10 Stops and Home

[TheWriter]

10 Stops and Home

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I have decided to start up my own little self-challenge; 10 stops and home. The concept is fairly simple: win the top division and continental cup with 10 different teams spanning 1 manager's career. I have selected 9 of the 10 nations, the last, will be decided in the comments throughout this thread's lifespan and when I have conquered my defined nine, it will be up to you guys to decide. So, here are the 9 nations that I have opted for:

1. Argentina
2. Brazil
3. England
4. France
5. Holland
6. Italy
7. Portugal
8. Spain
9. USA

3 different continents, that's right. Now, I will not be going from the bottom to the top or anything like that (I hope), instead I plan on hopping from big team to big team, starting off with...Manchester United.

Not a huge challenge if consider the team, but I thought it was the best way to start seeing as they were without manager at the start of the year and I wanted to start at a large team, very rare occasion for me on FM. I shall not "choose" the other teams from the other nations, but instead I shall go for whichever job I find and see fit to choose. I will try to stay in jobs for as long as possible, rather than just resigning after all is said and done at one club.

Year	Club	Honours
2013-2014	Manchester United	Community Shield Winners Capital One Cup Winners Barclays Premier League Winners FA Cup Winners UEFA Champions League Winners

 

[TheWriter]

View attachment 439478
MUFC Summer 2013 Round-Up
By Jurgen Bureal


Transfers
Raphael Varane - Real Madrid - ?23,000,000
Jan Vertonghen - Tottenham Hotspur - ?20,000,000
Total: ?43,000,000

Transfer Analysis
It is blatantly obvious to see that the new gaffer is trying to build on what could have been an ageing defence. With Rio & Vidic both in their 30's and looking the most likely to be taking on the roles going into the new season, it's nice to see some very solid replacements already in the wings such as Smalling, Evans & Jones, but Varane and Vertonghen are both different class players, Varane tipped to be a legend, Vertonghen certainly a strong ally also. A heft ?43,000,000 spent with nothing recouped, but a season of spending might not be all bad for The Reds!



Friendly Results
0-1 Loss v. Santos Laguna (Away)
4-0 Win v. Werder Bremen (Away)
2-0 Win v. Philadelphia (Away)
4-0 Win v. Lazio (Home)

Friendly Analysis
It was never going to be the most testing pre-season for the United squad, but they did get off to a rough start in Mexico. With a full team out against Santos Laguna, they struggled to find the back of the net despite having over 20 shots, half on target. From then on though they made some possibly tricky ties look practically like a walk in the Ewood. 4-0 wins against Lazio and Werder Bremen were both fantastically well earned and deserved too.



A Look Ahead
From what I've seen, the manager has opted for a 4-4-1-1 formation, from this, I have deduced this as the possible (Best XI) for the upcoming season:

View attachment 439473

With the Community Shield first up, and with a few of these players out, I think it will be intriguing to see how the new gaffer lays out his team. It'll be an exciting year and I'm sure that we need to be behind the manager!

Community Shield review coming soon!

​

 

[ZeCarlos]

Nice start - I like the layout because it's simple and not confusing - yet also informative and nice to look at. Two very good signings there; albeit a little expensive haha. Looking forward to more!

 

[TheWriter]

View attachment 439463

2013 Community Shield Review

View attachment 439459
Manchester United 5
Robin Van Persie (42, 45+1, 85), Michael Carrick (44), Raphael Varane (53)

Wigan Athletic 0
-


A thrilling afternoon at Wembley for the 2013 Community Shield as The Reds put 5 past now-Championship side WIgan Athletic in front of a packed out Wembley Stadium.

United lined up with summer signing Raphael Varane at the back alongside 31-year-old captain Vidic, ahead of what was to be a very good afternoon for the Red half of the Wembley crowd. Much discussion and debate was had pre-game as to whether it would be Vertonghen alongside either one of these two, but Jan failed to even make the bench, after failing to recover from a hamstring twinge felt in training pre-game.

It would take United 42 minutes to score their first, Robin Van Persie putting the ball where it belongs from close range. It would then descend into something of a scoring spree as the next two goals went in before the half time break with ever-improving midfield maestro Michael Carrick making some room for himself before neatly tucking the ball under the diving goalie. In the 44th minute before Van Persie collected his second with a rifling volley on the stroke of half time.

For the travelling WIgan fans, their day was not to get off the ground, let alone get any better. New signing Varane collected the loose ball at his feet after a corner was not dealt with by the Latic's defence. The 20-year-old Frenchman then tucking the ball away from just a few yards to make it 4-0, a debutant goal for the promising youngster.

The afternoon just got better and better for Manchester United and RVP, the Dutch striker piling on the misery with a pile-driver from the edge of the box, giving the ex-Arsenal man a hat-trick in the manager's first game in charge.

All in all, a very satisfying afternoon's work at Wembley for The Reds, and hopefully not for the last time this season! That being said, I doubt we'll be seeing a 5-0 drubbing at Wembley again any time soon! For the gaffer though, a first win and a first trophy held aloft in the glimmering sunshine. He smiled and clapped the fans, later thanking them for their travels and their tremendous support, claiming it was "their day".

Coming soon: August 2013 review!​

 

[TheWriter]

View attachment 439448
August 2013 Review

Barclays Premier League
Matchday One

Crystal Palace 0
-
Manchester United 3
Michael Carrick (21), Shinji Kagawa (59), Antonio Valencia (85)


Barclays Premier League
Matchday Two

Manchester United 4
Michael Carrick (9, 45), Raphael Varane (33), Danny Welbeck (90)
Nemanja Vidic s/o (35)
Swansea 0
-



Player Of The Month

View attachment 439445

Michael Carrick - 2 Appearances - 3 Goals - 8.80 Average

A fantastic month for the England central midfielder, scoring 3 goals in his 2 league starts, and 4 in 3 if you include the Community Shield. A solid showing from the 32-year-old who blew opposition away with his fantastic work rate and finishing that nobody ever knew he had up his sleeve!



League Table

Pos	Team Name	GD	Pnts
1	Manchester United	+7	6
2	Everton	+3	6
3	Chelsea	+4	4
4	Stoke	+2	4
5	Arsenal	+2	4
6	Manchester City	+2	4

Next: A Champions League Group Stage Draw Special!​

 

[TheWriter]

View attachment 439435






Good afternoon all and welcome to this Champions League Group Stage Special! Today sees Europe's elite go into and out of the pots, and into the groups, where they will face off with each other twice, and after 6 games we will have the chosen 16, who will progress to February's Champions League First Knockout Round!

Let's have a look at the teams in the pots!


Pot 1 (1st Seeds)
FC Barcelona
Bayern Munich
Chelsea
Real Madrid
Manchester United
Arsenal
FC Porto
SL Benfica

Pot 2 (2nd Seeds)
Olympique Lyon
Shakhtar Donetsk
AC Milan
Schalke
Atletico Madrid
Olympique Marseille
CSKA Moscow
Paris Saint-Germain

Pot 3 (3rd Seeds)
Juventus
Zenit St. Petersburg
Manchester City
Ajax
Borussia Dortmund
Olympiakos
Galatasaray
Bayer Leverkusen

Pot 4 (4th Seeds)
FC Kobenhavn
Napoli
RSC Anderlecht
BATE Borisov
Steaua Bucharest
Viktoria Plzen
FK Austria Wien
Maccabi Tel-Aviv

---

The Groups have been drawn and they look like this:

Group A
Real Madrid
CSKA Moscow
Manchester City
Napoli

Group B
Bayern Munich
Atletico Madrid
Galatasaray
Steaua Bucharest

Group C
SL Benfica
Paris Saint-Germain
Borussia Dortmund
Maccabi Tel-Aviv
Group D
Manchester United
Shakhtar Donetsk
Juventus
BATE Borisov

Group E
FC Porto
Schalke
Zenit St. Petersburg
FK Austria Wien

Group F
Arsenal
Olympique Lyon
Ajax
Viktoria Plzen

Group G
FC Barcelona
Olympique Marseille
Olympiakos
RSC Anderlecht

Group H
Chelsea
AC Milan
Bayer Leverkusen
FC Kobenhavn



Summary
Well, from the Red Devil perspective, that draw is around about what we should have been expecting. The league is jam-packed with solid opponents and we have 3 of those joining us in Group D.

Shakhtar Donetsk -The Brazilian influence to the rich Ukrainians could be a very dangerous threat, especially in Eastern Europe. They do, however, have a very vulnerable defence, so if the team can stop the attacking qualities of players such as Bernard, they should be able to overwhelm and attack the weaker defence.

Juventus - The Italian champions are not of 3rd seed quality, the should probably be a 2nd seed if it was going off of potential. That's the scariest thing about Juventus, on their day they can be devastating but it is all potential, and if they fail to live up to it, our boys could have a nice time in Turin and back home at OT.

BATE Borisov - A small team from Belarus who have brushed shoulders with some of Europe's elite over the last few years, including FC Barcelona. They are a team that the gaffer knows well, having played a lot with them on Football Manager games but whether this knowledge will suffice will be a completely different matter.

A winnable group, all in all, although threats lay all around the team in this group. They must be wary of all teams, even BATE could put us out with a draw with how tight we predict this group to be!



Prediction
Manchester United
Juventus
Shakhtar Donetsk
BATE Borisov

 

[TheWriter]

View attachment 439406
September 2013 Round-Up

Barclays Premier League
Matchday Three

Norwich City - 1
Johan Elmander (28)
Manchester United - 1
Raphael Varane (55)
Marouane Fellaini s/o (58)


Barclays Premier League
Matchday Four

Arsenal - 2
Mikel Arteta (pen 44), Bacary Sagna (86)
Manchester United - 3
Michael Carrick (64), Robin Van Persie (76, 90+3)


UEFA Champions League Group Stage
Matchday One

Manchester United - 3
Wayne Rooney (5, 30), Arturo Vidal o.g. (37)
Juventus - 0
-


Barclays Premier League
Matchday Five

Manchester United - 4
Raphael Varane (45+1), Wayne Rooney (70), Goran Popov o.g. (79), Shinji Kagawa (83)
West Bromwich Albion - 1
James Morrison (41)


Capital One Cup
Round Three

Manchester City - 1
Edin Dzeko (8)
Manchester United - 3
Ryan Giggs (15), Robin Van Persie (43), James Milner o.g. (90)


Barclays Premier League
Matchday Six

Manchester United - 4
Robin Van Persie (11, 40), Raphael Varane (16), Shinji Kagawa (31)
Fulham - 1
Dimitar Berbatov (38)
Elsad Zverotic s/o (69)



Player Of The Month

View attachment 439405
Robin Van Persie - 5(1) Appearances - 5 Goals - 7.63 Average Rating

Batman must be lost without Robin as the Dutchman showed he's nobody's side-kick. Hitting 5 goals in 5 starts and one substitute appearance gave him our player of the month though it could have gone to any number of individuals who have helped the side to an unbeaten start to the 2013/14 campaign.



League Table

Pos	Team Name	GD	Pnts
1	Manchester United	+14	16
2	Everton	+8	16
3	Chelsea	+9	14
4	West Ham	+5	13
5	Stoke	+5	12
6	Arsenal	+6	10

​

 

[kiedude]

10th nation could be on from Asia? South Korea?

 

[TheWriter]

View attachment 439394

October 2013 Round-Up

UEFA Champions League Group Stage
Matchday Two

Shakhtar Donetsk - 0
-
Manchester United - 2
Robin Van Persie (1, 28)


Barclays Premier League
Matchday Seven

Manchester United - 2
Nani (39), Rio Ferdinand (63)
Cardiff - 1
Kris Commons (50)


Barclays Premier League
Matchday Eight

Manchester United - 1
Robin Van Persie (6)
Everton - 0
-


UEFA Champions League Group Stage
Matchday Three

BATE Borisov - 0
-
Manchester United - 3
Antonio Valencia (14), Robin Van Persie (49, 76)


Barclays Premier League
Matchday Nine

Sunderland - 2
Richard Smallwood (13), Ki Sung-Yeung (pen 28)
Manchester United - 1
Ryan Giggs (46)


Capital One Cup
Round Four

Manchester United - 4 (AET)
Robin Van Persie (pen 5, 105+1), Raphael Varane (11), Nani (115)
Southampton - 2
Jose Fonte (17), Pablo Osvaldo (38)



Player Of The Month

View attachment 439399
Robin Van Persie - 6 Appearances - 7 Goals - 7.61 Average Rating

Another incredible month from RVP, producing more than a goal a game, leading the team from the front line! So far this term he has 15 goals in 12 starts and 1 sub appearance. The Reds will need to look to keep him in form, because when he is, he is devastatingly good!



League Table

Pos	Team Name	GD	Pnts
1	Chelsea	+16	23
2	Manchester United	+15	22
3	Everton	+11	22
4	Stoke	+10	21
5	Tottenham	+5	17
6	West Ham	+3	17

​

 

[TheWriter]

Season 1
Finale

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News
So I got a little bored of the layout I was using, purely because it took longer than the matches. Anyway, this is the finale of the first season and...well...boy, oh boy, was it a season to remember!


Barclays Premier League Final Standings
View attachment 439373

Champions League Final
View attachment 439372


FA Cup Tree
View attachment 439371


Capital One Cup Tree
View attachment 439370


Squad
View attachment 439369


Comments
As I mentioned, a season to remember, a quintuple! The Charity Shield came first with a 5-0 win, then came the Capital One Cup with a penalty win against Newcastle, then we won the League with 4 games left, equalling Chelsea's 04-05 record points tally of 95, then we hammered Spurs 4-1 to pick up the FA Cup before it all culminating into one huge season with a 2-0 win against Barcelona in Portugal! Oh what a season!

I have signed a deal (I only had a 1 year deal to start with) with United for another 4 years. Now, i know the plan was to get done, but I never wanted to get done ASAP and I feel that enjoying the game and having fun is part of what I need in a save, this is definitely satisfying right now so it's what I'll stick with for sure! I've been handed a ?70M+ transfer budget for the new season, I'll look to only bring in the finest calibre once again, this time probably splashing out on a left back and a central midfielder, but we'll see how that all goes!

I'm not sure where the future lies, but the truth of the matter is, I don't care. I'm happy.