The Man Utd Nationalist Challenge

For those that don't know the Nationalist Challenge is a challenge in which you can only sign players from England, you can read more about it on the official nationalist challenge page

So I decided to take on the Nationalist Challenge with Man Utd. Despite being a Watford fan I’ve always had a soft spot for United and never get the chance to manage a big team like this. Plus they’ve got the likes of Tom Cleverly and Ashley Young who have both made a massive impact at Watford in the past.

There is of course a good base of English players at United to begin with including:

• Chris Smalling
• Phil Jones
• Rio Ferdinand
• Michael Carrick
• Tom Cleverley
• Paul Scholes
• Ashley Young
• Wayne Rooney
• Danny Wellbeck

Okay so only 9 players, that’s not great when I want to try and create a strong 22 man side. But it’s a good base nonetheless. The disappointing fact is that most of the well rated kids in the Reserves and U18’s are foreigners, there isn’t really anyone of note from English descent so I’m going to have my work cut out to build the kind a quality youth setup needed to come through and replace the likes of Ferdinand and Scholes.

So without further ado this is how my first season went:

Summer Transfers In

Leighton Baines - £23.5m
Chuba Akpom - £4m (kid from Arsenal, lots of skill and pace, passing of 4)
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain - £22m
Michael Mancienne – Loan (after selling Vidic my offer for Ryan Shawcross fell through on transfer deadline day and I needed some cover)

Summer Transfers Out

A bunch of foreign kids that I can’t be bothered to mention
Patrice Evra – Stuttgart - £5m (Should have got more for him but with Baines in I needed cash and nobody was biting)
Nemanja Vidic - Dortmund - £20m (at his age, I wanted to cash in early to maximise the re-investment opportunities)
Antonio Valencia – Arsenal - £20m (possibly my worst decision, won player of the year and scored 18 goals. But hey the team was purified, I can’t complain)

January Transfers In

Mason Bennett - £3.2m (highly rated by my scouts, another striker for the future)
Steven Kennaugh - £650k (highly rated keeper)
Matthew Urwin- £425k (highly rated keeper)
Micah Richards - £7.5m (wasn’t playing transfer listed request, great signing)
Joe Hart - £14m (ecstatic at this signing. Having signed Gomes from Tottenham Hart wasn’t playing and was a lot transfer listed by request. Had to pay massively over the odds in wages to convince him but worth it in the long term)
Ross Barkley - £12m (One of the highest rated English players according to my scouts, hopefully the new Scholes)
James Ward-Prowse - £5.5m (Definitely ripped off, but the scouts rate him so we’ll see)

January Transfers Out

Nani - £26m – Juventus
Rafael - £20m – Chelsea
Anderson - £9m – Schalke
David De Gea - £10m (includes 50% next sale, couldn’t get any more and I needed the cash for Hart)

Results

In terms of the actual season I have to say it was disappointing because I didn’t win the league. But the squad overhaul, particularly in January had a big effect on that, coupled with injuries to Rooney and Van Persie in February and March left me playing in 4 competitions playing 2 games a week with just Hernandez and Wellbeck upfront. Ashley Young did a valiant job as a makeshift poacher, but I won’t deny it was hard going.




Premier League = 2nd
League Cup = Runner Up
FA Cup = Winner
Champions League = Winner

Highlights of the season

Beating Liverpool 7-0 has got to be up there:



Plus 7 matches against Man City without defeat has got be another
2-2 – Premier League
0-0 – League Cup Semi Final First Leg
5-1 – League Cup Semi Final Second Leg
1-0 – FA Cup 4th round
3-2 – Champions League Semi Final First Leg
5-0 – Premier League
3-1 – Champions League Semi Final Second Leg

Players

Danny Welbeck
- Champions League Best Player - Screenshot
- Premier League Golden Boot Runner Up - Screenshot

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
- PFA Young Player of the year - Screenshot

Paul Scholes
- Talked him out of retirement and with a personality of model professional, will be integral to my youngsters development.

English National Team

Here a little look at what the English National Team is looking like at the moment

Next Season

So next season I obviously want to go the title, but the most interesting thing to discuss is going to be transfers. A striker is in desperate need so for that I’m looking at Danny Graham, I could have signed him for £8m last season but now that he’s won the Premier League golden boot he’s apparently going to cost £14m, we’ll see if that comes off. Otherwise there’s always an aging and out of favour Jermaine Defoe.

Wingers are another big one. I’d love to sign Raheem Sterling but despite having a £15m bid accepted he’s refusing to talk to me. I’ll just keep telling the media how much I admire and see how it goes I guess. Adam Johnson is another option, whilst Jermaine Pennant is available on a free if I’m desperate. Lennon, Walcott, Adam Johnson are all priced out of the question (Adam Johnson for £34m? Crikey!). I could always try and use Ross Barkley on the right but I’d much rather keep him in the middle.

Johnny Evans will probably see the door in the summer so a new centre back will be in order, probably Ryan Shawcorss and while I think I’ll keep a hold of Darren Fletcher for another season some sort of hard working central midfielder is going to need to be found. Scott Parker’s probably past it by now but Tom Huddlestone is a possibility, or I’ve got the option of bringing in defenders and pushing Phil Jones into midfield permanently. There’s certainly a range of good young defenders out there, Kyle Walker or Glenn Johnson at right back or Steven Caulker at centre back. Michael Dawson is currently under offer from Norwich as well, so could always be a possibility as backup.

Fantastic challenge this sir and a good first year! Unlucky in the league but winning the CL and the FA Cup is still a decent season! Great seeing so many of your players in the England squad too! Be an interesting one to follow sir!

good luck with this

So if I'm reading this correctly you can only have English players yes?

Sounds like a good challenge to me, might have to try this with United in the near future.

Yeah the full challenge info can be found about here

Season One - Best Eleven

First season and only 2 non English players in my Best Eleven and with De Gea already replaced by Joe Hart already, only Darren Fletcher is left before my team is fully purified.

Good challenge mate

After only the second i've managed to rid my side of all non English players:

Transfers Out

Well obviously there will have been players leaving that I didn't want to. Lindegaard (£3m), Fabio (£7.5m) and Buttner (£2.5m) where the ones I didn't really care about and hadn't featured the season before. However the loss of Robin Van Persie (£25m) and Javier Hernandez (£8m) mean I desperately need a striker, while the loss of Kagawa (£25m) and Darren Fletcher (£20m) and Jonny Evans (£15m) left me rich but desperately short for numbers. Darren Fletcher in particular was a massive loss, I considered keeping him for a while, but when he became the last Non English player, I felt I just had to get rid of him and complete my nationalist purifying.

Transfers In

Craig Dawson - £5m - Solid and young defender probably not in the first 11 but a good cheap squad player

Leon Osman - £900k - I wasn't sure if I could get my real targets and for a cut price fee and low wages, I felt he could add a level head for a season or two.

James Milner - £12.25 - Not playing at City as their spending continued, Milner's a good solid English midfielder £90k wages is a bit steep but to be expected with any ex City player.

Jermain Defoe - £4.2m - Getting old now, but can hopefully do a job to replace Hernandez as a poacher. There aren't many good English strikers around and for £4.2m you have to say it's a good deal (although he hasn't scored by November so far)

James Tomkins - £7.5m - Probably got ripped off on this one, but I am Man Utd so it's to be expected really. Tomkins looks to have alot of potential though and will hopefully improve.

Phil Jagielka - £15m - Jagielka is the real replacement for Rio Ferdinand partnering either Phil Jones or Chris Smalling at the back. At 31 he won't be around forever, but I didn't feel I could compete for multiple competitions with Smalling and Tomkins at the back.

Danny Graham - £16.75 - This deal took a while to bash out, with Swansea starting negotiations at over £20m for a striker who was the Premier League's top goalscorer last season. Quality England strikers are few and far between so I felt the cost was worth it in the long run.

Kieran Richardson - £2m - With Buttner gone I really needn't a backup to Leighton Baines and Bertrand, Cole and Gibbs where to expensive, so Richardson made a return to Manchester. I've paid out £5m for a guy called Shaw from Southampton who my scouts rate as 5 star potential, so hopefully he'll make the step up soon and Richardson won't be around for to long.

Michael Owen - £375k - Probably a stupid signing, but he's on £30k an appearance and £8k a week so it's not to bad and i'm going to be using him to tutor my kids.

Jay Emmanuel-Thomas - £8.5m - I really don't know about this, it may not work out but I really needed a winger and Aaron Lennon, Adam Johnson, Theo Walcott, Stewart Downing and the likes where just to pricey. On a comparison Jay's attributes look on a par with Ashley Young's but we'll have to wait and see and for the hefty price I had to pay i'm not too optimistic.

The Future

Now that i've got my team purified I can begin to invest in quality rather than quantity. The big problem I had previously was that United only gave me 60% of any players sold, meaning I only had £12m to replace Fletcher or £15m to replace Van Persie. Most importantly i've got no extra money to replace Scholes and Ferdinand. Nonetheles I have £20m remaining and if I can get some cash next summer i'll start to look at the likes of Jack Wilshere, Theo Walcott and Kyle Walker who won't come cheap.

I've also been spending big on anyone my scouts rate as 4 or 5 stars. You can see the main boys are strikers and midfielder's including Mason Bennett and , although some will take alot of work; Nathan Firkins in particular, but I trust my scouts and coaches and see how it goes.

England

And finally let's not forget a final look at the England side. I have a bid on Andy Caroll in the works, young and going fairly cheap and hopefully I can get Ryan Shawcross as a long term replacement for Phil Jagielka/Rio Ferdinand although they wanted £22m this summer was I felt unreasonable. One day the England side will consist entirely of Man Utd players.... hopefully.

So much money spent on transfers but receiving even more so can't complain! So many faces of yours in the england side is phenomenal!

England World Cup 2014 Squad

Just a quick look at England's squad for the 2014 World Cup, featuring no less than 14 Man Utd players.

Would be good to see you add Kyle Walker to the list buddy and potentially shawcross, fantastic looking england side for you!

Thinking about doing such a challenge but than in classic to gain some time. I want to do it in Holland with Dutch players with Ajax. I think it would be a great challenge since the best players of Holland won't come back to Ajax (yet).

Respect for your results. Winning CL and FA in season one is great and runner-up in th EPL and LC is still great.

So season two has come to a close and it was filled with success. Like I've said before, i've never managed a big team like Man Utd since the old CM days and to be honest, i'm finding it incredibly easy! Did a massive quadruple outdoing the success of 1999 with the FA Cup, Premier League, Champions League and the Club World Cup. Nonetheless i'm quite enjoying scouring the land for young prospects and building up my reserve squad. My players not only control the English national team, but also the U19's in their quest to bring home the European Championship this summer.

January Signings

January saw the arrivals of Andy Carroll (£8m) and Theo Walcott (£15m). Not necessarily because I needed them, infact neither really played and forced me to depart with Leon Osman (free) and Jermain Defoe (£5m) Not really because I needed them, but because they were unhappy and under offer from the likes of Man City and I worried about missing out on a future England star being at a competitive top club. Plus United give me near unlimited funds to spend so what the hell right?

Results

Premier League = 1st
League Cup = 4th round (knocked out by Arsenal)
FA Cup = Winner
Champions League = Winner
Club World Cup = Winner
Community Shield = Lost to Man City
Super Cup = Winner

Players

Wayne Rooney
- Uefa Champions League Golden Boot

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
- Uefa Champions League Best Player

The Future

Unfortunately England didn't do to well in the World Cup. So my plan is to stick this out for another 2 seasons maybe, have some fun trying to train and develop my young players into first teamers and then move aboard somewhere and continue my career with a smaller team, but probably take over the England job as well, so that I can continue to watch over my proteges.

I might do a write up soon looking at my kids and possibly looking at Englands failure in the World Cup.

Craacking season mate! Norwich beating chelsea in the other final! fantastic!

And Stoke getting into the Champions League. I've given them Defoe, but I feel a little bad trying to take Shawcross away from them in such an important season!