UK Journeyman

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2017 Preseason - Premier Division

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It took me 11 seasons from the Loughgall to Chelmsford to Wycombe to Fulham, but now we have finally reached the pinnacle of the game. The English Premier Division.

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This is it, I get one shot to avoid relegation. I cannot hold back in my spending and I absolutely did not! Let's cover our four biggest, and most important signings for our survival.

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ST Anas Wahbi, $14 million from Las Palmas (Spain-1). 26-year old Moroccan international plied his trade with Metz in France for 9 seasons before moving to Las Palmas last year where he scored 8 goals in 32 apps and my scouts think he's capable of better.


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DR Andrea Vitale, $8.75 million from Genoa (Italy-1). Young Italian fullback has been a consistent 6.85-6.90 player in the Serie A for four seasons now.


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DC James Pearce, $7 million from Middlesbrough (Eng-2). 24-year old New Zealand international was once a loanee at Fulham the season before my arrival. He was an excellent 7.10 in 33 apps last year for Boro and looks to be a nice upgrade to my central defense.


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AML Federico Boccardo, $2.9 million from Sporting Gijon (Spain-2). Hoping this Italian winger can solve some of my problems out on the left flank where I had inconsistenty production last year


On the Transfers Out, there isn't anything too shocking except for central midfielder Alban Mema. He was solid for me last year, but not spectacular. He's the player I got on a free transfer from PSV. To be able to flip him for a $9 million profit in just one season was something I was very happy to do.

Preseason went well and we had no major injuries. Let's go!




 
2017 First Half

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An EFL Cup run into the Quarterfinals wedged in between some HORRIFIC football. But then, just around Holiday fixtures, BOOM! Two thunderous wins to push us off the bottom of the table and back in with a shout.

Hopefully without the distraction of the Cup run and the newer players beginning to gel, we'll start a little run here where we can get out of the drop zone.

We're pretty thin on transfer budget after the summer splash. As of right now it appears there will be only one major January window addition, MC Gregg Cross, $1.1 million from Derby.

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CRYSTAL PALACE SWOOP IN AND STEAL SEK729


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With a 3-year, $7.8 million offer Crystal Palace has secured the services of rising manager Sek729.


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- When the offer came in I asked myself, if this were real, would I accept a 60% increase in salary, improve my job security by 18 months, and take over a more wealthy club in better position to climb the Premier League table? The answer is YES.



Here's the recent history of the club. As you may remember, Palace won the Sky Bet Championship last season when we battled into our promotion spot. Their highest finish in the Premiership is 7th in 2016/17.

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Palace are currently 14th, 4 points clear of the relegation zone.

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Here's our best two players.

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Pure class, better than any player I had at Fulham.



Let's get it on!

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Wasn't expecting that move but not surprised you took it! KIU
 
Good move for you and a good step forward in club potential.
But what happened to there existing manager? Poached or fired?
 
EnglishYeti said:
Good move for you and a good step forward in club potential.
But what happened to there existing manager? Poached or fired?
Click to expand...

He was sacked! He wasn't performing that badly either. Might be a board with a hair trigger.
 
SURVIVED WITH EASE

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Very little drama in our survival efforts. We started off with a very difficult pair of matches vs Chelsea and Man City, but we played well over the next stretch, winning 4 of 5, even threatening to make a miracle run at a Euro Cup spot. It wasn't to be as we faded away a bit in the stretch, although we were competitive away to Man Utd and home to Arsenal. We finished with a solid home win over Stoke to finish 14th. Fulham go down!

We've been given a $72 million budget to improve the squad. (H). This will be a fun summer.
 
SPENDING SPREE

We went bonkers and left very little in the piggy bank.


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Let's start with some of the larger transfer outs:

Kieran Butler, $14m to Aston Villa. 24yo Striker had a big year in the Championship a couple years ago scoring 20, but just 5 goals in 21 matches last season. Tagged with the inconsistent label and poor in big matches, he's the kind of player I like to avoid.

Robert Brazil, $11m to Stoke. 25yo defender seemed a surplus after I made some upgrades. Decent for me last year, 6.84 in 36 matches. Nice defender for a bottom tier Premier side, but not good enough if you want to climb the table.

Milan Vujic, $9.5m to Crotone (Serie A). Previous manager here bought this goalkeeper just two years ago for $23m from Shakhtar, so the club took a bit of a bath on him. Wasn't terrible but I just found another GK that was better and for $80k p/w wages, I couldn't let him sit on the bench.

Gabriel, $9.5m to Stoke. Brazilian right fullback didn't like big matches and had a woeful jumping reach. Like the others, decent, but we have to upgrade if we're aiming big.


TRANSFERS IN

Rory Mitchell, $31.5m from Leicester.

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The biggest splash in my save to date, big time central defender entering his prime years. I needed a huge upgrade in the middle of my defense and I got it. Mitchell should be good enough to carry me into Europe.


Gwendal Lafitte, $22.5m from Leicester

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Right back was identified as an area I wanted to upgrade and the 26yo French international fit the bill.


Alessandro Ricci, $16.75m from Torino (Serie A)

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Defense, defense, and MORE defense. Yes, I spent more than $70 million on three defenders! I've climbed the ranks by always assembling a strong defensive team while dominating possession, and that's the approach I'm going to continue to take. All three of these guys are in their mid-20s, entering their prime years.


Jacob Davenport, $8.5 million from Fenerbahce.

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And there's my ball winning midfielder! Not the most talented player in the world, but the American international fits a niche role for me: aggressively taking on opponents in the center of the pitch and winning the ball back!


Andrei Ivan, $8.5 million from Manchester United.

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This made the fans very happy. In 2017/18, Crystal Palace bought Ivan from Craiova in the Romanian Liga I for $14 million. He played for more than 9 seasons for The Eagles before being sold to Man Utd in 2026/27 for $25 million dollars, after two years they decided they had enough and we got him back at the cut rate of $8.5m. He's 31 now but he still has very good physical and the skill to play multiple positions. He's most likely going to end up at AML most of the time, but will fill in all over the attacking half of the pitch.


Gerardo Diaz, $7.5 from Santos Laguna (Mexico First Division).

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Uruguayan goalkeeper already has 21 starts for his country, and I was very happy to set off his minimum release clause and bring him over the pond. Excellent investment here I believe, he's already better than Vujic, who we sold for $9.5m, and he'll cost half as much in wages. I suspect that his new minimum release clause of $27m will be triggered at some point in the next couple season.


Thor De Smet, $6m from Club Brugge.

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Investment play here. Scout think the 2 1/2 star right fullback has a lot of development left in him. We loaned him back to Brugge for the upcoming season. Hopefully they keep him on the right track and get me a nice player for the future.


Moises Velasquez, $3.5m from Tigres (Mexican First Division).

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Love my huge scouting network. We raid Mexico once again and find this little hidden gem. Value was immediately re-established at $13.25m after his arrival. Pacy winger looks ready to compete with Che Nunnely right now for minutes on the right side.


That covers the major transactions. We had a great preseason, winning most of our friendlies and building team chemistry. Let's kick this off. Players goal is a mid-table finish, but I have a feeling Europe is within our grasp. Media has us 15th. Screw them. I had raised our expectations with the board to mid-table in order secure another $10m in funds. Let's do this.
 

MIDDLE OF THE PACK - NOV 2028

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They FA dealt us a wicked schedule to start the season. Either Man City or Chelsea have won the league in 6 of the past 7 seasons. They are Top Two in the league this year, and we draw them and 3rd placed Liverpool in the first four weeks. Brutal.

We recovered morale and set off a nice three match winning streak, before tailing off again. We bounce back with two 1-0 wins over two mid-table clubs, Bournemouth and Southampton. We are 13 games in the season and sitting in 10th place.

It took a while to get the new players to mesh, but I feel like I have a decent chance at cracking Europe this year.
 
JANUARY WINDOW - 2029

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Despite putting together a pretty strong December, where we got 4 nice wins and 3 draws, we remain in 10th place in the league. Just goes to show you how difficult the Premier League can be.

We are playing better however, so that's a good thing. We may need a January boost if we're going to push over the top, so I promised the board we could finish in the Top Half in exchange for an extra $15 million in transfer funds and I put it to use.

AMC Martin Odegaard, $4.8 million from Liverpool

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Norwegian legend with 111 caps gives us a nice upgrade to our attack. I'm looking forward to what he can bring to us in the final push for Europe.

May add another one to the mix, we will see how the transfer window shakes out.
 
MARCH 2029 - PALACE PUSH FOR EUROPE

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An up and down stretch, but for the most part, we got wins against teams we should have beaten (Except for Huddersfield and we dominated the match, UGH!)

- We're in 8th position, 2 points back of Newcastle for 7th place and a guaranteed Euro Cup bid.
- Chelsea(1st), Man Utd(3rd), Arsenal(9th), and Brighton(15th) are the FA Cup Semi-finalists, so there's a shot there for 8th to be good enough if Chelsea or Man Utd can win it.
- Shockingly, my former club Fulham, now in the Sky Bet Championship, won the EFL Cup over Arsenal, so that bit of bad luck gave us no help.

The best thing we can do is keep winning. The schedules match up very favorable.

Here's our remaining fixtures:

Away Bournmouth (10th)
Away West Ham (16th)
Home West Brom (20th)
Home Brighton (15th)
Away Arsenal (9th) - Could be a huge match for Europe!
Home Cardiff (19th)
Away Tottenham (5th) - Hopefully we have it sealed up by this match!!


Newcastle have a pretty tough stretch to finish the year. Here's what they got:

Away Arsenal (9th)
Away Tottenham (5th)
Home Cardiff (19th)
Home Man City (2nd)
Away Liverpool (6th)
Home Stoke (17th)
Home Chelsea (1st)


Arsenal doesn't have a very hard schedule but they also have added fixtures to deal with Champions League Quarterfinals (and maybe more) as well as the FA Cup.


Crystal Palace has just one appearance in Europe in their club history and that was all the way back in 1998. 2029 could be the year for their return. We just need to WIN BABY!
 
PALACE LEAVE IT LATE - MOVE INTO EUROPEAN SPOT


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In a match controlled by Crystal Palace throughout, Grant McArthur found the winner with an inspirational strike at the edge of the penalty area to push into 7th place in the Premier League. It's McArthur's 14th goal of the campaign.

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PALACE HAMMERED

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A completely punch-less Crystal Palace had no answers in London Stadium as they were laid down and smashed by an inspired West Ham squad that pushed themselves 7 points clear of relegation.

An Arsenal victory over Aston Villa coupled with a shock Newcastle 1-1 draw at White Hart Lane now leaves the Eagles in 9th place, on the outside in their European dreams.

A vital home fixture against 19th placed West Brom looms!

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WEST BROM BAGGED

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Crystal Palace were in complete control as West Bromwich Albion could only muster a late consolation goal.

Newcastle smashed Cardiff 4-0 to hold the 7th position.

Arsenal were dumped out of the FA Cup. Chelsea and Man Utd will face in the FA Cup final ensuring that 8th place will be good enough for a place in Europe this year.

Arsenal followed that up with another loss to Chelsea, this time at Stamford Bridge 1-2.

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We are holding the 8th and final spot.

Crystal Palace face off home vs Brighton (16th)
Newcastle are home vs Man City (2nd)
Arsenal are away to Huddersfield (18th)

Arsenal also are still alive in the Champions League Semi Final, facing Real Madrid.
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MCARTHUR TO THE RESCUE

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In a match thoroughly dominated by Crystal Palace, it was Grant McArthur who finally broke through for the Eagles in the 88th minute to send the fans into rapture in the A23 Derby!

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Arsenal managed to win away 1-0 to Huddersfield, but it was Newcastle slipping up this time, falling 1-0 at home to Manchester City!

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Another tough task next week for Newcastle, they got Liverpool away.

Crystal Palace and Arsenal square off in a pivotal match at the Emirates that could really give the winner a big boost. Fortunately for Palace, this critical match is wedged around a Champions Cup Semi Final knockout for Arsenal. The Gunners' attention may be elsewhere.


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ARSENAL WIN THRILLER

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An edge of the seat first half turned into a touch and go second half where Declan Matthews delivered a hat trick for the home team in the 80th minute, the 22nd goal in all competitions for the 27yo England international.

Newcastle drew Liverpool 1-1, leaving the future for Crystal Palace in European football very much in doubt.

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Arsenal defeated Real Madrid on penalties in the Champions Cup Semi's, they will face Barca in the finals.

Arsenal are away to Derby (12th) in their next Premier League match.
Newcastle are home to Stoke (17th)
Crystal Palace are home to Cardiff (20th), who are in a ridiculously tight 4-way relegation battle.

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PALACE SILENCE BLUEBIRDS

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Crystal Palace didn't play very well in the first half despite the one goal lead, but the second half was much more their style as they thoroughly controlled Cardiff, who are now destined for relegation after a Huddersfield win.

Newcastle took care of business against Stoke, 2-0, but it was Arsenal who slipped up. With their minds on a Champions Cup Final date with Barcelona, the Gunners fell 5-1 away to Derby.

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Okay, we are in 7th but a European spot is absolutely not secured yet.

We have an extremely difficult fixture to finish the season vs Tottenham at White Hard Lane, even a draw there leaves the door open for Liverpool, Newcastle, and Arsenal to finish ahead of us and put us in 9th position.

Liverpool are home to Aston Villa (14th)
Newcastle are home to Chelsea (1st)
Arsenal are home to Watford (10th)

Once again, drama on the final weekend!
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Hmmm.. Okay.. so I lost to Tottenham, Arsenal won, and Newcastle lost, so I finished 8th.

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Manchester United won the FA Cup. They cannot use the spot, since they qualified for Champions League, so the Euro Cup placing goes to the 8th place team correct?

From what I can tell, I was not awarded a EURO Cup spot. Is this a glitch, or will it be awarded at some point during the next season? I am at 26 June 2029 and was not given it. Or am I wrong and I wasn't entitled to this spot?

Help me out here. :)
 
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