Newcastle United FM career thread.

As of currently, I'm still scraping through my original save game that I started upon release of FM10. Newcastle United is the team I support so it would be churlish of me to not have my first save with them. I was expecting a bit more longevity from this save given our recent relegation, usually it's fairly easy to take Newcastle to the top of the league so there was a sense of rebuilding required.

Inheriting a squad with a massive wagebill and fresh relegation was never going to be easy. Wiithe the expcetation of winning the league, the board gave me a hefty transfer budget of £0 and I was way over the wage budget. Something had to give, stars had to go whilst retaining enough to achieve promotion at the very least. First out of the door was Fabricio Coloccini, his £80,000 a week alone bringing me nearly within my budget. Others soon followed Nicky Butt (£55,000 a week), Alan Smith (£50,000 a week) all helped me quickly bring the wages under control.

I then had to strenghten, not so much the quality as the players at my disposal are undoubtedbly of better quality than the rest of the league. But wht if they got injured? Numbers were needed, strength in depth. In came Ebi Smolarek, and Zoran Tosic. That should do me as I had youngsters in Nile Ranger, Andy Carroll, Tamas Kadar aswell as the even younger Aaron Spear ready for a chance. This was their time to shine.

Having steadied the financial ship and got pre season out of the way, the season began. Away to West Brom, another recently relegated team, was going to be a tough ask for my team who were devoid of morale. I fought out a scrappy 1-1 drawm conceding in the last 5 minutes. A point was better than none. My first home game against Reading was a polar opposite of that, running our comfortable 7-1 victors. This is how it began.

Over the months I struggled for consistency, unable to go on a winning run. At one point I was down as low as 11th place half-way through the season. Rumours of my sacking were beginning to surface, the pressure was on. Somehow I turned it around with 7 straight wins, the unbeaten run that I had yearned for, and come the end of the season promotion was secured finishing 2nd behind West Brom. Newcastle were back in the big time!

It's a bit sketchy but I was trying to remember as far back as November last year. Stay tuned for more!

Moving onto the 2nd season. Left with the nucleus of a team that could survive in the Premier League, a decision had to made as to my future direction. Slow and steady progress or go for broke? I chose the latter and that kind of shaped my transfer decisons.

Having survived a board takeover, the new guys came in and upgraded facilities, expanded the stadium and gave me £30 million to play with. It wasn't enough for what I wanted to do but I ran with it. Losing some players freed up some wages which I could re-invest. In came Rafael Van der Vaart, on the transfer list at Real Madrid and available for £5.5 million, a bargain but woth large wages that I was prepared to pay. Scoring goals looked like a problem but I really didn't want to wax all the rest of my cash on one player so I had to choose carefully. Robert Acquafresca looked decent, in he came for £11 million. Zoran Tosic was signed permanently after Manchester United placed him on the transfer list for £4 million. Spent up, the season got underway.

It didn't tak long for my new signings to bed in, VDV was banging the goals in a grabbing assists, likewise Tosic. Acquafresca was a beast up front and as a result I never even looked like being anywhere near relegation.

Highlights include winnig 3-1 at Old Trafford, doing the double over Chelsea and beating Arsenal. Despite the great wins, it was always against the weaker teams that I struggled, Burnley being the main thorn in the side. Alas, it didn't matter and I ended the season in a UEFA cup place. Not bad for my maiden season in the top flight.

Haway how did ye do against sunderland

Won at home, drew away

A good first season there, anything less than promotion would've been a disaster I think! Not a bad second season either! And some impressive signings too!

A little bit gutted with FM10. Not the game, more the fact that I may miss out on Van der Vaart. The guy has been an FM legend for me since 07. I buy him in nearly every save

I'm quite far into the game so there are some more updates to come.

I started a save with Newcastle yesterday. I just had to try something new, and the Magpies look really strong.
I sold Ranger to Chelsea for £1,7M to double my transfer budget and trying to get Yannick Djalo on a loan.
Also tried to get MB Diouf on a loan but he must hate Newcastle, because it took him 2 minutes to reject my offer.

I have won my two current pre-season friendlies with a goaldifference of +7 and I'm hoping for the season to be as easy.
Everyone had lousy morale when I took over, but the average has turned to okay or better after some fancy (over the top) teamtalk-play
Thinking of increasing the depth of my team but I'm still grinding gears over who to sign and how to sign them.
Any ideas?

ulrich87 wrote:I started a save with Newcastle yesterday. I just had to try something new, and the Magpies look really strong.
I sold Ranger to Chelsea for £1,7M to double my transfer budget and trying to get Yannick Djalo on a loan.
Also tried to get MB Diouf on a loan but he must hate Newcastle, because it took him 2 minutes to reject my offer.

I have won my two current pre-season friendlies with a goaldifference of +7 and I'm hoping for the season to be as easy.
Everyone had lousy morale when I took over, but the average has turned to okay or better after some fancy (over the top) teamtalk-play
Thinking of increasing the depth of my team but I'm still grinding gears over who to sign and how to sign them.
Any ideas?

TIP - Keep Aaron Spear whatever you do. Haris Vuckic aswell. Give them both games and it will pay off

I know! I've seen the coach reports.

On another account, I would love to have Man United as a parent team. Their youth\reserves are fantastic!
Yup, I'm a loan-whore!

Arsenal aren't too shabby to have either!

True, but as a United fan, I think better of them

^Yeah!
Holy crap! I got Kiko Macheda for on a season long loan! No fee, no salary. YAY!
Complimenting Fregie works

Season 3 - Having consolidated my position bak in the top flight, and secured European football, my loyalty became split. Not my loyalty to the job, I ohave only ever been a one club man, more the loyalty to my approach of improving the squad.

I was fully awar that I spent a relative fortune last season, some of which was still being paid off this season, and knew I had to improve the squad further to 'kick on' and also knew it was about time to look at the future, younger players to grace my newly built top of the range youth facilities. I already had two home grown proteges coming through the ranks, both English, both right backs. Kevin Wilkinson was the most senior at 17 years old, he quickly established himself as a first team regular with Joe Welch, a year younger being a more than able back-up.

A quick scan through the out of contract players revealed some startling players available. Youann Gourcuff was signed by me pretty quickly. Still with a good 4 years in him it was an absolute bargain. Sure I had to try and keep VDV and Gourcuff happy and playing, but isn't that a headache any manager would enjoy having?

Alexis Sanchez came in aswell. Those were my two main signings. The others were made up of young players from the continent. Samir Vos signed for £170,000, a Dutch defender that I decided to take a punt on. Dan Stan was another from Moldova and cost £3.5 million.

The season started much the same as the last one - inconsistent. I wasn't really bothered about any cups although winning the league cup is always a wlecome bonus. I managed to sort the inconsistency out and gained some more cracking results. Arsenal were struggling, Liverpool weren't quite right, neither were Man Utd.

Europe was a great experience, losing in the semi final to Inter Milan. That didn't matter so much as my domestic form had me in a Champions League place, mainly secured by the combined inconsistency of the whole league. Chelsea were the only team that managed to keep it together and won the league, Tottenham, Man City and myself made up the top 4, Man Utd in 5th, Liverpool 6th and Arsenal langushing in 10th.

Champions League nights were set for a return to Tyneside!

Season 4 - I had to prepare for the Champions League. I alway like to keep a lean squad of 15 senior players with the rest made up from high potential youngsters. Rafeal Van der Vaart had been outdone by Gourcuff and it was hard to justify playing 2 massive wages for 1 position. I decided to get rid of VDV when Atletico Madrid came calling. Likewise Kevin Wilkinson, who seemed to not like anyone he worked with. He was shown the door and rasied £7 million.

Aside from the 2 players sold, the squad remained pretty much the same. One area I wanted to strenghten was central midfield and particularly the defensive side of it. Franco Zuculini came in to hopefully solve my problem along with goalkeeper Guilermo Ochoa and a young striker for the future from Brazil called Mauricio. I had one eye on keeping the financial side of the club growing, and judging by underwhelming activiy in the transfer market form the other teams, decided to keep my squad as it was with the option of signing players in January if I needed to.

The season was a roaring success. My team clicked straight away and won 13 of the first 15 games, Aquafresca, Sanchez and Gourcuff all chipping in with vital goals. I got to the January window and had been lucky with injuries. I knew they would come but was having to judge if I should sign anyone for a backup. I had 2 players for pretty much every position, but would the reserves and kids be good enough? There is only one way to find out really, so my transfer wallet remained shut.

The season continued and my form didn't relent. The team were looking like title challengers and playing like them too! I won the League Cup which came up first, but after that my form dipped due to some injuries. Jose Enrique was ruled out for a month, one of my central defenders was ruled out for 2 months and Alexis Sanchez broke his leg - particularly gutting as he was my top scorer. A dilemma.

To counter that I decided to call in the youth hoping that I had amassed enough points to see me continue to top the league. I was already in the Champions League quarters shich is what I was aiming for so that was no longer my primary concern. In came a young WB called Jason Coulson to replace Jose Enrique. Dan Stan came in and centre back, and quickly hobbled back out of it. Samir Vos was given the nod and Mauricio came in up top. I didn't expect what happened next.

Jason Coulson, being played slightly out of position, took the first team by storm. Samir Vos was quickly described as a wonderkid and his attributes shot up dramatically, and Mauricio, whilst not scoring what I had hoped, managed to become the architect for Aquafresca who picked where Sanchez left off.

I was chuffed and got into the semi of the Champions League, only to be beaten on away goals by Real Madrid, and continued mt charge for the title, which we ended up winning. We alse added the FA Cup, what a season! I was a legend!

Well done, Sy. Awesome season.