[FM 16] Goblue's Everton Dynasty

[goblue96]

Since @Travis7401 said I needed a hobby and start a FM Dynasty, I waited until the latest edition of Football Manager came out. The beta was released today and the official release is on November 13. But I'm saying fuck it and starting my dynasty with today's beta release.

I'm taking over Crewe Alexandria who play in the English Skybet League 1. They have a rich history of developing players and selling them to bigger club. The club has developed 33 international players although only one of those 33 players earned a senior-side cap while playing for Crewe. Their most well-known trainees are Northern Irishman Neil Lennon and Englishman Danny Murphy. My goal is to turn Crewe into one of those big clubs.

The board is offering me a one-year contract worth £1,400 per week and, as suspected, they want me to develop players in the club youth system. Other sign of the board's tight control over the purse strings can be seen in the finances and budget.

Even with £1.4 million in the bank, the club is only giving me a £10,000 transfer budget and a tiny £26,200 per week wage budget. This is one of the smaller budgets in League 1 which will only add to the challenge.

The club does have some bright spots on the roster. The first one is goalkeeper Ben Garrett who is a young 21-year old netminder with a very bright future. The second one is currently overshadowed by loanee Harry Wilson and that is George Cooper. Cooper is a 19-year old left-winger who likes to cut inside and play as an inside forward or wide target man. The rest of the team is solid by League 1 standards except at left back where I will need to sign someone to take over for Jon Guthrie.

Looking over the roster, my first instinct is to play a 3-5-2 system with two wing-backs but this keeps two of my better offensive players off the field in Cooper and Wilson. As a result, I may play a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3 if I can find a good left back to fit those systems.

Crewe's trophy cabinet is mostly empty. Only three trophies are in the case, a Johnstone's Paint Trophy in 2013 and two Welsh Cups in 1936 and 1937. The club has spent most of their history in League 2 which some time spent in League 1 and a brief appearance in the Championship during the late 1990's/early 2000's. They play their games at Gresty Road which holds just over 10,000.

 

[NML]

@goblue96 - does the beta transfer over to the full version? If so, I may give this a go tomorrow

 

[goblue96]

@goblue96 - does the beta transfer over to the full version? If so, I may give this a go tomorrow

Yes, it does.

 

[Bdub]

I assume you get the Beta with the pre order?

 

[goblue96]

I assume you get the Beta with the pre order?

Yup.

 

[goblue96]

The 46-game League 1 season doesn't really make for balanced quarters so I'm going with the following system for updates:

1) Pre-season see above
2) 1/4 season update - including September transfer activity
3) 3/4 season update - including January transfer activity
4) End of season update

I forgot to mention the board's expectations in my initial post:

League 1: Battle Bravely Against Relegation
FA Cup: Reach 2nd Round
League Cup: Not get outclassed
Johnstone's Paint Trophy: Not Important

We have smallest wage budget in League 1 at £1.04 million for the season. By comparsion, Wigan have the largest wage budget at £8.5 million for the season. So, I will be happy to battle bravely against relegation. Use this season to consolidate my position, get a full season of my training scheme under my players belt, and put some money in the bank to expand the wage budget for coming seasons.

Here's how things stand at the 1/4 pole of the League 1 season:

We've got a game in hand on the entire league except for Swindon. So, that 20th place standing is a tad dubious. A win over Swindon would have us jump "big money" Wigan and Sheffield United into 18th and put a couple points between us and the drop zone. The good news is we don't get blown out very often so we have a "good" goal difference which could come into play as we get later into the season.

Results have been very mixed, though, we are starting to gain some semblance of form going 2-2-1 in our last five games which accounts for eight of our 13 points. Despite the record, I'm encouraged with what I am seeing on the field.

We've reached the quarterfinals of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy. They've added some new rules for this event from Football Manager 15 which reflect the rules of the competition in real life. The roster must have six players (excluding injured players) from the previous match roster (18-man) or the club faces a £5,000 fine. Not a big fine but the prize money isn't that big for this competition so any fine takes a large percentage of your prize money.

Ben Garratt is one of the best players at the club and wants to go play for a larger club. As a result, I can't convince him to sign a new contract. I have him on the transfer list so I can make some profit from him but there have been no takers. Joel Periera is a solid back-up from Manchester United who I've played in the cup competitions and in a one league game to keep him match fit.

Harry Davis is our club captain and anchor of our defense. He's solid both on the ground and in the air. Conor Townsend is a left-back loanee from Middlesborough. Ben Nugent is Davis's centre-back partner. They will be good pairing going forward in coming season. Oliver Turton and James Baillie have split time at right-back. Turton is stronger in the air but Baillie is the better all-around player and rarely makes a mistake. Perry Ng is an up-and-coming center back while George Ray is a veteran center back who provides depth to the position. Jon Guthrie can fill in at both left-back and centre-back.

David Fox operates as the deep lying playmaker at the base of our 4-3-3 formation. Not a lot of assists but with 25 key passes, he is doing a lot to get the play moved from defense to attack. Harry Wilson, on loan from Liverpool, operates a wide right forward who cuts into the box. An adapt passer as well. Chris Atkinson is a box-to-box midfielder who works up and down the pitch keep and creating possession. Not a stat-sheet stuffer but does a lot of little things to keep the game moving. James Jones is our best attacking option in the midfield with three goals. Only 19 years old, he will be one to watch in the future. Adam King is our ball-winner. Starts against teams where we are outclassed in the midfield or when we need to hold onto a lead. Brad Inman, a versatile midfielder, can play all the attacking midfield positions and on both wings in the midfield. More attack-minded than most. George Cooper operates on the left wing and has potential to be one of the best players at the club. Jordan Jones another loanee provides depth at all midfield and attacking midfield positions. Ivan Calero is the most attack-midfielder at the club and can also play striker.

Not a great group of strikers but not the worst group either. Lauri Dalla Valle is the primary starter at the lone center forward position. He is very good at getting others involved in the play with five assists while tied for the team lead with three goals. Callum Saunders is the center forward of the future. As of now, he is very streaky in his play. Marcus Haber is a target man who does not get much action because his aerial play does not get others involved in the play.

Ryan Colclough and Billy Bingham are squad players on long contracts that are struggling with both injuries or finding playing time.

I have adopted the following training philosophy for this save: http://addictedtofm.com/fm-15-player-development/

It focuses heavily on first touch and technique as a team and focusing on fitting players into roles with their individual training. We will see how this develops.

If anybody wants a screenshot of a particular player, let me know.

 

[goblue96]

2015-16 Crewe Alexandria Season Update #3
​

We've hit the 3/4 mark of the 2015-16 season at Crewe and it has been a roller coaster of a season.

The table doesn't completely show the roller coaster that we have been on this season. It just shows that the roller coaster stabilized in 15th place. But, on the whole, it shows what kind of side I have. Just average. We are not bad enough to be relegated (14 point lead over 21st place Burton with 12 games remaining) but not good enough to battle for the promotion or playoff spots (eight points behind 6th place Doncaster). Another very good run could see us push for a playoff place but it's a tall ask. I'll be happy with a pedestrian mid-table finish this season.

We were on a great run until Colchester came into our place at pasted us 6-0. That send us into a mini tailspin. The team continued to circle the drain in January after they got pissed at me for selling goalkeeper Brad Garrett. They looked past the fact that Garrett was unwilling to sign a new contract and I was unwilling to let him walk away without getting anything in return for him (more on that later). We went on a six-game stretch where we only earned one point. We found ways to lose. Lack of offense. Holding 1-0 leads into the 75th minute only to give up two goals in the last 15. Back-to-back shutouts over Walsall and Chesterfield pulled the team from going completely down the drain. However, Southend was another one of those games where we gave away a lead late in the game.

In the FA Cup, we were able to use our top level form to beat Doncaster in the first round. In the second round, we were not in top form and only drew last-place Bury and then got crushed in the replay. It was a disappointing loss to the bank statement too because the winner, Bury, got to host Premier League Southampton which would have sold out the 10,000 seat Gresty Road. But, oh well, there is always next season.

Of course, the cup competition that I don't give a fuck about, we reach the finals. I'm still not sure how we beat first place Barnsley, 4-1, in the opening leg of the North Division final or how we beat Wigan 1-1 on penalties. The impressive part about the Wigan and Barnsley matches was they took place when our form was shit. I would have preferred those types of performances in league play but they have earned us a trip to Wembley to play in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy final. That final should earn us some decent TV money and gate income.

Ben Garratt was shown the door after being unwilling to sign a contract extension. Marcus Haber was shown the door because he sucked. I was pissed that I had to let Garratt go for that amount. He's worth about five or six times that amount and since Wednesday was the only team interest I couldn't get a percentage of next sale clause added to the transfer. But I was able to use the profits from his sale to purchase two players. The first is defensive midfielder Steven Hewitt. That position was important to get shored up because my current defensive midfield, David Fox, is also unwilling to sign a new contract. The difference between Garratt and Fox is Garratt is 10 years younger than Fox and has more value than Fox. Chris Maxwell, from League Two Fleetwood, was brought in to replace Garratt.

Maxwell's early returns have been mixed. I'm really hoping that his form improves as the season goes on and he gets used to the way we play because he was an expensive transfer and his salary is huge too. Thankfully, Joel Pereira has been there as a solid back-up. I feel like Philadelphia Flyers who sign expensive starters only to watch the back-up perform better.

We have a solid six-man rotation on defense. Conor Townsend has done a great job starting just about every game at left-back and playing at a high level. I may try to make his move permanent over the summer. Ben Nugent, Harry Davis, and Perry Ng are a solid three-man rotation at centre-back. Nugent is the highest rated of the three but is very inconsistent and makes a lot of mistakes compared to Davis and Ng. George Ray and Jon Guthrie have played their way to either being released at the end of the season or put on the transfer list. Oliver Turton has been the starting right-back when healthy but he has shown a pattern of getting little nicks which has pushed James Baillie into action and he has done a great job when called upon.

The strength of our midfield is at the two wing positions with George Cooper, who leads the team with 10 goals, and Harry Wilson, who leads the team with nine assists. If the opportunity arises, I will also try to make the Wilson move permanent as well. David Fox still has the keys to unlock the defense from his defensive midfield position. Steven Hewitt is just starting to learn how to play from that position and doesn't quite have the keys yet. James Jones is the next best goalscorer out of the midfield with six while still showing enough craft to transition into attack. Adam King and Chris Atkinson split time at the third central midfield position based on the opposition. King is the better ball-winner while Atkinson is the runs from box-to-box better. Inman and Colclough have back-up Cooper and Wilson on the wings while Billy Bingham remains on the transfer list without a buyer...maybe over the summer Billy.

Lauri Dalla Valle has been a work-horse at the centre forward position but only has 10 goals for his efforts. I'd like to give Callum Saunders and Ivan Calero more playing time but Calero doesn't score and Saunders is always injured. This is position that I will be looking to upgrade over the summer. I just don't have enough quality options and it kills us in the table (see January tailspin) when they aren't in form.​

 

[goblue96]

2015-16 Crewe Alexandria End of Season Update​

We reached the end of the season and we did an excellent job of being average. However, since the board's expectations was to bravely battle against relegation, we exceeded expectations. We finished in 16th place. In the last few games, I started playing some players from the U21 team to see if they were ready for senior side competition since we were out of both the relegation and playoff race. I know what my veterans could do. It was time to see what the kids could do.

The kids, for the most part, struggled in their debuts but seemed to improve as they got more experience under their belt and started to gel with the current senior side.

Lauri Della Valle went into "I don't give a fuck" mode at the end of the season and didn't score a goal in the last 12 games. The strike force was hamstrung even further with Callum Saunders continuing to pick up little nicks and injuries. This left Ivan Calero as my lone striker. He found a way to go the entire League One season without a goal. It was up to my midfield to supply the scoring and they just couldn't do it on a consistent basis. I switched up to a 4-2-3-1 formation for the home games to see if that could spark the offense. It did against Scunthorpe but Colchester owned us this season outscoring us 9-2. It was just a tough run home. Getting a striker is an important part of my off-season plans.

Our limp-dick offense continued in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy Final. Coventry scored an early goal and our offense could do jack shit to generate a chance to score an equalizer to put us in a position to win. The crowd of just over 26,000 was smaller than I expected too. After squad bonuses, we came out just ahead profit wise in this event.

After getting an extended run with the first team, Chris Maxwell is looking like bust. He will get another chance with an improved defense in front of him in 2016-17 but he will be on a short leash. My plan is to bring in a quality back-up who can push him. I have a kid in the U21 side who will is the goalkeeper of the future. He's only 18. He will either be the starter for the U21 team or if the right loan situation arises go out on loan.

Conor Townsend finally got injured which pushed Jon Guthrie into action. Guthrie was awful. Teams attacked him and ran around him like a practice cone. Ben Nugent and Harry Davis were a solid centre-back pairing but I can envision one or both of them gone next season to bring in a higher-quality center back. Perry Ng spent some time late in the season injured forcing George Ray and then finally Jamie Wilkinson into the lineup. Wilkinson proved that he needs another season with U21s before stepping up to the senior team. Right-back is most stable position with Oliver Turton and youngster James Baillie in the position. Baillie is excellent cover. If the right offer comes in during the offseason for Turton, I have no problem cashing in on Turton and going with Bailllie as the starter.

Everybody got to play in the midfield. George Cooper is the best offensive option in the group. Cooper supplied a team-high 13 goals with six assists. Priority #1 is to get Cooper signed to an extension in the summer. James Jones is another solid midfielder with eight goals and five assists. Right winger Harry Wilson also got the job done. Need to find a way to extend his loan for another season until I can get an academy player to fill his role. Adam King and Chris Atkinson could win the ball back and score goals or chip in with assists. Good all-around midfielders. Steven Hewitt seems capable of taking the deep-lying playmaker role from David Fox. Brad Inman and Ryan Colclough were good depth players. Inman will be released and Colclough gets to stick around for another season. Oliver Finney is a young academy player who only got better as he got more playing time.

All three of these players went into the shitter for various reasons in the last quarter of the season and it really impacted our form. Dalla Valle is the best of the bunch and is somehow playing for Finland in the 2016 European Championship. Calero scored zero league goals. Saunders has the potential if he can stay out of the trainer's room.

A lot of that transfer budget is going to get plowed into the wage budget. Any outgoing transfer funds will get plowed into the wage budget as well. We need to have the capability to pay players more to get them either come to Crewe or stay for a season or two longer to increase their value.

We needed to upgrade our youth facilities after that received a downgrade. Thankfully, the upgrade will be completed before the youth intake next season. However, it took a big chunk of our cash on hand.
​

End of Season Awards
​

Crewe Player of the Year: RW Harry Wilson, runner-up CB Ben Nugent, 3rd place Oliver Turton
Signing of the Season: CF Ivan Calero (?????) - don't understand that one
Young Player of the Year: RW Harry Wilson

CF Lauri Dalla Valle: 10th in League One in assists (9), 7th in offsides (54)
CB Harry Davis: 4th in tackles per game (4.83), T4th in key tackles (28)
CB Ben Nugent: T2 in mistakes leading to a goal (6), 7th in interceptions (602), 7th in mistakes (141), 1st in key tackles (35), 7th in key headers (144)

Team Stats:

Goals Scored: 60 (T9th)
Penalties: 6 (T5th)
Passes Completed: 18,075 (10th)
Shots on Target: 247 (7th)
Fouls Against: 673 (9th)

Attendance: 5,643 per game (13th)
Attendance as % of capacity: 55% (6th)
Salary: £1.09 million (24th)

League Awards:

League One Player of the Year: CF Connor Sampson
Top Goalscorer: CF Connon Sampson (26 goals in 38 games)
Manager of the Year: Mark Cooper, Swindon

LW George Cooper: League One Team of the Year

Off-season priorities:

1) Upgrade centre-backs
2) Upgrade centre-forward
3) Backup goalkeeper
4) Depth at attacking wing positions

Again, any screen caps of any players just let me know.

 

[goblue96]

2016-17 Crewe Alexandria Preseason Update
​

The best way to describe the preseason is that it's going to be a season of change. I'm finally getting a chance to put my mark on the club. A lot of players left the club either on free transfers or in a transfer which returns some value to club in transfer fees that can be turned into wage budget in order to sign better players or retain the good ones.

The biggest transfer was box-to-box midfielder leaving for newly promoted Portsmouth for £175,000 plus a 20% of his next transfer fee. Defensive midfield David Fox left us for Barnsley while centre-backs Harry Davis and George Ray both took demotions to League 2 sides Plymouth and York. In came, ten players in total: 1 goalkeeper, 2 center-backs, 2 left-backs, 2 attack-minded midfielders, 2 wing players, and 1 centre-forward. I'll break them down below:

CF Will Keane: A centre-forward who is joining us on loan from our parent club.....Manchester United. Quick player who is a solid finisher. Can only play the centre-forward position but is competent in a variety of duties for the position (poacher and false nine) which will allow us to vary our attack somewhat.

CB Timothy Mosu-Mensah: A big strong centre-back also joining us from Manchester United. An immediate upgrade to the centre-back position. Able to both mark and tackle better than the outgoing defenders Davis and Ray. He is also fast and can anticipate the play well.

LB Marc Bola: A young left-back who was released from the Arsenal academy. I saved him from having to return to his native Dr. Congo. Young player who needs to work on the mental side of his game but is a tremendous athlete (@Travis7401).

ACM Lewis Milne: Joins us from Scottish side Cowdenbeath. A player with great vision and passing who just needs some work on the mental side of the game (you can get away with having athletes in League One who are dumb as rocks). Will play either the central midfield or attacking midfield based on formation.

LB Lee Desmond: An Irishman who started in the Newcastle academy but left to return home to St. Pat's Athletic and now wants English football again. Will be the starting left-back as he was on the Irish U21 team. Hoping that Desmond and Bola can turn into the combination of Turton and Baillie that I have at the right-back position.

RW Gwion Edwards: One of those Welshmen with a messed-up first name but he comes to from League One side Crawley after spending time at the Swansea academy. Can play on either wing but is more adept at playing on the right side. Hoping he can replace the lost goal scoring from Harry Cooper who decided not to return for a second loan spell.

ACM Callum Cook: Another attack-minded central midfield player who joins us on loan from Middlesborough. More of a goalscoring threat than Milne. He will likely see most of his playing time when we player our 4-2-3-1 formation instead of our 4-3-3 formation that we played last season.

LW Demetri Mitchell: A left-winger joining us on loan from Manchester United. Can absolutely fly down the wings and is stronger on the left side compared to the right. Will be a great addition to our counter attack with his pace. MOAR ATHLETES!

CB/DMC Darragh Lenihan: No longer wanted at struggling Blackburn, Lenihan joins us to add to our centre-back depth. Like Fosu-Mensah, he is a better marker than our outgoing center-backs. He can also play the defensive midfield position which could allow me to switch to a narrow diamond 4-4-2 formation and play him as a half-back and let our full-backs bomb down the flanks.

GK Danny Rogers: A solid back-up goalkeeper joining us from Aberdeen. Will see starting action in cup games as well as the spot start during league play to stay fresh. He is he to bridge the gap until our goalkeeper currently in the U21s is ready for the back-up role.

We embarked on a lengthy friendly schedule which got the new players acclimated to our style of play and allowed the team to be accomplished in both the 4-3-3 formation that will be used primarily on the road and the 4-2-3-1 formation to used mainly at home.

The only hiccups were draws to Motherwell and Dundee. We held the lead in both games but to keep players fresh and not injured to start the season, I yanked some starters early and the replacements could not hold on to the lead.

One feature that I really like with Football Manager this year is the depth chart by current formation. Taking a look at it before posting this update, I saw that I was really undervaluing Adam King in the center midfield and overvaluing Lauri Della Valle who doesn't even break the top three at centre-forward in either formation.

The 4-3-3 formation depth chart

The 4-2-3-1 formation depth chart

Finances still don't look too bad either:

 

[Bdub]

Is your team getting injured a lot? I am playing as Arsenal and half 6 of my starters get injured while playing for their national teams.

 

[goblue96]

Not really. My physio's injury report from the 15-16 season:



Those injuries never really happened at the same time. Strung out throughout the season.

 

[Bdub]

That's good, I hope it was just a weird thing. Definitely liking the game so far.

 

[goblue96]

2016-17 Crewe Alexandria First Quarter Update
​

12 games and the summer transfer window has closed. It has been a very successful first 12 games for Crewe Alexandria. We've been rolling with a 4-2-3-1 formation at home and a 4-3-3 DM formation on the road. It has worked wonders for us.

Crewe and Walsall has been the class of League One field. We still have the lowest payroll in League One. Our salary, for the year, is about £50,000 more for the season than last year but we are getting a lot for our money this season. 2nd place with the lowest payroll.....how long will it last?

We got off to a hot start to the season with four straight wins. Gillingham didn't know what hit them when we brought out the 4-2-3-1 formation in a competitive game for the first time this season and blitzed them 6-1. The only blemishes are 2-1 losses at Barnsley and Chesterfield. Chesterfield played great counter-attacking football by letting us into their zone and then striking quickly on the counter with direct passes over our high defensive line.

We were a bit more successful in the Capital One Cup. We got out of the first round with a hard-fought 2-1 win over Sheffield United where we used our 4-3-3 DM formation instead of the preferred 4-2-3-1 formation for home games. Bournemouth is fresh off a relegation to the Championship and outclassed us in every department with 2-0 victory at their place.

We continue to dominate in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy. It could be the fact that we play everyone so everyone is fresh and match ready or our rotation players are just better than everyone else's rotation players. Either way, we will take the wins and give our rotation players more chances to play.

Both goalkeepers have seen a fair amount of action. Maxwell has played most of the league games while Rogers has been our cup goalkeeper and gotten a couple of starts in league play. I have confidence in both of them so if one gets hurt, I have no problem inserting the other into the lineup and not miss a beat.

Everybody has seen the field and is playing at a high level. I have confidence in everyone on the roster to play and play well. John Souttar was a late addition to the roster and he can play a variety of positions: right-back, defensive midfielder, and central midfield. A great versatile player. James Baillie was forced into extended action due to an injury to Oliver Turton. He is great on the right back. Doesn't make many mistakes and adds to the offense with crosses into the box. Lee Desmond is better than Marc Bola at the left-back position but he has fitness issues and has a hard time playing mid-week games. Bola steps up and gets the job done. The centre-back position is a four-man rotation of Ben Nugent, Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Perry Ng, and Darragh Lenihan. All of them are great in the air and on the ground. Great group. Cole Kpekawa was a short-term long from Q.P.R when both Desmond and Bola were injured at the left-back position.

A deep and talented group. Everyone gets enough playing time to stay happy. Everybody adds something different and has a different set of skills to exploit weaknesses in the opposition. We've got fast players like Demetri Mitchell on the left-wing. He is countered balanced by wide target man Liam O'Neill. George Cooper can play both on the wing and can move inside to the shadow striker position when Callum Cooke has been injured. In the attacking midfield position, Lewis Milne is more a play-making option than a goal-scoring option. James Jones is an all-around midfielder who has goalscoring potential. Steven Hewitt and Adam King breakup the opposition's attack and restart the play. John Souttar is another destroyer who can also hit the long counter-attack pass. Gwion Edwards is a terror on the right with both playmaking and goalscoring ability.

Will Keane has been a great loan transfer from Manchester United with nine goals in 10 appearances. He is averaging a goal per 90 minutes. Callum Saunders is a capable back-up with four goals in six starts while Lauri Dalla Valle's poor end to the 2015-16 season has continued into this season. We have plenty of options ahead of him in Ryan Colclough and Liam O'Neill both of whom can play centre-forward if needed.

There were seven transfers involving players where the transfer fee was more than £25,000,000

1) Geoffrey Kondogdia From Inter Milan to PSG for £47,000,000
2) Domenico Berardi From Sassuolo to Real Madrid for £35,500,000
3) 'Arry Kane From Tottenham to Manchester United £35,000,000
4) Felipe Anderson From Lazio to Manchester City for £34,500,000
5) Ayoze Perez From Newcastle to Chelsea for £31,500,000
6) Manolo Gabbiardini From Napoli to Chelsea for £28,000,000
7) Matija Nastasic From Schalke to Chelsea for £27,000,000

Any questions or a screenshot of any player, let me know.
​

 

[goblue96]

2016-17 CREWE ALEXANDRIA MID-SEASON REVIEW
​

12 games remain in the 2016-17 season and Crewe are sitting in a great position.

Relegation isn't even a worry. A collapse would probably see us fall into just the playoffs. As long as everyone stays relatively healthy, we should get promoted. We hold a 12-point lead over 2nd place Walsall and a 14-point lead over 3rd place Sheffield United with just 12 games remaining. It will take a lot to blow this lead that we have built up during the middle of the season.

We have only been shutout once in the 22 games since the last update and only have four losses and three draws to give us a 15-3-4 record. The best game was the 5-4 victory over Brentford. They jumped out to 3-2 and 4-3 leads only to have a battle back and win the game in the end 5-4. Our defense has done a much better job of finishing out games and keeping wins as wins and draws as draws. We aren't losing points to goals allowed in the last 10 minutes.

Our great league form as carried over into the FA Cup. We survived a replay against League Two Blackpool. Then, we got lucky with back-to-back home draws against Skybet Championship competition and won both games. Our reward was a trip to the quarterfinals where Manchester City waits for us. I would have preferred a road draw over a home draw but a road draw and heavy loss could affect our form in the home stretch of the season.

Maxwell has proven to be a much better goalkeeper with a better defense in front of him. He's goals allowed as dropped from 1.8/game last season to just 1.03/game this season. A huge improvement which has really helped us. Rogers has been a great cup and spot league start goalie allowing just .94/goals in 16 starts. A great tandem this season.

Everybody plays on defense with just about everyone on pace to get 25 appearances this season (the target for every first team player). Nugent and Fosu-Menash are a rock in the middle with Lee Desmond flanking the left side and James Baillie on the right. Baillie has taken over as first choice on the right side from Oliver Turton. Marc Bola is a more than adequate second choice for Lee Desmond on the left. Darragh Lenihan and Perry Ng are good spot starters and cup players in the middle. John Souttar sees most of his games in the midfield but has gotten a few starts at right back.

Lots of assists and goals from a very deep midfield. The midfield is led by Gwion Edwards who has 8 goals and a team-high 15 assists from his right wing position. Left winger Demetri Mitchell leads the midfield with nine goals while adding one assist. Lewis Milne and James Jones have nine and eight assists respectively from central midfield and attacking midfield positions. Adam King continues his role as destroyer in the midfield. The sparkplug off the bench is Callum Cooke, who has gotten over his injury problems, and has five goals and seven assists. The wing midfield positions have depth with Ryan Colclough and Liam O'Neill. Steven Hewitt has gotten reduced playing time as Adam King has continued to improve. The only downside has been the injury prone Oliver Finney who is struggling for game time.

Will Keane has slowed down some but continues to lead with 24 goals. Callum Saunders is a great back-up adding 10 goals in both league and cup play. The result of Saunders' development is the reduced role for Lauri Dalla Valle who has just three goals in seven appearances but he will be released at the end of the season.

Our bottom line got a nice boost with this sale. This is why I attempt to put future transfer clauses in every sale. You never know when you are going to get paid off. This sale plus our FA Cup run has kept us in the black season which will help considering we should be in the Championship next season.​

 

[goblue96]

Scenes from Last Night

 

[Bdub]

Nice job winning the league. What made you want to play as Crewe?

 

[goblue96]

They have a long history of focusing on youth and turning academy players into senior side players then selling them and reinvesting the profits. They are solid mid-table League 1 team and I wanted the challenge of turning them into a Premier League team. Now that I am out of League 1, the challenge begins for this save.

Also, I wanted to learn more about the training and development side of the game.

 

[NML]

Are you considered an icon? That's a pretty great start to this save.

Got about double the wage budget for this year it seems. How much of the team is staying around?

 

[goblue96]

2016-17 CREWE ALEXANDRIA END OF SEASON RECAP
​

As you already read, we won League One with three games to spare. However, the final 12 games of the season was our worst stretch of the season with four wins, seven!!!!! draws and one loss. The seven draws really annoyed be because there were a lot of games that could have been won and ended the title race a lot sooner. But, those draws did not allow the chasers to catch us and with the three games to spare...the title was ours.

We played our first team in the games against Fleetwood and Colchester since Fleetwood was in a relegation fight and it would have been fair to the other teams for us to field a weakened squad. Colchester was in the playoff race and we fielded our regular team for the same reasons. Brentford was stuck in the middle of the table and no prize money is on the line so some youngsters got to play in that game.

Joining me in the Championship, next season, are Rochdale and Luton. Rochdale caught fire in the second half of the season and moved up the table. Luton, winner of the playoffs, rode an end-of-season winning streak to the playoff win. The biggest disappointment in the second half of the season was Walsall, who started the second half of the season in 2nd place and finished 8th. Doncaster should bounce back into League One next season even with a last place finish this season. They are a big club....by League One standards.

Another nice addition to FM16. Puts all the entire season on one clean page. I was amazed that we only filled the stadium to 2/3 capacity and that at 27 players used, we were at the bottom of the league in total players used. Our FA Cup run ended, as expected, to Manchester City. We gave them a good fight losing only 2-0. It could have been much, much worse.

Chris Maxwell rebounded completely from his rocky second half of last season to become one of the best goalkeepers in League One. Hopefully, that strong form can carry into next season because unless a real good goalkeeper comes long for a low wage, Maxwell will be our starting goalkeeper next season. Danny Rogers missed a good portion of the last quarter of the season and academy product Antoni Sarnowski came in as the back-up and started against Brentford in the second to last game of the season.

Everybody, on the defense, reached the 25 appearance mark. Yes, I know Perry Ng only appeared in 23 games but hey, the Common Core rounds 23 to 25! so it's all good. Everything went to plan on defense this season. Nugent proved to be the central defender to keep after last season and paired with Timothy Fosu-Mensah created a great centre-back pairing. Perry Ng and Darragh Lenihan provided great depth with very little drop off. The left side had the combination of Marc Bola and Lee Desmond and the right side had the combo of Oliver Turton and James Baillie. All very good and all provide something a little bit different to the defense and offensive attack.

All but three players hit the magic 25 appearance mark this season. The midfield was led by wingers Gwion Edwards and Demetri Mitchell. Edwards had a Team of the Year worthy year but did not make the team. The centre of the midfield had a wide variety of players in the middle. James Jones and Lewis Milne provided assists. George Cooper, in the middle, and Ryan Colclough, out wide, provided goals. Adam King, John Souttar, Steven Hewitt provided grit. Liam O'Neill is a great wide target to have late in games to get the ball the wide and slowly build up play. Callum Cooke and Oliver Finney had a bunch of injuries which restricted their playing time.

Will Keane had a player of the year performance with a league-high 26 goals. Callum Saunders is the best prospect on the team and chipped in with 11 goals in all competitions. Lauri Dalla Valle was phased out this season. As the #3 striker, he's just not going to get a lot of playing time in a one-striker formation.

The U21 team had an average performance in their group. They won more than they lost but the -6 goal difference is a bit concerning. Both U21 manager and assistant manager will be replaced in the off-season.

The U18 team was a different story. They won the league and scored 70 goals while second best only had 42 goals. This is a great kids that I hope continue their success next year in the U21 squad. This guy was the best of the bunch on the U18 team.

He doesn't look like much but 11 goals in 34 games of league play from the midfield is something to look forward to as he develops into an experienced player.

Crewe Year End Awards​

Player of the season
1) CF Will Keane - 34% of the vote
2) RW Gwion Edwards - 29% of the vote
3) LB Lee Desmond - 24% of the vote

Goal of the season: CM Adam King

Signing of the Season: CF Will Keane (well, duh!)

Young Player of the Season: CF Will Keane

Jersey Sales:
1) Gwion Edwards
2) George Cooper
3) Ben Nugent
4) Callum Saunders
5) Lewis Milne
​

League One Awards​

Player of the Year: LW Lee Martin, Millwall
Top Goalscorer: CF Will Keane, Crewe 26 goals
Manager of the Year: Tim Brooks, Crewe
Crewe Representative on the League One Team of the Year: CF Will Keane, Crewe

I'm preparing for a season of consolidation moving up to the Championship. I've already turned £1,600,000 of the transfer budget into wage budget which has lifted the wage budget to just under £100k per week from £62,000. I'll turn more of the transfer budget into wage budget if I need to strengthen the team further. Seasons of consolidation mean signing more defenders and defense-minded midfielders along with some quick players to hit teams on the counter. I'm predicting that the media will pick us to be one of the teams to finish in the relegation zone. Hoping to prove them wrong.​

Are you considered an icon? That's a pretty great start to this save.

Got about double the wage budget for this year it seems. How much of the team is staying around?

Icon status: not yet

They doubled the wage budget but the wage budget is still pretty low compared to other teams. I expect to keep 15-18 players from this year's team for next season. This includes convincing some of the loan players either joining the team on a permanent basis or signing up for another season on loan like I did with Adam King this season. £100,000/wk for a total team salary doesn't go a long way in the Championship.

 

[NML]

£100,000/wk for a total team salary doesn't go a long way in the Championship.

Yeah I'm sure there's some relegated team who has players making that much

 

[goblue96]

Yeah I'm sure there's some relegated team who has players making that much

Highest wage for an EPL relegated club is Loïc Rémy who is getting paid £47,000/wk for West Brom.

Southampton finished 16th in the EPL and they have Falcao who makes £95,000/wk.

 

[Bdub]

Ugh injuries are insane in my game. I currently have 7 players in my rotation injured.

 

[goblue96]

Ugh injuries are insane in my game. I currently have 7 players in my rotation injured.

How intense are you training? In July, my team training is fitness at a high intensity and then August-December, it's ball control at low intensity followed by tactics at low intensity for the rest of the season

 

[Bdub]

How intense are you training? In July, my team training is fitness at a high intensity and then August-December, it's ball control at low intensity followed by tactics at low intensity for the rest of the season

I do the same. They keep getting hurt on international duty. I had to go back to an earlier save because I had 5 starters get hurt with serious injuries.

 

[goblue96]

2017-18 CREWE ALEXANDRIA SEASON PREVIEW
​

Another season of retooling the squad to get built for Championship. The media like our chances of staying up for a second season though just barely.

Surprisingly, Luton, who won the League One playoffs, is picked to finish ahead of runner-up and automatically promoted Rochdale. The "big money" clubs of West Brom, Aston Villa, and Nottingham Forest are picked to finish near the top of the league.

The board, as usual, has reasonable expectations for our season. They want us to avoid relegation while reaching the third round of the FA Cup (which is where we enter the FA Cup) and reach the second round of the Capital One Cup. The nice thing is no more Johnstone's Paint Trophy which does nothing but add meaningless games to the calendar.

I upgraded the side with eight new signings all of whom will impact the team in different ways.

CB Cameron Borthwick-Jackson: A young centre-back who was released from Manchester United and signed for us on a free transfer. Brought in to help push Perry Ng as our fourth centre-back on the senior team.

CM John Scowen: A defensive-minded midfielder who is hungry for Championship play than he can not get with League One Barnsley. He is upgrade from both loanee Adam King, who is back for a third season, and released John Hewitt. Willing to run down defenders and make tackles. Will be a good addition given the attacking sides we will be playing this season.

LB Stephen Hendrie: A Scottish left-back from West Ham, who spent last season on loan at Chesterfield. One of the best man-markers on the team and has the pace to attack and get back on defense. Has nine caps for the Scottish U21 team and is ready to break through for the senior side.

CM Gary Liddle: The oldest player in my three-year tenure at Crewe at age 31. A tough-minded central midfielder who can come in and tutor the younger defensive-minded central midfielders on the roster. A good, low-cost one-year addition to the roster while potential long-term impact.

CF Will Keane: Yup. I was able to sign him to a permanent two-year contract. It's a hefty contact at £10,500/wk but with his goal-scoring ability, it's a risk I'm willing to take. He only score 26 league goals last season. I'll take half of that total this season.

CF/ACM Marcus Rashford: A multi-dimensional forward/attacking midfielder to give us a change of pace in attack. On a free loan contract from Manchester United, it's a great no-cost addition to the roster.

GK Alex Smithies: I said that I wasn't going to sign a goalkeeper unless a really one came available. Alex Smithies fit that category. After a long stint at Championship squad Huddersfield, Smithies bounced between QPR and Stoke and didn't get much playing time. I snapped him up for £230,000 from Stoke. He's a quality Championship-level goalkeeper who can hopefully steal us a match or two to keep us out of the relegation zone.

Three players from last year's roster, Perry Ng, Danny Rogers, and Marc Bola, were all shipped out on loan. Ng and Bola were for development purposes. Rogers' loan was to make room for Smithies since Rogers playing time was going to be next to nothing. Brown and Ainley are decent U21 talents who need some time with a first-team somewhere. That leaves us with a roster which looks like this:

We played a rigorous 10-game pre-season which a decent set of results. I was most impressed with the losses to Anderlecht and Manchester United. It showed that our defensive additions will be good additions come the regular season. Our attacking formation still has the goalscoring capability.

Finances are still in good shape.

Our U21 squad for this season. I promoted the U21 ass man to full man for this season after the old manager only got an eighth-place finish out of them.

Players to watch from this squad are: CM Oliver Finney, LW/RW Charlie Kirk, LW Michael Lake, ACM Akwasi Asente, CB Frank Edge, and GK Michael Sands

And the U18 squad:

Not a lot of talent on this squad but some of this could be caused by the jump from League One to the Championship. I'm keeping my eye or ACM Jon Heneghan and LB Mark Kim though Kim worries me because his 'Merican upbringing.


​

 

[goblue96]

2017-18 CREWE ALEXANDRIA 1st QUARTER REVIEW
​

12 games into a season can give a lot of clues as to how the season should play out. What does that mean for this year's newly promoted Crewe side?

12 games: 4 wins, 4 draws, and 4 losses with a +2 goal differential and 16 points. That's a whole lot of average but a whole lot of average would give us around 60-64 points on the full season which is more than enough to keep us out of a relegation battle. Of course, any downturn in form or a large string of injuries could send us tumbling down the table and into the relegation battle. But right now, I like where we stand. Very pleased on the season.

We've done the well without depending on Will Keane. He's provided four goals in 12 games. We have also rode the goal-scoring ability of wingers; George Cooper (left) and Gwion Edwards (right) to get to where we are in the table. Cooper's five goals in three games led us to seven of our 16 points while Gwion Edwards has gotten five goals as well but helped turn losses into draws. That's a big plus going forward.

The rotation players got us to the second round of the Capital One Cup which is all that was asked of them. Watford were a tough side who played a lot of their starters to only advance one round further.

Smithies and Maxwell have split time in goal. Maxwell took the two cup games and any mid-week league fixtures. Smithies had the weekend league fixtures which were typically against tougher competition. Still not a fan of Smithies early 1.86 goals against average. Maxwell got better as he settled into the club. I've got full confidence that Smithies will too.

Captain Ben Nugent has played just about every game this season. Timothy Fosu-Menash has struggled with fitness all season but is effective when he does play. Cameron Borthwit k-Jackson has spelled Menash during his fitness issues. Darragh Lenihan has been injured all season but will move back into the #3 centre-back role. Out wide, some choices are going to have to made player wise. I've enjoyed have four capable wing backs but all four of them have contracts that are up at the end of the season. My choices, right now, are going to be Hendrie on the left and Baillie on the right. I will attempt to sell Turton and Desmond before the January window opens and a non-English based club can scoop them up on a free contract.

The attacking portion of the midfield is much stronger than the defensive portion. Gwion Edwards and George Cooper have been really strong on the wings. The attacking midfield position has been difficult to fill with Cooper, Lewis Milne, and Marcus Rashford all trying to fill the role but coming up short in a variety of ways. Since we are not playing with a defensive midfielder, I've set both the mentality of both central midfielders to defensive. This has meant more playing time for players like Eunan O'Kane and Josh Scowen and less time for John Souttar and Gary Liddle. Souttar will probably get sold before the January as well.

Will Keane has struggled with injuries this season but when healthy, he still finds the net. In his absence, I've tried both Liam O'Neill and Callum Saunders. Saunders is more a natural goal scorer while O'Neill is the better pass. Ryan Colclough has chipped in with some goals out wide.

2017 Finances

Major Summer Transfers

CF Marco Icardi: £45.5 Million from Inter to Monaco
CM Giannelli Imbula: £40 million from Porto to Barcelona
CB Stefan de Vrij: £34 million from Lazio to Manchester City
LW Lucas Ocampos: £29 million from Marseille to Bayern Munich
LW Bernard: £27.5 million from Shakhtar to Arsenal
​

 

[NML]

That's a nice healthy balance. Upgraded anything yet?

 

[goblue96]

Youth facilities once. That cost me £850k.

 

[Bdub]

How's your coaching? I like to upgrade at least my youth director or whatever they call him as soon as I can.

 

[goblue96]

2017-18 CREWE ALEXANDRIA SEASON IN REVIEW
​

The season started out average going 4-4-4. We hit a massive hot streak in October-December only to come crashing back down to earth before rebounding at the end of the season to finish a solid middle-of-the-pack 15th. Having the 2nd smallest payroll, I'll take a 15th place finish.

With 59 points, we were never really in the relegation battle was saw "big clubs" Wigan and Sunderland go down along with Rotherham. We get to see Sheffield Wednesday, Leicester, and West Brom move to the big money of the Premier League while Q.P.R, Ipswich, and Bournemouth come down to the Championship. Bournemouth lost a Premier League relegation playoff which I had never seen before. Bournemouth and Swansea finished tied on points (33) and goal difference (-23) so they played a one-game relegation playoff game at Villa Park. Swansea escaped with the 1-0 victory.

Our season turned on that 6-3 loss to Bristol City especially since we led the game 3-0. I lit into the team afterward and they didn't take it well. It took until April when I reached I don't give a fuck mode because we aren't getting relegated and called up a bunch of youth from the U21 team and for the most part, they played better than expected especially in goal.

A very short run in the FA Cup.

Our finances before we received our solidarity payment from the Premier League for participating in the Championship.

Those finances quickly reverses when the solidarity payment came in.

Hopefully, in June, the board will change their paltry wage and transfer budget which are set at 140,000 and 145,000 squiggles respectively. If they don't, I'll invest the money in the youth and training facilities.

Alex Smithies struggled in his first season with us. Chris Maxwell struggled in his first season as well and we won the League One title in his second season. Hopefully, an upgraded centre-back pairing will see Smithies improve. Maxwell played in the cups and in the mid-week league games. Freddie Sands came up and played at the end of the season when Smithies got hurt and I wanted to see what he could in net. He will probably spend next season on loan to get first-team match experience.

Ben Nugent played well but picked up three red cards this season eek which forced us to play Darragh Lenihan who is reaching the top of his growth curve and it's not Championship quality. Timothy Fosu-Mensah worked hard as Nugent's centre-back partner. Stephen Hendrie worked hard at left back and James Baillie is another player who's peak is probably League One and not the Championship. An upgrade may be needed here as well. Lee Desmond will be released to bring in higher quality at left-back. Cameron Borthwick-Jackson may be the answer but he also may not be. His ceiling looks like 4th centre-back. Frank Edge got a late season call-up as well and he's not quite ready for the big stage.

Gwion Edwards was my player of the year. He was workhorse on the right wing and led the team in both goals (14) and assists (10). George Cooper split time at both left wing and central attacking midfielder. He was better on the left wing. Attacking midfield was the toughest position to fill. I tried a number of players. None of them were successful. Another place to upgrade in the offseason. The holding midfield was good with Eunan O'Kane and Josh Scowen. Scowen, like Nugent, needs to cut out the red cards. He had a pair this season. Adam King's run of loan spells is coming to an end. Sinan Keskin was one of the many attacking midfielder options. James Jones and Ryan Colclough spent most of the season either injured or ineffective while Oliver Finney was another youngster who got a late season try-out.

Will Keane missed 30% of the season with a variety of injuries and spent even more time getting into match shape. As a result, his goal tally dropped to 10 this season. Callum Saunders continues to improves but I'm not quite sold on him as the back-up striker. Liam O'Neill looks like he is out of his depth in the Championship.

We had a great youth intake this season with six players who could be pushing for a first-team place in future seasons:

GK Liam Batten: A goalkeeper with great handling and reflexes to go with a high motor

AMC Martin Bond: A possible solution to my attacking midfielder problem. Listed as a "promising midfielder" means he has a much higher ceiling than a player listed as a "young [insert position here]"

LW Lee Granger: A quick left winger who is already a top notch crosser of the ball.

AMC Rob Webb: A tall attacking midfielder who will be converted into a centre-forward to take advantage of his size.

CM Michael Johnson: A defense-minded central midfielder with a high motor. His determination needs to be monitored.

GK Stephen Grant: A promising goalkeeper with great reflexes and command of the goal area. Like Johnson, his determination needs to monitored in training.

Under 21 finish: 7th

Under 18 finish: 8th

Crewe End of Season Awards:

Player of the Year: CF Will Keane 40% of fan vote, RW Gwion Edwards 31%, CB Ben Nugent 18%

Goal of the Season: RW Gwion Edwards vs. Nottingham Forest

Signing of the Season: CF Will Keane

Youth Player of the Year: CB Ben Nugent

Commercial Activity: 810,000 squiggles

TV Revenue: 2,760,000 squiggles

Top Shirt Sales: 1) CF Will Keane, 2) RW Gwion Edwards, 3) LW George Cooper, 4) CB Ben Nugent, 5) CM Josh Scowen

Possession: 49.76% (14th in Championship)

Red Cards: 5 (2nd)

Goals Scored: 67 (T13th)

Goals Conceded: 75 (T19th)

Goals from Corners: 7 (T6th)

Goals from Indirect Free Kicks: 8 (3rd)

Clean Sheets: 8

Attendance: 8,815 (23rd)

% of Capacity: 86%

Sellouts: 2

Salary: 3,890,000 squiggles (23rd)

Championship Awards:

Player of the Year: RW Solly March, Brighton 8 goals 15 assists

Top Goalscorer: CF Jordan Rhodes, Blackburn 35 goals

Young Player of the Year: RW Demarai Gray, Charlton 7 goals 5 assists

Manager of the Year: Claudio Ranieri, Sheffield Wednesday

Promoted: Sheffield Wednesday (Champions), Leicester (2nd), West Brom (Playoffs, 6th)

Relegated: Wigan (22nd), Sunderland (23rd), Rotherham (24th)

Relegated from EPL: Bournemouth (18th), Ipswich (19th), QPR (20th)

Crewe Off-Season Priorities

1) Upgrade Centre-Backs
2) Upgrade Right Back
3) Upgrade Attacking Central Midfield
4) Back-up Left Back
5) Back-up Centre Forward
6) Depth in Central Midfield​

 

[goblue96]

2018-19 CREWE ALEXANDRIA SEASON PREVIEW
​

The idiots in the media, I'm looking at you Mark May, think we will be in another relegation battle. They have picked us 21st out of the 24-team Championship. Promoted sides were picked ahead of us.

We are still "best in class" out of the clubs who were promoted with us. Luton are picked to finish 22nd and Rochdale dead last. That said, we did a lot to reshape our defense in the summer transfer window. Both goalkeepers were shipped out on transfers, some defenders left on a frees while fresh faces being brought in.

We made close to £500,000 in the transfer market this season. The board wasn't willing to invest more money in the transfer and/or wage budget so we plowed £2,000,000 into the youth academy to upgrade the facilities. Still a lot of people were shown the door and a new crop of players brought in.

ACM Marcus Bay: A young attacking central-midfielder bought from Ajax. Slots in as a rotation player in this year's side but has a very high ceiling.

AMC/LW Humam Tariq: A 22-year old Iraqi who already has 40 caps for the national team. Currently better than Marcus Bay and has the versatility to play out on the left wing. A player who sort of fell in our lap during the summer. We brought in him on a trial and he had a string of top performances including against Aston Villa and Sparta Prague.

CB Alfie Mawson: One of the many centre-backs brought in this summer. Will move straight into the starting line-up. His passing is the better than anything we had at the defensive positions last season. Should help us build up attacks from the back.

CB Tosin Adarabioyo: We discovered this player back in April and had to wait until the summer to bring him in. Let go from the Manchester United Academy. He will come in to the 4th centre-back spot in the senior side.

CB Regan Poole: A centre-back brought in on loan from Manchester United. Another ball-playing central defender. Will move into the starting lineup right away.

CM Ben Pearson: Another loanee from Manchester United. Will work in rotational role in the central midfield.

CM Nick Powell: An attack-minded central midfielder brought in from Q.P.R. Should be able to step into a starting role in the central midfield right away.

GK Ben Amos: Bought as a reclamation project after a short time at Bournemouth. Unseated Alex Smithies and Chris Maxwell as the starting goalkeeper.

LB Jorg Ooievaar: Another high-ceiling player brought in from Ajax. Can run for days down the left wing and has enough pace to get back and defend.

RB Michael Harriman: A defense-first right back brought in to compliment James Baillie's attacking mentality. Could get a fair number of starts in road games.

CF/LW Anthony Stokes: A veteran centre-forward picked from Fulham. Had a successful spell at Celtic. Will back up Will Keane at centre-forward and can play left wing if needed.

Those additions leave us with a senior side looking like this:

Looking to bring in a veteran back-up goalkeeper who doesn't cost a whole lot salary wise or a young kid on a loan. My ideal plan for Freddie Sands is to loan him out to get first team football this season but if push comes to shove, I will use him as the back-up this year.

A smaller U21 side compared to last year. I'd like to see some development out of Charlie Kirk, Oliver Finney, and Callum Ainley. Mike Booth and Mark Kim has a chance to breakthrough in the midfield and Michael Lake is the best attacking option.

A huge U18 team this season. Will be watching the best of the "Class of 2018" (Granger, Bond, Webb, Johnson, Batten, and Grant). The local Premiership clubs like Stoke have been enquiring about Bond all summer. But none of the offers have met my price tag.

Looking to switch up the tactics this year. Moving away from the 4-2-3-1 and toward the 4-3-3. I want a defensive midfielder to help protect the back four. I wasn't getting that protection with the 4-2-3-1. I'm getting it with the above formation.
​

 

[DeadMan]

Interested in a screenshot of Bond.

 

[goblue96]

Interested in a screenshot of Bond.

Here ya go



The mohawk haircut is a nice touch.

He's got @Yankee151's size at 5 foot 3 inches and 114 lbs. He's gonna put in the hard work work on Off the Ball and First Touch so he move around the bigger defenders.

 

[goblue96]

2018-19 CREWE ALEXANDRIA FIRST QUARTER UPDATE
​

The tactical switch from a 4-2-3-1 to a 4-3-3 has paid off some immediate dividends.

We've kept Keene as a False Nine at the top of the attacking triangle. Cooper and Edwards have changed their roles from wingers to inside forwards. In the midfield, the top two midfielders are attack-minded. On the right side, we have an central midfielder with an attack duty and, on the left side, a box-to-box midfielder. Playing behind them is a deep lying playmaker with a defend duty. With this role, he acts more like a sweeper in front of the two central defenders. On the back line, both fullbacks have attacking duties with the attacking wingers now inside forwards, the fullbacks provide width to the formation.

There we are in 4th place with a record of 6-3-3. After nine games, we were very mediocre with a 3-3-3 record. Three straight wins have really moves us up the table. The question is will we maintain this level or will we fall back down the table like we did last year?

Five clean sheets in 12 matches. The new tactics have helped us maintain some type of defensive shape. An upgrade, at both, goalkeeper and centre-back have helped as well.

Ben Amos has been a great success with five clean sheets and a goals against average below 1.00. He's well worth the low price I paid for him and he's costing less per week than Smithies. Zander Clark is purely a back-up and a place holder until one of the youth team goalies is ready to take the back-up role.

Two new centre-backs on the roster and both of them have an average rating about 7.00 and average over 10 headers won per game. Stephen Hendrie is a defensive stopper on the left. The right side is bit more troublesome. James Baillie is more offensive-minded than Michael Harriman which is increasing his average rating to almost 8.00. Ben Nugent, Jorg Ooievaar, and Tosin Adarabioyo have proven to be capable back-ups.

Ben Pearson has mainly played in the defensive midfield play-maker role. The attacking quartet in the midfield has chipped in with both goals and assists. Humam Tariq has spent a lot of the first quarter of the season on the injured list and hasn't gotten the playing time I had hoped. I've been impressed by the new signings that have played: Nick Powell, Josh Scowen and Markus Bay.

Will Keane has struggled to find the net in the first quarter. If he can get firing again, we should be able to go on a lengthy winning streak and solidify a playoff place. Callum Saunders has moved into the back-up role as Anthony Stokes struggles to fit into the side. Stokes will probably be sold in the January transfer window so we can make some money off of him.
​

 

[Bdub]

Same shape as I have my 4-3-3 setup. Biggest difference is I have my striker play as a complete forward. Setup that way he feeds the 2 inside forwards as they cut in from the wings. What instructions do you use?

 

[goblue96]

Shorter passing, looking for overlap, higher tempo, play wider

 

[goblue96]

2018-19 CREWE ALEXANDRIA SEASON REVIEW
​

There were plenty of signs that we were improving as a squad. The question was could we continue to improve as the season went on and find ourselves in a playoff position. The answer was mixed. Yes, we did improve. However, we fell short of a playoff position.

A solid mid-table finish with 65 points in 10th place just eight points short of the playoff spots. Our biggest failing was against those top sides. We lacked the offensive firepower to score against those teams. 58 goals was good enough for 14th in the Championship. Not good enough for a playoff side. Still, I was pleased that we didn't have to worry about a relegation fight at all this season. However, a playoff push would have been nice.

We made a pair of decent cup runs in both the FA Cup and Capital One Cup. I thought we could have a longer cup run the FA Cup but Everton turned a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 win at Goodison Park.

Ben Amos was a huge upgrade from Alex Smithies. He was much more reliable and I could count on him making that save in a 1v1 situation when our defense broke down.

The Good: Both wing-back positions. Stephen Hendrie and James Baillie combined for 1 goal and 17 assists on the offensive end while getting back for their defensive duties.

The Bad: Ben Nugent. The team captain did not have a good year and took a big step backwards. Losing his starting spot and then the 3rd defender spot. He struggled to get on the pitch and did not react well. As a result, he was placed on the transfer list.

The Improving: Frank Edge showed a lot more in two starts this season. He'll get a call-up to the senior side as our 4th centre-back. Mark Kim made his debut with the senior side. A strong showing from Kim in the friendly season and he could push for the reserve left back spot.

The Good: Markus Bay and George Cooper. Two offensive-minded players who gave the side balance with scoring from the wings and from deep central locations. Bay moved into the central midfielder role while Cooper was his usual self on the left wing adding 10 goals.

The Bad: Nick Powell and Liam O'Neill. Two players who expected a lot more from this season. Powell was outperformed by Bay. O'Neill can't find a position to play. I've tried him a both attacking wing position and the centre-forward position. He just couldn't get the job done. Both may end up on the transfer list. O'Neill has a better chance to end up there compared to Powell.

The Improving: Michael Lake and Rob Webb. Lake got a good run of play in the middle of the season and didn't disappoint. The 16-year old Webb got a late season call up. He's a versatile player who can play all three attacking positions.

The Good: Will Keane took a step back but had a good goalscoring run at the end of the season and finished with 14 goals.

The Bad: Will Keane went 13 hours without a goal which hurt our playoff chances as we moved through the middle 1/3 of the season.

A relatively injury-free season.

Lots of strong performances in the U21 side. Martin Bond, Michael Johnson, Peter Toner, and Luke Pringle are getting ready to make their debut with the senior side.

Not a lot of standouts in the U18 team and our youth intake was not a strong one.
​

CREWE END OF THE SEASON AWARDS
​

Player of the Year: RB James Baillie, Runner-up: CF Will Keane, 3rd place: RW Gwion Edwards
Goal of the Season: RW Gwion Edwards
Signing of the Season: CB Regan Poole loanee from Manchester United
Young Player of the Year: RB James Baillie

Average Attendance: 9,473 (93% of capacity)
Players Used: 28 (T11 most)

New Youth Team Sponsor £14k/year from £1.66k/year​

£901k from match day retail, corporate and hospitality (£810k last year)

Top Shirt Sales: 1) Will Keane
2) Gwion Edwards
3) George Cooper
4) Nick Powell
5) Humam Tariq

CM Markus Bay - Denmark U21 Championship Squad
RW Peter Toner - Northern Ireland U21 Championship Squad

CHAMPIONSHIP END OF SEASON AWARDS
​

Player of the Year: RW Benjamin Moukandjo, Middlesbrough 8 goals 14 assists
Top Goalscorer: CF Ryan Hardle, Leeds, 26 goals
Young Player of the Year: CF Liam Cullen, Ipswich, 14 goals
Manager of the Year: Mauricio Pochettino, Bournemouth
Team of the Year: LB Stephen Hendrie

Promoted to Premier League: Bournemouth (Champions), Q.P.R (runner-up), Ipswich (playoffs)
Relegated from Premier League: Watford (18th place), Hull (19th place), Southampton (20th place)Promoted from League One: Sunderland (Champions), Swindon (runner-up), Walsall or Wigan (playoffs)

Finances look good:

We've got something to look forward at the end of next season.

2019-20 Initial Wage Budget: £150k/week
2019-20 Initial Transfer Budget: £244k​

 

[goblue96]

2019-2020 CREWE ALEXANDRIA SEASON PREVIEW
​

All my friends in the media still disrespect us in the pre-season poll.

While being the same odds as teams like Wolves, Reading, and Fulham is nice, I'd rather those odds be at the top of the table not the bottom half of it. I'm not happy with a prediction of 18th place. We aim to show the media that they are wrong. I feel that we have added enough offensive weapons that we should be competing for a playoff spot if our defense maintains it's form from last season.

Just about every transfer we made in the summer was on the offensive side of the field.

CM Callum McGregor: A multi-dimensional central midfielder. McGregor can play in the middle and on both wing positions. He will bring a lot of attacking versatility to the offense this season.

CF Grant Mulkerrin: Mulkerrin joins us on loan from Liverpool this season. Mulkerrin adds some pace and clinical finishing to our attacking line this season. He may allow us to go some two centre-forward formations this season.

CF Martin O'Kane: O'Kane is another centre forward who fell in our lap after he was let go from Cliftonville in the Northern Ireland Premier League. He has a high ceiling. Will be a fringe player on the senior side this season and could see a lot of time on the U21 team.

DCM Sean Goss: Goss was let go from Manchester United and joins us to add some depth in the playmaking defensive midfield position. Should see a lot of action in cups and when Ben Pearson needs a rest.

GK Ilias Moutha Sebtaoui: Our lone loanee from Manchester United this season. Will be our back-up goalkeeper while our two young 17-year olds get a season's worth experience out on loan.

CF Andrew Harrison: Another attacking option coming to us from Southampton. Can play both the centre-forward position and out on the left wing and will see time at both positions.

DCM Ben Pearson: Pearson was with us, last year, as a loanee from Manchester United. United let his contract expire and we quickly scooped him up to play our defensive midfield playmaking role.

With the new signings, we have a 25-man senior side that is both deep and balanced.

The U21 side. Rob Webb, Martin Bond, and Michael Lake will not be loaned out since they could spent time between the senior side and the U21 side.

The U18 side A couple of players to keep an eye on RW Stephen Nuttall, RW Tim Pouncey, and ACM Simon Oliver

The board has reasonable expectations for us this season:

​

 

[goblue96]

2019-20 CREWE ALEXANDRIA FIRST QUARTER REVIEW​

Finding the balance between offense and defense is one of the things that I am struggling with in this game. We are either too defense-minded and can't score enough goals to push up the table or we are too offense-minded and we allow too many goals and fall down the table. I started the season bringing back a 4-2-3-1 formation and we just allowed too many goals. I tried a 4-4-2 tight diamond midfield. Same problems. So, I fell back to my reliable 4-3-3 formation and the wins started to come back.

Here we are again with a 6-3-3 record after 12 games. We are averaging almost two goals per game which is nice. The 16 goals allowed is a bit tough to swallow but if the scoring keeps up. I can live with it. I'd like to see some more clean sheets. We only have one in 12 games.

A lot of games where we have allowed one goal where a clean sheet could have gotten us a 1-0 win. Blackburn and Luton were products of the offensive-minded formations. Grant Mulkerrin has been a good run of form at centre-forward and kept Will Keane on the bench.

Another decent Capital One Cup run. A pair of 3-1 wins before getting trounced by Newcastle which really impacted Ben Amos's stats. Amos got the start over the back-up since we were on the road against Premier League side.

Take that Newcastle game out and the goals/game average for Amos drops from 1.75 to 1.36. Still a little higher than I like. I want that number down around 1.00. Ilias Moutha Sebtaoui has performed well in the few starts that he's gotten.

The defense is baffling to me because they are putting up numbers very similar to last season. So either, the midfield isn't doing their job and possessing the ball or Amos is suffering from a dip in form. I'm encouraged by what I see from Tosin Adarabioyo who has done a great job in the #3 centre-back role. Mike Booth and Frank Edge are both academy products who are making their full season debuts with the senior side.

Looking over the stats, I think this is where part of our defensive problem lies. A lot of players with pass completion ratios below 80%. If we don't hold the ball, then we are spending more time in our defensive half of the field. On the whole, I like what I see offensively from this group with four goals from three different players (Cooper, Edwards, and McGregor). McGregor is fun to watch. He either blasts the ball into the eight row or he strikes it pure and it goes in the net. James Jones returns to the senior squad for a full season. This is a make or break year for him at age 23. Martin Bond, all 5'4 and 123 lbs., has broke into the senior side with a couple of sub appearances. He's the only player on the roster who can back-up Edwards on the right wing. I've tried McGregor out there to give Edwards a rest with poor results.

Grant Mulkerrin has driven us to our 6-3-3 start with nine goals in 11 appearances. He's averaging close to a goal per game. Keane is also close to a goal per game but injures and Mulkerrin's form have left him on the bench in a reserve role. Saunders and Harrison have proved to be capable back-ups.

I'm more encouraged this season than last. We have multiple offensive options to count on. We aren't dependent on the form of just one player. Defensively, we've struggled. I think that's come from throwing too many new formations at them. They couldn't settle into a role. I think I'll stick with the 4-3-3 for the rest of the season. It provides a solid defensive shape with offensive punch.​

 

[goblue96]

We started out 6-3-3. At the first of the year, we are now 6-11-8. That's a "great" stretch of 0-8-5 football. The board asked me if I was open to extending my contract on December 1. They have dodged my requests for a meeting to iron out the contract since then. So, I started to see the handwriting on the wall that I wasn't going to be asked back for the 2020-21 season. The team had stopped listening to me. So, I was left with no choice but to resign. The good news is my reputation is high enough that other Championship sides want me as their manager. The bad news is I did not meet my goal of reaching the Premier League with Crewe.

I leave Crewe after 1,641 days in charge. I managed Crewe for 244 matches with a 102-61-81 record and a 41.8% win percentage. I earned six awards during my tenure: 4 League 1 Manager of the Month awards, 1 League 1 Manager of the Year award, and 1 Championship Manager of the Month award. I led Crewe to the 2017 League 1 Championship. There are a slew of comparable jobs opened. Here's my shortlist:

Bournemouth (20th in the Premier League)
Racing Club de Lens (17th in Ligue 1)
Hearts (8th in the Scottish Premier League)
Watford (1st in the Championship)
Karlsruhler SC (17th in the 2.Bundesliga)

Clubs that don't have openings but are listed as insecure or very insecure that I'm interested in:

Norwich (19th in the Premier League)
1.FSV Mainz 05 (18th in the Bundesliga)
Stade Rennais (14th in Ligue 1)

 

[goblue96]

Well...it was an exhaustive search process to find a new job. Here's how things went down:

Karlsruher hired Gertjain Verbeek
St. Johnstone approached with a contract offer. I declined to see if better offers were going to come along.
Bournemouth hired Gareth Southgate
Kilmarnock hired Neil MacFarlane
Watford hired Mark Hughes
Hearts approached with a contract offer. I almost accepted this offer but declined because the Scottish Premier League is not the most interesting.
Racing Club de Lens approached with a contract off. Came close to accepting this offer as well but declined due to their standing in Ligue 1 and a year or in Ligue 2 was likely.
Norwich hired Ronald Koeman.
Sunderland hired Ståle Solbakken
Lille hired Pablo Correa
Q.P.R approached with a contract offer. I thought about this one too but Q.P.R. had too much debt to deal with going forward.
Hertha Berlin hired Argirio Giannikis
VfB Stuttgard hired Robin Dutt

Now, it was late March so I decided to wait until the end of the season to see what shook out. It didn't take long to find a job.

£6,000 per week is a big increase from the 2k that I was getting at Crewe. I like bonuses for the Champions League and KNVB (Dutch) Cup wins. The only agreed philosophy is to sign young players for the first team. AZ finished 11th in the Eredivisie which is a disappointing season for them. They currently only have one GK on the senior side and he's 19 years old. It shouldn't take much to get AZ is position for a Europa League place.

 

[Bdub]

Nice interesting job. Never seen anybody manage in the Dutch league.

 

[Borman]

AZ finishing 11th is insane. If I remember right they are a pretty big dog in the Dutch League. This should be interesting.

 

[goblue96]

AZ finishing 11th is insane. If I remember right they are a pretty big dog in the Dutch League. This should be interesting.

The only goalkeeper on their roster, when I took over, was a 19-year old who allowed 17 goals in 7 appearances.

 

[Borman]

The only goalkeeper on their roster, when I took over, was a 19-year old who allowed 17 goals in 7 appearances.

AI seems like they do silly things. That would definitely be one. I'm sure you'll be able to find a good goalkeeper. At least an improvement.

 

[goblue96]

AZ 2020-21 MID-SEASON REPORT
​

Well...what happened to the pre-season report. I'm going to start there and add in the mid-season report since I blew right past the pre-season report.

The two biggest takeaways were from the AI's mismanagement are Kees Koops. Koops is a 21-year old left back and listed as the best player at the club when I took over. He felt it was time to move to a bigger challenge. I couldn't convince him to stay. When Newcastle came in with a 5 million pound offer, I took it and let him to walk to the Premier League. The worst piece of mismanagement was letting wonderkid Lamin Hoogenboom leave on a free to Bordeaux. Nothing like letting a potential top talent walk away for nothing.

The other piece of mismanagement was discussed above with just one goalkeeper on the roster. A 19-year old who had no business starting for the senior side let along with reserve side. Our first piece of business was to bring in a starting goalkeeper which we did with Sergio Padt. I'm hoping signing him with offset the loss of our top centre-back. Matthew Targett came in from Derby to replace Koops at left-back. Duje Andjelkovic came into upgrade the centre-forward position especially with Ante Rebic wanting out. I granted Rebic's wish when newly promoted Sunderland came in with an over-priced bid. Ronny Myhre is a younger centre-back from Celtic to provide some depth at the position going forward. The best purchase for the future is 17 year-old Youssef Messaoudi who is an attacking midfielder who was coveted by Real Madrid and Barcelona.

The media believes that we should improve from last year but not by a whole lot.

Here's our senior side:

The saddest thing to watch was seeing my Crewe squad get picked apart after they got relegated to League 1.

10 players from my senior side, last year, sold off to other clubs.

We are going with a 4-3-3 formation after purchased an up-and-coming defensive midfielder from South Korea (no screenshot, will post if asked). He is going to run the base of the formation as a half-back.

A pretty choppy season. We are struggling to find any sort of form. The lack of strong centre-backs is hurting us late in games as teams go more aerial and direct. Our centre-backs aren't the fastest either so we can get beat with pace too. Still our offensive firepower can get us out to a big enough lead, the question is being able to hang on.

7th place is a fair representation of our season. We could push for a top four place if we can shore our defensive short-comings.

Padt has been solid in net. He has done a good job of keeping us in games. His save percentage is decent at 69.1%. Gouweleeuw was on loan last season and came back to be our back-up goalkeeper this season. He is a routine selection for the Dutch U21 squad.

The headers/90 points out our centre-back problem. The young kid is the best in the air with the most headers, total and per 90, and he is not a starter. He may get some time at either centre-back or half back late in games to give us a better presence in the air. New signee Targett is the best defender. He's making a lot of tackles and getting into the attack chipping in with assists. Our typical centre-back pairing of Martial and van de Pavert needs some shaking up. Ronny Loswijk is coming into his own as a solid right-back should Bacuna get disenchanted with life at AZ.

We also need to improve our passing. A lot of completion percentages in the 70s and not the 80s. Messaoudi needs to improve the most since he is only at 70% but that will come as he ages. The wingers, de Sa and Kenia, really need to improve if they want to keep their place. The biggest surprise as been 30-year old Marius Alexe, who leads the team with 10 goals. He mainly plays in the left-wing (inside forward) position. We have gotten more assists from the centre of the pitch than we did at Crewe which is nice. A variety of in points of attack should make us harder to defend. Lots of players, who play a variety of roles, have gotten on the scoresheet with either a goal or an assist.

Each of our main centre-forward options give our offense a different look. Alexe provides goal scoring from the wings. Andjelkovic is a more complete centre-forward and Mzwandile Nyathi is a defensive forward who is our best physical presence in the box but can also play out on the wing. The best thing is they get a lot of their shots on target which, of course, helps with goalscoring.

Our reserves have made the KNVB Cup more of an adventure than it should be. No reason to go to extra time against Achilles'29. Alexe saved us from going to penalties against Zwolle with a stoppage time goal. We get another Juliper League side in Helmond Sport in the quarterfinals which was the best possible draw for us with the big three of Ajax, PSV, and Feyenoord lurking in the draw as well.

​

 

[goblue96]

AZ 2020-21 END OF SEASON REVIEW
​

Our biggest struggle in the first half of the season was possession. We would routinely lose the possession battle 55-45 if not 60-40 or even worse. About midway through the second half of the season, one of the people I follow on twitter released an article on possession and I incorporated some of his concepts into my AZ side. I went with a control mentality with a highly structured side along with some team instructions. You can read the full article here. Once we were able to keep the ball, our team started to thrive as our form improved.

We started to use the concepts in early March and the form improved and goals allowed dropped. Now, we were winning possession 55-45 with the occasional 60-40. Our players are still learning the formation and its concepts. We finished in 6th place, on goal difference, which placed us into the European Places Playoff. The teams that finish in 4th through 7th place participate in the playoff. 4th place plays 7th place and 5th place plays 6th place in the first round. The winners of those two-legged ties advance to the second round. The winner earns the Final Qualifying Round place in the Europa League and the loser earns the 3rd qualifying round place in the Europa League. A lot of work to determine playoff slotting.

Ajax ran away with the league as PSV and Feyenoord finished a disappointing 4th and 5th respectively. Heerenveen will take the 2nd Dutch Champions League place while Twente gets dropped right into the group stage of the Europa League. Vitesse under-achieved with an 10th place finish and 13 points off the playoff places. FC Eindhoven and NEC will spend next season in the Jupiler League while Go Ahead Eagles stayed up after the relegation playoffs.

We were the comeback kids of the KNVB Cup winning three of our five games leading up to the final in extra time. We also only played two Eredivisie teams on our path to the final and neither of the them were top clubs. Ajax won the first leg of their domestic double when they shut us out in the final, 2-0.

Sergio Padt was our workhorse in net. He played in 42 of our 44 competitive matches. A good goals against average of near 1.00 and a save percentage of 73.6% (a four percent improvement from his mid-season percentage) to go along with 12 clean sheets. Gouweleeuw needs competitive matches too. I'll need to find a better back-up and let Gouweleeuw out on loan next season.

Matthew Targett and Leandro Bacuna were the best of the backline. Lots of tackling while chipping in with assists on the offensive end. One purchase made in the winter transfer window was Lasha Dvali who added some aerial presence while Ronny Myhre got time at the centre-back position as well. The one question mark going forward is Johan Martial. He's one of our most experienced defenders but not one of the best. With the Europa League, this season, he will get to play out his contract before I go looking for a replacement.

Lots of improvement in the midfield especially when it comes to pass completion percentage. Messaoudi went up 5 or 6 percent. Sang-Hun went up around 2 or 3 percent. Little things that helped us keep the ball and dictate instead of reacting to our opponents. Lesley de Sa made our offense hum. He was our top assist man with 12 and one of the team leaders in goals with nine. However, he suffered a knee ligament injury and is out for most of the 2021-22 season. I brought up Co Divarci from this year's youth intake to take de Sa's spot on the roster. He played well for three matches until he broke his shoulder and is out until late August. Divarci may get the nod at right wing next year for his development. I'd like to revamp our midfield as it is on the slow side but they are smart. Would like some pace to help broke down the opposition.

Goalscoring was a problem for us. Andjelkovic and Alexe tied for the team lead with 14 goals. New signings Nyathi and Repic showed varying levels of being ready for the Eredivisie with Nytahi the more ready of the two. More permanent upgrades will need to be made here.

Our injury report:

I'd post the reserves and U18 squad's but there isn't a lot to write home about. Divarci is the best of the bunch and there isn't a lot to write home about.

Job Interviews:

Hull City (18th place in the EPL): Declined
SpVgg Gunther Furth (17th place in the Bundesliga): Declined
Feyenoord (5th in Eredivisie): Declined

Eredivisie Awards:

Eredivisie Golden Boot: LW Vaclav Cerny, Ajax, 13 goals 14 assists
Eredivisie Top Scorer: CF Andres Renteria, Ajax, 24 goals in 31 appearance
Young Player of the Year: CF Efrain Borjas, sc Heerenveen, 15 goals in 25 appearances
Manager of the Year: Paul Verhaegh, PEC Zwolle

AZ Awards:

Player of the Year: RW Lesley de Sa (39% of the vote)
CM Ben Rienstra (28%)
CM Selman Sevinc (22%)

Goal of the Year: CM Selman Sevinc vs FC Groningen
Signing of the Season: CF Duje Andjelkovic on loan from Dinamo
Young Player of the Season: CM Youssef Messaoudi

New Kit Sponsor: 1.7 million/year down from 2.43 million/year
Additional Kit Sponsor: 1.5 million/year down from 2.06 million/year
Game-day Corporate Revenue: 1.77 million for the year up from 1.30 million in the 19-20 season
Jersey Sales: RW Lesley de Sa
CM Ben Rienstra
CM Selman Sevinc
LW Levin Kenia
CM Mike Jensen

Next season's wage budget: 230k (Feyenoord even with larger facilities was only offering a 250k wage budget per week)
Next season's transfer budget: 4.2 million​

 

[Borman]

So, I'm confused. Are you in the europa league? The dutch league is so weird. Lol

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

 

[goblue96]

So, I'm confused. Are you in the europa league? The dutch league is so weird. Lol

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

Yes.

Winner of Dutch League: Champions League Group Stage
Runner-up: Best placed playoff (Champions League)
3rd place: Europa League Group Stage
Winner of 4th-7th place playoff: Europa League Playoff
Runner-up of 4th-7th place playoff: Europa League 3rd qualifying round
First round losers of 4th-7th place playoff: No Europe

 

[goblue96]

Quick update on the 2021-22 season:

Finished 5th....again.
Lost in the second round of the playoffs....again
This time, after David Moyes led Spain to World Cup glory , the Ajax job opened up after their manager left to take Holland job. I applied on a whim and accepted the position.

Now this will get fun because I have a goal again....leading Ajax back to European glory.

All hail, van Gaal's Ajax army!