[FM18] The Dynamics of telling you to shove your transfer request up y- a journeyman career

[cerud]

Man City helping Man United. Wow...

This is the FM'd of all FM'ing...

Hurts the feeling places inside me.

[deltablue]

That's an insanely narrow margin to miss out by.

[noikeee]

4 hours ago, Rikulec said:

Oh dear.

Oh dear indeed.
 

3 hours ago, Fer Fuchs Ake said:

That is just gutting. 

I thought you'd like this, surely you can appreciate the idea of a 92nd minute Man City goal giving Man Utd the title. 
 

3 hours ago, cerud said:

Man City helping Man United. Wow...

This is the FM'd of all FM'ing...

Hurts the feeling places inside me.

Beyond the absurdity of Man City scoring on the 92nd to give Utd the title, I think we also can't dissociate this from 2 other absurd things:

a) The 5-1 loss to Utd in the penultimate day. Utd score 1 less that day, and we win the title instead.

b) The fact that by the end of March we had a 5 points lead with 2 games in hand.

It really is one of the biggest meltdowns I've ever had happen to one of my teams on FM. And I pin this down 100% on my complacency of playing attacking mentality all season long, no breaks, no exceptions. The tactics I used this year seem fine, my management of them wasn't fine.
 

30 minutes ago, deltablue said:

That's an insanely narrow margin to miss out by.

Well, it's not even the first time I had this happen to me (3 years ago, we lost the Premier League to Chelsea on goal difference). And back in Denmark I once lost a promotion on goals scored. 

 

---------------------

Now only the Europa League final to come... I'm not sure winning that would save the season, but would at least finish it on a higher note. Will try to play it tonight if I find the time.

[Fer Fuchs Ake]

21 minutes ago, noikeee said:

I thought you'd like this, surely you can appreciate the idea of a 92nd minute Man City goal giving Man Utd the title. 

 

I'dbe overjoyed if it happened in real life but to see someone lose the PL to goal difference in FM? Ugh, I feel pain from that and it didn't even happen to me!

[Mark Heath]

wow, gutting to miss out on the title like that!

[john1]

Wow! How dare Man City help their local rival to the title  

[noikeee]

7 hours ago, Fer Fuchs Ake said:

 

I'dbe overjoyed if it happened in real life but to see someone lose the PL to goal difference in FM? Ugh, I feel pain from that and it didn't even happen to me!

 

4 hours ago, Mark Heath said:

wow, gutting to miss out on the title like that!

 

4 hours ago, john1 said:

Wow! How dare Man City help their local rival to the title  

I think you guys are more annoyed than I am, I'm just amused with the implausibility of all this.

Also I think I need to make a quick recap for how silly this end of the season has been. Here's all the swings at the top of the table:

up to game 36 - Derby top

game 37 before minute 37 - Derby top
game 37, minute 37, Man Utd score the 4th - Man Utd top
game 37, minute 47, Derby reduce - Derby top
game 37, minute 80, Man Utd score - Man Utd top

game 38 before minute 42 - Man Utd top
game 38, minute 42, Derby score the 2nd - Derby top
game 38, minute 50, Man Utd score the 2nd - Man Utd top
game 38, minute 58, Derby score the 3rd - Derby top
game 38, minute 65, Man Utd score the 3rd - Man Utd top
game 38, minute 81, Derby score the 4th - Derby top
game 38, minute 92, Man City score - Man Utd top

 

[Borussia Teeth]

Devastating

[Northernpilgrim]

Gutted for you mate, tough ending to take. Next season will be yours.

[SmileFaceGamer]

2 hours ago, Northernpilgrim said:

Gutted for you mate, tough ending to take. Next season will be yours.

False pilgrim would be a better name lol, gutted @noikeee, absolutely gutting

[ManUtd1]

That was brutal, man. Not just the United match, but losing the title like that in the 91st.

It was like Agueeeerrro in reverse, mostly the same but not really. At the same time. I realize that makes virtually no sense... Except that it does.

[Northernpilgrim]

1 hour ago, SmileFaceGamer said:

False pilgrim would be a better name lol, gutted @noikeee, absolutely gutting

We were founded in 1886, Boston not until 1933. Therefore if there is such a thing as false Pilgrims, it's Boston not Argyle

[SmileFaceGamer]

5 hours ago, Northernpilgrim said:

We were founded in 1886, Boston not until 1933. Therefore if there is such a thing as false Pilgrims, it's Boston not Argyle

Yes, but where were the Pilgrim fathers born... Boston, so please for the love of CHRIST LEARN TO DEFEND BOOKER, get a new nickname

[Makoto Nakamura]

How I feel about this conversation. 

[deltablue]

Given the nickname refers to something that happened in the 17th century and both places can claim links it's irrelevant which football club happened to be first so this pointless argument in this thread ends here.

[SmileFaceGamer]

19 hours ago, deltablue said:

Given the nickname refers to something that happened in the 17th century and both places can claim links it's irrelevant which football club happened to be first so this pointless argument in this thread ends here.

Fair enough

[OhhScottySinclair]

What skin have you been using towards the end of this save?

[DavidBeckham]

Incredibly unlucky mate  I'm rooting for you next season even if I'm a Man United fan. KUTGW mate!

[kidthekid]

Oh dear...just caught up. Tough one but congrats on the Europa

[noikeee]

On 01/03/2018 at 08:55, Borussia Teeth said:

Devastating

 

On 01/03/2018 at 12:20, Northernpilgrim said:

Gutted for you mate, tough ending to take. Next season will be yours.

 

On 01/03/2018 at 15:04, ManUtd1 said:

That was brutal, man. Not just the United match, but losing the title like that in the 91st.

It was like Agueeeerrro in reverse, mostly the same but not really. At the same time. I realize that makes virtually no sense... Except that it does.

 

On 07/03/2018 at 08:45, DavidBeckham said:

Incredibly unlucky mate  I'm rooting for you next season even if I'm a Man United fan. KUTGW mate!

I'm back after a few days away... thanks for all the good luck wishes. Looks like what I need to do is to lose big time in spectacular fashion, to get so many people invested in this story. 

 

 

 

On 06/03/2018 at 17:07, OhhScottySinclair said:

What skin have you been using towards the end of this save?

It's called "Wannachup-FM18-Dark". I liked this one because it's similar to the original skin, just adds a few features here and there (like the instant result button). Then I slightly tweaked the attribute colors for players.

 

On 08/03/2018 at 02:50, kidthekid said:

Oh dear...just caught up. Tough one but congrats on the Europa

Dude... I haven't played the Europa final yet. Thanks for the jinx now. 

[noikeee]

Europa League final

 

After the massive letdown at the end of the Premier League season, we're off to Rotterdam to play Benfica in the Europa League final. I'm not sure adding the Europa trophy to the League Cup trophy we won earlier, would be enough to save this season, but an European trophy's an European trophy.
 

Let's check out the 11s here:

We have a huge absence, Colombian striker Óscar Navarro got injured in the final PL match. Only fit at 81%, I decide to pass him up completely and field Spruit next to Hopkins upfront, with the likes of Jenas and Mercier on the bench. Argentinian midfielder Matías Bastianini is still not fit yet. Several players are still a little tired, example both fullbacks Carlos César and Iacopo Baroncelli will start at 91% fitness, the same level as Ömer Özdemir and Warre Maes.


 

Minute 7: GOAL FOR DERBY! 1-0! Warre Maes' corner finds a free Serban Petcu at the first post, and the Romanian centre-back volleys it in!!

 

Minute 43: Benfica hits the bar!! It's forward Anaxis Dinsifwa who hits it a bit too accurately after being released free!

Half-time: We've started well but Benfica have looked better after our goal, and we're slightly fortunate to be ahead. That being said, both teams are having chances and we could've scored another, too.

 

Minute 47: GOAL FOR BENFICA! 1-1! José Moreira's freekick is saved by Barrancos but he only barely tips it, with the ball still hitting the post and going in! A bizarre goal in which our Bolivian goalie hardly looks good in!!

 

Minute 63: GOAL FOR DERBY! 2-1! A quick counter sees Victor Hugo find space down the right, he passes it to Spruit, and the Dutch forward fires in an accurate low shot!

Minute 65: GOAL FOR BENFICA! 2-2! We were only ahead for 2 minutes! Sérgio Pires' low cross finds Hugo Elizondo free at the far post and he fires it in!

Minute 93: GOAL FOR DERBY! 3-2! Is this a late winner?! Substitutes Diego Fratucello and Warren Jenas combine and the Derby youth product fires in what seems to be the winning goal!

Full time: DERBY COUNTY WIN THE EUROPA LEAGUE!!

I think the fact the goal came in the 93th minute makes this a hell of a lot sweeter... specially after the late shock Man City goal against our way in the Premier League finale.

[noikeee]

May 2030

This has all already been covered, although I hadn't shown the results of the West Brom and Bournemouth matches. We were already wildly lucky to beat West Brom with a 95th minute goal, but passed that test... only to crash against Bournemouth. On hindsight, we might've lost the league there. The Man Utd match was a giant shock that gave them the advantage - if a bare minimum advantage, only on 1 goal difference - and then on the final day we all know what happened with that shock 92nd minute Man City goal to give Man Utd the title on goal difference.

We ended the season on a better note by winning the Europa League though. That's another trophy for the club's list, from the possible trophies now we're only missing the FA Cup, the Community Shield, and the FIFA Club World Cup. But I'd love to win the Premier League and/or the Champions League again, those have to be the goals for next season.

 

 

[noikeee]

Derby - 2029/2030 - Season review

A strange season for the club. We looked set to bounce back from last year's disappointments, and had all the momentum in the world to maybe even aim at a quadruple, but then lost the Premier League title at the very last minute by the tiniest of margins, and also lost in the FA Cup semi-finals. However, we win the club's first ever Europa League and League Cup.

Statistics, best 11, and top 5 players of the season

 

5. Diego Fratucello (MR, AMR, ML) - The hiring of Victor Hugo meant the Uruguayan bastard got relegated to the bench in our first 11, and Victor definitely outperformed him in the league even if he's a wildly different player, but Diego continued showing spectacular glimpses of what he can do with amazing performances in the Europa League. Total 12 goals and 17 assists, the vast majority in Europe.

4. Warren Jenas (ST, AML, ML, AMR) - Another player part of the second XI, but he was such a massive asset with 29 goals and 16 assists. The homegrown striker also had a special moment to remember forever as he scored the winner in the Europa League finale - for the only club he has ever played for.

3. Simon Hopkins (ST, ML) - A season of two halves. Astonishingly successful at the beginning as soon as he arrived at the club in the Summer, after a massive 80M€ move from Swansea, he amassed a ton of goals and assists... but then that rate of progress slowed down. A total 24 goals and 23 assists looks great but could've been much more had he kept up.

2. Warre Maes (ML, AML, DL) - At the beginning of the season when I revived the 4-4-2 my idea was to use inverted wingers in our starting XI, so Maes and Fratucello were dropped for Spruit as ML and Victor Hugo as MR. However the good old classic wingers would excel even if given IW roles, and Maes was so amazing in it I ended up promoting him to the main XI anyway. 10 goals and 16 assist is okay if unspectacular, but he got the team's greatest ratings at 7.75.

1. Óscar Navarro (ST, AMR, AML) - Another great season from our Colombian star striker as he got 32 goals just like last year... but increased his number of assists from 7 to 11. All things considered I think he was our best performer this season.
 

Major youth prospects

Connor Neale YP26A (20, ENG) (ST) - Disappointing, a year out on loan to Boro gave him very little playing time and he remains stalled.

Tom Jones YP27A (18, ENG) (AMC, MC) - I'm starting to give him minutes and started him in 3 Europa matches. Needs even more playing time that maybe I can't quite afford.

Mike Woolley YP28C (18, ENG) (ST) - He's a total arse that won't accept tutoring ever, but is coming good. Already looks the equal of Connor Neale and 2 years younger, but maybe not quite as well-rounded physically which I find a defining characteristic in forwards... specially pace, he could have more of it.
 

Career progress table

[kidthekid]

Ha ha, congrats on the Europa League

[Borussia Teeth]

Nice recovery

[Northernpilgrim]

Congrats on the Europa. Champions League next?

[Fer Fuchs Ake]

Given what happened in the league, you certainly deserved a last-minute winner. Congratulations!

[deltablue]

As a Porto man it must be enjoyable beating Benfica of all teams. 

[noikeee]

Houston, we have a problem.

It seems like my advanced expert man-management skills of pressing the "ask xxx to solve team-mate's happiness" button every single time, doesn't work anymore past the patch 18.3.

I might actually have to work to keep my players happy. The nerve of them.

[noikeee]

18 hours ago, kidthekid said:

Ha ha, congrats on the Europa League

 

14 hours ago, Borussia Teeth said:

Nice recovery

 

11 hours ago, Fer Fuchs Ake said:

Given what happened in the league, you certainly deserved a last-minute winner. Congratulations!

Cheers!

 

12 hours ago, Northernpilgrim said:

Congrats on the Europa. Champions League next?

That's certainly the goal, we want to return to the crazy heights of the 27/28 season, in which we won the PL and the CL.

 

10 hours ago, deltablue said:

As a Porto man it must be enjoyable beating Benfica of all teams. 

Absolutely.  I missed mentioning this, but it's the 2nd time we beat them to an European trophy after we'd nabbed the UEFA Supercup off them last year (they won the Europa League 2 years ago).

[noikeee]

European football - 2029/2030

UEFA Champions League

Wow, is there a power shift happening here? For the 2nd year in a row, no English teams in the semi-finals which is a huge deal. Equally notable is that finally, after a 10 year absence we see a Spanish side on a final again, although Barcelona lost to PSG. It seems like we're moving back to something more similar to the present day real life situation, after a decade of relative dominance by all the Premier League sides - for a 10 years period from 2019 to 2028, 7 titles had gone to English sides and always with an English side in the final.

Also, nice to see PAOK making it to the last 16!
 

England

 

This has been well covered here... Derby dominated the season only to suddenly be overtaken by Man Utd at the end, and then it's a last day 92nd minute Man City goal to give Massimiliano Allegri's Man Utd the title. Other interesting news are a freakishly strong season by West Ham making it to 5th place, and the continuing decline of Arsenal who toyed with relegation and finished 14th.

Germany

 

The Bundesliga overtakes the Ligue 1 as the 2nd biggest league in Europe, probably on the back of Schalke's Champions League title last year - I wonder if PSG's title this season will mean they'll switch back positions next year. A Schalke side now managed by former Chelsea boss Ralph Hasenhüttl returned to the top step here, dominating the league and ending Bayern's reign for the past 2 years.

France

 

Antonio Conte engineers what's quite possibly PSG's strongest season ever, as they add an undefeated French title to a Champions League title, and even both French cups for an absolutely magnificent quadruple. Monaco and Marseille seem strong on their own and had reasonably impressive seasons, but are clearly a step behind such a dominant side.

Italy

 

As Serie A overtakes La Liga in reputation, it's a thrilling season with the title going to the last day, and Juventus retaining the title by 1 point over Roma - and Napoli weren't horribly further back neither. Zinedine Zidane has proven a competent replacement for Antonio Conte as Juventus are largely dominating the last few years. Dario Herrera remains an absolute beast of a striker for them.
 

Spain

 

Things are starting to finally seriously change here - as La Liga slips in reputation to an unprecedented 5th, probably on the back of a very long term absence of success at an European scale, it's the same year Barça makes it to the CL final. BUT this proves seriously costly in the league, as they finish 3rd, a long way behind Real Madrid and an absolutely shocking Real Sociedad side that pushes Madrid hard and finishes 2nd! What's more, Atlético also have a bad off-season as they finish 6th and outside the European places.
 

Portugal

 

The Benfica/Mano Menezes domination has no end in sight as they claim a dominant 5th title in a row. Braga finish top 3 again with Sporting merely 4th. Felgueiras and Leiria make very fleeting returns to top level football as both get relegated back to the 2nd level immediately.
 

[noikeee]

Look who's back to England...

He's not been particularly successful in game so I'm far from worried!

[noikeee]

Well whilst the 2030 World Cup plays out, this is proving to be an entertaining pre-season in England!

I was about to splash 113M€ for this absolute beauty of a superstriker that I had already tried to hire last season instead of his Swansea team-mate Simon Hopkins.... It was crazy money, but he's the absolute perfect supporting striker that I need, due to his aerial skills and vision skills, neither of Hopkins and Navarro are anywhere near as good in these vital skill sets.

 

But what happened was this:

Mother****er chose City and Guardiola over us for HALF the money. I was offering him over 600K€/month. I am absolutely fuming! We lose a dream-like ideal player to one of our title rivals no less! That was one of the reasons I was willing to splash that crazy amount of cash, to avoid that happening.

To lighten up the mood, the news came in that Swansea was lining up someone to replace him....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[noikeee]

Our youth products, the pride of the next generation for England. 

[noikeee]

FIFA World Cup 2030 - Italy

40 years after Italia '90, the World Cup returns to Italy... and the home side had a bloody good run, but capitulated at the semi-finals. At the end, it was a very familiar final as we saw a repeat of the Euro 2024 and Euro 2028 decider match - Germany vs England. And just like 2 years ago at the Euros, reigning champions England handed over the trophy to the Germans, now after a rather harsh 4-1 defeat. Derby County centre-back Adie Higginson was one of the players in England's defence made to look like idiots in the San Siro. England were actually one goal up, scored in minute 8 by veteran Dele Alli, but then things would go very wrong.

Europe dominated this World Cup in Europe with all 4 semi-finalists playing in their home continent - Belgium's run here is slightly surprising. Ecuador were probably the biggest shock though, broke France in the round of 16 and made it to the quarter-finals. Argentina were even more shocking as a major negative - they weren't remotely near even qualifying for the tournament, as they finished an absurd 10th place and dead last in the CONMEBOL qualifiers!

 

The awards were dominated by a single man, and he didn't make it to the final. Man City's superstar striker Andrea Spiga was on epic form for Italy, scoring 9 goals in 6 World Cup appearances, and deserves both the Golden Ball and Golden Shoe accolade for best player and top scorer. He should be a big challenger for Ballon d'Or this season.

[noikeee]

Wow, I've just been offered the job of the World Cup losing finalists and Euros losing finalists:

I'm gonna say no because I want to focus on Derby and believe this could drag down the pace of the career, but it's an interesting development. I think this is the first national team job offer I get.

[noikeee]

Pre-season 2030/2031
 

At this stage what we can improve in our squad is limited, so there's always few transfers, but I still always figure a way to splash my entire transfer budget - total 184M€ spent. We again smash our transfer record in a new player, but there were few sales this time - only a total income of 60M€, the largest sales being of forward Alex Ratnage for 25M€ (who I had first signed on loan in my first season for Derby back in the Championship!) and of goalkeeper Carlos Barrancos for 22M€, who I had gotten fed up with. The blunder in the Europa League was the last drop. We also got a decent 7M€ for striker Premysl Havlicek, who we hired as a youngster a few years back and wandered from loan to loan without ever getting a work permit; and veteran keeper Will Mannion is off after many years for the club.

The 4 new players, although only 3 are for the first team:

This transfer has been lined up for a couple of years already, this is a highly promising Brazilian CB, nowhere near ready for a work permit yet, he was sent off to Russia on loan. He can play as a libero!

A somewhat similar player to Warre Maes, although a little less talented but quicker and English. I think I might've slightly overpaid for him at 46M€, but if he can unlock the full CA star of potential my staff think he still has, he can become a shrewd signing. For now, he shall be Maes' backup.

The first of the 2 real big time reinforcements. I was unhappy with Bolivian international Carlos Barrancos in goal ("doesn't enjoy big matches" was a pretty bad characteristic he had), so I splashed 40,5M€ to bring this guy from Lazio, and I'm hopeful it'll sort out my recurring problems in goal, we've essentially never really been happy with a keeper, be it with Barrancos or Caballero before him.

I definitely went a bit crazy for this guy as I'm unsure he's worth breaking our transfer record for him (we paid a eyebrow-raising 94M€), but my staff had identified the 2nd CB next to Petcu as our weakest area, and I think he's quite the upgrade on Costel Albu there, specially his incredible pace and almost immaculate defensive skills. The one thing I'm doubtful about is his dodgy 10 on decisions, we'll see if he proves his worth. By the way, if anyone remembers my FM17 career and my time in Uruguay, this guy is a product of the famous Nacional talent factory!

Squad

My goal here is to always make us stronger and stronger, and I believe the signings of Esposito and Carril do just that. The overblown size of the squad might be an issue, to fix this I'm open to bids for valuable but non-essential players like Albu, Morales, Mercier and Spruit, but so far I haven't received any decent bids for them, so am holding off to them for now. I suspect with the 18.3 patch taming the "convince team-mate" button, we might have quite a few extra unhappy players this season, so it might be a challenge to manage this large squad.

Fixtures

This was the routine pre-season we've come to expect, this time I decided not to set up extra friendlies myself, to save the players' legs for what's gonna be a long season.

The season kicks off now in the El Molinón stadium in Spain where Sporting Gijón plays (?!), as we play the UEFA Supercup against the crazy all-powerful current PSG side, a daunting opponent. Beyond that, the goals this season have to be to win again the really big trophies, such as the Premiership and the Champions League to which we return. 

To prevent what happened last year and the final month of the season meltdown, I'm gonna try to switch to less intense versions of my 4-4-2 tactics whenever possible all year long, as I believe the tactics' base concepts were absolutely fine and the real issue was fitness, but this remains to be seen whether it'll really work.

[noikeee]

UEFA Supercup final

 

Here we are in the slightly baffling location choice of Gijón, Spain, to try to win our 2nd UEFA Supercup. If 2 years ago we had a reasonably beatable opponent in Benfica, this year's opponents are much more daunting: this is a PSG side that just won the quadruple whilst undefeated in the league. I'm frankly a little intimidated!

We're near full strength, with only Costel Albu and Erwin Spruit missing to injury. New signing Ulisse Esposito goes straight into goal, but I decide not to do the same with record signing Jorge Carril in order to still retain a semblance of a CBs partnership in such a difficult game against such formidable opposition - Adie Higginson gets the nod instead.

Minute 24: PSG pile on the pressure... they've had several good chances already whilst we only made one shot... this has not started great, the field's weirdly square-ish shape doesn't feel like it's helping us neither!

Minute 25: GOAL FOR PSG!! 1-0!! It really did feel like it was coming. It's from post to post as Sami Thiebaut assists Filippos Mastoras for the first goal of the night.

Minute 29: GOAL FOR DERBY!! 1-1! Wow this came from nowhere, completely against the run of play. Better for us! A punted up ball is headed by Simon Hopkins and Óscar Navarro is suddenly completely clear, the Colombian forward does not miss!

Half-time: Not a good first half. A switch from the cagier 4-4-2 with DMs, to the one with MCs, seems to have made us better and weirdly stopped PSG's sequence of chances, but the Parisian side has been much better and we're lucky not to go into the break behind.

Minute 49: GOAL FOR DERBY!! 2-1!! Warre Maes cross from a narrow position is finished expertly by a clinical Óscar Navarro! We might not be getting many chances but we're finishing them!

Minute 59: Nicolas Lemoine hits the bar for PSG!!! This match might very possibly still swing their way!!

Full time: DERBY WINS THE UEFA SUPERCUP!!!

We completely stole this. We actually looked much better in the final 10 minutes, when PSG switched to an attacking 3-4-2-1 and we switched to our 4-3-3, and got a lot of chances on the break, but for most of the match PSG were superior and we were lucky Óscar Navarro clinically finished both of his chances. But we won't complain and will take the trophy home!!
 

[noikeee]

So I was just playing against Swansea...

... the ref calls up Cocks.... reaches into his pocket...

[Fer Fuchs Ake]

25 minutes ago, noikeee said:

So I was just playing against Swansea...

... the ref calls up Cocks.... reaches into his pocket...

Hopefully he gets subbed.

The manager is pulling Cocks off...

the field, he looks tired.

[noikeee]

Missing team: Shakhtar.

Well this is a **** draw, I didn't want to face PSG again this soon. Being 2nd seeds doesn't help. But we have the obligation to go through.

[Rikulec]

Well done winning the Super Cup.

[noikeee]

August 2030

 

(Transfers)

Danny Johnson YP24B was loaned out... and backup left-back Saúl Lara sold to Valencia for 28M€. Now this is a real problem as the transfer window had been shut in England, and now we're down to just 3 fullbacks (the irony, despite having a giant squad), but he was on his last year of contract and wanted out, so I needed to take the chance to cash on him as soon as possible. I'm trying to hire a replacement to arrive in January.

 

It's a fine start, with a trophy then 3 wins in the Premier League. We left it late both against Swansea and Palace, but what matters is that we got all the 9 points that we could. After last year's disappointment by the tightest of margins, I do not want to waste any points, ever.

 

 

[noikeee]

September 2030

It's happy times as we're smashing it. Absolutely breezing through the season so far. 9 official matches, 9 wins (and that's a club record of 11 consecutive wins if we count the 2 at the end of last season). We had little problem in the league with Spruit getting a hat-trick against Palace, Jenas a poker against Norwich, and the more regular starters Hopkins and Navarro helping us easily tank Chelsea in the toughest league match so far; we kicked off the Champions League with an easy 3-0 over my childhood club Porto (although that's nothing compared to the 9-0 PSG beat Besiktas with!); and in the League Cup even down to 10 men after Mercier saw an early red card, and playing with a third string side, we easily beat Palace.

May this trend continue for as long as possible.

 

[kidthekid]

Excellent start

[noikeee]

4 hours ago, kidthekid said:

Excellent start

Playing mostly **** teams has helped (other than PSG and Chelsea), but it's the strongest start we've ever had. Makes me optimistic this could be the year we win something big again (no, the Europa League and the League Cup don't count).

[Fer Fuchs Ake]

Not a bad start to the season at all. Great win over Chelsea too. 

[noikeee]

7 hours ago, Fer Fuchs Ake said:

Not a bad start to the season at all. Great win over Chelsea too. 

Minor spoiler: the form continues afterwards. 

[noikeee]

October 2030

Well, I guess this is alright? We're now on a slightly bonkers run of 15 wins in 15 matches this season. There were very little problems in the league, even if rotating the team against Bournemouth and Villa. The Champions League went spectacularly well with two massive wins, I'm particularly proud of the 6-2 over PSG. The toughest fixture seemed the League Cup against Villa, but that was because I had a guy sent off (again - Özdemir this time), we fielded the backups of the backups, and we missed two penalty kicks.

 

[VillaSmith]

1 hour ago, noikeee said:

The toughest fixture seemed the League Cup against Villa, but that was because I had a guy sent off (again - Özdemir this time), we fielded the backups of the backups, and we missed two penalty kicks.

 

Villa playing against a team's reserves, giving away 3 penalties and losing 3-1 whilst the opposition have a man sent off, can't say I'm too surprised at that!

Bloody brilliant form though, keep it up  Is it too early to think about an Invincibles season?