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#368847 Stop The Drop Part 2
Jon Harrod
Kind of, but I'm hoping to stay here for a few seasons, as long as the board let me!
#368845 Stop The Drop Part 2
Jon Harrod
Goalkeepers
Valdes is currently injured for a week and Guzan is leaving at the end of the season. Konstantopoulos is 38 years old, and there is no youth prospect of note.
Defenders
The defence doesn't really look that bad. With Chambers on loan for the season, we also have Bernardo, Friend, Barragan, Gibson, Ayala and Fabio. Dael Fry is the best young player we have, a 19 year old DC.
Midfield
Adama Traore is the stand out talent here. We seem to be blessed with wingers, but lack quality in the middle past Guedioura. So this need to be a priority once the window opens. As for prospects, we have Marc Roca on loan but no option to buy and Callum Cooke, currently on loan at Crewe.
Forwards
We have an optional fee of £8.6m on Negredo, but he's 31 so I'm unlikely to take it up. New signings Gestede and Bamford aren't great. Rhodes is better but is out on loan.
Looking at the league table, we have problems at both ends of the pitch. Only Sunderland have scored less goals than us. They are also the only team to have conceded more. But they've won a game so are 2 points ahead of us. I'm going to start off using a 43(dm)3 formation, and see how we get on. My best team would be as follows.
#368835 Stop The Drop Part 2
Jon Harrod
Basically, I'm starting with a Continental C License and as a Professional Footballer (Local Level).
Steve Gibson expects me to develop players using the clubs youth system.
We have a transfer budget of £20m, so I should be able to make a couple of signings come January.
We are expected to avoid relegation and reach the 4th round of the FA Cup (We have Man Utd in the 3rd round). We are already out of the EFL Cup.
For some reason, we have 6 fitness coaches and no general coaches so this will be my first change.
I have chosen to leave George Friend as captain and Ben Gibson as vice captain.
My first match is a Wear-Tees derby, at home to Sunderland this weekend.
#368833 Stop The Drop Part 2
Jon Harrod
This is why Karanka got sacked...
So I will be taking over at Middlesbrough rooted to the bottom of the league without a win so far this season. Currently 11 points from safety. This should be a challenge.
#368829 Stop The Drop Part 2
Jon Harrod
Currently, there are no insecure jobs in the Premier League. So it will be a waiting game
#368813 Stop The Drop Part 2
Jon Harrod
The plan here is to start a career by trying to save a team in the English Premier League from relegation and then seeing where it takes me.
I have the following leagues loaded: England, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Scotland, China, Mexico, USA, Argentina and Brazil.
The plan is to holiday until the beginning of December, and then take over at the next club to sack their manager as long as they are fighting relegation (bottom 5 or so depending on the points gap). Then hopefully we'll get the january transfer window to make some changes.
I should also point out that I've started the game using the latest data update, so all January signings from real life are at their respective clubs.
#368812 Stop the Drop
Jon Harrod
I've found an issue that means I'm going to need to restart this career. I've just realised that my Monster database is running. I must have forgotten to turn it off when I started my career. I only realised when my scout came back with a player from Argentinos Monsters. This probably explains why LA Galaxy are on their 5th manager and how Michael Essien ended up playing for Oldham...
I'll be starting a new thread with my new career shortly. It will follow the same premise, but I'll probably end up with a worse team this time! Let's see how it goes
#368722 Stop the Drop
Jon Harrod
I didn't want to push things too much. But I've told my players we're aiming to qualify for Europe, so I've said the same to the board.
We're 7th favourites for the league coming in at 30-1. I'd be happy with a 7th place finish, but I'll probably need better to succeed with my European qualification aims.
Apparently none of my players are likely to win top goalscorer... We'll see. Lukaku came second last season, so if my new strikers (more below) can hit the ground running, there's a chance.
Transfer Update
I picked up Andone (£20m) and Origi (£15.25m). I am trying to offload Doumbia though as I am struggling with the Home Grown rule.
I've replaced Caceres with Callum Chambers and let Ashley Williams leave. I brought in Guilherme Siqueira as a back up left back, but I'm going to struggle to register him. So I may try and loan him out and keep Baines.
I picked up Cabaye on a free as he's better than Cleverley and also brought in Gabriel Jesus on loan. He's U21 and can play in a variety of positions
#368571 Stop the Drop
Jon Harrod
So I have some money to spend, but apart from a striker (or 2) what do I need? Lets work from the back.
GK - No problems here
DL/WBL - Baines is now my back up to Galloway as he's getting old and is past his best. He has a testimonial coming up, but I would be willing to let him go if I can get a replacement. I also don't really have a promising player here.
DR/WBR - Similar to the left. Coleman is fine as first choice, but I'm relying on a 31 yr old Caceres as back up. I do have a couple of promising youngsters though.
DC - I've just spent £17.5m on Nico Elvedi, and along with Keane, St. Juste and Mbemba, I should have enough cover. This means that Williams could be moved on. I have a couple of youngsters coming through.
DM/MC/AMC - I rarely use a DM or AM, but feel its always good to have players that can play there available in the squad. Melo is passed his best, but is still useful as a DM and can also play DC. Imbula can drop back to DM too, as can Sturaro. I have no problems in the middle of the park, with Barkley added to the list and Yaya Toure still able to do a job, even at 35. I'm open to offers for Cleverley, but won't be actively trying to sell him. As far as AMs go, Barkley can play there and Vada has developed well.I also have Tarashaj, who I think makes a better AM than a striker.
ML/AML - Bergwijn has improved a lot over the 6 months since he joined, while Nuno Santos has been disappointing and can leave if I can find a replacement. Jacobs is my main youth prospect here.
MR/AMR - Mirallas has turned 30 now, and with Man City interested, I would sell for the right price. Bolasie is almost fit and I have Burke too.
ST - I made Zivkovic's loan permanent, but he's not really good enough yet to lead the line. Doumbia is ok, but nothing special, and I have a few kids that are a season or 2 off of breaking through.
Targets
I need at least a backup if not first choice for both full back positions. I also need a backup ML/AML and at least 1 striker, if not 2.
I have had bids accepted for Florin Andone and Divock Origi (Now at Atletico). They are both under 25 and would lead my line well if I can agree contracts with them.
My most likely DR is Calum Chambers, although I'm also keeping an eye on Felix Passlack and Jonny.
For DL, Tyrone Mings is transfer listed and would be a useful backup. Charlie Taylor (now at Hull) is also on my radar.
There are some interesting transfer listed options for a rotational left winger, including Sofiane Boufal and Samir Nasri. There's also Andreas Pereira I don't want to overspend on someone that will only be 2nd choice.
I'll try not to sign anyone else. I have a bad habit of getting carried away during transfer windows... If some 4/5 star potential kids come along though, it would be rude to ignore them.
#368557 Stop the Drop
Jon Harrod
So I gave in and let Lukaku leave and head to Man City. I got an initial £50m with another possible £12m in add ons. This means that I now have £125m available to spend. But I'm taking my time over choosing a replacement.
Phil Neville has also left as my assistant manager. Ryan Giggs got given the Swansea job and took Phil as his assistant. I've replaced him with another Man Utd legend, Jaap Stam. He's been out of work for more than a year since leaving Reading.
The only signing made of note so far this window is Oliver Burke. His career seems to have gone downhill, since joining RB Leipzig, Hull picked him up for just £3.5m and now I've taken him for £1.5m. He's still only 21 though and I think I can get quite a bit out of him.
A few other players have arrived but they are just newgens with half decent potential.
#368460 Stop the Drop
Jon Harrod
So I end the league campaign with defeat to Bristol City and a draw with United.
However, as was always bound to happen after my crash issue, I went on to win the FA Cup...
The poor league ending meant that we finished 9th in the league. But seeing as I agreed a top half finish with the board, everybody's happy.
Liverpool won the league on goal difference, despite losing their last game, as Man City failed to win by enough.
Man Utd won the EFL Cup, which gave an extra Europa spot to the league, but then Tottenham went and won the Champions League, meaning that 7th place West Ham still get European football.
The board decided to spend a bit of money at the end of the season and will be increasing the capacity at Goodison!
Current capacity is 39k, and they were going to increase this to 43k. However, they decided this wouldn't be enough and finally they have plans for a 50,000 seater stadium!
The clubs end of season awards gave player of the year to Lukaku
This was no real surprise as he got 26 goals and 11 assists in the 39 games he played.
Speaking of Lukaku, he came to me after the final league game to remind me that he'd be leaving as we failed to qualify for the Champions League. However, after the FA Cup win, he withdrew his request stating that he was now happy to stay. He is wanted by Chelsea, Tottenham, Man City and Bayern, so we'll see what happens if any of those make a bid.
Due to new sponsorship deals and decent prize money this season, the board seem happy to spend money. They have given me an initial transfer budget of £82.5m I really don't know what I'm going to do with all that money!
#368437 Stop the Drop
Jon Harrod
April is over and there are just 2 league games remaining. Here's what happened this month.
The first game against Stoke was a nightmare! We hit the woodwork 5 times, while Jack Butland put in a man of the match performance.
As you can see, we won our FA Cup semi-final. How should I feel about this? We'll be facing Chelsea in the final who aren't having a good season in the league.
In our last game against Swansea, Seamus Coleman picked up his 15th yellow card of the season. This means he will miss the last 2 league games and the cup final.
As far as the league goes, we sit 7th, 3 points behind West Ham in 5th and 4 points behind Man Utd in 4th. We play United in our last game of the season, so if they slip up in their next match, it could prove decisive.
There are going to be staff changes at the end of the season, with Joe Royle, my Head of Youth Development (and Everton legend) retiring, along with a couple of my scouts. I'm currently putting together a shortlist of potential candidates.
In other staffing news, the board offered me a new contract!
Which I accepted as long as the board agreed to improve our youth facilities. As one of my philosophies is to develop players using the clubs youth system, they couldn't really say no.
I wish they'd stop going on about that Tottenham match though... It's starting to haunt me
#368408 Stop the Drop
Jon Harrod
So March has been and gone. Wewon 2 out of 3 league games.
Unfortunately, the defeat to Palace has put us in an awkward position as far as European qualification goes.
We now sit 7th, 2 points of of 5th and 4 points off of 4th. If we'd won that game, it would have been just 1 point!
After last months youth intake, I scoured other Premier League clubs to see if I could steal any of their new youth players. The board agreed to increase my wage budget after the new sponsorship deal (which I converted to transfer budget) and managed to sign the following for minimal compensation.
They all have a minimum 3* potential according to my 19/20 JP scouts. So I'm hoping it becomes money well spent.
The bottom 3 are all retiring this summer and will join my backroom staff.
The FA Cup is still proving awkward as I know I shouldn't be in it. We've now reached the Semi-Final where we will face West Ham
#368304 Stop the Drop
Jon Harrod
The month started with a bit of a bang, as the board announced a new sponsorship deal.
This pretty much cleared the debt we were in, which is great and meant that I could finally start my next coaching badge! It also meant that the board agreed to increase the size of my coaching team. This saw me hiring Gary Neville to work alongside his brother which I hope will help with defensive coaching, and to help at the other end, I took on the legend that is Teddy Sheringham.
I get a bit nostalgic when hiring staff and if there's a well known former player that has decent staff attributes, I feel obliged to give them a job. To this extent, Iker Casillas will be joining us in the summer when he retires from playing to help out with the goalkeepers.
As far as matches went, the month didn't start quite as well...
After conceding 5 against West Ham, I switched to 3 at the back again. This gave me 3 good results including a win in the Merseyside Derby. Ross Barkley scoring a hat-trick after scoring an own goal early in the match. One of his goals got him second place in goal of the month.
As you can see, we got through in the FA Cup. I'm still not really sure I should be trying in the cup after my previous crash issue, but we have Fulham at home in the Quarter-Final next.
With the MLS being in pre-season, I received an offer from Portland Timbers for Ashley Williams. I would have given this serious consideration had the window been open and I could have signed a replacement, as it was, there was no chance of me selling. I'm guessing he would have been a DP for them, because after I rejected, they made an offer (which has been accepted) for Wayne Rooney.
The end of the month saw youth intake day. The most promising player to arrive at Finch Farm was Russell Skinner.
He's a 6ft 5" target man, and he has me down as one of his favourite personnel.
Swansea sacked Paul Clement this month. They weren't in the relegation zone, but clearly close enough for the owners to panic. They've given the job to David Adams (Formerly their HOYD) on an interim basis.
I should also mention that we are still sitting 9th in the league, now 5 points of 4th, but only 2 points of 5th, so finishing high enough to get European football is still a possibility.
#368081 Stop the Drop
Jon Harrod
Shortly after writing my last post, my laptop crashed. Unfortunately, the game was last saved just before my Tottenham FA Cup match. This meant that I needed to replay that match as well as see out the last few days of the transfer window.
I picked the same team and same formation, however this time, Lukaku didn't get injured (Bolasie still did!) and he scored twice as we won 3-2.
I don't like going through in the cup in this way, but this was out of my control. I have autosave set at 2 weeks, it just didn't reach it. We now face Cardiff in the next round. I kind of hope we don't go on to win the cup now
As a side note, Bolasie was only previously injured for 10 days. He's now damaged cruciate ligaments and will be out for 7-8 months.
Because the last thing I want to do is cheat. I did not take the opportunity to sign a replacement for Bolasie in the few days that the window was open, and will see the season through with what I have.
There were 2 transfers that took place between the crash date and deadline day. I still signed Zivkovic on loan nmd Leitner still went to Malaga on loan with an option to buy
#368059 Stop the Drop
Jon Harrod
Arsenal never came back in for Lukaku, they signed Lacazette for £34.5m instead. I ended up doing more business than I expected to, this is how we ended up.
Looking at the outs first, Moreira was loaned out after I managed to get a WP for Rajkovic, however, he was quickly recalled after Rajkovic picked up a sports hernia that will keep him out for 2 months. Griffiths had become my 4th choice striker, so I was happy to let him go to free up some funds.Leitner has been poor since I signed him in the summer and will be classed as a failed experiment. I wanted to sell him but had no luck, so he's out on loan with an option to buy.
With the in's, they are all young promising players, with the exception of Sturaro. We had him on loan last year, and I couldn't not pick him up for half his value when he got transfer listed. I wanted to sign Zivkovic permanently, but couldn't get the cash together. He has an option to buy, but it's unlikely we'll be able to afford him.
Jacobs is a newgen left winger.
His work rate isn't great, but he should develop nicely.
January ended as it started, with a defeat against Tottenham.
In between though, we had some good results, ignoring the drubbing from Man City. I'm not sure what happened against Arsenal, everything just clicked!
We put up a good fight against Spurs in the FA cup match, but lost Lukaku and Bolasie to injuries inside the first 15 minutes, giving us little room for maneuver later on in the match.
We've slipped to 9th in the league now, now 5 points behind fourth placed West Ham. We play them next though, so a crucial game.
In other news: Leicester sacked Ranieri, with the club in the relegation zone. They have replaced him with Laurent Blanc. Meanwhile Bristol City hired David Wagner to try and save them.
After Lacazette, the biggest transfer in January was Angel Di Maria returning to Manchester, but this time with City.
#367870 Stop the Drop
Jon Harrod
December
Before I get on with how Everton got on, I'll just mention that Roberto Mancini got the Chelsea job, while Alan Pardew was sacked by West Brom (2nd season in a row they sacked the manager half way through). They've replaced him with Lee Johnson from Bristol City, so they now sit 19th and managerless, although Pardew seems to be in the running there.
Only one defeat for us in December, although a run of draws ended the month.
2 of those came against United and Chelsea though, so I can't really complain. We still sit 6th in the league, 2 points behind 4th placed West Ham.
My injury problems when Leighton Baines pulled a hamstring against West Brom, meaning I played almost the whole month without my 2 first choice full backs. Galloway deputised well though and is looking like a decent long term replacement. He even managed to pick up Young Player of the Month.
Coleman has now resumed full training, but Michael Keane has just picked up a sprained ankle which will keep him out for a month.
I've been given the opportunity by the board to change my season expectations of a top half finish, however, the transfer budget increase was negligible, so I opted not to change them.
As I write this, it's the 1st January 2018. Last week, Lukaku came to see me and said he wanted to leave to play Champions League football. I agreed with him that he could leave at the end of the season if we didn't qualify. However, Arsenal have put an offer in on the first day of the window. It's not big enough for me to sell, but I think they might be back and Tottenham are also interested.
Their offer was £23.5m up front and £6.25m in installments over 12 months. There were also payments of £5.75m after 50 games, £2.9m after 20 internationals and £2.9m if they win the FA cup. They were also offering 20% of any profit. If I'm going to sell him, I want more guaranteed money. He is valued at £35.5m after all. And their offer was non-negotiable, I hate those kind of offers.
One player that will hopefully be moving on is Idrissa Gueye. He handed in a transfer request due to lack of game time and Ajax have made an acceptable offer. I don't feel the need to replace him if he goes, unless I can pick up a young kid with potential to eventually replace Carrick when he retires at the end of the season.
#367769 Stop the Drop
Jon Harrod
I have some free time today, so I'm getting through a few months.
November saw the first managerial casualty of the Premier League season. Antonio Conte is sacked with Chelsea sitting 14th in the table. No appointment yet, but the favourite is apparently Marcelino.
As far as our month went, we only had 3 games
I changed to a 343/523 formation and tried to base it as much on Chelsea's real life formation as possible. It gave us 2 solid wins, before we went down to an injury time goal against Stoke. Lukaku seemed to have hit a scoring streak, but he picked up an abdominal strain in training and will now be out for 3 weeks, meaning he could miss the next 4 matches.
Speaking of injuries, we've also lost Coleman for around the same amount of time with a twisted knee.
We're currently sitting 7th in the league, which is ok. 10 points behind Liverpool who are holding onto top spot. We're only 2 points short of 4th though, so we're still in the race for a Champions League spot.
#367764 Stop the Drop
Jon Harrod
So it's still a bit up and down for us.
We can't stop conceding goals. I've tried switching goalkeepers as well as a few tweaks to the instructions, but its not helped. I'm considering doing a Chelsea and going 3 at the back to see if that has any effect.
Blackburn were bottom without a win in 10 games when I played them. I had 26 shots to their 8 and 9 of those were on target, 2 of them being clear cut. So maybe my problems are all over the pitch...
Maybe I'll just start putting my kids out and seeing if they have more passion. Who knows
4 of our next 5 games are at Goodison, so hopefully we can ride this out.
#367650 Stop the Drop
Jon Harrod
After a couple of disappointing games, I replaced Lukaku with Torres, and he proved that he was worth taking a risk on, scoring 5 goals in 2 games.
We currently sit 6th in the league, only 3 points behind Liverpool and Hull who are joint top.
Aside from Torres, Ashley Williams has been putting in solid performances at the back, with an average rating of 7.27 from 6 games. However, we have conceded 16 goals already this season, which is the second worse in the division.It's a good job we are scoring so many!
Some of my fringe players have already started complaining that they aren't playing enough, so I'm probably going to have to implement a better rotation system... Should be fun
#367259 Stop the Drop
Jon Harrod
August started and finished well for us, but we suffered a bit of a blip in the middle that saw us go out of the EFL cup.
I put out a weakened side against Bolton and was punished for it. Good wins against Chelsea and Man City, but I'm not really sure what happened against Spurs.
Melo's goal against Bournemouth won him goal of the month, it was a 30 yard screamer that went in off the underside of the bar. Meanwhile, I came 3rd in Manager of the month.
It's early days, but we currently sit 4th in the table. Hull are top having won 4 from 4, but they've not played any of the bigger teams.
As far as transfers go, I decided to use the rest of my transfer budget to bring in some under 21s, who wouldn't effect the squad registration, but should cheer up the board.
Moreira came in and although he's 21, he wasn't classed as an U21 for registration purposes. This meant I needed to move Robles on as I didn't have enough spaces for both of them. His loan at Villa comes with an option to buy.
I don't think Tarashaj is ever quite going to make it, I was tempted to sell him, but I'll give him another loan spell for now and see if he improves.
Jagielka is now well passed his best, and when an offer came in, I didn't see the point in keeping him around. Carter-Vickers will act as cover and is U21.
No bids came in for Lukaku or Barkley, this means they will be the core of my team this season and I haven't had to worry about them getting unhappy with me for rejecting offers.
I've overhauled my scouting team this pre-season, but have had less luck with my coaches. My board refuse to allow me any more. I only have 9 coaching staff, whereas I have 19 members of the scouting team. I'll leave it a few months and try the board again in an attempt to get it increased.
A quick update on other big money signings...
Man City sign Mo Salah for £36m
Man Utd sell Jesse Lingard to Milan for £26m
Divock Origi leaves Liverpool for Atletico Madrid
Barcelona sign Koke (£87m) and Mario Fernandes (£36.5m)
#367188 Stop the Drop
Jon Harrod
We finish our pre-season with a defeat, but performed well.
We should have held on to our 2 goal lead in the All-Star game. I clearly need to look at how we finish games once we have a lead.
As you can see, I decided in the end to take a punt of Fernando Torres. I just about got away with it within my squad rules, although it was enough to push my board to start complaining that I haven't signed enough young first team players. So any future signings need to be of the younger variety. I may look to bring in 1 or 2 under 21s on loan's with options to buy to sit on my bench, in an attempt to appease them.
Now that I have my squad and tactics sorted, I can look at evolving my back room staff, looking for youth and, if the club ever gets out of debt, doing some coaching badges!
#367149 Stop the Drop
Jon Harrod
So the bookies don't rank me or my players very highly. We come in at 35-1 to win the league, with a predicted finish of 8th. Favourites are Arsenal.
Best chance of top goalscorer is, unsurprisingly, Romelu Lukaku, priced at 500-1. The favourite being Jamie Vardy.
Lukaku is also my best chance at getting top player, but for this is priced at 900-1. Alexis Sanchez is favourite here.
Ross Barkley still classes as a young player and is my best chance of winning that award. 400-1 though doesn't give him much hope! Anthony Martial just pips Marcus Rashford as favorite here.
The title challengers have all made big name signings already, so any title challenge probably is unlikely. Here's a quick breakdown...
Arsenal - Mauro Icardi (£53m rising to £80m)
Chelsea - Aymeric Laporte (£56m), Kalidou Koulibaly (£29m rising to £37.5m). As mentioned before Hazard left for PSG (£74m)
Liverpool - replaced Firmino with Mario Gotze (£35m rising to £57m). Joao Moutinho (£8.35m rising to £12.75m), Mario Mandzukic (£13.25m rising to £18.75m)
Man City - As well as Firmino, Diego Llorente (Free) and James Rodriguez (£52m)
Man Utd - Marco Verratti (£87m), Stefan de Vrij (£20m rising to 25.5m)
Tottenham - Balde Keita (£11m rising to £17.25m) plus taking Deulofeu from me.
A quick mention for Leicester who lost Riyad Mahrez to Real Madrid (£31m rising to £41m). They haven't directly replaced him, but have brought in Marco Benassi (£11.75m rising to £18.25m) and Munir (£8.75m rising to £13m)
It's going to be tough to finish above any of those teams, so maybe the bookies prediction of 8th is about right.
#367079 Stop the Drop
Jon Harrod
Yaya Toure was still a free agent, so I took him in on trial. This was mainly to see if he was actually interested more than to see if he was any good, as I had quite thorough scout reports on him. While he was on trial I approached him again and was surprised to find that he'd pretty muched halved his wage and signing on demands. This was enough for me to take a punt and makes him my 2nd best midfielder after Barkley.
My final midfield acquisition was a tough decision. I scouted many players and made numerous enquiries before finally narrowing down my choices to Max Arnold, Harry Arter, Gianelli Imbula and Johannes Geis.
All 3 were affordable both in transfer fee and wages although I decided that Arnold and Geis had wage demands which were higher than their ability dictates. So, my decision ended up being Imbula. He's of similar ability to Arter but 3 years younger.
I'm now at the stage where I no longer feel the need to bring in new faces unless I'm forced into selling members of the first team squad.
#367072 Stop the Drop
Jon Harrod
The board thought it would be good to send us all to Australia for a training camp. We were based out of Sydney for 10 days.
While we were there, we played 4 games against local teams.
Obviously the standard of opposition was poor, but it gave most of the players a chance to get match fit.
Before the season starts, I have 2 more regular friendlies and then 1 against my feeder club, Willem II. We then take part in the MLS All-Star match, before finishing our pre-season with a home glamour friendly against AC Milan. Our Premier League campaign starts with a trip to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea.
While is Australia, we managed to agree deals for a couple more players. However, after agreeing a loan deal with Chelsea for Marco van Ginkel, I was very disappointed when he rejected it.
I've shifted out much of the dead wood, plus James McCarthy who was only a fringe player anyway. This gave me both money to spend and some available wage budget. I've still got a couple of players that I want to shift, as well as a few players that are wanted, but I'm determined to keep hold of.
As far as signings go, Leitner is a 24 yr old, solid CM, already valued at double what I paid for him. While Michael Keane was just too much of a bargain to pass up (especially if I end up with a bad brexit!).
This means that I am now very happy defensively and will be even more so once Rajkovic finally gets a work permit.
I'm also quite happy with my strikers. Lukaku, Doumbia and Griffiths should be good enough to see the season through, although I've been offered the chance to pick up Fernando Torres on a free by his agent and if I can fit him into my 25 man squad, then I may be tempted to have him as a backup option. The only real problem I'm going to have is if Lukaku starts to kick up a fuss now that Tottenham are interested in him.
The other players that are interesting other clubs are; Barkley, Mirallas, Gueye and Robles.
My main concern with my squad is still in the middle of the park. I still have £30m available, which should be enough for a quality, young CM... The question is who?
#366981 Stop the Drop
Jon Harrod
In my search for a left winger, I decided to meet Diogo Jota's release clause of £9.25m, but he refused to even enter negotiations as I wasn't in the Champions League. So, I turned my attention to Federico Carrizo at Boca. As a 26 year old with no caps, I wasn't expecting him to get a work permit, but he did, and without me even needing to appeal for it.
As you can see, he's far from being World class, but at £3.1m he's definitely worth a punt.
I also made a bid for a transfer listed Adnan Januzaj, but his £72k wages proved a stumbling block.
As for my CMs, the first I picked up was Lewis Baker from Chelsea.
He needs some work before he becomes 1st choice, but he's a useful back up option. The Toure experiment looks to have failed, unless I can free up some wage budget before he goes elsewhere.
I've scanned over the 3 relegated clubs and found that Michael Keane at Burnley has an active release clause of £11m (Which isn't bad for a player valued at £14.25m), he'd become my best defender and a good replacement for the aging Jagielka. I'm tempted to try and sign him and take advantage of the interest in Jagielka from the MLS...
#366973 Stop the Drop
Jon Harrod
I've just reached 1st July 2017, so my previously arranged transfers have now arrived at the club. I can now work out what I need and who to get rid of ready for the upcoming season.
Generally, I play a 433 formation with a DM, 2 wingers and a striker. On occasion I push my DM into a CM role. I have a stand by 2 striker formation but I rarely use that.
I like to have 2 senior players and a youth prospect for every position, so 33 players in total, but a bulk of these will be under 21 when it comes to squad registration.
Positions I definitely need to sign are an AML and a couple of CMs. Yaya Toure has been released by Man City, so I'm hoping I can pick him up on a free as he still has at least one more season left in him. The only other free agent of interest is Branislav Ivanovic, who would be useful as cover at both DC and DR.
There are some interesting players transfer listed (that are out of my price range) including Oscar, Payet and Theo Walcott. Payet would make a great addition as AML and £21.5m is reasonable, but he wants to move to a bigger club, which I'm probably not and his £130k wage would be an issue.
Looking through other transfer listed players, there's a few worth scouting... lets see what happens
#366970 Stop the Drop
Jon Harrod
Before I agree my expectations for the upcoming season, I should explain that I have moved on 2 players already. Deulofeu put in a transfer request to force through a move to Tottenham. I got an initial £14m rising to a possible £21.5m. Also moved on is Ramiro Funes Mori. He had become my 4th choice DC and wasn't happy at his amount of play time, so he's gone to Newcastle for £8.25m (rising to a possible £9m).
The board's options range from top half finish, to qualify for Champions League. As I feel this season will be transitional, I'm just opting for the lowest expectation on each. this means I'm aiming for a top half finish and the Quarter Finals of both the FA and EFL cups.
With the money I have brought in already, this gives me a transfer budget of £21m and a spare wage budget of £110k. I also get to keep 90% of any other player sales.
Some clubs have already been busy in the transfer window. Eden Hazard has joined PSG for £74m, Roberto Firmino has joined Man City for £34.5m and Gabriel Paulista left Arsenal to head to China, joining Quanjian for £16.5m.
In slightly smaller news, Ighalo joined Hull from relegated Watford (£7m), while Cathcart also escaped relegation with a move to West Brom (£6.25m).
#366962 Stop the Drop
Jon Harrod
I'll update on my pre-season plans shortly, but first I just wanted to mention a few manager changes that have happened at the end of the season.
Burnley hired Garry Monk to head up their Championship campaign, while Watford went for Roberto Di Matteo.
Newcastle, who won the Championship with ease, eventually hired Manuel Pellegrini. The other teams promoted were Bristol City and Play-Off winners Blackburn.
Real Madrid sacked Zidane after only finishing 3rd. Looks like their number one target is Antonio Conte.
Patrick Vieira has returned to his native France as manager of Marseille. Rudi Garcia left to go to Monchengladbach
#366958 Stop the Drop
Jon Harrod
2 wins out of 3 in May saw us stay up quite easily in the end.
Seeing as we were safe before the last game of the season, I used it to give a few youngsters a game. It backfired a bit, but we didn't lose any league position because of it.
Final Table
A 14th place finish is decent enough considering where we were when I took over. In the end of season team meeting, I've told them we are working towards a top half finish next year. One step at a time. All the players seem happy with this.
Awards
Baines gets the fans' player of the season. It's no great surprise with his 7.05 avg rating and 9 assists.
Mbemba actually ended up with an avg of 7.42 from the 14 games he played for us, so I'm surprised he didn't force his way into the team of the season.
Barkley is a wanted man, but only by West Ham, so I'm confident of keeping him and Lukaku isn't wanted by anyone anymore, so he should be sticking around too.
Some players are wanted though. Coleman (Chelsea), Mirallas (Swansea, Man City) and Deulofeu (Man City). Of the 3 of them, only Coleman would be a major loss.
I don't plan on making offers for any of the players I've had on loan. Ryan will be replaced by Ochoa, Sturaro by Melo.Valencia and Depay will probably need to be replaced, but that will depend on whether Mirallas and Deulofeu leave.
As far as big awards go, none of my players made it. The list is as follows:
Golden Glove - David De Gea (Man Utd)
FWA Player of Year - Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal)
Golden Boot - Jamie Vardy (Leicester)
Manager of Year - Arsene Wenger (Arsenal)
PFA Player of Year - Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal)
PFA Young Player of Year - Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool)
Seamus Coleman did come 3rd in May's Player of the Month though
Burnley and Watford both sacked their managers after being relegated.
In the FA Cup final, Chelsea beat Man City.
As far as summer spending goes, I need to sell before I can buy. I've only been given £421k to spend...