Darren: FM 2011, Newcastle’s pre-season preparation 2019/20

Hey guys and welcome back to my FM 2011 story with Newcastle. Last season was my best yet and I can’t ever see us topping it, Newcastle won the quadruple and slaughtered almost everyone in sight. This season is all about maintaining that and trying to build on my trophy cabinet as well as bank balance. Before we start the post, lets fulfil Matt’s request and recap my trophy cabinet so far.

Premier League: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 = 8 titles to date. (most time won is 19 by Man Utd.)

FA Cup: 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 = 6 trophies to date. (most times won is 12 by Man Utd.)

League Cup: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 = 8 trophies to date. (most times won is 8 by Newcastle.)

Europa League: 2012.

Champions League: 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019 = 5 trophies to date. (most times won is 9 by Real Madrid.)

The season starts with expectations, so it seems fitting to begin my post there. The board offered no alternative and demanded the title this year while offering a transfer budget of £150 million and an extra £1 million a week for wages. I won’t be using any of this of course and plan on making money within the transfer window. Our media odds are reasonable but Man City are the pre-season favourites despite never winning the EPL title since I took charge at Newcastle.

After taking a glance at the richest clubs list, Newcastle seem to be progressing well in third. The club is valued at £595 million meaning an increase of £33 million from last year. First placed Barcelona and second placed Real have decreased in value offering the perfect chance to get nearer my goal. Newcastle gained £78 million on Barcelona and £108 million on Real Madrid from last season. Not bad going!

I am also very happy with our facilities. The training is now at maximum and youth facilities will be maximum after the latest upgrade. I also think my latest upgrade to youth recruitment will max that area out too. Talking of youth recruitment, do you remember me moaning every single year about the lack of talent coming from my academy? Well I have no reason to complain this time, most of the intake were useless bar one gem! His name is Fairclough, he can play anywhere in midfield and is just 16 years old. When my assistant announced the youth intake, he described this kid as the best of his generation…how excited am I!!!!

Now lets move onto your favourite, transfers. We’ll begin with my departures and there were a lot. Don’t panic, all my key stars are still in tact, but I did loan out an awful lot of 20 and 21 year olds that aren’t quite ready to fight for first team football. Those loan fees raked in £4 million and should help my players develop through an awkward stage.

Now the main chunk of profit came from one strikers departure to Manchester City, I think you all know who left…Jordan Tierney. For those of you who thought of Sanogo, shame on you! :) Tierney signed on last year and while he has incredible talent, he’s not the right striker for my new tactic. I need technically capable players and he isn’t one of them. Besides, after signing another English forward last January I was over staffed and City’s £24.5 million offer was too much to reject. I included a clause that gets me 30% of his next sale and still made £12 million profit anyway. The other big departure was Henri Coezy, the Frenchman joined Juventus for £10.5 million. While he is good, I have signed far too many CM’s and had the tough decision on who to cut. We made almost double on this players original fee, so it seemed like good business sense with the incredible talent coming through. My last sale is Mackie, a striker from the academy that’s not even worth a screenshot, I can’t believe Bristol City paid £2.2 million for him.

Now we move onto my transfers in and it was a fairly busy summer in that respect. After recouping £41 million on players sold, I decided to buy any and every bit of talent I felt would be amazing or make me a hefty profit when sold. This led to the capture of six new players and a total spending spree of £17 million.

Matej Delac- goalkeeper

Brought in for free, this kid has serious talent between the sticks and I decided he was too good to ignore. Even if he falls back in the pecking order I can sell him for a  minimum of £10 million.

Lorenzo Crisetig — central midfielder

Believe it or not I’ve been trying to sign this guy since 2012. Every time another club got there first or I wasn’t happy with the transfer fee requested. I didn’t actually need more cm’s, but knew this kid was yet to reach his full potential. I decided to bring him in for free and sell Coezy who is a similar player for profit. I’ll raise Crisetig to his full potential and then sell him off for at least £10 million.

Alan Dzagoev — central midfielder

The riskiest signing by far, Dzagoev was bought purely to make profit. I have cleared some space in the first team to rotate him with Hernandez as the teams playmaker. Then next year I’ll offer him out for around £10-12 million, I just hope age doesn’t get the better of this 29 year old. But he was signed on a free transfer anyway.

Franco Giampa — central midfielder

Brought in for pure talent, this kid is rated with the potential to reach Padin’s standard who is my main defensive midfielder. A rather hefty fee of £11.5 million was requested by AC Milan, but I believe this 18 year old will be sold in his late 20’s for more than double that amount. He’s got a lot of talent and I’ve tracked his progress for the last two seasons. Giampa won’t see much game time, but will be developed in the reserves for the first 6 months.

Louis-Jean Goncalves — central midifelder/defender

At the age of 18, this versatile wonderkid has a bright future. Due to the fact he played for Chateauroux in France, I managed to sign him for next to nothing. £1.4 million is a ludicrous fee for such talent and I could train Louis to play in midfield or defence. He will gain a little match experience this season before maybe going out on loan next year.

Da Silva — left winger or defender

I saved the best until last, Real Madrid have one too many quality wingers and Da Silva found himself transfer listed for £4 million. I was surprised but even more shocked by his small wage demands of £10K per week. The 20 year old is an all rounder, but specialises in technique and his athleticism. As soon as the transfer was confirmed, I loaned my other Brazilian winger out to make room for Da Silva to rotate with Goetz on the left. This wonderkid has plenty of room to grow and should be a real force in English football.

Well you’ve seen all my transfer action. Seems like a lot of signings I know, but after seeing so much talent I couldn’t let them move to other clubs. The key to signing all these players and keeping the squad size down has been loans. I have sent so many youngsters out for experience and I just hope the additions settle in well. You can see my squad list below with the addition of my assistants current ability rating.

We should also check in on finances, after last seasons Champions League final the bank balance read £257 million. So after making a profit of £24 million on transfers, what would the sheet read? Well before my first EPL fixture Newcastle held £280 million in the bank. Not bad at all and hopefully we won’t lose too much of that as the season progresses.

Community Shield — Manchester City vs Newcastle

We’ll finish today’s post off with the season curtain raiser and community shield. My opponents are Manchester City, despite them failing to win a trophy they were runners up in the league. I used a full strength squad and didn’t risk team chemistry by involving any new signings other than as substitutes. Below are the match highlights, no commentary or full match today I’m afraid.

The performance was good, but we did have to survive a little pressure from City. In fact Mainetti, my keeper, was voted man of the match. Having said that the scoreline doesn’t lie and we did hold the best possession as well as shots on goal.

Well that is all for today guys, I hope you got caught up and like my new prospects whether they were bought for on the pitch reasons or purely business. The next post will take us into winter and I’ll show you how the toon army progressed, but until then please feel free to comment below and I look forward to reading your thoughts as always. Thanks for reading.

P.S now its time to fulfil one or two requests. The first is from Aaron who wanted to see my best starting XI with each players current value and the amount I originally paid for them. The screenshot below contains this info mate. The overall value of my best XI equals £198.5 million and the original price I paid for these players combined was £73.4 million. When I sell a top player I expect to make at least 80% more than their valuation, meaning if I sold all these players I should rake in a minimum of £358 million provided I sell at the right time as I have done with all my other star players who have departed in the past. Please note that ‘last trans. fee’ is what I originally payed for each player.

Now for Paul’s request, the screenshot below is my hall of fame. You’ll notice two ‘Darren Smiths’, the one highlighted in red is from this save. The other is from my UEC save.