[FM17] Newcastle United; Join the Rafalution!!

[james_wilko]

restarted with Newcastle a little while ago as I got bored of my last save. You know what's a good formation? 4-4-2.

 

First season, winners (obviously) + EFL Cup. Loads of goals, solid defence, all round great. Sold Perez in the first window, replaced with Nahki Wells of Huddersfield, Tom Ince, Craig Noone, Rani Kheidra and Charlie Taylor. Also got Emanuel Mammana from Lyon in the January window to replace Mbemba who went to Man City.

Second season we added the challenge of the Europa League to our campaign, lost Mitrovic, Shelvey, Ritchie and Lazaar who were all sold for big money. Clark, Diame and Sels were also sold. In their place we signed Asensio (R Madrid), Saido Berahino (WBA), Ivan Cavaleiro (Wolves), Atsu permanently, and a few other squad players.

So second season, quite a few new players and newly promoted with the challenge of surviving the Europa League. Asensio was retrained as a forward alongside Berahino and they fired us to not only the Europa League (beating Vigo in the final), but also the Premier League. Move over Leicester, there's a new underdog story to tell.

So approaching season 3, we're now PL champions and in the Champions League so it's time for a statement signing or two. £63mil later and Dele Alli has signed for us, Geronimo Rulli is also signing to replace Tim Krul who, while solid, was one of the weaker links.

 

[cavo_900]

Well what a 1^st season that was!  After taking a 6 week break from playing due to TV Series I decided I was going to get back to my season.

 

We started poor but a change in tactics and the results started to come in and we started to climb the table.

 

Signed a couple of promising youngsters at the start best player being Dozzelli (young English CM who looks very promising)

 

At the end of the January transfer window we were sat 2^nd 2 points behind Derby who we played soon 2^nd game of February.  We strengthened in January with the arrival of Jenkinson and Ajer and Odegard on loan with a £12.25m future fee.

 

February was a shambles! 2 defeats in a row and Derby were suddenly 8 points clear!!!

 

I don’t know what happened but all of a sudden we closed the gap and with 2 games remaining we need 3 points to win the league, Derby had fallen to 3^rd place and it was between us & Norwich.  Cardiff turned us over 2-1 so the final game we went up against 22^nd place Barnsley who battled bravely and held us to a 1-1 draw.  Norwich won there game 3 – 0.

 

Newcastle United won the Sky Bet Championship with +1 goal difference.

[Stu_UBJ]

Was going to restart my Toon save....but got it loaded up etc, and couldn't get the tactic sorted. Kept going back to the 451. And, find it hard to sell Ayoze

[Dodds']

Newcastle Fourth Season

Another season where we've just missed out on CL qualification, I'm quite pleased as I don't think we'd compete all the way as I don't think our squad is really ready. However I'll be looking to go and win the EL next season, we've been so close but yet so far!

Ayoze another season where he's got top goalscorer and he's not played at striker throughout the campaign, he just scores from anywhere on the pitch it's actually silly. Coric came in and took the assist chart by storm, everything went through him and fortunately for us he created an absolute shit ton.

Again our cup runs were pretty decent until we came up against the 'big boys', but hopefully next season and onwards we will join the 'big boys'.

Few crazy outgoing's such as Yedlin for £20m and Hanley for £15m+, however they won't be missed at all as they arent good enough for where we want to be. We brought in some fantastic players for some fantastic prices namely Lewis Cook and Romelu Lukaku. Hopefully they'll be fantastic purchases in the upcoming seasons.

[Stu_UBJ]

Got a Toon save going again. Trying to steer clear of the signings I made in the first one, although quickly broke that to sign Melegoni for £3.5m! Signed Grischa Promel(£3.3m), Ivan Prtajin(£1.4m), and Valentin Stocker(loan) to bulk out squad. The deal of the window was selling Colback for £5m!

Currently 2nd after 6 games, joint top with Norwich on 16 points. 

[Phil23]

How is everyone getting on, I am nearly finished my first season. Top at the moment with 5 games to go. Best result was beating Chelsea in the efl cup final. Couldn't resist signing Andy Carroll on loan. Anyone sign him permanent if so how did he perform.

[Dodds']

Newcastle Fifth Season

We've eventually done it, no we haven't won the league but we've broke into those bloody Champions League spots that have evaded us the past few years. I'm over the moon that Newcastle are now back into the Champions League however I'm a little disappointed I didn't keep on the tail of the top 2 as I was up there all season until we had to play Chelsea, Man City, Liverpool and Man Utd in the last 5 games of the campaign.

Great to see our Polish striker who's basically Robert Lewandowski in a regen format, having him with 20 determination helps massively and his 'perfectionist' personality will help with youngsters far into the future. Sabitzer in his first season was fantastic too, the amount of chances he creates in a game is mental and thats the reason why he ended up with the top assister this season. Shoutout's to Bailly and Mitro too, ballers.

We didn't do too well in any competition this year, I really wanted to grab a title to add to the collection. We really should have turned Shakhtar over but the Russian atmosphere caused us to crumble. Losing to Fulham was a joke too but you learn when you play 11 youngsters in the game :joy: 

We brought some great players in this year mainly due to transfer listing, Gabriel Jesus was one of our main targets and thankfully he didn't get selected by City. He came in and done a great job and I'm sure he will for a long time yet. Sabitzer was another large addition to the team as we needed someone for that left side to cut in and cause more goal threats. 

Also the outgoings were good for us financially, also these were players that were declining and with the team we want to advance not go backwards.

[Dodds']

Newcastle Sixth Season

Another season in the UCL which was definitely my aim at the start of the season, obviously with the players we brought in I definitely thought I could have challenged for the top 3 however with the money that the league is spending I usually like to make money instead of spend it. Next season I may have to splash some dollar to push into the top 3 and challenge the likes of Man United who seem to be dominating everything.

We used a load of strikers this season due to poor form or even long injuries however my man Mazurek came out as top scorer, with the personality of 'perfectionist' you'd expect him to bag atleast 20+ a season. He also created a boat load of chances and he was by far our best player based on numbers however Hunt took the highest average rating place.

Lewis Cook got the best pass completion and to be honest his head wasn't in it this season as Man City, Man United and Juve all wanted him throughout the season and he kicked up a fuss a lot too. Gabriel Jesus with the most MoTM's which I'm not surprised with he played really well wherever he played on the pitch throughout the season.

Firstly the big competition in the UCL was a nightmare, we got out the group with Barcelona and then draw Real... however we showed great performances against both and with Real we took them to extra time. With the money they spend you really can't complain at all. After this we won both of the domestic cups which you really cant complain with, a few of the games were very dodgy and we were lucky to go through but hey we won didnt we.

As you can see we didn't spend much as the players we brought in last season were coming through and we had many youngsters battling for first team spots. We got rid of the players that wouldn't be playing much or we got too much money to turn down, especially the likes of Baba Rahman we nearly snapped Marseille's hands off for the £30m. Shokry, Daniliovic and Franzke are all classed as wonder kids and they all went back out on loan to get as much game time as possible.

Breach our 21 year old CM who's now worth £40m bossed it in the World Cup.

Great performances from Bailly too, even though he wanted to leave for 75% of the season due to Barcelona, PSG and Man United wanting him.

[velvetsky]

Abit envois here I took over Newcastle at the end of June 17  when Rafa took over at Ac Milan. I have a wage budget of -250k pw and a transfer kitty of 1.3m no transfers were made by Benitez 

i am not sure if it was what I said in my interview or not I agreed that the budget they stated would be ok. So waiting for the option to ask for the transfer budget to be increased- long wait so far

[Dodds']

Newcastle Seventh Season

Unfortunately we've had our worst season for a while and therefore we haven't got Champions League football next season, I'm also expecting a lot of players wanting to move on due to this but for most I'm going to try my hardest to keep ahold of these as I've built up quite a set of youngsters.

Although we didn't do too great in the Premier League, Mazurek done unbelievably well scoring over 40 goals this season. The stats he has I'm now expecting at least 30+ a season to live up to that 'world class striker' statement. Gabriel Jesus done some work for us out wide and after a great start to the season he went missing for a large part due to his injuries, however he's done great to get the most assists.

As you can see we done pretty well in the Champions League making it to the Semi Finals where we got knocked out by eventual winners Real Madrid. Over the two legs we went out 2-7, which personally after a 2-2 game at home I thought we could have nicked it but Real didn't go by the story line.

Winning the FA Cup two years in a row was another fantastic achievement especially against Sunderland who recently have been splashing the cash on some ordinary players which they shouldn't really be doing. 

Firstly the players that have left were all first teamers but they were pushing on 29 years old which unfortunately I don't like to keep them after that. Man like Mitrovic I was very disappointed to lose but the price they offered was silly money and I had to accept or it wouldnt come around again, another massive hole was Bailly our best defender for the past year or so. 

We brought in the likes of Montes from Monterrey to replace Bailly and he had a bloody great season for us and he picked up the tagline of a 'world class centre-back'. We also bought Bernardo Silva from Man Utd as I thought he could have created some magic in the middle but he was a little hit and miss. Also picking up Dura from Real Madrid for a measly amount especially how he's going to be a 5* centre back!

Great!

[JAY MEE TEE]

I started as Newcastle as my first game when FM17 first came out, I got sacked..

I am trying again on the new update. Hitting some road blocks but it's going fairly smoothly so far in the Championship. Also tipping myself to win the EFL Cup with a bit of luck.

 

 

[Jonny2J]

Decided I wanted to do another season with us (hopefully the last when we're in the Championship!) whilst aiming to replicate Rafa's solid tactics. Especially as on FM I always think that it's harder to try and keep clean sheets than to score lots of goals. Season's going well so far on that front...

[thebigfella]

On 07/04/2017 at 22:31, JAY MEE TEE said:

I started as Newcastle as my first game when FM17 first came out, I got sacked..

I am trying again on the new update. Hitting some road blocks but it's going fairly smoothly so far in the Championship. Also tipping myself to win the EFL Cup with a bit of luck.

 

 

what skin are you using

[JAY MEE TEE]

14 hours ago, thebigfella said:

what skin are you using

It's Vitrex but with some personal tweaks.

[lunathelazyhollandlop]

Hey guys, just wanted to rant a little.

First season, won the championship, Second season 5th place, 3rd season won the europa league (10th place in league), 4th season 2nd place in league and won the FA cup. Mike Ashley goes and sells the club, the embargo ruins my chances of getting Mbappe before he renewed his contract, and now my "budget for the season" is 9m pounds, exactly the amount i had as a surplus from the season before! Hoping they recalculate before long because this is ridiculous!

[Redkop96]

This thread makes really interesting reading for me given I am just about to start season 5.

So the first season I scraped the title unconvincingly (actually won it on the last day of the season), and then struggled into 16th in my first season in BPL. I sold pretty much the whole squad and bought new and I went to a negative wall like formation - I all of a sudden finished fourth in season 3 and then in my last season I won the UCL & League Cup - my first proper trophies!  

Amazingly I conceded just 15 goals last season yet finished only 3rd domestically. I've got a good squad going into the next season (I'll have to upload some pics when I start my season).. but I'm convinced I've more chance of winning the UCL again given I hardly concede anything.

I play 3 holding midfielders in front of the back 4, for some away games went back 5 with 2 holding midfield). Sounds bizarre and really negative but it Literally guarantees you a 0-0 draw away (barring a penalty or a Worldie)which for me is great as I win 90% of my home matches 1-0/2-0. (even the Nou Camp was a stalemate lol). Anyway this was my 11 for the champions league final that I won 1-0 v Arsenal (Musacchio header!). What do people think? I like it... only real expensive players for me were Musacchio and M'Vila - the rest 7m and under 

                          Dragowski

Henrichs-St Juste-Musacchio-Tierney

             Oxford- Kessie- M'Vila

 

Bergwijn                                    Bakkali

                       Zivkovic

Also have some good back up - Donsah, Maguire, Zucilini, Tousart, Drazic, Kodija... only Toon players still here are Armstrong and Woodman (back up GK)

But yeah I'm hopeful I will win a title at some point - hopefully this season but I'm away at Man City first match (will play for 0-0 lol). 

Anyways until next time....

 

[Redkop96]

On 27/04/2017 at 12:43, lunathelazyhollandlop said:

Hey guys, just wanted to rant a little.

First season, won the championship, Second season 5th place, 3rd season won the europa league (10th place in league), 4th season 2nd place in league and won the FA cup. Mike Ashley goes and sells the club, the embargo ruins my chances of getting Mbappe before he renewed his contract, and now my "budget for the season" is 9m pounds, exactly the amount i had as a surplus from the season before! Hoping they recalculate before long because this is ridiculous!

Wow glad this didn't happen to me. Mike Ashley been very generous to me - had £45m for this season (only signing so far is Tousart for £12m)

[Redkop96]

4 minutes ago, Redkop96 said:

This thread makes really interesting reading for me given I am just about to start season 5.

So the first season I scraped the title unconvincingly (actually won it on the last day of the season), and then struggled into 16th in my first season in BPL. I sold pretty much the whole squad and bought new and I went to a negative wall like formation - I all of a sudden finished fourth in season 3 and then in my last season I won the UCL & League Cup - my first proper trophies!  

Amazingly I conceded just 15 goals last season yet finished only 3rd domestically. I've got a good squad going into the next season (I'll have to upload some pics when I start my season).. but I'm convinced I've more chance of winning the UCL again given I hardly concede anything.

I play 3 holding midfielders in front of the back 4, for some away games went back 5 with 2 holding midfield). Sounds bizarre and really negative but it Literally guarantees you a 0-0 draw away (barring a penalty or a Worldie)which for me is great as I win 90% of my home matches 1-0/2-0. (even the Nou Camp was a stalemate lol). Anyway this was my 11 for the champions league final that I won 1-0 v Arsenal (Musacchio header!). What do people think? I like it... only real expensive players for me were Musacchio and M'Vila - the rest 7m and under 

                          Dragowski

Henrichs-St Juste-Musacchio-Tierney

             Oxford- Kessie- M'Vila

 

Bergwijn                                    Bakkali

                       Zivkovic

Also have some good back up - Donsah, Maguire, Zucilini, Tousart, Drazic, Kodija... only Toon players still here are Armstrong and Woodman (back up GK)

But yeah I'm hopeful I will win a title at some point - hopefully this season but I'm away at Man City first match (will play for 0-0 lol). 

Anyways until next time....

 

The only other save I have is Real Madrid (this was just to experiment my wall formation) lol i think I'm 14 matches in and I've conceded just 2 goals (Modric, Kovacic, Kross all holding with Bale, Ronaldo, Benzema the 3 sole attackers)

[jlawlor91]

Started a new Toon save without the first transfer window and we're unbeaten after 19 games, having won 14 and drawn 5, being 9 points in front of second placed Norwich.

Gayle plays up front by himself as a Complete Forward (Attack) and he's scored a ridiculous 21 goals and made 5 assists in just 19 games.

[Raymubdo21]

1 hour ago, Lawly Boi said:

Started a new Toon save without the first transfer window and we're unbeaten after 19 games, having won 14 and drawn 5, being 9 points in front of second placed Norwich.

Gayle plays up front by himself as a Complete Forward (Attack) and he's scored a ridiculous 21 goals and made 5 assists in just 19 games.

 

Me too, but I'm playing him as advanced forward and he's hit back to back hat tricks. Hoping he stays fit and he will have a quality season

[Raymubdo21]

How are/did people use Ritchie? As he's playing really poor for me out on the right wing as an inside forward support. Frustrating as hell.

[jlawlor91]

14 hours ago, Raymubdo21 said:

How are/did people use Ritchie? As he's playing really poor for me our on the right wing as an inside forward support. Frustrating as hell.

I've found him to be rubbish as an Inside Forward or Winger at RW as well so I play him as a Ramdeuter. I sometimes play with him at RM and have him as  a wide midfielder and he seems decent there too,

[Stu_UBJ]

Ritchie can be excellent if you can get rid of his Long Shot PPM. IF or Raumdeuter is the best role for him

[jlawlor91]

Does anyone have any suggestions on who to sign for the first season back in the Prem? I'm sick of signing the same players on most saves (Corchia, Williems, Riedewald, M'Villa, Diarra, Ajer, Dembele)

[Lewis007]

23 hours ago, Lawly Boi said:

Does anyone have any suggestions on who to sign for the first season back in the Prem? I'm sick of signing the same players on most saves (Corchia, Williems, Riedewald, M'Villa, Diarra, Ajer, Dembele)

I'd say have a look at Orbelin Pineda, Lucas Torreira and Milan Skriniar. All three have been exceptional for me as Newcastle. So much so that I actually sold Pineda for £54M to Manchester City after buying him for £9.5M.

[jlawlor91]

3 hours ago, Lewis007 said:

I'd say have a look at Orbelin Pineda, Lucas Torreira and Milan Skriniar. All three have been exceptional for me as Newcastle. So much so that I actually sold Pineda for £54M to Manchester City after buying him for £9.5M.

Cheers, I'll check them out

[pedromanuelpinto]

hello,

Going to try Newcastle, using a 5-2-1-2 system with WB (in the WB position). Any suggestion about purchasing players? I'm happy with the squad, so I'm just trying to invest in young players.

[Rob39874]

Im new to this game i have the new patch who should i buy and sell to start with thanks

[pedromanuelpinto]

Hi,

 

Begin of 2nd season, and I have a massive question. What keeper should I keep?

Krul

Karlow

Sels

Woodman

 

Thinking of loaning krul (big wage), but between the other 3 I don't know... to similiar. Woodman would benefit from first team, but I think Karlow is better...

[Jrddrkly]

42 minutes ago, pedromanuelpinto said:

Hi,

 

Begin of 2nd season, and I have a massive question. What keeper should I keep?

Krul

Karlow

Sels

Woodman

 

Thinking of loaning krul (big wage), but between the other 3 I don't know... to similiar. Woodman would benefit from first team, but I think Karlow is better...

I bought in Jack Butland from Stoke and used him as my number one while giving Woodman first team experience in the Cups and games against relegation candidates. Darlow isn't a bad option either though, was solid for me in the first season, never could get Selz performing well though so at the end of the first season I sold him and sold Krul at the end of the second

[pedromanuelpinto]

Thanks for the advice. 

I'm trying to sell Sels (is injuried), but I think that Karlow is a better option.

[Carefree_Since_1905]

On 6/18/2017 at 13:51, pedromanuelpinto said:

Hi,

 

Begin of 2nd season, and I have a massive question. What keeper should I keep?

Krul

Karlow

Sels

Woodman

 

Thinking of loaning krul (big wage), but between the other 3 I don't know... to similiar. Woodman would benefit from first team, but I think Karlow is better...

 

At start of 2nd season I did:

Krul - Sold - £6m to West Brom - Contract up at end of the season and on high wages.

Darlow - Kept - Back Up - He was my first choice in the Championship

Sels - Loaned out - No-one would buy and I was able to loan to Napoli with 100% wages and £150k a month as a fee

Woodman - Loaned for development.

I then signed Dragowski to be first choice.

[jlawlor91]

So frustrating, Atsu scored 7 goals and got 11 assists in 36 games in the Championship, I signed him but he's unable to get a work permit! 

[shorty11857]

Just finished my second season with Newcastle, got promoted in the first and managed to finish 6th in my first season in the Premiership, had a good chance at 4th but managed to lose 3-2 to Fulham (20th place) on the last day of the season...

In terms of cups, got to the Semi Finals in the League Cup, beat Chelsea 3-0 in the first leg and lost 5-1 in the second

Won the FA Cup though, 3-2 win over Palace in extra time, pretty tight game.

Overall for signings Sigurosson was the superstar signing. Bought him and Sung-Yeung from a relegated Swansea the previous season.

Giuseppe Rossi was my biggest mistake brought him in and he got injured for 8 months in pre-season, expensive mistake.

Felt bad for Ruben Amorim, was a key part of my midfield in the Championship season but got injured for 7 months early on in the season.

Mbemba and Lascelles, both demanded moves this season which wasn't ideal. Kalas was signed as the replacement and did okay, Mbabu was also promoted but didn't really perform, will need to strengthen that next season.

Hoping to pick up some Leicester players in the off-season as they just got relegated.

Team at the end of the season is down below

[jlawlor91]

Just finished my Second Season with Newcastle, after finally getting into a save which I've stuck at.

First Season:

Sold Anita, Shelvey and Gouffran in January to fund the purchase of Onomah and Davies and with the loan signings of Cook and Mor, our squad was strong enough to get promoted with ease. Nothing really happened of note in the cups.

Second Season:

Had a massive clear out, trying to replace the dead wood from the Championship with players with experience / significant potential. Ritchie was incredible, scoring 23 and getting 6 assists in 36 league games. Aarons was also exceptional, with 13 goals and 12 assists in 38 games. I managed to get Mbappe for £30m in January, although it could have been a risk, I couldn't pass up the chance to get him.

Had a great season, finishing 7th in the league and beating Man United in the FA Cup Final, earning us a Europa League place. Been given a massive budget of £71 million, however I won't be replacing too much of the squad following last season. I'm already in talks to sign Ante Coric for £13m though

[shorty11857]

Just about to start my fourth season now, had a collapse at the end of my last season, was top of the table for most of the season but only managed 12 points in the last 10 games and ended up finishing 4th.

Also made it to the Europa League final only to lose 3-0 to Arsenal!

Cleared out a lot of the players in the off season

Corchia (12.25m), Sung-Yeung (10.5m), Darlow (6.5m), Kapino (3.8m), Diame (3.5m), De Jong (3.3m), Nicholson (1m), Findlay (200k), El-Mhanni (100k)

 

Only made 3 first team purchases this season Torreira for 5.25m and Vermaelen and Matuidi on free transfers

Team for this season is currently

K: Szczesny (Woodman)
D: Yedlin, van Beek, Clark, Lazaar (Dummett, Vermaelen, Kalas, Mbabu, Staka)
M: Shelvey, Torreira, Matuidi (Onomah, Hayden, Ronaldo Viera)
W: Ritchie, Sigurosson (Perez, Deulofeu, Aarons)
F: Vardy (Gayle, Avramides - Argentinian regen, Armstrong)

 

[smp20]

Ok so I've decided to start a game managing Newcastle...under the guise of Kevin Keegan! The Entertainers are back 

[nextqprmanager]

13 hours ago, smp20 said:

Ok so I've decided to start a game managing Newcastle...under the guise of Kevin Keegan! The Entertainers are back 

Looking forward to it - on this thread ?

[DKB]

any got a decent expansion on St James Park? or build a new bigger stadium

if so, how big have you got it?

[smp20]

On 8/4/2017 at 09:00, nextqprmanager said:

Looking forward to it - on this thread ?

Yes, just finished my first season so will pop up a mini-update

18 hours ago, DKB said:

any got a decent expansion on St James Park? or build a new bigger stadium

if so, how big have you got it?

60k is the maximum capacity I believe.

[DKB]

23 hours ago, smp20 said:

Yes, just finished my first season so will pop up a mini-update

60k is the maximum capacity I believe.

thanks for the reply

 

any that got a new stadium build? if so, how big?

[aceman]

i`m starting with the toon today and have the latest signings with a budget of  29 mil...any suggestions as to who to sell and who`s a must to buy ...any advice would be appreciated ...

[shorty11857]

Just completed my fourth season with Newcastle, finished pretty securely in 3rd

In terms of other competitions

FA Cup: Out in 5th round replay to Man Utd (Champions)
League Cup: Won, beating Bournemouth in the final
Champion's League: Lost in first knock-out round to Bayern who finished 2nd.

Other than that squad is posted below, big signing of the season was Dele Alli, cost my entire transfer budget but was a key player when fit.

Lot of my team is starting to get old so will need to start replacing them.

Jamie Vardy is 33 and can't see him lasting much longer as my first choice striker.
Matuidi was an incredible free transfer but is also now 33
Vermaelen was an okay back up to defense but at 34 will probably not play much of a role next season

Sigurosson, Ritchie, Clark, Gayle and Szczesny are also all 30 now so need to focus on bringing in replacements.

[CamillePunk]

Newcastle is a really fun club to play as in FM17 (also played as them a lot in FM16!). I found I actually had a lot of room for error in winning the championship, experimented a lot tactically and lost/drew way more matches than I was happy with, but still won it by 10+ points, finally settling on a 3-2-3-2 formation which led to a long spell of dominance and me selling all of my wingers. Signed Berardi in the January window fairly cheap as he was unsettled and transfer listed, and he became a revolution, scoring and assisting consistently. Gayle was mainly used in matches where I expected to be pressed (thus giving us space in behind the defense) and his return was 15 goals and 10 assists. Not bad at all given his limited outings.

Also loaned Grujic from Liverpool and set up my corner routine around getting him the ball on the edge of the box and letting him have a go with his 15 in long shots. It's proven pretty effective as he netted 10 times in the Championship and is on course to do the same in the Premier after I brought him in a permanent deal.

First season we made it to the quarter final of the league cup after defeating both Leicester and Liverpool in huge upsets, but got knocked out by Man United in the 120th minute of a heartbreaker where we led 1-0 for much of it. Got knocked out early in the FA Cup by a Championship side (or maybe even League 1) I can't recall. Was a pitiful performance.  

Was handed a 50m budget after winning the league and brought in quite a few players. Got Henriksen from Hull and Paredes from Roma to boost my central midfield, Cedric as a right wingback, and Elvedi to bolster my defense. Also brought in Fraser Forster from Southampton to be my GK while Woodman develops. Sold Sels and Grul as they were both crap. Keeping Darlow around as a back-up for now as he was solid for me.

Right now my best XI is looking like:

                            Berardi CF(A)  Perez DLF(S)

           Shelvey BBM(S)  Parades DLP(S)  Grujic BBM(S)

Lazaar WB(S)                                                                 Cedric WB(S)

              Elvedi CD(D)  Mbemba BPD(D) Lascelles CD(D)

                                      Forster GK(D)

(Gayle starts as a AF if I expect to be pressed, otherwise Berardi as a CF(A), if Gayle is starting then Berardi takes Perez's place as DLF(S))

We play a controlling, short passing, pressing style. Really high possession numbers but don't always get the breakthrough. If we do though, and the AI tries to push back, watch out because that is when we start scoring for fun! 

In January of my second season now and after 21 games I'm sitting in 4th, ahead of Liverpool and Chelsea only on goal difference. Teams are starting to park the bus against us so I'm not sure I'll be able to keep this up! Also no money for January transfers which is a bummer! Thankfully the board only expects a top half finish so I should be fine.

Also am in the League Cup semi-final against Man United after disposing of Tottenham and Chelsea, both Away victories. Not confident at all as United have already hammered me 2-0 at home in the league. Meanwhile have drawn Man City away as my first FA Cup hurdle, so needless to say the domestic cups aren't looking too promising! 

My best and longest save of FM17 so far. Having a lot of fun with it. 

 

 

 

[CamillePunk]

Well, despite our form tanking in the last couple of months of the season, we managed to hold on to 4th, as well as defeating Arsenal in the League Cup final, all in our first year back in the Premier League. Quite satisfied with that!  It was truly an incredible cup run as we defeated Chelsea and Tottenham, both away, and overcame an incredible Man United squad (which won the league by miles and miles) over two legs in the semi final.

Berardi was my best player by far, scoring 22 and assisting 15. He was hardly injured all season, and I shudder to think how we might have done without him.

Grujic was also key for us, scoring 12 (mainly from set pieces). 

Hoping to get a big transfer budget so I can rebuild my striker corps (Mitrovic, Perez, and Gayle all massively under-performed for me) as well as get in another quality midfielder and defender. 

[CamillePunk]

I guess this thread is dead.  Oh well.

Third season finished, and we've finished 2nd in the Premier League with 85 points, which would have been enough to win the league the last two seasons. Alas, Man United finished with close to 100 points in a truly dominant season for them. We also successfully defended our League Cup title in a rematch with Arsenal, and won the FA Cup as well against Man City on penalties in an unlikely 0-0 draw that saw many chances for both sides but no goals.  

Our Champions League run went decently, as we topped our group (which included Leverkussen and Basel) with 15 points. We drew Barcelona in the first knockout round, and despite an incredible 2-1 victory in Spain, we were soundly defeated 0-2 at home. It was disappointing we couldn't hold on but overall can't say I ever expected we would beat them, and the board was just pleased we made it to the Group stage. 

My standout player was Luciano Vietto, who netted 47 goals in 49 appearances. 

Aiming to make a serious title challenge in our 4th season as well as hopefully go deeper in the CL. We've also got our domestic cups to defend.  Should be fun!

[Stu_UBJ]

As much as I enjoy destroying PL with Toon, just haven't really got into a save with them this FM. Strange. Might give it one last go before we all switch to 18

[callamity]

9 hours ago, Stu_UBJ said:

As much as I enjoy destroying PL with Toon, just haven't really got into a save with them this FM. Strange. Might give it one last go before we all switch to 18

I know the feeling. Been considering what to do till fm18 comes but just cant get into anything atm. Newcastle might be a good shout