Darren: FM 2011 Newcastle just can’t stop — January to May 2019/20

Hey guys and welcome to the climax of my domestic season. During the last post Newcastle were three points clear of Manchester City with two games in hand. We’d also qualified from an easy Champions League group and made the the League Cup semi-final. With 2019/20 shaping up so well I found some optimism and hope for more records. Remember we only need one more FA Cup title to take Newcastle past Man United’s record of 12 FA Cup victories. We’ll start today’s post with the January transfer window and move swiftly onto my EPL results before viewing the rest of Newcastle’s competitions.

While no one entered Saint James Park this winter, two players did leave. You may remember me making three free transfers during the summer. Goalkeeper Delac goes no where and has found a rotational place within my squad but the other two newbies departed just six months after signing. Dzagoev was rotated in midfield but never really impressed me and therefore was offered to clubs at £12 million, Spanish club Sevilla were amongst eight interested clubs and signed the Russian for £10 million. My other sale was that of Crisetig, the midfielder did well in my ball winning midfield role but fell victim to an over staffed position. I offered him out for £12 million and accepted many bids ranging from £9-10 million. Crisetig decided to join Stoke for £9.75 million, very good business considering both players joined for nothing. I played the midfielders at least 12 times during their six month stay and this attracted some attention hence the reasonable transfer fees of double their valuation.

Premier League results — January to February 2020

With Manchester City hot on my tail, I needed to take advantage of those two games in hand and extend our three point lead at the top. January saw the toon hitting top form as we beat Everton, Blackburn, Chelsea, Blackburn again and then Wolves. Sanogo and Da Silva were the stars scoring and assisting plenty. February saw a tough fixture list and this took hold as Spurs held me to a 0-0 draw away from home. We recovered well away to Blackpool winning 2-0, but then suffered another goalless draw at Old Trafford. February finished well though with victories over both West Ham and Aston Villa. As daft as it sounds, this felt like a bad run for my team.

Premier League results — March to may 2020

February finished on a decent note after two fairly worrying draws, now with three months left I wanted to set the tone for the most vital part of every season. We hit the ground running away to Liverpool, Birmingham and QPR beating all three on their own turf. Then Manchester City and Arsenal were seen off at Saint James Park before Bolton were comfortably beaten 3-0. A visit down South provided some spectacular Football as Portsmouth were thrashed 5-2 and then Birmingham couldn’t handle Santos as the Toon marched to the song of a 2-0 victory. My last three league games saw some fringe players given their opportunity as we beat Bristol City, Stoke and West Brom.

Premier League table

This league table is getting rather monotonous of late, with Newcastle sailing to the title while the rest scrap for second, third and fourth. This season featured Man City in second and the Eastlanders failed to close a gap of 22 points. While I didn’t quite manage the record of 110 points from last season, we did hit 106 which is just crazy.

FA Cup results

One more FA Cup title and Newcastle will have topped Man Utd’s record of 12 wins in this competition. We started with a bang early on due to my kindest draw in years. The third round was won 7-0 against Gillingham as Adam’s scored 5, then Wycombe were despatched 5-0 and Norwich 4-1. It wasn’t until the sixth round that we faced a challenge in Arsenal and the London based club were beaten 1-0 thanks to Hernandez. Next up was the semi-final and West Ham, a decent side that were dominated and bullied by Sanogo. That 3-0 victory put me through to the final and a match against Manchester City. Unfortunately you’ll have to wait for the next post for that one though guys.

Champions League results

After qualifying from my Champions League group with ease I faced Dinamo Moscow for our First Kockout Round. These were probably my easiest European opponents and most convincing win as the Toon thrashed Dinamo 11-0 on aggregate. The quarter-final brought about another reasonable draw in Porto, or so I thought. The Portuguese side came back from 2-0 down at Saint James Park to hold us 2-2. Then the second leg started even worse as Porto scored first before my boys took control with two strikes. However, Porto never gave in and scored an equalizer late on to take the tie into extra time. Thankfully Costantino scrambled the ball home from a corner to spare our blushes. My semi-final opponents were Valencia, the Spanish club have bought big over the last few seasons and look crazy good upfront. But we all know there’s more to football than attacking flair, my boys taught them a lesson as we won 5-0 at home and away to make it 10-0 on aggregate. I was honestly shocked and couldn’t believe the ease of which we progressed, but I’m sure my final opponents won’t be such a push over…AC Milan have a solid defence and could prove tough to break down but you’ll need to tune in next time for that one along with the FA Cup final.

League Cup results

We left off with Newcastle in the League Cup semi-final against Nottm Forest last post, the same opponent as last season and hopefully we could repeat the result. Well the first leg was used for youth and fringe players, considering we were at home my decision almost cost us. The Derbyshire side went in front before Adams saved my blushes pulling us through 2-1. After a close shave I fielded a stronger squad away from home and enjoyed a great 4-0 victory putting us into the final. The semi-final was against last years opponents and surprisingly so was the final. We won 4-0 against Wolves in last seasons final and a repeat this year would be fantastic…I have provided a match video so scroll down to watch the match as it unfolded.

As always I have prepared a full match video for the League Cup final. Click the link or image below to watch this game with my thoughts and reactions.

Click here to watch the full League Cup final vs Wolves

Another great performance and the match stats speak a thousand words. 63% possession and 29 shots is certainly an overhaul and I think the end result was fair. The most satisfying part though was my substitutes having the decisive blow and winning the match. Both Da Silva and Ziegler were fantastic coming on to make a difference on the wings.

This may be a little off topic and delayed, but in case you missed it…my latest academy product, 16  year old Fairclough scored his first goal against Norwich in the FA Cup. It was a stunning 30 yard strike and made him the youngest ever scorer in Newcastle’s history…words can’t describe how excited I am about this kid. You hear stories of people getting their favourite regens name printed to the back of their Football shirts, well I think Fairclough could be my first :)

Talking of records, lets check in on my unbeaten record which had hit 101 games last post. Newcastle have now gone 136 games unbeaten over a period of more than 2 years.

Squad stats and finances

I won’t talk too long about players as you can see all their stats below, but I will take some time to talk about three players. The first is obvious, Marcelo Santos has scored 34 goals from 27 starts. The other two stars play on the wings, Anconetani has scored 18 goals and assisted 30 from the right despite his nation over looking him for international duty (fools!) From the left is newbie Da Silva, the ex-Madrid star scored 16 goals and assisted 23. Probably the best debut season I’ve ever seen and a bargain at £4 million.

Newcastle finished December with £266 million in the bank. We are now in May and awaiting the FA Cup and Champions League finals. After receiving some cash for winning the EPL and from the departure of a few players the bank balance reads £282 million. I reckon we’ll finish the season on more than £300 million and this would be an excellent landmark.

Well that about does it for today, I hope you enjoyed the post and will be back next time. There couldn’t be more incentive as I introduce the Champions League and FA Cup cup finals with full match videos and commentary. Until then please feel free to comment and thanks for reading.