My First Ever Attempt At The Sir Alex Ferguson Challenge

[FM_TNSSO]

June 2022

June 2022; One In, One Out At Centre Back

The Summer transfer window opens and we are linked with a few players, all attacking wide men. Although they are all very good players, each of them would probably command my entire transfer budget so it's unlikely I will move for any of them! My first move is likely to be to make Kasper Dolberg's move permanent and from then it may depend on if I lose any of my key players as there are some big clubs sniffing round a few!

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As expected, Kasper Dolberg did join the club for the pre-agreed £10 million! An absolute steal if you ask me, especially as he is immediately worth more than double that fee!

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PSG came back in with another £40 million offer for Nathan Ake which was rejected! Ake approached me afterwards and was ****** I hadn't let him leave. To keep the player happy, I've agreed that if an offer is made that exceeds £51 million I will accept it!

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We've moved up another 4 places in the European club rankings!

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Charlies Daniels has retired! A bit of a legend around these parts with nearly 300 league appearances to his name, we will play a testimonial as part of our pre season campaign to honour his career!

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Steve Cook approached me at the end of the season saying that he wanted to leave the club for a new challenge. I wasn't going to stand in his way and he has joined Stoke for an initial fee of £6.5 million which I think is a decent return on the 31 year old defender.

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As the media release their end of season review of the Premier League, it's us that are seen as the competition's biggest overachievers!

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After last year's opening fixtures, anything this season would have beaten that! We have a couple of tough ones in there but this isn't the worst start in the world to be handed.

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After Steve Cook's departure and with club's like PSG sniffing around and unsettling Nathan Ake, I was keen to go find myself a world class centre back! I think I've done just that in bringing 24 year old Kristoffer Ajer to the club from Hertha Berlin for just over £30 million! The Norwegian international has some excellent stats and we've tied him down for the next few years whilst he should be in his prime!

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David Brooks was amongst the players released from the club as their contracts have expired.

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July; The Premier League starts earlier this year and by the end of next month we will have already played our first 2 league games! This is down to the fact the World Cup will be played in November and December, as Qatar held on to the competition! We have 5 friendlies booked in before the competitive stuff starts, including a testimonial against Barcelona for the recently retired Charlie Daniels.

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[FM_TNSSO]

Any word on getting a new stadium built to increase capacity yet?

Not yet mate, but I don't think it will be at the top of the list as we didn't fill out our 16,500 capacity every home game last season....not sure why? Be interesting to see what the attendance figures are like this season after a 3rd placed finish last year!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

July 2022

July 2022; Plenty Of Transfer Business & An Unbeaten Start

Our matchday and ticket revenue hovered around the same figure as last season.

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Another player of mine that is looking to leave the club this Summer is right back Adam Smith, as he feels he has achieved all he can at the club! So I was on the lookout for a new right back for when he inevitably leaves and Almamy Toure is the player I opted to bring in. I didn't have to break the bank to get him as I only forked out £21.5 million, and he becomes my best option at the club for the right back role!

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Nicolas Otamendi was released by Manchester City at the end of last season and after taking a look at him, his stats still look very impressive despite his age of 34 years old! I thought his experience would be great for our younger members of the squad and he was willing to take a contract on low wages and as a backup player...win, win for me!

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Adam Smith has left the club as expected. The 31 year old joins Schalke for just over £8 million.

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Harry Maguire retains the captain's armband for a 3rd season, but Nathan Ake loses the vice captaincy with ever growing doubt over his future at the club. That honour now goes to Sandro Tonali!

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Juan Fernando Quintero will miss the first few weeks of the season through injury! A big loss for us!

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After Nathan Ake had become unhappy at not being allowed to join PSG, his days were numbered here! With 4 other centre backs in the first team squad now, I was able to let him move on and he has joined Liverpool for a fee of £43 million!

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Ryan Fraser leaves the club for a straight £10 million to join Crystal Palace.

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With 45 minutes of the transfer deadline remaining, I pull off a huge signing! 22 year old Fiete Arp joins from Hamburger SV for a club record fee of £57 million!! We'll pay £27 million up front, plus £30 million over the next 3 years! A massive investment, but one that could pay off big time as this kid is set to become one of the best strikers in the world!

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The transfer window closes and Manchester United and Chelsea who grabbed the headlines with £100 million plus signings in Lucas Hernandez and Rodrygo! However, I'm still convinced Fiete Arp could prove to be the signing of the Summer!

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Although our window had closed, there is still an opportunity to sell players to other clubs in Europe and that's exactly what I've done. With Fiete Arp's arrival, it took us over the wage budget by £110k and left me with 4 strikers in the squad, which is a lot when you only play one up top! Atletico Madrid came in with an offer of £30 million for Arkadiusz Milik, but after some back and forth negotiation I managed to eventually get them to settle on a fee of £55 million for the Polish striker and have allowed him to leave the club in order to balance the books! He was a very good striker, but I've managed to replace a 28 year old with a 22 year old who has better stats and I also made £7 million on Milik after him being here for 2 seasons so I think it's good business!

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Our view with the bookies hasn't changed since last season with us again 7-1 for the title and predicted a 7th placed finish! Still we have no players in the media dream eleven, and it's Sandro Tonali and Moise Kean who are rated as our key players for the upcoming season!

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The board send me their expectations for the upcoming season and it seems that the Carabao Cup bares some importance again this year and a quarter final spot is expected. Quarter final of the FA Cup is also required whilst the board would like me to make the top 7 in the Prem. As far as the Champions League goes, the board have told me to enjoy the group stage with no expectations of me making it to the knockout rounds.

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Saturday 23rd July 2022
English Premier League
Everton (Away)
Formation: 4-2-3-1 DM Wide

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Despite completely dominating Everton on their own turf, we could only manage a 1-1 draw to open our Premier League account for the season!


Alex Pritchard will miss a couple of weeks through injury...that's both my natural advanced playmakers out now!

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Nearly 2000 extra season tickets have been sold this year!

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Tuesday 26th July 2022
English Premier League
Watford (Home)
Formation: 4-2-3-1 DM Wide

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Another dominant performance but this time we got the result we deserved! Callum Wilson clearly has a point to prove that he's still the main man around here despite the arrival of record signing, Fiete Arp!


July Review; Some big transfer business was done this month between our pre season friendlies, in which we remained unbeaten, including a respectable 0-0 draw with Barcelona! The Premier League has kicked off and it's been an unbeaten start in our opening 2 games, but it's still early days!

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Player of the Month
Will Weatherstone

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I have given this to Will based on his performance in pre season as well. He has played 3 friendlies and the Watford game this month and gave a very good account of himself on every occasion!


August; Five league games coming up next month with big matches against Arsenal and both the Manchester sides! We'll probably know by the end of the month if we could be considered as potential title contenders this year or not.

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[DannyC99]

Great read, have just caught up! Improving year on year....

I managed to win the league by 1 point in my first season over City!! Let's see if I can keep that up.

I started off unbeaten for about 14 games and didn't concede in about the first 6 games.
Wilson & King bagged about 65 goals between them.

Good Luck!

 

[jonysilva17]

Amazing story bro! Can you share the save file pls?

 

[FM_TNSSO]

August 2022

DannyC99 - "Thanks for reading mate. I do love Wilson on this game and this season he is proving that he is not ready to be relegated to the bench by Fiete Arp just yet"

jonysilva17 - "Thanks for the comments mate...much appreciated! I will see what I can do about uploading the save file"

August 2022; One Minor Blip But Otherwise All Good
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Emanuel Vignato was named the Young Player of the Month for July.

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Saturday 6th August 2022
English Premier League
Arsenal (Away)
Formation: 4-2-3-1 DM Wide

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A tight defence and a tidy strike from Emanuel Vignato was enough for us to get victory at the Emirates and consign Arsenal to a 2nd defeat in their opening 3 games of the season!


Tuesday 9th August 2022
English Premier League
Brighton (Home)
Formation: 4-2-3-1 DM Wide

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Look who lined up for Brighton...Jordon Ibe was sold by Arsenal for just £17.5 million, only 1 season after they paid us £50 million for him!! But getting back to the game, this was a very disappointing result for us, losing a match we never should have lost! Fiete Arp made his first start for the club and was extremely poor, whilst David Raya made a massive blunder to allow them to score their winning goal! Sloppy play all over the park and the lads got their first big bollocking of the season!


Saturday 13th August 2022
English Premier League
Manchester City (Away)
Formation: 4-2-3-1 DM Wide

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What's the best way to bounce back from a disappointing defeat...go away to Manchester City and win!! Get in there lads!


Saturday 20th August 2022
English Premier League
Newcastle (Home)
Formation: 4-2-3-1 DM Wide

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Newcastle had made a good start to their season, winning 4 of their opening 5 games, and it was obvious to see that one of their key strengths this year will be their solid defence as they proved very hard to break down! However, we still managed to come away with a narrow win and the 3 points was the most important thing!


We will take on local rivals, Brighton, in the 3rd round of the Carabao Cup.

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The Champions League Group Stage was also drawn and this year we were 3rd seeds, which meant we were likely to have it tough! And we will come up against one of the European giants in the form of Bayern Munich. Legia should be the group's whipping boys and it may come down to our results against Lyon as to whether we qualify.

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Saturday 27th August 2022
English Premier League
Manchester United (Home)
Formation: 4-2-3-1 DM Wide

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Now I'm not saying we are going to be title contenders this season, but surely beating the current champions is a massive statement from us right?!


August Review; Despite the **** result against Brighton, it's been a good month with wins in all 4 of our other games, which takes us up to 2nd in the league. Liverpool have already opened up a 5 point gap and set the early pace though. Arsenal and Chelsea have both had shocking starts and find themselves in the bottom 7!

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Player of the Month
Sandro Tonali

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The whole team has been pretty solid as a unit this month and the driving force behind that has been vice captain Sandro Tonali who is quickly becoming one of the best players in this league as far as I'm concerned!


September; Six games lined up next month although only 3 of them will be in the league as we kick off our Champions League campaign. We will kick off the group stage with the two pivotal matches against Lyon and I'd say a win in at least one of them is essential.

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[marsden1234]

Going strong mate.. Am loving the read!!! strong start from Liverpool this season but keep going, will win league sooner rather than later

 

[FM_TNSSO]

September 2022

​marsden1234 - "Thanks for the comments mate...much appreciated and I am glad you're enjoying the read! Liverpool are pretty ******* immense on this year's game and it will take a **** of a big effort to stop them....but we're gradually getting there!"

September 2022; Flying Through Our Champions League Group!
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The English Premier League clubs spent well over a billion pounds again this Summer, with Manchester City spending more than any other club...although Bayern Munich were only a million behind them! Chelsea boss, Maurizio Sarri, has got to be under pressure following their awful start to the season after spending well over £200 million in the window!

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Josh Tymon has earnt his first cap for the England national side!

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Saturday 10th September 2022
English Premier League
Stoke (Away)
Formation: 4-2-3-1 DM Wide

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Ultimately, we had to play too long with only 10 men here and it cost us as we looked tired toward the end of the game and Stoke took full advantage!


Sandro Tonali signs a new contract with the club that will keep him here for another 5 years....that is unless someone meets his £105 million release clause!

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Wednesday 14th September 2022
Champions League Group Stage
Lyon (Home)
Formation: 4-2-3-1 DM Wide

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Fiete Arp finally came to life and bagged his first goals for the club...after he missed a 1st minute penalty that is! Even though it's our first in the group stage, I saw this as a must win game if we want to qualify and am happy to have comfortably beaten our French opponents here with relative ease.


Saturday 17th September 2022
English Premier League
West Brom (Away)
Formation: 4-2-3-1 DM Wide

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Fiete Arp followed up his Champions League goals with his first Premier League goal here and I can only hope the striker is finding his feet at the club! This was a good performance and a decent win to get us back on track in the league after the loss to Stoke.


Alex Pritchard will miss about a month through injury.

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Tuesday 20th September 2022
Champions League Group Stage
Lyon (Away)
Formation: 4-2-3-1 DM Wide

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A surprisingly easy win out in France puts us in an exremely strong position now to qualify for the knockout stages of the competition!


Saturday 24th September 2022
English Premier League
Aston Villa (Home)
Formation: 4-2-3-1 DM Wide

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******* Aston Villa are definitely a bit of a bogey team for me and I always struggle to beat them! Even though we were all over them for the entire game here, we couldn't get the win and have to settle for a ****** point!


Tuesday 27th September 2022
Champions League Group Stage
Legia (Away)
Formation: 4-2-3-1 DM Wide

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Not quite the whipping I expected us to give Legia, although it could have been with the amount of shots we had!! Still, we return to England with all 3 points which is the main thing and we have all but qualified for the knockout stages with 3 wins from 3 games!


After 3 games in the Champions League, it looks like us and Bayern are flying through to the knockout stages, with the only real question being who is going to top the group?

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September Review; Playing with 10 men for most of the game against Stoke really cost us, but since then we've been in great form again recording another 5 games unbeaten run. Our defence looks solid with only 2 goals conceded in the last 5 and hopefully we can keep things tight at the back this whole season to give us a real shot at winning at least one trophy this year. In the league, we sit 4th and right amongst a handful of clubs that are chasing current leaders Liverpool, who have had made an impressive start and already find themselves 6 points clear! All three of the big London clubs, Arsenal, Tottenham and Chelsea continue to struggle and it's newly promoted Brentford who prop up the table!

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Player o[FONT=&quot]f the Month[/FONT]
Fiete Arp

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The club's record signing is finding his stride at last! After 8 games without scoring, Arp now had 5 in his last 5 games for us and that's good enough form to earn him his first player of the month award.


October; With the Winter World Cup in Qatar approaching, October is set to be a busy month for us with no less than eight games schedules across three competitions. We'll take on Brighton in the Carabao Cup and Bayern in the Champions League, in amongst six Premier League games. We kick off the month with a really tough away day at Liverpool, a team we've lost to 9 times in 11 meetings.

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[FM_TNSSO]

Game On Pause....

So I've had a bit of a nice surprise this afternoon! Been into the office for our end of year meeting and the boss has announced that they are taking our laptops from all of us, and have handed out brand new Surface Pro 6's! However, what this does mean is that this current save is stuck on that laptop...have spoken to the IT guy and he is going to backup all my files to an external hard drive for me to collect in the New Year. So this save has to temporarily go on hold...

I may start a new save and story on the new laptop in the meantime and will look to revisit this when I get my hard drive data in Jan! The plan will then be to continue both saves or go with the one I am more interested in and enjoying! One thing I will say is that this save will take some beating as I'm loving it....please look out for a new story from me at some point over the next couple of days - I'll be looking to do something different...probably at a lower level!

 

[grifty]

Ah that's a shame, I was enjoying that! Has Brexit happened yet? Anything changing the game/were you preparing for it?