The Swans Fly High Part II

SamPeters said:
Well done on securing the contracts of Williams and Bartley but unlucky with Tremmel but i am sure there will be a keeper you could easily pick up especially with CL football as well
Click to expand...

Should be, just that I like a keeper who doesn't mind the fact that he won't get any game time, I like to stick with one keeper and Tremmel is always willing to sit on the bench and not complain.
 
View attachment 318986
Finally we've got some money to spend in this story! Unfortunately though we didn't have a huge amount to spend this summer, around £25M for our transfer budget and 200k for our wage budget. With a number of positions in need of strengthening I knew I had to spend my money wisely and I hope, that's exactly what I've done.

View attachment 318985
View attachment 318984
Fabianski had a solid season, last season, he's a fantastic shot stopper and he won more than a couple of games for me last season, however he did make the odd mistake and I wanted a keeper with a bit more composure on the ball and overall consistency. I went for Jasper Cillessen as his replacement, I was unable to lure Mandanda away from Marsielle but Jasper looks like a solid alternative, I'm very happy with him.

View attachment 318983
View attachment 318982
We got rid of a ton of deadwood in the reserves this summer, I tried to shift Tiendalli, Barrow and Richards but I've only been able to sell Richards so far but there's still a few weeks left, until the transfer window shuts. With Taylor and Rangel now our only two full backs we needed two more and at just £3M each we found two absolute bargains. Peruzzi will be first choice, with Rangel close to his 33rd birthday and it'll be tough to pick our first choice left back, I'd probably just go with Taylor but Bertrand is a more than capable, rotation option.

View attachment 318981
View attachment 318980
Francis Coquelin completed his move to Swansea, for peanuts from Arsenal, after a successful loan spell, last season. We needed a box to box midfielder to rotate with Shelvey, I was looking at Lucas Romero but I faced huge competition from the likes of Real Madrid, Man United, Man City and Barcelona. I knew there was no way he'd choose Swansea over these European giants so I offered him 100k a week, more than doubling his initial demands of 40k. Unfortunately though, I wasn't the only team who offered him more money. Moneybags Man City cut me off with an offer of 130k per week.

View attachment 318979
View attachment 318978
My alternative was young Kristoffer Ajer, like Romero he wasn't short of options, I had to pay the 17 year old 30k per week to convince him to join the Swans, I think it's definetely worth it though. We also signed young regen David Haughton for 200k, he might not look like much now but he's extremely professional and a month in to his Swansea career, he's already progressed incredibly in training.

View attachment 318977
View attachment 318976
Lastly we signed Conor McAleny from Everton, probably the riskiest transfer of all, not because of the small 700k transfer fee because I'm not sure if he's up to standard. His stats are decent but it's his PPMs that do it for me, he plays on the left as an inside forward, he's right footed, he cuts inside and runs with the ball often, suiting his game perfectly. I was looking at the likes of Depay, Ince and Gauld but they'd all cost me £20M+, money we just don't have right now.

View attachment 318975
Finally I was expecting to lose Michu this summer, with a clause in his loan contract with Napoli, allowing them to buy him for £6M. However he rejected the wage offered from Naples and then I was left with a bit of a dilemma, with Shelvey, Sigurosson, Ajer, Coquelin and Alli fighting for those two central midfield positions, I didn't really have the room for him in the squad. He's a player a would of liked in my team but he did want to leave and financially it makes sense, as he's about to turn 30.

View attachment 318970
With the new season on the horizon, I committed my future to the club by signing a one year contract extension, keeping me at the club for the next two years. The traditional curtain raiser before the new season, the Community Shield, was contested by league winners Man United and FA Cup winners Chelsea, it was United that came out on top in the end.

View attachment 318974
View attachment 318968
The expectations from the board this season should be easy to accomplish, they expect a top ten finish in the league and a decent run in the COC and FA Cup, reaching the Quarter Finals. As for the Champions League will there's no expectation at all, the media will consider us huge underdogs as well, which could be a huge advantage. Personally I'm looking for a stable season, another top four finish in the league and a good cup run will do me, hopefully we can lift our first trophy with the Swans.

View attachment 318972
Next time, we'll kick off the new season and I can't wait to try out the new signings! We should start with a comfortable win against newly promoted Fulham, we've also got a difficult game against Liverpool at the Liberty. What a day coming up for the club, as we make our first ever appearance in the Champions League when the draw for the group stages is made in late August, we'll also round up the transfer action from around the Barclays Premier League.

​
View attachment 318971
 
Last edited:
Some interesting business done there mate! unlucky with Fabianski but a great replacement in Cillessen! who will be your back up keeper this season?
 
Id say some great business mate,
I think it was a wise move selling michu and fabianski, getting towards 30, and getting decent money for both well done,
hopefully youl have a bit of cash in jan of you can squeeze in to the ko rounds of champions league.
As for the expectations for this season, i defo think aiming for 1 or maybe both of the domestic cups would be a good thing,
I hope you can get top 4 again, but not sure if the big clubs will have such a poor season again, but good luck.
 
SamPeters said:
Some interesting business done there mate! unlucky with Fabianski but a great replacement in Cillessen! who will be your back up keeper this season?
Click to expand...

Thanks! Tremmel will be my back up keeper, hopefully we can find a nice young regen to progress for the reserves and replace Tremmel as my back up keeper, with Tremmel retiring at the end of the season.
 
Tracz said:
Id say some great business mate,
I think it was a wise move selling michu and fabianski, getting towards 30, and getting decent money for both well done,
hopefully youl have a bit of cash in jan of you can squeeze in to the ko rounds of champions league.
As for the expectations for this season, i defo think aiming for 1 or maybe both of the domestic cups would be a good thing,
I hope you can get top 4 again, but not sure if the big clubs will have such a poor season again, but good luck.
Click to expand...

There's still a bit of money left, around £8M, so we might see one more deal before the window shuts, I'm a little worried about the quality of my wingers, Dyer, Routledge, Montero and McAleny but I've found it hard to find anyone better with a limited amount of money. I'm not quite sure what to expect this season, it'll be interesting to see how the squad copes with the added games.
 
MisterObjective said:
Thanks! Tremmel will be my back up keeper, hopefully we can find a nice young regen to progress for the reserves and replace Tremmel as my back up keeper, with Tremmel retiring at the end of the season.
Click to expand...
But Tremmel decided to retire didn't he? Or will he retire after this season? Anyway you have gotten yourself some great players there especially Cilessen it will be fun to see how the entire squad will gel together and if you could perform even better then last year.
 
TheOtherSpecialOne said:
But Tremmel decided to retire didn't he? Or will he retire after this season? Anyway you have gotten yourself some great players there especially Cilessen it will be fun to see how the entire squad will gel together and if you could perform even better then last year.
Click to expand...

View attachment 318911

Ye Tremmel will retire at the end of our upcoming season, sorry for the confusion. Can't wait to see them, we're heading in the right direction!
 
View attachment 318148
Dyer is still recovering from an injury he picked up in pre season, so Routledge plays alongside new signings Peruzzi at right back and Cillessen in goal. We should be smashing these and that's exactly what we did, Montero was on form, scoring and assisting and McAleny looked dangerous when he came on, setting up Gomis to make it three and complete a perfect start to the season.

View attachment 318147
View attachment 318146
I'd been waiting for this day all summer and it's finally here. The draw for the Champions League Group Stage saw us go in as 4th seeds, which means we'll likely face a very difficult group but there's no pressure on us, hopefully that will help us. Well that seriously couldn't of gone any better. I'd fancy us to at least beat Celtic to 3rd and secure Europa League football but we shouldn't be afraid of Benfica and Shakhtar, if we perform like I know we can there's no reason why we can't win this group.

View attachment 318145
Bartley picked up an injury keeping him out for three weeks and in some ways that's a blessing in disguise, Amat has been complaining yet again about first team football and I promised him some game time, well here's his chance. McAleny and Gomis come in for Routledge and Bony, after good displays off the bench. That's what you call a game of two halves, Gomis showed he should start more often by scoring a hatrick inside twenty minutes, Montero added a fourth just before half time, beating the keeper from forty yards!

I was expecting West Brom to come out firing in the second half, after such a poor display at home. Maybe I should of warned the players not to be complacent but when you're 4-0 up you don't see a comeback. The players did become complacent, West Brom managed to pull three goals back but we managed to just about hang on to our lead in the end.

View attachment 318144
View attachment 318143
I think I mentioned that we look a bit short of quality on the wings, well if we pick up an injury we've only got three wingers, so we could of done with one more but attacking players are so god **** expensive! I tried to unsettle Lazar Markovic, after I realised he was unhappy with the lack of first team football, unfortunately though Liverpool stood their ground and keep their man. Elsewhere Tiandalli left on a free to FC Lorient and I was sick of Emnes whining about not being sold, it's not my fault nobody wants him, I offered him a mutual termination on his contract and he accepted.

View attachment 318142
View attachment 318141
View attachment 318139
View attachment 318140
Dyer is fit and comes back in to the side, while Bertrand makes his debut. Liverpool didn't have the best of seasons last year and they haven't started the season well at all, sitting in mid table. However they more than matched us, creating bundles of chances but just not putting them away. I was frustrated that we couldn't control the game better but Bony came off the bench to score twice and book his starting spot in the Champions League, Cillessen had a brilliant game and was almost unbeatable, between the sticks.

View attachment 318138
View attachment 318137
The first time we've gone with any real rotation this season, with plenty of changes from the game against Liverpool, notably Ajer coming in to make his debut. It wasn't a great game in Wales and no way to announce ourselves to the Champions League, in some ways we were fortunate not to lose, both sides could of won it. Despite the fact we were handed an easy group, the standard at this level looks very tough.

View attachment 318136
View attachment 318135
It's got to go down as a good start to the season, although we could quite easily have lost against West Brom, Liverpool and Shakhtar but it's looking like another great season ahead. Next time we've got some tough away matches coming up, we'll open our COC campaign away to Ipswich, hopefully we can get further than the Third Round this time and there's a big game in the CL, one we should be winning away to Celtic.

​
View attachment 318134
 
Last edited:
View attachment 317527
I made a few changes for this game, including first matches of the season for Rangel and Fernandez. A really tough game in Stoke, you expect that but we should be winning these games. It was to close for my liking and a draw was probably a fair result, all things considered.

View attachment 317526
View attachment 317525
A good chance to get back to winning ways here and hopefully the start of a good cup run. We did exactly that, fantastic performance from an almost faultless performance, Shelvey was the pick of the bunch, kick starting what has been a poor start to the season from him.

View attachment 317524
View attachment 317523
Another away game I'd expect to win but QPR had a good season last year and won't roll over easily. Much like the Stoke game a week earlier, it was tough and to close for my liking, we managed to ****** the victory right at the death though, Bony coming off the bench to save us.

View attachment 317522
View attachment 317521
If we're going to qualify for the last 16 we have to be beating the likes of Celtic. It was quite incredible the amount of chances we created, we put some of them away and run out deserving winners, Sigurosson scored a beauty from 25 yards!

View attachment 317520
View attachment 317519
Another good run of games from the lads, we just scraped past QPR and we need to be better against Stoke but there was good displays against Ipswich and Celtic. Next time there's a big game in Europe, one that will probably give us a good idea of where we're going to finish in the group and then there's a huge league game against Man City, who so far, look like having another poor season.

​
View attachment 317518
 
Last edited:
Looking good so far mate, would like to see Alli start more though! only because in my Brighton game first time round he was amazing in the Prem but i trust your judgement!
 
SamPeters said:
Looking good so far mate, would like to see Alli start more though! only because in my Brighton game first time round he was amazing in the Prem but i trust your judgement!
Click to expand...

I've been really impressed with his progress in training, his physical stats are coming along very nicely, he could be the next Yaya Toure. Would love to start him more often but Sigurosson has been great so far this season, it's difficult to drop someone when they're playing well, anyway should have an update out later today.

View attachment 317437
 
View attachment 315293
Cillessen was suffering from a cold, so Tremmel plays his first game of the season. We were very unlucky to go in 1-0 down at half time, I ripped in to the team and they responded magnificently. Sigurosson, Montero and McAleny were brilliant and Gomis came off the bench to continue his great start to the season, with two more goals for him.

View attachment 315292
View attachment 315291
Cillessen is back and Gomis starts after his performance off the bench, Forest have surprised a few teams since coming back to the big time but playing at home, we really should win. We couldn't put the ball away in the first half but Gomis put one away just before the break and from there, we went on to dominate Forest. We strolled to victory in the second half, Dyer came on to make it two and Gomis scored his second and our third of the game.

View attachment 315290
View attachment 315289
It was a really wide open game in Portugal, it could've been any scoreline. At 2-1, I had to make some changes in the second half, to try and take something from the game. Unfortunately though we just looked worse, Benfica created more chances and on the day they way much more clinical than us, lessons to be learned here.

View attachment 315288
View attachment 315287
Angel Rangel wanted a new challenge, I managed to convince him to join my backroom staff here but despite sounding happy about his new role, he still took it upon himself to complain to his teammates. I moved him to the reserves to keep morale up and a few weeks later he announced he would leave on a free transfer. next summer. He's 33 now and his physical stats aren't looking too great, I don't think I would of renewed his contract anyway but player power is doing my head in this year!

View attachment 315286
View attachment 315285
Montero is in for McAleny and Shelvey is dropped after a poor start to the season for him, Ajer gets a chance. City were once again favourites, once again they underestimated us and yes, again we showed them up. We controlled them in their own back yard, that's not easy against City but it shows what a good thing we've got going here, it was Bony coming off the bench to score the all important goal.

View attachment 315284
View attachment 315283
I finally convinced the board that we're a big enough club to increase our merchandise sales abroad, an affiliate was set up in Japan with FC Hiroshima. Elsewhere in the Champions League, we're halfway through the group stages and it looks like it'll be tough to qualify for the last 16. Picking up points away to Shakhtar will be difficult but if we can beat Celtic and Benfica at home, we should qualify but it's likely we'll have to settle for the Europa League if we don't.

View attachment 315282
View attachment 315281
In the league, well what a start, it's very early with only eight games played but if we keep this form up we could be looking at a title challenge this season. Fulham have surprised a few teams this season with narrow wins over Spurs and Liverpool and a huge 8-2 win over Cardiff. While we're on the subject of Cardiff, I can't wait to play some huge derby games this season, now that they're back in the PL.

View attachment 315280
The Benfica result looks really bad and while our defending was terrible, we really should have scored more goals there, we completed solid wins against Forest and Southampton and managed to surprisingly beat City away. Next time we've got some huge games coming, our title challenge will take a closer examination with games against giants Chelsea and Arsenal and our Champions League fate is right on the line, when Benfica come to Swansea.

​
View attachment 315279
 
Last edited:
View attachment 313657
I haven't been rotating that much recently so my players were really tired ahead of this one, every outfield player is rotated, lots of players getting their chance. Certianly questions over our defense in this game but at the other end we were brilliant, clinically dispatching our chances, Alli and Routledge have give me something to think about for our next game. We'll do very well to progress to the Semis as we face United at Old Trafford in the next round.

View attachment 313656
View attachment 313655
View attachment 313654
A lot of our bigger names come back for this one but I kept Alli in. Perhaps naively I started with a very young central midfield of Ajer and Alli, they got over run by the expeirence of Arsenal in the first half, I made the changes to bring Sigurosson and Shelvey on in the second half and we managed to get back in to the game. Still if I got it right from the start we may have won this game.

View attachment 313653
View attachment 313652
The board made extra transfer money available, if we need to spend in January, it's nice that it's there. With his contract up in the summer, Wayne Routledge signed a new five year deal, It's very unlikely that he'll see that out though.

View attachment 313651
View attachment 313650
View attachment 313649
This was probably the biggest game of my Swansea career, a win would put us in prime position for a place in the last 16 but lose and it'll be the Europa League for us. What a performance from the team, we absolutely dominated Benfica. Some great performers out there, Sigurosson was the best, pulling the strings in midfield, now we've got a solid chance of reaching the last 16.

View attachment 313648
View attachment 313647
View attachment 313643
What a donut, I forgot to send some important players on rest from training so they could play in this game. That means we've had to bring out some big players in Peruzzi and Sigurosson for Rangel and Alli. I knew it'd be a tough game, playing Chelsea at Stamford Bridge but getting beat 3-0 is not good enough and we need to be doing better, especially after a huge win in Europe, I guess those changes didn't help.

View attachment 313646
View attachment 313645
Big wins against Benfica and Southampton were very good results but the games against Arsenal and Chelsea put a damper on things. I made poor mistakes in both of these games and it cost us, however our defending definitely needs to improve, conceding eight goals in four games. Next time we've not really got any big games, well compared to the ones we've just played, going to Shakhtar will be a tough match.

​
View attachment 313644
 
View attachment 313351
Our training facilities were successfully upgraded, now at three and a half stars out of five. I asked for another upgrade and the board agreed, construction will begin at the end of the season.

View attachment 313350
View attachment 313349
Nathan Dyer is out for 3 weeks and Cillessen will miss this one, after picking up an injury with Holland but he should be back for the Shakhtar game. It was looking for a long time, like it wasn't going to be our day, we hit the post four times in the first half and created so many chances, we just couldn't put them away. Bony made the breakthrough on 60 minutes, Montero came on to wrap up the game, just before the end.

View attachment 313348
View attachment 313347
Before the match I wouldn't of expected to win the game but after a performance like that I was so frustrated that we didn't take anything from the game. Shakhtar didn't deserve to draw, let alone win, we had the better of the match, which surprised me but they took their chances and we wasted ours unfortunately.

View attachment 313346
View attachment 313345
It was important to get back to winning ways and we did that, we dominated Palace and deserved our win. Alli scored his first goal of the season in a great team display but unfortunately it's not all good news, Bony picked up a nasty injury keeping him out for 2 months and there's always lots of games in December and January.

View attachment 313344
View attachment 313343
Just the one change, with Bony out, Gomis comes in. He hasn't been in great form lately and he lost his place but hopefully he can get back to some of that fantastic form he showed earlier in the season. Goodison Park is always a difficult place to go but we did really well, Everton were in the game but we controlled it. Good to see Gomis getting himself a goal, he's going to be really important over the next few months with Bony injured.

View attachment 313342
View attachment 313341
I'm really surprised how well we've started the season, particularly in the league, our title challenge looks like it's for real but we need to keep it up the form. Frustrating result against Ukraine but our other matches were very pleasing, three good solid wins in the league. Next time there's a really tough game against United in the COC Quarter Finals and then there's a colossus game in the Champions League, we have to beat Celtic at home and hope Benfica don't beat Shakhtar in Portugal. Will it be the last 16 of the Champions League or we will have to settle for Europa League football?

​
View attachment 313340
View attachment 313339
 
great work so far...you should try and sign ferrerya from shaktar if you can very good player...1 thing i have noticed is in your champions league group it has swansea's nationality as welsh...i kno they are in real life but shouldn't they be down as english lol
 
Cbarber871 said:
great work so far...you should try and sign ferrerya from shaktar if you can very good player...1 thing i have noticed is in your champions league group it has swansea's nationality as welsh...i kno they are in real life but shouldn't they be down as english lol
Click to expand...

Ferreyra is quality but Gomis and Bony have been great so far and I've got Kyle Copp coming through the ranks as well. Well they're in Wales but they play in an English league, not sure haha.
 
MisterObjective said:
Ferreyra is quality but Gomis and Bony have been great so far and I've got Kyle Copp coming through the ranks as well. Well they're in Wales but they play in an English league, not sure haha.
Click to expand...


nay bother great story any way
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

FMBase

Beta

Resources

Back
Top