Euro Cup, League pressures and a new disliking for Liverpool FC

[Hip to be Blue Square]

I began this game admittedly without the greatest amount of ambition in the world, keeping Arsenal in the 'Big Four' I thought was challenge enough given the recent financial might of Man City and the loss of Adebayor and Toure. So in pre-season I went about spending the majority of our relatively modest budget on £16m Miguel Veloso (from Sporting) to shore up the midfield. As a relatively uneventful season progressed, a meagre 49 league goals and a League Cup run emphatically ended by Chelsea in the final resulted in my side being beaten to that priceless final Champions Cup spot by Liverpool on the last game of the season; an outcome that was to haunt me for quite some time.

Ignorant of this, I was relatively satisfied with a Euro Cup spot and a bit of money to spend so I brought in 6'4'', Bosnian, centre-forward Edin Dzeko for £24m to lead the line and hopefully grab us a few more goals than last season. This went relatively well, my team improving to finish 4th in the Premier league (and scoring 74 goals) as well as making it to the Euro Cup final, allbeit losing 1-0 to Atletico Madrid. Liverpool, although 13 points behind me in 5th place now started to get on my nerves as they quite annoyingly won the Champions Cup and subsequently demoted me to back Euro Cup duty.

Now running a bit of a deficit without Champions Cup money for two seasons I opted to play safe in the transfer market, picking up Andrea Barzagli on a free and paying £10m for Michael Mancienne to strengthen the defence (as Gallas was quite predictably kicking up a stink in the dressing room and annoying the **** out of me). Maybe not too suprisingly I came 4th again this season, despite temporarily losing my marbles in January and signing Mirko Vucinic for £25m to add to my stock of expensive Eastern Europeans. Another good Euro Cup run saw me dispatch Atletico Madrid, Valencia and Roma only to once again be beaten 1-0 in the final, this time by Genoa, resulting in massive strain on my willpower not to restart the game just this once. I didn't give in, eventually persuading myself that at least I still have a Champions Cup spot next year... Wrong. Liverpool, once again finishing 5th in the Premier League, decided to retain their title as 'Kings of Europe' and dumped me back into the Euro Cup for a third successive season; which had quite understandably began to lose it's appeal to me by now.

To summarise so far, I think I can feel a little unlucky (but I'm definitely not whining about it!), 3 seasons and 4 cup finals down but not a thing to add to the club's increasingly dusty trophy cabinet, however this is not a concession of defeat. I will most certainly be returning to the Arsenal hotseat in August 2012 and all I know is that next season I will definitely be setting tackling to 'hard' against a certain team in Merseyside. Please comment if you've read, even if it is to tell me what a poor job I've done.

 

[AussieOchoa]

That must really suck, hopefully u get 3rd or higher so u can definitely make champions league

 

[cmh9090]

i sympathize with your situation. tbh, you are really unlucky and if i were you, i would have restarted the game in the 3rd year, whereby liverpool won the cl again to ensure that they do not win the cl XD.

im never a cheater, but seriously, the stuff that you're going through is too much to take, though i've never restarted in all the manager games i play so far. hopefully, you will be luckier next season and finish 3rd and above. good luck ^^)

 

[Chris]

That was a really interesting read. Anyway, by now, I would have chucked my laptop out of the window to ensure that I never had to see the game again. I admire your persistence and it would be nice if you had another crack at it because I reckon you would get that Champions League spot. Good luck with the games in the future and I hope you will be playing better European football next season.

 

[Max]

Lol, I would of just punched the screen after the 2nd season, fair play to you.

 

[Hip to be Blue Square]

Thanks for the comments and messages of support, however in my last post I forgot to mention a fairly significant chapter of my managerial career in this game; following the 2010 World Cup Brazil decided to hire me as manager, and I did win the Copa America that year (despite picking up a red card in each knockout match, but that's South American football I guess). Anyway, that's not such a big story as I kind of find the job annoying, although I do quite fancy a World Cup win.

Now, a week before the Premier League opener away at Leeds and my Euro Cup qualifier against Litex I'm suprisingly optimistic for next season having enjoyed an exciting pre-season. England, the current World Cup holders, offered me the 'Impossible Job' in June (needless to say I declined) and I also managed to bring in defenders Nelson Rivas (£9m) and Mateo Musacchio (£10m) as well as Yoann Gourcuff for £19m from Bordeaux, funded by the sales of Vermaelen and a few reserves, a generous board and some outward loaning. Going all pre-season without conceding a goal, including a tricky tour of Brazil also bodes well for the 2012/13 season.

I'm not sure if my screenshot will work, but (hopefully) this should show you my team that will start the season: