Up The Villa!!!

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DonVilla

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Hi all... Please bear with me as this is my first story...Thanks.

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Aston Villa FC have today appointed Donovan Gaffney as replacement to Martin O'Neill. Randy Lerner felt that a fresh face was necessary to take Villa to new heights and achieve their former glory.

Gaffney's targets for the coming season are to finish in the top half of the league and reach the first knock-out stage of the Europa League, however Gaffney will be looking to break into the top four.

A press conference was called to unveil the new boss and Gaffney stated that he was looking at bringing in a few new faces, however his main focus is to nurture the young talent within the squad.

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Please follow my story to see whether I can help Aston Villa achieve their goals.

First update to be posted soon.
 
Thanks Louis.
First update will have to wait until tomorrow as I only have internet access at work.
 
Yeah...such as winning the European Cup, as well as being one of the teams to win the FA Cup the most times, etc...sure it is many many years ago
 
First update...as promised

Pre-Season:

Aston Villa have had a good pre-season, going unbeaten and winning all but one of their friendlies. The biggest highlight being the 2-0 victory over Rangers, which Gaffney said signalled the teams intent over the coming season.

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Gaffney had confirmed that he was looking at bringing in a playmaker to play in the centre of midfield as well as a world class goal poacher, with Van Nistelrooy and Van der Vaart being his number one targets. Van der Vaart chose to accept the offer from Everton, which forced Gaffney to look elsewhere, he then focussed his attentions on Guti, however the Real Madrid player was unable to agree personal terms with Aston Villa after Gaffney refused to agree to his wage demands. Gaffney was unable to bring Van Nistelrooy to Villa Park for the same reasons.
Gaffney then decided to bring in a striker with lots of premier league experience, bringing Mark Viduka to the Midlands club on a free transfer, and just days later signing David Beckham from LA Galaxy.

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Aug 2009:

Villa had a brilliant start to the season winning all three of their premier league matches, which included a 3-2 victory at Old Trafford, as well as qualifying for the Europa League group stages, where they were drawn in a group along with Villareal, Litex and Metalist. When asked if Gaffney fancied his chances of progressing from this group he replied "We are confident of progressing further in this competition, we have a few tough games in the group stage, however we are fortunate to have drawn some 'lesser' teams."

Commenting on the come-back victory at Old Trafford, Gaffney stated that he was ecstatic with his teams attitude towards the game, particularly in the second half when it looked like Man Utd had the game wrapped up already.
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Sep 2009:

Aston Villa continued their absolutely brilliant start to the campaign with victory in all five of their premier league games, including victories over Arsenal and Liverpool, as well as winning their opening two group games of the Europa League and qualifying for the fourth round of the League Cup.

Biggest games of the month:
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Tactics:
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Results:
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League Table:
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Donovan Gaffney was named as manager of the month for September, follow to see whether the curse that is manager of the month will affect Gaffney, or can Villa continue this dream start to the season?
 
What tactics do you use mate? And why such little transfer activity? Surely you got rid of Harewood and Shorey, maybe even Heskey and Gardner aswell? On my Villa save game i managed to bring in Dzeko and Moutinho
 
I'm playing a standard 4-4-2 with Beckham as a deep-lying playmaker and Petrov as a ball-winning mid, Agbonlahor as an advanced forward, he is scoring for fun mate, unfortunately Carew got injured for about 4 months two games into the season which was a bit of a blow.
For some of my games, against bigger teams especially, I drop both Beckham and Petrov into DM positions and push Young and Milner up to Wingers.
Yeah sold Harewood, Heskey, Shorey, Beye and Sidwell, although some of these are on loan with an option to buy. I am a Villa fan so I want to do well with the players that are at Villa IRL, possibly looking to add a few players in the January transfer window. I am also looking to give the likes of Delph, Delfouneso, Albrighton, etc a few games.
 
Thanks, hopefully I can keep winning.
How do I stop the over-confidence from my team? Before every game my assistant tells me of certain players who are showing signs of over-confidence.
 
I suppose you could drop them for a game or two as it might send them back down to earth.
 
Just tell them you expect a win so they don't think it's going to be easy :)

Keep it up mate, good work.
 
Great Thanks Chris and Max

---------- Post added at 09:40 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:26 AM ----------

Maybe you guys can help me with something else as well... I held a "Back-room meeting" and my assistant says that the team has a reputation for struggling against smaller opposition...? As you can see by my results, the only games I have not won were in the 2nd leg of my Europa League qualifier...which was irrelevant really, and the league cup game... I played a second string team in both these games.
 
I have the same thing with Newcastle. I usually lose 5 or 6 every season and only 2 games would be to a smaller team. Just keep it the same as you are obviously producing the results.
 
Thanks for following.
Will be posting October, and maybe November, updates tomorrow.
 
Looking forward to it. ^^)
 
Oct 2009:

So the curse strikes yet again, after being named manager of the month for September, Gaffney's team struggled to keep the momentum going in October. A good start to the month with victory over Wigan, as well as beating Metalist in the Europa League and Reading on penalties in League Cup, however the fans were left fuming after losing 3-0 to stoke at Villa Park.

Nov 2009:

Another roller-coaster ride this month, with some good wins cancelled out by poor defeats. Most notable victories were those over fierce rivals Birmingham as well as Man City, however the loss to Metalist at home in the Europa League was a major blow.

Gaffney stated that he was over the moon to have won his first Midlands derby and that he was looking to make this a habit
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The victory over Man City again proved that Villa are capable of beating the big teams
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Results:
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League Table:
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After having a good look at the quality of players at his disposal, Gaffney stated that he was looking forward to the January transfer window to bring in some more quality. "Some of the players have not performed as I had expected, I will be looking to offload a few players, and hopefully bring in a bit more quality all around." It is rumoured that Reo-Coker will be on his way out after having a dreadful season so far.

Does the Villa squad have enough strength in depth to cope with the December schedule? Villa have a total of tens games scheduled for December, at an average of one game every three days.
 
Can someone help me with defensive tactics, as I have started to leak goals more frequently. What settings should i give my defenders?
Also, has anyone got the best out of Reo-Coker?
 
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