The Sir Alex Ferguson Challenge

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kierongi

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This is my first attempt at the Alex Ferguson Challenge...



What is the Sir Alex Ferguson Challenge?​

The Ferguson Challenge is the attempt to emulate Alex's Success with Manchester United. Taking over a Premier League club on the 6th November who is in 19th position as Fergie did with Man United. You are then challenged to create your own legacy. By trying to first save the club from relegation and turn them into a world class team.

There are restrictions also to make use of such as focusing on youth development such as Alex did and also purchase no more than 8 players per season with a cap of 62 million transfer spend per year.

Requirements?

​
  • Simulate the game till the 6th of November.
  • take over the Premier League club in 19th position.
  • Stay at this clubs for your entire career.
  • No more than 8 player purchases per season.
  • Spend no more than 62 million per season.

Goals?
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  • Win a domestic cup competition within 4 Seasons (FA or Capital One Cup)
  • Within 7 seasons win the Barclays Premier League
  • Win the double within 8 Seasons (Domestic Cup & Barclays Premier League)
  • Do the treble within 13 Seasons (Domestic Cup, Barclays Premier League & Champions League)
More Goals Within 27 Seasons?

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  • Win the Barclays Premier League more than 13 Times
  • Win the FA Cup more than 5 times.
  • Win the Capital Cup more than 4 time.
  • Win the Community Shield more than 10 times.
  • Win the Champions League more than 2 time.
  • Win the Europa League more than once.
  • Win the Super Cup more than once.
  • Win the Club World Cup more than 2 times.
 
So here it is November 6th 2017...
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This is the Barclays Premier league table (after i have taken over).
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Newcastle United!!

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This is not only what I was hoping for as they are the team that I support, so im kinda glad that its them but also wanted a change at the same time.

Results before taking over

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Honors

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First Team​

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Under 23s​

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Under 18s

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Tactics that I will be using (experimental)

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I will primarily be focusing on the 4-2-3-1 Formation, I really hope I can first of all keep Newcastle up its very tight at the bottom half of the table so with a few wins I could be clear of relegation quickly.

November Aims
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  • I am aiming to get 3 points from Swansea (This is a must!)
  • at least a point against Southampton or Wolves
  • 4 Points


​
 
November

Watford

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The game began win us going down 1 nil in the opening minuet of the game, but from we improved and equalised on the 7th minuet and took the lead just before half time which really was what spurred the players on to victory.


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Southampton

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I'm not sure how we pulled this one off but i think things are starting to turn around for Newcastle. Slamini scored an amazing hatrick vs Southampton and there whole team performed really well. Kenedy, Ben Gibson, Yedlin and Slamini really put in a shift.


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Swansea

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This was the only game that I was expecting the team to win, not only was it comfortable, but we kept a clean sheet too. Unfortunately i could not play Gibson again as he was selected in the under 23s side, however Clark played a lot better from the Watford game. Slamini on the other hand underwhelmed. In was Ritchie that saved the day with a hatrick 2 from penalties.

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November Summary
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it was a perfect start to my Newcastle career. 100% win record, i was only expecting 4 points. Those 3 wins puts us in 14th.

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December

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I really want to be conservative despite my fantastic start to life with Newcastle I have some very difficult games in Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal & Chelsea so they will all be chalked of as losses, that leaves Bournemouth which i may be able to get a draw. West Ham which is another game that I expect to win. Stoke is a difficult one to predict but if we can get another draw then I will be happy with that.

December Goals

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  • Keep the results respectable against Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal & Chelsea (maximum of 3 goals conceded)
  • Draw with Bournemouth and Stoke
  • Win against West Ham
December Schedule


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Killer month coming up with City, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea!! Good luck!
 
December

Manchester City

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I have no idea how we pulled it off, i was afk for the first half and came back at half time to this.. so i guess the players dont need me after all.

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When I seen that Lejeune scored I did have a smug smile on my face as the press slated me for dropping Lascelles due to a minor injury the day before the game.

At half time I did replace De Paul only down to his first half rating as I did not watch the match.

Full Time score 4-0 I have no idea how we managed to do it but I will take it.

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Bournemouth

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After the man city game i was very confident of a win so much so I told the players that I expected it and also in the press conference, guess I ate my words. I am still satisfied with the point not only does it continue my unbeaten run but I am on target with my pre December goals.

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Liverpool​

I was very wary of Liverpool on the attack so I decided that I would get the players to close down much more & also play very attacking football. As either way I am currently ahead of my predictions. The end of the first half the plan was working so I switched the focus back to the norm and control mentality.

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Arsenal​

With current results going my way in December I decided to give Gibson & Hayden a go in the team and again it seemed to work getting a 2-1 lead at half time. Only to concede in the 63rd minuet to finish with a 2-2 draw. Still I'm very impressed with my start and still unbeaten.

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Newcastle have new owners (if only it was that easy IRL)
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After only a few months of negotiations, Mike Ashely is out! The new owners however do have a preferred manager they want to hire, hopefully my performance since my arrival will help me keep the job.

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Chelsea

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As with previous games I decided to mix it up a little, changing Dubravka for Darlow, Mbemba for Lascelles, Shelvey for Merino, Richie for Murphy and Kenedy for Atsu. Considering these changes I was very surprised that we managed to stay in the game. The red card for Chelsea was the turning point in the game as Chelsea were really testing the defence and a winning goal seemed inevitable.

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West Ham​

I was really expecting the game that I expected us to win, we would lose I decided to go for of an established back 4 with the exclusion of the injured Dummett. I was impressed with Hayden & Merino so they kept there place. Atsu was replaced with Richie as he had a very poor game vs Chelsea as with Diame who is replaced by Perez. Murphy had an ok game but I decided to drop him for De Paul and Slamini for Gayle.

We managed to get the emphatic win over bottom of the table West Ham which I was very happy with. Surly relegation is a distant memory now.

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Stoke
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Last game of the year can I stay unbeaten for the turn of the year. I'm getting very greedy now but the team are on a real high, the constant rotation I hope is giving the players a big wakeup call, if they play poor then they are dropped (sometimes if they play ok they still get dropped). Keeping them on there toes with my team selection. This is another game I expected a win and told both the press and my players thats what I expect.

It was real dull game in all honesty, Stoke played very poor and didn't seem interested, I gave Atsu one last chance to impress before the transfer market opened. And he failed so he will be leaving in January hopefully.

View attachment 53171

So I managed to stay unbeaten for the for the year (from November).



(bit of a spoiler as I forgot to take screenshot before Tottenham game)
  • But Fixtures are Tottenham (Draw Confirmed)
  • Oxford in the FA Cup(Give some of the fringe, U23 and rotated players a chance)
  • Huddersfield (with current form I do expect a win)
  • Burnley - they can be a very dangerous team to play so a draw will be nice
  • Manchester United - this has to go down as a loss regardless of form (if I can keep my unbeaten run till then that would be amazing)
  • 5 Points
Table (Again After Tottenham Game)

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So hopefully I only need 9 points to survive, but surely I can set my sights higher now with current results.


 
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January


Tottenham
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As you will have already seen from my previous post we drew 3-3 it was a game that were winning until Elliot had to come off injured and with no substitutions left, I made the wrong decision in placing Gayle in goal and had 5 at the back, 2 DM and 2 wingers. This still was not enough and Harry Kane stepped up in the 5 minute of extra time and got the equalising goal. Devastating to lose the 3 points like that, I feel like this will be a big hit to moral.

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Oxford
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Giving that this was a cup game we should be wining no matter the starting 11. I decided to give some of the 1st team players that have not featured in a while and also hand a debut to El-Mhanni and also Heardman. We started poorly we managed to win with a nervy finish 3-2.


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Message From the Board​

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Updated Fixture List (FA Cup Draw)

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Huddersfield
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Well I was predicting it coming a long time ago, I started to get greedy with my expectations. At least now the 0 has gone we can move and think about a mid table finish.

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Burnley


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I was really positive with the players, gave them all praise for there conduct. It worked with some but not all, I really hope we can get back to winning ways starting with Burley. I know I was only expecting a draw but I dont want all the hard work we have put in to be for nothing.

View attachment 53106


We really overrun the midfield with Shelvey and Merino putting in a shift and winning the ball back almost every time. Gayle was incredible vs Burnley and was unlucky to only end the game with 2 goals. The same can be said for Atsu since my criticism of him in December he has really proved me wrong in this game by getting the MOTM performance. I'm just really glad that we avoided defeat in this game to take it to 2 in a row.

Injury News

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Sheffield Wednesday


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I have never done well in the FA cup in FM18 looking back I dont think I have ever gotten to the final. This game Against Sheffield Wednesday has we worried for some reason, I have give them credit in the press conference maybe game them too much praise as they almost nicked the game in the 4 min of stoppage time. But stepped up Kenedy who got us the replay. I have to say I'm not surprised that we did not win they really gave us a game and the players seemed to find it had to motivate themselves playing against them. Replay here we come.

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Man United
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I did not expect much from this game and we performed really poor to a world class team, disappointing considering the performances against Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal & Chelsea but it was expected to say the least. I also failed in my target to concede less than 3 goals. Thanks to Martial in the 3 minute of stoppage time.

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Barclays Premier League Table
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As you can see at the end of the year, we have improved massively and are sitting in 10th place on 34 points, 6 points of the target 40 for safety

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January Transfer Window
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It has to go down as a disappointing window to say the least with only Joselu leaving the club from the 1st team and my only target LB Junior Tavares failed his work permit on the final day.

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Transfers In/Out

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February

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This is the month where we should be hitting the 40 point mark and assuring our safety. Games against Brighton is a must win and Everton and Leicester should be a point each but if we can get a win from either of these games then the target is achieved.

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Goals
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  • Brighton (Must Win)
  • Win vs Sheffield Wednesday (5th round of the FA Cup)
  • Everton and Leicester (4 points)
As you can see my goals are starting to get a little more ambitions but with only 2 defeats since I took over, more ambitions targets are acceptable now.
 
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February

Brighton

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This has to go down as a disappointing start to February losing the slender lead that we had late on, in truth it was a very poor game for the whole team.

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Sheffield Wednesday

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Is this the beginning of poor form, as we took a 2 nil lead into the second half everything was looking good for qualification into the 5th round. The second half however, the entire team switched off after going 3 up. I had to switch the team to contain trying to save our 3 goal lead. But a win is a win and we got that.

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New Signing

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I did not take any notice of any of the loan players contacts and was surprised to see that there was a clause in De Pauls, so i can see that the fee is going to take a large chunk out of the transfer kitty in the summer, only time will tell if this is going to be a grievous mistake.

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Updated Fixtures
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After the draw for the FA Cup 5th Round.

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Everton
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Another game where the entre team underwhelmed, Shelvey tried his best to get the team going but no one else seemed interested. Gyifi always seems to perform amazing when i come up against him.

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Injuries

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​Current for is not helping the team performance, I will have to resort in having a makeshift CB for the next few games. Hayden is my only option.

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Ipswich​

Only the second win of the month and both in the FA Cup this is turning into a very disappointing run of fixtures after a fantastic start. But we are through to the next round of the FA cup and no doubt our luck in drawing lower league teams will be over and we will get a top team in the Premier league and bow out. Despite paying out of position Hayden did really well to nullify any attacking threat along with Clark and stopped Ipswich from having a single shot on target.

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Leicester

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The last game February did not give us a win to end a poor run of form however Hayden again doing a solid job as a makeshift CB. This takes our points total for the month only 2. Very disappointing.
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Table

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March


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After a disappointing month I really want the team to get to the 40 point mark quick and I have a bad feeling that we will stumble to this point tall.

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Goals

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I want to keep my optimism and not dwell on the last few games our last Premier League win was back in the 20th January to Burnley. So that 4 games without a win.


  • Crystal Palace (This has to be a must win regardless of recent form)
  • West Brow (They a currently in 9th place so if we can get a win that would be great)
  • Southampton (This is another game we really should be winning)
  • Tottenham - (as we have made it this far 2 games till the final we really should give this a go, Tottenham will be very tough tho)
  • Watford - (They are very similar when it comes down to recent form so if we can get another win to end the month strong that will be great)
 
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March

Crystal Palace
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More familiar team playing here with the further inclusion of Hayden in that CB role as he continues do perform really well. In the end the game was quite comfortable with a 3 goal winning margin and a clean sheet.

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West Brom​

This was always going to be a tricky fixture considering that West Brom sit 9th in the table and are performing reasonably well. The scoreline is somewhat flattering to ourselves as we never seemed to get into the game and our usual comfortable defence seemed to crumble, Hayden performing really poor despite recent form

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Southampton​

A game that we really should have won but after coming out in the second half it was as if it was a completely different team and they really struggled to get going again.

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Tottenham​

considering the last 2 games I was really worried coming into this and decided a little more rotation due to poor performances but somehow we managed to lead at half time. After they went a man down it was real plain sailing and we managed to nick another goal late on.

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Youth Intake​

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I think the fact that they are exited about Baker is funny as he is not that good, but I hope to be proved wrong and he turns into a world beater.

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Table​

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Back in the top 10 Just, and we have reached the target 40 points now we have got there I think that 37 could be the safety number also but its good to say that we have rescued Newcastle from potential relegation 7 games to go. We are also in the Semi Finals of the FA Cup but the games are going to get incredibly difficult.

April​

View attachment 52798
With the Watford game moving to TV this game is played on the 1st of April.

Goals
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  • Watford (Draw they have had a poor month but I still feel that they could be dangerous)
  • Man City (this is another game I just want us to keep it respectable - no more than 3 goals conceded)
  • Swansea (I think we have to go with the win here)
  • Bournemouth (Another team that is in similar form Draw)
  • Arsenal (Another respectable performance - less than 3 goals conceded)
  • 4 points
 
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April Part 1

Current Injuries​

We seem to be having no luck regarding recent injures, midfield is looking really thin at the moment. The only first team forward we have currently is Slamini.
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Watford (Gayle suffered the injury here)​

View attachment 52720we were very lucky to get a goal in extra time, I really thought we would nick all 3 points but a poor lapse in concentration from Hayden which was unfortunate as he played really well. A point is still good at this stage of the season.

New Record In Sights​

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I'm not sure if I should be happy with this or not I feel that we have thrown a lot of games away this season from winning positions and this is proof of that really.

Man City
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View attachment 52718Nothing that I was not expecting terrible performance from everyone. This is starting to happen more frequently. I will be looking for more depth in the off season to really show the players that if they dont perform then they will be dropped and not just to the bench and back again.

Swansea​

View attachment 52714flattering scoreline really we just dont seem to be performing that well recently, we seem to be getting 1 or 2 players that perform and against lower sides this seems to work. But against teams in the top 10 we struggle after that fantastic start its really disappointing.
Table​

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April Part 2​

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I really hope at least we can finish this season in the top 10. The end of April is not going to easy though and our fixtures in May are not going to get easier, we may need to rely on the teams around us to cement that top 10.

Goals​
  • Bournmouth - considering our remaining games this is really the only game I can see us getting anything we have to go for the win.
  • Liverpool - A very difficult game but a win would see us in the FA Cup final at this stage we really have to give it a go. Silverware this early on would be a dream. Can we do it?
  • Arsenal - I think we need to go for the norm, keep the result respectable and keep it under 3 goals conceded.
  • 4 points
 
April Part 2

Injury Update

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The injury problems dont seem to be getting any better, still Lejeune is out long term, Slamini is my only fit first team striker. Im so glad that we are no longer in a relegation battle.


Bournemouth

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It was the only game of the remaining fixtures this season that I was expecting to get anything out of, the remaining games are really tough top 6 teams. So I have to say its nice to win considering its likely the last of the season.


Liverpool

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Ok, I was not expecting that performance, Liverpool were never really in the game after they scored they never really looked threatening, I so happy with the team we have managed to get to the FA Cup final in our first season. Can we begin this monumental challenge with silverware. Its possible but we need to beat Manchester United first and that is a really big ask.

Back down to earth with that defeat however we managed to keep the goals conceded below 3 so I guess thats the target achieved.

We are looking very comfortable in the middle of the table but we must not let Everton or Burnley go above us this is the target now, however giving our remaining fixtures I would not be too disappointed with the outcome.

So we end the season with games against Liverpool & Chelsea so we relay need to rely on Everton and Burnley slipping up at the end of there own campaign. And to end the season we have Man U in the FA Cup Final this is going to be a good end to the season no matter the next 3 results.


Goals

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  • Liverpool considering we beat them a few weeks ago. Can we beat them again in the league? (Loss - less than 3 goals conceded)
  • Chelsea - regardless of result I really want us to concede less than 3 goals.
  • Man U - This is the achievement of the season regardless if we win or now, getting to the Final has to be an achievement by itself.
 
May

Liverpool

View attachment 52459
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This has to be the worse performance of the season, we managed to get an amazing win from Liverpool in the semi-finals however the players just could not play to the same standard and got turned over by a very attacking team.

Disappointing end to the campaign but we have to be happy overall for getting out of the relegation mess.

It was a fantastic achievement just to get to the final, so while I'm disappointed we could not get the win, I'm happy that we managed to get this far.


Team Of the Year

View attachment 52464​

I'm surprised by the inclusion of Darlow, Clark, Manquillo as they to me did not stand out any better than the alternatives in Elliot, Mbemba and Yedlin. I will be focusing more on these players next season to see if I have been ignoring there performances and not just preferring the omitted players.


Season Review

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I was a fantastic season, its a real shame that the players could not keep up there performance a little longer. But I'm very happy with the 10th place finish. Onto next season where we need to strengthen the team.


Considering that the team was in the second tier last year for all commercial revenue to be up this season is not surprising, hopefully we can carry on increasing this year on year.

Barclays Premier League 2018

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I'm really surprised that both Burnley and Everton were not able to take advantage of our poor end of the season form. But I will take

Stadium Improvements

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This was unexpected but needed if we are going take the club forward.
 
Last edited:
Off Season

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I have been really busy in the off season and managed to get all my players signed very early, the 62 million cap was exceeded slightly, I spent 67 Million and I really dont feel that the money went far enough. I still need another Forward, Central midfielder and backup left back.

 
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