Rebuilding Newcastle

Title Winners/Top Scorers

Premier League - Liverpool / Callum Wilson (Newcastle)

Championship - Bournemouth / Sergi Enrich (Bournemouth) & Ben Brereton (Blackburn)

League One - Charlton / Dan N'Lundulu (Lincoln)

League Two - Colchester / Dan Cashman (Rochdale)

Vanarama National League - Grimsby / Michael Cheek (Bromley)

La Liga - Real Madrid / Luis Suarez (Granada)

Serie A - Lazio / Ciro Immobile (Lazio)

Bundesliga - Bayern Munich / Lucas Alario (Leverkusen) & Erling Haaland (Dortmund)

Ligue 1 - PSG / Kasper Dolberg (Nice)

Liga NOS - Porto / Toni Martinez (Porto)

Eredivisie - Ajax / Carlos Vinicius (PSV)

Spor Toto Super Lig - Trabzonspor / Mostafa Mohamed (Galatasaray)

Scottish Premiership - Rangers / Alfredo Morelos (Rangers)

Mikel Arteta and Pep Guardiola have been the first casualties since the league season ended, both for poor league positions.

- France beat Germany 2-0 to win the Euros
- PSG beat Inter Milan on pens to win the Champions League
- AC Milan beat Lazio 2-0 to win the Europa League

Biggest Transfers of the 2021 Summer Transfer Window


Harry Kane - Spurs to Liverpool for £82 Million


Paco Alcacer - Villarreal to Arsenal for £67 Million


Ruben Neves - Wolves to Man Utd for £67 Million


Myron Boadu - Monaco to Spurs for £61 Million


Nicolo Zaniolo - Roma to Chelsea for £53 Million


Dominic Calvert-Lewin - Everton to Man City for £37.5 Million


Naby Keita - Liverpool to Sevilla for £33.5 Million
Anthony Martial - Man Utd to Bayern Munich for £31 Million
Marcus Edwards - Vitoria Guimaraes to Atalanta for £31 Million
Riyad Mahrez - Man City to Inter for £30 Million
Caglar Soyuncu - Leicester to PSG for £28.5 Million
Ianis Hagi - Rangers to Leeds for £28.5 Million
Emiliano Buendia - Aston Villa to Dortmund for £27.5 Million
Moussa Dembele - Lyon to Liverpool for £26 Million
Daley Blind - Ajax to Real Madrid for £25.5 Million
Mateo Kovacic - Chelsea to Man Utd for £24 Million
Dan-Axel Zagadou - Dortmund to Monaco for £23.5 Million
Andre Horta - Braga to Wolves for £23 Million
Yannick Carasco - Atletico Madrid to Man Utd for £22 Million
Suso - Sevilla to Inter for £22 Million
Lucas Moura - Spurs to Atalanta for £19.5 Million
Divock Origi - Liverpool to Monaco for £19.25 Million
Wesley Hoedt - Anderlecht to Real Madrid for £15.5 Million
Scott McTominay - Man Utd to Monaco for £15.5 Million
Andreas Christensen - Chelsea to Dortmund for £14.5 Million

Newcastle United Summer Transfer Window Movements



First through the door at St. James Park is Brazillian Wonderkid, the centre midfielder Sandry, from Santos for £13million. I hope he will be our centre midfield playmaker for the next decade or more and investing in him now means we wont be hit too hard if we can't make Moriba's loan into a permanent move. Those two plus Joe Willock are all very decent long-term prospects for our central midfield.



Messi….I mean Jesse Lingard has been brought in for just £10million, which for a player who's played in the league for years, aswell as nearly 25 caps for England, is a steal. He also offers us a lot of depth across the attacking positions. His facepack shows how thrilled he is to join my Newcastle revolution.



James Tarkowski cost us £4million, he's simply a fairly decent backup for a year or two, not much else to say.



After seeing Luis Suarez (the non-vampire version) smashing La Liga last season and winning the Golden Boot with 20 goals in 36 games, I put in a sneaky enquiry, and was shocked when they only wanted £23million, and after a little bit of haggling, I managed to knock them down to just £20million and secured his signature. He will make the striker position very competitive with Callum Wilson, and I know have last seasons Golden Boot winners from England and Spain on my books. You may notice that Suarez started the first game of the season against Brentford, emulating a very famous debut from Fabrizio Ravanelli years before, by netting a hat-trick. Not a bad start!



One of my favourite players to watch in real life, Antony was another I threw out an enquiry for, and again was shocked at how little Ajax wanted for him. Ajax payed £21million to Sao Paulo just one season prior, and they made a tiny £3.5million profit after I nabbed him for £24.5million from them. At just 21 years old, he's another player that will either be a long term prospect for the club, or one day sold on for big profit. I can't wait to see how this dazzling winger gets on for us.



Yet another Brazillian youngster signed from Santos, this time its Renyer, a relatively pacey right winger, who was loaned out to Sheffield Wednesday to get some game time and hopefully improve and break into our side next season. He cost £5million, so even if he flops, there should be a profit made if he's given the boot.



Another FM legendary wonderkid, and after a bit more haggling, I somehow managed to get this future legend for just £2.5million!! Due to having a pretty stacked striking roster and Esposito not quite being up to the level needed at the moment, he's been loaned out just like Renyer, but will be at Celtic so will be getting European Football experience. He has already scored 2 goals in 2 games for them in the Europa League and Scottish Premiership. I'm hoping Esposito becomes the absolute beast i've seen him become in other saves.



A late signing with the remaining funds I had left, and a fairly big outlay for his current ability, but Riccardo Calafiori has joined the club for £7million. He will be my cover for Jamal Lewis to begin with, but I'm hoping he breaks through and makes that position his own in the long term.



There were also a whole host of youngsters brought in on free transfers, none particularly notable, but all sent out on loan for a season to see if they sink or swim, next summer i'll look at them and see who's worth keeping and who's worth selling for profit.

Outgoings

Robbie Brady - Birmingham for £700k - wasn't gonna be playing much so shifted him on, also above the age i'm looking to have in my squad.
Fede Cartabia - Bournemouth for £6million - my random free transfer signing last season, who i'd never heard of, had a decent impact off the bench but I feel we've improved on him, so £6million from newly promoted Bournemouth was a decent offer.
Joelinton - Rubin Kazan for £2.3million - Same as above, improved on him with Luis Suarez, altho paying more wages, I felt Joelinton wasn't worth anywhere near what he was being payed, and he was nothing more than a substitute striker.
Karl Darlow - Swansea for £1.9million - Freddie Woodman returned from loan and will be my backup keeper. Woodman is also 6 years younger and on less wages.
Jonjo Shelvey - Huddersfield for £5million - Not a bad player, but bit-part last season and when Moriba and Sandry were secured, Shelvey's time was up. He's also 29 years old and on pretty big wages. Will be interesting to see how he does for a surprising promoted team in Huddersfield.
Fabian Schar - West Ham for £5million - Another surplus to requirements, I really like him but he's another player from the old regime that I'm trying to clearout.
Javi Manquillo - CSKA Moscow for £2.4million - Dalot is clear no.1, and Menino is more than capable of covering there, so Manquillo was surplus and the same as Schar, a reminder of the Steve Bruce and Mike Ashley era.
Sean Longstaff - Al-Jazira for £6.25million - A weird one, as I looked to keep him, but had a fairly decent offer from the U.A.E and also have his younger brother covering that same stacked position, so Sean has found his way to the Arabian Gulf League.

Overall Feelings

I have obviously been intentionally aiming to sign players for the long term, shifting out older and lesser used players, and bringing in players who could hold down a role in the team for the long term, with players like Sandry, Esposito etc. I'm hoping within a few years, i'll have a set XI and can really thrive with these players.

Day One of the new season was a great start for us, despite conceding twice, we managed to pull off a 5-2 victory over Brentford, with Luis Suarez marking his debut with a hat-trick, putting us top of the league for the day at least. Nice start.



Gabriel Menino played a big part, playing at Right Back, in Brazil's successful Olympic Games run, winning the tournament. Sandry also played some minutes during the tournament. The undoubted star of the final was Neymar, who bagged a hat-trick, including a penalty. Lionel Messi missed a penalty just one minute before Neymar converted his.



Random...

Not the hardest Champions League group i've ever seen, hoping we can at least qualify for the next round, but at worst, drop into the Europa

Transfer Window Premier League Roundup






August

The season got off to a brilliant start with a 5-2 victory over Brentford, including a Luis Suarez hat-trick on his debut.
Wolves followed, and we took the lead thru another new signing in Antony, before Conor Coady pegged up back in the 82nd minute, before Luis Suarez scored again and looked like getting us all 3 points, but Andre Horta popped up in the 92nd minute to cancel that and we walked away with just a point.
Next up was Southampton, and despite having 16 shots, we couldn't break them down, for a 0-0 draw in a rather bland match.
The next match against Everton was far from bland, with a Luis Suarez brace earning us all 3 points. Benoit Badiashile received a straight red, whilst Everton had 5 yellow cards of their own in a heated match. Everton also lost Lucas Digne and Jean-Philippe Gbamin to late injuries. Again we battered the opposition, this time having 24 shots and 63% of possession against the struggling Toffees.

September

September started with a disappointing, yet expected loss to high flying Chelsea, who had took 10 points from a possible 12 in their first 4 games, with Lukaku scoring 3 goals and new signing Nicolo Zaniolo scoring 4 goals and was their top scorer at the time. Somehow we managed to put in 27 fouls in the game and only pick up 4 yellow cards. We were strong in the first half, but went behind to a Lukaku strike in the 63rd minute, before Timo Werner sealed the 3 points for Chelsea in the 85th minute.
It was off to Ukraine next to take on Dynamo Kiev in our first Champions League game in a very long time. We returned to the competition with an emphatic 4-0 win, and another hat-trick for Luis Suarez, aswell as an own goal.
Another stalemate followed, but this time one i'd take if offered prior to the game, against Arsenal. We actually dominated them and had 22 shots on goal and a disallowed goal for Ilaix Moriba, aswell as 61% possession, so in reality, 0-0 was flattering to them.
I tactically looked into my next run of games, 3 games in 7 days and determined that the Man City game was the throwaway game of the 3, nestled in the middle, so decided to put out full strength in the two cup games and backups for the City game.
We battered Watford 5-2 to advance to the 4th round of the EFL Cup. Joe Willock managed to get booked within a minute of kick off, then it got worse when we went 1-0 in the 25th minute. Suarez equalised in the 32nd minute before we went behind again 2 minutes later. Just 5 minutes after the second half kicked off we were 3-2 up and then goals in the 63rd and 64th minute, both from Ryan Fraser, sealed the victory. Allen Saint-Maximin had a goal disallowed in the 91st minute after Adam Masina was sent off for Watford in the 79th minute. Just 3 games before this game, Watford battered Man City 6-3 in a massive upset.
The inevitable loss to Man City followed for us, as we fielded our second string. We conceded in the 1st and 4th minute but looked like getting back into the game with a Callum Wilson goal in the 18th minute, before that was ruled out for offside, VAR has really done us over this season in only a couple of months of competitive football. City were 3-0 up by half time but we managed to earn a little bit of respect back by holding out for the rest of the game and keeping them to 3 goals.



Porto were up next in our first home Champions League tie. And again VAR proved a factor, as it was 0-0 until the 85th minute, before Callum Wilson came off the bench to score, only to see it ruled out. Saint-Maximin then thought he'd bagged the winner in the 87th minute, only to have that ruled out too!

October didn't start too well….



So starting off October with a 5-0 hammering away at Leicester wasn't ideal, neither was paying for all the travelling fans tickets and travel, as seen in my last post, so we move swiftly on with a comfortable win at home against struggling Huddersfield, and another brace for Luis Suarez. Jonjo Shelvey had a mixed game in his return to St. James Park, getting an assist, before a late second yellow earned him his marching orders.
After that, we faced our toughest fixture in our Champions League group, away in Turin against Juventus, and managed a sneaky snatch and grab 3 points, courtesy of a 87th min goal from Suarez.
We then went on a nice little 3 game streak to end out October, with 3 wins, 6 goals and 3 clean sheets, but surprisingly zero goals for Luis Suarez! He did have one ruled out by VAR in the West Ham game, which luckily didn't effect the result. Thiago Almada missed a penalty in the game against Birmingham, and I thought we were heading for extra time and more minutes for my players to get through, before Antony stepped up in the 91st minute to send us through.
November had another bad start, with Juventus beating us at home through a Paulo Dybala penalty. Followed up by a battering from the reigning champions at Anfield.
A return to St. James Park to welcome Norwich was a much better performance, storming to a 3-0 lead until the 88th minute, where we then saw 3 goals in 7 minutes, including a 95th min pen for them. A brace each for Suarez and Almada sent the fans home happy.
A back and forth game against Dynamo Kiev was up next - they went ahead, we equalised, then they regained the lead, only for that man Suarez to equalise, leaving us with a tense end to the group.
Fulham next, and a clean sheet and a disallowed Luis Suarez goal, those two seem to go together a lot! An Antony strike and a late Ryan Fraser goal settled the match.
December started with 2 draws in a row, against Spurs and Man Utd in fairly bland games.
Following that was another real rollercoaster in our final group game in the Champions League, where numerous times during the 90 mins we were in and out of the next round of the competition. I'll leave the screenshot below to show how mad this game was:



Onto the knockout stages of the Champions League we go…..

After this game we welcomed Watford, who have been flying in the league, currently sitting joint 5th on 27 points in 17 games. We struggled to break them down, and after bringing on Matias Arezo late on in the 83rd min for his first league appearance of the season, he stepped up and bagged a late late winner in the 94th minute with the last kick of the game!



As it stands, the league is massively open, with CIty being 6 points off the top with 2 games in hand on Man Utd and 1 on Chelsea. Below that just 6 points seperate us in 4th, down to Spurs in 12th. Huddersfield look doomed and have already sacked their manager and brought in Newcastle favourite, Jon Dahl Tomasson.



Just thought i'd post City's form this season, to show how entertaining watching them must've been, whether they win or lose, theres often masses of goals, with a 6-3 loss followed by a 5-3 win back to back being a highlight.
They're often mocked for their easy cup draws in real life, but I think drawing Genoa, Red Star and Hartberg in the Europa takes the biscuit.



Roberto Mancini becomes Spurs 4th manager in under 2 years, following on from Jose Mourinho, Nuno Espirito Santo and Zinedine Zidane.

After the Watford game, we went to Old Trafford against title contenders, Man Utd, in the EFL Cup Quarter Final. We started terribly, going behind within 3 minutes to a Bruno Fernandes strike, which was followed by a Cristiano Ronaldo double, either side of half time. Altho the possession was right down the middle with a 50%/50% split, we were thoroughly outplayed, and only a Luis Suarez consolation late into extra time was anything positive to take away from the loss.

Another disappointing loss followed that, away at Leeds Utd, again going behind to an early goal, this time a 7th minute Diego Llorente strike. This game was back and forth, with us then equalising through a Ryan Fraser goal in the 16th minute, before allowing them to regain the lead with Stuart Dallas netting in the 30th minute. Fraser then equalised for a second time in the 38th minute, before finally, Leeds £28.5million new boy, Ianis Hagi nicked a winner, fairly early into the game, in the 51st minute. We did push and push for a 3rd goal but to no avail as Leeds defence stood strong and held out for the win.

Next up was yet another away tie, this time visiting Villa Park against a struggling Aston Villa side, who actually sacked Dean Smith after this 2-1 win for us. This time it was our turn to score early, through another goal for hitman Luis Suarez. Morgan Sanson equalised for Villa in the 63rd minute before a Callum Wilson strike was ruled out in the 80th minute as we pushed for a winner late on. A slice of luck won us the 3 points, as Ezri Konsa deflected a shot into his own net in the 84th minute and sealed his now ex-managers fate.



Brendan Rodgers took the reigns at Villa not long after the sacking of Dean Smith. He had been out of work for almost a year, after his Leicester sacking in January 2021.
After the Villa win, we rounded out 2021 with a comfortable win over Wolves, who are rivalling us for the European spots. More early goals with a rare goal for Benoit Badiashile in the 4th minute, followed up by a 8th minute goal for Luis Suarez. We defended well throughout and it was a relatively easy victory, with Wolves only having 1 shot on target all game.
An FA Cup match on New Years Day kicked off 2022, and in a rather bland match, we edged 10 man Southampton 1-0 with a slightly second string side. They faced an uphill battle when their captain, James Ward-Prowse received a straight red in the 53rd minute. Again we defended well, not allowing Southampton a shot on target, but we did struggle to break them down too, with a late 85th minute goal from Jesse Lingard the difference. Lingard has been a bit-part player and maybe a mistake to sign him, he's pushing for a move away in January.
Travelling to Brentford, we expected to take all 3 points, and looked well on course to do so, going into the last 10 minutes of the game 2-0 up through goals from Allen Saint-Maximin and Thiago Almada. Unfortunately we fell apart and conceded a goal in the 81st minute, then a 94th minute goal from Saman Ghoddos, who was such a bit-part player that he was sent to Brighton in the Championship just 8 days later, in an exchange deal for Joel Veltman.
A Callum Wilson penalty and Luis Suarez goal earned us a 2-0 win over Southampton next, before we fell to a 2-1 loss to Everton at Goodison Park. Lucas Digne put them ahead in the 5th minute before Saint-Maximin equalised, before a 83rd minute Sigurdsson strike killed off the game.
The next result came out of nowhere, a 6-0 hammering of title challengers, Chelsea, who themselves were coming off a 5-0 win over Brentford. 4-0 up until the 90th minute, before Callum Wilson notched his second then third in two minutes for a great hat trick. Denzel Dumfries also got his first goal for the club since his loan move from Inter.
The high of that 6-0 win over Chelsea didn't last long, as we were then knocked out of the FA Cup by Aston Villa. We dominated possession, had the most shots but had a Ryan Fraser goal ruled out in the 86th minute to round off a miserable day in Birmingham.
We continued out bipolar form, by holding title contenders, Man City to a 2-2 draw. We were 2-0 down before the 78th minute through a Gabriel Jesus double, but goals from Callum Wilson and Brazilian Wonderkid Sandry, his first for the club, earned a point at home. City had a 93rd minute winner from Ferran Torres ruled out to add to their woes.

January Transfer Window

In a quiet window by my standards, our Ins were mainly about recruiting players on loan as cover, alongside a couple of prospects.



Jens Petter Hauge comes in mainly as cover for the left side, but can also cover the right side too. This allowed me to let Jesse Lingard go to Basel, Lingard wasn't getting the game time, plus was forcing a move, so for the first time in the save, I sold a player at a loss for what i paid. Hauge has only played 1 game for Milan this season, which is actually his only appearance for the club, so he's slowly getting game time off the bench.



Nathan Ferguson looks a real prospect, altho right now is only brought in for the same reason as Hauge - to act as cover and to replace a player who forced a move away, this time it was another summer signing in James Tarkowski, who's gone out on loan to Lens, earning us a small fee for the loan move.



Nicolo Rovella comes in as the third loan player to replace an outgoing wantaway player, this time in place of Isaac Hayden, who left for Crystal Palace for £7.25million. He is least likely of the three loanees to get game time, with Moriba, Willock, Sandry and Matty Longstaff ahead of him.




Conor Gallagher is a player i've seen play this season for Palace in real life and really like the look of him, and with Chelsea having a ridiculous amount of unwanted centre midfielders currently in their squad, including Ross Barkley and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, I thought i'd nab Gallagher for dirt cheap while I can, costing me just £2.5million and loaning him to Swansea for the rest of the campaign to get some games under his belt before I look at him again in the summer and see if he's worth a chance in the first team.



I've gotta be honest, I've never heard of this guy, but my scouts were raving about him and for £4million, I thought I'd take a risk. He's scored 16 in 42 in Switzerland so far in the game, and loaned out to Benfica for the rest of the season, he's so far scored 4 in 7 games, so I'm thinking he could really push for a role next season alongside Luis Suarez, Callum Wilson and probably a returning Sebastiano Esposito, whos been brilliant for Celtic, as seem below:

Worldwide January Transfers



Pau Torres - Villarreal to Hertha Berlin for £55 million



Raphael Guerreiro - Dortmund to Atletico Madrid for £47.5 million



Ismael Bennacer - AC Milan to Man City for £45.5 million



Renato Sanches - Lille to Chelsea for £41 million



Carlos Soler - Chelsea to Bayern Munich for £36.5 million



Owen Wijndal - AZ to Man Utd for £33.5 million



John Stones - Man City to Atletico Madrid for £30.5 million



Reiss Nelson - Arsenal to AC Milan for £24.5 million



Lys Mousset - Sheffield United to Stuttgart for £24.5 million



Andrej Kramaric - Hoffenheim to Hertha Berlin for £24.5 million



Andreas Pereira - Man Utd to Inter Milan for £21 million



Ross Barkley - Chelsea to Roma for £12.75 million



Kieran Trippier - Atletico Madrid to Ajax for £8.5 million


Recent Managerial Changes

Gennaro Gattuso - Leicester Manager, replacing Alvaro Arbeloa

Brendan Rodgers - Aston Villa Manager, replacing Dean Smith

Chris Hughton - Everton Manager, replacing Eddie Howe

Igor Tudor - Fulham Manager, replacing Jess Thorup

Champions League First Knockout Round Draw

The current Premier League table shows its currently a two horse race between the Manchester clubs, with Liverpool 7 points off Utd and 6 off City.

Just six points separate Liverpool in 3rd and Wolves in 7th, and only another 3 to Arsenal in 8th. 9 points then separate Arsenal in 8th all the way down to Fulham in 14th. Huddersfield look doomed with zero wins all season and 5 draws and an appalling 5 points in total. It's likely to be 2 teams from Aston Villa in 15th, down to Norwich in 19th, with just 3 points separating those positions. Everton, Leicester and Bournemouth are the clubs between Villa and Norwich who could also face relegation.

Man Utd comfortably beat Wolves 2-0 with a Mason Greenwood double to win the Carabao Cup.