Some seasons Ferrisin'

100% Arnaud and Townsey will be leaving, Arnaud will be 35 next season and he's sitting on wages of £3,600 a week. Whereas Townsey has never really impressed and it just a backup player, I have a young ST out on loan who can hopefully come in next year and grab some goals from the bench.

I may also deal Espindola, I just fancy freshening the attack up a little and I may as well try and move him on while his stock is still relatively high. Signing and trade wise expect a striker or two and an MC. From the draft I'll be chasing depth once more, don't think I'll be able to get a player of starting quality because I'll be really low in the drafting order due to this season's success.

Picked this guy up in the waiver draft, he's exactly the type of player I need for next season. Cheap wages, solid stats, can play in a few positions. Only thing that counts against him is his status as an international player, but hey, if he has to get cut to accommodate a better international then its minimal loss overall to us.

Picked up from the waiver draft too, perfect. Good experience, can play DMC and MC, fair enough wages. Anyone familiar with Shalrie Joseph in real life knows that this ain't the New England Joseph who used to run rampant and dominate games. But he'll serve a purpose with us. Classified as an American player too not as an International one, the finer details of the deal.

Traded both Espindola and Nick DeLeon. For Espindola I just got minor draft picks, but for DeLeon I got Houston's 8th pick in this years draft and also a pick in the supplemental draft for them.

I think I needed a higher pick in the first round because mine is the 19th and last pick, so with Houston's I'll be looking to pick up a guy with decent quality. First season DeLeon had flashes of brilliance, this year he has hardly featured, he's too fat to be a long term fixture in this team.

Looking through the squad the main priorities are definitely two backup strikers and an MC. I'm planning on getting one backup ST from the draft and signing players from within the league for the other two positions. Also considering bringing in a high quality attacking midfielder just to lessen Davis' load.

Two quick transfer updates;



Brought in for his experience and versatility, only had to give up a supplemental draft pick so I'm really pleased with that.



Had to give up a little more for this guy, 300k in allocation money, and two first round supplemental picks. He's my third man striker and last season he got 22 goals in the league so he's proven.

Those deals pretty much ensure my main target for this SuperDraft is a ST, beyond that I'm open and flexible, would prefer midfielders and strikers to defenders, but if a good versatile defender comes up I'll have a good look at him.

Draft results in;



So with my first round pick I took a pacey striker who should offer us something different from the bench late on in games. I question how much I can get from my other two picks but they do have one specific stat which I was looking for from the draft; determination.





In my mind players from further down in the draft will be solely coming from the bench, so I thought to myself I may as well bring in players who can come on and not give up if we are chasing a game. So these two boys are ok talents, but most likely just bench talents.

Just in as my backup GK, I have a young GK in Ryan Hunt but I just want a third choice GK incase it all goes tits up.



In as a starting MC, didn't have to give too much up for him and he has nice all round stats.

Don't think I'll be signing anyone else now, think I'd only budge from that for a very good MC, and even then he'd have to be the right kind of player on the right kind of wage.

Said I wouldn't sign anyone else unless a good MC came up and damn did one come up. Ol' Hugo Viana. He's in on a DP contract, and a minimum one at that, barely even qualifies as a DP. Due to the DP rules he's only costing about £4,600 on the wage cap.

With this I needed to cut a player, and I decided to let go of Jonatas. He joined me last year but he only played a 6.72 over the course of last season and someone had to go. He was on a £2,800 contract so I think swapping him for Viana is a good deal.



He can definitely still go, imo it opens up the interesting prospect of playing with a permanent AMC. I've tested it at different point and I think both he and Davis could be perfect in rotating in that role. We shall see, for now, let us celebrate the second most famous number 45 in football lacing up his boots in the MLS.

Jesus christ, the waiver draft is stacked. One or two players there may be far too good to pass on, gonna reassess the squad and may end up drafting some players.

Gay if you don't pick Caldwell.

Viana would make a great Enganche if you play with one.

Played briefly with Enganche's earlier on in FM14 and I never liked the role, I prefer the Advanced Playmaker and Shadow Striker roles more for my AMCs. With the Enganche in the past its just annoyed me how they truly do just stick to the AMC position, whereas in real life a real Enganche doesn't do that. Its one of those things where SI have added a position into the tactical creator just to be smart arses.

I use an Enganche and two Shadow Strikers and it works extremely well.

I use Ravel Morrison and have taught him to run with the ball down the right and left - so he roams around the pitch. He got 16 goals and 15 assists in 36 games last year.

I like the idea of a strikerless system (I presume that's what you're playing), don't recall ever playing one in FM myself. I've been tempted to try one in conjunction with a three man defence / a sweeper. May look into it for this season as I have Bobby Boswell who can play sweeper and I reckon both Davis and Viana could cause some damage in AMC roles playing off balls to rampaging wingers.

A possibility for sure.

Aye, I've been using it for a while now - it's quite weak defensively but is devastating going forward.

I scored 99 goals last year, but conceded 58.

A 3 man defence with a half back and a sweeper would be interesting...

Due to the quality in the waiver draft I felt like I had to act. I already had a good GK in Hamid, but I think Johnson is a better GK overall, Hamid's deal is also up at the end of the year and I wasn't sure if he'd resign, so this kills that worry. I also decided to take Lade because of my strange love for him in real life and because of his cheap wages and decent mental stats.

With those two dealings though I had to cut two players, so out went my newly signed backup GK (can't remember his name, began with a K) and I also decided to let go of Andrade, the lad I drafted in 2nd place for last season. Andrade just hadn't developed as I hoped he would and he was now 24 years old, the room for improvement was diminishing with every passing month. One MLS goal to his name in 28 games just ain't good enough for me.

First game of the season is against Philly, Johnson will start in goal and Lade could make an appearance from the bench.

My opinions are slowly being challenged, kiu

Quick look at my scouting setup before the season gets underway.

I'm constantly on the look out for new scouts and an expansion of the amount of scouts I have. Generally I like to get a good scouting network of my immediate region and then slowly cast my net further and further afield. So when in the MLS I like a good North American setup, then I move to Central America and finally South America.

I have three scouts in North America because I like to have as many scout reports as possible on players in the MLS, due to the league's unique transfer system it pays off to know what every player can and can't do, especially round waiver draft time. Central America always throws up some cheap gems and South American countries like Colombia always produce great, attainable players. Argentine's and Brazilian's usually cost a little too much so if you are grabbing players from there they are usually on frees.

The Caribbean can be sparse, but I don't want to risk a Jamaican wonderkid coming through and me missing him. At Mirandela on FM13 I was scouting countries like Panama, Costa Rica, Jamaica, etc and every now and then they'd churn out a wee diamond who I could sell on for a fee ranging anywhere from £3m to £25m+.

Ultimately if I get the chance I'll start sending scouts to Scandinavia and maybe Africa, but first I'd like one or two more scouts in and around the America's.

See wee Ali man, the MLS does nothing but give.

The squad does have a different complexion this year and I like it, six debuts in the first game of the season. The added depth will serve us well in our NACL campaign. At the end of this year 17 players are out of contract, I may take advantage of that and do some serious squad reshaping just to keep things as fresh as possible. We'll see how this year goes.

Just been absolutely torn apart by a Keirrison inspired Chicago team, he got four goals and an assist. Some new DPs are finally starting to come into the league and he's probably the best out of the lot, some other notable MLS acquisitions this year;

- Kazenga LuaLua at Columbus
- Jack Colback at Red Bulls
- David N'Gog at Philly
- McDonald Mariga at Chicago
- Marc Albrighton at Toronto

Eddie Johnson picked up an injury and my draft pick (Jay Clare) has been out injured basically since I picked him. So I had to go out and get myself another striker. Squad wise I had two international slots free and two reserve contracts free, I couldn't go out and sign another senior player even though I had the cap space because I already have the 20 permitted senior contract players on my books.

So I checked the scout reports, sorted players by atleast two and a half CA and by their minimum wage demands (the max a reserve contract player can be given is £450) and I scouted all the suitable players. Out of everyone this boy fit the bill, pacey, good technical stats and a massive transfer fee of £0.

Unbelievable start from Seattle, they appointed Dominic Kinnear in the post-season and his 433 has tore shit up. But, they have a very small squad and I don't know if they'll be able to last the distance. Its the Gold Cup this summer and by my count Seattle have 4 or 5 players who will be going, that will definitely hurt them.

Hugo Viana <3

Been a bloody rough spell for us, totally didn't envisage our season being anything like this. It can be put down to two things;

1. Injuries, I've only got five games out of Brad Davis (3 assists in those games) and six out of normal starting CB Attakora
2. Form of Johnson and Pontius, 10 starts each for both, one goal each for both. Absolutel abysmal.

Board have said if I lose the next game I'm sacked.

Started with an 80% fit Davis vs Columbus, we went 1-0 up and Davis grabbed the assist, ultimately got beat 2-1 and therefore got sacked. Its my own fault, I never really felt like we were in danger of not making the playoffs, at the end of the day we were only six points off top in the conference. Harsh sacking in my view especially when I took us to the title last year when we were predicted to finish 2nd last.

Injuries, holding onto Pontius and Johnson too long and underestimating the severity of the situation cost me. Hey ho, I fancy another MLS job, after that I think I'll look towards Mexico and maybe South America.

Time to leave the rat race and rejoin the human race. Don't expect to be out of the job for too long.

My oh my, two clicks of the space bar and we have one interview offer and two job offers. First up, Chicago offer me an interview, I accept, they want defensive football focused on set pieces, I certainly don't, so I doubt I'd get that. Gold Cup wraps up, Costa Rica offer me the job, as do the USA.

I wasn't planning on managing the USA this early in my career, I thought it would be fun to knock about on the club scene for a bit and then step up. But maybe a bit of distance between me and the MLS will make them foolish MLS owners appreciate this son bitch more.

So yes, having an automatic rep with American nationality pays off, Klinsmann is out, there's a new Sheriff in town.

So first up, clear out some of the deadwood staff. I just want a key few guys who will go out and scout the American players for me, keep me in the loop as to who is hot and who is not.

Also set up some decent friendlies against the likes of Chile, Australia, Ghana, Japan, etc. Don't get why people arrange friendlies vs teams they know they'll hammer, pointless arranging friendlies against the likes of Niger just to get the easy win. You're better off testing yourself and seeing where you are at.

And finally, Chicago offered me the job, sadly for them, I'm a US kind of guy now.

First squad is in, there were quite a few injuries to American players, especially in midfield, so one or two players will be given a chance to impress in these friendlies. I'm not expecting too much due to the quality of the opposition and the team still getting used to my tactics. I'm gonna chuck up some screenies of a few of the more unknown elements within the squad.













A squad in which both Landon Donovan and Julian Green can co-exist, who'd have thunk it?