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FM2012: Newcastle United thread - Triumphing by brave defending.....well maybe!


DandyDon

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You could offload a fair few players out of those, and try to sign a couple of wingers and a centre back to replace Coloccini long term. The likes of Ba, Guthrie, Simpson, Williams/Tomkins, and maybe one of your right wingers can be sold and get in some money, should be able to get upto £10m for Ba.

Santon and Whittaker are both good fullbacks with Onouha and Bordachov as backup, Tiote and Cabaye are a good central pairing in midfield, and Vukusic and Bangura should be good poachers leading the line. Not sure about that Metab guy though. Loach seems a decent GK, if you have enough though maybe go for a good GK as well.

Hope this helps.

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You could offload a fair few players out of those, and try to sign a couple of wingers and a centre back to replace Coloccini long term. The likes of Ba, Guthrie, Simpson, Williams/Tomkins, and maybe one of your right wingers can be sold and get in some money, should be able to get upto £10m for Ba.

Santon and Whittaker are both good fullbacks with Onouha and Bordachov as backup, Tiote and Cabaye are a good central pairing in midfield, and Vukusic and Bangura should be good poachers leading the line. Not sure about that Metab guy though. Loach seems a decent GK, if you have enough though maybe go for a good GK as well.

Hope this helps.

cheers for that
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Finally have the full game, trying to sign Damiao, but my offers are always rejected. Can't remember how much I signed him for in the demo, £22m I think, but i've gone up to £30m and they're not interested. Anyone got any other ideas..? I also signed Sturridge on the demo but i'd like to buy someone.

Went with Milevskyi in the end, got injured between me offering the contract and him moving, so he missed the first two games :(

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Been a while since I've updated on my progress in here. Been really busy with life etc.

Anyway, just about half way through my fourth season now and I'm proud to say my unbeaten run has been extended to 57 league matches - less in all competitions after losing in the first leg of the previous seasons Champions League Semi vs. Real Madrid.

table14151.jpg

Rather proud of my current position and form. It's beginning to feel like all we have to do is turn up and three points are ours each week.

domestic results:

resultsdomestic14151.jpg

Rather proud of the 4-1 at the Stadium of Plight above all other results really. The two formations I prefer are both lone striker formations, and in the 32nd minute Jay Rodriguez was forced off injured with the score at 1-1. His replacement Steven Louis (regen) then got sent off in the 44th minute with the score at 2-1, and without a recognised striker and only having 10 men left on the field, I thought we'd be lucky to get a draw. I stuck Hazard up front, we scored again making the score 3-1 at half time. Hazard then had to go off in the second half, but we still managed to net a fourth while Aaron Ramsey was leading the line. I laughed.

Euro results:

resultseuro14151.jpg

I originally thought our group was pretty tough, particularly with tough away matches due at Leverkusen and Lyon. I was wrong.

There was also the club world Championships too, which I won by beating Kotoko (6-0) and Corinthians (2-1), but I couldn't find a filter for them on the results page. Nvm.

Ok. Finally finished that season, and by god was it a brilliant season. Unbeaten in all competitions (League cup, FA cup, CL and league). My results between those screenshot and the end of the season were all wins bar one, a 0-0 draw at home to Arsenal. Finished the league 24 points clear of Man Utd (who are now managed by Chris Hughton) and we only conceded 17 goals in the league, scoring 130!

I wont be posting screenshots of the table etc, simply because there wasn't really any excitement in it for me so I doubt there would be any for people who see the results. Sunderland did get relegated though, and they also got hammered 7-0 at St James'. Liverpool also narrowly avoided relegation, by 2 points!!! Gutted.

In preparation for next season, I've arranged a £25m transfer for Tim Krul to Barca, which has actually pushed my budget now up to £120m, give or take a few million. Also on the way our are Steven Fletcher (Liverpool) and Lucas Digne (Blackburn), who really didn't cut it for us. Ryan Bertrand is the only transfer incoming so far, though I'm tempted by Phil Jones if I can find a taker for Gary Cahill, and Joe Lewis will hopefully be coming in to replace Krul.

If I'm honest, winning all the time is beginning to get a bit boring :(

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Bruce just got sacked from Sunderland after losing 9-0 to Man United, and i've just beaten Chelsea 4-2. Only trouble is Milevskyi has torn his knee ligaments so will be out for 2 months :(

Coloccini just slipped a disc in training so will be out for 2-3 months, just as I got a transfer budget increase to 5.25m and sold Lovenkrands.. was hoping to buy another striker but I might actually invest in a longer term replacement for Coloccini.

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Bruce just got sacked from Sunderland after losing 9-0 to Man United, and i've just beaten Chelsea 4-2. Only trouble is Milevskyi has torn his knee ligaments so will be out for 2 months :(

Coloccini just slipped a disc in training so will be out for 2-3 months, just as I got a transfer budget increase to 5.25m and sold Lovenkrands.. was hoping to buy another striker but I might actually invest in a longer term replacement for Coloccini.

Some bad luck with injuries there Andrew :(

If Sturridge is still available on loan, I'd probably pick him up during the window till the end of the season, and look to spend the cash on a central defender. Then use the bigger transfer budget next summer to look for another striker on a permanent deal.

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A 1-1 draw with QPR on new years eve has seen me in 5th place, with the chance to readjust my season's expectations! Top half finish will give me a £15m budget and 825k a week, Euro cup qualification will only give me 500k more on my budget so I stuck to top half. Might be able to buy a striker and a defender now :D

Sturridge is indeed available on loan still, he's been sitting in their reserves all season. I might buy Mateo Musacchio from Villarreal, 3* current ability with 4* potential.

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Trust everyone has had a great holiday season!

Been trying to get back into my Newcastle save for the past few days, each time I play one or two games, lose interest and end up closing the game without saving, beentreading water. Just loaded back up and determined to crack on this evening now!

Haven't really got the feel for it just now, so will have to kick-start the development of this system I was working on. Will post up some updates later this evening if there is any activity.

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Managed to sign Damiao for £28.5m in the end.. Musacchio made his full debut against Sunderland with Damiao, who scored 2 and assisted Milevskyi's goal, with Musacchio making mistakes leading to both their goals -.-

Also Milevskyi has now suffered a sports hernia and is out for 5 weeks or so... he just can't get going :( Still, at least i'm 6th in the league :D

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He's not having much luck on the injury front is he Milevski, good performance from Damiao :thup:

Wouldn't worry too much about Musacchio, he should be an excellent player for you once he adapts to English footie. He's been very reliable player for me.

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His CA has dropped from 3 1/2 stars to 2 1/2 stars and he's only managed 8 games and 3 goals, I really hope he can get a good run of games for the rest of the season to get his CA up again. How much did you get Musacchio for?

I got Musacchio for £9.5 million in the 2013/14 season, he'd asked for a transfer away from Villareal and he was still young enough to be worth getting in I felt. I rotate him with Steven Taylor (who's been very solid and reliable for me), the other central defensive berth is usually filled by Jose Dominguez a Mexican regen I signed in the same season, and he overshadows pretty much every other defender in my squad.

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2015/16 Season Update - Run, run, run away

newcastleunitedfixtures.png

After being away from FM for a while over the last few weeks, I finally got back to making some progress on it today and thought I'd update my 2015/16 story so far. (Mostly unable to play due to a series of family get togethers and various small children not allowing me any peace to use a computer...anyyyyy computer)

We got off to what now seems our customary flying start in the league and annoyingly the only points we dropped at all by the end of November were against the Mackems. We probably should have won the game, but were very wasteful in front of goal, and indebted to ter Stegen for a penalty save.

newcastleunitedfixtures.png

We kept up the good results through the busy December into January fixture list, despite the fact that we're not quite as clinical in front of goals as last season and we're sometimes struggling to reflect our actual dominance in some matches. Our Argentinian wonderkid Sequeira just can't seem to go on a decent scoring run, despite playing well in most of his appearances, but I don't want to drop him as he proves a fairly vital link in creating chances for other players. Hernandez and Paloschi have been quite stop/start due to various niggling little injuries as have several other players, and Adam Johnson and Cabaye are only just returning to full fitness after serious injury. Hernandez has been impressive when uninjured, with 19 goals in 26 games so far and Paloschi generally clinical as ever with 13 goals from 14 appearances, if one or the other had been uninjured this season I think our results may have been even more impressive.

With the amount of injuries to some of our quicker, more creative players, it seems teams have taken to playing a pretty physical game against us and we've been fortunate that some other players have really stepped up to the challenge. One of the biggest performers so far has been Radja Nainggolan, who despite playing the more defensive role in central midfield has upped his game in Cabaye's absence and weighed in with an impressive 13 goals by the end of January, which I think is a fantastic return for our midfield enforcer. The defence as a whole have played well, with Dominguez and ter Stegen leading the way.

The result against Man Utd blew my hopes of an undefeated league season, but we are still in every competition at the moment coming up to February and we may just have a chance of a clean sweep...if we can avoid too many more injuries.

League Table so far

englishpremierdivisiono.png

I did add Sergio Canales in January for £3.1 million to provide Jack Wilshere with some competition, and he's made a good start to his SJP career with a goal and 2 assists in 3 games so far. I've decided to let Bressan move on as he's getting no games and he's been a pretty faithful servant so far. I offered him out at £10million and got offers in very quickly from Bayern Munich and Marseille, so he should move before the end of the month, and provide a good return for the £1 million we paid for him.

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Just finished my third season at Newcastle, going fairly decently so far. Finished 7th in both my first two seasons, winning the FA Cup and League Cup in my second season. My third season was full of ups and downs with some horrible form at times but managed in the end to secure 4th place on the last day with a 3-1 win over Chelsea.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/630735824337431520/B0671012F5E384A1DE6A6A404D746C704502E9E1/

Feel bad for Man City, lost in the Champion's League final and now have no European football at all next season and my reward for finishing 4th? A new owner who just gave me a transfer budget of over £100 million :eek: So I bought two amazing regens I had my eye on and have no idea what to do with the rest of the money, my current rough squad is

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/630735824336640767/01F0CE7EEE0ACD90D0097A24B3D95AF157533438/

That squad is basically my first team from last season (excluding Ba, Forster and Huth who left/are leaving) plus my youths who are capable of playing in the first team if they're not loaned out. I'll just go through the regens a bit

Keepers:

Bruno Richard - French U-21, got released from PSG for some reason and came to me on a free

Aymar Matingou - Belgian U-21, joined for £275k last season and spent this season on loan at Reading in the Championship

Defenders:

Lucas Francois - French U-21, just signed for £5 million, should be capable of playing rotation in the first team

Nick Van Dijk - Played back-up at PSV before signing for me, spent the season on loan at Chesterfield in League One, most likely being loaned out again

Kifuta Yenga - French U-19, spent season on loan at Scunthorpe in League One, most likely being loaned out too

Emiliano Prospero - Italian U-21, joined on a free from Roma and spent the season on loan at Siena in Serie A, could play back up or go on loan

Omer Stokic - Argentine U-21, played first team at Velez before joining me for £3 million, played back up but is slowly pushing for a starting place

Midfield:

Isaac Dominguez - Mexician U-21, played rotation at Chivas before being released and joining me on a free, another likely to be loaned out

Arnaud Fournier - French U-21, played back up at Monaco before signed for me, constant interest from several big clubs, capable of playing back-up but could benefit from a loan

Mayacine Kanté - Spent last season on loan at Sheff Wed in the Championship, improving steadily but nearly certain to be loaned out

Kai Carpenter - Greek international, just signed for £12.5 million and has amazing potential if I can improve his speed he'll be a world class player

Strikers:

Ethan Perry - England U-21 and just missed the cut for the World Cup squad, an amazing player who at 17 was the third highest goal scorer in the Premiership this season, can be a bit inconsistent (Scored 7 against Middlesborough then went 10 matches without scoring) but is a staple of the first team already, best £2.1 million I ever spent

Paul Clarke - England U-19 signed at the same time as Perry from Crewe and has been completely overshadowed still capable of holding his own and with Keane getting on will probably be the back-up to Perry and Sturridge, and should be playing up front for England with Perry within a few seasons

Overall I'm pretty happy with my squad and the only real area I think needs improvement is defense as Coloccini and Touré are getting on and Huth is leaving when his contract is up, Simpson while capable could be replaced with someone better. I think my midfield is grand despite Barry and especially Malouda being past their prime, Gibson or Gago will probably leave if I get a decent offer too. I definitely don't want to bring in any strikers Perry and Sturridge are both great players and Clarke, Achahbar and Vuckic are all capable players with good potential.

So if anyone has any recommends for me to sign I'd appreciate it, for once money is no object :lol:

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As money isn't an issue, I would have a look at Vrsaljko or Romario for the right back slot, and look at the likes of Papadopoulos from Schalke, Shawcross or Vertonghen to fill the centre back role. Also have a look at Ter Stegen to replace Krul as he's a younger, better keeper.

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In the FA Cup final against Stoke after a penalty shootout victory over Wolves, was down to 10 men for 60 minutes too after Cabaye was sent off. 6th in the league and only 1 point behind Liverpool... could be in 5th if it wasn't for two poor away performances at Wigan and Wolves.

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newcastlevchelseasplitv.png

Probably the most clinical 45 minutes of football my side has played, 9 shots on goal, all 9 on target, 6 clear cut chances and 6 goals. :cool:

Unfortunately we couldn't keep that up and the 2nd half was something of an anti-climax to say the least with the game petering out to a 6-1 result.

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newcastlevchelseasplitv.png

Probably the most clinical 45 minutes of football my side has played, 9 shots on goal, all 9 on target, 6 clear cut chances and 6 goals. :cool:

Unfortunately we couldn't keep that up and the 2nd half was something of an anti-climax to say the least with the game petering out to a 6-1 result.

Superb win :thup: Nice to see you still playing this :cool:

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As money isn't an issue, I would have a look at Vrsaljko or Romario for the right back slot, and look at the likes of Papadopoulos from Schalke, Shawcross or Vertonghen to fill the centre back role. Also have a look at Ter Stegen to replace Krul as he's a younger, better keeper.

Thanks managed to get Romario and Vertonghen out of those, Romario has been struggling a bit so far but Vertonghen has been playing well despite a meh start to the season, only lost one game out of the first 7 (to Arsenal) but drew 4 of them too, team seems to be struggling to score right now, hopefully they get it together.

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2015/16 Season Update - Things have finally come together

Right, after around a month of any meaningful FM'ing (is that an adjective?) I have finally got stuck back into my Newcastle save, after spells away at Fleetwood, Peterborough, Chelsea and even my local team Newport IOW! Failed to fall in love with any of those saves, most of which not even lasting a season, with the furthest I got was back-to-back promotions to L1 with Fleetwood. So I am back to wear I left of in my 2015/16 Season , with Ronaldo, Messi and my Russian Billionaire.

This evening I have made slow, but steady progress whilst watching Henry's imperial return to English football and have approached the half way mark in my season, so thought I'd report progress.

EnglishPremierDivisionOverview_Stages-6.png?t=1326151726

Premier League

Things seem to be all very much going to plan on the League front, on course for my first Premier League title, albeit 4 seasons down and £550million out of pocket. The five dropped points coming from a 1-0 defeat away to Gareth Southgate's Liverpool, and in the following game a 2-2 draw at home to Blackburn. Since then I have put together 11 straight wins in the league, to the aggregate tune of 35-7!

World Club Championship

In the mean time we had a nice visit to Japan to compete in the World Club Championship. This year, beating Cruz Azul of Mexico 3-1 in the Semi's and Flamengo of Brazil 4-0 in the final.

League Cup

The League Cup is again within our clutches this season, this year in the Semi finals against Manchester United. Hopefully I will be able to see them off, have fielded relatively strong sides throughout this competition, seeing of Swansea 3-1aet, Ipswich 1-0 and Watford 3-2. In the final I should hope to face either West Brom or Leeds, and then therefore add the League Cup to my CV.

Champions League

The Champions League has again been another fruitful venture, now looking to defend my title for third successive season. This year has seen me fend of Anderlecht, Shakle and Valencia in the group stages, only dropping two points in a opening round 1-1 draw at home to Anderlecht. Bayern Munich await me in the last 16.

Team News

Injuries have started to impede upon my progress, not to a detrimental extent just yet, but still rather annoying. Gareth Bale has been out for the most part of this season with damaged ankle ligaments, and in recent weeks has seen me lose, a now key member of my side Jack Rodwell for 2 months, and more seriously Messi recieved a fractured skull against Flamengo. In two weeks he's been out has seen near on every single stat plummet, and I'm slightly worried if they shall return to the imperious best. No doubt he will return to pick up from where he left of this season, but still so annoying that at the age of 28 it will be very hard to regain those lost stats here and there.

After messing up, and clicking on a wrong FT team talk I have now have a discontented Cristiano Ronaldo who wants out of the club. He's going absolutely no where, and I see this has a minor situation nothing more than him throwing his toys out of his pram; as is to be expected with such a mercurial character. He's currently leading my line with 20 goals in 24(3), has dropped off over the festive period, but I expect him to pick up and hopefully he can finish of the season with a goals to game ratio over 1:1! Think he's missing his bro Messi :D

A still young and inexperienced Jack Butland has stepped up this season to become my #1 at club and National level, with mild rotation with Ter-Stegen. As a result of this, the two Manchester clubs are now sniffing around him; which is just nonsensical in my opinion, as Newcastle are now bigger than both clubs. Due to money coming out of my arse, I have now decided to make the most of the money I have been blessed with, and not just concentrate on regens. Therefore I am now in the process of saving Ganso's career at Santos. Locked in Negotiations currently with the Brazilian side, Ganso now being a slightly mature 26 years old. He doesn't seem to have developed physically, probably due to him being ravaged with injuries as he has played in such hectic Brazilian campaigns. He's now entered the last 12months of his contract, so I will be looking to pay something around £15million. I'm also looking to bring in a full back that I can use as rotation across the back line, he will ideally be a more mature character that can offer something when it comes to tutoring.

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anybody can tell me how the youngsters in the club turn out in a few years' time? i'm in my second season as NUFC, having released almost all the reserve players with CA and PA below 120 since they are not worth keeping anyway. basically i only have alnwick, kadar, shane fergie, abeid, vuckic and adam campbell left from the start of the game. is any of them worth keeping in the long run? vuckic and abeid seems decent at the moment but i don't see how they will replace cabaye, tiote, ben arfa and labyad from my first team anytime soon. everytime i play either of them in cup games against lower league opponents, they haven't impressed me at all by their ability (passing nor finishing) and movement. shane fergie seems a tad too lightweight for premier league.

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anybody can tell me how the youngsters in the club turn out in a few years' time? i'm in my second season as NUFC, having released almost all the reserve players with CA and PA below 120 since they are not worth keeping anyway. basically i only have alnwick, kadar, shane fergie, abeid, vuckic and adam campbell left from the start of the game. is any of them worth keeping in the long run? vuckic and abeid seems decent at the moment but i don't see how they will replace cabaye, tiote, ben arfa and labyad from my first team anytime soon. everytime i play either of them in cup games against lower league opponents, they haven't impressed me at all by their ability (passing nor finishing) and movement. shane fergie seems a tad too lightweight for premier league.

In my opinion, having replaced most of the starting squad with top-quality players, the youngsters that you start with don't compare. As of 2016 I still have a good few still kicking around my reserves. I have never afforded them the chance to develop properly, due to the lack of first team opportunities; off the top of my head I think Abeid and Vuckic have no more than 5 combined first team appearances between them.

I've no doubt that with semi-regular first team opportunities, good tutoring and a efficient training schedule Abeid and Vuckic could become decent Premier League players, nothing that will set the world alight though. The thing is that all these players were left behind in how fast I developed the club myself, if situation resembled real life somewhat in the case that in four or five years Newcastle were still competing for Europa League places, not winning League titles and Champions Leagues the likes of Campbell, Abeid and Vuckic would get games.

The one player that did get a break in the first team was Jak Alnwick, he impressed in around ten first team games last season when Krul was injured; but that could be more down to the team in front of him than the actually goalkeeping abilities he showed, it's hard to say. I've now sold him to a Championship West Ham where he doesn't play, and without looking at him in game I'd say that he has developed from where he started but the key goalkeeping attributes he does have are very much sporadic if you were to compare him to a similar aged Goalkeeper, in my case Jack Butland; who is now my #1 at 23 and is showing growing potential week in week out to become world class.

I have seen good things mentioned of these players further back in this thread, notably Abied, Vuckic, Campbell and even Remi Streete; but in my opinion they lack the necessary quality to maintain a place in any aspirational managers Title winning side.

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2011/12 Fixtures:

newcastleunitedfixturesz.png

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newcastleunitedfixtures.png

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(the only ones i've not put in are 5-0, 3-0 and 3-1 wins over West Brom, Stoke (FA Cup Final) and QPR)

Table:

englishpremierdivisionod.png

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If it wasn't for those disappointing draws against Wolves and QPR especially, I could've been in 4th place :(

Set my aim for the season as Euro Cup qualification, with a budget of £19.25m and 925k a week, but in total i've got around £17m left despite buying Jonny Evans and some left back, since I got rid of Best, Ryan Taylor and Williamson. Hopefully I can get rid of Xisco who rejected a contract from Deportivo and Forster asked for first team football so I told him he can go next season which saves his moral going down.. might buy a right winger, and start looking at regens now. Saw this great 15 year old Turkish gk but the work permit was rejected unsurprisingly

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1st season - looking to replace coloccini to ease the wage bill.

1. should i? how much could i expect to get for him?

2. need a decent replacement for around £4-5m, suggestions? on a lot less than fabricio's 80k a week too

can't find someone to take smith off me which is causing a headache :mad:

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1st season - looking to replace coloccini to ease the wage bill.

1. should i? how much could i expect to get for him?

2. need a decent replacement for around £4-5m, suggestions? on a lot less than fabricio's 80k a week too

can't find someone to take smith off me which is causing a headache :mad:

My suggestion would be to keep him, he's one of the very few players that have real quality, and not worry about the wage implications - you will sooner or later be paying players £80k a week, so lighten up. He's a very good player, and I don't think you will be able to come across a replacement with such quality for the £4 to £5m your looking for as well as being on less wages, just isn't going to happen.

I personally extended his contract for another season, and got rid of him to Wolves for around £4m in the 3rd season if I recall. I brought in Neven Subotic in the first season, and got rid of Williamson. My advice, keep and enjoy your good players :D

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I believe you should be able to get at least £5m for him, I've seen him go for a lot more. Then replace him with Vertonghen, a like for like replacement that will be your first choice for many years to come. He's currently captain of my UCL winning side, entering the fifth season, although he will be replaced by my home grown regen over the next couple of years. (If I play it enough! :p )

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Still haven't managed to finish my 2015/16 season....despite my best efforts :mad:

Run in to a problem with my internet connection which my provider can't seem to solve and for most of this week Steam wouldn't even let me launch FM in offline mode, just stalled every time I tried. Slowly making progress though, I've reached March and still in with a chance of a clean sweep of all competitions....though Barcelona are likely to be our semi-final opposition in Europe if we make it there.

Managed to secure the League Cup against Man Utd in something of an extra-time epic which finished 4-4, and Nani converted our 5th successful penalty after ter Stegen saved one of theirs. We've stumbled through the early stages of the FA Cup and are through to the semis, though not sure who we face yet. With any luck I might manage to complete this verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry drawn out season tonight or tomorrow, though I'll probably have to wait even longer to update my progress.

Curse you IT Gremlins!! :p

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Still haven't managed to finish my 2015/16 season....despite my best efforts :mad:

Run in to a problem with my internet connection which my provider can't seem to solve and for most of this week Steam wouldn't even let me launch FM in offline mode, just stalled every time I tried. Slowly making progress though, I've reached March and still in with a chance of a clean sweep of all competitions....though Barcelona are likely to be our semi-final opposition in Europe if we make it there.

Managed to secure the League Cup against Man Utd in something of an extra-time epic which finished 4-4, and Nani converted our 5th successful penalty after ter Stegen saved one of theirs. We've stumbled through the early stages of the FA Cup and are through to the semis, though not sure who we face yet. With any luck I might manage to complete this verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry drawn out season tonight or tomorrow, though I'll probably have to wait even longer to update my progress.

Curse you IT Gremlins!! :p

Sounds very much like my current season, 2015/16 as well! Very drawn out, only playing one or two games here and there; think I struggled through to February last night. Just fired up now to see if I can crack on this evening.

On inspection of the fixtures I recall I spell of discontent; in the space of 12 games I managed to draw against Arsenal in the FA 3rd round 0-0 and then lose the replay 1-0; draw 0-0 away to Watford, coupled with back to back defeats in the league to Wolves 2-1, and Liverpool 3-2, and manage to beat Man United 8-1 on aggregate to progress into the League Cup final.

My lead in the league has now been shortened to a meager 5 points from 11 after 25 games. Messi is just a couple of days away from a return to training, which is a positive, especially as Ronaldo has stopped scoring so many goals - something no doubt liked to his discontent. Anyway the next three fixtures should help me see the wood from the trees in so far as how my season is going to head - Chelsea away in the League, Bayern away in CL 1st leg last 16, and Leeds in League Cup.

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with the 6 mil you can get for Colo plus the extra, say , 30-40k you can stick back into transfer budget you can bring in the likes of :

Vertonghen

Chedjou

Dante

Astori

Subotic

Mangane

hell even Kara is a great replacement..

all depends on whether you like Colo or not..

personally , i love having Colo ... he's a great player

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Finally won the League cup, after a few lack luster attempts. Leeds were currently 4th in the Championship at the time, so I prevailed in a game that I expected to win. Next up another Champions League and hopefully the League title.

NewcastlevLeedsInformation_Overview.png?t=1326487139

Edit; Thought I'd also add in that January I added a couple of new members to my side. First up, Giorgi Chiellini; now 31 he's in the prime of his career and shows no signs of stopping - 20 Nat. Fitness, 18 Stamina. Formidable and imposing are two characteristics he brings to the table as a defender, brought in to add some defensive quality at left back. He now gives me an option to play a defensive 3 at the back (LB-CB-RB) without the likes of Bale or Santon bombing forward and leaving me outnumbered. As well as this he becomes a valuable tutor, something that I am keen to improve upon in my squad.

As well as bringing Giorgio, I thought I'd splash some cash on deadline day and bring in Leandro Damiao. Very much an impulse purchase, but fueled by the inability for Carlos Fierro to push on and score goals; as well as Messi being injured at the time. The deal all went Pete Tong and failed to receive a Work Permit, so I'm paying the guy £95k a week without being able to play him. very frustrating. Might see if I can shift him in the summer, for a loss, I accept that; but I am interested in bring in Javier Hernandez from Man U, he's tore up the Premier League since the start of the game, and a player I must have!

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2015/16 Season Update - Slowly, slowly catchee titles

englishpremierdivisionol.png

Creeping ever closer toward the end of the season, we've now reached the start of April and we're currently 6 points clear of Man City, with a game in hand. We had let them back into the title race a few weeks earlier with a couple of poor results that let them close to just 3 points behind us, but some excellent form in March let us open up a gap again. Barring major hiccups the title should be ours again.

Despite a few injury problems since the turn of the year the squad have generally maintained their form, and have usually managed to turn it on in the big games so far. Nicolas Gaitan having an especially good run of form in the second half of the season, and chipping in with a shed load of assists.

newcastleunitedfixtures.png

Having disposed of Shakhtar easily over 2 legs we'll be facing Barcelona as expected in the Champions League Semi-Final, and having somehow stumbled through the FA Cup despite fielding reserves, youngsters and rejects largely we'll be facing Portsmouth in the Semi there. With the League Cup, World Club Cup and European Super Cup already in the cabinet for this season we have a chance at a pretty epic end to the season if the players can keep it up. :thup:

Assuming I don't throw in any tactical rickets of course....

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Tommo, congrats on bringing in Chiellini..even at 31. :thup: He's a player I really covet on FM, but have never, never, never been able to sign.

This is the first time I've ever managed him in throughout the many years of playing the game; he seems to be doing a decent job at left back. He gives me a nice option when I want to have my full backs to hold their positions and defend. No doubt his preferred position would be at center back, but he just doesn't have the pace to that Papadopoulos or Jones give me, that get out of jail card when your playing a high line, especially with just the sole CB in a back 3. I'm starting to find this with Steven Taylor, I'm beginning to run out of uses for him, I find that he can only play in a CB pairing, and isn't particularly impressive at RB. Heart breaking really, as he is pretty much Mr. NUFC at the moment, only him and Santon survive. Although Cabeye and Tiote return from loan for next season, might keep them around as Paul Pogba isn't looking particularly impressive on the most part - it's his first season where he has seen regular first team games, and has developed remarkably, makes me regret sending him to Rennes last season.

Only about ten or so games to go for this season, should progress into Semi's of CL - a 2nd leg against Lyon at home in my way. Got two games in hand over Man City, which could take me 7 points clear in the league with 4 games to go.

Trying to recruit the best of the best of British youth to develop and help my home grown stock as this years youth prospects are truly dreadful, but finding the talent on offer particuarly sparse, even though my scouting abilities are hightened with me being England manager, simply nothing available.

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I like my opponents goal like my steaks, peppered.

Somewhat wasteful in so much only 14 out of 38 shots were on target, but my players were certainly pulling the trigger today. Second to last game of the season. Lined up with a front 6 of Mario Gotze, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, with Neymar and the playmaking genius of Christian Eriksen behind them - and Eden Hazard on the bench to come on! This win sent Sunderland into the bottom 3, which should see them relegated back into the Championship. Took my goal tally to 104 this season so far as well.

NewcastlevSunderlandInformation_Overview.png

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Funnily enough Tommo, I've had the same problem this season with the youth intake...none worth keeping on pretty much. Coaches haven't rated any of the new batch with more than 1.5 stars. I have managed to persuade the board to improve our youth recruitment network, and hopefully during the summer I'll talk them into upgrading the other youth facilities as well ......assuming we have lots of lovely prize money in the bank anway.

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@Andrew!;

Seems to have some potential there, although I wouldn't like to have any of my players likened to The Emile. Does he have a ppm of 'Holds ball up amicably' or 'runs with ball aimlessly into channels'.

Can't seem to recruit any decent scouts at the moment to aid my search for the next generation. Posted up something in General Discussion, and it seems that the problem is a bug. Extremely annoying!

Still yet to finish my season, about 3 games to go - have the League Title all but sewed up, but Man City have ended up taking me to the wire; and I have them to face in the CL Final.

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End of Season - 2015/16

Finally got round to my 2015/16 season, despite it taking me about a month to finish off the final few in game months. This is how it panned out..


Premier League - Champions

Champions League - Runners Up

F.A Cup - 3rd Round

League Cup - Winners

World Club Championship - Winners


Premier League
- Winners at last! After a couple of slip ups and defeats here and there I managed to lose an almost insurmountable lead, but ended up coming out top dog. Quite a competitive year I think, with Man City and Liverpool posting up some credible point scores. The perfectionist in me saw the fact that Man City managed a better goal difference than me really quite annoying; will be defiantly trying to either keep it tighter at the back, especially against the stronger sides. Another thing that niggled me, Javier Hernandez having the gall to outscore Ronaldo in the league. Still conquered my Everest at last. 8 teams in Europe next year too, and Sunderland relegated for a second time in the 5 seasons.

EnglishPremierDivisionOverview_Stages-2-4.png

Champions League
- So Jose Mourinho finally managed to conquer me; after various attempts against me in his days at Real Madrid he failed to ever best me, but now at Man City he managed to land a blow - may have won the battle, but certainly not the war. A rather easy process en route to the final; seeing of Valencia, Shalke and Anderlecht with ease. Last 16 saw me trump Bayern Munich 5-2 over two legs, as was the case in the Quarters where I progressed over Valencia 4-1 on aggregate. Lyon stood in my way of a fourth successive final, but they gave me a sturdy test but game out on top 4-2 over two legs.

Regarding the Final, I dominated the game regarding possession and chance creation for the most part, with City forced to feed of scraps when they broke. The threat of counter became even more evident towards to end of the game as I chased for a goal, with me allowing my two full backs license to bomb forward. But my front players were evidently very wasteful on hitting the target, and this cost me; the likes of Messi, Ronaldo and Gotze just not showing up. Papadopoulos was the only player to come out with any credibility in my opinion, with the man mountain winning everything in the air and generally provide a stern single man defence towards the end of the game. Aguero's goal came from a counter attack; something that Man City threatened from all game. Alas, I shall dust myself off and come back stronger next year I hope.. but not after some shooting practice.

NewcastlevManCityInformation_Overview.png

F.A, League and World Club Cups
- Determined to take these seriously again this year. That determination in the League Cup saw me triumph against Leeds in the Final; but after being handed an unfavorable 3rd round draw against Arsenal, I was dumped unceremoniously 1-0 away at the Emirates. Another trip to Japan to compete in the December cup against the best of the rest of the World saw me come out on top there again.

Player Statistics

Top Goalscorers

  • Cristiano Ronaldo;
    39

  • Lionel Messi;
    17

  • Mario Gotze, Eden Hazard;
    15

  • Kryiakos Papadopoulos;
    14

  • Neymar;
    13

Top Assistants

  • Lionel Messi;
    22

  • Eden Hazard, Gareth Bale
    18

  • Mario Gotze;
    14

  • Andrea Poli;
    12

  • Christian Eriksen, Cristiano Ronaldo;
    11

Awards

  • Supporters' Player
    - L. Messi

  • Player of the Year
    - 3rd; C.Ronaldo

  • PFA Players Player
    - M. Gotze

  • Premier League Top Goalscorer
    - 2nd; C. Ronaldo (29 in 35)

  • PFA Players' Young Player
    - K. Papadopoulos

  • Goal of the Season
    - C. Ronaldo
    vs. Manchester United. - trademark Ronaldo dribble, then rifled in of the post from 30 yards

  • Manager of the Year
    - Me.

  • Players Team of the Year
    - K. Walker (RB), K. Papadopoulos (CB), G. Bale (LB), M. Gotze (CM), C. Ronaldo (ST), E. Hazard (sub) & L. Messi (sub)

  • Champions League Best Player
    - L. Messi

  • Champions League Dream Team
    - J. Butland (GK), K. Papadopoulos (CB), Neymar (CM(
    not really a cm?
    )), L. Messi (LM), E. Hazard (ST)

My Team of the Year

NewcastleUnitedTactics_Overview-2.png

What's next?

Well after finally getting stuck back into this save I intend to carry on to another season. Transfer wise I don't intend on re-inventing the wheel; I've got Cabeye, Marvin Martin, De Bryune and Tiote to come back from their respective loans - M. Martin had a fantastic season at AC Milan, as did Cabeye at Lyon. So that will probably see Tiote and De Bryune, along with many other non worthy reserve team players such as Sammy Ameobi given the boot. Due to their being hardly any Home-Grown players in my squad at the moment, it is causing problems with my Champions League squad size, so I shall be looking to bring in a few youngsters that I can develop through the club.

Leandro Damiao, the name that shall not be mentioned, shall be hopefully shifted off due to an inability to gain a work-permit. Brought him for £30m plus around £6m in gent and player fees, and paid him £90k a week plus; so I will try cut my losses there. The idea in bringing him in the first place was to give me some extra firepower upfront in the ST position, so I may carry on my search - possibly Javier Hernandez of Man U, but he will cost he a large wedge, £30m or so. I've got a Argentinean regen coming back from Liverpool who has been out on loan, had a good season playing second fiddle - so I will be looking forward to see what he is like pre season.

The burning ambition is to finish a season with a clean sweep of every single last trophy, so that shall be a obvious goal - as would to go a League campaign unbeaten.

Thanks for reading.
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After a hard fought match in the First leg of our Champs League Semi Final with the mighty Barcelona, we'll be taking a narrow 2-1 lead to the Camp Nou thanks to a brace from the Little Pea :p

Would have preferred to keep the clean sheet, but missing our best defender it just wasn't to be unfortunately...I'll be hoping we can grab a quick goal there to cancel out their away goal advantage.

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