Joseph's Career

After 25 years with the greatest manager of all time, Sir Alex Ferguson, United made the bold choice of appointing fellow Scot, David Moyes, the so called 'Chosen One'. After a miserable season in which United finished 7th, Moyes was sacked after less than a year in the job, replace by Ryan Giggs, who led United for 4 undefeated games at the end of the season. After the debacle of the Moyes era, the United board headed in a new direction, hiring a completely unknown young Italian manager with no previous managerial experience and only playing in his local league. My aim at United is to win every major trophy there is to win as well a bringing in my own class of young talent who will dominate the Premier League in the next few years.

A bit of info about me and the club.
Pre Season/August 2014






Brought in a host of young talent to improve the squad and strengthen the future when the old guard does move on. Maher and Hughes won't be available until next season. Most of the signings here were on the cheap. I got Horn for $7m and Carvalho for $19m. My only expensive transfer was Martinez who cost me a cool $31m as we need cover at centre-back because Rojo is playing LB because Shaw is one of the many players who are unavailable due to injury. To accomidate these transfers, I let got of Tom Cleverley for $15.5M and sadly Darren Fletcher for $5.5M. I also got rid of Fellaini for a nice fee although it is way below his value.

Not exactly the start I had imagined. After fielding basically and Under 21's squad for my U.S.A camp. I played my strongest available squad for the game aginst Arsenal. I guess I should have played a couple of games with my best 11 because we got smacked 4-2. We were lucky to bring it back to 2-1 just before the break but a tap-in for Podolski and and sweet free-kick from Wilshire ended all hopes. Against Chelsea we were really unlucky. After being 2-1 down, Phil Jones put it into his own net to end the game. A late goal from Rooney gave us a glimmer of hope but we were never going to break down the bus. Sunderland was an appaling result. I played with nearly the exact squad from the League Cup win and we lost thanks to a goal from Steven Fletcher. Much work is needed ahead.

Our shit month leaves us in the relegation zone with 0 points from 3 games with -4 GD. Something we need to work on is our defense although the majority of my back line is injured.


These two just add to the injury list which includes Luke Shaw, Michael Carrick, Jonny Evans (who returned for the Sunderland game), Rafael (who returned), Chris Smalling and William Carvalho. Basically my whole backline and two key midfielders.. Slowly but surely they are returning and strengthening my squad so hopefully results will improve.
Next month in the next day or two.

September/October 2014

Managed this on Deadline Day. Quality signing for a cheap $18.5M given he is a current international and his buyout clause was 77 million.

A better couple of months with only two losses to Everton in the league and Hull in the Capitol One Cup. The league cup wasn't that important so I am not disappointed however the crushing loss to Everton was a concern. The draws against Villa and Newcastle were disappointing as well because I feel like we should have won both those games.

Because of only losing once, we rise to 13th on the table, only 5 points off 4th place but 13 off 1st. My goal differential is a problem, we are conceding far too many goals to be able to challenge for the title.



It dosen't help when you are losing key personnel in the squad such as Januzaj and Di Maria. Because they both play on the left, I have had to call up Ashley Young on the left. To be fair he has actually gone alright so far, scoring a goal and being a menace down the left wing.

Good news that he is back but it'll take some time for him to get accustomed to English Football. In his first game for the club, he had a shocker and was at fault for the Kone goal against Hull in the League Cup. However he has come back from a serious injury and he is only young, so give him time and he'll come good.

November/December 2014

Well I don't know what happened but we were UNSTOPPABLE in November and December. Undefeated for 10 straight games including 5 straight wins and 8 clean sheets including 5 clean sheets in a row. The two wins against Liverpool and Man City were pleasing, although I would have liked to have won the City game more comfortably. We absolutely destroyed Southampton after being 3-0 up after 22 minutes. In our final game of the year, we extracted revenge from Hull after our League Cup exit.

Our amazing run leaves us 5th on the ladder which is surprising. During December, I was fighting for 2nd and 3rd spot with Tottenham, Arsenal and Everton. Good thing is, I'm only 5 off top but look at Chelsea and Arsenal's GD






My run was even harder as I was hit with many injuries through out late November-mid December. Rafael and Mata were annoying, and Shaw has been injured for a bit this year, although when he plays he is very consistent and always getting good match ratings. I'm not too concrned about Young because I have just had a $15M offer from Everton. Great, because he is taking up $205,000 per week in wages. Not even a good player.
End of year stats
Goals

Van Persie tops the list with a slightly lower than expected six goals in all competitions (5 in the league). He has had many opportunities but fails to take them. Di Maria in second is good while Januzaj in third is a surprise as he has been injured for a while and very rarely starts.
Assists

Again Van Persie tops the list with assists with 5. This is a shame as I would of thought my midfielders (Mata, Herrera, Di Maria) would have provided more. Mata is second on 4 but needs to provide more whether he is central or down the right wing.
Average Rating

A bit of a surprise really with Vrsajiko topping the average rating in the squad. He has been an able replacement for Rafael while he has been injured and provides nice wing and link up play. He is only 22 and is a current international which is even better so I hope he can improve to become a world class right back in the future.
Busy couple of months ahead. Stay tuned for more.

January/February


It will probably be a surprise that I signed Odegaard for the price I did and he only just joined Pescara but I had to have him. I see him partnering Januzaj, Maher and Hughes in the future. Thank god I let go of Anderson. Terrible player on massive wages.

This is very concerning. It took him 25 games to score a goal. This is not what your main attacking player should be doing. It is Torres-esque. A shame, because I want him to break Sir Bobby's record.

Apart from the Chelsea loss, we performed well in every match. We could have beaten Everton but they were a good side. We should have beaten Leicester even though we fielded a second string squad. Yes you are reading that right in the Burnley game, van Persie scored 2 goals in the 23rd minute. He scored on 22:01 and then got the ball off the kick off and ran through the whole team to score again on 22:50.

Because of my two losses to Chelsea and a draw and a loss to Arsenal, I am 1 point behind Southampton, who I beat 4-0. Good thing is, I'm only 5 off top so a couple of good wins will put me ahead.

New contract. Good because I can see the club winning the Premier League for the next few seasons. We have a good young group coming through as well as players who are entering or in their prime at the moment. I want to be apart of that.



Unlucky with van Persie, he was my top scorer and assister. I now have to play Rooney up front. But now Mata can operate in his favorite position, behind the striker as an Advanced Playmaker. Blind is annoying but I have cover in Carrick, Carvalho and even Jones. How often does a keeper get injured in a game? Unluckly with De Gea but Timo Horn has been an able replacement, keeping well in the draw against Arsenal and in subsequent games. Both Blind and De Gea have made returns and will feature in my next league game.
March and the penultimate month of the season next update

March/April 2015



Nice to be rewarded all round for a great February. Shaw has been outstanding all season and is in contention for the English Premier League Young player of the Season award. Di Maria has been great in front of goal scoring 6 in 5 matches in February while we went undefeated throughout the league which included a couple of 5 goal performances.

Carvalho has grown under Carrick and that is a good thing, because it helps Carvalho become accustomed to the Premier League and help him grow as a footballer.



Only a couple of losses but they come to two big rivals. Tottenham are ahead of me on the table and City were looking for revenge after we beat them 1-0 earlier in the season. We managed to verse West Brom three times in the space of 2 weeks with only the one win, in the F.A. Cup. Big win in the F.A. Cup semi-final which means I play Chelsea in the final, a team I haven't beaten this season.

This is getting close. We are three points off Southampton but 11 points off Chelsea. I think the title is gone but hopefully I can sneak into the top 3. Guess who I have first up in May? Southampton, who I smacked 4-0 last time we played them. That's followed by a game against Liverpool. Two tough games ahead.

After the Hull game.



Herrera wasn't a massive loss but was still annoying. Evans is a big loss but luckily we have plenty of cover from Jones, Martinez and Musacchio and Smalling. Januzaj is very injury prone. This is his 4th or 5th injury this season.
Luke Shaw fluke goal vs QPR
Luke Shaw's amazing goal vs QPR. (Sorry for the bad quality)

May 2015

Great news for Shaw after an impressive month where he laid on 2 assists and scored a freak goal. He is touted as the favorite to win the English Young Player of the Year award from the media.

Fucking Bullshit.

I always thought it was going to work seeing as they both are from Northern Ireland. McNair is another player coming through who I hope breaks into the first team in coming years.

We qualify in 4th spot which means we need to have a two-legged play-off first *sigh*. At least we qualified by a good margin, that Southampton result was basically a play-off for 4th spot.

Two RvP penalties secured the 3 points and 4th place for the team. This was followed by a tough 1-1 draw at home to Liverpool in which we should have won the match if it wasn't for a dodgy offside call in the 90th minute to deny Rooney. The lads weren't focused for the Swansea game and two Wifried Bony goals condemned us to defeat in Wales. A resounding 4-0 thumping of Stoke to finish the season which featured many highs (Derby wins, Champions League qualification) and many lows (Losses to shit teams, knocked out of League Cup by Hull) was nice. Now we looked forward to a difficult game against Chelsea in the F.A. Cup final. It was always a difficult game with Chelsea keeping possession for most of the game and us chasing the game after going down 1-0 after 17 minutes from a Hazard penalty. Oscar scored the second in the 63rd minute which ended all hope of us winning. Still it was a great effort from the boys to make it this far. Hopefully next year we can go one better and win it.

The final table with the top three all London teams. City and Liverpool finish in 7th and 8th surprisingly. Palace, West Ham and West Brom all go down while Fulham, Notts Forrest and Watford all come up for another go at the Premier League.

Falcao the only injury which unfortunately ruled him out of the game against Chelsea. I also missed Jonny Evans at the back for that one.
Overall it has been a good season although I would have liked to won a trophy. Next year I am aiming to:

• Win the Premier League
• Win either F.A. or League Cup
• Make the final 8 for Champions League
• Manager of the Year in Premier League

Pre-season and the first month of 15/16 season in the next update

Pre-Season/August 2015



Fan's player of the year for last season was Angel di Maria which is deserved, he had a cracker of a year. Our best 11 is nearly our most used 11 apart from Valencia. We start the season at Arsenal again *sigh*. Hoping for an easy Christmas/New Year schedule.
Transfers (Ins and Outs)











A host of transfers in and out of the club. Disregard the Pearson and Pereira signings, they were let go on frees but I didn't want them to go and luckily they resigned with the club. Got rid of players who weren't going to feature heavily in my campaign this season (Nani, Hernandez, Carrick, Smalling). Van Persie was a controversial one in the eyes of the fans but I have faith in Rooney, Angelo Henriquez and James Wilson to lead United in the next few years. I also bought young Sam Byram from Leeds as he looks a top prospect for RB as well as being English (Most of the players I sold were English or were trained in England so I barely just got my squad registered). I also bought a host of young talent who won't join my club for a year or two.

After a successful pre-season blighted by the Schalke loss, we faced Bordeaux at home in the Champions League qualifier. The lads were up for it and raced out of the blocks and we were 3-0 up after 32 minutes. Martinez added the forth in injury time to seal the win. What a comeback for the Arsenal game. After being 1-0 up after 16 minutes, they scored two soft goals just before and then just after the break. Mata hit a stunning free kick to level and then Rooney smashed home a cross from Shaw to win it 3 minutes later. The second leg was a rotated squad and it didn't really matter. QPR was annoying because we were up 2-1 before they scored in the 88th minute to equalise.

The one win and draw leaves us sixth on GD. Better start than last year, which'll make it easier to stay up the top of the ladder.

Champions League group. PSG could be a worry but I should qualify.




The only disappointing injury is Evans but at least I have plenty of good backup.

September/October

Nothing much off-field except for me winning the Manager of the month award for September. It was a good effort from the boys as we remained undefeated through out September.

It was a good couple of months until the end of October, with two disappointing losses against Millwall and PSG. The Millwall loss was embarrassing, we should have been 4/5-0 up at half time. PSG was a tough game and they were the better side. Leicester was a good game, a 5-0 win with 5 separate scorers. A good couple of wins against Everton and Swansea as well highlighted the form we are in at the moment.


Still undefeated in the league, we are in second behind City, who are ahead on GD and the basis of them having 0 draws to our 4 draws. Our CL group is going to be tough, we have PSG in our next game. That could make or break our campaign.



Blind was injured early in September and returened for the game against PSG. El Shaarawy wasn't a big loss, as we have plenty of cover for LW. Henriquez is a big loss because now we are down to only one out and out striker, Wayne Rooney.
November and the final month of 2015 in the next update

November/December 2015

Not a lot happening off the field besides this and Carvalho handing in a transfer request. Luckily 6 or so clubs are after him so I can jack up the price .

First game of November (on my birthday as well) was a crazy 5-4 win over PSG. It was tit-for-tat, you score, I score etc. until a Thiago Silva backpass gone wrong helped Rooney score the winner 4 minutes from time. What a better way to follow that up by smashing your nearest neighbors 4-0 in a derby win. With virtually the same squad as the PSG game, we went out there and absolutely destroyed City. 2 weeks later, a great win verse Spurs away. The Chelsea game, I was pissed. We were up 3-1 in the 90th minute before Schurrle and Willian scored injury time goals to salvage a 3-3 draw, which was totally undeserved, we outplayed them all over the pitch. Another great derby win against Liverpool with Carvalho scoring the 91st minute winner off a header. Undefeated all the way until my last game of the year, losing to Stoke 2-1 after Olseen scored a beauty from 40 yards out.

I finish the year in first place, 3 points ahead of Arsenal and with a superior goal difference.

I finished second in my CL group. This is the first knockout round draw. Fairly easy one against Fenerbache, hopefully I'll qualify for the next round.



All very annoying injuries which leaves me short for replacement strikers. Luckily, Rooney is in red-hot form, so Henriquez and El Shaarawy don't actually start. This is Januzaj's 4th injury this season.