The SAF Challenge

The league table looks a bit better now after this month, we are back up to 6th, which i think would be enough to qualify for europe, but with a couple teams breathing down our necks it will not be easy.



April Fixtures

Manchester City (A)
Hull (H) FA Cup 6th round replay
Aston Villa (H)
Stoke (A)
Arsenal (A)
Liverpool (H)
Newcastle (A)

Another tough month. Not expecting anything at City and Arsenal . Should be winning against Villa in the league and Hull in the FA Cup, which will lead to a semi-final match up against Liverpool sometime in this month. Stoke (A), Liverpool (H), and Newcastle (A), do not know what to expect, but if i come away with a win and a draw, i will be a very happy man.

I also hope to progress in the FA Cup if we do beat Hull. Liverpool will be a tough game, but it will be nice to have a cup final in my first season.

Some very tough games coming up, though what you have done is remarkable as I have said previously, hopefully you can just about squeeze into those Europa League spots.

A win over Liverpool would certainly give your side a boost with not too many games remaining.

6th in the table, european football looking good for next season!

April Update

Manchester City (A)



Even though City outplayed us in this one, we could have come away with a point seeing that they only scored one goal. We had a really good chance late on, but it just was not to be. Was happy to only lose 1-0, as goal difference could play a factor in European qualification.

Hull FA Cup Replay (H)



Comfortable 3-0 home win. We have Liverpool in the semi-finals next up. Hope to get to the final, but wont be disappointed if we don't, as long as we win the league game 3 days earlier.

Aston Villa (H)



Was just one of those games.

Stoke City (A)



Most disappointing result of the month, we missed a penalty early on, and everything went wrong from there.

Arsenal (A)



After Stoke, I really thought we would lose this one, but we claimed a priceless away draw, and even looked like we would win late on. I was pleased with this draw after that Stoke game.

Liverpool (H)



This was the one we really needed to win, did not really care about the FA Cup, as we would most probably play Chelsea in the final and with the way they are playing we stood no chance. After Liverpool took the lead, Lukaku and Barkley sprung to life after i "demanded more" and we actually won.

Liverpool (N)



Liverpool again took the lead in this one, and we hanged on for a 1-0 deficit till the 80th minute. Then i pushed on and we got the equalizer late on. I thought if we could take this to penalties we could actually stand a chance. But they had other ideas scoring early in extra time, and after that we never looked like scoring. Was not to disappointed with this loss though, as Chelsea won the semi and we could now focus completely on our last three games.

Newcastle (A)



What a win this was. We needed this win, as Manchester United dropped points in their game, and this meant we went 5 clear with 2 to play. Also, Lukaku has found his form again, at just the right moment.

April League Update

Still sitting in 6th spot, and with the cup results 6th spot definitely gets Europe.



May fixtures

Crystal Palace (H)
Watford (A)

I definitely want to pick up the win against Palace. If we beat them we are assured 6th place and Europe next season. I do not want to leave it to the last day when we have an away trip to Watford.

Should be yours now!

May Update

Crystal Palace (H)



Still do not know how my team was not able to win this one. We made qualifying for Europe so hard after losing here.

Watford



Glad to have came away with the win, Manchester United were winning there game, and if it had not been for a Joel Robles save in the 8th minute we might have drawn this game and finished 7th. Although Liverpool did win the FA Cup which meant 7th got Europa as well.

Alspo, De Arrascaeta has not played well most of the time, but always seems to find a goal when we need it the most. If he becomes more consistent he will be a really good signing for us.

Final Table



Finishing sixth after where we started is crazy, did not expect to finish this high up, hoping to continue the momentum into next season, and try to push for Champions League maybe, but ill be happy with Europa league again.

Lukaku and Barkley have been superb this season, i am afraid of really big teams coming in and paying their release clause fees and leaving me helpless. Ludwig has been an amazing signing and he will most probably be starting Left Back next season. With Chelsea having major interest in Baines, i will try to get as much as possible for him.

Looking Forward



I seriously do not know what the board expects me to do with that sort a budget. I had a plan for what we needed, but that budget has put a spanner in the works. Hopefully after releasing some players and freeing up some wage budget, ill be able to adjust and get some transfer budget.

I will be looking to keep the core of my squad together, hopefully i do not lose and of my big names, most of them are signed up on 50 or more million release clauses.

Transfer Hopes

#1. A goalkeeper
#2. An experienced Centre Back
#3. A quality back up Centre Back
#4. Another Central Midfielder, Box-to-Box preferably, to replace Cleverly
#5. A back up Striker

Numbers 1 and 2 are top priority. Numbers 3, 4, and 5 will only happen if i can possibly move some players on and get enough money to get the players that would improve our squad.

Well done in finishing sixth! Shame that the budget won't be that high but you might be able to work some wonders if you can find some hidden gems!

Transfer news and Pre-season

Okay so firstly we said goodbye to some Everton stalwarts who were on sort of big wages, but never got into my team, and their contracts were up, so i let them go. Also some youngsters who would not be good enough were also released on a free. A few players are missing from the list because they decided to retire, like Steven Pienaar and Leon Osman.



After these releases i had freed up enough budget to get in a GK and a CB, i signed Timo Horn, i know him from a save in FM 15 and he only cost 6.5 million, so he was a bargain.

http://www.fmscout.com/datas/users/timo_horn_87154.png

Next, after West Ham's relegation, i looked at Winston Reid as my experienced CB, since he is a good CB and he would be cheap after their relegation. They wanted 8.5 million for him, and i thought that was a bit much, but after looking at other players, he was the best option at the cheapest price.



After signing Timo Horn from Koln, they wanted Robles, and since i had Horn, i did not see a reason to keep him so i sold him for around 1 million after add-ons.

About a week later, we had 15 million pound offers from Napoli and Lazio for Funes Mori. These offers were to good to turn down and i thought there were better players out there.

With the money from the Funes Mori sale, i bought another CB, in Lisandro Lopez, he had an average rating of 7.58 for Benfica in the last season and for 8 million pounds, he was fairly cheap.

http://www.fmscout.com/datas/users/lisandro_lopez_87154.png

Final signing so far was a young English striker, named Zach Clough from Bolton. Needed to fill my home grown quota for Europa League, and since i needed a striker, i went after him. He was fairly cheap at 4.5 million and he will be back up to Lukaku.

Preseason Fixures



So, preseason went really well. Lukaku, Barkley, and Mirallas were all in really good form. One surprise was Muhamed Besic, who scored 4 goals in preseason and had an average rating of above 7.5, so i might not need that midfielder after all.

I am really worried about losing Lukaku. No team is willing to pay his 55 million release clause yet, but with the likes of Bayern, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Manchester City, and Atletico Madrid, all making offers, i have a sneaky feeling one of them will make a deadline day offer of 55 million, and then i would need to scramble for a replacement.

Some superb signings! Hopefully Lukaku doesn't embark on a journey elsewhere, but I can personally guarantee that Zach Clough would be more than capable of filling his very large boots.

Hopefully you could mount a challenge for the Champions League places, would be fantastic.

Sorry guys for no update over these past few days. I just have not had time to play the game this week but an update will come soon. I think ill do a half season update, and will report on some of the big news.