FM2012: Newcastle United thread - Triumphing by brave defending.....well maybe!

[Andrew!]

Just won the 2014-15 League with one game to spare as Arsenal managed to lose 1-0 to Wolves. Unfortunately I got knocked out of the Champions League by Inter in the semi final, I lost 4-3 on aggregate but should have won 3-3 on away goals, but they equalised at SJP to make it 1-1

Ah well.. Premier League, League Cup and the Cub World Championship isn't bad

I don't need to sell/buy anyone this summer unless I can't get the very useful Jonas to sign an extension for less wages. Might sell Mussachio though.. i've got too many young CB's coming through who won't get game time because of him, when he's nothing but average. The only bad thing is that after losing to Inter Krul declared that he wanted a new challenge, so now do I sign a new GK?! He's trained at the club which is very useful for me which is the only real reason I don't want him to go. I have Otero ready to maybe take his place, and this youngster too. I think I might buy an older GK to just be there for the experience/tutor.. if Krul does end up going of course.

[TRC]

Found it really tough to keep the current nufc squad, or get the players to play how i want. Sold Colo for not much after the second season, really wasn't worth the 80k a week. Signed Abdennor and Toloi to replace him, ended up playing Toloi as a DM, who is edging Tiote out of the team.

[Vidji]

Going into january 2016 window now with 70 million £ to spend. But can't really find me anything to spend it on. Kind of want a backup battling midfielder and a right midfielder as Ben Arfa haven't really got going this season.

[Vidji]

Just got a bid for walcott on 15 mill and mvila for 22 mill accepted. My greedy nose says clearly no, but theese two players could go on and lead me to another CL winners medal and maybe even the league?

[tommonufc]

Newcastle United - 2012/13

Media Prediction; 7th - Target; Top 4, Europa League Winners

Squad*=loan

Goalkeepers; T.Krul, F.Forster, R.Eliott, J.Alnwick

Defenders; D.Santon, D.Simpson, M.Montoya*, R.Taylor, S.Taylor, M.Williamson, F.Coloccini, A.Fontas

Midfielders; F.Gago, C.Tiote, Y.Cabeye, J.McEachran*, P.Pogba*, M.Abeid, H.Vuckic

Wingers/AMs; C.Eriksen, G.Sigurdsson, E.Granero, H.Ben Arfa, K.Ait Fana, G.Obertan

Fowards; D.Ba, P.Cisse, S.Ameobi

Transfers

Out;

- James Perch £2.5M - Southampton

- Jonas Gutirrez £10M - Stoke

- Xisco £4.9M - Bristol City

- Leon Best £3.2M - Wolves

- Slyvain Marveux £1M Loan - Blackpool

- Dan Gosling £625K Loan - Stoke

- Released; Danny Guthrie, Tamas Kadar, Peter Lovenkrands, Alan Smith

Quite pleased with my dealings, although I shall continue to strengthen the back line at the next opportunity due to me missing out on Jan Vertonghen, who snubbed me for Bayern Leverkusen. Ran out of money when it came to Sebastian Corchia, so settled for Montoya on loan. Dissapointed with Fontas, he seems to be a bit of a flop so far. Has the infuriating ppm of 'switch ball to flanks', so when played at center back all he seems to is launch the ball high and wide; not at all what I want. Therefore I'm looking for a decent ball playing center back, of which Vertonghen would have been perfect. Have retrained Tiote there in the mean time, and he isn't doing too bad, but looking at Momo Sissoko who is transfer listed at PSG, of who could be retrained as a center back. Josh McEachran and Paul Pogba haven't really featured, and not too sure why I have them, same could be said for Granero - but he has been good across any position in the midfield. Fernando Gago was an absolute steal in my opinion, he's probably become the most important player in the team; in a deep lying role just working the ball round the midfield - sort of Busquets. Eriksen and Sigurdsson have been great for me in many previous saves so eager to bring them in. Managed to shift some players out for a decent return, taking pay monthly deals on Xisco and Jonas; but managed to balance out at a net spend of £4.5M - so some money left in the bank for a player if needed in January.

Edit; Gago, £2.9M well spent I'd say. Out Swansea'd Swansea

[Retrouk]

I'd love to know what kind of witch craft you used to sell Xisco and Best for that much. They never perform for me, and are a real pain to get rid of.

Also, I'm in a similar situation around a similar time in my game with regards to Eriksen and Sigurosson. If I was to go through with their signing's, the majority of my funds will be gone. Would you say they're worth the price?

[Andrew!]

Just got a bid for walcott on 15 mill and mvila for 22 mill accepted. My greedy nose says clearly no, but theese two players could go on and lead me to another CL winners medal and maybe even the league?

I signed M'Vila for £35m. He's been brilliant for me.

[Vidji]

Got really put off by his rediculous wage demands. Guess tiote and Nainggolan will keep on strolling in that position. Just hate that every 2nd year the african players buggers off down south.

[Pebder88]

Anybody manage to get Colo to agree to a wage cut? His contract is up at the end of the season I don't want to get rid of him but he isn't worth £80k a week.

[Rubentus_Juventus]

How come everyone's getting Pogba? Has he been given a boost in the patch?

[tommonufc]

I'd love to know what kind of witch craft you used to sell Xisco and Best for that much. They never perform for me, and are a real pain to get rid of.

Also, I'm in a similar situation around a similar time in my game with regards to Eriksen and Sigurosson. If I was to go through with their signing's, the majority of my funds will be gone. Would you say they're worth the price?

I played Leon Best for some part of the first season, probably gave him 10 or so games, so I'd say his stock rose somewhat there; and god knows with Xisco. His deal was padded out with monthly installments and appearance fees, and even paying his contract out - not a bad deal, but not a cold hard £4.9M as you would see. Offered both of them way over their valued price, then again cheaper before I find interest - try that.

As for Eriksen and Sigurdsson, I think their great and well worth £15M or so each, so yeah I'd say go for it. Add in some installments if you can, but not too much as you could riddle yourself with debt.

[Cleon]

Newastle have been relegated along with Sunderland in the first season in my Swansea game. So I've made a save within a save and took over The Toon. Hopefully I can keep the stars and walk the Championship

[DandyDon]

Newastle have been relegated along with Sunderland in the first season in my Swansea game. So I've made a save within a save and took over The Toon. Hopefully I can keep the stars and walk the Championship

I've seen some surprising teams getting relegated in the first season on peoples saves since the 12.2 patch.

Villa have been relegated on mine having been even worse on that than they have irl recently

[tommonufc]

Newastle have been relegated along with Sunderland in the first season in my Swansea game. So I've made a save within a save and took over The Toon. Hopefully I can keep the stars and walk the Championship

Ahh, I did this when I downloaded your save. Got to the end of the summer transfer window without losing the likes of Tiote, Cabaye, Ba, Cisse etc etc. Could have been good fun, but started up a fresh save.

[Cleon]

Ahh, I did this when I downloaded your save. Got to the end of the summer transfer window without losing the likes of Tiote, Cabaye, Ba, Cisse etc etc. Could have been good fun, but started up a fresh save.

I've been rejecting bids for them. But Tiote and Cisse have just asked stay and be removed from transfer list 1 week before season starts. So that's a bonus

[tommonufc]

I've been rejecting bids for them. But Tiote and Cisse have just asked stay and be removed from transfer list 1 week before season starts. So that's a bonus

Theoretically the Championship should be a doddle with that side; amazes me how AI Pardew and Villas-Boas made such a mess of the Premiership.

[Cleon]

Theoretically the Championship should be a doddle with that side; amazes me how AI Pardew and Villas-Boas made such a mess of the Premiership.

Yeah.

Played 3 games so far and Cisse got an hattrick in each. Hopely this will continue and he'll score for fun in this league. I'll properly update once the season is finished

[DandyDon]

2011/12 Season Update - Finally

After taking some time to play through a couple of other games recently, finally got round to completing my first season with the new patch. Managed to exceed my expectations in the league by clinging on to second place at the end and securing automatic qualification to the Champions League next season.

For a long time we were right up there with Man Utd, but we slipped up in April with a 1-0 defeat at Norwich that let them open up a 6 point gap just before they visited SJP. We put in a great effort against them, but a 94th minute equaliser from Javier Hernandez meant they got away with a 2-2 draw and kept the gap at 6 points going into the last 4 games. After that we fell away rather with only 1 win in those last four games and that was to relegated Aston Villa.

Obviously very happy with the league performance overall, early cup exits were disappointing but acceptable given our final league position. Of the players who were already at the club most of the usual suspects had good seasons with Tim Krul, Davide Santon, Steven Taylor, the Tiote/Cabaye Midfield Axis, Ba and Cisse all playing pretty well. Cisse ended the season as top scorer with 21 goals overall from 42 appearances, Ba managed 10 goals from 20 and probably would have grabbed more but for the serious back injury he had mid season. Cabaye was our second highest assist maker, setting up 15 goals for the team and we really missed him in the last few games of the season after he tore a hamstring.

He was pipped in terms of assists by one of the summer signings, the seemingly unstoppable, 37 year old Ze Roberto who set up 17 goals for the team playing out on the left wing and made it into the Premier League Team of the Year. He was joined their by his right wing counterpart Chris Brunt who finished the season as our second highest goal scorer. He weighed in with 13 goals and 13 assists and the 6'1" Irishman seems to have a real knack for tiptoeing in at the back post completely unnoticed by oppostion defenders.

Our third representative in the Team of the Year was Toby Alderweireld, who has formed a very useful partnership with Steven Taylor at the heart of the defence and hopefully they'll get even better next season. (Le Dreamboat made it onto the subs bench for the team of the season too, so near, but yet so far.

I'm aiming to keep our place in the Champions League spots next season (I'd be delighted if we can challenge for the title, but we'll see what Chelsea and Man City do with new managers and megabucks, Mancini is already gone to be replaced by another Italian Marcello Lippi) and have three Italian imports arriving in July on free transfers to help, Davide Astori, Andrea Bertolacci and Alberto Paloschi (couldn't resist signing this goal machine again). With those three coming in, I'm not planning on spending any transfer funds during the summer, barring any serious injury problems or a crazy bargain becoming available, as I've pretty much got the squad I want in place.

There may be a few departures as the likes of Mike Williamson and Leon Best had asked to leave the club, but they withdrew their transfer requests at the end of the season so they may yet stay.

[col_nufc1]

After playing Dead Island for a while I am coming back to my Newcastle save on the Latest patch.

I'm in the second season with ten Premier League games left, and it's another battle for top spot between ourselves and Arsenal again, The Gunners are currently top and are one point better off than us with the rest of the pack way off. I have just looked at our fixtures and we play Arsenal at St. James' Park on the last day of the season so that could be a cracking game.

We are due to play Lyon in the Champions League quater final and we also have a FA cup semi final against Norwich Ciy. We got knocked out of the Carling cup at the semi final stage against Liverpool, winning the first leg at ST. James' Park 3-2 but losing at Anfield 2-0.

These were our transfers for the second season, as usual lots of comings and goings.

I was able to add Dinamo and Hibernian as feeder clubs this season which is great as foreign players only take two years to get Croatian Nationality. This takes our feeder clubs to seven with the others being Vasteras SK, Carlisle United, Gateshead, Mons, Otelul Galati. Hopefully next season we will be able to add a American/Chinese club for merchandising and a Spanish club to send South Americans there.

[col_nufc1]

Great first season there Dandy

[tommonufc]

Impressive season DandyDon, and whooa some serious transfers there col_nufc1; how do you manage with such a big squad?

Fernando Gago just smashed the passing stats against Huddersfield for me - 101 after 30mins! Managed to create a decent amount of chances as well, so a 2-1 scoreline flatters Huddersfield somewhat. That will take me into the Carling Cup semis for a second year. Sunderland up next, mid table in the league currently after 14 games; but only 10 points behind top with two games in hand.

Edit; Sunderland game went well, this takes my aggregate score to 13-4 over three games against them! To the guy above asking about Glyfi Sigurdsson's worth this will seal the deal surely; he made an impressive 111/122 passes in the game too from amc, with Gago again hitting three figures! Up too 7th, and really think I may be able to challenge for the title if I keep this form up.

[DandyDon]

Some impressive stats there Tommo, how have you got the team set up for Gago and Tiote to be making so many passes?

I'd add my voice to the recommendations for Super Siggy, at £7.5 mill or thereabouts he is an absolute steal. I signed him on my Arsenal save and he was bagging about 20 goals a season from the AMC spot.

[Retrouk]

Yeah, I went with Sigurdsson in the end. Had a deal for Eriksen lined up, but it was expensive, and he wanted ridiculous loyalty and agent fee's, so I pulled out thinking I'd be okay with Cabaye, Tiote, Sigurdsson and Jensen. Also picked up Emre Can on the cheap for the future.

Sigurdsson's played one match for me so far (90 mins) and scored 1 and got 2 assists. All that for £3.5 mil, and saved me spending a bomb on Eriksen which I've now spent on some great regen's. Things are looking up!

[DandyDon]

@Retrouk

Super Siggy for just £3.5 million.....you lucky so and so

He should be a bargain for you at that price, worth it for his Set Pieces alone really.

[Retrouk]

@Retrouk

Super Siggy for just £3.5 million.....you lucky so and so

He should be a bargain for you at that price, worth it for his Set Pieces alone really.

Yeah, he spent the first season on loan at Swansea and did okay for them. They tried to buy him and he rejected the terms and went back to Hoffenheim. I decided to try and get him, bid £3.5 mil by mistake (meant to enquire) and the chairman accepted. The fans were rightly upset when he signed.

[Cleon]

Just arrived in January on my game, it's going as easy as expected in the Championship. Ba just rejected an offer to join Palermo after they activated his relegation clause of £5 mill thankfully. He's scored 19 in 21 games so far. Cisse scored 33 in 31 so far.

And I just hammered Fulham 1-9 away from home in League Cup semi 1st leg:D

[shoonaldo]

Just a quick update for season 2 as it was so disappointing I just want to forget about it as quickly as possible.

My players just couldn’t score this season and I don’t know why. They were playing in the same formation and still creating loads of chances. Morale was good and the team talks usually gave green responses aswell.

The only good thing about my season was winning the League Cup to finally give us some much needed silverware.

And here are the player stats for this season with S. Taylor easily being the standout performer.

[OutClassed]

Tommo, what kind of tactic do you play to have Siggy and Gago making so many passes?

My second season hasn't begun as I planned. Only 3pts from my 12 possible in the Europa group stages, that coming with one win, so I need to win the other 2 games to stand a chance of progressing. In the league I've been dire away from home again. 6 out of 6 losses against teams who I should really be beating, if not drawing. Does anyone know why my away form can be so different from my home form? At home I've 5 wins out of 6 and 1 draw. Last season I only lost 1 home game all season and won the majority of them. But away from home I only won 3 games and drew 3, losing the remaining 12. I use the same tactic and set ups for most games.

[tommonufc]

Tommo, what kind of tactic do you play to have Siggy and Gago making so many passes?

My second season hasn't begun as I planned. Only 3pts from my 12 possible in the Europa group stages, that coming with one win, so I need to win the other 2 games to stand a chance of progressing. In the league I've been dire away from home again. 6 out of 6 losses against teams who I should really be beating, if not drawing. Does anyone know why my away form can be so different from my home form? At home I've 5 wins out of 6 and 1 draw. Last season I only lost 1 home game all season and won the majority of them. But away from home I only won 3 games and drew 3, losing the remaining 12. I use the same tactic and set ups for most games.

Would look something like this;

I play with an emphasis on keeping the ball and dominating possession; so have very low creative freedom across the defensive players and dms. The screenshots shown with high passes with Gago would have had a higher time wasting than normal, but that was useful as the opposition allowed us to play the ball around them - yet still managed to carve out good chances, instead of trying your luck and wasting possession in fruitless attacks. When I play at home the full backs - Santon and Montoya will become wing backs, and away from home or against good sides they will drop back to attacking full backs. In front of them I will have the two deep lying playmakers, with Gago my primary playmaker - they sit in front of the defence and recyle possession and drop in to fill the gaps left my the wing backs. Up front I have the single striker, with three attacking midfielders behind either Ba or Cisse. The central of the three isn't allowed runs from deep, so he will naturally drop deeper and connect with Gago for example. The two to the left and right of these have free roles with high creativity; these two will start from central positions and move and drift into the channels providing, but the wing backs will give the side natural width.

The system has been faultless for me at home, and away at inferior sides, but still working out a few tweaks to make it viable against top teams.

[col_nufc1]

whooa some serious transfers there col_nufc1; how do you manage with such a big squad?

Tommo, you've managed to get some incredible passing stats from Tiote and Gago, with both of them getting over 100 passes . I play a very similar formation as you as I play a 4-2-3-1 Deep but I play with Inside Forwards on the wings and not three attacking midfielders. I also play with two Deep Lying Playmakers but they get no were near the amount of passes yours does. What starting strategy do you play with to get tthem sort of passing stats ?

As you can see I send a lot of players out on loan to my feeder clubs and I play the squad players in the domestic cups and easier league games and the vast majority of them seem happy enough with that.

[tommonufc]

Tommo, you've managed to get some incredible passing stats from Tiote and Gago, with both of them getting over 100 passes . I play a very similar formation as you as I play a 4-2-3-1 Deep but I play with Inside Forwards on the wings and not three attacking midfielders. I also play with two Deep Lying Playmakers but they get no were near the amount of passes yours does. What starting strategy do you play with to get tthem sort of passing stats ?

As you can see I send a lot of players out on loan to my feeder clubs and I play the squad players in the domestic cups and easier league games and the vast majority of them seem happy enough with that.

Well following on from the post I made above, I'll expand on what has been said. First and foremost, without saying my main aim in a match is to win the game; but secondary to this I want to keep the ball, and dilute the chances I do make to solid goal scoring opportunities; so I will very rarely smash away teams scoring four or five goals. The screenshot of the Huddersfield game was a cup tie, with Huddersfield at the bottom end of the Championship - so a comfortable game. They came to St.James' and parked the bus, the way I saw it was I could use the opporunity to kill of any threat they would have by just keeping hold of the ball even more so than normal - and as you see Gago and Tiote managed to keep the ball away from most of the Huddersfield team on their own. These are extreme examples, but it's something I like to reach, with me finding a strange satisfaction when I can get a player to just run the show and have 100+ passes.

Tactically the Huddersfield game was high time wasting with normal to high tempo, when usually depending on the time in the game and the scoreline I'd usually set up with a low time wasting and normal tempo; and as the game goes on I'll adjust to kill the game off if I'm winning. All my players expect the three amcs and striker have low creativity. This pretty much means that everyone else does what I say, expect the three that pose the most threat to the opposition, and even then it's only around half way on the slider. The three amcs I find give me a lot more freedom when it comes to retaining the ball in the oppositions area, but this is only the case because being centrally they allow the width to come from my wing backs. Their starting positions will be centrally, and in theory they will then move outwide if necessary, thus drawing thier marker and creating space for one of the other attacking players. By having these players start centrally, it frees up the space for wing back to utilize. With Santon and Montoya starting out wide, and the attacking mids coming out to receive the ball from them. The central attacking mid, will link up with Gago and Tiote/Cabeye who play deep. I like him, usually Glyfi to sit slighly deeper, with a lower mentality than the other three ams, and he is limited in so much as forward runs. In the Sunderland game where he made 111/122 passes, most of these were central in the central strip of pitch from the 18yard line and the half way line.

If you are looking for your deep playmaker to reach high end of passes I would look to try out the following things as basics;

-Short, Short passing for every team member.

-Low creative freedom for the majority of your team.

-Make sure there are lots of passing opportunities within your team, push your full backs up, drop your central attacking mid deeper.

-Move into channels for your two deep playmakers - this will encourage them to offer and receive the ball outwide from your fullbacks.

-Composure, and ppms play a big part too. For example Fraser Forster is a much better option than Krul for me at the moment, because he has greater composure so is less likely to panic and hoof the ball out. Same for Coloccini at center back. A perfect deep playmaker would be someone like Joe Allen, have a look at his ppms and you will see why.

The complexities can arise when it comes to determining the right levels of mentality across your team in relation to your defensive line so that you get a good spacing between your players. There is a thread over in tactics and training titled '900 passes, is it possible in FM?' - have a read through in there, I have posted a few times, but some of the levels that people have posted to have reached are incredible. One being that Bastian Schweinstiger making 250+ passes and breaking the coding of the game! I seem to have rambled somewhat and probably a few typos ect. as it was rushed, but hopefully it'll make sense.

[DandyDon]

Well looks like being a fun summer in the transfer market before the second season. First week in June and I've already rejected bids from Liverpool for Ba and Spurs for Cisse. Now Ba wants a new contract and his agent won't drop the minimum release clause from the talks.

EDIT: Well got him to drop his wage demands to £58,000 a week and drop a 'Match Highest Earner' Clause, but had to let him have a £15 million release clause before they'd agree the new deal. Now PSG have come in with a bid for Tiote.

[nickbirdspain]

Hi there,

Last night I finally started up my fm12 Newcastle save. After watching the recent success of my beloved NUFC, I thought it was time to take on the Tyneside challenge!

I had my most successful ever save on FM11 where I took them to 8 league titles, 5 CLs, 4 FA cups, and 2 LC's in 10 years. Plan is to emulate this by setting a 10 season challenge!

Focus for the first season will be on a top 6 finish. No major signings planned although, like most I will be concentrating on youth. Going to check out Palace duo of Zaha and Clyne. Will also be looking at season loans for the likes on Sammy Ameobi and a few other youngsters in order to have them ready for next season. One player I will be keeping is Vuckic.

Expected formation will be 442 taking advantage of the 2 demba's.

Also planning to bring in new fitness and youth coaches. Have offers accepted on two from Man Utd which should help some of the youngsters develop nicely.

Will keep you all posted, howay the lads!!

[shoonaldo]

Well looks like being a fun summer in the transfer market before the second season. First week in June and I've already rejected bids from Liverpool for Ba and Spurs for Cisse. Now Ba wants a new contract and his agent won't drop the minimum release clause from the talks.

EDIT: Well got him to drop his wage demands to £58,000 a week and drop a 'Match Highest Earner' Clause, but had to let him have a £15 million release clause before they'd agree the new deal. Now PSG have come in with a bid for Tiote.

I had the same thing with Ba just after the second season with only one year left on his contract. He wanted an 11m release clause and over 60k in wages. I tried to set his release to 40m and lock it but then he wanted 90k per week and I'm not paying that kind of money. So in the end I sold him to Lille for 9m.

[foof-1984]

Started a new save on latest patch on finished 1st season, i didn bother with cups, but all my efforts into league games, finishing 3rd and getting into champions league http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/33/newcastletable.png/

had a few signings, some were to act as cover at the beginning off the season, the major transfers in january were needed due to injuries to both colo an taylor, they majority off them are deals spread over 48months so it may affect my future plans, im struggling to attract any offers for some players even offering them out for less than there value

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/259/newcastletransfers.png/

hopefully i can go further this year an pick up a trophy, champs league may just be out off reach this season dont think i have a squad capable to compete on all fronts yet

[DandyDon]

I had the same thing with Ba just after the second season with only one year left on his contract. He wanted an 11m release clause and over 60k in wages. I tried to set his release to 40m and lock it but then he wanted 90k per week and I'm not paying that kind of money. So in the end I sold him to Lille for 9m.

Yeah 90k is a bit on the steep side, probably would have sold him too.

As it is I'm happy enough with a £15 million release clause, any club had offered that upfront I might have considered selling anyway. Wage budget has taken a bit of a jump over the summer as I've had to offer new deals to Cisse and Tim Krul as well after rejecting bids for them. Their demands were fairly reasonable though, gave Cisse a wage hike to 47.5k and gave him key player status and Tim seems happy enough with a jump from 15k to 31k.

[lucatonix]

End of Season Update 2011/12

Transfers

In:

Lucas Digne - loan

Maksim Bordachov - £1.3m

Erick Torres - £5.5m

Kwadwo Asamoah - £15m in January

Out:

Shola Ameobi - £2.8m

Danny Guthrie - £1.5m in January

and some other loans

Competitions

League Cup - 3rd Round Exit

Was unlucky with the draw and couldn't beat Spurs away from home. A crushing 3-1 loss kicked us out of the competition.

FA Cup - Champions

I had a very easy run to the semi-final beating Middlesborough, Watford, QPR and Bristol City to get there. In the semis, I drew Liverpool who I had already beat both at St James Park and at Anfield earlier in the season so I was confident going into the match. In a close match we edged a victory winning 3-1 after extra time.

Premier League - 2nd

The title race went down to the wire, with me and Man Utd having incredible runs in 2012. Man Utd didn't lose a single match in 2012, whereas I lost one match from the turn of the year to Man Utd. That loss ended up causing me to lose the title. I am thoroughly impressed with the players, but a repeat performance will be very hard without significant improvements to the squad adding quality and depth to deal with the extra games in Europe.

Player Performances

Top Goalscorers:

Demba Ba - 24 in 36

Papiss Cisse - 22 in 35

Hatem Ben Arfa - 6 in 32

Top Assisters:

Hatem Ben Arfa - 11 in 32

Yohan Cabye - 11 in 33

Jonas Gutierrez - 10 in 42

Demba Ba - 9 in 36

My Player of the Season: Demba Ba

He was a consistent goal scorer and provider. He played exceptionally well as a deep lying forward and linked well with the midfield. When Cisse sometimes appeared to go missing in matches Demba Ba took the game by the horns and led the team's attacks from the front.

Flop of the Season: Maksim Bordachov

Absolutely awful. No other way to describe his general performances. For the second half of the season, I actually felt more comfortable playing Lucas Digne at left back, and he isn't great at defending.

My Young Player of the Season: Davide Santon

Davide was generally solid at the back. He was very trustworthy, and although didn't always offer too much going forward, having a solid full back was really important to our success.

[DandyDon]

@foof-1984

Good season there. What sort of wages are you having to pay Diarra?

@lucatonix

Great first season, shame about that one defeat costing you the title..so close Good deal for Asamoah as well, quite a coup for Newcastle to bag him. Any idea who you might sign at left back with Bordachov not impressing?

[nickbirdspain]

Hi

Just wanted to give you an update, albeit a short one.

Preseason has been something of a disaster, results wise. I’ve been experimenting with various tactics but can’t seem to nail down a style that suits the team. I’m still aiming to start with a 442 utlising the two Demba’s but I’m running out of friendlies to experiment in!

Transfer wise I’ve brought in a new Fitness coach and a new youth coach. Apart from that I’m not having much luck with transfers. Zaha and Clyne have obviously been given a bit of an update in the new patch and sadly my measly £3m won’t stretch that far. I’m not a fan of payments over 48months so I might just hold off until I get some decent money in. Managed to offload Perch to Saints for £3.2m which I’m quite pleased at. I don’t want to make too many drastic changes in the first instance, although I’m keeping an eye out for a decent LB and RB cover – any suggestions welcome!

Ok season is fast approaching, to quote Samuel L Jackson from the 90’s classic Jurassic Park: “Hold on to ya butts!”

[lucatonix]

@lucatonix

Great first season, shame about that one defeat costing you the title..so close Good deal for Asamoah as well, quite a coup for Newcastle to bag him. Any idea who you might sign at left back with Bordachov not impressing?

I am going to do an update later today with my pre season dealings. I had played kwadwo asamoah there quite a bit at the end of last season and he was rather good. I manages to buy the Brazilian Felipe for about £4m and also bought digne for the future. No-one would buy bordachov so he's on loan at getafe where he is playing awfully so far. I'm quite excited about my transfer deals so am looking forward to hopefully challenging for the league again

[Vidji]

Got this problem now after winning the CL that Krul wants out, he keeps comming banging on my door about leaving every month. He is on a hefty contract allready and I really don't want to increase his wage, as that would take him way above everyone else in my squad.

[lucatonix]

Start of 2012-13 Season

Transfers

I was given a rather generous budget of about £19.4m

Out:

James Perch - £2.7m

Leon Best - £2.4m

Gabriel Obertan - £5m

Ryan Taylor -£3m

Fabricio Coloccini - £5m

Mike Williamson - £2m

Xisco - £2.5m

Maksim Bordachov - loan 625k

and quite a lot of frees.

These sales made me able to make these transfers.

In:

James Rodriguez - £2.5m

Richard Joseph £1.7m (newgen)

Filipe - £3.9m

Marc Bartra £1m

Robbie Cotton - free (newgen)

Ryan Shawcross - £11.5m

Nigel de Jong - loan £2.1m

Eldin Hasic - free (newgen)

Dede - £17.75m

Iker Muniain - £20m

Coutinho - free

Lucas Digne - £4.2m

Carlos Fierro - £2.5m

I am really happy with those deals and I think I have met my aim of adding both quality and depth to my squad. This will be needed if I am to cope with Europe this season.

Tactics and First Team Line Up

After being very successful with a 442 last season, I have decided to stick with that formation but have a new back up tactic as a 4411.

GK Krul, Fraser

DR Santon, Simpson

DL Asamoah/Filipe, Digne

DC Shawcross/Taylor

DC Dede, Bartra

MR Ben Arfa/ Gutierrez

ML Rodriguez, Coutinho/Marveaux

MCd Tiote/de Jong

MCa Cabaye/Asamoah, Gosling

AM/ST Ba/Muniain, Torres

ST Ba/Cisse, Fierro

The squad has far more quality this season and I hope we can progress well in Europe to bring in some extra cash to strengthen a couple of positions in the future.

Future Plans

I am looking for quality right wingers to replace Gutierrez next season. At the moment Willian looks like the perfect player but he is playing for Napoli so might be too expensive. I am keeping my eye on Wilshere and Ramsey in case one decides they want to move away from the Gunners.

[OutClassed]

Just got to the end of January in my second season. Had quite a transfer window! In the end I let Krul go out on loan because he was moaning about first team football, but didn't ask for a fee so I recall him if I need him. The only other big departure was Cabaye; when Spurs offered £17.75m I was very tempted and eventually sold.

But replacements were of the highest standard. Ashley Young (£6.75m) and Aaron Ramsey (£5.25m) arrived early on, with Wilshere (£10m) and Canales (Loan- no upfront fee, £8k wages for 12 months and a future fee of £13m) followed after Cabaye had left the club. This leaves my squad looking like this:

Goalkeepers: ter Stegen

Right backs: Bandalovski, Santon

Left backs: Robinson, Santon

Centre backs: Bassong, Clark, Dawson, S.Taylor

Defensive midfielders: Stepanenko, Tiote, Francois (Regen)

Central midfielders: Ramsey, Vass, Wilshere

Wingers: Gaitan, Young, dos Santos, Ait Fana, Gutierrez

Attacking midfielders: Sigurdsson, Wilshere, Canales

Strikers: Cisse, Paloschi, Ba, Fierro, Rhodes

Admittedly I have an abundance of attackers, but I've suffered a lot of injuries throughout the season. In the summer I'll move on Gutierrez, Rhodes and Ba regardless of what happens, Guti and Ba are on huge wages and both are expendable. The only incomings I can see would be defensive. I'm quite short on fullbacks and might opt for another right back, but we'll see what regens come through the academy or pop up!

[Vidji]

Just had a pretty sick season ending with three teams over 90 points. How often does that happend!? I on the other hand on 4th place again with 87 points. Just wasted my opportunities at the end of the season.

[Gooner88]

Considering starting a game with Newcastle, just looking for a bit of advice really. I prefer to play 451 and i was thinking of playing Ba on the wing to fit him and Cisse in the side. Has anyone done this with any success?

Thanks

[foof-1984]

paying him 50k a week with 6.5k appearence fee

[DandyDon]

Considering starting a game with Newcastle, just looking for a bit of advice really. I prefer to play 451 and i was thinking of playing Ba on the wing to fit him and Cisse in the side. Has anyone done this with any success?

Thanks

He's done ok for me when played out at AML, but that hasn't been a regular thing so he's never had a long run of games in the position. I've generally just rotated the strikers when I play one upfront.

[DandyDon]

paying him 50k a week with 6.5k appearence fee

That's a little more reasonable than I was expecting for a player signing from Real Madrid

[foof-1984]

SEASON 2012/13

Had an incredible season, was in the title race untill march but lost a couple silly games and finished in 3rd, dissapointed to go out in the 3rd round off both the cups, had an incredible run in the champions league resulting in a 3-1 win in the final over bayern

League table

By foof1984 at 2012-04-04

Chanmpions league final

By foof1984 at 2012-04-04

Great result on the way

By foof1984 at 2012-04-04

Transfers

i had quite a lot off transfer activity but only a handfull off the players played a lot off games the rest were signed as hot prospects, players that were sold on were players that weren happy or did not fit in ti the formation tht i use

hopefully in 3rd season i can really push on, defend my cl trophy and and put up a better challange domestically, need a few more players to add quality to my team,

By foof1984 at 2012-04-04

[DandyDon]

2012/13 Season Update

Very cheap transfer window for us this time round with the 3 Italian lads arriving at the start of July adding some more cover for the spine of the team. The only other addition was Juan Pablo Carrizo, brought in to replace the outbound Steve Harper as back up keeper to Tim Krul.

Forster and Williamson were sold as neither really featured in my long term plans, with the arrival of Davide Astori I felt sure we had enough cover in central defence with Taylor, Alderweireld, Munoz and Mellberg already there. I accepted a loan bid for Shane Ferguson after he and Jonas fell out. Marveaux was offered out after requesting a transfer and the Swansea deal was the best offer we received, a £1.2 million loan fee and another £3.8 million to come if they decide to make it a permanent deal.

The aim for the season is to at least clinch European qualification again via the league, and some better performances in the cup. With a little luck we may be able to mount a title challenge, if the the extra burden of Champs League football doesn't tax the squad too much. Planning to keep using the attacking 4-4-2 formation at SJP and against weaker opposition away, still tweaking my away formations but at the moment it's a sort of 4-3-3 trying to make the most of the hard working central midfielders we have.

Results so far

We've made a fairly solid, but unspectacular start to the new season, winning our first three games, albeit not hugely convincingly against newly promoted Reading and West Ham. However we followed those up with a couple of dull draws against Spurs and Fulham either side of a disappointing opener to our Champs League campaign against CSKA Moscow, we've generally had the edge in possession terms in all of those games but didn't create as many chances as I'd have liked.

The next few games though have showed some signs of improvement with Paloschi finding his shooting boots in explosive fashion a hattrick against Forest in the League Cup was swiftly followed by his first two league goals in an easy win over Bolton. He also scored in his next match as we ran up a 5-2 win over FC Copenhagen.

We've been a little unlucky with injuries in the opening weeks as well, Tiote missed several games with strained knee ligamnets, Steven Taylor is out long term with a double hernia, Andrea Bertolacci had his arm broken against Spurs when we were already down to 10 men and had used three subs and now Dan Gosling and Abeid have picked up calf injuries making substitute appearances against Copenhagen. May look to spend some cash in the January window if we keep picking up injuries at this rate. Planning to possibly add another winger regardless to replace the aging Ze Roberto.