Seems i got Fabio just in time, Reina and Krul have suddenly decided they're spurs goalkeepers... Reina in goal for my worst defeat ever and it wasnt all his fault but the entire defence was pathetic tbh, 7-3 away at chelsea, his exit is now all but assured.
And Krul with a slightly less costly but still stupid mistake, coming out to claim a ball from a freekick in the dying minutes of the quarter finals of the european championship away at Olympiakos, failed to get it and Mitroglou put it away final score 2-1 to us.
Definately going to look into defensive options in the summer its pretty laughable tbh the best defence in the premier league suddenly letting 7 past them, i saw someone else in another threat say that this manager is alot like Civs in that occasionally a spearman will beat a tank by sheer random chance...
Meh anyway top of my mental list is Kyriakos papadopolous, was so good for me in my time at inter milan i got 45 million for him when i sold him to Barcelona on 2012.
Started playing Cahill in midfield if memory serves he began his career playing there irl, he hasnt done too bad so far with Tiote out ayew playing terribly and lucas and rossi needing rest breaks every 2 games.
Edit : After retaining the premier league, by the proverbial skin of my teeth, the skin of my teeth part due in no small way to my defence deciding to not play for the last 10 or so games of the season that 7-3 at chelsea was just the begining, Tim Krul finished a first half away at united with a 3.60 ratio and only through the brilliance of David Villa did we get a 3-3 draw, then it was 4-1 away at Tottenham, then 4-2 away at Juve and only by virtue of scoring more at home did we go through to the final of the ECC.
Suffice to say by the end of those games i was just about ready to pack my defence into a box and sell them all at the end of the season, to be honest thats something im still considering.
I honestly simply cant explain it and frankly i think it might have something to do with how flukey people say 2013 is, i must admit i hadnt noticed it until those last 10 games but when the best defence, best by some miles, suddenly is concedeing 3+ per game...
Well after retaining it i simply could face watching what i was sure would be 3 crushing defeats by QPR Arsenal and Norwich in the meaningless final 3 games of the season, so i decided to go on vacation till the final of the ECC, i came back to find suprisingly that all 3 games had been won, 4-2 3-2 2-0.
Barcelona for me now have Lorente neymar and messi upfront on a good day, and this was a good day, they did lack iniesta though, but before i left i had altered my tactics to slow and told them to focus on defensive training, and i have quite a good record against barcelona with various clubs using those tactics.
However i knew if my defenders hadnt got their game back we would lose and lose comfortably, then there was a sign from the gods..
The venue of the 2014/2015 ECC final... The ataturk arena, how very 2005
And just like that famous day, the reds emerged victorious once again
in slightly less dramatic fashion
2 goals, Stevan jovetic and David Villa, Stevie announced his retirement a week later so it turns out that was his final game.
Reina came to me again and told me he'd achieved all he could and that was that for me i got fed up of arguing with him and his inconsistency was starting to **** me off so thats one spanish keeper i wont be keeping for another season.
Joe harts unhappy at city
.....
First things first though, defenders or atleast 1 and maybe lose 1 or 2, replacement keeper for Reina and maybe a extra midfielder, possibly this 18 year old regen i got from wolves.
But before all that i have a euros to qualify for with spain
Edit 2 :
Season 4 just begining, got drawn in the MLS and won 3-0, Got west ham in the Shield and won 5-0
Players out Tiote, Cahill, Reina and Ademilson with Stevie retired and hired on as a coach
players in Marc Andre Ter stegan, Vurnon Anita, Mauricio isla on a free and Alvaro Dominguez, basically 3 like for like swaps with a bit of improvement and Isla to solve my fullbacks always dying of exhaustion issue
Edit 3 :
After a few scares, including a 3-3 draw at West brom and a 2-0 Champions league group stage defeat to Anderlecht i dropped Kelly and Shawcross to the reserves and upped their training to heavy, i bought in 2 new coaches with defensive training 20 stats and i sealed a deal for Real madrids transfer listed Hector moreno.
Kelly and Shawcross sat out 3 games, which we won all of them, 3-1 away at Shaktar, 4-1 at home to Chelsea in the cup and 2-0 at home to city in the league, after that i decided to give them their second chance and i put them into the return game against anderlecht, perhaps irony that Ben E King Stand by me started playing on my shuffle half way through..
A stevan Jovetic and Alvaro Dominguez inspired 4-0 win, with Moreno coming the player like to be on his way out is Kurt zouma, he has the lowest potential rating in the team and despite his good performances for us is a bit too adventurous at center back for my liking.
Edit 5 :
January rolled around with the same defensive vulnerabilitys showing again and i finally decided it was time for Kelly to move on, hes not a bad player when hes playing well but at 25 his consistency was still 11, and he was costing us valuable points oddly though the team that bought him... Barcelona for 15 million
no account for taste.
Meanwhile i bought in Moreno and a Chilean regen to fill the void left by Kelly and Zouma, hasnt solved all the problems but its definately better, also went on a little wonderkid shopping spree and picked up a potential 200 finnish striker, my first ever regen purchase Charuto moved in after turning 18 and i went for a wonderkid english goalkeeper from Birmingham.
4th season nearing its end now, toward the end of March now, overall reasonably happy with the team and only expect a couple of exits and a few loans in the summer, Charuto, Furiga definately will go on loan possibly the finnish guy too.
Huntelaar will be 33 before the start of season 5 so he'll be moving on and i might sell Ayew to make room for a english regen i bought from wolves not really for strategic or ability reasons they're about the same overall potential but i dislike having so many varied nationalitys in my team and believe that having a uniformity helps with the overall performance.
Example, theres 2 chileans 2 spaniards and 1 mexican in my defensive options, they all speak spanish therefore they blend better with each other and if my english regen does well he'll be my 3rd english central midfield option.
For anyone who reads this, Thomas ince, his potential might only be 154 but in the name of all thats holy, get him.
So far hes had 3 seasons all with a overall rating of 7.20+, his worth is currently 12 million and i only paid 9, so far this season he has 10 assists and 9 goals from left and right wing and has strangely enough made more england appearances than stirling.
Cannot rate him highly enough, he seems to be one of those players that just performs despite his less than impressive stats, oh also hes not intimidated by anything, champions league season 3 group stages, put 2 goals past Gigi buffon, for a kid that was playing for blackpool the season before that, kudos.