FC Bayern München: The Future of Football

Amazing pre-season and a great Community Shield win!

2014-05-31 20:33#177795 Josh_MU : Amazing pre-season and a great Community Shield win!

Thank you. It was great to win some more silverware, lets hope there is more to come!

Congrats on another trophy!

2014-06-01 00:48#177856 Justice : Congrats on another trophy!

Thank you. The standard of trophy is slowly getting better so I can't have any complaints

The Champions League is what everyone associated with football wants to be involved in. Managers want to stand on the touch line on European nights, players want the goose bumps they must get when the anthem plays and the fans want to be able to sit and watch their team play on ITV1 with Adrian Chiles ruining everyone’s night! Champions League football is what I have missed playing on FM14 as I have only previously experienced an FA Trophy win with Grimsby Town, a promotion with Notts County and a Premier League win with Newcastle United. As a reward we have the chance to take part in one of the biggest football competitions in the world. We get to come up against some of the best players, managers and clubs in the world. All I hope from our participation this season is that we do ourselves proud. I don’t want us to go into the competition and just be walked over as everyone will predict will happen. I want us to visit Atletico Madrid and show, that even though they have experienced La Liga champion status recently, that we are the current Premier League holders and are not going to be pushed over.

The competition will see some great nights at St James’ Park, the first for many of the younger fans who may not have been born since the last time the club played in European football. It will see us visit distance lands; the visit to Russia will be an intimidating place to play football. It will be an amazing experience, no more so than for the players. None of the players currently at the club have experienced European football and it will be an experience that they will never forget. I simply hope that the likes of Jack Grealish, Zeli Ismail and Jerome Sinclair show that they can perform to their normal high standard even when it is against high calibre opposition. It will mean a lot to the younger players to be given the opportunity to take part in a competition against players such as Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo, Diego Costa and many more. As I can’t see us getting beyond the group stage I will be trying to give as many players a run out as I can. However, if things go well and we have a chance of progressing, I will be resorting to my preferred starting eleven in order to get the job done.

It is a chapter of this journey that I cannot wait to begin with the first game being at home against group favourites, Atletico Madrid. Oh, we also made a pretty good start to the Premier League. Chelsea simply underestimated us and weren’t prepared for the fire power of new signing Christos Mantalos. Unfortunately our concentration lapsed towards the end of the Man City game which saw them come back from two nil down. It would have been a result that would have sent out the message to other challengers that we are intending on defending our title. The priority does have to be the Premier League with the challenges we face in the Champions League I feel will be a step too far this season and could be looking to put up more of a fight next season. But who knows how it is going to turn out...

Champions League Draw

Player of the Month – Christos Mantalos

It can frustrate me how one of the most jam packed months falls so early in the season. You would have thought the powers at be would want to slowly wean the players back into the footballing season considering how many months it runs for. However, this simple wish will never be fulfilled but instead we have to face many teams in different competitions. We are going to be competing in the FA Cup, Premier League, Capital One Cup and Champions League, which many of our players will not be use to. Stamina and general fitness of the players is going to be vital, hence the decision to allow my assistant manager to take control of general and match training. I have done this because admittedly I would be making them work their arse off in every training session no matter how many games they have coming up in the month. I am hoping that Eric Black takes a more considered approach and will take into account how many games a month we are being expected to play.

Thankfully this month, in the Premier League, we came up against “lesser” teams which meant some of the youngsters could be played to allow for the preferred first team to rest up for the cup games. This plan worked an absolute treat with us making strides in the Premier League as well as shocking the footballing world by pulling off unbelievable wins against Atletico Madrid and Zenit! Those two matches couldn’t have gone any better, apart from them ruining our clean sheets, but who cares! Nobody gave us a chance heading into those games and expected us to get quite a drumming. However, a combination of simple change of tactical approach and fresh players, ready to experience Champions League football, worked a treat. Christos Mantalos walked all over Atletico and showed that maybe he should be considered as the club’s main striker from here on out. This is not a decision I will take lightly as Jerome Sinclair had a fantastic season last time out and I really want him to build on this.

The win against Zenit was a bit tenser but new signing Ibrahim Aurier (centre back) stole the show. He showed that the hard work in training on attacking set pieces paid off as he rose twice above the Zenit defenders and got his head on the end of two perfect crosses. I must admit I underestimated Zenit with me starting two of the new signings and also two players from the under 21 squad. This was probably not a good move on my part as they pushed us down to the wire and it took the introduction of first team players to make it more comfortable for us. I feel that this is going to be the point where the season really gets up and running and I can’t wait to see what happens.

Player of the Month – Christos Mantalos

Manager of the Month

Amazing start to the season, even with such a tough Champions League group. Also Montalos looks amazing!! Keep it up and I see lots of silverware in your future!!

High-flying in the league! Great month, too.

Neal:It has been a very good start to the season. The Champions League results were very surprising but a welcome one. Mantalos is going to be a big player for us this season...possible golden boot winner?

Walter:High flying again the league but it is still early door and there is a long way to go!

At the beginning of the season, we were actually considered as one of the clubs for football followers to keep an eye on as contenders for the Premier League title. They believed that if we were to make some quality signings, which I feel we have, then we could potentially retain our league title, which would be an unbelievable accomplishment. Based on our performances this month then you can’t blame the bookies for giving us such good odds. However, there were more than one hair raising moments during this action packed month.

The game against Swansea was just abysmal with the lads turning up in person but not in spirit which ultimately let us down. Despite the preferred starting eleven playing from the start, they didn’t seem to want to start playing until the second half, which seems to be a pattern forming at present. The players don’t seem to want to start playing as a team until they have had a rollicking at half time, which I haven’t at times, including the Swansea City game, held back from doing. When it comes to matches against this level of clubs we just need to be turning up and getting a comfortable lead early on so the key players can be brought off and rested for more important matches; especially the Champions League matches.

The majority of the month went well but the match against Exeter City showed that we still have a lot of work to do in terms of adding quality depth to the squad. With it being against a club in a much lower league than us and a domestic cup game, I felt it appropriate to play some of the youngsters. Not a single from my preferred starting eleven played but instead a lot of the under 21 team played with the new additions, Volkov, Marcelo and Aurier. I was not only disappointed the game went to extra time but that it took for Bollino, Grealish and Sinclair to come on for the team to start playing. It shows that we clearly need to invest in the future by either improving the club’s youth facilities or by bringing in quality youth team players from other clubs. My preferred option would be to upgrade the youth facilities and the chairman has acted upon this (due to his desperation for me to sign a new contract) and signed off on upgrades to both the training and youth facilities. The youth facilities will be completed by January 2022 which is a good statement of intention from a boss who appears to like to keep his money in his own bank account.

Player of the Month – Tiziano Tulissi

This is brilliant, another great update. Keep it up pal and you'll surely get another trophy soon!

2014-06-11 01:16#179591 NVDTahir : This is brilliant, another great update. Keep it up pal and you'll surely get another trophy soon!

Thank you. I am glad you enjoyed it. I hope we can win at least one trophy this season; preferably the Premier League!

Heading into the club’s first experience of European football for many years, everyone, apart from myself, were hoping for a long positive run that would see the club’s stature increase and bring some of Europe’s best players to Tyneside. Oh, and the board of directors would have loved money coming into the club’s bank account. My opinion about our participation in one of the world’s best knockout competitions was that it was a season too early and that we should not have been expecting to progress further than the group stage; especially when you look at the calibre of team that we going to be coming up against. Instead I think our focus should have been performing well in the Premier League again with the aim of retaining our league title before adding more depth of good quality in preparation for tackling the Champions League next season. I am disappointed that we have been knocked out but the club needs to prioritise competitions that we are capable of winning and I feel that we are capable of winning the Premier League season after season.

At the moment I feel we have a squad capable of great things in the Premier League and despite having a poor month this time round, I am confident that we will come back stronger next month and continue our charge to the league title. The squad is getting stronger and stronger with the new additions slotting in nicely and gelling with the existing players. Alexey Volkov is doing an excellent job at sitting in front of the back four and breaking down the play before starting our side on an attack. His partnership with John Lundstram is working perfectly at the moment with them having a good understanding of how the other one plays. In front of them, Tiziano Tulissi has not taken long to settle into the side with him helping himself to five goals, two assists and three players of the match awards in thirteen games. I can only see him getting better and better and creating more and more chances for Christos Mantalos who has banged in seven goals in twelve games.

Despite these players consistently putting in great performances, apart from this month, there are still two stand out players. Zeli Ismail is dynamite on the right wing with him leading the assist stats in the Premier League with eight so far. He is lightning down the wing and has a great crossing ability. He isn’t getting any younger but is still taking the game to the opposition and has managed to win some games by himself when others have performed below par. On the opposite wing is the quality of Jack Grealish who is just outstanding game after game. His hat trick against Sheffield United showed the quality he possesses and what there is still to come from him. I have already decided that if I leave Newcastle United at the end of the season, as I keep rejecting the chance to sign a new contract, that my first signing at my new club will be Jack Grealish. He creates chances, runs at defenders, starts up attacks, can take a mean free kick and score goals. He is just brilliant. If we are going to do well this season I do think it is going to be a result of how Grealish and Ismail perform so I hope they continue with how they have started this season.

Player of the Month – Jack Grealish

Well, that is disappointing, but you battled well against them, and you still have a strong position in the league.

2014-06-21 00:05#180873 LFC : Well, that is disappointing, but you battled well against them, and you still have a strong position in the league.

It was beyond disappointing but that is my worst month for a very long time; possibly since the Grimsby days. We still have the potential to do well this season but things do need to improve big time next month.