FM12 Crystal Palace Story- Fly like an Eagle!

So as some of you know, i have been trying to design my own kits and put them into the game, which i have now done, so I will now crack on with the second season of the story.

Start of 2012/13 season

Results

Game 1: Crystal Palace 0-1 Chelsea
Game 2: Arsenal 4-1 Crystal Palace: Orlando Sa
Game 3: Crystal Palace 1-0 Coventry (LC): Robert Acquafresca
Game 4: Crystal Palace 2-0 Blackburn: Craig Dawson, Robert Acquafresca
Game 5: Manchester United 3-0 Crystal Palace
Game 6: Crystal Palace 2-4 Liverpool: Jamie Carragher OG, Andros Townsend
Game 7: Southampton 1-4 Crystal Palace (LC): Frazier Campbell, Wilfried Zaha, Orlando Sa X2
Game 8: Wolves 0-0 Crystal Palace
Game 9: Crystal Palace 0-1 Blackpool

So at the start of October, we are sitting 19th in the league, which isn't exactly good. A poor start to the season was probably expected as we faced Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool but I was disappointed to lose at home to Blackpool as I felt we should win that one. However, a decent start in the League Cup is good, but I am not going to be saying who has stood out so far, simply because nobody has. A poor start may be down to the team not having gelled yet, but hey ho, we were never going to win the league!

I will post some pictures of the new kits I have done shortly, and I have done more or less every Premier League kit again, plus Crystal Palace.

Cheers.

October-December 2012

Game 10: Swansea 2-3 Crystal Palace: Robert Acquafresca X2, Wilfried Zaha
Game 11: Crystal Palace 1-0 West Brom: Victor Moses
Game 12: Liverpool 4-0 Crystal Palace (LC)
Game 13: QPR 1-3 Crystal Palace: Robert Acquafresca X2, Alessandro Gamberini
Game 14: Crystal Palace 5-0 Tottenham: Alessandro Gamberini, Michu, Frazier Campbell, Victor Moses, Brad Friedel OG
Game 15: Bolton 3-0 Crystal Palace
Game 16: Crystal Palace 2-1 Manchester City: Robert Acquafresca, Michu
Game 17: Everton 1-1 Crystal Palace: Robert Acquafresca
Game 18: Crystal Palace 4-1 Norwich: Robert Acquafresca X2, Craig Dawson, Antonio Pedroza

So I have been getting a bit carried away with this save and am totally forgetting to post about how it is going, but after a poor start, we now sit 8th in the table!!! The wins against Spurs and Manchester City were simply superb, but the loss at Bolton was a bit odd... hey ho, we are up and running!!

Victor Moses and Robert Acquafresca are doing brilliant, and I am seriously thinking about bringing Acquafresca in on a permanent deal because he is scoring a fair few for me and I am very happy with him at the moment.

I will hopefully post again shortly, feel free to comment, it makes me feel appreciated

My Kits

So here is a picture of the kits i have designed, let me know what you think and if you are interested in me uploading them etc.

Enjoying the story so far and think you have done great to get the double promotion. what formation/tactics? keep posting!

tactics are a 4-2-4, with two wingers, generally used with control and fluid, i will post a screenshot soon.

Occasionaly, i use a 4-3-3 to close out games or against the top top teams, which is quite successful too.

Cheers mate.

January 2012

Results

Game 19: Newcastle 2-1 Crystal Palace: Tim Krul OG
Game 20: Crystal Palace 3-1 Stoke: Robert Acquafresca, Wilfried Zaha, Victor Moses
Game 21: Southampton 0-0 Crystal Palace
Game 22: Aston Villa 2-2 Crystal Palace: Robert Acquafresca X2
Game 23: Chelsea 3-0 Crystal Palace
Game 24: Crystal Palce 1-2 Liverpool (FAC): Robert Acquafresca
Game 25: Crystal Palace 2-3 Arsenal: Robert Acquafresca, Craig Dawson
Game 26: Blackburn 0-2 Crystal Palace: Michu, Alessandro Gamberini
Game 27: Crystal Palace 4-0 Manchester United: Robert Acquafresca, MBaye Niang X3

So they are the games from the middle of December to the end of January 2013. While we are now out of both cup competitions, Palace are now sitting in 8th in the Premier League which, for a team supposed to finish bottom, is not too bad at all. MBaye Niang has come in from Ligue 2 side Caen, and on debut got an assist (versus Blackburn) and then got a hat trick as a 50th minute substitute against Manchester United which is undoubtably the best result of the season so far. Moses is going through a good period of form now, as is Gamberini in the heart of defence.

Transfers

IN

MBaye Niang



I was looking out for another striker after Frazier Campbell failed to inspire in the first half of the season, and French wonderkid Niang was transfer listed and became available for just over £4m, and I have heard very good things about him on FM- lets hope he continues like he has in his first two games.

Fabian Giefer



Speroni handed in a transfer request and I was not going to keep him here against his will (he headed to Ascoli for £400k) as he will not offer anything in the future. However, young German keeper Giefer will. He has initially joined on loan till the end of the season from Leverkusen for a fee of £250k and i can buy him at any time for £500k. He will not be first choice yet, but I suppose I will have to give him a bit of game time here and there.

In other transfer news...

-Schalke's Christian Fuchs headed to Arsenal for £19m, and joined Darren Bent at the Emirates' as Arsenal's January signings
-Napoli's Marek Hamsik joined Manchester United for a whopping fee of £32.5m
-Demba Ba joined AC Milan from Newcastle for £14m, stating that his desire to win trophies was behind his wish to head to Italy.
-Chelsea's Michael Essien turned down a move to the Premier League's surprise package Crystal Palace to move to join French moneybags PSG for a fee of £1.6m

So I have begun the second half of the season, which would obviously indicate i had the same hellish group of fixtures that i had at the start of the season. BUT, now with 13 matches left, the only ones I can see being difficult are Tottenham and Manchester City away- so the mighty Palace could be challenging for the European spots! Also, we are now in takeover talks, so who knows what could happen...

February-May 2013

Results

Game 28: Crystal Palace 1-3 Wolves: MBaye Niang
Game 29: Liverpool 0-1 Crystal Palace: Mohamed Diame
Game 30: Blackpool 0-2 Crystal Palace: Robert Acquafresca, Victor Moses
Game 31: Crystal Palace 3-2 Swansea: MBaye Niang, Michu, Orlando Sa
Game 32: West Brom 2-2 Crystal Palace: Mohamed Diame, Wilfried Zaha
Game 33: Crystal Palace 1-1 QPR: Steven Caulker OG
Game 34: Tottenham 4-1 Crystal Palace: MBaye Niang
Game 35: Crystal Palace 2-0 Bolton: MBaye Niang, David Wheater OG
Game 36: Crystal Palace 2-1 Everton: MBaye Niang, Tim Howard OG
Game 37: Manchester City 2-0 Crystal Palace
Game 38: Norwich 1-0 Crystal Palace
Game 39: Crystal Palace 2-2 Newcastle: Robert Acquafresca, Artem Radzkov OG
Game 40: Stoke 0-5 Crystal Palace: Victor Moses, Robert Acquafresca X2, Wilfried Zaha, Jacob Butterfield
Game 41: Crystal Palace 5-1 Southampton: Robert Acquafresca, Orlando Sa X2, Ryan Burdett, Bongani Khumalo
Game 42: Crystal Palace 2-2 Aston Villa: Robert Acquafresca, Nathaniel Clyne

So that is it. Season finished, and everyone has now gone on holiday. I have of course now gone on holiday with a fair bit more money than expected because, after I requested a new deal after turning down a job offer from Estudiantes, I am now the proud owner of a 5 year £48k p/w deal. The team did far better than everybody thought this year finishing 8th in the league. In the end, we were 5 points clear of 9th placed Swansea, but 5 points behind Newcastle in 7th. To be honest, 8th position was safe after 34/35 games, despite the poor run of form where we drew and lost a few on the bounce. When it was safe, I began playing some of my regen youth players and other youth players. While the incredible Max Talbot has been on loan at Sheffield United this season (and done pretty well), I gave left winger Ryan Burdett a chance in the first team in the last three where he played 90 minutes twice and 70 minutes once, getting one assist and also one goal on his debut.

I will shortly post an end of season review guys.

End of Season 2012/13

Premier League


Goals


Assists


FA Cup Winner: Manchester United

League Cup Winner: Sunderland

La Liga Winner: Real Madrid

Serie A Winner: AC Milan

Bundesliga Winner: Borussia Dortmund

Ligue 1 Winner: Marseille

Champions League Winner: Manchester City

Europa League: Ajax

All in all, I think that this has been a brilliant season for Crystal Palace, with them performing much better than expected, even coping quite well with a takeover from another board member. To try further the club further, he has given Joe Smith £26.5m for a transfer budget. Robert Acquafresca has been simply superb and done exactly what I hoped from him- get lots of goals. Victor Moses, Mohamed Diame, Alessandro Gamberini and Michu were the other big signings and all did very well, and Crystal Palace youth products Wilfried Zaha and Nathaniel Clyne have performed very well this season as last, and Norweigian full back Jonathan Parr had a solid first season in the big time.

Next season, I hope I will be able to push for the continental positions and hope to build on the exceptional results against the likes of Manchester United and Tottenham and ensure we produce those performances on a regular basis next year, and I may look at bringing in some of my youth signings into the first team picture.

Hope you feel like commenting.

Cheers

Bringing in Niang looks like great business. You have done well with the money available, don't be tempted by splashing on just 1 player or maybe 2, your little and often buys are working very well, and afterall, it is a squad game not a 1 man army.

Keep it going

THE BOARD HAS FAITH

The board has done something I have never seen before and have let me choose who I want as my feeder club- wahay!

i feel it is time to do some more kits, so im now going to take requests if people want any making for them. let me know if you do, this is how i am spending my evening tonight- that and watching the bourne trilogy with some fish and chips- MAGIC!

Fantastic finishing 8th in the league some excellent results blessed with superb signings namely acquafresca getting 20 goals