The !RedDevil!'s Villa Challenge

well hello dear FMScout members, i was reading an entry from joefeery about an Aston Villa Nationalist Challenge.

now as i usually do, i thought what an interesting game to play, so many opportunities. so i have decided to take a break from playing oblivion and have a go of this challenge myself.

now, of course, i got a very warm welcome from the aston villa board, who asked me what i thought the team could achieve in this season. my response was a top half finish at the least. for this i got a transfer budget of £3.2 million. this was increased to £7.7m when i asked the board.

what to do with this money. well obviously it had to spent on english players, as this was the challenge.

looking at the team i had inherited from o'neil,it came to the conclusion that i was in need of some backup wingers as forrester was not yet ready. so i spent £1.8m on victor moses, who fitted the bill nicely.

now time to get rid of the foreign contingent in my team.
those to go were:
Martin Laursen to Man City for £5m
Stilyan Petrov to Man City for £5m
John Carew to Sunderland for £7.5m
Something Salifou to Portsmouth for £2.5m

this bumped up my transfer budget nicely. time to bring in the english players.
David Beckham for £5.2m
Micheal Owen for £5m
Joe Mattock for £2m
Adam Lallana for £1.8m
Jack Rodwell for £5m
and John Fleck for £1.8m (now i know he is scottish, but it is close enough)

i am only 6 games into my season and this is how they went.

my Euro Vase fixture was against Hibernian. first leg at Hibs.
Villa 1-0 Hibs, comfortable win with Barry scoring a fine goal early on.
2nd leg
Villa 5-1 Hibs, now this was more like it again Barry was to thank for the good performance with 2 goals, the other goals came from Shorey, Heskey and Knight. Riordan got Hibs goal with a 30 yard screamer (nice).

in the Euro Cup 2nd Round Qualifying i drew Vaduz.
first leg at villa park.
Villa 5-0 Vaduz. again 5 goals scored, i could get used to this. Rodwell, Agbonlahor, Knight and A.Young got 2 beautiful goals.
Villa 4-0 Vaduz. my second team showing me they can perform. Harewood x2 and Cuellar x2.

i got a message saying we have sold out of season tickets, hmm we could fit more in here then. so i asked for an expansion to the stadium, which was quickly agreed to.
nice to see i have a very co-operitive board.

my first Premier League game was against Manchester City.
Villa 2-2 Man City, Robinho scored an amazing goal in the 4th minute, making a mokery of Jack Rodwell. Owen then equalized for me just before half time. Off comes Rodwell, he's been struggling against Robinho. in the 62nd minute our old captain Laursen scored a thundering header from a corner (not impressed). they were all over us so on came Heskey for Agbonlahor. nothing. Until the 93rd minute, Heskey with a mighty header from a Beckham corner! Joy!.
btw this was before the Vaduz game.

Fulham was my next game
an enthrilling game Villa 5-2 Fulham
my third game we have scored 5. Owen, Agbonlahor and Heskey finished this in the first half. the second half was different within 10 minutes Murphy and Dempsey had scored, bringing Fulham back into the game. but Knight and Heskey scored within 6 minutes of each other both from Beckham corners. he is magical.

if Beckham and Knight keep combining like this it could be a good season

well that is all for now but there will be more! if i don't think of another game that i could play, like i usually do haha.