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

[Welshace]

right... newcastle are about the only side i've wanted to have a save with on fm12 that i haven't managed properly yet.. gonna start now on the weegie update...

updates to come

[col_nufc1]

right... newcastle are about the only side i've wanted to have a save with on fm12 that i haven't managed properly yet.. gonna start now on the weegie update...

updates to come

Good to see someone else starting a new Newcastle save .

I am nearly finished my first season now so will do a season update when the season finishes.

[shoonaldo]

I've got a save running aswell. I came 7th in the first season and I'm currently in first with 7 matches to go. Also won the league cup and I'm in the Euro Cup Quarters against Spartak Moscow. Cisse was on fire scoring 30 in 21 matches before breaking his leg. Now with de Jong and Rochina injured even Campbell and Shola are playing regularly.

[col_nufc1]

Newcastle United Season 2011/12 Review.

Our Transfers.

Player Transfers

Staff Transfers

Premier League Table.

We had a great season this year and finished in second place in the Premier League, we finished inbetween the two Manchester clubs.

Our Results.

In both the Carling cup and the FA cup I fielded weak sides as I wanted to concentrate on the Premier League this season, hence our poor performances in both competitions and our early exit.

July to December

January to May

The Squad.

The Future.

I have already agreed to sign a few players on Bosman free transfers including Alberto Paloschi, Yaya Sanogo, Zakaria Labyad, Coutinho, Khouma Babacar and Douglas. I have also agreed to sign Gylfi Sigurdsson from Hoffenheim for £7.5m.

I will try to sell the likes of James 'Perchinho' Perch, Danny Guthrie, Dan Gosling, Mike Williamson, Ryan Taylor, Xisco and a few others if I can sign better replacements for them.

[col_nufc1]

I've got a save running aswell. I came 7th in the first season and I'm currently in first with 7 matches to go. Also won the league cup and I'm in the Euro Cup Quarters against Spartak Moscow. Cisse was on fire scoring 30 in 21 matches before breaking his leg. Now with de Jong and Rochina injured even Campbell and Shola are playing regularly.

Well done on winning the cup and good luck in the league.

How has Campbell been doing for you ?

[shoonaldo]

He not been too bad actually. In the first season he played 9 matches but didn't score so I changed his training to focus heavily on his shooting and he's coming along nicely now.

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/5161/adamcampbelloverviewatt.png

[col_nufc1]

I have just beat Barcelona in the Champions League, we scored two wonderful goals, a lovely free kick by FM god Gylfi Sigurdsson and a nice lobbed goal from Antoine Griezmann .

[video=youtube;twOiPKF6N7o]

[shorty11857]

Just about to start my third season of my current Newcastle games, it's going pretty well have lost a few key players going into this season but I think my squad should be good enough to get European Qualification again

Squad

Had a shocking amount of success this game so far

2011/12 Season

Went unbeaten until December 20 when I finally got trashed 0-5 by Spurs, was a really disappointing result

Got beaten in the FA Cup 4th Round by Middlesborough 0-1, one of only 6 games I lost in the entire season

Won League Cup final 2-1 against Everton

Won the league on the final day of the season with a 2-2 draw against Chelsea, Man City lost 0-1 to Everton giving me the title

Highlight of the season: Adam Campbell scoring a 120th minute goal in the League Cup 4th round to bring the game to penalties, followed by him scoring an equaliser against QPR in the next game (his only league game so far)

2012/13 Season

Won Community Shield 3-2 against Aston Villa

Won all games in my Champion's League group (FC Kobenhavn, Valencia, FCP)

Got knocked out of FA Cup in 4th round reply against Bolton 3-4 in extra time

Won League Cup again with 4-2 win over Blackpool

Got knocked out of Champion's League in the Semi-Final against Lyon, won 4-2 at home, lost 1-4 away

Finished 4th overall in the league, really struggled at the start of the season and the number of fixtures + injuries just destroyed my team

Highlight of the Season: Winning 3-0 in the League Cup semi-final against Chelsea after losing the first leg 2-4, scoring in the 92nd and 120th minute

2013/2014 Season

So far it's mostly been a busy transfer window

Bought: Balotelli for 7 million, Golasa for 120k (just coming back from broken leg, hoping to revive his career), Javi Benitez (regen who got released from At. Madrid, beat over 50 clubs to get him)

Sold: Demba Ba for 20 million to Lyon, Coloccini for 7.5 million to Aston Villa, Ruben Yttergard Jenssen for 7.75 million to HSV (Bought originally for £1 million)

[henryzz]

What success have people had in getting a new stadium? In 2014/15 and filling the 60000 stadium most matches.

[DandyDon]

What success have people had in getting a new stadium? In 2014/15 and filling the 60000 stadium most matches.

I think you have to wait a good long while before the board will build a whole new stadium. Most folks I've heard of getting a new stadium built have been going on for 12-15 seasons into a save. (Not just talking about Newcastle saves here)

[XxBowmanxX]

Just holidayed the first season, and newcastle have been relegated. so ive taken over them still have the original squad. any ideas on who to look out for and who to sell?

[shoonaldo]

Just try to keep the squad together and fill the gaps with free signings. You'll walk the league and save the money for when you can attract decent players.

[DandyDon]

Just holidayed the first season, and newcastle have been relegated. so ive taken over them still have the original squad. any ideas on who to look out for and who to sell?

Were you using an update that included Papiss Cisse by the way?

Like Shoonaldo says do your utmost to keep the squad together and hang on to the likes of Cabaye and Cisse if you can. The current squad should easily be good enough to get straight back up, and you wouldn't really attract the quality of player you want for the future with the club in the Championship. I'd only sell players you have absolutely have no intention of using, any others you can probably sell at a better price if you want next season back in the Premier League.

Should be able to pick up one or two players released at the end of the first season who can provide cover for you until you get promoted again.

[XxBowmanxX]

Yeah it was on the jan update, getting rid of high earners but really want to keep krul,santon,ba,cisse,cabaye,tiote and ben arfa. other than that will probably look into letting most of the high earners go

[DandyDon]

Yeah it was on the jan update, getting rid of high earners but really want to keep krul,santon,ba,cisse,cabaye,tiote and ben arfa. other than that will probably look into letting most of the high earners go

Were there any other signings made during the relegation season before you took over?

I wouldn't worry about offloading too fast, I don't think the club will go into total financial meltdown with one season in the Championship. Could always look to loan one or two out for the whole season if clubs will pay 100% of their wages. Have you managed to fend off bids for the core group of players you mentioned there?

[XxBowmanxX]

in the first season tonel was signed from dinamo for £650k and fernando meira on a free other than that nothing. When i get to the end of august ill do an update at the moment im into july

[DBurns]

Just started a new game with Newcastle a few days ago. Made a fair few transfers and the squad currently looks like this:

GK: Krul, James (free)

RB: Santon, Simpson

RCB: Taylor, Bartley (£2.6m), Broadfoot (£200k)

LCB: Coloccini, Williamson

LB: Bertrand (£6.75m), Robinson (free)

RM: Ben Arfa, Dempsey (£3.4m), Obertan

RCM: Tiote, Hargreaves (free), Gosling

LCM: Cabaye, Sergio (free), Abeid

LM: Jonas, Marveaux, Amalfitano

CF: Chamakh (£3.8m), Macheda (loan), Vuckic

ST: Ba, Cisse, Campbell

I am going to introduce a wage cap of £50k per week until we qualify for the Champions League and are challenging for the league. All my new signings are earning less than £50k per week but Coloccini, Ben Arfa and Jonas are earning over a quarter of our total wage expenditure so I will consider any significant bids for them. Any suggestions on where else I could improve the team?

[DandyDon]

That looks a nicely balanced squad there mate on pretty good money too Which season are you in?

Keeping tight control of the wages paid off for me on my Swansea save, kept everyone on £50k per week and the club kept making a profit most months. Didn't break my wage cap until the 5th season when I brought in Wesley Sneijder to help develop some of my youngsters.

Once you get Champs League football I might look at bringing in some extra quality in the wide areas, but otherwise looks like a pretty solid team.

[DBurns]

That looks a nicely balanced squad there mate on pretty good money too Which season are you in?

Keeping tight control of the wages paid off for me on my Swansea save, kept everyone on £50k per week and the club kept making a profit most months. Didn't break my wage cap until the 5th season when I brought in Wesley Sneijder to help develop some of my youngsters.

Once you get Champs League football I might look at bringing in some extra quality in the wide areas, but otherwise looks like a pretty solid team.

Cheers mate just pre-season of the first season.

Yea I've seen how well your wage cap has paid off for you with Swansea, undecided whether to look to offload Jonas, Coloccini and Ben Arfa now or keep them this season and then either try to reduce their wages or sell them then.

Yea I'm looking at young wide players at the minute that I bring in either now or in the future.

[DandyDon]

I sold Coloccini on my last Newcastle save, but purely because Man City came in with a big bid that allowed me to bankroll some good 1st season signings. Unless you get a really big bid for him, I'd take the hit on his wages.

On FM the other two are perhaps more expendable (in FM terms of course, I'd hate to see Newcastle sell either irl at the moment). I found I was able to replace both with more consistently effective players on other saves. Jonas I tended to keep hold of for 2 or 3 seasons because he has a tendency to perform even better than his attributes suggest but I could never seem to get Ben Arfa performing well enough to be an automatic selection.

[DandyDon]

Oh and if you want some competition for Ba and Cisse, and get the chance in the first couple of seasons buy Abel Hernandez from Palermo......I bought him at start of the 5th season on my Swans save for just over £20 million and he's been amazing in the Premier League, so far has 43 league goals from 44 games in less than a season and a half.

I think he might well be available quite a bit cheaper earlier on though, and might be worth keeping an eye on Palermo as they were actually relegated in the second season on my save. If I'd realised that I would have gone in for Hernandez back then.

[DBurns]

I sold Coloccini on my last Newcastle save, but purely because Man City came in with a big bid that allowed me to bankroll some good 1st season signings. Unless you get a really big bid for him, I'd take the hit on his wages.

On FM the other two are perhaps more expendable (in FM terms of course, I'd hate to see Newcastle sell either irl at the moment). I found I was able to replace both with more consistently effective players on other saves. Jonas I tended to keep hold of for 2 or 3 seasons because he has a tendency to perform even better than his attributes suggest but I could never seem to get Ben Arfa performing well enough to be an automatic selection.

Oh and if you want some competition for Ba and Cisse, and get the chance in the first couple of seasons buy Abel Hernandez from Palermo......I bought him at start of the 5th season on my Swans save for just over £20 million and he's been amazing in the Premier League, so far has 43 league goals from 44 games in less than a season and a half.

I think he might well be available quite a bit cheaper earlier on though, and might be worth keeping an eye on Palermo as they were actually relegated in the second season on my save. If I'd realised that I would have gone in for Hernandez back then.

As things stand, there is no interest in either of the three and I'm not willing to risk upsetting the team morale by offering one of them out so for now I will keep them even though they exceed my wage cap. To be fair to them, they have probably been my three stand out players in my pre-season friendlies. But yes, I think I'll keep them and see how they perform.

Funny you should say that, on my Barca game I only bought Spanish and North/South American players and in season four I bought Hernandez to partner Messi and Fierro up front, wouldn't mind getting two thirds of that strike-force to St. James Park. Currently have my scouts scouting him as I will need a permanent replacement for Macheda next season plus I totally forgot Chamakh will be off to the African Cup of Nations along with Ba and Cisse so I may even bring him in in January.

[DandyDon]

That could be a bit painful all three of those lads away at the same time

[DBurns]

Probably should have thought about that before I signed him.

I'm confident that Macheda, Dempsey, Vuckic and Campbell will see us through!

[JackInDerBox]

Hi guys thought this would be the place to ask, recently signed Hatem Ben Arfa back to Marseille and was wondering what the best strategy is for him, I am wanting him to play at AMR but not sure what duty would fit him, currently set to Winger Attack.

[Kemmo]

Hey guys, I started up a Newcastle save a few days and finished my first season earlier on today. Finished 5th in the league, so we will be playing in the Europa League next season and also reached the FA Cup final but unfortunately lost 3-1 to Spurs. Here were my transfers:

Transfers In

Cheik M'Bengue - £4.4M

Jan Vertonghen - £8M

Ben Amos - £120K Loan Fee

Ruben Yttergard Jenssen - £3M

Adam Johnson (Signed in January) - £2M

Spent £17.5M all together and made £12.25M from sales with the main departures being Lovenkrands, Harper, Best and Perch. I was given a £16M budget for the new season, but so far have decided to mostly strengthen with free's by bringing in the likes of Jose Bosingwa, Martin Montoya, Khouma Babacar and Zakaria Labyad. The only money signings so far have been Sigurdsson from Hoffenheim for £8M and Adebayor on a season long loan for £1M. I also decided to move a number of players on with Obertan, Shola Ameobi, Williamson, Ryan Taylor, Danny Guthrie, Danny Simpson, Alan Smith and Xisco all departing for a total of £8.5M.

With all that in mind this is how the squad will look next season :

Krul/F.Foster

Bosingwa/Montoya - Coloccini/S.Taylor - Vertonghen - M'Bengue/Santon

Cabaye/Yttergard Jenssen - Tiote/Gosling

HBA - Sigurdsson/Labyad/Vuckic - Johnson/Ba/Gutierrez

Cisse/Ba/Adebayor/Babacar

Might look to add another centre back as Steven Taylor is the only other natural I have in that position. Other than that though I'm pretty happy with the squad and feel we will have a good chance of breaking into the top 4.

[RvN#17]

This is with the updated transfers by Marshall that came out today.

[Welshace]

Hi guys thought this would be the place to ask, recently signed Hatem Ben Arfa back to Marseille and was wondering what the best strategy is for him, I am wanting him to play at AMR but not sure what duty would fit him, currently set to Winger Attack.

inside forward or playmaker mate... he is best when cutting inside

[RvN#17]

[WoodsMonk]

In my 5th season now and lost the title by 1point

[rp10]

Nice!! What formation do you use??

Can you show your starting line-up?

And who did you by in 2 season

[Welshace]

This is with the updated transfers by Marshall that came out today.

do you have a link for that update?

what were your transfers like first season?

annnddddd

whats your tactic?

[TIconOA]

You can find the update here: http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=6702. I'm about to install it myself. I've accomplished my goals far too early in my Lyon save, so I think I'll have a look at another, slower-paced Newcastle save.

[Trilo_G]

Slower-paced certainly doesnt describe my Toon save since I discovered this 48 month payment option. Never used it to its full potential until now. Heres my 12/13 team...

Krul, Forster, Butland

Santon, Simpson, Clyne

Taylor ©, Shawcross, Caulker

Bassong, Douglas

M'Bengue, Bertrand

Cabaye, Livermore

Tiote, Diame

Moses, Redmond

Ben Arfa, Coutinho, Vuckic

Johnson (loan), Marveaux

Doumbia, Ba, Babacar, Sanogo

Im currently about 3 or 4 deals from what I would call a perfect squad. Im chasing Kiko Femenia, looking for a replacement for Santon, and trying to find some further MC cover.

With these additions I should have a team I neednt alter for a good few years...

Walker/Beck (Santon)

Kara/Annan

Femenia/Narsingh

a young LW (Marveaux) and Johnson on a permanent deal.

The wage bill is my proudest achievement. Once I get shot of Santon and Marveaux I should be below a total of £700k, and hopefully my targets shouldnt be asking for a fortune. Currently 3rd in the Prem and top of my ECC group. The only games I have lost this season so far are Man City (3-2) and FC Kopenhagen (1-0 Things are goin really well excepting S Taylor's constant injuries after a fantastic and injury-free first season. Best save Ive played on FM12! In fact, best game Ive played since FM09!

[Trilo_G]

January 2013 - Santon out, Femenia (7.25m) and Nainggolen (5.5m) in. Tadic joined Arsenal so Im still looking for a winger, be it a right winger, seeing Moses become second choice on the left, or a left winger as a straight replacement for Marveaux. A right back wouls help and Im still on the case of Walker and Azpilicueta, who both seem to be becoming more likely to join my team as the season progresses, so I may wait until the end of the term to address this position.

Ideally, my team should look like this next year...

GK- Krul, Butland, Forster/Alnwick

DR- Walker/Azpilicueta, Simpson, Clyne

DC- Taylor, Shawcross, Caulker

DC- Bassong, Douglas

DL- M'Bengue, Bertrand

MC- Cabaye, Livermore

MC- Nainggolen, Tiote, Diame

RW- Narsingh, Femenia, Redmond

AM- Ben Arfa, Coutinho, Vuckic

LW- Johnson, Moses

ST- Doumbia, Ba, Babacar, Sanogo

So, just Walker/Azpilicueta and Narsingh in and Marveaux out to complete this stage of the project.

We are currently losing a steady £1.7m a month in transfers so all incoming players will be payed for in cash, while players sold will be structured deals to help balance the books. As long as we stay in the Champions League, we should be able to stay on top of things financially, and the first knockout round sees us play Celtic, so I fancy our chances

[Jonny2J]

Newcastle United Season 2011/12 Review

Decided that I would do one more Newcastle United game now that the transfer window has shut using the excellent LFC Marshall update.

I decided to make wholesale changes to both playing personnel as well as the coaching staff.

Transfers In

Wesley Said - Rennes

Joel Valencia - Zaragoza

Matthew Urwin - Blackburn

Yaya Sanogo - Auxerre

James Ward-Prowse (never heard of him but 15 year old AM from Southampton with 4.5* potential)

Robbie Cotton - Blackburn

Tobias Figueiredo - Sporting Lisbon

Mathieu Debuchy - Lille

Yassine Benzina - Lyon

Sime Vrsaljko - Dinamo Zagreb

Lucas Digne - Lille

Nathan Redmond - Birmingham (Loaned to feeder club Gent)

Romario - Vitoria (Loaned to feeder club Gent)

Jack Butland - Birmingham (Loaned to feeder club Gent)

Daniel Van Buyten - Loan from Bayern

Transfers Out

Steve Harper - Everton

Mike Williamson - Villa

Dan Gosling - Cardiff

Danny Simpson - Southampton

Haris Vuckic - Man Utd

Gabriel Obertan - Loan to Bolton

Steven Taylor - Loan to Fulham (trying to sell him as with Douglas coming in, also Van Buyten is on a free in the summer and hoping to get him on cheap wages for tutoring purpose)

Of course I've also loaned out loads of the young 'uns as well.

I've also got Douglas and Coutinho joining at the end of the season on a free transfers.

As you can see I'm focusing on youth although I'm looking to bring in a few more older experienced players on free transfers for tutoring purposes, plus I'm going to keep Colo and Jonas for as long as possible for the same reason. One of the things that I want to achieve is to try and get Adam Campbell to actually reach full potential.

I ended up mutually terminating the contracts of all of my staff except Graham Carr, Peter Beardsley (has quite good scouting attributes), Derek Wright (who I have found is often one of the best physios on the game and Dave Watson (youth coach).

Staff Recruitment

Tony Coton - Assistant Manager

Martin Keown - First Team Coach

Eamon Mulvey - First Team Coach

Massimo Bonini - First Team Coach

Tony Whelan - Coach

Phil Cannon - Coach

Andrew Cole - Coach

Billy Stewart - Goalkeeping Coach

Andreas Kopke - Goalkeeping Coach

Paul Winsper - Fitness Coach

Francisco Ayestaran - Fitness Coach

John Owens - Youth Coach

John Murtough - Youth Coach

Tosh Farrell - Youth Coach

Gary Lewin - Physio

John Steel Olsen - Scout

Soren Lerby - Scout

David Friio - Scout

Eduardo Macia - Scout

Pantaelo Corvino - Scout

Ian Bowyer - Scout

Roberto Baggio - Scout

Season Performance

My stock formation for the season has been a 4-2-3-1 which is quite similar to what Pardew was using towards the end of last season and what he should be using this season. (His persistence with 4-4-2 really grates on me) This is with Cisse as the lone front man, with Ba, Cabaye and Ben Arfa all supporting.

I managed to get knocked out of the League Cup in the third round by Chelsea and the Europa League 2nd round off Tottenham. (played a reserve team as my squad was quite heavily hit by injuries so wanted to focus on the league and FA Cup) Managed to the beat QPR in the FA Cup Final (only on penalties mind) which was quite an achievement as both Ben Arfa and Ba picked up injuries so missed the final. So next year I'm back in the wonderful Europa League again. I managed to finish 5th in The Premiership with 72 points. I was ecstatic with that as I had a really really bad start to the season. I was in the relegation zone till the 8th game.

One particular highlight was beating Sunderland 5-0 at the land of the unwashed which saw O'Neill get the sack the day after. They also ended up finishing bottom of the league.

Cisse as expected was my top scorer with 49 goals in 40 games in all competitions and 40 goals in 34 league games.

INJURIES, INJURIES AND MORE INJURIES!!!

One of the reasons I finished sixth was down to injuries as I had a horrendous start to the season as Cabaye, Marveaux and Ben Arfa all most between 3 and 4 months each before Christmas, and with the usual time it takes for formations to gel this is what really cost me consistency wise. Also Adam Campbell missed 5 months of the season which was disappointing as I was going to give him some first team action to try and bring him on.

I also finished the season as Manager of The Year.

[Welshace]

James Ward-Prowse (never heard of him but 15 year old AM from Southampton with 4.5* potential)

watch a southampton game.. he's one of the biggest success stories of the season so far... great talent and in southamptons first team

[Jonny2J]

Start of January in my second season with Newcastle. Here's how it's going so far.

I've also qualified from my Europa League group that included both Inter and Anzhi.

Transfers ins and outs.

Oh and -

[tommonufc]

Impressive stuff there with Ben Arfa! Has he been updated stat wise (hidden attributes as well) in the update your playing with? Have managed him a quite few times, and he's always been temperamental and sporadic in terms of consistent performances. Perhaps a shot of his season? To win the Ballon d'Or after one year in the game would indicate that his reputation has been increased significatly to even be shortlisted. Strange, but very impressive nonetheless!

[Jonny Chee]

Hey all. Just started a game with Newcastle using the Pro update, so everything is up to date. I set transfer budget to £0 for first window so everybody keeps current squads until January. I am a Leicester fan and usually always play them but fancied a challenge and Newcastle are a club I have always admired. Lots of potential.

I am sitting top of the league with 3 wins in 3 games though I had a very easy start - Stoke (H), Southampton (A) and West Ham (H).

My only signing was a free agent Craig Gordon. I beat Man Utd to his signature and he has been first choice for me, performing very well so far. I also brought in some top scouts to send out before January arrives.

The only disappointment was getting knocked out of Euro Cup in qualifying stages against a team so small, I don't even remember their name. I didn't pay them enough respect and played my reserve team in home leg and was 0-2 down at half time. Finished the game 2-2 but those away goals cost me. In the second leg I battered them but couldn't do any better than a 1-1 draw.

I have had some awful luck with injuries losing Ben Arfa, Santon, Taylor, Simpson, and Anita for a number of weeks before the season even started.

I am looking forward to this save very much. Need to strengthen this squad in January though! A left back is a priority as there doesn't seem to be a natural one here.

[ramie]

I noticed that Ben Arfa has dwells on ball as a PPM, but I have no idea what this really means. Does it mean dwells as in tries to take on the whole team? or just dwells not doing much with the ball

[Welshace]

means he likes to keep the ball as long as possible... whether he's running at defence's or holding the ball in midfield... he'll cling on to it!

in ben arfa's sake.. it means he'll run at defences all day long

[DirtyJoe]

I am halfway through the 2011/2012 season in my new save. (Will post a half season review shortly).

What are peoples thoughts Ben Arfa position? I am currently playing a 442, will occasionally switch to a 4411, but seldom. Thoughts on fitting him in somewhere else? or offloading him?

Thanks

[ramie]

I wouldn't offload him, I have had him on a few saves and he is usually very good for me but can be unreliable. You could play him just behind your st but I think he is better out on the right wing cutting in on his favoured left foot. He can be a poor mans messi, plus he does have a quite a lot of spare potenital so he could become very good but because of his age might be difficult see any gains.

[Jonny2J]

Managed to beat both Arsenal and Man Utd, so at least I've made it an interesting finale to the season in the league. Not that I think I will win it mind.

I've won the League Cup, although I got knocked out of the Europa League on away goals to Bordeaux as I played a reserve team. (Beat Brugges the round before )

[Jonny2J]

3 games to go and it's tight at the top! Unfortunately two of my last three games are against Chelsea and Man City. Oh and Ben Arfa has just torn his hamstring.

[Jonny2J]

Managed to beat Chelsea at home 2-1.

My next game after that was Man City away where I never expected to get any kind of result whatsoever. This is what happened.

I've never been so nervous in my entire life.

That game was played 3 days before Arsenal's game as Man City had reached the FA Cup Final.

Then looking at the latest round of Premier League results despite dominating Arsenal could only managed a 1-1 draw away at bottom of the league Bolton. So this is the standings with one game to go.

I have got Birmingham at home whilst Arsenal have Southampton at home. So all I need realistically is a point to secure Newcastle's first league Championship since 1927.

History is now in our hands.

[DirtyJoe]

Season 2011 / 2012 - FEBRUARY

---

TRANSFERS - July/August

departed

Leon Best - $3M - Sunderland

Peter Lovenkrands -$1M Wolves

Fabricio Coloccini - $5M Arsenal

Jonas Gutierrez - $5.5M Arsenal

Tams Kadar - $1M Reading

Steve Harper - Free

Total - $15.5M

arrival

Chris Brunt - $7.5M - West Brom

Jamaal Lascelles - $1M - Nottingham Forest

Craig Dawson - $1.5M West Brom

Ben Amos - $650K - Man Utd

Vurnon Anita - $3M - Ajax

Total - $13.5M

FORMATION

Playing a simply flat 442, with a balanced philosophy, zonal marking and drill crosses. An attacking set of shouts, with a controlled mentality to start with, depending on situation may change to counter.

GK - Krul

DR - Simpson

DL - Santon

DC - S. Taylor

DC - Dawson

MR - Oberton/Brunt - 4 Goals from 16 - 6 assists

ML - Marveaux (Brilliant, 17 assists thus far)

MC - Cabaye

BWM - Tiote/Anita

AF - D Ba - 22 goals from 24

P - Cisse - 9 Goals from 22, 9 assists

Ben Arfa, struggling to get a game and has only started 11 games, mainly cup matches. Looking to sell.

Tiote, been missing on African Cup Duties and has return injured, may look to offload at the end of season

Nile Ranger - 5 goals in 8 starts, looking good.

LEAGUE STANDINGS

Top of the table clash and Demba Ba in full flight

[Jonny2J]

They've done it! A man of the match performance from ex-Birmingham youngster Nathan Redmond was the catalyst for a performance and a day that was reminiscent to the 7-1 victory on the last day of the season against Leicester City in 1993 under Kevin Keegan.

[Jonny2J]

What a bunch of *****.