mattu29 - Comments

Following the disappointment of losing out on some targets, we did manage a couple in the door and a couple out the door:

Gbamin was signed by a former regime for a ludicrous £22mil, but tbh he wasn't up to standard so I took what I could to get rid of a player I was never gonna use

He may not be a starter yet but I have high hopes Brandon Williams will be a good signing for £13mil. He can cover both wing backs well and is a pacy and aggressive player, and still only 22 so plenty of years to improve as the older cover for those wing backs retire with Seamus Coleman and Ashley Young.

I'm a rare person in that I actually really like Deli Alli and want him to be great, but his attitude has destroyed his promise time and time again. I wanted his wages gone, altho still end up paying a chunk of them, but even more so, I wanted his attitude gone, so like other players, I took what I could get for him, with just £3mil being the fee.

Altho 27 years old, I wanted someone as gritty and determined as Gana Gueye to take his place long-term as he's now 33, and with great mentals, plus great natural fitness and tackling, I'm thinking of possibly bringing Onana forward into Gueye's current role in midfield and having this destroyer in Nandez as the next DM. He cost just £3mil so even if it doesn't work out, I should be able to make my money back or more on him.

This McNeil injury comes off the back of our 2 freebie targets choosing alternative destinations, with Tuanzebe going to Monaco and Morelos heading to West Ham, it's going well……

Everton have been suffering in recent times with constant flirtations with relegation from the top level. I am here to try and sort that out and turn this massive club around. Using the sortitoutsi transfer data update for today (21/08/23).

Disclaimer - I'm not an Everton fan, but do appreciate how big a club they are.

The above will be my ideal first XI, altho not strongest as arguably there are better CBs than Branthwaite and Doucoure likely a better CM than Garner, I am going to try and bring thru the younger players rather than rely on older alternatives.

Surprisingly considering how bad Everton have started the season in real life (Played 2, lost 2), i'm actually not too disappointed with the squad depth available to me.

• GK - Keeper is an obvious pick, with England's no.1 Jordan Pickford being first choice and Joao Virginia being a backup, he's not the best backup in the league but I find backup keepers very rarely get a game anyway (Jinxed it!)
• RB - Going for youth over experience here, with Nathan Patterson being picked ahead of Everton legend and all-time league bargain buy, Seamus Coleman. Holgate and Godfrey can both play here if needed.
• CBs - Tarkowski is an easy pick for first choice, and as noted above, Branthwaite will be my first choice partner for him due to his potential. We have 3 half decent backups here with Holgate, Godfrey and Michael Keane, altho a bid for free agent Axel Tuanzebe, if successful, will lead me to transfer listing Keane.
• LB - First choice is the Ukrainian Mykolenko, who is probably the same level as Ashley Young, but 13 years his junior, which gives him the nod in my team.
• DM - Onana is probably Everton's best and most valuable player, so first team on the teamsheet and in DM he looks at his best on paper. Idrissa Gana Gueye is brilliant but i'll be pushing him a little further forward as a Box to Box Midfielder. Doucoure and Godfrey can cover the DM role also.
• CMs - Gana Gueye will be playing the Box to Box role, with ex-Utd youth player James Garner alongside, playing as a Carrilero. We have a fair few guys here to cover, including Doucoure and Alex Iwobi, altho i'll be actively trying to sell Andre Gomes, Gbamin and Dele Alli who can also cover these positions.
• Wings - Pretty happy with the depth here, with Dwight McNeil joined by loanees Arnaut Danjuma and Jack Harrison, aswell as Demarai Gray. 
• ST - Very shallow here, with Calvert-Lewin the clear choice, but with injury issues, and only Neil Maupay as backup, I badly need to bolster here.

The starting finances were surprising, with over £30mil in the transfer budget, altho the wage budget was over, so that needed sorting, especially with the number of players on over 100k who really shouldn't be - like Dele Alli, Andre Gomes and Alex Iwobi to name a few………

Luckily selling Gomes was quick and easy, altho I still pay £21.5k per week until the end of the season, it's a nice saving on the £100k+ he was costing the club!

Currently on the outs side of things, Jean-Philippe Gbamin and Dele Alli are hopefully heading out the door, and with possible incomings including Axel Tuanzebe on a free, Brandon Williams for a negotiated fee to cover both wing back positions and Alfredo Morelos, also on a free transfer.

Watch this space…….

Current League Positions
 

Currently Liverpool are smashing the league, while their bitter rivals, Man Utd are really struggling. Man Utd actually were bottom after 6 games, but have won their last 2 matches to climb slightly up the table. Liverpool have conceded just once in their first 8 games, and that was the winner for West Ham in a 1-0 victory for the Hammers. Strangely both second placed Everton and fourth placed Aston Villa have a goal difference of 0.

We went undefeated in pre-season, albeit against very underwhelming opposition, but started the season poorly, losing 3 games in a row, scoring only once, through a penalty, and being knocked out of the EFL Cup at the first time of asking.

Bouncing back, we're now 6 games unbeaten, with 3 wins and 3 draws, with Wout Weghorst scoring 7 goals in that run, including a hat-trick against Crystal Palace. Our backline also looked more solid throughout these 6 games, conceding just 3 goals.

Hannibal has been a standout alongside Weghorst in this run, scoring twice, one a solo run and one a curling effort from outside the box, aswell as an assist and 2 man of the match performances.

Biggest Transfers of the 2022 Summer Transfer Window (Not Including Real World Transfers)

In a not very exciting window, to no surprise, Newcastle were the biggest spenders, signing Brazillian centre back, Diego Carlos from Sevilla.

Diego Carlos - Sevilla to Newcastle for £42 Million

Guido Rodriguez - Betis to Liverpool for £22 Million

Henrikh Mkhitaryan - Roma to Newcastle for £15.75 Million

Nahuel Molina - Udinese to Monchegladbach for £11.5 Million

Alberto Moreno - Villarreal to Juventus for £11 Million

Munir - Sevilla to Monchengladbach for £11 Million

Jesse Lingard - Man Utd to Lyon for £8 Million

Divock Origi - Liverpool to West Ham for £7 Million

Brief Introduction

I've decided to take on Burnley, who in real life have just been relegated to the Championship and their future doesn't look great. Fortunately I start the season with £30mil, so that could help, along with some wheeling and dealing of their fairly aged squad. I've already played some games in the league so this will be catching up to that then what happens moving forward. I'm currently at the 16th October 2021, so below will update to where I'm at.
I like to take on teams where I overhaul the squad, and build a younger squad than they currently have. 
Burnley have so many expendable players who i've deemed surplus to requirement and mostly been able to ship out and replace.

Transfers 21/22

Starting with the outs - Phil Bardsley and his fairly big wage was the first man out of the door, leaving for his home country, Aberdeen, for 145k. He was soon followed by Erik Pieters, to Verona for £1.6mil, and Matty Lowton, to Wolves for £3.2mil. Ex-England international Aaron Lennon was next to be shipped out, probably on paper the player with the least ability in the first team squad, heading to Denmark to play for Brondby, for £150k. Following him were Matej Vydra to Shakhtar for £4mil and Dale Stephens to Bournemouth for £1.6mil. Most of these players were sold for their high wages compared to their not-great ability, plus age factored into this as I look to build a younger squad.
Also agreed is for Ben Mee to head to China for £5.75mil, possibly rising to £7mil. As much as I like him and he's solid, his contract is up and he's on a fairly big wage, plus he'll be 32 by the time the transfer goes through, so that move in January made sense to me.
I also loaned out many youth players to see how they develop playing first team football elsewhere.

The Ins started with Stephy Mavididi, who is registered as homegrown and cost £5.5mil. A pacy and relatively young striker, he will provide competition to Wout Weghorst aswell as having the ability to cover the left sided winger. Then we snapped up someone I was surprised would join, in Ibrahim Sangare from PSV, costing just £12mil, rising to £14.5mil after addons. I plan to have him filling the defensive midfield gap between the defence and midfield as a ball winning midfielder with excellent tackling, aggression, bravery, work rate and teamwork, alongside great physicals with balance, stamina and strength all being above 15. My next signing was Brazillian right back, Calegari, from Fluminense, who cost £10.75mil, but is only on 16k a week. Unfortunately in the brief time i've had him, hes had a 3 week long injury and has just picked up a 4 week long injury. My fourth signing was possibly the biggest, given he's a first choice defender for his national side, and that is Duja Caleta-Car from Marseille for just £9mil, rising to £12.5mil after addons. He's upto 20 caps now for Croatia, and a player I've liked for a while on FM. My second from last signing was a player highly recommended by my scouts, so I thought i'd take a chance on Brian Oddei from Sassuolo, for £1.9mil. I figured it could work out well for me, and if it doesn't, im confident i'll make a profit on him. He has been loaned out for the season to see if he sinks or swims. 
And finally, this was a bit of a weird transfer, but I thought I'd give Phil Jones a go, as he was available for £2.1mil, and as i entered contract discussions, he wanted significantly less than the crazy Man Utd wages, altho still fairly high at £65k, but I've always wondered what he could do if given a good run in a side so took him on, out of part interest/part banter.
I have also added Joe Rothwell on a free, to add depth, plus his stats weren't bad and hes been a consistent player for Blackburn it seems, according to his FM stats.
On loan I brought in Hannibal from Man Utd, for a £1.5mil fee but only £7.25k wages a week, which has turned out to be a very good move so far, and Alex Iwobi from Everton, mainly to offer cover to McNeil, Cornet and Gudmundsson, but maybe pushing for starts, i am paying him less than half of his £100k Everton contract per week and have an optional clause to buy him for £9mil if he does well.

The Squad

My first XI will be a 4-1-2-2-1 with a back four sitting behind a defensive midfielder, two centre mids in front of him and two inverted wingers supporting a lone striker.

Nick Pope is obviously my no.1, with Wayne Hennessey his backup.

Right back i signed Calegari to compete with Connor Roberts, but Roberts started the season injured, came back and Calegari got injured, so its more of a competition between who can get injured more it seems. Kevin Long can cover here aswell as centre back.
Onto centre backs, James Tarkowski just signed a new contract for £100k a week *shakes head* but will have Caleta-Car as his likely partner. Nathan Collins is another pretty solid option, aswell as Ben Mee (until January), Kevin Long, and hopefully Phil Jones.
Left back is Charlie Taylor's position, while i will have Maxwell Cornet to cover for him if needed and Ben Mee.

Defensive midfield will be Ibrahim Sangare's position to lose, with Jack Cork being a decent backup, just a shame he's 32. Westwood and Brownhill could do a job here if needed.
Central midfield I have Hannibal currently playing as a advanced playmaker, while next to him we have Josh Brownhill as first choice, and Ashley Westwood and Joe Rothwell as back up, alternating between box to box midfielders or ball winning midfielders. Jack Cork or Sangare can also cover here.

Inverted wingers on each side will be contested between Dwight McNeil, who's our best player probably, and Alex Iwobi, Maxwel Cornet and Johann Berg Gudmundsson.

We also have Ashley Barnes and Jay Rodriguez as bit-part backups for both the wing positions and the striker role.

That striker role is the big Dutchman, Wout Wieghorst's role. He can play as target forward, poacher or pretty much anything asked of him. New signing, Stephy Mavididi is his deputy for the position.

Start of Season up to the end of October

July

The first game of our friendly season started with 6-0 and 3-0 wins on our mini Chinese tour. Slightly surprising was new free transfer signing, defensive utility player, Patric, with 2 goals in the 6-0 win. An 11-0 win was next against Chester-Le-Street (which was my Grandad's hometown) in a little match to get morale up.

We started the season impressively, as we always seem to do, with a 4-0 win over Bournemouth. A double each for Callum Wilson and Luis Suarez confirmed the win.

August

We next headed into August, where we had a real mixture of results, with 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss. The Watford game saw an Antony goal disallowed in the 5th minute before another double from Luis Suarez and a Thiago Almada goal put us 3-0 up before Jorginho netted his first goal in a Newcastle shirt, unfortunately in his own goal, right before Callum Wilson sealed the win.

A disappointing 2-2 draw at home to Norwich followed before a 2-1 loss away at Aston Villa, with only Jack Grealish's first goal for the club, against his boyhood club, being the only consolation from a poor match for the travelling fans.

We bounced back with a visit to Brighton, where another Grealish goal was sandwiched between goals from Luis Suarez.

September

September began with the visit of Spurs in the Carabao Cup. A game which we went 2-0 up before falling apart and conceding 2 goals late on. A 11-10 penalty shootout victory followed, with Reguillon missing for Spurs and Saint-Maximin missing for us in the regular 5 penalties, before an epic sudden death shootout which lasted all the way until beyond the goalkeepers, who both scored, before Luis Suarez missed the deciding penalty, after already dispatching one successfully minutes earlier.

We then beat an overmatched Wolves side 4-1 with a second string side, with first goals of the season for Esposito, Hauge and Sandry.

Lyon followed this, in our first Champions League game of the season. We took the lead in the 13th minute thru Luis Suarez and led throughout the game before a 90th minute Jesus Vallejo penalty pegged us back to earn just a point in France.

We were outmatched in our next game, at home to Chelsea, who took the lead in the 9th minute thru Kai Havertz. We did peg them back in the 19th minute through another Suarez goal, but Romelu Lukaku sealed the 3 points for the visitors.

After the unlucky ending to our first Champions League game of the season against Lyon, it was our turn to get a late penalty, as Thiago Almada slotted home a 93rd minute to take our tally to 4 points so far in the competition.

Spurs yet again had our number in the next game, beating us 3-1 in a game where they led 3-0 until a late Suarez consolation.

A 2-2 away draw at group favourites, Dortmund was a result I was happy with, and like the 2 previous Champions League games, a late decision changed the result. with a Youssouf Moukoko goal being disallowed in the 89th minute. They were 2-0 up at one point but we managed to get the draw, with goals from Antony and Brendan Williams, his first for the club.

October

A Axel Tuanzebe own goal and Luis Suarez missed penalty summed up a miserable afternoon away at Everton, where we were lucky to take a point.

That disappointment didn't last long tho, as our next 4 games ended with a 15-0 aggregate score.

Newly promoted, Preston were first up, and we took a comfortable 3-0 win with a relatively second string side, saving the big guns for the Dortmund game just 3 days later. Hauge scored one and saw another goal disallowed in the game.

Up next was Dortmund, and easily one of our best performances of the season, if not the whole save. An amazing 6-0 win which had everything in the game, including two disallowed goals for us, an own goal for us plus a penalty, as Thiago Almada scored 4 goals and Antony got a hat-trick of assists.

We then welcomed West Ham to St. James Park, who were down to 10 men on the half hour mark as a cynical foul by Kurt Zouma not only gave away a penalty, but also earned himself a red card. We were 4-0 up at half time and seemed to take our foot off the gas in the second half.

A comfortable win over Lyon next sealed our progression to the knockout round of the Champions League, in a mad night of football in the competition (as seen below)

October ended with another lacklustre draw, where again we were lucky to get a point, with Leeds having a 92nd minute goal disallowed. FM21 certainly has far too many VAR disallowed goals!!!

Forgot to add who won what domestically for the 2021-2022 season, so they're as follows:

Championship 

Promoted - Brighton (Champions), Burnley (Runners up), Preston (Playoff winners)

Relegated - Middlesbrough, Peterborough, Wigan

League One 

Promoted - QPR (Champions), Shrewsbury (Runners up), Rotherham (Playoff winners)

Relegated - Gillingham, Morecambe, Walsall, Oldham

League Two 

Promoted - Cambridge (Champions), Mansfield (Runners up), Newport (Third place), Exeter (Playoff winners)

Relegated - Sutton, Port Vale

La Liga

Champions - Atletico Madrid

Second - Barcelona

Third - Real Madrid

Fourth - Sevilla

Fifth - Valencia

Sixth - Real Sociedad

Relegated - Mallorca, Elche, Real Zaragoza

Bundesliga

Champions - Bayern

Second - Dortmund

Third - Hertha Berlin

Fourth - Gladbach

Fifth - RB Leipzig

Sixth - Bayer Leverkusen

Relegated - Union Berlin, Arminia Bielefeld

Serie A

Champions - Juventus

Second - Lazio

Third - Inter

Fourth - AC Milan

Fifth - Roma

Sixth - Atalanta

Relegated - Spezia, Benevento, Lecce

Ligue One

Champions - PSG

Second - Lille

Third - Lyon

Fourth - Nantes

Fifth - Monaco

Sixth - Nice

Relegated - Bordeaux, Angers

Liga NOS

Champions - Porto

Second - Benfica

Third - Sporting

Fourth - Braga

Fifth - Maritimo

Sixth - Vitoria de Guimaraes

Relegated -  Estoril, Belenenses

Eredivisie

Champions - Ajax

Second - PSV

Third - FC Twente

Fourth - Feyenoord

Fifth - Utrecht

Sixth - Vitesse

Relegated - NAC, NEC

World Transfers Summer 2022 (Pretty wild window!)

Coutinho to PSG for £58million

Kylian Mbappe to Barcelona for £200million

Frenkie De Jong to PSG for £93million

Jonathan David to Inter Milan for £70million

Fabio Vieira to Hertha Berlin for £43million

Andre Silva to Inter Milan for 45.5million

Anthony Martial to PSG for £58million

Dayot Upamecano to Liverpool for £39.5million

Fabian to Man Utd for £41.5million

Rodri to Real Madrid for £40million

Maxence Caqueret to Man City for £51million

Robin Gosens to PSG for £59million

Nuno Mendes to Man City for £42.5million

David Brooks to Liverpool for £43.5million

Declan Rice to Man City for £66million

Lautaro Martinez to Man City for £77million

Joao Felix to Man Utd for £94million

More:

Juan Miranda to Liverpool for £30million

Wilfried Singo to Chelsea for £42.5million

Otavio to PSG for £41.5million

Giovanni Di Lorenzo to Inter Milan for £41million

Vitor Ferreira to Man City for £40.5million

Juan Bernat to Inter Milan for £40.5million

Josh Dasilva to West Ham for £36million

Samuel Chukwueze to Liverpool for £34.5million

Nemanja Maksimovic to Liverpool for £34.5million

Emerson to PSG for £33million

Hakim Ziyech to Porto for £32million

Bryan Gil to Bayern for £32million

Edson Alvarez to Arsenal for £31.5million

Pablo Fornals to Hertha Berlin for £28.5million

Marc Cucurella to Dortmund for £28million

Richarlison to Juventus for £26.5million

Ibrahima Konate to Lyon for £26million

Aleksander Mitrovic to Sassuolo for £25.5million

Malcom to RB Leipzig for £25million

Tomas Soucek to Monaco for £24.5million

Nathan Redmond to Spurs for £23million

Luke Shaw to Ajax for £20.5million

Pablo Sarabia to Lazio for £19.5million

Kyle Walker to Napoli for £13.25million

Fred to Zenit for £12.25million

Kingsley Coman to Valencia for £9.75million

Gonna start with the purge of relegated former champions, Leicester City:

Patson Daka to RB Leipzig for £39.5million

Kasper Schmeichel to Cagliari for £3.2million

Wilfred Ndidi to Barcelona for £43million

Nahitan Nandez to Atalanta for £28.5million

Ricardo Pereira to Atletico Madrid for £26.5million

Youri Tielemans to Hertha Berlin for £38million

Harvey Barnes to West Ham for £32.5million

James Justin to West Ham for £39.5million

Timothy Castagne to Brighton for £33.5million

James Maddison to Man City for £34million

Total sales for the window - over £300million!

Another player who wanted out of the club was our undoubted no.1, Dominik Livakovic. I managed to get a fairly decent replacement in Kepa Arrizabalaga plus £37million for him, so his boots are filled, but just not to the same quality unfortunately.

Wesley Fofana from Leicester for £21million - a classic case of taking advantage of a clubs unfortunate relegation, Fofana steps in as Thilo Kehrer's replacement, and for cheaper, to partner his French compatriot, Benoit Badiashile.

Jens Petter Hauge from Milan for £6million - Altho he didn't get many chances the season before, Hauge was transfer listed and is only 22, so for just £6million, I thought I'd take him back permanently and see how he develops. Worth case scenario is, if he doesn't break through, I'll sell him for profit.

Brendan Williams from Man Utd for £12million - A versatile young player who can cover either wing back position, he's my replacement for Jamal Lewis, and for less than half the fee Monaco payed for Lewis. He spent the previous season on loan at West Ham and found himself transfer listed, with Utd having Wijndal, Telles and Shaw ahead of him at Left Back, altho Shaw is also transfer listed and Wan-Bissaka, Bustos and Lindelof ahead of him for the Right Back birth.

Jorginho from Chelsea for £6million - Jorginho came in to add experience in my very young squad. That experience for just £6million was a no-brainer for me, despite a relatively unimpressive loan at Arsenal last season. 

Axel Tuanzebe from Man Utd for £12million, rising to £13.5milliion - Another surplus to requirement at the champions, Axel Tuanzebe ticks the english box, aswell as adding solid competition to my starting centre backs. He started the new season injured but should be really pushing them when fit. Another bargain imo.

Ryan Gravenberch from Ajax for £45million - We all know about Gravenberch on FM21, and for £45million, I couldn't say no. I put in a low bid of £35million just out of interest and was shocked when I could barter them down to less than £50million! My centre midfield is now overflowing with talent, and Gravenberch will also be an option as a no.10.

Jack Grealish from Man City for £55million - Grealish is arguably my marquee signing, and is a victim of Man City's obsession with buying masses of players. In the 3 years at the club, he made just 47 appearances, including sub appearances. Grealish only made 4 appearances in all competitions last season, all of which were off the bench. I feel this may have been my biggest overspend, but even then, its almost half what his fee was when he joined City.

Nnamdi Collins from Dortmund for £2.7million - A big prospect for centre back, loaned straight out for a season in the Bundesliga.

Newcastle Transfers Summer 2022

I'll start with my outgoings, I'm continuing with my overhaul idea to clear out any remnants of the Mike Ashley/Steve Bruce reign, which weirdly has coincided with one of them gone in real life and the other highly likely to follow. This window was hugely active, both at the club and around the world, I did my best Harry Redknapp wheeler dealer for alot of these transfers.

Miguel Almiron - Valencia for £16.5million - I really like Almiron, but unfortunately he's a Bruce era player and Thiago Almada has been playing well there, aswell as a few others having the ability to play that no.10 role, so the Paraguayan was the first out the door this window.

Juanlu - Rangers for £1.4million - Signed on a free, loaned out for a season, sold for profit, simple as that really, never gonna be good enough for my team.

Mohammed Sangare - Plymouth for £150k - 23 years old, never played a professional game and couldn't ever find him a loan move, so he's gone.

Daniel Langley - Barnsley for £60k - never gonna make the grade.

Tom Allan - Millwall for £300k - had a good couple of seasons out on loan in League Two, won't ever make the step up to the first team.

Nadir Zortea - Genk for £10.25million - another free transfer the season before, surprised I had offers over £10mil for him so let him go. Already have Dumfries, Dalot and Gabriel Menino ahead of him at Right Back.

Rodrigo Vilca - Cardiff for £1.4million - some more clearing out of excess players, he was bought for £210k and sold for a bit of profit as he's another who won't ever touch the first team imo.

Sergio Arribas - Monaco for £4million - Another freebie sold a season later as too much competition for his position.

Diego Bernal - Blackburn for £125k - Regen, not much potential, but 50% of profit from his next move will go to me.

Kelland Watts - Middlesborough for £2million - Homegrown player but won't progress much so sold for a couple of mil.

Sebastian Ferreira - CSKA Moscow for £4million - signed for £750k, sold for profit, my scouts opinion of his potential pre-signing him was different to how I rate him.

Cameron Ferguson - Watford for £34.5k - shipping deadwood.

Jamaal Lascelles - Shabab Al-Ahli for £5.75million - has the disadvantage of playing under Bruce so was always on the chopping block, I like him but took the money as we had better options.

James Tarkowski - Al-Ain for £6.75million - returned from loan and wasn't gonna get a game so off to the Arabian Gulf League he goes for £2.75mil profit.

Jack Roles - Blackburn for £5.5million - Never gonna break into my team, so sold for profit.

Ibrahima - Brentford for £1.4mil -  Freebie sold for more profit.

Chumi - Al-Sadd for £9million - Another player where the offer baffled me so couldn't say no.

Jamal Lewis - Monaco for £28.5million - wasn't overly happy about selling but found a replacement for half the price, plus selling him fitted into my starting anti-Ashley/Bruce assignment.

John Maguire - Reading for £41.5k - another regen with not much upside but again, I threw in another 50% of profit from next sale, just incase my scouts are wrong.

Joe Willock - Wolves for £18million - A lot like Jamal Lewis, I wouldn't normally sell him as I really like him and he's become a great player for me, but is also another Ashley/Bruce player so was gonna be sold eventually. I definitely replaced him with a much superior player, altho for a lot more money.

Thilo Kehrer - Man Utd for £26.5million, £36.5million after instalments - Very frustrated with this one, Utd tapped him up and he demanded the move. Was forming a great defensive partnership with fellow Frenchman, Badiashile, but I did manage to get a very able replacement, also French, from a certain relegated side for a cut-price…..

Now onto the purchases, a massive window for the club, with some real quality signings and for really good fees in my opinion…..

Here are the squads final stats from the season^

Dominik Livakovic was an ever-present, playing in 53 games.

Luis Suarez had an excellent debut season, netting 32 goals in 42 starts, aswell as 6 assists and had our best average rating with a 7.26.

Sebastiano Esposito is on that list but spent the season on loan at Celtic, where he 22 goals in his 46 appearances, and getting a 7.36 average rating.

Allan Saint-Maximin got one more assist than Thiago Almada, to top our club assist chart with 15.

The clearout from the Mike Ashley/Steve Bruce era will continue as the Transfer Window opens…..

So I've played on a fair bit and into the next season, so will be posting a brief catchup, unfortunately I had a lot written out and frustratingly lost it due to a simple click of a different bookmark and all my write-up was gone, which put me off re-writing it all again, so this will be brief and i'll try to get back into writing it in more detail going forward.

The biggest results of our final few months were beating Milan twice to advance to the Champions League Quarter Finals. There we met Liverpool, but unfortunately went down 5-3 to them on aggregate. We actually played against them 3 times in 10 days, winning once, drawing once and losing once, and overall a 5-5 result over the 3 games.

A disappointing a random loss to Norwich was really the only bad result of the last few months, and we would've finished 2nd if it wasn't for this result.

Man Utd added to their Carabao Cup success by edging City rivals, Man City, who were beaten handsomely by Liverpool on the final day. This was their first title in 9 years.

Richarlison topped the goalscoring and player of the match charts for an Everton side who only survived relegation in the previous season on goal difference.

Spurs finished 10th for the second season running, while Arsenal dropped from 7th to 9th from the previous season. 

Che Adams hit an impressive 24 goals for Southampton, who pulled off a shock the first season by finishing 5th, but dropped to a respectable 8th this season.

The biggest shocker of the season was probably former winner, Leicester City, getting relegated. They'll hope to bounce back under Gennaro Gattuso, but he'll have to do it without a lot of his players, as a near £300million purge of their squad followed after this relegation. 

Leeds did well finishing 5th and getting Europa League football, while Chelsea will surely expect to win the Euro Conference league next season.

Man Utd made it a treble, by winning the Champions League, with a 1-0 win over Lazio. Marcus Rashford topped the goalscorer, assist and player of the match tables, scoring the winning goal in the final, aswell as 5 goals over the two legs in the semi-finals against Liverpool.

The Europa League was all about Dortmund, who hammered Braga 5-0 to win the competition in the final. They had players topping every stat, from top scorer to clean sheets. Talles Magno and Erling Haaland both notched braces in the final to finish top scorer and second top scorer in the competition. They recovered from a 2-1 loss to Man City in the first leg of the semi-final to beat them 3-0 in the second leg.

Man City beat Real Madrid, then Southampton before their elimination to the eventual champions.

Both Celtic and Rangers suffered elimination in the group stages, disappointingly.

Arsenal became the first ever winners of the Europa Conference League, beating Gent 2-0 in the final. They actually finished second in the group stage, behind Portuguese side, Moreirense, who won all 6 league games. Arsenal progressed with 10 points from the 6 games and just a +3 for goal difference. They did however get revenge, beating Moreirense 2-0 on aggregate in the second knockout round. They progressed from the semi-finals via an away goal against big spending, Hertha Berlin.

Man Utd comfortably beat Wolves 2-0 with a Mason Greenwood double to win the Carabao Cup.

The current Premier League table shows its currently a two horse race between the Manchester clubs, with Liverpool 7 points off Utd and 6 off City.

Just six points separate Liverpool in 3rd and Wolves in 7th, and only another 3 to Arsenal in 8th. 9 points then separate Arsenal in 8th all the way down to Fulham in 14th. Huddersfield look doomed with zero wins all season and 5 draws and an appalling 5 points in total. It's likely to be 2 teams from Aston Villa in 15th, down to Norwich in 19th, with just 3 points separating those positions. Everton, Leicester and Bournemouth are the clubs between Villa and Norwich who could also face relegation.

Champions League First Knockout Round Draw

Worldwide January Transfers

Pau Torres - Villarreal to Hertha Berlin for £55 million

Raphael Guerreiro - Dortmund to Atletico Madrid for £47.5 million

Ismael Bennacer - AC Milan to Man City for £45.5 million

Renato Sanches - Lille to Chelsea for £41 million

Carlos Soler - Chelsea to Bayern Munich for £36.5 million

Owen Wijndal - AZ to Man Utd for £33.5 million

John Stones - Man City to Atletico Madrid for £30.5 million

Reiss Nelson - Arsenal to AC Milan for £24.5 million

Lys Mousset - Sheffield United to Stuttgart for £24.5 million

Andrej Kramaric - Hoffenheim to Hertha Berlin for £24.5 million

Andreas Pereira - Man Utd to Inter Milan for £21 million

Ross Barkley - Chelsea to Roma for £12.75 million

Kieran Trippier - Atletico Madrid to Ajax for £8.5 million

Recent Managerial Changes

Gennaro Gattuso - Leicester Manager, replacing Alvaro Arbeloa

Brendan Rodgers - Aston Villa Manager, replacing Dean Smith

Chris Hughton - Everton Manager, replacing Eddie Howe

Igor Tudor - Fulham Manager, replacing Jess Thorup

January Transfer Window

In a quiet window by my standards, our Ins were mainly about recruiting players on loan as cover, alongside a couple of prospects.

Jens Petter Hauge comes in mainly as cover for the left side, but can also cover the right side too. This allowed me to let Jesse Lingard go to Basel, Lingard wasn't getting the game time, plus was forcing a move, so for the first time in the save, I sold a player at a loss for what i paid. Hauge has only played 1 game for Milan this season, which is actually his only appearance for the club, so he's slowly getting game time off the bench.

Nathan Ferguson looks a real prospect, altho right now is only brought in for the same reason as Hauge - to act as cover and to replace a player who forced a move away, this time it was another summer signing in James Tarkowski, who's gone out on loan to Lens, earning us a small fee for the loan move.

Nicolo Rovella comes in as the third loan player to replace an outgoing wantaway player, this time in place of Isaac Hayden, who left for Crystal Palace for £7.25million. He is least likely of the three loanees to get game time, with Moriba, Willock, Sandry and Matty Longstaff ahead of him.

Conor Gallagher is a player i've seen play this season for Palace in real life and really like the look of him, and with Chelsea having a ridiculous amount of unwanted centre midfielders currently in their squad, including Ross Barkley and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, I thought i'd nab Gallagher for dirt cheap while I can, costing me just £2.5million and loaning him to Swansea for the rest of the campaign to get some games under his belt before I look at him again in the summer and see if he's worth a chance in the first team.

I've gotta be honest, I've never heard of this guy, but my scouts were raving about him and for £4million, I thought I'd take a risk. He's scored 16 in 42 in Switzerland so far in the game, and loaned out to Benfica for the rest of the season, he's so far scored 4 in 7 games, so I'm thinking he could really push for a role next season alongside Luis Suarez, Callum Wilson and probably a returning Sebastiano Esposito, whos been brilliant for Celtic, as seem below:

After the Watford game, we went to Old Trafford against title contenders, Man Utd, in the EFL Cup Quarter Final. We started terribly, going behind within 3 minutes to a Bruno Fernandes strike, which was followed by a Cristiano Ronaldo double, either side of half time. Altho the possession was right down the middle with a 50%/50% split, we were thoroughly outplayed, and only a Luis Suarez consolation late into extra time was anything positive to take away from the loss.

Another disappointing loss followed that, away at Leeds Utd, again going behind to an early goal, this time a 7th minute Diego Llorente strike. This game was back and forth, with us then equalising through a Ryan Fraser goal in the 16th minute, before allowing them to regain the lead with Stuart Dallas netting in the 30th minute. Fraser then equalised for a second time in the 38th minute, before finally, Leeds £28.5million new boy, Ianis Hagi nicked a winner, fairly early into the game, in the 51st minute. We did push and push for a 3rd goal but to no avail as Leeds defence stood strong and held out for the win.

Next up was yet another away tie, this time visiting Villa Park against a struggling Aston Villa side, who actually sacked Dean Smith after this 2-1 win for us. This time it was our turn to score early, through another goal for hitman Luis Suarez. Morgan Sanson equalised for Villa in the 63rd minute before a Callum Wilson strike was ruled out in the 80th minute as we pushed for a winner late on. A slice of luck won us the 3 points, as Ezri Konsa deflected a shot into his own net in the 84th minute and sealed his now ex-managers fate.

Brendan Rodgers took the reigns at Villa not long after the sacking of Dean Smith. He had been out of work for almost a year, after his Leicestersacking in January 2021.

After the Villa win, we rounded out 2021 with a comfortable win over Wolves, who are rivalling us for the european spots. More early goals with a rare goal for Benoit Badiashile in the 4th minute, followed up by a 8th minute goal for Luis Suarez. We defended well throughout and it was a relatively easy victory, with Wolves only having 1 shot on target all game.

An FA Cup match on New Years Day kicked off 2022, and in a rather bland match, we edged 10 man Southampton 1-0 with a slightly second string side. They faced an uphill battle when their captain, James Ward-Prowse received a straight red in the 53rd minute. Again we defended well, not allowing Southampton a shot on target, but we did struggle to break them down too, with a late 85th minute goal from Jesse Lingard the difference. Lingard has been a bit-part player and maybe a mistake to sign him, he's pushing for a move away in January.

Travelling to Brentford, we expected to take all 3 points, and looked well on course to do so, going into the last 10 minutes of the game 2-0 up through goals from Allen Saint-Maximin and Thiago Almada. Unfortunately we fell apart and conceded a goal in the 81st minute, then a 94th minute goal from Saman Ghoddos, who was such a bit-part player that he was sent to Brighton in the Championship just 8 days later, in an exchange deal for Joel Veltman.

A Callum Wilson penalty and Luis Suarez goal earned us a 2-0 win over Southampton next, before we fell to a 2-1 loss to Everton at Goodison Park. Lucas Digne put them ahead in the 5th minute before Saint-Maximin equalised, before a 83rd minute Sigurdsson strike killed off the game.

The next result came out of nowhere, a 6-0 hammering of title challengers, Chelsea, who themselves were coming off a 5-0 win over Brentford. 4-0 up until the 90th minute, before Callum Wilson notched his second then third in two minutes for a great hat trick. Denzel Dumfries also got his first goal for the club since his loan move from Inter.

The high of that 6-0 win over Chelsea didn't last long, as we were then knocked out of the FA Cup by Aston Villa. We dominated possession, had the most shots but had a Ryan Fraser goal ruled out in the 86th minute to round off a miserable day in Birmingham.

We continued out bipolar form, by holding title contenders, Man City to a 2-2 draw. We were 2-0 down before the 78th minute through a Gabriel Jesus double, but goals from Callum Wilson and Brazillian Wonderkid Sandry, his first for the club, earned a point at home. City had a 93rd minute winner from Ferran Torres ruled out to add to their woes.

:O

Roberto Mancini becomes Spurs 4th manager in under 2 years, following on from Jose Mourinho, Nuno Espirito Santo and Zinedine Zidane.

So starting off October with a 5-0 hammering away at Leicester wasn't ideal, neither was paying for all the travelling fans tickets and travel, as seen in my last post, so we move swiftly on with a comfortable win at home against struggling Huddersfield, and another brace for Luis Suarez. Jonjo Shelvey had a mixed game in his return to St. James Park, getting an assist, before a late second yellow earned him his marching orders.

After that, we faced our toughest fixture in our Champions League group, away in Turin against Juventus, and managed a sneaky snatch and grab 3 points, courtesy of a 87th min goal from Suarez.

We then went on a nice little 3 game streak to end out October, with 3 wins, 6 goals and 3 clean sheets, but surprisingly zero goals for Luis Suarez! He did have one ruled out by VAR in the West Ham game, which luckily didn't effect the result. Thiago Almada missed a penalty in the game against Birmingham, and I thought we were heading for extra time and more minutes for my players to get through, before Antony stepped up in the 91st minute to send us through.

November had another bad start, with Juventus beating us at home through a Paulo Dybala penalty. Followed up by a battering from the reigning champions at Anfield.

A return to St. James Park to welcome Norwich was a much better performance, storming to a 3-0 lead until the 88th minute, where we then saw 3 goals in 7 minutes, including a 95th min pen for them. A brace each for Suarez and Almada sent the fans home happy.

A back and forth game against Dynamo Kiev was up next - they went ahead, we equalised, then they regained the lead, only for that man Suarez to equalise, leaving us with a tense end to the group.

Fulham next, and a clean sheet and a disallowed Luis Suarez goal, those two seem to go together a lot! An Antony strike and a late Ryan Fraser goal settled the match.

December started with 2 draws in a row, against Spurs and Man Utd in fairly bland games.

Following that was another real rollercoaster in our final group game in the Champions League, where numerous times during the 90 mins we were in and out of the next round of the competition. I'll leave the screenshot below to show how mad this game was:

Onto the knockout stages of the Champions League we go…..

After this game we welcomed Watford, who have been flying in the league, currently sitting joint 5th on 27 points in 17 games. We struggled to break them down, and after bringing on Matias Arezo late on in the 83rd min for his first league appearance of the season, he stepped up and bagged a late late winner in the 94th minute with the last kick of the game!

As it stands, the league is massively open, with CIty being 6 points off the top with 2 games in hand on Man Utd and 1 on Chelsea. Below that just 6 points seperate us in 4th, down to Spurs in 12th. Huddersfield look doomed and have already sacked their manager and brought in Newcastle favourite, Jon Dahl Tomasson.

Just thought i'd post City's form this season, to show how entertaining watching them must've been, whether they win or lose, theres often masses of goals, with a 6-3 loss followed by a 5-3 win back to back being a highlight. 

They're often mocked for their easy cup draws in real life, but I think drawing Genoa, Red Star and Hartberg in the Europa takes the biscuit.

October didn't start too well….

August

The season got off to a brilliant start with a 5-2 victory over Brentford, including a Luis Suarez hat-trick on his debut.

Wolves followed, and we took the lead thru another new signing in Antony, before Conor Coady pegged up back in the 82nd minute, before Luis Suarez scored again and looked like getting us all 3 points, but Andre Horta popped up in the 92nd minute to cancel that and we walked away with just a point.

Next up was Southampton, and despite having 16 shots, we couldn't break them down, for a 0-0 draw in a rather bland match.

The next match against Everton was far from bland, with a Luis Suarez brace earning us all 3 points. Benoit Badiashile received a straight red, whilst Everton had 5 yellow cards of their own in a heated match. Everton also lost Lucas Digne and Jean-Philippe Gbamin to late injuries. Again we battered the opposition, this time having 24 shots and 63% of possession against the struggling Toffees.

September

September started with a disappointing, yet expected loss to high flying Chelsea, who had took 10 points from a possible 12 in their first 4 games, with Lukaku scoring 3 goals and new signing Nicolo Zaniolo scoring 4 goals and was their top scorer at the time.  Somehow we managed to put in 27 fouls in the game and only pick up 4 yellow cards. We were strong in the first half, but went behind to a Lukaku strike in the 63rd minute, before Timo Werner sealed the 3 points for Chelsea in the 85th minute.

It was off to Ukraine next to take on Dynamo Kiev in our first Champions League game in a very long time. We returned to the competition with an emphatic 4-0 win, and another hat-trick for Luis Suarez, aswell as an own goal.

Another stalemate followed, but this time one i'd take if offered prior to the game, against Arsenal. We actually dominated them and had 22 shots on goal and a disallowed goal for Ilaix Moriba, aswell as 61% possession, so in reality, 0-0 was flattering to them.

I tactically looked into my next run of games, 3 games in 7 days and determined that the Man City game was the throwaway game of the 3, nestled in the middle, so decided to put out full strength in the two cup games and backups for the City game. 

We battered Watford 5-2 to advance to the 4th round of the EFL Cup. Joe Willock managed to get booked within a minute of kick off, then it got worse when we went 1-0 in the 25th minute. Suarez equalised in the 32nd minute before we went behind again 2 minutes later. Just 5 minutes after the second half kicked off we were 3-2 up and then goals in the 63rd and 64th minute, both from Ryan Fraser, sealed the victory. Allen Saint-Maximin had a goal disallowed in the 91st minute after Adam Masina was sent off for Watford in the 79th minute. Just 3 games before this game, Watford battered Man City 6-3 in a massive upset.

The inevitable loss to Man City followed for us, as we fielded our second string. We conceded in the 1st and 4th minute but looked like getting back into the game with a Callum Wilson goal in the 18th minute, before that was ruled out for offside, VAR has really done us over this season in only a couple of months of competitive football. City were 3-0 up by half time but we managed to earn a little bit of respect back by holding out for the rest of the game and keeping them to 3 goals.

Porto were up next in our first home Champions League tie. And again VAR proved a factor, as it was 0-0 until the 85th minute, before Callum Wilson came off the bench to score, only to see it ruled out. Saint-Maximin then thought he'd bagged the winner in the 87th minute, only to have that ruled out too!

Transfer Window Premier League Roundup

Not the hardest Champions League group i've ever seen, hoping we can at least qualify for the next round, but at worst, drop into the Europa