FM15: Sunderland - All Aboard the Gus Bus!

[Mackus]

Last Season

After a run of one draw and four defeats in the opening five league games of the 2013–14 season, Paolo Di Canio was fired from the club. Gus Poyet was announced as his replacement on 8 October 2013. Despite Sunderland losing 4–0 at Swansea in his first game in charge, Poyet brought a turnaround in Sunderland 's fortunes as they brought their way back into contention for survival with wins against Newcastle, Manchester City and Everton, before thrashing Fulham 4–1 (with Adam Johnson scoring the first hat trick from a Sunderland player since 2010). Poyet also led Sunderland to the Capital One Cup final against Manchester City after a dramatic penalty shootout win at Manchester United in the semi-final. Sunderland were defeated 3–1 by City in the final, despite leading 1–0 at half time.

Following the Capital One Cup final defeat, Sunderland suffered a dreadful run of form, with six defeats and a draw from the following seven matches, to leave the club facing relegation to the Championship after seven seasons in the Premier League. However, they drew 2–2 at Manchester City and then defeated Chelsea 1–2, becoming the first side to beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the Premier League under Jose Mourinho. The Black Cats went on to win their next 3 games, against Cardiff (4–0), Manchester United (0–1) and West Bromwich Albion (2–0) to avoid relegation with a game to spare

Welcome to the Football Manager 15 Sunderland thread:

Picking Sunderland as your team will appeal to you if you;

• Like the challenge of building a struggling Premiership with no financial backing
  
• Be part of the most passionate Derby in the Country
  
• Enjoy working with a club with very good youth and training facilities
  

Club Affiliates

The club has a strong presence in Africa including a Sister team based in Ghana called Sunderland AFC Keroche.

Sunderland have begun investing in feeder clubs in the MLS as of August 2014 announcing DC United as their partner.

Finances

Abysmal. The club is leaking debt from bank loans from until the end of the 2016/17 season as a result the Transfer Budget is small and you're offered a generous £850 extra wage budget

The Squad

Current Best XI:

Goalkeepers: Vito Mannone, Costel Pantillimon

Key players: Vito is slightly better than Costel

Verdict: 1 of Sunderland's stronger positions, both will need to be rotated in order to keep them happy.

Defenders: John O'Shea, Wes Brown, Santiago Vergini, Sebastian Coates, Patrick Van Aanholt, Billy Jones

Key players: John O'Shea, Santiago Vergini.

Verdict: Central defence is easily Sunderland's worst position, Vergini is better utilized as a right-back and the pairing of John O'Shea and Wes Brown are 33 and 34 respectively which puts them the 2nd slowest Center Back pairings in the league, should be your first point of strengthening in the Transfer Market.

Midfielders: Lee Cattermole, Seb Larsson, Jack Rodwell, Cabral, Liam Bridcutt, Adam Johnson, Ricky Alvarez, Jordi Gomez, Emanuele Giaccherini, Charis Mavrias, Will Buckley

Key Players: Adam Johnson, Ricky Alvarez, Lee Cattermole

Verdict: Cabral should be Transfer Listed immediately in order to free up funds, Charis Mavrias is another possibility as his future potential does not live upto Premiership standards. Cattermole should be deployed as a defensive midfielder and Ricky Alvarez should be deployed as an Attacking midfielder in a potential Diamond formation to get the best out of them.

Strikers: Jozy Altidore, Danny Graham, Steven Fletcher, Connor Wickham

Key Players: Steven Fletcher, Connor Wickham

Verdict: : Connor Wickham yet again has a very high future potential rating in FM15, keeping him in form and letting him develop could be crucial, he is also out of contract at the end of the 1st season. Danny Graham is another sell able asset to free up more funds which leaves the other 3 Strikers to choose from.

Top Youngsters: Mikael Mandron

Overall: The squad is very thin to choose from and the finances are equally as thin. The loan and Bosman market may become crucial in the first season. I would personally strengthen the CB position as a priority, followed by a defensive LB then start adding depth.

[Mackus]

Suggested First Season Signings: (Patch 15. Beta)

Lucas Romero (DMC) - FC Velez

Eder Balanta (DC) - River Plate

Gino Peruzzi (RB) - Catania

Dele Alli (AMC) - MK Dons

[Mackus]

Reserved

[Mackus]

You may now post

[Jordanknox]

As always i started as Sunderland on the beta and started tearing up the squad. I started by offering out pretty much anybody that i could get money for, we have a lot of players on high wages so it was really about getting what i could for them and cutting my losses. This seemed to upset a few people, especially Johnson and Wickham. I wanted to bring in young talent that can improve with the club as well as looking for any bargains.

Players Out:

Fletcher Southampton 10.5m

Graham QPR 2.1m

Larsson LOSC 6.25m

Cattermole Celtic 1.8m

Bridcutt West Brom 3m

Jones West Ham 4.4m (January)

Gomez Southampton 2.5m (January)

Giaccherini Roma 7m (January)

Johnson Leicester 4.4m (January)

Total: 42.4m

Players in:

Ante Coric 1.8m

Jesus Vallejo 675K

Gino Peruzzi 3.5m

Eder Alvarez Balanta 6m

Lucas Romero 7m

Dele Alli 2.6m

Saido Berahino 7.75m

Pavel Savitskiy Free

Danny Ings 900K (January)

Andrija Zivkovic 3.7m (January)

Dorin Rotariu 4m (January)

Total: 39m

Looking at the transfers i think i have pulled off some great deals, to improve the squad while having a positive net spend is great and the squad is full of potential now. We started well and we currently sit 7th (as of 10th January) on 34 points. The only sale i was in 2 minds about was Giaccherini; he was fantastic scoring 10 goals in 17 games but i had the chance to sign Zivkovic who will be a far better player and he was the only saleable asset. I havent had the chance to play Ings yet but i think i got a fantastic deal as he was in the last 6 months of his deal. Ive also managed to agree 3 bosman deals to sign in the summer; Adrien Rabiot, Denis Praet and Patric (Barca B).

Advice for anybody starting as Sunderland:

-Consider everybody for sale, you can get decent fees for mediocre players if you offer them out on the first day

-Buy young talent

-Ask to increase percentage of sales on first day

-Sign Dele Alli (Great talent and performs straight away)

[Mackus]

Good advice JordanKnox. Found it easy to shift Danny Graham right away (also to QPR) - Does Ellis Short not grant extra wage budget? The media do bring it up in the your first Media conference as Manager.

[Jordanknox]

I havnt tried as the option has never been present, its always been the transfer budget option but no luck in that.

[tvdx]

I've taken a similar approach, offloading quite a few players. Missed out on Vallejo and Coric though which is a shame. I'm finding the Beta hard at the moment, I lost 3-2 to Leeds in a friendly with all 3 of their goals being errors from my players. I'm trying a strikerless formation, I had good success on FM14 with it and I'm interested to see how it works here. Johnson has been playing well as a Ramdaueter in pre-season, with Ricky Alvarez as the CAM feeding him assists. Cattermole is a liability though, always picking up bookings and so on. I think when the real game comes out I'll try again with Sunderland, I'll drop Cattermole's aggression slightly to reflect his performances last season and this, increase van Aanholt's pace too.

On FM14 Short was very unreceptive to board requests, he was also quite trigger happy if results didn't go well. Sunderland were always very hit and miss on saves I had with other teams, I saw them narrowly scrape getting into Europa League, and also finish well adrift in bottom place.

[SRL88]

Saw the start of the thread title in the 'most recent posts' part and hoped it said 'Gus Bus' .

[andrewfx]

We look a massive challenge this year again with the considerably small squad and lack of quality.... hopefully there's some bargains at the start of the game as there usually is to help us out!

[Jordanknox]

It is a challenge but its not all that bad. I'd urge anybody to try and sign Jonas on a free at the start; i forgot about him and missed out (not sure if he is interested anyway but worth a try). I have just finished the January window and found that there are a lot of players you can sign on free transfers on cheap wages that would be very good squad players. I snapped up Nicola Leali (9k per week), Adrien Rabiot (8k per week), Dennis Praet (12k per week), Frederik Sorensen (12k per week) and Patric (14k per week). That adds up to 55k per week for 5 very good squad players, slightly more than O'Shea or Brown are earning. Im hoping that will help come the summer and allow me to spend the budget on quality rather than quantity.

[andrewfx]

Every time I try and ask the board to increase the transfer revenue I get rejected? How did you manage that on the first day!?

[Mackus]

Every time I try and ask the board to increase the transfer revenue I get rejected? How did you manage that on the first day!?

Did you do the Media conference first? I asked soon as I did the first one and it was increased to 65%

[Jordanknox]

Season 2014/15 Review- Premier League

Transfers

It is always a challenge with Sunderland at first due to the number of mediocre players on very high wages; these players can be very hard to shift as well. I got off to a very good start with the early sales of Fletcher, Larsson and Graham which allowed me to spend money on some fantastic young players especially Peruzzi, Balanta and Romero. Avidaj probably wasnt ready and he was sent back in January after not featuring enough. I like Cattermole IRL but he is too risky on football manger and is on big wages, i was quite pleased with the 1.8m just to get him off the wage bill tbh. It is clear to see that my policy is to buy youthful players with plenty of room to grow. Ideally i wanted to focus on British players but they are very expensive, Dele Alli was the exception; a bargain at 2.6m and improving all of the time. In January i was able to bring in a bit more flair attacking wise with Zivkovic and Rotariu who replaced Giaccherini and Johnson. AJ never really got going and was pretty poor while Giaccherini was fantastic; Giacc was my only saleable asset and i didnt want to miss out on my targets. Overall fantastic business as i actually spent less money then i brought in and my wage budget was slashed by over 150k.

Table

Overall i was very pleased with the season, it was always about rebuilding the squad and getting the players used to my tactics. 8th was probably the best position i could have hoped for really, i didnt want to have the added interference of europe and didnt want to raise expectations too high with another summer of rebuilding to come. In most games we played we dominated possession we just werent clinical enough in front of goal at times. Balanta and Vergini gave us solidity at the back and Romero and Rodwell controlled possession in the midfield. I mainly played the youngsters on the wing with Coric and Zivkovic playing well along with Berahino up front. Alvarez is a very good player but he was pushed out of the team by Alli towards the end of the season and i wont be activating his 11m release clause.

Fans Player of the Season-Ante Coric

Managers Player of the Season- Eder Alvarez Balanta

Future

The board were happy to increase the Youth Recruitment, Junior coaching and improve the training facilities which i was very pleased about. I have revamped the backroom staff bringing in Phil Cannon as HOYD aswell so i should start producing some decent players pretty soon. I am currently half way through pre-season and im continuing to bring in quality young players; im over the moon with some of the players ive managed to sign as you will see pretty soon.

Next season Target- Top half finish

[Mackus]

6 games in and Lee Cattermole has had 3 red cards.

Surprisingly realistic game

[marcftm]

Well that's not realistic at all is it? Over 30 games without one now...

[twentythree]

If we're being realistic Mackus needs to put him on easy tackling and zero closing down after his first stupid booking.

No-one has posted any data issues yet, is it all good or is it just because we've been chod in the last two matches? Sorry we weren't allowed much of a transfer budget but the wages have been reduced and accurate extra sponsorship added so there shouldn't be a first season meltdown like in the last game.

Going to wait until the proper game comes out to start so I can put Reveilleire in and give Short 20 for patience again.

[Jordanknox]

Summer Transfer Window (August 2015)

Due to the 8th place finish last season i was given a transfer budget of around £11m. Obviously, this wouldnt really have given me enough funds to seriously push on so a few sales were required. The first business was to cash in some of the sell on clauses that the board had kindly negotiated following the sales of Fletcher and Larsson; suprisingly this netted us just over £3m. Mannone had served me well the following season but i always knew that he was never the answer long term; id had my eye on Kevin Trapp for a while and when i got a decent offer for Mannone i did the deal. Im very happy with my transfer business; the only doubt i have is over Aaron Cresswell. I was caught off guard by Tottenhams bid for Van Aanholt (8m+30%) and couldnt really turn it down as i dont think he is particularly good in game. The problem was that it was so difficult to find a decent left back for a good price; i ended up going for Cresswell who has good stats but the coaches dont seem impressed.

My new star signing. Ive had him in previous versions and he looks just as good in FM15. He will create a formidable partnership with Eder Alvarez Balanta who is probably the best defender in the world. I was all set to sign Ezequiel Munoz when i thought i would check Doria out; the scouts said he wasnt interested but i gave it a try and eventually persuaded him.

Current Squad

Quite a transformation considering i have only played 1 season. Im guessing the average age is about 21/22 but i cant seem to find the page with those stats on at this moment in time. I think the balance of the squad is good and i have back up players such as Frederik Sorensen and some very promising regens in the reserves.

[tvdx]

Looks class, to have that team in real life...

Stats wise I think PvA could do with a pace boost, and Cattermole should have his stats tweaked to reflect his change in behaviour.

[Jordanknox]

If Cattermole could replicate the influence he has on the team IRL on FM then i would have kept him. Unfortunately what we have is an unplayable midfielder who is always sent off and is a complete liability on massive wages. On my game after selling him to Celtic he has played 20 mediocre games in a season and a half including 4 red cards and is now out for 6 months.

Going great at the moment, im currently on 23rd December 2015 and im sitting 2nd in the league. I have no real aim apart from to finish as high as i can and develop the considerable young talent i now have at the club.

[Mackus]

Did things a bit differently in the 1st transfer window.. I'm unbeaten in 6 so I'm doing something right.

Out - Danny Graham 2.2 mil

- Seb Larsson 5 mil

- Cabral 1 mil

In - Eder Balanta 5 mil

- Harry Kane (loan)

- Diego Novaretti (loan)

- Diego Valeri

Eder Balanta will be at your club for the entire save, he's 21 years old and the Scouts rate him as a leading Premiership player and not fully developed, it's madness not to buy him before someone does.

Harry Kane and Novaretti for their respective positions are there to add depth for injuries while Valeri is rated a strong Premiership CM who can fit into pretty much any tactical CM role.

What you have as a result is a strong and much faster defence and enough depth to cover any injuries in most positions, the only position exposed to any crisis is left-back.

[Jordanknox]

Im amazed you managed to sell Cabral i had to release him, Buckley and Pantilimon. Lucas Romero is also a must buy along with Balanta; World class centre midfielder.

[twentythree]

Looks class, to have that team in real life...

Stats wise I think PvA could do with a pace boost, and Cattermole should have his stats tweaked to reflect his change in behaviour.

Aye I think by the next update PVA's going to look a bit like Richardson was a few years back where you could play him lb due to his big pace even though his defensive stats weren't up to much.

I'll have a look at Cattermole's mentality too, especially if it's still a problem in the proper release match engine.

[marcftm]

Bridcutt's attributes look pretty sound but that value guessing that's just up to the game going off his attributes though.

Cattermole's long shots isn't 20 though, poor stuff.

[Jordanknox]

I reccomend anyone to buy Carlos Fierro, he is absolutely electric once again.

[andrewfx]

The game is starting to annoy me already this year!!! How are you guys managing to get Balanta and Romero so cheap? Also are you putting most of the payments over 48months? Even when I put the majority of the payment that way, I still struggle to afford the transfers. I usually manage to sign one player and then have no budget left, and that's after selling Fletcher for £11m and Graham for £2m and with 65% income!

[Jordanknox]

My deals for Balanta and Romero were both about 2m up front with 4.5m in installments. Its a gamble if you dont get success within the 4 years but worth it in the end. I also sold others such as Cattermole (1.8m), Larsson (6m) and Bridcutt (3m).

[Jordanknox]

End of Season Update 2015/16

Premier League

League Table

The league table speaks for itself, completely unexpected. We showed fantastic consistency, never dropping out of the top 4 all season. Despite this it took until match 34 until we actually hit top spot after a victory against Everton. This didn’t last long as we lost our next game against Tottenham and dropped straight back down to 2nd and I thought we had blown our chance, until this happened……..

We took a while to get into the match with Chelsea having 2 goals disallowed for offside before Hazard gave them a deserved lead. Before half time my thoughts turned to the FA cup as Lucas Romero went off injured; I decided to throw Berahino on and it worked a treat. Firstly Fierro scored a trademark finish before 2 goals in 30 seconds from Berahino and Rotariu but us in pole position. After the match I found out that Arsenal had only drawn with Stoke and a point at QPR would hand us the title. Of course we won quite comfortably and the Premier League was ours!

Capital One Cup

We tried to play a few youngsters and fringe players in this competition but I still wanted to do well. We coasted past Reading and then Watford but bowed out away at Chelsea losing 1-0. Not too disappointed.

FA Cup

When we started off in the 3rd round we looked as if we were on course for the Champions League spots but had no real chance of winning the title so I made this competition my priority for the season. We started off poorly and needed a replay to get past Swansea; we then beat Middlesbrough 2-1 at the Riverside. We needed another replay to get past Arsenal in the 5th Round before hammering Liverpool 4-1 in the Quarter final; it looked like our name was on the cup. We were drawn against struggling Wigan in the Semi’s at Wembley and beat them 4-2 although it should have been a lot more and we made hard work of it.

This set up a final against Everton, we had just been crowned Champions and were surely massive favourites. We took the lead early into the second half as Fierro scrambled it in from close range. However, from this point on we found ourselves on the back foot. Everton responded quickly before getting 2 quick goals from poor defending. We made a game of it at the end with a goal from Lucas Boye but we couldn’t get the equaliser. Disappointing not to do the double but theres always next year.

Top Goalscorer- Carlos Fierro (32)

Most Assists- Dorin Rotatiu (12)

Highest Average Rating- Carlos Fierro (7.40)

Fans Player of the Season- Carlos Fierro

Managers Player of the Season- Carlos Fierro

Special Mentions- Saido Berahino (21 goals from 21(16) games; Eder Alvarez Balanta, Doria, Lucas Romero.

Aims

Max out Training and Youth Facilities

Find more young talent

Put up a good show in the Champions League

[tvdx]

Thats class Jordanknox, congratulations. I finished 6th in my first season, some fantastic results and some poor ones.

Made pretty much the same transfers as you, apart from I kept hold of Johnson (15 league goals) and Giaccherini (14 league goals). Johnson was a frontrunner in the Players Player award but Hazard won it in the end.

Just picked up Kevin Trapp, Balanta is angling for a move but I'm going to keep hold of him. Really enjoying this save this year.

[marcftm]

I reccomend anyone to buy Carlos Fierro, he is absolutely electric once again.

Don't need him when you have class players up front like big Jozy

Great stuff by the way, massively impressive.

[Mackus]

The game is starting to annoy me already this year!!! How are you guys managing to get Balanta and Romero so cheap? Also are you putting most of the payments over 48months? Even when I put the majority of the payment that way, I still struggle to afford the transfers. I usually manage to sign one player and then have no budget left, and that's after selling Fletcher for £11m and Graham for £2m and with 65% income!

Yeah installments but if you choose to pay in installments the club will want more money upfront - You can sign Gino Peruzzi for 3.5 mil but they'll ask for about 2 million upfront if you choose to pay over 48 months for example.

Like Marc, Big Jozy is doing the business for me 8-) Wickham's took a serious injury so Jozy, Fletcher and loanee Harry Kane are splitting the goals.

I've edited one of the reserved posts to include Suggested First Season Signings: Romero, Peruzzi, Dele Alli and Balanta

[Mackus]

Winter transfers

Out:

Liam Bridcutt - 1.8 mil

Jozy Altidore - 4 mil

Seb Coates (Loan termination)

Harry Kane (Loan termination)

In:

Kurt Zouma (Loan)

Tore Reiginussen - £400k

Dele Alli - £1.5 mil + installments

Joel Campbell (loan)

Oliver Sorg - £350k

Oliver Sorg is a current "good standard" wing-back who can play both either left or right back with potential to be Leading quality by the Scouts. Because of the price and his age I'd probably rate him higher than Gino Peruzzi.

[Jordanknox]

Pre-season update- Summer 2016

Despite winning the league and having a decent transfer budget, I decided not to spend much more than I brought in. As we are in the market for top players these come at a price, especially in terms of wages. Instead I decided to stick mostly with what I have got and spend the money on young players for the future.

I think the signing of Chris Smalling was a masterstroke; he was on a free transfer and basically replaced Sorensen in the squad. He won’t play all the time but is very decent cover at both Centre half and full back; plus he is English which is a bonus. I wasn’t really in the market for a centre midfielder but when my scouts came back with the asking prices for Gaston Gil and Tielemans I just couldn’t resist. It means I have 6 quality centre midfielders (Gaston gil, Lucas Romero, Rodwell, Hughes, Alli and Tielemans) plus 4 in the U21’s who are classed as having world class potential. I tried to sell Rodwell but nobody could offer more than 6m and he is worth more than that. Bayern offered 51m cash for Lucas Romero and I thought about it but decided not to take it in the end. He is world class and I couldn’t replace him with anyone better; similar standard players would cost a lot and would want well in excess of 100k per week. Plus the finances are really good at the moment (30m balance).

I was over the moon with the prices I got for outgoing players as the majority of them were surplus to requirements. Ings only cost me 900k so to get 9m for him despite him not impressing was fantastic. Savitskiy was probably a bit unfortunate; he wasn’t given a work permit when he initially signed in January 2015 so he spent the season in the reserves. He then struggled to get past Rotariu and Coric in the line up and had a few injuries. He was sent to the Leicester on loan and played well but he was never going to be a regular; 9.25m was a great price.

Bon, Swennen, Kapusin and Babic are all 16/17 year old regens rated to have “World class” potential (screenshots to follow). Im really excited about Kapusin and Swennen; they will be in around the first team from the start. Rodrigo Taddei was brought in to tutor some of the youngsters.

Team as of now:

Other news:

-Strangely, the board only expect me to finish in the top half. I don’t think I will win the league again but im hoping for a top four finish.

-As part of my new contract offer the board have agreed to expand the stadium to just over 54000, however, it will take over 2 years to complete. They also agreed to improve the youth facilities.

-We have 4 new affiliates since the start of the game; Nottingham Forest (Loans), Fortazela (Youth Recruitment), Oviedo (Youth Recruitment) and Beroe (Work Permits).

[RobR Safc]

I'm going to start a new save when the full game is released. Had a nightmare on the Beta due to injuries crisis each season. Hoping it isn't as bad for the full release

[andrewfx]

What's everyone's thoughts on Wickham? Worth getting him to sign a new contract, is it best to sell him in Jan or do we get good enough compo in the summer?

[RobR Safc]

What's everyone's thoughts on Wickham? Worth getting him to sign a new contract, is it best to sell him in Jan or do we get good enough compo in the summer?

Definitely worth him signing a new contract. He's scored quite a few so far for me since I sold Fletcher he's my main striker.

[Mackus]

Keep Wickham, as said in the opening post he's extremely highly rated again this year. He starts off worse than Fletcher but he has 4 and a half star PA whereas Fletcher has reached maximum PA

Be wary of Johnson and Giaccherini demanding stupid improved contracts if they have a good first season - Johnson's contract expires at the end of the 2nd season and he's asking for £95k per week.

[Jordanknox]

How is everyone getting on? I've just finished my 3rd season and I've signed only youngsters this summer, a risk considering the board demand a title challenge but it could have massive rewards in the future.

[marcftm]

Just finished my second season and managed to finish third amazingly, I never do this well with Sunderland until after the January transfer window patch on FM. Altidore is absolutely lethal.

That's after missing the opening ten games or so with an injury as well. Can't wait to see him destroy the likes of Bayern Munich and Barcelona next season.

[RobR Safc]

How is everyone getting on? I've just finished my 3rd season and I've signed only youngsters this summer, a risk considering the board demand a title challenge but it could have massive rewards in the future.

Cant seem to understand what this match engine is trying to do. I enjoyed 14 much more than this.

[twentythree]

I played pre season, mostly lost to a bunch of nobodies where Danny Graham seemed like my only decent player then got humped off Burnley at home in the first match. I'll get in the mood and have a decent go soon but I've got too much real life work these days to fly through seasons like some of you guys

Something's seriously wrong with that Altidore pic by the way. With the rating he has that simply should not happen.

[Jordanknox]

I sold Altidore as soon as i could, managed to send him out on loan to Deportivo in January 2015 and they bought him for 2.7m. His record so far....73 appearances, 10 goals. Id say he is a tad overated in game judging by that record. 1 goal in that time would have been about his level.

[marcftm]

I played pre season, mostly lost to a bunch of nobodies where Danny Graham seemed like my only decent player then got humped off Burnley at home in the first match. I'll get in the mood and have a decent go soon but I've got too much real life work these days to fly through seasons like some of you guys

Something's seriously wrong with that Altidore pic by the way. With the rating he has that simply should not happen.

He should be scoring more?

[tvdx]

Just wrapping up 2nd season now.

Buy Borak Dockal, immense player. Scored 25 goals from midfield for me.

I can sneak into the 4th place spot and get Champions League if I win the remaining two games and other results go my way, I'm playing the mags first and then a freescoring Chelsea side for the last game of the season. They're in for a shot of winning the title so it's all to play for.

I would have drawn with Arsenal but for a 95th minute error by Kranevitter allowing the Arsenal striker to score. So frustrating, they're chasing me and are currently in 6th place.

It's going to be nervy

[comby4]

Not sure how u guys are doing it but well done! 6 league game nd I've lost 5 won 1 v hull. Still in league cup I've beat wolves and west ham but really struggling for goals. I'm in every game nd have majority of possession just don't make it count. I'm using same system as I have used in my Stockport game so it's not that my tactic is shocking just poor finishing and some horrendous goalkeeping.

[marcftm]

Not sure how u guys are doing it but well done! 6 league game nd I've lost 5 won 1 v hull. Still in league cup I've beat wolves and west ham but really struggling for goals. I'm in every game nd have majority of possession just don't make it count. I'm using same system as I have used in my Stockport game so it's not that my tactic is shocking just poor finishing and some horrendous goalkeeping.

Stick with it man, my first season was terrible as well (finished 16th I think) but I managed to make a tactic that fit the players I had and it worked perfectly and I finished third in the second season after being in the title race for quite a while. Maybe have a mess about with tactics to suit the players better instead of sticking with a tactic you've used for another save.

[carlos1879]

Thanks for all the tips and that, I usually play as Sunderland being a mackem myself currently in November of first season and I am 6th in league (beating top teams getting beat by bottom 3 a particularly bad 1-5 loss to crystal palace stands out) I am just posting about a rather impressive acquisition. I have just sold Pantillimon for £1.3mil because I have managed to sign Victor Valdes on a free the especially weird part, Pantillimon is on 22k a week Valdes is signing for 11k a week! scout said he wanted mega money and when I tried to sign him sure enough he did, so I brought him in on trial to try and persuade him the future is red and white. While on trial I told him he would be an excellent coach and he decided to start coaching so when I next tried to sign him he agreed on 11k if he could become player/goalkeeping coach, now he's not a great coach but 11k a week for that kind of keeper is not to be sneezed at.

[carlos1879]

Bit of an update I finished 5th in the league (some amazing results 2-0 over Chelsea some not so 0-1 to give Burnley one of only about 3 wins of the season) I got knocked out of the League cup in the semi's by Chelsea who would go on to lose to West brom in the final. I won the FA cup I had a ridiculously easy run apart from Liverpool in the semis (they played a weak team though) I had all championship of lower teams and had Derby in the final an won 3-1.

The bad news about 2 weeks before the FA cup final Alvarez Balanta damaged his cruciate ligaments and is out for 8-10 months.

On the transfer front I have gone for a bit of quantity as well as splashing on some quality last season my squad was still tiny and it needs beefing up for the euro cup (although I now have the shortest and youngest team in the league) sadly transfer fund was only about 20mil but Man city (odd season finished 9th won champions league though) bid 33.5mil for him which matched his release clause to I got a bit of a boost from that and signed around 8-9 players. Looking forward to this seasons Europa league and I have got Short agreeing to possession football (usually 60+ at home and 50+ away) and concentrating on youth and I have managed to get him to upgrade the training and youth facilities and improve youth recruitment but sadly all my new gens were crap. Although one newgen made me laugh it was yet another McNamee at the club and McNamee Sr (no relation though) was the only one who thought he had potential all my other coaches said he was rubbish.

Edit - managed to get rid of pretty much everyone I deemed surplus except for Cabral had to loan him out again no one wants him or Mavrias had to release him because no one wanted him and he kept moaning so I release him and not two days later one of my scouts recommends him... also signed Ben Arfa on a free not sure how he wanted 60k plus I got him down to 30k but then a few more clubs bid so I assumed he would be going else where but I got him, he doesn't match my youth signings policy but he's pretty decent still and is only 28 so I am hoping to sell him on for a tidy profit in a season or two just to prove how crap Newcastle is at everything.

[carlos1879]

Anyone figured out how to get rid of O'shea without keeping him till the end of his contract? I cant get anyone interested in taking him tried persuading him to mutually terminate as well but he just said he was happy to see out the remainder of his contract, that's a shock he's happy to sit on his backside for the next season and earn 47k a week for it.

Also the loan debts get annoying the board keep using them to justify reducing the amount of money I get from transfers which has now dropped to 25% despite a healthy profit last season and champions league football to come. They offered me a new contract as well they offered 12k a week so I asked for 20k and they really weren't happy (I am happy to take the lowest for to help with wage costs but want the added job security just incase) so I asked for 14k a measly 2k more than they were offering naturally they declined and terminated negotiations immediately. Last season I finished 3rd in the league won the FA cup and the Europa league but I cant get even a tiny wage rise.

[safcrhys]

I'm playing on FMC and I'm struggling to find a good tactic to use for Sunderland, anyone recommend a decent one?