FM12: Stoke City FC Thread - Just who can cut it on a rainy night in Stoke?

[tsm1001]

Not played much on mine. Still just a few games into the new season, qualified with ease for the Europa league. Here's my group:

Stoke City

BATE

FC RB Salzburg

Girondins Bordeaux

Already played the away match to Salzburg, thrashed em 4-0. Bordeaux might trouble us, but fairly confident we'll get to the next stage.

After 5 league games we're 2nd. Bit of a weird start to the season with some strange results. We're W3 D2 L0. Oh, and we won the community shield against Man Utd - although Fergie was apparently in Cup mode and the team weren't what you might call his starting eleven. Here's the current table:

Lookit Tottingham and Man City!

[santy001]

Going to be some sackings there soon if that lasts much longer. It is early days though and in another 5 games they could just as easily be in 5th/6th place.

Rossi looks to be ready for the first team in my save in the third season. I sent to him Barnsley last season where he was good getting a goal every other game, due to injuries to Mbaye Niang and Wilfried (who unfortunately is injured more than he is fit). I'm surprised you've gotten such good form from Crouch, I've struggled to get him working, in my first season he was good until January, then he just tailed off, I let him go in the summer to Derby.

The spell of Begovic out with an injury really hurt us. Joe Lewis really did not work in goal for my side, I've been a bit like the walking wounded though, Wilfried has actually yet to be fully fit for a match, its actually taking its toll on him as well, he isn't the player I signed, he's lost 2 points of pace and other attributes have dipped as well. Two torn calf muscles in the space of a year will do that though I guess. It says something about the consistency when I haven't had a single player available for every game. Usually at least one of the fitter players manages to have played every game by January.

[tsm1001]

3-1 down at half-time. One hairdryer moment later and Crouchie's banging 'em in. Hanging on a bit at the end, but a win's a win!

And it unlocked the "Comeback King" achievement! Lol!

[santy001]

Nice result, it is the unwritten rule of football that Stoke must always beat West Brom

Karim Rossi has now made 5 league appearances and scored 6 goals (including 2 against West Brom) the lad is an absolute beast, if only I'd known when Niang had been fit, it could have been magical.

Wilfried has also scored on his return from injury, if he can stay fit the season might not go so bad afterall

Edit: Just as I post that, Wilfried gets injured

He seemed to be a player who will never be free from injury.

[Falahk]

santy001: can you post a screen on how Rossi have progressed for you so far?

[santy001]

Here you go:

[santy001]

Hmm seems to have squished a bit here's the direct link: http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g56/santy001/Rossi.jpg

[Falahk]

looks like he is well on his way to become a new Fuller for you, im considering if I should let Jerome go and play Rossi as 4th chose striker

[santy001]

There is something about him which makes him very difficult to play against, I'm in the middle of a game with Chelsea now which I'm winning 5-2, he drifts out into the channels a lot and just beats his man with ease, he puts Sturridge through constantly, because of a pass by Rossi, David Luiz got sent off, and then because of him cutting into the area we got a penalty as well. He's doing a fantastic job, I'm quite a bit in debt (£13m) however. If him and Niang are both in good form then I'll surely be seeing bids which might be difficult to turn down.

[hursty2]

END OF SEASON UPDATE 2011/2012

And my first season in charge of Stoke has come to an end, thank god for that. A shambolic run of form in the latter half of the season meant we were confined to no success at all. Who said FM is too easy?! In summary I found my first season full of ups and downs, a great effort in Europe halted by a poor effort in the league. Oh and it didn’t help that my strikers alternated the times in which they were injured/wanted to score. Ten million pound signing Peter Crouch was injured for the majority of the season and didn’t even score one goal. Yes, you heard right, no goals in the whole season. Goodbye, Mr. Lanky.

PREMIER LEAGUE – A mid table position, 12^th in fact, is very poor in my opinion. We started so well but results dwindled towards the end of the season as players tired and morale dropped significantly. At home we lost games we should have won, which is disappointing to say the least as I wanted to make the Brittannia a fortress.

EUROPA LEAGUE – As you will have seen earlier in the thread, I got knocked out in the quarter finals on away goals, to Trabzonspor. That was a real kick in the teeth for the team and I feel as if that was the downfall of our season, when morale dropped. Although, I can take real positives out of these performances against quality opposition such as Schalke and Dynamo Kyiv.

SQUAD OVERVIEW – The squad is obviously aging and several contracts of the older players run out now so this leaves me with a great opportunity to overhaul the squad, or at least add some fresh faces. The older players were always complaining about lack of playing time too, players such as Jonathon Woodgate, Matthew Upson and Tomas Sorensen. I need younger players that can do the job when they step in but won’t moan at the lack of playing time. I was disappointed with the input from Kenwyne Jones too and I just couldn’t find the right role for him.

KEY PLAYERS

Ryan Shawcross – He was always dominant at the back and score quite a few goals from corners, the good old Stoke way. Chelsea and Tottenham are interested in him but I will do all I can to keep him, or if a huge offer comes I may have to accept.

Ricardo Fuller – In the games he played, especially in Europe, he delivered with a few goals. It’s a pity that he’s always injured and with his contract coming to an end, I’m not sure that I’ll be negotiating a new one.

Jermaine Pennant – An architect to most of our goals, he really turned it on in Europe and when he got injured, our form hurt too.

Wilson Palacios – Integral part of the team, when he played well so did the team.

PLAYER PROGRESSION

Rasmus Falk – He has progressed well and will become a pivotal part of my formation next year, hopefully slotting into the AMC position nicely. 4-1-1-3-1 FTW!

Yassine El Ghannassy – What a name, I always have to check when I type it up! Yassine will also be a part of my new philosophy for the club, playing AML, adding some much needed spark to my lacking forward line.

TRANSFER TARGETS

Seydou Doumbia – Will probably break the bank but I will do everything I can to sign him. I see him as a perfect player to play up front by himself, strong quick and a great finisher.

Ciaran Clark – The young rotation player I am after in defence, 22yrs old and only playing reserves for Villa.

Wilfried Zaha – A young striker that I have been scouting for a while, one for the future.

[santy001]

That is part of the problem when joining Stoke, there is quite an old team in place which if you utilise will do well for a couple of seasons, but then you're in an even bigger mess as they're all even older with not enough fresh blood coming through to replace them. Karim Rossi is worth keeping an eye on, he could develop into a really good squad player if you allow him to develop with some game time (I sent him to Barnsley on loan). Cuvelier can come into the midfield, as can Suljevic, you just need players to bridge the gap.

Rossi is definitely worth looking at, 12 starts, 11 goals in the premiership at just 19 years old.

[santy001]

Just finished my 3rd season, Mbaye Niang (21 goals from 23 starts) and Wilfried (2 goals from 7 starts) returned for the final few games, supplementing a strikeforce already in good form of Karim Rossi (12 goals from 17 starts) and Daniel Sturridge (14 goals from 21 starts) who both got called up for the 2014 world cup with Switzerland and England respectively. The board have announced there's £10m to spend roughly this summer, a season of tightening the belt and finishing 7th in the premiership was a good way to end the season. Especially considering in January we were just 5 or 6 points off the relegation zone.

Angelo Ogbonna at left back has been a bit of a weakness for me and with Robert Huth soon to turn 30 I'm having to look at my defensive options once more. Dutch regen Polman has begun making the left midfield position his own, after a shakey start injuries to Etherington and Armenteros forced me to play him there and after three or four games he came good and pretty much saw out the rest of the season there keeping both out of the side.

[tsm1001]

Did something stupid last night - played for a couple of hours, got through a few matches then a Windows restart thing came up in the lower right corner of the computer. Clicked the "1 hour" thing to postpone, but then hit the restart button anyway! Even more stupidly, I tried to save the game quickly before the reboot happened and it corrupted the save file, so now I am even further back. The only remotely bright part is that I always keep several different saves on the go just in case of this, but still....Got the same matches to play all over again, dammit.

Oh well....

[Falahk]

lost the league cup final to wolves , maybe I was punished for going to defensive in the first half, and then never really managed to wrestle back the initiative, but it was how I conceded the only goal that annoyed me, the ball droped down on Ebanks-Blake's feet just right in the middle of the slot, after a corner scramble, easy goal for him in the 81st min

[hursty2]

2nd season transfer window and I have signed:

Jordan Ball - Doncaster - 375K

Rasmus Elm - AZ - 6M

Gary Hooper - Celtic - 9M

Darnel Situ - Swansea - 1.7M

Sold:

Cameron Jerome - QPR - 1M

Thomas Sorensen - At. Madrid - 250K

Glenn Whelan - Blackburn - 1M

Johnathan Woodgate - Free

Matthew Upson - Free

Ricardo Fuller - Free

Salif Diao - Free

Andrew Davies - Free

Matthew Lund - Free

Louis Moult - Free

Mamady Sidibe - Free

Ben Marshall - Free

So hard to sell players for decent amounts on this version.

[hursty2]

Really struggling atm, 1 win in 12.

[santy001]

Where is the problem in your side? That affects the thing you need to do next an awful lot, if you're creating plenty of chances but just not scoring even though your strikers are decent then you need to look at tactics and probably to break the rut download a tactic which sees your team score a lot. I went on a similar run, failing to win for 9 games in a row, but my team were creating chance after chance, I changed tactics got to the end of the season on a tactic which saw me concede quite a few but outscore the opposition.

If you get a break in fixtures arranging a game against the under 18's or another easy win friendly can help boost player morale, sometimes a striker just needs to find the net once to get back in the scoring frame of mind. The more we know the more attempts at helping can be offered, though I do share your pain as it can be infuriating when your team looks to be playing well but is coming out of every game with a loss or draw.

[hursty2]

I broke that rut through perseverance and my young regen striker Nagy. I ended up finishing the league in 7th and snatching a Europa League spot, as Chelsea in 6th won the CL.

Into the third season now and I have signed:

Joe Mattock

Fabian Delph

Tomas Hubocan

Tom Cairney

All to add to the depth of the squad and it's a bonus that 3 of them are English.

[santy001]

Good signings, I haven't looked at Mattock on this years FM myself, they're all fairly young as well which means you can get a return, or even profit on them, in the future if they're performing well and you've got your eye on upgrades. I have just been on the end of an ultimately very crushing season, spending most of the season in the top 4 Niang and Sturridge were absolutely on fire, unfortunately in early February Sturridge had his season ended, he was just getting in form as well he had 13 goals from 23 starts, Niang had a few niggling injuries he still managed 36 games with a return of 29 goals but with the team beginning to look toothless upfront because Gignac was a flop and Wilfried was either injured or just recovering from an injury it meant points were dropped at vital times.

With Niang and Sturridge it has the potential to be a great partnership if they can both stay fit, with Wilfried if he can also stay fit chipping in he was for the first time since I signed him, match fit for the last 2/3 games and he still played extremely well despite the deterioration in his stats.

[hursty2]

OCTOBER 2013 – FEBRUARY 2014

As far as I’m concerned this has been my worst spell at the club and I am actually surprised that I haven’t been sacked yet. The team hasn’t been able to string together a length of good performances unlike last term.

TRANSFER NEWS

No one has come in the past transfer window as I didn’t feel the squad needed improving but rather the cohesion of the team needs to improve, which also led to a change in tactics from my usual 4-4-2 into an asymmetrical 4-2-3-1.

PREMIER LEAGUE

I currently sit in 13th position with 25pts from 23 games, with some very concerning results along the way. My form has been terrible and I haven’t been able to find a consistent team throughout the most part of the season. I highly doubt I will make my media prediction of 7th.

LEAGUE CUP

To be quite honest my squad hasn’t been consistent enough in order to challenge on all fronts, however I didn’t expect to be beaten by Middlesbrough in the third round. It was disappointing but not the end of the world.

FA CUP

Again I struggled in this competition, firstly in the third round against Peterborough in where they took us into a replay. Luckily we progressed through that but sadly couldn’t against Southampton, beating us 1-0.

EUROPA LEAGUE

Well wow, how close was it?! In the final game we scored in the last few minutes to win the game but that still wasn’t enough to put is through with three teams finishing on 10pts and even though I had the best goal difference it didn’t matter, we didn’t get better results against the other teams. This has probably been the downfall of our season, as since then results haven’t gone our way.

KEY PLAYERS – SO FAR

Andras Nagy – This fella is turning into a great striker, he currently leads out goal scoring charts and has got us some vital points in games. And even after signing a five year contract, he is still attracting attention from Man City.

Ryan Shawcross – He has again been solid at the back and will be vital to the team turning around the season in the coming months.

We need to see better performances from key players such as Jermaine Pennant, Rasmus Falk and Robert Huth. Hopefully now that all we have to do is play in the league, we will benefit and see some better results that will lead to a charge up the table.

[Marcelo]

I had never before in any CM/FM played with Stoke, but decided to start a save with them as their team seemed interesting this year. I used a 4-4-2 tactic downloaded from the Tactics Sharing Centre, and have posted on the tactic's thread the results after one full season. And what a season it was! Winner of Euro Cup and League Cup, and runner up in the FA cup and Premier League. If anyone is interested, here is the link for my post with screenshots: http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/288166-FM2012-Vodu-Caos-12.0-Official-Thread?p=7341691&viewfull=1#post7341691

[muhaimin]

I took over Stoke in 2013 / 2014 season, my signings were:

- John Fleck, Saviola, Pavlyuchenko, Ben Foster all for free.

- Bashim Kadiri 3.6m

- Stefan Savic 5m

- Ciaran Clark 7m

- Adam Johnson 10m

All the signings which involve value, I bought them by paying 48 mths monthly instalments.... Somehow I only manage to finish in 10th position which is not acceptable by any standards...

But in 2014/2015 that's when my Stoke team starts to play well together as a team. They finished in 4th place and qualified for the CL.

But to achieve that, I spent a sum of 37m all by instalments which now is causing a lot of problem for me in terms of financial stability as in average Monthly income is -2.1m

The signings are:

Defoe, Asenjo, Alex Smithies, Adebayor all for free.

- Sime Vrsajlko 10m

- Dusan Tadic 7m

- Navarro 1m

- Chiek M'Bengue 7m

- Paloschi 10m

Current Season 2015/2016, halfway through the season currently in 2nd place, 1 point behind Man City. In the Knockout Round of CL gonna Face AC Milan!! In terms of signing, I'd say this is the best one so far as I have managed to get 3 quality players for free! They are Samir Nasri, Jack Wilshere and Gael Kakuta, all of whom have performed admirably well.

Other signings:

- Vicente Guaita, Free

- Kyle Bartley 2.9m

- Raheem Sterling 3.5m

- Jay Rodriguez, 8.75m. Current top scorer 14 goals in 18 games. He has been out injured since end November....

[salmo]

I had a good start with Stoke, unbeaten after 6 games I think. Now we've started to lose and draw games. I've had a lot of injuries which doesn't help, a few key players were out for 3 months. I can't seem to get the most out of Crouch either, 4 goals in 18 games.

[santy001]

Muhaimin it depends where you finish and how well you progress in the CL, you need to get past the group stage for sure. If you can do that then a 20 - 30m loss over the season is easily covered by prize money and revenue from the two competitions. A couple of good sales for players you can replace cheaply should see you turn a profit if you want to go that far to build up some reserves for the next season.

Getting the most from Crouch can be difficult, there has been a few posters in the course of this thread who've got him performing well but unfortunately I'm not one of them. I had a brief spell of him doing well which rapidly deteriorated into poor performances.

[hursty2]

Just finished the third season and ended up in a disappointing 12th, getting knocked out of all the competitions early.

Into the 4th season and I have signed:

John Fleck

Lee Wallace

Padoin

Shikabala

[muhaimin]

Oooo finished my current season and ended up as the Premier League Champion as well as taking the League Cup. And even was in the Semi Final of CL. Great achievement but I am not sure if I can do it again this season and try to even better it. Here are the screenshots:

http://imageshack.us/f/4/stokechamp.png/

http://imageshack.us/f/844/currentsquadw.png/

This season I will try to sell John Fleck, Robert Huth, Paloschi (Been injured too many times!) and Wilson Palacios.

[santy001]

Ouch, a bad way for your third season to end Hursty. Hopefully with the summer you can regroup, clear out any deadwood and use the new players to help push further on. The good thing is, that in the premiership a 12th finish isn't all that bad, usually from there you can be glancing up at the side that finished 6th knowing they aren't much better than your team. I'm currently in December of my 5th season, I think I missed the update for the start of my third season so here's my transfer dealings for the 4th and 5th:

2014/15 in:

Regen rightback: £1m

Adam Johnson: £3.2m

Andre Pierre Gignac: £1.3m

Regen Striker: Free

Jonathan Bond: Free

Adam Vass: £2.1m

out:

Cameron Jerome: £1m

Kenwynne Jones: £500k

Ben Marshall: £2m

Ryan Shotton: £4.4m

2015/16 in:

Regen AMC: Free

Magaye Gueye: £1.9m

Djibril Cisse: Free

Aymen Abdennour: £4.5m

Andreu Fontas: £750k loan fee

Khouma Babacar: £5m

My 4th season ended with a disappointing collapse falling just shy of a champions league place. We finished 5th but looked much stronger than the previous 3 seasons. Usually I had a terrible start and was coming strong at the end of the season, this time it was a strong start that weakened at the end. With a strikeforce of Mbaye Niang, Khouma Babacar, Willfried, Daniel Sturridge, Karim Rossi, Cisse and my regen I have a lot of options upfront. Cisse has been a good performer, but the first four strikers are just performing too well and Willfried is rarely injured so far this season. I'm expecting to lose either Niang or Sturridge in the next 12 - 18 months though, Man City came sniffing in the summer with an £18m bid, I tried to push them to £25m but they weren't willing to go for it yet. I suspect they will come back with that offer either in the January window or next summer.

I'm close to January now in my 5th season, Europe is going well having picked up 16 of 18 points in the group stage, my team has struggled against the very best sides in the league as you'd expect, but unfortunately I haven't capitalised on my teams strength against weaker opposition. A lot of the teams in the bottom 3 are playing 4-5-1 formations, it took me a while to adjust my tactic to compensate, pulling one or two midfielders deeper back to the DM position to negate their packed midfield from preventing my side from playing. Since realising this the last couple of games against weak teams have been thumping victories. 5th heading into the new year I'll have to work hard in the second half of the season to close the 7 point gap between myself and the teams above, Chelsea are on 38 points in 1st, then Man Utd, Arsenal and Tottenham sit beneath them on 37 with me in 5th on 30. With Liverpool and Man City just beneath me its going to be a tough slog to try and claim a CL place.

[muhaimin]

C'mon Santy you can do it!!!

Start of 2016/2017 season we won the Community Shield again by beating Arsenal 4-2. Hoping to win the League, league cup, FA cup and also the coveted CL! hahaha. Seems like a far fetched hope!

[santy001]

If you sell Palacios you really need to have a replacement, I don't know what it is about him but he is an absolute beast of a player in the middle of the park. Congratulations on the premier league win as well, I've been very conservative with my money trying not to spend too excessively, I fear I may have to do what you have done and bite the bullet and take on a few guaranteed quality players. Breaking into the top four is where the money is at and I really need that income to be able to push on.

[hursty2]

In 4 seasons I've spent a total of 52M, which is also probably the reason why I haven't had much instant success. I feel as if using 48 month payments is cheating, so most of my transfers are mostly up front.

[muhaimin]

Thank you Santy. Well I am prepared to sell him because I have a player which I feel is ready to take over him. I got him for a mere 1m. Here is his screenshot

http://imageshack.us/f/830/navarro.png/

What I really feel about using 48 mths is different from you. I wouldn't say that its cheating but I would say its a smart move especially so if the Club we are using do not have a great Financial Backing / Power. However in return for using 48mths, we are paying more that what we actually offer to the club. Correct me if I am wrong for the 2nd part.

[santy001]

A number of Stoke's irl transfers are clause based and set-up in installments. Jones was signed for £8m, however its spread across 4 years so its just £2m a year. So many other deals have been structured in a similar fashion with clauses for appearances and Stoke's performance bundled in as well. Like Kitson who was put down at costing over £5m when Stoke only ever paid about half that, because he failed to play a certain number of matches, score a certain number of goals and other knock-on effects too. Most clubs do deals this way now due to the way they receive their income. Most teams don't have £10m+ readily available in the bank, and you can't go and transfer that amount to another team without getting an overdraft or something to that extent which incurs costs to (obviously some clubs like Stoke, can have the chairman put the cash up himself) so its better to have it coming out of the steady stream of income and leave a healthy cash reserve incase of any emergencies.

[salmo]

Just finished my first season with Stoke and a good one it was finishing 8th, shame about the goal difference though.

It ended with a thriller at champions Man City.

Had poor cup runs though, In the FA Cup went out in the 4th round to Villa 1-0 and in the Carling Cup also 4th round getting thrashed at home by semi finalists Leicester 4-0. In the Europa league, I sailed through the group stages unbeaten before being drawn against Valencia in the first knockout round and went out 4-1 on agg.

[Rooney_08]

just starting out with stoke city ..hope to bring sum glory to the club ...hey santy001 i remember your 4-4-2 tactic a few years back damn it was epic

[santy001]

I've never been able to recreate a good 4-4-2 since though, not even had all that much joy with Stoke since then lol. It's a tough start since there is no money meaning you have to shift on some of the deadwood to get a few of your own players, but come January you usually get given around £5m or so which is enough to begin making your own mark on the team. If you keep everyone fit and happy then the potential is there to do quite well, but with the difficult start brought about by injuries and the fact some players in the squad are injury prone or inconsistent it can make it tough at times.

[muhaimin]

WAAAA!!!!! Now I am effing pissed!! The board accepted an offer for my Best Defensive midfielder in the team, Navarro. Previous post I did a screenie on him! Waaaa!!!!!!!!!!!

[santy001]

How much was the bid for? Hopefully if it went through you got a decent amount for him, he looked a real prospect.

[muhaimin]

I bought him for 1m. And they sold him for 16m.... I was expecting a lil bit more! Like 20m...

[SRL88]

Im not playing as Stoke, but I thought I would share this because it gave me a little giggle.

He has just joined on a free transfer.

[hursty2]

END OF SEASON UPDATE 2014/2015

Well what a season of up and downs, with poor performances in the league whilst doing pretty well in the league. The club is apparently struggling for money at the moment too so it seems as if I will have to offload a few players in order to bring us back into the money.

PREMIER LEAGUE

Another disappointing season in the league, in where we only finished in 8th but perhaps that can be called an achievement based on last seasons position. All throughout the season we struggled to find any consistency in our

results

which ultimately led to our downfall.

FA CUP

Winners!!!

Yes, you should have seen me when we clinched a 1-0 victory over Arsenal after they had only days earlier beaten us 4-0 in the league as well as not tasting defeat against us for a total of 8 games! I am so delighted with this win and it is my first trophy as Stoke manager in four years. In terms of tactic for that game I knew that we always seemed to concede a lot of goals against the big sides, especially in the last game against Arsenal. Therefore in the fixtures leading up to the final I played a

5-3-2

in order to sure up the defence and then hit them on the counter attack. This change in tactic definitely made the difference and Arsenal couldn’t break us down. This also meant that we’re in Europe next year too!

STOKE CITY

-KEY PLAYERS

John Fleck

–

He was one of, if not my best player this season and scored the winning goal in the FA Cup Final, adding to his 12 goals in the league from AM. He also received

PFA Young Player of the Year

and deservedly so.

Andras Nagy

–

Another great year for my young striker notching up 18 goals and breaking the record for most goals in a season at Stoke.

Tom Cairney

–

The young Englishmen, or should I say Scotsmen now, having taken up a Scottish cap was another key performer throughout the season.

Fabian Delph

–

He really put in some great performances throughout the season, pushing out Palacios in the pecking order.

Daniel Sturridge

–

Coming in January it is sometimes hard to settle in but Sturridge didn’t seem to have any problems.

PREMIER LEAGUE: 8th (Man City Champions)

LEAGUE CUP: 1/4 Final (Lost 3-1 vs. Liverpool) (Man City Winners)

FA CUP: Winners

RESERVES: 10th

YOUTH: 3rd

Europa League: Arsenal (2-0 ET. vs. Seville)

Champions League: Barcelona (1-0 vs. Man Utd)

[Falahk]

END OF SEASON UPDATE 2011/2012

Premier league:

pretty pleased with how this part went, we slowly grinded our way forward, got a bit lucky at times, and droped some easy points at times, and almost lost our gripp of the last CL spot in the very last round by drawing to Bolton

FA cup:

managed to overcome Blackburn, Wolves and Liverpool. before going out to City in a match I thought I had won with a late goal to make it 2-1 in the 85th min, but ofcorse it was not to be after Millner equlised in the 89th, and Micha Richards finished me of in the 92nd

Carling cup:

made it all the way to the final, and just like mentioned, lost it to Wolves, with Spurs in the semi being the hardest obstical to overcome

Europa league:

went unbeaten through a group containing Shalke, Anderlecht and Maribor, then I managed to narrowly beat Leverkusen 4-3 on agregate before being knocked out by Lazio on away goals (1-1)

Transfers:

I was a bit more active then I wanted to be, but injuries ment I had to make a couple of loan moves in january, that said, Owen was a compleat failure thought and a perfect example of me not taking into consideration that I was working with a very different tactical system then I normaly do

[Falahk]

meanwhile at Arsenal......

[santy001]

McCarthy has gotten a few big jobs for a couple years running on FM games now. I've seen him end up at Chelsea and Man Utd in different saves on 11 and on 12.

Don't let Owen not working out get to you too much though, sometimes a player of that build can work wonders other times it just doesn't work out. I've got Wilfried in my Stoke side and he looks perfect to play up front for me, but with the injuries he's sustained season after season he's 27 but already past it and not very effective. Given how 12.1 changed some things with fitness as well (or at least made it more noticeable) managing players fitness especially with those who are prone to injury is vital.

My last season culminated with me finishing 4th like you and just clinching a CL spot. However, I drew Lyon in the knockout round, and a calamitous first leg saw us knocked out. After 5 minutes debutant Eric Torres had been sent off, and by thirty minutes in 2 more stretchered off so I was down 3 first choice players, a 3-1 loss at home and then an uninspiring return leg draw of 1-1 just wasn't good enough. I sold Mbaye Niang for £17m with £5m after 10 league goals. I got rid at the right time, last season he broke his leg in January, so missed the rest of the season. He went to Juventus, played once and tore his calf muscle. He's only 21 so he could recover and go on to get better still, but it is his third pretty big injury now so it seems like I may have had a stroke of luck there.

[bjoggi33]

Just started a save. Any ideas on getting players on loans and stuff? Also what training is everybody using.

[Falahk]

Just started a save. Any ideas on getting players on loans and stuff? Also what training is everybody using.

the defult training have served me well enough on fm11 & fm12, as for players you really should have a look at Mario Santana, cheep to loan with a possible option to buy at the start, he will be a good compliment/rotation option for Pennant

[hursty2]

END OF SEASON UPDATE 2016-17

PREMIER LEAGUE

An outstanding season here, 5

^th

position but it could have been so much better! We were sat in third for the most part of the season but two consecutive losses to teams around us pushed us down. Even so, only being pipped to 4

^th

on goal difference to a very strong Man City side is some achievement. I have now finally completed my first goal of breaking into the top 6, earning me

3

^rd

place in the Manager of the Year award.

Helping us on our way to 5

^th

was the outstanding goal scoring record from Andras Nagy, getting his highest ever tally of 19 league goals.

FA CUP

Another great performance by the team in this competition, making it all the way to the final but for the second time this season getting beaten by Man City. They won 2-1 in the final and to be honest we didn’t really show up and they deserved to win.

KEY PLAYERS

Fabian Delph

–

He was amazing for me the whole season and during the latter part of the season scored three important goals to ensure our spot in the top 6.

John Fleck

–

Wasn’t so good for the first part of the season but absolutely turned it on in the second half of the season, earning himself a place in the

Team of the Year

and also coming runner up in

Football Writers Association Player of the Year.

Andras Nagy

–

As mentioned earlier he had his best season so far contributing 23 goals, definitely what I have been missing in previous seasons.

COMMENTS

An absolutely brilliant season! Everything seemed to click this season and we went on amazing winning runs beating teams we would have lost too last season. Our record against the old ‘top 6’ was a decisive factor. If we’d have won the FA Cup the season would have been even better! As for next season I need to bring in more quality in depth so I can challenge in Europe. I also feel it’s time to start blooding some youngsters into the team, therefore I’ll be looking to do that more often.

In other news it is rumoured that Peter Coates is going to sell the club to another board member but before he leaves, Britannia stadium is to be increased by 8 500 seats taking the capacity up to over 45 000.

PREMIER LEAGUE: 5

^TH

(Champions Arsenal)

LEAGUE CUP

: 3

^rd

Round (Winners Man City)

FA CUP: Final (Lost vs. Man City 2-1)

EUROPA LEAGUE: Real Madrid (3-2 ET vs. Tottenham)

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Barcelona (2-0 vs. O.Marseille)

[santy001]

A good season Hursty, I've also bought in John Fleck now. He had fallen out with the staff at Newcastle and was transfer listed for £4.5m so selling Adam Johnson to Tottenham for £11m (a few injuries had slowed him down and he was now 29) it seemed the sensible thing to do. The one problem is that when Coates leaves the club will probably have to take out a loan to cover the £20m owed to Coates (this will be gone in the next patch due to now finding out more about the club finances) it happened to me when Coates left.

I'm almost at the end of my 2016/17 season now, in a similar position to you, I'm currently 4th and hanging on for my life. I made the top 4 last season, but it was pretty much pointless when I fell out of the Champions League at the first hurdle against Lyon in qualifying rounds. My wage budget is still only around half of those vying for top 4 spots, this is mainly due to the fact I'm having to fund my side without any CL TV revenue. The club is making losses now because I've begun pushing harder for top 4 finishes meaning spending more money and such.

However, I've sold a few prized assets for good sums of money, Mbaye Niang for £22m (just after recovering from a broken leg, this season he's only managed 10 games for new team Juventus), Adam Johnson for £11m as well as keepers Begovic £6m and Smithies £4m whilst bringing in free agent Thibault Courtouis. I have spent, £1.2m on Balotelli, £4.5m on Fleck, £11m on Erick Torres, £3.5m on a young regen defender and £3.5m on Jordan Henderson. I've got around 5/6 games left to play to hold onto 4th, if I don't manage it, or fail at the qualifying rounds again next year I'm possibly going to be in trouble financially.

[hursty2]

Yeah Coates left behind a 20M debt which means I have to pay 85K a month, not that much tbh in the grand scheme of things.

Transfer wise I've been given 26M to spend of which I probably will only end up spending half, if that. I just can't find any players for reasonable prices that will improve the squad instantly. I'm after a striker, attacking mid and probably another right back. I'll probably sell Mattock and McEachran, the latter because he didn't really perform last season but maybe I'll give him 6 months to prove his worth. The lack of decent left backs around is shocking too, Wallace is good but I mean he's not amazing even though he's done quite well for me.

Shawcross, Elm and Nagy will come under attention in the transfer window yet again but no one ends up making bids.

[santy001]

Tottenham and Chelsea have been interested in Shawcross for a long time, with a few probing enquiries made but Shawcross if you handle him right is happy to stay. If you manage him poorly or don't keep him as captain he does begin to long for pastures new. Sadly in the final game of the season me and Balotelli had our first problems, he got sent off for a silly lunge and I fined him. He got unhappy, the conversation made things worse, now he's skipping training every few days. Really quite a shame because in the 12/13 games he played last season he was doing well.

The majority of players I buy are still transfer listed players who haven't made the grade at bigger clubs, Torres for £11m was sort of breaking the trend as I needed a replacement for Niang quickly, but still that has been my most expensive signing to date, which isn't too bad for a side that has had 2 top 4 finishes in a row now.

[Sharsh]

Has anyone had any luck playing with a target man to head with stoke. I have tried many things such as shouts exploit the flanks, play wider, pump ball into box, look for overlap and nothing seems to work. I have tried a combination of these shout and still nothing. I play a balanced system and my 3 tactics are 4-2-3-2, 4-1-4-1 with Wingers and a 4-4-2.

Is this a ME issue or am I doing something wrong?