Fulham to CL Glory - Completed!

[yaniv297]

Hey guys, just thought I'd share my biggest FM achievement so far... taking Fulham to 2 consecutive CL wins, and 3 consecutive EPL wins.

So here's how it started...

FIRST SEASON:

TRANSFER WINDOW:

So naturally I had a pretty small budget and needed to improve many parts of the team. I had to search for pretty cheap players and here's what I came up with:

View attachment 278112

Stepanenko was quite expensieve so I used installments to get him.
To be honest it was a pretty quiet season and I couldn't build a really strong team with the squad. I used 4-2-3-1 with either Zamora or Dembele above, however neither really impressed (Zamora wasn't even good enough to make my best eleven subs!). Generally those were my first eleven:

Schwarzer
Risee - Hangeland - Nestor/Hughes - Baird
Stepanenko/Diarra - Murphy (C)
Castro - Dembele/Dempsey - Ruiz
Dembele/Zamora

The most impressive players was Hangeland who's a great defender, and Bryan Ruiz (7 goals, 7.13 Avg Rat). Dembele was top scorer with 11 goals.
Stepanenko was largely disappointing.

Achievements:
League - 8th place, 54 points.
Euro Cup - Knocked out by Roma in 1st Knock-Out round.
League Cup - Knocked out by Liverpool in quarters.
FA Cup - Knocked out by Arsenal in quarters.

Notable games:
3-0 win against Liverpool (H) - Dempsey (2), Zamora.
2-1 win at Totteham (A) - Castro, Sidwell.
1-0 win against Chelsea (H) - Dembele.

Second season to follow!!

 

[MWEST94]

how many seasons did it take u?

 

[yaniv297]

SECOND SEASON:

Transfer Window:


So this time I had more money to make some big transfer calls.
The biggest one was probably selling both my strikers, Zamora (got 3.2 for him) and Dembele (got 7.5), and buy two new ones: Moussa Sow from Lille (5.5), and Papiss Cisse from Freiburg (7.5).
I also sold Senderos and Rodriguez.

I also bought:
Ramsus Elm (CM) from AZ (5.25 mil)
Marc Andre Ter-Stegen (GK) from Gladbach (3.8 mil)
Karim Ait-Fana (AML) from Montpellier (Free)
Andrea Bertolacci (CM) from Roma (950K).
Lorenzo De-Silvestri (RB) from Fiorentina (475K)

Here's the transfer window:
View attachment 278116

I started playing 4-2-2-2, and that was my starting eleven:
Ter Stegen
Risee - Hangeland - Nestor - De Silvestri
Elm - Stepanenko
Castro/Ait Fana - Ruiz
Cisse - Sow

That year went a lot better.
Cisse scored 15 in 24 apps (AvgRat: 7.25)
Sow scored 15 in 29 apps (AvgRat: 7.09)
Elm finished with 11 assists (AvgRat: 7.15)
Ruiz finished with 9 goals and 16 assists (AvgRat: 7.37)
Hangeland had a 7.21 AvgRat.

I finished 7th in the league:
View attachment 278117

Got Knocked out in the FA Cup semi finals by Chelsea (3-2 after extra time. Castro scored twice for me).
Lost the league cup final in penalties against United (1-1, Sub Lodeiro scored for me)

Notable wins
4-1 at Arsenal away (!!) - Saw, Elm, Cisse, Rochina.
3-2, Tottenham home - Cisse, Ait-Fana, Nestor
2-0 win against Arsenal home - Ruiz, O.G.
2-0 win against Liverpool home - Cisse, Ait-Fana
1-0 win at Man United away - Dempsey.


That was a good season for us, we played good football and had a good team.
This was also the last year of mediocrity - next year, we're already title contenders...

 

[Trophy_Whorder]

Marc Andre Ter-Stegen (GK) from Gladbach (3.8 mil)

Great bargin for that price normally he goes for 18m between 25 i have seen

 

[yaniv297]

THIRD SEASON:

So the third season was always going to be a big one for the team. We've already had a pretty strong squad at Craven Cottage, but we needed a strong transfer season if we are to be really title contenders. So first I sold off a few squad players:
Most notably Stepanenko, who I couldn't get to play well. I also sold Rochina, Castro (who's been outplayed by Ait-Fana), Tae-Hee, Briggs, Baird, Nestor, Sidwell and Nestor. I got 28 mil for those players, so I had a pretty big budget to play with, and I bought some important players this summer.

I bought:
Mateo Kovacic for 7 mil.
Ezquiel Munoz for 5 mil.
Davide Santon for 8.25 mil.
Mario Fernandes for 8.5 mil.
Jack Rodwell for 12 mil.

Bought in January:
Mbaye Niang for 8.75 mil.
Diego Perotti, who was unhappy at city and was declared "worst signing of the season" there, for 6 mil.
And a few more younger players. Here is the transfer window:
View attachment 278118

I returned to 4-2-3-1, and my team now looked like this:

Ter Stegen
Santon - Hangeland - Munoz - Fernandes/De Silvestri
Elm - Rodwell
Ait-Fana (Perotti) - Kovacic - Ruiz
Cisse (Niang).

Here's how the season ended:
View attachment 278119

So frustratingly, I was only one point away from winning the league!

As for other competitions:
Euro Cup - knocked out in first knock out round by CSKA Moscow (1-1 home, 3-2 away)
FA Cup - knocked out in 6th round by Chelsea, away, in a thrilling match which ended 5-3 (Scored: Elm (2), Sow).
League Cup - WON. I beat Liverpool 3-0 in the league cup final, which marked my first title as Fulham Manager. Scored: Munoz (2), Elm.Player achievements:

In defence, Munoz and Hangeland did well, with avg ratings of 7.21 and 7.25. The worst signing was easily Mario Fernandes, who was pretty bad and couldn't knock De Silvestri out of the starting eleven.

In the midfield, this was a high season for Ramsus Elm, who managed 10 goals and 24 assists in 53 apps (avg rating: 7.25).

The real star of the year was Bryan Ruiz, with an outrageous 23 goals and 19 assists (7.50 Avg Rating!).

Ait Fana was brilliant too with 13 goals and 14 assists (7.29 rating).

Perotti was bought in January and was injured for a bit, so he failed to make serious impact (yet).

Young Kovacic played a lot and managed 4 goals and 9 assists, with his stats constantly climbing.

Upfront Papiss Cisse gave the best season of his career, scoring 36 goals in 47 apps.

Niang was brought on in January and managed 4 goals in 15 apps (only 3 starts).


Notable games: there were too many.
Biggest win: 6-1 at Sunderland away - Ruiz (3), Cisse, Sow (2).
Home wins against United, Chelsea, City and Liverpool.