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

[Cesc_cil]

don't think i can get him back?

brought ferreyra in for £13m. Some really interesting players on transfer list atm, including Gary Cahill & Kevin De Buyrne?

[james_wilko]

Start playing Campbell right away. Get him back from loan and play him.

The guy can become one of the best players, if not the best player in the game - certainly the most clinical striker your ever likely to have in the game. Anyone who doesn't play him, and instead sends him on loan to the AI is a fool!

Agreed. Up to my 3rd season and Campbell is already my first choice striker and playing for England.

'Cause he has such high potential you can train him to play multiple roles. Poacher is probably his most natural, but I'm trying to turn him into another Aguero-type player and it's going well so far.

[Tellos]

I play him as an advanced forward alongside a complete forward, means he isn't isolated but gives him the license to drift off if he wants to, mainly to keep him involved. Think he's in double figures with a couple of months to go in season 2 at the moment.

@Cesc_cil - The transfer list does throw up oddities. Luis Suarez spent most of this second season listed as PSG signed him for 30m in the summer then didn't play him. The value may say 24m, but with an asking price of 40m I wasn't that tempted. Cahill isn't bad if you can get over his Chelsea boosted wages.

[Newcastle United FC]

need a stricker start of second season, only have Cisse and Fierro, £5.25m in bank?

Good old Andy Carroll :-)

[Cesc_cil]

Great start to my second season

[tommonufc]

Agreed. Up to my 3rd season and Campbell is already my first choice striker and playing for England.

'Cause he has such high potential you can train him to play multiple roles. Poacher is probably his most natural, but I'm trying to turn him into another Aguero-type player and it's going well so far.

Screenshot on this? Would like to see him molded into a creative forward. In theory it should be able to happen, should be able to channel his PA into TQ. style attributes.

Think his PA is just about to tap out in my game now. Without doubt the best way to train him, to get the most effective player out of him, is to train from heavy poacher. Trained him that way for best part of first three seasons, and over last year or so have been focusing on individual training for his finishing, to get it to 20.

Now he's;

Dribbling [17]

Finishing [20]

First Touch [16]

Anticipation [20]

Composure [17]

Off The Ball [19]

Acceleration [20]

Agility [20]

Balance [17]

Pace [18]

Runs with Ball Through Centre [PPM]

Some of the goals he scores are unbelievable. Will get the ball outside of the area and just turn defenders inside out. Anything lose in the box he scores from. One on one with little defensive pressure he scores from. Probably the best player in the world at 22 now.

46 games played so far this season, 51 scored. Playing PSG at the moment, scored twice in first twenty mins to level a 2-0 deficit in the second leg of Champions League. So that's what, 53 in 47. England wise, 38 caps 28 goals. I've given him everyone of those. Has got the best out of Rooney too, they're devastating together. Rooney is on for 100 England goals for the 2018 Euros.

[james_wilko]

About 1/3 of the way through season 3, here he is:

Hopefully that's worked, my PC's being an a*** right now.

He's not been as prolific this season, with only 5 goals in 15 games, but he's also chipped in with 4 assists. Probably 'cause of our increase in reputation we're getting teams playing very defensive against us.

[tommonufc]

Nice By time he gets to 21/22 he should be prolific. If he isn't, start getting worried.

Forgot to post when it happened few days ago, but after getting stadium expanded to 60,000, asked for a new stadium. Got accepted, and have 93,329 stadium being built - ready for start of 2018/19 season. Named 'Wright Arena', after my egotistical chairman. May have to edit that out, to something realistic otherwise it's going to bug the hell out of me. Moved into a new stadium at Chelsea, named Zola Park. That bugged the hell out of me.

[Tellos]

So would you advise training on Poacher even if he is playing a different role? I guessed that since he would only be playing advanced forward for me that's how I should train him.

Here he is in April 2014, still a way to go but the green arrows are encouraging.

Grats on the new stadium

[james_wilko]

I started him off as a poacher for the first season, then a Trequarista in the second to improve his creative stats. Now I'm focusing on individual ones, I had a few months on strength which helped bump it up, and now I'm going for off the ball. When that reaches 15/16 I'm going to focus on his passing, then back to poacher. But that's 'cause of how I wanted to use him. If you're just using him for goals, poacher/advanced forward will do the trick.

[Tellos]

Aye, he's just there for the goals, got Destro and Cisse (currently) to do the work next to him as complete forward, though he does contribute a reasonable number of assists. I had him on Poacher since I took over in January 1st season but he's then had the entire second season sat on Advanced Forward.

[james_wilko]

Make sure you get him tutored too. I had Eduardo (formerly of Arsenal) for half a season which helped him massively.

[Tellos]

I'll try and find someone in the summer, Only had Cisse tutor him so far. Was going striker hunting anyway as Guidetti will not be staying and Cisse will be out the door to the highest bidder not in the premier league.

[tommonufc]

Advanced Forward training will train Heading, Crossing. Why do you want his heading improving - he's 175cm tall, and will never have any decent jumping attribute to ever win enough headers.

Crossing, don't see the point in training that personally, I want him in the side to score; but if your playing him wide it might be worth it.

Training him as a poacher will feed enough CA into the attributes that will turn into a world class goalscoring striker very quickly, and probably the best your ever manage not long after.

[Tellos]

Well, that's me convinced. He does well enough with his heading as it is, a lot of long balls that fly up to him in the build up of attacks he drops off his marker and generally finds his targets with his flick ons.

[tommonufc]

I've seen Campbell score the odd headed goal. More to do with the fact he can get to the ball quicker than out jumping any defender.

Wish I'd signed Rooney before he got old Rooney and Campbell are best duo I've had up front together in ages.

32min England vs. Montengro, Euro Qualifier - 3-0, two Rooney goals, one Rooney assist for Campbell. Wanye's now record appearance holder, and goalscorer - 130app 75goals.

[tommonufc]

Mousssssa Sissoko!

Hattrick in last 10mins of game vs. Chelsea, brought us from 1-0 down to win the game 4-1.

[Panathinakos]

hey im struggling to get the best out of cabaye.. he played 33games last season for 3goals (2gls were pens) and 3 assists and now 2nd season in he has 11 apps for 0 gls, 1 assist. I play him as a a CM Deeplying playmker support. any help on some instructions or something would be great.. cheers

[SeanNUFC]

Wouldn't have him as DLP, just try him as a normal CM on support or attack.

[Tellos]

He does a good job on Advanced Playmaker support for me, 7 and 12 in 19(5) through most of season 2. Had a spell out for 3 months which slowed his season quite a lot, plus when Tiote and Anita are out he plays BWM to cover Hughes.

Gouffran's value just rocketed up by £4m to £12.25 after he scored a hat trick against CSKA in the Europa League Semi. only 9 in 16 in the league but he loves the cups and Europe, 14 in 13

Well, saying Cabaye had played well this season seems to have cursed him, got injured in the last minute against Villa and has torn his hamstring so is now out for 3 months. This is in addition to missing 4 months of the season already. Not impressed.

[Tellos]

Such a fun last week of the season

edit -

Will be interested in how well France do at the World Cup, what with taking almost all our French players. No call up for Santon or Taylor though.

[DandyDon]

2015/16 - Mid Season Update Part 2

Take a few days away from Football Manager and this thread to play Bioshock Infinite and I've missed almost 2 pages! That'll teach me

Anyway, last report we were heading in to the home straight of the 2015/16 season in second place in the league, a solitary point behind Man Utd and their incredibly miserly defence. However we'd had a mini injury crisis inflicted on us by a very physical Burnley side during a disappointing draw with them at SJP. The absentees contributed to a very disappointing performance against Valencia in the 2nd leg of our Champions League tie, dumping us out of Europe 2-1 on aggregate. The injuries also meant we'd be looking at 3 key league fixtures in a fortnight while missing 3 or 4 key players. After a 6th round FA Cup tie against Brighton we were due to play Arsenal (away), Liverpool (Home) and Man Utd (away) as our next 3 league games.

A Steven Caulker header meant we grabbed a draw away at the Emirates after yet another Falcao goal against us. Adam Campbell bagged a first half brace against Liverpool which was enough to secure us a crucial win (despite almost falling apart in the second half and letting Liverpool dominate the last half hour with only 10 men), especially important as Man Utd were held to a goaless draw against Wigan. That brought the gap back down to one point again.

The game at Old Trafford was very much a 50/50 affair with both teams creating a similar amount of chances, unluckily for us Adam Campbell's lovely little flick header finish midway through the second half was disallowed for offside. Five minutes later Rooney managed to set Diego Perotti through on goal and no flag came to our rescue. The gap was now back to 4 points with only 6 games remaining and we had another difficult away trip on the cards as we headed to Stoke. while Utd faced Blackburn (who were very much in the relegation battle). The result was even more disappointing in that it was our first league defeat of the season and with so few games remaining I'd really been getting hopeful for an undefeated league campaign.

The Stoke game was a real oddity, they looked completely comfortable holding us to a 0-0 scoreline in the first half and then just fell apart late on in the second. Up until Fischer scored our 2nd goal from a rebound the game had looked finel balanced with Stoke having had a couple chances to cancel out Vidic's opener. More good news came the day after we beat Stoke when Man Utd somehow fell to a 3-1 defeat at home.

So the gap is now back to just a solitary point and the pendulum may be swinging in our direction as Man Utd still have a Champions League Semi-Final to play in amongst their final five league games. We also have an extra match to play having made it to the FA Cup final, but as that will be against a treble chasing Man Utd isn't necessarily such a distraction for us.

Our league run in also looks easier on paper compared to Man Utd's, the way the fixture list has played out means we have 4 out of 5 games at home and only one away trip, Man Utd have to play 3 out of 5 away.

Man Utd's fixture list:- Juventus (H 21/4/16), Spurs (A 24/4/16), Juventus (A 28/4/16), Man City (A 1/5/16), Everton (H 4/5/16), Newcastle (N 8/5/16), West Brom (A 11/5/16), Chelsea (H 15/5/16)

Our fixture list:- QPR (H 20/4/16), Cardiff (H 23/4/16), West Ham (H 30/4/16), Wigan (A 4/5/16), Man Utd (N 8/5/16), West Brom (H 15/5/16)

So on paper it should be a far easier run in for ourselves, the only real difficulty we have is the current injury list, but hopefully the wins over Stoke and Liverpool should give us a nice confidence boost going into the last few weeks that can carry us through. However that Man Utd defence has been incredibly resilient all season and I wouldn't be totally surprised to see them sneak 1-0 wins in most of those games despite the pressure.

[Tellos]

One game of the season to go and Krul comes to me asking for a new contract. I had a look at how much he was asking for before talking to him, and his agent refused to budge below £90k/week and £27k clean sheet bonus. I cancelled the deal and upon talking to him and telling him he had time on his current deal, he was happy to stick with what he had, rather than get a £60k/week increase. Madness.

[Tellos]

Think I may have hit a bug.

Transfers from the beginning of the season

The same transfers, at the end of the season

Its not just the transfers either, wages have gone up as well (Campbell was on 11.5k/week when I did his contract, now he's on £18k/week). Think its worth shooting off to the bugs forum?

[DandyDon]

I've just noticed something similar on my save Tellos, paid and received about an extra £10 million for any deal that was in double figures, and a whole bunch of players have had massive hikes in their wages.

EDIT: Looking at my previous saves it looks like the wages have changed retrospectively as well, went back to July when Wilshere signed and he's apparently on £100k a week, despite me signing him up for £54k. Plus my £13.25 mill deal for Douglas Costa is suddenly £21million.

[Tellos]

I've posted it in bugs, but while doing so I reloaded it and realised that despite it saying that it was all in pounds sterling, everything had changed to Dollars. a quick switch to euros and back to sterling seems to have fixed things

Not liking HBA's agent. went to renew his contract, refused to budge below 100k/week and 10k a game with a couple of million each in fees. Guess he can stick around another year, but with Redmond the way he is, I don't expect he will last too long like that, especially given his unreliability.

[DandyDon]

I've posted it in bugs, but while doing so I reloaded it and realised that despite it saying that it was all in pounds sterling, everything had changed to Dollars. a quick switch to euros and back to sterling seems to have fixed things

Not liking HBA's agent. went to renew his contract, refused to budge below 100k/week and 10k a game with a couple of million each in fees. Guess he can stick around another year, but with Redmond the way he is, I don't expect he will last too long like that, especially given his unreliability.

Yeah, my save seems to have gone back to pound sterling and the wages etc look normal again. No idea why it would have suddenly started displaying in $. Ah well least I don't have to panic about my wage budget being totally knackered

[Tellos]

2013-14

End of Season Review

Premier League

The table speaks for itself. 100 points, no defeats. We probably could have done better, but a lot of rotation saw to the optimal team not always being played.

The Cups

Cup Fixtures

Community Shield

A 2-0 victory to start the season against Man Utd.

Capital One Cup

Our first defeat of my reign came against Arsenal in the Semi Final, However, we managed to pull it back and beat Chelsea 3-2 in an end to end final.

FA Cup

A relatively easy process in getting to the final, despite having to go to a replay with Spurs meaning I played them 5 times this season. We couldn't retain the cup though as we lost out to a City team who were better on the day, and with the Europa League final 3 days later I couldn't throw all the resources I would have liked at it.

Europa League

Again, a straight forward route to the final, where Adam Campbell came off the bench to get the only goal of the game against Man Utd.

The players

Due to rotation and a season of almost 70 games, only Bardi in the first team played less than 10 games, and that was because he was 3rd choice keeper. We tended to get injuries in clumps, usually in the same positions but the squad provided unexpected depth. The most unexpected joy came from the yound midfield. I had expected HBA, Jonas and Cabaye/Moussa to hold their positions and only rotate out due to injury and tiredness. However, by the halfway point it was clear that Redmond, Fischer and Hughes were performing better, so it became a case of them playing whenever they could, although Cabaye is still first choice when not injured.

Top Goalscorers

Yoan Gouffran - 23 in 30(3)

Papiss Cisse - 22 in 35(4)

Adam Campbell - 15 in 28(9)

John Guidetti - 12 in 24(1)

Moussa Sissoko - 10 in 22(16)

Top Assists

Nathan Redmond - 18 in 32(8)

Yohan Cabaye - 12 in 20(5)

Yoan Gouffran - 11 in 30(3)

Hatem Ben Arfa - 11 in 30(5)

Papiss Cisse - 10 in 35(4)

Top Average Ratings

Fabricio Coloccini - 7.95 from 47

Mike Williamson - 7.72 from 12(4)

Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa - 7.60 from 44(4)

Papiss Cisse - 7.59 from 35(4)

Yoan Gouffran - 7.57 from 30(3)

Transfers

After a hickup with the transfer screens, I now have a correct version.

Transfer Plans

Williamson, Marveaux, Ospina and Tavernier all asked to leave during the season so they will be sold, as will Cisse. I plan to bring in another CB, another Left winger which would allow the sale of Jonas, Abel Hernandez is looking like he wants to sign for us as he is listed by demand and i've had a few chats with him, so he should replace Cisse and be a good tutor for Campbell come August when he hits 24. A new reserve keeper will be needed, and maybe another striker. I already have a couple of regens coming in, a left back and a defensive midfielder. The board have given me 25m to spend, and possibly more if I spend before the targets are set in stone.

I was amused to see Chelsea come in for me after saying that I wasn't interested in leaving. Apparently they thought that 69k a week for 5 years would sway me. I'll sort out some shots of players and probably put them up tomorrow, maybe do a squad for the season ahead type thing.

Oh, I got manager of the year as well

Team of the Year

and Overall Team

[DandyDon]

2015/16 Season - Finally the Finale

As mentioned a couple posts previously we went into the final 5 games of the season just a single point behind Man Utd but facing a seemingly easier and certainly less congested fixture list. Team confidence seemed to get the boost I'd hoped for from a big win against Stoke and then qualifying for the FA Cup Final.

This was most apparent with Adam Campbell who, after scoring twice in the FA Cup semi-final, went on to score in all of our remaining games including a 25 minute hattrick against Cardiff and the first minute goal against Man Utd that secured us the FA Cup. In fact he finished with 9 goals in our last 6 matches all told to bring his tally for the season to 35 in all competitions from 41(7) appearances, fully justifying the decision to sell Papiss Cisse in the summer and make Campbell the main poacher. (He missed out on finishing as the league top scorer by 2 goals to Eugene Seleznyov of West Brom)

Campbell's run of form meant we took a maximum 15 points from 15 in the run in and Man Utd were always struggling to catch up as we leap frogged them at the top of the table while they played Europa League fixtures, and a draw to Spurs at the start of that run really played into our hands.

Man United's Results

Our Results

The loss to Man City really put them up against it and even though they beat Everton 2-1, they needed us to drop points to Wigan to have any chance. For a little while they might have been in luck as Wigan too an early lead, but in the second half there was only one team in it as racked up 30 shots on goal in the end whilst dominating possession. The pressure finally told and the three points made Man Utd's last 2 league games meaningless.

Final League Table

Considering how tit-for-tat the competition had been between ourselves and Man Utd earlier on, I was surprised to see us finish 7 points clear in the end, and looking at the table I'm a little annoyed we couldn't manage to finish the season unbeaten, but that's nit picking really. A massive season for some of my youngsters, especially Adam Campbell and obviously hoping for even more in the next season from him. I doubt there will be much transfer activity in the summer as I'm pretty happy with the balance of the team. The only major target will be an experienced left back, my 1st choice there Davide Santon was pretty close to being exhausted at points due to the number of times he played and while I have a very talented product of the youth academy being developed, he's still only 16 and nowhere near ready for the 1st team. I'm looking at bringing in a player in his late 20s who can provide back up to Santon for 3 or 4 seasons while my youngster Mick Burns gets tutored. I may also bring in a wise head or two on a freebie, depending who is out of contract in the summer, just to help tutor a few of the youngsters my backroom team signed up during the year.

[Tellos]

Had a falling out with my DoF. I asked him to sign Caulker for me, and his idea of signing Caulker (so I can sell Colo next season) is to offer them Taylor in part exchange. Not on my watch

[Tellos]

Already declined it, but just thought I'd share. Already had Chelsea offer me a deal this window, now this

£80M budget!

[Cesc_cil]

24 games unbeaten, and then lose to Leicester wtf! oh well had to go sometime!

[J.T]

Won the League last day of the season!!! Check this out for a tight finish!

I have won every cup in the first season (capital one, FA cup, Europa and Premiership) can't believe it!!!

[Tellos]

Good stuff J.T, well played.

Now lads, I signed this rather interesting looking Slovenian without really thinking where he would fit. I play a flat 4-4-2, so the fact he is natural DMC and WBR raises issues. my question is, should I train him as MC or as DR?

[Tellos]

2014-15

The season ahead

Transfers

The first thing to be done was to Sell the players that wanted out. Out went Ospina and Marveaux, both to Lyon, Williamson went off to Wolves. Jonas went for £15m to Stoke, and Cisse went to Dortmund for £20.5m.

Transfers in included Abel Hernandez for the slightly inflated price of 10.75m. If I had been able to sign him before the end of the season while he was still listed by request I could have knocked off 3m but I didn't have funds. Managed to fight off City for him, probably due to him liking me after I unsettled him at the back end of the season. Also comming in is Andre Schurrle for £18.5m. More than I would usually spend, but he looks so damn good, and can play striker if needed behind Gouffran, Campbell Hernandez and Destro. The outlay isn't that much, given that he is only 3.5m more than Jonas was sold for. The next transfer was organised by my DoF, bringing Forster back to the Toon for 7.5m, though £2m of that returned in sell on fees to me. Caulker came in for just over 8m, a bargain considering that the DoF had tried to trade in Taylor for him. Robert Meredith is a 15 year old MC from Birmingham, and Joachim Kunert is a young left back who should hit his 5* potential if he gets his determination up. Even if he doesn't, £7k isn't much of a loss. The rest of the signings are regens of great potential, and profiles of all can be found in the squad section.

Expectations

The board at minimum expects Champions League football, which I think is an easy enough aim with the squad I have.

The Squad

The squad for the season ahead (* indicates youth/reserve player), italics indicates out on loan. There are other youth and reserves, the ones included are the best of the bunch potential wise.

GK

Tim Krul, Fraser Forster, Jak Alnwick*, Aidan Grant*, Drazen Zlomislic*

DR

Mathieu Debuchy, Nathaniel Clyne, Saso Veselic*, Borut Lazarevic*

DC

Steven Taylor, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, Fabricio Coloccini, Steven Caulker, Remie Streete, Kevin Mbabu*, Lubomir Satka*, Craig Lewis*, Joe Lovell*

DL

Davide Santon, Massadio Haidara, Joachim Kunert*

MR

Hatem Ben Arfa, Nathan Redmond, Esteban Lopez*, Marc Preen*

MC

Yohan Cabaye, Cheick Tiote, Vurnon Anita, Will Hughes, Moussa Sissoko, Jon Williams, Robert Meredith*, Gael Bigirimana*, Calum McGuinness*, Adriano*

ML

Viktor Fischer, Andre Schurrle, Shane Ferguson, Sammy Ameobi*

ST

Yoan Gouffran, Mattia Destro, Adam Campbell, Abel Hernandez, Haris Vuckic*, Max Mills*, Luke Espinoza*, Milan Pecnik*

I don't intend on anyone else coming in (got a bit carried away searching for good newgens) but a few people might go out on loan, Ameobi when he is fit and Grant are a couple that fit the bill. Can't get rid off Good, tried to loan him out but with him being Australian he doesn't get work permits.

[SeanNUFC]

Won the League last day of the season!!! Check this out for a tight finish!

I have won every cup in the first season (capital one, FA cup, Europa and Premiership) can't believe it!!!

My table is just as tight as that(same teams obviously to), or was, 2nd season in January, only i'm not currently involved in the title race (7th). Nice work.

[J.T]

My table is just as tight as that(same teams obviously to), or was, 2nd season in January, only i'm not currently involved in the title race (7th). Nice work.

Cheers. I couldn't believe it, I think I moved to 1st place in the 88th minute of my final game of the season!

Second season I have just signed a few promising youngsters. Also signed Schurle (sp?) and Nathaniel Clyne.

I sold Danny Simpson and Marveux. Also got rid of all the dead wood youth (anyone below 3 star potential)

Just beat Man City 2-0 in the community shield and have got Chelsea in the Super Cup.

EDIT: Just sold Obertan as well.

[darrensen]

So we just stared our clan game again with the latest patch. You guys do a great job writing about how your season progresses, but i do things a bit different. I make vlogs on my clan game. Here's the first one in the series. I'll be making 3 per season, so probably every 2 weeks.

[video=youtube;vWdgcS96rrQ]

[Tellos]

Was not expecting this for my first attempt at Champions League quality Opposition

[james_wilko]

I've just noticed Cisse has 28 goals in 37 games for Porto. He played over 50 for me and didn't hit 25... Odd situation. I always thought he was awful without an AM behind him but Porto play a wide 4-5-1 and he seems to be on fire with it.

Not that I mind too much, Campbell's up to 21 in 34(1) this season.

The board was complaining my football wasn't attacking enough, so I changed my 3-4-2-1 to a 3-3-2-1-1 diamond type formation. HBA is playing as a Treq behind Campbell, Sissoko and Cabaye are the CMs as a BWM & Advanced Playmaker respectively. Despite only having one AM & one striker it's helped our possession which is helping how 'attacking' we're playing. HBA already has 15 goals this season in 34(1) games, which is only 2 less than his best form for us which was 17 in 50(3). He's also chipped in with 16 assists which is better than his previous two seasons.

Just finished Jan in the 3rd season and I've got a couple of tasty freebies coming in. This season I brought in Villa from Barcelona as his contract expired which I was very happy about. Next season I'll have Seydou Doumbia, Bruno Manga & Adam Maher coming in for nothing. I think those three combined would probably cost upwards of 30mil. Must be confusing for the owners, since I've gota budget of 42 million to spend and I'm not spending it. My spending for 3 seasons is 32.5mil, but I've brought in 73 from sales.

Despite this, my faith in the young players is paying off still. We're top of the league again, 9 points clear of second after 25 games and won the Super Cup & World Club Championship. Bigi's turned into quite a good playmaker, ideal rotation player for Cabaye and I've got a young guy who will be replacing Tiote soon and is already deputising for him during the ACoN. Got another 18 year old, who will be the English Zidane and HBA's replacement. He stands 6"2, scored 13 goals when on loan at Bournemouth in 25 games and performed well on his debut for me against Nottingham Forest and got an assist.

[Newcastle United FC]

If only my tactic was working...

Finished the 2nd season. Ended 3rd in the league and won the Euro League. Got a fantastic squad now.

GK Victor Valdes / Krul

DR Debuchy / Clyne

DC Phil Jones / Alderweireld

DC Dede / Caulker

DL Shaw / Haidara

MR Willian / Belhanda

MC Mkhitaryan / Sissoko

MC M'Vila / Garmash

ML Hazard / Fischer

SC Jovetic / G. Ramirez

SC Neymar / Rodrigo

[Tellos]

Damn Capital One Cup. I didn't want a run this season due to the game pile up last season but so far I've beaten the teams I've faced (Wigan and Everton) and have been drawn Hull in the quarter final. And since I won't intentionally go out to lose a game, it looks like I may as well make the effort to get to the final and win the thing, especially given that the Semis are the real killers.

[Welshace]

So, Started a save..

Here's my transfers:

Really happy with my squad now, got rid of a lot of deadwood and a few overpaid players who are easily replaced..

Which gives me a starting 11 of:

Which I feel is good enough for a top 5 finish... we'll see

Particularly happy with my midfield, Wanyama is the perfect anchor to give Lodi, Cabaye, HBA and Jese the creative freedom to do their thing....scary creativity

[tommonufc]

If only my tactic was working...

Finished the 2nd season. Ended 3rd in the league and won the Euro League. Got a fantastic squad now.

Why don't you edit in Messi and Ronaldo? That should surely see you over the line next season

[james_wilko]

Good looking team Welshace, if you're looking for another young CM you should look at Jon Williams from Crystal Palace. He's a good player to develop.

[Welshace]

Good looking team Welshace, if you're looking for another young CM you should look at Jon Williams from Crystal Palace. He's a good player to develop.

Thanks fella, but with Hughes, Praet, Murray and Van den Boomen, I think i'm pretty covered in the central positions as far as youth is concerned..

I missed out on Schrijvers which annoyed me as I wanted some extra youth backup for the forward positions, Campbell granted of course...

Nevermind, Pohjanpalo, Campbell and Elyounoussi should suffice for this season.

[trunks26]

Guys I cannot speak highly enough of this kid. Haven't seen his name mentioned around the forums at all. Allen Halilovic. Here he is at only 18. Already rate at 3 and 1/2 stars.

Plus he just scored this absolute beauty of a goal to bring us to 100 goals in the premier league in only 33 matches.

[trunks26]

Well I just got taken over by a chinese tycoon and this just happened...

[hypertoon]

yeah its great isnt it... I think at one point I had about £260m of transfer funds to spend......... if only in real life

[trunks26]

Hahaha yeah if only in real life! Although I don't know what I'm supposed to do with all this money!!!