My Football Manager Adventure SNAFU

Lovely update, Glenn

Jack: Thank you Jack!

---

Liverpool have unveiled their first two signings of the winter transfer window - Timo Horn from FC Koln and Tonny Vilhena from Feyenoord.

Shortly after their convincing 4-0 drubbing of rivals Manchester United, the Merseyside outfit moved quickly to secure the signature of Horn after activating the £6.5 million release clause in the 22-year-old's contract.

A cut-price £950k fee was also swiftly negotiated for Vilhena with the midfielder's Feyenoord contract due to expire at the end of the season.

Horn's arrival at Anfield will certainly cast doubt over the long-term future of current Liverpool first-choice Simon Mignolet. The Cologne-born goalkeeper was a first-team regular at his local club, and had acted as such since three years ago at the age of 19.

At the same time, there is no guarantee that Horn will be given immediate first-team duties at his new club. For all his past mistakes and inconsistency, Mignolet has done little wrong this season, regularly performing well in goal to propel his side to 2nd place in the Barclays Premier League.

It remains to be seen how Hachiman Hikigaya, the mastermind behind Liverpool's impressive rise to the summit of English football, will combat his new goalkeeping selection headache.


Vilhena, arguably the less glamorous signing of the two, is not expected to slot straight into the senior squad and may instead start his Liverpool career in the club's Under-21s team.

The 21-year-old starred in over 80 Eredivisie games for Feyenoord after making the jump from the youth academy in 2012. Unfortunately, finding similar opportunities at Liverpool is clearly not going to be as easy.

In the likes of Philippe Coutinho, Roberto Firmino and Adam Lallana, the Reds boast a wealth of options in attack and Vilhena may have to bide his time for a chance in the Premier League.


"I'm very excited to welcome both Timo Horn and Tonny Vilhena to Liverpool," said Hikigaya on the club's official website. "They are two very good players and I can't wait to see what they can bring to our team and the style of football of we play.

"It is impossible to predict the future but I feel that both of these players will be very important to us in the years ahead."

The new signings are available for Liverpool's next fixture against Tottenham Hotspur in the first leg of the League Cup Semi Finals.

Absolutely mental signings, Glenn

Horn is great. Use him so often than Migs . Liverpool under Klopp are struggling at Anfield in irl.

Jack: Hopefully they'll turn out to be as good as you make them out to be...

SooruSooru: We'll see about who gets more playing time, for now I'm just happy to press on with two quality keepers!

I've been busy with a new job that I just got, hence the reason for the lack of updates recently. I'm definitely not going to abandon this story since I hope to keep it running for as long as my FM15 one, but updates from here on might take a little longer to churn out because of work. Thanks to everyone who has read this far!

---

Liverpool manager Hachiman Hikigaya could be in line to lift his first ever trophy after his side fought their way past Premier League leaders Tottenham Hotspur to secure a place in the League Cup Final at Wembley Stadium next month.

The in-form Londoners held Liverpool to a 1-1 draw earlier in January, but the Reds struck back at Anfield in the second leg, cruising to a 5-2 aggregate victory with Martin Skrtel, Adam Lallana, Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho all finding the net

Christian Eriksen had equalized in the 20th minute to cancel out Skrtel's opener, blowing the game wide open. However, Liverpool looked a different team after half-time, putting 3 goals past Spurs to smash their hopes of appearing in a second consecutive League Cup Final.

Meanwhile, fans hoping for a mouthwatering clash between two bitter rivals have been left severely disappointed after Swansea pulled off a major upset to knock out Manchester United in the other Semi Final fixture.

The Welsh outfit went into the second leg three goals behind, but they managed to pull off an astonishing 3-0 comeback before going on to win the tie via penalty shootout.

However, for the upcoming game at Wembley, there is no doubt that Liverpool will still be certain favorites to lift the League Cup, a trophy that they have not won since 2012 under Kenny Dalglish.

Coutinho, arguably the standout performer for Liverpool this tournament, will be counted upon to repeat his feats against Spurs.


The fleet-footed Brazilian starred in the first leg, assisting his side's equalizer after Ryan Mason's converted penalty and was awarded a Man of the Match for his efforts.

Despite being benched for the second leg, he still managed to score a goal after coming on as a 56th minute substitute, effectively hammering the final nail into Spurs' coffin.

Coutinho's partner-in-crime, Sturridge, must also not be forgotten. The prolific striker, bar several injury niggles, has been fantastic ever since returning from a long-term hip problem. He currently has 15 goals in 19 appearances this season and will be hoping to add to that tally next month against the Swans.

In his post-match press conference, Reds boss Hikigaya showered praise on his team, yet at the same time urged for improvement in the Premier League.

"It's not easy to make it this far and I'm proud that we've gotten this chance to play in the Final," said the 22-year-old. "The team has been doing very well in the cups and hopefully this can continue until the end of the season. There are a lot of trophies that we can still get and I'm confident that we can get all of them.


"I also can't talk about tournaments without talking about the Premier League. Of course we are also doing not too badly in the league so far but there have been some silly results here and there, games where we really should have gotten all three points. That is an area that we desperately need to improve."

When asked, Hikigaya also acknowledged the contributions of Coutinho, although he stopped short of dubbing the number 10 as Liverpool's best player.

"Yes, I think Coutinho has been very important to us this season. It's easy to say that because you can all see what he did for us in the matches against Tottenham. He's a great player and I'm happy to have him in the squad.

"If we're talking about the best player in Liverpool then no, I can't really say. I think everyone here has their own qualities. I don't like to single anyone out."

Liverpool have lost some ground in the title race this month following a 1-0 loss to Crystal Palace. The Reds sit at 3rd place in the table, just above Arsenal on goal difference and eight points behind Tottenham and Manchester United.

Aside from the League Cup Final, they are also due to contest the Fourth Round of the FA Cup against Wolves and the Europa League First Knockout Round against Turkish side Trabzonspor.

Great win against that shit spurs

Good win man, and good job so far.

Great updates and signins
That Old Trafford match wow, simply amazing. Sturridge is such a beast.
Glad to see you going to the League Cup Final, and the third place in the Premier League.
Just a little correction there at the end, Trabzonspor is turkish.
Keep it up, this story is really amazing

SooruSooru: That's a little harsh!

FormIsntAll: Thank you!

Murtagh: Sturridge has been going crazy lol, I didn't think he would be this good if I was to be honest. Thanks for the heads-up about Trabzonspor, I don't know what I was thinking when I wrote Swiss. Corrected it now.

It was a happy New Year for Hachiman Hikigaya and Liverpool as they started 2016 with a 4-0 triumph over bitter rivals Manchester United. A convincing 5-0 victory over Aston Villa was also achieved this month but a shocking 1-0 loss to Crystal Palace is something that needs to be addressed. In the meantime, the Reds also progressed to the Final of the League Cup.




Couldn't be anyone else now, could it? Liverpool's resident goalscorer Daniel Sturridge has been on fire in January, hitting 2 hat tricks, including one that took just 18 minutes against Aston Villa, and bagging 8 goals in 7 starts. The England striker has kept fellow front man Christian Benteke out of the team without a sweat and he will now look to make a late push for the Golden Boot.

The end of January spelled change in between the sticks for Liverpool as second-choice goalkeeper Adam Bogdan, who joined on a free transfer from Bolton Wanderers barely six months ago, returned to the Championship to play for Hull City. In his place, German wonderkid Timo Horn arrives after Hachiman Hikigaya chose to trigger his release clause of £6.5 million. Feyenoord academy product Tonny Vilhena has also been brought in as a future prospect.

Great win against Villa, but devastating loss against Palace, ,,,, and poor draw against Wolve!!!!!

Like I said before, some good signings and the departure of Bogdan can only be a good thing to where you should be aiming