Can Lightening Strike Twice? The Sir Alex Ferguson Challenge.

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Can Lightening Strike Twice? The Sir Alex Ferguson Challenge
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I am a proud Liverpool fan, so then it is with great envy that I cast my attention down the M62 to Manchester United where one Sir Alex Ferguson revolutionised the club forever. After his era in charge of the club, the club will never be the same again, every successor will be forever cast in his shadow and with every feat having already being accomplished by him the scope for surpassing him is nigh impossible. During his 27 year reign from 1986-2013 he won 38 trophies, surely this kind of continued dominance will never be replicated again.

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That's where I come in.

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As far as the game is concerned i'm a 20 year old former international footballer with 15 caps and 2 goals for his country with a continental pro coaching licence, not bad for a 20 year old. This of course couldn't be further from the truth, but escapism through a virtual reality really is quite appealing these days. But of course in order to make this a truly authentic attempt at replicating Sir Alex there must be certain rules in place to make sure that I don't get distracted or side tracked, which is otherwise a very clear possibility...


Challenge Requirements

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  1. Holiday until 6th November - This is the date when Sir Alex took over Manchester United
  2. Take over the team 2nd from bottom in the Premier League -This is the position United were in when Ferguson took over
  3. Stay at this one club - I'm positive this doesn't need explaining...
  4. Aim to bring youth players through - Ideally my own "Class of '92"
  5. Win a domestic cup with 4 seasons - Ferguson won his first cup in the 89/90 season
  6. Win a league title within 7 seasons - Ferguson won his first title in the 92/93 season
  7. Win a league and cup double within 8 seasons - Ferguson won his first double in the 93/94 season
  8. Win the treble within 13 seasons - Ferguson won his famous treble in 98/99


Now that it's come around to actually attempting the challenge i'm actually feeling quite apprehensive. Not because i'm unsure of my FM skills, that much has already been established, but more because in the goals above there's a lot of trophies and a lot of progress that needs to be made within a set space of time. This puts a lot of pressure on what team I get. One of the teams I fear for example is Hull City, at the start of the game there's a bigger queue for the medic room at Hull than when Eva Carneiro was a physio at Chelsea, not that the injured players at Hull are anything special anyway...

To be honest the 6th of November is still quite early in the season with around 1/3 of the games being played by that point so it really could be any team in the league (fingers crossed Liverpool), regardless my brain keeps guessing as i'm watching in anticipation as I holiday away the days to that magical date when I get to find out who i'll be managing...
 
Odds on it being Everton? They always seem to struggle in FM17 and I think the irony of a Liverpool fan trying to emulate Sir Alex Ferguson with Everton would not be missed XD
 
Good luck with this, eager to see where it goes, I'm predicting Watford
 
neavie pops23 said:
Odds on it being Everton? They always seem to struggle in FM17 and I think the irony of a Liverpool fan trying to emulate Sir Alex Ferguson with Everton would not be missed XD
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Haha I hadn't even thought about that! I'd be caught in some sort of paradox whereby I want to win to complete the challenge but at the same time I'd be nonchalant about making them nosedive towards relegation haha!
 
6th November

The time has arrived, I hurriedly look up the Premier League table and in all honestly, I think the FM gods have been quite kind (to both me and Arsenal in 1st it seems)...

So there it is, Swansea City. I'm pleasantly surprised really, despite the fact that they're also struggling in real life I actually don't think that it will be too difficult to keep them up in the first season, and that is the goal the board have set for my first season. They also come with a delightfully large budget of £21m and 70k in free wages giving me plenty of room to reinforce the team if I feel the need. However, i'm not really sure where this money has come from, the club after all has a balance of £5m, the chairman therefore seems as willing to go into his overdraft as a University student with no concept of money.

But you're not going to find me complaining, if i'm to get this challenge off the ground i'm going to need the chairman to keep throwing money at me, quite the opposite to real life Swansea really. And so with the bigger picture surrounding the club complete I take a look at the first team and try to come to terms with the scale of the task in front of me.

Speaking generally, the team is pretty good and should be able to avoid relegation as it is, but the big problem really is the defence. The only positive in the defence really is that Fabianski is actually a solid 'keeper - and I never thought i'd say that - but even he's ageing. So when it comes round to the summer and maybe in January i'll need to replace the likes of Kyle Naughton and Federico Fernandez who are just weighing us down at the minute. Of course as far as stand out players go Swansea's appear to be:


Gylfi Sigurdsson
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Gylfi is going to be the player that I build this team around, at least at first. He is one of the finest shadow strikers that money can buy at the start of the game and I expect him to win us points by himself as the season progresses.

Borja Baston

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Borja Baston is a truly interesting player, in real life I wouldn't say I rate him, in fact Fernando Llorente looks far better than him. However, this is the virtual world where Borja's stats are far more impressive, it will be tight between Llorente and Baston for who starts in my 1 striker system but Baston is edging it at the minute based on his stats alone, but there's scope for that to change.

Ki Sung Yeung

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There's been speculation in real life about Ki being poached by other bigger teams but Swansea have managed to hang onto him, and taking over here I couldn't be any more grateful. His stats look fantastic and considering his age he could be here for a while, but having said that everyone has their price and even Ki is replaceable, but for the time being he will be integral to the way this team plays as I look to bring back the "Swansea style of play" (whatever that is).

Now this has to be the most interesting player in this list for one simple reason; he doesn't actually play for Swansea in real life. He appears to have been signed on a rather curious loan deal as well, the deal has a clause whereby we can purchase him only if we win the FA Cup, and then we have to pay £30m. I think it's a good thing that I took over. However, despite questionable terms on his deal I am actually grateful to have him here because his stats look brilliant, especially for his age. He is versatile, being able to play on either flank and ultimately he'll probably be a starter for me depending on how he progresses, my only fear here being that he'll have a storming season and get poached by a bigger team.



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And so there we have it, I am the manager of Swansea City with them sitting in 19th place in the table. I feel genuinely hopeful about this challenge now, although the task ahead of me is still huge it is in some way helped by the fact that I am actually taking over what I hope is a decent team, and look how happy I am about it!



 
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Really looking forward to this! Don't sleep on Llorente, the dude always seems to destroy me!

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Of those that were in the bottom five I think Swansea were probably the second best pick, behind West Ham so you've done alright there! Can't believe Arsenal are 10out of 10
 
Sam91 said:
Really looking forward to this! Don't sleep on Llorente, the dude always seems to destroy me!

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
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I have thought about it but i'm not sure I think i'll just see how they both perform, I also like playing with an Advanced Forward which puts Baston in the prime position to. But I remember using Llorente on previous incarnations of FM and he was a god so he could yet be big for me!
 
dani3w said:
Of those that were in the bottom five I think Swansea were probably the second best pick, behind West Ham so you've done alright there! Can't believe Arsenal are 10out of 10
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Haha yeah Arsenal may become a nice little side story here if they become an Invincibles #2! And I agree, it could've been a lot worse, West Ham would've just been cheating though with the resources that they have available haha
 
Could have been so much worse but Swansea is a good selection given that it won't be as easier to do as say an Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea etc, but still not as impossible as a Burnley etc

Looking forward to it
 
neavie pops23 said:
Could have been so much worse but Swansea is a good selection given that it won't be as easier to do as say an Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea etc, but still not as impossible as a Burnley etc

Looking forward to it
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Thanks a lot! After you're last post i'm just grateful it's not Everton..
 
November 2016 Overview

Not long after i've sat down for my first day in charge and i've had chance to formally meet the chairman and my assistant I have an introductory meeting with the staff to pass on their thoughts with the squad, where they tell me that some members of the squad are feeling disenchanted and want to play more games. How right they were because as soon as I press continue Modou Barrow's name flashes up on my screen telling me that he wants first team football. Immediately he holds me to ransom saying that if I don't play him or sell him then he'll drag the whole squads morale down and turn them on me. Talk about a baptism of fire.


But I won't let the first thing I do at Swansea be bowing to player pressure, i'd rather severe my own foot and have Barrow himself develop Parkinsons and try to sew it back on using a pair of chopsticks. So I tell him he can get lost if he can't accept being a bit-part player. Which goes down well.




Thankfully there's not much of an uprising of note yet, not that there's many first team players for him to try and turn against me in the U23's. However, drama aside, I have to wait 13 days until my first game which gives me plenty of time to restructure the training, and bring in 3 new coaches to help out; Steve Cooper, Antti Niemi & Ray Wilkins. I hope the time I spent on improving the quality on the training field here can help get more quality out of the players on the pitch. Finally to complete my preparation for my first game I had a player meeting to make it clear to the players that the board expected us to avoid relegation this season. The players - most notably Leon Britton - were incensed and said I was being to unambitious, for a team in 19th position after a third of the season having being played already they were being brave. So I joined them and tried to win back the team and said we could achieve a mid table finish, Leon Britton seemed happy with this, and so did the rest of the squad. Forget Modou Barrow starting an uprising, Leon Britton seems to have the whole squad wrapped around his finger, i'll be looking to sell him ASAP, captain or not.

Regrettably, it seems that my first match is against Chelsea, who themselves are doing well, much like in real life, though not quite to that extent. So although it isn't an ideal first game i'd still like to see an improvement, a good performance atleast, it is at home and the home fans will be looking on expectantly. It's often the case in FM that my home form is much better than my away form, so i'm hoping to rely on that to shoot Swansea up the table. As I look at my line-up I question my choice of starting striker because the stats show that Borja Baston whom I highlighted as a key player when I first came in hasn't even started a single Premier League game yet! On the contrary Fernando Llorente has started 8 games and scored in 4 of them. But I stick to my guns and keep Borja Baston in, I hope his pace and impressive technical stats can stretch the Chelsea defence a bit more. And so this is the line-up I chose for the game, and my what a game it was...



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Swansea City 1-0 Chelsea

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What a first game! I was almost angry when I saw the Chelsea team to be honest, they are set up like they are the underdogs with how defensive their formation is, 8 of their 11 players being tightly boxed in around their half, very Italian Mr Conte.

But we had the best of the early chances and when Borja Baston was taken down by John Terry in the box, Gylfi Sigurdsson was the perfect man for the occasion as he converted the penalty with ease. After that we pushed for a second before half time, but then in the 2nd half I shut up shop and went all Italian on Conte, the perfect irony of it. What a start to life at the Liberty Stadium, the only drawback being a late injury to Kyle Naughton which is going to exploit the serious lack of cover at full backs in this squad, but overall a fantastic performance and this previously leaky defence looks revitalised!


Not long after the relative euphoria of the resounding victory over Chelsea i've triumphantly thumped the space bar a few times and accidentally found myself at the next game of my Swansea tenure, again at home against Sunderland. Sunderland currently sit bottom of the league, and so this game couldn't be any more important to helping decide how this season is going to go for us. If we lose we are sucked down into a relegation battle and start to lose touch with the teams outside of the relegation zone, but if we win we could find ourselves outside of the relegation zone already with aspirations to climb even higher! It's with that in mind that I stick as truly as possible to the team which got that impressive win over Chelsea, the only change being Joey O'Brien who signed for a free in the summer coming in to replace Kyle Naughton at right back, I tell him "I have faith in you" before he goes out, whilst i'm shaking my head in my hands grimacing at my laptop at the thought of what he might do wrong.



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Swansea 3-2 Sunderland

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Despite the best attempts of Joey O'Brien (I single him out for abuse after the game) and Jordi Amat to throw away what should have been a routine win after we took a record breakingly early lead thanks to Everton.




Then early in the second half Borja Baston finished off a nice passing movie to put us 2-0 up. But then, inexplicably in the 80th minute Joey O'Brien realises my worst fears and loses concentration (likely gazing at a passing butterfly) and lets in Defoe, only to realise his wrongdoing and hack him down in the box. Defoe himself duly converts, leaving me completely incensed. That is until 3 minutes later when Jordi Amat scores from a header, suddenly the wind of relief blows over me, I relax back into my chair and tell the team to go 'Defensive' and 'Highly Structured' just to give nothing else away late on. Jordi Amat however clearly doesn't respond well to authority because not even one minute after scoring and being told not to give anything cheap away by me he goes and scores the type of own goal that i'd envisioned for Joey O'Brien, so we spend the next 7 minutes camped in our box trying to keep out Sunderland's one man show that is Jermain Defoe and we manage it, just. With my nerves shot having witnessed Defoe go close a couple times I click advance and breathe one final sigh of relief as I see that we've climbed out of the relegation zone already. Football Manager really is one **** of a game sometimes.



If you thought that I got out of that scar free then you're very mistaken. As you can see on the above screenshot, I subbed Gylfi Sigurdsson off at half time, but not because of a tactical change, instead it was because he was injured.


​Suddenly Football Manager is looking like a much crueller game, he's out for 4 weeks. Which means he'll likely miss the next 5 or 6 games thanks to the busy December period, oh what i'd give for a winter break now.

Regardless though the month of November has seen my induction into the managers role at Swansea and so far, so good. I just need to find a way of making the team perform without their star player, hopefully we'll be more of a Take That without Robbie Williams rather than Destiny's Child without Beyonce.



 
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Doing well mate and a great win over Chelsea. Important to follow it up with a win over Sunderland given they'll be in and around the relegation zone all season so need to beat them to stay out of it. KUTGW
 
neavie pops23 said:
Doing well mate and a great win over Chelsea. Important to follow it up with a win over Sunderland given they'll be in and around the relegation zone all season so need to beat them to stay out of it. KUTGW
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Thanks a lot mate, you're absolutely right, that was the best bit about it really!
 
December Update

After a good start to life in Wales I look towards December with hope in my heart having won all of my games so far for The Swans. But with Sigurdsson now missing we face an interesting challenge as he misses a lot of games now and we need to adapt our system to accommodate for his loss, and I think I know how i'm going to do that.

Our first game of December is up against Stoke in our first away game for Swansea so far. My line up is pretty defensive, I pushed Ki Sung-Yeung a bit further up the pitch to dictate play in the centre of the park and brought club captain Leon Britton back into the team to keep play ticking over and add a bit more quality on the ball into the team. Apart from that though the team remains largely the same regrettably with Joey O'Brien responding well to my criticism that I level at him in a private chat I give him another chance against Stoke. Don't let me down Joey.


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Stoke 1-0 Swansea

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Regrettably the change of system didn't pay off. We conceded early on to Mame Diouf after Joey O'Brien was caught out on the ball and Arnautovic robbed him of it and set up Diouf for a tap in. To say I was frustrated is an understatement, I don't think i've ever had such contempt for a player as i've quickly developed for Joey here. So, in recognising that the system isn't working I changed it to this...




Using all 3 of my subs at half time to replace players that were playing poorly or needed to be taken off to make way for players who were more suited to the system. This included introducing Leroy Fer who was just coming back from injury, and he looks quite good and i'm sure i'll use him once he's properly fit, but I needed to risk him here in the hope he could provide a little bit of magic. Unfortunately, he could not, nor could anyone else and it finished 1-0 and my roll of the dice hadn't paid off.



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Next up though was the draw for the 3rd round of the FA Cup, a competition i'm highly interested in given that a run in that could really add some much needed excitement and positivity to the season.



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Wow, a South Wales derby in the 3rd round. Now that's the kind of excitement that I was hoping for! It might make the tie a bit more difficult and make progression in the competition harder but an opportunity to wipe the wry smile off of Neil Warnocks face is one I won't pass up on!

Quickly before our next game I notice that the fans have started picking up on the weak links in our team..




Our next game is an interesting one, on the face of it i'd expect us to do well against Bournemouth considering they have Callum Wilson suspended at the minute and only really Jack Wilshere stands out as an outstanding player in the team, but nonetheless I think we are best suited erring on the side of caution. This is because Bournemouth are currently 6th in the table, i'm not really sure how but somehow they're playing out of their skin and i'm not going to underestimate them. So with that being said I stick with the same defensive line-up that started so horrifically against Stoke in the hope that they've all learned their lessons. What's that saying that Einstein bloke said? Madness is doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results? Nah, can't be that.



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Bournemouth 3-0 Swansea

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Now, I may sound like i'm in denial, but that actually went quite well! We had the same amount of shots, dominated possession, I can't really say where we went wrong. I went attacking at half time to try and chase the game in the second half, which backfired completely and within half an hour the game was gone as we got hit on the break twice. I'd blame my forwards but my defenders barely covered themselves in glory this game either, with Joey O'Brien picking up a 6.4 (actually quite good for him) his days look numbered. Making matters worse Jefferson Montero looked quite good, and duly got himself injured. But I won't let that get me down, we deserved to win and I won't let anyone tell me otherwise.


In much better news though I found a buyer for my earliest problem at this club, Modou Barrow, the revolution he leveraged against me hasn't really materialised but nonetheless i've decided to bend to his whim and show him the door in a deal worth £3.1m. Considering his only decent attribute is his pace and he's past the age of saying "he's got potential" i'm happy to let this stick in the mud go before his negativity spreads through the squad like a cancer.




Next up is West Brom, and in a desperate attempt to try and recover the momentum and form that I had before this nightmare called "December" I revert back to my original 4-2-3-1 formation, but using Leroy Fer as a direct replacement for Gylfi Sigurdsson. I happily drop Leon Britton in the process. Talking of dropped players I've had quite enough of Joey O'Brien and his 'accident waiting to happen' attitude to defending, so I scoured around my U23's for a youth player who could take his place and saw that Angel Rangel had been training with the U23's, clearly not favoured by the old manager he was now looking like my saving grace. God, may you have sent this Angel to my U23's to bestow upon me 3 points.



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Swansea 2-2 West Brom

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No such luck i'm afraid, not even holy intervention could get us 3 points at this stage. But we are atleast scoring, and we are yet to lose at home. Leroy Fer has a definite impact in the game and just before half time Jack Cork makes the game look much closer than it is by scoring a beauty. For a few seconds I thought a deity had intervened in the 77th minute when Leroy Fer capped off a good move, but no less than 2 minutes later Rondon tanked his way through my defence and scored again to cap off his brace. Typical, our team knows they were in a game against a Tony Pulis team to with the Welsh manager conveying his anger management problems over to his players as they commit 33 fouls in the game compared to our 12!




​Nevertheless, I won't let Tony Pulis' ravenous dogs get us down, we go next to Everton in search of our 1st points on the road and everything about it screams defeat. However, i'm given hope when I look at their team and see that they're playing the same defensive 4-3-3 that I was using and getting slapped by teams with, except in the playmaker role where I had put Ki, they have Tom Cleverley, I have a smug laugh to myself and set up my team exactly how Bournemouth did against me when I used Everton's system against them. This includes starting Llorente and dropping Leroy Fer since he isn't quite 100% over his injury yet. I also try something new on the right side of midfield as Zuqui comes in to try and add some quality out wide. I also try to shore up the defence by bringing in Alfie Mawson for his first start under me, and all in all I have a good feeling about this.



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Everton 1-0 Swansea

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The smug smile on my face turns to pure dread and regret only 16 minutes in as Tom Cleverley scores one of the best goals i've ever seen on Football Manager. No word of a lie, the ball comes to him about 30 yards out, he has Jack Cork wrestling with him for it so he quickly volleys it on the bounce with his "weaker" left foot and it flies into the top corner. Unbelievable. I could not believe my eyes. After that we dominated the ball but just couldn't do anything with it. With my faith in Borja Baston in recent times wavering I withdrew him in favour of Everton, in the hope that Everton would put Everton to the sword, giving me the chance to use some clever word play. But nothing ever materialised, in truth nothing really materialised for either side all game despite my best efforts.



Nevertheless, I shall not let us whimper and die this early in the season, despite the team looking like an old dog that just wants to be put out of its misery. We're too young to die, and we have so much more to live for. We start picking our form up against no less than Man City, they haven't exactly gone easy on us with their line-up either, with them picking a very much full strength team. Nevertheless, we our conceding less goals now and we are occasionally scoring, so the only change I make to the team that lost to Everton is taking out Zuqui and bringing in Nathan Dyer, although Zuqui didn't play to badly last game, and he has done really well with our U23's Nathan Dyer is a Premier League winner, and that kind of pedigree means he belongs playing against the likes of Manchester City and I can't deny him that.



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Swansea 0-2 Manchester City

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Okay, so perhaps I should explain myself, no, this wasn't the game that we got our form back. Far from it. In fact actually we were awful. I'm sorry if you thought this whole replicating Sir Alex thing would be a doddle, but unfortunately it's not, for me anyway. Never the less the sun is shining outside. I think it is at least as I scowl over the match report of the game looking for where it all went wrong, maybe if the sun wasn't shining onto my laptop screen I could find out where we went wrong. I turn around and hiss at the light as I close the blind and set about winning this game.



You could be mistaken for thinking that my biggest problem right now is that we haven't got a single point away from home yet, you might even think that it's the fact that I just lost my unbeaten streak at home. Nope, my biggest problem right now is this.



That's right, the chosen one has had his head turned elsewhere and the Emperor Palpatine responsible for this is the Oil money of PSG, I try telling him that no one has ever enjoyed having more money, surprisingly he disagrees. He runs off in a mardy, tears rushing from his eyes, no doubt going to cry into his measly 70k a week salary he currently earns. Ungrateful, spoilt brat.

But despite his money fuelled fit he is actually over his injury now, this means that he goes straight into my starting 11 against Leicester in our next match. I switch to a 4-4-1-1 and drop Borja Baston who has been awful recently in the hope that Sigurdsson will play well whether he likes being here or not. Apart from that the only other change I make is replacing Alfie Mawson - who like Baston has barely covered himself in glory - with Fernandez, whom I hope can make an immediate impact in his first game for me now he's recovered from injury to. Come on Gylfi, 70k a week is enough, just keep us up.



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Swansea 0-0 Leicester

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Truth be told, we had the best of the game and i'm happy with a draw. A point at home against the reigning champions isn't a bad result. Another part of me is ecstatic about it because it is the first clean sheet we've kept since the 1-0 win over Chelsea in my first game for the club. So with all of these positives put together i'm just going to ignore the fact that that's the 5th game out of 8 that i've managed with Swansea that we've failed to score in. I don't even know why I brought it up really, it's just such a small detail that really threatens to ruin this nice moment for me...



Ignorance truly is bliss. Why should you face up to your problems when it's far easier to supress them and pretend that everything is okay? That is at least the attitude that i'm adopting when I am picking my line-up for our next game against West Ham, with all of the different formations and systems that i've tried recently this one seems the most promising right now and i'm going to stick with it whether Gylfi likes it or not. There is of course one minor alteration because at this point the games are coming thick and fast and although Angel Rangel has been doing brilliantly, he is actually quite old now so is indeed quite tired, which means regrettably a return for Joey O'Brien, but as i'm making changes I may as well put in Zuqui, he continues to play well for the U23's and god knows I need players that are in form right now, so with my right side of the pitch transformed I look forward to see if we can get that much anticipated first away win.



View attachment 101833

West Ham 1-4 Swansea

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YES. I don't believe it. I feel liberated. I shout in excitement as the Chiekhou Kouyate gets himself sent off with the game at 3-1 just after half time and i'm having a party in my room at 4-1 playing against 9 men because I know that even Joey O'Brien's best efforts couldn't mess this up, and even he scores a 7.7 rating. Sigurdsson was truly brilliant and showed exactly why clubs like PSG are after him, and yet exactly why I can't let him go, not yet anyway. Although Llorente may not have scored he did at the very least tear West Ham apart defensively and got himself 3 assists for his troubles, which is more than enough to satisfy me. We completely dominated the game and at last got the slice of luck we'd been waiting for all month. I breathe a huge sigh of relief, content in the knowledge that i've just woke up my flat and the room beneath me at about 3am. But **** to there cosy night, I beat West Ham away from home!




And with December now over I look at the table and after a pretty dismal month with barely anything to look back fondly at I can be pleased with the fact that we are still outside of the relegation zone, and with a good couple of results could quickly climb as high as 14th in the table. Suddenly i'm feeling very optimistic about this save again!

Hold that thought...



Mauricio Pochetino seems to be trying to rain on my parade. I look at their offer, considering the fact that their bid consists of paltry amounts of cash up front and the rest of the deal built up through bonuses and instalments I tell them to give me £20m up front and £10m over the next 18 months for him and he's there's. They point blank refuse and so i'm greeted by this...




It turns out that Judas #2 has been taking tips from Judas #1 and wants a move, I tell him i'll sell him for £30m, he says it's to much and kicks off and walks out. I'd hoped Leon Britton would be able to talk him out of this in the first place but ever since my first meeting with Britton and the team i've never really had the impression that he's really a fan of me. So if he thinks that if he can talk Jack Cork out of the club so he can take his place in the line-up, then he's wrong, very wrong indeed. I'll be damned if i'm going to be poached of my best players in the middle of a relegation dog fight, especially as i'm trying to fill the holes in the squad that already exist rather than going out of my way to create new ones.

This is going to be one very interesting transfer window...
 
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January Update

As the clock ticks over to the virtual new year discontent is rife within the dressing room. I never knew Jack Cork was so central to squad morale. The squad are outraged that I refused to cave in to sell one of the clubs best players in the middle of a relegation battle. Understandable really.



As you'd expect the conversation was quite a short one. Once I explained that they were all being stupid and some of the players leading the revolt (I'm looking at you Gylfi Sigurdsson) have something personal to gain here.



They all see sense and agree immediately, even SIgurdsson, maybe he's starting to warm to the idea of staying here. Which is good news because there's no way i'm letting him leave cheap and moneybags PSG seem to have run out of money. However, yet another mutiny aside thanks to my excellent man management skills we head to our first game of 2017 against Crystal Palace. You'll notice there's a lot of changes, 10 in fact. This is due to playing 4 games in 11 days. Unfortunately my usual starting 11 is completely exhausted so the reserves get a start, even Leon Britton and Stephen Kingsley get starts. I have to admit though Crystal Palace seem to be at about full strength, perhaps I have some man management skills to learn yet...



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Swansea 1-1 Crystal Palace

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Mixed feelings. That's how I feel, i'm happy Borja Baston scored. I'm disappointed we drew at home against 10 men. I'm happy we got a point with a weakened team. I'm disappointed we didn't get a hold of the ball or control the match at any point. Nonetheless, this wasn't a bad point, I didn't expect much going into this game, so i'll take a point. Reluctantly.




The FA Cup is here! As you may remember Everton has a clause in his contract whereby we can sign him permanently if we win the FA Cup. So the objective is clear, we have to justify having such a clause in a contract! Plus if I was to win the FA Cup in my first year I would be 3 years ahead of the aims I set out in the original challenge requirements. That really would glorify the progress i'm making here at Swansea. So to make sure that these aren't just empty words I put out a relatively strong side, conscious that a few of my players are still struggling for fitness after the busy Christmas period. Can I lead us to a victory in the first South Wales derby i'm in charge of?



View attachment 101014

Swansea 0-0 Cardiff

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No, no I can not. Pretty disappointing game, we dominate the game, create chances, keep the ball, but Baston keeps misfiring as well as Leroy Fer who has not been the player i'd hoped he would be so far. So now we have to go to the Cardiff City Stadium and get a result. Shall we move on?




So with the FA cup dream still very much alive I realise that it's January and despite being determined that I wouldn't panic buy and fall victim to new manager syndrome I start scouring the market anyway fearing that more negative results would follow if I didn't. Then I realise just how distorted the market is, how the **** am I supposed to improve my squad when this is the benchmark for a transfer?




If Troy Deeney is worth £43m then how the **** am I supposed to get anyone worth buying for my £20m transfer budget? It seems that i'll be doing my transfer window shopping in the FM equivalent to Poundland.

Without having yet found a single bargain worth having in the FM bargain bin I switch my attention to our next league game against Watford, for the first time this year we name a full strength side and i'm feeling optimistic about our chances. The Nathan Dyer experiment persists on the right wing, i'm pretty sure he was the reason Leicester won the league last year right?



View attachment 101005


Swansea 3-1 Watford

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Gylfi, oh Gylfi, why do you want to leave? I promise I can change. I'll make us better, build us around you. Just please don't leave me. I'm afraid if he leaves us we'll be a bigger mess than Watford with Troy Deeney. Frankly, we tear them apart Only Nathan Dyer and Llorente look like misfits in our fast paced passing football, so they're ripped from the pitch and Everton even gets an assist when he comes on. I was impressed with Jefferson Montero as well who seems to either be hot or cold during games, it's very strange to watch, but magnificent in games like today. A much needed win. Happy days.




The red capes are coming! The red capes are coming! Yes, I really did like Batman vs Superman. What a scene. Anyway, red capes in this sense refer to signings, and unlike Lex Luthor these red capes will be my saviour. 3 come in all at once and I couldn't be more pleased.



Reinforcements for both attack and defence here. Firstly, although we are worst in the division for goals scored and my strikers haven't been banging them in, I don't think they are the problem, I don't think enough chances are being consistently created behind them, and so with a view to the developing youth aim set out in this change I made the ambitious signing of Dortmund youngster Emre Mor, he is a talented right winger whom I hope can develop with us and become world class. Next we have the solution to our right back issue, when Kyle Naughton was injured we had the problem of having two right backs to cover for him, but neither was actually capable of doing a job, so I have come up with a stop-gap solution until the end of the season just to plug the hole in the defence and stop us conceding, he's an experienced international and I expect him to make a difference for us. Charlie Taylor is the final signing to announce and i'm delighted to welcome him in. With the English premium on every English players head (see Troy Deeney for reference) to get a young English talent like Charlie for just £5m is a bargain, and certainly not one I could turn down, he's not someone who belongs in a bargain bin, and i'm going to polish this raw diamond into the complete full back I know he can be.

Despite my jubilance over my signings none of them start my next match against Cardiff, I need experienced heads to guide me through this one, it remains an ambition of mine to go far in this competition and i'm going to need a strong team to make sure that happens. So I play a full strength team, which includes bringing the Nathan Dyer experiment to an abrupt end, it turns out that although Leicester are doing much worse without him, he was surely not the reason that they won the league.



View attachment 100997


Cardiff 1-2 Swansea

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So, they took us to extra time, and we got lucky. Not exactly impressive, but it's exactly what we needed, and despite it draining a lot of the players of their fitness it does prove that we have bottle and we can grind out a result, and it proves to be exactly what we need. Fernando Llorente scores as well to put the icing on the cake. We're officially the best team in Wales.




The 4th round draw has been especially kind in the aftermath of the game. We draw Bury. Freaking League One Bury! I'm happy for all of 2 seconds until I realise that they represent a huge banana skin on our progress through this competition, but i'm sure we're up for it.



Up next is a couple of difficult fixtures that I don't hold much hope for. Firstly we have Tottenham. I consider going defensive since we're away from home but I decide to stick with my usual system but I make a few personnel changes instead. Emre Mor, Charlie Taylor and Mathieu Debuchy all come in for their debuts as well as Routledge coming in for Montero on the right wing as I try and make the team play very narrow so they can stick to Llorente and collect the balls that he knocks to him and run at the Tottenham centre backs.



View attachment 100993

Tottenham 1-0 Swansea

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1-0 isn't bad really, especially when you consider their 25 shots to my 4. However, Debuchy did get injured on his debut which was far from ideal, the good news is that he's only out for a couple of days but I hope he doesn't start to make a habit out of this. The result takes Tottenham up to 2nd in the table, must be nice...




The second match i'm dreading is against Manchester United, they may not be as high up in the table as Spurs, but they certainly have a more star studded line-up, but it's my job to make sure that my players don't become star struck. We're at Old Trafford and they are not going easy on us judging by their line-up, summer signings Ibrahimovic, Pogba and Mkhitaryan all start accented by Rashford, Martial, De Gea and January signing centre-back Inigo Martinez whom i've signed on FM enough times down the years to know that he is a solid centre back. But I don't panic, I stick with the same team that did a good job of damage limitation against Spurs but bring in Kyle Naughton for the injured Debuchy. May the FM gods be graceful and kind.



View attachment 100990

Manchester United 4-1 Swansea

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This game will just chew you up and spit you out if you let it. If I was a petty man i'd try and persuade you about how the referee was biased and how Mourinho has his team of superstars playing like a glorified Stoke City with their 24 fouls but lest it is vain. Pogba scored early with a cracking goal, and I feared for the worst, but my fears were alleviated when Amat scored from a corner. Game on. We went on to have about 4 excellent chances which Llorente and Sigurdsson squander. Then Manchester United cruelly score just before half time, it stung but I had hope in my heart. It's the hope that kills you. So after half time I send my boys out telling them to make me and the fans proud, United promptly score 2. I'd love to tell you what happened for the rest of the game, but truth be told I walked away from my laptop for 10 minutes to compose myself, individual mistakes and being caught on the counter were to blame. But United are good and Mourinho lives for this kind of game, so what am i to do but swallow my pride, accept that i'm just not that good yet and carry on?





Before the next game there's a couple issues I have to contend with, firstly, I look around the squad trying to streamline it, but no one is offering me anything for Joey O'Brien or Angel Rangel or even Wayne Routledge, even when I offer them out for free. So in the hope of raising some funds I sell Leroy Fer for £6m. I had high hopes for him but whenever he's played he's been disappointing so I decided to let him go and reinvest the money elsewhere in the team. Also after the last game after we got kicked off of the pitch by Mourinho's men Jordi Amat is going to be out for 3-4 weeks. Typical.




it's that time again, time for the magic of the FA Cup. Of course hopefully the only magic will be working in my favour, not exactly an impressive trick when you consider i'm a Premier League side against a League One side. But still, after two losses on the bounce we could do with a victory here to boost morale, and so I make changes, making certain to leave out all of my January signings because clearly they just haven't gelled into the squad quite right yet. They're good signings alright?!



View attachment 100986


Swansea 2-1 Bury

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We score 2 in the first 5 minutes, i'm on 7th heaven. I'm speculating whether it'll end 7-0 or 8-0 and debating whether i'll describe it as a "triumph" or just "another day at the office". Unfortunately, none of that was to be and my squad got just as complacent as me in my day dreams. Mid way through the second half Bury score to get back into it, but we just about hold on for the rest of the game. Sigurdsson got a goal and an assist though and that's a good game form him, despite the fact i'm pretty sure he never touched the ball again after the 5th minute, take that PSG, he likes it here, that's why I keep ignoring your calls. Another rare goal from Borja Baston to, but at this point i'm used to my strikers being as consistent as the colour of Djibril Cisse's hair.



More good news to, the 5th round draw has been made and we will play either Preston or Ipswich in the next round, so far so good in the FA Cup.


There's just enough time left in this transfer window for one more signing, one last hurrah, one last chance at saving our season with a panic signing just before deadline day and i'm stuck with this squad for another 6 months. So I spend £3.9m on...



Harry Wilson! I have to admit, I was surprised he was available for so little money (that might have something to do with the sell on fee percentage that Liverpool put in the deal, it's fine, i'll just never sell him), but considering he's 19 and playing in a position where our only real depth is Wayne Routledge (who i'm desperately trying to show the door to) he's a fine addition, especially considering he is actually Welsh. I have high hopes for him, I hope him and Emre Mor will be some of the best wingers in the league in 5 years time, I just hope i'm still here managing them then. Overall then, this is what our transfers look like...



Overall, i'm pleased with the way the transfer window went, I managed to keep my big players, added some quality and some potential and youth to the ranks to freshen things up and managed some positive results along the way. I'm pleased with the direction the club is going in and hope that we can improve upon our current position in the table of 17th, just 2 points above the relegation zone, but with more tough games on the way, I can't be sure any time soon...
 
Enjoyed reading through that mate, some funny bits in there too! I've no doubt you'll stay up and good look with any further mutiny's!
 
WWred said:
Enjoyed reading through that mate, some funny bits in there too! I've no doubt you'll stay up and good look with any further mutiny's!
Click to expand...


Haha thanks! I try to have fun with it and i'm glad that's coming across! And thanks, the only problem is there's more mutinies here in one season than there is in the whole Pirates of the Caribbean franchise...
 
Some good signings there, both for now and the future. Sure you'll stay up with ease and can look forward to next season and really stamping your mark on the team.
 
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