Football Manager

[Fappin Raptor]

Half way through season 1 with Swansea.

[Irish]

Pretty crazy goal by Sagna against QPR.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl5v_4Be1FY&hd=1"]Q.P.R. vs Arsenal - Sagna Goal 53 minutes - YouTube[/ame]

[Lanteri]

Spent quite a bit in the winter window:

In

Demba Ba from Chelsea for £3.6m
Gary Cahill from Chelsea for £2m
Nani from Schalke for £15m

Out

Brunt (told me was leaving on a free transfer, so I sold him instead) to QPR for £2.4m
Mulumbu to QPR for £3m

Transfer wise it wasn't a ton of money spent, but the 3 players brought in have put a strain on my small wage budget, but I needed to up the quality in the squad. Our salary per annum is still 13th in the league at only £34.63m. Less than half of most of the big clubs.

New XI

GK: Begovic
LB: Santon (Taylor is out for 5-7 more weeks, after missing the last 10 games)
CB: Ashley Williams (will be replaced by Kana-Biyik when he returns from Africa)
CB: Gary Cahill
RB: James Hurst
CM (BWM): Rhys Williams
CM (DLP): Aarom Ramsey
AML (Winger): McLean
AMR (IF): Nani
STL: (TM) Sigurosson
STR: (P) Demba Ba

Subs: Jakupovic, Reid, Giaccherini, Modeste, Defoe, Thorne, Townsend

In the league, through 22 games, we're in 8th with 10 wins, 5 draws and 7 losses. 32 for 27 against. Only 2 points out of 6th though, so we're in decent shape still if we can pick up the pace in the 2nd half.

In the Europa League, we advanced comfortably to the knockout rounds once again. We drew Lokomotiv Moscow in the 1st knockout round to be played in mid-February. Winner gets winner of OM-Anderlecht.

[calgaryballer]

King Kenny retired in 2017, Pep Guardiola has stepped in to replace him.

Louis van Gaal just retired from Man United, I'm the favorite to replace him. Think I'll stay at Bayern at least one more year as I was disappointed with our CL form

[calgaryballer]

Samuel Eto'o has joined my staff as a coach

[Lanteri]

Update:

In the Europa League we took out Moscow 5-3 on aggregate, followed by a 3-0 take out of OM.

Drew Tottenham in the quarterfinals. Winner faces Dynamo Kyiv/Werder Bremen.

In the league, we're in 7th on 51 points through 32, trailing 6th place Swansea by 5 points. Unfortunately, we do not face them in the run out so there'll be no big swing against them.

Final 6 matches:

Away to Sunderland
Home to Wolves
Home to Everton
Away to Man U
Home to Hull
Away to Blackpool

Not the trickiest of run outs, but we'll need all the expected results to come through.

Injury-wise, I'll be without Rhys Williams for pretty much the rest of the season with a grade three hamstring strain. He's a big loss as he had turned in a 7.04 avg rating 26 league apps, and a 7.39 in 8 European matches. With Mulumbu gone I have to turn to the relatively inexperienced George Thorne.

I desperately need to finish in a European spot once again, otherwise we're going to be hurting financially with the guys I brought in. Of course winning the Europa League would help as well. It was tough making it to the semis last year and losing. Another deep run coming up short would hurt as well.

Despite my relative success with West Brom, I still haven't gotten any silverware in now my 4th season at the helm. Reputation has gone up a bit, and we're attracting more high class players, but until we win something I won't be happy.

[Lanteri]

Drew 2-2 at home against Spurs.

Going to take a special performance away to advance. Going into that match without a number of key players: Rhys Williams, Demba Ba, Kana-Biyik, and Jermaine Defoe (ineligible to play against Spurs.)

Starting XI for that match..

GK - Begovic
LB - Taylor
CB - A. Williams
CB - Cahill
RB - Santon
MCL - Ramsey
MCR - Thorne
AML - McLean
AMR - Nani
STL - Siggurson
STR - Modeste

I'll shit the biggest brick in history if we manage to scrape a win away.

edit: As expected, lost 2-0. GG Europe.

[Lanteri]

As mentioned, lost to Spurs in the Europa League.

Turns out we only needed a 7th place finish to get in the Europa League next year, and we missed it by 1 point.

Wholesale changes coming to the defense in the summer window. The whole back line is getting scrapped. Our defensive record in the last 15 games or so was awful. We had no problems scoring, but we were leaking goals like crazy. Part of it I have to believe is both my fullbacks' tendency to get forward whenever possible, leaving my D wide open.

League Table

 

Squad Stats

 

[Lanteri]

Of note in the summer, upon announcement of European club rankings, we've moved up 22 places to 29th overall.

Screen

[Lanteri]

First major signing of the summer. Once my scout showed me this dude I HAD to have him. £16m is a lot for a 20-year-old center back, but my god is he incredible.

[Fappin Raptor]

I brought in Tshabalalalalalalalala at Swansea. I have a couple more signings from the January transfer window I can't remember.

[Lanteri]

Busy summer. Got all my transfers and stuff done early so the team has time to gel, instead of scrambling around at the last minute.



I tried very much to focus half my outfield players on defense, and half on offense. Ramsey, and the rest of the forwards are my offensive half. Jermaine Jones, and the back line my defenders. I sought out to find the best possible defensive midfielder/center mid that I can find, and Jones fell into my lap on loan. Even at 33 he's still got good physical attributes (13 accel, 12 agil, 15 pace, 16 stamina, 15 strength). 19 marking and 17 tackling the big thing for me of course. He's pretty much one big bulldog. Not the best decision making/anticipation guy but I can live with it. If he stinks it up, that's what I brought in Mutch for. And there's always Rhys Williams.

Speaking of Rhys, he's become my super sub now. I can play him in CM, CB, or RB so I'm comfortable sending him to the bench.

On the backline, I already showed you guys the screenie of my new CB. My new RB, Torres, is very much a fullback as opposed to a wingback type like Santon. He has all the key attributes of a good defensive player (17 marking, 15 tackling, 16 bravery, 18 concentration, 16 positioning, 17 team work, 16 work rate, 13 heading and jumping). I'm very much hoping he's a rock back there. Assou-Ekotto on the other side I've found to be a underrated defensive player IRL. At 31 now in-game, he provides me a good balanced fullback on the left side. (13 crossing, 13 marking, 13 passing, 15 tackling, 16 anticipation, 14 positioning). Still has decent physicals as well (15 accel, 14 pace). I also brought in Garrido on a free for coverage.

Nothing has changed as far as attackers ago, aside from replacing Cox/Modeste/Defoe with Jay Rodriguez, and Nicky Maynard returning from loan for cover. Added Simone Pepe for cover on the wing.

I'm fairly excited for the upcoming season despite not being in Europe this time around. I feel like I've put together a balanced squad instead of focusing purely on offense.

Starting XI

GK: Begovic
LB: Assou-Ekotto
CB: Ntombela
CB: Kana-Biyik
RB: Torres
MCL: Ramsey
MCR: Jones
AML: McLean
AMR: Nani
STL: Ba
STR: Sigurosson

[Lanteri]

Made one more sale and moved back to the flat 4-4-2 I used last time I qualified for the CL. Aaron Ramsey is off to Reading for £5.5m. Made a £500k profit off him and got rid of his big wage bill so I'm happy. He was a decent player, but the CMs in my flat 4-4-2 are designed to be more defensive so I'll be rolling with Mutch and Jones in midfield.

Gonna bring in a CB or CM on loan for some cover, and that'll be it.

edit: Brought in Diame from Arsenal on loan. Signed Alexis on a free transfer.

[spiker]

For anyone who has played up from the lower divisions in England - At what level does it make sense to stop filling your team from Free Transfers? And on the flip side, at which division can I start moving players regularly by selling them on the transfer market?

I'm in the Blue Square Bet Premier League right now. All of my signings have been Frees and when I'm done with a player, I just let his contract expire. I've put guys on the transfer list before, but I never get any other offers besides Free Transfers.

[Fappin Raptor]

Tshabalalalalalalala played 2 games for me before he goes out with an injury for 3 months.