy pre-season we kicked off with a match at Wembley against Arsenal in the Community Shield. Wiining comfortably 4-0 with the young Italian kid I had such high hopes for seeming to revel in his new Target Man role alongside Hamid. The two of them continued in the same vein in our league opener at home to West Brom, Buondonno grabbing a hatrick while setting Hamid up for his first of the season in a 6-0 slaughter.

In our next match at home to West Ham I thought I was about to dearly regret selling Balotelli after all as Hamid was stretchered off with a serious injury, however Connor Wickham who has been biding his time stepped up to grab a hatrick for himself as we came from 1-0 down to win 6-1. Looks like 2 seasons being tutored by Eto'o and Dzeko has paid off! Hamid will be out for about 3 months with a dislocated shoulder so hopefully Wickham can keep this form up till he returns.

Looks like another goal fest season in store for us, but Man Utd have gone off like a rocket too, having found a decent strike partner for Rooney it seems. My main focus is on getting to the Champs League final though, getting a little fed up of blitzing the group stage only to play like a bunch of lemons in the knockout rounds.

[Hamzterz]

Good squad there Hamzterz, my Stoke defence got a pasting from Agbonlahor's pace on my other save. Didn't help that I'd selected a high defensive line against Villa, he had a field day.

How's Smithies working out as keeper? He couldn't get past Joe Hart in my squad and I ended up selling him.

Actually not that great. Forster been solid for us in the past two seasons, so he's got minimal playtime. I've just loaned him out, as Romero joined on a free transfer. Smithies stats isn't impressing, so dont think he will ever be first choice.

[DandyDon]

Actually not that great. Forster been solid for us in the past two seasons, so he's got minimal playtime. I've just loaned him out, as Romero joined on a free transfer. Smithies stats isn't impressing, so dont think he will ever be first choice.

That seems to mirror his development with my squad as well, seems to be a very hit or miss player. Turns out great for some folks.

[DandyDon]

And with a certain sense of grinding inevitability, having sold Balotelli and seeing my superstar regen Hamid get crocked for 3 months, now Wickham is out for 6 weeks.

Fingers crossed nothing happens to my other regen Buondonno or I'm left with a 36 year old Sammy Eto'o to play alongside Dzeko while trying to catch a free scoring Man Utd who've won their first 6 league games on the bounce.

[nickbirdspain]

Not the best start D

[nickbirdspain]

Not the best start Don - i'd be interested to see a screenshot of your current squad.

[DandyDon]

Not the best start Don - i'd be interested to see a screenshot of your current squad.

Was looking a little worrying, but the good news is Hamid is back in training at least, sooner than I thought. He's not match fit yet but hopefully won't take too long, and United went and dropped some points drawing 2 games in a row. So we've snuck past them at the moment, but looks like it could be a close run thing over the whole season.

[DandyDon]

2017/18 Squad

That's the current squad Nick, most of them still fairly young so there won't be too many changes over the next couple seasons. I reckon Cole and Eto'o will probably call it a day at the end of this season. The one thing I'm looking for is another winger capable of going straight into the first team to give Bale and Navratil a bit more cover, none of the current wingers in my reserves or U18s show signs of being good enough to replace either of those players.

[nickbirdspain]

Very impressive Don - keep up updated on how the season is going - it looks like its going to be a corker!

[britishteapower1]

I started a newcastle game, my first on fm2011. I had literally no money to start with and the board are having none of it. im about halfway through and am hovering above the relegation zone and want to spend big in january... I raised a bit from sales but need more £££££££! If i do an ultimatum will i likely get the sack?

Hopefully will keep them up and then get cash in the summer. Carroll has been poor for me and most players have underperformed. I've not got into the last few games that si have put out- i find theres too many variables in terms of finding a problem or fixing mistakes.

[DandyDon]

Hi British, I think you'd likely get the sack if you issue an ultimatum in the first season. I've never actually risked it till I have a couple seasons under my belt, even after some successful years I got sacked issuing an ultimatum on an earlier version.

Have you got any wriggle room with your wage budget...any excess you can boost your transfer budget with? Otherwise I'd definitely wait till the summer to spend big.

[britishteapower1]

No, the wages i think are maxed out as well. Serious earners with coloccini, smith, barton and the like. Need to shift some of them in jan maybe. will keep coloccini because he's the best centre half.

will maybe update to show how bad my players are with a picture later. been playing 442.

thansk for the advice

[DandyDon]

No, the wages i think are maxed out as well. Serious earners with coloccini, smith, barton and the like. Need to shift some of them in jan maybe. will keep coloccini because he's the best centre half.

will maybe update to show how bad my players are with a picture later. been playing 442.

thansk for the advice

No problem, those high wage earners are a serious annoyance in the first season. Took me a while to shift some of them on. With luck you might at least get some of them shifted in January, even if just on loan deals initially. Smith and Nolan are probably 2 of the easiest to live without depending on your tactic and style of play, Barton is on big money but he's pretty useful option to have in the team until you get your own players to the club.

[Robin :)]

lone striker never works

[DandyDon]

2017/18 Update

Carrying on from post above, ourselves and Man Utd got off to flying starts in the league. We were continuing our goalscoring form from previous seasons, depsite Abdel Hamid being injured for quite a while. Our defence wasn't quite as sound, mainly due to me tinkering with the tactic in midfield. The youngsters I have coming through in the team now weren't quite so suited to Deep-lying playmaker roles that I usually used, and I was playing around with freeing up one of the midfielders to get forward a lot more, meaning a little less cover for the back four.

Regardless of the little defensive instability that it caused this seemed to make a significant difference to our young midfield and we were actually creating more chances, finishing games with even more shots on goal than previous seasons. We didn't score quite as many as the previous year, but we had more players scoring across the squad. The changes also allowed Michael Makinwa our Nigerian MC to have his best season so far, finishing with 10 goals and 21 assists.

I was a little obsessed with the Champion's League this season given disappointing performances in the last couple years and increased squad rotation to keep players available for European nights and this, along with quite a few injuries at times meant we lost more games in the league than the previous year and a very disappointing exit in the FA cup to Ipswich.

Might look by that table that we had a relatively serene passge to the title, but wasn't quite the case. Going into April/May we could almost have chucked it away. We'd pulled ahead of Utd over the new year, but we were lucky to get away with a 2-2 draw against them at SJP in March where I'd fielded a rather reserve backline and strikeforce. Utd went on a run from there and if they'd kept it going right to the end of the season they could have pipped us when we lost and drew 2 of our last 3 games. I was a little too cocky in the run in and perhaps too obsessed by our European campaign and it was only down to Utd faltering slightly at same time that we stayed 7 points clear at the end. Their defence was amazing all season, only conceding 14 goals less than half what we let in, but they couldn't live with our goal machines.

In Europe the tinkering and rotation paid off as we had our best run there for years. Cruising through the group stage against Juventus, Celtic and SK Rapid Wien we won 5 and drew one to top the group. In the first knockout stage we got Zenit St. Petersburg, which gave us a chance to avenge an earlier Champion's League exit to them. We drew 1-1 in St Petersburg, Abdel Hamid opening the scoring, but despite having 30 shots we couldn't find a second goal. The second leg gave us a chance to really shine, and even being down to 10 men for 49 minutes we were far more clinical, scoring six to win the tie 7-1 on aggregate.

The Quarter Final drew us against old foes Arsenal and we dominated the first leg with 55% possession and 21 shots to their 8 and with their talisman Fabregas sent off for violent conduct. We raced into a 3-0 lead, but at the death we allowed them to pick up an away goal from Kalinic.

That away goal almost came back to haunt us in the return leg, Arsenal were rejuvenated under a new manager by then (Roberto Mancini would you believe) and they raced into a 2-0 win after 35 minutes. We were staring down the barrel of an away goals exit until Andrea Poli shockingly scored his first ever goal for Newcastle in his sixth season! That wasn't enough to see of the Gunners though and they stormed back to score a third through Neymar and take the tie to extra time. I was panicking a little by this point as Arsenal's frontline of Khouma Babacar and Neymar were really battering us. I found some hope though when just before the 90 minutes were up when their Chilean full back Gary Medel received a second yellow card for persistent fouling meaning we had half an hour against 10 men to try and grab a winner.

The sending off proved crucial as we pulled the match back to 3-3 with quick goals from Bale and Wickham, Neymar grabbed one on the counter on 105 minutes, but that would only be a consolation for them as we smashed home a fourth on 118 minutes. The match ended 4-4 and we went through 7-5 on aggregate, but they gave me an almighty fright during the 90 minutes there.

Things didn't get any easier as we landed Real bloody Madrid in the semi final, Ronaldo, Ozil, Paulo Henrique, Hulk, Higuain et al. They also had a young central defender regen that I'd scouted out earlier, but lost to Madrid's £35 million bid.

One good thing was the second leg was to be at SJP so I had hope that even if things went bad at the Bernabeu we could turn it round as we had a great home record in all competitions. Fortress SJP In the first leg Madrid were surprisingly fragile, but a lot less surprisingly lethal in attack and we came home with 3-3 draw. Two of our goals coming from defender Rhys who capitalised on Madrid's inability to clear their lines during set pieces and one lovely solo effort from winger Navratil. We actually led 2-1 after Higuain opened the scoring but Ozil was running the show in the second half, and he scored twice in 9 minutes to put them 3 up, before we shook them up with another set piece delivery from a free kick out on the left.

Back on home turf we were comfortably the better side, again dominating possession against a top side and with more than double their shots on goal and we ran out 2-1 winners. Helped knowing we had 3 away goals in the bag too. This meant we were through to the final, at last.

The final pitted us against Lyon, another side we had Champs League previous with. As you might expect in a major European final it was a pretty cagey affair. Lyon struck in the 24th minute through their young regen striker Demba Diouf and it stayed 1-0 until the 91st minute. Then a ball clipped out wide was picked up by Navratil who surged into the box past N'zonzi and blasted the ball past Lloris.

The late, late equaliser really seemed to deflate Lyon and we took control in extra time. Navratil skinned his full back to cross and Buondonno was waiting at the back post on 109 minutes and on 114 minutes, Federico Fazio, who was one of my first signings back in 2010/11, outjumped the Lyon defence from a corner to seal the win.

Obviously I was chuffed to bits with the result, and even happier when the Champs League dream team was announced.

And then we got this announcement which means I half a massive, massive incentive to defend the trophy next season!

In the aftermath of the league season Ashley Cole and Sammy Eto'o announced their retirements. They'd been bit part players for me since signing on frees, but they had a great impact on some of our players development. Eto'o especially I think has really made a couple of the young strikers in the squad. During the season our worrying financials meant I agreed to sell Sakho to Arsenal, I didn't particularly want to sell to a rival, but he was the only one of our big names I was willing to release, and theirs was the only half decent offer. We brought in about 20 million for him after negotiation, but I think we should have been able to get more if the AI was a bit forthcoming with decent bids.

Considering the way money drains out of the club during the season I'm looking to spend as little money as possible during the summer and rely on picking up a couple more potential stars on the cheap.

[DandyDon]

I have made one signing for the first team during the summer, but this guy arrived on a free from Freiburg. He'd decided not to sign a new contract as he wanted a move to a bigger club. I had tried to sign him a few years earlier in the game, but he failed to get a work permit then and the deal fell through.

John Ibrahim

I promoted this lad from the U18s during the season and after one game he was called straight into the full Holland squad and ended up playing in all of their World Cup games.

Erik Voskamp

And have to say that the young regen I signed, Davide Buondonno, has really come good. Tutoring by Dzeko and Eto'o really seems to have helped.

Buondonno as he was

He had very decent technical stats back then but his mental and physcial stats were lacking, but now at the age of 20 he looks pretty decent all round.

Buondonno now

[nickbirdspain]

Hi Don,

Have to say i really enjoyed reading your update - as a life long Geordie fan, those performances sound like the stuff of dreams. I've only just brought FM11 and played a couple of games with Arsenal (won the league and champ league in first season) and now i'm giving Southampton a go. I'm holding off starting a toon game until the new patch is out - that way i won't have to endure the pain of seeing Judas Carroll in the black N white. After reading your posts i'm itching to get started! Don't suppose you can share your end of season stats with us? It would be great to see a screen shot of how the players performed.

Keep the updates coming Don and good luck for next season!!

[DandyDon]

Cheers Nick, hopefully the next patch will be with us soon and you will be able to get your teeth stuck in to making the Barcodes the force they should be despite the Fat Controllers best efforts to the contrary.

I neglected to take a screen shot of the whole squad at the end of the season I'm afraid, but I'll try stick up a couple of the best performers for you.

How are you getting on with the Southampton save?

[DandyDon]

Nick, these should show the 2017/18 stats for our best performers.

Mohammed Abdel Hamid

He didn't have quite as amazing season as the year before, not helped by serious injury right at the start of the season, and then after the last day of the season he tore knee ligaments meaning he missed the Champ's League final. Despite that he was still Mr Clinical in front of goal.

Davide Buondonno

Hamid's main strike partner and most of his impressive number of assists were for Hamid but Davide found a goal scoring touch this season as well. Think there might be even more to come from him and hopefully he'll carry on in the same vein this season.

Martin Navratil

Our right wing speed merchant, set up massive numbers of chances, but also chipped in with a very respectablle goal tally too.

Michael Makinwa

Making himself the first choice in central midfield, prone to the occasional niggly little injury but has never been out for too long. Starting to add goals with a slightly more attacking role.

[nickbirdspain]

Just finished me first season, we finished 2nd on 98 points - The Posh stormed the league losing only once and finishing on 108 points. Despite securing automatic promotion it was a far than easy ride!!

The star performers were...

Chamberlain - amazing finished the season with 15 goals

Lallana - Very strong, something like 10 assists and 12 goals

Puncheon - Again a good solid performer and banging in 8 goals

As for the rest of the team, there is some serious work to be done - my two strikers Barnard and Lambert blew hot and cold with about 35 goals between them. On the surface this doesn't look too bad but i have a feeling next season they will struggle.

The entire backline is going to be stripped down and rebuilt - K Davies was crap, letting in 65 goals - can you recommend a solid keeper on the cheap??

The rest of the back four at going to be put out to pasture and shot - well maybe not Fonte but the rest are out.

Fingers crossed the board are going to give me some money but might have to do a bit of wheeler dealing. I'll try and do some screen shots and let you know how the final stats finished. The misses is out getting hair done on saturday so plan to have a nice peaceful day in front of Soccer Saturday while i attempt my assault on the Fizzy Pop league!

[DandyDon]

Well done there Nick. Hopefully the next patch will be out next week, fingers crossed and you can get stuck in at SJP.

I doubt I'll start a whole new Newcastle save when the patch does arrive as I'm way too fond of this bunch of regens I've got now. I'll probably go with starting a new save unemployed and see where that takes me.

[SeanH91]

Well I was going to wait for the patch to start a new save but seen how it's not going to be until next week at the earliest I've downloaded metal_guitarist's update (I'll admit I've altered the players quite a bit, especially underrated players like Nolan,Tiote etc, and have changed Barton's position to add MR to them) and started my long term Newcastle save.

I turned off transfer budgets for the first window, just to add a bit of realism. It annoys me when teams like Man City go and spend another £100m on top of all their signings from the summer/January. So far it's going really well with 4 wins from 5 games, including a 4-1 victory at the Stadium of Light We lost 2-1 away to Bolton in a game where we had 5 CCC's Out of the 4 league games played we've scored 4 goals in 3 of them, and also beat Coventry 2-0 in the Carling Cup.

So the squad until January at least is:

GK: Harper, Krul

DR: Simpson, R.Taylor, Perch

DL: Enrique, Kadar, Ferguson

DC: S.Taylor, Williamson, Campbell

DC: Coloccini, Kadar

MR: Barton, R.Taylor, Ben Arfa

MC: Tiote, Smith

MC: Nolan, Ireland

AML: Jonas, Ben Arfa

ST: Ameobi, Best, Ranger

AMC/ST: Ben Arfa, Lovenkrands, Ranger

[DandyDon]

Good start Sean, does Ireland look any good for you?

I'll probably just keep on with my existing Newcastle safe even when the patch comes out, so I'll just be reading up here how folks get on with the post-Carroll era.

[SeanH91]

Good start Sean, does Ireland look any good for you?

I'll probably just keep on with my existing Newcastle safe even when the patch comes out, so I'll just be reading up here how folks get on with the post-Carroll era.

In 6(2) appearances Ireland has scored 2 and assisted 2, with an average rating of 7.16. So nothing overly spectacular, but solid. My best 3 players up to now have been Lovenkrands (6 goals and 3 assists in 7 games), Ameobi (5 goals and 3 assists in 8) and Ryan Taylor (2 goals and 5 assists in 8). Taylor has been playing RM as Barton picked up a month long injury.

[Rob39874]

Just got FM 2011 and want to play as newcastle (Don't have the patch yet) Just want to know which players I should get at the beginning of the game to strengthn my team. I havent played the game since FM 2008 so a bit rusty but on that game I Usually splashed out straightaway on Matias Fernandez and Pablo Piatti are they just as good in this game. Any help would be appreciated.

I may get the patch tonight so any changes that patch make will be welcome as well

[DandyDon]

Hi Rob, the third patch won't be out till later this week (according to updates) so if you start a Newcastle game now you won't have much of a transfer budget to spend in the first season. (But you will still have Carroll in the squad).

You'll probably have to look to a few freebies and loans to start with, unless you can flog a few players to raise funds..and if you look back at earlier posts on here that's not all that easy.

I wouldn't bother trying to sign a keeper at first as you've got Harper and Krul, both of them capable of doing a job, plus Forster to come back from loan (he turns out pretty well for some managers). I'd probably try to loan in some full backs like Fabio, Rafael or Kyle Walker to provide some cover, especially at left back as you've only really got Enrique there. (And if you can arrange a reasonably cheap future fee to make the deal permanent it's always a bonus)

Of course if you wait till the 11.3 patch comes out later this week you'll hopefully have about £30 million to spend but no Andy Carroll. I'd recommend Kevin Gameiro as an affordable striker, quick, good finisher and willing to sign for a Premier league side outside the big guns, and he's still young so you might make a profit on him if he does well (I got him for my Stoke side for £7.5 million over 48 months and he's bagged over 25 goals in both of his seasons). Likewise Milan Badelj, can probably sign him early for less than £3 million and he can add some more creative quality to your midfield.

Take a look back at the early pages of the thread and you'll see there's a few good free transfers available during the first summer who could probably add a little depth to your squad, at least for a year while you stabilise Newcastle in the Premier league.

Good luck once you get started

[nufc1]

Can't wait for the new patch i should be back on here then i would think

Of course if you wait till the 11.3 patch comes out later this week you'll hopefully have about £30 million to spend but no Andy Carroll. I'd recommend Kevin Gameiro as an affordable striker, quick, good finisher and willing to sign for a Premier league side outside the big guns, and he's still young so you might make a profit on him if he does well (I got him for my Stoke side for £7.5 million over 48 months and he's bagged over 25 goals in both of his seasons). Likewise Milan Badelj, can probably sign him early for less than £3 million and he can add some more creative quality to your midfield.

I think we're being linked with Gameiro in real life for a striker in the summer, as well as Gervinho so may look at these two on the new patch

[DandyDon]

Can't wait for the new patch i should be back on here then i would think

I think we're being linked with Gameiro in real life for a striker in the summer, as well as Gervinho so may look at these two on the new patch

I wholeheartedly recommend Gameiro at the moment, cracking poacher for my Stoke side. I think he'd be a decent signing irl for Newcastle too

[DandyDon]

Right, thought I'd waffle through another little update from my Newcastle save. Got through to January in the 2018/19 season.

Close Season

After selling Sakho to the Gunners during the previous season and Cole and Eto'o retired, I needed to bring in a couple bodies to make sure there was enough cover in the squad.However I didn't want to spend big doing. The first signing was a lethal looking Nigerian striker, brought in from Freiburg on a free to provide some competition for Abdel Hamid. During the rest of the summer we bought in three young players, one central defender and two wingers to provide back up to Bale and Navratil. We got them for a combined total of £4.7million and still have about £30 million left of our transfer budget.

John Ibrahim

Had scouted this lad a few years previously but missed out on him when he couldn't get a work permit so when he became available for a free we snapped him up.

Augustine Emeka

Spotted this guy when I was looking at the Nigerian U20s and was able to get him for £1.5million

Ifeanyi Sheriff

Noticed this lad when I was looking at Emeka and had him scouted and managed to sign him from Unirea for £1.7million before we had to play them in Europe.

Jakub Gottwald

This lad had only just arrived at FC Copenhagen but we persuaded them to part with his services for £1.5million, hopefully the long term replacement for Bale on our left wing.

[DandyDon]

2018/19 Season so far

We got off to a good start with victory over West Ham in the Community Shield and then a resounding 5-1 win over Arsenal at SJP. Buondonno and Hamid looked to be continuing their partnership from the previous season, and the midfield maestro Makinwa was pulling the strings again. We kept the attacking form up in the league, but Arsenal recovered quickly from their setback against us to get a great league run underway. In December they briefly took top spot from us after we dropped points to Man City and then turned in our worst performance of the season against Everton going down 3-1 at Goodison.

We were able to get top spot back by the turn of the year as we won 4 league games on the bounce and Arsenal went and dropped points, also to Everton. In Europe we raced away with our group, beating Roma, Dynamo Kyiv and Unirea to record 6 wins and maximum points, in the knockout stages we've drawn Rubin Kazan as we try to defend our Champs League title at SJP in May.

League Table

So with exactly half our league season gone we're top by one point with a game in hand, but Arsenal are looking well poised to capitalise on any slip ups during our congested fixture list.

Results so far

And the improvements to our youth training and recruitment seem to be paying off when I looked a little more closely at our reserves and saw this..

Not much to live upto then...

[ChrisNUFC]

Newcastle always seem to under perform under AI Management.

[mattvr]

Has anyone started a new game with Newcastle on 11.3?

If so can you please advise budgets etc? Any new players available?

[ChrisNUFC]

New Players:

Stephen Ireland

Shefki Kuqi

Hatem Ben Arfa

Daniel Leadbitter

Gone:

Andy Carroll

[CaptainStarbuster]

Loading a new game as I type this

[CaptainStarbuster]

Minimum expectation is avoid relegation - transfer budget £20m, wage budget £875k/week

Mid table finish - £21m and £875k/week

Top half finish £23m and £900k/week

Continental Qualifacation - £25m and £900k/week

Title Challenge - £27m and £925k/week

Winner - £29m and £925k/week

Think I'll keep it at avoid relegation!

[mattvr]

Minimum expectation is avoid relegation - transfer budget £20m, wage budget £875k/week

Mid table finish - £21m and £875k/week

Top half finish £23m and £900k/week

Continental Qualifacation - £25m and £900k/week

Title Challenge - £27m and £925k/week

Winner - £29m and £925k/week

Think I'll keep it at avoid relegation!

It's all about the top half finish! Thanks for this. I am at work until 8pm, and I am trying to strategically plan my moves for later tonight.

Has the young Adam Campbell not been added to our u18's?

**EDIT:- Has Tiote been given any improvements? He must be alot better in my opinion.

[ChrisNUFC]

Minimum expectation is avoid relegation - transfer budget £20m, wage budget £875k/week

Mid table finish - £21m and £875k/week

Top half finish £23m and £900k/week

Continental Qualifacation - £25m and £900k/week

Title Challenge - £27m and £925k/week

Winner - £29m and £925k/week

Think I'll keep it at avoid relegation!

Hmm, that seems far too much for each field considering Mike Ashley's attributes :\

[OutClassed]

Hmm, that seems far too much for each field considering Mike Ashley's attributes :\

I think half of those amounts would be much more realistic to what Ashley is likely to give us. Waiting for the patch to download and then I can hopefully start a new game

[ChrisNUFC]

Yeah, I'd agree on half. Business rating is really high (which should hold money back), ah well, something to work on for FM12.

[OutClassed]

Although it is a nice surprise to have a bit more money to buy the players we need in game though

[ChrisNUFC]

I don't like it, its not very realistic. I think my communication with Pete might have been a bit confusing. Ideally, it should be £30m in the bank, with around £15-£20m max to spend. Feel free to change that in the editor if you want, sorry for the over zealous amounts of money in 11.3.0!

[SnoopLeHoff]

I have just started the game I have been waiting all year for :-)

Tiote has received a tidy boost (positioning up and tackling/marking up as well). Jonas finishing is now 5 lol (about right if you ask me...no more 25 goal seasons me thinks). was a nice surprise to see £20mill in the kitty and I have made 2 purchases so far.

Replaced the traitor with Lukaku for 7 mill and brought in Appiah to develop at RB. I have £16 mill left and having a crisis...who to buy in defence?? ***** all the dosh on Phil Jones? Any suggestions?

[OutClassed]

Completely forgot about all our injuries, so missing half the backline and just lost Tiote and Jonas to injuries in two friendlies.

[Fulax]

Replaced the traitor with Lukaku for 7 mill and brought in Appiah to develop at RB. I have £16 mill left and having a crisis...who to buy in defence?? ***** all the dosh on Phil Jones? Any suggestions?

I got Toby Alderweireld in for around 13mln. Was in a bit of a hurry at the time, so you might be able to get him for less.

[Toon King2011]

20m ..... i got 2.5m Cairney, 3.5m Wickham, 2m Clyne, 2.5m Christian Benitez, Vukcevic 2.5m, kadlec 1m

[jlawlor91]

I've spent the 20 mill over 48 months, making it 40 mill spent:

Jagielka - 10 mil

Guardado - 2.5 mil

Lukaku - 10 mil

Ridgewell - 5mil

Enyeama - 250k

van der Wiel - 6.25 mil

Gaimero - 6mil

Jo - Loan

Over the moon getting Lukaku. Also sold Ryan Taylor and Lovenkrands.

1ST XI:

______________________Enyeama/Harper

van der Wiel/Simpson_____Colo/Wili_______________Jags/STayl__________Jose/Ridgewell

Ben Arfa/Barton______Tiote/Ireland________Nolan/Guthrie________Guardado/Jonas

___________________Gaimero/Jo_________Lukaku/Ameobi

That squad should see me in the top half, but I've got so many injuries before the start of the season. Lets just hope the patch doesnt have too many injuries as it usually occurs :/

[ChrisNUFC]

I've spent the 20 mill over 48 months, making it 40 mill spent:

I've asked for Chairmen PPM's, so I can add one to Mike Ashley that will stop this (since he doesn't allow it real life).

[OutClassed]

You'll need to be successful to keep up those repayments!

Like King I've gone looking for cheaper options. Benitez- £2m, Pieters- £3.6m, Wickham- £3m, Cairney- £2.5m, Agyei- £3.2m and Caio- £5.25m through the door so far. Trying to offload Nolan in a deal with Everton that sees Rodwell become mine, but he doesn't seem to want to leave.

GK: Krul/Harper

RB: Raylor/Simpson

LB: Enrique/Pieters

CB: Williamson/Taylor

CB: Coloccini/Kadar

CM: Barton/Cairney

CM: Tiote/Agyei

AMR: Ben Arfa/Caio

AML: Jonas/LuaLua

AMC: Ireland/Vuckic

ST: Benitez/Wickham/Ranger

Only sold Ameobi for £2.9m so far; trying to offload Smith/Lovenkrands to finance Rodwell move.

[ChrisNUFC]

Take it Tom Crainey is still the next greatest English Midfielder, ever? Only he's Scottish.

[col_nufc1]

I have just started a new Newcastle save on the new patch.

I went for European qualification through the league in my board expectation so I got a £25m transfer budget and so far I have signed these players on 48 month deals which I don't normally do but I thought what the hell I could make a quality team.

Eden Hazard for £15.75m.

Sotiris Ninis for £1.6m.

Ryan Shawcross for £12m.

Paulo Henrique for £22.5m.

Kevin Gameiro for £5.5m.

Charles N'Zogbia for £11.25m.

Jack Rodwell for £13.5m.

Phil Jones for £15m.

Vaclav Kadlec for £1m.

Junior Hoilett for £7.75m.

Gabby Agbonlahor for £13m.

Milan Badelj for £3.9m.

Vincent Enyeama for £220k.

Danilo Ferreira on a free.

Total spent £123m .

I have been like a kid in a sweet shop but we better be sucessful or the bank manager isn't going to be very happy.

So far I have only managed to sell Kevin Nolan for £12.75m as it still seems impossible to sell players.

I also brought Tino Asprilla back to the club as a scout although Newcastle aren't down as one of his favoured clubs for some reason .