Ive just finished my first season with Villa, I will tell you how I faired at the end if I get any interest, as im not much of a story teller and this is my first post.
Sold: Heskey for 4 mil to Sunderland, Shorey for 4.5 mil to Sunderland, Gardner for 5 mil to Tottenham, Luke Young for 4.5 mil to Bremen. James Collins went for 6 mil to Man City.
I was given just short of 3mil at the start of the season which is why I indentified the weaker players and the surplus players I didn’t need and offered them to other clubs.
First up i bought Ronaldo for 2 mil and even him being 32 years old i thought was a complete bargain, plus i mean come on Ronaldo at Villa!?? Awesome! Was happy with knowing he might be lazy from time to time as i had my pace in Gabby and my target man in Carew, so just needed another few goals and a clinical striker which he is, plus his experience would be invaluable to the team.
My second signing was Riquelme for 4 mil, which in my eyes is another complete bargain, hes only 31, has fantastic stats and was the creative flair and skilled player the Villa needed in the middle, not to mention the vast experience he has. i was looking at changing my formation to suit him as an attacking mid, changing to a diamond formation with Reo Coker and Petrov swapping DM duties.
I used the rest of my money on Dario Srna at right back(11mil), knowing he was still really good as a RM too, has great crossing and free kicks and would act as cover for Milner or should I need to tinker with the squad a bit. As I had sold Luke Young I kept Habib Beye as my 2nd RB, his marking, tackling, heading and crossing were better than Luke anyways. I knew Wilfred Bouma was coming back in a month or two so was happy with the cover at left back for Warnock.
I was chasing Benoit Cheyrou, Huddlestone, Defour, Witzel, Hernanes, Inler but they were too much ££ I ended up stopping at rejected bids of 10 mil, right before transfer window closed I was offered Mateo Brighi from Roma for 6 mil, which I decided was a good move, needed more men in the middle and was a lot cheaper than all the above. I also loaned Bannan and Delfouneso out to Colchester and C Palace respectively. I also bought Luc Castaignos for my youth team for around a 1 mil.
I started out fantastically, Ronaldos 3 goals in 2 games got me excited, Riquelme owning the midfield and spraying passes and shots and free kicks like a teenager, then just swapping out the DM duties depending on form and what I needed. I was playing a diamond with Riquelme as an advanced playmaker behind two strikers. For the big games I would take a striker off and move to a 4-5-1 with Ashley young and milner as inside forwards with one striker up front, and adding a DM to go behind two CM in the middle, this really worked a charm, I beat Liverpool and arsenal and drew with Chelsea and Man U in the first half of the season and my unbeaten run.
In Europe I wasn’t fairing as well, I lost to Toulouse in opening match 2-0, I then beat Tiscalde(cant remem) and was 1-0 against Ajax only to lose 2-1, so I was 2nd bottom in the group stages with some big games ahead, Srna and Brighi were both banned from Euro comps too having played in the competition already this season.
I eventually lost in the Premiership, an embarrassing loss to Hull 4-1 but it was always going to happen sooner than later so I wasn’t overly upset. In Europe I beat Tiscalde or whatever they were called again in the return leg and then beat Toulouse 2-1 at home to set up a must win game against Ajax to qualify for the next round. Toulouse had 9 points just like me but they were playing Tiscalde at home.
I went in the lead early and thought it was my game, only for Ajax to come from behind yet again and beat me 2-1. I was bummed about getting kicked out but to my amazement Toulouse lost 1-0 at home so I had qualified in 2nd place!
I was taking the advice of my backroom staff, specifically with formations and training they thought would benefit my players, but generally using Diamond, 4-5-1, 4-4-2 attacking. I created training schedules for each position in my team, and I had started to build up a better Coaching system. I had mutually terminated the contracts of staff I deemed not good enough and signed better coaches who would fill the areas my team needed better coaching in.
Around the time I qualified I was given a further 16 mil from the board due to having surpluss capital which I was v happy with. I started scouting all the wonderkids I know of and the ones I remember in fm09, and came back with some good reports. I had done the same with my scouting, taking on a further 3 scouts and sending them out or to watch competitions and give me feedback.
I will continue this again when I have some more time, need to get back to work!
Sold: Heskey for 4 mil to Sunderland, Shorey for 4.5 mil to Sunderland, Gardner for 5 mil to Tottenham, Luke Young for 4.5 mil to Bremen. James Collins went for 6 mil to Man City.
I was given just short of 3mil at the start of the season which is why I indentified the weaker players and the surplus players I didn’t need and offered them to other clubs.
First up i bought Ronaldo for 2 mil and even him being 32 years old i thought was a complete bargain, plus i mean come on Ronaldo at Villa!?? Awesome! Was happy with knowing he might be lazy from time to time as i had my pace in Gabby and my target man in Carew, so just needed another few goals and a clinical striker which he is, plus his experience would be invaluable to the team.
My second signing was Riquelme for 4 mil, which in my eyes is another complete bargain, hes only 31, has fantastic stats and was the creative flair and skilled player the Villa needed in the middle, not to mention the vast experience he has. i was looking at changing my formation to suit him as an attacking mid, changing to a diamond formation with Reo Coker and Petrov swapping DM duties.
I used the rest of my money on Dario Srna at right back(11mil), knowing he was still really good as a RM too, has great crossing and free kicks and would act as cover for Milner or should I need to tinker with the squad a bit. As I had sold Luke Young I kept Habib Beye as my 2nd RB, his marking, tackling, heading and crossing were better than Luke anyways. I knew Wilfred Bouma was coming back in a month or two so was happy with the cover at left back for Warnock.
I was chasing Benoit Cheyrou, Huddlestone, Defour, Witzel, Hernanes, Inler but they were too much ££ I ended up stopping at rejected bids of 10 mil, right before transfer window closed I was offered Mateo Brighi from Roma for 6 mil, which I decided was a good move, needed more men in the middle and was a lot cheaper than all the above. I also loaned Bannan and Delfouneso out to Colchester and C Palace respectively. I also bought Luc Castaignos for my youth team for around a 1 mil.
I started out fantastically, Ronaldos 3 goals in 2 games got me excited, Riquelme owning the midfield and spraying passes and shots and free kicks like a teenager, then just swapping out the DM duties depending on form and what I needed. I was playing a diamond with Riquelme as an advanced playmaker behind two strikers. For the big games I would take a striker off and move to a 4-5-1 with Ashley young and milner as inside forwards with one striker up front, and adding a DM to go behind two CM in the middle, this really worked a charm, I beat Liverpool and arsenal and drew with Chelsea and Man U in the first half of the season and my unbeaten run.
In Europe I wasn’t fairing as well, I lost to Toulouse in opening match 2-0, I then beat Tiscalde(cant remem) and was 1-0 against Ajax only to lose 2-1, so I was 2nd bottom in the group stages with some big games ahead, Srna and Brighi were both banned from Euro comps too having played in the competition already this season.
I eventually lost in the Premiership, an embarrassing loss to Hull 4-1 but it was always going to happen sooner than later so I wasn’t overly upset. In Europe I beat Tiscalde or whatever they were called again in the return leg and then beat Toulouse 2-1 at home to set up a must win game against Ajax to qualify for the next round. Toulouse had 9 points just like me but they were playing Tiscalde at home.
I went in the lead early and thought it was my game, only for Ajax to come from behind yet again and beat me 2-1. I was bummed about getting kicked out but to my amazement Toulouse lost 1-0 at home so I had qualified in 2nd place!
I was taking the advice of my backroom staff, specifically with formations and training they thought would benefit my players, but generally using Diamond, 4-5-1, 4-4-2 attacking. I created training schedules for each position in my team, and I had started to build up a better Coaching system. I had mutually terminated the contracts of staff I deemed not good enough and signed better coaches who would fill the areas my team needed better coaching in.
Around the time I qualified I was given a further 16 mil from the board due to having surpluss capital which I was v happy with. I started scouting all the wonderkids I know of and the ones I remember in fm09, and came back with some good reports. I had done the same with my scouting, taking on a further 3 scouts and sending them out or to watch competitions and give me feedback.
I will continue this again when I have some more time, need to get back to work!