Sunday 6 December 2009

Ploughing on without screenshots: Transfers and pre-season!

I'm sorry for the massive delay, but I've been frantically trying to fix my screenshot problem. Sad to say that nothing is working, so for the time being, my posts will be as dull as James May! Bear with me however...

After taking charge of Newcastle United, I learnt that we would not have a transfer budget at all, and our wages were over-budget. Coupled with this, our team was not good enough to get promoted, so it wasn't looking good for me this season. Nevertheless, after some players took pay-cuts and goalkeeper Tim Krul left us for £1.5m, I fiddled around with the wage budget just enough to be able to make 2 free transfers, and 3 loan deals.

OUT:
Tim Krul £1.5m

IN:
Christian Vieri £0
Luka Senicanin £0
Vladimir Weiss Loan
Jack Wilshere Loan
Emiliano Insua Loan

I am quite happy with our transfers, especially the 3 loanees, who have improved our squad to no end. The best signing however, was 36 year old iconic striker Christian Vieri, who is still plenty good enough for the Championship. With attributes of 15 for finishing, 16 for composure, 17 for heading, 16 for strength and 16 for balance, he is an ideal target man, and the perfect foil for a quick striker like Shola Ameobi or Andy Carroll. Jack Wilshere will find it hard to fit into our system, as he is an AMC while we play a 4-2-4 with 2 centre midfielders and 2 wingers. He is nonetheless a great player, so I should think about adapting our tactics to acccomodate him.

Meanwhile, our friendly matches. After beating Newcastle reserves 1-0, we beat Exeter and Burton Albion 2-0 and 4-0 respectively. We then proceeded to beat Balkan and Botev 2-1 and 2-0, before being held to a 0-0 draw by Millwall. These were decent results, but not outstanding. I have not seen anything that can make me believe we can win the league.

Anyway that's it for this boring post, I will do my best to resolve my screenshot problem in the next few days, but if not there will be another post in a weeks time like this. Take care.