Leicester City - Foxes become Lions

[zacram]

Thanks man, has actually worked out a little easier than I first anticipated - Managed to pick up some quality players for cheap which I hadn't expected

Think I would do it as a low PL team or Championship if I did it again for a bit of an added challenge.

 

[zacram]

We nearly managed to hold PSG out but for the full 90 minutes, but unfortunately Neymar bent one past Henderson late on to give them an away goal and lead heading into the second leg. The Semi-Finals are now looking very far away.

Choudhury's first half red card left us in the lurch and slumped to a disappointing defeat to Norwich putting Liverpool in a commanding position for first place.

We are marching on to the Semi-Finals!

I was hoping to scrape a one goal lead at best heading into the away leg, but the lads put in an unbelievable performance as we thrashed the French Giants 3-0 in their own back yard!

Up Next Barcelona...

Another slip up in the League against Burnley may cost us, but we still have the Premier League in sight.

Chances of a Champions League final looked to be slipping away at half-time but a brace from Maddison has given us something to work with in the home leg. It was a shame to concede in injury time, but I cant really complain with the 2 away goals which could be crucial in the end.

A big win at Brentford ended the month nicely for us.

We lead the title race heading into the final month, but Liverpool will take the lead again should they pick up a point when they play their game in hand. Although our place in the CL next season has been confirmed!

Here are our final games of the season....

Can we make the CL final?

and a victory over Liverpool on the final day could clinch us the Title!​

 

[zacram]

WE ARE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINALISTS!

That Maddison brace proved crucial as we scraped through by virtue of away goals. They scored an early goal yet again in this one, but fortunately we rallied and got our noses back in front. It was a very tense last 20 minutes as they piled forward but we held strong and secured a historic result.

Chelsea beat Liverpool in the other game, which is good news for us as we've already beaten Chelsea twice this season. 2-0 at home and then 3-0 away. Hopefully we can get another against them in Munich.

We did what we needed to do against Brighton. Got the 3 points to take the season down to the last day.

Greenwood, our top goalscorer this season picked up an injury at a time where we need him the most. We essentially have 2 cup finals to play so have stuck him on the painkillers and told him to keep playing. We need him.

Liverpool then lost their game in hand against Burnley, which now meant that we needed to not lose at Anfield to be Premier League Champions! A draw would be enough.

Unbelievable..... Absolutely devastated

We literally had a hand on the trophy until Oxlade-Chamberlain scored an 89th minute winner for Liverpool to retain the Premier League!

I really thought we were going to do it but perhaps that's the danger of a youthful squad and highlighted a slight lack in our game management to see out a game. We now need to rally from this and prepare for the CL Final in 2 weeks.

Putting the disappointment aside this was still an incredibly successful campaign as we notched up our record points total. Most of our players are still developing and confidence should be high next season.

So 2 weeks on we travel to Munich to play in the Club's first ever Champions League final and undoubtably the biggest game of my career to date.


Fortunately I have a fully fit squad to work with, but decided to go with Vardy up front a little sentimentally as he's the clubs captain and possibly playing his final game for the club.

Here's how the teams line up...

16th Minute
Leicester 0 - 1 Chelsea

19th Minute
Leicester 0 - 2 Chelsea

Half Time

The half-time whistle finally gives us some respite and a chance to regather some composure. The match stats are actually pretty even but Chelsea have taken their chances and the CL Trophy is slowly slipping away.

A couple of halftime changes to try change things up.

64th Minute
Leicester 0 - 3 Chelsea

One final throw of the dice to try restore a bit of pride... Bellingham on.

89th Minute
Leicester 1 - 3 Chelsea

90+2 Minute
Leicester 2 - 3 Chelsea

90+4 Minute
Leicester 3 - 3 Chelsea

Full-Time

After an uneventful Extra time we go to the shootout....

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE CHAMPIONS!

Move aside The Miracle of Istanbul as this must surely go down as the greatest comeback in Champions League History!

3-0 down in the 89th minute and we score 3 goals in 5 minutes, with the equaliser coming from the goalkeeper..... you couldn't make it up!

In all the years i've played FM I have never had a game turn around like this and never had my goalkeeper score from a corner and to do it all in the Champions League Final is quite something.

Apologies for the long post I got rather carried away and felt I had to try share as much of the drama as I could!​

 

[Schnauzer]

Oh my goodness, unreal post!

Dean Henderson scoring in the final minute of the match to level it, absolutely brilliant!! ?

Well done dude. Surely the league title is doable next season. Maybe time to go after Jadon Sancho to take your team to the next level?

On a side note, I'm loving how well Branthwaite is doing for you! I had him on loan for Blyth Spartans in League One and he was superb. He's brilliant in real life too - I think a star for the future.

Keep it up!

 

[anej]

Wow

 

[zacram]

Oh my goodness, unreal post!

Dean Henderson scoring in the final minute of the match to level it, absolutely brilliant!! ?

Well done dude. Surely the league title is doable next season. Maybe time to go after Jadon Sancho to take your team to the next level?

On a side note, I'm loving how well Branthwaite is doing for you! I had him on loan for Blyth Spartans in League One and he was superb. He's brilliant in real life too - I think a star for the future.

Keep it up!

I honestly couldn't believe my eyes when I saw Dean Henderson smash it in - Could be my secret set-piece weapon moving forward!

Thanks mate. Yeah, i'm looking for one big attacking signing this season, so am eyeing up either Sancho, Rashford or Kane. I actually think Kane would be my first choice and then Greenwood can stick to the AMR role. My Initial enquires suggest i'm going to need to fork out £90+ Million to land one though, so just need to see if I can make the finances work....

Braithwaite has been outstanding! Signed him as a more of a future prospect but he has established himself as my first choice parter for Godfrey and only cost £23M - He must have dominated in League One.

 

[MrTini23]

What have I just read!? Absolutely incredible

 

[zacram]

Season Review 2021/22

Unsurprisingly James Maddison dominated the poll for Fans Player of the Season, as he scored 16, assisted 19 and had the highest average rating of 7.37! He had an underwhelming season last year but has thrived out on the LW this season.


Greenwood managed to get over the 20 goal mark fo the season but was only 10th in the Premier League Golden Boot. We scored a lot of goals this season but still need a really clinical striker up front.


Still cant get over seeing the goal tally next to Dean Henderson....

6 Players also made it into the Champions League XI, which I guess is sort of expected considering we won the competition....

Jamie Vardy decided to retire. I wanted to sign him on for another season but his wage was £140k p/w and wasn't willing to drop as low as I could really justify considering nearly everyone has asked for a new contract.

He retires as a club Legend as well as a Premier League and Champions League winner....

Confirmation of the Community Shield (Liverpool won the League and FA Cup) and Super Cup fixtures and the chance to add more silverware.

I have decided to throw the cash at trying to land Harry Kane......but he has no interest in discussing a deal WITH THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE WINNERS!!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

That has surely got to be the greatest post on FM Base ever? I can't believe what I have just read!

 

[zacram]

Well we finally managed to get our man!

Despite initially rejecting contract talks we managed to wear him down and secure a record signing. We were close to closing a deal for Rashford before the Kane breakthrough and ultimately had to pull out of that deal to free up the funds.

Can he take this club to the next level.



The only other signing was for Daniel Stacey (£6.5M) a youth prospect from Portsmouth. Looks a quality player and have loaned him back to Pompy for the remainder of the season where he is getting regular first team football in League One.

Notable sales were Holding and Akpom. Both had fallen down the pecking order and wanted to leave so put them on the market and got some very good offers.

Bought Holding for £11M and sold for £40M and bought Akpom for £3.1M and sold for £16m - Good business all round.

Liverpool gave us a case of our own medicine, staging a very late comeback to win the Community Shield in the shootout. Not quite the heroics of the Champions League but still a notable comeback and a disappointing collapse on our front. Whilst the Community Shield isn't the most illustrious trophy it is silverware at the end of the day.


Other than that we had a very dominant pre-season getting the squad fit for the early season start due to the Winter World Cup.

Here is this seasons's first team squad. The wage budget is rather stretched as I've had to agree new contracts for the majority of the squad following our rise in stature. Hopefully we can build on our successes this season.

​

 

[zacram]

A couple of cagey wins kicked off our Premier League season - Not the most convincing start to the season but a 100% record none the less going into our UEFA Super Cup Tie.

Harry Kane is already starting to repay that massive Transfer Fee, bagging a brace to help us get the better of United in Extra Time. It's very early days but already I have a feeling that when he gets a clear cut chance he's unlikely to miss.

Unfortunately Greenwood and Braithwaite both picked up injuries in the game ruling them out for while.

We manage to get further than last season in the EFL Cup already, seeing off Swansea and Everton to reach the Quarter-Finals. I have been playing a mostly reserve team for both games but good to see some fringe players in action and performing well.

Our easiest Champions League group to date and top spot will be contested between ourselves and Juventus. Having got the better of them already in Turin I feel confident we can go on to top the group and hopefully get the easier draw for the next round.

Defensively we have been outstanding so far this season conceding just the 2 goals in 9 games! Unfortunately Liverpool did end our 100% win record at Anfield but we do have the opportunity to reclaim top spot if we win our game in hand. A very good start none the less.

On a side note I'm thinking of starting another story to run alongside this one. This save has been a little easier than I had anticipated and in hindsight should have started with a weaker side to create more of a challenge from the start. Although we are still a way of European domination, we are winning most games fairly routinely.


So my new save idea will is "Tony Pulis - Route One Football". Essentially I will looking to create an extremely physical/aggressive side, play long ball football and dominate set-pieces. The transfer rule will be players have to be over a certain height (maybe 6ft or a little taller) and signing players to fit my tactics based on their attributes for the role rather than necessarily just a good scout report.

If I go for England am thinking it has to be Stoke or possibly Bolton for a bigger challenge - Am open to other Leagues/Suggestions so if you're following this and have a good team idea I'd love to hear it.



This story will continue!​

 

[zacram]

World Cup 2022 Break

With the Qatar World Cup fast approaching we play our last Premier League game on the 5th November before a 50 day break. We manage to end the first third of the season having only dropped 3 points. Harry Kane has been in terrific form for us and now has 16 goals in 18 appearances across all competitions.

It's already starting to look like a just a 2 horse race between ourselves and Liverpool.

We absolutely thrashed Juventus in the final group game to secure a top seed position going into the knockout stages. Qualification never really looked in doubt when the groups were drawn, but getting the double over Juventus is another big statement from us as we look to retain the Champions League against Europes Elite.

Some very minor murmurs of a Leicester City takeover are circling. They have been heavily dismissed but interesting to hear nonetheless...

Gareth Southgate has decided to call up 12 of our players for his World Cup Squad. Unfortunately Jack Grealish tore his thigh muscle a couple of weeks earlier so was always going to miss out, but glad to see we make up the majority of the squad.

So here is the full England Squad.

The most bizarre player to be included is Rob Holding. Whilst at Leicester he never got called up despite some good performances, we then sold him to AC Milan for £40M, hasn't played a single game all season and is far from match fit, yet still gets called up! Makes no sense to me and Jarrad Branthwaite can feel very unlucky not to make the cut considering how well he is playing for us this season.

Mason Greenwood hasn't been performing that well this season for us so maybe not so surprised to see him overlooked due to the large number of attacking players to choose from (mostly from Leicester).

 

[zacram]

World Cup 2022

A draw against Costa Rica almost cost England progressing to the knockout stages, just like the 2014 World Cup. It's actually a very similar group the only difference being S Korea instead of Uruguay. However, thankfully this time we made it through in 2nd place.

Some interesting teams made it through to the knockout stages, including the likes of Jamaica and South Africa. Scotland beating Holland was a big upset, but Southgate's men battled past Senegal in extra time.

Harry Kane scored a brace as we see off Scotland in the battle of the Home Nations. A late goal made it tense but they just about managed to avoid a riot back in England.

England managed to overturn a 2 goal deficit to beat Belgium to reach the World Cup Final in a showdown against France.

FOOTBALL HAS FINALLY COME HOME!

The final went all the way to a shootout and was Dean Henderson once again coming up with a massive goal in Final albeit this time from the penalty spot. So we now have 12 world cup winners in our Leicester City squad who return hungry to win more domestic silverware this season.

Phil Foden was awarded Best Player of the tournament, beating Mbappe and Abraham!

A couple of other English players made the World Cup XI but Foden was the only Leicester representative.

On a side note our reward for winning our group is a last 16 game against Barcelona. We managed to beat them on the way to the trophy last season but is always going to be a tough fixture.

 

[zacram]

New Arrivals


Karamoko Dembele (£52M) - Hit the headline back in 2016 playing for Celtic U20's and is heavily touted to be a superstar. He has been on my radar since I took over really and remember I could have signed him for around £20M but didn't have the resources. He has now come with a much heftier price tag but am confident he can develop to his full potential at Leicester.

Eoin Ford (£19.75M) - With a sizeable transfer budget still at my disposal I decided to invest in some youth considering we are failing to produce any future wonderkids. It's a massive price tag to pay for a 16 year old yet to make a professional appearance but I trust my scouts judgement and will hopefully be Chilwells understudy in a few years time. ​

I decided to sell Demarai Gray to make way for Dembele. Not an easy decision as Gray has been a consistent squad player for us but having looked at the attributes, I believe Demebele can offer us a bit more attacking threat even at his present age and has bags more potential to develop. Also £40M is a very good fee for Gray.

Harry Kane comes 3rd in the Fifa Best Player award. Unfortunately we cannot take credit for all his performances as half would have been whilst he was playing for Juventus last season. Dean Henderson is also awarded the 3rd best Goalkeeper in the World although that Champions League goal and World Cup Final penalty should really elevate him to the top if you ask me.... not that i'm biased.

Ben Godfrey makes it onto the bench in the Fifa Team of the Year, whilst Kane makes the starting XI.

After a couple of disappointing League Cup campaigns we finally make it to the Final for a showdown against Arsenal. It may not be the most prestigious trophy going but we haven't won it since 2000 and am determined to get Leicester 's name back on.

We knock Chelsea out of the FA Cup this time as we progress to the 5th Round. Reading looks like an easy draw but will need a strong performance still to progress.

A loss to City and a draw at home to Everton has really dented our Title hopes as Liverpool continue to be relentless in victory. Any slip ups now and we seem to get duly punished and need to be near perfection to lift the Premier League Trophy.

Stupidly I missed the League Screenshot and have progressed a bit further now so will have to wait for the next update but I think we're now 4 points behind Liverpool
​

 

[zacram]

Cup Heartbreak and Jubilation

We start with the Jubilation of our EFL Cup win against Arsenal in front of a sellout Wembley. As it was the cup final I felt I had to field our strongest lineup and resist the urge to select some of the fringe players that got us here. It was a difficult decision but when you are essentially judged on silverware no matter what competition I was a decision I felt necessary.

So Leicester City is etched onto the trophy for the first time since 2000 and our second trophy this season already.

​

Our Champions League title defence falls at the first real hurdle.

Barcelona came out all guns blazing in the first leg and really took the game to us, punishing some shambolic defending. Tactically I probably got it a bit wrong and should have been more defensive in the away fixture but either way the team didn't perform to the level we've come to expect over the past few seasons.

We tried to put it right in the second leg and overturn the 3 goal deficit but it proved too much in the end. We actually had 2 goals disallowed for offside to add to the frustration. Fortunately the board have been sympathetic despite having a minimum expectation of reaching the quarter finals.

Our FA Cup campaign continues to a quarter final against Blackburn. The expectation will be for us to progress comfortably to the Semis but these cup games often have a surprise or 2 in them.

The Premier League has also seen us have a wobble with a shock defeat to Norwich before Burnley held us to a draw at Turf Moor. Was a shame we couldn't get the 3 points over Liverpool but a couple of big results against the Manchester Clubs has kept us in the title race.

Everton have strung together some impressive results to find themselves with an outside chance of challenging for the Premier League. I feel we are going to need to win nearly every remaining game of the season if we are to beat Liverpool to the title as we are still 5 points behind them if we win our game in hand.

​

 

[zacram]

Title Race down to the wire

A couple of narrow wins in the FA Cup put us in another domestic cup final. We have had a very favourable draw this season since our 4th Round win over Chelsea and a Final against Brentford is a massive opportunity to win the FA Cup for the first time in the clubs history.

We have been relentless in hunting down Liverpool but still find ourselves 3 points adrift with 4 games left to play. Liverpool are looking on course to complete an invincible season and despite our best efforts look as though we will fall just short yet again! They have a far superior goal difference so will need them to drop 4 points assuming we can win all our remaining games. Doesn't look likely but they have some tough games still to play.

Here are our remaining 4 games.

Everton could cause us a problem but other than that all winnable matches and a good opportunity to keep the pressure on all the way to the end.

Liverpool on the other hand have some very tough games still to go with the likes of Arsenal, United and City all capable of nabbing a result. Can someone do us a favour?​

Another year and another poor crop of talent. Yet again it doesn't look like any academy players will be breaking into the first team.

​

 

[zacram]

Premier League Conclusion and FA Cup Final

We go toe for toe in the Liverpool in the first game of the Premier League run in as we both win emphatically on the road. So Arsenal have failed to help us out.

I was hopeful that City would pull off a result of some description t the Ethiad but unfortunately like the majority of sides Liverpool have faced this season failed to get a point. We did our job against Stoke to keep the pressure on.

Haaland scores a late goal to deny Liverpool 2 points and after our dominant win against Everton sends the title race down to the final game. We still need Liverpool to lose, assuming that we win.

Unfortunately it wast to be as Liverpool cruise past Brentford and retain the Premier League title. The game was decided before half-time but we still kept fighting to the bitter end to record our highest Premier League tally to date.


Liverpool finish the Premier League Campaign unbeaten, winning 30 games and drawing 8. Most season a points tally of 97 would be enough to win the title but unfortunately Liverpool's form means that we are going to have to be near perfect every single game next season to have a chance at lifting the Premier League.

In the past 4 season we have missed out on first place by 2 points twice and now 1 point once....

We had to put our Premier League disappointment to one side as we go into a historic FA Cup Final against Brentford and an opportunity to win the domestic double. Neither side have ever lifted the trophy but on paper we are clear favourites to win.

FA CUP CHAMPIONS!

Dele Alli came off the bench to score the winner in the 90th minute to secure our third trophy of the season! We created far more chance but Brentford controlled possession and took the one opportunity that came their way to make it a very nervy last 10 minutes.

​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Christ Liverpool must have some seriously good players! At least winning the FA Cup makes up for missing out on the league

 

[zacram]

Season 2022/23 Round Up & 2023/24 Pre Season

Jude Bellingham picked up the Fans Player of the season award and has really cemented his place in the starting XI this season playing as a DLP. It was a little surprising to see both Gray and Barnes in our team of the season considering Gray was sold in January and Barnes was ruled out through injury for a large part of the campaign.

A big mention has to go to our record signing, Harry Kane who bagged an impressive 31 goals this season in 50 appearances!​

Fikayo Tomori (£11.5M) - Arguably he hasn't developed quite as well at Chelsea as many anticipated and on paper looks a fair way off becoming an elite CB. However, Chelsea put him on the market for just £11.5M and with my scouts convincing me he will continue to develop I got the deal done. He is also an England International let's not forget.

Jack Harrop (£26.5M) - As our youth academy continues to falter I decided to bring Jack Harrop, a player touted by the media as being the next Michel Owen. If he has the impact Owen did at 18 he will be a fantastic signing! But realistically he is a player for the future but will get a few opportunities this season I'm sure.

Our first major outbound transfer for a while, with Jack Grealish leaving for a potential £65M once he features in 50 league games.

He was one of my first major signings but hasn't really performed to the level I'd envisaged and has consequently found himself more as an impact sub. I was between selling either him or Dele Alli but based on his recent form decided to let Grealish go and enable some of the younger players and opportunity who have been impressive.

Tosin Adarabioyo also departs for a whooping £40M! I only signed him for a mere £900k and has featured only a handful of times yet somehow West Ham have decided he's a player worth signing. A useful backup but with the arrival of Tomori he was surplus to requirements.

I did also have a £208M bid come in for Phil Foden!!!

I could probably have negotiated that up considerably more but felt no point in even considering selling him as he is one of the best English Players around and rather irreplaceable considering the pool of players I'm looking at.

Confirmation of the comings and goings

I was trying to sign either Rashford, Sterling or Sancho but put in a bid of around £150M for each of them and was point blank rejected each time! I will try again in January as have plenty in the bank but the the pricetag is just ludicrous for these guys atm.

A pretty dominant pre-season as I try to implement a couple of new tactics that don't use wingers due to our high volume of AMCs in the squad. Something I don't usually do but thought it was worth a shot and early signs are looking good.

Finally the bookies have realised our ability and tipped us to be serious title contenders to Liverpool this season! I feel we will struggle to improve on last seasons points tally so may be more of a case of hoping Liverpool drop more points...

​

 

[zacram]

We made the Community Shield on merit this year having won the FA Cup but unfortunately came up short against Liverpool once again. It was a cagey game and a good opportunity to scope each other out for the upcoming season but we were eventually beaten on penalties.

It's probably fair to say they are favourites for the title yet again, but we will be pushing them right to the end once again.

Hamza Choudhury doesn't get on the scoresheet very often but left the King Power with the match ball in our EFL Cup win over Newcastle. We now face an Everton side that finished 3rd last season as we look to defend our title.

A couple of massive results against Milan and Bayern put us in poll position in Group H. It's not the easiest of draws but after this start should really be progressing to the knockout stages.

We drop just 2 points from our opening 8 games to lead the title race with Chelsea close behind. After an invincible season last year Liverpool have already dropped 7 points following a defeat against Spurs and a few draws. I'm sure they will turn things around soon enough but it has given us some early confidence going forward.

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