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

Hows Bridcutt been for you, Hes one of the most underrated players in my team at the moment on my Dundee United save
 
Hows Bridcutt been for you, Hes one of the most underrated players in my team at the moment on my Dundee United save

Yeah, I've seen. How do you use him? For me he has been pretty average, but does the job he is asked to do. I play him just in front of the back four as a deep lying playmaker and it's basically his job to just keep us ticking over and he has the highest pass completion rate of any of the players so I suppose he is doing that quite well from that perspective.
 
Yeah, I've seen. How do you use him? For me he has been pretty average, but does the job he is asked to do. I play him just in front of the back four as a deep lying playmaker and it's basically his job to just keep us ticking over and he has the highest pass completion rate of any of the players so I suppose he is doing that quite well from that perspective.
I have him playing in a similar role but as a defensive midfielder he also has a high pass completion rate and makes a lot of passes doesnt score that often though
 

Sunderland AFC
April and May 2014

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Fixtures:

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A very disappointing end to my first season in charge, barring the 3-1 victory over Manchester United. This was emphasised by the 1-0 defeat in the FA Cup semi finals against bitter rivals Newcastle, who went on to lose the final against Everton. Defeat on the last day of the season away to West Brom was hard to take, and meant West Brom leapt above us and meant we could only finish 12th in the league.

Player Stats:

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Argentinians Scocco and Vergini were the standout players for me, and Vergini is being touted for call ups to both the Argentinian and Italian national sides.

Final League Table:


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Disappointing 12th place finished but the boards target was to avoid relegation and the media prediction was 14th so we have overachived from that point of view. However, half way through the season we were really looking for a top 10 finish so it is has turned out to be a poor second half of the season for the club.


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

 
1. Has Scocco moved to Sunderland in real life? Cos he 's not on your transfers pic.
2. Scocco and Vergini are among FMs unsung heroes for some years now. Esp SCOCCO ive been singing the praises of since time immemorial!
3. Rescaldani is god. Had him for PALMEIRAS and within 2 seasons I was gettin 20/5+ mil offers for him.
 
Finally a Sunderland save :-D

Your started off with exactly the same players leaving at the beginning lol. I got ?5m for Larsson and ?5.5m for Ji Dong Won but could only get ?500k for Cuellar!

Shame you didn't play Diakite as he is actually really decent on the game (better than Brown & Roberge). Celustka did a good job for me at RB with Gardner as cover.

Managed to acheive 3rd in my first season (2nd/4th/1st in following 3 seasons). Brought in Diame, Honda and Guaita permanent (Guaita in Jan). But loaned in players which we don't have much depth in, LB Ciro Capuano (despite his age he has great stats) and the wingers i brought in were mainly as cover (Palladino and Ayite).

Keep up the good work and hopefully you improve in the next season. I will certainly be following as a fellow Mackem
 
1. Has Scocco moved to Sunderland in real life? Cos he 's not on your transfers pic.
2. Scocco and Vergini are among FMs unsung heroes for some years now. Esp SCOCCO ive been singing the praises of since time immemorial!
3. Rescaldani is god. Had him for PALMEIRAS and within 2 seasons I was gettin 20/5+ mil offers for him.

No, Scocco hasn't signed mate but I only started the save for a bit of fun originally so I added the 4 players who we had been linked with the most at the time. Vergini is all but a done deal and I think Bridcutt will join, but I'm not sure about Scocco.

I've been surprised with all 3 Argentinians to be honest, Vergini and Scocco were our two best players and Rescaldini made an immediate impact when he joined, although he did fall away a bit afterwards. You discovered any other Argentinian superstars I should look out for? XD

Finally a Sunderland save :-D

Your started off with exactly the same players leaving at the beginning lol. I got ?5m for Larsson and ?5.5m for Ji Dong Won but could only get ?500k for Cuellar!

Shame you didn't play Diakite as he is actually really decent on the game (better than Brown & Roberge). Celustka did a good job for me at RB with Gardner as cover.

Managed to acheive 3rd in my first season (2nd/4th/1st in following 3 seasons). Brought in Diame, Honda and Guaita permanent (Guaita in Jan). But loaned in players which we don't have much depth in, LB Ciro Capuano (despite his age he has great stats) and the wingers i brought in were mainly as cover (Palladino and Ayite).

Keep up the good work and hopefully you improve in the next season. I will certainly be following as a fellow Mackem

Cheers pal! Diakite just found himself behind Vergini and O'Shea and since I was trying to play possession football I decided Roberge would be better as cover. Finishing in the CL first season is a great achievement, especially because our finances are pretty awful in the game.

I personally wish I hadn't sold Ji as in another save I started (Only got about 6 months in) he was my best player, averaging 7.3 or something like that. But, he's easy to move on and you need transfers out to bring people in at the start.

I've let quite a few players go on frees so it will be another typical Sunderland rebuild over the summer! I'll have the pre-season update out today.
 
Sunderland AFC
Season 1 (2013-2014) Review

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Premier League - 12th

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FA Cup - Semi Final

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Capital One Cup - 3rd Round


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Fans Player of the Year - Santiago Vergini

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Best 11:


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Other Leagues/Cups:

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Galatasary were the shock winners of the Champions League, whilst Manchester City won the Europa League. Most of the domestic leagues went pretty much to form though, Real Madrid, PSG, Juventus and Bayern all winning their domestic leagues.

Manager's Comments:

'I'm pretty happy with the way the first season has gone. We were never in any danger of getting relegated and although we couldn't secure the top 10 finish I wanted, the board were more than happy to give me a new five year contract at the end of the season. Looking forward to next year, we are planning on letting a lot of average players leave who are on stupid wages, which should mean we can expand the ?6,000,000 budget handed to us by the board. We have the base of a decent squad but we need to add extra quality in certain areas and the quality of backup players must improve to avoid us falling away in the 2nd half of the season. One good bit of news for me is that Alfred N'Diaye's loan spell has ended and he will be a welcome addition to the first 11, as in my opinion he should never have been loaned out in the first place. I've got a big decision to make on the future of Connor Wickham, he had a poor season on loan at Forest and he really doesn't justify his ?43,000 a week wages, but I'm still hopeful he can turn into a top Premier League striker'



Next update will be a season 2 preview, how can we improve our squad to try and have an improved season net year?
 
Argies:

ST: Vietto/Simeone
AM: Vadala/A. Correa
DM: Romero (Velez)/Gaston Gil Romero
LB: Augustin Silva/Sanchez Mino
CB: Burdisso
 

Sunderland AFC
Pre-Season + August 2014 Update

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Transfers:

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An extremely busy summer for the club saw plenty of players leave the club on free transfers, and a few for small transfer fees. However, it was the incoming transfers which are the important ones to focus on. The bulk of the transfer fees were spent on 4 players. Ki converted his loan deal for just ?2,500,000, Natxo Monreal came in for ?3,500,000 to fill the void left by loanee Marcos Alonso, Vincente Guaita joined from Valencia to become our number 1 and we raided relegated Aston Villa to bring in promising center back Jores Okore for ?5,500,000.

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The biggest name coming into the club was probably the season long loan of Lewis Holtby, who should be the sort of player to excel in the style of play I'm trying to implement. We also brought in Gareth Barry and De Silvestri on free transfers, while Lucas Digne comes in on loan from PSG to cover the left back slot.


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Fixtures:

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So after a decent pre-season where we managed a victory over mega rich Frenchmen PSG, i was pretty disappointed with getting only 1 point from the first two games against Swansea and Southampton. However, since then we have scraped past Pompey in the cup and beat Liverpool 1-0 at home, so it has not been a completely awful start.

Player of the Month - Igancio Scocco

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3 goals this month from the Argentinian who had interest from Arsenal over the summer.

Player Stats:

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League Table:


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Huddersfield flying high after the first 3 games with 7 points and in 3rd place!


Next update will be a September review. If anyone wants any screenshots or extra info just ask! Also, has anyone had any experiences with any of the players I have signed, either good or bad?

 
Cheers pal! Diakite just found himself behind Vergini and O'Shea and since I was trying to play possession football I decided Roberge would be better as cover. Finishing in the CL first season is a great achievement, especially because our finances are pretty awful in the game.

I personally wish I hadn't sold Ji as in another save I started (Only got about 6 months in) he was my best player, averaging 7.3 or something like that. But, he's easy to move on and you need transfers out to bring people in at the start.

I've let quite a few players go on frees so it will be another typical Sunderland rebuild over the summer! I'll have the pre-season update out today.

The finances are horrendous and theres alot that needs tweaking in the first 3 seasons when you have the 44m loan to repay. The funds from euro qualification really helps as 4th season i got 25m to spend and spent down to 6m, then when i was give my targets they gave me another 23m which i spent down to 1m, then part way through November i requested more and got around 18m. (Word of warning, i found that even though my projected balance was to be higher, it took a massive dive around November and went into the red projected)

I made the mistake of not signing Ki on a permanent. Nice signing with Monreal, i ended up staying with Colback for the first 3 seasons. Guaita has been great for me but now on ?65k a year.

My team I have managed to build 2 months into 5th season (season bought in brackets):

(Either 4-1-2-2-1 or 4-2-3-1)

GK: V.Guaita (2.4m 1st) & S.Colombi (Bologna 2.1m, 5th)

LB: B.Davies (8m 4th) & C.Biraghi (Free 4th)
CB: K.Zouma (22m 4th), S.Caulker (10.5m 2nd), A.Masi (Free 4th), M.Kelly (5.5m 2nd)
RB: J.Flanagan (Free 3rd)

DM: Fernando (Free 3rd)
CM: G.Imbula (12.5m 4th), C.Fabregas (Loan 4th & 5th season), W.Hughes (4m 3rd)
CAM: A.Correa (Free 5th)

RW: C.McManaman (6m 3rd), Rodrigo Gomez (1m 3rd - now worth 15m and POY 4th season)
LW: E.Giaccherini, Thiago (375k, 5th - Transfer listed & 5 star potential)

ST: A.Erramuspe (7m, 4th - Regen), C.Porter (Regen Youth, 4 1/2 star potential), F.Taborda (12m, 5th - Lyon Regen, 5 star (was quoted 52m the season before))
 
The finances are horrendous and theres alot that needs tweaking in the first 3 seasons when you have the 44m loan to repay. The funds from euro qualification really helps as 4th season i got 25m to spend and spent down to 6m, then when i was give my targets they gave me another 23m which i spent down to 1m, then part way through November i requested more and got around 18m. (Word of warning, i found that even though my projected balance was to be higher, it took a massive dive around November and went into the red projected)

I made the mistake of not signing Ki on a permanent. Nice signing with Monreal, i ended up staying with Colback for the first 3 seasons. Guaita has been great for me but now on ?65k a year.

My team I have managed to build 2 months into 5th season (season bought in brackets):

(Either 4-1-2-2-1 or 4-2-3-1)

GK: V.Guaita (2.4m 1st) & S.Colombi (Bologna 2.1m, 5th)

LB: B.Davies (8m 4th) & C.Biraghi (Free 4th)
CB: K.Zouma (22m 4th), S.Caulker (10.5m 2nd), A.Masi (Free 4th), M.Kelly (5.5m 2nd)
RB: J.Flanagan (Free 3rd)

DM: Fernando (Free 3rd)
CM: G.Imbula (12.5m 4th), C.Fabregas (Loan 4th & 5th season), W.Hughes (4m 3rd)
CAM: A.Correa (Free 5th)

RW: C.McManaman (6m 3rd), Rodrigo Gomez (1m 3rd - now worth 15m and POY 4th season)
LW: E.Giaccherini, Thiago (375k, 5th - Transfer listed & 5 star potential)

ST: A.Erramuspe (7m, 4th - Regen), C.Porter (Regen Youth, 4 1/2 star potential), F.Taborda (12m, 5th - Lyon Regen, 5 star (was quoted 52m the season before))

Looks a nice squad that you've built there! Did any of the original players leave for big money?
 
Sunderland AFC
September 2014

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Fixtures:

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What an awful month. What's even more disappointing though is it looked like being a great one after we lead 3-1 at the Emirates after 60 minutes, but somehow we managed to lose 4-3. After that, we then proceded to get beat 3-0 away to Leicester 2 days later in the cup and then 4-1 to West Brom in the league after pulling the game back to 2-1...

Player Stats:

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None of the regular starters averaging over 7 says it all! Rescaldani and Fletcher are both on massive goal droughts going back from last season.

League Table:


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Disappointing start to the season in my opinion, out of the cup and just 12th in the league. Still a long way to go though and plenty of time to improve... or get worse XD


Next upadte will be an October review.

 

Sunderland AFC
October 2014

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Fixtures:

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Now that's more like it! I was pretty nervous heading to Old Trafford after those two awful away defeats, but there was no need to be! We dominated the first half and deserved the 2-0 lead given to us by Giaccherini and Vergini, and unlike in the Arsenal game we were able to hold the lead pretty comfortably in the second half, although Danny Welbeck did get a consolation goal late on. We then followed this great result up with 4 points from home games against Watford and Stoke. Not really happy drawing at home to a newly promoted team but if you offered me 7 points from these 3 games I would have taken that any day!

Player Stats:

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Looking better after a successful month for the club. Fletcher and Rescaldani both got their firsts goals of the season and Scocco continues to impress wherever he plays!

League Table:

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This makes nicer reading now, but the league is competitive as ever and the table can change dramatically on a game to game basis.


Next update will be the Novemeber review, can we continue this up turn in form or will we slide back into the bad habits of September?..


 
Looks a nice squad that you've built there! Did any of the original players leave for big money?

Not really. Alot of them i let go for free. Whickham was poor so didn't renew his contract 3rd season. Altidore went second season to CSKA for 6.5m. O'Shea left for 100k even though he made team of the year just had to reduce the wages and he was on 51k like Brown. Alot of the other went cheap (Fletcher 1.9m 5th season even though he was worth 3m but since the update they don't offer near the valuation).

Well done on beat United away. There a team i just can't seem to beat on there no matter what i do.
 
Not really. Alot of them i let go for free. Whickham was poor so didn't renew his contract 3rd season. Altidore went second season to CSKA for 6.5m. O'Shea left for 100k even though he made team of the year just had to reduce the wages and he was on 51k like Brown. Alot of the other went cheap (Fletcher 1.9m 5th season even though he was worth 3m but since the update they don't offer near the valuation).

Well done on beat United away. There a team i just can't seem to beat on there no matter what i do.

Thanks mate, let's hope for a repeat of that result tonight!
 
Sunderland AFC
November 2014

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Fixtures:

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A very strange month was November, as at no point did I think we were ever playing well enough but we still managed to pick up 7 points from 4 games, including 3 away ties. The away victories at Everton and QPR were the two hardest games of the month on paper, whereas the defeat to Norwich at home should have been the easiest! Still, I can't really complaing that we're picking points up whilst not playing that well, however performances must pick up or our results will start to deteriorate...

Player of the Month - Ignacio Scocco

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3 goals in the 3 games he played this month, he is keeping us high up in the table almost single handedly with his goals.

Player Stats:

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League Table:


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Sitting pretty in 6th, but the table won't really take shape until after the busy Christmas and New Year period in my opinion.


Next update will be a December review, which will see us play 6 league games, including the first Tyne and Wear derby of the season!
 

Sunderland AFC
December 2014

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Fixtures:

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Kicking on from last month, December was another great month for the club. We picked up 12 points from 6 games, which included great victories away to Manchester City and Chelsea, as well as a home victory over rivals Newcastle. Still, despite this I can't help but be really annoyed with the heavy 5-2 defeat away at Hull. We conceded 4 goals from set pieces in the game which is not acceptable, and then a 5th on the counter to make the defeat look a lot more convincing than what it was.

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Player of the Month - Ignacio Scocco

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Outstanding yet again this month!

Player Stats:

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Lewis Holtby is ever improving throughout this season after a disappointing start, and Fletcher has also upped his game since last season. Bridcutt has seen off the threat of Barry for the starting DM role.

League Table:


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We're challenging for the Champions League at the minute! However, I'd simply be happy to finish in thee top 6/7 and guarantee a place in the Europa League. Even this will be hard though, we are only 3 points ahead of Stoke in 10th!


Next update will be a January review, we don't really have any money to spend so we will have to sell to bring in.

 

Sunderland AFC
January 2015

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Fixtures:

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A disapponting showing in the FA Cup, heading out in the 3rd round to Watford. However, we did go unbeaten for the month in the Premier League, picking up 8 points from 4 games.

Player of the Month - Emmanuele Giaccherini

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3 goals this month from the little Italian, proving his quality and importance to the team..

Player Stats:

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League Table:


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The league is still incredibly tight, but we're keeping up in the fight for a European spot.


Sorry for the lack of updates, been busy over the past few days...

 

Sunderland AFC
February 2015

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Fixtures:

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A great month for the club, staying unbeaten in the 5 league games in the month. 3 fantastic victories have been accompanied by a decent draw at home to Manchester United and a poor draw at home to Cardiff. Obviously the standout result was the win at Anfield, with goals from Johnson and Fletcher giving us a 2-1 victory.

Player of the Month - Steven Fletcher

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Steven has really stepped up his game in the absence of the injured Scocco and scored 4 goals in the 3 starts he got towards the back end of the month.

Player Stats:

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As you can see, there are no real star players within the squad (except maybe Scocco) and it's certainly a team effort which has us so high up the league.

League Table:

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Despite sitting in 3rd place, I still think it's unlikely we'll qualify for the Champions League as the league is very tight and it is only our second season in charge. I'm still hopeful we'll qualify for Europe in some form but with the way the domestic cups are going we may need a top 5 finish!



Haven't been enjoying the game all that much hence the big break from the story, but I'm hopefully looking to get back on track with the save and to push towards all of the long term targets I set!
 
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