Welcome, my fellow FM fanatics, as today, I, James Edwards, embark on a quest to make Newcastle United a great club once again. I will chart my progress here so you may join me through the sweat, blood and tears as I attempt to bring silverware back to Tyneside!
My last FM16 save was a 3 year spell at Everton, where I finished 3rd, 1st and 2nd in the respective 3 seasons, including a Champions League semi final. I hope to emulate such success here at Newcastle, although I'm expecting it to be a lot harder.
I've begun by offering contracts to Zinedine Zidane as assistant manager, Glenn Hoddle as director of football and Liam Brady as head of youth development, with the intention of having the 4 of us sharing all the staff responsibilities.
My short term aim is to have a solid 22 man squad within 2 transfer windows, with 2 players for every position in my 442 formation. Ideally I would like to finish in a position which gives us a chance to play in the Europa League next season.
Now, as we all know, the Newcastle squad is brimming with bang-average, deadwood footballers. Therefore, I've gone and transfer listed the majority of them. Yoan Gouffran, Rob Elliot, Mike Williamson, Curtis Good, Papiss Cisse, Siem de Jong, Gabriel Obertan, Fabricio Coloccini, Massadio Haidara, Emmanuel Riviere, Sylvain Marvueax, Gael Bigirimana and Cheick Tiote are all out there to be sold. We'll see who leaves and whoever doesn't will remain in the U21s until they're gone.
I also triggered 1 year extension clauses in the contracts of Adam Armstrong, Ayoze Perez, Rolando Aarons and Paul Dummett.
Meanwhile, I need to sort out some signings of my own. The board want me to get young players, so that's exactly what I'll do. Let the wheeling and dealing commence!
I pleased to announce that Zidane, Hoddle and Brady are all part of the Newcastle backroom staff.
Additionally, I've made plenty of money from the players I've offloaded…
Sold:
Obertan £1M to Fulham
De Jong £6M to Wolfsburg
Williamson £100K to Norwich
Coloccini £900K to Norwich
Cisse £1M to Everton
Tiote £5.5M to Watford
Haidara £3M to Palace
Gouffran 3.5M to LOSC
Krul £23M to Chelsea
Sold Krul because the offer was too good to turn down.
This gave me £64M to spend, but I've left myself a 14 man squad (!), so time to start getting some names through the door!
Signed 6 players:
Callum Wilson £9M
Jake Livermore £8M
Calum Chambers £14M
Timo Horn £7M
Andre Hoffmann £8M
Andrew Robertson £10M
Great business I'm sure you'll agree!
One thing I am very keen on is building an English core at Newcastle, and thereby have players in the national side who can hopefully help the national team to success.
Anyway, these transfers have completely obliterated my transfer budget to just over £2M.
The 15/16 Newcastle squad:
1 Timo Horn
2 Daryl Janmaat
3 Andrew Robertson
4 Andre Hoffmann
5 Jamaal Lascelles
6 Calum Chambers
7 Moussa Sissoko
8 Jake Livermore
9 Callum Wilson
10 Ayoze Perez
11 Georginio Wijnaldum
12 Aleksander Mitrovic
13 Karl Darlow
14 Jack Colback
15 Paul Dummett
16 Rolando Aarons
17 Vurnon Anita
18 Steven Taylor
19 Chancel Mbemba
20 Flourian Thauvin
Janmaat is club captain, with Taylor as vice captain.
As you can see, I'm seriously lacking in squad depth, which could be crippling in the event of an injury crisis. Need to reinforce in January when hopefully I have more money. Anyway, onto the Premier League season!
Looks great so far - will be following with interest!
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Loving the story idea, will be following for sure, try and integrate some screenshots etc
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Looks like a good squad also a fan of all the players being 1-20 none of this 73 stuff
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Premier League results:
Newcastle 2-0 Norwich
Leicester 1-4 Newcastle
Newcastle 1-5 Man City
Obviously that last result was very disappointing, but the first 2 games were pleasing and I'm sure the Man City game will be an anomaly.
I also managed to sell Elliot for £100K. This has slightly boosted ny transfer budget now to £2.5M. I may spend this on a transfer listed player to back up my squad, but more likely than not, I'll save it for January.
Great first 2 games but sort of got smashed by City.
Anyways, good luck
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Premier League results:
Arsenal 2-2 Newcastle
Newcastle 1-4 West Brom
Newcastle 3-0 West Ham
Liverpool 1-1 Newcastle
Newcastle 2-0 Stoke
Swansea 4-4 Newcastle
Newcastle 0-2 Chelsea
Watford 2-2 Newcastle
Newcastle 3-1 Man Utd
Tottenham 2-0 Newcastle
Newcastle 4-1 Aston Villa
Sunderland 0-1 Newcastle
Newcastle 4-1 Everton
Crystal Palace 3-6 Newcastle
Newcastle 2-1 Bournemouth
We are 4th with 34 points!
The highlights there were obviously the derby triumph, the Man Utd win and the Crystal Palace goal fest. Perez scored 4 in both the Everton and the Crystal Palace match. However, I was extremely disappointed after games such as West Brom and Chelsea.
I also had a brief Captial One Cup run, winning away at Rotherham 3-0 but then losing away at Sheffield Wednesday 3-1. Was able to give backup players some game time while resting my main men.
I managed to sell Riviere for £2M to Montpellier and Bigirimana for £100K to Brentford. This boosted my transfer budget so I was able to sign Kieran Trippier for £4M, who'll join the squad on 1st of January.
I also put pen to paper and signed a new 4 year contract with the club.
Premier League results:
Newcastle 4-1 Southampton
Bournemouth 0-2 Newcastle
Norwich 1-1 Newcastle
Newcastle 1-0 Leicester
Man City 5-4 Newcastle
Newcastle 2-3 Arsenal
West Brom 2-0 Newcastle
West Ham 2-1 Newcastle
Newcastle 2-1 Liverpool
I had a woeful FA Cup run, falling at the first hurdle at home to Nottingham Forest 1-0.
Sold:
Mitrovic £8M to Schalke
Marveaux £250K to Bolton
Signed:
Michy Batshuayi for £9M.
Armstrong has returned from loan and has been promoted to the senior team.
I've completed my short term aim of having a 22 man squad within 2 transfer windows! Here's what it looks like now:
1 Horn
2 Janmaat
3 Robertson
4 Hoffmann
5 Lascelles
6 Chambers
7 Sissoko
8 Livermore
9 Wilson
10 Perez
11 Wijnaldum
12 Batshuayi
13 Darlow
14 Colback
15 Dummett
16 Aarons
17 Anita
18 Taylor
19 Mbemba
20 Thauvin
21 Trippier
22 Armstrong
Now I'd like to talk about that Man City game.
It was an absolute heartbreak. I was 4-2 up and, no word of a lie, Sterling came off the bench and scored a hat trick, goals coming in the 85th, 88th and 89th minute. Never seen anything like it in my life.
Furthermore, Horn got another injury in this match, and is out for 9 weeks. Wijnaldum also picked up a 5 week injury.
Kompany scored 2 own goals in this match, which raised a smile despite such a gutting loss.
And that last minute winner also ended my 9 game unbeaten run.
Nevertheless, I am still 4th in the league with 11 games to go.
Premier League results:
Stoke 0-5 Newcastle
Newcastle 2-1 Swansea
Chelsea 4-0 Newcastle
Newcastle 3-1 Watford
Man Utd 2-0 Newcastle
Newcastle 2-0 Tottenham
Aston Villa 0-1 Newcastle
Newcastle 1-1 Sunderland
Everton 1-3 Newcastle
Newcastle 2-0 Crystal Palace
Southampton 4-3 Newcastle
Finished 4th with 69 points.
We relegated Sunderland!
Perez finished as league top scorer, and Sissoko got the player of the year award.
Thanks for joining me in the first season, and hopefully there's many more to come…
Sold:
Sissoko £50M to Man City
Cabella £20M to PSG
Anita £3M to Aston Villa
Aarons £3.7M to Brighton
Ameobi £500K to Bournemouth
Mbemba £2M to Sampdoria
Dummett £500K to Bristol
Signed:
Eric Dier £31M
Demarai Gray £7M
Niklas Stark £22M
Jonas Hector £15M
Ben Osborn £9M
The 16/17 squad:
1 Horn
2 Janmaat
3 Robertson
4 Dier
5 Lascelles
6 Chambers
7 Gray
8 Livermore
9 Wilson
10 Perez
11 Wijnaldum
12 Batshuayi
13 Darlow
14 Colback
15 Hoffmann
16 Stark
17 Osborn
18 Taylor
19 Hector
20 Thauvin
21 Trippier
22 Armstrong
Premier League results:
Arsenal 2-0 Newcastle
Newcastle 2-2 Everton
Crystal Palace 3-1 Newcastle
Newcastle 3-1 Norwich
Newcastle 3-2 Aston Villa
In the Champions League, I drew Atletico in the Champions League playoff. I lost 1-0 in both legs. So there went my brief Champions League run. Hopefully we can get far in the Europa League to make up for the disappointment. My Europa League group has Althetic, Club Brugge and Anorthosi. I played my first group game, Anorthosi away, and won 4-1.
Well, it's been a shaky start to my second season, but hopefully as the new signings settle in, the results will start improving.
Good first season, and hopefully you'll kick on from here.
£50M for Sissoko?! What a joke!
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Premier League results:
West Ham 3-3 Newcastle
Bournemouth 3-2 Newcastle
Newcastle 4-0 Reading
Man Utd 4-0 Newcastle
Newcastle 3-1 Fulham
Tottenham 1-1 Newcastle
11th after 11 games is not good enough and hopefully we can get a good run of form in November.
My Europa League fortunes have been much better, and after 4 games I have qualified for the next round. Here are the fixtures I've got through so far:
Anorthosi 1-4 Newcastle
Newcastle 4-0 Atheltic
Club Brugge 2-2 Newcastle
Newcastle 3-0 Club Brugge
As usual, I had a short lived run in the Capital One Cup:
Preston 4-5 Newcastle (extra time)
Arsenal 3-1 Newcastle
So all in all, a mixed bag. Poor in the league but great in Europe. Let's hope I can start picking up the wins and burst into the top 6 sooner than later.
Premier League results:
Newcastle 2-2 Liverpool
Leicester 1-1 Newcastle
Newcastle 1-0 Brighton
Southampton 1-1 Newcastle
Newcastle 2-2 Watford
Newcastle 4-3 Swansea
Man City 2-0 Newcastle
Newcastle 3-1 Chelsea
Yesterday I qualified for the next round of the Europa League, and today I finished off the remaining fixtures:
Newcastle 2-1 Anorthosi
Athletic 3-2 Newcastle
We finished top of our Europa League group with 13 points
Sold:
Thauvin £6M to Southampton
Darlow £650K to Aston Villa
Jack Colback £2.6M to Hull
Curtis Good £500K to Stoke
Steven Taylor £500K to Burnley
Ben Osborn £4M to Bournemouth
Signed:
Nacer Chadli £10M
Jack Butland £8M
Need to dip into the market for a winger and a central midfielder now. Got my eye on both Redmond and Camacho, but will need more money first.
All in all, a much better day for results, we're steadily climbing the table and hopefully we can get far in the FA Cup and Europa League.
You are reading "The Sleeping Giant Rises".