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.

Reason for lack of posts

Hey guys, I'm very sorry for not posting up another Newcastle post, but I have recently changed to Windows 7, and I'm trying to be able to take screenshots from my game, which is really confusing me. If I take a screenshot of the full screen game, it just takes a picture of the usual screen, blocking out the game altogether, which isn't helpful. And my graphics card will not let me make my resolution higher, so I'd be able to make my game windowed. If anyone can help, it would be much appreciated.



So just bear with me, hopefully another post will be up soon.

Newcastle United story: 1st season: Introduction

Hello and welcome to my first story in Football Manager 2010! 140 of you voted, and by 2 votes, Newcastle United came out the winner. So when I bought FM10 on Saturday, I loaded up Newcastle, and began playing.

I thought that Newcastle would have quite a bit of cash to spend, but apparently not, a £0 transfer budget and a wage bill that is £2k/w over budget. I would have to use my free transfer skills like I did with Southampton, but for some reason Stephen Appiah doesn't exist in this game! I would have to scout some new players, maybe even take some on loan. Despite this lack of funds though, the board expect me to win the league at a minimum. Baptism of fire or what!

I, and my assistant manager, think that the squad is not good enough to guarantee promotion this season, especially as we have sold a lot of good players over the summer. Obafemi Martins, Michael Owen, Damien Duff, Sebastian Bassong, Mark Viduka and Habib Beye were all Premier League standard players who would have definitely helped us to promotion, but with them gone, we have a very average squad.

If your best striker is Shola Ameobi and Joey Barton is one of your most valuable players, you know you’re in trouble. I simply hope I can get rid of some of the overpaid ones, so our wage bill can come down.

Anyway, onto the club information page, and surprise surprise, we are predicted to be first place.

Though at least our chairman is looking to step down, so hopefully if we can get some rich businessmen in, I can at least be given a few million to spend! We have almost £100m debt, which could be a big worry in the long run if we can’t get promoted soon. If the parachute payments stop, we could be in for administration. Again, no pressure!

Anyway, that is it for my first Newcastle post. I will have one up when transfers and pre-season is finished. Until then, good bye!

Poll CLOSED: Team for FM2010: Newcastle United

Hello everyone, and welcome to my first post about Football Manager 2010! An amazing 140 of you voted (thank you everyone) and by a close 2 vote victory, Newcastle United pipped Notts County to be my first team for FM2010. I am getting the game on Sunday morning and am really excited about starting the story.

For those of you who don't know, Newcastle are a once-big team who got relegated from the Premier League last year. With financial problems pinning down the club amid concerns about the chairman, it will take a lot to get this club back where it belongs, in the Premier League. Nevertheless, promotion is something I hope to achieve in my first year.

Anyway, that's it from me, and I hope you like the new story. Check back soon!

Southampton story: 3rd season: The end of an era

Hello and welcome to the final ever post of my Southampton story, and indeed my Football Manager 2009 adventure. I was hoping to end it on a high, and we were certainly doing so, sitting in 6th place in our debut season in the Premier League. I was willing us to go even better, try and get into the top 4, but I knew we were not up to a job of that greatness. And without further ado, here are the final results of my Southampton story:

Our form tailed off a little, but we still won a few crucial games. Out of 13 games (12 in the Premier League) we won 4, drew 4 and lost 5 (4 in the Prem). Notable results include draws against Man Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal, with wins against Everton and Blackburn giving us a much needed boost. Some terrible results include the double defeat to Fulham, putting us out of the FA Cup and losing us ground on our Premier League rivals. The Chelsea game was to be expected, but a 4-1 loss to West Brom really stung. But what would these results do to the table?

An amazing achievement; 5th place. Despite the last day defeat to relegated West Brom, we held on to 5th place on goal difference, with Aston Villa only mustering up a 1-0 win over Ipswich. The amazing thing is that we finished above big spending Manchester City, whose squad value is over £200m, while ours is less than £20m. I may be a City fan, but it does make it a whole lot sweeter when you haven't spent that much money, ala Arsenal or Everton. Anyway, let's get on to the ratings:

Surprisingly average ratings there, only 6 players having an average rating of 7 or above. Moving on, top scorer is Ched Evans, getting 13 goals in 29 starts. Second place goes to Morgan Schneiderlin, with 7 goals in 38 starts. Third place is a tie between Miku (6 in 29), defender Mark Beevers (6 in 35) and fellow central defender Jan Simunek (6 in 38). Top assister is left winger Adam Johnson, collecting 12 assists in 30 starts. Second place goes to Nathan Dyer, with 11 assists in 26 starts. Third place goes to Lee Holmes, (6 in 6) and Jake Thompson (6 in 10). Best rated player is defensive midfielder Franco Zuculini with 7.17 from 30 starts. Second place is Jan Simunek with 7.12, and third place goes to Lee Holmes with 7.08. Finally, top passer goes to Daniel Sturridge and Adam Lallana, both getting 79% passes on target. Third place is Morgan Schneiderlin with 78% passes, and fourth place goes to Franco Zuculini and former goal machine Stephen Appiah, both on 77%. Now, lets get on to the board confidence:

As you might expect, the board is very happy with me, and mostly to do with our Premier League performance. Our squad harmony is very high, no reports of bust-ups in the training ground or anything like that. Our wages are well under control, and our club stature has grown immensly over the past 3 seasons. It seems I really have made a difference to the club, here's hoping that I can do the same in Football Manager 2010!

This is the last Southampton post, but you only have 6 more days to vote for who I should be in Football Manager 2010. Notts County and Newcastle are streets ahead of everyone else at the moment, and County are winning by a slender 6 vote advantage. I am grateful to the 100 odd peopele who voted in it, and urge the rest of you to get voting as soon as possible! This is the end of my post, so I shall bid you farewell.

The End.