Addickted To Winning (A Charlton story) IIIIIIIIIIII

Two promoted players;



I expected Fazio to become an absolutely world class CB when he first came from the academy, however he just hasn't come on over the past two seasons he has had out on loan. Now he's just gonna be a perennial backup and homegrown quota filler.



Picked Moller up for 3.5m at the start of last season and he's coming off a 7.29 loan season with Bologna. He'll be in and around my starting AMR and AML berths all season.

After every international tournament now I'm getting job offers, just knocked back Holland, Portugal, France, Italy, Spain and England. I'd fancy international management but just not yet, maybe a nation like China could be quite interesting down the road.

Eyeing a GK but the market isn't being too kind, may have to make a relatively big signing. Would have continued with Simon Jan for at least one more year but I've really went pro-youth in my recruitment and I could do with a dominating GK to compensate.

On the outs I've so far only lost one player I didn't want to go, Assas. Napoli came in with a 30m bid, I rejected, he got bitchy, I said lets see what we can do, Juve immediately come in with a 39m bid;

- 24m upfront
- 8m after 50 games
- 8m after 10 internationals
- 20% profit

The clauses haven't been included in the listed fee though, I'll definitely get the 8m for international appearances, 8m for 50 games could be tougher.

Reunited with our conquerers from last season, Heerenveen have also been winning the Eredivisie pretty consistently so they could be a sleeper.

That's a nice little jump, serves us well in the battle for a new stadium.

Interesting, thankfully all my transfer business is wrapped up so an embargo wouldn't hurt us. If a new owner comes in they'll just cut a few feeder clubs and dilly dally on a stadium. Hopefully I can twist their arm more than what I've been able to twist the current chairmans arm.

A 60m profit on transfers and an £8m cut to the annual wage bill on these deals. I'll give you the break down on each;

Armanac - Felt like I could do better from DMC/MC with someone younger
Neto - 29, one year left on his deal, optimum time to sell
Sneijder - One year left on his deal, wanted 100k, wasn't willing to offer it
Carnival - No longer good enough for us, the club has moved on
Segun - As above
Assas - Didn't want to lose him but couldn't be arsed with him pissing moaning
Celik - See Carnival / Segun

We've strengthened our rivals with the Neto, Sneijder and Assas deals but such is football. I'm putting all my faith in the youth this season as I want to develop a great young core. Now come January if we're sitting 10th in the table I will make no apologies as I burn through my £200m transfer budget in an effort to claw 4th place.

Will do the ins on the next post, as a prelude each player I signed bar Guido Lopez and Zunino are listed as wonderkids.

Really dig his mental stats, I want him to potentially force Wind from the DMC role post-January so I can look to sell Wind next summer.



Him being Italian was one of the main reasons I brought him in, his physical stats mean he can be a threat from AMR but also a great impact sub for my box to box MC role too.



Straight in and loaned out to Torino, potential replacement for the DMC role which could be freed up next summer if Masson can replace Wind.



Wanted more of an attacking threat from MC as I feel that in recent seasons I haven't been able to bring on a game changing creative MC from the bench.



Would have liked a better CB to replace Assas but the market was sparse, opted for him as he has solid base stats and he has room to grow. 1.5 CA and a 3.5 star PA, if he hits 3 star CA his stats could be amazing for a CB.



Hopefully the man to keep the starting GK spot for the long term future, he arrives with a five week injury so Simon Jan has remained for now.



In to pad out the CL squad.


In 2 to 3 seasons my squad will be full of home grown players, for now I still have to resort to youth GKs and the odd Gianmarco Zunino to pad out the numbers. Believe in the process.

Said I was loading my rivals up

Fuck sake, just what I didn't need. Star MC out for a good period, gives more chance to the younger guys. Starting MCs will now probably be Vardar and my 20 year old Danish MC Henrik Olesen.

Parra moaning about wanting first team football, we're one game deep into the season. Could be a long one. Have quite an easy September (famous last words) so I will give him a run to shut him up. It ain't like he disappointed when he deputised for Mauro last season.

The squad average age this year is 23 compared to a league average of 27, I only have 2 players over 29 so if nothing else I have a team more than capable of challenging for the Italian U20s league this season.

Keep getting fitness concerns from the Ast Man for Masson and Olesen, both are in need of a rest already. Can't really afford to rest either though as the games are coming thick and fast because of my injuries at CM. Boukhari still has 4 month out, Wind is out for six weeks and Sheridan who I use as a rotation option CM is out for a month. I'm having to play Moller and Lorenzo Lorenzi (imaginative) as auxiliary CMs.

Hopefully they can pull through another 2 month and get to the winter break for a proper rest.

Fuck you little gimps, if yous spent less time playing Minecraft and making loom bands then we wouldn't have had that gash five game league run.

Quelled the mutiny, only Wind walked away unhappy, he knows I want to sell him. He just knows.

Another league defeat, this time to Cagliari at home. Our form can be put down to;
- Injuries at CM, we're really hurting, currently playing Moller and Bak at MC
- Ill-discipline, sick of picking up red cards, for the past two seasons we've set new poor discipline records in the league
- Unsettled players (Jimenez, Wind, Parra)

Could make some moves in Jan, all hinges upon my ability to shift my three bad eggs.

Bloody fuming with that Liverpool result, conceded in the 93rd minute to lose top spot.

The team are really pissing me off at this point, I want some post-Xmas consistency, I'm already 10 points off top in the league and at this point all that will make me happy is another deep CL run.

Tried all of December to attract bids for Wind and Parra, hopefully January changes things.

Regardless of anything I need something extra at MC, I could recall van Berlo from Torino as I made sure to put in a recall option in his loan, however he's tearing shit up for Torino (7.51 over 15 league games) so I don't want to disrupt that. Gonna look to either a grab an experience CM on loan or a younger option permanently.

Finally after four months of on/off negotiations we have a deal. Lifts the embargo that was put on us and we're ready to rock in Jan.

God bless America.

Being priced out of every half decent CM in the bloody game atm, may just go for a younger player with a lower CA/PA than wanted but with all the right stats in all the right places.

The lack of Italian CMs available to me is unbelievable, there are only four Italian DMCs under 24 with a passing above 11, and only seven U24 Italian CMs with a passing above 12.

Casting the net far and wide in my hunt for 2 MCs and a ST. Taking the hit on CA/PA for a few targets but making it up for it in their raw stat value.

Trying to keep fees low as realistically these players could be replaced in the summer if some better targets become available.

God damn this is doing my tits in, I've found myself about four STs who I want to chase this window but on the MC front I'm having no luck whatsoever. At this point I'm stuck between going out and getting someone who could be a backup for a season and a half and then be sold, or just getting in someone on loan for six month and re-evaluating this summer.

We do have Boukhari due back at the end of this month after his five month out but there's no guarantees he will come back and hit the ground running.

Just that god damn blip in the middle that hurt us, thankfully everyone else (bar Juve) have been terribly inconsistent too. Absolutely delighted with the back to back Juve/AC wins, that is what has kept us right at the top of the table. At my worst I was 11 or 12 off Juve, down to 8 now. We just need to keep winning and cut the ill-discipline out

Bear in mind its just gone 2057, simply not enough, not enough. I have them looking for 3.5 PA, 0.5 CA, U25 players. Might just rejig it to straight up U23 with nothing beyond that and pull my scouts out from the war zones, they just aren't finding any raw minerals.

Get Jim White, Natalie Sawyer and some FM stats up in this mug because deadline day has passed.

Ins



Outs



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My Parra replacement, much like Artoumian I like his base stats for a player that young. Can offer me cover across 3 positions and some drive from the wings.



He gives me three things I wanted; 1. a height option up top, 2. a viable AMC option, 3. depth for the times I want to play 2 up top. I'm working on using a 4231 and a 352 more, so he will play a role in that. Its not like I'm gonna totally depart from my 433 overnight, just in the odd game when I want some different players playing.



Not ideal, but he will be my Wind replacement. I'm gonna play Sheridan more from MC as oppose to AMR thanks to the arrival of Hajji and I'm also going to retrain Lorenzo Lorenzi as an MC for further cover. Will he still be here in 18 months time? I doubt it, unless his performances really catch my eye. I went for him as he was cheap, young and has good creative MC stats.

All three signings are on dirt cheap wages and can offer me something unique, in regards to Poncelas and Eller they bring something to me which I didn't have before (height upfront and a controlling MC).

Comeback game for Boukhari, part of a 4-1 Italian Cup QF win vs Bari, Steve Sheridan got a hat trick and Poncelas grabbed two assists.

We never really looked in control and PSG had their chances, but Mauro pulled us through once more. A repeat performance of last years in Paris and I will be a very happy coffee drinker.

Noice, noice. Great performance all round, tidy, simple, effective. And Boukhari on the scoresheet to boot, he'll be pivotal in our CL run and potential (potential) title push (potential).

Youth batch is in and they're all bloody abysmal. Don't think I have a single Palermo kid on the books who has what it takes to be anything more than quota filler during their career. Disheartening but not the end of the world.

van Berlo is still going strong with Torino on loan so he will definitely be in the first team squad next season.

In the next month we have a Serie A game vs Napoli, the second leg of the Italian cup semi vs Inter (won the first leg 2-1) and our CL QFs vs Real Madrid. Gonna take some squad rotation as we won't have much rest time.

4 draws, 9 wins over the last 13 league games....13 points off Juventus. Juve just aren't fucking around, to take our minds off this lets look at the impacts of my January signings;

Eller - MC - 6(1) - 0 - 0 - 6.87
Poncelas - ST - 6(6) - 4 -4 - 7.27
Hajji - AMRL - 7(4) - 2 -0 6.85

Not too shocked with Eller, was always a risk bringing him in. Would have liked a wee bit more from Hajji but its been tough, I'm yet to play him from ST and that is his genuine position, I want him more as a winger though. As for Poncelas he is quality when I start him, from the bench he has been hit and miss. I hope this form just isn't a flash in the pan with him as I'd like to have him on lock as my backup ST for the next 2-3 seasons. Its nice being able to rest Mauro every now and then

Nice run in the Champions Laegue.