How high can The Eagles soar? - A Crystal Palace F.C. Story

[WeArePalace]

Hello everyone,

After a little while being spent trying to work out how to install a certain facepack on my computer, I finally have managed to get it onto my laptop and now it is working fine. However, it did wipe out all of my FM saves leaving me in need of a new chapter to add to my many attempts at a long running successful story. I've not been as confident going into one as this. I do a Crystal Palace save every year and it's a bagful of fun, last year the save went for almost 10 seasons and was one of my favourites ever. This years edition I'm hoping will follow a similar route. One major change to my stories is that they'll have next to no pictures. This is due to the issues surrounding them at the current time, so I hope you don't mind a lack of pictures to support the story.

Moving on, I'm obviously a massive Crystal Palace fan and am really looking forward to taking on their solid squad. My FM database is slightly different as I can move for players who've just arrived and succeed in contract talks as it's slightly past when the game begun, however it doesn't have the current summer deals nor current relegation/promotion edited into the game. So to put it into terms, it's sitting at around the 2019 January transfer window in terms of transfer business but obviously I'm at the very start of the season.

I have massive plans for a squad overhaul in season 1. Wilfried Zaha is clearly the focal point of the team, while we've got the young and exciting Aaron Wan-Bissaka as well. The squad lacks depth and I also want to bring in some new starting midfielders. Their should be a truckload of money to spend if I can sell the players I want for their estimated value. One big name player I'm trying to offload is recent arrival Max Meyer, because his stats don't suit my play style and he could generate a good amount of funds for the club.

Thanks for reading my introductory post to my new FM save. Please like and comment it would be much appreciated!

 

[WeArePalace]

Our transfer window has been nothing short of hectic as we shell out 125m and dispose of 134m worth of players. We made 4 changes to the first team and brought in quality depth for the remaining positions. In the background, we had a decent pre-season with some tight games against tough opponents. We managed to bring in a total of 9 players, while letting go of 13, albeit one on loan, but disposing of deadwood for good money was key to a good window here.

First we made a number of sales to increase the transfer budget, giving Cardiff a double deal as they snapped up Joel Ward and James McArthur from our ranks. Both are getting past the prime years of their career, and I wasn't planning on starting either of them. While they do present decent back-up options, I thought it was best to sell them off now and replace them with younger players.

The funds generated from these two deals allowed us to sign two players ourselves, both occupying starting midfield positions. For small prices considering the players, we snap up Mario Lemina and Alfred Duncan from Southampton and Sassuolo respectively. Both present energetic hard-working options, and Duncan is the slightly more attacking option which, in front of Milivojevic should go together nicely.

Next up we make two very cheap deals for young back-up players. GK Predrag Rajkovic and CB Nicholas Opoku arrive and will be the back-up to the first team for these areas, thus enabling me to offload some more players. I'm quite thrilled with these deals as the players in today's market would surely sell for more than a combined 5m. A bargain as in a few years they should be real quality players.

With back-up arriving, I was now able to sell off my previous back-up for these areas, and Wayne Hennessey and Scott Dann both leave, going to Stoke and Huddersfield respectively. Once again, they were aging players and I was happy to get rid of them. Dann was slightly more difficult as he was a team leader, but I was confident that he could be replaced and eye current CB James Tomkins as someone who could replace him as that leader.

I dealt off a good bit of cash to Chelsea as I made a move for their back-up LB Emerson. He arrives on a 4 year deal with great excitement as he should be a great full-back partner for Wan-Bissaka. Originally he wasn't interested in a deal, but after offering certain promises he decided to accept to my delight as I feel we've got a quality full-back on our hands.

This allowed us to sell off Patrick Van-Aanholt and Pape Souare, both intriguingly to Ajax. We seem to be doing a few double deals with clubs. Their combined price amounted to the price I would pay for our new back-up full back. In a slightly controversial deal as he's arrived from Brighton, Bernardo joins as the perfect back-up as he is very capable at playing LB and RB, meaning he'll be able to fill in for both roles for me if required.

Next I brought in a new starting GK in the shape of Jack Butland from Stoke and seeing as they'd already bought Hennessey from us it can be considered a bit of an exchange, although Butland cost more as he presents a much better option in my opinion. He'll be our starting GK for a number of years, but with Rajkovic waiting in the wings he'll need to make sure that he puts in the performances required.

The first major bargain of the window as we bring in Tom Davies as a back-up CM from Everton for just 15m. I noticed he was going for cheap and after originally not planning to make a move, it was too good to pass up and he'll be another young star to add into the ranks and we're building up a very nice team.

Current starting GK Vicente Guaita was offloaded to Sevilla for the same price I paid for Butland. Guaita is currently slightly better but as he's 31 and Butland is 25 I was certainly willing to do the deal. Being able to sell these recently arrived players is quite a good thing as they're a number which I didn't want.

A bunch of smaller sales here, Jeffrey Schlupp, Connor Wickham and Cheikhou Kouyate are all off to Al-Ahli, Swansea and Watford respectively. They'll be off for a nice combined fee which balances the transfer books and none of them really appealed to me a first team starters, with Schlupp and Wickham unlikely to have even made the bench. Although Wickham was probably the most difficult to deal out as he actually doesn't look that bad but I'll give Benteke a chance as the back-up striker.

With these funds, I brought in a new back-up or starting striker who will arrive next season. Currently on loan at Flamengo, Gabriel Barbosa arrives from Inter Milan. Barbosa was once hailed as the next big thing, but he couldn't make it at Inter not Benfica. He went back on loan to the club he arrived from, Santos, and rediscovered some form and then moved to Flamengo the next season. We've offered him the chance to revive his career when he arrives and he should be a good option for us.

Then came the sale I'd been waiting for, Max Meyer is off to Lyon for around 25m. He was a very good option for us but his stats didn't suit my play style and I really couldn't make it fit for him. He generates more funds in the bank and once again isn't a massively important player to my plans. Kian Flanagan has also left on loan, going to Coventry.

Our final transfer deal was a back-up for the wings, and with the ability to play on the right and left, Benfica's Rafa is, like Bernardo, the ideal back-up option. His versatility could be key to our success and will be a great option off the bench for us. So, overall, I think we've had a stunning transfer window with these deals and hopefully that proves so on the pitch.

Pre-Season

Results-wise, pre-season went very well. We only narrowly lost to superior opposition in Atletico Madrid and won the rest of matches pretty easily. Overall, it's been a great start to this save and I'm personally really looking forward to the beginning of the season. However, the fixture list has been against us early off, below are our first four games:
VS. Everton
VS. Manchester United
VS. Liverpool
VS. Arsenal
It certainly won't be easy coming up against three of the big 6 and Everton who will be vying for a European spot themselves.
PLAYER OF PRE-SEASON

Michy Batshuayi got the goals for us and hopefully that form carries over into the new season. Our striker will be crucial to our form.

 

[WeArePalace]

Our season begins here! We have our difficult beginning, but the key are the matches after. In my opinion, this squad should be beating Burnley, Cardiff, Huddersfield, Brighton and we have even games against Southampton and Newcastle. However that's looking ahead into later months, right now we've got some difficult matches. 4 matches this month, in the shape of Everton, Manchester United, Liverpool and then a Carabao Cup tie against Brentford.

Crystal Palace 0
Everton 0

Lineup - Butland, Wan-Bissaka (Bernardo), Tomkins, Sakho, Emerson, Milivojevic, Duncan (Davies), Lemina, Zaha (Rafa), Batshuayi, Townsend

Our campaign began in decent fashion in an enthralling yet goalless contest. The game featured 40 shots in total, the bulk which went Everton's way. While they did dominate, our defence stood tall and kept Everton out. Our attack was restricted for the majority of the game, but against what would likely be considered a better team, a decent beginning.

Crystal Palace 3 (Townsend 29, 58, Benteke 66)
Manchester United 5 (Martial 20, 22, 45+2, Sanchez 38, 62)

Lineup - Butland, Wan-Bissaka (Bernardo), Tomkins, Sakho, Emerson, Milivojevic, Duncan, Lemina, Zaha, Batshuayi (Benteke), Townsend (Rafa)

It was another goal packed game and it was so even too but when we actually put away our chances the match had gotten away from us. However, we weren't totally outplayed by United and on another day this performance very well could've earned at least a point. Good to see Benteke with a goal and Townsend played a great match.

Crystal Palace 2 (Duncan 21, Lemina 33)
Liverpool 2 (Mane 4, Fabinho pen. 58)

Lineup - Butland, Wan-Bissaka, Tomkins, Riedewald, Sakho, Emerson, Milivojevic, Duncan, Lemina, Zaha, Batshuayi

We earn a very respectable point despite being, well honestly, carved apart by Liverpool here. They definitley outplayed us but we managed to nick a draw and they'll be ruing a number of missed chances. Our midfield duo of Duncan and Lemina showed their goalscoring ability with some thumping efforts.

Crystal Palace 2 (Townsend 49, 75)
Brentford 1 (Watkins 9)

Lineup - Butland, Bernardo, Tomkins, Sakho, Emerson (Wan-Bissaka), Townsend, Milivojevic, Duncan (Lemina), Rafa, Zaha (Benteke), Batshuayi

A little squad rotation here but nothing major and we get our first competitive victory despite needing to come from behind in the match. Townsend is looking like a great player for the team so far and he did the damage for us by grabbing both goals to turn the match on its head. We did dominate in truth and got a deserved win in the end.

PLAYER OF THE MONTH

Andros Townsend was an outright favourite for this award. Despite not playing in the draw to Liverpool because of fitness problems, he's been getting the goals for us and hopefully that can continue. It's unfortunate for Rafa who's waiting for more opportunities but ultimately Townsend has only increased his hold over the starting spot.

Confirmation of a solid first month. No league wins but considering the victories a very solid beginning and nothing disappointing.

 

[WeArePalace]

The next month begins with a tough test to the league leaders Arsenal. I also just realised that I didn't post the league table in the previous update, something which I'll make sure to do here. After that, though, we should be aiming to get a number of points with matches against Burnley, Southampton and Cardiff. In between is a Carabao Cup fixture against fellow Premier League club Fulham. Hopefully we can build on some positive signs from our opening month of games.

Crystal Palace 2 (Lemina 2, Duncan 11)
Arsenal 1 (Aubameyang 58)

Lineup: Butland, Wan-Bissaka, Tomkins, Sakho, Emerson, Milivojevic (Riedewald), Duncan (Davies), Lemina, Zaha, Batshuayi, Townsend (Rafa)

Well Duncan and Lemina are becoming our very own Dynamic Duo as we record a brilliant win over the league leaders!!! We started brilliantly and within just over 10 minutes we'd raced into a 2-0 lead. Arsenal did find they're way back into the game and took over the balance of the match. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was at the centre of attention as he had a disallowed goal, scored a goal to get Arsenal back in it and then missed a huge late chance to my relief. But we held out, so what a result here!

Crystal Palace 0
Burnley 0

Lineup: Butland, Wan-Bissaka, Tomkins, Sakho (Opoku), Emerson, Milivojevic (Riedewald), Duncan (Davies), Lemina, Zaha, Batshuayi, Townsend

The match which I though we'd have won, however, it didn't quite go to plan in a slightly dull affair against Burnley. Both defences were pretty solid allowing no major chances. In the end, it wasn't much of a spectacle and I don't have too many complaints; it's not the worst result by any means.

Crystal Palace 3 (Townsend 12, Batshuayi 76, Rafa pen 90)
Southampton 1 (Redmond 63, Simpson red 89)

Lineup: Butland, Bernardo, Tomkins, Sakho, Emerson (Wan-Bissaka), Townsend, Milivojevic (Lemina), Duncan, Rafa, Zaha, Batshuayi

The scoreline certainly favours us here in an even game where tempers flared and the match when into 9 minutes of added time. There were plenty of cards and a few injuries too, thankfully for Southampton players. We took the lead through the brilliant Andros Townsend, but they managed to pull level. Batshuayi did finally score and then frustration crept in for Southampton and Danny Simpson gave away as silly foul, got sent off and Rafa scored from the spot to add the gloss onto the win.

Carabao Cup 3rd Round

Crystal Palace 3 (Zaha 50, 65, Tomkins 60)
Fulham 0

Lineup: Butland, Bernardo, Tomkins, Sakho, Emerson, Townsend, Milivojevic, Duncan, Rafa (Wan-Bissaka), Zaha, Batshuayi

A routine win as the damage is done in a 15 minute spell in this cup tie with Fulham. However, we fully deserved it as domination paid off. Eventually their resistance was broken and Zaha finally showed his class to give us that cutting edge and a Tomkins goal in the middle of it all confirmed the win.

Crystal Palace 1 (Townsend 66)
Cardiff 0 (Arter missed pen 41)

Lineup: Butland, Bernardo, Opoku, Sakho, Emerson (Wan-Bissaka), Townsend, Milivojevic (Davies), Lemina, Rafa, Zaha, Batshuayi (Ayew)

Another league win here however it wasn't easy as they missed a first half penalty. Townsend got us the winner here and we got one over two former teammates in Ward and McArthur. Recently been toying with some of the first team and it's been working but have kept the top performers in. Batshuayi might not be getting the goals but is top of our assist list and is crucial to our build-up play.

LEAGUE TABLE

Looking really good here and we've got another solid round of winnable fixtures next month. If we can win the majority of them, we could even push for a European spot if we can keep this positive results up.

RESULTS

Solid results kicked off with our best one so far and that really started a downturn in form for Arsenal. We've kept our consistency and now have a number of wins to our name in the league. We've made progress in the cup as well which is nice.

PLAYER OF THE MONTH

Mr. Consistent this month was new signing Bernardo. He stepped into the first team after Wan-Bissaka dealt with a few fitness issue in the Southampton match and has fully stamped his name on it. Above the 7 rating every game and he looks like a great option for years to come if he can keep up the solid performances.

 

[WeArePalace]

I think we've got the capabilities this month to continue our winning form with matches against Huddersfield, Brighton and Newcastle. Then we have Manchester United in the Carabao Cup to round it out which isn't a match I'm too focused on. I'm hoping that we can push on and stay in a solid league position. Our squad is in great form at the moment, obviously Andros Townsend is the standout of the team, maybe we can draw some better performances out of Zaha as he's been alright so far but nothing special.

Crystal Palace 3 (Townsend 47, Zaha 60, Batshuayi 82)
Huddersfield 1 (Mounie 55)

Lineup: Butland, Wan-Bissaka (Emerson), Tomkins, Sakho, Bernardo, Townsend, Milivojevic (Davies), Duncan, Rafa, Zaha (Ayew), Batshuayi

We kick off this month with a good win over Huddersfield. It took until the second half for us to get going through Townsend. They got back into the game but it didn't take long before they were out of it again. It was good to see Zaha scoring as he probably needs to do a little better for us than he has done in recent games.

Crystal Palace 2 (Townsend 21, Lemina 50)
Brighton 1 (Izquierdo 12)

Lineup: Butland, Wan-Bissaka, Tomkins, Sakho, Emerson (Bernardo), Milivojevic, Lemina, Duncan (Davies), Zaha, Batshuayi (Benteke), Townsend

A win here in the A23 derby in my first during my managerial tenure!!! Being a Palace fan, it's such a good feeling getting this win here and we did deserve it. We rallied from behind and Townsend stood out once again, but it was Mario Lemina who stole the headlines with a thumping effort to seal the win. Buzzing!

Crystal Palace 2 (Batshuayi 6, Townsend 73)
Newcastle 1 (Ritchie 72)

Lineup: Butland, Wan-Bissaka, Tomkins, Sakho, Emerson (Bernardo), Milivojevic, Lemina, Duncan (Davies), Zaha, Batshuayi (Benteke), Townsend

We played a brilliant match here to win against Newcastle. Getting later into the game, they scored with what was their first shot on target and that was extremely frustrating to watch as we'd thoroughly dominated. Thankfully, Andros Townsend replied against his old club by scoring just a minute later!

Carabao Cup 4th Round

Crystal Palace 0
Man Utd 1 (Lukaku 45+1)

Lineup: Butland, Wan-Bissaka, Opoku (Rafa), Tomkins, Sakho, Bernardo, Lemina, Milivojevic (Davies), Duncan, Zaha, Batshuayi (Ayew)

Our Carabao Cup journey ends here as a first half stoppage time goal from Romelu Lukaku was the difference. However, we did deserve it as United this time played much better than in the league against us despite achieving the same result. Jack Butland was our best player making some great saves to keep the scoreline at just 1-0.

RESULTS

Another great month here and despite the elimination from the cup no real slip ups involved.

LEAGUE TABLE

Well we're certainly doing well then aren't we? A very impressive league standing which we can hopefully hold onto through the next month.

PLAYER OF THE MONTH

Andros Townsend is our player of the month and also finished as runner up in the race for EPL Player of the Month.

 

[WeArePalace]

To begin this update I just wanted to address that I've found a way around the picture issues, so now I'll be likely be using more photos in my posts rather than have a lot of writing as I suppose that can be a long and annoying right after a while. This month won't be easy, with Chelsea, Leicester and West Ham all Top 10 teams, and Chelsea of course Top 6. It'll be interesting to see how we do because we've been doing so well recently, but have had some pretty favourable fixtures.

We start off with a narrow loss away to Chelsea. They had a remarkable 40 shots, quadrupling our tally of 10. They led early but Zaha single handedly turned it around, reminiscent of our performance a couple of seasons ago against the Blues in our first win of the season at the time. However, it was not to be and they then turned around their own deficit to win the game. Wan-Bissaka only picked up a slight injury and Alfred Duncan picked up a needless red card to really compound the defeat.

Much better here as we thrash Leicester 4-0 at the King Power stadium. They never really offered any threat to our lead and we just piled on the goals in the end. It was good to see Davies notching his first for the club and it was a banger as well. Zaha is also really coming into form which is great to see because he's been lacking it a little in past months.

We then recorded a come-from-behind victory to down West Ham with a very late own goal from Issa Diop getting us the win. We did deserve the win though and we did perform well as you can tell from the fact that West Ham's goalkeeper was the Man of the Match. Michy Batshuayi got another goal which was great to see and he hasn't exactly been banging them in lately.

ROUND-UP

So a much shorter month here and a progressive one as well. Despite the loss against Chelsea, who are a bigger side, we thrashed Leicester and just about got past West Ham. We're really showing that we can match it with the best and are really making a name for ourselves as a surprise package.

The league table continues to look great for us, doesn't it? Absolutely thrilled with this position and I can only hope it continues.

Wilfried Zaha finally starting to show his class and was our best player this month, being in the running for the EPL best player this month as well.

Tom Davies was also in the running for the best young player this month and got his first club as well. Overall a great month of football!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

How will you be doing your pics mate? I've found the only way to do it is through imgur

 

[WeArePalace]

How will you be doing your pics mate? I've found the only way to do it is through imgur

Im not sure if this is working as some of my pictures aren’t appearing, although that could be because of my poor wi-fi. However, I have attached all my images the usual way, then I go back in and cross out all of the images on the attachment screen. The only problem area is that it might actually detract the images from the post as well. Can you see them ok or not?

 

[madmat23]

Im not sure if this is working as some of my pictures aren’t appearing, although that could be because of my poor wi-fi. However, I have attached all my images the usual way, then I go back in and cross out all of the images on the attachment screen. The only problem area is that it might actually detract the images from the post as well. Can you see them ok or not?

Absolutely no images at all i'm afraid.

 

[leckuno]

How will you be doing your pics mate? I've found the only way to do it is through imgur

Imgur is the only way I've found to do it as well so I've resorted to that for my story

 

[WeArePalace]

Alright thanks everyone for confirming that this actually isn't working. I guess I'll try imgur as well although I've tried it before and the images wouldn't upload. Thanks.

 

[WeArePalace]

Hey again everyone. I am so frustrated right now. After the image problems, the entire save file has corrupted. Gutted to need yet another restart. Sorry once again everyone!