Football Manager

[calgaryballer]

Shed a bunch of salary over the summer. Not gaining any extra spending cash, but it should put us in a good position for next year.

Out -
Benni McCarthy (was on 40k/week)
Lars Jacobsen
Abubakari Yakubu
Danny Gabidon
Radoslav Kovac
Freddy Piquonne

A bit bummed I let Piquonne go, but he was making far too much for a decent 32 year old winger. Went from £30k over budget (budget is 775k) to £115k underneath.

Players in so far -
Ivan Fatic, free from Genoa

Also working on a deal for Nedum Onuoha from Man City

 

[Lanteri]

Fuck you. I got £400k

And, I got Scott Parker.

Parker and Nigel de Jong are my two buys this summer. Probably going to limit to that. Juventus declined to offer for Aquilani so I'm pretty overloaded on midfielders now. Poulsen and Cole are likely to get the boot.

Parker's pretty old to be buying, but given that we're in the Champion's League, and we were in the title race for the whole of last year, I wanted to make that extra push this year. He's definitely a short term buy as Sissoko is for sure going to be my first choice Box to Box guy within a season or two, with Lucas, if he doesn't cry his way out of Anfield, will be my ball winner, with de Jong set to be the anchor man for the long term picture.

 

[calgaryballer]

Smart plan. Just signed Cesar Delgado on a free to boost my winger corps. Paid a bigger wage than ideal, but I can sell him if need be

Edit - lost out on him to a second div Spanish team

 

[calgaryballer]

Thiago's agent just asked me to sign him. I know he is talented, but not sure where he fits in my squad...

We'll see, London is an attractive destination

EDIT - Schalke just came in, probably will gazump us

 

[calgaryballer]

So Thiago joined, but Delgado didn't

Just beat Wisla in my first competitive match, putting me in good shape to move on in the Europa League. Cole and Cairney with the goals, the two guys I need to beast if I am going to succeed

 

[calgaryballer]

The 2011-2012 Hammers

 

 

[calgaryballer]

0-3 win at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea to start off the league season. Great start! Tomkins, Ba and Fatic all score with a masterclass of counter attacking football

 

[calgaryballer]

Fuuuuuuu. My game didn't save, so my 2-0 win over Chelsea was lost. i guess it gives me a chance to redo the 1-1 draw with Kayerispor and a 2-1 loss to Blackburn. Still, I enjoyed that win

 

[mgoblue2290]

Wow, we haven't conceded a goal in 10 matches. Isaksson is a stud in net.

 

[calgaryballer]

Demba Ba revealed his bitchness and asked for a transfer. He was a disappointment last year, so I will let him go. Hoping for at least 8 figures back

Wolves came in with a £13 mil offer. Don't really want him to stay in England, but that is fat cash

 

[calgaryballer]

Ivan Fatic slipped a disc, out for three months. He was a godsend at left back.

As teh window had just closed, I brought back Jordan Spence from loan at QPR. He had been averaging a 8.05 through their first five games and won Young Player of the Month in the Championship, so hopefully he can cover off for 2-3 months. I don't trust Ilunga fully, he always seems to make some bone headed choices

 

[calgaryballer]

Couple of other signings to mention -

Brought in Patrick Hermann from Gladbach on loan for £170k upfront, with an option to buy at £3.0 million any time. I've always had a bit of a crush on him, so that will probably happen.

Also, with the sale of Ba, I spent £6 mil (5 of it over 48 months) on Ignacio Scocco from Wigan. I like the look of his technical attributes, though some of his mental ones are weaker than I'd like. It came down to him at £6 mil, Sessegnon at £3 mil or Ben Arfa at £10 mil. I though Scocco offered the best goal scoring threat of the three

 

[calgaryballer]

Aron Gunnarson scores the goal of the Europa League

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAd4dmw2TE0"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAd4dmw2TE0[/ame]

 

[calgaryballer]

Blackburn has been fielding a midfield of Nigel De Jong, Phil Jones and Cheick Tiote. Are we sure Allardyce isn't still there?

 

[calgaryballer]

Applied for the Wales and Holland jobs. Lost out on Holland to Frank Riijkard (fair enough), but lost Wales to Lee Daffyd, a 33 year old regen manager with no experience. Fuck you Wales, stay in the shitter for a while longer

 

[calgaryballer]

Talked to Josue about his interest in becoming a coach. He said, sure, lets do it now. So he is now a player coach. Which is good, because I like him, but don't really see him fitting in the team going forward. But it's always good to have a great destroyer option available

 

[calgaryballer]

Leicester - 9 games played in the PL, ONE goal for. 21 against. Sven is still the boss

And the stupid fuck that is Demba Ba has Wolves a mere one place above them, 3 pts from 8 games with no goals contributed. Eat it Ba, you wanted a bigger stage, enjoy the Championship next year

 

[mgoblue2290]

Just narrowly avoided my first Eredivisie defeat. Through 19 games we've got 18 wins and 1 draw. I was playing AZ and won 3-2 with all of my goals coming on penalties. They were playing like thugs the entire match though. Only three matches left until our month long winter break.

 

[mgoblue2290]

Not a big fan of the PSV board right now. I could've gotten Zhirkov for only 2.7 million pounds but they wouldn't give me a little extra. This was after they went and sold my starting left back because they felt the offer was too good.

 

[mgoblue2290]

Got eliminated in the first knock out round of Europa by Benfica. Lost 5-4 on aggregate but we played well both games, they were just better.

I finally lost a league game and it was to Twente. However we're still 12 points clear of second place with 9 matches left.