My First Ever Attempt At The Sir Alex Ferguson Challenge

[Brane_Orsou]

Just caught up on this mate. Well done on the Euro cup win, does that mean Newcastle go into the Europa League?

Assuming you didn't sign Holding after splashing out on Maguire? What are your aims for this season? Domestic trophy?

 

[FM_TNSSO]

August 2020

Sam91 - "Cheers mate and thanks for reading"

neavie pops23 - "Thanks mate and no Newcastle didn't...only Man City and Spurs are in the Europa League this year. I think the main aim has to be a domestic cup as Sir Alex won his first domestic cup in 4 seasons, so that only gives me this year or next to emulate him"

August 2020; A Decent Enough Start & Another Trophy In The Bag
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Here's the board's expectations for the upcoming season with European qualification now a requirement in the Premier League. Quarter finals in the domestic cups will be the minimum requirement and I think the Champions League is a bonus with whatever happens.

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Saturday 8th August 2020
English Premier League
Tottenham (Home)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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The perfect way to start a new season is to beat one of the best teams in the division on the opening day and that's exactly what we've done!


About the same amount of season tickets were sold again this year. I thought it would have gone up after the stadium expansion to 16,500 capacity and will be interesting if we struggle to sell out our home games.

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Tuesday 11th August 2020
English Premier League
Burnley (Away)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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The gloss is quickly taken off the Tottenham result with a disappointing defeat away at Burnley! Defensively we were pretty poor here and Harry Maguire and Arkadiusz Milik will need to play a lot better if they are going to live up to the massive fees I paid for them!


After another meeting with the board, the youth level will be increased!

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Sunday 16th August 2020
English Premier League
Southampton (Home)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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Much better as we give our local rivals a good thrashing on their return to the Premier League. When they took the lead, I thought we might have a repeat of the Burnley result, but that goal turned out to be their only decent moment in the whole game and we went on to win comfortably.


Wednesday 19th August 2020
English Premier League
Arsenal (Away)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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It was bound to happen...Rob Holding scores his first ever goal for Arsenal against us to give them the lead! Despite that, my lads didn't crumble as most teams would away at Arsenal and David Brooks scored for the 3rd time this season already to earn us a valuable point!


Saturday 22nd August 2020
English Premier League
Liverpool (Home)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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The treble winners are still too good for us at the moment! They're team is phenomenal to be fair though! David Brooks scored again to make it 4 goals in 5 games as he continues his excellent start to the campaign and today's goal was an absolute banger from outside the box!


Wednesday 26th August 2020
European Super Cup
AS Monaco (Estadio Do Dragao, Portugal)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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Callum Wilson scored his first 2 goals of the season to give us the win and we lift another trophy! I've now matched Sir Alex on Europa League and European Super Cup wins with one a piece!


Winning the Super Cup brings in a hefty £4 million in prize money. Not bad for a one off game!

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We also bag another £13 million just for playing in the Champions League group stage this year! The money just keeps rolling in and will help us continue to grow as a football club to challenge the big boys in England.

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It's not all good news though as Callum Wilson picks up an injury which will keep him out for over a month. Time for new signing, Milik, to step up!

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We're handed a really tough tie in the Carabao Cup 3rd round, away at Arsenal!

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I was surprised that we were one of the 1st seeds for the Champions League draw, which must be one of the perks of winning the Europa League! Despite that though, I still think we've drawn a very tough group with Napoli, Shakhtar and Galatasaray and we'll do very well to get through this to the knockout rounds!

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How has Giggs not picked David Brooks for his Wales squad after his start to the season!!

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Saturday 29th August 2020
English Premier League
Everton (Away)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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We've got away with one here if I'm completely honest. Don't get me wrong, we were the better side in the first half without a doubt, but in the 2nd half Everton dominated us and created a number of good chances. When they got a penalty late on, it looked like they'd talk all 3 points, but Martial missed the spot kick and it seemed to demotivate the toffees, which enabled us to catch them off guard and Josh King scored from the bench, rounding off a decent counter attacking move!


August Review; A decent enough start considering the difficult fixture we were handed! To be sitting 7th with 10 points, with Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool and Everton out of the way already, is a good achievement and should give us a decent platform to kick on from! The new signings are still settling in and we haven't seen any fireworks from them yet, but hopefully in time they'll prove to be good additions.

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Player of the Month
David Brooks

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There could be only one man for this award after his start to the season. Brooks has been in sensational form so far and has contributed to most things going forward with 4 goals and 3 assists to his name already!


September; Next month will throw up our first taste of Champions League football, with Shakhtar and Napoli both on the agenda. Arsenal will propose a tough challenge in the Carabao Cup and Chelsea will be a tough nut to crack in the league. Newly promoted Bristol City and Stoke should both be very winnable games in between all that!

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[Tekneeks]

Enjoying this Story good to see how well your doing with Bournemouth like Eddie Howe and way they play.

So good youngsters as well keep it up. Be interesting to see how you do in that Group for Champions League as that tough group for any team.

How comes you didn't sign Holding after such a great season?

Not looking for Younger GK yet?

 

[HaroldFinch]

What a great story, i follow this... good job and continue working good things.

I love english football and love stories with small club.

You doing very well with your new signings.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

September 2020

Tekneeks - "Thanks for following mate...if we can get out of the Champs League group it will be a massive achievement. I tried to sign Holding but Arsenal wanted £67 million and I wasn't prepared to go that high for him so Maguire was the replacement. I will be looking to replace Begovic between the sticks at the end of this season, or maybe in January depending on money and who is available"

HaroldFinch - "Thanks for following mate and I'm glad you're enjoying the read"

September 2020; No League Points Earned!
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Commercial income is on the up for us and looking ahead to next season, we should move into the top half of this table with our exposure to the Champions League this year!

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It comes as no surprise that David Brooks wins the Premier League Player of the Month award for August!

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The Premier League game against Bristol City will be my 100th in charge of Bournemouth. Let's hope we can mark the occasion with a win!

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Saturday 12th September 2020
English Premier League
Bristol City (Home)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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What an absolute shocker! We were ******* awful here...defensively unstable, **** at taking our chances although we created a huge amount! There was only one message to give the players at full time....NOT ******* GOOD ENOUGH!!


Jean Michael Seri joins the top earners at the club, signing a new 4 year deal!

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Wednesday 16th September 2020
Champions League Group Stage
Shakhtar Donetsk (Away)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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Our first venture into the Champions League ends in defeat, but we didn't deserve it after dominating most of the match! Unfortunately, we struggled to take our chances though and a couple of silly defensive errors cost us at the back and we disappointingly get nothing from the game.


Saturday 19th September 2020
English Premier League
Stoke City (Away)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide (Changed to 4-4-2 Narrow Diamond on 57 minutes)

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Another really poor performance from the lads and another defeat against a side we should never have lost to. Big signings Harry Maguire and Arkadiusz Milik continue to disappoint and thus far, it's looking like £100 million down the *******!


Wednesday 23rd September 2020
Carabao Cup 3rd Round
Arsenal (Away)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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Both sides fielded weakened teams for this one, with me giving the likes of Ryan Fraser, Steve Cook and Boubacar Kamara a run out! Arsenal played a couple of kids amongst some fringe players in their squad too, and it was us who came out on top and progress to the next round. It may not have been against their best side, but I'm pleased with this as it's the first time I've managed to beat Arsenal inside 90 minutes since I took the Bournemouth job (our only other win coming on penalties in the FA Cup last year).


Arsenal icon, Steve Bould, joins the coaching staff and hopefully he can work with Harry Maguire to sort his ****** form out!

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The Carabao Cup draws are not very kind to us and we're handed another tough one against Liverpool in the 4th round.

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Saturday 26th September 2020
English Premier League
Chelsea (Home)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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Arkadiusz Milik finally bagged his first competitive goal for the club and things were looking pretty rosy for the first hour and we looked in control. However, Chelsea ramped up the pressure in the final 30 minutes and our defence which looks completely devoid of all confidence at the moment, jut couldn't handle them and they snatched the win late on. Both their goals came from pretty shoddy defending and Steve Bould needs to get to work quickly in training to sharpen things up at the back!


Tuesday 29th September 2020
Champions League Group Stage
Napoli (Home)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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Yes lads...******* get in! We beat arguably the best team in our group with a solid home performance where we were the much better side. Jefferson Lerma has not been up to scratch so far this season, but definitely showed his worth today with 2 goals!


September Review; This has been far and away my worst month in charge at the club with 4 defeats in 6 games and no points picked up in the league at all! It's seen us drop down to 12th in the table and although it's still early days, we will need to start picking up some wins soon if we're going to challenge for European qualification again. Despite the poor league form though, we did progress in the Carabao Cup and ended the month with an amazing win against Napoli in the Champions League which means we are bang in contention to qualify from the group after the opening 2 games!

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Player of the Month
Jefferson Lerma

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As mentioned above, Lerma didn't have the best start to the season, but he's really upped his game over the last few matches and hopefully he can now continue this new veign of form and help us turn things around next month in the league.


October; Looking ahead to next month, the league has to be the ultimate focus as we need points badly. There's no reason why we shouldn't be beating Palace and Huddersfield, especially with the team on a high after the Napoli win! A win against Galatasaray would be huge for our qualification prospects in the Champions League and we'll give it our best shot against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup although I'm under no illusions that we're massive underdogs in that one!

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[FM_TNSSO]

October 2020

October 2020; **** In The League, Great In The Cups

Saturday 3rd October 2020
English Premier League
Crystal Palace (Away)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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A tight game ends in a 1-1 draw which was a fair result on the balance of play. However, it doesn't help us climb the table at all and makes our next game against Huddersfield a must win!


Adam Smith will miss the next month through injury!

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Saturday 17th October 2020
English Premier League
Huddersfield (Home)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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We made this a **** of a lot more difficult than it needed to be and when Huddersfield went 2-1 up in the 70th minute, to say a few cuss words came out of my mouth would be an understatement. But we scored straight from the kick off to level things up and Jefferson Lerma popped up with the winner with 7 minutes remaining to grab the win!


Tuesday 20th October 2020
Champions League Group Stage
Galatasaray (Home)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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Fabian Delph's first goal for the club got us on our way and from then on Galatasaray never came close to scoring! Callum Wilson added a 2nd early in the second half and it was game over with our Turkish opponents offering very little!


Unbelievably, we top the group at the half way stage and one more win will probably be enough to see us through to the knockout stages!

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Saturday 24th October 2020
English Premier League
West Ham (Away)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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Another lacklustre performance in the league ends in another disappointing defeat away at West Ham. Our league form really has been poor so far this season, and I can't really put my finger on the problem which is frustrating.


Wednesday 28th October 2020
Carabao Cup 4th Round
Liverpool (Away)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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We may be **** in the league this year, but it's all going right for us in the cup competitions. Liverpool will have no treble winning heroics this season as we dump them out of the Carabao Cup...and at Anfield too!


**** sake, are you joking me! After already knocking out Arsenal and Liverpool, our next opponents in the quarter final of the Carabao Cup will be Manchester City!!

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Saturday 31st October 2020
English Premier League
Manchester City (Home)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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With a new manager in place, Manchester City were finally able to get the better of us and this is my first defeat to them since taking the Bournemouth job! And to be fair, we should have at least got a draw as Ibe and Brooks both missed good chances to level things up late on!


October Review; Our league form this year continues to border on absolutely terrible! We are 13th in the table at this stage and have already lost 7 games this year, when we only lost 11 all of last season! West Ham are the massive overachievers so far finding themselves in the top 4! Despite our league form being so bad, we continue to go well in the cups and are now in the 4th round of the Carabao Cup and looking good for Champions League progression to the knockout stages.

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Player of the Month
Arkadiusz Milik

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Nobody had the most consistent month, but Milik takes the award after finally hitting some goalscoring form as he's bagged 4 this month and got an assist as well.


November; Six points has to be the absolute minimum target from our 3 league games next month to get us back on track! We're also likely to know if we've qualified from our Champions League group as well after the games against Galatasaray and Shakhtar, with a win in either game likely to be enough!

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[Brane_Orsou]

First sticky patch but sure you'll turn it round.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

November 2020

neavie pops23 - "Cheers mate. This month has been a lot better so hopefully it's the start of a decent run"

November 2020; An Unbeaten Month - Turning Things Around?
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Wednesday 4th November 2020[/FONT]
Champions League Group Stage
Galatasaray (Away)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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A good away win in Turkey all but secures our passage through to the knockout stages. Milik continues in his scoring form and is now starting to show why I forked out such a hefty fee to bring him to the club!


Saturday 7th November 2020
English Premier League
Aston Villa (Away)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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Callum Wilson's 100th league goal of his career gave us the lead mid way through the 2nd half and Fabian Delph sealed the win with a goal against his old club late on! Hopefully, this is the start of our league form picking back up and we can string together some decent results and move back up the league again!


Just after scoring his 100th league goal, Callum Wilson will now miss the rest of the season through injury after breaking his leg in training! Absolutely gutting and a real blow for us to lose one of our key players for the rest of the year!

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Saturday 21st November 2020
English Premier League
Watford (Home)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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Back to back league wins and it seems we might be getting back on track! With Callum Wilson now out with a long term injury, the responsibility for goals is going to fall on the shoulders of new striker, Arkadiusz Milik and he immediately proved he's up to the job with his first hat trick for the club here!


Tuesday 24th November 2020
Champions League Group Stage
Shakhtar Donetsk (Home)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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We needed a point to secure a top 2 finish and progression to the knockout stages and a point was exactly what we got. On the balance of play, we should have won the game, but we got the minimum requirement done and that's the main thing!


Confirmation that we have qualified for the knockout stages and we could even win the group! Even if Napoli beat us in the final game, if Galatasaray fail to win, we will go through as group winners! A fantastic achievement in a group that looked really tough at the start of the competition!

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Saturday 28th November 2020
English Premier League
Wolves (Away)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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A right ding dong battle this one! We were 2-1 up, then 3-2 down, and in the end we share the spoils which is probably fair on both sides at the end of the day!


It would be really nice to draw a lower league side in one of the cups, but again it's not to be as we draw Newcastle in the 3rd round of the FA Cup.

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November Review; An unbeaten month and 7 points gained in the Premier League which moves us back into the top half of the table. However, there is a big 8 point gap to close if we're going to reach those European Qualification places again and there's no doubt about it, our 2nd half of the season needs to be a lot better than the 1st! Progression in the Champions League is a huge feat for the club and any further in the competition will be a bonus, but the money this progression will bring in will definitely help the club moving forward!

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Player of the Month
Arkadiusz Milik

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Our Polish striker takes the award again after continuing his improved goalscoring form from last month. He's bagged 7 in 4 games this month and we'll need him to keep this up with Callum Wilson now out for the remainder of the season!


December; It's that time of year again when the schedule goes a bit mental and we'll play 7 games in December. I'm likely to rest a few players against Napoli in the Champions League as we're already guaranteed qualification and we can afford to sacrifice that game. We'll do well to progress in the Carabao Cup past Manchester City who beat us comfortably in the league already this year. With regards to the Premier League, we'll look to extend our current run of 3 games unbeaten to continue closing in on the top 7!

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[Brane_Orsou]

Will you be dipping into the transfer market in Jan to replace Wilson, whether a permanent or temp deal?

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Will you be dipping into the transfer market in Jan to replace Wilson, whether a permanent or temp deal?

Probably not in all honesty...I have Josh King and Moise Kean who can both play up top when I rest Milik. I do need to look at the goalkeeper and right back positions though and they are my first priority.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

December 2020

December 2020; Busy Schedules Don't Phase Us!!

I will have £22 million to spend in the January window after the board give me a little boost in funds due to the club's improved financial position.

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Saturday 5th December 2020
English Premier League
Manchester United (Home)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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A Sandro Tonali bullet shot gave us the lead in the 86th minute and for the final few minutes it was a case of holding on for dear life....but we did it and kicked off December with a huge win over Manchester United! These kind of results are absolutely massive when you compare the two sides!


Wednesday 9th December 2020
Champions League Group Stage
Napoli (Away)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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I made a load of changes from the side that had beaten Manchester United at the weekend, in the hope I could keep my squad as fresh as possible for the upcoming Xmas schedule, and I was prepared to sacrifice this game with that in mind (based on the fact we have already qualified). But I didn't have to sacrifice anything as my lads gave me a brilliant performance out in Italy and we came home with all 3 points!!


We finish top of what was a very difficult group on paper and I'm so proud of the lads! Napoli will be kicking themselves that they couldn't beat our weakened side in the final game, as Galatasaray failed to beat Shakhtar and they would have overtaken them to finish 2nd.

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Saturday 12th December 2020
English Premier League
Leicester City (Away)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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We had a lot of chances here, but most of them were half chances from outside the box as Leicester's defence proved hard to break down. A Milik penalty got us back on terms though after falling behind, but we just couldn't find a winner.


AC Milan will be our opponents in the first knockout round of the Champions League. The two ties that really catch the eye in the draw is Barcelona vs Chelsea and PSG vs Bayern!

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Tuesday 15th December 2020
Carabao Cup Quarter Final
Manchester City (Away)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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We've only gone and done it. Manchester City played a strong team here as well, but we defied the odds and beat them on their own turf to progress to the semi final! At this stage, nobody can deny that we are the most deserved team to lift this trophy after knocking out Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City so far!


We'll take on League One side, Oxford City, in the Carabao Cup semi final. We deserve a slightly easier tie in all fairness after our run to this point! Hopefully, it should be a comfortable route through to the final where we would play either Chelsea or Burnley who contest the other semi.

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Sunday 20th December 2020
English Premier League
Newcastle (Home)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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A solid 1-0 home win takes our unbeaten streak to a total of 10 games in all competitions! Sergio Oliveira scored the only goal of the game with his first of the season.


Arkadiusz Milik will miss the festive period through injury!

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Saturday 26th December 2020
English Premier League
Tottenham (Away)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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Disappointed to have thrown away a 2 goal lead here, but Spurs were the much better side on the day so we can't complain too much as theoretically we didn't really deserve to get anything out of the game! Jordon Ibe pops up with another goal and his goalscoring record against the bigger sides in the division is actually very good and he really does tend to show up for the big games!


Monday 28th December 2020
English Premier League
Burnley (Home)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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With only a 2 day gap since the Spurs game, I was forced to make a large number of changes to the starting lineup for this one, which wasn't ideal with Burnley coming into the game 2nd in the form table! However, the lads that came in stepped up and got us a big win against the side just above us in the table. Reiss Nelson made the most of his opportunity for a rare start, with a fantastic all round performance.


December Review; We get through the busiest month of our year so far unbeaten again and our streak without losing now stands at 12 games in all competitions! We seem to have well and truly turned that corner and we have moved to within 5 points of the top 7 and the European qualification places now look within our reach going into the 2nd half of the season! We have a real chance of lifting the Carabao Cup this season and hitting the target of winning a domestic cup within 4 seasons like Sir Alex did. We also have a Champions League tie against AC Milan to look forward to in February as well. Overall, everything is looking pretty positive right now!

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Player of the Month
Adam Smith

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There were a few players that had a good December, but Adam Smith just nicks it. He was very consistent across the whole month and even chipped in with 2 assists from his right back role. The game against Man City really stands out where he made an incredible 14 tackles in one game, of which 13 he won!


January; The schedule doesn't let up next month and we have another 8 games on the horizon. Both legs of the Carabao Cup semi final and a 3rd round match in the FA Cup as we look to progress in the domestic cups, whilst the league will also throw up 5 matches, with the likes of Arsenal and Liverpool looking to threaten our unbeaten streak.

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​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

January 2021

January 2021; We're On Our Way To Wembley Again!

The January transfer window opens and we're linked with a few players, with the big link coming towards Chelsea's Wilf Zaha who isn't getting much first team football since moving back to the club. I think he would be a good addition, but I have more pressing issues in defence to address before I look to bring more attackers to the club and a move for him is unlikely in this window.

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Saturday 2nd January 2021
FA Cup 3rd Round
Newcastle (Away)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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Milik comes off the bench to bag the goal that sees us through to the 4th round! Once Newcastle went down to 10 men, it only ever looked like we'd win this game and I'm glad we won't need a replay in an already busy schedule!


Norwich await us in the 4th round of the FA Cup. With a home draw, I'd certainly be looking for us to progress past our Championship opponents.

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I've signed a new 4 year deal with the club, with a wage rise to £47,000 per week.

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Wednesday 6th January 2021
Carabao Cup Semi Final (1st Leg)
Oxford United (Home)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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Despite having to play more than half the game with 10 men, things were still pretty easy for us here and Oxford never mounted any sort of resistance to our dominance! We could and should have won by more than 2 goals, but it should still be a case of job done before the 2nd leg in all fairness.


Saturday 9th January 2021
English Premier League
Southampton (Away)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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Beating your rivals with a goal which comes from virtually the final kick of the game is one ******* amazing feeling! Adam Smith's strike was an absolute cracker as well which was worthy of winning any match! The only person I feel sorry for today is Southampton keeper, Angus Gunn, as he was absolutely fantastic for The Saints between the sticks!


Tuesday 12th January 2021
English Premier League
Arsenal (Home)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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Our unbeaten run lasted 15 games and dated back to the end of October, but Arsenal have brought it to an end here. Although they were the better side, it was still a bitter pill to swallow as their second goal was a free kick from Xhaka that really should have been saved by Begovic...highlighting my need to sign a new keeper at some point!


Barcelona make a big offer for Nathan Ake, which I reject! Manchester City, Arsenal and PSG are also reportedly interested in him so this may not be the last bid I have to fend off during the window.

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Saturday 16th January 2021
English Premier League
Liverpool (Away)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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Liverpool have quickly become far and away the best team in England and without a doubt they are the most challenging club we come up against. So it's no real surprise when we lose to them and I think we've been unlucky that the fixture list gave us them straight after Arsenal so we record back to back defeats. The aim now will be to quickly put these two results behind us and move on.


Wednesday 20th January 2021
Carabao Cup Semi Final (2nd Leg)
Oxford United (Away)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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As expected, we book our place in the final with relative ease after recording a 4-1 aggregate win over the League One side. Josh King was given a shot up front and took full advantage of his opportunity, scoring both our goals today.


Chelsea beat Burnley in the other semi and that's who we'll take on in the final at Wembley next month!

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It will be a tough ask to beat the blues and lift the cup as we've only beaten them once in our past 7 meetings.

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Saturday 23rd January 2021
FA Cup 4th Round
Norwich (Home)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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Really annoyed that we are going to have to play a replay, which will be another game in our already busy schedule. We should have got the job done here and we have no excuses for a poor performance!


Tuesday 26th January 2021
English Premier League
Everton (Home)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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For the opening 10 minutes of this game, we were all over the ****** place and Everton capitalised and raced into a 2 goal lead! We regained concentration and fought hard to get ourselves back into the game and a goal before the break gave us a shot at getting something out of the game. As the 2nd half progressed, I ramped up the pressure from our side, progressively getting more attacking as the game went on and we levelled the scores through Seri with a powerful strike 15 minutes remaining! The ultimate comeback was completed when Milik scored an injury time winner and we send our fans home with smiles on their faces after a fantastic game of football!


Sunday 31st January 2021
English Premier League
Bristol City (Away)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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Bristol City may be battling relegation this season, but they've given us a good game both home and away this season! They beat us at home earlier in the season and I'm pleased we could return the favour here, but it wasn't as easy as many would have predicted!


January Review; The only blips in another good month were the games against Liverpool and Arsenal, which is excusable! The most encouraging part of our game this month for me was the fact we kept 5 clean sheets! We continue to close in on the top 7 in the league and are now only 3 points behind West Ham and Spurs! We have a Carabao Cup final to look forward to next month and are still in the FA Cup as well, so there's plenty for our fans be excited about over the next couple of months!

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Player of the Month
Adam Smith

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Our right back has had another good month and continued in a strong vein of form! A goal and an assist in attack, but it's his all round play that is earning him a solid string of good match ratings!


February; A good mix of league and cup action coming up next month. We'll have 3 very winnable matches in the league against Stoke, Palace and Huddersfield and if we can take maximum points from those games, there's a good chance we'll be in the top 7 by the end of next month. We have a chance of lifting the Carabao Cup, although we're under no illusions that Chelsea will be extremely tough to overcome! The away game in Milan in the Champions League is also likely to be very tough, but if we can grab an away goal and keep the scoreline relatively close, we'll give ourselves a chance!

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[FM_TNSSO]

February 2021

February 2021; Carabao Cup Winners!!

My first order of business in February was to get transfer deadline day out of the way. We hadn't made a single signing throughout January (despite keeping a close eye on a few players), but I was keen to use some of the £22 million available to me. I have done just that, forking out £13.5 million to bring Manchester City backup keeper David Raya to the club! His attributes are slightly better than Asmir Begovic's and at 25 years old, he is 8 years his junior! There's no reason why Raya can't become our number 1 keeper for years to come and I'm pleased to have got this deal done on the cheap, especially as immediately after signing, his value is already £19 million.

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The transfer window closes and it's Sergio Aguero's move to Borussia Dortmund that makes the headlines. Even at 32 years old, he can still command a fee in excess of £30 million!! Leicester bolstered their defensive options with the signing of Danny Rose from Spurs, but it was Brighton who were the biggest spenders in the country as they shelled out a whopping £47 million as they look to challenge for immediate promotion back to the Premier League.

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Wednesday 3rd February 2021
FA Cup 4th Round Replay
Norwich (Away)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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There will be no FA Cup final for us this year after we're knocked out by Norwich! Across the 2 games, we were just not good enough in front of goal and that's cost us! We created 30 chances across both games and failed to score a single goal!!


Josh King will miss 3-4 weeks of action!

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Ryan Fraser has become a little disillusioned with his lack of football here this season, so I've agreed to send him out on loan for the remainder of the campaign. He's gone to Russia to join Rostov and we've got a decent deal with them paying all of his £30k wages for the duration of the loan.

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Saturday 13th February 2021
English Premier League
Stoke (Home)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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I'd already made all 3 subs when Seri went off injured and it left us in the lurch! Stoke capitalised and nicked a late winner, although it's not an excuse for the fact that we were pretty poor here anyway!


Seri will now miss the next 3-4 weeks with the injury he picked up against Stoke!

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Adam Smith is also going to be unavailable for the AC Milan game and will probably miss the Carabao Cup Final as well! Gutting!

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Tuesday 16th February 2021
Champions League First Knockout Round (1st Leg)
AC Milan (Away)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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If you'd have said we'd be playing the likes of AC Milan at the San Siro within 3 years of me taking over the Bournemouth job, I'd have told you where to go...but here we are and I told the lads to get out there an enjoy themselves no matter what happens! Now we gave a ****** good account of ourselves and although we couldn't find a goal, we are still very much in this tie! How costly could Moise Kean's 90th minute penalty miss prove to be though?!


Sunday 21st February 2021
Carabao Cup Final
Chelsea (Wembley)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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Get ******* in there!!! I know it's only the League Cup but I'd have been absolutely gutted to have knocked out all the top clubs we have this year to then lose the final...we so deserve this after the run we've had this season to get here!! And here in the final, we were absolutely brilliant and the better side on the day definitely won! It was good to see young Moise Kean quickly put the disappointment of his missed penalty against Milan behind him, by coming off the bench to score today!

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With us struggling slightly in the league this season and a top 7 finish by no means a guarantee, the Carabao Cup win also gives us a passage into European competition again next season no matter what! It also means that I have met another target as part of the Sir Alex Ferguson challenge...he won his first domestic trophy within 4 years...I did it in 3!

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Josh King finished as top goalscorer in the competition and it was a shame for him really that he was injured and couldn't partake in the final!

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Wednesday 24th February 2021
English Premier League
Crystal Palace (Home)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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Still on a high from winning the Carabao Cup, the lads turnt in a top notch performance here against Palace and we record an easy win in the league! Milik takes his tally to 19 goals in all competitions with these 2 today!


After just returning from injury, Adam Smith will now miss another of action!

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The board agree to my request for further development on the junior coaching. It will soon be upgraded to an 'excellent' level!

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Saturday 27th February 2021
English Premier League
Huddersfield (Away)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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We finish the month with another win in the league. Our wide men, Ibe and Brooks, were both outstanding in this one and Brooks racked up his 9th and 10th goals of the season, moving him onto double figures for the 2nd straight season!


February Review; This month started poorly with 3 straight losses, crashing out of the FA Cup in the process! However, we bounced back superbly by winning the Carabao Cup and followed that up with 2 more wins in the league! We're still 8th in the Premier League but only 1 point behind Burnley in the top 7 now...although we already have qualification for next year's Europa League, I'd still like to finish in the top 7 again this year! Liverpool have opened up a 5 point lead at the top as they look to retain their title, whilst Southampton and Bristol City both look destined for the drop this year!

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Player of the Month
Harry Maguire

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Is our captain finally coming good? Maguire was solid this month and hopefully he'll kick on from here and become the rock at the back I bought him to be!


March; Finally a bit of a break next month as we only have 3 games to play. The game against West Ham is a big one as we both chase a spot in the top 7, whilst Chelsea will surely be out for revenge for beating them in the cup final. Sandwiched between those two league games, we have the 2nd leg of our Champions League tie with AC Milan with everything still to play for!

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[tristybabes]

Really enjoying this buddy, followed this from pretty much from the start and one of the best stories I've seen for 2019. Bring on Milan!!!

 

[ninjaskill]

Great work with the trophy win, Sir Alex has nothing on you

 

[FM_TNSSO]

March 2021

tristybabes - "Thank you for following and your comments are very much appreciated!"

ninjaskill - "Haha cheers mate...I'm still a few trophies behind the main man yet ;-)"

March 2021; Not A Good Month!

After getting the board to invest quite heavily in the youth setup and facilities at the club over the past couple of years, I'm quite disappointed that the youth intake is again pretty shocking! There is a real lack of quality amongst these youngsters with nobody looking like they have the potential to ever become a first teamer for us!

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Saturday 6th March 2021
English Premier League
West Ham (Home)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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The Hammers gain the upper hand in the race for the top 7! If Charlie Daniels had put that penalty away, it could have been a very different result on the day!


Wednesday 10th March 2021
Champions League First Knockout Round (2nd Leg)
AC Milan (Home)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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Josh Tymon getting sent off just after the half hour mark left us right in the lurch and with a seemingly impossible task of turning this tie around. We didn't manage to do it, but the fact we got a 0-0 draw and only lost 1-0 over two legs against one of Europe's giants is a massive feat, especially as we played an hour with 10 men in this game! I'm so proud of the lads and although there will be no shock Champions League trophy this season, little old Bournemouth have done ourselves proud this year and proved we're no walkover for anyone!


Nathan Ake is going to miss about a month of action after twisting his ankle against AC Milan.

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Tuesday 16th March 2021
English Premier League
Chelsea (Away)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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We simply didn't turn up and allowed Chelsea to pretty much walk all over us today! Defensively we were very poor and Nathan Ake looks like a big miss when he's not in the side!


With my Head of Youth Development not doing a fantastic job with the quality of youngsters he's bringing to the club and effectively not bringing through the ranks, I decided to sack him! I've replaced him with former AC Milan Head of Youth Development, Filippo Galli!

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March Review; It's been a pretty poor month with a single point picked up from our two league games and going out of the Champions League to AC Milan. The most worrying part is that we failed to score a single goal across those 3 games! In the league, we have dropped 6 points behind West Ham in 7th, although we do have a game in hand! Only 7 games remain in the campaign and we can't afford to drop many more points if we're going to make the top 7 for a 3rd straight year.

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Player of the Month
Fabian Delph

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Everyone was pretty **** overall this month, with Delph being one of the only players to keep up any level of half decent performance.


April; We'll play five of our last seven league games next month and just look at those last two fixtures in the month, City and United!! It kind of makes the Villa, Watford and Wolves games must wins for us to pick up as many points as we can before facing the two Manchester clubs!

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[FM_TNSSO]

April 2021

April 2021; Top 7 Out Of Reach
[FONT=&quot]
Sunday 4th April 2021[/FONT]
English Premier League
Aston Villa (Home)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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Not ****** good enough lads! Moise Kean had a good game but this was a very poor result against the Villa and that top 7 spot is getting away from us now!


Monday 12th April 2021
English Premier League
Watford (Away)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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A solid defensive performance away at Watford gives us our first win in 5 games! Moise Kean was again on target today and the youngster looks to be finishing the season strongly!


We were one of only 6 clubs in the Premier League to make a profit over the past year. It wasn't much, but it's good to be in the green rather than the red! The two Manchester clubs lead the way, whilst Spurs sit at the bottom of the table with nearly £70 million losses!!

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Saturday 17th April 2021
English Premier League
Wolves (Home)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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Reiss Nelson made the difference from the bench today to give us back to back victories in the league. He set up David Brooks who neatly finished to give us a 2-1 lead, before adding a goal of his own to seal the win for us. We deserved the result on the day, against a Wolves side that continue to disappoint their fans in the league this season!


Wednesday 21st April 2021
English Premier League
Manchester City (Away)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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A brave effort against a superior City side at the Etihad ends in defeat. The lads gave it a good go, but City were just too strong for us!


Young centre back, Boubacar Kamara will miss the rest of the season through injury.

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Saturday 24th April 2021
English Premier League
Manchester United (Away)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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The team came into this one shattered from the City game only 3 days earlier and with some injuries in the squad as well, it was a struggle for us to mount any sort of challenge at all against one of the best sides in the league and Manchester United gave us a thumping... United have a pretty irresistable attack and we just couldn't cope with them!


David Brooks will miss the final 2 games of the season through injury!

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April Review; Another pretty poor month and it feels like we're just seeing the season out now with Europa League qualification already in the bag via the Carabao Cup win. Which is lucky as we're not going to make the top 7 now after 3 defeats this month from our 5 games! The league is definitely Liverpool's to lose as they find themselves 4 points clear and with 2 games in hand. It'll be between Arsenal and Chelsea for the 4th Champions League spot, whilst at the bottom of the table it's all pretty tight between the bottom 4 and the question remains as to which 1 of those clubs will survive the drop!

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Player of the Month
Josh Tymon

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A few players had 1 or 2 standout games this month and could have taken the POM award based on that, but I've given it to Tymon as he was the most consistent across all of his games.


May; Our final two league games of the campaign will be against 14th placed Leicester and 17th placed Newcastle. With us looking destined to finish 9th in the table, neither game will mean much to us, but that final game could be crucial to Newcastle if they're to avoid the drop!

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[FM_TNSSO]

May 2021

May 2021; End of Season
[FONT=&quot]
Moise Kean picks up Player of the Month and Young Player of the Month awards in the Premier League for April. Which probably begs the question why he didn't win my Player of the Month....awkward!!

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Saturday 1st May 2021
English Premier League
Leicester City (Home)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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A tightly contested game where both sides created a lot of chances, but it was us that just edged it and get the win. Moise Kean scores again and is definitely looking to cement himself as a first team starter for next season!!


Sunday 9th May 2021
English Premier League
Newcastle (Away)
Formation: 4-1-4-1 DM Wide

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Newcastle came into this game needing a win to guarantee safety, where as the game would mean nothing to us....and it showed as we played with no passion whatsoever and The Magpies absolutely battered us to be fair.


We finish 9th in the Premier League this season and it's disappointing not to have moved forward from the last two years. However, we'll still be playing European football next season after winning the Carabao Cup and although the league has been a bit ****, I have to be placed with meeting a main goal at the start of the season of winning a domestic cup! Liverpool are crowned champions of England again, whilst Newcastle survived the drop!

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Despite leading Bournemouth to 3 straight top half finishes, winning the Europa League, European Super Cup and Carabao Cup for the first time in the club's history, my job is still under serious threat following the 9th placed finish in the league!!! It would be a ******* joke if I get sacked and I'll be absolutely gutted after achieving so much here so quickly! Let's hope the board see sense and keep me on!!

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The initial budgets are announced for next season, with both the wage and transfer budgets going up from what I had this season!

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I am linked with the Manchester City job after Carlo Ancelotti is sacked...now if this was a journeyman save, I'd be all over it like a rash, but it's not! The aim of the Sir Alex Ferguson challenge is to do it all with one club, so I distance myself from the rumours and reaffirm my commitment to Bournemouth.

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The U18s win a 3rd straight league title...I have a serious lack of talent amongst my youngsters and I can only assume their continued success is down to the sheer lack of quality of opposition in their league.

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Brooks, Milik, Cook and Raya are all inducted into the overall best eleven, although none of them make the starting lineup.

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Josh Tymon is a surprising choice for the fan's player of the year on awards night. He also takes young player of the season, whilst David Raya is considered my best signing ahead of Milik!

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Despite the joy of winning the Carabao Cup, the general consensus is that it was a disappointing season for us, following a poor showing in the Premier League.

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Looking over the squad stats for the past season, it was good to see Arkadiusz Milik step up and bag 19 goals in his first season here, especially as he had a lot of weight on his shoulders with the big injury to Callum Wilson. David Brooks was the only other player to reach double figures with 11 goals. Jordon Ibe was disappointing on the goal front this year as he only netted 5 times, but he was again our main creative outlet with 11 assists. Jean Michael Seri also created 10 goals this season as he exerted his dominance in the central midfield role. Sandro Tonali, Adam Smith and Josh Tymon were our most consistent players across the entire season and all record decent average ratings for the amount of games they played!

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We receive £23 million in prize money for our 9th placed finish in the Premier League.

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Arkadiusz Milik finishes 3rd in the goalscoring ranks for the Premier League during his first season in English football. Hopefully, he'll push on and do even better next year!

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Only 5 teams had a worse net transfer spend than us over the past season! The two Manchester clubs failed in their attempts to topple Liverpool despite having a net transfer spend of around £100 million more!

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Liverpool complete a domestic double after overcoming Chelsea in the final of the FA Cup. Blues fans will be disappointed to have made both cup finals this year and lost!

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The commercial summary makes for good reading, with the biggest growth area being in competition prize money. However, with no Champions League football next season, we're likely to see a huge decrease in this area over the next 12 months.

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After knocking us out, AC Milan went all the way to the final of the Champions League where they were eventually beaten by Atletico Madrid.

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[FM_TNSSO]

June 2021

June 2021; It's Going To Be A Busy Summer Window

The Summer transfer window opens and my main link is with Liverpool centre back Dejan Lovren who has been transfer listed by them. They want £15 million for him and although he would be a good addition, he is now 31 years old and I have other areas of the squad that require more immediate attention. I am going to need to sign a new left back and right back this month! Whatever is left over money wise will be put towards attacking midfield/inside forward players as I look to strengthen that area.

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We moved up into the top 30 in the European club rankings following our Champions League experience this year.

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My first signing of the Summer is an absolute bargain! 19 year old wonderkid, Alex Blesa, joins the club for only £1.3 million from Levante! The youngster was once described as the next Pep Guardiola and could form a good partnership with our other wonderkid Sandro Tonali for years to come!

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If we're going to make the Europa League groups this year, we will have to do it the hard way, through all the qualification rounds. In the Best Placed First Qualifying Round we will play Moldovan side, CS Petrocub Hincesti.

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I've decided I'm going to look into playing a slightly different formation next season. Rather than the 4-1-4-1 DM Wide, I will look to play two holding midfielders with an attacking central mid, so more of a 4-2-3-1. My new signing, Juan Fernando Quintero, is likely to be a huge part of that and will fit the attacking midfield role perfectly. He has a great eye for a pass and then the ability to pick it out as well and I expect him to get a fair few assists for us. The best part about this deal...I nicked him from Porto on a free as his contract was up!

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Ignazio Abate is leaving the club on 1st July on a free transfer, so I desperately needed to sign a new right back! I didn't just want to sign a complete out and out backup player, but instead someone that could push Adam Smith for his starting place in the team. Welcome Silvan Widmer, who joins us from West Ham for a £16 million! Widmer had a solid season for West Ham last year and was the only player to make the top 20 average ratings, who didn't play for Liverpool, Man City, Man Utd or Chelsea! Hopefully, he can continue the good performances for us down on the south coast.

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**** me, just look at that opening fixture list...Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs all in our opening 5 games!!

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Joshua King is another player that I am allowing to leave on a free on 1st July and with Reiss Nelson's loan spell also coming to an end, we're looking a little thin with wide players. So I have added Braga wide man, Ricardo Horta, to the squad for a fee of just £11 million. A great bit of business considering he is immediately worth £28 million the day he joined!

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Another shrewd bit of business up next as we welcome Czech Republic international, Tomas Soucek, to the club. He signs for a measley £4.4 million from Slavia Prague and on day one at Bournemouth he is valued at nearly £20 million!! Not only that, but he's a pretty **** hot find for my scouting team (no I can't take the credit for this one I'm afraid) as he has some excellent stats and I expect him to be our rock in front of the defence which will allow a more attacking DM to push on!

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Now with all these new players coming in, it was inevitable that I'd be looking to offload a couple as well. One casualty of this is the ageing Fabian Delph, but **** me, what good business I've done again here (if I do say so myself). Delph joined us at the end of last season on a free transfer and at the age of 31, I've moved him on a year later for £19.5 million, which may even rise to £22.5 million!! He's joined Leicester City!

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Another wonderkid through the door in the form of attacking wide man, Emanuel Vignato, who joins for £7.25 million from Chievo! The 20 year old looks to have a big future ahead of him and joins his Italian U21 mates Moise Kean and Sandro Tonali here! Again, a player I signed for very little who immediately has a value in excess of £23 million!

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Now this is a deal I didn't really want to do, but my hand was forced because I just couldn't turn down the ridiculous money that Arsenal were offering for Jordon Ibe! They initially made me an offer of £31 million for the 25 year old, and I went back and asked for a ridiculous fee in excess of £50 million, thinking they would back out. However, they accepted the agreement and I'll bite their hands off for that sort of money all day long!

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[Brane_Orsou]

Great business there mate, hopefully you can invest it back into the squad and get Bournemouth fighting for Champions League again and the title.

On a personal level I'm glad you "let Newcastle win" to allow them to stay up.