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

[PaulHartman71]

Congratulations to the clever people who guessed Getafe! You've won yourselves some imaginary money!

deltablue moves up to 3rd and apchivers is our new leader!

• 
  

BET-PH71:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Username       Bets Made      Bets Won     Bets Lost     Balance
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
apchivers          4              2            2         £34.00
SounessTash        2              1            1         £28.00
deltablue          4              2            2         £13.00
sherwinriga        2              1            1         £11.00
GDH38              1              0            1          £8.00
MDH2001            1              0            1          £8.00
DodgeeD            2              0            2          £7.00
ManUTactician247   2              0            2          £7.00
Lenzar             3              0            3          £5.00
Cougar2010         3              0            3          £5.00
Maw74              2              0            2          £5.00
Kalemlyco          4              0            4          £4.00
Wavelberry         2              0            2          £4.00
Nobby_McDonald     1              0            1          £0.00
nie jem frytek     1              0            1          £0.00

[PaulHartman71]

Getafe finished in 17th place last season and their manager was sacked as a result of this. They seem to have floated around 7th-10th since the game started so it seems understandable that he would've been sacked for finishing that close to the relegation zone. There doesn't seem to be too much of a transfer budget so I'll have to make do with the current squad and/or get a few players in on the cheap - it would be nice to get in some Everton players if possible.

I was hoping for a job opportunity at Granada as they seem more like an Everton in La Liga as they've been finishing 5th/6th but I suppose that's sort of why the Granada job hasn't been/wasn't available. Genoa would've been an interesting one but they've just gone up as Serie B champions so was no chance of that job being on offer either.

[PaulHartman71]

June

There's no such thing as an easy summer for international managers! I started the summer by winning the Nations League. I'm not sure how prestigious it is considering the games are glorified friendlies - but it's nice to unofficially be the best team in Europe! We then went on to comfortably beat Bosnia at home and then get an okay away draw against Bulgaria. I fully expect us to top the group without too much difficulty - though I don't want to underestimate Serbia too much. This set of games also saw the emergence of a young regen striker called William Nzuzi - I'm sure it's not a direct result of it but since his international debut and goals he's now being chased by a lot of big clubs. I take full credit and hope to sign him one day!

[PaulHartman71]

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
2017/18    Borussia Dortmund   Bundesliga        2nd           Euro Super Cup & German Super Cup winners
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017       Cameroon            N/A               N/A           Confederations Cup runners up 
2018       Cameroon            N/A               N/A           N/A
2019       Cameroon            N/A               N/A           African Cup of Nations winners 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19    Dinamo Moscow       Russian PL        2nd           Russian Cup winners
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019/20    Everton             Premier League    2nd           N/A
2020/21    Everton             Premier League    7th           League Cup winners, Champions League runners up
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2020       France              N/A               N/A           N/A
2021       France              N/A               N/A           European Nations League winner

Trophy Cabinet

[u][b]International
[/b][/u]
African Cup of Nations  x1 - 2019 (Cameroon)

European Nations League x1 - 2021 (France)


[u][b]Continental[/b][/u] 

Europa League       x1 - 2016/17 (Borussia Dortmund) 
European Super Cup  x1 - 2017/18 (Borussia Dortmund)

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

Premier League x1 - 2015/16 (Arsenal)
League Cup     x2 - 2014/15 (Arsenal), 2020/21 (Everton)

[b][u]Germany[/u]
[/b]
German Cup        x1 - 2016/17 (Borussia Dortmund)
German Super Cup  x1 - 2017/18 (Borussia Dortmund)

[u][b]Russia[/b][/u]

Russian Cup x1 - 2018/19 (Dinamo Moscow)

[deltablue]

Twice in one lifetime? When you're hot, you're hot

[PaulHartman71]

July/August

I wasn't given a huge budget by Getafe but I still managed to get in a fair few players. Ander Herrera comes in on a free and should be first choice CM. I had him on loan at Everton in my first season and barely played him but tbf I had a lot better options at the time. Joel Kone is a young Ivorian CB - I didn't sign him he was already joining but he seems decent enough to be rotation/back-up and they paid peanuts for him. I got in Bakary Kone and Seamus Coleman from my old club Everton and they should both slot in to the first choice back four. Kone didn't play much for me during my time at Everton but he was always okay when I did play him. Seamus Coleman was a solid RB and I'm surprised even at his age that Everton let him go for so little. Alvaro Morato comes in for £2.2M from Real Sociedad - I think he's so cheap because since the game started he's pretty much been a rotation back-up for Villarreal first and then Sociedad - he's scored just 31 goals since the game started but I'm confident with regular first team football he'll be fine.

Kiko Casilla joins me from another old side Dinamo Moscow. I signed him during my time there and he was always very solid for me so I was delighted when I saw him available at such a good price. Kenneth Omeruo was my final transfer and he joins for £1.9M from Real Madrid's reserve side - he should also be first choice CB with Kone.

That should be our first choice side for most of the season unless anyone is notably poor. I'm not hugely familiar with a lot of the squad as have only seen them in a few friendlies but I should get to know them as the season goes on. Of the players that were already here when I arrived - Bryan Rabello and Pablo Sarabia seem to be the real stand-out players.

The board are expecting me to finish "above mid-table" which I'm assuming means like 7-9th? I've got some good players in and the first 11 is decent enough - I'm hoping I can achieve what they want but I am conscious that the core of this side finished 17th last season.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Your alphabet challenge is turning blue.

[PaulHartman71]

August

A pretty good start to the season - despite not having any really difficult games we've got 7 points from our first 3 games which isn't too bad really.

[PaulHartman71]

September

I was in action with France again this month and we had two more crucial World Cup qualifiers including a tricky trip to Serbia. We managed to win both games 3-1 though with Anthony Martial in fine form.

We're looking pretty comfortable to qualify top of the group

[PaulHartman71]

September

September was pretty decent. We got a point away to Granada and won twice at home against Celta Vigo and Sevilla - Sevilla had a man sent off early into the second half which gave us a man advantage and really helped us to snatch all 3 points. The only downside this month was losing 4-1 to Atletico Madrid but tbf the score-line was quite harsh as it was a very even game - they scored a late penalty and a last minute goal from a corner, in which was otherwise a quite even game.

[apchivers]

Good start to the season with Getafe there!

[PaulHartman71]

October

I had two more World Cup qualifiers this month. We started off terribly with a 2-0 away loss to Bosnia which put quite a lot of pressure on our home tie with Bulgaria as if we'd lost it I think Bulgaria would've been confirmed as group winners. We got an early goal in that one through Griezmann though and the rest of the game was quite comfortable.

We still have Serbia at home which could be tricky but we should definitely beat whipping boys Latvia away which would confirm our place in the World Cup as group winners.

[PaulHartman71]

October

We continued our good start to the season in October. A poor away performance against Valencia aside, we did pretty well considering we had a few injuries - Lucas and Sarabia both spent most of the month out injured, with Morata getting injured late into the 1-1 draw against Espanyol. Morata is out for 3 months which is a big blow considering his good form - Carlos Robles and Pedro Guijarro, both young strikers that have come through the ranks, will be battling it out to be #1 striker until Morata returns. We beat Rayo and Gimastic both at home despite these injuries and we also picked up a good 3 points away to Las Palmas.

It's still quite early on but it's nice to be as high as 4th place. We do still have both Barcelona and Real Madrid to play of course - it will be interesting to see how I get on against those compared to how I did with Everton last year.

[PaulHartman71]

November

We picked up two more wins to secure our place at the top of the group. We can now look forward to the World Cup in peace! Martial managed to reclaim his position as 1st choice striker with some very impressive performances.

[PaulHartman71]

November

Another pretty okay month in the league. We picked up a nice 2-0 home win to Real Sociedad which saw Carlos Robles score again. We lost 3-1 away to Bilbao which was disappointing especially as we took the lead in the first half - we have a habit of switching off late in the game in away games which I need to iron out. We do currently have a bit of an injury crisis with Morata, Lucas and Sarabia all out which has significantly weakened our front line but that's no excuse to be shipping 3 goals as at least two of them could've been avoided. I'll take the 0-0 with Villarreal as we didn't look like scoring all game so I look at it more as a point gained than 2 points dropped because if Villarreal had more about them we would have lost it.

We're still 4th despite a less than impressive month. We don't actually play Barca or Real until January so could very well still be in the top 4 at Christmas as we only have bottom place Osasuna and 14th place Elche to play - though they are both away games and we're a bit ropey away so who knows.

[PaulHartman71]

December

We've unfortunately gone out of the Spanish Cup quite early. We still had a fair few injuries going into these games so I wasn't massively confident, especially for the away tie where we were found out and lost 3-0. We took the lead very early on in the home game which gave us some hope but we couldn't find the two more goals we needed to take it to extra time. I don't think we have the depth for a cup run this season anyway.

Osasuna are a very poor team and made us look a lot better than we actually are. I was actually pretty disappointed to let in two against them - both of which came in the last 10 minutes of the game. We should really have beaten Elche at their place but we just couldn't get a goal - Morata can't come back soon enough!

Still top 4 just about!

[PaulHartman71]

January

The board gave me the option of upping the expected finish to a Europa League finish in order for a few more £M - of course I did this as I was keen to get 1 or 2 players in.

Victor Alvarez, a LB, joins as Escudero hasn't been particularly brilliant and my only other LB is a youth prospect. Mertens also joins on the cheap as we need more depth at both wing positions and CAM - this marks the 4th time I've signed Mertens

##

A poor performance at home to Barcelona but they are a very good side. An unreal result at Madrid though! It was a close game a 1-1 but for the last 20 minutes Madrid were absolutely all over us and Ronaldo had several very good chances to give them the winner but he kept missing. The in the 90th minute he pops up and heads it home - it was absolutely gutting to lose out on a point so late on. But Alvaro Morata - the ex Madrid man had other ideas! In the dying seconds he gets the ball on the outside of the box and absolutely smashes it into the top corner to secure a fantastic away point for us!

We then got 7 points from 9 in our next 3 games which included a very strong 3-0 away win at Betis. We were quite poor against Levante with a Sarabia hat-trick making sure we secured a point.

We're down to 5th which is probably about where we should be as Valencia and Atletico are better sides than us. I'd be very pleased if we could end the season 5th. A long way to go though!

[PaulHartman71]

February

A pretty awful month. We got outclassed at Sevilla and absolutely hammered at home at Atletico despite taking an early lead. We did manage to batter Celta Vigo away though - they were absolutely awful - I subbed Morata off just after he scored his 4th (which he weren't pleased with ) if I'd get kept him on we might have hit double figures.

We're still quite comfortably 5th with Atletico now considerably ahead of us in 4th. I'm hoping we don't continue this run of bad form as Villarreal, Betis and Bilbao could catch us if we're not careful.

[deltablue]

Still doing well I feel.

[PaulHartman71]

March

A massive improvement this month. We did lose 2-0 at home to Valencia but we won all 3 of our other matches including two away ties to Rayo and Gimnastique - the latter saw us come from behind to snatch a last minute winner which was great.

We're still 5th and are currently 5 points off 4th and 5 points off 6th. We do still have Barcelona and Real Madrid to play - which are actually are last two games of the season.

[PaulHartman71]

April

We continued our good home form this month and unfortunately also continued our poor away form - we almost stole a point late on against Sociedad but Morata's shot hit the bar. Not sure how we lost 4-1 to Villarreal it was 2-1 in the 80th minute and had been a close game - like many away games this season it ended up in a rout thanks to a few late goals.

We have 16th place Elche at home and then Barca away and Madrid at home. I'm resigned to missing out on 5th place now - I'm hoping we can hang on to 6th which I think would still get us Europa League next season.

[PaulHartman71]

May

A pretty decent end to the season. A comfortable win at home to Elche before an inevitable defeat to the champions Barcelona who have been in incredible form this season - Barbosa has scored 42 La Liga goals for them - despite only starting 20 games ffs We then pulled off another draw with Real Madrid - with another Morata goal against his old side - this draw kept us 5th which is great, despite the fact we would have still got Europa even with 6th.

[PaulHartman71]

Season 8 - (G)etafe

I wasn't sure what the team was capable of this season - after they finished 17th last season and almost went down I was a bit anxious but the team wasn't that bad at all. I was surprised we managed to end up 5th as I expected to drop down to 6th or 7th at the end but we held on and if I stay for next season there is Europa League football on offer. I'm a bit disappointed to go out of the Spanish Cup so early but we didn't really have the squad for a cup run. I will need to get some recruits in next season with the extra Europa League games.

Squad pt 1, Squad pt 2

Pablo Sarabia was by far the stand-out player with Lucas and Morata both big parts of the side too.

GK - Kiko Casilla was pretty competent keeper - though at 35 now he's not a long term option and he did let in the odd easy goal here and there.

DR - Coleman was okay at right back - he wasn't as good as he was for me for Everton last season and was quite injury prone.

DL - Escudero was first choice before January - he was alright but nothing special. Victor Alvarez came in during January and did slightly better.

DC - Bakary Kone and Kenneth Omeruo were a solid partnership - Omerou the better player by a fair distance though. The young Ivorian that was signed prior to me taking over - Joel Kone - was the 3rd choice and he was okay despite being very green at times. He's got a lot of potential so I'm sure he'll be a big part of the club in the long run if he stays around.

DM - Oriol Rossell was very good and we were lucky he didn't get injured at all during the season.

MC - Ander Herrera was okay at CM but he was lucky he didn't really have any competition as he wasn't setting the world on fire.

AMR - Lucas did a good job when he was fit - this wasn't that often though as he started just 18 games. Two of my youth strikers - Pedro Guijarro and Carlos Robbles- who are also okay on the wing generally covered for him here with Pedro looking relatively impressive at times. Mertens also played here occasionally after Christmas.

AML - Sarabia was by far our best player with 16 assists and 13 goals - there's a lot of interest in him and it will be hard to keep him - but if we can he'll be very important next year.

CAM - Bryan Rabello was good but I feel like a player of his ability could have contributed more than he did - he got 8 assists and 12 goals - which is good but he's capable of better, he also misplaced a lot of passes which could have lead to goals which was irritating.

ST - Morata was good when fit - 16 goals and 8 assists in 28 games - unfortunately for us he was out for a fair bit. Carlos Robles and Pedro Guijarro played here every now and then - they're not finished articles yet but they were decent especially considering before I gave them a shot they'd only every played LIGA adelante football.

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
2017/18    Borussia Dortmund   Bundesliga        2nd           Euro Super Cup & German Super Cup winners
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017       Cameroon            N/A               N/A           Confederations Cup runners up 
2018       Cameroon            N/A               N/A           N/A
2019       Cameroon            N/A               N/A           African Cup of Nations winners 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19    Dinamo Moscow       Russian PL        2nd           Russian Cup winners
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019/20    Everton             Premier League    2nd           N/A
2020/21    Everton             Premier League    7th           League Cup winners. Champions League runners up
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2020       France              N/A               N/A           N/A
2021       France              N/A               N/A           European Nations League winner
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2021/22    Getafe              La Liga           5th           N/A

Trophy Cabinet

[u][b]International
[/b][/u]
African Cup of Nations  x1 - 2019 (Cameroon)

European Nations League x1 - 2021 (France)


[u][b]Continental[/b][/u] 

Europa League       x1 - 2016/17 (Borussia Dortmund) 
European Super Cup  x1 - 2017/18 (Borussia Dortmund)

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

Premier League x1 - 2015/16 (Arsenal)
League Cup     x2 - 2014/15 (Arsenal), 2020/21 (Everton)

[b][u]Germany[/u]
[/b]
German Cup        x1 - 2016/17 (Borussia Dortmund)
German Super Cup  x1 - 2017/18 (Borussia Dortmund)

[u][b]Russia[/b][/u]

Russian Cup x1 - 2018/19 (Dinamo Moscow)

[PaulHartman71]

The World Cup is upon us and I've named my squad! Our first 11 should look something like this:

We've taken part in our warm-up friendlies already...

A disappointing loss to my old side but a comfortable win over Scotland to boost morale and then we absolutely tonked Al-Sadd in our last one.

We have a decent group and I think I'll cry if we don't get through it. It is worth noting that England are current World champions.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Well done qualifying for Europe. Good luck in the World Cup.

[PaulHartman71]

World Cup

A perfect group stage for us. A comfortable 3-1 win over China opened our tournament. We then faced the biggest challenge - reigning champions, England. It was a very tight match, we went 1-0 up just before half-time but England equalised soon after through The Ox. It looked like we were going to have a draw which would have been a decent result but Lacazette popped up in the dying seconds to win the match for us which was a huge boost. We then thumped Morocco 4-0 despite resting a lot of players which was great to see.

Australia aren't a great side really - this was a very nice draw and it was a very comfortable game despite the fact we didn't take the lead until just before the hour mark. Australia could have nicked a goal soon after but they hit the post and then Griezzman finished them off in the 80th minute.

I wasn't massively concerned about the game with Portugal as I noticed when we drew them that they'd barely got out of their group with Nigeria, Ecuador and Jamaica then narrowly beat Denmark in the 2nd Round on penalties so I wasn't expecting them to be amazing. Thankfully they weren't and we comfortably beat them 4-0 to reach the Semi Final.

I was very pleased we drew Croatia especially as the alternatives were Spain or Brazil. Croatia seemed very lucky to have got this far - they did navigate their way through a group containing Belgium, Colombia and Japan but they'd only had to be South Korea and the USA to get to the Semi Final. They were a tough side to beat as they equalised soon after Nzuzi scored the opener, but Schmid put us 2-1 up early in the 2nd half and they just couldn't break us down to get a second.

Brazil were definitely one of the teams I was worried about playing in this tournament. They were probably: Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Germany, England, Italy and and Belgium. I've played against Neymar and Barbosa this season so I know what the Brazilian attackers are capable of. But I did notice in the Copa America final in 2019, Brazil lost 7-0 () to Argentina so I did wonder how good defensively they were. But they had beaten Italy, Colombia and Spain to get to the final which is no small feat and was certainly a trickier run than we had. It was a close game as they equalised soon after we went 1-0 up and I was pretty worried when the players seemed to be getting tired in the second half. Then Paul Pogba smashed in a free-kick to put us 2-1 up and William Nzuzi scored 5 minutes later which gave us a 3-1 lead which was ultimately enough to win us the World Cup.

I'm delighted to have won the World Cup as I wasn't really expecting it - we have a very good side but I looked at sides like Argentina, Spain, Germany and even England and felt that if we got to the Semi Final it would have been a good achievement. To win the thing is fantastic though!

[PaulHartman71]

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
2017/18    Borussia Dortmund   Bundesliga        2nd           Euro Super Cup & German Super Cup winners
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017       Cameroon            N/A               N/A           Confederations Cup runners up 
2018       Cameroon            N/A               N/A           N/A
2019       Cameroon            N/A               N/A           African Cup of Nations winners 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19    Dinamo Moscow       Russian PL        2nd           Russian Cup winners
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019/20    Everton             Premier League    2nd           N/A
2020/21    Everton             Premier League    7th           League Cup winners. Champions League runners up
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2020       France              N/A               N/A           N/A
2021       France              N/A               N/A           European Nations League winner
2022       France              N/A               N/A           World Cup winner
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2021/22    Getafe              La Liga           5th           N/A

Trophy Cabinet

[u][b]International
[/b][/u]
African Cup of Nations  x1 - 2019 (Cameroon)

European Nations League x1 - 2021 (France)

World Cup               x1 - 2022 (France)


[u][b]Continental[/b][/u] 

Europa League       x1 - 2016/17 (Borussia Dortmund) 
European Super Cup  x1 - 2017/18 (Borussia Dortmund)

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

Premier League x1 - 2015/16 (Arsenal)
League Cup     x2 - 2014/15 (Arsenal), 2020/21 (Everton)

[b][u]Germany[/u]
[/b]
German Cup        x1 - 2016/17 (Borussia Dortmund)
German Super Cup  x1 - 2017/18 (Borussia Dortmund)

[u][b]Russia[/b][/u]

Russian Cup x1 - 2018/19 (Dinamo Moscow)

[PaulHartman71]

It's that time again! There is now extra help in the form of screenshots showing how the teams got on last year.

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!
  

BET-PH71:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Username       Bets Made      Bets Won     Bets Lost     Balance
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
apchivers          4              2            2         £34.00
SounessTash        2              1            1         £28.00
deltablue          4              2            2         £13.00
sherwinriga        2              1            1         £11.00
GDH38              1              0            1          £8.00
MDH2001            1              0            1          £8.00
DodgeeD            2              0            2          £7.00
ManUTactician247   2              0            2          £7.00
Lenzar             3              0            3          £5.00
Cougar2010         3              0            3          £5.00
Maw74              2              0            2          £5.00
Kalemlyco          4              0            4          £4.00
Wavelberry         2              0            2          £4.00
Nobby_McDonald     1              0            1          £0.00
nie jem frytek     1              0            1          £0.00

Holland - (Evens)

Hoffenheim - 3/1

Hibernian - 4/1

Hearts - 5/1

Hull City - 6/1

Hertha - 6/1

Hannover - 7/1

Hamburg - 10/1

Hungary - 15/1

[Kalemlyco]

hmm I so want it to be Hungry... £1 on Hungry please!

[PaulHartman71]

Well I am hungry for success

[apchivers]

Going to back the favourites and go £4 on Holland - leaving France on a high after the World Cup win!

[Nobby_McDonald]

Well done winning the World Cup.

I'm going £5 into my overdraft and say Hoffenheim. It can't be Holland as they are Netherlands.

[Darius1998]

£1 on Hibernian.

[LeedsUnitedFan2]

Go on, I'll bite - £2.00 on Hungary

[PaulHartman71]

[Kalemlyco]

This best be a tease and you've actually signed for Hungry!

[PaulHartman71]

BET-PH71:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Username       Bets Made      Bets Won     Bets Lost     Balance
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
apchivers          5              3            2         £38.00
SounessTash        2              1            1         £28.00
deltablue          4              2            2         £13.00
sherwinriga        2              1            1         £11.00
DB08               1              0            1          £9.00
GDH38              1              0            1          £8.00
MDH2001            1              0            1          £8.00
LeedsUnitedFan2    1              0            1          £8.00
DodgeeD            2              0            2          £7.00
ManUTactician247   2              0            2          £7.00
Lenzar             3              0            3          £5.00
Cougar2010         3              0            3          £5.00
Maw74              2              0            2          £5.00
Wavelberry         2              0            2          £4.00
Kalemlyco          5              0            5          £3.00
nie jem frytek     1              0            1          £0.00
Nobby_McDonald     2              0            2         £-5.00

[Lenzar]

Shouldn't your 'H' team be under N for Netherlands?

Apparently calling it Holland is much like calling the UK 'England'.

[dllu]

Apparently calling it Holland is much like calling the UK 'England'.

True, but seems fair to me to just stick with the "official" FM names.

Edit: Although, at the risk of incurring the wrath of the entire Greek nation, counting FYR Macedonia as an "F" team would just be silly. So call me a hippocrite...

[Nobby_McDonald]

It's officially Netherlands.

[dllu]

In the game as well? Hmm...they must have changed that for 14 or 15.

Still, I'll happily accept "Holland". I would have accepted it under O for "Orange Losers" as well... *ducks the flying clogs*

[PaulHartman71]

July/August

I wasn't expecting much of a transfer budget even after qualifying for the Europa League as we're not the richest club and La Liga doesn't give out much money unless you're Barcelona or Real Madrid. Pablo Sarabia was our best player last season and with Real Madrid interested I was hoping to cash in on him (he wanted to leave anyway) - I expected to get around £13/14M which would have given us around £20M give or take to spend this summer.

It turns out that Sarabia had a buy back clause in his contract/previous transfer from Real Madrid for £3.7M! Losing our best player for £3.7M was the equivalent of daylight robbery - they might as well have just taken him for nothing!

The squad isn't too bad though and there's a fair few youngsters breaking through in various positions so I took the £4/5M or so that I had and spent it on some experienced players - a few familiar faces!

Fellaini joins on a bosman after his contract at Everton expired - he should challenge Ander Herrrera for a spot in the first team and he can also fill in at DM and CAM. Jonny Evans also joins from my old side Everton, a capable CB and he's also capable of playing at RB after I retrained him there (and whoever took over at Everton used him at RB since I signed Coleman). Cristian Tello joins to replace Sarabia at LW - Tello featured a bit as a squad player for me at Dortmund, he'll get much more game time for me this time. My final signing was Danny Welbeck. I was delighted to get Dat Guy as he was a big player for me at Arsenal - who just released him on a free transfer. He probably wont be starting but he can certainly challenge Morata for a spot in the first team. He can also fill in at LW as well which is handy.

We've started the season relatively well - a big 4-0 win away to Elche and two decent home points against Sevilla and Real Sociedad.

I'm not sure we can make the top 4 as we're still on a very tight budget - but I definitely feel like we can challenge for it - we were 7 points off Atletico last time, if Morata can stay fit and score goals, with other squad members staying fit too then we have every chance to do something.

We've got a decent Europa League group. It's nice to draw my old side Borussia Dortmund. Yenisey should be the whipping boys - I'm not sure how good Fiorentina are though so that should be an interesting challenge.

[PaulHartman71]

September

My start to life as Holland manager has been okay. Apart from Memphis Depay and Tim Mulder (a regen CB for Barcelona who is world class) the rest of the team is pretty average and I definitely don't have the same depth I had with France. There's a few decent players here and there like Zivkovic, Van Ginkel and Davy Klaasen but they're not the same level as the world champions I was managing a few months back.

We beat Belgium somewhat luckily - we were 1-0 down and looked awful until Zivkovic equalised. We were hanging on for the point in all honesty when we lucked out and grabbed a goal from a corner to win it. Spain found us out though and beat us 2-1 and probably should have got 3 or 4 past us. I'm resigned to Spain winning this group and progressing to the Semi Final, but who knows what could happen?!

[PaulHartman71]

yeah so about keeping everyone fit...

[PaulHartman71]

September

Not the best run as we've really struggled away from home - the injury crisis and the extra European games has not helped us so far.

A disappointing loss to Dortmund but they were always gonna be favorites for the group. We won 1-0 away in Russia though.

[PaulHartman71]

October

Not much to shout about this month. A decent 3-1 away win to Celta Vigo and a nice 4-2 in at home to Almeria but a disappointing loss to Atletico at home, then two away losses to Granada and Valladolid.

Now down to 12th place /o\

We did beat Fiorentina in the Europa League though which puts us in 2nd place! Morata joins the injury list as he is now out for 4/5 weeks - though tbf he wasn't in very good form anyway.

[PaulHartman71]

October

A pretty awful game away to Belgium saw us lose and go bottom of the group. If we don't get anything against Spain we could be relegated - I'm not that bothered about the Nations League though. I'm not getting great vibes from this Holland side though. Be lucky to qualify for the Euros at this rate

[PaulHartman71]

November

A decent 0-0 away draw to Fiorentina and a huge late comeback in Dortmund including an injury time penalty, means that if we beat Yenisey we are through.

A slightly disappointing 1-1 draw away to Betis and losses to Barca and Valencia but the highlight of this month was puling off a massive 2-0 win against Real Madrid at home.

This month also saw Carlos Robles turn it on in the absence of Morata and Welbeck - he impressed me last season and the young prospect has taken his chance so far - the Spanish Harry Kane!

[PaulHartman71]

Where's the "WOAH MAN!! YOUR HAIR!!! WTF?!?! option

[PaulHartman71]

I mentioned the injuries (which is a clear "excuse") and he weren't having it. I wasn't prepared to beg for my job like a mug when I've taken this side from 17th place to 5th, as well as the Europa League knockout stages as well as just having beat Real Madrid 2-0 - all on a shoestring budget. I went ballsy and told him that sacking me would be stupid as the club needs stability - was prepared to get sacked for it but thankfully I wasn't