coady Posted June 3, 2017 Author Share Posted June 3, 2017 Season Review After sealing the title, the club received a number of team and individual accolades. We were also putting some building blocks in place for the upcoming premier league season. You can see the impact of certain players immediately. Armstrong finished the season with 28 goals and has proven his 'hefty' 2.1m fee of 18 months ago was in fact extremely good value! Tshibola was again impressive with his decisive final day goal just the cherry on top of a superb season. New Goalkeeper Connor Ripley proved a worthwhile signing too, with 15 clean sheets, despite missing the last 2 months of the season injured. Amazingly, Nottingham Forest, who beat us to the League 1 title last season, won the play offs. It's very rare that two sides go from League 1 to the Premier League with back to back promotions. This shows what a great season we've had. Villa park is almost full again, and we're back in the premier league. We also made it to the last 8 in the FA Cup, had 5 players in the team of the season and I was awarded manager of the year too. A good season all round. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coady Posted June 3, 2017 Author Share Posted June 3, 2017 Preparing for Life in the Big League After back-to-back promotions, we knew our squad probably needed some investment to be able to compete for survival in the Premier League. Unfortunately, a limited budget and realism mode (no using player/staff search screens) made this more difficult. We had room for more scouts, but had to wait for advert responses before we could get them in and continue the player hunt. In the end, this is what we managed to do:- To be honest, while I'm pleased with what we've managed to do with our restricted budget, I still feel we may be slightly short. We've managed to add some key signings towards the end of the window, as we gathered an extra 6.75m in income + 6m extra from the board to add to our small initial budget. Missed from this page here on the out side is former sub GK Kuchta, who was one of my initial signings in league 1. We sold him for £3m, making a £2.25m profit for the club. Let's look more closely at our new additions:- Our first major first team signing of the summer. He joined from Ispwich, who were relegated to League 1 in the summer. He's got real leadership qualities and plenty of room to continue improving. I think he'll prove to be a steal at £6m. Almeida is the first of two players to join on a season long loan from Barcelona. Almeida is a young midfielder with a lot of talent and I expect him to become a key player this season. The second Barcelona loan star is a wonderkid striker with bags of potential. I really think these two players could keep us up this season. Another talented young player stolen for just under £3m. This is a low risk investment for a versatile young midfielder that could become a useful first team player for the next couple of seasons. I like to have at least one left footer in the midfield three, so Szymanski may have an even better chance of starting for us. # After selling two GK's, we needed a new one to be either a starter or strong back-up. Soriano will definitely be a starter! Another young, quality player from Championship Swansea. The 8m spent on Soriano is going to be worth every penny, I'm convinced. His mental stats are exceptional and he's a model pro. These are extremely important for us and gives us the opportunity to bring through a young GK with a perfect mentor in the future. Romero fits the same mould as many others. Young, talented and plenty of room to improve. Romero is another left footer and only 19 years old. I see him and HG talent Fallows becoming Villa's first choice midfield for years to come. # Finally, an experienced defensive mind to add to the promising young squad we now have. Dawson joins on a 1 year deal and will be essential to our survival bid. We've also pre-arranged one really exciting transfer for January. Casablanca will join permanently from Barcelona on his 18th birthday for just £275K. My scouting team think he will be a star and I'm not going to argue from looking at him. This makes slightly concerning reading. Along with Forest, we have half the wage bill of anyone else in the league. I hope this is just because of our young squad, but this may reflect my opinion that we could still be a bit short this season. Let's take a quick look at our first game of the season, away to relegation rivals Hull. Against a side containing Ross Barkley, we've romped to a massive victory which has given the fans a bit of confidence about the season ahead. I think this will be a one off, but it certainly provides some optimism and hope of avoiding relegation. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coady Posted June 13, 2017 Author Share Posted June 13, 2017 A Man on the Move? We're in December now and there's been a few possibilities for a change of career path and a potential first move abroad. We've had an interview at struggling Hamburg, but despite being heavy media favourite, was never offered the job. We stay fighting relegation with Villa for now, but we've still taken a small step towards increasing our reputation abroad. We've taken our first national role with Turkey. It's a team full of defensive wonderkids and one world class striker. The midfield in between is a massive problem though and there is only one reasonable GK available for selection. This may not be long term, but I hope to qualify for Euro 2024, after taking the job just before the start of the qualifying campaign. Let's take a look at the group we've been handed:- Switzerland are a top side and clearly stand out as favourites for this group. However, I'm delighted to have two really poor sides in Liechtenstein and the Faroe's. The other two are good enough to nick a result against us on their day, but I'll be hoping to accumulate enough points in 2nd to qualify for the 24 team tournament automatically. While we await the start of this campaign, we'll bring our club mid-season review shortly. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
oohlala111 Posted June 16, 2017 Share Posted June 16, 2017 Very good, come on Turkey! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coady Posted June 25, 2017 Author Share Posted June 25, 2017 Mid-Season Update We've reached the end of the January transfer window in our first Premier League campaign. We're looking very steady and competitive, but we've got a little bit of work to do to ensure our safety during the run-in. After a promising start to the season, we had a really tough Christmas period, due to our Championship squad depth being exposed. We went 9 league games without a win, but recovered in spectacular style in recent games, particularly against Palace. You may notice one unfamiliar name that helped out against them. Bongiovanni joins on loan from Monaco for the run-in. He's a superb player with an excellent free kick on him. He's a big upgrade on Dragomir, who has often struggled with the step up this season. I think he could be the one that pushes us over the line this season. All of that leaves us in a pretty solid position going into the spring. The league is definitely the priority this season, with safety the only target. Before the back to back wins against Sunderland & Palace, we were looking in real danger, however our goal difference has been key all season. I'm very hopeful that we can now get across the line with our young, quickly improving team and look towards mounting a top-half challenge or a run at a domestic cup next season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjoe Posted June 26, 2017 Share Posted June 26, 2017 Staying a good few points free of relegation. Looking good overall and nice thread. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coady Posted July 1, 2017 Author Share Posted July 1, 2017 On 26/06/2017 at 07:31, Benjoe said: Staying a good few points free of relegation. Looking good overall and nice thread. Cheers, much appreciated. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coady Posted July 1, 2017 Author Share Posted July 1, 2017 End Of Season Review We've reached the end of our first Premier League season, but do we have a second to look forward to? It was comfortable in the end to be honest. We passed the magical 40 points mark with a few games to spare, but it's our goal difference that pleased me most. Defensively, we're quite solid, so if we can find a heavy scorer for next season we could do something special. We also went on a big FA Cup run, before we were stopped by Manchester United in extra time at Wembley. This has really been a surprisingly good first premier league season. As you can see, there are a lot of solid performers here. Our CB's are all near the top of the chart, thanks to our solid displays at the back throughout the season. Academy products Fallows & Hatch both saw a lot of game time, which should serve us well for the future! We surprised the media too this season. Our opening day massacre against Hull remains our best performance of the season. It's very pleasing to see that average attendance close to capacity and almost doubled since I joined the club. Finally, the club awards show. Chalobah deservedly won player of the season. After starting as back-up to club captain Burke, he stepped up after his injury and ensures the place remained his for the rest of the season. January signing Casablanca has only made 10 appearances for us, but has already been upgraded to a 'wonderkid' by the media. I look forward to his development next season! We'll be back in a couple of months, where we hope to have spent a lot of the £27m budget we've been handed for next season. We'll also look to move on some the old Championship squad players, so we could have a fairly busy summer to report on in our next update. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coady Posted July 2, 2017 Author Share Posted July 2, 2017 Avoiding a second season syndrome We've tried to improve our squad over the summer, but not by bringing in huge numbers again. This time we focused on quality and personality, as we looked to really improve our weaknesses, as well as giving some young prospects a chance to train in the first team squad as back up players. We clearly identified full back as a problem area. Garbutt & Bree were both okay last season, but are certainly Championship players on paper. We also had a lot of youth in midfield, and a number of top Championship players fighting for 8-10 league goals each over the season last year. Although this list looks very short, we did also extend the loans of our three star players; Mussa Fernandes is the real quality player upfront, who just needed a good partner. Andre Almeida is a solid all-round pro in central midfield, both of those on loan from Barcelona. We also kept our super AP Adrien Bongiovanni, who hit the ground running when he joined from Monaco in January. Let's take a look at our 4 new signings then:- Rowlands looks superb. He's a hard worker with a great personality, extremely fit and will slot perfectly in to our tactical system as a WB on defend. A tiny wage for us to pay too. The first double figure signing of our career at £13.75m. Joining from the Turkish League, this 20 year old Dutchman looks like he could become a class act. If I can teach him to place his shots and he can add a tiny bit more pace, we could have a real gem on our hands here. Another young full back joins on loan, this time from PSG. Masson also fits into our plans perfectly, as a full back support on the right hand side. He is very good defensively and okay going forward, he can even speak English too. Another bargain wage for a player of such quality. Finally, we went big on Harry Winks, beating Manchester City to his signature. He joins for 22.5m from recently relegated West Brom and has all the attributes we could ask for. He is a driven player, with a great all round game. He will probably play in our BBM role as he has scored goals throughout his career and has the best attributes to success there from my selection of midfielders. We'll pick things up again at the end of Turkey's qualifying campaign for Euro 2024. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coady Posted July 2, 2017 Author Share Posted July 2, 2017 Italy here we come? We've now made it to the end of our first qualifying campaign in international management. Let's see how we got on:- Overall, I'm really pleased with this. We do have a clear weakness in midfield and this is why Switzerland were able to dominate us in our 2 games head-to-head. However, we were extremely solid aside from this, which allowed us to qualify as one of the best second placed teams. We were not hugely fluent in most games, but the world class quality of Mehmet Karakoc upfront made a big difference in those close games, with 7 goals in 7 starts (he was rested for the three easiest games). The key game was without doubt away in Slovenia. They would have gone ahead of us in the table with a win, but we avenged a disappointing home draw with a sensational performance. Overall, I would say my first step into international management has been a success so far! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coady Posted July 2, 2017 Author Share Posted July 2, 2017 Mid-Season Update We've reached January now and things have been going rather well... We took the gamble to improve our starting XI rather than our squad and it has paid off. A very small number of injuries so far have allowed our small squad to make terrific progress and cement our position in the top half of the table. So many impressive results and features to this start. After a slow start Yazici has now reached 10 goals after a superb winter period. Academy product Tommy Fallows is really breaking through this year too, he's popped up with a couple of good goals. The big disappointment, however, was the defeat to Huddersfield in the EFL cup. I really want to win a domestic cup before leaving Villa if possible. We've also been rewarded with a lucrative new deal. This is because West Ham came calling for us, but they rejected us 18 months ago when they had a lot of world class talent and now they've sold half of it. My Villa side will probably be better than them by next year. We did bring in a couple of talented youngsters in January too:- Ribeiro is a young solid player, signed for just under £1m. He can be a useful player for the U23's, as well as a potential for a DM in Europe in a couple of years or a big profit. This one I'm more excited about. Another bargain picked up for just £1.8m, a player still young enough to become HG at the club and with the potential to be a very good centre half. He'll become our 4th CB and can cover the odd game to get experience. We'll pick things up again towards the end of the season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coady Posted July 2, 2017 Author Share Posted July 2, 2017 Another last day decider... An outside chance? As this second premier league season comes to a close and marks our longest stay at any club in the career so far (3.5 seasons). We have an outside chance of achieving something special. Let's see how things have progressed:- With just one game to go, we have an outside chance of stealing a place in Europe at the expense of Liverpool! More frustratingly, we're not already there thanks to the team of teenagers Man Utd played against Hull in the EFL Cup final. This has already been an exceptional season for our small young squad though, with Bongiovanni even sneaking on to the assists chart with 13. Bongiovanni & Yazici have both been excellent again. If we could sign Bongiovanni permanently, we could have a really exciting season next time around. Unfortunately, we lost in the FA Cup Semi-Final. Chelsea were just too fit and strong for us, as we collapsed in the extra period. We've got a big game against Hull now, to potentially pull of a miracle. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coady Posted July 2, 2017 Author Share Posted July 2, 2017 Aston Villa v Hull... the final day! Plus end of season review. We know we need a win and to hope Liverpool have a shocker at home to West Ham. Let's look at the line-ups:- Hull are become established in the top half these days too, using their conventional 4-4-2. We've dropped Almeida for Academy product Fallows today, otherwise it's our strongest possible XI. An early lead for Villa & it's Yazici, with his 6th in six games to open the scoring. What a season this young man has had! What an uneventful game. Villa were so superior throughout but were terrible in front of goal. Liverpool score two second half goals at Anfield and VIlla will have to wait another season for European football. Plenty of promising signs for next season though. Let's see how this final day has affected the standings. We've missed out by just one place and two points, but hopefully that will make this squad more hungry for next season. Overall, a superb second season in the premier league. It was the attacking players that stood out this year, as almost every single player averaged a 7 or above for us. It could be a bigger summer this year, as we look to clear out the remaining Championship reserves and bring in some class and U23 prospects. What a season this man has had, with involvement in 24 goals in the league. We're definitely going to try and sign this man permanently at all costs! As you can see on the left, he also won young player of the year too! The fans clearly agree, voting him club player of the season too. I'm very pleased to see Yazici take signing of the season though. Although the media have incorrectly reported on Euro Cup qualification, it still reflects our success this season. I certainly would have taken this back in August. A manager of the year award to add to the collection too. Not as good as a club trophy or a place in Europe though. It's over to Italy for the Euro 2024 now, while my scouts try to find some suitable additions for next season to use some of out £71m budget. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjoe Posted July 3, 2017 Share Posted July 3, 2017 Great season although a pity you barely missed out on the EC places. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coady Posted July 3, 2017 Author Share Posted July 3, 2017 Euro 2024 We always knew we were going to struggle without a strong midfield here. We had a tough group too, against Germany, Holland and Greece. Despite this, we're expected to reach the last 16. We opened with a massive win against Greece, despite falling behind. The rest was a real struggle, but we kept the scores down to get through as the final lucky loser! We played a similarly matched Russia in the last 16:- Tightly matched it was too! Karakoc again popped up with the important goal before we came through the penalty drama... just! We've somehow managed to make the 1/4 final. That's where it ended though. It turned out to be a case of damage limitation, unfortunately, as we were overpowered by the eventual runners-up. We have to be happy overall though, as we did really well to make the last eight, albeit unconvincingly. France win eventually in a one sided final. From our point of view, there's only one player even worth mentioning. Mehmet Karakoc finishes the tournament as 2nd top scorer, ahead of a number of world class players. You can see why too! He's just a class striker, talented in all areas and consistent in front of goal too. If only he had better natural fitness, it cost us in some games as he couldn't see out the 90 minutes. Back to Aston Villa now and the summer transfer window. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coady Posted July 4, 2017 Author Share Posted July 4, 2017 A Big Summer A much bigger summer transfer window for Aston Villa this season, as we look to go one better and qualify for Europe. I would probably rather do that by winning a trophy than finishing 7th and hoping to get lucky. Thankfully, our scouting team is strong these days, so they are providing better players for me to consider. Remember, we're not using the player/staff search screen, to provide more realism to the game. Let's have a look at who we managed to bring in here:- A fair amount of money came in for squad players this summer, allowing us to really improve the squad as a whole. We also saw the return of our five loan stars from last season, two of them on permanently deals! Aside from youngster Nunes and last resort back-up Galloway, all of these players are strong first team signings. After 2 solid seasons on loan, Almeida becomes the first signing of the summer on a free transfer! This is a wonderful deal for the club and he will slot straight back into the midfield three. A real good quality 2nd GK here. He joins for a bargain fee from Celtic and will provide strong competition for Soriano, who will still just get the nudge due to his model pro personality and mentality. This one is huge! Bongiovanni joins permanently after winning Premier League player of the season last time out. He's a class act and at 24, will surely be a great investment. Rowlands has joined for another season after developing remarkably last season, he's better than anything else we could find in his position by some distance! Fernandes does the same. He's still rated as a wonderkid and has become a complete assist machine since Yazici joined last summer. The last of the returning loanee players is Masson. Another wonderkid, a superb performer last season and a talented player. Similarly to Rowlands, he's far better than any alternative our scouts/DoF could find. Finally, an experience signing. We seem to be making one per summer at the moment. Milivojevic has spent 8 years at Palace and will join to provide a solid back up player in midfield to the replace the 2 squad players that left the club. This is one of the ones I'm most pleased with. We really needed a centre back in the summer and were struggling to find one early on. However, this gem comes in from Liverpool for just over £4m, surely another bargain at 22 years of age. He has plenty of good attributes, but will miss the start of the season due to the Olympics, unfortunately. With Dragomir no longer able to cut it as we move up the league, we needed some proper competition for Bongiovanni. This is better than I could have hoped for, another young top class player signed for under £10m. My DoF came up with this player, who if we can keep him happy this season and meet our goal of qualifying for Europe, will see a lot of game time in his second season. This strong squad will certainly be needed, as Yazici, Romero & Endo are all at the Olympics for the start of the season. We're also missing a couple of players through pre-season injuries, so our squad may be tested more than ever before this season. We'll pick things up again after our first European International League experience with Turkey in the Autumn. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coady Posted July 4, 2017 Author Share Posted July 4, 2017 European International League Division A This looked really tough on paper and deep down I knew it was going to be difficult to avoid relegation, but it went terribly:- Bottom with 0 points and well deserved to be honest, we aren't a good enough side and I feared the 1/4 final in the summer was the peak of the nation's capabilities with it's limited midfield. I had been keeping an eye out for international jobs after this tournament and was surprised to see Nigeria pop up, after they were eliminated in the group stages of the African Nations, despite having the best team all in their prime. I was even more delighted to be offered the job, with the chance in 2 years to add my first international trophy to the honour roll. Iheanacho, Iwobi, Success, Ndidi, Villa star Adarabioyo & 3 excellent regens provide an impressive core to this side, all aged between 25-29. I'll be disappointed if we don't win the African Nations in 2027. We'll be back with Villa's mid-season review soon. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coady Posted July 7, 2017 Author Share Posted July 7, 2017 A Similar Story We've reached the halfway point of the league season and things are looking remarkably similar to last season, despite our squad improvements. We're in the pack chasing that last European place, but it's very close. Bongiovanni and Fernandes have made it on to the player charts too. # We started really slowly, but have been in excellent form in December. Most importantly, we're through to the EFL Cup Semi-Final against Norwich, giving us a real chance at a Wembley final and Europa League qualification without the worries of the league consistency. We look good going forward, but haven't had the same consistency from Yazici in front of goal this season. Hopefully, that can change now, as he returned to form with 4 goals in the last 3 games. Hopefully, the next update will be an EFL Cup final! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coady Posted July 16, 2017 Author Share Posted July 16, 2017 EFL Cup Final & Youth Intake We've made it to a major domestic final and given ourselves a chance of guaranteeing European football early for next season. We play Manchester United, who cost us a Europa League place last season by playing a team of teenagers against Hull in the final of this competition. This year, of course, they've learnt their lesson and put out a much stronger side to try and ruin our big day! Despite being 8 and a half seasons in, Pogba, Dier and Shaw are all recognisable names for United. The low squad number elsewhere indicate the strength of the side. We are fortunate to have our entire first XI fit and they line up from the start for this one. Yazici turns up for the big game, just over an hour gone here and it's 1-0. Star man Bongiovanni is off injured, but we just need to hold out now. We've done it. A dull game in truth, but we're in Europe next season and add a great piece of silverware to our cabinet. I'm delighted with this! It's made even better by our youth intake, which has a couple of potential stars in it! What a talent this lad is. We're relying on 2 loan LB's this year, so this lad will come straight into the squad. We'll try and get him on the bench and introduce him to first team football as soon as possible. Hodgson is another talented youngster. He's versatile which will be extremely helpful for the club in the future, long after I've left though, probably. We'll be back at the end of the season! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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