[FM15] The Hart Chronicles - Volume I: Paul Hart's Alphabet Career

[PaulHartman71]

The first part of this career got wiped out when the Forums moved over. Soz. Basically I did alright at Arsenal. You can see what I won at Arsenal in the Career Overview bits. Dat Guy Welbz, Sturridge, Ozil and Alexis were particularly impressive. 

 

 

 

When the forum moved over the Arsenal part of this career was lost  It was decent though. Welbz and Sturridge did some good stuff.

 

 

January

7 players have left the club. The majority of them weren't playing so even though I got a lot less than I possibly could have i'm not too bothered. I needed the money to invest in a good striker for the rest of the season.

That striker ended up being Carlos Bacca who signed for £20M. Tello, Odegaard and Nutinck also joined to add depth to a slightly depleted squad.

Bacca scored on his debut in a disappointing 1-1 draw with Koln.

We're now 3 points behind Wolfsburg and 7 ahead of Bayern who have 3 games in hand.

[Lenzar]

So when Bacca arrived, he had issues with swallowing his food whole.

What did they tell him? "Chew, Bacca!"

[PaulHartman71]

February

A decent 1-1 draw in Moscow gave us an important away goal going into the home leg. Despite Lokomotiv grabbing 2 goals we were never in too much danger of going out, Nani's excellent hat-trick made sure we progressed. We have Fiorentina in the next round who are currently 14th in Serie A so i'm hoping they wont be too much trouble.

An excellent month in the league which was started off by a fantastic late turnaround at Hoffenheim. The other 4 games this month were all pretty comfortable wins - Bacca chewed up Nurnberg's defence and scored a hat-trick in a 3-1 win that was the other standout game of the month.

We now sit top of the league with a 5 point gap between us and 2nd place Wolfsburg. Bayern have 3 games in hand but even if they won all 3 of those they would still be a point behind us. It is worth noting despite our good position at the moment we do still have to play Bayern, Wolfsburg and Schalke away.

[PaulHartman71]

March

A nice 6-3 aggregate win over Fiorentina. It was pretty much over in the first leg even though they scored two away goals. We've got Dnipro in the Quarter Final.

An excellent run of form was ended abruptly as we lost 5-1 away to Bayern. Despite having Bender suspended and Nani injured after 5 minutes, we had our strongest team out so it was gutting to lose by that many.

Despite that humbling loss we are still just about top of the table thanks to Bayern slipping up away to Koln. The pressure is on now though!

[Maw74]

Bayern are a tough team to shake off, hopefully you will bounce back from that shocker, gonna be a hard run-in though.

[dllu]

Well, being ahead with the Bayern game out of the way means you have it in your own hands now. Any of the other top teams left in the last rounds?

[PaulHartman71]

We still have Leverkusen and Gladbach at home, as well as Schalke and Wolfsburg away.

[dllu]

We still have Leverkusen and Gladbach at home, as well as Schalke and Wolfsburg away.

Ouch - it's going to be nervewrecking...

[deltablue]

Looks like it's going to be tough to stay top.

[PaulHartman71]

April

A comfortable 3-0 win to see us into the final where we play 15th place Hannover. A real chance for us to win a trophy.

Another chance for us to win a trophy appears to be in the Europa League. We've got past Dnipro 3-1 on aggregate and now face Ajax in the Semi Final.

A month that started off so great with a 5-0 thumping of Leverkusen ended on a sour note as we lost 5-1 at Schalke and 4-1 at Wolfsburg to blow any chance of winning the Bundesliga this season.

The rest of our games are pretty winnable so we'll have to settle for being 2nd best to Bayern

[PaulHartman71]

May

A very disappointing end to our Bundesliga campaign as we go 3 games without a win and end up 3rd.

We did however win the German Cup with a 2-0 victory over Hannover in the final thanks to goals from Bacca and Hummels.

We also managed to secure the Europa League. After getting past Ajax narrowly on away goals, we beat Dynamo Kyiv 2-0 in the final with Kruse stepping up and scoring a brace in place of the cup tied Bacca.

[deltablue]

At least you got a couple of conslation prizes.

[PaulHartman71]

Season 3 - (B)orussia Dortmund

I'd say it was still a successful season on the basis that I wasn't expecting to win the league anyway. I'm pretty disappointed we blew our title run in but still to win the German Cup and the Europa League softens the blow substantially.

Squad pt 1, Squad pt 2

Reus was the standout player with Nani also very good. Bacca was good too and it was a pity I didn't have him from the start of the season.

GK - Kivrak was decent enough. He wasn't amazing but was by no means bad and for a free transfer you can't complain imo.

DR - Grobkreutz ended up being first choice but Pizczek was decent, he also played at AMR a bit.

DL - Gibbs stayed fit pretty much all season somehow. He was alright.

DC - Hummels and Subotic ended up being first choice pairing and were solid enough. Garay was a solid third choice option.

DM - Bender was great - a real solid defensive midfielder. Khedira filled in for him at DM when he wasn't fit and wasn't great, but he's not really a DM so I wasn't expecting miracles.

AMR - Nani was great - a huge loan signing. 14 goals and 13 assists in all competitions. He was a bit hit and miss at times though, he'd score some absolute wonder goals that Cristiano Ronaldo would be proud of in some games, then in others he'd spend the whole time shooting off target from 35 yards out. Also a bit injury prone. But still a great player to have. Mertens filled in for him when he wasn't fit and he was decent enough.

AML - Reus was clear first choice and was amazing. He won a lot of games by himself. He ended up as Bundesliga Player of the Season which says it all really. 20 goals and 19 assists from the wing is great. Aubameyang and Mertens sometimes filled in when he wasn't fit. They were decent but obviously not the same standard.

CAM - Mkhitaryan was alright. Nothing special. If Kagawa, Mertens or Odegaard had impressed enough at CAM I would have played them there instead - but none of them did really.

ST - Kruse ended the season with 10 from 16 starts and 9 sub appearances - not the worst record but he was injury prone and inconsistent. Aubameyang didn't impress despite his pace and Immobile left in January. Bacca came in and despite being cup tied in the Europa League, he was great. If only we'd had him all season.

History

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season     Club                Division          Position      Achievements
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2014/15    Arsenal             Premier League    2nd           League Cup winners 
2015/16    Arsenal             Premier League    1st           Champions
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2016/17    Borussia Dortmund   Bundesliga        3rd           German Cup & Europa League winners

Trophy Cabinet

[u][b]Continental[/b] 
[/u]
Europa League x1 - 2016/17 (Borussia Dortmund) 

[u][b]England[/b][/u]

Premier League x1 - 2015/16 (Arsenal)
League Cup     x1 - 2014/15 (Arsenal)

[b][u]Germany[/u]
[/b]
German Cup x1 - 2016/17 (Borussia Dortmund)

[PaulHartman71]

You guys know what to do

BET-PH71:

Rules:

• Every poster starts this thread with £10 to spend on BET-PH71.
  
• You can only make one bet in each round.
  
• You can use this money to bet on each different BET-PH71 when I move to a new club.
  
• You can bet as much or as little as you like on each one.
  
• If you select the winning club then you get the profit/winnings added to your overall total.
  
• Once you go bust that's it - you're out!
  

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Username       Bets Made      Bets Won     Bets Lost     Balance
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SounessTash        1              1            0         £30.00
apchivers          1              1            0         £18.00
Cougar2010         1              0            1          £8.00
GDH38              1              0            1          £8.00
ManUTactician247   1              0            1          £8.00
Lenzar             1              0            1          £7.50
nie jem frytek     1              0            1          £0.00

Chelsea 2/1

CSKA Moscow 3/1

Chile 3/1

Croatia 3/1

Cagliari 4/1

Crystal Palace 4/1

Celtic 4/1

Colombia 5/1

Cardiff City 6/1

Cameroon 6/1

Celta Vigo 7/1

Cadiz 8/1

Charlton Athletic 10/1

Congo 15/1

Canada 20/1

Cape Verde 25/1

[ManUTactician247]

£1 on CSKA Moscow

[apchivers]

Good work with Dortmund.

I'll go £3 on Crystal Palace please

[Maw74]

Well done with winning 2 cups but that was a tough end to the league campaign.

I will put £3 on Cagliari

[Nobby_McDonald]

£10 on Cape Verde. It's a fantastic place and I went there on my honeymoon.

[Kalemlyco]

£2 on Cagliari

[deltablue]

Looks tough but I'll play and put 50p on Celtic (I'm not that confident )

[MDH2001]

£2 on Celtic

[sherwinriga]

£1 on Cape Verde. That team was very unbeatable this year.

[Cougar2010]

Don't think you'll go for a national team & I don't think you'll go back to England just yet so that rules out a fair few.

Can't see you going to Celtic either so that leaves you CSKA, Cagliari, Celta Viga or Cadiz. Cagliari & Cadiz don't seem like your sort of clubs so down to CSKA & Celta.

I'll go £2 on CSKA but I have a gut feeling you might go Celta.

[PaulHartman71]

[PaulHartman71]

BET-PH71:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Username       Bets Made      Bets Won     Bets Lost     Balance
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SounessTash        1              1            0         £30.00
apchivers          2              1            1         £15.00
deltablue          1              0            1          £9.50
sherwinriga        1              0            1          £9.00
GDH38              1              0            1          £8.00
Kalemlyco          1              0            1          £8.00
MDH2001            1              0            1          £8.00
ManUTactician247   2              0            2          £7.00
Maw74              1              0            1          £7.00
Lenzar             1              0            1          £7.50
Cougar2010         2              0            2          £6.00
Nobby_McDonald     1              0            1          £0.00
nie jem frytek     1              0            1          £0.00

[Cougar2010]

Pffft

[PaulHartman71]

I hadn't intended on staying at Borussia Dortmund as I was eyeing up three potential 'C' jobs that in April were all "very insecure" - Celtic, Chelsea and CSKA Moscow. Celtic were 3rd at the time but ended up going on a winning streak to end up topping the table. Chelsea were 10th in the Premier League despite having a fantastic squad that now even includes Benzema - Mourinho looked like he was all but sacked and the idea of a lot of money at Chelsea was tempting, but then he went and won the Champions League final, so despite finishing 10th he still got CL football and he subsequently went back to "secure". CSKA Moscow ended up 3rd but were still only insecure, so it looked like their manager was safe as well.

At that point I thought - oh, well I might as well stay at Dortmund for another season then. I secured a few transfers here and there to make our squad for next season even more competitive than it was this season. Then out of the blue I got a job offer pop up from Cameroon. I hadn't really thought about international management this early on, but with my plan to stay at Dortmund for another season now, despite it being unexpected and an odd move - it seems to be alright in principle.

At first I didn't want to take the job as the previous manager was sacked for failing to make the World Cup next summer. Cameroon still have Zimbabwe to play and could in theory qualify if we smash them and Congo lose to Burundi, but with Burundi not picking up a single point throughout the whole qualifying campaign - that seems very unlikely.

But Cameroon, having won the latest African Nations - have qualified for the Confederations Cup which starts within just a week of me taking charge. In-fact my first act as manager was to pick their squad for the tournament.

It's not the easiest of groups but I definitely think if they won the African Nations then we could push for 2nd place.

I also managed to coax Alex Song out of international retirement

[PaulHartman71]

Season 3 - ©ameroon

Confederations Cup

I'd be lying if I said I had any idea what I was doing when I started picking my squad and tactics for this tournament. I initially had the idea to stick with the formation i've been using at Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund, but it wasn't until I was putting the lineup together for the first game then I noticed how **** Cameroon's options on the wing really were. I decided against playing the wingers I called up and instead playing a 4-1-2-1-2 Diamond, with the idea to play on the counter against all the other teams and hope for the best.

This worked well enough in the Group Stage as after a surprisingly comfortable 3-0 win over Mexico in our opening game, we followed that up with a close 2-1 win against Russia to ensure that we qualified for the semi final. We narrowly lost to Germany in our final group game with my own player Mats Hummels scoring the winner.

I was quite pleased to draw Copa America surprise package Ecuador in the semi final as I saw it as a pretty winnable game considering we beat Mexico and Russia in the group. We beat them 2-0 with a brace from Jean-Marie Dongou to ensure our place in the final.

We never really had a chance in this one. Due to my selection of 3/4 wingers preventing too much rotation in the team, the squad was knackered and never stood any real hope of beating Germany. Our best hope was sitting back and nicking a goal on the counter. Tbf we actually should have scored 1 or 2 but Germany could well have scored 6 or 7. Another one of my players - Marco Reus, was the main man in this one as he scored a hat-trick against me.

Overall though not a bad tournament and considering we beat Mexico, Ecuador and Russia i'm really surprised and disappointed that we most likely be at the World Cup next summer in Russia.

[PaulHartman71]

Pre-Season/July

A few notable departures during the summer. Kagawa and Sahin were both desperate to leave due to lack of first team football so they were let go on the cheap. Kruse was also desperate to leave, whilst I didn't really want to strengthen Wolfsburg I wanted the money and I don't feel like Kruse was thaaat good anyway. Mkhitaryan was let go after United put in a decent bid for him - i'd already signed someone to be first choice CAM instead of him so I was happy to see him go after a relatively unimpressive season.

Firmino was the CAM I signed to be new first choice. It doesn't appear on here but I also managed to renew Odegaard's loan deal so he will be 2nd choice CAM. Icardi comes in to replace Kruse as second choice striker. Nani of course signed on a permanent deal - I was delighted to get him so cheap. Chedjou comes in as another body at CB after impressing for Cameroon at the Confederations Cup. I signed Schmelzer for a second time - this time to again rotate with Kieran Gibbs at LB. Alvarez came in to be rotation/back-up to Bender. Tello came in as a cheap but decent back-up option at AMRL, despite the fact he was on loan for 6 months with us last season and I didn't play him a single time. Remy was signed once Aubemayang was sold to be third choice striker. Shadrach and Pereira were signed as emergency back-up and probably wont get too much game time.

Tactics

That leaves our ideal 18 man squad looking pretty decent. We also have Weidenfeller, Garay, Schmelzer, Bram Nuytink, Pereira, Tello, Shadrach and Remy.

We've already won a trophy as well. A tough fought game with Bayern Munich which we managed to draw 2-2 thanks to a brace from Nani. It went to penalties and we managed to win 8-7 to get our first trophy of the season.

[nie jem frytek]

Arsenal

Borussia

Cameroon

Dortmund

I see what you did there.

[sherwinriga]

Good job, PH71! But I think you almost went through in the World Cup. I hope you will continue the series.

[PaulHartman71]

August

August wasn't a hugely eventful month but it did see us pick up our second trophy of the season. We faced the club I possibly could have ended up joining, Chelsea, who won the Champions League after finishing 10th in the PL. It was a close game, we were 2-0 up at half-time but a brace from debuting Wayne Rooney made things level again until Nani scored a late winner.

Our first round German Cup game was nothing more than a friendly really. I put out my second string and they still utterly dominated - we should have had at least 10 and I was pretty disappointed we let two goals in even if one was from a penalty.

We've not really been tested in the Bundesliga yet at all. All 3 of our games so far have been one sided and comfortable affairs.

Sitting pretty at the top

[PaulHartman71]

Unbelievable Burundi somehow pull off a home win against Congo!

But because we only won 2-0 we miss out ffs. If we'd scored two more goals we'd have qualified against all odds

[PaulHartman71]

Season 3 - ©ameroon

History

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season     Club                Division          Position      Achievements
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2014/15    Arsenal             Premier League    2nd           League Cup winners 
2015/16    Arsenal             Premier League    1st           Champions
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2016/17    Borussia Dortmund   Bundesliga        3rd           German Cup & Europa League winners
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017       Cameroon            N/A               N/A           Confederations Cup runners up   

Trophy Cabinet

[u][b]Continental[/b] 
[/u]
Europa League x1 - 2016/17 (Borussia Dortmund) 

[u][b]England[/b][/u]

Premier League x1 - 2015/16 (Arsenal)
League Cup     x1 - 2014/15 (Arsenal)

[b][u]Germany[/u]
[/b]
German Cup x1 - 2016/17 (Borussia Dortmund)

[sherwinriga]

Ouch! Cameroon is out in the qualifiers. I hope the Cameroon team will be coming back at the 2019 African Cup of Nations.

[Northernpilgrim]

How long will you stick with Borussia Dortmund? I'm guessing that depends on whether you replace Cameroon with Derby or Denmark?

[deltablue]

Shame you had it in your hands after all and couldn't take advantage, I know that feeling

[PaulHartman71]

How long will you stick with Borussia Dortmund? I'm guessing that depends on whether you replace Cameroon with Derby or Denmark?

I'm aiming to get a new club job at the end of the season but all depends on what's available I guess. I'd like to take Cameroon into the 2019 African Nations as I think we could definitely challenge for it, but if the only jobs at the end of the season are national team jobs where the manager has got sacked after a poor World Cup, then I might have to take it to progress the letters.

[dllu]

I wouldn't bet on Denmark, then. I have yet to see Morten Olsen get sacked for poor performance. Every save I play, he just stays on until he retires, even when results are even worse than IRL...

[PaulHartman71]

September

A good start to our Champions League campaign as we win away at Besiktas to get the 3 points.

Not a terrible month in the league but Hoffenheim and Mainz were both incredibly frustrating games that we should have won. We had the chances to win them but we just couldn't get a goal.

We currently sit in 2nd place behind Hannover who have had a hell of a start. I don't expect them to carry that form on though so we're in a pretty decent position so far. We haven't played anyone of note yet though.

This is a cause for concern though. Icardi and Remy better have their scoring boots on for the next 3 months!

[Nobby_McDonald]

Cameroon isn't a patch on Cape Verde. Poor decision.

[PaulHartman71]

October

We continued our excellent form in the Champions League with another two wins to top the group.

Not the best of months in the league as despite a good away win at Gladbach, we drew 1-1 with Schalke and then lost 3-0 away to Leverkusen.

It's extremely tight at the top of the Bundesliga after 10 games played!

[PaulHartman71]

November

A good win against Dusseldorf to put us through to the 3rd Round. We face Regensburg.

A surprising home loss to Besiktas but despite this we have qualified for the knockout stages. Our trip to Anfield will decide who ends up topping the group.

9 points from 9 in the Bundesliga this month sees us top of the league - just. We're only ahead of Bayern on goal difference as it stands.

[PaulHartman71]

December

What looked like it could be a mauling almost ended up in extra-time at Regensburg, but luckily we held on. We've lucked out and drawn Dresden of the 2nd tier in the Quarter Final.

Unfortunately we left Anfield empty handed as we lost for the second time in a row. This meant that we were a seeded team in the draw for the 1st Knockout Stage. And we got...

Back to The Emirates :D Should be a great couple of games and gives me the opportunity to put to test whether my Dortmund side is up there with my Arsenal one.

Meanwhile 6 points from 12 in the Bundesliga this month. Not terrible considering we played both Bayern and Wolfsburg but I would have liked to have beaten at least one of them at home.

We're two points behind Bayern but it's still really tight at the top of the table!

[PaulHartman71]

January

A pretty quiet month given Germany's winter break. Garay left the club for £2.1M - just under £8M less than what I originally paid for him :o A young Belgian regen CB by the name of Laurent Denis came in for £1.5M to replace him as 4th choice. He wont play much but is definitely one for the future at Dortmund - I wont be here long enough to see if he'll become that good though.

A nice won over Koln but another slip up, this time away to Frankfurt, sees us drop more points on Bayern and we're now 4 points behind them in 2nd place.

[PaulHartman71]

February

Dresden took us to extra-time but Icardi managed to secure a hat-trick which in turn secured our place in the Semi Final. We will play RB Leipzig.

We went 2-0 down thanks to a brace from none other than Daniel Sturridge - his impressive runs and finishes are not so nice to watch when they're against you. Mertens managed to pull one back with an impressive free-kick just before half-time and Hummels equalised early into the second-half. It will be tough to progress given that they've scored two away goals but I hope I can go to The Emirates and win like I used to do on a weekly basis there.

13 points from 15 this month as we only dropped points away to 6th place Mainz. We're 2 points behind Bayern with the same goal difference. We still Bayern, Schalke, Wolfsburg away and Leverkusen at home before the season is over.

[dllu]

Could we get a SS of Sven Bender? Mostly because it's just an awesome name...

[PaulHartman71]

Sven Bender

[PaulHartman71]

March

A pretty gutting return to the Emirates Stadium for me in the end. It was 0-0 for 80 minutes and we came close to nicking a goal a few times. We gave away a penalty late on though and Ozil stepped up to score it. Overall considering we didn't have Bender or Khedira due to injury and only a half fit Marco Reus it wasn't a terrible result but still disappointing to go out.

A decent month in the league including comfortable wins over Gladbach and a tight fought 2-0 over Leverkusen. We lost away from home in a big game again though as Schalke beat us 2-1.

We've got just 6 games remaining to pip Bayern to the title. We're level on goal difference and 3 points behind them. We do of course still have Bayern away which will surely decide the title. Apart from that game and Wolfsburg away the rest of our games aren't too difficult with mid-table sides at home or relegation battling sides away. I'm not that optimistic that we can beat Bayern away from home even with everyone fit, but who knows what could happen!

[PaulHartman71]

April

We were taken to extra-time yet again but this time it was Bacca who scored a hat-trick to put us into the final. We face Bayern in what will be a very difficult final.

The Bundesliga dream is over as a 2-0 loss in Munich seals our fate. It's disappointing to again lose out but Bayern do have an extremely talented side unfortunately.