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Post by Nick on Apr 4, 2019 8:34:01 GMT
The youth intake threw up this kid, but no-one else really. He could do with a bit of work on his Marking and Heading, but at 15 he has plenty of time to develop those. Positioning, Concentration and Bravery are already excellent for his age, and physically he's decent too, but will need to work on his Strength. His coach report tells me that he's a consistent performer and also a leader on the pitch, which is peculiar, given his Leadership is only 10.
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Post by Nick on Apr 4, 2019 11:23:50 GMT
La Liga is ridiculous at the moment. Atletico still have to visit Camp Nou, but we've just not been able to shake them all season. For a long time, it was a three horse race, but the end of March wasn't kind to Madrid, who dropped four points at home to Betis and Bilbao and their ended their challenge. They still have a chance of silverware though, as we'll play them in the Copa Del Rey final.
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Post by Nick on Apr 4, 2019 12:15:10 GMT
Champions League Semi Final. If this isn't the greatest comeback in the history of football, I don't know what is.
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Post by Nick on Apr 4, 2019 14:46:39 GMT
We didn't quite complete the clean sweep of trophies this season after Real Madrid beat us in the Copa Del Rey final, but we retained the Champions League against Liverpool (again) and also won the Club World Cup to win five of the six competitions we entered this year. It's not often you see two teams with 100+ points in the same league, but that's what happened in La Liga this season as we went a second consecutive season unbeaten. Between us and Atletico we only lost once and our 123 goals scored beat Real Madrid's previous record, which is a bonus. Every one of our 25-man squad averaged over 7.00 this season, showing that it really was a squad effort. With the sheer amount of games we play, rotation is an absolute must, but especially so given we play with such high intensity. Messi was the man this year, but as you can see from his screenshot, he's just starting to slightly decline at the ripe old age of 32. His 30 goals are somewhat skewed by the fact he scored 11 penalties, but he also contributed 13 assists at an average rating of 7.76. Arturo Vidal was the surprise of the season. La Liga's top scorer with 21 goals showed that age is just a number, playing the box to box role to perfection. Abel Ruiz stepped out from the shadows of Luis Suarez to have what was hopefully his break through season. 20 goals in all competitions and became the club's fourth wonderkid in the process. It wasn't just the first team that had good seasons though. Our U19's plundered 162 goals in 30 games at an average of 5.4 per game to win their domestic league. Ajax stopped them on the continent, but they added the youth cup to complete a double, while the B team finished 1st in La Liga 2, while also netting 100+ goals. Plans for the summer include the pursuit of Matthijs de Ligt from Ajax. My scouts think I'll have to pay around fifty five million euros for him, but with double that as a transfer budget, it won't be an issue. We do bleed money however. Messi and Suarez are on a combined two million per week, while Vidal, Pique and Busquets are another million on top. It's the summer of 2020, which means the European Championship, so I'll be on the look out for an international job as well.
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Post by Nick on Apr 4, 2019 16:16:57 GMT
France flopped at Euro 2020, losing to Ireland in the second round, so it's my job to get them back on track.
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Post by ttgb on Apr 9, 2019 21:12:39 GMT
That is some scoring record. What formation are you using
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Post by Nick on Apr 10, 2019 16:50:26 GMT
We finally lost a game in La Liga, after some 96 games, but that didn't stop us racking up another 100+ point haul and winning my third straight title. We also added both domestic competitions to that list, plus the World Club Cup again, but lost in the Semi Final of the Champions League to eventual winners, Chelsea. It was another season where everyone averaged 7.00 and over, but the usual few stand out players. Sergi Roberto must be one of the most under-rated players and has been a real surprise. Can play as a box to box midfielder or a wing back, and has played both close to perfection. Averaged 7.60, scored 10 goals and chipped in with 15 assists. Malcom continues to surprise and, wait for it, even kept Messi out of the team for large parts of the season! Averaged 7.42 across all competitions, scored 13 goals and contributed 16 assists. Luis Suarez, even at 34, continues to be the world's top striker. 40 goals in 41 starts was the best in Europe. His physicals might have just started to decline, but he's as sharp as ever. His movement and anticipation is second to none and La Liga defenders just can't cope. There are, however, only so many 100+ points totals you can stomach and three is about right. With that in mind, I've thrown my resignation letter at the board and set off to pastures new. As it would happen, Unai Emery left Arsenal to take my job, so they sought me out to replace him and everyone was happy. I'll talk a bit about France in my next post.
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Post by Nick on Apr 10, 2019 17:18:57 GMT
My first job after the disappointing Euros was to navigate the team through a Nations League group containing Ireland and Croatia. I guess if you could pick a three-team group out of Pot A, then those two would be pretty close to the top of the list. My first competitive game was a Kylian Mbappe (who is now at Man Utd) inspired 4-0 win in Croatia and we finished the year unbeaten, albeit thanks an Antione Griezmann goal at home to the Croats, and qualified into the Nations League Semi Final. 2021 has been pretty successful so far. We lost to Portugal in the Nations League Semi, after taking a 1-0 lead, which was disappointing, but we put that behind us by blitzing pretty much everyone in the Confederations Cup to lift the trophy. Even the the Final was a one-sided affair, although the scoreline doesn't suggest that. We've hit the goal trail in our quest to qualify for the 2022 World Cup, already hitting eight past Romania in Bucharest and 10 (ten) past the Faroes in Torshavn. World Cup qualifying has also seen the introduction of Willem Geubbels to the international stage. The Chelsea youngster isn't exactly flying at domestic level, but has 3 in 2 games for me albeit against some literal goat herders. I can't see us having any problems qualifying from the group and I'm hopeful of going all the way to retain our trophy in Qatar.
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Post by Nick on Apr 23, 2019 18:26:01 GMT
2021 was a largely successful twelve months for the French national team. We started the World Cup qualifiers in great form, beating Serbia and Romania by an aggregate of 13-1, but lost out to Portugal in the Nations League semi final, despite taking the lead through Antoine Griezmann. We did manage to finish third however. The Confederations Cup went much better as we pretty much smashed everyone en route to lifting the trophy. Even the final was much more comfortable than the 1-0 scoreline suggests. We had 17 shots on target to their 1, including 4 CCC. World Cup qualifying went pretty much as expected, despite a wonky performance in Serbia. The World Cup is obviously in Qatar in 2022, so it means it's in November/December. We'll be playing Iran, Ghana and Croatia, who are also in our current Nations League group (again). No real surprises in terms of standout performers, but Tanguy Ndombele isn't someone I've ever had experience with, but is a very good player. One of him, Kante and Tolisso will get the Box-to-Box role for the World Cup.
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Post by Nick on Apr 23, 2019 19:28:59 GMT
We exceeded expectations in every area this season, but it could have been so much better. Milan scuppered our chance to win a first Champions League title, but our ten men did beat Man City 3-1 in the FA Cup final. I wanted top four in the league and we got that, but we need more consistency if we're to progress higher. We also lost 5-1 at both City and Liverpool this season which, clearly, isn't good enough. The squad I inherited had a few golden oldies still hanging around, so I lowered the average age by bringing in Sandro Tonali for twenty eight million euros. Granit Xhaka went off to China in January, whilst I also got rid of Ferland Mendy, who was only signed in the summer (for 54 million!). Mesut Ozil was allowed to leave for nothing to America to get his ridiculous wages off the wage bill. Speaking of the squad, that little lot got us through the second half of the season. Mustafi (30), Mkhitaryan (33) and Aubamayang (32) will all be offloaded this summer and more youthful replacements will be sought out. Sead Kolasinac is also leaving after agreeing a free transfer to China. The plan next year is to consolidate our position in the top four, whilst hopefully adding another cup to the collection.
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Post by Nick on Apr 23, 2019 19:31:19 GMT
He was on my shopping list, but there is no way I can compete with that! I do take the credit for him costing that much though. It was clearly my management!
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Post by Nick on Apr 26, 2019 15:12:41 GMT
We completed an Italian double swoop this summer, in the form of Box-to-Box midfielder, Nicolo Zaniolo, for €58m from Roma and wonderkid left back, Andrea Sorgiovanni, for €20m from Milan. I've also decided to throw €55m at Porto to sign another wonderkid, this time in the shape of Fabio Silva. He seems to have everything about him and should be a good replacement for Aubamayang, who I didn't manage to shift this summer. At 33, and on €200,000 per week, it was always going to be tough. I was holding out hope of someone from China to come in for him, but it didn't materialise. Callum Wilson, who spent last season on loan at Leicester, went there permanently for €20.5m, the clause in his loan, while Mkhitaryan (€16.5n to Lyon), Mustafi (€22.5m to Inter) and Kolasinac (free to Hebei China Fortune) were the 30+ players shown the door, giving our squad a current average age of 25.17, which is much better than it was. We lost the Community Shield 1-0 to Liverpool, who seem to be the team to beat in England at the moment, but we've started the season quite well. We've got Besiktas, RB Leipzig and last season's nemesis, Milan, in the Champions League and we've opened with two wins out of two by beating the Turks 6-0 in London and Leipzig 3-1 in Germany. The back-to-back games against Milan will surely decide who tops the group.
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Post by Nick on Apr 26, 2019 21:01:52 GMT
In our final warm up game before the World Cup. He's 31 now though, so this will probably be his last tournament. That said, if I don't reach the final, it'll be my last tournament as well!
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Post by Nick on Apr 30, 2019 9:48:44 GMT
A tight season eventually came down to the final day, where a 4-1 win over Man City ensured we won the title for the first time since 2003/04. Liverpool were pretty relentless, but had a little wobble in February, including a 2-0 loss at Anfield to us, which meant that if we won our three games in hand, we'd overhaul them. We smashed it really. Our only losses were both 2-1 away at United and Chelsea. We didn't lose back to back games in all competitions, all season long. Liverpool beat us comfortably in the FA Cup semi final, in a game where we were uncharacteristically wasteful, but we managed to win the Carabao Cup, while getting revenge over the scousers by beating them in the Champions League quarter final. We beat Juventus 4-1 on aggregate in the semis to set up a final with former club Barcelona. Both this year and last year the Champions League final has throw up interesting little side stories. Last year we played, and lost, against AC Milan, managed by none other than Arsene Wenger, and this year we played my former club, Barcelona. It was a battle my Arsenal team won. Goals from Morilla and a brace from Fabio Silva saw us defeat them 3-1 and win Arsenal's first ever Champions League title. Fabio Silva was class after he came in during the January window. 21 goals in 29 starts, including 7 in the CL, he belied his years in the six months I've had him. Oliver was the top assister with 14, but only averaged 7.13 over the course of the season. If he didn't contribute, he stunk the place out with 6.5 ratings. I need someone more consistent in the number ten position, so that will be the priority this summer. Special mention to Alex Iwobi and Sergi Palencia too, who both had fantastic seasons. The plan now is to win the Community Shield and the Club World Cup and then I'll have won everything I can with Arsenal and it may be time to think about another move.
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Post by Nick on Apr 30, 2019 16:22:35 GMT
First trophy of the season in the bag, which leaves just the (previously forgotten about) European Super Cup and the Club World Cup to win with Arsenal. The media have us as finishing second behind Liverpool this season, who are the latest stop of Pep Guardiola's English merry-go-round, after Man City and Chelsea. We've got Blackburn away in the opening game of the season before Milan in the Super Cup.
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Post by Nick on Apr 30, 2019 17:30:13 GMT
It may have taken extra time, but we finally turned our dominance into goals vs Milan.
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Post by Nick on May 5, 2019 11:51:23 GMT
This was probably the best title race I've ever been involved in. Liverpool were 14 points ahead of us and let it slip on the final day of the season, when they lost at Stoke and we beat Norwich 1-0 at Carrow Road. Liverpool were relentless. By mid-March, they'd only dropped points in three games all season. Unfortunately for them, we only lost once after Christmas and won our last ten in a row. Our three losses in the opening half of the season were against United, Chelsea and Liverpool and, for long periods, that was the difference between us this season and last season. Our end of season run papered over what was initially a poor season where we were destined to be the 'nearly men' behind Liverpool. In the end, 92 points was a club record and two points more than last season. The positions graph shows just how badly Liverpool bottled it. Job done in terms of trophies this season. 2023 was the club's best year ever and adding the title in 2024, before leaving the club, was the icing on the cake. Suso's 21 goals won him the club's player of the season award, with 75% of the vote, but that's arguably because Fabio Silva spent large parts of the season injured and was limited to just 23 starts. Nicolo Zaniolo's average rating of 7.51 was the highest in the squad and he came alive in the second half of the season. My contract runs out this summer and the plan is to look for another elite club to move to. I've been keeping an eye on the available jobs this season, but nothing major has become available, so I may have to be patient. Back-tracking a bit, the French FA weren't happy with just a World Cup Semi Final appearance and I got the boot. I'm about to lead an ageing Spain squad, ranked 15th in the world, to the Euros, but the Spanish FA want a Semi Final spot and I think that might be pushing it given the downward spiral the nation has been on since the Golden Generation all retired.
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Post by Nick on May 5, 2019 16:04:54 GMT
Turns out I don't know shit, as this team just kept going and going. Our warm up friendlies started with a 1-0 loss to Norway which had me worried that we might not even get through the group stage. We were drawn with Poland, Croatia and Italy, so not exactly a 'gimme' of a group, but a 2-0 win over Slovenia in our final friendly restored a little bit of positivity. A 3-3 draw with Poland, where we came from 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 down, wasn't an ideal start. They were the team I had expected a straight-forward three points from. Croatia were up next and goals from Malcom, Sergi Roberto and Inaki Williams gave us a comfortable victory - one where they only mustered one off target shot. Favourites, and rivals, Italy were last up for us, and we knew that a point would be enough to qualify. 35 minutes in and we were 2-0 down. There are only two natural centre backs in the Spanish national pool that are worth €20m or more and it was showing in our defensive displays. The game changed two minutes before half time when Nicolo Barella was sent off for Italy. Second half goals from Malcom (who had scored in all three group games), Koke and Abel Ruiz gave us the win, and top spot in the group. Slovenia in the second round was about as easy as we could have expected and we eventually turned our superiority into goals in the second half when Asensio, Abel Ruiz (2) and Mikel Oyarzabal gave us a 4-0 win and set up a quarter final tie with Germany. The Germans has smashed their way to this point, racking up a 7-1 and 5-0 win in the process, and they gave us a ridiculously hard match. Oyarzabal came on for the injured Malcom after 35 minutes and scored with his first touch. He added another three minutes later. Germany pulled one back in first half stoppage time, but we just about held on in the second half. Backs were to the wall without Germany creating too much. The semi final paired us with Belgium, who had gone to extra time in their quarter final win over Holland, something I always hope for at this stage. We went 1-0 down, against the run of play, when Toby Alderweireld headed in an 11th minute corner, but Sergi Roberto evened things up at the break after he tapped in from close range from a Courtois spillage. Roberto added a second before an own goal from Jorge Mere levelled the game once again. VAR gave us an 88th minute penalty and Sergi Roberto stepped up to complete his hattrick and send us through to an unlikely final. As fate would have it, we'd play France in the final, the nation I managed to Confederations Cup glory in 2021. First check? Danger men. Mbappe 78% fit. Advantage Spain. If truth be told, the final was a bit of a damp squib. We dominated the game and chances and France looked tired. Goals in either half from Abel Ruiz won us the trophy with a 2-0 victory. With that over-achievement the mission was complete and I have tendered my resignation.
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Post by Nick on May 6, 2019 12:18:26 GMT
Next stop, Monaco! Leonardo Jardim had been here since the save started, but left to take the Portugal job. My job is to continue what he's started and add to what is already a glowing CV. The Champions League hasn't had a French winner since Marseille in 1993, so it's unrealistic to expect it, but a bonus if we achieve it. I've signed a three year contract, just as I did at Barcelona and Arsenal before, and intend to honour that. In that time, I'll be looking to win everything France has to offer - Ligue Un, Coupe de France, Coupe de la Ligue and the Trophee des Champions. The squad is very good, as you can imagine of a club that has won the last three Ligue Un titles, but with PSG still spending ridiculous amounts of cash, we can't afford to rest on our laurels. I was pleased to see Pellegri still here. I've had my eye on him for a while, but he'd cost 120 million plus, and I never had the money. I joined after the first game of the season, but it's been pretty much plain sailing since. Even at this early stage, the difference between us, PSG and the rest of the league is evident. Our games against the Parisians will go a long way to deciding the title. It may even come down to goal difference - a race that PSG are currently winning. Our Champions League group contains Real Madrid, Spartak Moscow and RB Leipzig and the board expect us to reach the Quarter Final.
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Post by Nick on May 6, 2019 14:56:18 GMT
First blood goes to us, away from home as well! Despite being pegged back twice, we were always in control of this one, and it gives us a five point lead at the top of Ligue Un after 15 games.
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Post by Nick on May 10, 2019 18:31:51 GMT
One of the strangest stadium moves you're ever likely to see. We're upgrading from 16,500 to just over 26k which, given our stature (ranked 15th in reputation), is a sideways step at best. How vain do you have to be to actually name your stadium after yourself as well.
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Post by Nick on May 10, 2019 19:42:38 GMT
I relatively comfortable title win in the end as we finished 10 points ahead of PSG. 124 goals scored, the highest ever in Ligue Un, as we broke the record that stood since 1960, and 22 conceded. It's worth noting that PSG only conceded 17 and beat us at our place in both the league and the Coupe de la Ligue semi final. They should still be considered dangerous at this point. Man Utd beat us in the Champions League quarter final, which meant we met the board's expectation. We dominated at Old Trafford, but lost 3-0 somehow. We beat them 2-0 at home but it wasn't enough. We did add the Coupe de France though to complete a domestic double. We'll get a chance to add the Trophee des Champions next season, albeit against PSG. Pietro Pellegri lead the way in terms of goals with 29 - a new team record, but he's either red hot scoring hattricks, or getting hooked after an hour with a 6.4 rating. There's no in between. Juan Salazar broke the assist record - with 20 - and also chipped in with 12 goals. Seven players hit double figures this season, but I guess that's to be expected when you hit over 100 league goals. It looks like I'll be given €88m to spend this summer, although given there have been 12 one hundred million + transfers so far this save, it won't get me too much.
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Post by Nick on May 10, 2019 19:43:20 GMT
Oh, and Pep Guardiola has just overtaken Sir Alex as the greatest manager of all-time:
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Post by Nick on May 12, 2019 17:16:11 GMT
Just the one transfer this summer, but it was a big one: €110m was wired to Bayern Munich for the services of this monster. Four goals in his first four games means he's starting to repay some of that back too. We got dicked 5-1 by PSG in the Trophee des Champions, meaning I have one more chance to win it and either need to win the Coupe de France or Ligue Un again this season. It was a fairly even game, but PSG are have obvious quality everywhere, and just went to town on us.
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Post by Nick on May 18, 2019 17:39:03 GMT
As easy a title win as you're ever likely to see. We went top after the second game and didn't move. We scored 13 fewer goals than last season (111), but also conceded 7 fewer (15), and that was the base from which we built. The league's highest average ratings were utterly dominated by Monaco players, as you'd expect, but not to this kind of level. The top five contained all of our back four plus Everton, who was my player of the season. Nordi Mukiele won the fans player of the year and he was an complete colossus at the back, but Everton cutting in from the left wing was unplayable and ended up with 21 goals across all competitions with an average rating of 7.54. We were knocked out by Milan in the Semi Final of the Champions League, which was disappointing because I felt we had a decent chance of winning it. At the very top level, we just don't have the quality at centre back or in goal to take us to that next level. Absolute stars in France, but just very good players in Europe. Milan went on to beat PSG in the final, which was pleasing, but it would have been nice to have an all-French showpiece. Not sure what was up with PSG in the league this year. Their squad is ridiculous, arguably better than ours, but Sarri just can't get next level consistency out of them, with them dropping points against a lot of teams we hit 4 or 5 past. We added the Coupe de la Ligue to my personal trophy cabinet, and retained the Coupe de France, which just leaves the Trophee des Champions to complete the collection. We'll get one chance to do it with a match against Marseille at the start of next season. Plans for the summer include signing an elite centre back. Ideally, I'd look at someone French, but my options are fairly limited at the quality I'm looking for. I may look at de Ligt from Barcelona for the second time in this save. We also have the 2026 World Cup in USA, Canada and Mexico, so I'll keep an eye on which jobs become available. Hopefully England get knocked out early doors so I can look at adding to my trophies with France and Spain.
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Post by jawzy on May 19, 2019 14:43:36 GMT
very good going nick. its also refreashing to read about massive super clubs from time to time.
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Post by Nick on May 19, 2019 15:45:00 GMT
very good going nick. its also refreashing to read about massive super clubs from time to time. Thanks jawzy. It's been good to do something a bit different for a while. I think I've got another save in me, which will be a bit more in-depth like my other saves, but for now this is exactly what I need from FM.
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Post by Nick on May 19, 2019 16:17:23 GMT
10/10 to start my final season in France. It was a reasonably busy summer for the club, with €190m being spent on Dayot Upamecano (€90m) and Matthijs de Ligt (€100m) from Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively. I'm hoping these two will be the final pieces of the jigsaw to allow me to win the Champions League with a third club. The board only want a quarter final place again, but I'll be going all out to win it. Our spending this summer was offset slightly by the sales of Viktor Fischer (32) to Porto for €55m and Aly Camara (28) to PSG for €67m. I've been trying to get more French players in the door as European registration is tough and I have to leave a player or two out. Our season started with a 4-1 win over Marseille in the Trophee des Champions, thus 'completing' the domestic trophy haul in France. The league should be a formality. We've already beaten PSG (3-1) and Marseille (4-0) away from home and, as you can see, are averaging 3.6 goals per game at the moment. Any cup success is a bonus this year - all attention is on the Champions League, which we've had a good start in. We've been drawn against Krasnodar, Inter and Porto and have picked up 1-0, 4-0 and 1-0 wins respectively. As hoped, the England job became available after World Cup '26. Despite beating Spain and Germany in the knockout stage, they lost to Russia in the quarter finals and that wasn't good enough for the FA. I've played four matches so far. I opened up with a 7-1 friendly win over South Korea and then started our Nations League campaign with a 3-0 home win over Belgium. Harry Kane (2) and Patrick Roberts got the goals. Poland complete our group and we went to Warsaw and won 4-0 (Kane, Rice (2) and Sterling) to put us in complete control of the group. A win against Poland at Wembley will see us win the group with a game to spare. North Macedonia were beaten 3-0 in an away friendly. Sterling and Hudson-Odoi (2) helping themselves to the goals.
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Post by Nick on May 24, 2019 19:06:26 GMT
A loooong season that seems to have lasted for an eternity. The date is now June 12th 2027, my contract with Monaco expires in a couple of weeks, so it's time to quickly round up what's happened this season before I resign. The league was actually far closer than I had anticipated. PSG came back to the party, having spent huge amounts of money in the summer, but we hammered the final nail in their coffin on the final day of the season to clinch the title. There aren't many leagues where you can get 100+ points and not win the league, but France is one of them with that potential. We went 75 games without defeat, spread over two seasons, but finally had that run ended by none other than Angers. Yeah, not who I'd have expected either. We sailed through the season until April and that allowed PSG back in, but we were never really in doubt of fluffing our lines. At the other end of the table, you'll see that St. Etienne were relegated, losing to Metz in the playout. They're probably the only big casualty across all five major leagues. We didn't add another Coupe de la Ligue to the cabinet, losing to Marseille on penalties, but we did win my third successive Coupe de France, beating Ligue 2 side Chateauroux 4-0, despite having 11 players on international duty. As mentioned previously, this season was all about one thing - winning the Champions League - a feat that would see me have won it with three different teams. Sadly, we didn't do it, but we came bloody close after finishing as runners up. Pep Guardiola's Liverpool beat us 3-2 in the final in a game where too many of our big players just didn't turn up. A shame, but it's time to continue the journey around Europe. I have 10 nations loaded in this save: Belgium England - completed with Arsenal France - completed with Monaco Germany Holland Italy Portugal Russia Spain - completed with Barcelona Turkey Just Germany and Italy left of the top five leagues, but I may look at a couple of years in Turkey or Portugal before going there. There are a few jobs available at the moment that I could walk into, so we'll see.
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Post by Nick on May 24, 2019 20:22:22 GMT
England are an interesting proposition at the moment. My last squad had 11 players aged 30 and over in it, while there are only three regens currently in the squad. Richard Latham is the pick of that bunch, and someone that has been on my radar since he was 17. Tim Tantram is the country's number one goalkeeper, but he has little by way of youthful competition. Pickford (33) and Butland (34) are the other two goalkeepers currently in the squad. The final regen is Southampton midfielder, Shaun Shinton, but if we're honest, he's only there to make up the numbers at the moment. There is a surprising lack of quality coming through the ranks, which is a first for England. Usually they are littered with top players. Harry Kane still leads the line, while John Stones is still a first choice centre back. Both only have another 12 months in them you'd imagine. We finished 2-26 strongly. The 5-0 win against Poland ensured that we finished top of our nations league group and qualified for the semi final with a game to spare. It took us just three minutes to open the scoring, Lewis Cook with his 16th international goal. Raheem Sterling, Jadon Sancho, Phil Foden and Patrick Roberts completed the rout on a night we had 37 shots on goal. Our first real test came away in Belgium where we just about dominated the game, but couldn't find a way through. The Euro qualifiers have got off to the perfect start with nine unanswered goals against Croatia and Moldova, leaving us in a strong position with games in hand. June saw the nations league reach it's conclusion and it ended with us lifting the trophy for my third international trophy. We dominated both Spain and Germany, the latter somewhat surprisingly beating #1 ranked side France in their semi final, and that gives me confidence for the European Championship next summer, where we'll be expected to reach the semi final at least I would imagine. The rest of 2027 is dominated by qualifiers. I'm targeting six wins, possibly a draw in Croatia, and looking to qualify at a canter.
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