Oh When The Saints Go Marching In - A Southampton Story

[Mr_Grieves]

Good gap in the League to play with. Quadruple still on. Amazing stuff! And just to make it better you beat Newcastle in the League cup You Hero!

 

[TicTactition]

Southampton are such an interesting team to manage, im coming upto the 2014/15 season with Everton and they have just signed Erick Torres for £19.5 million!!

 

[Sam91]

Southampton are such an interesting team to manage, im coming upto the 2014/15 season with Everton and they have just signed Erick Torres for £19.5 million!!

Yeah Torres seems good this year too but I have Lamela, Adryan and Wellington Nem so don't really need another attacking midfielders!

UPDATE COMING

 

[Sam91]

April

Play City a whopping 4 times this month
Title is so close its unreal
Really close games in the Champions League



League


Southampton 4 - 1 Manchester City

Adryan(3), Blaszczykowski

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Southampton 0 - 1 Newcastle






Reading 1 - 2 Southampton

Wellington Nem, Destro

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Southampton 1 - 2 Arsenal

Ademilson

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FA Cup

6th Round Replay


Manchester City 2 - 0 Southampton



So we crash out of the FA Cup



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Champions League

Quarter Final


Manchester City 1 - 0 Southampton



Ademilson also had a disallowed goal which certainly looked fine to me... all to do in the second leg!!




Southampton 0 - 0 Manchester City

View attachment 290548

Ahhh **** it, Lallana had a goal ruled out for offside in this one!!! Absolute joke, so we're out. United knocked out City in the Semi's and face Bayern in the final.


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Monthly Review


So a pretty bad month. Crashed out of the two remaining cups, dropped points in the league AGAIN but had a cracking game in the league against City when Adryan staked his claim for that Attacking Midfielder role. I had real fitness problems this month too and basically sacrificed the FA Cup in hope of league games and CL games but it kinda backfired losing to Newcastle and Arsenal. The Arsenal game was pure BULLSHIT, we bossed it but Hooiveld gave away a peno, Bertrand picked up a second yellow for ARGUING with the ref about it. Seriously nice trolling SI.


In better news I snapped up two young regens from Brazil who look good, one for £80k and one for £800k

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Player of the Month

Jack Butland

Won YPOTM, so many times this year has he saved us.



Table

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STILL TOP!!! But if City win their games in hand they draw level!! Tense times​

 

[Sam91]

May and End Of Season Awards

(Did we get our hands of this?)

City win their games in hand so its all to play for
United stage late comeback in true Fergie style!!
Sterling, Lallana and Bertrand in England World Cup Squad!!



League


Wolves 2 - 1 Southampton

Clyne

View attachment 290582


Ahhhh no!!!! Disaster strikes as the pressure clearly got to the boys and we caved, we didn't deserve to win and I should have played my counter tactic!! United now level points as City go 1 points ahead.






So the situation, we needed West Ham to take points off City and we needed to win, United needed us and City and drop points to win.


Fixtures


QPR v Southampton
Manchester United v Burnley
West Ham v Manchester City



Results

Manchester United 2 - 0 Burnley
West Ham 2 - 2 Manchester City

So all we needed was to beat QPR and the title was ours, two goals from on loan Saint Rickie Lambert snatched a draw for West Ham to do us all a favour!!! Could we do it?



QPR 1 - 1 Southampton

Lamela

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Not exactly the fairy tale finish aye. Devastated, we had the title in our grasp but threw it away. Gutted.



Table and League Player Stats

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So City win again, us missing out by a point and finishing 3rd again. Burnley, Bolton and Fulham are relegated with Arsenal joining us in the Champions League with Chelsea and Spurs finishing in Europa League spots.

Lallana racked up a whopping 17 assists in the league, Shane Long and Adam Le Fondre smashed in a crazy amount of goals too which was nicely surprising.

City also won the FA Cup and we won the League Cup so it was a nice season getting some Silverware!! Munich beat United in the final of the Champions League.



Squad Stats

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So Hooiveld and Fonte were again pick of the players. Everyone else did pretty well, slightly annoyed with Poli's rating but he was out for 3 months. Pepe and Blaszczykowski proved good January signings, Butland hit the magic 7 which is nice to see from a keeper. Sterling did pretty well to hit 10 goals from the RW position I think. Lamela and Ademilson did well all season apart from the last 2 months and I think thats what cost us, Ademilson's goals dried up a bit.

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Player Awards


Once again the Player Awards was bullshit with only myself being involved coming runner up in Manager of the Year, seriously how was Lamela and Ademilson not involved in Young Player of the Year?!? How the big clubs are favored in the awards is really annoying.



Saints Player of the Season

Jos Hooiveld

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The center back has been a rock and we have been blessed with his stunning form for 2 years now, but knocking on a bit and will need replacing soon, who will step up to fill such huge boots?

Saints Young Player of the Season

Raheem Sterling

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The young winger has justified his price tag this season with some stunning performances. Hopefully he continues and improves to become a key player for many years. He made the 30 man preliminary squad but was cut so no risk of him picking up and injury and he gets a well deserved rest.



So what for us next year? Title has to be the target, I have LOADS of transfer targets in mind to help us push for first place, any players you want me to sign? Shocked by the end to the season? Let me know
​

 

[landorin]

Oh no! I really thought you had the league in the back! I know the feeling though as I lost out to City on goal difference last season! Hope you can do it next year!

 

[Sam91]

FFS just had a crash dump and hadn't saved it. Ill have to replay it till I get the same kinda results, **** sakes lol.

 

[TicTactition]

**** isn't it haha, I had a system update so mine restarted.

 

[Sam91]

**** isn't it haha, I had a system update so mine restarted.

Worst thing is, just thrashed QPR and won the league now have to quit and replay it again till I dont win the league :'(

 

[Seabear]

Worst thing is, just thrashed QPR and won the league now have to quit and replay it again till I dont win the league :'(

let united the win the league pls <3 haha
Great season mate! Been enjoying stories since fm12

 

[Sam91]

let united the win the league pls <3 haha
Great season mate! Been enjoying stories since fm12

Ha cheers just replayed it again and will post the changes City still won the league though

 

[Sam91]

View attachment 290654
Theres the table change lads, City still win the title, we come second. I couldnt keep replaying it again and again till it was perfectly the same. Sorry lads

 

[Sam91]

Should be an update later, picked up some niiiice players in the market so far

 

[Sam91]

Pre Season and August

Huge signings for the Saints
Fonte, Lambert and Rodriguez offloaded
7 Goal thriller in the Community Shield



Transfers

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So the big signings are Inigo Martinez and Wesley Sneijder!!! Both are fantastic players and even though Sneijder is 30 he's the perfect role model for Lamela and Adryan plus his stats are fantastic. Inigo Martinez will be first choice center back with Pepe and Hooiveld battling it out for being his partner. Alarcon is an amazing regen who plays center midfield and Schneiderlin left to make way for him. Merkel's transfer was agreed back in January, I also snapped up John Guidetti on a free as we had a time last year when Ademilson wasn't firing and Destro was injured plus he looks like pretty decent player .


Offloaded a lot of dead wood and players I signed as stop gaps over the past few years and we loaned out bags of youngsters included James Ward-Prowse, Callum Chambers and Usandizagan so they could gain some first team football. JWP actually won YPOTM in the Championship in August so it looks like it was the right choice!!


Here's screenies of the new boys anyway:

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I also snapped up some players who wont be joining us till the future due to certain rules but check them out too

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They look pretty good especially the striker, maybe the new Bertoli?


Here's who the other teams signed anyway:

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First Team

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So that will be my first team, but a lot of rotation will happen especially in the top half of the pitch. I'm really building some depth in this squad now and we should be able to push forward some more!!


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League


Blackpool 1 - 2 Southampton

Ademilson, Guidetti






Southampton 1 - 1 West Ham

Lamela






Newcastle 0 - 2 Southampton

Ademilson, Lamela

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Community Shield


Manchester City 4 - 3 Southampton

Ademilson, Sterling, Sneijder

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Monthly Review


So we lost the Community Shield but it was another tight and thrilling match against Manchester City, good to see Sneijder off the mark on his debut too . Close match against Blackpool but John Guidetti's goal sealed it for us, another new boy scoring!! A disappointing draw against West Ham at home though but a bit of magic from Erik Lamela got us a point. Then came a stunning win against Newcastle, Alarcon missed a peno otherwise it would have been 3-0.



Player of the Month

Ademilson

Won YPTOM and scored some nice goals



Tables

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Good start in the league, also our Champions League table looks tougher than last year and we may have to settle for third.
​

 

[Sam91]

Southampton Sign Spaniard

Southampton today announced the signing of Spaniard David Villa on a free transfer. Villa's contract at Barcelona had expired and he's been looking for a club for a few months, but Southampton snapped him up on a 1 year deal. Here's what Saints manager Sam Birch had to say:

''I'm delighted to welcome David to the club, I have huge respect for the lad. He's one of the best strikers of his generation and still has a bit more to give, he will provide a great example of character and style to Ademilson, Destro and John Guidetti. He's won everything in Spain with Barca so he brings experience in that department too, something maybe we lacked towards the end of last season.''


David Villa made this short statement:

''I'm very happy to join Southampton Football Club. They're a team improving every season and came very close last year to winning the league, I hope that I can help in many ways push this club forward. I would like to thank Mr Birch for giving me the opportunity to play in England, I've always wanted to play here and had chances in the past but it was never the right time. I can't wait to get started and meet the team. Thank you.''
​

 

[meguel]

You're snapping up the veterans here aren't you? I think you may have overpaid for Sneijder who will be on the decline around now :?

 

[Sam91]

You're snapping up the veterans here aren't you? I think you may have overpaid for Sneijder who will be on the decline around now :?

£22m isnt that bad and hes been pretty decent so far, nearly signed Jovetic for £24m but pulled out last minute. The older players will be useful in mentoring and help with squad rotation. Sneijder's stats are incredible though and he's still got another 2 or 3 years left in him I think

 

[landorin]

Great signing of Villa! Will help mentor your young strikers! What are his wages like?

 

[Sam91]

Great signing of Villa! Will help mentor your young strikers! What are his wages like?

85k a week so not that bad tbh. Still very very good stats as well. I'm more than willing to pay him that

 

[landorin]

85k a week so not that bad tbh. Still very very good stats as well. I'm more than willing to pay him that

That's a great deal, nice one mate!