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


Sunderland AFC
January 2023

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Transfers:

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The big news here was the £40,000,000 sale of defensive midfielder Viera to PSG. Due to our change of formation, he was playing a lot less this year so I decided to get rid of him and replace him with a younger centre midfielder with potential. We did this with the £7,500,000 signing of French midfielder Maestracci from Swiss side Grasshoppers, and Russian attacking midfielder Gasanov finally joined after his transfer was agreed a couple of years ago, before being loaned out to OGC Nice.

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Fixtures:

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If it wasn't for Manchester United this would have been a decent month! Unfortunately, they knocked us out of the FA Cup in the 3rd round and beat us 4-3 in the Premier League, with both games being played at Old Trafford. They have now taken 4 points off us in the league, knocked us out of both cups and beat us in the Community Shield. Fair to say they are our bogey side! We did smash Newcastle 7-1 at home though in front of a sold out Stadium of Light for the first time since it's expansion to 83,332 seats.

Player Stats:

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League Table:

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We're back on top of the league despite the loss to United, but if we win our game in hand on them we will be 6 points clear of them.


Next up will be a February review, with the first leg against Bayern Munich at the Allianz-Arena in the Champions League...

 
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Sunderland AFC
February 2023

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Fixtures:

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We started the month with a big 4-1 victory over 4th place Spurs, but followed it up with a 3-3 draw away to West Brom. The main disappointment was chucking away a 2 goal lead at the Allianz Arena, however a 2-2 draw away from home still puts us in the driving seat. 3 nice easy home Premier League wins finished the month for us.

Player Stats:

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Attacking midfielder Guerrero got injured against Bayern and will miss most of, if not all of March. Fabio Villa is still averaging over a goal a start up front whilst Miguel is not far behind with 19 goals in 19 starts, proving great competition for the lone striker role.

League Table:

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We've scored 107 goals in just 28 games so far this season. Putting that into context, the most goals we've ever managed in a whole Premier League season was 111 last season, which was a record for the whole league...


Next update will be a March review, can we make it past Bayern and into the quarter finals and also continue our march towards a 5th straight Premier League title?

 

Sunderland AFC
March and April 2023
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Fixtures:

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An 100% record over the 2 month period, scoring a crazy amount of goals in the process. The highlight of the Premier League games was beating Liverpool 8-0 at the Stadium of Light, whilst we progressed past Bayern in the CL and then beat Standard de Liege comfortably in the quarter final to set up a semi final against the only side to have our number this season, Manchester United. We did manage to beat them 4-2 away in the first leg, our first win in a 6th game against them this season!

Player Stats:

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Fabio Villa continues to bang the goals in, but Jaroslav Giertl is doing his best to catch him and become top scorer, despite being deployed on the right wing. 21 year old attacking midfielder Juan Guerrero is having an amazing first season at the club, with 15 goals and 24 assists in just 34 starts.

League Table:

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We've won the league with 3 games to go with the win over Arsenal, which is our 5th league title in a row! If we win our last 3 games we can beat our points record of 100 by 1 point.


Next update will be a quick May review, hopefully covering the Champions League Final if we make it there...

 

Sunderland AFC
May 2023

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Fixtures:

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We finally get over our Manchester United curse and make it past them into the Champions League Final, where we will play Arsenal in a repeat of the European Super Cup final of earlier this season. Unfortunately, they beat us in the league to stop us breaking our points record of 100 points.

Champions League Final:

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3rd Champions League trophy in a row for the Black Cats as we beat Arsenal 4-1 in Portugal, with 2 goals from PFA player of the year Guerrero helping us secure victory.

Player Stats:

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Fabio Villa finishes top scorer with 34 goals in all competitions, followed by Jaroslav Giertl with 28. Guerrero was the top assist maker with 25 assists and he was followed by Will Hughes who got 19.

Other News:

1)
Board are upgrading the youth and training facilities.

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2)
Juan Guerrero was named PFA Player of the Year whilst Antonio Tena wins the football writers player of the year.

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Next update will be an end of season review...

 

Sunderland AFC
2022/2023 - Season Review
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Premier League - Winners

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FA Cup - 3rd Round

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Capital One Cup - Quarter Final

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Community Shield - Runners Up

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Champions League - Winners

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European Super Cup - Winners

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Club World Championship - Winners

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Fans Player of the Year - Jaroslav Giertl

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Best 11:

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Overall Best 11:

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Next update will be a Copa America update with Brazil, can I manage to win my first international trophy?

 

Brazil
Copa America - 2023

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Group Stage:

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We were drew into a very easy group and that showed with 3 comfortable wins, 5-0, 7-0 and 5-0.

Quarter Final - Brazil 4 - 2 Colombia

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Colombia gave us a big scare in the quarter finals, turning around our early lead to take a 2-1 lead of their own into half time. Luckily, after giving the boys a stern telling off at half time, we manage to turn it around and despite missing a penalty and having 2 goals ruled out for offside, we still managed to win the game 4-2!

Semi Final - Brazil - 4 - 0 Paraguay

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Paraguay looked a pretty poor team to me, and so it proved to be a good decision to play my back up players and rest them up for the final, where we will meet the great rival Argentina.

Final - Brazil 4 - 1 Argentina

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Yes, my first international trophy has been won! We were a lot quicker out of the blocks than Argentina, possibly due to the extra fitness saved from resting players in the semis, and that showed as we raced into a 4-1 lead at half time, blowing the Argentinians away. After winning the trophy, I decided to resign as Brazil manager as I did not want to stay on for another 2 years before we would play in our next international trophy, which would be the confederations cup. I might take another international job if the right opportunity comes up in the future...


Next up will be a pre-season update with Sunderland...


 

Sunderland AFC
Season Preview - 2023/2024

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Transfers:

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A net outlay of just £2,500,000 as we sell 29 year old Vitinho for £30,000,000, 3rd choice left back Alon Hohn for £10,000,000 and un-needed midfielder Ramiro Florez for £7,500,000. Obviously the big news here was selling club legend Vitinho, however at the age of 29 and now comfortably second choice right winger, I felt we could not turn down such money. We got him on a free in 2016 and was pivotal in the transformation of the club!

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The only incoming was young English winger Lee Swan from Liverpool, for a massive £50,000,00, with £25,000,000 up front and the rest over 48 months. I understand that I have probably overspent on the player and that there was probably far better value for money to be had out there, however the quality of English regens outside of our club are so bad on this save I couldn't possibly reject the chance to sign an English player with the potential to become world class. He is only 2 stars for current ability, and so has plenty of room to improve on his current stats!

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Fixtures:

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We started the season poorly with a 2-2 draw away at the Hawthornes, however bounce back with 2-0 and 7-0 victories over Hull and Crystal Palace respectively.

Community Shield:

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A comfortable 5-1 victory over Arsenal gives us our first trophy of the season, and 5 different scorers shows we have goals throughout the team...

European Super Cup:

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For the second year running we win the European Super Cup with a 1-0 victory given to us by a Miguel goal. 2 trophies in the bag already as we go hunting for the perfect 7 out of 7 trophies for a 2nd time in this save.

Squad:

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We're at a great stage whereby we only need to make slight squad adjustments every season, slowly taking out some of the older players and bringing through the youth gradually. 2 of the youth academy graduates have been promoted into the first team squad for the season, as we try to get them ready to break into the England team and prove that our youth academy is working. Here are the two players...

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These 2 + new signing Lee Swan should prove a deadly front 3 for England in the future if they all reach their potential!


Next update will be a September review...


 
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