Everton F.C - Turning Merseyside Blue

[FM_TNSSO]

Everton F.C - Turning Merseyside Blue

Everton Football Club are an English professional football team based in the city of Liverpool, and are affectionately known as The Toffees. The club holds the record for competing in the top division of English football with a total of 116 seasons, spending only 4 seasons outside the top flight (1930/31, 1951/52, 1952/53, 1953/54)! They have lifted the top division trophy on 9 occasions, putting them 4th on the all time records list behind Manchester United (20), Liverpool (18) and Arsenal (13)! However, the club's last league title came all the way back in the 1986/87 season and although they have managed to hang on to their place in the top flight ever since, it's been rather uninspiring for Toffees fans and they've not had too much to celebrate over the past few years!

Underachievers?

Everton have spent a lot of money over the years and every season they seem to be that team that bookies, fans and pundits alike seem to tip to break into the top 6 and qualify for European football each year....however, they seem to just about miss out, finishing 7th or 8th in 6 of the last 10 seasons! They've quickly earned a reputation as the 'nearly men'!

Not only that, but again every season they are tipped as a potential side to upset the apple cart in the cup competitions and lift a trophy, and in all honesty they are a big enough club that they should have done better in the domestic cups! The FA Cup hasn't been won since 1995 and the League Cup has never been lifted by Everton! Not only that, but in the League Cup they have only even made the semi final stage 4 times in their entire history, generally tending to crash out of the competition early on and have suffered some embarrassing defeats at the hands of lower league sides over the years! Since winning the FA Cup in '95, they've only made the semis of that competition 3 times in the past 24 years as well - days out at Wembley have been few and far between for Everton fans that's for sure!

Turning Merseyside Blue

So why is this story titled as 'Turning Merseyside Blue'? Well, while Everton have largely underachieved over the last 25 years, their local rivals, Liverpool, have gone from strength to strength and look to be on the verge of sealing another Premier League title win very, very soon! It's fair to say that Everton are currently living in the shadow of their Merseyside rivals, especially with Liverpool recently racking up their 6th Champions League Title....whilst Everton have only ever featured in that competition on one occasion, during the 2005/06 season, when they failed to even get through the qualifiers and make the group stage.

So what's my aim for this save....well to bring some glory days to Everton and put a smile back on the Toffees fans faces! Bring some trophies to the club, introduce European football as a regular occurrence season upon season, and of course become the biggest club in Liverpool, overtaking our main rivals and turning Merseyside blue! From there, the sky's the limit and who's to say we can't become a European powerhouse in time!

Youth Academy

I'm not putting any restrictions or challenges in place for this save and am going to play it with the freedom of a manager in real life. However, I would be stupid to ignore the Everton Youth Academy that has been responsible for the likes of Wayne Rooney, Richard Dunne, David Unsworth, Leon Osman, Ross Barkley and Jack Rodwell over the years! I will be looking to continue to focus on our youth development, whether it be to create worldwide superstars for our own success or create massive transfer fees to bring money to the club! In fact, this is one part of this save I am really looking forward to as I know we have the setup here to produce some fantastic regens during this save!

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[FM_TNSSO]

Monday 25th June 2018

Jordan Pickford

Monday 25th June 2018
'First Day In The Job'

Squad

Current Squad Pros;

- I have some great players to cover most areas on the pitch.
- The England number 1 is my keeper.
- There are a good core of 10 English players in the first team squad.
- 9 of my players are valued at over £20 million.
- I have a couple of very promising young English players in the squad.

Current Squad Cons;

- We are severely lacking in numbers up front.
- Struggling to see a 20 goal a season man in the team.
- 8 players from the first team squad are out on loan and some of them I could make use of!
- Lots of nationalities are represented in the team, which may effect team cohesion.
- There are a lot of different personalities amongst the squad, which again may effect cohesion.

Our best player in the team is surely central midfielder, Gylfi Sigurdsson! A dead ball specialist, with an eye for a pass and an excellent long range shot on him, most of our attacking moves will probably flow through Gylfi and I'll be looking to him to contribute with plenty of goals and assists throughout the season!

Jordan Pickford is the national team's number 1 keeper and is returning from a great World Cup! He is our highest valued player at £33.5 million and with him only being 24 years of age, he could be my first choice keeper for the next 10 years or so!!

The third player to give special mention to is left back, Lucas Digne! Having already played for some of Europe's biggest clubs in Barcelona, PSG and Roma, he is a bit of a coup for Everton and is undoubtedly one of the best left backs in the Premier League!

19 year old Beni Baningime is one of my best prospects in the youth sides at the moment! He is spending this season on loan with Wigan where he should get plenty of first team football and I'll be following his progress with keen interest!

The tactic is proving to be a tough one but after a bit of tinkering, this is what I've come up with for now. However, it's likely to change around a bit I imagine, and I will probably try to utilize 2 or 3 formations for different scenarios and games throughout the season...but I'm gonna give this a go for pre season!

I won't be going too mad in the transfer market as I only have £3.5 million available to spend, with the club's bank balance in a dire situation at £40 million in the red!!
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[CherriesOnTop]

Hope you do well and Richarlison is a brilliant player in the game and in real life. Best of luck!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Hope you do well and Richarlison is a brilliant player in the game and in real life. Best of luck!

Thanks mate. Richarlison is quality and I'll be looking to get the best out.of him! It was tough to leave him out of my top 3 in the post above!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Friday 10th August 2018

Richarlison

Friday 10th August 2018
'Pre Season'

Bid Rejected; Manchester United immediately test my resolve in the transfer market as they made an offer worth £29 million for Idrissa Gueye. I very quickly rejected the approach!

Incoming; My first signing as Everton manager should prove to be a very shrewd piece of business! I've raided Boca Juniors for their talented 22 year old winger, Cristian Pavon and he only cost me £3 million to bring him here (with £800k paid up front and the other £2.2 million following in 12 months when our financial situation should be better). The reason it's great business is that he is immediately valued at over £11 million!! Pavon is a pacey attacking player who can strike fear into opponent's defences and wreak havoc in the opposition's box...I'm hoping he's going to prove to be a great addition to my squad!

Manchester City being the biggest spenders at £45 million makes this a very tame transfer window by previous standards.

It was only my 2nd day in charge and Cenk Tosun picked up an injury that will see him miss most of our pre season campaign! My main striker with no pre season prep....not the best start!

Gylfi Sigurdsson gets the captain's armband for my first season in charge!

I'd already pointed out that the club's financial situation wasn't entirely great with the bank balance £40 million in the red. However, the chairman has taken out a bank loan for nearly that full amount in order to restructure the club's debts. We'll pay back this loan at a rate of £300k per month, which should be easily affordable for a club of our stature.

The bookies are tipping us to once again finish just outside the top 6! We are simply seen as the 'best of the rest' after the big 6!

The season preview shows that we don't have any players making the dream 11, which doesn't come as a major surprise. Eight of the eleven come from Man City and Spurs, whilst Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool are also represented by a single player.

A final reminder from the board of what they expect. A top half finish in the league should be easily achievable! As for the Carabao Cup being not important, I don't quite agree as it's a passage into European football which is where we want to be!

We played 7 pre season friendlies and on the whole, it was a decent Summer for warm ups. A tour of the USA resulted in wins over San Jose and LA, whilst a very good performance against Barcelona with only 10 men for 80 minutes resulted in a narrow defeat! Bit of a dull ending to pre season as we finished with a 0-0 draw in a 2nd game against LA Galaxy, but overall I feel we are prepared enough!

We kick off the Premier League campaign with a tough away fixture at Spurs, but a run of easier fixtures follows and we should definitely pick up a few points from our first few games!
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[FM_TNSSO]

Monday 1st October 2018

Leighton Baines

Monday 1st October 2018
'A Solid Enough Start'

More than three quarters of the stadium's capacity is sold in season tickets.

Formation; 4-2-3-1
Lineup; Pickford, Coleman (Sent Off 65), Zouma, Keane, Digne, Gueye*, Schneiderlin, Walcott (Pavon 62), Gomes (Mina 65), Richarlison, Calvert-Lewin (Tosun 62)

What an opening day of the season for us...a day out at Wembley which results in a massive win over Spurs! I'm not sure if their back line was just awful, or if we were just electric in attack, or a combination of both maybe?! Idrissa Gueye is certainly not known for his goalscoring antics, but he scored two absolute bangers here! Good to see youngster, Dominic Calvert-Lewin getting on the scoresheet as well after I gave him the nod up front ahead of Cenk Tosun.

Formation; 4-2-3-1
Lineup; Pickford, Kenny, Zouma, Keane, Digne (Baines 58), Gueye (Sent Off 72), Schneiderlin, Walcott*, Gomes (Sigurdsson 58), Richarlison (Pavon 58), Calvert-Lewin

We hung on well for the win in the end after Idrissa Gueye's awful challenge saw him see a straight red and us reduced to 10 men for the second game in a row. Good to see Calvert-Lewin getting on the scoresheet again and he could potentially turn out to be a surprise package this season if he continues at this rate!

Formation; 4-2-3-1
Lineup; Pickford, Coleman, Zouma, Keane, Digne, Davies, Schneiderlin, Walcott (Pavon 65), Sigurdsson, Richarlison (Bernard 65), Calvert-Lewin (Tosun 65)

Our first defeat of the season comes at the hands of Wolves in a game we really shouldn't have lost based on the statistics! It was the quality of chances created that was the difference as 2 of our their 6 were clear cut, whilst none of our 22 efforts on goal were considered clear cut opportunities!

Formation; 4-2-3-1
Lineup; Pickford, Coleman, Zouma, Keane, Digne, Davies, Schneiderlin, Walcott (Lookman 72), Sigurdsson, Richarlison (Pavon 72), Calvert-Lewin (Tosun 45)

Back to back 1-0 defeats as we record a really bad result away at Burnley! We're definitely struggling to create really good chances at the moment, which is a concern!

Formation; 4-2-2-1-1
Lineup; Pickford, Coleman, Zouma, Keane, Digne, Schneiderlin, Davies, Walcott*, Pavon, Sigurdsson (Gomes 62), Richarlison (Calvert-Lewin 62)

I asked the lads for a big response following back to back defeats, and they duly delivered, as we stuff Palace on their own turf! Theo Walcott was sensational down the right wing as I tried my wingers in a deeper role and my centre mids pulled back into DM positions...it seemed to work an absolute treat and having my players running at the opposition defence from deep showed us in a much more effective light going forward!

Formation; 4-2-2-1-1
Lineup; Pickford, Coleman, Zouma, Keane, Digne, Schneiderlin, Gueye (Davies 77), Walcott, Pavon (Lookman 77), Bernard, Richarlison (Calvert-Lewin 77)

Arsenal came into this game top of the league after an unbeaten start, and yes they still walk away unbeaten, but this was a very good point for us! However, we really should have won the game after playing them off the park!

Formation; 4-2-3-1
Lineup; Pickford, Coleman (Kenny 64), Mina, Keane, Digne, Gueye, Schneiderlin, Walcott (Lookman 64), Sigurdsson*, Richarlison, Calvert-Lewin (Pavon 64)

Back to a more attacking formation for this one against possibly the weakest side in the division. It was the correct decision as we romped to a comfortable 3-0 victory, with Gylfi Sigurdsson on top form as he controlled the game!

A solid enough start has us sitting in the top 6 after the opening seven games and only 3 points off top spot! It's still early days but we have set out a statement of intent early on that we expect to be challenging for the European spots this year!

Formation; 4-2-3-1
Lineup; Stekelenburg, Coleman, Mina, Keane, Baines (Digne 65), Gueye, Schneiderlin, Lookman, Gomes (Sigurdsson 65), Pavon, Tosun (Calvert-Lewin 65)

As we had drawn Premier League opposition in the 2nd round, I still wanted to play a pretty strong side, although I did give starts to Maarten Stekelenburg, Leighton Baines, Yerry Mina, Ademola Lookman, Cristian Pavon and Cenk Tosun for the first time this season! And I'd love to say the lads that came in did me proud, but they really didn't, and it seems that in my first season here I have continued the trend of Everton crashing out at an early stage of the Carabao Cup. The only positive thing to take from this is that I won't get any **** from the board after they declared this competition 'not important'.
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[Brane_Orsou]

Another good read my man! Looking forward to see how you deal with the challenge that will no doubt come when you start having players heads turned by bug bids from "bigger clubs". Always difficult when you're starting out with little to no funds and chairmen taking out loans

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Another good read my man! Looking forward to see how you deal with the challenge that will no doubt come when you start having players heads turned by bug bids from "bigger clubs". Always difficult when you're starting out with little to no funds and chairmen taking out loans

Thanks mate. I definitely think it's going to be a challenging save and don't expect a 'walk in the park' by any means. One I am really looking forward to embracing though!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Sunday 2nd December 2018

Gylfi Sigurdsson

Sunday 2nd December 2018
'The Draw Specialists'

Formation; 4-1-4-1 (Changed to 4-2-2-1-1 on 12 minutes)
Lineup; Pickford, Coleman, Zouma, Keane, Digne, Schneiderlin, Walcott, Gueye, Sigurdsson (Bernard 62), Pavon (Lookman 45), Richarlison (Calvert-Lewin 45)

Going away to Old Trafford, I decided to try yet another slightly different setup, as we switch to a more defensive 4-1-4-1 with counter attacking style. But I quickly ditched it after we found ourselves 2-0 down inside 12 minutes! Unfortunately, the change in tactic didn't do us any good as we were well and truly thrashed by the Red Devils!

Idrissa Gueye will miss up to 4 weeks of action after picking up an injury on international duty!

Formation; 4-1-4-1
Lineup; Pickford, Kenny, Zouma, Keane, Digne (Baines 73), Schneiderlin, Walcott (Lookman 73), Davies, Gomes, Pavon, Tosun (Calvert-Lewin 73)

After a 6-0 drubbing from United, we really could have done without taking on their main rivals, Man City in the very next game! However, my lads showed much more grit and determination in this one and saw out a decent 0-0 draw to take a very good point! We could have even nicked it right at the very end when Dominic Calvert-Lewin found himself one on one with the City keeper in the 91st minute, only to strike wide.

Formation; 4-2-2-1-1 (Changed to 4-2-3-1 on 62 minutes)
Lineup; Pickford, Coleman, Zouma, Keane, Digne, Schneiderlin, Davies, Walcott (Richarlison 62), Pavon, Sigurdsson (Gomes 83), Tosun (Calvert-Lewin 62)

We were robbed of the victory here as we had a goal disallowed in the 80th minute, which should have stood. It was given for offside, but the goal was an own goal, so how the **** can it be given offside...a corner came in and Michael Keane got up to head towards goal....the ball cannoned off Lys Mousset into the back of the net, but the offside was given against Schneiderlin who was offside but didn't touch or interfere with the ball or play at all! Definitely feel a bit hard done by!

Formation; 4-2-2-1-1 (Changed to 4-2-3-1 on 75 minutes)
Lineup; Pickford, Coleman, Zouma*, Keane, Baines (Digne 63), Schneiderlin (Gueye 75), Davies, Lookman, Pavon, Sigurdsson (Walcott 63), Calvert-Lewin

Leicester came into this game off the back of a win against Arsenal so we knew their confidence would be high. However, it's still a game we should be winning at home and I'm disappointed that we only managed a draw...our third in a row! We created a lot more chances than them (21 to 7), but our finishing let us down!

Formation; 4-2-3-1
Lineup; Pickford, Coleman, Mina, Keane, Digne, Gueye, Davies, Richarlison (Walcott 85), Gomes (Bernard 62), Pavon, Calvert-Lewin (Tosun 62)

Another ****** draw and another game we should have won after having 29 shots on goal to their 11! The only positive I can take from this game is that the lads showed good character to fight back from a goal down twice to earn a point...even if it was a disappointing point!

Formation; 4-1-2-3 Wide
Lineup; Pickford, Kenny, Zouma, Keane, Digne, Schneiderlin, Sigurdsson, Davies, Walcott, Richarlison (Pavon 66), Tosun (Calvert-Lewin 66)

Our 5th draw in a row despite complete domination of the entire game!!

When I say we completely dominated the Southampton game...here's the stats!! I think it's fair to say our attacking players are massively letting us down at the moment, not taking their chances!

Yerry Mina out for a few weeks after picking up an injury in training!

Walcott will also miss a couple of weeks!

Formation; 4-1-2-3 Wide
Lineup; Pickford, Coleman, Zouma, Keane, Digne, Gueye, Sigurdsson, Gomes*, Pavon, Richarlison (Bernard 76), Tosun (Calvert-Lewin 76)

We gain a little bit of revenge over The Hammers for knocking us out of the Carabao Cup, with our first win in 7 league games here! It was a good performance and the win was well deserved!

We are now 14 games into the season and we've dropped out of the top 6 and sit 8th, although still very much in touch with the European qualification spots. Too many draws have cost us, although on the positive side we are proving a tough team to beat this season, with only 3 defeats to our name!

Tottenham sacked Mauricio Pochettino, replacing him with Nuno Espirito Santo.
Wolves are yet to sign a replacement manager, but Sean O'Driscoll is currently Caretaker Manager.

We'll take the short trip up to Bolton in the 3rd round of the FA Cup.

Player Watch

Bernard could soon be leaving Goodison Park. He has not been a regular starter for me and limited opportunities have left the player unhappy and he has formally handed in a transfer request. With the likes of Lyon interested, I am hoping I might be able to cash in a big fee for him in the January transfer window! I could really do with getting his massive salary off the wage bill too!

​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Monday 31st December 2018

Michael Keane

Monday 31st December 2018
'Nearly Men Again?'

Formation; 4-1-2-3 Wide
Lineup; Pickford, Coleman, Zouma, Keane, Baines (Digne 45), Gueye, Sigurdsson, Gomes, Pavon (Richarlison 45), Bernard, Tosun (Calvert-Lewin 67)

My first Merseyside derby and without a doubt the biggest game in the calendar year for our fans! Unfortunately though, I wasn't able to send them home happy and it would seem the result shows that we are still some way off the quality of our main rivals...however, this is a long term project and was never going to happen overnight!

Formation; 4-1-2-3 Wide
Lineup; Pickford, Kenny, Zouma, Keane (Jagielka 77), Digne, Gueye, Sigurdsson, Davies, Pavon*, Richarlison (Lookman 77), Calvert-Lewin

Fair to say Newcastle are flying this season as they sat 4th at kick off, but I'm still livid that we managed to throw away a 3 goal lead and have to settle for a point! Even more gutting that Muto's equalizing goal came with the final kick of the game!

Formation; 4-1-2-3 Wide
Lineup; Pickford, Coleman, Zouma*, Keane, Digne, Gueye, Sigurdsson, Gomes, Pavon, Richarlison (Lookman 62), Calvert-Lewin (Tosun 62)

Defensively we were sound here, but our finishing again left a lot to be desired and we had to rely on a Gylfi Sigurdsson penalty to take all 3 points!

Formation; 4-1-2-3 Wide
Lineup; Stekelenburg, Coleman, Zouma, Keane, Digne, Gueye, Sigurdsson*, Schneiderlin (Gomes 79), Pavon, Richarlison (Lookman 60), Calvert-Lewin (Tosun 60)

There's no doubt about it...Spurs are the massive underachievers so far this year and find themselves all the way down in 16th position! So on the face of it, this is probably a bad result...but then it's still Spurs so I think a draw is probably decent!

Formation; 4-1-2-3 Wide
Lineup; Stekelenburg, Kenny, Zouma, Keane, Baines, Gueye, Sigurdsson (Davies 75), Schneiderlin (McCarthy 75), Walcott, Pavon, Tosun

This was a pretty even game and a draw was probably a fair result at the end of the day! Oh we do love a draw!! Cenk Tosun finally scores his first goal of the season!!

Formation; 4-1-2-3 Wide
Lineup; Pickford, Coleman, Jagielka, Mina, Digne, Gueye, Sigurdsson (Gomes 59), Schneiderlin, Lookman (Richarlison 59), Pavon, Tosun

I've been frustrated with a lot of our draws this season, but this one I was well chuffed about! We fought back from 2-0 down and snatched a draw from the jaws of defeat with a brilliant injury time equalizer from Pavon after some great work and a pinpoint through ball from Andre Gomes!

As we remain in 8th place after 20 games, the question is asked of 'are we going to be the nearly men again' and finish just outside the top 6 as usual! We are definitely missing a top striker this season and I feel with a 20 goal a season man up front, we would be much further up the table! One thing is for certain, this is going to be a long term project to make Everton a competitive side with the big teams in this league!

Wolves hire Senol Gunes as manager, paying £2.4 million in compensation to Besiktas to get him!
Crystal Palace sacked Roy Hodgson, replacing him with Sam Allardyce!

Player Watch

Richarlison has been bitterly disappointing so far this season, with only 1 goal and 1 assist in 17 league matches! I've tried him down the right, down the left and up top, but no position seems to have sparked him into life just yet! I'll be looking for a much better second half of the season from him, because at the moment he is not showing anywhere near his quality!
​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Monday 4th February 2019

Morgan Schneiderlin

Monday 4th February 2019
'Staying In Touch With The Top Six'

Incoming; We had very limited funds this window and were unable to offload any players, even want-away Bernard! So I only have one incoming transfer, but it is a young lad I'm quite excited about! I've forked out £185,000 to bring 17 year old Max Broughton to the club from Bolton and it's fair to say from his attributes already that he has the potential to be a future star!

The biggest deal of the window was James Ward Prowse's move to Arsenal for just shy of £40 million. The Gooners were the top spenders in the window shelling out just under £70 million on new additions.

Formation; 4-1-2-3 Wide
Lineup; Pickford, Coleman, Zouma, Jagielka, Baines, Schneiderlin, Gomes*, Davies, Lookman, Pavon (Richarlison 60), Tosun

We kicked off the New Year with a good away win at Watford. Cenk Tosun seems to have hit a bit of form over the last few games and his goal today was the 100th of his career! Ademola Lookman and Phil Jagielka also scored their first of the season!

Formation; 4-1-2-3 Wide
Lineup; Stekelenburg, Coleman, Zouma, Jagielka, Baines (Digne 73), Gueye, Gomes, Davies (Schneiderlin 67), Lookman (Richarlison 67), Pavon, Tosun

Wolves complete a league double over us! No real excuses or complaints...they were the better side on the day!

Formation; 4-1-2-3 Wide
Lineup; Pickford, Coleman, Zouma, Jagielka, Digne, Schneiderlin (Sent Off 23), Gomes, Davies, Lookman (Bernard 63), Pavon, Tosun (Calvert-Lewin 63)

Morgan Schneiderlin's first half sending off left us right up **** creek and Burnley made the most of their extra man advantage! A poor result for us at home and I can only lay the blame at the feet of one man!

Formation; 4-1-2-3 Wide
Lineup; Stekelenburg, Coleman (Keane 50), Zouma, Jagielka, Baines, Gueye, Sigurdsson (Gomes 62), Davies, Pavon, Richarlison, Tosun (Calvert-Lewin 62)

Within a couple of minutes of coming off the bench, Andre Gomes had drawn us level after a pretty lacklustre display to that point! However, we were unable to find a winner and have to settle for a disappointing draw against a side battling relegation!

Seamus Coleman came off injured against Palace and will now miss a few weeks with injury!

Andre Gomes lifted the Player of the Month award for January!

Formation; 4-1-2-3 Wide
Lineup; Stekelenburg, Kenny, Zouma, Mina, Digne, Gueye, Gomes (Sigurdsson 66), Davies, Pavon, Richarlison, Tosun (Calvert-Lewin 66*)

What a manic final few minutes that was! Just when The **** thought they'd nicked an equalizer against us, Calvert Lewin goes and nets us an injury time winner as we record our best win of the season at The Emirates!

Some mixed form over our last few games sees us maintain a top half position within touching distance of the top 6! We need some more consistency if we are going to break into it but it's not out of the question just yet! Who'd have thought that with 13 games remaining, Spurs would find themselves deep in the relegation battle?!

Round 3
Formation; 4-1-2-3 Wide
Lineup; Stekelenburg, Kenny, Mina, Jagielka, Baines, McCarthy, Gomes, Davies*, Walcott (Neves 45), Pavon, Calvert-Lewin

A pretty comfortable victory over lower league opposition in Bolton Wanderers! Theo Walcott was running the show in the first half but had to come off at the break with a hamstring injury, so I handed a half and a debut to 17 year old Pedro Neves who gave a decent enough account of himself!

Round 4
Formation; 4-1-2-3 Wide
Lineup; Stekelenburg, Coleman, Zouma, Jagielka (Keane 63), Baines, Gueye, Sigurdsson*, Davies, Pavon, Bernard (Richarlison 45), Tosun (Calvert-Lewin 63)

Burnley had beaten us 1-0 a week earlier in the league, and we returned the favour by knocking them out of the cup here! We were much better with all 11 men on the pitch for the entire 90 minutes and presented an entirely different proposition for Burnley that they simply couldn't deal with!

We go away to League One's Oxford United in the 5th round!

Player Watch

Kurt Zouma has been brilliant for us this season and currently holds the highest average rating of anyone in the squad, at 7.22 from 23 appearances! Shame he is only here on loan!
​

 

[Brane_Orsou]

Any plans to snap up Zouma full time or can you not afford to get into it with Chelsea yet? Doing really well so far mate, enjoying it. Surprised you didn't find another striker but then again Tosun and Calvert-Lewin seem to be doing decent so far.

As for Spurs I assume Poch is long gone!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Any plans to snap up Zouma full time or can you not afford to get into it with Chelsea yet? Doing really well so far mate, enjoying it. Surprised you didn't find another striker but then again Tosun and Calvert-Lewin seem to be doing decent so far.

As for Spurs I assume Poch is long gone!

Yea Poch was fired and replaced with the Wolves boss who hasn't come in and done much better to be honest! Be great if they went down as there might be some massive players available...

I'd love to sign Zouma but the club is in real financial trouble if I'm honest. Despite taking out that £35 million loan at the start of the season, the club's bank balance reads at -£50 million again! I might be forced to offload some big players in the Summer to balance things out and bring the wage bill right down as it's currently £2.3 million per week which is huge for a club without the money of European football.

 

[Sam91]

Loving this mate! Keep pumping out the updates

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Monday 11th March 2019

Lucas Digne

Monday 11th March 2019
'An OK Youth Intake But Top Six Out Of Reach?'

Bid Rejected; One of the big Chinese clubs came in with an offer just under £30 million for Idrissa Gueye, which I quickly rejected as I'd be looking for at least £40 million to allow him to leave! However, it did prompt Gueye to approach me asking why I'd blocked a move that apparently would have presented him with a massive pay rise...seems he's a little ****** now and I'll just have to hope he doesn't **** and moan too much to try to force a move out of here!

Although, hopefully that should be the end of Guangzhou's interest in Gueye as they went on to sign Doucoure from Watford!

Outgoing Loan; I need to start trying to save money ASAP with the club's bank balance deep into the red again, so I have allowed Bernard to leave on loan for the remainder of the season, with Cruzeiro contributing 50% of his massive £130k p/w wage!

This season's youth intake threw up a couple of potential gems for the future.

Gabriel Maragh is being tipped as having the potential to be one of the best players of his generation! At 15 years old, he does look pretty **** hot!

Carl Phillip doesn't stand out quite as much as Maragh, but with a determination of 18, you'd like to think he can achieve whatever he puts his mind to and with this lad it might just come down to how badly he wants it!

Formation; 4-2-3-1
Lineup; Stekelenburg, Kenny, Zouma, Mina, Digne, Gueye (McCarthy 70), Davies, Pavon, Gomes, Richarlison (Bernard 62), Tosun (Calvert-Lewin 62*)

A more attacking formation was applied for the Cardiff game and it resulted in a comfortable 3-0 victory, even if it did take us a while to find the first goal! Calvert-Lewin came off the bench to net two goals again, just as he did in our last game against Arsenal! Super sub anyone?!

Leighton Baines was set for a few weeks on the sidelines!

Formation; 4-1-2-3 Wide
Lineup; Pickford, Kenny, Zouma, Mina, Digne, Gueye, Gomes, Davies*, Pavon, Richarlison (Bernard 74), Tosun (Calvert-Lewin 74)

Last time we played Man Utd, we got a 6-0 thrashing, so I was just keen to avoid anything like that again! And not only did we deliver a much improved performance, my lads actually turned the tables and recorded a massive win to get some revenge over United! It's taken a while and I don't want to speak too soon, but the lads finally seem to be getting to grips with my style of play and our performances have become much better over the last 5 or 6 games!

Formation; 4-1-2-3 Wide
Lineup; Pickford, Kenny (Coleman 62), Zouma, Mina, Digne, Gueye, Gomes, Davies, Pavon, Bernard (Sigurdsson 62), Tosun (Calvert-Lewin 62)

After beating one of the Manchester clubs, we get a hiding from the other. However, the scoreline flattered City here as they definitely didn't outplay us and we matched them on the stats...it was just that they scored 4 absolute bangers that we could do nothing about...all 4 efforts coming from outside the box! Not too disappointed after this one to be fair...just one of those days!

Tom Davies lands the Young Player of the Month award for February!

Formation; 4-2-3-1
Lineup; Pickford, Kenny, Keane*, Mina, Digne, Gueye, McCarthy, Pavon, Sigurdsson, Bernard (Richarlison 64), Tosun (Calvert-Lewin 64)

Poor finishing cost us all 3 points here as we outplayed Bournemouth and really should have won the game!

Bad news as we lose Gylfi Sigurdsson for the rest of the season through injury!

Formation; 4-1-2-3 Wide
Lineup; Pickford, Coleman, Zouma, Keane, Digne (Sent Off 55), Gueye (McCarthy 45), Gomes, Davies (Kenny 55), Pavon, Lookman, Calvert-Lewin

A massive mix up between Michael Keane and Jordan Pickford allowed Jamie Vardy in to score on of the easiest goals he'll ever score, before Lucas Digne got himself sent off for a two footed lunge! Basically, we threw this game away ourselves and have nobody else to blame...**** poor!

With only 8 games remaining, we face an uphill struggle to make the top 6 now as the consistency in form I was looking for has just not come! We should still comfortably make the board's expectation of a top half finish, but we are probably playing for 7th or 8th at best now! At the bottom end, Spurs look like they're doing enough to avoid an embarassing relegation, whilst Huddersfield are all but relegated and Burnley will need a miracle to survive now too!

Burnley sacked Sean Dyche!

Round 5
Formation; 4-2-3-1
Lineup; Pickford, Kenny, Keane (Broughton 73), Mina, Digne, McCarthy, Davies, Walcott*, Sigurdsson (Adeniran 62), Neves, Calvert-Lewin

Pedro Neves was handed his first start for the club, whilst 20 year old Dennis Adeniran and 17 year old Max Broughton were handed debuts from the bench, as we cruised past Oxford and into the 6th round! Adeniran even capped his debit with a goal, a fine first time finish from 10 yards out!

We were handed a tough trip to Old Trafford in the 6th round!
​

 

[HugoCaldeira1234]

Hey TheNotSpecialOne
Can You Do V Guimaraes Or Rio Ave Story
I Think Manage Two Portuguese Teams Could Be Nice

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Hey TheNotSpecialOne
Can You Do V Guimaraes Or Rio Ave Story
I Think Manage Two Portuguese Teams Could Be Nice

Sorry mate, this Everton one is going to keep me going a while I think!

 

[HugoCaldeira1234]

****
Will You Manage Portuguese Teams In FM20

 

[Brane_Orsou]

That wage bill must be a killer! At least you got Bernard off your books, well 50% of him anyway. Hopefully he can seal a move away in the summer, reduce that wage bill and get some cash in.

Any chance of 7th becoming a European place? How's the big boys doing in Europe?

 

[FM_TNSSO]

That wage bill must be a killer! At least you got Bernard off your books, well 50% of him anyway. Hopefully he can seal a move away in the summer, reduce that wage bill and get some cash in.

Any chance of 7th becoming a European place? How's the big boys doing in Europe?

Man City are in the semis of the Champs League, whilst Arsenal are in the semis of the Europa, so maybe an opportunity for 7th to sneak in.
The wage bill is destroying us at the moment and is definitely something I need to work on over the Summer....this could be a complete rebuild job over the next couple of seasons!