So here is my final single player story on FM18 and I have decided to go with my beloved Newcastle United to bring the glory days (back?) to Newcastle. I will be using my own updated database which is up-to-date as of this morning so it will be interesting to see how we get on after the clubs inactivity in the market in real life compared to everyone else!!!!
The aim of the save is to obviously put Newcastle to the top of world football and as a Scotsman I would like to manage the tartan army too. I have some other ideas that will come in later on in the save but I will reveal them when the time comes.
I hope to be with this save for at least 20 seasons, maybe more as I want to see how English football is shaken up after a long period of time. I have seen saves on the internet with it being simmed and some remarkable teams being on top and with my last Newcastle save Liverpool got relegated after 6 or 7 years so that intrigues me very much!!!
As ever I will be looking to develop youngsters and maybe one day we will have a Geordie nation in the first team that Sir John Hall wanted back in the 90s.
So Rafa had enough and left, Mike Ashley still wants to sell up and here I am coming in with an average squad and an average transfer budget. Its hard managing your favourite club at the start as I tend to judge players on who I like rather than who is actually good on FM lol.
One thing that I did notice that needs overhauled immediately is the U23 and U18 squad. We have little to no decent youngsters apart from Freddie Woodman and Yannick Toure. Luckily I am a manager who concentrates on bringing in young players so in time this will be remedied.
I also tore up the backroom staff and appointed the likes of Frank McParland (Director of Football), Eric Black (Assistant Manager), Phil Cannon (Head of Youth Development), Jens Lehmann (U23 Manager) and the beautiful Yvonne Moore (U18 Physio) amongst the many coaches etc that I appointed.
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PLAYERS OUT
I have only sold 2 players thus far. Achraf Lazaar joined Wolves for £4.5m and Karl Darlow joined Shakhtar Donetsk for an initial £3.8m which could increase by a further million. Both of these players were never going to be in my plans which is a poor thing for Lazaar as I was desperately needing a left back!!!
Out on loan so far is Rolando Aarons, Sean Longstaff, Daniel Barlaser, Callum Roberts and Mohammed Sangare.
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PLAYERS IN
£11.75m has been spent so far in an attempt to strengthen my side. The main area I needed to strengthen was the left back position as I only had Paul Dummett in the first team squad who is a natural there so after weeks of searching I eventually paid £5m for Federico Ricca from Malaga who my director of football initially went in for. View attachment 41072
My main 2 signings however were two amazing prospects who will feature for the first team immediately and in the future. Fiete Arp came in from Hamburg for £5m and Xadas came in from Braga for £1.1m. Arp - if fully developed - could become a world class forward while Xadas will provide competition for Ayoze Perez in the AMC position. View attachment 41064View attachment 41063
Finally to help out the U23s I brought in Sadou Diallo. He isn't going to feature in the first team but my youth teams do need strengthening. View attachment 41062
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THE REST OF THE LEAGUE
Liverpool and Spurs have swapped left backs - Rose to Liverpool, Moreno to Spurs - while Man City signed Layvin Kurzawa for an initial £32m rising to £48m.
AYOZE PEREZ!!!!!! What a performance from the Spaniard as he put Brighton to the sword with an amazing 4 goals from the AMC position. It could have been more goals as Jamaal Lascelles had a goal disallowed in the 2nd half.
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v
Liverpool 2 (Sturridge 87, Lallana 90)
Newcastle United 3 (Muto 85, Ayoze Perez 90, 90)
Lineup - Dubravka, Yedlin, Lascelles, Schar, Dummett, Shelvey (Ki Sung-Yeung), Diame, Ritchie (Murphy), Ayoze Perez*, Kenedy (Xadas), Muto
Absolutely crazy!!! We were holding on for a nil nil draw when against the run of play Muto pounced on a defensive mistake however Sturridge soon equalised with a shot from the edge of the area. Then injury time came and all **** broke loose as Ayoze Perez scored twice and then there was even more time for Lallana to pull one back.
Back to back victories!!!!
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Carabao Cup 2nd Round v
Newcastle United 4 (Ki Sung-Yeung 17, Murphy 37, 51, Arp 57) Accrington Stanley 1 (Uche 79) Lineup - Woodman, Manquillo, Fernandez, Clark, Dummett, Hayden, Ki Sung-Yeung, Murphy*, Xadas, Atsu (Toure), Arp (Rondon)
We were never in any trouble here although Freddie Woodman did save a penalty when we were 1-0 up. Funnily enough I noticed that Yannick Toure is white with ginger hair in the game where in real life he is the exact opposite!!!!
We maintained our 100% record with a victory here. We weren't great but snatched the lead from Muto before Atsu sealed it with a free-kick.
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SUMMARY
A very encouraging start to the season as we won all four games with a thrashing of Brighton, a remarkable victory away to Liverpool and decent wins over Accrington and Everton which sees us level top of the Premier League with about 5 other sides who have a 100% record.
I must say I am impressed with how we played - especially against Brighton - as my players have taken to my tactics fantastically well none more so than Ayoze Perez who scored 6 goals in the first two games and won the player of the month award while I won the manager of the month award.
For the remainder of the transfer window I brought in one more player and loaned out several players with the only notable one being Henri Saivet who somehow managed to get a move to Inter Milan!!
Incoming was 17y/o Austrian centre half Dario Maresic from Sturm Graz for £2.5m. He is one for the future and will get some game time with the first team this season. With Lascelles, Lejeune, Fernandez, Schar and Clark in the squad there are a few centre halves ahead of him but for the long term he is right up there. View attachment 40930
In the next round of the Carabao Cup we have been drawn against Ipswich Town.
Another hat-trick. My subs completely changed the course of this game as we were struggling and Leicester were dominating but Xadas set up Rondon for the 1st goal and then they had Adrien Silva sent-off which opened the game up for us.
Xadas and Rondon combined for the other two goals as we make it 5 wins out of 5!!!!
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Carabao Cup 3rd Round v Ipswich Town 1 (Harrison 8)
Newcastle United 4 (Arp 26, 43, 87, Hayden 45)
Lineup - Woodman, Manquillo, Fernandez, Clark (Maresic), Dummett, Hayden, Ki Sung-Yeung, Murphy, Xadas, Atsu (Kenedy), Arp*
Arp's turn to grab a hat-trick to add to Ritchie, Ayoze Perez and Rondon's. Maresic made his debut here as my backups got a run out. Xadas got another 2 assists.
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v
Fulham 1 (Ayite 34) Newcastle United 4 (Rondon 40, 43, 56, 78)
WHAT THE **** IS GOING ON WITH PLAYERS SCORING HAT-TRICKS?
That's 2 in 2 games for Rondon who netted 4 here and that's 4 hat-tricks in 6 league games plus Arp got one in the Carabao Cup!!!
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v
Newcastle United 0 Manchester United 1 (Mata 44)
Lineup - Dubravka, Yedlin, Lascelles, Schar (Lejeune), Ricca, Shelvey, Diame, Ritchie, Xadas (Ayoze Perez), Kenedy (Murphy), Rondon
Our 100% start to the season is over and it wasn't deserved as we were by far the better team but we couldn't take our chances. In the end it was a free-kick by Juan Mata that proved to be the deciding factor.
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SUMMARY
We followed up an amazing August with a superb September as my team did me proud. A Matt Ritchie hat-trick defeated Watford, a Sebastian Rondon hat-trick did for Leicester, Fiete Arp notched a hat-trick to beat Ipswich in the cup and then Rondon was at it again in the match against Fulham. Only the final match against Man Utd left a sour taste in the mouth.
I have to say I am flabbergasted by the hat-tricks going in from my players. I have never seen the like before apart from an old FM many years ago with a cheat from corner kicks so god knows what is happening here.
One player isn't playing well though and that is Kenedy. He has been rubbish and I will probably give Christian Atsu a run out for a wee while as Kenedy has not been effective at all.
Finally the club are in talks regarding a takeover but unfortunately it isn't with a sugar daddy.
Our 2nd successive 1-0 defeat and once again it was a harsh result although they did have a last minute goal disallowed. Christian Atsu came in for Kenedy and impressed.
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v
Newcastle United 3 (Diame 63, Muto 78, Ayoze Perez 84) Bournemouth 2 (Pugh 37, Defoe 42)
Lineup - Dubravka, Yedlin, Lascelles, Schar (Lejeune), Ricca, Shelvey, Diame, Ritchie (Murphy), Ayoze Perez*, Atsu (Xadas), Muto
A fantastic comeback as we win from 2-0 down with just over 25min to go. Diame pulled a goal back before Muto levelled and Ayoze Perez scored the winner to get us back to winning ways after the last two games.
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Carabao Cup 4th Round v
Aston Villa 2 (Bjarnason 5, Adomah 7)
Newcastle United 4 (Ki Sung-Yeung 29pen, Rondon 30, 51, Atsu 89)
Lineup - Woodman, Manquillo, Fernandez, Lejeune (Maresic), Dummett (Clark), Ki Sung-Yeung, Hayden, Murphy, Xadas, Kenedy (Atsu), Rondon*
Another comeback victory after being 2 goals down as I gave my backup players a shot. I was regretting the decision to play them for the best part of half an hour but after we got level we were always going to win.
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v
Cardiff City 3 (Zohore 36, Gunnarsson 43, Arter 75)
Newcastle United 6 (Ritchie 20, Muto 24, Ayoze Perez 32, 53, Atsu 33, Shelvey 90)
Cardiff are rock bottom without a win but we piled on the misery here as we surged into a 4 goal lead. They pulled 2 goals back and had a goal disallowed but we carried on going and got a convincing 6-3 victory.
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SUMMARY
This month on the pitch was decent. We lost to Southampton but bounced back in the league to defeat Bournemouth and Cardiff and in the Carabao Cup we beat Aston Villa to reach the Carabao Cup quarter-finals where we will play Stoke City of the Championship which is a kind draw.
Off the field this was a momentous moment time for the club as Mike Ashley finally left the club to be replaced by former Hartlepool United owner and Geordie Ken Hodcroft. He has accepted all my requests so far and I have got CS U Craiova of Romania as an affiliate club who should be important to gain players work permits.
Next month will be very tough as Dubravka and Schar will miss it due to injury plus we are due to play Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs.
v
Newcastle United 3 (Ritchie 35, Muto 45, Lascelles 74) West Ham United 1 (Lucas 1) Lineup - Woodman, Yedlin, Lascelles, Lejeune (Fernandez), Ricca, Shelvey (Ki Sung-Yeung), Diame, Ritchie (Murphy), Ayoze Perez*, Atsu, Muto
We fell behind early doors here when Freddie Woodman gave the ball away but we recovered well and were ahead before half-time and we saw the game out to go to the top of the table.
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v Arsenal 1 (Elneny 46)
Newcastle United 1 (Rondon 74)
Lineup - Woodman, Manquillo, Lascelles, Lejeune, Ricca, Shelvey, Diame, Murphy (Xadas), Ayoze Perez, Atsu (Kenedy), Muto (Rondon)
I am saw proud of my players here as my understrength side escape defeat thanks to Rondon coming off the bench to score with his first touch. This draw keeps us top of the league by 2pts over Arsenal.
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v Chelsea 0
Newcastle United 2 (Atsu 4, Rondon 90)
A wonderful performance albeit against a poor Chelsea side who were without Hazard, Pedro, Alonso, Morata and Barkley. We took the lead early on through ex-Chelsea player Atsu and what followed was an entertaining end to end match. They had an equaliser from Izzy Brown disallowed and Rondon finished them off in stoppage time.
Unfortunately for us Lejeune and Muto picked up injuries and are out for a little while.
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v
Newcastle United 1 (Atsu 27) Tottenham Hotspur 3 (Sanchez 4, Kane 79pen, 90)
Things just went against us here as I had injured players missing, players who played for the reserves missing, Lascelles picked up a knock and had to come off and despite all that we were doing well until Yedlin got sent-off when he gave away the winning penalty. We were done from that moment on.
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SUMMARY
We end November top of the league which is some achievement as we performed admirably and got fantastic results against Arsenal and Chelsea although we faltered against Spurs when a lot of things combined ensured that we couldn't get the result.
Our good work has been rewarded as the new chairman absolutely loves me. He has given me a new contract, increased my transfer budget by £24m, increased the youth level and improved all of our facilities and data analysis stuff as well as let me have more coaches and scouts!!!! The extra transfer funds really could help us consolidate a Champions League position.
This game was bonkers as 10 goals were scored and Matt Ritchie was denied a hat-trick of penalties when he missed his 3rd with 10min to go. Fiete Arp and Ciaran Clark made their first league appearances of the season.
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v Manchester City 3 (Aguero 3, Sterling 33, Gabriel Jesus 73) Newcastle United 1 (Atsu 76)
Lineup - Dubravka, Yedlin, Lascelles, Fernandez, Ricca, Shelvey, Diame (Ki Sung-Yeung), Ritchie (Murphy), Ayoze Perez, Atsu, Rondon (Arp)
Man City played us off the park here tbh and I have no complaints about the result. Atsu has scored in each of the last 4 league games.
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v
Newcastle United 3 (Rondon 17, Ki Sung-Yeung 88pen, Murphy 90) Crystal Palace 1 (Loftus-Cheek 5) Lineup - Dubravka, Yedlin, Lascelles, Fernandez, Ricca, Shelvey (Hayden), Ki Sung-Yeung, Murphy*, Ayoze Perez (Xadas), Atsu, Rondon (Arp)
Crystal Palace went into this game 4th in the table so it was the 2 surprise packages up against each other here and it was a tight game but we came out on top thanks to a late penalty and we picked them off on the break in stoppage time.
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v
Newcastle United 5 (Ritchie 21, Ayoze Perez 33, 56, Xadas 86, Kenedy 88) Burnley 0
2pts dropped here against struggling Brighton although we did rescue a point near the end I suppose. Atsu picked up an injury and will miss about a month.
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v
Newcastle United 1 (Ritchie 47) Liverpool 2 (Grujic 49, Salah 84)
This is a gutting defeat as we should have had the game sewn up in the 1st half but Ayoze Perez missed 3 glorious chances. I thought we were going to get a draw but it was not to be and Liverpool go level with us at the top of the table.
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SUMMARY
8 games were played in this hectic December and at one stage everything was going great as we opened up a 7pt gap at the top of the table but we have been clawed back after defeats to Man City and Liverpool plus we drew with Brighton.
My players though are slogging it out as we have had our fair share of injuries and suspensions and hopefully I can bring in one or two players in January to ease the workload a bit!!!
In the FA Cup we have a decent draw against Millwall while in the Carabao Cup semis we have a nightmare tie against Man City.
Finally Brighton sacked Chris Hughton and Spurs sacked Mauricio Pochettino as the managerial merry go round begins and Christian Atsu won the African Footballer of the Year award.
v
Everton 3 (Sandro 7, 87, Yedlin og37)
Newcastle United 1 (Murphy 68)
Lineup - Dubravka, Yedlin, Lascelles, Fernandez, Ricca (Dummett), Xadas, Hayden, Ritchie (Murphy), Ayoze Perez, Kenedy, Rondon (Arp)
Are the wheels coming off? 3 games without a win and 2 defeats in a row as my under strength side put in a dismal display here. Liverpool lost at home to Wolves though surprisingly.
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FA Cup 3rd Round v
Millwall 1 (Gregory 90)
Newcastle United 1 (Arp 7)
Our struggles continue as my backups fail to beat Millwall. Kenedy had a goal in stoppage time disallowed that would have won it but it was not to be. I suppose it will be another game for match experience for my backups - looking on the positive side!
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Carabao Cup Semi-Final 1st Leg
v
Newcastle United 2 (Kenedy 13, Murphy 28) Manchester City 2 (Gignac 27, Bernardo Silva 85) Lineup - Dubravka, Yedlin, Lascelles (Lejeune), Schar, Ricca (Dummett), Shelvey, Rondon, Murphy, Ayoze Perez (Xadas), Kenedy, Rondon
That's 5 games without a win as my strong side are held by Man City's backup side. Their 2nd goal was tough to take and we now know we have to score at the Etihad if we are to reach the final.
Finally we get back to winning ways here. We took an early lead through captain Lascelles and then they had Okazaki sent-off shortly after and we should have been on easy street however they levelled just after half-time.
I made a triple substitution on the hour mark and it did the trick as Ayoze Perez scored with a stunning finish and Felice D'Amico scored a debut goal to seal the match.
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FA Cup 3rd Round Replay v
Newcastle United 3 (Kenedy 18, 75, Xadas 34pen) Millwall 1 (O'Brien 90) Lineup - Dubravka, Manquillo, Fernandez, Lejeune (Maresic), Dummett, Cuisance, Hayden (Diame), D'Amico, Xadas, Kenedy*, Arp (Rondon)
This is what should have happened in the first match but as I said then it is another game for my backups and youngsters.
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v Watford 0
Newcastle United 3 (Ayoze Perez 26, Murphy 50, Lascelles 71)
A very convincing away victory as we dominated Watford from start to finish. Lascelles has now scored in his last 2 league games.
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Carabao Cup Semi-Final 2nd Leg v Manchester City 3 (Delph 27, Roberts 72, Sane 81) Newcastle United 0 (Agg: 5-2)
Lineup - Dubravka, Yedlin, Lascelles, Schar, Ricca, Shelvey (Diame), Cuisance, Murphy, Ayoze Perez, Kenedy (Atsu), Muto (D'Amico)
Either Man City completely outplayed us or my players didn't want to reach the final as they seemed to chuck it in and were woeful. A terrible performance.
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FA Cup 4th Round v
Wolverhampton Wanderers 2 (Helder Costa 12, Jimenez 29) Newcastle United 2 (D'Amico 28, Xadas 69)
This being deadline day I signed Kieran Tierney for a new club record fee this morning and he played this evening. Fulham did well but Muto's winner was well deserved.
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SUMMARY
This month started off as a nightmare but ended well. Our poor form at the end of the year carried over into the start of the new one as we lost to Everton, drew with Millwall and then did the same against Man City's reserves in the Carabao Cup semi.
We then bounced back with 3 straight wins before losing to Man City in the Carabao Cup and drawing with Wolves away in the FA Cup before edging out Fulham in the league. We end the month 1pt clear on top and we are clinging on for dear life.
As for transfers I brought in 4 players including a club record signing which almost doubled the previous club record fee. The new record signing is Kieran Tierney from Celtic who came in for £31m and will be my left back for years to come. Mickael Cuisance came in for an unbelievably cheap £6.5m from Borussia MGB while my FM18 favourite Felice D'Amico came in from Palermo for £4m. Finally Luka Adzic came in from Rad for £325,000 and has been loaned out to Anorthosis. View attachment 40652
Outgoing was several players - the main one being Matt Ritchie who I sold to Arsenal for an initial £22m fee which could rise to £31m. Matt did well for me but the price was too good to turn down and with D'Amico arriving and Murphy impressing we were able to let him go.
Ciaran Clark was sold to Bournemouth for £6.5m, Joselu left to go to Espanyol for £2.2m and Rob Elliot went to Leeds for £800,000.
We escaped with a respectable scoreline here as we got battered. We weren't helped by the fact that Yedlin got sent-off in the 1st half and we ended the game with 9 men when Diame went off injured.
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FA Cup 4th Round Replay v
Newcastle United 2 (D'Amico 1, Muto 27) Wolverhampton Wanderers 1 (Diogo Jota 83) Lineup - Woodman, Manquillo, Fernandez, Lejeune, Dummett, Cuisance, Hayden (Ki Sung-Yeung), D'Amico*, Xadas, Atsu, Muto
Another crazy game where the scoreline was 6-2 in our favour at half-time!!! Fiete Arp helped himself to 4 goals.
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v
Newcastle United 4 (Ayoze Perez 8, 38, Arp 13, 20) Cardiff City 0
Lineup - Dubravka, Yedlin, Lascelles, Schar, Tierney, Shelvey (Ki Sung-Yeung), Cuisance, D'Amico, Ayoze Perez, Kenedy (Atsu), Arp*
I rewarded Fiete Arp with his first league start after scoring 4 in the cup and he repaid me with 2 goals here against the bottom placed side.
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SUMMARY
February was quite quiet but we did well enough despite losing to Man Utd in our first match of the month. We managed to win our other 2 league games which sees us back on top of the table by 1pt while we also progressed in the FA Cup and we will play Leicester City in the quarter-finals.
Other than that it was quiet although Man City won the Carabao Cup.
v
Bournemouth 2 (King 3, 56)
Newcastle United 2 (Ayoze Perez 58, 59)
Lineup - Dubravka, Yedlin, Lascelles, Schar, Tierney (Ricca), Shelvey, Cuisance, D'Amico, Ayoze Perez, Kenedy (Muto), Arp (Rondon)
I am pleased that we came back to get a point here as at 2-0 down we were out of it and not playing well but Ayoze Perez got a quickfire double to salvage a point for us.
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v
West Ham United 4 (Jorgensen 14, 28, 88, Yarmolenko 55)
Newcastle United 3 (Ayoze Perez 6, 90, Cuisance 69)
An entertaining match but we didn't deserve to win as West Ham played well and even had a goal disallowed. Dubravka had a shocker in goal while Ayoze Perez has scored a double in his last 3 games.
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FA Cup Quarter-Final v Leicester City 1 (Adrien Silva 43pen)
Newcastle United 3 (Arp 4, 81, 87)
We reach the semis thanks to Arp's 2nd hat-trick of the competition and 3rd hat-trick of the season. Freddie Woodman got injured in the first half and will be out for a month.
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SUMMARY
We only had 3 games this month which made it quite boring but very quick and just as well as we didn't play well as we dropped 5pts in the league due to a draw with Bournemouth and a defeat to West Ham but we recovered by beating Leicester in the FA Cup quarter-finals. In the semis we will play Everton.
So we go into the penultimate month of the season 2nd in the table, level on points with 2 other teams but 4pts behind Chelsea. Our next game? Chelsea at home!!! Finally Arsenal sacked Unai Emery and replaced him with Rafa Benitez while my U23 manager Jens Lehmann left us to become manager of Burton Albion.
