January
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After a successful December, January was a strange month for us. In our first game we beat Reading fairly easily enough, before we were absolutely destroyed by Chelsea, losing 7-1 at Stamford Bridge after going down to ten men early on. We had to put that behind us and won our next two games, against QPR and Villa, 3-0. Losses against Liverpool in the Capital One Cup semi finals sandwiched and FA cup draw against Southampton at St Mary's. We ended January on a High with a 4-0 demolition of Newcastle.
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So unfortunately we lose out in the Capital One Cup, but our FA Cup hopes and our hunt for European qualification are both very much still alive. After an up and down month we sit in 6th, but a win in our game in hand will move us into 4th.
Player of the Month: Abel Hernandez
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Abel had a great month for us, with six goals coming for him. However, as you can see, he isn't at the club anymore...
Transfers
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That's because Dortmund came knocking on deadline day with a huge 28M offer I couldn't refuse. Tasked with finding a new striker to replace him, I went out and signed Romelu Lukaku for 33M from Everton, a deal I'm happy with, as he has scored 20 goals already this season compared to Hernandez's 12. Hopefully he can replicate that form for us.
Other arrivals are Oliver on loan from Atletico to provide cover in the AM positions, and Nicholas Ismat-Mirin on loan from Monaco to replace the outgoing Curtis Davies and Michael Dawson. Ince is the other departure, for 1M.