tommonufc Posted March 18, 2013 Author Share Posted March 18, 2013 Just beat Spurs 2-1 with a Papiss Cissé double in the FA cup semi-final, into the final I go! either City or Wolves.. think i know who i'll be faceing.. Nice work I'm starting to get the measure of City, but still hate playing them. Don't think there has ever been a team in FM I've dreaded facing so much than Mancini's City. Fairly flying through the season there Tommo, well done on what's shaping up to be a good season I'm still stuck back at November. Haven't had the motivation to load up. Think I might do now, will be playing all day until around 4am so I could knock a lot out of the park (could even catch you up Tommo haha) e: I dunno if people bother reading all of my posts but I read all of Tommo's. Since we have had such similar saves, it's interesting to see how he's progressing in comparison to me. Despite our similarities, we play quite different systems and we're slowly getting to the point where our teams are very different (I have no Cabaye or Tiote, soon won't have Coloccini, different strikers etc). Likewise, I've always enjoyed reading what people get up to in their saves. Often motivates you, certainly me in the past, to start a save with a team you hadn't previously thought of managing. Aston Villa just took me to a FA Cup replay Hate F'ing cup replays! Cabaye's been crocked and out for best part of rest of season. Glad I brought in Song in January, but he's cup tied for the Champions League; and was really brought in to take the heat of Tiote - as he's the only real ball winner in my squad. Finding Bigirimana to be next to useless in my side. Played him that tie against Villa and was just dominated by Villa's midfield. His strength is too weak for central midfield I find. How is everyone else managing to get Bigi playing in central midfield? Could be just down to my style of play - very combative without the ball, lots of pressing, so physical prowess can help. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 I can't get screenshots to upload right now rather frustratingly but Bigirimana is a BEAST as Advanced Playmaker/Support in an MC position for me. He's rarely featured domestically (all sub appearances) but in Europe he's averaging a rating of 8.45 right now. He's labelled the next Paul Gascoigne on my save Also, trying to sign Will Hughes to play in the same role that Chantome/Bigirimana do - had a £3.5M offer + Sammy Ameobi accepted by Derby but Ameobi keeps saying that his agent isn't getting enough money, his wage isn't enough and his goal fee is too low. Doing my head in. I'd happily pay the rest of his contract just to get Hughes but he's not even asking me to do that. e: Strange bug just occurred in my game. Playing United at home and we are drawing 1-1. Jovetic scores to make it 2-1 but the goal is disallowed (it doesn't tell me this though and in the 'latest scores' tabs, I am winning 2-1). RvP then wins and scores a penalty and it still says it's 1-1, despite it being 2-2 in the latest scores tab, again. The game ends and instead of giving me a team talk, it tells me I need to make a substitution. When I make it, the game ends and it tells me it finished 2-2 but I still don't get my team talk. The game then crashed. So strange...thankfully I saved before the game. Was quite pleased with a 2-2 draw, as well, because we had been losing 0-1. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommonufc Posted March 18, 2013 Author Share Posted March 18, 2013 I can't get screenshots to upload right now rather frustratingly but Bigirimana is a BEAST as Advanced Playmaker/Support in an MC position for me. He's rarely featured domestically (all sub appearances) but in Europe he's averaging a rating of 8.45 right now. He's labelled the next Paul Gascoigne on my save Also, trying to sign Will Hughes to play in the same role that Chantome/Bigirimana do - had a £3.5M offer + Sammy Ameobi accepted by Derby but Ameobi keeps saying that his agent isn't getting enough money, his wage isn't enough and his goal fee is too low. Doing my head in. I'd happily pay the rest of his contract just to get Hughes but he's not even asking me to do that. Yeah he's next Paul Gascoigne on mine too. Not too sure, I think he could be a great player, but just lacking some of the stats to suceed at the moment. Seeing if I can get him out on a short term loan in Championship until end of season. Make sure you get Will Hughes - brilliant player. Had him tutored in first season, played a handful of games, now seemingly carrying the whole Aston Villa side - and still only 18. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 Yeah it was your screenshot of Hughes yesterday that made me want to sign him. Looks quality and would be a great player to rotate with Bigi whenever I move Chantome on (he's a good player but he was never a long-term option). The Hughes in my save isn't as developed as yours as of yet but that's nothing to worry about I don't think. I'm probably going to just sell Ameobi and use that to fund Hughes (hopefully I don't have to pay above £7M). I've also agreed to sign Denys Garmash from Dynamo Kyiv I might sign an option for RW. Redmond hasn't impressed me at all (lack of finishing makes him redundant) and he's been injured for a month now (and still has two months to go). I think I might sign someone else because with just Fischer, Griezmann and Ben Arfa (HBA the only one of which knows how to play RW) I'm struggling with fitness. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommonufc Posted March 18, 2013 Author Share Posted March 18, 2013 How about that for a Champions League bench? Average age of 19.4! Giroud, Cabaye, Debuchy, Fischer injured. Song ineligible, Sissoko suspended. Good job it's only Celtic. Edit; Gave Miele his debut in the end, Anita having to come off injured. Hoping it can be first of many; very raw at the moment, but been effectively tutored, so should be able to fulfill his decent potential. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 November [2013-14] Newcastle 2-1 Liverpool Decent performance. We deserved more than two goals and we almost didn't even leave with any points. Left it very late to take action but when we did we done enough and that's all that matters to me, really. Yarmolenko scored a beauty. He was actually one of my targets in the Summer but he wasn't interested in joining so I signed Griezmann instead. Barcelona 3-0 Newcastle [Champions League] If we were going to top our group we'd have to win or draw this game. Unfortunately Barcelona were far too much for us and we were steamrolled, essentially. Ho hum. No big loss, I expected defeat. West Brom 1-3 Newcastle November seems to be our month of playing poorly and still winning in the League. We hadn't registered a single shot by half-time and it was only when I blasted the team - to which Debuchy praised me afterwards - that we started performing. Good performance in the second half and managed to show what we're capable of and got that win. Newcastle 1-0 Man United Feel a little dirty winning this because we drew 2-2 before my game crashed, but it was outwith my control so I'm not too quick to complain. I thought we were actually going to get another draw against them until Hernandez went down in the second last minute of the game and HBA converted the penalty. Probably an undeserved win but we were marginally better so... Newcastle 1-1 Swansea November continued to be a poor month in terms of our performances, then. Dominated but couldn't win. Don't be fooled by Swansea's shots, two were the goals. They played just as poorly as we did but the difference was that they will take it as a point earned. Poor performance. Newcastle 1-1 Olympiacos [Champions League] A draw was all we needed to confirm progression to the knockout stages. Successfully done. Yet another poor performance and we struggled through. Countless opportunities for Griezmann but it wasn't to be. Hernandez is on a barren spell once again. Highly frustrating. Blackburn 0-0 Newcastle And to compound our misery, we suffered our second straight league draw and third overall draw. Means we failed to win more than we managed to win in the month of November. Incredibly frustrating. We should've scored multiple times against Blackburn but it wasn't to be. Our knack for crap performances in the first half continued as we managed only one shot to Blackburn's seven. Shows how well we played in the second half but we couldn't get the job done, it seems. Oh well. Hopefully December brings us better performances. Overall November was a poor month for us. On the brightside, Chelsea didn't do too well either so we have managed to take top of the league once again and we also managed to progress to the knockout rounds of the Champions League which is great. I hope I can get our players performing - nobody is really standing out recently. Also, with Moussa out for 4-5 weeks it's going to be even harder to perform but he's only got 3 weeks left before he returns. November was also interesting because of the following instances: I rejected this, of course. It was a nice little confidence/ego boost to have them approach me, though. I was tempted to start an alternative save with them but decided against it in the end. Meet my new acquisition Always been impressed with him on previous saves and he usually demands a fee upwards of £20M, so when he was available for £8.5M I just had to have him. Unfortunately it spells the end for Dan Gosling's Newcastle career. He's been good but Sissoko and Garmash are much better than him so... _____ _____ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommonufc Posted March 18, 2013 Author Share Posted March 18, 2013 Nice going Garmash looks my sort of midfielder - given him a scout now! Jordy Clasie arriving in the summer on an end of contract so unlikely to move for Garmash. Negotiated a deal for Wayne Rooney with Man United - £21M. Rooney wants a basic salary of £235K p/w - not to mention all the bonuses and fees Seems determined to get out of Man United though, they're failing big time, so will try again in the summer if he's available. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 Always been attracted by Jordy Clasie too, but Feyenoord always demand like £30M for him. Seeing as you signed him on a free I might try the same - he'd mean I wouldn't have to chase Will Hughes Also, just agreed to sign Kyriakos Papadopoulos from Schalke for £15M. £5M up front and then £10M over 3 years. I'll probably loan out Remi Streete until next summer where I'll sell either Taylor or Coloccini. Taylor did want out but changed his mind.. .I was going to sign Javi Garcia from Man City for £8.25M instead of Papa and I would retrain JG to CB but he wanted over 100k in wages (Papa is on 50k). Beautiful thing about signing Garmash and Papadopoulos is that both played in the Europa League, so they shouldn't be cup-tied Also noticed that almost exactly one year after selling him to Real Madrid, Papiss Cissé is back on the transfer list at Real Madrid Oh yeah and Man City want HBA. He's got a minimum fee release clause of only £20M so I'm praying that they don't activate it. I can't really afford to offer him a new contract until I offload one or two players. The £20M could be invested wisely but I'd rather keep HBA just now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommonufc Posted March 18, 2013 Author Share Posted March 18, 2013 Haven't checked back on how Cisse is getting on at Barca - doubt he's managed to dislodge Messi yet! Game against Man City - Mancini has decided to pit Samir Nasri in his midfield - poor lad is going to get eaten alive against Alex Song and Chieck Tiote Giroud's injury has had a silver lining, been able to give Destro starts - and hasn't disappointing. Looks like he's going to be one hell of a player, if Giroud can get back from injury, I'll get him back in the side, raise his price and sell him off in the summer I think. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 The BEST thing just happened - we traveled to St. Petersburg in our final Champions League game. I rotated my side as much as I could and then from nowhere Abel Hernandez scored (and broke his barren run) inside the first minute. Things were looking great to get the win and then I checked on the Olympiacos Barcelona score - Barcelona were losing 2-1 at half-time! Zenit then scored on the 70th minute and things weren't looking good but then Barca equalised to make it 2-2 and I gave up hope of topping our group. The 81st minute came around and Jovetic put us back up to 1-2 and then, remarkably, in the same minute, Olympiacos scored another to make it 3-2 and held out for the win. I topped a group with Barcelona in it Looked at the options I could face and besides PSG and Milan, there's no difficult teams (maybe Napoli? Not too worried about them mind). M. Tel Aviv is actually one of the options e: In fact because of Real Madrid being horrible, they lost at home to Man City and finished 2nd (I presumed City would lose and finish 2nd and obviously I can't draw them). I guess PSG, Milan and Madrid makes it quite tricky but still, the others are M. Tel Aviv, Lille, Lyon and Napoli. If I get any of these four I'll be chuffed. Any of the former three and I'll be frustrated/annoyed that we had to top the goddamn group Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommonufc Posted March 18, 2013 Author Share Posted March 18, 2013 Haha, great stuff Love those sort of situations when they go your way - was watching the last group match in my group, Bayer Leverkusen vs. Porto closely for my progression. Bayer hadn't picked up a single point until then, and they stuff Porto! Still awaiting the draw for the Quarters, but managed to ease past Celtic with the second string in the second home leg. Will have some sort of Feb/March update once this months done. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 Celtic are amazing in my game...they won the Europa League last season, beating Spartak Moscow, Ajax, Stuttgart (without losing any of the ties), Tottenham (losing 4-2 in London but winning 5-2 in Glasgow) and then Atletico Madrid in the final. This season they topped their Champions League group which consisted of Benfica, Celtic, Man United and Napoli. Man United finished third in that group They won all of their home games and got draws in Manchester and Naples. Incredible, really. Quite glad I avoided them EDIT: So I drew Real Madrid Also in the FA Cup I got Man City (at the Etihad). I have no hope of silverware outside the League anymore. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommonufc Posted March 18, 2013 Author Share Posted March 18, 2013 February/March [2013/14] More of a brief update, as there would be too much to get through - just highlight the few key fixtures over another good month. Into the Champions League quarter-finals, as well as the FA Cup semi-finals, and still leading the way to be crowned Champions come May. Champions League 1st Knockout Round 2nd Leg Newcastle United 3 - 0 Celtic With one eye on the upcoming Premier League fixture a few of the bigger names in the squad were rested with me already leading the tie 2-1. Everything was over and done with inside half hour, as three goals from Anita, Redmond and Sissoko respectively completed a 5-1 aggregate passage into the Champions League last eight. In the Quarter-finals I was handed a fantastic draw in Ajax. They were beaten comfortably last season in my route to the Europa League final, so very confident that I can reach the Semi-finals. Premier League Newcastle United 2 - 0 Manchester City Best display against Manchester City so far from my side. Drew with them 2-2 at the Ethiad earlier in the season, where by Man City road their luck to avoid defeat - and this result concluded that the better side came out rightful winners. Played with a 442, conceding a man in the center of midfield to be able to press Man City higher up the field and rush them out of possession. Therefore Sissoko had to be dropped, with Tiote and Alex Song tactically much stronger to nullify Man City's midfield. As it turned out, Samir Nasri lined up alonside Felliani instead of Yaya Toure, so I was able to dominate midfield and intern get my four forward players attacking at a vulnerable Man City backline. Newcastle United 0 - 1 West Ham United These games come along in a season, where by anything you try, just doesn't come off. Could have, on another day won the game 3-0, but on this occasion lost 1-0. After a sublime performance earlier in the month, Mattia Destro had a chance to level the score going into the last ten minutes. I breathed a sigh of relieve, thinking I'd just avoided a first home defeat of the season - right up until Destro hit the ball straight down the middle, and into Stephen Henderson's hands. Thankfully titles aren't won or lost on single events, and the hard work over the previous 30 or so games was cashed in to maintain a comfortable gap between second place Chelsea. FA Cup Quarter Final Newcastle United 5 - 1 Millwall A youthful second string lining up from a 442 took apart Premier League struggles Millwall in resounding fashion to reach a second Wembley semi-final in a row. Haris Vuckic scored his first goal for Newcastle, and set-up both Adam Campbell goals, forming a fantastic strike partnership on the afternoon. Player of the Month: Cheick Tioté One of the most important and irreplaceable players in the side. Crowned a run of brilliant performances with a rare goal against Millwall in the FA Cup, but most of his hard work goes unnoticed statistically. Pay attention all you idiots that sell him off to 'raise funds'! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 December [2013-14] Newcastle 3-0 West Ham Determined to overcome our poorest month this season, we came flying out against West Ham and destroyed them 3-0. Dan Gosling is starting to play well and giving me something to consider, whether i actually want to sell him or not... Zenit St. Petersburg 1-2 Newcastle [Champions League] As discussed earlier, I didn't really expect to win this match and didn't think a win would even matter. But alas, we won and things went our way to finish top. Great for the club...ended up not getting the best draw, unfortunately (see the bottom of the post). Newcastle 1-0 Arsenal Tough game where we dominated but didn't really take any chances. Stevan Jovetic finally found the net. Strong victory which was important to keep the chasing pack away. Reading 1-2 Newcastle Another tough game with strugglers Reading fighting for anything coming their way. As has happened so many times this season, we fell behind in the first half. I managed to inspire the team after the break and we fought back to beat them 1-2. McDonald Mariga is proving to be an absolutely brilliant signing (more on him later). Jovetic found the net for the third time in as many games. QPR 0-0 Newcastle Starting to struggle with fitness as the team always does around this time of year. We played poorly but had two brilliant chances which Antoine Griezmann totally fluffed. Ended up drawing 0-0. It was the first time we failed to win in the league since our run of two draws at the end of November. Not a perfect month in that sense, but hey ho. We had difficulty at QPR last season only struggling to a 1-2 victory, so I wasn't expecting to romp this game. Newcastle 3-2 Everton Very tough game. Struggled a lot and had to drop many key players due to fixture congestion. End of December is always the worst time of the year. Anyhow, Everton took an early lead and I struggled to get us back into it. I switched Abel Hernandez to AML (Inside Forward/Attack) and he burst to life. I've tried playing him there a few times (against Zenit in Russia for example) and he's been great. I might retrain him there, sell Redmond, and bring in a new striker/play Adam Campbell more. Tough decision, I'll mull it over. ANYWAY, Abel got two assists, setting up Chantome and Jovetic to help us take a 3-1 lead. Everton scored quickly after our third but we held on to finish the month strong and go into 2014 as League leaders. Overall December has been an interesting month. The highs of topping our group, coupled with the lows of drawing Real Madrid and Man City (away) in the FA Cup...but a strong league showing saw us maintain top (albeit only just). Exactly halfway through and we're in a great position, now. We play City at the Etihad twice in a row early in January though so things could get ugly quickly... My other new signing. Long-term future replacement for Coloccini Yanga-Mbiwa has plenty of life left in him so there's no need to start shopping yet. Remi Streete isn't developing too great at the minute unfortunately. And just a small sidepoint here. McDonald Mariga. Signed him on a free last Summer with the intention of having him play back-up to Vurnon Anita but the Kenyan has since proved a huge part of my play this season. He's been electric. _____ _____ _____ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 New signings are highly rated Papa has the ability to be as good as Coloccini (he'll be better). Garmash currently as good as Anita and Moussa, with the potential to be as good as Anita and Moussa can become, so he's just as good essentially. Garmash is a big step up on Gosling. Very happy to have got him for only £8.5M. I got to January 1 2014 and was asked if I wanted to change my targets. I went from "Europa League" to "Champions League" and was gifted all of this... Prior to this I had £960k in wages and £1.9M in transfer. Mike Ashley must love me!! HBA is set to move to Man City. They offered the 20M that triggered his contract and he wants to move to a bigger club (has wanted to do so all season) so I won't be able to get him on a new deal I don't think. However I'm loaded! I'll sign a world class RWer now, most likely. Offered Jordy Clasie a contract and just done the same for Toby Alderweireld. Means I'll have an amazing team... Krul/? (will let Harper go) Debuchy/Fucile (might sell) Yanga-Mbiwa/Alderweireld Papadopoulos/Streete Santon/Haidara Anita/Mariga Clasie/Bigirmana Sissoko/Garmash ?/Hernandez (need HBA replacement, probably going to sell Redmond) Fischer/Griezmann Jovetic/?/Campbell (if/when I move Abel to AMR, I'll need a back-up for Jovetic) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommonufc Posted March 18, 2013 Author Share Posted March 18, 2013 Good luck in trying to get a club to sell you a player to replace Ben Arfa for that £20M. You'll need it.. Wouldn't dream of selling Benny to anyone, let alone league rivals. How on earth did he have a release clause in his contract anyway! You bleeding idiot. Not a fan of how much you've decimated the original squad from some of it's stars to be fair, but hey you're doing well! Papadolous is quality, a beast of a defender! He'll be fantastic for you. A very different player to Colo I have to say, the pairing of them would be fantastic though. Papa' was on transfer list this January, for £11M - could have gone for him, but would have signaled end for Steven Taylor - and I couldn't have had that. Plus I'm on for promoting the youth, and Streete is next in line - plus a couple of other center backs from the original U18's I'll have to share soon. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommonufc Posted March 18, 2013 Author Share Posted March 18, 2013 Center backs for years to come I think.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 Well when I began to save teams came after HBA for £14M and he wanted to leave unless I offered a new contract so I put in a £20M clause so that if said teams continued to chase him, they'd have to meet my £20M valuation of him. He was great last season but this season he's been mediocre and £20M is more than what he's worth so I'm not too bothered. I'm getting rid of the stars, sure, but I'm bringing in equals/better players and I'm reaping rewards for it right now. I have an absolutely quality team and there's still plenty of the original squad there - Krul, Harper, Debuchy, Yanga-Mbiwa, Street, Coloccini, Taylor, Santon, Haidara, Anita, Bigirimana, Sissoko, Gosling, Campbell. That's 14 of the original squad. From the rest that I've got rid of, only Cabaye and Tiote are worth keeping. HBA is replaceable and considering Cabaye and Tiote got me £43M and weren't performing that great anyway, I'm not at all regretting it. I have a much better squad now than I did at the beginning of the save so more power to me. Also, not like I've been spending ridiculous numbers of money that you'll see others doing. In the first season I actually received £11.75M overall from my transfers (and I done all of my business up front, I never spend over several years unless I'm desperate) and as things stand, I have received £1M overall from my transfers (although I'll probably spend on a Right Winger, looking at Erik Lamela for £20M). That means that I've got a better team in 18 months than what I started with and I'm £12.75M better off. EDIT: Curtis Goode is a waste of space imo. The rest are looking very good, especially Mbabu. He needs big raises to his Anticipation, Bravery and all of his physicals, but besides that he's looking great. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 January [2013-14] Newcastle 5-0 Aston Villa What better way to kick off 2014 than with a drubbing of Aston Villa? Yohan Ca-who? Chantome is superb. Got a big decision to make in the Summer, with Bigirimana pressing for MC and Jordy Clasie coming in. I might have to loan out Bigirimana to give him consistent PL football for a season or two. Man City 3-1 Newcastle [FA Cup 3rd Round] We were poor. 4 Clear Cut Chances (and none of them resulted in goals). Should have won this. Man City 0-0 Newcastle We learned from our mistakes. Came back and got a deserved point. Big change in bringing Haidara in for Santon and it worked. Santon just doesn't perform in the big games. Always makes mistakes/gives away penalties. Shocking in the first game v City... Newcastle 3-1 Middlesbrough Beat the Smoggies Dominated. Deserved win. Viktor Fischer is recapturing his great form from the end of last season; Abel Hernandez is flourishing in the wide areas; Clement Chantome is proving Yohan Cabaye to be nothing more than a distant memory. His constant injuries are long gone. Norwich 1-1 Newcastle Poor performance from us. Ah well. Almost a perfect month but just missed out on it, again. Overall January was a good month. What's more is that we got in some new signings. Not only did Kyriakos Papadopoulos join us from Schalke for £15M and Denys Garmash from Schalke for £8.5M, but we managed to bring in Fabio Quagliarella to provide back-up to Jovetic for £4.4M from Juventus. Adam Lallana joined from Spurs for £4.3M to provide back-up to Viktor Fischer, since I have moved Antoine Griezmann to AMR to contend with Abel Hernandez on that flank. As well as these signings, future signings have been prepared of Jordy Clasie on a free from Feyenoord and Toby Alderweireld will join us from Ajax, also on a free transfer. _____ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 February/March [2013-14] Real Madrid 1-1 Newcastle [Champions League] I went there expecting to get thrashed but after noticing that André Ayew was lining up as their striker, I grew a bit of confidence. Still, it's Real Madrid. We hit them on the counter and managed to do so quite well. We won a penalty which Fischer stepped up to convert confidently, despite Casillas going the correct way. We couldn't hold on for victory but an awal goal and a draw at the Bernabeu was great. Liverpool 0-1 Newcastle A tough game, this. We struggled to turn around a 0-1 deficit v Liverpool earlier in the season and this match proved no easier. The only goal came when Stevan Jovetic laid the ball to his right for Abel Hernandez to crack it into the top far corner. Beautiful goal and deserving of a match winner. Tottenham 0-1 Newcastle Our third straight away game and one just as tough as the two before it. After going a man down through a Chantome horror tackle (3 match ban), I feared the worst. We held on and it wasn't until a late corner where we sent up only Yanga-Mbiwa, Coloccini, Griezmann (the kick taker) and Quagliarella (the striker). I have no idea how but the ball found the net and I haven't looked back. Newcastle 1-1 Chelsea Our 4th straight tough game and a home tie so a better chance of three straight wins. Taking the lead through Quagliarella since Jovetic is out, I felt quite confident. That was, until, Chelsea unleashed their secret weapon. For some bizarre reason I will never understand, Branislav Ivanovic was moved up front to partner Demba Ba. It proved effective as Ba played through Ivanovic to slam the ball into the near corner for an equaliser. Quite gutting. Victory would have confirmed it a two-horse race in the Premier League... Newcastle 2-0 Real Madrid (3-1 aggregate) [Champions League] Great game, this. That's us taken out behemoths Barcelona and Real Madrid at home this season. We've adapted very well in Europe and can deal with the big boys, it seems. Good job, I guess, since we drew Barcelona after this. Frustrating draw, really. But the game itself went well. We played on the counter and punished a slow Madrid defence which was particularly weak at the fullback positions. Chantome scored after an assist from Fischer and then Moussa doubled our lead with a great finish from the edge of the area. We'd beaten Real Madrid and were on top of the world... that was, until news came of Moussa's four month lay-off. Gutting. Man United 3-1 Newcastle I don't want to talk about it. Hideous. Overall February and March were strange months. We won all but three league games but those three games cost us seven points. It doesn't seem like much but considering Man City have won 9 out of their previous 10 League games, it's quite a lot. We struggled to link wins together and it cost us quite a bit, essentially. It's left us in a tricky position in the league (see below). However looking at fixtures I'm feeling confident. We only have one or two tough tasks whereas City have four. In a row. Chelsea are still in the title hunt but they've got a lot to do and are still in Europe themselves so I didn't bother covering them. Speaking of Europe - beating Madrid was huge (and amazing) but to be rewarded with another two games against Barcelona is sickening. Judging by our games in the groups, we won't make it (1-0 in Newcastle, 0-3 in Barcelona, 3-1 on aggregate) but we'll give it our best. Unfortunately when we beat Real 2-0 the news item below happened and it might cost us because Garmash isn't registered in Europe (could only register one of him and Papadopoulos and chose the Greek). On another small point, selling Hatem Ben Arfa might just be the best thing I've done so far this game. Abel Hernandez is proving a revelation on the right wing, cutting in on his stronger left foot and often scoring screamers. He's also got a great eye for an assist and has 2 goals and 6 assists in his 14 games from AMR. _____ _____ Newcastle Fixtures _____ Man City Fixtures Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dovEs Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 2 and 6 from 14 isn't that good. Prefer Tommo's save. Enjoying both saves though, both lads doing well. Doing a bit better than on mine. I'm slightly ahead of you two, won the league third season. I have Alderweireld and Garmash too. They're both very good. You should both just play Streete, one of those players who outperforms his attributes. I still have Bigi, Vuckic, and Campbell playing regularly too. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dovEs Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 Have Clasie, Luke Shaw and Ward-Prowse as well as Eriksen and Neymar too. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 2 and 6 from 14 isn't that good. It's not exactly bad either considering he's making a contribution every second game and generally looking dangerous whereas when he was up front he wasn't doing anything. At all (0 goals in 28 games as a striker. Only 2 assists). EDIT: Anyhow. Last day of the season...I'm away to Everton. Chelsea are 3 points behind but with a far superior GD. I only need to avoid defeat to win the title. Chelsea are away to Southampton. I'll update after this game with my end of season form/Champions League progression. Oh, and if you're wondering how it's Chelsea and not City - City lost all four of those big games Chelsea haven't lost a game in about 8 so they've caught me up quite well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 The Run In [2013-14] I cannot be bothered posting separate images of victories etc, but I'll quickly summarize my season: YAY. League Champions I thought we were gonna **** it up on the last day but Jovetic scored his first goal in around 400 minutes and Viktor Fischer stepped up to seal the deal. Very happy. The Champions League could've gone better. We capitulated in the first half v Barcelona and I gave up at half-time. When you're 3-0 down at home in the first leg, you know you're not going to come back into it (not v Barcelona at least). Ah well. We've built great coefficients for next season so we can go far. Brilliant platform for 2014-2015. I hope to retain my title, if I can win a domestic cup and make it past the Quarter Finals of the Champions League (if I don't get through the groups I want to win the Europa League). Oh, and a quick few pointers about my side. We scored three more goals than last season (not much at all), conceded one more... However we got seven more points than last season (if we had seven more points last we'd have won the league). We actually lost more times this season (by 1) but we drew five times less than last year and won four more games. Overall an important but we can do better. We will do better. OH, I almost forgot! I've had a transfer embargo placed upon us. A consortium is planning a takeover and has vowed to invest £120M into the team. I won't spend that because I'm not the sort to spend stupid numbers, I like to spend responsibly (and like to try and sell as much as I spend) but it'd be great to have huge financial backing. _____ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickbirdspain Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 Nice work there JD - great way to see off the season. Who were your star performers of the campaign? What areas are you looking to develop for the new season? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
james_wilko Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 Just played the 1st leg in the Europa knock out stages, we were drawn against Udinese. Not the hardest game but still a decent challenge. We're away the first leg, our ACON players are back which is a big boost and I'm hoping for a close win, score draw at worst. Moussa Sissoko decided otherwise, scored 4 goals to help us to a 6-0 victory. Absolutely brilliant. Each goal was an improvement on the last, the 4th being a nice bit of team play leading up to his shot. Cisse and Santon scored too, Santon proving to be a hell of a goal threat this season, chipping in with 9 in all competitions. Shame he can't do that IRL. Guess I can play the kids at home, which is great since we're still (somehow!) competing for everything... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommonufc Posted March 19, 2013 Author Share Posted March 19, 2013 April/May [2013/14] Key Results Champions League Quarter Final 2nd Leg Newcastle United 6 - 0 Ajax I would have one foot in the Semi-finals, taking in a 1-0 lead into the home tie against Ajax. A truly wonderful attacking display from the first minute to the last blew Ajax away. Champions League Semi Final Porto 2 - 1 Newcastle United - Newcastle United 1 - 0 Porto A fantastic two-legged tie, that was so close to be being a shocker. First leg in Porto was very tough; previously lost there in the group stages 1-0, and this time a 2-1 defeat was far from a disaster. Yassine Benzia's away goal left the tie finely balance for the return leg at St. James'. I was hoping to come out of the blocks quickly and balance the tie in the second leg, but that didn't quite happen. Porto were very strong, and had to make amendments to my approach to assure they didn't swing the balance firmly in their favor by getting an away goal. It would be the most unlikeliest of scorers that would eventually send us through to the final. Porto seemed to park the bus towards the end, and after extended pressure on their goal, Mathieu Debuchy would eventually be played in with a ball inside the full back, for him to fire across Helton's goal and send Newcastle through to the final. Two brilliant games in the other semi-final saw favorites Barcelona knocked out, with Benfica going through to play a final at their own stadium. FA Cup Final Newcastle United 1 - 1 Chelsea [4-3 Penalties] Well on for the treble, after the previous securing the title, and a place in the Champions League final. Winning the cup was done the hard way though. Victor Moses put Chelsea in front in the first half, before Alex Song got himself sent off to take us into the break both a man and a goal down. The second half was much improved even with ten men. Mattia Destro quickly leveled the score after an incisive counter attack. No deciding goal could be found before full-time, and neither in the added half an hour extra time. I was very confident going into the penalty shoot-out, as Tim Krul had proved a fantastic penalty stopper over the season. He would go on to save two of Chelsea's penalties as I'd win the shoot-out and the FA Cup. Champions League Final Newcastle United 2 - 0 Benfica T.Krul, D.Santon, F.Coloccini, S.Taylor, M.Debuchy, Y.Cabaye, C.Tiote, M.Sissoko, H.Ben Afra, S.El Shaarawy, M. Destro; A.Lallana, A.Campbell Benfica playing in their own stadium, Lisbon's Stadio Estádio da Luz - translated at the Stadium of Light, so seemed near perfect place for Newcastle to win the Champions League. Benfica struggled to match the attacking threat of my side. Went into half time still 0-0 - at half time decided to take Tiote off, for the more attacking Lallana. This meant Cabaye dropping deeper, with Lallana and Sissoko pushing forward from midfield. Hatem Ben Arfa would finally make the break through with a wonderful goal - dribbling of the right wing into the box and placing his shot home. Coloccini would cap a truly wonderful season by doubling the lead and sealing the victory by scoring in the 88th minute. 2013/14 Season Review [2013/14] Premier League--Champions League -- FA Cup Newcastle United Player of the Season 13/14: Fabricio Coloccini Newcastle United Young Player of the Season 13/14: Davide Santon Top Goalscorers 13/14: Olivier Giroud (21), Moussa Sissoko (14), Hatem Ben Arfa (11) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 Nice work there JD - great way to see off the season. Who were your star performers of the campaign? What areas are you looking to develop for the new season? Quite a few key performers (unfortunately I've progressed past the point where all of my stats are still active so they're reset for the new season which is annoying, even though I'm only in July). Tim Krul. Magnificent between the sticks. Countless clean sheet (missed out on the golden gloves to Petr Cech by 2) and so many penalty saves I've lost count. Played every single minute of every single game throughout the season, bar one (where I rested him just for the sake of it). Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa. My rock at the back. Best rated CB, probably my most valuable player personally. I can't replace this guy really. He was voted player of the season by the fans and he was probably my player of the season too. Just fantastic, really. Looking at his stats, he's pretty much the perfect centre-back. Every attribute which matters is 14 or above. He's god-like. Massadio Haidara. I guess this inclusion will surprise quite a few people but it shouldn't. The young lad is incredible. He's slowly but surely developing into something really special for me and he's my first choice Left Back already. Davide Santon is good but his tendency to make mistakes in the big games means that I use Haidara when I face tougher tasks. He doesn't disappoint. He managed to shut down Messi in Barcelona whereas Santon posted a 4.5 rating and was the cause of the problem for two goals in Newcastle v Barcelona. Go figure. He's currently 2.5* CA, with 4* PA, so he will continue to develop and turn into something special I'm sure. Vurnon Anita. I got a bit of stick from Tommo for selling Tiote and promoting Anita in his place but I think I was justified in so many ways. Anita is now my most valuable player at £16.75M. I fended off some bids in the off season from Man City, Liverpool and Chelsea (ranging from £18M to 24M). I eventually had to offer him a new contract but that's no problem since we're loaded. He's the perfect all-round midfielder, really. Creative, great passer, awesome anchor man, never makes mistakes (something Tiote loved to do). Physically one of the best at the club. Sure, he's tiny and that's a slight problem but that's when the next man comes in... McDonald Mariga. Signed on a free to replace Tiote and play back-up to Anita, the Kenyan was superb. A better option sometimes over Anita due to his sheer physicality and height. He's on buttons when he could easily demand more form me if he wanted. Great player. Interesting statistics here, perhaps. Vurnon Anita in the league - 24 appearances, 1 goal, 1 assist, 7.17 avg rating; McDonald Mariga in the league - 24 appearances, 1 goal, 3 assists, 7.15 avg rating. So similar in terms of ability and performances. Great duo. Rarely play together but when they do, Anita can step into the box-to-box midfield role no problems. Clement Chantome. Yohan Cabaye became a thing of the past when this man joined. Signed for a measly £4.6M. Again Tommo wasn't a fan of me selling Cabaye to bring in Chantome. I feel wholly justified. 34 League appearances, 8 goals, 5 assists, 7.29 Avg. Rating. Cabaye in his first season with me? 23 appearances, 2 goals, 7 assists, 7.22 Avg. Rating. Cabaye played every game he was available for. His injuries were a burden. Chantome missed two games through injury and was rotated to keep him fresh for another 2 games. He rarely sat out. Superb player. Side note: Cabaye this season at Spurs? 34 appearances, 3 goals, 4 assists, 7.19 Avg. Rating. Thanks for the £27.5M, Spurs. Moussa Sissoko. Great player. So important to the side. Injured for a lot towards the end of the season unfortunately after suffering a torn calf muscle. He's just recovered at the start of July now. Not much to say about him, generally brilliant, everyone knows this. Viktor Fischer. Superb, really. He's proven Antoine Griezmann to be an expensive back-up. I've actually moved Griezmann to the Right Wing just so that I can get him some gametime. Fischer is marvelous. The highest rated talent in the first team. 2.5* CA, 4.5* PA. Scored 5 less this season than last but assisted twice the amount. His avg. rating increased by 0.07. Doesn't seem much but for a 19 year old it's great news. Stevan Jovetic. The marquee signing. The main man. Didn't disappoint. Our top goalscorer in the league with an impressive 16 in 30. He was top goalscorer when he was injured with 15 goals but when he returned Luiz Suarez had built a lead of 24 goals and Jovetic returned with only 4 games to make a dent on it. As it turned out, he only started two of those 4 games and only scored once. Ah well. I'm more than pleased with how he played. 6 assists as well as those 16 goals. 7.32 Avg. Rating. A couple of players are leaving this summer. Jorge Fucile, massively disappointing since joining, left for £2.5M (a .3M profit on what I signed him for) to go to Southampton. I also think Abel Hernandez is leaving for Liverpool for £10M. I wasn't looking to sell but they offered £10M I decided to accept. I'll put that £10M into a new RW. I will probably sell Stephen Taylor who has wanted a move since January 2013. I've tried to convince him to stay but he doesn't want that. I actually loaned him out in the latest Winter window to Aston Villa. He'll move on permanently. As will Mike Williamson when he returns from loan. Fabricio Coloccini might be on his way out (that, or Remie Streete is going to be loaned out for a season). Griezmann might leave if there's someone who is willing to spend over £20M on him, otherwise I will keep him and try to get something good out of him. Shane Ferguson also left for £1.5M. Gael Bigirimana has been loaned to Blackburn (who'll be in the Premier League for their second successive season). With Chantome and Clasie, Bigirimana would rarely feature. I'm paying all of his wages and can recal him at any time if I need/want. He's going to spend most of his career with me so I'm not looking to sell him. I hope he impressed at Blackburn. Since Fucile left, I decided to bring in a new RB - Hugo Mallo from Celta Vigo joined the club for a rather large £8.5M. He's everything I want in a Right Back. Great in the tackle, aggressive, too. Brilliant positionally with a high work rate and is a team player. Quick, fit, focussed. Keeps his concentration and can play a decent cross. Determined and good at making decisions. His passing, heading, dribbling, off the ball and bravery need improvement but that's okay. He's so good in other areas that these slight downfalls don't matter. Since Steve Harper retired at the end of the season, I needed a new back-up to Tim Krul. Enter Ross Turnbull. Always been a good back-up for me on previous saves. Cost a lowly £1.2M. On a relatively high wage but that's fine because he's still on a back-up contract. I'll give him cup games and easy European games (if any). Other transfers...well, there's not many. I might loan out Adam Campbell to give him consistent game time since he has rarely featured for me. I don't want to ruin him but he's not developing at all and it's worrying. If I can, I'll loan him to someone like Blackburn. As for other transfers, nothing else needs to be done. With Jordy Clasie and Toby Alderweireld coming in on frees, all I need to do now if replace Abel Hernandez on the right wing. I've got plenty of money and plenty of time. We got new owners in who trust me to do the job yay. They've given me 350k spare wages and £38M in transfers, just for a title challenge (would've got 500k spare wages and 48M if I said win the title). Looking forward to another great season. My team now looks like this: GK - Tim Krul (Ross Turnbull) RB - Mathieu Debuchy (Hugo Mallo) RCB - Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa (Toby Alderweireld) LCB - Kyriakos Papadopoulos (Fabricio Coloccini/Remie Streete) LB - Massadio Haidara (Davide Santon) DM - Vurnon Anita (McDonald Mariga) RCM - Clement Chantome (Jordy Clasie) LCM - Moussa Sissoko (Denys Garmash) AMR - Antoine Griezmann (?) AML - Viktor Fischer (Adam Lallana) ST - Stevan Jovetic (Fabio Quagliarella) Distinct lack of Englishmen. I don't particularly care, mind. I've got enough home-grown players from that group that I get enough in Europe to make it into the competition so there's nothing to worry about. Plus this leaves me with a great young side with plenty of mileage in them. None of the starters are over 27 (Debuchy excepted (29)). Oh, and great work Tommo. Think you got the easiest Champions League run ever. But what does that matter? You won the bloody thing Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spedding Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 My current formation and squad 2nd season Uploaded with ImageShack.us finished first season 5th Uploaded with ImageShack.us and won the capital one cup Uploaded with ImageShack.us Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 I'm fairly sure I'm finished with my incomings and outgoings for this window. Been productive. Tommo won't like what I'm about to post As well as Shane Ferguson leaving and Bigirimana going out on loan, I've also managed to do the following (all outgoing): Roman Amalfitano to Wigan (750k), Nile Ranger to Blackpool (425k), Nathan Redmon on loan to Southampton (£4.9M to make it permanent), Haris Vuckic on loan to Burnley (£3M to make it permanent), Mike Williamson to West Ham (£2M) and Fabricio Coloccini to Bayer Leverkusen (£10M). Nobody knew came in - turns out Abel Hernandez rejected Liverpool, stating he doesn't want to leave Newcastle which is fine by me. However I did sign four young prospects (two 4* rated, another two 4.5* rated), costing me a total of £10.5M, bringing my total spending to £20.5M (I sold £17.25M worth of players). I've still to sell Stephen Taylor who is once again complaining that he wants to win trophies and doesn't feel like he can do that here (hello? Premier League winners 2014 and FA Cup winners 2013?) so I'll ship him out for at least £3.25M to bring my sales=buys. I promoted Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa (13I, 17D) to be my captain since Coloccini has left and Mathieu Debuchy (14I, 18D) remains vice-captain. Since they're both first-team players and will likely be rested at the same time whenever the fixture list becomes busy, I've also made Stevan Jovetic (16I, 15D) my 3rd choice captain and Jordy Clasie (13I, 18D) my 4th choice (since Jovetic is also first choice). E: Just confirmed a loan deal, sending Adam Campbell to St. Mirren so he can get regular playing time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommonufc Posted March 20, 2013 Author Share Posted March 20, 2013 @Jedding Lots of new faces there! Notice Adian Grant's in your squad - how is he coming along for you? Oh, what on earth are you playing at buying Alfred N'Diaye from the Mackems! @JDownie Mehh, past caring now Took your time shifting Ranger! I wouldn't send Adam Campbell to St. Mirren if I was you, not least if you don't have SPL loaded. Have you had him tutored at all - what's his personality? If he's of the right personality he should develop at a very good rate by just playing in your first team every now and again. Would stear well clear at sending any player of such potential to the AI, especially in poor league, with poor facilities. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spedding Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 grants my back up but hasn't played yet was going to play him in the capital one cup but drew man u first game so put out aslightly stronger side but due to a fergie time equalizer man u beat us in extra time. Uploaded with ImageShack.us and for N'Diaye scouts rated him and i was looking for a dm. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 @JDownie Mehh, past caring now Took your time shifting Ranger! I wouldn't send Adam Campbell to St. Mirren if I was you, not least if you don't have SPL loaded. Have you had him tutored at all - what's his personality? If he's of the right personality he should develop at a very good rate by just playing in your first team every now and again. Would stear well clear at sending any player of such potential to the AI, especially in poor league, with poor facilities. [/font] Yeah, Ranger was on loan a few times. Nobody wanted him (don't blame them). After a relatively successful period at Blackpool they wanted to sign him permanently. He said no to them and then I offered him out and Blackpool once again chased him. Got him the second time for a reduced fee unfortunately. £425k but with 50% of his next sale going to me so that's cool. Might be able to get another 400k or so out of him. I wanted to loan out Campbell but the only teams who came in for him were League One sides Decided he'd be as well as going to an affiliate so chose St. Mirren. He'll do well there - he'll be first choice for them and that was important in my decision to send him there. I haven't tutoured him because I don't feel I've got anyone worth tutoring him. You guys all said Cissé was a good choice but I had just sold him to Madrid EDIT: Champions League Group drawn. Still seeded 4th. Lyon, Sporting CP, Shakhtar, Newcastle. Very pleased with this. Easier than last season's group of Barcelona, Zenit, Olympiacos, Newcastle. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommonufc Posted March 20, 2013 Author Share Posted March 20, 2013 Yeah, Ranger was on loan a few times. Nobody wanted him (don't blame them). After a relatively successful period at Blackpool they wanted to sign him permanently. He said no to them and then I offered him out and Blackpool once again chased him. Got him the second time for a reduced fee unfortunately. £425k but with 50% of his next sale going to me so that's cool. Might be able to get another 400k or so out of him. I wanted to loan out Campbell but the only teams who came in for him were League One sides Decided he'd be as well as going to an affiliate so chose St. Mirren. He'll do well there - he'll be first choice for them and that was important in my decision to send him there. I haven't tutoured him because I don't feel I've got anyone worth tutoring him. You guys all said Cissé was a good choice but I had just sold him to Madrid What ever you do - don't send him to St. Mirren untutored! You're already into season three, and haven't made anything of him, so sending him to the AI at the moment could be disastrous. He can quite easily become one of the best strikers in the game. Go take a look at the out of contract players, filter for the strikers, then determination from 20 downwards. Then just take a look through the personalities of the players - Model Proffessional, Driven, Leader, Professional - that sort of thing, don't just go on Determination rating, you want to raise his professionalism, so that he'll be able to reach that high PA. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DandyDon Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 2014/15 - Tale of the Season Been a while since I was on this thread and glad to seem plenty of folks getting stuck in with new saves with the transfer update. Definitely been enjoying reading Tommo And JDownies mirror universe saves I decided not to bother starting a whole new save and I'm continuing with my earlier save where I took over Newcastle at the start of the second season. (Mostly as I have too many other games competing for my freetime at moment to justify scrapping it and starting over, just can't give FM the hours I used to ) Pardew had managed to finish 7th in the first season and secure Europa League football and in the second season I managed to grab a very decent 2nd place and Champions League football and all the riches that should entail. Summer buys and sales In my first season in charge I spent fairly big money due to having to sell the transfer listed Cabaye. (I didn't want to Tommo, but he'd fallen out with the previous management and was becoming disruptive...honest guv!). This season though I didn't have the same huge levels of funding available, so I was a little more restrained. I raised some cash by selling Anderson to Liverpool for £10 million (he'd been a Pardew buy in first season, and with Tiote, Nainggolan & Poli ahead of him and several good youngsters waiting in the wings he was the one I deemed most expendable), Ryan Taylor was unhappy due to lack of games and so I agreed to sell him to Wolves for £1 million and by some miracle offering Nile Ranger out bagged me £600,000 from the insane management at Ipswich. The first buys were a couple talented young 16 year olds that my scouts had recommended, another French player snapped up from Nice and a young English centre back from Watford. I also decided to offer deals to the out of contract Ciaran Clark and Frank Lampard. I brought Clark in as I'd failed with a bid to sign Marc Bartra from Barcelona after he spent the previous season with us on a very successful loan deal, unfortunately he was so good his transfer price had shot up to £14 million and his wage demands got a little too rich (ended up moving to Bayern). Lamps was brought in to provide some experienced backup for midfield but mostly to act as a tutor for some of the more promising youngsters in the squad as his technical and mental attributes were still fantastic. I again chose to work the loan market to provide some depth and options for the squad, bringing in another Barca player Martin Montoya as backup for Debuchy at right back and Emilio Nsue from Valencia to cover for HBA on the right wing. My other loan deal was a rather whimsical bid for Fernando Torres who really was now unwanted at Chelsea, but it ended up succeeding for a loan fee of £60,000 a month and only a 30% contribution toward his mammoth wages. After the freebies and loaness, the only big summer move was a £16.25 million deal for Steven Caulker at Spurs to add some competition for Taylor and Kirchhoff at the heart of our defence. The Results Despite a poor showing in the Community Shield, where we should have been beaten far more heavily, we got off to a very useful start in the league and in europe. Unfortunately we disappointed again in the League Cup, going out to Spurs in a really drab 1-0 defeat even though I fielded a very strong side. We did gain revenge on them only a few days later in the league, but I was still very unhappy to go out of a cup competition at the first hurdle again. Our solid form continued in the league throughout the first half of the season, with hard fought wins over Man City and Chelsea offsetting a defeat against Arsenal. Going in to December we were well up with title challengers and results that month and in January meant we moved to the top of the pile opening up a 5 point gap going in to February. In Europe we managed to make it out of our group (a fairly tough one with Napoli, Benfica and Dinamo Kiev) but some tired legs and injuries meant we struggled against another Portoguese side in Sporting Lisbon. The 1-1 draw at home proving costly. We made a much better showing this time round in the FA Cup though, after the shame of losing to Bishop's Stortford previously I was far less complacent against lower league opposition and we made it past Derby and Burnley fairly comfortably. A replay was required to squeak past Man Utd, despite us dominating both legs they clung on throughout to force extra time. After disposing of West Brom, we faced Man City in the semi-final and required another epic to get past them. We had to come from 2-1 down to force the extra time, then from 3-2 behind we scored twice in the last period of extra time to secure a cup final place. After our heroics against the Manchester clubs the final itself against Southampton seemed far more comfortable....though a 4th minute screamer from HBA after another mazy run probably helped steady the verves a tad. The efforts in the FA Cup almost destroyed our title challenge however...or at least looked like they had. With a draining replay and extra time showdown with Man Utd, followed quickly by the tie with West Brom, the last thing I really wanted was one of Tommo's favourite cliches and a tough away trip to the Britannia. Losing out to a hattrick of Peter Crouch headers was a sore one, and we followed it up with a pretty unimpressive performance away at Reading (though we did at least show a bit of spirit to grab a draw when losing 2-1). We were far more like ourselves against Birmingham, scoring 3 and hitting the woodwork a few times and that looked to have stopped the rot....but after the epic semi-final against Man City we went even further off the rails. A shameful display against Arsenal at home saw us murdered 6-1, compunded by a heavy defeat away at Chelsea in our next game. Those results saw our lead slashed at the top. Defeat against Everton, our third on the spin, saw Arsenal actually leapfrog us and go top. We managed a draw, very luckily, against Cardiff which didn't look all that impressive given the situation but turned out to be a crucial point. With the confidence boost of securing the FA Cup we managed to hold off a Man Utd fightback and secure a vital 3 points against Man Utd. That meant we went into the final game 2 points behind Arsenal, but with a marginally better goal difference even with the 6-1 drubbing they'd inflicted on us, and joy of joys they now faced the dreaded visit to Stoke. An early og from Mulumbu saw us on our way to a win that should have been even more comfortable than the 2-0 result Nando's goal secured. Stoke didn't let us down either, with Simon Cox grabbing an equaliser to Falcao's 1st half opener and then holding out for a 1-1 draw that gave us the title on the narrowest of margins. The Final Table EDIT: The Players Obviously managing to win the double meant we had sveral impressive performers throughout the season. Of the new arrivals I was amazed at the impact of free signing Ciaran Clark, he finished off with an average rating of 7.78 from his 31 appearances, won 5 MoM awards and chipped in with 12 very helpful goals. Fernando Torres shrugged off his troubles at Chelsea to bag 19 goals and 8 assists for us in 30 mathces but perhaps his biggest impact was in tutoring Campbell. By the end of the season Campbell's determination was up to 16 and he'd made significant improvements in Anticipation, Composure and Off the Ball as well. (Campbell also made a total of 15 starts and 19 subs appearances, grabbing 12 goals and 6 assists, proving to be a very useful impact sub and will be a far more regular starter in the 2015/16 season) Steven Taylor found himself a bit part player early on as he demanded a transfer for a new challenge and Clark formed a very good partnership with Kirchhoff. He finally withdrew his request and played himself back into the 1st team only to suffer a severe cruciate ligament injury that meant he'd be out for 9 months. Of the fullbacks Davide Santon had a great season, making 43 starts and providing 12 assists as well as finishing with a very decent average rating of 7.44 overall. Debuchy and Montoya both played well on the right flank, but not quite up to Santon's standard. The other new defensive signing Caulker had a very solid debut season, managing 29 appearances and an average rating of 7.40 but he was slightly overshadowed by Clark's impact and our main man Jan Kirchhoff who finished his second season at SJP with an avg rating of 7.87 from 46 starts and continues to be probably our most consistent player. In central midfield Radja Nainggolan continued to impress, though his appearances were more restricted due to a couple of niggly injuries, he made 28 starts but only 19 of those in the league. Andrea Poli improved on his first season, but still has to really step up his consistency. Tiote had another fine season, but again like Nainggolan his number of starts was disrupted due to injuries, though he did avoid any red card suspensions this time round. His form in first half of the season had a good few clubs interested going in to the summer break. Hatem Ben Arfa continued to be the creative force and goal threat he had been in my first season (where he scored 14 and set up 23 goals) unfortunately like Tiote and Nainggolan his season was very stop start due to injury. He only managed 23 appearances (all starts) across all competitions but still managed 7 goals and 16 assists in those games and an average rating of 7.62 overall. I've already detailed the impact Torres had upfront for us, our other 2 main strikers also had somewhat stop start campaigns, again due to injury. Poor old Papiss Cisse only managed 13 games, though he did score 7 goals in those. Mattia Destro made 19 appearances scoring 12 and also something of a provider with 8 assists. Elsewhere I've seen some good improvements from the 2 young regens I signed in my first year, Brabec and Vargas showing signs that they will be as good as the scouts reported. A couple of bad injuries have really hampered the devlopment of some of the other youngsters at the club unfortunately, so I've not seen much out of the likes of Streete, Bigirimanna or Vuckic yet. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 Good read that, DandyDon. Despite only paying 30% of Torres' wages, you were still shelling out £52.5k Well done on the double, though. Great performance EDIT: Ugh, Capital One Cup drawn... first season at the Britannia and then last season at Old Trafford... this time I'm visiting the Emirates. I never get an easy draw in this competition it seems Played Arsenal four times in two season and have 1 win, 2 draws and 1 defeat against them. They finished an incredibly low (by their standards) 8th last season so hopefully I can beat them this time. If not I'll settle for another year failing to get past the 3rd round of the damn competition. So many teams keep chasing McDonald Mariga Highest bid for him is only £4.9M If I got something closer to 10 I'd sell but he's worth a lot more than £5M. Considering teams were offering £24M for Anita, I'd expect at least £10M for Mariga who was just as good as Anita last season. Just saw Tommo's post there. I know how to tutor players hahaha I just don't see the point in tutoring a young player with little-to-no players good enough to do so. Game time will do him good. When he returns from St. Mirren he'll still only be 20. I've got plenty of time to work on him. If he doesn't turn into anything special then so be it. He's not the first man to fail to live to his potential and he won't be the last. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
col_nufc1 Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 After taking a break from FM for a couple of months I am going to start a new Newcastle save with our French Revolution. Is it still hard to sell the deadwood in the first season ? players like Ranger, Williamson, Shola, Gosling etc Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu232 Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 How much have people bought the Greek Centre Back from schalke for? (papasomething) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 Papadopoulos He was transfer-listed on my save halfway through the second season. I paid £15M for him in January of 2013-14. Tommo said he was available for £11M at the same time col - I struggled to offload Ranger and Shola (had to loan him). I kept Williamson for the first season (he's overrated so made a good 4th choice) and Gosling was kept until January of 2013-14. I thought he was a good choice as back-up to Moussa. I sold him when I bought Denys Garmash. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
col_nufc1 Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 If I get no offers for the deadwood it looks like I'll have to loan them out for a season. I want to get Williamson out ASAP to promote Remie Streete to 4th choice centre back, as I am going to try and get as many of the younger players into first teamers as I can. Just loaded the game up and I have offered Jonas Gutierrez out, first for £15m but got no takers until I gradually got down to £5m were teams are saying that it's too much. I am sure I got around £12m for him on my last Newcastle save Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 Jonas is a decent player for the first season imo, kept him for a year as back-up to Viktor Fischer before pawning him off to Southampton for £4.1M. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DandyDon Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 Good read that, DandyDon. Despite only paying 30% of Torres' wages, you were still shelling out £52.5k Well done on the double, though. Great performance Cheers. Yeah those wages were the main reason I didn't bid an actual transfer fee for him even though he was listed for only about £6 million. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommonufc Posted March 20, 2013 Author Share Posted March 20, 2013 Newcastle United 2014/15 2014/15 Transfers Jack Wilshere; £22M [barcelona] Paul Pogba; £27.5M [Juventus] Jordy Clasie; Free [Feyenoord] Olivier Giroud; £22.5M [Tottenham] Sammy Ameobi; £1.1M [Leicester City] Last season I brought in two strikers, Giroud and Destro. I had planned for Giroud to be the front line striker that would replace the outgoing Cisse, with Destro providing back up as he developed. Giroud was fantastic up until around Christmas, but injured himself and was out for the rest of the season. Therefore Destro came in, his stats would shoot up, so I had to move out Giroud to allow to Destro to keep his first team place. Really didn't want to sell him to another Premier League club, but nobody else came in for him, so was forced to sell him to Spurs. Managed to turn a decent profit over 11months, around £10M. Manchester City came in for Jack Wilshere, unsettled him, and had himself demand a transfer. I couldn't have that, so went straight in for him, beating City in the £22M signing for him. The second signing this season was a bit of a spur of the moment thing, and looking at it now, very overpriced - saying that, Paul Pogba should become a world-class player in the next season or two - and seeing as I've had to loan in a center midfielder for past two January windows, he'll add the strength needed. Jordy Clasie, not too sure what I'm going to do with him either. Signed on a freebie in January, but by time he joined I haven't much a place for him - so my thinking at the moment will be giving him the games until January then offering him out for a profit that can help balance the books. Goalkeepers First Team Tim Krul - Jak Alnwick Development Squad Aidan Grant - Carl Keehan Defenders First Team Fabricio Coloccini - Steven Taylor - Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa - Samuel Umtiti -Davide Santon - - - - Development Squad - - - - - - - First Team - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Development Squad - - - - - - - - First Team - - - - Development Squad - - - - Planned Starting XI T.Krul D.Santon --------Taylor--------Coloccini--------Shaw Cabaye Ben Arfa--------Sissoko--------Wilshere--------El Shaarawy Destro Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 I enjoy looking at the league comparisons and I've noted a few of them for this season: General Youngest team - 1st, Newcastle (24.04) All Positions Aggression - 1st, Newcastle (12.56) Workrate - 2nd, Newcastle (14.32) Goalkeepers One on Ones - 1st, Newcastle (16) Aerial Ability - 2nd, Newcastle (16.50) Defence Acceleration - 1st, Newcastle (15.38) Pace - 2nd, Newcastle (14.50) Midfield Passing - 2nd, Newcastle (14.50) Creativity - 2nd, Newcastle (14.08) Attack Acceleration - 3rd, Newcastle (15.60) Pretty good. We're not in the bottom three for anything so that's positive, although we are 16th for one (Positoning) and 15th for another (Jumping) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DandyDon Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 Sorry just to clarify...is that in the league on your save, or in real life? Sorry to be a thicko EDIT: and if it's FM, where do I find them... Cheers Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 On my save Newcastle > Report > Comparison There's all sorts of interesting stats in there. I regularly check out the 'Stats' part whenever I want to see who's performing and who isn't stat-wise. Usually doesn't have much bearing on whether or not I'm going to drop a player but if it turns out one man is making a helluva lot of mistakes I will probably drop him. It's also cool to check out the 'Goals' tab and see where my weak points are in terms of goals/assists. FM is wonderfully informative Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DandyDon Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 On my save Newcastle > Report > Comparison There's all sorts of interesting stats in there. I regularly check out the 'Stats' part whenever I want to see who's performing and who isn't stat-wise. Usually doesn't have much bearing on whether or not I'm going to drop a player but if it turns out one man is making a helluva lot of mistakes I will probably drop him. It's also cool to check out the 'Goals' tab and see where my weak points are in terms of goals/assists. FM is wonderfully informative Cheers, only area I'm 1st in is my attackers Pace (and I reckon that's mostly due to a certain Mr Campbell) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spedding Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 I enjoy looking at the league comparisons and I've noted a few of them for this season:General Youngest team - 1st, Newcastle (24.04) All Positions Aggression - 1st, Newcastle (12.56) Workrate - 2nd, Newcastle (14.32) Goalkeepers One on Ones - 1st, Newcastle (16) Aerial Ability - 2nd, Newcastle (16.50) Defence Acceleration - 1st, Newcastle (15.38) Pace - 2nd, Newcastle (14.50) Midfield Passing - 2nd, Newcastle (14.50) Creativity - 2nd, Newcastle (14.08) Attack Acceleration - 3rd, Newcastle (15.60) Pretty good. We're not in the bottom three for anything so that's positive, although we are 16th for one (Positoning) and 15th for another (Jumping) been looking on my save im best on goalkeeping - aerial ability 18.50 attacking - finishing 16.00 anticipation 16.00 and acceleration 17.00 while being bottom on only long shots 9.50 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommonufc Posted March 20, 2013 Author Share Posted March 20, 2013 I have the lowest average age: 22.4 years old Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 Just think how much lower it would be if you didn't still have Coloccini and Taylor at the back Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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