FM 13 Tottenham Hotspur- Where 4th Place Is No Longer Good Enough

[knap]

Just use Jan at LB as well as Naughton.

[KingellesarSpurs]

So started a new save on new patch. First season was ok, got 4th and lost in Europa League final (despite being two up, Llorente hatrick killed me ).

Second season I just picked up a few cheap buys and some transfer listed players, my main 11 and subs for the season were:

Lloris, Walker, Kaboul, Caulker, A.Sandro, Sandro, Siggy, Carroll, Bale, Lennon, Welbeck.

Ospina, Vertonghen, Dembele, Redmond, Ocampos, Naughton, Strootman

I used Carroll a lot, he was 2.5* at start, now up to 3*, worth £3.7m. Siggy I trained as an mc which he is now natural and a beast.

So second season.....I finished 6th, us and Chelsea missed out on CL behind Pool who were 4th, I was 2 points behind, **** season right? Wrong

I won the FA Cup against City! Even though they battered me in the league then somehow I got to CL Final, semis I had Barca, who I was bitter towards because they stole Neymar from me! He scored in first leg which I lost 2-1 but Welbeck got an away goal!! Second leg I snatch it late on 1-0" Welbeck again. Final against FC Porto....I won 3-0 despite being down to 10 for most of second half.

In the summer I have around 6 frees joining including Lewandowski, Poli and Classie. I plan on selling Livermore, Abel Hernandez, Lennon (was amazing but hitting that age now....), Dembele and a few others. Hoping to raise £50m to buy a new AMR so I dont use any of my budget which I'm building up to ask for a new stadium!

Season 3 should be awesome, CHAMPIONS OF EUROPE.

[paulinho]

I finished my 1st season on FM for many a year & I enjoyed it, many changes & many of them cosmetic but it looks wonderful & the ME is quite stunning.

Some thoughts on Spurs's squad.

Couldn't have wished for a better season really as I was invincible in the league & won the League & Europa Cups too.

My only defeats were playing the kids in a meaningless game at the end of Europa group stage qualifying & a disappointing defeat to Citeh in the FA Cup final.

Here's my squad

GK's

Lloris is simply the best keeper I've ever known on FM & Spurs are really lucky to have him, so many match winning saves & he won Prem golden glove for me. Occasionally makes a howler but I think I could only attribute 2 goals conceded as his fault all season.

Brad, simply isn't good enough, (thank God I didn't have to use him much) I started off using him in the League & Europa games but soon gave that up as he was a liability.

DC's What a great bunch of DC's we have in the game, Kaboul was selected on bench in team of the season (although why Dawson wasn't I don't know as his average rating was better!) Caulker was a very good rotation player too. i have to say I was a bit disappointed in Vertonghen although he got a bad injury & was out for a bit (I think he's better IRL tbf), I sold Gallas quite early on.

FB's, Walker is great (better than real life) & had the best tackling completion ratio of any player for me, didn't contribute many assists considering I play him as a wingback but I've no complaints.

BAE's ratings look good & he contributed well in assists but he made too many mistakes for my liking & I will be looking to upgrade in the summer.

Naughton & Smith had fine ratings as my rotation players but the team was always more vulnerable defensively when they were present & if I want to do well in the league & Cl next season I'll need better as wingbacks can't cope with 2 games a week.

MC's, Sandro was brilliant & was voted Player of the season but the other MC's has disappointing ratings.

Having spent £22m on Cabaye I was expecting more ratings wise but in the highlights he always appears to be doing his job, passing, tackling & had impressive key passes ratings. Sandro's partner in midfield is a DLP when Cabaye plays but I change that to B2B when Dembele plays as he's not as creative but a better dribbler & more dynamic.

I'm still unsure which role is the more effective for the team tbh.

Arouca (£9.25m) was useful in rotation but I'm not sure Parker or Livermore will be around for me next season. Livermore has a bit of an attitude too which is not matched by his ability. I sold Hudd in the Jan window as although he's great in attacking sense with his passing & creativity he's a defensive liability.

Wingers/Inside forwards

Bale wasn't quite the FMGod he should be IMO, & I thought 11 goals & 12 assists in his 33 starts a bit below par. He did get injured a bit though so that might account for it.

He was overshadowed a bit by Antoine Griezmann (my best signing £21m) who had 8 goals & 5 assists in his 13 starts & always a threat being also the best player for shots on target for me by a mile. I'd like to great both bale & Griezmann in the starting line up but neither of them really do it on the right hand side or at AMC.

Lennon was really good & so was Holtby (although he played as many games as AMC as he did out wide), one thing I've noticed about Holtby is that if you don't play him his moral drops straight away making him difficult to use in rotation or back up.

Before I got Griezmann Townsend was very useful despite not having amazing stats (7 goals & 6 assists from 15 starts are great ratings) he will deffo be kept as rotation/back up.

AMC

Sigurdsson is the No1 here & 12 goals & 11 assists are pretty good returns from 32 starts, his set pieces are the best in the squad currently. Holtby was good here too although he was played out wide & in midfield sometimes. I also have Leandro Paredes & Mattheus who could well be stars of the future.

Dempsey was very useful 1st season as a back up in any of the attacking positions but he'll be moved on.

ST's

Probably my weakest area of the team & I guess I should blow a good chunk of my budget on a **** off striker for next season.

Ade was good (13 goals & 7 assists in 23 starts) & his added aerial ability got him the 1st choice over Degoal but he got injured quite a bit.

Degoal finished well as my top goalscorer with 22 in 37 starts but doesn't add quite so much to the team as Ade.

Mason Bennett got 2 on his debut off the bench & I thought he was going to be my super sub but he didn't do anything for the rest of the season & his stats didn't improve one iota either. I guess he will have to have starts to improve but I just wasn't able to give him that with Degoal playing well & scoring. He'll be loaned next season.

Having failed to agree contract terms with Wellbeck & some of my other striking transfer targets Commoli gave me Mame Diouf on the last day of the Jan window & I accepted as I was struggling for numbers with Ade injured then off to ANC.

He didn't look like the kind of striker I required at all (trequartista) though & was dreadful waste of money at 18.5m.

He will be moved on ASAP.

Tactics, my base was Cleon's 4121 but I soon realised I was much better offensively with the players I have with a 4231 shape & kept that exclusively for the rest of the season.

In game I use shouts quite a bit & change the type of passing but not that much tweaking tbh.

My assistant Bernhard Peters was briliant in all his advice all season & having a complete clear out of the backroom staff from the beginning was essential.

[paulinho]

Just use Jan at LB as well as Naughton.

Thanks knap, I did but he was inured for a long time, he will be an option especially a more defensive one next season for me too.

As you can see from the table below Everton got relegated so Baines is demanding a move & it looks like I can get him for £15m, do you guys think he'd be better than Santon or Criscito? He's certainly a player I like very much IRL & his set pieces are going to useful I'd have thought.

Thanks to you guys on this thread for such great posts on players & tactics, I read loads before I started playing & it really helped a lot.

I don't think I've ever completed a Prem season unbeaten with Spurs before & I go way back on FM!

Especially surprising as I'd already won it with 3 or 4 games to spare & I was not trying very hard playing the 2nd string saving my 1st team for the FA & Europa Cup final (which made the defeat to Citeh in the FA Cup all the more annoying).

I had worried that not playing a DMC would make me less solid defensively but as you can see only conceding 8 goals away from home all season is as good as you can get.

I was a bit lucky (especially against the big boys) & had to rely on match winning performances from my keeper & defence plus rather wasteful finishing from the opposition.

The key to the succesful 1st season was the fixture list though with a really easy start & run in so by the time I faced anyone really good moral was superb all round.

Another key thing for me was teamtalks, I was able to turn so many draws into wins, losses into draws by saying the right things in individual talks & upping all the players moral. I can't prove this such a big factor but it certainly seemed to be.

I took Cleons advice & played loads of pre season friendlies & got to know the differing approaches I was going to need to up each players moral, for example I found Bale doesn't affected by teamtalks at all unless you are praising him in a calm fashion (basically sucking his dick!).

You have to vary the general talks too otherwise the ******** don't even listen.

[paulinho]

So for next season I'll need a back up keeper, an ideal trequartista, a LB & depending on funds another right winger & a back up ball winner.

Any good suggestions?

[edgar555]

So for next season I'll need a back up keeper, an ideal trequartista, a LB & depending on funds another right winger & a back up ball winner.

Any good suggestions?

Good first season mate.

Lloris is great isn't he. Probably my fav fm13 player.

Anyway: back up keeper - Ospina from Nice? Sergio Romero?

TQ - Destro; Abel Hernandez

LB - Santon; Ricardo Rodriguez; Fabio

RW - I mentioned loads earlier

Ball winner - M'Vila (expensive) or Crisetig (bargain and brilliant) or one of the Bender twins. Cheaper options are Jordon Mutch or Morgan Schneiderlin.

[30.Beast]

So for next season I'll need a back up keeper, an ideal trequartista, a LB & depending on funds another right winger & a back up ball winner.

Any good suggestions?

GK - Rafael Cabral, Craig Gordon

Treq - Jovetic

LB - Criscito, Armero

RW- Belhanda

BW - Diame

[paulinho]

Good first season mate.

Lloris is great isn't he. Probably my fav fm13 player.

Anyway: back up keeper - Ospina from Nice? Sergio Romero?

TQ - Destro; Abel Hernandez

LB - Santon; Ricardo Rodriguez; Fabio

RW - I mentioned loads earlier

Ball winner - M'Vila (expensive) or Crisetig (bargain and brilliant) or one of the Bender twins. Cheaper options are Jordon Mutch or Morgan Schneiderlin.

Thanks, Crisetig, yes I had him on FMH he was amazing.

Ospina too good one

[paulinho]

GK - Rafael Cabral, Craig Gordon

Treq - Jovetic

LB - Criscito, Armero

RW- Belhanda

BW - Diame

Good choices too, I'll see if Commoli can deliver, he's already failed to land Jovetic.

[DosSantosFC]

So for next season I'll need a back up keeper, an ideal trequartista, a LB & depending on funds another right winger & a back up ball winner.

Any good suggestions?

GK-Ospina should be free transfer?

LB- Shaw/Santon/Rodriguez

RW-Shaquiri/Ben Arfa/El Shaawary

Ball Winner- Diame still £3.5m?

Dont play with a treq. so wouldnt know who to advise!!!

[paulinho]

GK-Ospina should be free transfer?

LB- Shaw/Santon/Rodriguez

RW-Shaquiri/Ben Arfa/El Shaawary

Ball Winner- Diame still £3.5m?

Dont play with a treq. so wouldnt know who to advise!!!

Thanks, Santon just signed for Arsenal grrrr, prefered those cnuts over last seasons treble winners, loser!

Shaw & Rodriguez not quite the players I'm looking for, Baines is 28 now but with Everton relegated & him listed I think he's still reasonable value, so I'm going for him. Ross Barkley might be worth picking up from them too?

Only given me budget of 21m which was less than I'd hoped so i may have to be frugal until I shift some dead wood.

[DosSantosFC]

Ah right ok well Shaw is honestly a tank,sounds crazy but have a look on other threads,Southampton and Newcastles thread is great for young talent. One bloke has Adam Campbell with 20's for most poacher attributes and alot of Southampton players on the forum have turnt Shaw and James Ward-Prowse into beasts!!!! Will Hughes is a shout he hasent left Derby yet,I have him in my game and he is very consistant and a wonderkid!?!?! Yeh 2nd season I didnt receive alot,bout £10m but once Adebayor,Defoe,Holtby and BAE went it freed up some cash for the likes of Shaw,Benzia,Maupay. Trying to get sucess with a young squad!!!!

[sammo10]

Yes ! Just knocked Barcelona out of the Champions League at the 1st knockout round, 0-0 at Nou Cap and 2-0 at the Lane. Thought it was going to be an early exit, but Benteke really is a beast.

[paulinho]

Spending over & I'm pretty pleased with the squad, thanks for the advice but sadly Commoli didn'y manage to bring in many of my targets in the end I had to do the deals for all the players I brought in, he was good at shipping out the unwanted players though & getting good money for them.

I sold Diouf, Dempsey, Livermore, Naughton, Parker, Rose & Falque & raised £38m.

In came Belhanda (v expensive, better be worth it), Destro (looks good in pre season) Baines, Ospina, Crisetig & Nathanial Clyne.

Man City are after Holtby but unless they give me over 20m I'm not selling.

GK LLoris/Ospina

RB Walker/Clyne/Smith

LB Baines/BAE

DC Dawson/Vertonghen

DC Kaboul/Caulker

MC Sandro/Crisetig/Arouca

MC Cabaye/Dembele

AMR Belhanda/Lennon

AML Bale/Griezmann/Townsend

AMC Sigurdsson/Holtby

ST Adebayor/Destro/Defoe

Youngsters Malanda/Paredes/Mattheus/Bakkali/Bennett & Gomes & Friedel are still knocking around.

[30.Beast]

If anyone is looking for a young LB, then check out Sobol from Shaktar. Only 17 but he could be something veeeerry special.

[edgar555]

I've got a 'different' Spurs save on the go. I've created 'The Republic of London' as an independent nation which is making for an interesting save. The thread is here: http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/352515-FM13-Republic-of-London-Release if anyone's interested.

[paulinho]

If anyone is looking for a young LB, then check out Sobol from Shaktar. Only 17 but he could be something veeeerry special.

Not in my game sadly.

[Skuli]

Paulinho for your 4-2-3-1 do you use the tc, I can never get one to work for me

[paulinho]

Paulinho for your 4-2-3-1 do you use the tc, I can never get one to work for me

Sorry, not with you there, what is a tc?

Talking tactics, I'm tinkering with going back to the 4-1-2-2-1 wide, I think this formation using a trequartista gets more out of Bale who wasn't amazing in my 1st season & let's face it is the teams outstanding player.

Although my tactic was pretty invincible in the 1st season I'm expecting a 2nd season syndrome where it gets worked out. I'm not sure if this is a fallacy or not but it often seemed to be the case in past FM games.

Not having a player in the AMC position does give Bale more room to do his stuff & employing this tactic against Man City in the Charity Shield gave me me a 3-0 win (my best result against them to date) with Bale rating 9 out of 10 & scoring twice.

I've got the players to make it work too as I can start Sandro, Cabaye & Dembele in midfield making myself very solid there.

Dembele could work iat AMC too but I find he's not as effective higher up the pitch, his shooting is pretty poor & player further back in midfield has more space to dribble (which is his main strength).

[paulinho]

Strange thing about my 4-2-3-1 is that I'd actually set the CM's duties wrongly.

I had intended to set Sandro as the BWM with a defensive duty & Cabaye as a DLP (sometimes this was Dembele as a B2B) with a support duty but I'd put them the wrong way around by mistake.

TBH watching the highlights I hadn't noticed Sandro being any further up the pitch than Cabaye & I'm not exactly sure how many games I played like this but my results were very good & Sandro won player of the season so now I'm a bit unsure of how to go.

[edgar555]

TC is tactics creator.

I always use a BWM on support and DLP on defensive, it just seems to suit the roles better.

[paulinho]

TC is tactics creator.

I always use a BWM on support and DLP on defensive, it just seems to suit the roles better.

Ok thanks, I think I did use the tactics creator the 1st time & then tinkered with the settings from there.

Ok so I got it right by doing it wrong! ha ha.

I like the idea of the BWM winning the ball higher up the field but I would worry about the marking abilities of my DLP when facing an AMC.

It just seemed natural to have the player that was defensively better on defensive & the more creative player supporting when not using a DMC,

Aren't you using a DLP in the DMC position in your tactic?

In Cleons tactic I noticed that the DLP was on support but he has a DMC in the tactic too.

[edgar555]

Yeah my DLP is a DM.

But when I've used a 4231 I've often used the bwm/DLP combo with support/defensive respectively. Mainly cos even on defend the bwm still gets forward more whilst even on support the DLP sits quite deep. It just seems to suit.

[sammo10]

2013/14 Season

One place higher than last season and a lot more of a comfortable Champions League position. Only lost 5 times, which was the same as the winners, Man City. Frustrating that If I had a could have just turned a few draws into wins I would have genuinely challenged for the title. Hopefully the arrival of Erkisen can help provide that cutting edge next year.

Got to the Quarters of the Champions League. Beat Barca in the first knockouts, however got thumped by PSG. Lost early in both domestic cups.

Lloris had another solid season picking up an impressive 25 clean sheets. As always Kaboul was an absolute rock. Caulker , Vertonghen and Dawson all put in a solid shift as well. Dawson said he needed a new challenge and will be off to Newcastle next season. Shame but he was 4th choice and games were limited for him. Smith was an able deputy for Walker and on the other side Willems is progressing nicely.

Midfield were all decent. Sandro picked up a 3 month injury and Wanyama performed superbly in the DM role whilst he was out. Ayew is an incredible BBM midfielder, essential to my teams quick counter attacking style of play. Disappointing season for El shaarawy, was interrupted by a 3 month lay off, so am hoping that was the case and hopefully he will be top class next year.

Benteke was just superb. 21 goals and amazing hold up play, he is the perfect target man.

[DosSantosFC]

sammo10- thats a strong season and I have seen first hand how good Ayew is in this game as a B2B midfielder,almost like cheating having him in that position. Great to see someone get the best out of Benteke,have his attributes changed much,have you got a screenshot? How much did you get Willems for? What are your plans for the transfer window?!?!?!

[30.Beast]

I love Bentekkers in this game. His stats are a bit weird but he plays so well. Will probably buy him when i restart my Spurs save.

[DosSantosFC]

Yeh I cant wait,my new hard drive will be installed today so cant wait to get started again,I will probaly sign Will Hughes,Mason Bennett,attempt Adam Campbell!!! I am really interested in getting the best out of people like Carroll,Luongo,Coulibaly etc. Coulibaly must have room for improvement,his stats arnt the best but not much different to Campbell and people have turnt Campbell into a beast so I think I may try and get the best out of him. I have learnt if you have Naughton for the 1st season,you can get a good fee from him in the 2nd season and have Smith come into his position to get some money. I dont like Adebayor IRL and I dont rate Defoe in this game so I shall be looking to off load them in the 2nd season. Any thoughts and tips on signings would be great!!!!

[danm2501]

Finished my first season as Spurs, and it was one of the most fun seasons I've ever played. I have the Qatar Dream League loaded, and it proved to be a very fun competition, and one that really helps boost the funds if you perform well, which fortunately we did, getting to the final, beating Bayern 4-1 to take the trophy and complete a fantastic treble. The other 2 sections of the treble were made up by winning the Premier League, finishing on 92 points, 17 clear of second place Chelsea. Lost just 2 games all season, one away to City and one terrible performance at home to West Brom. Completing the treble was an FA Cup triumph, beating Norwich on penalties.

Key members of my team:

Hugo Lloris - Best goalkeeper on the game. He is simply immense. I've had Ter-Stegen, Valdes, De Gea, Butland, Cech, but none of them match up to Lloris. So many match-saving stops, and very few mistakes. Will be my go-to keeper in future saves.

Sandro - Was exceptional all season long. 12 goals, average rating of 7.66 across all competitions. One of the best centre midfielders I've ever had on the game. In partnership with a combination of Verratti, Parker and Huddlestone he did magnificently.

Gylfi Sigurdsson - What a man, what a player. Had him at AMC as an AP, and boy did Gylfi deliver. 13 goals, 23 assists, average rating of 7.55. Gylfi is the man.

Gareth Bale - What more can I say? Bale was a star all season. 12 league goals, a league average rating of 7.53, Bale well and truely lived up to his massive potential and was a key part of my league winning side.

Falcao - 8 goals in 12 league starts since his £25m arrival from Atletico in January, world class striker to put away the chances provided by Gylfi, Lennon and Bale.

Michael Dawson - The skipper surprised me. In AVB fashion I was planning to get rid of him, but an injury to Kaboul gave him his chance to prove me wrong, and he performed superbly. Ended up being the best defender in the league, with an average rating of 7.79. He's earnt himself a new contract, and confirmed exactly why he's club captain.

Summer Transfers

In:

Stephan El Shaarawy - £36m - Aaron Lennon did have an excellent season, and contributed a few match-winning performances, but El Shaarawy is the best right winger on the game, and I had to sign him. Should be a solid boost to an already immensely strong attacking force.

André Ayew - £15.75m - Bale suffered a few injuries last season, and when injured I didn't really have sufficient back-up for him. Dempsey did okay, but having someone like Ayew who can fill in in midfield if needed made sense. Hopefully he won't mind being used as a back-up!

Out:

Emmanuel Adebayor - Ridiculous wages, barely got a game last season, Ade's out, on loan to West Brom.

Brad Friedel - Bitched about being back-up to the impressive Lloris. He's out, just need to find someone to take him.

Lewis Holtby - Already gone. £12m to United. Was a back-up all season, and never really impressed when given a chance. Hope he's not exceptional for United!

Clint Dempsey - Surplus to requirements, been sent on loan to Swansea.

Benoit Assou-Ekotto - Massively over-rated. Was fairly poor all season, and have Luke Shaw as a solid back-up. Will likely look to replace him until Shaw has improved a tad more, but £20m for Benoit seemed pretty good to me.

David Bentley - £1.8m. 'Nuff said.

First XI:

-----------------------------LLoris--------------------------------

---Walker---------Dawson-------Vertonghen-----------Shaw----

--------------------Sandro--------Verratti-------------------------

---El Shaarawy-----------Gylfi----------------------Bale----------

---------------------------Falcao-----------------------------------

Boom. Lets make it 2 EPL's in a row boys!

Edit:

Ooops, damn you transfer list being so tempting! Just spent £21m on Antoine Greizmann. Didn't need another left winger, but he's dominated in games against me before, and was very highly rated by my scouts. Looks like Scotty Parker is gonna be on his way out, and Ayew be used as a back-up central midfielder

[edgar555]

Danm - do you have a link to the Qatar Dream League please?

[sammo10]

sammo10- thats a strong season and I have seen first hand how good Ayew is in this game as a B2B midfielder,almost like cheating having him in that position. Great to see someone get the best out of Benteke,have his attributes changed much,have you got a screenshot? How much did you get Willems for? What are your plans for the transfer window?!?!?!

Here is Benteke, his attributes haven't really changed. A fair amount of his goals were headers, but the 10 finishing is ridiculous. He finishes much better than that says.

Got Willems for £6m at the start, was going to bring in a top class left back at the start of the season just gone, however thought that might get in the way of Willems development. Tempted to still do that in this window as the board have given me £55m and not too sure where to strengthen. Umtiti looks absolutely amazing on my game and I think i'd be able to keep him and willems happy .. Hopefully.

Also have Eriksen coming in on a free and Ciaran Clark as well. Clark will just be a replacement 4th choice CB for Dawson. Not sure what else im going to do, still havent decided on who to sell to accommodate Eriksen. At the moment I am very tempted to just loan out Sigurdsson as he doesnt really fit the 4-1-2-2-1, however i couldnt bare selling him. Any ideas on what to do with £55m greatly appreciated.

[danm2501]

Danm - do you have a link to the Qatar Dream League please?

http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=7638 << There ya go mate. It's an amazing little earner!

Sammo. Don't sell/loan out Gylfi. It'll only come back to haunt you when he's dominating for another side. I missed out on signing him for £7m on a United save. He went to City, dominated, was the best player in the league, and value sky rocketed. Even if you don't use him, keep him!

[edgar555]

http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=7638 << There ya go mate. It's an amazing little earner!

Thanks mate. Thought it might be that one. Shame its the same sides every year. Those 24 teams will become uber rich. I might try and adapt it to have other clubs qualify.

[sammo10]

http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=7638 << There ya go mate. It's an amazing little earner!

Sammo. Don't sell/loan out Gylfi. It'll only come back to haunt you when he's dominating for another side. I missed out on signing him for £7m on a United save. He went to City, dominated, was the best player in the league, and value sky rocketed. Even if you don't use him, keep him!

I know, I really dont want to sell him, but that was my thoughts about loaning him. He can play. probably come back a better player and I will hopefully reap the rewards and he wont be unhappy about not playing too much.

[danm2501]

Yeah, that's the only thing I don't like about it. Doesn't bother me too much though, my Spurs team are in it to stay, so I'm happy for the money

[DosSantosFC]

sammo10- I always think if you dont know what to do with the money dont spend it!! It depends if you see any weakness's in your team.Only weakness I can see is another striker as take it Carroll has gone back from loan?!?!?! Ur pretty much sorted every other position,but DANM2501 is right,dont sell Siggy,I did to Napoli on old save and he tore me to pieces next season in Europe plus I found him ok in CM if he is AP,could rotate him with Eriksen for that position and same applies rotating Dembele/Ayew

[sammo10]

sammo10- I always think if you dont know what to do with the money dont spend it!! It depends if you see any weakness's in your team.Only weakness I can see is another striker as take it Carroll has gone back from loan?!?!?! Ur pretty much sorted every other position,but DANM2501 is right,dont sell Siggy,I did to Napoli on old save and he tore me to pieces next season in Europe plus I found him ok in CM if he is AP,could rotate him with Eriksen for that position and same applies rotating Dembele/Ayew

Yeah, I think I will end up keeping Gylfi. Striker and Left back are the two spots I'm looking for. I am desperate for Umtiti but Lyon won't budge, he looks amazing though. Might Be selling Arnautovic, so another winger might be needed also.

[danm2501]

If you want to loan him out, you could always make sure you have the 'can be recalled' clause ticked, so that if he does start destroying, or if you have an injury crisis, you can just call him up. I'd keep him though tbh.

If you're looking for a winger. Try El Shaarawy, Griezmann or Yarmolenko. I've had very good results with all 3, and they're all pretty young. Yarmolenko's an absolute beast, but normally gets snapped up by United. Worth a look if you're in the market for a winger though

[DosSantosFC]

Again have to agree with danm2501. I think sammo has El Shaawaary already. Left back I would add Luke Shaw to that list but then you would leave yourself with Willems and Shaw,so if you want more experiance then look elsewhere. Have u tried Alaba? Very versatile! I would add Shaquiri to the winger list as well as Redmond,had good sucess with those 2 as well as the ones danm2501 mentioned,although would rather have El Shaarary and Griezmann over Yarmolenko.

[sammo10]

I managed to get Umtiti in the end, for a lot of money but I think he'll be worth it. For the left wing I got Ince. He was happy to be backup and I looked at the names you mentioned however Shaqiri just signed for Utd, and Yarmolenko and Griezmann are really hard to get the price down. Just need a striker now. Decided I need someone completely different to Benteke to give me another option than just having another target man,has anyone had experience with Welbeck ?

[danm2501]

Welbeck is excellent. Played as a poacher he will bang the goals in. I had him in my England side, and he smashed 30 goals in 41 games. Definitely worth a buy.

Finished my transfer dealings for the summer, and ended with a bit of a big splash. Was checking the transfer list again, and at the top of list sat Luis Suarez, available for £52m. He had an excellent season last season, and I was interested in signing him before going for Falcao. So, despite not liking him IRL (being an Everton fan that's understandable), I went ahead and signed Suarez. He'll be used in rotation with Falcao, and whoever performs best will play in the big games. Excited to see how he goes. Elsewhere, I picked up Thiago on an inital season long loan, with the option to buy for £18.75m at any time. Needed to boost the centre of midfield a little, and Thiago seemed like a pretty good option. I also signed Eric Abidal as an experienced back-up to Luke Shaw, and David Stockdale to fill the gap left by the departed Brad Friedel. He won't play, but adds a HG player to the squad, and will be capable of doing a job if needed!

[30.Beast]

Marco Reus is the inside forward to end all inside forwards, if you have £40m to spend. I'd by him over Shaarawy, especially if you sell Bale(though why would you!)

[DosSantosFC]

Welbeck is excellent. Played as a poacher he will bang the goals in. I had him in my England side, and he smashed 30 goals in 41 games. Definitely worth a buy.

Finished my transfer dealings for the summer, and ended with a bit of a big splash. Was checking the transfer list again, and at the top of list sat Luis Suarez, available for £52m. He had an excellent season last season, and I was interested in signing him before going for Falcao. So, despite not liking him IRL (being an Everton fan that's understandable), I went ahead and signed Suarez. He'll be used in rotation with Falcao, and whoever performs best will play in the big games. Excited to see how he goes. Elsewhere, I picked up Thiago on an inital season long loan, with the option to buy for £18.75m at any time. Needed to boost the centre of midfield a little, and Thiago seemed like a pretty good option. I also signed Eric Abidal as an experienced back-up to Luke Shaw, and David Stockdale to fill the gap left by the departed Brad Friedel. He won't play, but adds a HG player to the squad, and will be capable of doing a job if needed!

Understandable with Suarez!! Did u actually pay £52m for him though? I find on Liverpool thread,quite a few people sell him cuz he can be quite frustrating in terms of sending off's and missed chances. Abidal is a great signing,like that one and I can vouch for Thiago being a good signing,can be the best player in the game if you train him right

[danm2501]

Yeah, stupidly coughed up £52m for him. Not managed him on 13, so thought he'd be a good rotation option alongside Falcao, especially considering Falcao's just got injured for 2 months. Hopefully he'l do okay. Yeah, Thiago looks really impressive. Will definitely be paying the £18.75m to keep him!

[DosSantosFC]

Yeah that a good price for him,I think I paid £21m January first season on mine. Really want my hard drive to ******* sort itself out!!! Hopefully be back up and running by weekend!!!!

[akuji2012]

Season 2 13/14

In my second season as spurs manager i finished 3rd in the league which was dissapointing but won the european champions league! I beat Porto in the final but better yet i knocked out arseneal in the semis!

My team:

GK: Lloris

DL: Santon

DC: Kaboul

DC: Caulker

DR: Walker

MR: Lennon

MC: Sandro

MC: Verratti/Pogba

ML: Bale

SC: Benzia

SC: Caprari

Subs: Regens and high potential youngsters.

I was surprised to win in europe as im still developing my youth. I spent about 30 million on regens at the beggining of the season and bought in pogba in the window with the money i made from selling livermore and huddlestone.

Caprari was the highest scorer in europe this season with 11 goals. Benzia finishd 3rd in the premier league goalscorers and Bale won Footballer of the year.

I still hav vertonghen but play caulker as i like to develop players.

Next season im hoping to win the league and the players im looking at are Papadopolous or Phil Jones in CB and maybe a right midfielder to compete with Lennon.

Also I hope my board build a new stadium as we regularly fill white hart lane.

[DosSantosFC]

Looks good,tempted to invest in Pogba as well,Benzia is a tank isnt he!!! Alot of people selling Livermore and Huddlestone early on,I had sucess with THud as DMC (DLP) with Sandro/Dembele both B2B CM was very effective but then Siggy doesnt feature and he is a beast!!!!! How are you getting on with 4-4-2 though? Cant get it to work wat so ever!!!!

[paulinho]

I managed to get Umtiti in the end, for a lot of money but I think he'll be worth it. For the left wing I got Ince. He was happy to be backup and I looked at the names you mentioned however Shaqiri just signed for Utd, and Yarmolenko and Griezmann are really hard to get the price down. Just need a striker now. Decided I need someone completely different to Benteke to give me another option than just having another target man,has anyone had experience with Welbeck ?

Destro is a no brainer, pick him up for peanuts & he plays just about every striker role.

Edgar turned me on to him, Destro & Ospina are essential buys for 2nd season.

[paulinho]

For all those that have Santon in your team. Did you notice that he's actually right footed? With a rating for his left foot as only fairly strong I've noticed that he dribbles with his right only & has to move the ball to his right to cross.

As he's accomplished at RB, I'm thinking of moving him to the right side & having Baines or BAE at LB.

There don't seem to be many really good attacking RB's in the game unless you spend 25m on the likes of Rafael.

[edgar555]

Yeah I know Santon is a right footer but he's quality.

Danilo or Vrsaljko(sp) are great young attacking right backs.

[sammo10]

Start of 2014/15

Couldnt say no to Eriksen on a free. Someone like him you'd feel bad not purchasing if he was available for £20m .. He's made a very good start, contributing a couple of goals and assists already, even though he missed four of the 8 games through injury. Clark was just a cheap 4th choice replacement for Dawson, however I have seen him become a beast in other games. Ince was signed as competition for the wings as Arnautovic left, decent player and English which is a bonus. Umtiti was very expensive, but I thought the money I saved on Eriksen might as well go on him as he is amazing for his age and has still lots of time to get better. Welbeck was signed because of the words of danm2501 and from what I've seen so far, they are wise words. Nearly always on the scoresheet.

Nearly all areas are covered. Two strong players for every position. To the lads that said keep Gylfi. Thank you, he's really stepped up in the early games so far and is playing much better than previous seasons. Happy with the squad as it is and hopefully I can rotate well enough to et a good cup run going, which is something I have struggled with in the first two seasons.

Fixtures so far ..

Swansea (H) 3-3 - Eriksen, El Shaaraway, OG

Fulham (A) 2-1 - Bale, Welbeck

Man Utd (A) 0-0

Chelsea (H) 2-2 - Welbeck, OG

Lyon (A) 1-0 - Dembele

Wigan (A) 3-0 - El Shaarawy, Benteke, Welbeck

Astone Villa - COC Cup - (H) 2-1 - Welbeck, Dembele

Burnley (H) 3-1 - Benteke (2), Eriksen