The Future is Bright in Red and White - An SAFC story

Sunderland AFC
January 2017
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Fixtures:

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Unbeaten through the whole of January and dropping just 2 points in the league is a marked improvement from last month. We've made progression in the FA Cup much harder than it should have been but as long as we beat Sheffield Wednesday at home we'll be in the 5th round. However, the main news is that we have reached the first cup final of my reign at Sunderland, beating Swansea 2-1 in each leg to set up a repeat of this years final in real life against Manchester City, who beat local rivals Newcastle in their semi final.

Player of the Month - Yassine Benzia

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Yassine finally started to show some form this month and bagged himself 3 goals in a couple of start and a couple of sub appearances, including a late winner in the Premier League against Leicester.

Player Stats:

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League Table:

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Things are looking up a bit in the league, if we win our two games in hand we'll jump up to 6th place...

Transfers:

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3 bosman transfers were agreed, and all 3 should be a key part of the 1st team squad next year. I imagine Umtiti will challenge to be first choice centre back, although his lack of jumping ability worries me slightly. For some reason it won't allow me to take a screenshot of the Turkish center midfielder, but he'll more than likely be backup to Will Hughes in the advanced playmaker role. Ignacio Camacho has actually joined us straight away for ?2,200,000 as he won't be cup tied for Europe and I feel he can make a key impact upon our squad straight away. Which he did... by scoring a winner in the 1st leg of the semi final against Swansea from 20 yards!


Next update will be a February review, with games in the FA Cup, Europa League and Premier League...

​
 

Sunderland AFC
February 2017

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Fixtures:

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Aaah, a month that promised so much ended in ultimate disappointment. Out of the FA Cup in the 5th round against Everton and only 4 points from 3 league games, including a 4-1 hammering at home from Southampton where we were resting our whole team for the Cup Final against City...

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Speaking of which, similar to real life, we put up a great fight against City in the final but couldn't quite muster up a victory. We took the game to extra time but City scored from a corner to seal victory. Gutted... and our wait for a first trophy goes on!

Player Stats:

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League Table:

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Our cup runs are meaning we're falling massively behind in our fixtures, meaning we're going to have a massive fixture pile up. Especially if we continue much further in the Europa League...


So no domestic cup success this year but I suppose there is still a slight chance we can win the Europa League. If not, we'll be targeting a top 6 finish to qualify for the Europa League next season.​
 

Sunderland AFC
March 2017

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Fixtures:

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Our hectic fixture schedule has really affected our league form and we suffered 2 embarrassing defeats away in Wales to Swansea and Cardiff. On the other hand, we have one foot in the Europa League semi final after beating Sporting in the 2nd Knockout Round and beating Stoke 2-0 at home in the first leg of the 1/4's.

Player of the Month - Will Hughes

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An ever present in centre midfield, he's come on leaps and bounds this year and just needs to add a few more goals and assists to his game to really become a top class player.

Player Stats:

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League Table:

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If we win our 2 games in hand we'll jump up to 7th but with our continuation in the Europa League and a few difficult fixtures towards the end of the season, I think I'll be content with a top 10 finish.

Next update will be a very busy April review, can we make it through to the Europa League Final?..


​
 

Sunderland AFC
April 2017

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Fixtures:

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A win against Chelsea aside, we carried on where we left off in the league and were generally pretty poor. However, we're a completely different beast in Europe and smashed a great Monaco team 5-1 on aggregate to reach the Europa League Final where we will play Spanish side Levante...

Player of the Month - Ignacio Scocco

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Scored in all 3 of our wins they month!

Player Stats:

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Fletcher and Rescaldani both aren't scoring as many as in previous seasons, but we do spread the goals pretty well around the whole squad.

League Table:

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Turning out to be a very poor season in the league, however we have made it all the way from the 1st qualifying round of the Europa League to the Final and to the League Cup Final so I think all the extra games has heavily affected our league form...


Next update will be a Europa League Final Update, can we finally get our first trophy in my 4th season in charge?​
 

Europa League
2017 Final

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Pre Game:

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The first ever Europa League final for the lads and the game is being held in Finland.

Preview + Team:

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Good news in that we start arguably our strongest 11 with Scocco's European form this year just giving him the edge over Mavrias. The bookmakers make us 2-5 on favourites but Levante must be a difficult side to beat in order to reach the final...

The Match:

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Finally! Despite a pretty poor season in the league we have managed to go all the way from the 1st qualifying round of the Europa League (We only qualified due to fair play haha) to winning the trophy! We dominated the game from start to finish and goals from Vitinho and Benzia have given us our first ever European trophy and the first trophy of my managerial reign!

Post Game:

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So with us not doing much in the league I'll not bother with a May review and just skip to the end of season review in the next update...
​
 
Congrats on the Europa League win! Don't worry about the league it can be tough to juggle all these competitions, and the Prem is unforgiving at best
 
Arazar said:
Congrats on the Europa League win! Don't worry about the league it can be tough to juggle all these competitions, and the Prem is unforgiving at best
Click to expand...

Yeah, cheers mate. Been given pretty poor transfer budgets so far which left the squad depth a bit poor but I've been given a ?20,000,000 budget for next season so I'll hopefully be able to get a good few deals done!
 
Safc-mad-scotty said:
Yeah, cheers mate. Been given pretty poor transfer budgets so far which left the squad depth a bit poor but I've been given a ?20,000,000 budget for next season so I'll hopefully be able to get a good few deals done!
Click to expand...

Nice, hopefully you get the squad players you need to help challenge on all fronts!
 

Sunderland AFC
2016-2017 - Season Review

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Premier League - 11th

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FA Cup - 5th Round

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Capital One Cup - Runners Up

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Europa League - Winners

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23 games in total played in the competition and we only lost once! In truth we didn't have many difficult opponents but winning the competition means we'll go straight into the Group Stages next year to try and defend our trophy.

Fans Player of the Season - Santiago Vergini

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The big Argentinian defender wins the award for the 2nd time in 4 seasons, proving what a key player he has been for the club!

Best 11:

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This is slightly distorted from what our real best 11 is imo, as some players played a lot against the weak teams in the Europa League and not as much in the league games.

Overall Best 11:

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Other News:

1) Charis Mavrias did his cruciate ligaments in the 2nd to last game of the season and will miss 7-9 months from the date of the injury. Really hoping this doesn't set his development back too much after his breakthrough season this year.

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2) The Europa League win has helped raise our reputation in Europe, making it jump to continental.

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3) We are up to 18th place on the club estimated values list.

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4) We'll play against Bayern Munich in the Super Cup at the start of next season, who won the Champions League with a penalties victory over Inter Milan.

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5) We get a Serie B Brazilian side as a feeder club to increase our chance of bringing in Brazilian youth players in our youth intakes.

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6) We improve both our youth recruitment and junior coaching levels, leaving them looking like this...

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Next update will be a 2017/2018 preview, where we will be very busy in the transfer market...

​
 

Sunderland AFC
Season Preview - 2017/2018

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Transfers:

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Around a ?15,000,000 net spend this summer sees big changes to the first team squad. The 3 biggest departures which saw the majority of our income were Guiata, Fletcher and Ki bringing in a combined ?20,000,000, which is decent given Fletch and Guita are getting on a bit at 30 years old and Ki having little chance of making the squad for the Premier League or Europa League after our transfers in.

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On the incoming we brought 3 players in on free transfers which I covered in the January update. After that we made Lucas Digne's loan permanent for what I think is a bargain at ?7,500,000. Then we made a club record signing, bringing in a player I have had my eye on for a while in Memphis Depay at ?17,000,00. Then we brought in Alfred Duncan from Inter for ?10,000,000 to play in centre midfield with Will Hughes. Finally, we brought in a young Slovakian striker to play in the youth teams with plenty of potential to develop.

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First 11 + Squad:

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Like the look of our strongest 11 now, still not the best quality of depth and missing a real top class striker but I feel we can challenge for a top 6 finish as well as competing in all of the cup competitions.

Fixtures:

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Great start to the season! We were unlucky to concede a late equalizer against Arsenal but we were the better team in each of these games and that makes it a very promising start to the season.

European Super Cup

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This was a real game of two halves. In the first half we controlled the game and took a well deserved 1-0 lead into the break. However, Bayern took control of the game in the 2nd half and blew us away with 3 quick goals.


Europa League Group:

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Should be a pretty easy group to progress from in my opinion...


Next update will be a September review...



​
 

Sunderland AFC
September 2017
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Fixtures:

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Only 4 games this month and although we saw an early exit from the Capital One Cup against Southampton, we won both Premier League games at home to Manchester City and away to Everton. We also won our only Europa League group game with a rotated team...

Player of the Month - Memphis Depay

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Our record signing has really hit the ground running and was man of the match in both league games, and scored in both league game as well. Hopefully, there's many more to come from the lad!

Player Stats:

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Benzia has started the season a lot better than Rescaldani and is really pushing him for his place as first team striker. Vitinho has been a little disappointing after his switch to the right wing but we need to give him time to adjust to playing on the other side.

League Table:

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Top of the league! Don't expect to stay there but this start to the season has given me hope that we can push for a top 4 finish this year and try to gain entry to the Champions League for the first time.


Next update will be an October review, can we continue our early season form?

​
 
Sunderland AFC
October 2018



Fixtures:

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Another very strong month from the boys as we stay unbeaten through October. Only poor result was drawing at home to Stoke where they got a 93rd minuted equalizer. No doubt the highlight of the month was the crushing 5-0 victory away to our neighbours Newcastle!

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Player of the Month - Vitinho



Got to be given to the tricky Brazilian after scoring a hattrick in the Tyne Wear derby!

Player Stats:

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I turned down a massive ?32,500,000 bid for Will Hughes from Man United over the summer, and so far he is proving I've made the right decision, controlling the game from midfield and is starting to add goals and assists to his game!

League Table:

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Just realized we are still unbeaten in the Premier League so far this season, which is pretty good considering how poor we were in the league last year.

Europa League Group:

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Routine stuff in the Europa League so far and it almost feels as though we are a Champions League quality team playing in the Europa League...
​

Next up will be a November review...
​
 
Really enjoyed reading this. Well done on last years Europa League win.
Good start to the current season as well, hopefully you can sneak a top 4 finish this year.
 

Sunderland AFC
November 2017
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Fixtures:

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Another decent month, with the only poor result being the home defeat to Tottenham in the league. However, the other two Premier League games were comprehensive 3-0 and 4-0 victories and we got 4 points from 6 to top our Europa League Group with a game to go.

Player of the Month - Samuel Umtiti

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Only 1 goal conceded in 3 league games and Umtiti impressed at the heart of the defence.



Player Stats:

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League Table:

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Very tight between the top 5, and we only sit 3 points behind leaders Chelsea. Too early to think of a title push but if we're in the position at the end of February I'll start to think we can challenge.

Europa League Table:

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Dropped points at home to PAOK after being 2-0 up but we've still won the group with ease...


Next update will be a December review, can we keep up with our rivals over the busy festive period?​
 

Sunderland AFC
December 2017
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Fixtures:

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A few too many draws starting to creep in but we did go through the whole month unbeaten, which is definitely something to be positive about.

Player of the Month - Yassine Benzia

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4 goals against West Brom and 3 against Liverpool, when the young French striker turns it on he can be very clinical, now he just needs to develop the consistency to his game.

Player Stats:

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We've been very solid at the back, however we're struggling to share the goals around the team as much as other seasons.

League Table:

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2nd place and 3 points behind the leaders despite me feeling as though we're drawing too many games. Champions League qualification is still my main target at this point with just 4 points separating the top 5!

Other News:

1) We get another new feeder club, this time in the shape of Bulgarian side Lokomotiv Sofia in order to obtain work permits for young players, which it will take 3 years to do. Already brought one Tunisian youngster in who'll join at the end of the season and then head to Bulgaria for 3 years from there.

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2) Arange deals to sign two promising young midfielders, one from Denmark and one from Tunisia. Kohler has the potential to be world class according to my assistant, and he only cost 700k up front and another ?1,500,000 or so in performance based add ons. Going to be looking to bolster my youth teams quite a bit over the next few seasons.

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Next update will be a January review, don't have much to spend but we may look towards a few bosmans to bolster the squad for next year.
​
 

Sunderland AFC
January 2018

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Fixtures:

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A disappointing month as we continue an annoying trend of drawing our FA Cup games and creating unnecessary extra games. However, we're still in the competition so I can't complain too much. In the league we lost 2 crunch ties against Chelsea and Manchester City which has knocked us out of the Champions League places.

Player of the Month - Jose Godoy

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The young Argentine stepped in for a few games this month and got man of the match against Chelsea in the FA Cup tie!

Player Stats:

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Nice to see Charis Mavrias return after a horrible injury this month, and I've been experimenting with Memphis Depay up front to allow him a place in the team on the wing. Not too sure whether to persist with it or not though.

League Table:

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Our faint title hopes have diminished this month as we sit 11 points behind the leaders, but my main target for this season was always to get into the Champions League and we're currently only 2 points off 4th with a game in hand so it's still all to play for on that front.


Next update will be a February review where we face a very hard Europa League Knockout tie against French moneybags Monaco.​
 

Made a mistake last night and forgot to save the game so I lost half of February and the last 2 games in January. Decided to just replay the games and so here'e the updated list of games for January. Unfortunately, we got knocked out of the FA Cup by Chelsea but we did manage to beat Manchester City 2-1 away from home with a late winner from Will Hughes...

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hi mate, very impressed with how youve done. I have started a few sunderland saves, but cant seem to get them to work so i usually give up.

good work and its a shame we cant replicate your success in real life!
 
billy_vickers said:
hi mate, very impressed with how youve done. I have started a few sunderland saves, but cant seem to get them to work so i usually give up.

good work and its a shame we cant replicate your success in real life!
Click to expand...

Cheers pal, not finding much motivation to play this save after Monday!
 
ah mate tell me about it, looking pretty dangerous now. keeping my fingers crossed though
 
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