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

[Church CM]

I've been trying desperately to get some cover in at left back for Santon ...

Kadar ... I am serious. Someone else told me to use him as DL cover and to be honest, I was shocked at how well he did ... and at 2K a week, he's somewhat payroll friendly.

Sounds like you have a good save going!

[Church CM]

Well ... It's official ... I hate Chelsea.

They beat us in the final of the League Cup and then again in the final of the FA Cup. We tied with them (1-1) at SJP and then beat the snot out of them (4-2) at Stamford Bridge. Just seems we have a problem at Wembley. With that said, we made a hell of a final run, beating Man UTD 1-0 to get us within 1 of Arsenal and then beat them 3 days later 1-0 to take possession of 3rd and gain a ECC Spot! Not a bad run there. Fun season!

[si4uk]

Finshed 7th in my first season.

Signed in:

Jack Collinson £5m

El-Hadhj Douf - free

Thorgan Hazard - £5m

Most of the dead wood was sold.

Season 2:

Wilfried £2.5m

Giovanni Dos Santos

Royston Drenthe - Free

Sebastion Corchia - £7.5m

Jose Boswinga - Free

Owen Hargreaves - Free

Vincient Enyeamea - £6m

Sold Colochinni and Fraser Forster for a £5m each to fund others. I have Rodwell interested and Carlos Vela coming in Jan as a cover.

Only made £5m loss on transfers but I'll make that up when I sell Krul and a few others.

[DandyDon]

French Connection

Malo will hopefully be our first choice centre back in a few seasons and for hopefully many seasons thereafter. We originally scouted him last season when he was just 15, but at that point he wasn't interested in a move. However this year with an increased rep in Europe he was willing to talk to us and we're paying his parent club Lyon 5.5 million for his services.

[Geordie_Gaz]

Looks like a good find there Dandydon. I've noticed the French youth coming through seems to be pretty good, but very expensive!

[DandyDon]

Looks like a good find there Dandydon. I've noticed the French youth coming through seems to be pretty good, but very expensive!

There do seem to be some cracking youngsters coming through Gaz, quite a good few English youngster cropping up as well to be fair.

[DandyDon]

Was definitely a case of 'Remember, remember the month of November' for my players with Nainggolan scooping the 'Goal of the Month' award as well. Our first goal award in over 2 seasons so far.

[Striker475]

Chris, please tell me you're not going to change the name to 'Sports Direct Arena' for the update! Otherwise I'm bloody well changing it right back before I start a game!

[Geordie_Gaz]

There do seem to be some cracking youngsters coming through Gaz, quite a good few English youngster cropping up as well to be fair.

I'm yet to find them. Saying that, I did get a youngster through who I thought could be the next Andy Carroll. Unfortunately, while he shared the same name, he did not share the same talent!

[DandyDon]

I'm yet to find them. Saying that, I did get a youngster through who I thought could be the next Andy Carroll. Unfortunately, while he shared the same name, he did not share the same talent!

I got a couple of very decent youngsters through in the second season, and my scouts have found a couple of 4 and 4.5 star rated youngsters at other English clubs this summer....though the price quoted for them so far is pretty steep admittedly.

[Robin :)]

i can never beat big four on my newcastle team, i never use monthly payment while buying players

you guys should try buying players without monthly installment

[DandyDon]

i can never beat big four on my newcastle team, i never use monthly payment while buying players

you guys should try buying players without monthly installment

Speaking for myself most of the players I've bought this save have been without paying over 48 months. Doesn't make my save any more legitimate or superior to those who've taken advantage of the 48 month payment plan though.

Folks are free to play the game the way they want after all.

[SeanH91]

i can never beat big four on my newcastle team, i never use monthly payment while buying players

you guys should try buying players without monthly installment

Quite a few of us aren't using the 48 month method. I know I'm certainly not and managed 3rd position in my first season.

[Trilo_G]

I made a few structured deals. M'Bengue £1.25m plus £4m over 48 months. Suazo £4.4m over 24 months. Rodwell for £9m over 36 months.

I don't see a problem with structuring a deal. It damages your finances in the long term so the pros must be weighed against the cons, but it is available for all to use, and the AI use it too, so why on earth shouldn't the feature be used? It happens in real life (although lately it is largely avoided due to the massive debts in football), and it is not cheating.

The pros for buying players up front are obvious, and I would always prefer to pay up front if I always had the opportunity, but sometimes there is quality that you need to add to the squad (particularly in the first window) that you simply can't afford.

My deals have been much thought out and I do not imagine I will regret any of them. When the financial rewards for the quality of my squad start rolling in, I will be paying for everything up front. Until then, I will structure a deal if I feel that I must. I have worked out my finances for the foreseeable future and there is no chance that these deals will run my club into the ground.

If someone wants to spend a fortune over 4 years and watch their club go bankrupt, that is their decision and I can't for a second fathom why anybody else would have a problem with it.

[Robin :)]

Quite a few of us aren't using the 48 month method. I know I'm certainly not and managed 3rd position in my first season.

yea but a 36 month method?

[dozzie]

Thanks for the earlier replies, some useful advise there guys.

@Trilo_G Sadly i've missed the boat on M'Begue and Diarra, both gone elsewhere, currently scouting Enoh though, could be what i'm looking for.

@Spedding I remember Digne from FM11 becoming a top player so will certainly consider him, i'd forgotten about him until you mentioned, thanks.

@DandyDon I tried to get Bressan bu Spartak Moscow beat me to him and he's had a great start there, gutting. The South African guy Jali, has already moved to Serie A - seems like i should have sought some outside help a bit earlier, although i guess it's best to exhaust your own options first.

@Church CM I have to say, i don't think i've given him a game yet, but i have considered giving him a go, i remember in past FM versions he was always reliable and occassionally turned into a star.

[DandyDon]

Definitely been trying to keep a tighter grip on the finances on FM12 compared to FM11 & 10. Have set myself a limit of of 60,000 a week as the top wage at the moment, even though the board are willing to offer key players more. I'm going to try my best to stick to that, and have cancelled a couple of deals for good players as a result.

My top earner at the moment is Jonas on 55,000 a week and he's currently out on loan and after that it's Ben Arfa on 54,000 a week. Both players who were on big contracts before I started signing players, and both players who've lost their places in the team as well. Of the players I've bought Moussa Sow is currently the biggest earner on a pretty reasonable 40,000 a week.....reasonable for the detached from reality bubble world of football that is

[DandyDon]

yea but a 36 month method?

The option to structure player deals in installments should exist as we know it happens in real life so there's not much point in moaning about it whether it's over 12, 24, 36 or 48 months, paid in 3 lump sums or comes in a big brown envelop in a multi storey carpark...

However I'd be happy to see Chris' idea implemented whereby some Chairmen would refuse you the chance to do that in order to keep a tighter control over the club finances...which would also be a more realistic factor in transfers.

[DandyDon]

Thanks for the earlier replies, some useful advise there guys.

@Trilo_G Sadly i've missed the boat on M'Begue and Diarra, both gone elsewhere, currently scouting Enoh though, could be what i'm looking for.

@Spedding I remember Digne from FM11 becoming a top player so will certainly consider him, i'd forgotten about him until you mentioned, thanks.

@DandyDon I tried to get Bressan bu Spartak Moscow beat me to him and he's had a great start there, gutting. The South African guy Jali, has already moved to Serie A - seems like i should have sought some outside help a bit earlier, although i guess it's best to exhaust your own options first.

@Church CM I have to say, i don't think i've given him a game yet, but i have considered giving him a go, i remember in past FM versions he was always reliable and occassionally turned into a star.

Unlucky dozzie...sorry, should have said that Bressan and Jali are best bid for real early as they have a lot of clubs sniffing round.

[DandyDon]

2013/14 - Season Update - A little bit of history repeating?

Continuing on from our solid start to the new season we were in fantastic form throughout october, November and December in the league. In fact we only dropped 2 points between the 19th of October and the 28th of December in a 1-1 draw away at Leicester, and we really should have won that game by a healthy margin.

We did suffer defeat during that period with a 2-1 loss away at Porto in the Champions League, but we won the remaining group games against Rangers and Malmo to top the group at the end, and we've drawn Shakhtar in the First Knockout Stage.

The Results so far

The run of wins in October and November saw us sitting nicely top of the league with Moussa Sow leading the goalscoring charts and Yohan Cabaye narrowly topping the chart for assists as well. Sow also currently has the highest average rating in the league with 7.84, but our new defensive rock Jose Dominguez is fast catching up with a rating of 7.73 from 16 league appearances (28 overall). Alberto Paloschi is also catching up with a rating of 7.72 now.

At one point we were a massive 10 points clear of second placed Man Utd, however fixture congestion due to the World Club Cup competition has allowed them to close the gap to just one point......though we have the benefit of 2 games in hand at least to try and establish some breathing space again.

The Table

Dominguez and ter Stegen have obviously made a huge difference to the side with us only conceding 13 goals so far. Inspiring a new defensive tightness, which combined with some very clinical attackers saw us to the top of the table in style with the meanest defence allied to the most freescoring attack so far.

Almost as important as the impact of the two major defensive signings has been the input of players like free-signing Alan Gonzalez, Bressan and Jack Robinson that has allowed me to rest the likes of Cabaye, Nainggolan and others without impacting on our form. Gonzalez and Bressan especially have popped up with some key goals and assists so far.

Despite our good form though I've chosen to reinforce during the January window, striking while the iron is hot so to speak. I was offered the chance to sign Mateo Musacchio from Villareal for £9.5 million and decided to take it. the Argentinian defender is still only 23 and should add some extra quality to our defence over the next few seasons, plus still be young enough to raise a decent fee if we eventually develop some better quality regens in future.

With what promises to be a very crowded fixture list in the second half of the season and an unfortunate 2 month injury lay off ahead for Moussa Sow, I doubt Musacchio will be my last major signing in January, or at least I hope not.

[shirepartial]

Season 1 didnt buy or sell, I finished 7th, lost to the Mackems in the league cup final on pens, was sooo close to reloading and replaying it wasnt even funny lol, needless to say they finished like 12th and took my EC spot.

Second season IN:

Adam Johnson(AMR) 4.6m

Ryan Shawcross(DC) 10m

Kyle Walker(RB) 5m

Joe Mattock(LB) (loan)

Park Chu-Young(ST) (loan)

Gilberto Silver(MC/DMC/DC) 600k

Out:

Raylor 1.5m

Best 4m(mackems - stated his reason was european football, the b*stards!)

Williamson 4m

Marveux 2.3m

Strolla 4m

Xisco 4m(omg you can actually sell him on this version, normally hes another Alan Smith)

Guthrie 3.8m

Perch 1m and

Loverman (free)

..and any one in the reserves under 2 PA, couldnt pay a club to take Alan Smith, just leeched till his contract ran out.

Also got some under 18 brazilians for <1mil Leo(ST), Wallace(FB) and Lucas Severo(DM) who has signed but wont arrive for another season for some weird reason, got Liam Polworth from Inverness CT who I have as affiliate for 600k, was 3 star PA untill I bought him and he went up to 4.5, must be since I upgraded Youth Facilities at the start of S1.. oh and also this sick french lb regen who hadnt signed a contract with his club so I swooped in and stole, only had to pay about 900k comp, hes 4.5 pa.

Stuck them all in under 18's and they are wrecking the group, Remee Streete and Adam Campbell are absolute monsters aswel. Also went 3 draws, no losses and a ton of wins first season thanks to Campbell going some 22 in 25 I think it was.

Current team is doing pretty sweet, only 10 games or so in though.

GK: Krul / Forster

RB: Kyle Walker / Danny Simmas

CB: Shawcross / Capt Collo / Saylor rotation (Gilberto Silver, Streete if there is mass injuries)

LB: Santon / Joe Mattock(Loan)

DMCR: Cabaye / Gosling

DMCL: Tiote / Gilberto Silva

AMR & AML: Adam Johnson / Obertan / Jonas / Lua Lua rotation

AMC: Ben Arfa / Vuckic

ST: Ba / Park Chu-Young(loan)

Trying to keep it realistic and have an obsession with spending more time on my under 18's than my actual squad so will be mostly buying and developing young players to use in a few seasons time.

Anyone had success with Ba & Ben Arfa? Ba got 3 vs the scum first game of the first season and went 12 in 5 games or something daft then just stopped doing anything, in season two now and he just comes on for 10, blasts a sitter over the bar and gets injured for a month.. Playing him as lone striker in front of Ben Arfa who is also a pain with injurys and form, luckily Vuckic is an animal.

[DandyDon]

@shirepartial

looks like a very good squad there in second season, horrible way to lose out on Europe too.

Ben Arfa and Ba seem to fire on all cylinders for some folks, and do absolutely naff all for other. Ben Arfa has had the odd good game for me, but he's on his way out after complaining one time too many recently. He moaned last season about not getting enough games, but as I was playing a 4-4-2 in some games which meant there was no room for an AMC in some games...and then this season he started off moaning again. Bressan has come in while he was injured and put in some better performances in the AMC slot and now Ben Arfa has skipped training, so I'll be looking to sell him if I can in the January window.

I think he plays best though when he's used as a trequartista, certainly had his best games for me in that role.

[Geordie_Gaz]

Aye Ben Arfa has been good for me. Given regular football he rarely moans - apart from disliking the training intensity, plus in my two seasons he's made it into the players team of the year twice - first season and a half as an attacking midfielder in the AM slot, then for the final half of the second season he was playing as Trequartista. I'm not as big a fan of Ba as some people are though. He misses way too many easy chances for my liking, and nobody seems to be interested in taking him off my hands.

[shirepartial]

but as I was playing a 4-4-2

Now you mention it 4-4-2 was when Ba was on fire for me, playing him as a poacher along side Best(DeepLF), but since HBA returned from his initial injury I have been 4-2-3-1.

Trequartista is what I have had Vuckic on, hes been really impressive, infact looking at it.. no teamwork stat, no work rate stat, just stand about waiting for the ball, thats HBA all over ;x

Gonna stick him on that for the rest of the season, tried Ba as TM and Poacher with no joy, gonna go complete forward for the rest of the season.

[jlawlor91]

ATM I'm in my 4th season - mid February. I'm in the semis of the League Cup vs. Liverpool and am in the Europa League knockout rounds. My team is:

Van Stegen/Smithies

Vrsaljko/Santon Papadopolous/Bassong Shawcross/S.Taylor Alex Sandro/Pieters

Cabaye/Ramsey Sandro/Wilshere Shaqiri/Weiss A.Johnson/Sturridge

Benitez/Carroll Cavani/Fierro

I can't seem to break down the top 3 and its a real pain considering I have won domestic cups over the past few years. Alex Sandro is Brazil's first choice CB, Papadopolous is wanted by Barca and Cavani is the Prem top scorer. What do you reckon it is preventing me from league success?

[DandyDon]

@Lawly Boi

hard to say mate, looks like you've got a real quality squad, especially with goal machine Cavani upfront. How far off the top are you in that 4th season?

[jlawlor91]

@Lawly Boi

hard to say mate, looks like you've got a real quality squad, especially with goal machine Cavani upfront. How far off the top are you in that 4th season?

At the moment I'm 5th, 10 points behind 1st and I've got a game in hand. The race for second is close though, I'd take that this season.

[DandyDon]

At the moment I'm 5th, 10 points behind 1st and I've got a game in hand. The race for second is close though, I'd take that this season.

Well fingers crossed, hopefully the team go on a nice run till the end of the season and the rest of them throw a wobbly or two.

[tommonufc]

Season 1 - 2011/12

Transfers

I started the game with a mixture of self confidence and stupidity, declaring my intentions as a 'Title Challenger'; despite me regretting my foolishness around February it did give me a sizable transfer and wage budget to help me utilise my 'buy-now-pay-later' policy (felt somewhat dishonest, due to the current real life thrifty nature of Ashley, but hey..). As you can see from my transfers (Daniel Sturridge and Ivan Bandolovski in on loan) I brought in some real quality, even in areas that were already relativity strong. My main focus was to shift deadwood that had no future at the club, and bring in players that are already Champions League quality. Particularly pleased with my two purchases from Genk; De Bruyne looks to have very good potential and I stumbled upon Tozser who would replace Guthrie's position as central-midfield-utility-and-cup-player - turning out to be quite a handy playmaker. Christian Eriksen was the deal I am most pleased about - after finally finding a home for him behind my forwards as a Trequartista around March he inspired my run in, finishing the season with 18 assists.

January came with me hovering outside the top 4, and after forgetting to register Cardozo in September, once he was eligible to play it gave me some timely firepower up front (he tore up the reserve league needless to say). With the January funds of the sales of Ameobi, Best, Guthrie and a R.Taylor loan move burning a whole in my pocket, Liverpool offered me Martin Kelly on a reasonable deal - who looks to be a very good player - and a scout drew my attention to yet another Frenchman - Etienne Capoue. He immediately stepped in whilst Tiote was having a kickaround in Africa.

Never got the most out of Daniel Sturridge, he was behind in the pecking order in the league; and with me fielding Campbell and Sa. Ameobi in the cups he never got the playing time. Erik Pieters proved to be a bargain, providing constant reliability at LB throughout the campaign. As the season ended Shaqiri, and Wilfried started to show their class - so will be hopefull of them next season.

League Table

It's always nice to see Sunderland struggle, and combined with my end of season position it proved to be a good year. Man City finished Champions, and with me beating Man United at home in the last few games I'm sure Noel Gallagher loves me to bits!

Extremely disappointing in the cups - after fielding the kids against Brentford in the 4th round of the League Cup I was shown the exit. The F.A Cup proved to be most incredible, aside from me being beaten 4-2 away at Wycombe in the 3rd - Alan Hansen ramblings of "your never will anything with kids" yet again proved to be the case; but the real upset was plucky Doncaster Rovers avoiding any Premier League team until the final, and then only going and beating Man City 1-0!!

End of Season Run-In

The Autumn and early Winter months up until January proved to be less than fruitful, dropping silly points in games that I really should have been winning, and a failure to score goals would have seen Ashley sharpening his Axe and wiping Hughton's remains from his chopping board. A 3-3 draw at Home to Tottenham can be sited as the turning point to my season, shortly followed by two dogged away wins at Liverpool and Man City. After dropping valuable points in Home games of Villa and Wigan I thought my Top-Four dream was over, but an easy run-in proved to be my savior - going unbeaten and picking up 24 points from 24 after that costly Sunday afternoon against Villa. If it wasn't for my season long ability to invaluable points against the 'top clubs' I would have lounged around mid-table I believe, but this proved to be my secret weapon - most especially as Arsenal and Man U proved stumbling blocks towards the end. As previously mentioned, my 1-0 victory over United saw City edge ahead in the title race. Here can be seen my results against the 'Big-six':

Man City; (H)1-1, (A)0-1

Man U; (H)1-0, (A)2-0 loss

Chelsea; (H)2-0, (A)1-1

Liverpool; (H)1-1, (A)1-0

Tottenham; (H)3-3, (A)2-1

Arsenal; (H)3-1, (A)3-1

If my maths are correct that's 25 points from 30 I hadn't necessarily hoped for - 'Exccccellent' (to be read as if you were Mr.Burns!)

Enough of my ramblings, off for pre-season! Hopefully I'll be back to tell tales of Champions League football akin to Juventus at home and Inter Milan away of 2002/03!

[DandyDon]

urrrghh...have to play Man Utd 4 times in January, got landed with them in the FA Cup and the Semi Finals of the League cup as well as a league game.

[DandyDon]

Typical, scouted a couple of regens, make a bid for them and all of a sudden we've another transfer embargo enforced due to possible takeover

Some local business type called Chris Dunphy...could these blokes not wait till February or something

[Walld]

ouch... that hurt me badly! Try again next season! First i'll need reinforcement on AMR and MC. btw, I'm trying to upload screenshot but i have some problem with the uploading of images from computer.

Mna u are lucky alreaady, i was even worse than u . on my 3rd season i was supposed to play UEFA Championship since it was 4th last season. and Man utd was 5th but they won the EURO Championship by beating barcenola 2:0. Then i become only able to play EURO Cup. i Was pissed!!!

[Fulax]

Transfers 3rd season.

For some reason, despite finishing second and qualifying for the Champion's League in the 2nd season I only got £8m to spend over the summer. I was fortunate enough to get Hargreaves and Sturridge for free, but my squad was just too small to compete in four competitions. Injuries didn't help; Simpson, Cabaye, and Vuckic all suffered a broken leg. During the second leg of the first knockout round of the CL Simpson, Coloccini, Saylor, Strinic, Kadar, Cabaye, and Tiote were all out, leaving me with a back four of Santon, Sebastian Toro, Hargreaves and Gosling. I lost 4-1 (4-2agg).

I won the league cup and went out of the semi-final of the FA cup on penalties to Man City. All very nice, but too many games for my squad to handle, and I ended the season in 7th. At least winning the league cup got me into the Europa league though.

As you can see, scoring goals wasn't a problem. Ahmed Musa got 20 in 30apps, Papiss Cisse got 15 in 33. Tevez got 6 goals and 5 assists from AMC in 14 apps.

In the summer so far I've bought Samuel Inkoom (Dnipro - 7m), Kyriakos Papadopoulos (Schalke - 3.9m), Andrea Bertolacci (Roma - 1.8m), and regen Raphael Morel (Toulouse - 7.25m)

Starting X1:

GK: Krul

RB: Santon/Inkoom

DC: Saylor/Papa

DC: Colo/Toro

DL: Strinic

MC (bwm): Tiote/Morel

MC (dlp): Cabaye/Eriksen

AMC (tq): Tevez/Ben Arfa

AMC (am): McCarthy

ST (cf): Cisse/Tevez

ST (p): Musa

[Walld]

i took like 2-3 seasons for Eriksen to play well , the role for him is AMC in my save

[tommonufc]

Looking to add some quality and strength to my side for my Champions League campaign next season, my current ideas are;

Goalkeepers

Fraser Forster will return from his loan spell at Celtic and now finds himself a cheif bench warmer in England's squad - so he should be good competition for Tim Krul who had a good first season. Sergio Asenjo available on a free transfer has cast doubt over my number one spot, but I think I'll give him a miss.

Ole Soderberg will see his remaining weeks of his contract out and leave the club.

Defence

Strengthening my defence is top of my priorities. Currently in the full back positions I have Santon, Pieters and Martin Kelly; top of my shortlist here is Kyle Walker, who my scouts say is available for around £15million. Next would see a choice of Leighton Baines, unlikely due to the inflated price Everton seem to be asking, £18million; Van De Wiel currenently uninterested in a move to Tyneside, but would be available at a cheaper price than Walker if I can blow enough smoke up his preverbial. Maurcio Isla, Maxi Pereira and Goergy Schennikov from CSKA can also have notable mentions.

Next up, will be a centre back. Currently I have a trio of Steven Taylor, Coloccini and Neven Subotic; with Colo's contract running into it's last year I do not like the idea of a 31yo on such a large sum, so will be looking for his replacement; therefore a young player with Champions League quality fits the bill. Seemingly spoilt for choice here; Papadopolous tops my list here, but is reconed to cost me around £20million; this may not be a problem, as he will be a fixture of my back line for years to come. Next up Jan Vertonghen, going into his last year in his Ajax contract so available for around £5m; would fit the mould as a ball player and my kind of enter back as I try to build a team full of players adept at playing tiki-taka-keep-ball. Main reservation is that he doesn't compare in defencive qualities to other targets. Englishmen Gary Cahill and Ryan Shawcross would be my English option, as I look to even out the French Connection in my squad. Dedryck Boyata, Salvatore Bochetti, Christian Zapata and Ezequil Munoz also options.

Ryan Taylor will be shown the exit once he returns back from his loan at Southampton, and Tamas Kadar is on the move out on a free transfer - somewhere in Croatia I think, who cares.

Midfield

As with every team I ever seem to manage I have midfielders coming out of my arse. Will look at who will be shown the door first - unfortuneatly I don't see a future for Dan Gosling, so he will be most likely carted out; as too will be Daniel Tozser for a small return on the £1million I signed him for less than 12months ago. Gabriel Obertan failed to impress, and with his mental stats resembling somebody who's just recieved a smack on the head he will be shown the door, with Wigan currently looking like suitors. Fellow countrymen Sylvain Marveaux will be offloaded, he hadn't featured in the first season and his status behind Shaqiri, Ben Arfa, Gutierrez and De Bruyne far from merits a £40k pay cheque.

I'm holding back the urge to fill my team with midfielders who don't get enough games in this save, but I can't see past the attractions of Marvin Martin - available for around £20million he ticks two big boxes; he french and he's very, very good! Fellow French box-ticker Lassana Diarra is being offloaded by Real Madrid, and for around £5-6million could be a great deal. Ross Barkley is a target and if not signed this season, will find his way to Newcastle sooner or later; same can be said for Jack Wilshere, who is interested in a move, but £30m is too much, maybe a loan though. Eden Hazard is interested in a move to Tyneside, but £40million and no real need of him will his transfer put on the back burner, same can be said for Ganso - no real need of him this season, but he's Brazilian, world-class and interested in Newcastle.

Forwards

This is where any suggestions and opinons may be most vauled. With current options of Cardozo, Wilfired and Ba vieing for what may see to be a single spot upfront for most of the year, I don't see any need or viable targets available to bring in. This year will also see Adam Cambpell and Sammy Ameobi get a taste of League football, and maybe the odd sub apperance in Russia, Belarus or such far flung countries I may be delt against in Champions League. Emmanuel Adebayor is back at City and on transfer list, so could be an option. One reservation I have is that I may struggle to score goals, and despite Cardozo's best efforts I don't see him hitting 25+ goals this season; which is where Adebayor comes in - last season he an incredible 42goals in 44games, 37 in 32 in the league for Tottenham; despite being available for around £5million, I think Ashley may have to take a trip to B&Q to buy a wheelbarrow for wages and an inevitable over priced singing on fee to be delivered.

An audacious attempt to bring in Neymar may also be on the cards, well I'll have a go - with being in CL and everything. Still at Santos, with no big giants of European football hovering above him he may be interested after a few kind words.

[Fulax]

Well Tevez didn't last very long. He reacted badly to being substituted in the 70th minute when we were 5-0 up against some Finnish side in the EURO cup qualifying round, for some reason, then refused to speak to me. Arsenal bid £20m for him, which is a bit silly as his release clause was £7.5m, and off he went.

Oh well. Just managed to get Erick Torres in as a replacement before the transfer window closed.

[DandyDon]

@tommonufc

If you're looking to spend big on Brazilian striker then Damiao seems to be this years must have accessory, absolutely darling in black and white stripes

Otherwise I'd give Paloschi a wholehearted recommendation for a lethal poacher.

@Fulax

What sort of crazy wages was Carlito on while you had him at SJP? He's still on the transfer list at City halfway through the third season, and out of contract in a few months so I'm considering offering him a deal.

[Fulax]

I managed to talk him down to £100k/week - with some other perks, of course, including a £7.5m release clause. Can't remember what he got per appearance.

[tommonufc]

@tommonufc

If you're looking to spend big on Brazilian striker then Damiao seems to be this years must have accessory, absolutely darling in black and white stripes

Otherwise I'd give Paloschi a wholehearted recommendation for a lethal poacher.

Have been keeping my eye on Damiao for the past season, various scouts rate him highly, but he doesn't seem to have any initial interest in a move. Would have to offload one of Ba or Wilfiried I think before I made brought him in anyway. Signed Wilfried on a two-year deal, so might bring a big signing forward in next season, as I don't think I'll renew his contract unless he impresses this year.

So far have brought in Walker, Papadopolous, Martin, Diarra and Adebayor on a season loan; along with two french teenagers on frees and picked up two Russian regens on around 50k compensation. The payments for Martin, Walker and Papadopolous will be made over the course of the next 2-4 years; but I think once I have an established squad to compete in Champions League and Premier League I will not have the need to bring in vast amounts of players each close season.

[cm4]

Hi there, I need some advice please. I play Sow/Wilfried up front on their own, with an amc behind, and AML/AMR on the flanks. I see most people play them as poacher, but is that as target man also?

Thanks.

[Striker475]

2011-12 Season

Signings

League Table

Best Result:

Newcastle 4-0 Sunderland (Cabaye x2, Obertan x2)

Worst Result

Man U 5-0 Newcastle (Hernandez x3, Rooney x2)

Happy with the season, know where I can pick up points next year.

Also have Oliver Markoutz inbound on a free from Bayern Munich, as well as......

Gautier Imbert

Rated as the next Patrice Evra. 1.6mil, worth every penny.

Also, John Carver was offered and accepted the Norwich job. Brought in Dorinho as Ass Man, he's a scout from Internacional in Brazil.

[DandyDon]

Oddly enough I think it was Norwich poached John Jensen who was my Asst Manager during the summer. Replaced him with Jair Ventura who was without a club.

I've also grabbed Thierry Henry as our Shooting coach after he retired from the Red Bulls

[Robin :)]

Season 1 didnt buy or sell, I finished 7th, lost to the Mackems in the league cup final on pens, was sooo close to reloading and replaying it wasnt even funny lol, needless to say they finished like 12th and took my EC spot.

Second season IN:

Adam Johnson(AMR) 4.6m

Ryan Shawcross(DC) 10m

Kyle Walker(RB) 5m

Joe Mattock(LB) (loan)

Park Chu-Young(ST) (loan)

Gilberto Silver(MC/DMC/DC) 600k

Out:

Raylor 1.5m

Best 4m(mackems - stated his reason was european football, the b*stards!)

Williamson 4m

Marveux 2.3m

Strolla 4m

Xisco 4m(omg you can actually sell him on this version, normally hes another Alan Smith)

Guthrie 3.8m

Perch 1m and

Loverman (free)

..and any one in the reserves under 2 PA, couldnt pay a club to take Alan Smith, just leeched till his contract ran out.

Also got some under 18 brazilians for <1mil Leo(ST), Wallace(FB) and Lucas Severo(DM) who has signed but wont arrive for another season for some weird reason, got Liam Polworth from Inverness CT who I have as affiliate for 600k, was 3 star PA untill I bought him and he went up to 4.5, must be since I upgraded Youth Facilities at the start of S1.. oh and also this sick french lb regen who hadnt signed a contract with his club so I swooped in and stole, only had to pay about 900k comp, hes 4.5 pa.

Stuck them all in under 18's and they are wrecking the group, Remee Streete and Adam Campbell are absolute monsters aswel. Also went 3 draws, no losses and a ton of wins first season thanks to Campbell going some 22 in 25 I think it was.

Current team is doing pretty sweet, only 10 games or so in though.

GK: Krul / Forster

RB: Kyle Walker / Danny Simmas

CB: Shawcross / Capt Collo / Saylor rotation (Gilberto Silver, Streete if there is mass injuries)

LB: Santon / Joe Mattock(Loan)

DMCR: Cabaye / Gosling

DMCL: Tiote / Gilberto Silva

AMR & AML: Adam Johnson / Obertan / Jonas / Lua Lua rotation

AMC: Ben Arfa / Vuckic

ST: Ba / Park Chu-Young(loan)

Trying to keep it realistic and have an obsession with spending more time on my under 18's than my actual squad so will be mostly buying and developing young players to use in a few seasons time.

Anyone had success with Ba & Ben Arfa? Ba got 3 vs the scum first game of the first season and went 12 in 5 games or something daft then just stopped doing anything, in season two now and he just comes on for 10, blasts a sitter over the bar and gets injured for a month.. Playing him as lone striker in front of Ben Arfa who is also a pain with injurys and form, luckily Vuckic is an animal.

nice monthly installment

[tommonufc]

Season 2012/13 - Start of season update

Season Goals

• Top four finish in the league, with the irradication of dropped points against lesser teams allowing for the gap to the top two shortend.
  
• Knockout stages of Champions League, with Quarters being preferable unless I am unlucky on 2nd rnd. draw.
  
• Healthy cup runs with the youth in the League cup, which will be contested soley by youngesters; along with at least Quarters in F.A Cup with a blend of youth and first team.
  
• Younger players like Shaqiri, De Bryune, Eriksen, Kelly, Ben Arfa proving thier potential week-in-week-out.
  
• Home grown youngeters such as Adam Campbell, Sammy Ameobi, Vuckic, Anlwick and Streete flurish in the cups and the odd game against relegation fodder in the league.

• 
  
• Incoming Transfers
  
  Kyle Walker £15m
  
  
  Marvin Martin £23m
  
  
  Lassana Diarra £5.5
  
  
  Emmanuel Adebayor (Season Loan £1.3m/20%wages)
  
  
  Kryiakos Papadoulos £25.5M
  
  
  Jerome Roussillon (Bosman)
  
  
  Richard Samnick (Bosman)
  
  
  5 Regens for youth and reserve team.

  
  

• Outgoing Transfers
  
  Gariel Obertan - Wigan - £2.3m
  
  
  Dan Gosling - Ipswhich - £2.9m
  
  
  Daniel Tozser - B'ham - £1.2
  
  
  Tamas Kadar - SK Rapid Wein - Bosman
  
  
  Ryan Taylor - Southampton - £925k
  
  
  Rob Elliot - Blackpool - £250k
  
  
  Xisco -
  Released on a golden handshake of £2.1m after no team wanted him for free. More importantly the ghost of Dennis Wise is exercised.
  
  

I have now strengthed the squad throughout with young high quality players, allowing for strength in depth throughout and bearing little resemblance to the initial squad after the Ameobi's, Best's, Guthrie's and fellow deadwood have been shipped out. Some may disagree with the transfer policy of paying over 48months, but I have used this to full affect in the transfer market - allowing me to build foundations from which youth development and the odd marque singing each year can be built upon. Strong Champions League campaigns and Premier League title contention over time the payments will be paid of will see this high-risk transfer policy pay off - something that isn't beyond expectations.

After a very strong finish to last season that propelled me to fourth position, narrowly missing out on third, I had accoplished my seasonal target of qualifying the Champions League; I'd have been happy with a Europa League spot, but with the investment on players I had made to compete for Champions League positions it was the only option. In the summer months I picked up a nice summer job - manager of Team GB at the Olympics. This allowed me to showcase some of my talents from Newcastle, although only Steven Taylor along with the new arrival of Kyle Walker justified making an 18man squad. Went on to beat the Spanish in the final, with the tournament highlight smashing Trinidad 11-1. Danny Welbeck was a stand out perfromer, scoring 12 in 5 games; Ross Barkley and Chelsea's Josh McEachran impressed - so will be tracking their availability over the coming season or two, most especially Barkely.

Busy at the Olympics, I handed all pre-season responsibilties over to my assistant manager - who made a complete hash of it all, with only a handful of players with any match fitness ahead of my Premier League opener away at Chelsea. The start of the domestic season, combined with Champions League Qualification would prove to be a tricky and daunting prospect- as you will see. A tough draw in the CL Qualifying saw me come up against Benfica. I avoided Juventus and Lyon, but with teams such as Metalist of Ukraine, Standard Liege and Brondby - Benfica would be as one of the shorter straws.

August/September

Premier League - Chelsea 3 - Newcastle United 1 Capoue(42)

Tough kick off to the season, away to Chelsea but nonetheless dissapointing due to no real perfromance to pick out. Adebayor's season didn't start as planned - with him being shown a straight red shortly into second half leaving us 2-1 down with ten men. Played a defensive game throughout, looking for a counter attack; but the pre-season shambles seemed to play a part with few players match fit and it showed.

CL Qualifier Leg 1- Newcastle 2 Adebayor(20),(64)- Benfica 3

Shock introduction to the undoubted quality that I'd be facing in Europe. Adebayor redeemed himself somewhat from his disaster at Stamford Bridge the weekend before, but Benfica controlled the game throughout and led 3-1 at the break. Only really came alive in the last half hour after the introduction of debutant Marvin Martin and Christian Eriksen. Not what I had hoped for, with the Portugese team carrying the luxury of 3 away goals ahead of the 2nd leg. I'd need to win by two goals in Lisbon - tough task.

Premier League - Newcastle 1 Coloccini(77)- Arsenal 2

With me producing excellent results against the bigger teams last year I went into this game slightly more hopefull than the week before. Set up shop and defended up until half time, then played a more expansive game as I dictated play in the second half. Van Persie would score on the hour mark, followed by Colo equalising ten minutes later to set up a nervy end. I went for the win, and was unduley and somewhat unfairly punished as Van Persie scored his second to win the game in the 93rd minute.

CL Qualifier Leg 2 - Benfica 0 - Newcastle United 2 Martin(63), Papadopoulos(89)

Needing to win the game by two goals to see me go through, I set up in a traditional 4-3-3 full of attacking potency and creativity in midfield - a front trio of Wilfried, Adebayor and Cardozo; with Martin, Cabeye and Capoue holding in midfield. Fate seemed to conspire against me, two injuries to Wilfried and Cardozo inside 30minutes saw me shift to a make shift and lopsided 4-1-2-2-1 system which saw Adebayor lead the line on his own, and attacks funneled down Shaqiri's left. 0-0 up untll the 63rd before Martin finaly made a break through. This was short lived as Cabaye was sent off less than a minute later. Down to 10 men and needing one more goal without conceding my tactical creativity was tested. Santon was pushed from RB to a defensive RM, leaving a LB and two CBs; with any resemblance to a initial 4-3-3 long gone. Hoping not to see Benfica seal the nail to the coffin and equalise I attacked and dominated with ten-men throughout the last half hour. Hope was all but lost, and a un-glamourous Europa League spot seemed destined before a free kick was won out wide in the 89th minute. Eriksen swung the ball into the far post for new signing Papadopoulos to head in. Subotic came on for the remaining 5mins, and I now changed to a 5-3-1-1-0. Epic game, concluding a well deserved victory on the night and to scrape through in the tie. Who said it would be easy? Sterner tests will come, and I seemed to escape from jail after undoubted naivety at home in first leg. Will learn from this.

Champions League Group Stage draw -Group C - Real Madrid, Olympique Marsellie, Zenit St. Petersburg, Newcastle United.

Not quite a 'group of death', all will prove to be challenging fixtures - but that is to be expected. Will do well to pick up points from Real Madrid home or away, I fancy home wins for Marsellie and Zenit with away draws respectively. This would see me have a projected total of 8points; so will be a close run thing for 2nd place, presuming Real Madrid dominate the fixtures.

Premier League - Newcastle 1 Ba(33)- Manchester United 0

After facing Chelsea and Arsenal in my first two league games, things didn't get any easier. Starting to become a trademark within my side now - an ability to ride their luck, defend well and take their chances to see of the stronger sides; and after two defeats it was an valuable win. Going into the game with only one recognised striker due to injuries culling my forward line; Ba started with little match fitness upfront on his own, with places on the bench for the youthful Adam Campbell and Haris Vuckic - even Sammy'obi had a knock! We controlled possession, but only threatened on the break, of which was asked; Krul remarkably saved two penalties in the space of 10 first half minutes. Rooney stepped up for the second, Krul saved and immediately set a counter - eventually resulting the pace of Ba exposing a slow Manchester United back line that had been caught high up the pitch. Shortly after giving us the lead, Ba picked up a knock - was able to struggle through till the break, eventually resulting in Adam Campbell coming on for the second. He impressed upfront on his one, his pace in the channels a constant threat. Held on through a barrage of attacks; Vuckic came on to also gain his first taste of the big-time. Off to winning ways at last, after seeing of the last of the big boys for a while.

Champions League - Marsellie 4 - Newcastle United 0

Thoroughly embarrassing performance, no single player giving any account of himself individually conspired for the collective team to follow suit. Lack of forward options again saw Adebayor start with Sa.Ameobi recalled from loan especially to see through something of a crisis as Campbell this time would succumb to an overgrowing injury list. First half wasn't

tooooo

bad, defended well and looked a danger from set-pieces, we could have easily led at the break, instead of which we went in 1-0 down. Tiote came off, due to it being a case of not if but when he pick up a second yellow - on came Eriksen to partner Martin in the middle with Capoue holding behind. Two genuine ball players now on, as I changed things tactically in an attempt to control the second half and fashion something from the game. That's where it went wrong, Marseille's pacy attack made it 2,3 and 4-0 on the counter attack as they picked me off after letting me chase for a lost cause.

Premier League - Sunderland 1 - Newcastle United 2Cabeye(51pen.), Shaqiri(66)

If there was ever to be a European hangover from any midweek exploits, now would not be the best of games for it to kick in - 1 win from 3 in the league, and away in the Tyne-Wear Derby. Something of a luxury saw me have four strikers at my disposal, Cardozo returned but had no match fitness so started on the bench with Campbell; Sammy Ameobi his first league start in a big game for the local lad, along with a half fit Demba Ba. Sunderland took the lead though their summer signing Jelle Vossen before half time. Not too much cause for concern, we were easily the better side - just unfortunate. The occasion seemed overawe young Ameobi, and wasn't of sorts; maybe due to the fact his movement was restricted by the size of Titus Bramble's bulging mid-drift consuming most of the final third. Cardozo came on for the second half, and gave us something we were missing, regularly dropping off and creating something. Break through came from the spot; Cabaye equalised calmly to finally represent some justice to our dominance. Shaqiri capped probably the best performance I've seen him play since his signing at the start of last season with a well taken goal; I've noticed him to be very wasteful when in one-on-ones, but this time he kept his cool! Good win, things our on the up in the league.

League Cup 3rd - Scunthorpe United 1 - Newcastle United 0

Comparable to last seasons cup exits to Brentford and Wycombe, a team that was made up of players who judging by assistance reports would be seen to be out of their depth when - even against League 1 Scunthorpe. The sad thing is, due to injuries and cup ties I was unable to field certain players like Vuckic, Ben Alnwick and Kazenga Lua-Lua. A line up of four regens - a 17yo, two 16yos and a 15yo sub, an average young French wing back [Roussillon], combined with notable players like

Forster, Streete, Diarra, Capoue, Gutierrez, Campbell and Ameobi

and sub apperances too for

Adebayor

and

Cardozo

saw a team that was less young inexperience, and more like teamers that could do with a run out. This was a perfect chance for Ameobi to show some worth to me, and I expected a better showing. Same can be said of Campbell, from what potential he has shown in first team action so far this season, and albeit three cup games last season he missed an opportunity to showcase his talents. Remie Streete had an excellent game, picking up man of the match, and played well alongside a 17yo Russian CB regen that has a good level of ability already and high potential. Regarding the game, if it wasn't Scunthorpe's apparent inability to hit water after falling from a boat, we would have been 3/4 down way before the winning goal was scored in the 112th minute. Didn't help that my 16yo regen right-back was sent off in the first half - so he could be in the wierlderness of U18s for a long while as a result. Have also fined him weeks pocket money.

Premier League - Newcastle 5 Shaqiri(15),(30);Cardozo(37);Subotic(66);Taylor(87)- Ipswich Town 1

Wanted a good performance after the shambles in the League cup, and it was unduly delivered. Out went pretty much every living soul from that game and a strong side was fielded. Shaqiri impressed again, scoring twice - 3in 2 now, and is starting to prove his quality after a prolonged spell on the right as a Inside Forward. Adebayor and Cardozo looked lively, and Davide Santon had a good game a left midfield of all places! Dan Golsing's return to St. James' wasn't one to remember, with his newly promoted side being on the end of a good dicking. Up the table we climb.

[shoonaldo]

End of season 2 update

Did reasonably well in the league sitting in second with two matches to go but then only got a draw against the mackems and lost to spurs.

LC - lost 2:0 to Man Utd in the semis.

FAC - lost 3:2 against Chelsea in the semis. Had both Colo and Cabaye sent of in the first half.

Stats

New season

So far I've signed Jesus Navas for 14.5m and Sissoko on loan for 300k plus 10 regens for about 13m. Gosling, Sayer, Cristian Rodriguez, Buonanotte and Abdellaoue have left for a combined 21.5m. I'm also in negotiations with Raul over a one year deal after he was released by Blackburn.

[nufc1]

Fantastic update tommonufc and a pretty good season there shoonaldo

Im just into Feb in season 2 and sitting 6th. Got through my Champions league group surprisingly in first place and got Hamburg in the next qualifying round. Demba Ba is keeping both Sanogo and Wilfried out of the team atm with some excellent performances including the one below. He has 16 goals in 21 league games and has 19 in all comps which is pretty good going in Feb.

Ben Arfa is fantastic this season with 8 goals and 16 assists in all comps. I was wrong previously saying he couldn't play out wide. He's played 8 games this season at AMR (the rest at AMC) as an advanced playmaker and has an average rating of 7.48.

I brought in Yoann Gourcuff for 11M to cover both the AMC and MC slots and he is being put to good use given all of the injuries I have. Gosling (who is being targetted by Chelsea for upwards of £9M), Kadar, Marveaux, Obertan Cabaye and Vuckic are all out for lengthy spells which has cut my squad pretty short. Add into that the ineligibility of Gourcuff and Sidney Sam to play in the Champions League and you can see why I may struggle in the next round!

[dozzie]

The transfer window has now shut at the start of my first season at Newcastle and my hunt for a decent backup/rotation centre midfielder was totally fruitless, however i did manage to sign Lucas Digne on loan for another option at Left Back, paid £150k up front, 100% wages (only £600 though) and a future fee of £2.8m.

On the pitch, things are still going well, after my earlier mentioned back to back wins against Villa (H) and Arsenal (A), i beat Swindon in the league cup (my targetted route into Europe), beat Wigan 4-3 (H) after chucking away a 3-0 lead (phew!), and got a decent 2-2 draw at Fulham.

Currently, after 4 games i'm top of the EPL with Demba Ba the undoubted star man with a goal in every league game so far.

I have a League Cup 3rd round tie away to Arsenal coming up where i hope to emulate my League win!

[DandyDon]

@tommonufc

Nice update there, and that is a pretty horrible fixture list to start the season with. Hopefully that win against the Mackems and hammering the Tractor Boys will let you build some real momentum now.

@shoonaldo

Navas should be a fantastic capture for you, his stats on my save are pretty impressive. He's currently transfer listed by his own request but the asking price was a little too rich for my blood.

@nufc1

Cracking result against Chelsea Looks like things could be pretty tough for you though with that injury list getting longer.

[DandyDon]

2013/13 - Season Update - Happy New Year?

January got off to perfect start for us with a comfortable 2-0 win away at Sunderland, Cabaye and Paloschi getting the goals in the first half, before Agent Bramble completed the job with his 75th minute dismissal. We survived a scare in the first of our fixtures with Man Utd when they scored twice in 7 minutes to take a halftime 2-1 lead, but we were able to comeback strong in the second half with goals from Paloschi, Albrighton and Pieters. Pieters did throw them a late lifeline with a straight red card after he smashed Macheda, but the reshuffled defence held out for the last 5 minutes.

By the end of the month we were getting pretty sick of the sight of Utd, but we ended the run of games on a high after cancelling out their 3 away goals from the Semi Final 1st leg, coasting to 3-1 win on the night at Old Trafford. An added bonus for us came the Saturday before that match when Everton also won 3-1 at Old Trafford, allowing us to pull out a 4 point cushion over the reds, and still with our 2 games in hand.

In between the congested fixture list I was fairly busy in the transfer market for a January window. After signing Mateo Musacchio as mentioned earlier to add a little more quality and cover to our defence, I offloaded a couple of the players who were getting twitchy about lack of games. Jonas left for Malaga for a low fee of £1.9 million and Tshabalala has joined Cartagena on loan till the end of the season, with an option to seal the deal for 2.5 million.

With a Crystal Palace our new feeder club in place I also sent Ferguson, Abeid, Ranger and Vukic out to them on loan to hopefully get some more 1st team games till the end of the season.

Our last move of the window was to bring in another addition to our growing Mexican contingent with the arrival of Luis Miguel Garza, an 18 year old AMC/ST from Chivas with 4.5 star potential according to reports. He made an instant impact, grabbing a goal in our 3-1 FA cup win over Wolves just 3 days aftyer his arrival at the club.

Luis Miguel Garza

[Jops14]

Enjoying reading everyones posts, ive been struggling a bit with newcastle (well... not as much as i did last year)!

In the first seaosn i finished 7th in the league, thanks largely to the teams around me getting thrashed by the top 4 clubs. But my defence was horrific... Managed to concede 75 goals and Krul still had a good rating!! Defenders, particularly Santon were terrible in the first year.

My only real signings were Jack Collison (£4.5m) who is a fantastic backup for Tiote, in fatc in the second season hes in rotation with him, and Fernando Cavenaghi from river for £3m, and despite a poor start and finish to the season, he still scored 22 goals in 32 games.

Second seaosn i offloaded Guthrie (£3m) Colocinni (£5m) and Simpson (because he sucks), as well as ameobi and Xisco for a combined total of 4m (which i was chuffed about). Despite best scoring 8 goals in the league for me i still offloaded him along with Ben Arfa halfway through the season for £9m as there was just nowhere to play him in my 4-2-4 formation. Signed Drenthe, Trezeguet and some lad from man city (meppen walters) with bags of potential on frees. As well as Luuk de Jong who has turned out to be a standout player for my team and signed him on a free from Twente too! Also signed some youngster from Chivas called Carlos Fierro who looks ot be a huge star in the making (striker)

Alongside all of them i brought in Carrick, Barazite (who plays well from the wings) and Verratti, as well as the CB Alexis from Sevilla to replace Colocinni. So really building my squad for the future, but with the end of the second season approaching im looking to offload Ba (who i cant get firing for me), Cavenaghi (nearly 30 and not a great second season) and Drenthe as he didnt perform.

With 9 games left im once again sat in 7th but only 4 points of 3rd, and thankfully conceded only 44 goals, (not great, but after last year....), am aiming at 6th as i dont think we're good enough for any better! Hopefully with some good signing (looking at sturridge on a free) ill be able to move up, Also started Playing Forster who develops well when given some time and performs pretty well too.