Darren: FM 2011 Newcastle’s pre-season — The legacy ends!!! 2021/22

Hey guys and welcome back to my FM 2011 Newcastle story where I have a huge announcement to make at the end of the post. During the last post you witnessed the Toon Army lift more trophies after beating Tottenham in the FA Cup and Palermo in the Champions League. We even finished the season unbeaten and drew just three matches all of which came against Manchester United. We have a busy pre-season ahead and one full of big decisions. With many key players reaching an awkward age, I will be offloading most of them within the next two years but need to do this sensibly. I can’t just let them all leave at once as we need to maintain the wonderful Football experienced within Saint James Park. Read on to see who would leave this year and if I found some instant replacements. (Read the full post to avoid missing some important news.)

As always the new season begins with board expectations and media odds. Those expectations have become monotonous of late and nothing changed this year…I am expected to lift the EPL title, while the media still deem Manchester City worthy of the title. I have the maximum transfer budget of £150 million but won’t spend a penny and actually expect a massive profit yet again this year.

Before I reveal some exciting transfer news, let me showcase Newcastle’s latest ‘best of his generation’ academy player. Richard Leach plays left back and everyone within Saint James Park consider him to be a massive prospect. If I hadn’t read those reports I wouldn’t think much of the 16 year old to be honest. I have concerns over his natural fitness, pace and acceleration but will work on these in training.

My other home grown talent, Matty Fairclough, has now been at the club for two seasons and played more than 35 matches including more than 10 assists and one goal. This 18 year old is incredible and has made outstanding improvements already, his passing is now 19 and physical attributes underline his overall ability.

OK, so you’ve seen what I am brewing through the academy but now its time for our favourite part…transfers! I will begin with transfers out as some of my signings are to replace the players leaving Saint James Park.

We will begin with the smaller sales and a right winger aged 18. I bought Roberto two seasons ago from Santos in a deal worth £1.7 million but never expected him to progress so slowly. I have other options in this position and sold him for £5 million, making a £3.3 mill profit. I was left with a similar decision on the left wing, Gilson is now 22 and has great talent but not enough to play regular first team football. I sold him for £14.5 million equalling a profit of £11.8 million.

Now we move onto the big departures, I have three goalkeepers, one is world class in Mainetti, the other is Delac who’s a year older but not quite as good and then there’s my 24 year old Gohlert. Now Gohlert has great potential still and the other two are getting old at 27 and 28 so I couldn’t sell my young prospect. This left me with the decision between my top two keepers and I decided to let Delac go just two seasons after signing him for free. We made a huge profit though after Arsenal bid £17 million. My second biggest departure was on the right wing, I had to decide between Anconetani aged 26 and arguably my best player, or Ziegler who is a backup in that position aged 24. I decided that Anconetani was too good to let go and offered Ziegler out for £30 million, Real Madrid offered me £21.5 mill and I accepted to take away a profit of £7.5 million.

Now we move onto the biggest departure of the summer and it comes in midfield. My two central midfield stars are Hernandez aged 25 and Dardouri aged 26. One of these two had to go in order to make room for my young prospects. I decided that Hernandez had become invaluable for his goals and offered Dardouri out for £50 million. Loads of clubs came calling and I instantly rejected all the English teams, but couldn’t turn away from the £46 million Real Madrid offered. This meant a profit of £35 million and that sum seemed impossible when I first signed the Tunisian for £11 million.

A total amount of £106 million was brought in from transfers out. Very nice indeed and all the fees were paid upfront making my finances look incredible. More to the point I was now armed with a transfer budget of more than £220 million. :) Of course I didn’t spend it all, in fact I only dished out £17.5 million equalling an overall profit of £88.5 million from transfers. I bought two young prospects, one right winger to rotate with Anconetani and then one midfielder on a free which was a waste of time. I won’t show you Loustau as I endured a moment of insanity when signing him, the 23 year was instantly shipped out on loan and will be sold ASAP.

Guilherme (right winger)

This Brazilian has a bright future and already looks capable of filling Ziegler’s boots. I see him as the long term replacement for Anconetani and hope to see his attributes sore this season. At the age of 19, Guilherme has time on his side and should prove well worth the £12.5 million fee.

Serginho (the next big thing in central midfield)

Now this kid has talent, I had agreed the deal worth £2 million a few seasons ago and this 18 year old has already improved greatly from what I saw back then. Serginho could be my best midfielder within five years, but that all depends on my skills and how much game time I offer. With 18 for passing and a great base physically this kid can concentrate on his technique and hopefully prove another cheap superstar.

El Hadji N’Diaye (central midfield)

Another prospect in midfield, this area is getting crowded but I like to have options and have a lot of players due to depart within the next four seasons which gives all the prospects plenty of time to grow. N’Diaye is only 16 years old and may not look great now, but if he fulfils his potential this kid could be one of the best around. I envisage him with great physical attributes and I brain for football, lets hope those technical attributes make a quick increase too. Either way, I reckon he’ll be well worth the £3 million fee.

Now that we’ve seen all the ins and outs, let me introduce the Newcastle first team for 2021/22. We are very well staffed and hold a reasonably young side, not to mention all the youth out on loan.

Community Shield vs Tottenham

After a good performance in the league, Tottenham earned the right to face my boys in the Community Shield. With Internationals in the way I had a lot of unfit players but still managed to field most of my stars. The match highlights are below.

The first half was very drab, but my side came to life during the second and scored two well worked goals. Anconetani proved his worth again with one goal and an assist. There was however one massive negative and that was the torn calf of Padin, my best ball winning midfielder. He will be sidelined for 5-6 months, and its more his development that I’m worried about. Ow well, when one door closes another door opens and lets hope one of my youngsters has the initiative to walk through.

Its time to see my finances which finished last season on £365 million, but how had the latest transfer income effected that figure. Well at the end of pre-season my bank balance read £458 million, that’s right an increase of £93 million!

Now how did this effect the world richest clubs list? Well last season Newcastle United were valued at £649 million, now after this seasons transfer action Newcastle are valued at £836 million. An incredible increase which came from two pre-seasons of sell, sell, sell! But the big question remains, was this enough to rise above those Spanish giants, Real Madrid and Barcelona…

Real Madrid’s valuation in 2021 = £700 million (GET IN!)

Barcelona’s valuation in 2021 = £694 million (GEETTTTT INNNNN!)

Yes you read it right, Newcastle are now the richest club in the world valued at £136 million more than second placed Real Madrid. I have completed my biggest goal in guiding Newcastle to become the richest club in World Football…

Important news!!

Now I actually forgot to take the above screenshot before playing my first EPL match vs Blackburn. We lost 2-0 at Ewood Park and I was gutted to see my unbeaten record end. Of course the news above cheered me up no end…but left me with a difficult decision, should I end this save? After much deliberation I decided that starting a new save would have to happen soon if it were to happen at all. I have completed my biggest goal in becoming the Worlds richest club but I hated the idea of finishing this save with a loss…then I thought of how ironic it was seen as I’d won so many matches and been unbeaten for so many years. That was my mind made up and I resigned as manager of Newcastle United and retired from Football!!

Well after a sensational career I have finally pulled the plug and retired. Below is a poll for who I should manage next, I feel like there is no where near enough time to start too far down the Football league ladder and hope you all find at least one of the selections of interest. Please vote and have your say. Until next time please feel free to ask any questions below and I look forward to your comments. Thanks for reading as always. For anyone who’d like to download my Newcastle save you can do so here. As to not waste too much time, the poll for who I’ll manage is open until this Saturday lunch time GMT. So get your votes in now and help me decide who to manage next.

 Загрузка ...

P.S. Nick asked about my assistant manager, well my current right hand man is Pablo Machin, a decent assistant but I could probably find better. His profile is below mate.