The Rank Outsider

Just caught up with your story. Doing a great job so far, Champions League is a great result for Everton. I am intrigued to see what kind of budget the board give you and the calibre of player you can bring in.
 

Norwich - Away

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We destroyed Norwich for the third time this season. Mbokani did give them the lead on 5 minutes but it was nothing but a wake up call as we then smashed five goals past them. The man of the moment, Leighton Baines even bagged a hat trick! Two goals from the penalty spot and a fantastic free kick was enough for him to go home with the match ball. Why can't we play Norwich every week!

Tottenham - FA Cup Semi Final

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Heartbreak. There's no denying Tottenham were the much better side today but for it to get all the way to penalties and then go out was a kick in the teeth. Tottenham will now face Derby County in the final.
What could have been!

Swansea - Home

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The lads were all deflated today after the defeat to Tottenham and we never really took control of the game. Elabdellaoui gave Swansea the lead with 29 minutes on the clock with a tidy finish. It took another penalty conversion from Leighton Baines to rescue a point. This result all but ends any possibility we had of winning the league, but in truth its been City's title for months.

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Leighton Baines deservedly won Player of the Month after his fantastic run of form.

April Results

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A real up and down month in terms of results. A poor start to the month saw us pick up just 1 point from our two home games before winning three on the bounce. The FA Cup defeat really knocked the stuffing out of us as we then only took one point from the home tie against Swansea. I've told the lads we can't let this be the end of our season and I want them to finish on a high.

League Table

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This is how the table stands heading into the final month of the season. With just two games remaining we could still mathematically catch City but its very unlikely. Stoke and Watford have both been relegated with Aston Villa looking destined to join them.

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May Fixtures

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Just the two games this month to round off the season. An away trip to Bournemouth and Crystal Palace at Goodison.

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Seamus Coleman who has had a fantastic season will miss the final two games after he picked up an injury in training. Youngster Mason Holgate will fill in during his absence.

Bournemouth - Away

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A much improved performance today against a Bournemouth side who will be delighted to have avoided relegation. Romelu Lukaku was in fine form once again and bagged another two goals, Ross Barkley also scored a fine goal and picked up the MOTM award. Lukaku is now the joint top goalscorer with just one game to go.

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Congratulations to Manchester City who bring the title back to the Etihad.

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Crystal Palace - Home

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A nice way to round off what has been a very successful season. Aaron Lennon was in superb form and finished the game with a goal and two assists. Lukaku bagged yet another goal and may have just secured himself the top goalscorer award which he thoroughly deserves.

May Results

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Only the two games this month and we won both 3-1.

League Table

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We finish the season with 85 points just two points behind eventual winners Manchester City. Romelu Lukaku won the Top Goalscorer award with the goal against Crystal Palace! Made up for him. Aaron Lennon managed to assist 13 goals this season despite being used in rotation which is a very pleasing return.

A fantastic season, more than I ever could have hoped for. Next up we will review the season in more detail.

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As mentioned in the previous update Romelu Lukaku secured the golden boot which will no doubt increase interest in him.

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On a personal note I won the manager of the year award, which I guess isn't a big surprise.

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Only one Everton player made it into team of the year, Romelu Lukaku.

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Leighton Baines who was fantastic on his return from injury won the fans player of the season award with 52% of the vote. Romelu Lukaku was awarded goal of the season for his wonderful effort away to Southampton and Ross Barkley was voted young player of the season. I'm not quite sure why but the formation shows him in the Defensive Midfield role, he played the majority of the season in the position where James McCarthy is as an Advanced Playmaker.

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The squad in order of appearances. I'm in no doubt that due to the core of the team remaining fit for the full season played a huge part in our success.

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A bit disappointing but Tony Hibbert and Steven Pienaar have both decided to call it a day. Both have been fantastic servants for Everton and I would love to see them back one day as technical staff.

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After enjoying a good break after the teams exploits last season I arrived back to a message from the board regarding finances for the coming season.

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Eight million. Considering what we achieved last season I feel that is a ridiculous budget! How am I meant to improve the squad with that?

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Unsurprisingly there were a number of bids and a lot of interest in Lukaku but no way am I letting him leave.

The squad is desperate for another striker and after the departure of Arouna Kone I had no choice but to strengthen.

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Welcome Arkadiusz Milik. 7.25m seems a lot but the majority is to be paid in installments and although he didn't have the best of seasons for Ajax I believe he will bring something to our team.

The next signing is one I am really delighted with.

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Jack Wilshere joins us on loan from Arsenal with an option to buy for 10 million should he be a success. Wilshere has undeniable quality but is known for his injuries, hopefully I can keep him fit and use his experience in the champions league to our advantage.

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Although we received a really poor transfer budget when I went in to see Bill Kenwright about improving the training facilities he was more than happy to oblige. Strange.

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Pre-Season

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Not as many games as I may have liked due to complications with our pre-season trip to Australia but most importantly we gained match fitness before the start of the new season.

August Fixtures

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And we will start the new campaign away to newly promoted Burnley, A home tie against Swansea follows before we end the month away to Manchester United.

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The wait is finally over as we prepare for our opening game at Turf Moor against newly promoted Burnley.

Burnley - Away

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We start the season with a win, most importantly. It wasn't supposed to be easy going away to a promoted team on the opening day but we made it look easy with our attacking play. Mirallas, Lukaku and Jagielka all found the net on what was a relatively straight forward away day.

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The only downside to the game being that Seamus Coleman left the pitch with a Dislocated Shoulder and is set to miss two months of the season. We are short of cover at right back so youngster Mason Holgate will fill in.

Swansea - Home

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That's two out of two, two played two won. I can't ask for much more. We put in a really good performance today with Ross Barkley running the show from midfield. Deulofeu put us ahead with a nice finish before the man of the match, Ross Barkley, scored a pearler.

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We will play Sunderland in the third round of the Capital One Cup.

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This was a really tough decision to make. I have a soft spot for Galloway in real life due to his performances this season but on my save he just isn't getting the game time he needs to progress and I feel a move to West Ham could really help him reach his potential. 6 million was too good an offer to turn down with the potential of 7.25 million after add-ons. I wish him all the best.

Champions League Draw

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Unsurprisingly we found ourselves as a fourth seed team for the draw.

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And we receive the best possible draw I could have hoped for! We stand a real chance of progressing through this group having drawn Olympiakos, Dynamo Kiev and Zenit. I believe we can beat all them teams at home and could even take points away.

I couldn't be happier. :D

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Manchester United - Away

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United really played us off the park today but with 86 minutes gone I was convinced we were about to escape with a point but Daley Blind had other ideas. Blind picked the ball up about 30 yards out and hit an absolute screamer which smashed the bar before crossing the line, devastated.

August Results

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Pretty much what I was expecting in our first three games. Just disappointing we couldn't hold out for a point against United!

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I know the table doesn't really matter at this stage of the season but we couldn't sit in 8th. Newcastle and Bournemouth are the early surprise packages winning their first three games.

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A few quality players come in but not as many as I would have liked due to our limited budget. Chaz Hutton who I haven't yet mentioned is a young striker who our head of youth development picked up and he looks like he could be a superstar.

A lot of players left when their contracts expired, a few of the young lads went out on loan and Galloway and Besic joined West Ham and Watford respectively.

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No messing about from the big boys in the window. Man city were the highest spenders with a total of 125 million spent on new recruits. Pjanic, who is a superb player joined Man Utd in the biggest deal of the window while Hazard moved across London to rivals Arsenal.

Diego Costa also joined Arsenal in a pre-arranged transfer last season for something about the 48 million mark.

Arsenal really mean business!

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September Fixtures

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We face 6 games in 18 days this month after the International break and will be making our debut in the Champions League group stages which is very exciting.

Derby - Home

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Derby gave us an early scare today when Jason Shackell headed home from a corner on 23 minutes but from then on the different in class was evident. Lukaku equalised on 28 minutes to put us on even terms heading into the second half, it took him only 3 minutes after the restart to give us the lead. Jagielka and Barkley rounded off the scoring to give us a dominant victory.

Milik and Stones both left the field with injuries and will face a period on the sidelines.

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This is the last thing we needed. Milik is set to miss three months of the season with a broken ankle while Stones faces 6 weeks out with fractured ribs.

This could be a serious blow to our chances.

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A huge game for us today as we make our Champions League debut away to Russian side Zenit, which could prove to be a really tricky fixture.

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What a result! An away win against a Russian team doesn't happen very often. We really took this game by the balls and quickly made Zenit aware we aren't just here to make up the numbers as Barkley picked the ball up on the edge of the box and rifled a shot in to the bottom corner, superb stuff.

We almost threw it all away on 74 minutes as Jagielka was caught ball watching, allowing Kerzhakov to tap in at the far post.

But that wasn't to be the final goal as Tom Cleverley, who picked up man of the match for his performance, hit a beautiful pass into Lukaku's path who ran clear on goal only to be brought down by Garay, who somehow only received a yellow card. Up stepped Leighton Baines, our Mr Reliable to secure all three points!

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Newcastle - Home

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What a crazy game. We destroyed Newcastle in the first half and went in three goals to the good after goals from McCarthy, Barkley and Mirallas. Once the second half started Newcasle looked a different team and pulled a goal back on 48 minutes, we restored our three goal lead on 59 minutes as Lascelles put the ball into his own net but still that didn't finish them off as Perez and Anita both found the net to make it 4-3.

It could have really went either way today but luckily we take the three points.

A special mention goes to Ross Barkley who has been immense up to now this season and looks to be fulfilling his potential.

Sunderland - Away

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We came up against another team from the North-East today as we played Sunderland in the Capital One Cup.

We put in a really poor performance today and the lack of squad depth is really starting to show as we went out the competition in just the third round.

Tottenham - Away

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A good point away to a strong Tottenham team. Pochettino likes his teams to retain the ball so its no surprise they achieved 63% ball possession but the amount of shots doesn't really reflect the way the game panned out as the majority were long shots which never troubled us.

Despite that it was left winger Martinez who got away from youngster Holgate to head in the opener but the main man, Lukaku, quickly drew us level.

Eric Dier received a straight red for a horror challenge on 67 minutes and I hoped we would go on to win the game but sadly we didn't.

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Goodison was rocking with anticipation in the build up to our first home game of the competition.

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The excitement lasted just 11 minutes as Garmash handed Kiev the lead with a well timed header. We went in at the break a goal down and after some harsh words at half time we managed to quickly draw level through Kevin Mirallas who then ten minutes later played a wonderful ball into the box for Lukaku to head home!

That's two wins from two now and puts us in a really good position in the group.

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Really struggled for motivation with this save lately despite a fantastic first season. The lack of transfer budget and a lack of time to play the game due to work etc hasn't helped :( Hopefully I will continue with this save but if not thank you to everyone who took the time to follow my story. I'm sure I will see you soon.
 
NC1878 said:
Really struggled for motivation with this save lately despite a fantastic first season. The lack of transfer budget and a lack of time to play the game due to work etc hasn't helped :( Hopefully I will continue with this save but if not thank you to everyone who took the time to follow my story. I'm sure I will see you soon.
Click to expand...

Personally I see this forum as a wonderful way to get away from the anxious days in the office. The support I get here from the people watching my story is really helpful. I advice you to keep playing when you have the time and posting updates. Not everyone is capable of posting every day so do it when you can and we are here to support you with our likes !!
 
kolas79 said:
Personally I see this forum as a wonderful way to get away from the anxious days in the office. The support I get here from the people watching my story is really helpful. I advice you to keep playing when you have the time and posting updates. Not everyone is capable of posting every day so do it when you can and we are here to support you with our likes !!
Click to expand...

Thank you for your support, it means a lot! :)
 
NC1878 said:
Really struggled for motivation with this save lately despite a fantastic first season. The lack of transfer budget and a lack of time to play the game due to work etc hasn't helped :( Hopefully I will continue with this save but if not thank you to everyone who took the time to follow my story. I'm sure I will see you soon.
Click to expand...

Ah what, you can't stop now I've only just found the thread and read through haha.

Can't believe Hazard went to Arsenal!

Keep it going mate :)
 
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