FM11 - Tottenham Hotspur - Rise of the Triffics (take 3)

[Oypus]

For some reason my striker (JD or Kadlec) on top in my 4231 is getting very crappy ratings. What do people play their striker as (provided they use a 4231)?

I've always used them as an advanced forward, and I've always had at least one striker that scores pretty regularly. It's pretty much gone Defoe, Llorente and now Lukaku. That's probably more down to having Bale and Pastore as wingers, but whatever.

[edgar555]

It's November, Modric has started to hit form. Then he tears a calf muscle on international duty, he's out for 4 months. Great. Holzhauser is going to get a chance to impress. Well he already has, his first game in place of Luka he ran the midfield as we beat Bolton 5-0. Bostock also starred in this match and M'Poku contributed an assist. The future looks good.

[Llew_Arshavin23]

Mothly Update - September;

Premier League

WBA - 2 (Vela '24, '55)

Spurs - 2 (Defoe '4, '50)

Champions League Group Stage

Spurs - 0

Internazionale - 0

Premier League

Spurs - 2 (Mancienne OG '42, Dawson '64)

Wolves - 1 (Foley '74)

Carling Cup 3rd Round

Stoke - 1 (Gallas OG '38)

Spurs - 3 (Bale '14, Van Der Vaart '30, '49)

Premier League

West Ham - 1 (Ba '16)

Spurs - 2 (Van Der Vaart '31, Defoe '41)

Champions League Group Stage

Ajax - 0

Spurs - 3 (Crouch '19, Lennon '38, '76)

A Very Good run of results & I am still Unbeaten in the Premier League. My Two First Team Wide Men, Bale & Lennon, have been on Great form & now that Van Der Vaart has come closer to regaining Full Match Fitness, he is churning out the Good Performances like there's no tomorrow. The only thing I can take issue about is the performances of my 2 Central Midfielders, Sandro/Palacios & Modric/Huddlestone/ I have them set up as 'Ball Winning Midfielder>Support' & 'Deep Lying Playmaker>Support'. They just can;t seem to get a Goal or an assisst... Any suggestions lads?

My Top 3 Players Of The Month;

1. Rafa Van Der Vaart - The Dutch magician (but not quite Dennis Bergkamp Level) has weaved his Magic once again. Scoring Screamers for fun & is probably my most Creative Player assisst wise he has easily gained Cult status at White Hart Lane. Great Month for him.

2. Michael Dawson - A Great month for the Towering Defender. Has kept out numerous opposition attack's along with the On-Form Younes Kaboul. Easily one of my Key Players now!

3. Aaron Lennon - Bombarding the opposition Left Back with his Mazey Runs & there's usually an end product. He's Grown more & more into the Season & the team & his 2 Goals agaonst Ajax really emptimised his Wok Rate for the team.

C'MON YOU SPURS!

[Barnetboyz]

Just been able to start the new season (2nd season) after playing a lot of Fifa & AC2 and what a way to start the season

[tomtuck01]

Ok. Don't know much about Damiao.

He starts off at Internacional and made his Brazil debut last weekend against Scotland. I will post a screenie if you want?

[Robert the Spud]

What are people thoughts on necid? He's score 6 goals in two games for newcastle in a different save, thought he may be the answer to my tottenham striker inadequacies(not at all influenced by real life feelings)

[Blackwolves]

Just been able to start the new season (2nd season) after playing a lot of Fifa & AC2 and what a way to start the season

this remembers of the day when dawson almost scored a hattrick for me

I see you are able to get away with the second season syndrome (sss)

[batty1]

I have just entered the beginning of my 3rd season and I've completed my spending I think which is the least I've spent in any season so far with Spurs. Although I may take a look around for some newgens.

MY 1st team Squad for the season ahead ( and to build on our second consecutive League Cup win and our first Champions League) is:

GK: Adler, Gomes, Butland (think I may need to invest here a some stage with Adler and Gomes getting on somewhat)

RB: Walker, Santon

LB: Alex Sandro, Naughton

CB: Dawson, Sakho, Jones, Varane, Caulker (thinking of getting rid of Daws but last season he was my best performer and is my most experienced defender)

RCM: VdV, Eriksen, Lucas

CM: Rodwell, Sandro, Thudd

LCM: Modric, Kovacic, Lamela

AMR: Lennon, Muller

AML: Bale, Hazard

ST: J.Hernandez, Aquafresca, Lucas Gaucho

[Robert the Spud]

Never heard of Alex Sandro, but that's a great syoung squad batty, poachers galore upfront and more than a smattering of flair

[batty1]

Never heard of Alex Sandro, but that's a great syoung squad batty, poachers galore upfront and more than a smattering of flair

Ha ha yeah cheers, if I can't win the League with this squad I shouldn't be managing Spurs lol. Alex Sandro was a wonderkid when I brought him but that status changed when he arrived. He is pretty weak so thats why he plays in the Champions League mainly, hes less likely to come up against many rough houses in the Champs League.

[Cleon]

Ha ha yeah cheers, if I can't win the League with this squad I shouldn't be managing Spurs lol. Alex Sandro was a wonderkid when I brought him but that status changed when he arrived. He is pretty weak so thats why he plays in the Champions League mainly, hes less likely to come up against many rough houses in the Champs League.

Sandro from Santos? I got teams bidding £27+ million for him in second season with Santos. He's been amazing for me.

[batty1]

Sandro from Santos? I got teams bidding £27+ million for him in second season with Santos. He's been amazing for me.

Yeah thats the one! I got him for £16M and he was outstanding in the 6 months I've had him.

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On a different note, where are most of of people's top newgens coming from? Theres quite a few good uns' on my save but not one of them is European, their all African

[Spike]

Pre-season Review 2011/2012

After being given a huge £49.5m transfer budget for a Title Challenge, I decided to spend big on a couple of top class signings to hopefully bring the title to White Hart Lane.

Players In - £51.6m

Neymar for £30m from Santos

Mamadou Sakho for £20m from PSG

Jose for £1.6m from Internacional

Davide Santon an a free from Inter

Marco Amelia on a free from Genoa

Players Out - £14.75m

Bentley to Sunderland for £6m

O’Hara to Bristol City for £5.25m

Crouch to Blackburn for £3.5m

Woodgate to Everton on a free

Gallas released

Cudicini released

Sent out on loan – Livermore, M’Poku, Townsend, Mason & Parrett

The signing of Sakho was particularly pleasing after he made a very sensible decision

Friendlies

The friendlies went well, if unspectacularly.

Best Players

The best players in pre season were, as you would expect, three of the key players in the squad.

Dawson – 6 appearances, 1 goal, 3 assist, 7.65 rating

VDV – 5(1) appearances, 4 goals, 2 assists, 7.62 rating

Bale – 6 appearances, 1 goal, 3 assists, 7.54 rating

With pre season complete I’ve decided on the following squad:

GK – Gomes / Amelia / Button

DR – Santon / Hutton / Walker

DCR – Dawson © / Kaboul / Corluka

DCL – Sakho (vc) / Bassong / Corluka

DL – Coentrao / BAE / Naughton

MCR – Modric / Huddlestone / Lucas (Deep Lying Playmaker)

MCL – Bender / Sandro / Huddlestone (Ball Winning Midfielder)

AMR – VDV / Lennon / Dos Santos

AML – Bale / Dos Santos / Pienaar

STCR – Defoe / Lukaku (Poacher)

STCL – Neymar / Pavluychenko (Advanced Forward)

Bring on the season!

[tomtuck01]

So after qualifying for the Champions League, I got a great draw;

Milan

Real Madrid

Tottenham

FC Twente

Jut great...............will post a full update once I get to my opening Champions League game.

[edgar555]

He starts off at Internacional and made his Brazil debut last weekend against Scotland. I will post a screenie if you want?

Ah, Leandro. Yes please to screenie, don't think he's in my game, due to small laptop induced small DB.

What are people thoughts on necid? He's score 6 goals in two games for newcastle in a different save, thought he may be the answer to my tottenham striker inadequacies(not at all influenced by real life feelings)

Necids alright but not top top class. More a TM than anything else. And please don't mention our RL strikers.

[tomtuck01]

Ah, Leandro. Yes please to screenie, don't think he's in my game, due to small laptop induced small DB.

No problem at all.

I probably overpaid slightly, but with most of it was to be paid over 24 months I dont think it's too bad a deal. With Defoe being ruled out for 3-4months, I just needed a striker, and he looks like he can do a job. I had already signed onother striker, (Romelu Lukaku), but I had arranged that transfer for next season.

[edgar555]

Thanks, looks decent enough. Coming from Inter means he and Sandro will have someone they know to help them settle.

[walsh]

Just had a crazy game against Bayern in the CL.

Badelj should have been sent off for a last-man challenge and then Gallas was sent off for the exact same offence which was quite annoying. However we managed to equalise with 10 men which was encouraging and the fact that two players grabbed hat-tricks made it a very exciting game.

My defence is looking pretty shaky and we are conceding quite a lot of goals, I think I'll try a deeper defensive line unless anyone has any tips for me?

[tomtuck01]

After reading a fair bit of the thread recently, I have decided to have myself a save with Tottenham. People who have ever ventured into the Lyon threads over the past few years will know that my posts can be long and due to the lack of screenshots I post perhaps even boring.

Updates will generally be posted after the summer transfer window, after the winter transfer window, and at the end of each season. Other little updates may be posted if a big transfer happens, or if I decide post the odd great result - like the 5-1 win over Liverpool a few pots further up the page.

Time to stop rambling and get on with my first update!

Brief Intro

As with most other saves I have I am playing under the name Bruno Gama, and my birthday is November 12th 1968 meaning that I will turn 42 on my next birthday. I am a former Portuguese international, and appeared for my country 63 times scoring 1 goal.

For my save I have loaded up the English leagues down to League 1, (I generally go as low as I need for loans you see), and also the top divisions from France, Germany, Italy and Spain, and I am playing on a medium database. Before writing this update, I have played up to the start of my Champions League campaign.

Contract and Expectations

I have been given a two year contract by the Spurs board with a weekly wage of £17,500p/w. Qualifying for European competition via the league is the minimum expectation, aswell as reaching the group stages of the Champions League, (already achieved of course), and reaching the quarter finals of boh the FA Cup and Carling Cup.

Transfer Activity

To achieve my goals I was given a budget of £12million, aswell as 100% of transfer revenue made available. Looking at the Spurs squad though I found that not much needed doing immediately. The squad is already very solid, and there are some very good players out on loan who will return to the fold when they come back to the club.

All in all, I signed three players, loaned in one, and let four players go out on loan.

Players Out;

Jake Livermore - Loan - Brighton

Mirko Ranieri - Loan - Exeter

John Bostock - Loan - Ipswich

Dean Parrett - Loan - Leyton Orient

Bostock and Livermore look like they could turn out to be useful enough, so hopefully they will both get some first team football.

Players In;

Leandro - £8million (£3million upfront, with £5million over 24months) - Internacional

Leandro Bacuna - £1.3million (plus 30% profit of next sale) - FC Groningen

Jordan Lukaku - £900k - Anderlecht

Raphael Varane - Loan (loan fee of £1.7million, future fee of £5.25million) - Lens

Leandro was not a panic buy as such, because I was looking at him, but when Defoe got injured I thought I needed another striker quickly, so just gave Internacional what they wanted for him.

Both Leandro Bacuna and Jordan Lukuau are for the future, but Raphale Varane will be involved regularly as soon as next season. I know from my Lyon save that by season two he is more than ready for regular first team football.

First Team Squad

Goalkeepers;

1.Gomes

23.Carlo Cudicini

37.Stipe Pletikosa

Defenders;

2.Alan Hutton

4.Younes Kaboul

13.William Gallas

19.Sebastien Bassong

20.Michael Dawson - Vice Captain

22.Vedran Corluka

26.Ledley King - Captain

32.Benoit Assou-Ekotto

36.Bongani Khumalo

39.Jonathan Woodgate

44.Raphael Varane

45.Jordan Lukaku

Midfielders;

3.Gareth Bale

6.Tom Huddlestone

7.Aaron Lennon

8.Jermaine Jenas

11.Rafael van der Vaart

12.Wilson Palacios

14.Luka Modric

21.Niko Kranjcar

30.Sandro

35.Leandro Bacuna

40.Steven Pienaar

Strikers;

9.Roman Pavlyuchenko

15.Peter Crouch

18.Jermain Defoe

31.Leandro

So far I have been playing a 4-2-3-1 system, but in preseason I tried a few different formations and I will be trying to use them more throughout the season. I don’t like using one system as it doesn’t seem to work with me for some reason. I'm always making little tweaks here and there aswell, so sticking with just one formation and set of tactics is a huge no-no for me.

The Season So Far

We have done excellently in the Premier League so far, winning all four of our games. We have had a couple of tremendous results, one of which against Liverpool I have posted already.

Liverpool (H) 5-1 (Crouch 2, Huddlestone, Lennon, Pavlyuchencko)

Newcastle (A) 2-0 (Bale, Pavlyuchenko)

Wigan (H) 1-0 (van der Vaart)

Blackburn (A) 4-0 (Bale, Palacios, Modric, van der Vaart)

I'll post a screenshot of the table after 12 games or so.

We qualified for the Champions League very comfortably, beating Young Boys 3-1 away from home in the first leg, and by the same scoreline in the second leg at White Hart Lane. The draw for the group stages have been made, (as you may have gathered from a previous post), and I have been handed a very tough group consisting of Milan, Real Madrid, and FC Twente. Our first game is against Real Madrid at The Lane.

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So far so it's going well then. A pleasing enough start, let’s hope it can be kept up!

Any comments or suggestions are welcome, and I apologise to those of you who would have preferred a short update with loads of screenshots.

[Oliseh]

Good post, Tom! I'd be interested to know how you set up your 4231, and also what your first XI is. Apart from that things look good - I think you'll be able to squeeze through to the knockouts in the CL.

COYS!

[Thandui]

as I've previosly said I'm starting again but with no transfers, this time I will aim to have Pav as my main striker instead of Defoe as I like Pav in real life, and Defoe has been awful recently, so I'm giving Pav a go as a Deep Lying Forward

[edgar555]

Good start tom and some different signings

Good luck with that CL group.

[edgar555]

A lacklustre CL campaign in a tough group has ended with 3rd place in the group. Madrid topped the group with Palermo 2nd, we were 1 pt behind them and Leverkusen took bottom place. This is quite distressing for me. I don't remember the last time this happened with Spurs. I might well be able to take the Europa League though, which is a trophy I rarely compete for let alone win, so maybe this is a positive to take from it.

[Robert the Spud]

Good luck in Europa. It's surprisingly competitive, what with the 3rd place CL group clubs. But with your squad very winnable

[edgar555]

The route to Europa glory is fraught with danger. I've got Napoli, then either Dortmund or Braga if I progress. The annoying thing is Thursday games mean extra rotation guaranteed. We'll see.

[Barnetboyz]

Dawson scores again as we beat the scum in the 3rd game of the season

so thats Man City, Chelsea & ARsenal already played ffs

Arsenal currently 20th even though it is only 3 games

[edgar555]

Thats always good to see BB, no matter how many games.

With Luka out til March I couldn't resist the opportunity to pick up Keisuke Honda for £7.5m. He'll offer support and competition for Holzhauser who has done well but still needs to mature to be 100% trustworthy in my vital DLP role.

I had decided to ditch Tremoulinas but he's belatedly decided to settle in, so will stay til the end of the season at least.

[homebasedgg]

switched garaeth bale from inside foward to wing attack and he has just exploded for me.scored 12 goals and five assists in his last 5 games.

[axehan1]

this spurs thread is an excellent read,as a man united fan i spend a fair bit of time on that thread but i must admit i'm enjoying reading this.its also been a great help building my decent tactic,playing the likes of Modric as a DLP was a real eye opener(i would have thought he would be more AMC).My formation is 4-2-3-1 as is quite a few peoples on here it seems!I thought i would offer my advice for someones who plays in the Modric position.His name is Ander,a spanish player who starts the games at Zaragoza.At first i played him in the AMC position but he was getting average ratings(aroung the high sixes),which is really pretty poor so i thought i would try him at DLP and he has been a revelation.Not sure if its allowed to post player screnies but if we are and you guys want to have a look then let me know.

looks like you can post screenies so here goes

http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/af352/axehan1/AnderProfile_Attributes.png

[Barnetboyz]

BB's Transfer Window Update September Edition

Well the transfer window is closed and was fairly ****ed off as a £15M bid for Phil Jones was vetoed because of the closure

Despite 17 new signings it was a fairly quiet time due to the lack of big money signings, players of note to join were Charlie Adam (£2.6M), Davide Santon (Free) & Leighton Baines (2.5M + Player), quite a few players left in the window including O'Hara (£3.1M), GDS (£7.5M), Bentley (£3M), Button (£1.5M), Capdevila (£2.5M), Pienaar (£5M) & Huddlestone (£13.25M) whilst Gallas went to Palermo to become a youth team coach

[batty1]

My first 3 games of the 3rd season have been so frustrating.

[EPL] (A) Cheatski D 1-1 [Hazard] - We had more of the ball yet somehow Adler ended up as MOTM

[EPL] (H) Liverpool D 0-0 - Yet again we have more posession and somehow yet again our keeper gets MOTM

[Euro Super Cup] (N) Citeh D 1-1 (Spurs win 4-3 on Pens) More posession again and again our keeper gets MOTM and I'm starting to get ****ed off.

[walsh]

On a very good run of form at the moment, these are my last 6 games:

Blackpool (A) 3-0 (Vagner Love 3)

FC Bayern (A) 3-3 (Vagner Love 3)

Blackburn (H) 3-1 (Vagner Love, Dawson, Koke)

Bolton (H) 3-0 (Vagner Love, Huddlestone, Bale)

Chelsea (A) 2-0 (Lennon, Vagner Love)

Arsenal (H) 2-1 (Vagner Love, Pienaar)

It's not difficult to see who my main man is currently, Vagner Love has 24 goals in 19 appearances so far and we currently sit 2nd behind Man Utd after 14 games (W 11 - D 1 - L 2). To top it off, this run of form has come without VDV who has been out for some time with a torn groin muscle, Modric has moved forward into the AMC role brilliantly. Bassong has taken over from Gallas in my starting XI and we have gone from looking shaky at the back to much more secure (partly down to a tactical tweak as well). However, I can't wait for the 2nd season so I can re-enter my reserve team into the reserve league to give some fringe players and youngsters more games.

The only thing I have decided for January is getting rid of Peter Crouch who does just not fit into my fluid system, and I will also continue to look for a backup keeper.

[tomtuck01]

Good post, Tom! I'd be interested to know how you set up your 4231, and also what your first XI is. Apart from that things look good

Well I set up as I'm sure alot of people do with 4 defenders, 2 cm's and 3 AM's, but as for my starting XI, so far these are the players that hae played the most;

GK: Gomes

RB: Hutton (Support)

CB: Dawson (Defend)

CB: Kaboul (Defend)

LB: Assou-Ekotto (Support)

CM: Palacios (Central Midfield - Defend)

CM: Huddlestone (Deep-Lying Playmaker - Support)

AMR: Lennon (Winger - Attack - Hug Touchline)

AMC: van der Vaart (Attacking Midfielder - Support)

AML: Bale (Inside Forward - Support - Cut Inside)

STC: Crouch (Target Man)

I stress that that is only how it has been most of the time - it is by no means what I consider my strongest XI. Rotation has been used, and it has not being those players playing all of the time, or with those roles. I have yet to factor in Luka Modric as he has only made one substitue appearance due to injuries. My only ever present after my first 13 games in charge is Gomes.

Good start tom and some different signings

Well I like to be a bit different!

[Oypus]

I've wrapped up a pretty successful 2015-2016 season. I absolutely manhandled the PL. I ended up winning by 12, but was ahead by as much as 16 at one point. I lost my first game in February, and only finished 12 ahead because I started using many more youth players. Beat At. Madrid, R. Madrid, Lyon and Porto to take the CL as well. I was really happy with the way that turned out, as those are all four very good teams. (At least in my game, in 2016.) My 20 year old American regen striker ended up being the top scorer in the CL, despite not playing in the group stages at all. He was injured for the entire Fall, and just came into the team scoring for ***** and giggles after recovering.

I'm not really sure where to go from here. My team seems pretty complete, so all that's left is trimming the squad down to players that I actually use. It's going to be a little weird having all of the older players leave. I'll need to pick up some solid cover for my attacking midfielders, and maybe a defender.

And dear God, the board is an absolute bitch. They refused an upgrade to all of the facilities, after I asked one by one. Currently they are classified as "good". It was something about a "long term vision", and how they wanted to stick to it. I eventually went for the big one (a new stadium) and they shot that one down too. Eventually I manged to coax them into upgrading the youth recruitment. But seriously, I'm not sure what they're up to.

[skeletore2002]

Well I just started my first Spurs save on 11.3, finally. I'm off to a very mediocre start, but I wanted to share this result, which has gone some ways towards making up for some disappointing losses:

[Robert the Spud]

6-0! I never know how people manage to batter a team like Arsenal in the 1st season. Well done mate. Good to see Pienaar in on the action, not many Spurs fans rate him but i like the player alot for his invaluable and rare melding of creativity and determination/workrate.

I will admit though, that he's not on Kranjcars level. I bought Niko on my liverpool save and he is outstanding. So much so, that when i return to my Spurs save this week, he is going to play a more integral role.

[Bruce Higham]

I apologise for the length of this post, sometimes I really do get carried away when writing. You should see the length of some of my blog posts

The date is the 31st December 2011. The match is 1st versus 2nd, Chelsea versus their rivals Spurs. Chelsea currently hold a 6 point advantage over Tottenham, and have a game in hand. Spurs north-london rivals are just one point behind them, and hope that they’ll overtake them into 2nd spot if Chelsea win, as they are playing one of the disappointments in the premier league, West Ham, who are languishing in 17th spot. Chelsea haven’t lost for 14 games, with their last loss coming in the league cup’s 4th round versus there current opponents. Tottenham, on the other hand are still recovering from a dismal win over the bottom placed team Nottingam Forest, who were only defeated against the run-of-play in the 88th minute by Dawson’s first goal of the season.

The pre-match banter is alive and well, with both managers trying to bait their opponents. Ancelotti starts off by saying that he is not Bruce Highams greatest fan. Bruce is a bit annoyed at this, so he replies that their is more chance of life on mars then chelsea winning anything under Carlos, that he made the wrong decision by transfer listing Salomon Kalou and finally to boot that he wouldn’t be hanging around after the match for a chat. With Ancelotti looking a bit surprised by being verbally assaulted, it was time for the managers to have a look at the tactics for the forthcoming match.

Bruce, being the tactical genius that he is, saw that Chelseas star purchase, Srna, wasn’t that happy about something or other, so he commented that he looked to be the weakest link.

Chelsea played their normal 442 diamond that had served them so well all season, Spurs played their creative and attacking 4231. Tottenham were missing Bale and Olic through injury, as had been the case for the last 4 months, so the wingers were Modric and Van deer Vart, with Pastore in the middle. Van der vart was a gamble, as he has just come back from a serious injury that has kept him out for 2 months, but I figured that creativity was probably going to get us a goal rather then Lennon’s rather one dimensional attack.

Kick off, and Spurs are attacking well, with 1 good chance on the 14th minute falling to Pastore after good linkup work with Huddlestone and Modric. However he drags his shot way wide- in fact he shoots straight like a bullet, its just that the goal is actually 7 yards to his right. Bugger, it was a great chance. Chelsea are starting to dominate proceedings, so I switch to a counter style, just in time for Babacar to get Terryed. He’s off on a stretcher, not what I needed, but my supersub all season, who I usually bring on to go against tired legs is getting on in the 26th minute. The reason why I always bring defoe on in the 50-60th minute, he has started 6 matches so far this season, scoring none. However he has come on as a substitute 14 times, scoring 12. He’s my super sub.

However we go to half-time all square. I have been pleased with their play, and they really should be 1-0 up, so I tell them that I’m pleased and send them on their way. Van der vart however is coming off, he has been totally peripheral to the action, and he just might have played his last game for spurs with Real Madrid circling. Lennon on, hopefully something might happen.

What happens though is piece of brilliance by Bassong, who heads a looping header over cech from a free kick. He’s deadly at set pieces, thats his 8th goal of the season. I’m ecstatic over a goal, I really need this win to stay with them, and with all my injuries I wasn’t that hopeful.

A penalty scored by Pastore after Srna trips him just inside the box completes the win. Srna played horrible this match, serves him right for rejecting me to go to them. Their was a few nervous moments after Essien scored a thunderbolt in the 82nd minute, however they hung on.

Great win, now I play teams ranked in the bottom half for my 4 matches, whilst Chelsea play Liverpool, Man city, Blackburn, man u and arsenal in consecutive league games. Hopefully they drop a few points, the premier league race is far from over. Champions League is looking not so good, playing Real Madrid in the 1st knockouts, who have a voodoo over me. Hopefully all my injuries are cleared up by then, so we can a 2nd half of the year assault on all the competitions. I want them all...

[Oypus]

So, I really couldn't decide where to upgrade my team over the summer. My starters are all pretty good, and I have great youth prospects for striker, keeper, CB and FB. Plus I usually hold off on getting young midfielders, as it's really uncertain if they turn out or not. In short, not being able to pick a place to improve, I just got someone who looks like they can do it all. Yes, I overpaid. But he does have four stars of potential, as well as supposedly more potential than Mikel. And again, I'm not making any other signings, so the rest of my 50m transfer budget is going unspent. Oh, and Sudan? C'mon. How many of you guys have players from Sudan?

[Robert the Spud]

I don't think you overpaid, he'll be awesome and versatile too. sudan......?

[Thandui]

Just gonna quickly post this before I get on with some school work, got this result last night, absolutely delighted with it

The original squad, playing a 4-2-3-1, with Pav as the lone striker, amazing result

P.S. Just in case that didn't work: http://img27.imageshack.us/f/spurs70sevilla.png/

[Blackwolves]

good result Thandui !!!

It seems a certain Martin caceres helped you for that 7th goal

[Thandui]

Haha indeed, but from what I remember of it, it was about to drop to Van der Vaart anyway

[Oypus]

I don't think you overpaid, he'll be awesome and versatile too. sudan......?

I would call 18m for an 18 year old overpaying. I've certainly paid that before, but that was for players that were already world class.

And on Sudan: I just have a thing for good players from smaller countries. I like them more. My favorites are the Jamaican winger I had at Chelsea in FM08, and the Andorran attacking midfielder I had for At. Madrid in FM10.

[tomtuck01]

My Tottenham side are still performing amazingly well, and have just secured another great win;

Joleon Lescott was sent off for City after 88mins, but as you can see it was already 4-1 by then.

And then in the next game, we played City again, this time in the Carling Cup;

[Oypus]

Lennon told me he wants out, so I accept his request. I started going through the teams that made offers. I realize that one of them (which I accidentally accepted) is Birmingham. I hate selling players within the league, as too many times they come back to beat you. Guess which one he chose? Not the CL Finalists Lyon. Birmingham.

Ah, well. I replaced him with one of City's super flops. (Also a regen). He's very similar to Lennon, just younger, and French. They paid 30m for him, and he proceeded to make 8 appearances for them over three years. They let me have him for 2.4m. Unfortunately his wages are 115k p/w, but I'm well under my budget, so that's not a big deal. He's certainly not worth that much, though.

[walsh]

Just managed to secure qualification from a tricky CL group with a 1-1 away draw at Lyon. Lyon had already qualified and I needed a draw to qualify and win the group as it was always likely Bayern would win at Rosenborg (as they did).

Very pleased

[edgar555]

Well I like to be a bit different!

I'd not noticed.

[tomtuck01]

It seems that art is imitating life.................I have just beaten Milan 1-0 in the San Siro, with Peter Crouch scoring and Aaron Lennon assisting. Now where have we seen that recently?

[Blackwolves]

It seems that art is imitating life.................I have just beaten Milan 1-0 in the San Siro, with Peter Crouch scoring and Aaron Lennon assisting. Now where have we seen that recently?

Did we see that recently!! I dont remember

[walsh]

God damn....just had our worst performance of the season so far and lost at home to Sunderland 2-1 but what's even worse is that VDV (after already missing a chunk of the season with injury) managed to brake his leg and is out for the rest of the season. Has only made 16 appearances and it looks like that will be it for the entire year.