ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 9, 2017 Author Share Posted July 9, 2017 March 2018 Update March marked my true introduction in English football. We failed to keep a clean sheet all month. While the goals kept flowing, our open style has seen us punished again and again. The counter attacks are quicker and more incisive than in the US. It’s partly personnel (which I will address in the summer), partly time (which the preseason will help), and partly the attacking nature of the tactics. The loss to Fulham stung. It was a first vs. second affair. Had we won we would be nailed on to go up automatically. Now, it’s going to remain a fight through the final days of the season. Our run-in is tough, but we certainly have enough to nudge past Barnsley to grab the second spot. Squad List: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tajerio Posted July 9, 2017 Share Posted July 9, 2017 I find that Everton get relegated much too frequently for a side that just finished seventh, but hopefully you'll be the man to take them back up and keep them there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 9, 2017 Author Share Posted July 9, 2017 April-May 2018 Update A stunning month. Fulham capitulated as we continued to mount pressure on their title bid. They collapsed, and we swooped in to secure the league title. In just a couple of months we’ve gone from outside the playoffs to wrapping up a spot back in the Premier League, winning the championship by six points. I thought the team had PL talent when I joined. And I knew the players already on the team fit my style. But I never thought we’d go on that kind of run to end the season. I had planned on sneaking into the playoffs, or pushing for the second spot. Winning the title is a big boost. We’re able to plan for next season while the other teams battle it out for the third promotion spot. Barkley’s transformation from disappointment to superstar fuelled this team. It was Lingard, though, who pushed us over the top. We nabbed him on a bargain deal under £4 million. He paid back every penny by firing the team back into the top flight. Plans are already underway for next season. The squad is already packed with Premier League-level talent. The first eleven will likely all stay, but I’ll be clearing out the majority of the rest. Our first choice players must become rotation players next season if we’re to do better than scraping it out in a relegation battle. I’ll be prodding through some of the world’s top academies to find technical players who can grow into stars given some first team exposure. Add some young players with bags of potential, and a pair of top-tier talents, and we could push into the top-half of the league. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 9, 2017 Author Share Posted July 9, 2017 I agree. I feel like I've seen it far too often. At least this time I can set them up for future success. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 9, 2017 Author Share Posted July 9, 2017 Around the World Here’s how the top league’s around the world finished. Premier League: Another disappointing year for Pep. And back-to-back titles for Arsenal. Serie A: Bundesliga: Ligue 1: La Liga: Zidane is on the hot seat at Madrid. The team was embarrassingly knocked out of the Champions League to go along with the poor league finish. If he weren’t a legend at the club, I doubt he’d be there for another season. It’s also a World Cup year. So there will likely be plenty of high-profile International jobs, and a bunch of movement as a result. I may even nab a fun side project if the right one comes along. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 9, 2017 Author Share Posted July 9, 2017 Welp, there we go. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 9, 2017 Author Share Posted July 9, 2017 Congrats, Gareth Southgate! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 10, 2017 Author Share Posted July 10, 2017 There’s nothing like uncovering some bargain players, who perfectly fit your system, but can’t land a work permit. Diaz would have been a long-term replacement for when a side inevitably snags Barkley. Sibille would have cost less than £2 million. And he had everything I was looking for from a CB. There were three others players who we reached deals with, but who couldn’t get a WP. Back to the drawing board! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 10, 2017 Author Share Posted July 10, 2017 August 2018 — Preseason Update The preseason was a fun one. It’s great to really put your imprint on a club. We shifted out a bunch of dead weight, and snapped up some of Europe’s top young talents. Transfers: Gerson is likely the biggest signing. He has superstar potential. I’m hoping we can be open enough to have both he and Barkley on the field at the same time, but I’m not sure if we will be able to on the road. The Ajax pair perfectly fit our style. de Light is a tremendous young talent at the back. His positioning, determination, and technical ability is exactly what I’m looking for from all our young players. He’s the type of guy who could be at the club for a long, long time. Kluivert fits our winger profile perfectly: That of a penetrating inside forward. The only concern, however, is his finishing. Lucas Torreira will share the pivote role with Will Hughes. I’ll split time between them early on to see who performs better. Hughes was excellent in the role last year, but Torreira profiles as the better talent. Edouard is a real bargain. He was buried in the PSG reserves and cost just £725k. He’s a powerful player who’ll give us an extra option of the bench; challenging in behind the defence and stretching the play. I needed to add another quality striker, but funds became sparse as I evaluated the available talent. Eduoard is about as good as we could do for the money we had left. I’d like to add a more experienced player alongside Isak and Edouard at some point during the season. Calum Chambers and Sergi Samper completed our early signings. They both provide depth and were good value for money given our depleting funds. Chambers brings more experience than most of our backline, as well as versatility. Samper fits our playing style and can vacillate between multiple positions. Top Premier League Transfers prior to season kickoff: Main Tactic: As the season gets rolling, we’ll start with the beauty tactic. It limits Barkley slightly, and it’s less expansive than our other alternatives, but it should allow us to better control possession against superior opponents. The media (and apparently our board) expect us to finish 11th in the league. It’s a bit odd given that when I joined the side wasn’t even in the Championship playoffs, nor did they demand making the playoffs in the first season. Now, after a remarkable run, they think we’re a mid table Premier League side. Hopefully the goodwill from last season will carry over as we attempt to play a Pep-like style against some of Europe’s finest. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 11, 2017 Author Share Posted July 11, 2017 Erm, I think we’re onto something. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 11, 2017 Share Posted July 11, 2017 Wow, you play quickly. I once took Everton once they'd gone down and got them up like you, too. Enjoyed that save a lot. I think it was around FM06-FM08. Not too terrible, that 9-2 win over City. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vilmar Posted July 11, 2017 Share Posted July 11, 2017 Guess Pep knows you now Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 11, 2017 Author Share Posted July 11, 2017 2 hours ago, noikeee said: Wow, you play quickly. I once took Everton once they'd gone down and got them up like you, too. Enjoyed that save a lot. I think it was around FM06-FM08. Not too terrible, that 9-2 win over City. I've had two weeks off work and just got a new laptop. So I've been ripping through the game! I always enjoy grabbing the top institutions that go through poor periods and restoring them to success. 2 hours ago, Vilmar said: Guess Pep knows you now And he's still yet to win a trophy at City! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 11, 2017 Author Share Posted July 11, 2017 August-September 2018 Update With just a couple of games at the end of August, I’ve rolled two months into one. We couldn’t have hoped for a better start. With such a young squad, and a ball dominant approach, I thought we would take a couple of months to get into the season. That’s not been the case. Sure, we haven’t kept any clean sheets — A big concern, but one that I’m putting down to the inexperience of our back line (we have three defenders 22 and under). And yet, we’ve routinely blown the doors of teams. The 9–2 win over City was flat-out ridiculous. The Leicester, Chelsea, and Brighton games were us at our best. I never thought we’d top the league heading into October, with a massive goal difference to boot. There’s too many players to compliment. Gerard Deulofeu and Alexander Isak have been the two stars. Isak has finished everything. While Deulofeu has been simply unplayable, even against some of the league’s best fullbacks. For some reason members of the squad remain unhappy. Both Alphonse Areola and Jesse Lingard (my first two permanent signings back in January) are disappointed that we didn’t upgrade our squad. Yet, we did. And we’re top of the league. New signings Matthijs de Ligt and Justin Kluivert have been magnificent. De Ligt is young, and he’s made some individual errors that have led directly to goals, but he’s going to be a star. I'm still not completely happy with our starting central midfield pairing. I will continue to tinker with who starts. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 11, 2017 Author Share Posted July 11, 2017 October 2018 Update Not a great month. We’re still doing better than expected (we even saw our first clean sheet!), but we threw at least one game away. The Arsenal game was particularly frustrating. We led 4–2 with five minutes to go, conceding two sloppy goals in which we played some ******** stuff in our own half. The whole point of retaining possession in the opponents half is that once you lose it, there’s acres for the opposition to travel (and while they’ve been running around chasing the ball they’re expected to be tired). The Watford loss, our first of the season, had similar elements. They hit us with two goals early and we couldn’t recover. There was one stand-out reason that this game rubbed me the wrong way, though: Jack Wilshere. We had attempted to sign Wilshere as a a free agent during the summer. He’s young, fits our style, and is English — which fits nicely with European rules. It’s rare to find English guys with that kind of potential so cheap. However, I baulked at his £115k a week wage demands. It was just too much given the depth we already had at that spot (I opted for Samper on loan instead), his injury history, and the number of other spots we had to fill. I knew when we lined up against Watford it would inevitably come back to bite us. He scored one and setup the other. Not fun. Stoke wiped away my irritating feelings, though. We demolished them from the first minute to the last, keeping our first clean sheet of the season. League Table: Squad List: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 12, 2017 Author Share Posted July 12, 2017 November 2018 Update A solid three-game month. We had a real chance to upset United at Old Trafford, but we fell just short. I’m most happy with our spread of goal scorers. We’re not simply relying on Isak to bang them home. Our wide players have been prolific, and our other midfielders have done an excellent job of getting beyond Isak and timing their runs into the box. League Table: We have a brutal month coming up. If we can stay in and around the top-5 we will be in excellent shape heading into the new year. Squad List: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 12, 2017 Author Share Posted July 12, 2017 Our Brexit status. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vilmar Posted July 12, 2017 Share Posted July 12, 2017 At first I thought 16 would be doable but I have 22 myself at the moment. I'm already fearing my Brexit decision. Will you be able to cope? Shift your scouting attention? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 12, 2017 Author Share Posted July 12, 2017 35 minutes ago, Vilmar said: At first I thought 16 would be doable but I have 22 myself at the moment. I'm already fearing my Brexit decision. Will you be able to cope? Shift your scouting attention? Fortunately I have a bunch of young British talent. It will certainly mean that I'll have to hold on to Barkley and Hughes. It's certainly changed my multi-year outlook, and the scouting will have to change as a result. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 12, 2017 Author Share Posted July 12, 2017 December 2018 Update December was a defining month: Would way fade away or stay in European contention? Seven games in a packed space of time would make all the difference. We hung in well. Wins away at Newcastle and Tottenham were massive. The loss in the Merseyside Derby to Liverpool was a tough one to take. Again, we lost in the final minutes. Our inexperience and balls to the wall pressing style has made us particularly vulnerable to late goals (we led Bournemouth 7–0 with ten minutes to go). Two clean sheets, though. So that’s something! Before the season I never would have dreamed we would crack 40-points prior to January. Now, we’re legitimately in contention for a Champions League spot, if not a title challenge. What a wild first season in the top flight; Guardiola continues to struggle (relatively) at City, Chelsea are looking for yet another manager, and six other bosses have lost their jobs in the first nineteen games. The team has been exceptional. We’ve even improved greatly in defence. It may not look like it on paper, but de Light, Coleman, Chilwell, and Brendan Galloway have formed a nice quartet. They’re each comfortable on the ball, have the athleticism to recover from mistakes, and their decision-making has been much better in recent months. Isak remains the teams best player, though. His dominant year — from the Championship to the Premier League — landed him the European Golden Boy award. Boy, I’m glad I inherited him. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 12, 2017 Author Share Posted July 12, 2017 This is an, um, interesting hire. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 13, 2017 Author Share Posted July 13, 2017 January 2019 Update The most important aspect of January was keeping our squad intact. We had no money to upgrade the team, and so we spent each day fighting of bids for our top players. We were able to keep the band together, and press on for a Champions League place. Once again, we lit-up Guardiola’s City. It feels good to do such a comprehensive double over Pep using his own style. Our only loss of the month came at home against Southampton. It was a fairly even game, but they scored two absolute screamers in the first 30 minutes. Wins at Leicester and Chelsea and at home to West Ham were massively important — though they almost caused a heart attack. Ben Chilwell’s injury time howitzer may well be the moment of the season. Just look at the distance he hit the thing from: We remain top of the table with thirteen games to go. I’m still focusing on fourth place. We play United during the final week of March. If we’re still on contention then, the title may really be on. Squad List: We’re finally beginning to see Gerson have an impact. He’s mostly been disappointing this year, but he’s beginning to find his stride. If he can kick it into an extra gear down the stretch it will be like adding a star in the transfer window. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorn_121 Posted July 13, 2017 Share Posted July 13, 2017 Very nice career, good commitment to the save too. Nice signing in Isak Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vilmar Posted July 13, 2017 Share Posted July 13, 2017 1 hour ago, Thorn_121 said: Very nice career, good commitment to the save too. Nice signing in Isak He inherited Isak from the previous manager. Keep pushing on! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 13, 2017 Author Share Posted July 13, 2017 4 hours ago, Thorn_121 said: Very nice career, good commitment to the save too. Nice signing in Isak Thank you, man. I was fortunate enough to inherit Isak. He's an absolute stud. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 13, 2017 Author Share Posted July 13, 2017 February 2019 Update Just three games in February. Three, long, dispiriting, games. We were bounced from the cup by Middlesborough. I wanted to reach the final of one of the cup competitions, but there’s a decent silver lining: We can now focus solely on chasing a CL spot while the other top clubs fight on multiple fronts. Arsenal completely outclassed us at the Emirates. Our attempts to remain fluid and try to ourselves cost us. They calved us apart and were delighted to find so much space. Thankfully, we salvaged something from the month with a comprehensive win over Watford. Just six points separate City at sixth and us at the top. It’s going to be a tough run in. We’ve lost both Isak and Lingard for up to four weeks. It’s a devastating blow at the most significant time of the season. Hopefully we can maintain our attacking potency and cling on to a CL spot until they both return. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 13, 2017 Author Share Posted July 13, 2017 March 2019 Update This is turning into an all-time great Premier League season: An upstart Everton team head-to-head with the most dominant club of the Premier League era. United have just been walloping folks, biting into our giant goal difference lead. Either way, I’m just happy to still be in among this thing heading into April. We had three big time triumphs at Stoke and West Brom and at home to Swansea (though they really made us work for it). Heading into the United game, we were level on points, with them closing in on our goal difference. We had the home field advantage. I really felt like we could knock them off and open up a three point lead — with a superior goal difference — with seven to go. It wasn’t to be. Even when they went down to ten men with half an hour left, we couldn’t find a way past De Gea. Still, we didn’t lose. Arsenal have closed in on the top, as they look for their third straight title. I like our run in a lot — we don’t play any of the top teams away from Goodison — but the pressure is ramping up on a team that was still lingering in the Championship twelve months ago. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 13, 2017 Author Share Posted July 13, 2017 April 2019 Update A perfect month for us. We won all three of our games, while United dropped points in their final game of the month with a draw to Spurs. We avenged the earlier Merseyside derby, eked one out at Wolves, and ran over Crystal Palace at home. Jesse Lingard has been the linchpin. He’s popped up with important goals, created a ton of chances, and has been the driving force for the team’s recent success whenever we’ve bogged down and gone through stale patches. Even the likes of Isak have dropped off. The Swedish forward has not returned from his injury with the same kind of scintillating form he’s shown all season. We will need him to rediscover that form during the final few weeks if we’re going to pull off this upset. How things stand with four games to go: Two points separate us and United. The comparable goal difference makes things that much tighter. Arsenal are three points adrift, but the goal difference makes it akin to four. I like our run-in compared to the other sides. Everton: Manchester United: Arsenal: At the very least we’ve already secured a place in next year’s Champions League. I never dreamed we could do that at the start of the season. But now that we’re here, anything other than a miraculous title would feel like a letdown. Squad List: Four games from history! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 13, 2017 Author Share Posted July 13, 2017 This thing is going down to the final day. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 13, 2017 Author Share Posted July 13, 2017 It was never going to be easy. Not for this club. Not for this group of players. And yet they did it: League Champions. Say it with, Everton are Premier League champions. Do it one more time, just to make sure you’re not in some kind of dream: Everton are champions of England’s top flight. Not since Newcastle’s “Entertainers” has a team so captured the hearts and minds of neutrals across the country by playing a balls-to-the-wall expansive and reckless style. And this team won. They actually did it. Just 18-months prior, the club was at a cross roads. They were out of the top flight, and out of the championship playoff places. Were they not to get back up at the first time of asking, the ghosts of Leeds, Portsmouth, and Nottingham Forest would have called calling. Having history guarantees you no future. Enter Francisco Lapello, the Armani wearing, gesticulating, young Spanish manager. The club, and league will never be the same again. Lapello took the Blues from outside the second-tier playoffs, to the top of the table in just four months. Twelve months later, and they’ve done the unimaginable: Champions of England. Not since the pre-Premier League era has a team won the second division followed by the first division. And never has a promoted side that’s played so open, achieved such success. They almost let it all slip, though; the history and the champagne and the toasts and the hugs and feeling of immortality. They headed into the final day of the season leading Manchester United by all of two points, with a slight goal difference advantage. Lose, and Jose Mourinho’s squad would be ready to pounce. Draw, and United would need only bang three past a Southampton side whose fate was confirmed three games ago. The game’s first half came and went with little to note. Everton’s team of youngsters looked tentative, it was clear the occasion had gotten to them. Them, disaster struck. Twice. Early in the second half, Newcastle’s Dwight Gayle rumbled and tumbled into the box, squeezing the ball past the sprawling Alphonse Areola to give the men from the North East a 1–0 lead, and the role of party poopers. They didn’t stop there, though. Three minutes later, Gayle doubled the lead. Everything Lapello and his team had built; the tough away wins at Bournemouth; a 9–2 defeat of Manchester City; a relentless sense of themselves, never caving to the demands of national media types to pull back the pressure and play more defensively; It all was about to crumble. Second place would have never felt so awful. This team of, mostly, young Englishman had bucked modern trends. They were doing it out of talent, yes, but also sheer will and togetherness. They were strained with a half hour remaining. New filtered through at Goodison Park that United were cruising with a one-nil lead. The ground was deadly silent. Enter Alexander Isak. The 19-year old Swede has been the star of the season. He fired Lapello’s team to promotion, and hasn’t stopped scoring since. A recent wane in form, brought on by a damaging ankle injury, had come at just the wrong time. But Lapello found his cape, his goal scoring boots, and put the team on his back, perhaps for the last time. The first strike felt like an earthquake. Not since Liverpool’s triumph in Istanbul has Merseyside felt an eruption like this. The second felt inevitable. The crowd willed, no, demanded the ball go in the net. Isak obliged. With sixty-four minutes on the clock he picked the ball up in Newcastle’s half, on the turn, skipped past a lunging defender and accelerated in to space. He laid the ball outside to Jesse Lingard, who wasted no time in whipping the ball to the near post, reconnecting with Isak as he slid the ball into the net. The last twenty minutes lasted for ever. Everton pounded the goal in the hopes of a score that would render the goings on at Old Trafford irrelevant. The crowd sunk back into a whimper. They were score watching. And so were the players. Then, as if out of nowhere, the final whistle. It was over. They had done it. History, achieved. Greatness, assured. Lapello could barely muster words to describe the feeling. It was up to Liverpool native Ross Barkley to articulate everyone’s thought, “I just — I can’t ****ing believe it.” A sentiment shared by everyone in the ground, as well as those around footballing world. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 13, 2017 Author Share Posted July 13, 2017 May 2019 Update Wow. I mean, wow. We actually did it. The final month of the season was a tense ride. We somehow one a tight one at Bournemouth, down to ten men, one-nil, even though they spent the game peppering our backup keeper. And the Newcastle game. I may never recover from that game. Down two-nil in the 60th minute I saw everything we had built up crumbling away. Even if we got it back to 2–2 (which felt unlikely) I had that sinking feeling that United would win by enough to pip us on goal difference. I made two subs, stuck the team on “overload”, and let them go for it. What a result: It was always going to be Isak, wasn’t it? Soak it in. The final standings: It may have just been by goal difference, but it was not fluke. We amassed an excellent amount of points and racked up a ton of goals — with a fun style — in the process. I’ve never before won the second division then first division back-to-back in any country. And we didn’t even make a great deal of changes. Most of our big summer signings acted as depth or were guys who came off the bench. Squad List: As I expected, league win or not, we grabbed a bunch of post season awards. Team of the Year: Footballer of the Year: Players’ Young Player of the Year: Manager of the Year: And hey, we won a Premier League title before Pep! Season evaluation post still to come. It’s time get the plans underway for building a squad that can compete in the Champions League. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 13, 2017 Author Share Posted July 13, 2017 End of season roundup It was a magical season for us: The clubs first Premier League title, Champions League football, and Alexander Isak developing into the most prolific scorer in Europe. Top Five Players: It’s almost impossible to pick just five guys. Anyone from our regular 10–15 players could conceivably make the list. 5) Jesse Lingard — A tremendous season from the winger that saw him hit double-digit goals. His performances through April and May are what got us over the line. 4) Ben Chilwell — He scored some absolute screamers, including a 90th minute strike that will go down in Everton folklore. He’s everything I could ever hope for from an inverted fullback. 3) Ross Barkley — Barkley ran the show in the middle of the field. He worked in perfect concert with our two deeper midfielders, coming to pick up the ball, or sliding into cracks in the defence. His goals and assists were pivotal, but more than anything he helped Will Hughes, Morgan Schneiderlin, Tom Davis and company dictate the tempo of games. 2) Gerard Deulofeu — Our wingers reminded me of the early-era Fergie teams at United. They weren’t just penetrating runners, who also helped us recycle possession and keep the ball; they were goal scorers. 1) Alexander Isak — The league’s top goalscorer, scorer of the two goals that handed us the title, and our most consistent player. *Not putting de Light on this list was tough. He was magnificent. Around the World Serie A: Bundesliga: Ligue 1: Eredivisie: La Liga: Some interesting manager goings on have unfolded at the end of the year. Massimo Alegri’s time in Madrid is over after less than a year. He won the Spanish Cup, but his league finish and European performance doomed him. Hey, look who’s been linked with the job: Elsewhere, Pep has received a gigantic new contract from Manchester City. Look, I love Pep. But, man, he’s not exactly delivered success. In his three seasons with the club they’ve finished 5th, 4th, and 5th in the league, winning one poultry League Cup. I get he’s been their dream guy forever, but it’s tough to see how he’s still in that job. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 13, 2017 Share Posted July 13, 2017 Wow. Absolutely astonishing season. Great job! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LUFCspeni Posted July 13, 2017 Share Posted July 13, 2017 Incredible. What is the long term plan for Everton now? And indeed your career? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 13, 2017 Author Share Posted July 13, 2017 7 hours ago, noikeee said: Wow. Absolutely astonishing season. Great job! I still can't believe it. The season just kind of rolled along and we didn't stop losing. 5 hours ago, LUFCspeni said: Incredible. What is the long term plan for Everton now? And indeed your career? I have no idea to be honest. I had planned on growing Everton into a club that crashed the top-six sides and eventually broke into the CL at some point. But I never anticipated this. I'm not sure how long I'll stay now. I still want to hop across Europe and corral as many titles as possible. I'll likely leave if another interesting job comes open. There's just no way I can replicate this past season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vilmar Posted July 14, 2017 Share Posted July 14, 2017 Congrats on winning the title. What are your goals for the Champions League? Transfer strategy? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john1 Posted July 14, 2017 Share Posted July 14, 2017 Absolutely amazing!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 15, 2017 Author Share Posted July 15, 2017 On 14/07/2017 at 16:33, Vilmar said: Congrats on winning the title. What are your goals for the Champions League? Transfer strategy? I need to decide whether to go boutique shopping or to add depth. We haven't been given much of a budget from the board to really compete for top level players. I'm hoping we can get our of the group stage, but it will depend on the draw. On 14/07/2017 at 17:33, john1 said: Absolutely amazing!! Thank you, man! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 16, 2017 Author Share Posted July 16, 2017 Season Preview Update 2019-20 The new season has rolled around. Picking an offseason strategy was difficult. We either had to go boutique shopping: Adding top-class players who would help us compete in the Champions League. Or, we could go for depth: Allowing us to successfully fight on two fronts. Ideally, we’d have opted for both (duh), but the board afforded us just a £25 million transfer budget (so much for bringing that league title). I decided to go and land one big whale. Our title winning season was extraordinary, but our defence was often all over the place. Our tactic puts a particular strain on our centre backs to be able to play one-on-one. Against upper-tier teams, that’s tough. Adding de Light a year ago was a big help, but he needed a fellow star to partner with. Tah was the big fish. He’s a world class player with his prime still in front of him. His pace, positioning, and passing, are ideal for our system. He can bring the ball forward to initiate attacks, and gallop back to cover ground if we sloppily give the ball away. Our other signings were about adding depth. I spread the funds for Tah over three seasons, but it left us with less than a million with which to go get some warm bodies. We added two loanees — not ideal for long-term stability, but they fit our system, and they’re both talented. Axel Tuanzebe: Reiss Nelson: Our final signing (for now) was Mehdi Leris. Again, it was a case of the best player we could get for the money we had left. Our scouts love him. I’m not as convinced. His work ethic and flair reminds me of Adel Taarabt: Fools Gold. That’s not how we play, but he may provide a spark of the bench. Worst case scenario, he’s a fun player to roll out for cup games. Among our outgoings, we saw Leighton Baines retire. I quickly added him to the clubs backroom staff. He would be a cool candidate to take over when I leave some day. The Isak Problem: Elsewhere, we’re in the midst of a big conflict at the heart of the club. Isak wants our. Making things worse: He has just a year left on his contract. At first I was resistant, but with the season just around the corner, I’ve decided to cave in. I’ve figured out a deal to add super-talented forward Ze Gomes (I missed out on him last season), which we will complete if a team meets our valuation for Isak — $50 million. I’ve also resisted mega-money offers for Ross Barkley. Like Isak, he’s also pissed about it. I don’t think we could lose both in one offseason. And unlike Isak, there’s no one available of a similar calibre that we could attract at this point. League Preview: The media anticipate that we will finish and land in the Europa League. I think that’s a fair guess after last season. With that said, our lack of depth is a concern given the increase in games. With the League Title already wrapped up (that still feels crazy to write), and the expectations set at 7th, I’ll be focusing resources towards the Champions League ahead of the League whenever a clash presents itself. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 16, 2017 Author Share Posted July 16, 2017 Hello darkness my old friend Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 16, 2017 Author Share Posted July 16, 2017 August 2019 Update With all the transfer shenanigans surrounding the team, it would have been easy to forget we had a fresh season upon us. Before that, let’s wrap up the transfer stuff. There was, yet another, mess-up. To clear room to complete a move for Ze Gomes, I had to sell Morgan Schneiderlin to go along with Isak (there was a 40% sell on fee to Dortmund in the Isak deal). However, there was a snag. We had to continue to delay the Gomes deal until we sold Isak. By the time he was hoping on a plane to Munich, the Lisbon-based club were fed up with the Gomes delay and cancelled the permanent deal. I was, obviously, pissed (it’s something I think SI could figure out — “tell club X a deal will be completed once Y is sold”). After Isak was sold, I went back in on the Gomes deal. No good. They weren’t accepting any permanent offers. With deadline day closing in, I decided to bring in Gomes on loan — a deal they would accept. My hope is that he will so enjoy the year that he will fall in love with the club and refuse to go back, becoming disgruntled if Benfica opts not to sell. So we wound up with Gomes in the end. I now have a few months to plan out a more permanent option in January, rather than rush to get a deal done in the waning hours of the summer window. Fixtures: Grabbing Gomes paid off immediately. He scored on his debut, the very day he signed with the club — albeit in a disappointing loss away at West Ham. The rest of the month was a great success (!). There was no title hangover. Sure, we lost the Community Shield, but we came out on fire in the league. Two clean sheets in three wins is exciting. We already look improved defensively. And we had one of those bonkers games to open the season that we’ve just become accustom too. The Palace game was our best, though. It doesn’t get much more dominant than this: Goals are coming from everywhere, with Justin Kluivert slotting in superbly in Isak’s stead while we completed a deal for a replacement. League Table: Squad List: We also found out about our Champions League group: I like the draw. Going away to one of Europe’s big boys is what it’s all about. While the likes of Olympiakos and Kobenhaven are eminently beatable. Second place is certainly possible — though I won’t rule anything out with this team. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vilmar Posted July 17, 2017 Share Posted July 17, 2017 Unlucky drawing Real. When I saw the Isak deal I was reminded of the pain I felt with the Coquelin deal in my third season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 17, 2017 Author Share Posted July 17, 2017 September 2019 Update An excellent month that really got us into the season on all fronts. The highlight, surprisingly, was a three-nil win away at Man City in the league cup. We played a fully rotated squad, while City came in with their first XI. Our first voyage into the Champions League saw us come away with a convincing win. And in the league, we held our own against two of the top teams in the competition, while drubbing an inferior opponent at home. Ze Gomes’ start at the club has been exceptional. He’s scored in every game bar one that he’s appeared in. He’s been everything I wanted him to be and more: Explosive, powerful, an excellent finisher, and capable of carving open a side with his off-ball movement. I though he’d take longer to embed into the team, but he’s started on fire and shows no sign of letting up. United have jumped out to a good lead to start the season, but we’re hanging in and around the CL spots. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidthekid Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 Just caught up with this. Great progress, winning titles every year, Pep better watch out! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vilmar Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 Hang in there! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 20, 2017 Share Posted July 20, 2017 That squad is mildly good but not good enough to win the Premiership, I just don't know how you did it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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