Great, my post got nuked by the forums. Looks like I'll be going into a little less detail this time. Two things: 1) I had one free transfer that almost made my season for me by himself and 2) in my first year in the EPL I discovered my ceiling was at 7th place:
Team: Eastleigh
Season: 2016/17
League: Premier League
Final Position: 7th
Cups: Carling Cup 4th Round (L 0-2 @ Liverpool), FA Cup 6th Round (Lost 0-4 vs Tottenham), Europa Cup Quarterfinals (L 3-7 on aggregate to FC Bayern).
Average Attendance: 13246 (max capacity 9.3k, spent half of season in Southampton with 19k average)
Biggest Win: 5-0 @ Norwich
Biggest Defeat: 0-4 v Tottenham
Top Goalscorer: 33 Daniel Sturridge (22 league)
Most Assists: 18 Daniel Sturridge (12 league)
Highest Average Rating: 7.41 Daniel Sturridge (7.43 league)
Fans Player of the Year: Daniel Sturridge
So as some of my top performers from prior seasons began to wane (especially Nouha Dicko, who scored tons of goals for me in L1 and Championship and Oliver Nicholas, who has been a fixture in my back line since the BSS and is still 3.5 stars), other new arrivals began to step up.
Daniel Sturridge, a free transfer from Chelsea, single handedly transformed my offense. He was a human highlight reel throughout the season, and his speed and creativity brought out the best in my front line.
He also had what I would call the goal of the season, putting in a fantastic effort to beat two defenders and the goalkeeper to secure a tie on the road against his old team in extra time:
[video=youtube_share;l0fLcajq1VI]http://youtu.be/l0fLcajq1VI[/video]
In my honest opinion, Sturridge got robbed for not winning English POY (which went to Rooney, who had an incredibly subpar season). Sturridge wasn't even in the top 3.
And while the Chelsea game happened to be one of the most exciting games of the season for me, featuring four goals in the last ten minutes to make it a 2-2 tie, the actual
Game of the Season for me, if I had to choose one, would be a spirited comeback win against Everton:
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Eastleigh v Everton Video Highlights
[video=youtube_share;2U3VR3vrN5c]http://youtu.be/2U3VR3vrN5c[/video]
Craig Conway, a Cardiff castoff, also solidified the AML position for me as a free transfer. I continue to find good regens who I hope to develop into star players, and I feel like I have some long term solutions at both fullback positions now. But by far the biggest revelation was
Alban Tafaj. I adjusted by formation just to put him at AMC and he delivered in a big way despite only being 19.
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For a cool 1.2 million he turned out to be a true bargain.
My team also did very well in the
Europa Cup. Obviously making it to the quarterfinals is a big deal, but I got a slightly easier draw in the two knockout rounds. The biggest achievement is taking 18 points in my group, which included AZ and Dinamo Kiev -- teams I expect to see in the Champions Cup:
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Overall a successful season. I'm hoping to parlay my
30 million in the bank into a new, larger stadium soon, but I don't think that will be on the cards this year (I am getting an expansion that should bring it close to 11k seats at least). I need to shore up my defense after some lapses late in the season, but I'll be happy to take another mid table finish next year and then look to building my squad to take on the top of the league closer to the end of the decade.
Here are some significant screengrabs from the season that was:
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Notice I kind of leveled out in positions. That's more attributed to constantly being 10 points below 6th place throughout the 2nd half of the season. But notice I am one of two teams below 6th place that had a positive goal differential. That means we have some fight, which is great.
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Other awards and accolades, plus showing that I am dead last in wages spent in the EPL. I'm all about signing players young, developing them myself, and not overspending in the transfer market if I do not have to. I ended up having 13 million left over in my transfer budget and spending approx 100k under my wage budget.
Update:looks like I enter the new season with some expectations. A 30 million transfer budget, a 400k/week salary budget are useful, but they come attached with a minimum expectation of a top half finish and a media prediction of 11th place. I hope I can satisfy the board, because I'm not breaking the bank to overhaul my roster this season.
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