[FM19] A Red Devils Journey

[kenitpatel]

Hello FM fans and readers, i am from India and Manchester United die hard fan..

Hereby without taking much time, i am starting my personal FM19 journey... I hope you will enjoy it and also hope you will guide me to play to the best of my capabilities...

Ok so i am starting with my favourite club Manchester United, season 2018-19. I had attached image of my Summer transfer deals, i desperately wanted to sell Sanchez, Mata, Fellaini, Smalling, Matic, Valencia, Darmian and Rojo, however i succeeded only in selling Sanchez and Darmian for 37M pound raising to 45.5M and 10.25M pound respectively. Dalot, Fred and Grant were already bought before i joined the game, and then i was succeeded in buying Alex Grimaldo for 32.5M and Hirving Lozano for 24.5M who both went straight into my first team plan, Grimaldo as LB and Hirving Lozano as RW (although his 1st preference is LW, but i have Martial and Rashford for LW, so have to play Lozano as RW, hopefully he will learn this position). Also bought Joao Felix, whom i sent back on loan for 1 year as part of transfer deal. Also bought few other young talented players, however few other didnt joined me who were not interested in Man Utd. This is my first season and learnt few tricks of not buying a players for high price, esp those players who are extremely interested in joining Man Utd, which i will implement in next transfer.... Also i sold Valencia to some chinese club for 7M, but that deal will go in winter transfer season, so till than he will play with us. Some players which i must target now is RW (1st choice is Federico Chiesa and 2nd is Christian Pulisic) as well as RB (1st choice as Joshua Kimmich or 2nd choice as Benjamin Henrichs as he can play both as RB and LB). 

[kenitpatel]

So far till the month of october 2018 i have won every match, except 2 match which i had a draw against Leicester and Wolves. In Premier league, Man Utd is 1st at 38 points with Chelsea trailing just behind at 33 points with 1 game in hand. In Champions League, Juventus was surprise being at last position in my group. Cristiano will be extremely mad at this moment

[kenitpatel]

Meanwhile i signed a new 2 year contract extension till June 2021 with 210K Pound per week salary. Man Utd are currently on a 15 match unbeaten in premier league, with last match against 2nd placed Chelsea which was a draw with both side scoring 1-1. Lukaku was scorer for Man Utd side. Tottenham fired Pochettino for being at 11th place, which is what actually happened in 2019-20 season in real life... i wish Man utd sign him in real life. 

Man Utd under 18 has qualified along with Man City under 18 from group 1. Man Utd under 23 are on 1st position with 32 points from 13 matches.

Among first team players, Lukaku and Martial are currently top scorers with 9 goals each, Luke Shaw with high rating avg. of 7.7, highest assist from Fred, Herrera, Rashford and Lingard, with 3 assists each, best pass completion rate of 86% from Herrera, 4 player of the match award for Pogba, most yellow card Bailly with 7 cards so far and 1 red card each for Pogba, Grimaldo, Herrera, and Valencia. 

Meanwhile Manager Puel is fired by Leicester for being at 17th place in premier league. 

[Nobby_McDonald]

8 hours ago, kenitpatel said:

Hello FM fans and readers, i am from India and Manchester United die hard fan..

How many matches have you been to?

[kenitpatel]

8 hours ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

How many matches have you been to?

This is my first season and December month is ongoing.... played 15 premier league matches, 5 champions league and few matches of fa cup and carabao cup...

[kenitpatel]

Tottenham have hired Rafa Benitez from Newcastle United, so my next match is against Newcastle who will be managerless...

Meanwhile i accidently found that Hirving Lozano was getting trained as Left winger, his 1st natural position, but i am playing him as Right winger since i dont have any natural first choice right winger and then i realized i have to train him as Right winger and also look at all other players training. Checked it out and changed many players training. Some players were already developed to their full potential and were still training for that particular position. So i started shifting to other playing styles for them. Say for eg., Martial has fully developed Left winger Inside forward support role, but not attack role, so i started training him for Left winger Inside forward attack role. Similarly i set Additional focus in training session for each of the player according to their playing position and training Intensity according to advise from Physio and their risk of injuries.

Also i am trying to unsettle Federico Chiesa from Fiorentina, who is my first choice for Right wing position and he is currently valued at 32.5M pound. Just yesterday there was rumor that Bayern Munich are going to bid for him, their bid ultimately reaching upto 68M pound depending upon various bonus. So i need to go fast. However Fiorentina are demanding more than 120M pound for Chiesa and i am trying to bid 25M and additional bonus reaching upto 35-40M, since my current transfer budget remaining is only 28M pound. They have already rejected it 3-4 times. Chiesa's preferred destination is Man utd, although Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea are also interested along with Bayern Munich. Let see how this transfer goes. Hope for the best. Else i will have to go for Christian Pulisic, whose potential is slight less than Chiesa. 

[Nobby_McDonald]

On 21/01/2020 at 06:58, kenitpatel said:

This is my first season and December month is ongoing.... played 15 premier league matches, 5 champions league and few matches of fa cup and carabao cup...

How can you be a die hard Manchester United fan if this is your first season?

I'll give you an example of a die hard fan. My brother is a Stoke City season ticket holder and has been since he was about 12. He's now 35. He used to go a lot of away games too until he had his first child nearly five years ago. That's a die hard fan. Not somebody who has supported a team for one season.

[kenitpatel]

On 28/01/2020 at 02:59, Nobby_McDonald said:

How can you be a die hard Manchester United fan if this is your first season?

I'll give you an example of a die hard fan. My brother is a Stoke City season ticket holder and has been since he was about 12. He's now 35. He used to go a lot of away games too until he had his first child nearly five years ago. That's a die hard fan. Not somebody who has supported a team for one season.

hahaha...... This is my first season in Football Manager 2019 game.... Not the first season as a fan of Manchester United... I am following this club since my childhood... Please do not get confused. Glory Glory Manchester United...

[kenitpatel]

So now December 2018 month is ongoing. Sam Allardyce has taken over as Manager of Leicester City. 

Under 18 team progressed to 4th round of FA Youth cup. 

First team progressed to Semifinal in Carabao cup (which is not important target, so playing with fringe and youth players, MOM was Angel Gomes), on penalties and are now pitted against rival Chelsea in semifinal... Chelsea are just 2 points behind Man Utd in Premier division. 

There are many clauses in players who were bought by MU before i took over and some of those can be purchased at lower price long before those target got achieved, so as to save some money. I bought few clauses, one major target was to win Premier division, which i think can be achieved this season, though Chelsea are trailing by just 2 points. So bought such clauses from

1. Eric Bailly (to Villarreal 800k was clause, paid 602k in advance to buy it)

2, Lukaku (to Everton 2M was clause, paid 1.5M)

3. Fred (to Shakhtar 3M was clause, paid 2.53M)

4. Pogba (to Juventus 1.5M was clause, paid 1.26M)

Also bought clause from Fred transfer which was going to be activated if Fred plays next 28 premier division match and since he is very much in plan, so i bought it off at 786K (if activated i had to pay 1M).

So after purchasing these 5 clause, my transfer budget got reduced by 6.70M, from 28.88M to 22.18M.

 

The loan deal of 3 youth players are getting over by the end of this month, and their respective clubs had again applied for 6 month further loan, which i activated with some changes.

1. Ro Shaun Williams to Oldham (League 2) Played so far 22 matches with Avg rating of 6.73. Previous deal was 500 p/w, now i extended it to 2.2k p/w. 1st team, Central Defender.

2. Alessandro Cortinovis to Coventry (League 1) played so far 13(4) matches with avg rating of 6.89. Previous deal was 300 p/w, now i extended it to 6.25k p/w. Key player.

3. Callum Gribbin to Crawley (League 2) played so far 22(2) matches with avg rating of 6.94. No negotiation was possible. Key player.

 

On social media, there was news about Borrusia Dortmund trying to purchase Frenkie De Jong from Ajax. And suddenly i had to be active to buy him. Obviously he was not my first target for the current team, but since Dortmund is going after him, i have to act now or loose him. His market value is 10.5M. He also want to join Man Utd and this will make my task easy. Ajax is asking for 88M, after some rounds of negotiation, it has reached to 42.5M plus 30% of sell on clause. De jong is now furious with Erik tan hag for not allowing him to join MU and play European Champions Cup. 

Also Federico Chiesa is my first target currently and he is valued at 32.5M. He is also ready to join MU. Fiorentina were demanding more than 140M for him, but so far after more than a month of negotiations, they have lowered their valuation of Chiesa currently to 82M. Bayern Munich are also trying to bid for him upto 76M (from social media news). 

Match 17 Premier division against Crystal Palace, and 2 bad news. Pogba got injured with pulled calf muscles and is now out for 2-3 weeks and Rashford got straight red card and 1 match ban (may be more depending on panel). It was bad foul and we decided against an appeal. I also warned him, as it was his first red card.

Edited January 30, 2020 by kenitpatel

[kenitpatel]

Marcelo Bielsa is appointed as manager by Newcastle United, So Leeds are without any manager for my next game. 

All of a sudden, to my pleasant surprise, Fiorentina has accepted my bid for Federico Chiesa of 26M to by paid in current transfer and other 26M in next winter transfer window after 12 months, extending deal to total of 52M. Now i have only 22M in transfer market, so i requested board members and adjusted transfer budget to 30M. Also Valencia is about to be transferred to chinese club Shanggang, which will further add 8M in my transfer kitty.

Rashford is punished for 2 more match ban by the disciplinary committee for his straight red card against Crystal palace match, so Lukaku will have to play both match straight without any rest, as my u23 striker P. Cutrone is also injured, but i can call upon my 2nd choice u23 striker Nishan Burkart in the bench for first team. 

There are now numbers of players and staff members in their last 6 month of contracts. So i now have to either give them new contract before other clubs can offer them contracts or have to sell them. Among those some players had 1 year contract extension option for the club. So i used this clause and extended contract of Phil Jones and Matt Olosunde. Phil Jones, because Smalling contract is also expiring this summer and i dont want both of them in my team, but i guess i wont be able to sell both of them, plus i have also put Marcos Rojo for sell, so i will better stick with Jones by easy option of extending his contract without negotiating terms of his contract and try to sell rest of the defenders. Olosunde, because he is playing decently for u23 squad with avg rating near about 7, so lets see how he progress, although his potential ability is 2-3 star. 

Premier division match against West Ham, was good match for me, scoring 4 goals in the first half and 1 more added in second half, with Lukaku scoring a hat trick, right at the time, when i was thinking of replacing him with Andrea Belotti. So now i am planning to keep him in my future plan, untill some club comes with extraordinary offer. Also West ham replied back with 2 goals in second half, after my player Fred received red card. 

Received non negotiable offer from Shakhtar for Juan mata (who is currently valued at 18M all of a sudden from more than 36M just few days back, as his contract was expiring in 6 months, although i was not aware about it, my big mistake). The offer was 8.5M upfront, 3 installment of 1.1M 12 monthly (so after 3 years i will receive 3.3M), 2.8M after 50 league appearance, and selling team salary contribution of 81K p/w (which was absolutely not acceptable to me, the lesson i learnt after doing the same mistake while selling Alexis Sanchez to Chelsea, where i am still paying k p/w as his salary, exactly similar situation to what is in real life). 81k p/w is a big amount i guess and so i rejected the deal, but do i needed to accept 8.5M??? I might not receive any money from Mata's sell if he leaves MU at the end of his contract. So lets see, what happens in this winter transfer season.  

Here comes 1st January and winter transfer season starts. Valencia went to chinese club and the club received 8M. But it brought new problem. As Valencia was highly influential player, so De Gea developed concerns. I advised Herrera to have a talk with De Gea and thankfully he dropped his concern.

I had shortlisted few young players, from all over the world.. So my general manager alerted me that few of them are at the end of their contracts and i can offer them new contract and let them join MU. The first one was Martin Calderon, Midfielder from Real Madrid B team, although his salary demand was high, but i negotiated and bought him, right from Madrid, which i hope he will develop into a good player and Madrid will come back calling for him, and i can demand exorbitant amount   Joke apart, my MU is not a selling or feeder club, so hands off from my best players. 

The other 2 players to join were Charlie Lawrence 18 years old midfielder and Marcel Elva-Fountaine 18 years old right fullback. I found both of them to be among with high stats in under 18 premier division games, so i shortlisted them, there were 2 more players, one was from Liverpool and he denied joining us due to rivalry and another one had already agreed move to some another club. But i didnt compared their stats with my players and when these 2 players were signed, i thought i did mistake, looking at my assistant reports and fans reaction. I hope these 2 players prove them wrong. 

Edited February 7, 2020 by kenitpatel

[kenitpatel]

So this is the status of my players currently on loan. Tahith Chong, with highest potential ability among these players, was constantly played at right midfield position, instead of promised position of right wing by the manager of QPR and despite my 3-4 reminder and warnings to him, there was no changes, so i just recalled him back from the loan, and decided to develop him by giving him chance in the first team along with u23 games. 

[Nobby_McDonald]

On 30/01/2020 at 12:39, kenitpatel said:

hahaha...... This is my first season in Football Manager 2019 game.... Not the first season as a fan of Manchester United... I am following this club since my childhood... Please do not get confused. Glory Glory Manchester United...

I wasn't getting confused. It was how you answered.

[kenitpatel]

December month update

[kenitpatel]

Finally Federico Chiesa is MU player. Big relief. Right Wing Target achieved. Fans have welcomed him with open arms. Also he became the most expensive Italian player, overtaking Gianluigi Buffon. Glory Glory Manchester UNITED....

[kenitpatel]

Marcos Rojo got transferred to Watford. Their initial offer was only 5.25M increasing to 6.75M. However with negotiation, watford easily came to conclusion and got the deal agreed for 16.5M. Similarly Lee Grant got transferred to Chelsea for pea-nut price. This was the second player chelsea bought from MU in two consecutive transfer season. 

Edited February 10, 2020 by kenitpatel

[kenitpatel]

Tragedy happens. Chris smalling was in his last year of contract, i didnt wanted him in my team, so i placed him in transfer market since last summer but nobody bought him last time, this time he was free to discuss new contract with other clubs as he was in his last 6 month and Monaco came in and agreed to buy him for free from next season. That means i was not going to get anything from him.  In last attempt i tried to sell him to Monaco during this transfer season itself and they were no ready to pay more than 2.5M. Finally i had no option but to accept whatever i get, instead of keeping him and paying him his salary and not getting back anything in return, as i also had Phil Jones as a back up defender. Lesion learnt very well. 

[kenitpatel]

Since i was angry with Monaco for stealing Smalling from me for almost free, so when they placed a bid for Matic, i didnt accepted but stalled their offer. After few days Chinese club Shanggang came with their offer, which was almost similar to that of Monaco, but they didnt inserted any clause where i had to pay some amount of Matic salary, whereas Monaco had inserted non negotiable clause where i had a pay a part of Matic salary. So it was damn easy for me to reject Monaco offer. 

[kenitpatel]

Last month i came upon Frenki de jong profile and his value was only 10M, so i started bidding and negotiating for him, few days later Frenki told his manager that he wants to join MU. And then when transfer window opened, all of a sudden 4-5 clubs including, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, R. Madrid, etc started bidding for him. I really wanted him but he was not my first top priority, as currently i have Herrera as BOB midfielder and Pogba as Playmaker, as my first choice, than i have Fred who can play as playmaker and he is doing very well, then still i am having Fellaini as BOB but i am trying to sell him. Then from youth i have Caqueret, Manu Morlanes and Sandro Tonali, who are highly rated and will be soon ready for first team. So i have enough depth in this midfield position. At the end of many many negotiations round, i gave up and Real madrid bought Frenki for upto 58M. 

[kenitpatel]

Received offer for Fellaini from Newcastle, however it was not enough. Fellaini valuation currently is 26M and they were offering upto 19M and i would have to pay 33.5K p/w as salary of Fellaini to them. So i stalled their offer, as Fellaini was more interested in chinese club Shanggang and Jiangsu, and there were rumours too that this club are planning for bid, so i stalled offer from Newcastle and later rejected it as i was not ready to pay fellaini salary too. I am not going to make same mistake i did while selling Alexis sanchez to chelsea. 

[kenitpatel]

Few months back Arsenal placed a bid for Jesse Lingard, which went upto 40M plus something, however i was not serious about the bid, although Jesse is not my favourite player in real life because of his swag life and not so serious attitude toward football, so i would have sold him, but i tried to see if Arsenal can include their youth player, and in return i asked for 1 of their best youth, to which they rejected the bid.... Now i thought i can replace Jesse with either James Maddison or Jack Grealish, so i tried to offer Jesse to Arsenal during this winter transfer season, started offering him from 70M, and then went on till 51M, but there was no offer from Arsenal... Also all of sudden, Jesse performance increase so much, that his CA and PA are now 4 star instead of 3 and half star, and then Ed woodward extended his contract for 4 more years, his value increased and i was suggested to increase his asking price to more than 110M, which i did. 

Also Antonio Marin contract got extended for 3 more years by Woodward, which i am happy as his PA is very good and he is definitely in plan. 

Edited February 12, 2020 by kenitpatel

[kenitpatel]

I came upon a section of Europe under 20 competition at country level, and i searched for top players among them, came upon around 12-15 players for whom i started bidding during this winter transfer season. However after many round of negotiations, was able to agreed with only two clubs for their players. One among them was 20 year old striker Janni Serra, who was among top performing striker and he joined us, after he asked for transfer to MU and revolted... During negotiations i went upto 3.6M, but once i heard about his desire to join MU and his fight with his manager, i placed a much lower bid, though higher than his current value and got it accepted at 1.8M.

Another player to join was 20 year old Martin Terrier (1st position is LW and 2nd AM). Although his club gave up immediately because he was on his last 6 month, probably, but his agent was bit tough to come to negotiation and had to give him high salary, hope he plays good. The fans are happy to have him come in.

 

However i wasn't lucky to get rest of the players as their clubs dig on with them and i also missed Dani Olmo, although his current value was around 2M, however after many round of negotiations, i gave up. Eventually Valencia signed him up for 14M rising to 19.25M. Never mind i was not short of option for that position.

Edited February 12, 2020 by kenitpatel

[kenitpatel]

So the transfer season is over now... MU made transfer record for receiving (earninng) most amount in trasfer sell which is 108M pound.

Here goes the transfer round up from different countries.

What more surprising was ARSENAL!!!!!!! Arsenal were the most spending club amongst all clubs in the europe, most probably in the world, in this transfer season. This is absolutely not believable.. how can they spend so much? This is not reality... Also if we take care of adds on and other clauses, what Arsenal are going to spend will be even more than 102M, much way more than that. Just take a case of Ciro Immobile transfer, Arsenal paid 71M upfront, however it can extend upto 103M... 103M on single player by Arsenal!!!!! and that also on Ciro Immobile!!! (No disrespect to Arsenal or Immobile either).

Other surprises were, Christian Pulisic transfer from Dortmund to Spurs for just 15.75M upfront, whereas Rojo got transferred from MU to watford for 14.25M upfront. Spurs really took the advantage of the situation, really cunningly... Few months back i tried to bid to Dortmund for Pulisic, however Dortmund didnt negotiated to that level of amount for which i was ready to pay. Later on, Pulisic got unsettled as he wanted to join MU eagerly, and hence was placed on transfer list. But since i bought Federico Chiesa as my first choice, Spurs took the advantage of this situation. This was exactly like in real life. Very smart dealing from Spurs. Wish i could buy as many players as i want, only thing is this game was more real this time. (Except the Arsenal situation )

In summary, transfer season for MU was mixed one for me. I bought my first choice RW in form of Federico Chiesa. Apart from him, no major high profile signing from me. Also i sold Matic and Rojo to nearby their valuation. But i also missed out on Frenki de Jong and Dani Olmo and also lost Smalling to almost nothing, and didn't got any buyers for Fellaini. Next season, my first priority will be RB, as currently i am only having Ashley Young (who will depart at the end of the year for free) and Diogo Dalot. Lets hope i get Joshua Kimmich from Bayern, he would be at the ideal age of 24 years and well developed, whom i can later on sell at higher price 4-5 years later, if any bids come for him, till that time i will fully delevoped Dalot and few more players from youth academy. If money will be left, than i will try to buy young but well developed center back for 3rd choice position after Eric Bailly and Lindelof.

Chinese super league and clubs like Shanggang and Guangzhou were pleasant surprise and challenger to European powerhouse. 

Edited February 17, 2020 by kenitpatel

[kenitpatel]

December month update. I received Manager of the month award, however no players from MU made it upto the list. 

[kenitpatel]

Well the winter transfer season is over, however not for me. I had still 29M left in my transfer kitty, and i don't want it to go waste. I don't know if those money will be added back to my next season transfer budget so i will not take risk and use it now. Hence i kept on bidding for my transfer target, untill those players place themselves into transfer market by getting unsettled. (I know this is not good in term of football and their respective club's fans will be angry with me)

So here comes my first player, Nicolo Zaniolo 19 year old midfielder from Roma, for total of 6M amount, who will join MU after this season get over. After buying him, my transfer budget is now 22M.

Now for my next transfer season, my absolute 1st choice is Right back, and for that position i had shortlisted Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich) as my first target, but in case i fails then my next choice would be Nelson Semedo (Barcelona) and Benjamin Henrichs (Monaco). Kimmich is valued at 45M, i tried to bid for him, but both times Bayern refused to deal. So i tried for my next transfer target Semedo and Henrichs. And to my surprise Semedo was very much interested in joining me since he was not getting good game time, that Barcelona had to entertain lower price for him. I got him for just 16.5M, very closer to his market price. I was bit confused, whether to accept him, partly because Kimmich was best player at 24-25 year age bracket and partly because board members at MU wanted high profile signing. But then i thought lets move forward and get Semedo in, regardless if i can get Kimmich next season or not. I fear Barcelona will come back to unsettle any of my players.

Now my transfer budget is 5.75M only. Next came player Boubacar Kamara 19 years old Center back from Marseille. I was short of 2M in my transfer budget, however i adjusted it from players wages bill and got him. 

Now my transfer budget is empty. And i still have many players on negotiations round. So i started cancelling all, except one player, whose club Inter Milan agreed to sell, but i did't have any money, so i postponed the deal for 1 week, trying to get some luck and miracle to happen. 

And it indeed happened. Chinese club, Jiangsu came in with offer for Fellaini, and as transfer season is still open in china, so the transer will be immediately completed. Their offer was non negotiable but acceptable, it was close to Fellaini's market value, but i have to pay 13k p/w for his salary. I thought it will be the only club which will pay me this amount, and who knows his market value may goes down, as he will be in his last year next season and he was not in my first team plan and was not getting any game time. So i went ahead and the deal got completed in no time. 

With this transfer of Fellaini, MU improved their record of highest transfer amount received through sale of players to 134M pounds.

Okay so now the transfer budget is increased to 13.75M and i will be able to complete 3M signing of 19 year old center back Zinho Vanheusden from Inter Milan. 

So from next season, i will have two new 19 years old CB, one 19 year old CM and one 25 years old well developed RB. Besides Benjamin Henrichs, Patrick Kluivert and two more youngsters are also unsettled but i do not have enough money left with me in transfer budget so i will call it off.

 

Edited February 17, 2020 by kenitpatel

[kenitpatel]

This post is about happiness among club players. 1st image is of January 2019 month and 2nd is of February 2019 month.

Among top, is team leaders in form of Herrera (Captain), De Gea and Pogba, which will remain the same for atleast 2 years, unless Pogba forced himself out with Barcelona sniffing around. More about him on next post.

Then comes highly influential players, which includes Romero, Young (will leave for free this summer), Fellaini (got sold in february month to chinese club Jiangsu and so will not be seen in february updates), Lukaku (i expect him to move to team leaders in near future), Jones (i want to sell him, not because he is playing bad, infact he is doing good, but he is not my fav player, i will try to replace him with some english defender, hopefully giant Maguire), Lingard (he is playing excellent and has highest assist), Rashford, Mata (he will be leaving next season), Bailly, Martial and Lindelof (all 3 whom i will keep and will not be sold). 

Then comes influential players, Luke Shaw, Grimaldo (these both LB players are doing excellent and both are high avg rating players), Lozano (struggling so far). In next month update Fred got added in this list, which i expected to be. I hope Chiesa will be added too in this list very soon. 

[kenitpatel]

Well MU won Carabao Cup for 2018-19 season. Final was against Tottenham Hotspur and we won it by 3-0. Goal scorers were Lingard, Martial (MoM) and Pogba. Although for board members this trophy was not priority, but they are happy. 

 

And yes, i am not among the top Indian head coach, but I am probably the only Indian head coach in european football . Kindly correct me if i am wrong. 

Edited February 20, 2020 by kenitpatel

[kenitpatel]

Ok so what i said about my fear in few posts above, that barcelona will come back to take revenge for taking out his player Nelson Semedo, this fear of mine is going to be true. They are now trying to pursue Paul Pogba. Oh well the always trouble, the great Pogba, as in real life trying to make move for Madrid or Juventus, here it is Barcelona. Very similar situation as it is in real life. But well i am not going to surrender here untill they pay me 150M pound. Mino Raiola, you are not going to get a damn from me, get lost....

Now Barcelona has increasingly started scouting Pogba, watching him on Carabao Cup final and than on FA cup replay match against Wolves. In both matches he played excellent and scored goals too. Barcelona are planning for 80M bid, whereas pogba value is currently at 65M. So Barcelona, are you serious??? Do you really think i will sell my best player for just 15M more than his current valuation??  Do not waste your and my time, come back if you are ready to bid for 150M. 

 

Ok so now their Chief scout, Eric Abidal has attended MU match to scout Pogba and they are now planning to go upto 83M, a rise of 3M?  Besides, Pogba is also eager to join them. 

Edited February 22, 2020 by kenitpatel

[kenitpatel]

Not every players cause trouble to their own club like Paul Pogba. Victor Lindelof signs new 4 years contract worth 30M pounds. Happy & delighted to have him 4 more years.

Elsewhere in a premier league match against bitter rival Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp, MU won it 1-0 but our performance was not that good. Although i cannot blame much, as i was forced to play Phil Jones and Matt Olosunde as center back, as Bailly was as usual suspended for many yellow cards and Lindelof was injured. Thanks to Olosunde who is RB as his first position played really well. Also Liverpool got their 2 players red carded and at the end they were playing with just 9 players, credit to them for keeping scoreline respectable to them. 

A reporter informed me that so far i have used 34 different players in premier division. I think i am proud of it, that i can play youth player in premier division and win the match, that i can trust these young players and players trust me, that i can give opportunity to each and every players, including youth players.

Meanwhile U18 team won U18 Premier Divison Cup against arch rivals Man City. Kudos kids.

 

[kenitpatel]

MU won knock out round of European Champions cup against Galatasaray with 6-2 aggregate score. And now we are pitted against Liverpool in Quater final match. 

As we talked in previous post about MU U18 team winning U18 Premier division cup against Man city, now our U18 team lost against Real Madrid U19 team in Quarter final of U19 Champions cup and also later lost against Middlesbrough U18 team in Semi final of U18 FA youth cup. Next season i will have to shake off coaching staff and bring more experienced and reputed coaches. 

Meanwhile U23 team secure playoff place in U23 Premier Divison 2!!!! OMG i was not aware that our U23 team were playing in U23 Premier division level 2... That was bad.... Never mind, now i am here, we will rock Division 1 next season. 

 

 

Edited February 26, 2020 by kenitpatel

[kenitpatel]

Pogba saga continues... Now Barcelona general manager has started scouting him... First he visited to watch him play for MU, than he visited to watch him play for France.

Now Barcelona players has gone down to low level of luring Pogba and thereby showing disrespect to MU. Even Messi doing the same... Disgusting....

[kenitpatel]

Apart from Pogba, there are some good news inside club transfer and contract activity. Rashford contract was extended by 1 year. I dont know why was it done right now, i agree he is definitely in my plan and if he do not succeed for MU than he will be my failure and so i am not going to sell him, but anyway his contract was going to extended anyhow in future, so why not now. Besides Anthony Elanga will sign a 3 year contract once he turns 17 in few days. He is playing well in U18 team. 

Bought few youth players who were performing better in youth matches. And decided to sell Matej Kovar, 18 year old GK, who was not performing upto my high standard of expectation and in next few days will sell many more players and will release for free others in their last year of contract.

These are the players on their last few days of contract. Although Woodward is advising me to sign Mata, i will not, as i am planning to include Andreas Pereira in that AM position, besides Lingard is performing very good as shadow striker. Also i am going to welcome Felix from loan back to club, so i will have 3 good players for AM. Not to forget, Angel Gomes is also knocking the door of first team. But i will be sad for Mata, the most professional and most humble player in current MU team to leave. 

Among all these i just used contract extension option of George Tanner as he is playing good and i will try to see how he progress. Rest all these players will be released at the end of this season.

Edited February 28, 2020 by kenitpatel

[kenitpatel]

Ok so new transfer budget and payroll for upcoming season has come out from the owner Glazer. I am not sure where will i use 140M especially since from now onwards i will focus more on youth players and may be i will try to get Harry Maguire.

I am not much hopeful for Herrera to win Player of the year award, although may be he has played most number of games consistently for MU, he has also got 1 or 2 red card, but still i will root for him to win.... He along with Lukaku and both Luke Shaw and Alex Grimaldo have performed excellently throughout the season. Lukaku performance though not rated highly but he has scored 22 goals already. Martial in 1st part of the season was excellent, but after winter break he is on and off, may be injuries disrupted his performance. I guess Salah would win it.   

[kenitpatel]

Now talking about staff members, we have total of 108 staff members. Coaching team and Medical team both have 11 members each. However recruitment team have total of 42 members and board members feel it to be too large and they want it to reduce to 23 members in future. So i have to cut them down. Out of these 42 members, there are 34 scouts and i have to reduce it to 16 scouts only. That means i will have to remove more than half of them, 18 scouts to be exact. Also out of 9 data analyst, 1 will have to leave.

Now comparing these staff with the premier league clubs, it comes out as 

1st in Goalkeeper handling. 4th best in terms of Goalkeeper shot stopping and Goalkeeper distribution. This needs improvement and coach will be replaced next season.

1st in Attacking. 3rd in defending.

3rd in Fitness. 

1st in Mental and Technical.

2nd in Tactical and Man management.

However our recruitment team is 1st in every aspect, be it judging player potential, player ability, player data, team data or presenting data. 

Among medical team, we are 3rd in physiotherapy, and 2nd in sport science. A big improvement is also needed here.

 

[kenitpatel]

COACHING STAFF FOR FIRST TEAM:

Marcel Bout - Assistant coach.... His contract is running upto 2022... History: Assistant coach of Bayern Munich 2010-12, Netherlands Coach 2012-14, Scout for Man U 2014-18, and now Assistant coach for Man U.... I dont think of changing him. 

Nicky Butt - Head of youth development. History: Man U player 1991-2004, than he played for Newcastle, Birmingham and in china, than joined Man U, first as Reserve coach from 2012-14, Assistant coach 2014, Reserve assistant coach 2014-16 and now Head of youth development... I will extend his contract, no doubt. 

Goalkeeping coach

1. Emilio Alvarez, 47 spanish, salary 5k p/w, with goalkeeping total score of 51. Will extend his contract as he is good friend of spanish gk David De Gea.
2. Silvino Louro, 60 portuguese, salary 10k p/w, with goalkeeping total score of 46. Will not extend his contract as he is aging, high salary demand and low total score compared to Emilio alvarez.

Replacement candidate for Silvino Louro

1. Franck Raviot, 45 French, free agent, total score of 58, highest i guess, however he is not currently interested into entering into contract negotiations.
2. Toni Tapalovic, 38 Croatian, GK coach of Bayern Munich, total score of 57, contract running upto June 2019, not interested into negotiations right now. Will check later again.
3. Xavi Valero, 46 Spanish, GK coach of West Ham, total score of 57, contracted upto 2021, ready to sign, demands 3.3k p/w, 350K compensation to West Ham. Good mental attributes.
4. Toni Mengual, 28 Spanish, Gk coach of Malaga, total score of 57, contracted upto 2020, ready to sign, demands 3.1k p/w, 160k compensation to Malaga.
5. Andreas Hilfiker, 50 Swiss, Gk coach of Wolfsburg, total score of 56, contracted upto 2020, ready to sign, demands 5.5k p/w, 230K compensation to Wolfsburg.
6. Leonardo Rincon, 43 Colombian, GK coach of Bogota, colombian second division, total score of 56, ready to sign, demands 400 p/w, 3.5k compensation to Bogota.
7. Rui Barbosa, 45 Portugese, GK coach of Wolves, total score of 55, ready to sign, demands 3.2k p/w, 200k compensation to Wolves. Good mental attributes.
8. Sierd van der berg, 50 Dutch, free agent, total score of 54, demands 1.7k p/w

Pablo Vercellone, 50 Argentinian, GK coach of A. Madrid, highest total score of perfect 60, not ready to join any other club as he enjoy good relationship with Diego Simeone.

Gianluca Spinelli, 52 Italina, Gk coach of PSG, another one of highest score of perfect 60 and good mental attributes, contracted upto 2020, not ready to enter into negotiations. Will check later again.

Hugo Oliveira, 49 Portuguese, GK coach of Tottenham, 2nd highest score of 58, similar to Franck Raviot, but long term contract with Tottenham and hence do not want to join.

Fitness coach:

1. Carlos Lalin, 48 Spanish, Fitness score 19, Mental attributes 30, last year contract, demands 6k p/w.
2. Gary Walker, 38 English, Fitness score 17, Mental attributes 29, contract till 2020 4k p/w
3. Stefano Rapetti, 46 Italian, Fitness score 14, Mental attributes 43 (good, but main fitness score is poor), contract till 2021, 8k p/w.

Seems like no one will get a new contract.

Their replacement candidates:

1. Jesus Perez, 47 Spanish, fitness score 19, free agent, demands 5.5K p/w, Good mental attributes of 47, good with youngster 16.
2. Tony Colbert, 55 English, fitness score 19, free agent, demands 900 p/w, Good mental attributes of 51.

Coach: 

1. Kieran Mckenna: A tottenham player, later on getting himself up as U18 coach during 2012-13, U18 head coach during 2013-16, than moving on to Man U with brilliant past record and good future, as U18 head coach during 2016-18 and now as Coach for first team. He will remain with the club.
2. Michael Carrick: A Man U player from 2006 to 2018, ideal footballer and now as coach for first team Man U. He will also remain with the club.
3. Boro Primorac: A better coach than both other coach, elder one with 64 years of age, vast experience of coach of arsenal from 1997 to 2018. He will also stay till his retirement. 

Medical Team:

1. Steve McNally (Chief Doctor) and Tony Gill (Doctor) do not have any in game information and are irreplaceable. You cannot replace a doctor. They are best everywhere.
2. Head Physio: Richie Merron, 55 English, physio score of 19. Earns 4k p/w. U23 physio for Man u 2002-17 and now Head physio for first team. Will stay with us untill his retirement.
3. Physio: John Davin, 50 English, Physio score of 18. Earns 1k p/w, last year of contract, demands 1.4k p/w, physio for U18 from 2004-17 and now for first team. Will renew his contract.
4. Physio: Garry Armer, 54 English, physio score of 14 (not good). Earns 1k p/w. Last year of contract and will not be renewed. Physio for Man U first team from 2002. 
5. Physio: Jonny Picot, 41 English, physio score of 14 (not good). Earns 1.5k p/w. Contract expires next year and will not be renewed. U18 physio for 2016-17 and then for first team. 
6. Physio: David Fevre, 58 English, physio score of 17, earns 1.5k p/w. Contract expires on 2022. Was physio for Man u during 1994-99, then went to Blackburn and now back again with Man U from 2018.
7. Head of Sports science: David Kelly, 47 English, sports science score of 18, earns 4k p/w, last season of contract, demands 4.7k p/w. Working with Man U since 2010. There is only 1 person better than him with sport science score of 19, Marco Luison, 48 Italian and currently with Juventus, demands 6.75k p/w and 40K compensation to Juventus. So may be i guess i will stick with David Kelly. 
8. Sports scientist: Robin Thorpe, 31 English, with sp. science score of 15, earns 750 p/w, last season of contract, demands 1.2k p/w. Working with Man U since 2009. Will replace him with Mat Mitchel King, 25 English, sp. science score of 16, demands 925 p/w and 22k in compensation to Sunderland. Younger, more score and less salary than Robin Thorpe.
9. Sports Scientist: Paolo Gaudino, 32 Italian, with score of 14, less than Robin Thorpe, but his contract runs till 2021. Earns 750 p/w. Will replace him with Richard Kirby, 26 English, with score of 16, his contract ending in 2020 for wolves. 
10. Sports scientist: Richard Hawkins, 45 English, with Man U since 2008, score of 16. Earns 3K p/w, contract till 2021.

Another candidate to get is Gary Capes, 43 English, score of 16, contract expires on 2020 from Leicester. 

Recruitment Team:

This is where we are in abundance, unnecessarily. Recruitment team have total of 42 members and board members feel it to be too large and they want it to reduce to 23 members in future. So i have to cut them down. Out of these 42 members, there are 34 scouts and i have to reduce it to 16 scouts only. That means i will have to remove more than half of them, 18 scouts to be exact. Also out of 9 data analyst, 1 will have to leave. Untill i reduce them, i won't be able to sign new members.

So talking about Scout

Jim Lawlor (Chief Scout, 53 Irish) and Gerardo Guzman (Scout, 43 Spanish) have scouting total score (Player potential and Player ability) of 39, which is highest among Man U scouts. So this will be our benchmark. 

I mutually terminated contract with scouts like John Thorburn (score 32), Piotr Sadowski (score 32), Dougie George (score 32), Steve Brown (score 31) and Jack Patchett (score of 21, he was more of data analyst and less of scout, worked as data analyst for Arsenal and god knows why he was contracted with Man U as scout, when i tried to offer him contract as data analyst, he wasn't interested, so here he goes, i terminate his contract, of course mutually). By doing so, that is removing 5 scout before their contract expires, i had to pay 280K as compensation. Their contract were atleast 1 or more years left to run, so i cannot wait for them to expire. Huge amount, but i had to pay for the mistake done by my predecessor. 

So now we have 29 scouts total left with me. Now among them, 23 scouts' contract are expiring this season. So i have not to renew contract of atleast 13 scouts with least scouting score. But this is not as easy as counting the score, there are some scouts with same countries covered, whereas there are some regions or countries which are not covered at all. So have to do thorough checking of all scouts. 

These are 12 scouts who will not be offered new contracts: Mathieu Louis Jean  (score 27), Ricardo Formosinho (26), Tony Coulter (29), Joao Ferreira (30), Thomas Borman (30), Sergio De Souza (31), Henny De Rigt (32), Tommy Moller Nielsen (32), Jorge Alvial (32), Roy Beukenkamp (33), Tom Critchley (34) and Juan Mauricio Echhe (34). 

So at the beginning of new season i will be left with 17 scouts, still 1 more than allowed. Will check it out about it later next season. This was very hectic things to do correction in recruitment team.

Among data analyst, Chief data analyst is Mick Court, 44 English, with Man U since 2008, with data score of 49, which will be our benchmark. And we will have to remove atleast 1 data analyst. Tom Green is the one with least score of 39 and contract running untill 2020, which will not be renewed. I do not find it urgent to terminate data analyst contract and pay termination compensation.

 

Edited March 4, 2020 by kenitpatel

[kenitpatel]

COACHING STAFF FOR U23

U23 Head coach Ricky Sbragia of Man U, compared with Carlos Gonzalez U19 Head coach of Atletico Madrid. I am planning to get him in place of Ricky. Especially since Ricky man management and motivating score are very poor compared to Carlos. 

Assistant coach, Neil wood is good and he will keep his place.

Goalkeeper coach, Alan Fettis, with goalkeeper score of 47, especially goalkeeper distribution score of 13, is not good enough. So his contract will not be renewed. His replacement candidate will be Inaki Bergara 57 Spanish, with total score of 54, working with youngster score of 19, demands 2.9k p/w. 

Fitness coach, Mark Hulse, 48 English, with fitness score of 18, mental attributes 40. Better than any of 3 fitness coach of first team. He will replace Stefano Rapetti in first team when both of their contract expire in 2021. 

Coach: Steven Gatting and Mike Marsh. I am not sure how good they are. Do not want to go deeper as of now, since their contract runs for 2 and 1 more years respectively. Mike Marsh seems to me like poor among them, with technical and working with youngster score of 7 each. 

Medical Staff

Physio: Jonny Kelly and Tom Hughes, both of them are not good enough and their contract will not be renewed. Tom contract will expire this season and his replacement candidates can be 

1. Neil Fitzhenry, 40 English, physio score of 18, contract runs till 2020, demands 1.4K p/w and 55k in compensation to watford.
2. John Alti, 36 English, physio score of 18, contract expires this season, demands 1.1k p/w and 14k in compensation to reading.
3. Luke Van Zyl, 28 English, physio score of 18, contract expires this season, demands 1.1k p/w and 14k in compensation to birmingham.
4. Chris Bowman, 27 English, physio score of 18, free agent, demands 900 p/w. 

Sport scientist: James Parr and Simon Evans, both of them are not good enough, and their contract which expires on 2021 and 2020 respectively, will not be renewed. Their replacement candidates are

1. Michael Cheverton, 49 English, score of 17, contract runs untill 2020, demands 1.7k p/w and 90k in compensation to Leicester. 
2. Gary Capes, 43 English, score of 16, contract runs untill 2020, demands 925 p/w and 22k in compensation to Leicester.
3. Mat Mitchell King, 25 English, score of 16, contract runs untill 2020, demands 925 p/w and 22k in compensation to Sunderland.

Recruitment staff:

Data analyst: Luke Lazenby score is poor than Sam Hall and so his contract will not be renewed. 

 

[kenitpatel]

COACHING STAFF FOR U18

Head Coach: Neil Ryan, 45 English, on 2k p/w contract till 2021, good score. Will continue. He will be promoted to coach of U23, replacing Mike Marsh.

Assistant coach: Collin Little, 46 English, on 1.2k p/w contract till 2020, good score. Will continue. Can take over from Neil Ryan in future. 

Goal keeper coach: 

1. Kevin Wolfe, 54 English, score of 44, good, last year of contract, demands 1.4k p/w. I guess i will renew it, may be 1 or 2 years.
2. Kieran Wolland, 23 English, score of 20, thats very very poor, last year of contract, thanks god. Replacement candidate already mentioned in previous post.

Fitness coach: Charlie Owen, 32 English, score of 17, contract till 2020, earns 750 p/w. Good.

Coach: Tony Whelan will be staying with us. John Cooke and Tommy Martin have not so good score, their contract expires on 2020. Will think about them later.

Medical staff:

Physio:

1. Daniel Torpey, 32 English, physio score of 14. last year of contract. Will not be renewed. 
2. Neil Hough, 50 English, physio score of 16, last year. Wants to be U18 physio rather than U23 physio. Offered new contract of 2.2k p/w.
3. Russ Hayes, 40 English, physio score of 16, contracts till 2020, earns 1k p/w.
4. Steve Devine, 54 Northern Irish, physio score of 18, contracts till 2021, earns 1.6k p/w, will be promoted to U23. 

Sports Scientist:

1. Peter Hood, 42 English, score of 10, contract till 2021. Will not be renewed.
2. Gary Davenport, 45 English, score of 11, contract till 2021. Will not be renewed.
3. Tony Daley, 51 English, score of 12, contract till 2021. Will think about renewal.

Recruitment staff:

Data analyst:

1. Ciaran Hughes, 23 English, with score of 36. Last year of contract, demands 850 p/w.
2. Francisco Belo, 24 Portuguese, with score of 35, contract till 2021 on 1.4k p/w.

[kenitpatel]

SCOUT ASSIGNMENT CHANGES

Ok so scouting assignment was handled by Jim Lawlor, chief scout. It was on general focus. Now i changed it and took the responsibility on myself and gave every scout their target region, country and competition. Also told them to search only players with maximum age of 19 and potential of star.

1. Jim Lawlor - Next opposition.
2. Gerardo Guzman - Spain, Under 19 Spain and Spanish U19 cup.
3. Jose Mayorga - Argentina, Italy, Under 20 Italy and Italian U20 cup.
4. Luciano Canepa - France and Under 19 France.
5. Sandro Orlandelli - Brazil and Mexico.
6. John Calvert Toulmin - South America, Copa libertadores and Copa sudamericana.
7. Nils Schmaler - Germany, Poland, German youth cup and Under 19 Germany.
8. Omar Sciolla - West Africa, North Africa, African confederation cup and African champions league.
9. David Williams - Wales, England, Under 18 England, and English FA youth cup.
10. Simon Wells - England, European U19 championship qualifying, European U20 Elite league and U19 Champions cup.
11. Budimir Vujacic - Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech republic, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Turkey.
12. Johnny Peeters - Belgium, Ukraine, Central Africa, Southern Africa, and East Africa. 
13. Armand Benneker - Austria, Holland, Switzerland, Scotland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.
14. Mark Prizant - USA and North America.
15. Kei Tamura - East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Oceania, China, Australia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and U23 Asian nations cup qualifying.

[kenitpatel]

Monthly awards are raining now.

Pogba wons Player of the month award and Chiesa wons Young player of the month award ahead of Pulisic, justifying my first choice in transfer market. I was also not behind in award as i scoop manager of the month award. 

Also talking about records, about highest points in a season and highest matches won in a season, i guess i can get this record this season. 

[kenitpatel]

We won against Chelsea in semifinal of FA cup, the team which is in 2nd position in Premier division and are performing good. Now we will have to play against ..... in final of FA cup. Lets hope we emerge victorious on Wembley.

In Champions cup quarter final against arch rival Liverpool, it was boring affairs in both the legs. In Anfield, we managed to draw with scoreline reading 1-1. We were unlucky with many first team players absent, Bailly as usual suspended due to red cards, Lindelof injured, Chiesa injured. So we had to play with youngster Tyrell Warren and Phil Jones in center defence. Pogba scored for us and later also got red carded and hence suspended for the second leg, which provided much needed chance of Fred to play. In second leg, it was even more dull game, as none of the team could score. By means of away goal rule, we managed to progress in the next round of semi final of Champions cup. We are now paired against another arch rivals Man City in all english affairs, whereas another semifinal will be played between Real Madrid and PSG. I am very much hopeful of reaching Final. 

Our U23 team advanced to Semi final of U23 premier division cup after defeating arch rival Liverpool, just like first team. Similarly U18 team have move 1 step ahead of them and have won English U18 division title. Congratulations to both of these teams.

 

Edited March 13, 2020 by kenitpatel

[kenitpatel]

I was planning to replace Phil Jones with Harry Maguire, however on FM19 i guess Maguire isn't better player than Jones. Maguire potential is 153 ratings and 4 star, while Jones potential is 152 and 4 star. Plus Leicester is asking for about 63M and not negotiating below it while his current valuation is 24M, and Maguire himself is not interested in joining. So bad luck for him. I will continue with Jones as of now and have given him new contract.

Signed new Center back, Nathan Wood, 16 years old from Middlesborough. with potential ability between 130-160, could become better than current center backs i am having, and he is just 16 years old kid. Bought him for just 2.1M without any clauses. Hopefully he will be first team player soon.

Besides 17 years old Teden Mengi (Center back) and Anthony Elanga (Winger) both signed professional contract and have very bright and promising future.

U23 team won semi final of U23 Premier division cup against Southampton U23.

Edited March 16, 2020 by kenitpatel

[kenitpatel]

Here comes the second trophy, the more important one, the English Premier Division..... 

And i am on cloud nine after this... A proud moment for all Indians...

Edited March 19, 2020 by kenitpatel

[kenitpatel]

Two unhappy players - Martial & Grimaldo

Both Martial and Grimaldo, despite their contract running for 4 more years, on good enough salary of 160k p/w & 92k p/w respectively, despite getting good enough minutes on ground and importances, were unhappy with their contracts. Grimaldo even went one step ahead and showed his displeasure in media. Ultimately i had to offer them new contracts to keep them happy, after negotiating hard.

[kenitpatel]

We won against Man City in semifinal of European Champions cup and now we are in final against Real Madrid, the one who are winning it for 3 times in a row and have total 13 cups.

Our U23 team won the final match of U23 Premier division cup against U23 of Arsenal....

 

[kenitpatel]

Man Utd won the Premier Division 2018-19 year... Yes we won the premier division and it is now our 2nd trophy of the year. We remained undefeated in the whole season and won 32 matches out of 38 !!!!

We achieved the Premier division records of Highest points achieved (102 points) and lowest number of defeat (0 defeat) in a single season. 

Meanwhile Martial was the star player for this season of premier division. He won Player of the year award, English player's player of the year award, and English player's young player of the year award. David de gea won English premier division golden glove award.

David de gea, Eric bailly, A. Martial, Fred, A. Herrera and R. Lukaku were named among the english premier division team of the year (total 6 out of 11 players). What surprising was inclusion of Fred and not Pogba... I guess they might have included character and loyalty as a factor in naming best players 

I won the Head coach of the year award with total coach points of 1139.

Edited April 6, 2020 by kenitpatel

[kenitpatel]

And here comes our 3rd trophy, the FA Cup.... And what more interesting thing, we won it against arch rivals, noisy neighbour, Man City... We were without our star player A. Martial, but off form Lingard came into form in right time and scored the first goal, followed by second goal from Lukaku. We won it 2-0.. 

And what the shocking news, Pep Guardiola is fired by City!!!!! I can't dream this to actually happen in the real world....

[kenitpatel]

And even before the season finish and transfer window open, my transfer activity was going on behind the scenes... Here are some of the deals i completed and these players will join us in summer 2019.

Scout recommended me to sign Matheus Cunha for any price.. that high was the recommendation and i went ahead and bought him for 18.5M, although there was difficulty for work permit for him, but i worked hard and he got the permit. 

Next came Ruben Dias, also very promising and powerful center back, i already have seen him play for portugal and big clubs are already after him in real life and benfica is quoting exorbitant world record price for center back. So when i got him for just his market value as he was eagerly waiting to join me, was a big deal for me. So now i can sell Phil Jones (no disrespect, he is doing good, but i am not his fan in real life) and i will also quit my plan for Harry Maguire, especially since he is not interested in move. 

Next came Adam Idah, 18 year old forward and Aaron Wan Bissaka, well everyone knows him now, 21 year right back. Although i already bought Nelson Semedo from Barcelona for 16M, now i will have 2 good right back, just like i am having on the opposite flank (Luke Shaw and Alex Grimaldo). Shaw and Grimaldo both were quite injury prone and hence there was no problem for both players as they were getting good game time. However i hope Semedo and Bissaka have no problems with game time. Also now i can send Dalot and Olosunde out on loan. 

Kingsley Michael, 19 year midfielder from Bologna was next player, however he is not going to get work permit and i will have to loan him out.

Wilson Isidor, 18 year midfielder from Monaco, has very high potential of 5 star and was recommended by my scout. Although Monaco was very tough in negotiation, but i kept on bidding for long time and finally i got him.

[kenitpatel]

Now talking about U23 teams, they lost their first position in U23 premier division 2 and hence lost automatic promotion to U23 premier division 1. Now they will have to play qualifying round to progress ahead. And yes, we won semifinal and final matches against Newcastle and Fulham respectively and now will play in U23 Premier division 1 next season. So happy, finally considering the status, history and position, club like MU should have their players playing at the top levels.

Now lets evaluate the season for U23 players.

Looking at this i can conclude following things

Promotion to first team permanently with occasional playing at U23 levels -

1. P. Cutrone (considering his age of 21 and 36 goals 4 assists he had in 42 appearances and his market value, he would be disappointed not to play in first team next year. But the problem for me is, Lukaku, he was the only outfield player this season in first team, who was never injured or got any red card and he scored 29 goals in the season. So i guess i will have to accommodate Rashford as LW players when Martial is injured and give Cutrone a chance as striker when Lukaku is rested).
2. Axel Tuanzebe (he is also 21 years old and now is the time for him to take the position of Phil Jones as i will be selling him this summer transfer season. He will be the 4th choice CB after E. Bailly, Lindelof and Ruben Dias)
3. Martin Terrier (His first position is LW, which is going to congested place, as both Martial and Rashford will be first preferred for this role. His other 2 preferred playing position is striker and AM. Now striker position is also full with Lukaku and Cutrone. So i am now left with AM for him. Mata is going to leave for free, so it depends on how Lingaard plays, plus A. Pereira will get the chance to show that this position is his. So if no playing chance, Terrier will be loaned out).
4. Dean Henderson (Probably i will sell Sergio Romero, because he is terrific player and it hurts to me to see him not getting any chance to play regularly due to magnificent De Gea. Also Henderson is future player of MU, so i must start giving him first team opportunity)

So Goal keeper, Center back, Striker and Attacking midfielder position are taken care of, by promoting this youth players to first team.

Players who i will definitely sell or release for free as i have to reduce the numbers of youth players and give chances to U18 players to play U23 games.

1. James Wilson
2. Kieran o hara
3. Matty Willock (all these 3 players are 23-22 years of age and i dont see them progressing to that level where MU demands them to be)
4. Demetri Mitchell
5. Cameroon Borthwick Jackon (Both of these LB players showed flashes of talent in their initial days when given chance in first team, however things didnt went as expected)
6. Max Dunne
7. Thomas Sang
8. Ro Shaun Williams
9. Luca Ercolani
10. Ethan Hamilton
11. Matej Kovar, already sold and will leave in summer.
12. DJ Buffonge
13. Callum Whelan
14. Joel Pereira, he is hot prospect, but he is 22 years old and competing with Dean Henderson, so i will have to choose only GK and that will be Dean.
15. Zak Dearnley
16. Nishan Burkart
17. Josh Bohui

So out 41 players, 17 will leave, 4 will be promoted to first team. Rest of the 20 players will either remains in U23 team or will be loaned out depending on situation.

 

Edited April 10, 2020 by kenitpatel

[kenitpatel]

So now we are playing against European favourites Real Madrid, the giant team. But we will give our best. Unfortunately Federico Chiesa just got injured few days back during training, however our player of the season, Martial came back fit from the injury and is ready to go ahead and play the final.

And guess the result??? We absolutely nailed them in their own backyard. Within the start of match, Bailly sent a gem of stunning long range pass directly to Lukaku and he absolutely smashed it into the nets. And then we ran riots. We won it 4-1. Lukaku scored 2 goals and Herrera as well as Martial scored 1 goal each. This is our 4th trophy of the season. And by doing so, we broke the monopoly of Spanish team Barcelona and R. Madrid to win the European trophy.

For me personally, the player of the year is Romelu Lukaku, not only he scored 29 goals, but he was the only outfield player never getting injured or suspended for a match and was available for all the matches. Besides his most favorable playing style is target man, however i was playing and training him as complete forward. So i guess next season he will be more accustomed to that style and will be even better player. 

Higest average rating was always going to be either of Luke Shaw or Alex Grimaldo, both LB players and they both were amazing. At the end Alex Grimaldo took highest average rating and Luke Shaw as Young player of the season. Grimaldo also won signing of the season. 

Thanks to alround performance of Herrera, he got best pass completion. Jesse Lingard got most assist, however i have to admit he was very inconsistent, just like in the real life. If good offer comes for him, probably from Arsenal, as they bid for him in winter, then i will think about selling him.

Martial got most man of the match awards.

As usual, Eric bailly proved to be very costly with his yellow cards. He need some decision making as improvement.

Grimaldo won defender of the season in European Champions Cup. Lukaku and Martial came 2nd as Forward and Midfielder respectively. I guess David De Gea could also have won but he hardly played, as i often preferred Sergio Romero in most matches. I should have stick with only 1 goal keeper throughout the season.

A. Young, Mata and probably P. Jones and Lozano will be leave their places in Highly influential players list. Fred, Grimaldo, and Chiesa will take their place. Let see who else enter list of Influential players from the new comers and youth players.

 

 

[kenitpatel]

If you look this analysis, Phil Jones actually did good, but i am going to sell him, just because considering real life situation and he is not my favorite player. Also i had already bought Ruben Dias and want to promote Axel Tuanzebe.

Mata will leave the club and i will not renew his contract, his ratings were poor. He will be replaced by A. Pereira and let see how he performs or he will be sold next season. Also if i get decent offer for inconsistent Lingard than i will sell him too.

Dalot will be loaned out as i will be having 2 first choice RB in form of Nelson Semedo and Aaron Wan Bissaka. Young will be leaving the club for free. 

Will try to sell Sergio Romero and will promote Dean Henderson in his place. Also will try to sell Hirving Lozano as he didnt settled well with us.

Scott Mctominay has to leave as well and it will be difficult decision for me, to sell him without giving him chance. As in FM19, both Mctominay and Timothy Fosu Mensah has potential rating of 140, plus Mctominay will be able to play only in CM position whereas Timothy will be good at CM, CD and RB position. Plus Timothy is only 20 years old. So i will have to keep only Timothy and sell Mctominay. 

There is one Indian player too here. I will have to take care of him.

MU are now on 9th position in European club rankings. I am targeting to dislodge Real Madrid from 1st position and bring back MU to where they belongs. I dont know how i can improve English premier league rankings.

Edited April 14, 2020 by kenitpatel

[kenitpatel]

Summer transfer windows 2019 opens and here comes my first 12 signings.

They are followed by 2 more signings. Tim Odusina, 19 years old center back from Norwich and Marcin Bulka, 19 years old goal keeper from chelsea and he is free transfer.

So first week of transfer market in premier division looks like this.

European Champions Cup final loser Real Madrid are now looking to buy Lukaku, the player who destroyed them. I am not going to lose him at cheap price. Come Madrid show me the money. If at all this rumor come true and they give good money, probably more than 100M, then i will try to see if i can get Harry Kane from Tottenham hotspur. If i can get him, then only i will sell Lukaku. Whereas Barcelona are not giving up on Pogba. 

Pep Guardiola, who was fired by Man City, has joined Inter Milan. Good decision for Pep, bad for Man City.

On the other side, Arsenal at its best, has signed Fatih Terim as their manager. Sorry, but who is Fatih Terim?

Now i am starting to look at my players who deserve new contract or who are having minor issue about contract. Dean Henderson is now promoted to first team and he got big 5 years contract. I am sure he will become big player. Also i renewed contract of Callum Gribbin for 4 more years, although he will be loaned out to other club to develop him. 

Edited April 14, 2020 by kenitpatel