In Honor of Sir Alex Ferguson -- Reviving the Sir Alex Ferguson Challenge!

[Ronhaar]

Hello everyone

 

Went through the entire thread. Has been a great read so far.

On FM17 and looking for a new challenge and came across this. Won't be taking part as a competitor as I have changed a few of the orignal rules like attribute masking and database size. 
after a few disappointing reloads with Stoke or Hull as the 19th place side got Tottenham in the last place with Pocchetino sacked on 5th November. 

So I'll be starting at Tottenham then...

 

Quote

 

 

[jaysdailydose]

Feel free to take part with your changes if you like, friend.  You just will only be eligible for a "Yellow Card" completion.

Certainly don't feel as if you can't participate with the minor changes you've made.  It isn't that serious.

[jaysdailydose]

I actually have some good news for once.

With everything going on with my wife's side of the family and Grandpa, her Grandma gave me a Steam card to get FM18 on this weekend's sale as an extra birthday gift. (I turned 40 on Wednesday, ick!)

Grandma had seen me playing while over at the house and asked my wife what it was that was able to get my mind off things on the computer.  She explained the game and that it used to be one of my websites as a writer. (Grandma's degree is in English and has always been very supportive of my writing career.)

Normally I get $50 and a nice shirt, but this year I got $50, a nice shirt, and a Steam card to get 18 on the sale, finally.  It hadn't been in our budget this year with a home restoration and then the health issues with Grandpa... And was a big part of the reason I didn't renew my website...no one wanted FM17 content with 18 out, so I took it down.  

It won't be coming back yet, but at least I'll get about four months with the new roles and such and already have FM19 budgeted in.  Maybe I will start blogging and doing videos again to keep my mind occupied...we shall see.

I was about to get sacked at Southampton anyway, and while I'm not sure if I'll restart this challenge as my first save while learning the new game, I will be going nowhere as far as being the challenge administrator.  Fridays will be guaranteed update days, and I will try to be around more, especially as we draw closer to FM19.

I want to say a huge thank you to our entire community.  Just being here and being able to take my mind off things, along with the kindness and compassion shown by everyone, has been truly awesome and helped a ton during very tough times for our family.  I won't ever be able to properly thank all of you -- but THANK YOU ALL.

If there is anything that needs updated, I'll get to it this weekend, and then move to adding updates on Friday afternoons.  When FM19 drops, I'll likely start a new, clean thread, and we will use that for all subsequent versions of the challenge.  

Continued success and best of luck to all friends and challengers! <3

Edited July 14, 2018 by jaysdailydose

[Kaiserwatman]

Decided to give this ago so here is the opening screens , opening season's transfers and best prospect from academy .  Nothing much to report from the season -  11th ,  Carabao Semi Final  , FA 3rd Round

Edited July 14, 2018 by Kaiserwatman

[jaysdailydose]

Welcome to the challenge, @Kaiserwatman -- and best of luck with Southampton!

[Kaiserwatman]

Further squad building took place within the second season where there were small gains in the league to 9th , Still along way behind the top 6 but its a youthful side coming through

- Only cup run of note was a quarter final defeat to West Ham on penalties.

Not great business within the transfer market  - Pasalic and Pereira didn't work out and will be offloaded again next season

[OugaBagga]

I'll give this a shot, Stoke it is Still in the League Cup but with Chelsea at home next round 

[jaysdailydose]

Welcome to the challenge, @OugaBagga -- best of luck with Stoke City!

[JaytheGreat]

@jaysdailydose Glad to hear you've had some good news lately, and happy belated birthday. Also thank you for running this challenge, and keeping it updated.

[JaytheGreat]

Well my 1st full season turned out to be a really good one. I ended up 5th in the Premier division, and WE BEAT MAN UTD FOR THE FA CUP. The same Man Utd that absolutely ran away with the division this year winning it by 8 points but it was never that close. 

 

Mbappe and Alario were key's to the Cup run, Alario lead the competition with 5 goals. Mbappe and Alario both had braces in the semis to beat Man City. The final itself was a defensive stall until I was awarded a penalty and Lukaku converted it in the 75th minute, after that the team settled down and we came out on top. 

 

We finished quite well placing 5th lead by Lukaku who started off slow but ended up with 24 goals in the Premier League. Summer signing Micheal Keane was the other key to the season, he was a rock at CB and was consistently great no matter who we played. Ross Barkley had a great season as well, the attacking playmaker had 11 goals and lead the team with 14 assists. The player who surprised me the most was LB Luke Garbutt, he went from unplayable last season to winning the starting early in the season and having a solid year. We more then held our own against big teams but also had a few blow out upsets as well. We had a real dominate stretch from late October to late February were we only lost 2 games while winning 16, and drawing 4.  

 

We finished above big time teams Chelsea, and Liverpool. Chelsea mid season fired Conte and hired Marcelo Bielsa who has experience head coaching at OM, Bilbao, Chile, and Argentina. Paola Dybala absolutely tore up the league leading in both goals and assists, but his team had a pretty disappointing season coming off winning the league last year, to not being close this year. Man Utd are definitely the team to beat but they are beatable.

Going into the offseason I have $73 mil to spend and I need a LB, a box to box CM, possible a winger, and depth at CAM.  

Coaching Stats:

 42 W - 9 D - 26 L    54% Win Percentage 

1 FA Cup 

17/18 Coach of the Year 

Edited July 16, 2018 by JaytheGreat
grammer

[jaysdailydose]

12 hours ago, JaytheGreat said:

@jaysdailydose Glad to hear you've had some good news lately, and happy belated birthday. Also thank you for running this challenge, and keeping it updated.

Thanks very much!  And no problem on running the challenge, it's honestly my pleasure!  

I see you've just won a trophy, but I'm going to try to keep updates to Fridays just for ease of updates!  Congratulations on that FA Cup, though!

[Kaiserwatman]

A season with initial upheaval following the departures of Dembelé and Hoedt saw further pieces added whilst keeping intact a very home grown feel to the starting XI at St. Marys.

A best finish for the club (5th) since 1984 and qualification for the Europa league but still a long way behind .   No Silverware to report

[OugaBagga]

STOKE CITY First Season Update

I had a reasonable start as you can see, but there were far too many draws for my liking,, I was winning a lot of the game but kept conceding late on, so I thought I completely overhaul my tactics and that for lack of a better phrase wen't completely tits up. I managed to avoid relegation but nothing too spectacular to report I'm afraid.

Signed a couple of players for the new season already, I have much bigger things in mind, got a few players to offload, then I'm going to go for my main target (a little clue current Belgian international striker) and try to bring in a few high quality squad players

 

Edited July 17, 2018 by OugaBagga

[Haiku]

Mate, change the title of this thread, please! It's very confusing.

[jaysdailydose]

2 minutes ago, Haiku said:

Mate, change the title of this thread, please! It's very confusing.

Over 500 replies and 7,200+ page views, I think it is fine.

It also happens to say exactly what the thread is about -- we revived this old challenge in honor of the great Sir Alex Ferguson.  I don't see what is confusing in the slightest bit...

[JaytheGreat]

Another trophy for us this time it's the Community Shield.

This makes 3 in a row for us against Man Utd including 2 on a neutral field. It was another defensive game, we got on the board 1st due to bizarre free kick where the ball found a heavily marked Lukaku in the box who managed to put it in the net. Fun fact Man Utd put a bid in for Lukaku and I promised to sell him if they matched my value of him but they came up 22 mil short. Ross Barkley went down right before half (he's out for 4-5 weeks) and subbed in new signing Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg to replace him. Man Utd tied it up on a beautiful bit of passing which found Martial who had an easy chip. 10 mins later they subbed most of their players off with their youngsters but still had respectable team. After Lukaku missed his 1st PK I thought there's no way I would win but Alisson came up big and managed to deny 3 Man Utd players for the win.

[JaytheGreat]

This offseason was a little less crazy transfer wise then last year was, we didn't sell very much and didn't go crazy with the spending. I got the board to increase junior coaching, youth training, and I signed a new Head of Youth Development in Matt Hale from Southampton. All of which is good because both of my youth intakes have been meh at best.  

Layvin Kurzawa: The 25 year old was transfer listed at PSG. He's got great speed, good crossing and good marking. He's the exact type of LB I has looking for and I got him fairly cheap.

Predrag Rajkovic: Brought him in as cheap back up behind Alisson. Very talented, if Alisson struggles he can easily take over the starting spot. If worse comes to worse and I have to sell him, I will get way more then I paid for him.

Luis Herrera: A wonderkid at CAM from Chile who had interest from every big name team. He's very pacey, and is very high at passing and flair. I bought him to back up Barkley but he didn't get a work permit so now he's loaned out to Schalke. 

Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg: Going into the offseason I wasn't planing on signing him but he was transfer listed after Southampton got relegated. He's a quality CM who will rotate with Barkley but will play the deep playmaker role.  

 

Premier League transfers

[Beric Dondarrion]

I'll try



 

[RedNomad]

I'm really keen to take part - one twist though, I want to start my save in 2027. Is that alright?

 

Edit - Also, why should we only load English leagues? Doesn't that make continental competition less competitive?

Edited July 20, 2018 by RedNomad

[jaysdailydose]

5 hours ago, RedNomad said:

I'm really keen to take part - one twist though, I want to start my save in 2027. Is that alright?

 

Edit - Also, why should we only load English leagues? Doesn't that make continental competition less competitive?

I'll have to say no on 2027.  The idea behind starting as close as possible to the same date (with small variation as not all of us play on FM18) -- as well as having the same small databases, is for multiple reasons.  I want the database kept as small as possible so that anyone, on any level of computer, from potato to quantum, is able to participate and be in approximately the same situation, for competitive balance.

As someone who always loaded more European leagues, as well as using "Load players from clubs in continental competitions" in the advanced database, it probably is a touch less competitive at that absolute highest level, but it really isn't that noticeable.  

While I certainly don't think you are trying to game a competitive advantage on the start date, I have to say no to keep the competitive balance as close as possible for all challengers, and that is the only reason I'm saying no.  If you still want to do it, and add the extra leagues or database options, you would still be welcomed to participate in the thread, you just wouldn't be eligible for the challenge leaderboard.  I really like your idea, personally, just want it to be fair!

[jaysdailydose]

Friday updates are complete, I'll check back later in the day if there are anymore!

First and foremost, congratulations heading out to @JaytheGreat for his first two trophies, and first 750 points in the competition, by taking down the FA Cup and Community Shield!  Great progress, and keep up the great work!

Welcome to @OugaBagga, @Kaiserwatman and @Beric Dondarrion for joining the party!

I'm going to setup my new FM18 save, I'm working on getting my saves in order now that I possess the game.   Keep up the great work, everyone!

[RedNomad]

4 hours ago, jaysdailydose said:

I'll have to say no on 2027.  The idea behind starting as close as possible to the same date (with small variation as not all of us play on FM18) -- as well as having the same small databases, is for multiple reasons.  I want the database kept as small as possible so that anyone, on any level of computer, from potato to quantum, is able to participate and be in approximately the same situation, for competitive balance.

As someone who always loaded more European leagues, as well as using "Load players from clubs in continental competitions" in the advanced database, it probably is a touch less competitive at that absolute highest level, but it really isn't that noticeable.  

While I certainly don't think you are trying to game a competitive advantage on the start date, I have to say no to keep the competitive balance as close as possible for all challengers, and that is the only reason I'm saying no.  If you still want to do it, and add the extra leagues or database options, you would still be welcomed to participate in the thread, you just wouldn't be eligible for the challenge leaderboard.  I really like your idea, personally, just want it to be fair!

All good  

[Beric Dondarrion]

The first season is over. I'm happy with the result. We managed to get into the Champions League. For this, in the last match with Arsenal away, it was enough for us to play a draw, but we were able to win. We scored 95 goals in the Premier League. This is a new club record. And I was recognized as the best manager of the year. The team of the year included Erik Pieters and Martins Indi.

First 11

 

Transfers

Lautaro Martinez is a beast. He scored 26 goals in 20 games, after the winter transfer window. 

 

In FA cup we lost in the semi-final to Man City. F**** City always wins me at the last minute. During all my games in the football manager 18. 

 

In the first season I was not able to score points. But we played better than Alex Ferguson in his first season. Next year, we are waiting for the performance in the Champions League.

P.S. Sorry for my bad english 

 

[jaysdailydose]

27 minutes ago, Beric Dondarrion said:

The first season is over. I'm happy with the result. We managed to get into the Champions League. For this, in the last match with Arsenal away, it was enough for us to play a draw, but we were able to win. We scored 95 goals in the Premier League. This is a new club record. And I was recognized as the best manager of the year. The team of the year included Erik Pieters and Martins Indi.

 

P.S. Sorry for my bad english 

 

You certainly have no need to apologize, I would have never guessed that you were not a native English speaker.  

That's an excellent first season from Stoke City, you should absolutely be proud of that for a first campaign, especially scoring 95 goals in the league!

Upon seeing that performance, I have no doubt trophies will be making a visit on a "windy night in Stoke" quite soon!  Keep up the great work!

[jaysdailydose]

36 minutes ago, RedNomad said:

All good  

I quite hope you do your idea and participate, anyway!  It isn't like the leaderboard is some sacred shrine, and it would certainly be interesting to see how you got on 10 years down the road.  

Just because I can't count them for achievements doesn't mean I wouldn't love to read the posts, so definitely let us know if it is something you are going to pursue!  I can only speak for myself, but I know I'M interested.

[Kaiserwatman]

Handing youth a chance finally started to pay off as the first silverware arrived at St Mary's under Ferguson's reign along with Champions League qualification. Alongside Yan Valery , Matt Targett to break into the side from within the club Gary Hart has made significant improvements following his loan spell at Walsall last season.  Henson Noel and Mikey Tuttle on loan this season at feeder club Walsall will join up with the senior squad next year.

 

[jaysdailydose]

Congratulations, @Kaiserwatman -- heading to post your FA Cup win right now!  Keep up the creditable progress!

EDIT: First 700 points on the board, and that will end this week's updates!  Congratulations once again!

Edited July 20, 2018 by jaysdailydose

[RedNomad]

5 hours ago, jaysdailydose said:

I quite hope you do your idea and participate, anyway!  It isn't like the leaderboard is some sacred shrine, and it would certainly be interesting to see how you got on 10 years down the road.  

Just because I can't count them for achievements doesn't mean I wouldn't love to read the posts, so definitely let us know if it is something you are going to pursue!  I can only speak for myself, but I know I'M interested.

Could I post in this thread? I obviously wouldn't compete or be on the leaderboard.

[jaysdailydose]

11 minutes ago, RedNomad said:

Could I post in this thread? I obviously wouldn't compete or be on the leaderboard.

Absolutely you can post here!  No one is required to compete, anyway!  You are doing the same challenge, just in a non-competitive way (starting in 2027.)

I'm interested to read how it works out for you, and I'm sure others will be, too.  

Is it using the normal database, just holidayed 10 years into the future?  

Thanks for asking, and I'm looking forward to your save!

 

[JaytheGreat]

@Beric Dondarrion That's a pretty impressive 1st year with Stoke. Good luck in the Champions League.

@RedNomad I'm definitely interested to see what is going on in 2027.

@Kaiserwatman Congrats on the 1st trophy , hopefully it's one of many. 

[RedNomad]

Thanks @jaysdailydose! I've scrolled through the thread and there's some awesome stuff in here. Anyway, I present the world of 2029 (I know I said 2027 originally, but I wanted to make the save pretty much all newgens):

Long gone are the days of Messi and Ronaldo - the best (or rather, the most expensive) players in the world are now Di Giacomo and Rodriguez. Belgium won the 2026 World Cup and Bayern won this years Champion's league. 

This is what the Premier League looks like as of November the 6th:

Spoiler

Yes, Crystal Palace is coming second.

So, looks like I'm managing a remarkably lackluster Everton. Their best player seems to be this bloke here, who's alright. They have a pretty poor financial projection, but a strangely large transfer budget of nearly 50M   I'll post further updates soon.

 

Edit  - just realised I haven't removed the non-English leagues from my save. I'll keep them as I'm not technically competing in this challenge, if that's ok.

Edited July 21, 2018 by RedNomad

[jaysdailydose]

2 minutes ago, RedNomad said:

Thanks @jaysdailydose! I've scrolled through the thread and there's some awesome stuff in here. Anyway, I present the world of 2029 (I know I said 2027 originally, but I wanted to make the save pretty much all newgens):

Long gone are the days of Messi and Ronaldo - the best (or rather, the most expensive) players in the world are now Di Giacomo and Rodriguez. Belgium won the 2026 World Cup and Bayern won this years Champion's league. 

This is what the Premier League looks like as of November the 6th:

  Reveal hidden contents

Yes, Crystal Palace is coming second.

So, looks like I'm managing a remarkably lackluster Everton. Their best player seems to be this bloke here, who's alright. They have a pretty poor financial projection, but a strangely large transfer budget of nearly 50M   I'll post further updates soon.

2029 sounds great to me!  Honestly, it should actually be HARDER for you than it would have been for the other challengers, as you are essentially flying totally blind.  Sure, most people work with just the players their scouts find, but if your scouts find a player you know is a young stud in the making or an established top-class player, that information HELPS, I don't care what anyone says.  

Looks great, and will definitely be looking forward to more!  Thanks for sharing this journey with the community! 

[OugaBagga]

Not looking good for Europa league qualification in the second season, realistically the highest I can finish is 7th, but Liverpool have won The League Cup and I got unexpectedly pumped 3-0 by Wolves in the last round of the FA Cup

[OugaBagga]

Stoke City 18/19 Season Update

Ok so we fared much better than last season overall but I'm still disappointed with an 8th place finish as we were hovering in The Europa League places for the first half of the season but we had a mid season collapse of form which we never really recovered from. Nothing to really report in the cups. My tactic of trying to bring in experienced players to help a few youngsters I was bringing through didn't really help much. I also made a big boo in signing Samuel Etoo, I signed him not noticing he was retiring in 3 weeks time OOPS!!!

 

 

 

 

[OugaBagga]

Ok, this is strange, apparently I have qualified for The Europa League, any ideas how guys? I finished 8th and didn't win any cups

[OugaBagga]

Sorry for post spamming but something rather interesting has just happened.Good job I've already got my transfer business done

Edited July 21, 2018 by OugaBagga

[OugaBagga]

I have survived !!!!!!

[JaytheGreat]

Just a youth intake update. By far my best intake to date in this save, picking up Matt Hale in the offseason seems to be a great choice.

 

Potential star in the making Matt Carroll.

 

Really good finishing, 1st touch, and determination right off the bat. Add in solid off the ball, jumping reach, and the fact he's just 15, with the right development he could be very, very good. Now I just need to get some good youth that isn't a striker, I have 3 strikers 16 or younger who have 3 and a half star potential or higher. Not that I'm complaining it's definitely a good problem to have.   

[JaytheGreat]

I'm not quite sure what just happened.

[Beric Dondarrion]

@JaytheGreat Nice. Good luck in final

[JaytheGreat]

@Beric Dondarrion Thank you.

 We've got 2 more trophies to put on the board as we won both the Europa League and the FA Cup again. 

Europa League: Beat Chelsea 4-2 on penalties 

We started off our Europa League campaign as a 2nd seed, and getting put in a group with Roma, Frankfurt, and Vitesse. We never had trouble in the group stage as we won the group with 5 wins, and draw at Roma, which included a 5-2 home against Roma, and a 4-1 home win against Vitesse. In the 1st knockout round we got matched up with Mainz, we were definitely the better side and took the match up 6-1 (winning away 3-1, and at home 3-0). Our 2nd knockout round match up also from Germany proved to be more of a challenge. In the end we ended up beating BMG 4-3 ( drawing 1-1 away, and winning 3-2 at home). In the Quarterfinals we got paired up with bitter rivals Liverpool. We beat them in a super close match up winning 1-0 at Liverpool which ended up being the final score. In the Semifinals we got matched up with German giants Bayern Munich. They won at their place 2-1, but considering we scored an away goal I was going into the home leg hoping for a defensive 1-0 win and move on via away goals, what happened was not that. WE SCORED 6 1ST HALF GOALS, including a hat trick from Ross Barkley, and a brace from Lucas Alario. Bayern just couldn't catch up and we took the series 7-4. It was an all England final as we played Chelsea. We got lucky in the 1st half as a Lookman cross found Kante in the box and into his own net, nest half we got unlucky as Victor Moses found a Ze Gomes rebound to tie it in the 90th min. The extra time was pretty boring both teams even though both teams got a few chances. In PK's Alario, Hojbjerg, Kurzawa, and Schneiderlin all converted, while Predrag Rajkovic denied Eden Hazard, and Ze Gomes the bring the trophy home to Everton. Everton players of the tournament were Lucas Alario who had 10 goals and 6 assists in 11 games, Romelu Lukaku who had 10 goals and 5 assists in 13 games, and Ross Barkley who had 4 goals and 6 assists in 12 games.

FA Cup: Beat Man City 2-0 

In the 3rd round we drew League 1 side Leyton Orient at their place and won a surprisingly narrow 2-1 game. Next round we got Brentford and won an easy 3-0 game at home. 5th round was at Sky Bet Champion side Wolves, we barely got a 2-2 draw with Alario equalizing in extra time to send the replay back home were we won 2-1. We advanced past Huddersfield 3-2 on a Lukaku hat trick. Semifinals we got lucky and got Man Utd, were we performed a nice snatch and grab 1-0 win. In the Finals we faced off against Man City (which I have a terrible record against, 2 wins in 8 games). Riedewald scored 1st on a corner, a minute later Barkley scored by some beautiful passing between Barkley and Mirallas which led to Barkley finishing off with a header in the box. From there on we played great defense and secured back to back FA Cups. Lukaku lead the tournament with 6 goals. 

 

      

[Beric Dondarrion]

@JaytheGreat Very good result at the end of the season.

In my opinion, the most difficult thing in this challenge is to win FA cup in 4 seasons. It's too short a time for me.

[Kaiserwatman]

A season which initially promised so much before an injury ravaged November and December ruined any real chance of challenging for league honours.  These injuries though did provide Mikey Tuttle a chance to cement a place alongside Gary Hart as academy products within the first team . The last two seasons haven't been so kind so probably only one more player will come through within the next season from the academy.

Season started with a last gasp winner against Manchester United in the Community Shield within United getting revenge for the defeat in the Carabao cup . Similarly it was a late winner which seen off Tottenham in the FA Cup .  In Europe we got out of the group before going out to Inter Milan in the first knockout round and will now drop down to the Europa League next season.

[JaytheGreat]

@Beric Dondarrion yeah I agree it definitively takes a little bit of luck, and your team getting hot at the right time. Winning the Premier League in 7 years is looking close to impossible, Man Utd and Arsenal are almost unbeatable and Chelsea and Man City have insane teams as well.

@Kaiserwatman Congrats on the Shield and FA Cup run. Tuttle looks really good. 

[Beric Dondarrion]

@JaytheGreat  Easy, my friend 



The season report will be later. He turned out enchanting.

[JaytheGreat]

@Beric Dondarrion Well damn that's impressive. 

[JaytheGreat]

It was a better season then last as we improve by one spot as we finished in 4th. We were actually in the hunt for the number 1 spot for awhile but injuries to key players Kurzawa, Barkley, Keane, and some bad away games took us out of the hunt. We had an amazing start from Alario, and Lukaku which lasted most of the season. New signing LB Kurzawa ended up leading the Premier League in assists, he was our signing of the season. One thing is I'm noticing a problem in of my formations, when I play away games I use a Countering 4-1-2-3 it usually works great against bigger teams, but against the smaller teams we don't get the space we need and my wingers aren't really world beaters so they can't open up the opposing defense. I noticed that too late and I dropped some easy away games that I really should have won. One last note Dybala did even better this year then last year, he is an animal. He scored 55 goals in the Premier League and 69 goals in 54 games overall.

 

My strikers drove this team with Lukaku scoring 43 goals in 54 games, and Alario scoring 39 goals in 43 games. Ross Barkley lead our solid midfield when he was hurt the change in our offense was very noticeable. Michael Keane might be the best signing I've had so far as he's been an absolute rock in the back four. Jairo Riedewald took a step forward this season proving he can play in the Premier League and is a pretty good partner with Keane. Rajkovic was the better GK this season even before Alisson got hurt for part of the season. 

I have $82 mil to spend this offseason and I need upgrades at winger, RB, and that illusive box to box CM. If I can upgrade those positions or manage to sign a world beater I think that can get us to a Premier League title and a decent run in the Champions League.   

[Beric Dondarrion]

Season 18/19

Transfers. We signed a graduate of our academy Ryan Shotton. And we managed to buy two fb defenders of a high level, who were put on a transfer in their club

 

We had a very good season. The beginning of the Premier League was not very successful for us. But in the second half of the season, when players were used to tactics, we had 17 wins 1 draw and 1 loss (of course Man C).

Premier League

But the most unexpected thing is that we managed to win the Champions League, already in the second season. We have a very difficult group. To get into the next round, we needed to beat Barcelona away in last match.

In the playoffs we easily beat Galatasaray. But already quarter final we lose Napoli at home 1-3. There was little chance of going further on the grid. But the unexpected victory away is 5-2 and we are in the semi final. I thought that with Manchester United I would not have problems. Games with them we have always turned out very well. In the Premier League, we beat them 5-2. And here we have the final with Real Madrid. In the final, we did not score two goals from the penalty spot from the game, but all the same the victory went to us.

Conditions of the club. We bought the stadium from the city authorities. We have improved the youth academy and training base. The expansion of the capacity of the stadium began. And we continue to improve the academy and the base.


First 11

 

 Of the minuses.
As I wrote earlier. In my opinion, the most difficult thing in this challenge is to win FA cup in 4 seasons. It's too short a time for me. In this season we lost to Everton. I have two years left to fulfill this task. 
For two years, our academy has not given any good junior. Maximum 3 potential stars. 
But I have a player. I consider him a pupil of our academy. We bought it at a young age. He was 16 years old.

He had a great season. 32(2) games, 18+27, av r 7,81. But at the end of the season he was seriously injured and missed three months.

 

The main task for the next season. Win the FA cup. The remaining titles, considering how we spent this year, are just around the corner.

 

Challenge Progress

Domestic Titles

1/13 Premier League Titles

0/5 The Emirates FA Cup Titles

0/4 Carabao Cup (League Cup) Titles

0/10 English Community Shield

European Titles

1/2 UEFA Champions League

0/1 UEFA Europa League 

0/1 UEFA Super Cup

0/2 FIFA Club World Championship

[3LionsFM]

How do you holiday to November 6th and be able to take over any team that is second bottom? It's probably really simple but I haven't figured it out yet? 

[OugaBagga]

Stoke City 20/21 Season update

Staretd really hot, challenging for the title up until about halfway through the season, unfortunately Lost in the FA Cup final 1-0 to Man City . Also got to the quarters of The Europa League.