Football Manager 2017 - General Chat

[Storts]

[Bluebird Hewitt]

1 hour ago, Storts said:

Football's very fickle these days.

[Dan+]

17 hours ago, Danny said:

Is anyone else as shit as me?

I started as Derby, kept most of the team together and bought Jermaine Anderson and some Gustasov geezer from Feyenoord. Still had David Nugent, Vyrda and some Scottish fella who had 14 in nearly everything.

Started alright, kept around 6th place in the play-offs then out of nowhere get smashed and sacked by December. Same old story, no idea how to stop it either, you look at some of the shit the players do and think whhhhy? Why would you instead of clearing it to a player on the wing, dink the ball into the middle of the pitch where I don't have a player? Seems like my goals are the product of well worked play, yet the computer can score from anywhere, one player constantly take apart my defence. I could play 2015 well, but 16 and now 17 I'm utter gash.

I think a good way to measure performance is clear cut chances. The way I see it is if I create more then I ought to have won the game, unless we're beaten by genuine brilliance.

I had one game on 15 where I lost 2-1 after having 8 clear cut chances. I'd never seen anything like it. During the famous Sparta Rotterdam collapse.

You've also got to consider you're Derby County and blowing it after a positive start is probably something completely out of your control.

[R-D]

SL Benfica - 2020/21 - September to January (and transfer window)

Half the season of our first year in charge of Benfica has passed, and it's been very good.

September results

Belenenses 0 - 1 Benfica

Benfica 8 - 2 FK Austria Wien (Europa League)

Benfica 2 - 0 Uniao de Madeira

Nacional da Madeira 1 - 4 Benfica 

October results

Bordeaux 2 - 4 Benfica (Europa League)

Porto 1 - 0 Benfica 

Portimonense 1 - 3 Benfica (Taca de Portugal)

Benfica 4 - 2 Dnipro (Europa League)

Boavista 1 - 4 Benfica 

November results

Benfica 3 - 0 Pacos Ferreira

Dnipro 1 - 2 Benfica (Europa League)

Benfica 2 - 1 Rio Ave

Benfica 2 - 0 Arouca (Taca de Portugal)

FK Austria Wien 1 - 1 Benfica (Europa League)

Gil Vincente 0 - 1 Benfica 

December results

Portimonense 1 - 4 Benfica (Taca da Liga)

Benfica 2 - 0 Guimaraes

Benfica 4 - 0 Bordeaux (Europa League)

Benfica 3 - 1 Braga

Benfica 2 - 1 Feirense (Taca de Portugal)

Feirense 0 - 2 Benfica 

Chaves 0 - 2 Benfica (Taca da Liga)

January results

Benfica 3 - 2 Setubal

Benfica 3 - 2 Rio Ave (Taca da Liga)

Estoril 0 - 4 Benfica 

Maritimo 0 - 3 Benfica 

Chaves 0 - 3 Benfica 

Benfica 2 - 1 Uniao da Madeira (Taca de Portugal)

Benfica 3 - 0 Academica

Benfica 2 - 0 Sporting (Taca da Liga - semi final)

Porto 0 - 2 Benfica (Taca da Liga - final)

Liga Nos; 19 games into the season and we're 17-1-1, it's hard to get too disheartened with that. I spent a lot of the season so far toying with tactics. I moved away from my previous 4-2-2-2 into a 5-2-2-1, to finishing the half season off with a more familiar 4-2-3-1. All have had their successes, but the 4-2-3-1 feels most stable with the players we have. I've also just barely decided on my strongest XI. A lot of the players I thought would be fringe players have really given me something to think about. An abundance of talent.

Europa League; never struggled in the group stage. It gave us a chance in the later games to rest a few and give some rotation players a chance. Deportivo in the 1st knockout round.

Taca de Portgual; FA Cup equivalent - board expectation is to reach the final, which I fully expect us to do, in fact the way we're playing I'd be disappointed not to win it to be honest.

Taca da Liga; no idea what this is equivalent to, starts as a 4 team league, then goes into knockout rounds, but the board aren't interested anyway. I played reserve and youngsters in almost every game, there's a rule stipulation that you have to start at least 5 players who have started in the previous two competitive games, otherwise get a £7k fine. Good to get a bit of early silverware though.

Transfer window

We had about £8m to spend if we wanted it, but our finances are quite bad at the moment, the lack of Champions League looks to be quite damaging. I was also reluctant to sell as because of the finances the board are only giving us 60% of transfer fees.

Outs:

Kostas Mitroglu - Striker - £1.1m - Al-Ahli

Kinda all that happened. I had a big offer of £46m (installemts) rising to £66m for Grimaldo, which I turned down. It would have sorted finances but taken away a lot to actually spend on a replacement (and top fullbacks are hard to come across this year I've found).

Ins:

Davy Hermans - Defender - Loan - Real Madrid

CB was an area I wanted to strengthen as we lacked a lot of pace. I brought a younger player (Ruben Dias) into the first team, and we had Bjorn Engels, but that was pretty much it. There wasn't a lot we could get for £8m, so I was just going to accept what we had until the Summer, but I noticed Hermans up for loan and it was a simple no-brainer to bring him in for half a season. He looks absolutely phenomenally good.

And.... that was it. I signed 3 players on pre-contracts to arrive in the Summer, but will cover them when I do that update.

There we are almost cruising at the top, Sporting still keeping pressure on, but I expect they'll crumble before we do. Finances looking poor, previous manager brought in some big money signings and then failed to get them into the Champions League which has had the knock on effect. A few players are already wanting to leave if we don't get their next season, which I'd be awfully surprised if we didn't.

[Stan]

sometimes this game gets right on my tits.

my main striker has scored 7 in 4 at the start of the season. So I 'interact' with him and praise his recent goalscoring form. He thanks me and appreciates the praise.

Then he goes on a run of about 7 games with not scoring and getting low ratings, no assists either. So I criticse him saying he needs to get back to scoring ways and that i have faith in him. 

Then he comes back to me and says 'maybe you shouldn't criticise me all the time and just let me play my game' etc

 

 

[Takyon]

Spurs, Man Utd and Liverpool have all completely fallen off in my game. Halfway through the season and they're all languishing in mid table. This is a great chance for us to push for a top 6 finish. 

[Guest]

Started with Peru's U20s. I won the South American Championship with them before and took them to the quarter finals of the U20 World Cup. All on 16, now lets try this again on 17 but with a challenge. To use as few players from the big Lima clubs as possible. 

 

[Dan+]

On 4/6/2017 at 2:04 AM, Dan said:

CH 12 - Burton (a) - A game that started frantically with us taking the lead twice, but not a lot else. A much needed victory after four straight away losses.

OCT 2017
CH 13 - Middlesbrough (h) - The end of our unbeaten home run. Joke of a game too. Middlesbrough, like Swansea, had massively struggled upon relegation, but they got a 0-2 win here courtesy of two absolutely outrageous long range efforts. Just not our night.
CH 14 - QPR (h) - Fell behind early on but two rapid goals had the game turned around by half time, we were second best in the second half though and QPR got a deserved point. 2-2.
CH 15 - Sunderland (h) - Took the lead early on but were simply outclassed in the end as Sunderland went top with a 1-3 win.
CH 16 - Nottm Forest (a) - A carbon copy of last years game, minus the late Forest rallying cry. 0-1 at half time against the run of play, Barnsley running riot on the counter in the second half. We picked up a fantastic 1-5 victory.
CH 17 - Millwall (h) - Dominated from start to finish, went behind in the second half, equalised two minutes later, went behind in the 88th minute, equalised five minutes later. Happy with how we got the point, unhappy that we didn't get three.

NOV 2017
CH 18 - Sheff Weds (a) - We seem set up for games like this, and once again we delivered. A nicely managed game ended with a 0-1 victory courtesy of goal machine Armstrong. He's on fire.
CH 19 - Ipswich (h) - A test at home to a mediocre side. Failed. We were beaten 1-2, meaning it's four home games without victory. Dreadful, and my faith in our promotion bid really taking a hit.
CH 20 - Blackburn (a) - But then we go away from home and it's all OK again. Yet another battering. 1-5 once again. Blackburn turned in probably the worst defensive display I've seen while at Barnsley. We could've had 8 or 9. Total battering.

DEC 2017
CH 21 - Birmingham (h) - Home to bottom of the league and winning 1-0 at half time, and we incredibly manage to take nothing from the game. Absolute disgrace of a result, totally sums up what we've been about for a lot of this season, inconsistent beyond belief. We're blowing far too many of these games.
CH 22 - Bristol City (a) - Inconsistency confirmed again. High flying Bristol City took the lead early on, but we turned it on its head and picked up a fantastic 1-2 victory. Our fourth straight away win.
CH 23 - Rotherham (h) - Don't fuck up, don't fuck up, don't fuck up. Didn't fuck up. Miracle. Two wins on the bounce. Miracle. 2-0 it ended, incredibly up to 6th.
CH 24 - Brentford (a) - Always a frantic game with these and this was no different. We drew it 2-2 but we really ought to have won it on the balance of play.
CH 25 - Brighton (h) - I've had the beating of these so far, but it came to an abrupt end. We did take the lead early on, but we completely fell to pieces in the second half and Tomer Hemed bagged four times as Brighton ran away 1-4 winners. Captain Marc Roberts with a nightmare performance.
CH 26 - Derby (h) - Yet another defeat at home. Brighton outclassed us, but this was just plain irritating. Dominant throughout most of the game yet couldn't take any chances, they get one and it's in. The minute they went ahead I knew we'd lose.
CH 27 - Swansea (a) - These have unsurprisingly picked up since we last played them, and it's on paper probably our hardest game. We did to them exactly what Derby did to us, we got an early goal and just soaked up the pressure, holding on for a superb 0-1 victory. This was Swansea's first home defeat of the season, so it's a superb result.

JAN 2018 (In: Richard Horton, TNS, £105k - Christian Santos, Alaves, £1.4mil) (Out: Elliot Lee, Coventry, loan)
CH 28 - Fulham (h) - Rubbish fixture scheduling as this came just two days after the Swansea game. The goalless draw was unsurprising as a result.
FAC R3 - Brighton (a) - Boring draw which we lost 2-1. Not a lot to add.
CH 29 - Charlton (a) - Awful performance. Second best throughout the game and beaten 3-1 by a struggling side.
CH 30 - Aston Villa (a) - This had become quite a big game given the position of the two teams (6th v 8th) and we were heading for another 3-1 defeat until an astonishing late comeback saw us pick up the unlikeliest of points. 3-3.
CH 31 - Norwich (h) - Had no luck against these so far but this is where it changed. Second placed Norwich arrived and we played out a superb game. We took the lead and thre it away twice before Armstrong belted in a close range effort from a half clearance with just two minutes left. A massive win and our first in 4 home games.

FEB 2018
CH 32 - Middlesbrough (a) - Middlesbrough beat us in October with two long range screamers. They opened the scoring with another. How do they keep doing it? We offered very little throughout the game and lost it 3-1 again. A horrible game where we lost Armstrong for two months for the second year running around this time. Our away form running out when we needed it. Middlesbrough have struggled as well.
CH 33 - Reading (a) - An absolutely frantic game but one of those where it just didn't fall our way. Reading went 2-0 up in the first half but amazingly we clawed it back to 2-2 on the hour, Reading then nicked one with 15 to go, before we equalised again, before Reading then added two more to win 5-3. On the balance of play, we should never ever have lost.
CH 34 - Leeds (h) - I expected little and I got little. Leeds are going up this season and despite starting well, we ended up losing 0-1 in the second half. Three straight defeats and we're staring the bottom half in the face. The play-off dream looks to be just that.
CH 35 - Oxford (h) - We had to win this. We did. A bit of a change in system saw us finally win again, only our third in twelve games. 2-0 it finished despite getting a red card.
CH 36 - QPR (a) - QPR are in the play-offs and we're 10th. We need the win really, but I accept a point when we're reduced to 10 men late on at 0-0 after spending a lot of the game under the cosh.

MAR 2018
CH 37 - Burton (h) - The fans flocked to see Barnsley take on the leagues bottom side as the club put on a special deal. A bumper crowd, to my amazement, was treated to a 4-1 win. We did very well here.
CH 38 - Sunderland (a) - The most gutting game I have played on 17 yet. Josh Scowen got red carded within the 2nd minute and we needed a bit of a miracle. Sunderland went ahead in the 20th minute and from then on I expected us to get slaughtered. I rolled the dice and attacked them. Christian Santos bagged his first Barnsley goal in the second half and we genuinely stayed in the game right until injury time where we conceded a silly penalty and lost 2-1. A point in this fixture with eleven men would've been impressive, let alone ten. Scowen fined as it's his second red card in our last four games.
CH 39 - Nottm Forest (h) - We simply had to win this. We delivered. We went 2-0 up but as usual made it tricky for ourselves by conceding late on, but it ended 2-1.
CH 40 - Millwall (a) - Millwall are now 17th, they were fighting for the play-offs at one point, they've capitulated and it's time to pounce on that. And we did, Santos got his 3rd and 4th goals for the club in a very well polished 1-4 win. Brilliant performance and result.

So we now hit an international break, 17 days without a fixture for us, but we go into the run-in 7th in the table after having a very good March and end to February.

I think 70 points is probably my aim. We don't have too bad a run-in either actually, four of our six games are against teams in the bottom 7 (although one is Sheff Weds who are on fire). The crucial game will be Bristol City at home, the penultimate fixture.

In terms of our team I have shook it up a bit. I have tried to tighten the midfield a bit by having a more defensive minded role in there rather than two fairly attacking as I think that's why we kept conceding a lot. It worked for a while but I'm not surprised it's been seemingly sussed.

I've also decided to give Angus Macdonald his place alongside Marc Roberts back. Jack O'Connell and Borthwick-Jackson have both been a little disappointing to me. He hasn't disappointed either, he's outperformed both of them and the place is his for now.

Lewis Cook and Ryan Hedges have hit some very good form late on and Adam Armstrong is back from his injury, although Watkins has hit a bit of form himself so it's given me a bit of a headache.

[Takyon]

The battle for the last two Champions League places is very tight right now, it's the end of March and only 5 points separate 3rd and 9th:

I'll be disappointed if we don't finish in the top four seeing as we've spent vast swathes of the season in a Champions League spot but have recently got into the habit of not turning up against lower league opposition. Liverpool and Man Utd hitting form after sacking Klopp and Mourinho certainly hasn't helped although they have slowed down over the last few weeks. 

[Dan+]

We could genuinely do this.

Blackburn are the biggest joke team I have seen on this

[Chaaay AFC]

Ahh it's been so long since I have been in this thread, great to catch up on all your stories so far.

I really fell out of love with FM, I brought 16 but I just couldn't get into it and it lead me to not bother getting 17. I was away last week though and I just had a sudden urge to pick it up again and with having two weeks off at the moment I thought it would be the perfect time. So today I have given 16 a go again ( I don't think I'll bother with 17 now and wait and see what happens when 18 drops). I looked at some of my old saves and I had an Ipswich and a Benfica save and decided to carry on with the Benfica one. It was already in March 2016 so I thought it'd be a nice play to jump back in and save me trying to slave away trying to find a new save.

Benfica 2015-16 - Season Review 

Portuguese Premier League - P - 34 W - 28 D - 6 L - 0

Pretty outstanding league season, pretty much untouchable and walked it in the end. Won with 6 games to spare and got the record amount of points for a Portuguese season with 90 points. Managed a double over Porto to beating them 2-1 both times.

Domestic Cups - 

Portuguese League Cup - Knocked out in the third phase (group stage).

Pretty shocking this really was stunned 3-0 away at Vit.Guimaraes, obviously rotated the squad a bit, but it's still no excuse to get beat like that. Won the two remanding group games, but only top in the group qualifies and Guimaraes won and drew their other games. The cup was won in the end by Maritimo who beat second division Aves in the final. Sporting, Braga & Porto got dumped at the same stage as me...

Taca De Portugal - Knocked out by Sporting 2-0 (on agg) in the semi-final.

Sporting managed to get a 0-0 draw in the away leg and then comfortably dispatch me 2-0 at home. They were my real bogey team this season, I failed to beat them on all five occasions and they beat me 1-0 in the Supertaca. Really disappointing cup runs and they need to be improved upon next season.

Champions League - Knocked out by Bayern Munich 4-3 (on agg) in the second knock-out round.

Finished second to Manchester United in our group whilst finishing above Gladback & Olympiakos. Beaten pretty handily at home by Bayern 2-1 in the home leg. Went 1-0 down very quickly in the away leg only for Thiago to get sent off in the 16th minute. Manged to claw one back with Gaitan straight after HT and when all looked lost a 90th minute Mario Gotze own-goal sent it to ET! But it wasn't to be as Lewandowski made it 2-2 in the 103rd minute and that'show it stayed. I have to say it was fully undeserved going to extra-time, Bayern dominated us even with just 10 men. I do struggle immensely with the very top teams on these games.

Overall a pretty decent season but it could've been better, I won't go to much more in depth just yet otherwise it'd take forever.

EDIT: Just to mention some of my players. Jonas is brilliant and chipped in with 31 goals, he along with Gaitan were my best two players and Gaitan deservedly won player of the year. Renato Sanches is ridiculous in this game, he is scary good for his age. I'll definitely lose him unless I make Benfica a European powerhouse which is unlikely. Also have some other nice talents such as Grimaldo, Goncalo Guedes & Ruben Vezo (who I brought from Valencia). 

With transfers I had Kenedy, Oliver & Mitroglu on loan who will not be returning. Benfica already had Andre Carillo from Sporting coming in on a free and also a nice young Argentinian midfielder called Franco Cervi from Rosario Central. With Carillo coming in and with Gaitan and Guedes already here I might just have to sacrifice Eduardo Salvio. He is a top player, but he only has a year left on his deal and he will want something astronomical. I really don't want to stunt Guedes either so I'll probably just cash in. Think I'll be looking at another midfielder and I need to be looking for a new goalkeeper with Julio Cesar getting on.

[Smiley Culture]

I must start by saying my previous post about Celtic is rubbish now because a virus on my laptop meant I had to restart the save after some technical stuff on my laptop.

 

Celtic Football Club 2016/17 - Half Season Report

Scottish Premiership - 2nd...W13 D5 L3

So, we're second. Not really good enough, I know. We didn't start too well and a few draws and defeats handed Aberdeen the initiative but we've managed to peg them back and are only second on goal difference. Our goals conceded has been far too high and I need to make some changes to my backline. The highlights have obviously been the Old Firm derbies. The first, after a poor start to the season wasn't at a good time at all. I feared a defeat would see the pressure on me ramped up. What then happened was beyond anything I could have predicted. We went 1-0 down pretty early after Kieran Tierney gave away a penalty but after that, it was special. We absolutely took Rangers to pieces and ran out 6-1 winners, sending Rangers back across Glasgow with their tails between their legs. The last Old Firm, our last game of 2016, and first of my tenure at Ibrox, resulted in a 1-0 win, a great way to send us into the Winter break.

Champions League - 4th in Group G

After Dudelange, Rosenborg and Red Star Belgrade were dispatched of in the qualifiers I was looking forward to the draw for the group stages. Being in Pot Four meant we were out last and one group stuck out. I'd already labelled it the 'Group of Death'. Bayern Munich, Tottenham Hotspur, and Napoli. What I didn't want was to be drawn in that group. What happened? I was drawn in that group. Progression was not likely at all, we were playing for pride but we managed to lose that at times, too. Five defeats and one win, a 2-1 win over Napoli, was our group stage campaign. I'm not too annoyed, that group was lethal. Here's hoping we get there next season and get a somewhat easier group.

Betfred Cup - WINNERS - Beat Ross County 3-0 in the Final

The first, and hopefully not last, piece of silverware. I'm not jumping for joy so much, yes, a trophy should be celebrated but our biggest test in this competition were Hamilton. Our other two games in this competition were against lower league opposition in Dunfermline Athletic (won 1-0) and Raith Rovers (5-3). We blitzed Ross County in the Final, Leigh Griffiths was on fire and got two goals in three minutes and Moussa Dembele had us three ahead before the fifteenth minute.

Scottish Cup - Drawn vs Dundee United at home in the 4th Round

 

Transfers In: 

• Syam Ben Youssef - £1m from Caen; I wasn't overjoyed with my back four when I arrived and I found an ex-Orient player that I believed was cut out for the SPL and Europe, albeit on a short (one-to-three years) timescale. His stats are good, he's tall, he's strong and he's not bad in the air at both ends of the pitch.
• Johannes Eggestein - Loan from Werder Bremen; With Leigh Griffiths and Moussa Dembele being our only strikers at the club when I arrived, I needed a couple of options and money was tight but Eggestein has a bit of potential but he should be good enough for the SPL.
• Miguel Silva - £400,000 from V.Guimaraes; I wasn't confident in Craig Gordon's ability to perform and stay fit long term so I needed a young and relatively cheap option, Silva was that man. 
• David Henen - Loan from Everton; I was getting desperate for a 4th striker as the season started, I couldn't afford anyone and the names left on the loan list were pretty poor, I grabbed Henen for six months, hoping I could get something better in January. He's since had his loan terminated, he was dire.

 

[Danny]

On 07/04/2017 at 6:44 PM, Stan said:

do you motivate your players? Criticise or praise in equal measure?

It could depend on what kind of games you lost in the lead up to your sacking - i.e. do your players have the determination to do it against the top sides and not get complacent against the lesser clubs. How far did you drop from 6th by the time you got sacked?

I rarely interact with them outside of a match, I've never really benefited from it. Plus my players generally play at around a high 6/low to mid 7 regularly. I try to keep their morale up even if I want to throw the laptop at someone's head.

When I buy players I do look for determined players, try to avoid fancy dans with no work rate etc.

I think I went on a run of about 10 games where I maybe won just one, lost a good 7 or 8 and that was it. A few of my players were annoyed I didn't strengthen my midfield even though I brought in two good signings (guess not to the games standard?)

 

On 08/04/2017 at 11:34 AM, Dan said:

I think a good way to measure performance is clear cut chances. The way I see it is if I create more then I ought to have won the game, unless we're beaten by genuine brilliance.

I had one game on 15 where I lost 2-1 after having 8 clear cut chances. I'd never seen anything like it. During the famous Sparta Rotterdam collapse.

You've also got to consider you're Derby County and blowing it after a positive start is probably something completely out of your control.

Yeah I don't really know what stats to look out for on the game as there's so fucking many of them.

 

 

[Stan]

Forest trying their best to emulate their Derby rivals...

[Stan]

Forest beat Derby but look at the top 7  

look at the race for 2nd! Never seen anything like it. Usually it's top 2 or 3 at most who run away with the league. Southampton and City were my main rivals until game 36. Now the former are 7th. Crazy.

West Ham play Utd & Chelsea play Spurs on the last day of the season. 

[Chaaay AFC]

Just started my second season with Benfica. Very shaky beginning as we lost some key players and had a boat load of injuries, but overall not a terrible start.

Benfica 2016-17 - Season 2

I've played the first four games of the season, I managed to win the Supertaca and I finally beat Sporting! It did finish 1-1 after extra time, but we managed to win 5-3 on penalties. With the leagues we have P - 3 W - 2 D - 1 L - 0, we managed to beat Aves 1-0 in a tight game, we then drew 1-1 away at Braga. Not the worse but by no means the best result. We were missing a lot of key players through injury and the Olympics which hasn't helped. After gaining most of our players back we then went on to dispatch Estoril 4-0. Only worry Sporting have started very strongly, but we will see if they can maintain it.

Transfers -

Ins -
Andre Carillo - Free - Sporting Lisbon
Franco Cervi - £3.5m - Rosario Central
Tiago - Free - Atletico Madrid
Arkadiusz Milik - £9m - Ajax
Julian Brandt - Loan - Bayer Leverkusen
Lucas Ocampos - £10.5m - Marseille

Outs -
Ljubomir Fejsa - £8.5m - Manchester City
Mehdi Carcela - £5m - Bournemouth
Eduardo Salvio - £10m - Sevilla
Nicolas Gaitan - £32m - Tottenham Hotspur

Pretty decent window on the ins front, Carillo and Cervi were already coming on through them being done in real life I imagine. After Fejsa wanted to leave I happily let him go considering he is pretty average and so I replaced him with Tiago. He is pretty old now, but still more than capable and I'm going to use him to tutor Cristante. Milik was brought after Mitroglu's loan ended, he is very decent and I think that's a solid price for him. With the outgoings of Salvio because he was in the last year of his deal and after getting a decent offer for Carcela, who is average, I felt I needed another winger. I saw Brandt was available for loan and he was such an ideal option for what I needed, very nice player. 

Finally Spurs met Gaitan's release clause which was £32m and he wanted wages I could never give him, so he went and I had to replace him. Wasn't really to sure who to get, but I've heard good things of Ocampos on these games so I went for him. Although I have four very good wingers, losing Gaitan is massive as he is just brilliant on this game. May take a while for this team to gel, but hopefully we can have another good season. There were a bunch of other sales like Bebe & Oliveira, but not for that much and I didn't see them as much relevance. So I spent £23m and made £62m. Also managed to get Renato Sanches and Goncalo Guedes on new deals which was positive.

[R-D]

Some quality posting in this thread lately, all very good reads 

SL Benfica - 2020/21 - February to May

Following from previous update, we were top of the league by a handful of points and still in contention in all the Cup competitions that were still ongoing.

February results

Benfica 1 - 0 Belenses

Sporting 1 - 0 Benfica 

Deportivo 1 - 2 Benfica (Europa League)

Uniao da Madeira 0 - 3 Benfica 

Benfica 3 - 0 Deportivo (Europa League)

Benfica 1 - 1 Nacional da Madeira

March results

Rio Ave 0 - 2 Benfica (Taca de Portugal)

Benfica 4 - 1 Porto

Dortmund 1 - 6 Benfica (Europa League)

Pacos Ferreira 0 - 5 Benfica 

Benfica 5 - 4 Dortmund (Europa League)

Benfica 5 - 1 Boavista

April results

Benfica 1 - 1 Rio Ave

Benfica 3 - 1 Rio Ave (Taca de Portugal)

Benfica 0 - 1 Gil Vicente

Benfica 2 - 0 Inter Milan (Europa League)

Guimaraes 0 - 1 Benfica 

Inter Milan 2 - 2 Benfica (Europa League)

Benfica 4 - 1 Feirense

Braga 1 - 4 Benfica 

So we get to May and we're still fighting for the league title, in the Taca de Portugal final vs. Sporting, and have a semi-final vs. Lyon and potentially a final in the Europa League. In the league, while our form has been pretty damn solid, Sporting have kepy pace with us the entire way, at this stage there is very little between us with 3 games to go. In Europe we absolutely cleaned up any team that had stood between us and the next round. The 11-5 aggregate win over Dortmund was just insane. May is going to be a huge month.

May results

We'll run through these final 7 games chronologically.

First game of the month, away leg vs. Lyon. We got off to a glorious start going 1 up in less than 60 seconds, but found ourselves level before the break and struggled to find a decisive second until Konan pops up 12 minutes from time with an unbelievable freekick; 2-1.

Wedged between our Europa League semi-final was a home league game vs. Maritmo. Now I thought we'd be comfortable enough to rest a few, so that's what I did. Final result; 0-0. Sporting have a lifeline.

Home leg vs. Lyon. Another early goal to settle the nerves, but as last time they found the equaliser. However this time it didn't take us long to regain the lead. We then were quite comfortable to play on the counter where we stuck two more past them before they got themselves a consolation goal. 4-2 winners and 6-3 on aggregate. Into the final we go vs. AC Milan.

A must win penultimate league game vs. Chaves now. Fail to win and I think we through away the league. Sporting proper on our heels. Continuing our early scoring fashion we managed to take the lead after 5 minutes, a bit of a relief. We conceded right on half time, which was a real blow. We came out and didn't look the same side. Tired and complacent. Nothing happened until the 80th minute when we got a fortunate penalty which we slot home. A massive 2-1 victory and the title is ours baring an absolute miracle to swing our goal difference. 

Final league game, away vs. Setubal. We lost 2-1 but it didn't matter, our goal difference was far superior at this stage (it goes down by head to head when level on points initially) and we clinch the league title. 

The Europa League final. At Porto's ground no less. Strong AC Milan side, however we've been a dominate force in Europa ourselves and I truly fancy our chances. Oh yeah it's worth noting that our regular #1 got injured and missed this game and the final, so had to bring in a youngster who has hardly featured. This match would have been an excellent watch for the neutral, both teams had chances and both looked to attack. We landed the first blow when Shaqiri put us 1-0 up on 19 minutes. More chances came for both but no more goals. Late in the game I made some changes to bring on some fresher legs and heads to tie things over. 89th minute they get a man sent off. 93rd minute we get the second and it's game set and match. Final result; 2-0 and we are Europa League champons.

And then finally, Cup final vs. Sporting. My record vs. Sporting is not that good, so it'd be a good time to turn that around. And, for a bit, it looked that way when we went ahead shortly before half time with Belotti. But 3 minutes later came the equaliser, Camacho with this first goal of the season no less. I had Jardel on the bench as this was the last match he could feature in before his retirement. 65th minute one of my CBs were flagging so I brought him on. A minute later we concede and go 2-1 down, we then get a man sent off, and look an awful side for the final 20 minutes. We lose in the end 2-1. Happy retirement, Jardel. 

Confirmation of our successes and failures of the season.

Sharing the points with Sporting in the league, but winning on goal difference after we both won our respective home games 1-0. Belotti with 51 goals in the season, which is just madness.

Really good season overall, I have no complaints whatsoever. Except just how poorly our finances have been handled. Like severely bad. We were in a lot of debt (I believe I may have sold a player or two by the time I took the above screenshot), and were falling even further into it. I only have 50% transfer revenue being made available, but I will have to move some high value and high earners on to fix our finances. It's certainly going to be a sell before I buy kinda window.

For those curious, a little FC Groningen update:

Won the league, doing what I never managed, staying undefeated (29 win, 5 draw)

Crashed out bottom of the group in the Champions League.

[Danny]

So I thought I'd start a new file, make it as easy as possible but at the same time there still being a challenge. I chose Arsenal, plenty of money, lots of stars.

I sold Oxlade-Chamberlain and brought in Carlos Bacca and William Carvalho. First game of the season again Spurs, lost 4-0. Harry Kane with all the goals. Literally didn't even try and win the game.

[Danny]

So I've gone about 7-8 games streak and won all but one. I only do my team speeches on Calm or Passionate now and it seems to be getting morale and average performance levels up

[Danny]

Arsenal FC

My full post from beginning to now:

I started the season with mixed results, but mostly bad-mixed results. In fact my first match could not have gone any worse, an away game at Spurs, my first North London Derby and Harry Kane smashes four past me to beat me 4-0. In the Summer I sold Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for £30m, absolute bargain. I had a transfer kitty of around £35m to begin with so I managed to bring in both William Carvalho and Carlos Bacca. Carvalho has been in and out of the side but has slowly pushed himself in, Bacca has been in form all season and has scored 11 goals so far (currently January).

 

August - November

In this time I lost 7 games, drew 3 and won 10. Not relegation form but enough to push me out of the title race and at the time, enough to keep me mid table and away from the Champions League spots. Fortunately I've managed to stay in every competition I've been in, semi finals of the League Cup, KO stage of the CL. I finished second in my group, about 5-6 points behind PSG so I drew Real Madrid in the draw 

At the end of November I played Leicester, PSG and Everton. Leicester smashed me 3-0, PSG took a 3-1 lead against me before I pulled it back to 3-3, just moments before they scored a last minute winner to make it 4-3. You'd think things couldn't get much worse for me, then Everton beat me 5-2.

 

November - Present

Since that Everton game I have played 13, drawn 3 and won 10. I changed my formation to a 5 man defence and have only conceded three times since. In the January transfer window Hector Bellerin demanded a move back to Barcelona and I managed to get £35m for him. I replaced him with Martin Montoya for £20m and then brought in Sebastion Giovinco and Ryan Sessegnon for £8m and £10m each. I sold Carl Jenkinson for £10m and sold Lucas Perez for £12m, neither really featured for me. I've also signed Ozil and Sanchez to long term deals. Currently chasing the league title even though I'm 12 points behind leaders City, but there's still 16 league games to play and my next game is agains them.

 

[Dave]

Great stuff from @StefBWFC  with Sheffield United. Quite surprised your league form didn't suffer more from the cup run. Still will be interesting to see how you push on now. Same with @Takyon at Newcastle. Senegal winning the World Cup on @Takyon's save made me lol. What on earth went on with everybody else there. I seem to be having the same problem with you in regards to strikers being toothless in front of school.

Not surprised you won The Europa League @R-D but with what's happened at Gronigen maybe Europe was always the distraction from you going a whole season unbeaten!

@Stan My first save on this game was similar to that. I think that there was something like eight or nine teams that could have finished second and get promoted. Rafa's Newcastle drew that day and didn't make the playoffs!

@Danny the unorthodox performance there working is odd to say the least. Do you see much posession with it?
 

[Danny]

@Aaroncpfc I see a fair amount, between 50-70% I'd say depending on the opponent. It's unorthodox but in how the players line up it's actually really effective. I always have 5 defenders back and 5 attackers going forward, but because I've got 3 centre backs and a DM there's no gap between the midfield and defence so I'm on top of counter attacks and I can also push the opposition away when they attack my box. The three centre backs also spread out so with my wing backs chasing back I don't have to worry about being caught out-wide.

The wing backs in the system (depending on the opponents I can play them higher up) offer all the width which is most of my creativity. Bellerin had 9 assists by January and in his first 3-4 games Montoya now has two. Carlos Bacca provides the typical centre forward type goals for the direct play from the wings and Sanchez and Ozil/Ramsey help create the intricate play so it's a well balance system. Then I have Cazorla and Carvalho pinging the ball around from the edge of the box/deeper. Still unbeaten in about 14-15 games playing it.

I feel like I've gone from Paul Ince to Pep Guardiola in a day 

[Takyon]

Got lucky with another favourable cup run again, this time in the Europa League. Just been drawn against Norwich in the semi final and had Braga, Salzburg and Athletic Bilbao in the previous rounds which has seen us avoid some big names like Chelsea, Juventus, Inter and Sevilla. Not sure how Norwich have managed to get this far, they're a decent mid-table side but have no right being in the last four of a European tournament, they've knocked out some really good sides like Inter and Fiorentina as well despite some pretty poor league form. 

@Aaroncpfc I'm not sure why but the African teams all performed really well at the World Cup. Senegal, Mali and Cameroon all reached the quarter finals and knocked out some of the best teams along the way. I've managed to sort out my striker problems with a new signing and changing my formation up a little, got two strikers above the 20 goal mark this year which is a very nice feeling. 

[Dave]

Here's the league table at the end of 2021. The league table flatters us a lot as that's the highest we've been all season  We spent most of the season tied between 16th and 17th. I think Brighton and Fulham will drop which is what I thought at the beginning of the season. The last place will probably be between us, Norwich, Watford and Bournemouth when I look at the quality of the squads in the league.

Here's the results up until now. As you can tell we really needed those two wins just after Crhristmas. We have really struggled for goals this season other than an emphatic win against West Brom. It really happened after Tammy Abraham's unfortunate injury. But Bellfodil seems to turn up against relegation rivals and Jordan Rhodes puts in a performance against the better clubs in the league.

 

Here's my strongest team at the minute.

Nick Hayes has adapted really well to The Premier League and is keeping Alex Smithies out the team.

Joshua Emmanuel, another academy player, has adapted well too and has made the position his own. Trevoh Chalobah's versatility has been useful as cover.

In the center another academy player in Matt Swift has been really impressive. I had faith in Axel Tuanzebe to make an impact but I didn't know how Matt Swift would get on. They've both forged a good partnership and other teams are taking note. Kourtney Hause is having to settle for backup.

Tommy Swift has had to drift to left back because of the Swift/Tuanzebe partnership. This is partly because Jay DaSilva hasn't played to the standards expected and Morgan Fox isn't good enough.

Issac Hayden is the jigsaw piece that connects everything together. He's calm, composed, and always puts in a good performance.  He's really pushed on as a very good, established Premier League player.

Luke Hyam has been a bit of an unsung hero. I was going to get rid of him in the summer but I ran out of money to place ihim. He has a chance early on and took it and I haven't been in a position to drop him since. Dale Stephens, Teddy Bishop and Ruben Loftus Cheek have all been good too. I've been trying out formations to keep them all in the team.

A surprising disapointment has been Andre Dozzell. He's never really shown us his full potential in The Premier League. Shame really as I thought he'd take this league by the scruff of the neck and really push on. Thankfully Teddy Bishop has been excellent in his place.

Tariq Fosu and Ademola Lookman have been ok at times whilst Callum McMannaman, Patrick Roberts and Izzy Brown have not been good enough at all and would do well to play a part in the second half of the season.

The forwards have not done as well as I would have liked as I previously mentioned. Belfodil is starting to show his abilities, and Jordan Rhodes has popped up at times. Niall Ennis however has been really disapointing. Tammy Abraham's injury has really his us hard.

----

Not planning any January activity. Partly because I have no money and partly because I want to see how far this squad can go. Hopefully we can survive and I can integrate some more Academy players next season.

[Takyon]

Newcastle United 2018/19 Season Review:

 

Premier League - 4th

P38 - W21 D9 L8 - Pts 72

We began the season in fine form as we won six of our opening nine games including a solid 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge. Our sole loss in this run of games came to Watford who battered 4-1 at Vicarage Road. These two games signified a change of order in the Premier League as Chelsea, Liverpool, Man Utd and Spurs lost their grip on the upper reaches of the table while a group of upstart mid-table teams led by ourselves, Watford and Bournemouth looked to capitalise on their misfortune. Such was the decline of Liverpool et. al that come January they were left languishing in mid-table some way off the pace in the battle for a Champions League spot. At this point we had been sitting comfortably in the top 4 for a number of months, while we had no chance of catching Arsenal and Man City in the title race I fully expected us to keep hold of our Champions League spot come the end of the season. However the sleeping giants had other ideas, at Liverpool Jurgen Klopp was fired in favour of PSV's Phillip Cocu who had guided the Dutch side to four consecutive Eredivisie, Man Utd followed suit as Vincenzo Montella, fresh from breaking Juventus' Serie A streak with Milan took over from Mourinho while Spurs ditched Pochettino for Klopp which hardly seemed like a good idea. Liverpool and Man Utd's new appointments stirred their teams into a run of excellent form and they both quickly began to rise the table and blew the battle for Europe wide open. Come March only 5 points separated 3rd from 10th. We'd struggled to carry over our form from the first half of the season and found ourselves outside of the top four courtesy of Liverpool who had won 7 of their 8 games under Cocu including a 2-0 victory over us which looked to be pivotal. However our luck was in as Liverpool lost to relegation threatened rivals Everton and proceeded to completely collapse, winning only 1 of their next 8 and giving us a chance to regain the spot which had been ours for so long earlier in the season. However while Liverpool had faded away as quick as they came, Man Utd were not about to go away so easily. Ultimately it was us, Man Utd, Bournemouth and Watford who were to battle it out for the remaining two Champion's League places and it all came down the last game. We faced a difficult away game at Bournemouth although we were on the back of five consecutive wins. Similarly United had won their last 6 games and had a comparatively easy game against already relegated Stoke. Watford however were in the best form having gone unbeaten in 8, winning 7 but faced the most difficult test as they played title chasing Man City.  As we came to the last day of the season the table looked like this:

3rd - Newcastle - 71 Points

4th - Watford - 70 Points

5th - Man United - 69 points

6th - Bournemouth - 67 points  

Our game against Bournemouth was a very cagey one as neither team could afford to give the other an inch. There was no such problem at Old Trafford as Man United socred two goals in the first ten minutes and looked to have already booked their place in Europe. Come halftime at Dean Court neither us nor Bournemouth could fashion a breakthrough and the story was the same at Vicarage Road where Watford and Man City were also deadlocked. As things stood we would qualify in 4th place due Man United's superior goal difference. The second half followed a similar pattern to the first and it looked like the game would end in a stalemate until Zaha found Azmoun unmarked on the edge of the six yard box and he proceeded to hammer the ball into the post, typical Football Manager. The deadlock would not be broken as the game finished 0-0. However at Vicarage Road there was late drama as two late goals were scored, Gabriel Jesus broke the deadlock for Man City in the 87th minute before doubling his tally in the 92nd minute to absolutely ensure we would playing in the CL in 2019/20.

UEFA Europa League - Knocked out in the Final

Our triumph in the FA Cup last season saw Newcastle return to the European stage. In the group stages we were drawn against Celta Vigo, CSKA Moscow and Vitesse. While we had done well to avoid any of the big sides in the competition Moscow and Celta Vigo were both good sides. We began our campaign at home against the projected whipping boys of the group Vitesse, however things did not quite go to plan as we drew 0-0. We were able to rectify this however as we stole an undeserved late win away to Celta Vigo in the next game and followed suit with a 91st minute equaliser in Russia. While we weren't necessarily playing well we were getting points on the board. Back to back wins against Vitesse and Moscow followed and put us in 1st and saw our final group game against 2nd place against Celta be pivotal in who would qualify as a seeded team for the second round. Ultimately the game was uneventful and finished 0-0 but saw us qualify from the group as a seeded team meaning we'd avoid some of the big hitters such as Inter, Fiorentina and Sevilla in the next round.  

We drew SC Braga in the first knockout round who were a very solid side. The first game took place in Portugal and while we didn't perform to our full ability we came back with a 2-2 draw and the two away goals put us in the driving seat. Ultimately we didn't need to rely on away goals as we won 2-1 at St James' Park. The next round was a more favourable draw as we faced Red Bull Salzburg who were no match for us as we beat them 3-0 at home and 2-0 away to book our place in the quarter final. Up next was a trip to Bilbao as Athletic beat us 1-0 in Spain thanks to an unstoppable 30 yarder from Raul Garcia. However a change in formation paid dividends in the return leg as we romped to a 4-0 victory courtesy of an Adam Armstrong hat trick.

The semi final saw us come up against more familiar opposition as somehow Norwich had made it to the final four of the competition despite their questionable league form. However they proved to be no pushovers in the first leg as we were held to a 1-1 draw at Carrow Road. However in front of our own fans we proved to be too much for the Canaries as we brushed them aside with 3-1. Once again a favourable cup run had seen us reach a final, this time against Chelsea, a team we'd had the better of in the league this season. However this time we couldn't take the trophy home as we simply didn't turn up and slumped to a 2-0 defeat. It was disappointing to lose to beatable opposition but we were lucky to even be in the final given out favourable draws.  

League Cup - Knocked Out in the 3rd Round

With the extra games of the Europa League the League Cup was not a priority for me. We drew Everton in the 3rd round and I opted to field a second string team as fixtures were particularly congested at this time. We actually went 2-0 up in the early stages of the game through two Craig Bryson goals but through it away just as quickly through an own goal and conceding a penalty. The game ultimately finished 3-2 to Everton. 

FA Cup - Knocked Out in 6th Round

I took the FA Cup a bit more seriously seeing as it was our title to defend. In similar fashion to last season we received favourbale draws against Eastleigh who we beat 4-1 in the 3rd Round, Portsmouth at home in the 4th Round who couldn't withstand us and lost 3-0 and Fulham in the 5th Round who we dispatched 2-0. The 6th Round saw us come up against Watford on the back of an away game to Salzburg in Europe. While we put up a good fight Watford had the legs to finish us off 2-1 in extra time. We got the last laugh though as we pipped them to the Champions League!

 

Transfers:

Summer:

Nampalys Mendy - £3.5m Leicester - Towards the end of the previous season I had changed my formation to include a defensive midfielder. Come August I wanted a true first team quality player and Mendy fit the bill and had the added bonus of being cheap due to Leicester transfer listing him. Mendy began they season as first choice but proved to be a bit of a liability due to his habit of getting booked twice. He ultimately lost his first team place to Isaac Hayden who impressed during one of Mendy's multiple suspensions. He was still a useful rotation option however and never complained about his lack of playing time.

Andre Moreira - £3.5m from Atletico Madrid - Karl Darlow had not been a comforting presence in goal last season and ultimately lost his place to Emiliano Martinez who is not good enough to be number one so I hit the transfer market in search of a replacement. Moreira had better attributes than Darlow in every department and proved himself to be a solid keeper, keeping 14 league clean sheets in his first season. At 23 there's still scope for him to improve to so I think this was a steal at just £3.5m especially as Madrid didn't want to sell. 

Sardar Azmoun - £8m from Rostov - Given the failure that was the signing of Teoddorcyzk last season I was apprehensive of bringing in another striker from the Russian league but I ultimately went through with it and it paid off nicely. Azmoun hit the ground running and scored 15 goals in his first 14 games before suffering a dislocated shoulder. After he recovered he struggled to find the same level of form and for time in the team due to the form of Adam Armstrong but still finished the season with a very good tally of 21 goals. 

Lasse Sobiech - £1.3m from Gladbach - With us fighting on more fronts I wanted more depth in defence and Sobiech proved to be a great deputy for Lascelles and Mbemba, particularly when the latter went to the African Cup of Nations.

Theo Hernandez - £20.5m from Atletico Madrid - The left hand side of defense had become an issue again as Tyrone Mings' contract issues affected his on field play. Given that I'd been quite frugal with the hefty transfer budget I'd been given I decided to sign a marquee player to shore up the left back spot for the foreseeable future. Despite being a club record signing Hernandez proved to be a steal and is already one of the best players in the team despite being only 21. The days of leaking goals through our left hand side are long gone now and he also provides a good attacking threat too, chipping in with 7 assists. Thanks god for minimum fee release clauses because there's no way I could have afforded him otherwise.

Joel Campbell - Free Transfer - This was undoubtedly my best signing of the season as I picked up Campbell after his Arsenal contract expired to replace the outgoing Matt Ritchie. He proved to be a massive improvement over Ritchie as he contributed a huge 17 goals and 17 assists in all competitions.  

Wayne Rooney - Loaned from Man Utd - Brought in to add a bit of depth but only played one game before he requested to have his loan terminated.

Tim Krul - Released - Krul was on a massive contract and not up to scratch anymore so I was more than happy to see the back of him.

Matt Ritchie - £25.5m to OM  - Ritchie wanted a big wage rise that I wasn't willing to give him at 29 years old so he requested a transfer and I was more than happy to oblige when OM stumped up such a big fee for him. His departure made way for Joel Campbell's arrival so it was a great piece of business all round.

Lukasz Teodorcyzk - £13m to Porto - Given how badly he'd failed for us I was happy when Porto decided to activate the future fee in his loan contract. We actually managed to get all our money back for him and even made a little profit when his loan fee from last season is factored in.

Massiado Haidara -£8m to OM - Would've been third in the pecking order behind Hernandez and Lazaar so I decided to let him go when I got a good offer.

Tyrone Mings - £6m to Watford - Decided he wanted to leave after contract debacle at the end of the season. I was happy to let him go as his performances had been declining although the fee was disappointing.

Isaac Cuenca - £3.6m+ to Palermo - He never hit it off in England and with the arrival of Mak last season and Campbell this he was surplus to requirements. We did very well to make £3m profit on him (potentially rising to 5!)

DeAndre Yedlin - £1m to MK Dons - Was never good enough to make it here.

Aleksander Mitrovic - Loaned to Basel - After a poor season I wanted to get rid of Mitrovic as he was on ridiculous wages (£75,000p/w!) but couldn't find anyone who would pay them. I thought a loan to a team like Basel would do his stock some good but for whatever reason Swiss League games aren't simulated so he only played in the Europa League and I couldn't recall him. 

January:

Joris Van Overeem - £4m from AZ  - With Diame leaving we needed a new rotation option who could play in both central and attacking midfield. Van Overeem actually proved to be a big improvement over Diame and put in some excellent performances when called upon.

Karl Darlow - £1m to Spurs - 3rd choice goalkeeper and eating up wages it was important we got rid of him although I was disappointed the best we could get was £1m. 

Mohamed Diame - £1.5m to Celtic - Wanted more first team football so I decided to cash in while I could because he's not getting any younger. 

Rob Elliot - £200k to Burnley - Elliot was on a stupid contract (thanks Pardew) so I'd been trying to get rid of him for years and finally managed it. It wasn't a big fee but it was my favourite sale of the window. 

Season Review:

Newcastle Best XI:

I don't have a clue who Lewis Neville is or why he's on my Best XI substitutes 

 

Once again we've had a very good season. I'm hoping that qualifying for the Champions League will allow us to attract some higher quality players to solidify our place in the top four. That will be a tough ask though with Man United and Liverpool returning to form.