craigd123 - Comments

Three Lions

This next update is about my first Pre-Season with the club and my early transfers, first lets look at my pre-season results:



Not a too bad pre-season, assistant manager took charge of all the games with some highs such as winning the Anfield Cup after beating Sevilla 3-0 in the semi-final. But lows such as disappointing 1-0 defeats against our 2 toughest opponents Espanyol and Werder Bremen, ultimately not a lot was learned from these meaningless friendlies. Now onto the exciting part of Transfers; I will start with our outs:



Decent transfers in regards to our sales, 3 of our 4 transfer listed players were sold and all for the asking prices. First local Central Midfielder Jay Spearing joined West Ham for £2.7 Million, not bad for a player who cost nothing. Then experienced winger Stewart Downing joined in-experienced Southampton for £7.5 Million and finally Martin Skirtel joined P$G for a cool £9.5 Million. We are still waiting to sell Sebastian Coates. However the biggest news of our sales in the departure of Lucas Leiva to Barcelona for £22 Million, Lucas wasn't a player I planned on selling but due the strength of CM's and our need for a rw I decided that £22 Million was a good deal and Lucas was allowed to leave. Also promising youngsters such as Dani Pacheco, Conor Coady and Adam Morgan all being allowed to leave in Loan Deals. Now onto our arrivals:



As you can see not a lot of Arrivals, however I have secured 2 quality British player with huge potentials, and with another big deal in the pipeline it could turn out to be a exciting summer for Liverpool, lets go through each transfer in detail.



My biggest transfer so far, costing the club £19.75 Million, however I believe that this could eventually be a bargain as he has such a promising future and could be a first team regular for the next 10 years. He fits into the clubs playing style and should make a excellent centre back partner for Daniel Agger. His Heading, Tackling, Strength and Bravery attributes all high which is important for a centre back. He should also pop up with important goals from corners.



My second and so far only other transfer is Aaron Ramsey from rivals Arsenal for £15 Million. The young welsh star has a huge future and should play well with and eventually replace Steven Gerrard as Centre Mid. He will fit well into the clubs playing style and is home grown which is always important. His high passing, technique and work rate attributes will all help for him to be a important central midfielder for us, I am also expecting a few goals from him. So how will our signing fit into the team:



This is my current strongest team and with a £30 Million budget I'm sure you will agree that a rw is the area that needs improving the most with potentially a left back budget permitting, but if you have any other suggestions as to how I could improve my team then I would be happy to hear them. So what are the fixtures for august like?



As you can see the matches ths month aren't too challenging and hopefully we can get 3 wins our of 3 but as we all know, football is never that simple.

After starting a few careers that never really got going I have decided to have one last crack at a Career, I will be starting as my favourite big club, Liverpool. I will be looking to try and get the Reds back to the Champions League, with the eventual aim of winning the Prem for the first time since 1990 and entering a Alex Ferguson style dominance. Here's the manager I will be attempting it with:



As you can see this challenge will be made harder by the fact that I have just Sunday League reputation, also you may notice that Hartlepool are my favoured club this is because they are my local and most favourite club, Liverpool are the big club I support. I have already said what my aims are for the career, and here are the Boards



So the first thing you may notice is that I have only been offered a one year deal so I'll have to impress in my debut season. The board expect Europa League football and I think we should be able to comfortably get that, I will be aiming for Champions League but would settle for Europa League due to it being my first season as a inexperienced manager. So what type of Players do I have at my disposal.



I have downloaded a update so all current transfers are up to date. I have decided to Transfer List Martin Skirtel, Sebastian Coates and Stewart Downing as they are not important first team players and I can get a good fee for them. Areas I will be looking to strengthen in my First window will be Centre Back and Centre Midfielder as a Priority and maybe a Left back if the Budget allows it.

This is really interesting and you can tell you've worked reall hard on it! Keep it up!

Emulation

This challenge is that I will try to emulate some of the greatest teams in the History of Football. Everyone has there own opinion of what is the greatest club side in History, is the Manchester United side of 1999, the Barcelona side of recent years or the Real Madrid side of the 1960's. For the first part of the challenge I will be taking over at Ajax to recreate the total football.

What is Total Football?
Total Football is the tactic created by Rinus Michels, a famous Dutch manager who took charge of Ajax and Holland during this successful time. Total Football involves all players in the team, apart from the goalkeeper, being able to switch around, attackers will have to be defenders and vice-versa.

How successful was it?
By using total football, Ajax won 3 League championships in a row with this tactic, but even more impressive was that they won 3 European championships a row using it as well. The Dutch national team also came runners up in 1974 world cup using Total Football.

Ajax Now
Ajax now are in a position where they have just won there 3rd league in a row and things are looking good on a domestic front, however they failed to make it out of the group stages in the champions league, and it will take a huge effort for Ajax to win the Champions League once, never mind three times in a row.


This is my version of the total football tactic, although the original total formation did not have a particular formation the closest it would of been is this, I have set it to very fluid to help to re-create the total football tactic. These are the current players I will be using, but I will be looking to strengthen the squad with a couple of transfers.


As you can see my current Transfer budget is £10.4 Million, this should enable me to improve a few positions, although this is not enough to enable me to win the champions league, it should be enough for me to sort out the weak links in my team, I would like to sign a Centre-Back, a Central-Midfielder and a Striker

My Aim

My aim will be to win 3 league championships in a row, but the most important aim of the challenge will be to win 3 champions league in a row while using total football tactic.

!Making the Norwegian Premier League the best in the world!

So basically I was getting bored of FM 2013 and I needed a new challenge so I decided I would try and make a average league the best in the world, the country I decided to manage in was Norway. This challenge is not about how my team performs but how the League performs, so where is the Norwegian Premier League currently in the world:

As you can see it is currently 2 and a half star, so 2 stars behind the current top league the English Premier League. We currently have the same reputation as many leagues, including the Swedish Top League and the npower league 1, so it's going to be tough and take a long time to be the best league in the world.
Basic Preview of the League:
The Tippeligaen was founded in 1937 and has its name because of their main sponsor, Norsk Tipping, which is the one and only allowed sports betting company in Norway. The league has only been professional for the last 21 years.
The Football league of Norway differs from the ordinary league system in Europe, as it started 15th of March, and ends in the middle of November 2013. Before we get the final result of Tippeligaen 2013, the 16 clubs will play 30 matches each (league of 30 rounds). The final round will be played 10. November 2013. Rounds played during the weekends are broken up into one game on Saturdays, six games on Sundays and one game on Mondays. Midweek rounds are broken up into six games on Wednesdays and one game on Thursdays.
Rosenborg Ballklubb aka RBK is the most championships of the Norwegian Premier League, 22 championships in total, who recorded 13 championships between 1992 and 2005. The second team is Fredrikstad Fotball Klubb, with 9 wins. Fredrikstad is now located in the first division Adeccoligaen. Viking is the second best club, who plays in the Tippeligaen today, but are ranked third behind Fredrikstad on the overall Championship ranking.

So which club will I manage?
The team I will manage is Valerenga, nicknamed Enga, I chose this team as they are the only club in the NPL (Norwegian Premier League) that are based in Oslo, the Capital of Norway.


Not the greatest transfer budget but a decent wage budget which means I should be able to bring in a couple of players capeable of doing a job in the NPL and possibly in Europe

This is the new challenge I will be doing, I will manage Man City but I will only sign British Players and I will sell all players who are not british, I will do th same for staff. First of all here is the manager I will be doing it as; Chubby former Man City Wonderkid Michael Johnson



This is what my squad and staff look like after my 1st Day in charge:



And Finnaly my Transfer Budget:

I've gotten bored of this already, may start a new one soon if I find the right team, suggestions would be welcome

I would prefer a International team

Yeah, I'll be playing a 3-4-3 so there will be no Left-Back

Cheers again Mate

Promosing English Left-Back Keiran Gibbs has joined Aston Villa on a season-long loan, in which Villa will pay 100% of his wages. This transfer leaves Arsenal with no left-backs so it remains to be seen who Bergkamp will buy to replace Andre Santos and Gibbs. The 22 year-old Gibbs has had injury problems over the last 12 months, it is believed that Bergkamp wants to see wheather he is good enough to compete in the Premier League.

Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert had this to say on the Loan Transfer "Keiran is a fantastic player and I think every Arsenal fan relieases what a big transfer this is for the club, to get a player of Keiran's Quality for a year will help us in our battle to stay in the Premier League, we will send him back to Arsenal as a stronger player."

In other news relating to Arsenal 24 year-old third choice goalkeeper Vito Mannone has left the club to join Dusseldorf on a four year contract, the transfer fee is undisclosed but believed to be around £1.1 Million. This leaves Arsenal with only One recognized goalkeeper, so Bergkamp will have to buy someone in this position.

Arsenal have announcded the sales of Lukasz Fabianski and Andre Santos to Gladback and Malage respectively. Former Arsenal & Poland Number 2 joins Borussia Monchengladback for £2.2 Million and Brazilian Left-Back joins Malaga for £3.5 Million. Both players where obviously surplus to requirements with new manager Dennis Bergkamp.

Both Players were subject to critism from some Arsenal fans over the last couple of seasons with both players failing to impress. Fabianski was number two to Wojech Szczensy, with Santos rotating with Keiran Gibbs for the Left-Back posistion. Arsenal are believed to have an intrest in Blackburn Goalkeeper Jake Kean to replace Fabianski but it is not known wheather Bergkamp has a replecement lined up for Santos.

Bergkamp had this to say on the players sales "I would like to thank Lukasz and Andre for there contribution to Arsenal, however I have no room for them in my first team, so it was best for all parties if they left the club as soon as possible, we feel we got a fair price for both players and we are now looking at which players to bring in to improve the current squad"

After a successful playing career at the club Dennis Bergkamp has been confirmed as Arsenal manager and in his first press conference confirmed that there will be a lot of change at the club. When asked by Sky Sports Jim Smith what would change Bergkamp had this to say "Well first of all, I will be getting rid of all the players who don't have the ability to play for Arsenal, replacing them with players who are, I also have different training methods to the previous manager, and a few other things will change but they are the most important."

When asked, by a BBC Journalist, wheather he thaught he was good enough for the job, Bergkamp had this to say "Do you think the board would of appointed me if I wasn't? I learned under great managers as a player and my most recent spell at Ajax has helped me a lot."

When asked what his transfer strategy was he replied "Well I will of course look at players who are good enough for arsenal to start with, but I will also be looking at young players and players from the Lower Leagues in England" When asked by a Sun Journalist what style of play he would play he had this to say "I want the club to play passing football that will please the fans, I also have a formation thats new to the english game but I think it will work very well.

Ajax assisant manager could become Arsenal's new Gaffer.

Former Arsenal player Dennis Bergkamp has began talks to become Arsenal's New Manager

More to follow ...

Former Arsenal Defender Sol Campbell believes a new manager with new ideas is needed.

Former England International Sol Campbell believes that the Arsenal Board should be looking to appoint a new manager with new and fresh ideas; "Arsenal need a new manager with fresh ideas, something needs to change at the club, they need to stop selling there best players and they need to sign some world-class players" he said in a interview excluesively on Sky Sports News.

When asked on what went wrong for Arsene Wenger, Campbell had this to say "I think it was his stubborness, he refused to spend a lot of money even when it needed to be spent, plus he put his faith in players who were not good enough to challenge for trophies. Arsenal have been going down-hill for a long time now and Arsene has done nothing to stop the rot, thats why he's been fired"

And when he was asked what the new manager needed to do he gave us this answear "First of all he needs to get rid of all the deadwood thats at the club, eating away at the wagebill then he needs to strengthen the squad, a new defence would be handy, aswell as a central defender and some players who can score goals"

Cheers Mate

After Seven seasons without a trophy the arsenal board have finnally lost patience with long-serving manager Arsene Wenger.

After 15 years of loyal service the 62 year-old french man has been fired as manager of the north-london club. Fans had been calling for the managers sacking for several seasons after watching there club go longer and longer without a trophy. A statment on the Arsenal Website said "We are saddened to announce that the board have have decided to terminate the contract of Arsene Wenger." It went on to say "Arsene has been incredibly loyal over the last 15 years but after Seven seasons without a trophy his position became untenable." "We will never forget what Arsene did for this club but there becomes a time when loyality can only count for so much and we hope that the next manager will hopefully win a trophy for the great club"

No-One really knows but the early bookmakers favourite is long-serving Everton manager David Moyes, who hasn't won a trophy with Everton in Ten seasons, aswell as Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho, PSG boss Carlo Ancelotti and Lyon boss Remi Garde. Arsenal legends Dennis Bergkamp, Tony Adams and Steve Bould are also contenders with the bookies for the job, as is un-known manager Dragan Stojkovic who Arsene Wenger has said he would like to take over the club.

Arsene Wenger has also released a short statement in which he announced his sadness at leaving the club but that he understood the boards decision, it read " I am saddened that the board have decided to terminate my contract but I undertsand why they made the decision. Seven seasons without a trophy for a club as big as Arsenal really is unnaceptable and I hold no grudge against the Board, the fans or the new manager, whoever that may be"

If you do take the England Job then you must consider giving Luke James & Craig Dawson there full international Debuts

I'm a season ticket holder at Hartlepool and Luke James is a fantastic player, I would pick him more often