FM13: Newcastle United - Alan Pardew and The Eight Year Plan.

[tommonufc]

Season 2014/14 - January Update

Premier League

Been in very good form after shifting to an efficient model of 3-5-2, although a sloppy start to the season has left me playing major catch up to Man City, who just won't lose!

Europa League

The kids and fringe players have been in great form in Europe, breezing through the group stages, and setting me up for a last 32 tie with Metalist, with a potential last 16 tie of either Juventus or Standard Leige. Within the competition there are some real big hitters, so will be a very good acheivement to win I think - AC Milan, Porto, Juve, Inter, PSG, Dortmund, Arsenal.

Transfers

Wellington Nem has been sold to be annoyance. Inadvertently transfer listed him in my attempts at moving him on; at the time I wanted to thin my front line out, and was looking at a figure towards the £20M; instead of which my DOF ended up selling him to Vasco for £6M without me realising what he was up too!

Incoming I've been looking around the end of contracts, and only decided to go after one player, with my DoF sealing Atheltic's Iker Munian on a end of contract deal. Looked at Andre ter Stegen, with the DoF sealing a deal - but one of £80K a week deal - far too much for a goalkeeper that isn't really needed.

[Dodds']

Just came to the end of my first transfer window, made some decent signings and also got some mass money for some players that werent needed or were on mass wages.

However the tactics need to be learned quicker, although we beat Sunderland

[tommonufc]

Oooo, nasty run of results there! How have you got the team set-up, what do you think is going wrong?

[tommonufc]

Into the Final of the League Cup again this year, to defend my crown! An 8-0 aggregate semi-final triumph of Hull City, with Campbell bagging five and getting my first 10.00 of FM13 - wooosh! :D He's going great this season, have had him down as eligible for the reserves all season without noticing, he's scored 11 in 13(1) for them, as well as 17 in 23 for the first team - and he was picked up his first England cap in November, starting up front with Wayne Rooney in a 1-1 draw with Portugal.

Got big plans for this kid, as long as I stick around with this save for long enough he should go on to break Shearer's goalscoring record for Newcastle, and hopefully Bobby Chalton's record for England, which will soon become Rooney's as he's teetering on 48 goals in 96 caps.

In other news, mid January, 22 games played in the league, and City have won 16 of them and drawn 6 - leaving me 15 points behind in third ... despite only losing twice in 17 games; and to think Man City are doing this whilst playing Micah Richards in center midfield too.

[jlm8695]

A HDD failure means that I have to start my save again Disappointing, as I had finished 4th and was in the CL at the start of season two. Will update after re-season, have some different targets this time round.

[Hoarau]

Having a good run towards the end of the season with my new 5-3-2 & could possibly steal 4th if results go my way and I string a few victories together.

I've been reviewing my transfer targets for the coming seasons and think I'm gonna add a bit of "British" focus to my plans, I've gathered together a transfer list of young UK players who I'd like to replace some of the older members of the squad with eventually. Some of these lads could step in just now :

Chris Solly - Southampton

Nathaniel Clyne - Southampton

Sean Murray - Watford

Will Hughes - Derby

Mason Bennett - Derby

James Ward-Prowse - Southampton

Luke Shaw - Southampton

Ross Barkley - Everton

Jack Butland - Birmingham

Also I'm looking at replacing Colo with either transfer listed Gary Cahill or Ryan Shawcross? Any thoughts?

I've added a few other targets with the hope yet might become disalusioned with life at there current clubs and maybe end up on the transfer list, they are :

Daniel Sturridge - Chelsea

Jack Rodwell - Man City

Victor Moses - Chelsea

Jack Wilshere - Arsenal

Now as I said a few posts ago, I don't currently plan on brining in anyone in unless I get a pretty convincing offer for anyone in my first team. That being said, these are part of a multi-year target list and I'm sure I won't get or need them all this is just a general outline of potentials.

Newcastle is by far the best FM save I've had in many a version, after spending the weekend in Newcastle and touring St James Park I've taken quite a shine to the club.

[Dodds']

Oooo, nasty run of results there! How have you got the team set-up, what do you think is going wrong?

Trying to play 4-3-3 high up the field, but i've went in depth in every position so basically the players need to learn a lot. I think that's the problem unfortunately.

[DandyDon]

Well managers do say 'Judge us after 10 games' don't they? (According to the BBC anyway) So now that we've gotten through the 10 league matches barrier I thought I'd give an update of my teams second season progress.

Transfer Activity

After giving my DoF a fair bit of stick last season, he actually did a pretty good job over the summer. He set up deals for Hermann and Mario which brought in cover for positions we were lacking a little depth in, and he was even more effective in moving players out. He set up the deals that saw Gosling, Ryan Taylor, Mike Williamson, James Perch and Sylvain Marveaux leave the club (the fact that he got the £10 million I wanted for Marveaux was a real plus point), the majority of the loan deals were set up by Phil Cannon, my head of Youth Development to get the players some first team action. I was also able to cash in on Gabriel Obertan,who actually had a pretty good first season for me, but when I saw there were a few clubs interested I decided to sell to help fund the move for Clasie.

Results so Far

We've started off the season in fairly similar form to the way we ended the last, and our performances have been good in almost every game. The only disappointing showing came in the defeat at Chelsea, a 2-1 loss at Stamford Bridge wasn't unexpected, but we didn't deserve to even grab the 1 really. Of the summer signings Jan Kirchhoff and Salvatore Bocchetti have settled the fastest and seem to be forming a solid partnership in central defence. They got a little more playing time at the start of the season than expected due to injuries to Steven Taylor and Coloccini, but I'm loathe to drop them now even though the injuries have cleared up.

Elsewhere our our attacking talent has definitely been in great form so far

Papiss Cisse - 13 goals and 1 assist from 12 appearances, average rating 7.63

Demba Ba - 3 goals and 7 assists from 6(3) appearances, average rating 7.52 (unfortunately he is currently out with a broken arm)

Adam Campbell - 4 goals and 2 assists from 3(5) appearances, average rating 7.25

Haris Vuckic - 4 goals and 3 assists from 4(3) appearances, average rating 7.41

I've been very happy that Cisse kept up his goalscoring form from last season, but really delighted with the contribution of the two youngsters Campbell and Vuckicso far and hopefully their form will mean I don't need to dip into the transfer market anytime soon for another striker.

The Table

Looking very good for us at the moment, we're above Man Utd by having scored a solitary goal more than them and while we're not the tightest defence in the league, we're not far off it. I have no idea what's going on with Man City as despite buying in Marek Hamsik, Douglas Costa and Antoine Griezmann they are still only mid table at the moment.

[tommonufc]

Just edged out against Manchester United to restore my League Cup title!

Man City update - They've finally lost - twice now in 31 games! I'm 20 points behind in second, with two games in hand. Think it's safe to say that the title is there's once more.p

[DandyDon]

Looks like Man City are far more like I expected them to be on your save Tommo, they've been pretty hopeless on my save this season....so far at least. I reckon Man Utd will be the team to catch, we've started very strongly but I'm expecting a bit of a dip if the injuries mount up as I've still got a fairly small squad.

I've made a fairly massive schoolboy error in somehow forgetting to add Tiote to the Champions League squad....he was injured at the time we had to register the players but only for a few weeks, can't believe I didn't even notice.

[Hoarau]

Seeing the success you guys are having with Adam Campbell makes me even more gutted about losing him to Arsenal.

I'm hoping I can maybe get him back in a seasons time and try to repair any damage done..

[tommonufc]

Seeing the success you guys are having with Adam Campbell makes me even more gutted about losing him to Arsenal.

I'm hoping I can maybe get him back in a seasons time and try to repair any damage done..

You should be able to get him back at some point before his mid 20s, but you'd have missed out on all his prime development years. Highly doubt he's getting the game time at Arsenal is he?

A SS was posted within the thread I made of him, with him aged 28 I think, with more or less the same level I had at the time of 19 - so by the time he's 23 within my save, and had three seasons within the side he's going to be a beast of a poacher.

[Oenone87]

Chelsea just sold Hazard for 33mil to City, it was between me, City and Barcelona.

I went mad trying to get him, the 33mil wasn't a problem but he wants massive wages, so I went 120k 30% increase per year, 50k appearence, 50k goal (Yeah hattrick costs 150k lol) and 3.7 mil for his agent and him (each)

He went to City

Muniain and Schurrle are great but Hazard is a league of his own, esp at 24, would have been perfect. Oh well.

[tommonufc]

Those wages are absurd! Class player, but the difference between quality and wages of Munian and Hazard wouldn't make great sense.

How much did you pay for Munian? Signed him on a end of contract, looking forward to playing him upfront in a withdrawn 9 role.

[tommonufc]

Season 2014/14

Man City ran away with the league, as you can see from the graph below - so after a less than perfect start to the season I had already see me out of title contention from about ten games in! Overall pretty pleased, but this will make in three seasons in without winning the league which is quite annoying.

Set a target of winning the Europa League, but was knocked out in the Quarters by Arsenal 3-1 on aggregate. So fairly angry with the failings there too. Had breezed through my group, and brushed aside Metalist of Ukraine, and edged out 3-1 winners of Juvenetus, but 3-1 away defeat in the first leg at the Emirates saw me drop out in the last eight.

Regained the League Cup, winning 1-0AET against Manchester United; but lost to Chelsea in the FA Cup 3rd round on penalties - after over three and half hours without any side scoring across two ties!

[Oenone87]

Those wages are absurd! Class player, but the difference between quality and wages of Munian and Hazard wouldn't make great sense.

How much did you pay for Munian? Signed him on a end of contract, looking forward to playing him upfront in a withdrawn 9 role.

They would have been crazy yeah. I think I paid mid-20's for Muniain, hes been pretty stellar. Hes not a right winger but hes young enough so I've stuck him training over there, and from that AMR position as an IF hes got 5 goals and 18 assists, and its the beginning of February.

One player I'd like to point out is Yassine Benzina. A young striker turned wonderkid, who is currently at;

Hes around 17-18 when the game starts. Hes currently the highest goalscorer in the league. Plays as a Poacher for me.

Edit - The reason why I play Iker as a AMR and not a AMC and AML is because Jovetic and Schurrle split the AML between them and Benzina and Jovetic split up front, although recently Benzina has had the striker role to himself. That, and Gotze simply will not leave Dortmund this game, who would naturally be my first choice for a right winger. Hazard would be my first choice for a left winger, too. Still, Schurrle, Jovetic, Benzina and Muniain have been fantastic and I currently occuy 1st place in the league

Wolfsburg in the 1st Knockout round of the CL too, so hoping for a win there.

[nickbirdspain]

Tom, that is brilliant stuff with Adam Campbell. I'm holding off on an NUFC until the new year when the January transfers have been done. Out of interest how did you get Campbell to that level? Do you have him constantly tutored?

[lam]

How on earth are there 6 pages (I have lots of posts per page) of replies when you have a squad already this good!!!!

btw..... incredible open to the thread......

Also.... I plan on pinching half your squad for my Spurs team

[Oenone87]

And despite all the talent, we lose to a 1-0 own goal loss to Stoke, who will face PETERBOROUGH in the FA cup final.

FFFFFFFFFFFF

[Oenone87]

Season completely went down the pan. Starting with the loss to Man City (typical) where we were 1-0 up till the 87th minute then they scored twice. After that the wheels completely fell off, losing to Stoke in the FA Cup semi due to a horrific own goal, then they got ripped to pieces by Barcelona, as is the way, we did beat them at home but to no avail. League games soon followed, Benzina couldn't hold his form and how could I expect him to? He performed brilliantly for 7/8ths of the season, essentially carrying the others despite our massive amount of goals. Something needs to be done at the back but morale (both IRL and with the players) is terribly low. On for the treble - certainly a more realistic double - to throw it completely away. Finished second which while admirable does not represent the effort put in this season.

Image to show failure;

:/

[hypertoon]

end of second season and bought in a couple of good free players .... bought Isco for his £26m buyout fee and generall had a good transfer window.....

However has anyone had the takeover yet?

At the end of the summer just before the start of the new season I had the usual transfer block and speculation of a takeover..... Apparently the new guy was going to wipe all the debt etc etc....... a day later it got lifted and aparently the fat man refused his offer,,.....!!!1

anyone else gone through this.....

I'm sure in 2012 game the same thing happened but then by xmas he had sold out......

[Oenone87]

Yeah I have. 30mil per season transfer budget so far, he cleared the debt too. Doing p well.

[hypertoon]

Yeah I have. 30mil per season transfer budget so far, he cleared the debt too. Doing p well.

cool, but did it happen the same as my game... did he refuse at first or did yours complete in the summer..

[Oenone87]

cool, but did it happen the same as my game... did he refuse at first or did yours complete in the summer..

Completed in the summer

[hypertoon]

Completed in the summer

damn it...... I hope it gets restarted sometime this season for me.. I feel i'm missing out now compared to others.... having that debt wiped or at least a chunk of it i'm sure would help a lot with the finances at least

[Oenone87]

It means nothing unless you get the reputation of the club up. Season expectations set to Winner, I have 50 million to spend. I have literally no one good to spend it on if I were to buy a key player, so I've sold a few (now have ****ing loads of money) and am going to really blood the youngsters. Bought Ajax's Eriksen though. Cost an arm and a leg relative to how good he is, but such is life, my young CM's are too young.

[hypertoon]

Yeah I plan on blooding a few youngsters through.... I forgot their names now but in the summer I signed 4 or 5 under 21's all with 5* potential.... one of them a french striker who I imediately loaned out for the season to leverkusen... they plan on using him first team so im pleased with that... another was already the leading striker in the italian league last season and I got him on a bosman.. lol ... they were devestated.... he's going in first team for me .. because I sold jovetic for 20m .... too injury prone for me.

I also got a new tiote type.. hoping to loan him out as well.... I think long term you have to buying the 5* pots now so in 4 or 5 seasons time you'll have an ultimate regen team coming through.

Even though krul is great I also got butland and he's suposedly a 4.5 * pot.. I might loan him out this year to get first team action.

[Oenone87]

I take that back, enough money and you can get anyone. Finally got Gotze.

The fact he cost 60 million, 140k per week and massive bonus' is irrelevant. I approach FM like the Russians approach wars - It doesn't matter the cost so long as there is victory. I'm hooped this season if I **** it up anyway, the board are expecting great things.

[Bertie BG]

The image with of the crowd of fans hosted from the website newcastle.gloryfootball.com was causing malware detection to pop up in Chrome and other browsers so I've removed it. Feel free to add one back in from a different site

Great thread though!

[jwhite]

24th November 2013

3rd - Prem League

2nd - Champs League Group (AC Milan, Porto and PSG)

LC - 1/4 final v Hull to play.

Only made one signing on loan last season - John Guidetti

This season ive signed him on a season long loan.

sign a young keeper from boro

Squad is pretty much identical still

KRUL

SANTON - WB

COLO - CD

TAYLOR - LD

SIMPSON - FB

JONAS - DW

TIOTE - A

CABAYE - DLP

BEN ARFA - IF

CISSE - P

BA - P

Cisse and HBA achieved highest goals and assists last season in PL

[Hoarau]

Season completely went down the pan. Starting with the loss to Man City (typical) where we were 1-0 up till the 87th minute then they scored twice. After that the wheels completely fell off, losing to Stoke in the FA Cup semi due to a horrific own goal, then they got ripped to pieces by Barcelona, as is the way, we did beat them at home but to no avail. League games soon followed, Benzina couldn't hold his form and how could I expect him to? He performed brilliantly for 7/8ths of the season, essentially carrying the others despite our massive amount of goals. Something needs to be done at the bacRk but morale (both IRL and with the players) is terribly low. On for the treble - certainly a more realistic double - to throw it completely away. Finished second which while admirable does not represent the effort put in this season.

Image to show failure;

:/

Is Benzina the French striker from Lyon? How much did you pay for him if you don't mind me asking?

Would you say he had more potential than Yaya Sanogo?

[dovEs]

I had Benzia for a couple of seasons after getting him on a free. Sold him to Soton for 22m to finance beastly regen purchases.

[tommonufc]

I take that back, enough money and you can get anyone. Finally got Gotze.

The fact he cost 60 million, 140k per week and massive bonus' is irrelevant. I approach FM like the Russians approach wars - It doesn't matter the cost so long as there is victory. I'm hooped this season if I **** it up anyway, the board are expecting great things.

Massive monies! Determined not to break the £100K a week mark until I'm walking the league. Love the fact I've brought Gotze, Leitner and Bittencourt for £60M

Tom, that is brilliant stuff with Adam Campbell. I'm holding off on an NUFC until the new year when the January transfers have been done. Out of interest how did you get Campbell to that level? Do you have him constantly tutored?

Not constantly tutored, twice I think, defiantly once - by Alberto Paloschi.

First season he only played around ten games, whilst Ba and Cisse were away in ACoN and in the cups. Second season he should have featrured a lot more, but was behind too many strikers - so only played around ten games again. Before the start of the third season I had already decided he was going lead my line, so sold Cisse and Carroll to make room for him and gave him as many games as he was fit too play.

Inadvertently had him down to play for the reserves for the season, so as you can see, he's played over 60 games in a season.

[Dodds']

Europe is okay...

The league, not so much.

[Oenone87]

Is Benzina the French striker from Lyon? How much did you pay for him if you don't mind me asking?

Would you say he had more potential than Yaya Sanogo?

Yaya Sanogo isnt in my relatively small database but I have had him on 2012, he was a lot cheaper, I think Benzia when all said and done was like 18mil. Edit - Yeah I think I like Benzia more. He ran out of goals at the end of last season but had something like 34-36 which is a pretty good tally at 20 years old!

As for your success Tommo I'm fairly jelly! I had the chance when Gotze wanted to come to Newcastle in 12/13 season towards the end, but then Dortmund retained the Bundesliga title and he fell deeply in love. Even when I scouted him this time they were like "No intention to come to Newcastle" so I tried it. They wanted 60mil, so I said fine, half now half over a long ass time. Agent said he wasn't that interested so I just threw him an awesome deal and it went green. I find if I go too cheap when they aren't interested thats it, I miss my chance, so I just took it and got him which I'm largely happy about.

That said I think I'm doing something fundamentally wrong when I'm buying players, lol, because a lot of people seem to be getting much better deals. I could use a guide or something! XD

[trunks26]

So this just happened!

Coincidentally that's the number of points I have!

[tommonufc]

Yaya Sanogo isnt in my relatively small database but I have had him on 2012, he was a lot cheaper, I think Benzia when all said and done was like 18mil. Edit - Yeah I think I like Benzia more. He ran out of goals at the end of last season but had something like 34-36 which is a pretty good tally at 20 years old!

As for your success Tommo I'm fairly jelly! I had the chance when Gotze wanted to come to Newcastle in 12/13 season towards the end, but then Dortmund retained the Bundesliga title and he fell deeply in love. Even when I scouted him this time they were like "No intention to come to Newcastle" so I tried it. They wanted 60mil, so I said fine, half now half over a long ass time. Agent said he wasn't that interested so I just threw him an awesome deal and it went green. I find if I go too cheap when they aren't interested thats it, I miss my chance, so I just took it and got him which I'm largely happy about.

That said I think I'm doing something fundamentally wrong when I'm buying players, lol, because a lot of people seem to be getting much better deals. I could use a guide or something! XD

Hmm, I pushed the boat out on him when he was transfer listed after the first season - £27M, £90K p/w basic wage - hasn't been the force of nature I had expected him to be, didn't even score last season

Any player I want to buy I'll get a scout report first, and then that should give me a gauge of what they want in terms of wage and the club in price. If there is a player that I know will be able to be signed, I'll get my DOF to sign him. If I know the DOF will be an arse about signing the player, I'll broker the deal myself - generally working my way up slowly until the club want to negotiate, then work my way down.

Currently trying to get Kurt Zouma from Saint Ettiene - their first negotiation has been £54M + £10M over 24months + Paul Poga!!

[GeordieTodger]

Started an NUFC game in beta mode and once my tactic clicked I actually found it pretty easy - could sell players at a massive profit and buy world class stars when they were listed. Found it all a bit boring so am starting a game where I am only going to have an English squad - so the first transfer window will be interesting - every single non-English player will be sold, or demoted to the reserves.

With that in mind...which English players, young and old, should I go for? Playing as NUFC obviously...

[tommonufc]

Don't sell all non-English players, that's silly That'd mean no Cabaye, Tiote, Krul, HBA :saywhatnow:!

You've got a good start at Newcastle - Campbell and Streete can be developed into leading England internationals, Bigirimana has English nationality and will become a Premier League center midfielder, likewise with Esteban Lopez and Jak Alnwick. Sammy Ameobi has turned into a decent player, but I wouldn't rely on him week, week out.

I played James Tavenier in my first season and was pretty good, and was just short of being fully developed - a decent defensive full back at Premier League.

The young English players your be looking at will be pretty expensive, so I wouldn't look to overhaul the squad straight away - as your not going to be able to replace someone like Yohan Cabaye with similar quality. Saying that your have money to spend, but your going to be short of immediate quality.

I'd have a look at;

-Jack Butland

-Luke Shaw, Jack Robinson, John Flanagan, Chris Solly...

-Will Hughes, James Ward-Prowse, Wilfred Zaha, Thomas Ince, Nathan Redmond, John Williams? Jonjo Shelvey

-Charlie Austin, Mason Barnett?

Have a look on the -9 PA Spoiler thread, that will give you a good indicator of what young English players you could recruit that have potential to be stars.

[GeordieTodger]

haha, cheers - but ALL non-English players are going...it's only a game afterall ;-)

[tommonufc]

You might struggle to develop a few players without Krul, Cabaye, Tiote and Ben Arfa though..

Good luck anyway

[Oenone87]

Hmm, I pushed the boat out on him when he was transfer listed after the first season - £27M, £90K p/w basic wage - hasn't been the force of nature I had expected him to be, didn't even score last season

Any player I want to buy I'll get a scout report first, and then that should give me a gauge of what they want in terms of wage and the club in price. If there is a player that I know will be able to be signed, I'll get my DOF to sign him. If I know the DOF will be an arse about signing the player, I'll broker the deal myself - generally working my way up slowly until the club want to negotiate, then work my way down.

Currently trying to get Kurt Zouma from Saint Ettiene - their first negotiation has been £54M + £10M over 24months + Paul Poga!!

He was amazing for me playing for Dortmund, in the first few years he had the most assists and a large number of goals, absolutely immense. First 5 games for Newcastle hes...not been 60 million worth thats for sure. But its early days. I have an epic young AMR coming through the ranks who I'm trying to blood in and have Gotze mentoring him, we'll see how that comes out. Jovetic is still pretty great but Benzia gets the Striker spot every game. I think I have about 7 wonderkids though, its hard to fit them all in - Two are loaned out to a feeder club and are both performing excellently!

Edit - 5 games in to the new season and 5 clean sheets! Beat City 1-0 at their ground too. Benzia is back to phenomenal form and the only goal we've conceded has been in Europe, where we won 2-1 anyway! Promising start. 4 wins 1 draw in the league

[tommonufc]

Contract renewal time for players ending in 2016...

Renewed Yohan Cabaye's contract - only succombing to a £20K rise, budged him down from £84K to £58K.

Steven Taylor has agreeed to take a £4K pay cut

Davide Santon, from £25K to £38K.

Alan Dzagoev, £39K to £44K.

Haris Vuckic, £8K to £12.5K

[Hoarau]

^ That's good work with Cabaye, I did the same as his agent is open to negotiations.

Has Dzagoev been performing for you then? Enough I suppose to renew at least? I think if he doesn't set it a light for me next year I may move him on.

2 games left of my season, both at home and I'm sitting 4th, could finish 3rd which is currently occupied by Stoke!? Can't wait.

[tommonufc]

Yeah, he's been a very good player for me. Manchester United came calling this summer, offering £24M, but rejected. Very important player within my squad.

My incessant tapping up of Kurt Zouma has paid off, much to the determent of Saint Ettiene. Their refusal to budge below £50M for him, led him to put in a transfer request - so signed him for a reasonable, but still substantial £26M.

He joins this summer, along with Iker Munian who was signed up as soon as he entered into the final sixth months of his contract at Athletic; and a 33 year old Nemanja Vidic, who was released from Manchester United.

[GeordieTodger]

English Experiment, the story so far! I've just completed pre-season, didn't bother with any friendlies other than against an American side which I coasted to a 2-1 victory. Instead, pre-season was a transfer flurry...

Out

Ba - £7m

Krul - £4.5m

Vuckic - £1.3m

HBA - £9m

Cabaye - £11.75m

Santon - £4.1m

Cisse - £13.25m

Coloccini - £5.75m

Tiote - £12.25m

Jonas - £5.25m

Adding in some of the smaller fringe players I took in an impressive £75m. And now for the fun part, buying English players...

In

Hargreaves - Free

Zaha - £6m

Butland - £2.5m P/E

Barkley - £4.5m P/E

Maguire - £2.5m

Jenas - Loan

Redmond - £5.5m

Noble - £5.5m

Total spend of £22m so plenty in the coffers for investing when some of the BIG English players become available!

Using a 5-3-1-1 system (Mr Hough). Team looks like this...

GK Butland

DC Taylor

DC Maguire

DC Williamson

WBR Simpson

WBL Raylor

MC Noble/Perch

MC Hargreaves/Gosling

MC Bigirimana/Jenas

AMC Barkley/Redmond

FC Zaha/Ameobi/Campbell

I'm loving it so far. Want to heavily invest in the U21 squad too plus after 2 cracking wing backs...any suggestions?

[Hoarau]

English Experiment, the story so far! I've just completed pre-season, didn't bother with any friendlies other than against an American side which I coasted to a 2-1 victory. Instead, pre-season was a transfer flurry...

Out

Ba - £7m

Krul - £4.5m

Vuckic - £1.3m

HBA - £9m

Cabaye - £11.75m

Santon - £4.1m

Cisse - £13.25m

Coloccini - £5.75m

Tiote - £12.25m

Jonas - £5.25m

Adding in some of the smaller fringe players I took in an impressive £75m. And now for the fun part, buying English players...

In

Hargreaves - Free

Zaha - £6m

Butland - £2.5m P/E

Barkley - £4.5m P/E

Maguire - £2.5m

Jenas - Loan

Redmond - £5.5m

Noble - £5.5m

Total spend of £22m so plenty in the coffers for investing when some of the BIG English players become available!

Using a 5-3-1-1 system (Mr Hough). Team looks like this...

GK Butland

DC Taylor

DC Maguire

DC Williamson

WBR Simpson

WBL Raylor

MC Noble/Perch

MC Hargreaves/Gosling

MC Bigirimana/Jenas

AMC Barkley/Redmond

FC Zaha/Ameobi/Campbell

I'm loving it so far. Want to heavily invest in the U21 squad too plus after 2 cracking wing backs...any suggestions?

I'm interested in how your save goes, I'm looking to bring in some more British talent, maybe not to the extent of your adventure..

As for wing backs, you could look at Chris Solly, Lee Hodson & of course Luke Shaw.

tommonufc

I had the same type offer from Man Utd, they offered £26m on deadline day but I rebuffed it that's what lead to him getting his new contract. Munian would be an exceptional signing, well done. How's Zouma looking? Must be top class if you've paid that for him, good bringing in Vidic, be a good tutor to Kurt?

Looking forward to seeing how new season goes.

[hypertoon]

English Experiment, the story so far! I've just completed pre-season, didn't bother with any friendlies other than against an American side which I coasted to a 2-1 victory. Instead, pre-season was a transfer flurry...

Out

Ba - £7m

Krul - £4.5m

Vuckic - £1.3m

HBA - £9m

Cabaye - £11.75m

Santon - £4.1m

Cisse - £13.25m

Coloccini - £5.75m

Tiote - £12.25m

Jonas - £5.25m

Adding in some of the smaller fringe players I took in an impressive £75m. And now for the fun part, buying English players...

In

Hargreaves - Free

Zaha - £6m

Butland - £2.5m P/E

Barkley - £4.5m P/E

Maguire - £2.5m

Jenas - Loan

Redmond - £5.5m

Noble - £5.5m

Total spend of £22m so plenty in the coffers for investing when some of the BIG English players become available!

Using a 5-3-1-1 system (Mr Hough). Team looks like this...

GK Butland

DC Taylor

DC Maguire

DC Williamson

WBR Simpson

WBL Raylor

MC Noble/Perch

MC Hargreaves/Gosling

MC Bigirimana/Jenas

AMC Barkley/Redmond

FC Zaha/Ameobi/Campbell

I'm loving it so far. Want to heavily invest in the U21 squad too plus after 2 cracking wing backs...any suggestions?

I think you've balls up there to be honest..... fine with the players you've brought in but you've undersold al your sales.

IF you had just played the first season with the players you sold at the end of a good first season you could have sold all of them for around this:

Ba - £20m

Krul - £8.5m

Vuckic - £3m

HBA - £25m

Cabaye - £20m

Santon - £7m

Cisse - £30m

Coloccini - £8.75m

Tiote - £30m - £35.

Jonas - £8m - £12m

Also I sold Anita for £20m end of first season.

Total about = £189.25m

Reason how I know that is because I did the same with MOST of those players... I refused those figures for some of them but got other sales instead.

[Dodds']

Results are starting to go well for me now, sitting 8th just going into Jan. After the start I had I thought I was going to get sacked.

[GeordieTodger]

I think you've balls up there to be honest..... fine with the players you've brought in but you've undersold al your sales.

IF you had just played the first season with the players you sold at the end of a good first season you could have sold all of them for around this:

Ba - £20m

Krul - £8.5m

Vuckic - £3m

HBA - £25m

Cabaye - £20m

Santon - £7m

Cisse - £30m

Coloccini - £8.75m

Tiote - £30m - £35.

Jonas - £8m - £12m

Also I sold Anita for £20m end of first season.

Total about = £189.25m

Reason how I know that is because I did the same with MOST of those players... I refused those figures for some of them but got other sales instead.

Yes, I am fully aware that I could have got higher prices - if I had played the first season, seen their values sky rocket and then sold I could have doubled by money....but that's kind of not the point of the experiment, I am not aiming at getting loads of money, it is to sell my non-English players to buy English players so I am ready for the first game of the season!