Football Manager

[Lanteri]

Didn't take long for Newcastle to come calling for my services after the sacking. They just missed out on Europe last year, finishing 7th. Pardew got them off to a 1 win start this year, so I guess they felt it was time for him to go.

Here's the squad I'm working with:



Simpson, Gosling, Perch, Tiote, Ben Arfa, Routledge, LuaLua, Best, and Ranger are all on the reserve squad as well.

I'm honestly not sure what kind of formation I'm going to run with this squad. It's got to be at least a 2 striker formation given the striker depth. I suppose a 4-4-2 with the wingers as AMR/L would be the best approach.

[Lanteri]

A sidenote too, Mike Ashley is no longer the chairman, it's Joe Noble. I don't know if it's a made up dude, or if it's supposed to be like the Joe Noble of St. Andrews Link Trust . Don't care. Either way the clubs finances are listed as rich, so that's good.

Will be running a 4-4-2. For now, due to injuries, and the fact that I can't register Tiote (which sucks cause Barton is out for a while, and I was going to pair him with McDonald in midfield), here's the starting XI.

GK: Krul
LB: Enrique
CB: Taylor
CB: Coloccini
RB: Seitaridis
CM: McDonald
CM: McCarthy
AML: Brunt
AMR: Albrighton
ST: Derbyshire
ST: Gameiro

Subs: Forster, Clerc, Davies, Ulloa, Khalil, Guthrie, Olsson

[calgaryballer]

Good job by Pardew getting Albrighton

[Lanteri]

Good job by Pardew getting Albrighton

Yeah, Albrighton and Brunt are both exceptional crossers at 18 and 17 respectively, so it should be fun having them on the wings.

[Fappin Raptor]

Just played a ridiculous game with Catania. 10 yellows and 4 reds (2 straight) combined for both teams. We both each had 2 reds. I ended up winning 2-0.

Zlatan has been my best player with 5 goals and 9 assists in 6 Serie A games.

[Lanteri]

Well, we're struggling a little bit as the team still adjusts to the tactic. And, to compound things, we just lost Kevin Gameiro for the remainder of the season. Gameiro had 13 goals in 17 premier league games. Going to need Khalil to step up big time. Khalil does have 3 goals in 6 apps, so I hope he can get the job done. Wickham and Ulloa only have 1 goal in piece in a combined 19 appearances.

To make matters even worse, Jose Enrique forced his way out of the club. Dude started bitching after I fined him for consecutive sub-6.00 performances and the chat after didn't go well. And he has continued to play extremely poorly afterward, so he's off to Sampdoria for £10m.

Right now I only have Phil Jones coming in from Blackburn when the window opens in one game.

[Lanteri]

Brought in Mario Balotelli for a mere £3.4m. His wages are ridiculous, but I like his versatility. He's regressed a little bit in his athletic attributes because he hasn't played a single minute of first team football for Man City in two years (they signed Ashley Young AND Aaron Lennon). Last time I played them they had David Silva, Young, Lennon, and Dzeko all on the pitch at the same time. Must be nice...

Anyway, for now he'll probably lineup alongside Derbyshire up front, but next season he'll probably be my super-sub since he can play both wings and striker. Also, now that we're in January I was able to get Tiote registered to the squad and into the selection. At this point, we're now going with a starting XI of:

GK: Krul
LB: Olsson
CB: Taylor
CB: Coloccini
RB: Clerc
MC: Tiote
MC: Barton
AML: Brunt
AMR: Albrighton
ST: Derbyshire/Ulloa
ST: Balotelli

I can never stick with either Derbyshire or Ulloa alone, as neither of them have been particularly useful, so I'm basically stuck waiting to see who decides to establish themselves.

As for our position in the table, we're 12th after 21 games with 23 points. I haven't been able to get us rolling consistently just yet, thanks to a combination of poor morale, the team still learning the tactic, injuries, etc. Under my management, we've picked up 17 out of those 23 points, with a 5 win, 2 draw, 7 loss record so far. Not particularly impressive, but it's a work in progress.

[Lanteri]

....and Balotelli injuries an Achilles tendon in his first match and is out for 2-3 months.

Good signing Lan.

edit: Got the board to sign me Leighton Baines as my transfer budget was drained and I wanted a better option than Olsson at LB.

[Lanteri]

Season didn't go well. Finished 13th in the table with 12 wins, 6 draws, and 20 losses.

11 wins, 3 draws, and 18 losses were under my management.

I made a complete overhaul in the summer window. Details in the next post.

[Lanteri]

Starting XI:

GK: Diego Benaglio
LB: Leighton Baines
CB: Fabricio Coloccini
CB: Steven Taylor
RB: Seamus Coleman
LM: Adam Johnson
CM: Lorik Cana
CM: Charlie Adam
RM: Vladimir Weiss
ST: Mario Balotelli
ST: Kevin Gameiro

Subs: Tim Krul, Phil Jones, Hatem Ben Arfa, Francois Clerc, Ahmed Khalil, Matt Derbyshire, Kevin McDonald
Unused/Reserves: Bikey, Guthrie, Forster, Olsson, Kikarin

[Lanteri]

Off to an unconvincing start once again. We've reached the January window 8th in the table with 7 wins, 6 draws, and 6 losses and a 32-24 GD.

Mario Balotelli is my leading goal scorer with 10, Gameiro behind him with 6. Balotelli also leads the team in assists with 8.

[Fappin Raptor]

I cannot seem to stick with a team unless it's Everton. I went from QPR to AC Milan to Cardiff and went back to Everton. So I've decided to leave my first Everton save from 11.1 or 2 and used the 11.3 update.

Since I was not given a transfer budget to begin with I had to use free transfers to fill out the remaining spots. Everton starts out with only 19 players on the first team and barely any decent player available on reserves. Guomundsson was just going to be a rotation player but he decided to go down for 3 months a couple days after he came to us so I cancelled the loan.

[Lanteri]

Yet another disappointing campaign in the Premiership has come to an end. Finished in 9th with 13 wins, 12 draws, and 13 losses. Waaaay too many draws.

Balotelli was my best player with 15 goals and 14 assists. Adam Johnson chipped in 4 goals and 5 assists. Gameiro had 12 goals and Derbyshire had 7.

Overall, I really don't like how this squad is built. I didn't like the makeup when I came in, and while I'm in the process of trying to work with it by making moves of my own, I don't think it's going the right direction.

There's a pretty good chance I walk if a lateral move comes up, or of course a team with a better stature than Newcastle.

[Lanteri]

Also worth nothing is that Swansea has yet to be relegated and have largely maintained the same squad I put together. Bastards.

[Lanteri]

My newest acquisition. Switched my formation to a 4-2-3-1. Charlie Adam's going to be playing one of the CM roles, in the deep laying playmaker role. This guy is my new Box-to-Box man.



and Filip Djuricic is my new AMC:



I've made a couple sales as well. Once I get my transfer budget for the new season I'll be looking for a Coloccini replacement as I have elected not to offer him a new contract. Actually, a 3rd CB is what I'm looking for as I'm going with Phil Jones and Steven Taylor as a pair. I'll also be taking a look into possible upgrades at AMR. Weiss had an alright season, but If I can find an upgrade I can sell him as he has a lot of value.