Story of Your Season and Career Thread - Page 7

Symbolic- Brad Smith looks quite handy in the youth squad.. could develop to Konchesky level?

And fair enough, although I'm not complaining about my Anglo-Latino side, goals from Meireles, Pacheco and Ayala have me 4-1 up on Werder Bremen in my friendly! Well, 6-2 now...

Only Agger, Skrtel, Kuyt and Ngog aren't either British or Latin I think. I can't help myself with Spaniards or Brazilians, my weakness :<

BOSSA NOVA SIMILIS BOSSA SENECA

Season 1
------------

Transfers Out: Chelsea clearly have a very strong squad but I was looking to play a 4-1-4-1 formation which didn't suit some players and furthermore, I wanted to stamp my own mark on the squad. I promised myself to buy no more than 5 first-team players in the summer transfer window in order to prevent disharmony forming in the squad but I had to sell some deadwood before I could buy anyone anyway, as Chelsea start the game with a transfer budget of 0 (which albeit can be manipulated if you adjust your high wage budget). Out went players who didn't fit/weren't needed/high wages/contract expired soon like Kalou (to Man U lol), Malouda (Barca lol), Ferreira, Hilario. Borini and Walker also followed them out the door from the reserves.

Transfers In: So with the sale of a fistful of first-teamers and wage budget magic, I soon had 20 million to play with and knew I could manipulate this further by spreading payments over 48 months. I didn't want to blow a *bleep*load of money on big-name signings like Chelsea IRL so I spent carefully. I needed a creative midfielder to play backup to and eventually replace Lampard (Yttergard Jenssen), 2 wingers (Gameiro, Gervinho), a central defender (Jones) and a slightly better holding midfielder than Mikel (Bolatti). In addition to this, I also spent money on prospects under 18 (so they would be home-grown).

out
Kalou >> Man Utd 15.75mil
Malouda >> Barcelona 13.5mil
Ferreira >> Benfica 2mil
Borini >> Malaga 1.2mil
Hilario >> Sevilla 950k
Lalkovic >> Villareal 475k
Walker >> Preston 120k
Sebek >> Southampton (loan)
Woods >> Southampton (loan)
Kalas >> Oxford (loan)

in
Gervinho - Lille >> 15.5mil
Jones - Blackburn >> 15.5mil
Aurier - RC Lens >> 12mil
Bolatti - Internacional >> loan to buy 6.5 mil (1.7mil up front)
Gameiro - Lorient >> 5.5mil
Wickham - Ipswich >> 3.4mil
Yttergard Jenssen - Tromso >> 2.8mil
Digne - Lille >> 2mil
Diallo (regen) - RC Lens >> 1.3mil
[/div]

Transfers sorted, I was ready to go.

First Half of the Season
My pre-season was a little disjointed as I had rearranged some friendlies in short notice as I'm anal about friendlies so I didn't enjoy the levels of annihilation against teams I enjoy when playing with Man Utd. Started the season with a solid 2-0 win in the Shield against United though, Benayoun and Gameiro (who I play as a winger) scoring and followed up with 2 strong wins in the league. However, I then proceeded to lose 3 games in a row against Utd (league), Sunderland (league) and Roma (UCL) - My 4-1-4-1 tactic was too uncreative/didn't suit certain players and I had to spend several weeks tweaking and testing it. Thankfully, the quality of my players helped me chug along happily til Christmas and I only lost twice (once against Blackburn with my youngsters in the league cup and to Everton in the league) before the winter transfer window opened. I had also conceded the fewest goals proving my tactic's defensive merits.

However, even though I had statistically scored the most goals in the league, most of the time these goals were against the relative lightweights of the EPL like Blackpool etc. and my team didn't create enough chances (about 10) for my liking every game. In addition, a lot of my goals came from set pieces and whilst it was pretty cool to see Terry/Alex hit over 5 goals before January, it was disappointing that Drogba/Torres and the likes of Gervinho, Gameiro and Anelka, wingers who can score goals, weren't hitting them in regularly. They weren't even getting high ratings either, 6.7-6.9s, so I knew I had to edit my tactic/personnel if I wanted to challenge on all fronts.

Winter Window
I didn't want to change the shape of my formation because I had already signed a lot of players to fit into my basic shape so I decided to upgrade personnel. I looked at my culprits in chief (those with poor ratings) and decided that it was time for Anelka (who Man Utd signed lol) and Benayoun to leave as their substandard performances were wasting up my wage bill. Players like Bosingwa (who hadn't featured because of his injury) and Bruma/Clifford/Tore left as well to trim the squad. I signed Ashley Young for the price Man Utd are being quoted this summer (irl) before Villa offered him a new contract and tied Bolatti down to Chelsea permanently, following his good performances. Papastathopoulos joined on loan to cover at RB as Bosingwa was leaving and I didn't want Essien to play there. One or 2 prospects got snapped up as well and I made sure to snap up Santon and Thiago (Barca) on pre-contract free transfers come the end of the season.

in

out
Anelka >> Man Utd 9.25mil
Bosingwa >> Werder Bremen 6mil
Benayoun >> Hoffenheim loan to buy 4.3mil 575k up front
Bruma >> Roma 1.9mil
Connor Clifford >> Aston Villa 1.4mil
Gokhan Tore >> Aston Villa 1.3 mil
Kaby >> Macclesfield (loan)

Ashley Young - Aston Villa >> 18mil
Bolatti - Internacional >> 6.25mil
Jacopo Galimberti - Inter >> 250k





Second Half of Season
Following further tweaks to my tactic, I started coaxing some good performances from several players. Essien (who ran from deep frequently) started knocking in the goals. I managed to find a good role for Zhirkov too, who started crossing magnificently for Drogba to knock in a bunch of goals. Gameiro, playing as a striker, performed far better as well although I had to continue to use him as a winger as I had enough players at striker already. Unfortunately my tactic still wasn't completely convincing and my team turned in a comedy of errors performance to spectacularly knock themselves out the FA cup to West Ham and then AC Milan scored 3 *bleep*ing wondergoals (a long range free kick, 2 belters) over 2 legs to knock me out in the quarter finals of the UCL. However, thankfully I only lost once more in the league (to Man City) and have wrapped up the league title with 1 game to spare.

I enjoyed a pretty Man Utd 2010/2011-esque season domestically. Bumbling my way to the league title without ever really going full-gun and putting myself out the FA cup. Felt pretty pissed that I lost to AC Milan only thanks to their wondergoals but I did only lose 4-3 on aggregate and scored twice at the San Siro (bonus).

End of Season Squad Analysis



Like I said (somewhere up in that wall of text @_@), Terry was a beast for me at set pieces and Alex/Luiz were decent too. Ivanovic was a revelation at RB, incredibly solid and Essien/Zhirkov's midseason form has carried them far. Young looks to be a good addition too. Worringly though, Terry actually outscored Drogba this season and if you notice, players like Lampard/Drogba/Torres fell short of their high standards this season. Thankfully though, Torres/Lampard I've found roles for in my 4-1-4-1 and both picked up their form towards the tail-end of this season.



These are my players who had ratings below 7 this season. Yttergard i'm not worried about since apparently he develops still and is only 22/coming in from a foreign league. Papasthopoulos was a pretty bad loan signing in hindsight but didn't play that much due to Ivanovic's good form and my relatively low amount of fixtures towards the end of the season. Bolatti's stats are skewed here, he was in great form before I officially bought him in winter so no worries there. Ramires was shit though and as you can see is being transferred for 10 mil (not bad) to Schalke and I've already bought Moutinho for 15 mil to replace him. Turnbull was pants and complained about first-team football so he's leaving, hopefully Delac won't sign for Vitesse and can be my number 2 next season. Aurier is still young and learning. Gameiro will play as striker next season where he averaged 7.10 in 11 apps so no worries there either. Like I said though, Gervinho is my biggest problem, I can't find a role that fits him having tried all the options for an AMR/AML. McEachran also ranked under 7 this season but he's fine.

The Future
The reason why I picked Chelsea as a game is because they're on a team on the brink of a rebirth, with an aging squad. Next season, I have a lot of youngsters coming back on loan like Cork, Sturridge, Kakuta, Delac, Rajkovic who I all plan to feature somewhat next season and there are even more players in the u18s like Prosenik, Mitrovic, Digne and Galimberti who are promising. Players like Aurier and McEachran will go out on loan to further development. I've also signed Kovacic and Felipe Anderson who arrive when they turn 18 so Chelsea's future looks decent. I'm thinking Drogba will be sold this season as Gameiro can do a job up front and fits in with my more fluid style of play. I feel kinda stupid, buying a striker to play as a winger, only to realize he's best as a striker too, lol. Undecided on whether to sell Gervinho, whatnot with his poor season.



----

Phew, that was a long ass post. I doubt anyone will read it now lol.

CupidStunt, great season. I'm trying a similar thing, but instead of travelling the whole world I wish to reach success in different countries in Europe while doing the Unemployment Challenge. Can't really say much about your save, you have really dominated everything there is to dominate. Odd move by Wenger tho. Have you managed to find yourself a new club?

FortePenance, Chelsea's children eh? I'm surprised you let Malouda go. I rate him high and he could probably have done well on the wing, but some interest signings in. Some names that rarely figure in the teams like Chelsea. Happy to hear your tactic finally settled in well at the end of the season, and you managed to bring home the EPL title. Good luck come the next season, lets hope your strikers can perform over the whole year this time. Great post btw.

Well done on Thread of the Week lads, well deserved. Some very good writing going on in here lately.

Will probably be able to have a update of my first season with Newport County up later on today (took over halfway through the season). It's my first job while attempting the Unemployment Challenge, something I completed in FM10. I'll play this save next to my online save with Nürnberg.

Some great reads in here, good work in getting this successful Tweet.

Will try to post a update on my Newcastle season soon.

Transfers

Sarabia came in as a backup left winger to replace Cole and shows good promise as a squad player, Belhaoua and Damberg are youth regens. In January I signed two players I'd been scouting for two seasons, first Junior Stanislas to cover either wing and hopefully become first choice with time, and Bernardo as a technically proficient playmaker who can also play in any attacking position. Once again there were too many departures for one screen shot, but the major ones were-

Andy Carroll  | £10m  | Sevilla
Michael Ngoo  | £350k | PNE
Brad Jones    | £1.4m | Sampdoria
Conor Coady   | Loan  | Leyton Orient (half season)
Kofi Agyei    | Loan  | Monaco
Andre Wisdom  | Loan  | MK Dons (half season)
Joe Cole      | Loan  | Atletico, £925k fee
C Derflinger  | Loan  | Doncaster
Joe Lewis     | P/Ex  | West Ham
Raul Meireles | £11m  | Udinese

Recouping a total of £23m so we made a profit on transfers, moving Carroll on because he's shite and Meireles because he is aging and this was probably the last window we'd get upwards of £10m for him. A good window leaving us with a very good squad.

---

Community Shield

Will we ever win this bastard? It came inexplicably midweek between two away matches so a reserve side got outplayed by Arsenal's first team. They won from a set piece though. Not so Arsenal.

---

Carling Cup

My reserves did very well away to a Premier League side but they were more clinical. It may not be an important cup but I would like to do better than shit in it one day.

---

FA Cup

On the way to Wembley we were once again fairly untroubled, but this time the only real challenges we faced were Arsenal and Man City. Two goals from Jonjo Shelvey sent us into the final to face archrivals Man Utd though, as in the end we had only three matches where it was necessary to play full strength.



Mata and Suarez were out injured, but within a quarter hour Suso and Pacheco made amends for that. We then frustrated them for the rest of the game and satisfyingly Meulensteen got sacked at the end of the match.

---

Premier League

In the first half of the season we dropped only 6 points. We remained unbeaten, had a run of eight cleansheets and despite numerous injuries were scarily consistent. Highlights were a 4-0 thumping of Chelsea and our ability to score lots of goals against any lower half side (except Leicester, where we missed players and potency).



As has become a tradition, we fell off in the second half of the season, starting the year with away draws in games we ought to have won. Our unbeaten run ended a week after we had smashed Leicester 5-0, away at Man City. Lucas scored and it wasn't a normal day from then on, as we dominated but failed to capitalise. Two more 5-0 wins and then we had an awkward moment of inconsistency at the Stadium of Light as we were deservedly beaten by the Black Cats.



In the run in our squad did start to tire, after beating Arsenal and giving ourselves six clear points at the top with 7 games to go we then performed to the minimum required, finally sealing the title in sweet fashion at Anfield against old rivals Manchester United. Daniel Pacheco netted the single goal that took the trophy to Liverpool for a record 20th time. In the final game we were resting for the FA Cup Final. Which we won.

---

Champions League

The Run to Cardiff: It would have been easier to walk. We got a bastard group but qualified pretty easily in the end, including some gratuitous playing of youngsters. Napoli had Pastore, that's my excuse. Good one? We did get payback over Villareal for the last 16 last year though. CSKA got asskicked away from home so I let my second XI including two u18 debutants deal with them at Anfield. In the quarters we got through against Fiorentina with two 2-1 victories, although it was closer than it looked as in the last minute at Anfield they had a corner at 1-1. Frey went up, but we cleared it and Suarez calmly put it away to seal the deal. The semis were a shitbricking affair, a draw away from home with an away goal set up some serious nerves. My squad were knackered after fighting on all fronts and depleted from injury. 1-1 at Anfield, both of us on ten men. Kuyt got the winner. I love the old Dutchman so much. So much so he's on a new contract. So yeah, we made it to Wales. *bleep*ing long way to get there from Liverpool but heyho.

The Final

First, let us set the scene and look at the squads-

A battered and depleted squad- injuries and suspension both biting hard. Against Barcelona at full strength. Dzeko, Xavi, Iniesta, Villa, Messi. On the other side, Suso, Shelvey, Aquilani, Gerrard, Suarez. In defence, Insua at right back, Wilson and Agger, and young Jack Robinson on Leo Messi. Lucas is holding down the middle.

The treble is on for Liverpool. They win today it's a 6th European Cup and a first ever treble. If Barca win, another double, although the first since the glory days, but Barca draw level onto 5 European Cups too.

The holders travel to the Millenium Stadium, the site of Liverpool's last treble winning antics in 2001 as they lifted the League and FA Cups here in Cardiff. Good omens? Their bench is also somewhat underwhelming. Nathaniel Clyne, Daniel Ayala and Alex Chamberlain here for a massive occasion.

First half and it's an even game, 19 year old Jack Robinson has certified best player in the world Leo Messi in his breast pocket. Aquilani has sustained a knock but so has Iniesta, Liverpool have had two glorious chances but Valdes has been in fine form, Reina always leaping like a cat to deny Dzeko.

Second half and it creeps on, Liverpool tired but gaining dominance and asserting themselves over the Catalans, Suarez toothless and removed for Kuyt. Bernardo replaces Aquilani as he stops being able to run. Extra time.

Shelvey dances through the box and is hauled down by Caceres... penalty! Kuyt walks up, blasts it expertly into the bottom corner. Where Valdes has stretched to claw it away. Heartbreak. Barcelona are bound to score now. Has Kuyt thrown it all away?



Full time. Penalty shoot out to separate the best two teams in Europe. Liverpool have been here before, in Istanbul. Barcelona have always before won in normal time. Instead of Jerzy Dudek the bald, insane, Spaniard Pepe Reina is between the sticks for the Reds. For Barca, the similarly bald but more tatooed Valdes...



Pepe saves twice to make up for Kuyt's poor attempt. In denying Villa and Maxwell he brings the European Cup home for a sixth time. Liverpool are Champions of Europe. The heroes- Pepe Reina and young Jonjo Shelvey

---

The Squad

*not in shot is Glen Johnson, who was injured, he made 22(3) scoring twice and winning one MOTM

A marvellous season, the best in the clubs history, and also my best since FM09. So good I wish I had SOMSed this save, but then maybe it would not have been so enjoyable in the long run...

First, between the sticks the imperial Pepe Reina who was basically perfect, his job being to save everything and spray it to full backs. Usually Martin Kelly on the right and solid in the absence of the perenially injured Glen Johnson and on the opposite side young Jack Robinson who made his England bow this term on the back of being a wonderful fullback who no-one got past, even Messi. His backup, Emiliano Insua covered both right and left back with ease and is all I ask of a homegrown squad player.



In the middle of defence Danny Wilson was almost ever present, the young Scot a keystone of the new Liverpool, I preferred him alongside the majestic Daniel Agger who was key in the quick transition from attack to defence, but often Daniel Ayala or the less sophisticated Martin Skrtel would have to cover for Agger and Wilson would move onto the left. Both were solid although prone to more mistakes than my first choices.



Anchor man Lucas Leiva was the only midfield player not to succumb to injury at any point and the Brazilian had yet another season with no complaints, as a platform for more attacking players, also often filling in for Jonjo Shelvey as a ball winner, as the youngster spent much time in the medical room but was incredible when he did play, usually alongside Alberto Aquilani who justified my faith in him (and the biggest contract at the club) with some assured performances and unflustered playmaking with an eye for goal. Meireles was poor before he left midseason. Casemiro filled in at anchor man for large portions of the year due to injury and won his first Brazil cap, fast developing into a very good player. Suso was not as impressive as last year but is still improving and will take over at some point next to Shelvey.



On the wings we had a multitude of riches, as aging Steven Gerrard is ripening into a fine right winger, still scoring and assisting but not tiring his legs out. On the left Juan Mata was simply brilliant, involving himself in an incredible amount of goals but sadly missing the endseason through injury. Backing them up were Pablo Sarabia on the left, who was decent and held down the spot, and new signing Junior Stanislas to cover for Gerrard and being average but improving as he became used to the clubs demands. Bernardo also covered and was very good, making an immediate impact and proving his worth.



Up front the preferred choice was the simply brilliant Luis Suarez who netted over 20 league goals for the first time and really grew into his attacking role, the Uruguayan a constant menace even when he was struggling to hit the net. His primary backup was Dani Pacheco, young, Spanish and useless unless it was a very important match. Can't insult his title winning goal though. Dirk Kuyt had his best season yet and will hopefully keep going and then join my coaching staff. He got hat tricks, he set goals up, he was sometimes better than Suarez. Meanwhile, Plan N'gog got injured at the start of the season and gradually lost his place and will leave at the end of the season.



The reserve squad was decent, the standout players were versatile quick attacker Alexey Rudenok who did well in Europe and wide man Alex Chamberlain who performed far about his stats and was good enough to be first team next year for sure at least as backup. Nat Clyne was decent as always as a last resort full back, Conor Coady returned from loan for an individual training regime and some good appearances. Jay Spearing made a few starts in case of injuries and was on the whole decent and worth keeping as reserve captain. Jordon Mutch earned himself a new contract with a few decent performances and should be sold for money soon. Andre Wisdom was similar to Thomas and might replace Skrtel next year. The rest are regens (ask for screens) apart from Carragher whose sole appearance was in the dead rubber at Stoke when he had the title won. A legend who is coaching next year.

---

The End (Thank Christ)

As you can tell, I am loving this game, and if anyone read all of that they deserve a medal. Anfield is now a 60,000 seater and my facilities are top training, good youth and established recruitment and all being upgraded. My finances are good and I'm pleased that most of my squad is still the original. *bleep* Roy Hodgson saying it wasn't any good, they are treble winners now. Individual training regimes and micro managing has really paid off in this respect. My scouting technique of focusing mostly on Brazil has found me several very good regens and hopefully I won't need to spend much on a player for quite a while. I will keep playing and you poor sod has kept reading, you can go now.

If anyone is masochistic and actually wants any more, ask for screens

BOSSA NOVA SIMILIS BOSSA SENECA

All right. As mentioned, I'm attempting the Unemployment Challenge next to my online save with 1. FC Nürnberg, this is the report of my first season.

Newport County A.F.C.
2010/2011



The challenge
Most of you are probably familiar with the idea. The aim with the Unemployment Challenge is to start of without a club and work your way from the bottom with the lowest reputation you can have all the way to the top. I managed to complete this back in FM10 and now I'm giving it another go.


Conditions
Loading many different leagues I had the possibility to start in January 2011 with my save, and was approached right away by Newport County, a half-professional side that in its true meaning was overperforming. Predicted 16th in the BSP the club was sitting 5th in January (I don't know why they didn't have a manager at the time) and was in the race for the play-offs to begin with. The squad lacked some necessary quality to pull this off and I was able to sign some, for the league standard, quality players that was able to walk right into my starting line-up. 


Cups
Already being eliminated in the FA Trophy when I took charge the only cup left to focus on was the FA Cup. A tough game at home versus L1 side Bournemouth proved to be a bit to difficult, with us losing 3-0 despite playing most of the game with one more player on the pitch.


The campaign
Starting off with a great 4-2 victory at home versus promotion contenders Wrexham the team then was only able to manage two draws to Darlington and Forest Green, teams placed way below us in the table. A 6-0 victory at H&Y's home ground put us back on track and from that point, we was on fire. The new signings made in January added what the team earlier lacked, and we was able to grab 25 out of 27 points the following nine games with a GD of 26-3, an amazing record. The last victory out of those 9 games was able to take us up to the top spot in the league, finally getting above Luton who as well had a sort of crazy run. With our form in mind, the next result came as a chock. Away to Kettering who would end up finishing 19th we went down 0-1 early, and despite putting huge pressure on the opposite goal and seeing their keeper being sent off we weren't able to get the ball into the net, resulting in us loosing, ending the streak and dropping to second place behind Luton once again. In the six remaining games the team however bounced back brilliantly, and we played according to the textbook, winning all six not conceding once. With Luton luckily loosing one of their final games we were able to finish the season top of the league, with promotion to L2. Couldn't have wished for a better start to my career really. I must say, all my signings played a huge part in us sealing the promotion performing week in and week out.

 NAT|POS|Name              MAT   G|A|AVG
   GK  Garath Ormshaw    19    - - 6.92
   DC  Thomas Magnusson  17(1) 0 1 7.37
   DL  Ben Thatcher      18(1) 0 2 7.44
   DR  David McNamee     18(1) 0 0 7.16
   CM  Gareth Williams   17    2 9 7.41

As you can see, most signings were there to strengthen the defence. It's worth to say that Ormshaw's rating doesn't reflect his performances. He was a fantastic last post and did numerous of brilliant saves. I would also like to mention some other players in my team that had a big part in us winning the league.


 NAT|POS|Name              MAT    G  A  AVG
   DC  Chris Todd        45    10 2  7.33
   CM  Tom Miller        34    3  11 7.14
   RM  Darryl Knights    26(5) 11 12 7.51
   ST  Kerry Morgan      37    18 11 7.29*
   ST  Steven Lennon     40    27 9  7.31

*Loan


Approaching the new season
The play-offs resulted in AFC Wimbledon joining us to L2. I was able to secure left winger Graeme Montgomery on a free who during the season had been on loan at the club from Dag & Red with an AVG of 7.01. I've also been given a contract extension by the board, signing a one year deal. For those of you that managed to read this far, thanks and I hope you enjoyed my update. :>


Promotion!