The financial review cracked me up! Well done. :p

Also, the new lay-out is amazing. This has become one of the best stories around here with all the drama. Gotta love Jua...*cough* John Carlov.
 
The financial review cracked me up! Well done. :p

Also, the new lay-out is amazing. This has become one of the best stories around here with all the drama. Gotta love Jua...*cough* John Carlov.

Cheers mate, I keep trying to improve with each chapter so its nice to know I'm doing alright.

Mr Carlov is fast developing a cult following around here. I am thinking of changing my avatar to that pic of him! :p
 
Good start to the season, but more importantly good start to the embezzlement! :) Hope John Carlov's days of sorrow are soon over... Aahhh who am I kidding, he'll find a new scam to be wound up in!
 
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God bless Danilo Cataldi! He saved our bacon more then once in pre-season & he was at it again here.

This was actually a very tight match. Cataldi gave us the lead in just the tenth minute when a Paredes corner could only be cleared as far as the edge of the area. Danilo pounced on the ball & rocketed his shot past the on rushing Torino defence & in off the underside of the bar. 1-0.

The match swang wildly for the remainder of the half. Torino perhaps had the better of things but it was very tight & we defended well.

At half time I reminded the boys that there were still 45 minutes to play & that they couldn't afford to let their performance levels drop while singling out the defence for specific praise.

Shortly after the break our lead was doubled when Stevan Jovetic received the ball on the edge of the box, drew 2 defenders before playing a delightful back heel through to pick out the run of Cataldi. 2-0.

Despite our 2 goal lead, I never really felt comfortable. The game was still close, Torino were still pressing, still causing us problems.

It wasn't until Kamil Glik picked up his second yellow & earned himself an early bath in the 75th minute that I felt the points were safe. 2 in a row, a great start to the year!




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Nice start mate! A few more like that and that bet will be looking like smart business.
 
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Bit of a strange one this. The stats suggest it was very one sided but it didn't seem that way.

I deliberately decided to park the bus away to Inter & we defended very well. In fact we almost exclusively restricted them to taking pot shots from distance. Of their seemingly massive 35 shots on goal 22 were classed as being from distance!

At the other end it seemed as though we were constantly one pass away from being one on one with the keeper. Inter were absolutely flooding forward, leaving just the 2 at the back & when Duelofeu went off injured, & was replaced by Sansone, I switched to playing 3 up top.

This meant whenever we managed to get the ball forward to one of our strikers we had them scrambling to get back. Unfortunately we just never manged to put it all together to make the break through.

I had all but resigned myself to a stalemate when, in the 86th minute, Gary Medel was fastest to react to a lose ball in the box after an Inter corner. A very disappointing way to lose this one but I will actually take a lot of positives out of this game. Some better decision making on the break & we may have won this easily.




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All the action happened late in this game. We controlled the match well but found ourselves constantly frustrated by a very well organised Parma defence. They sat deep & always seemed to have 8 players in & around the box which proved incredibly hard to break down.

I was beginning to think it was going to be "one of those games" when a string of short passes around the edge of the area found Gerard Deulofeu with a split second of space to turn & shoot. The ball stayed low & beat the keeper at his far post, now concentrate guys. Don't blow this.

My plea's fell on deaf ears though as just 4 minutes later Parma caught us napping after a Paredes free kick was cleared & Alberto Cerri found himself on the ball. The young forward took a couple of touches before playing a long ball into space for Brazilian fullback Barata to run onto.

Victor Wanyama managed to track the Brazilian back & force him wide but, unfortunately no one had tracked the run of Jonathon Biabiany & when Barata picked him out he was able to beat Leali with ease to tie the game back up.

My disappointment was short lived though as just 2 minutes later Stevan Jovetic managed to bamboozle the Parma defence on the right before whipping the perfect cross to the far post for Nicola Sansone to tap in.

This time we held our nerve & saw the game out & record our 3rd win from our first 4 games.






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How is Leali doing for you I feel that he has been pretty poor every save I have bought him in FM15
 
How is Leali doing for you I feel that he has been pretty poor every save I have bought him in FM15

This is the second time I've had him in this save, the first was at QPR.

He has been decent but not spectacular. He is still only 25 & keepers tend to peak in their late 20's, early 30's so there is still hope.
 
This is the second time I've had him in this save, the first was at QPR.

He has been decent but not spectacular. He is still only 25 & keepers tend to peak in their late 20's, early 30's so there is still hope.
I did have him replacing Buffon so almost anyone would be a let down but he was quite error prone hope he works out for you and you can sell him to earn some mob money

also just curious if yours or John carlovs salary counts towards the debt
 
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I did have him replacing Buffon so almost anyone would be a let down but he was quite error prone hope he works out for you and you can sell him to earn some mob money

also just curious if yours or John carlovs salary counts towards the debt

Nah, am just counting transfer fee's & prize money. Too much math if i start including too much :p

Yeah not too many keepers that could fill Buffon's shoes thats for sure!
 
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How the **** we got away with this one I'll never know.

To give you an idea of how much this game swung, when we scored our first goal, a Kongolo tap in after a mad scramble from a Paredes corner in the 36th minute, we'd enjoyed 62% of possession & taken 11 shots on goal to Genoa's 2!

The second the ball hit the back of the net I screamed at the side to concentrate, anticipating a resurgent Genoa but the extent of their revival was quite unbelievable.

From that point in time we were never in the hunt & when Genoa drew level, just 6 minutes later, I was desperate for the half to come so that I could have a word to the guys.

It made no difference, Genoa were on fire, stroking the ball around like Barcelona, while we were struggling to string 2 passes together. Every ball seemed to break their way & we were clinging on for dear life.

In the 57th minute Leandro Paredes produced another piece of individual brilliance to restore our lead but it was completely against the run of play & did nothing to change the flow of the game.

I found myself constantly yelling at the guys & switching things up continually in a desperate attempt to neutralise Genoa's dominance but it all seemed to be to no avail. We were dead in the water, just waiting for them to finish us off but they never did.

When the siren went for full time I felt like I had taken my first breathe of the game, we'd hung on. How? I still don't know!






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Get JC to do your team talks for you! I'm sure he can be very inspirational (threatening?) with 10m on the line :p
 
Nothing like the prospect of having to dig your own grave to get you motivated! :p

I have a journalist friend that would oblige should you need him? He's at a bit of a loose end at the moment, and could do with a new job.
 
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