Neville's In The North

Phil's First Job

So my real life friend (oooh real life friend) Dendy and I have decided to start a game together where we will manage Newcastle and Sunderland. As a Newcastle fan obviously I had to be Newcastle!

Let me introduce to Phil Neville the new manager of Newcastle United!





So we need a top half finish in the league, hopefully we'll better than real life! In the cups it's hard to judge, if we get some good draws we should achieve the boards goals. However, if we end up drawn against one of the big boys we'll end up out early I expect.

I'm aiming for the top half finish, and would love to earn Europa League football via either the league or a shock cup run!

So with Pipadoc taking charge at Newcastle that left me the Black Cats of Sunderland!

Let me introduce Gary Neville the new manager of Sunderland.







This is going to be a very interesting season with the board expecting me to achieve a mid table finish with no investment in either transfer or wage budget, well at least it will be a challenge. As for the cup competitions I think the Capital one could be a good tournament for us, and who knows in the FA cup it is so unpredictable.

Love this idea and the fact it's NUFC/SAFC will make it more enjoyable I'm sure! IIRC Sunderland's finances aren't the greatest on FM so that'll be a real struggle

Good luck lads.

'mon Pippadoc, but only because you're managing Newcastle.

This is my first time writing a FM story so any tips on layout ect would be much appreciated.

As Kez_7 mentioned Sunderland's finances aren't the best. I had no transfer budget or wage budget to work with (despite making a request to the board) and a quick glance at the finances showed that I had three bank loans that I was going to be making payments on. With that in mind here are my transfers...



As everyone can see I had to sell Fletcher to Swansea, arguably our best striker. I initially tried to offload Defoe and his ridiculous contract but no one would take him. So I was left with little choice but to offload Fletcher to Swansea for some funds to try and sure up my defense which is both lacking in depth and youth. Unfortunately I was only able to bring in one defensive player with the time I had left which was Westermann but he can play all the defensive positions to a good standard so I hope he will be a swiss army knife of sorts. I also managed to sign some promising young players on free transfers and sent them straight out on loan. Finally I managed to young Jacob Murphy from Norwich who gives us more choice on the right hand side of the field. Here is my squad to start the season.....



Here is my fixture list for the first half of the season.



Very tough games to start off the season as we are playing 4 of the big teams in the first six weeks. But a nice draw in the capital one cup so hopefully we can progress.

Onto our first game where we host Stoke.



I was very happy to see Wickham on the score sheet so quickly as I am expecting him to fill Fletcher's shoes. We held on and then Alvarez sealed the result with one minute to go in normal time. 3 points and a great way to start the season.

Hoping we can build on this to snatch something against Man City next.



Well my fears about my ageing defense proved to be proven in this game they simply couldn't even touch the Man City Players in this game. They were just able to walk through our defense and shot at will as the scoreline and stats showed with both their forwards getting hatricks. I even went full on defensive for the second half but couldn't keep them out. It is encouraging that we can score though just need to work on keeping the goals out.


Next up we hosted Preston in the League Cup



We started the game having lots of the possession and creating chances from it. Wickham got on the score sheet again in the first half, however some sloppy defending lead to Preston getting an equaliser 3 minutes later. It was level at half time , unfortuantly though we just didn't turn up in the second half and Preston made it count, they pressured us high up the pitch and we couldn't deal with it. They took control and made it count in the 65th minute taking advantage of our failure to clear a comer. We had no response and crash out of our first competition at the first hurdle.........disappointing.

It doesn't get any easier next either as Liverpool come to the Stadium of Light.

Interesting story. Just wondering, what made you guys choose the Neville's?

For this game I just wanted to stop us conceding goals and was playing around with the tactics unfortunately I got the balance a bit wrong and went too defensive resulting in 90% of the game being played in our half. Despite that fact we were only one down at the break and I was hoping that we could snatch a goal and a point. As soon as the second half started though Henderson smashed one into the top right hand corner form outside the box ending my hopes of any points. Vergini then scored from the spot to give me a glimmer of hope but we couldn't get another and Welbeck scored just before the end to cap a miserable couple of games.

Next up Leicester where again I was hoping to get some more points and stem the flow of goals into our net.



We were firmly in control of this game creating lots of chances inside the opponents box which we simply didn't take advantage of, Defoe in particular missed two chances from around the six yard box. At the other end most of their shots were from outside the box and they only had 3 shots on targets.
This game ended in the cruelest of circumstances with Van Aanholt trying to clear the ball off the line in the 92nd minute and he ended up hammering it into the roof of our own net. They say to win anything in sport you need to be both good and lucky and the moment it appears I am neither.

Next we continue our tough season with a visit to Stamford Bridge.



Just when I thought I was sorting out my defense we get absolutely destroyed by Costa and Co. It is becoming quickly apparent that I need to replace John O Shea at center back as opposition players just seem to be out jumping and out playing him every time. Unfortunately for now he is my best option. I will let the stats speak for themselves on this one as it was painful enough to watch yet alone repeat.

At this point I am just begging for a couple of easier games but alas next up we host Arsenal.

This post will include my last three games in this stint before I hand over to Pipadoc for him to show you how he has been doing with the magpies.
First though we see if I can break my losing streak and get some much needed points as the board are starting to grumble about the bad string of results.

First up Arsenal at home.



This game was much closer than the score suggests and we really pushed arsenal for 80 minutes. They went ahead through a fantastic free kick from Oliver Giroud 12 minutes in. We then pushed on and managed to level the game when Defoe managed to latch on to a perfect through ball from Wickham and fire it home. The lead didn't last long with Welbeck latching onto a clearance from their half and out pacing our Centre backs before slotting it past Pantilamon. We went into the break 2-1 down but after giving the players a dressing down at half time, they went out for the second half and played some impressive football leading to Wickhams well worked goal putting us back on level terms. We looked good for the draw or even a much needed win until the last 10 minutes where we just imploded and let Giroud score twice and ruined all our hard work during the game.

Finally we get a somewhat easier fixture against West Brom and the chance of bringing this downward spiral to an end.



This game proved to be very similar to the Leicester game with us being the much more dominant team but once again all our hard work was undone by a stupid defensive mistake from Coates who has been excellent since I dropped O'Shea for him. He missed an easy clearance and the ball dropped right to the feet of Anichebe. After this it looked like Defoe was brought down when he was clear through on goal but the referee didn't think the same.
This is another disappointing result and all of them are starting to stack up. I need to turn this around soon as the fans and the board are starting to run out of patience.

Now we face a high flying Southampton side and morale among the squad is at rock bottom,



I just have no words. No words. We got absolutely dismantled. I'm running out of ideas here.
After this game I got an invite to attend a meeting with the board and told that if I didn't turn up they would terminate my contract.

Life really isn't looking good for this Neville brother lets see how it is looking for the other. Over to you Phil

Newcastle's finances are in much better shape than Sunderland, and that allowed me too have a dip in the transfer market.

I forgot to take screenshots of my signings, however my one first-team signing is Francis Coquelin from Arsenal. He will join the midfield rotation and will allow be to sell Tiote if the interest in him turns into a nice big offer. My only other signing was Sammy Mmaee who is a good centre-back prospect, he'll let me get rid of Mike Williamson if I can entice anyone to make a bid.

On the outgoing side of things, I got shot of Obertan for £1.5 million (fantastic business if I do say so myself ). Also I've loaned out various youngster who I won't be able to give game time this season.

Tactics-wise I'm going with a 4-1-2-3 DM Wide, whilst playing a slow possession based game. We've got a lot of depth at AMR/L so it seemed a good way to get some our best players on the pitch consistently. With a DMC and two central midfielders it allows me to get three of Tiote, Sissoko, Coqeulin, and Anita on the pitch at the same time. Hopefully, it'll allow us to be solid at the back and Cisse will prove to be a clinical finisher for us.

Now onto the matches ...



A great start to the season for us, we were maybe slightly ahead before the sending off but it was a close game up until then. Afterwards we took advantage of the extra man and we're comfortable winners - Sammy Ameobi's second goal was just the icing on the cake for us. A great start to the season and hopefully we can build on it!



Another red card for our opposition, this time it was two yellows in two minutes for Ben Mee before either team had got on the scoreboard. After that it was a pretty routine game for us, our possession based game saw us dominate both possession and the number of attempts created. In truth the majority of their shots were `from outside the area and no real threat to score.



We started off the Capital One Cup campaign with a solid victory over Championship-side, Wolves. We weren't as dominant as the scoreline suggests. We really shouldn't have let them to create more shots than us, but we got the win in the end which is the most important thing.

Also, Moussa Sissoko has been on fire so far! He's scored in every game so far whilst playing as Advanced Playmaker (Attack) in the centre of midfield.



In the 3rd of the cup we go up against the Sunderland-Slayers, Preston North End. Even though they beat Sunderland, I fully expect to comfortable beat a team in League One!

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Thanks for all the comments guys! Hopefully we can keep this going for a few seasons

A terrible result at Old Trafford see's me record my first loss in charge of Newcastle. Haidara's sending off certainly contributed to Man Utd scoring 4 against us, but they we're comfortably in charge of the game before that. This game showed we're definitely a way off the big teams, I'm hoping we can keep this game going long enough to bridge the gap!



By the stats, you could say this was a missed opportunity for us. But I think whilst we did have opportunities to win this game, get a draw against a team that arguably slightly better than us is a solid result. I'm pleased with the defensive performance and that we are creating chances - all in all things are going swimmingly so far!



Next up we faced newly-promoted Leicester City.

It was a solid victory for us and another great defensive performance. However, I would like to see us score more goals. If we can only score once against Leicester, we may really struggle to come from behind against teams that are around or above our level.



God, I thought we were going to end up going the same way as Sunderland against Preston.

We dominated the match, but Preston's back four and 2 DMC's really hindered our ability to create quality chances. Fortunately in the Extra Time injury time Coloccini managed to bundle the ball home after Stephen Taylor's header from a corned was saved. Quite the relief!



This game kicked-off as 1st Place (Tottenham) against 3rd Place (Newcastle). With that in mind, I'm delighted to get a draw in this game. We weren't at our best in this game, so a point is nice to take away. A strong result against an in form side is just what we need to do in order to get past mid-table this season.



We gave away a silly goal in the first half. But a half-time bollocking got us back on track and Siem De Jong's late winner secured another victory for us!

Shockingly that Siem De Jong goal was our first goal from the centre forward position all season. Clearly, this is an area we must improve on as Sissoko's goals from midfield will dry up sometime soon.

Unfortunately I've forgotten to screenshot the final match I've played so far, a disappointing 1-0 loss to then bottom side Aston Villa. I also don't have an up to date league table, so I'll have to add that in a new post soon.

But all in all, it's been a fantastic start to life in Newcastle! If we can keep picking up results like this, a top-half finish is definitely in our grasp and potentially we could pick up a Europa League spot.

Here's the Aston Villa game. It was a very disappointing result for us, and really it comes down to needing to get my striker scoring (whoever that may be). If we can just start converting more chances we should be flying given our strong defensive performances.



And here's the league table. We're obviously looking excellent in 6th position, hopefully we can stay up this high in the table. Although we have had a relatively kind set of fixtures so far, as we still haven't faced Liverpool, Man City, Arsenal or Chelsea.

The situation isn't so good for Gary Neville and Sunderland ...

So back to Sunderland, luckily the meeting I had to have with the board after the Southampton game didn't result in my losing my job. It was however made clear to me that unless I started picking up results soon my P45 would be in the post. So here is the next lot of results from my wonderful career in Sunderland :



We were unlucky not to get a point in both the West Ham and the Swansea game. In both games we fell to a late goal which robbed us of a point.

Finally by resorting to a 5-4-1 I managed to pick up a win against a struggling Burnley side. I was really impressed with my players during this game and was hoping that it would be the start of a good run for us.

Next we faced Man United at home but the strength of the Red Devils was just too much for us to handle and they were 3-0 up by half time coasting to easy 4-0 win in the end.

Now the big one the first Derby day of the season; Sunderland vs Newcastle,, Neville vs Neville. We had the best of the chances in the first half and before half time we were awarded a penalty for a bad challenge in the box. Vergini stepped up and blazed it wide of the upright. I really can't get a break in this save. At half time Pipadoc out foxed me tactically putting us on the back foot for all of the second half and it showed. We conceded to silly goals in the second half one of which was a penalty just to rub it in and all bragging rights go to Newcastle.

The next game against QPR almost had my laptop going out of the window, again we got an early penalty which I trusted Vergini to take.Again though he blazed it wide and has now been removed from all penalty duties. After this we again had the lions share of possession and shots however they sunk us with a 88th minute goal and handed us our third defeat in a row.

After 3 loses in a row we were low on morale and it showed for our remaining two games of this stint, we played shockingly and deserved our two big defeats. So with 1 win from 8 games the sharks are starting to circle again. I'm just praying that I can the results I need in the Christmas period to stay afloat.

Another fantastic run of form in the league for us! We're on an amazing run of 9 games unbeaten heading into the festive period.

We had a tough run of 5 games against Man City, Liverpool, Sunderland, Chelsea and Arsenal. In all honesty, I was expecting 4 losses and hopefully a derby day win. So I was pretty shocked we managed 11 points and emerge unbeaten from that run of games. It may not have been comfortable throughout the games, particularly the Liverpool game where we had to withstand massive pressure in the last ten minutes.

The League Cup was a little disappointing for us, although at least we didn't get destroyed like our league match against Man Utd. We were doing well before they brought Rooney and Falcao off the bench, after that they dominated us and in all fairness deserved to qualify.

The Liverpool game also marked Papiss Cisse's first goal of the season. I changed my lone strikers role from Advanced Forward to Poacher and it seems to have been a great decision with Cisse really starting to hit form now (although he has benefited from taking a couple of penalties. Remy Cabella has also rounded into some excellent form as well, he's scored some crucial goals for us and he creates plenty of chances as well.



Well how about that, Newcastle on pace for a Champions League spot!

In all honesty, I'm expecting a down turn in form at some point soon as were definitely over performing at the moment. But hopefully, we can keep ourselves in the Europa League spots. The future isn't looking so bright in Sunderland though, hopefully Gary can pick up some results soon and make sure we'll be playing in the same division next year!



My good work has earned me a new contract. However, the Newcastle media aren't so impressed with me ...



Well, it seems FM has done a good job of getting the unrealistic exectations of the Newcastle media into the game. Seriously, "good, if unremarkable record in the league" ?!

Morons!