Darren — Newcastle, December to February and a surprise 2016/17

Hey guys and welcome back the North East for another FM 2011 Newcastle update. During the last post you read on as the toon army waltzed through all competitions. We were top of the league, had already qualified from our Champions League group and also progressed to the League Cup semi-final. My only concern could be injuries, fatigue and over confidence, so lets hope none of them come into play today. We’ll kick this post off with…

Club World Championship

After retaining the Champions League, Newcastle took a mini break away from the EPL and strutted their stuff in Baba Yara, ehh where’s that?? Well the where is irrelevant, what matters is we had a chance to beat the best teams in world football. Sounds far more impressive than it actually is, I know. The truth is I only used backup and youth players for this tournament. The best known name was Marcelo Santos, but the rest of my squad where there mainly to develop and gain experience.

The semi-final draw pitted my boys against Japanese opposition. Saitama played an awful game and endured 90 minutes of hell as the Newcastle Y2G system paraded their talent. We won the match 5-0 and drew slightly tougher opponents for the final. D.C. United are well known in America and a pretty good team, they must be to beat Boca Juniors in the semi-final, right? Wrong, they played badly and the Americans walked home after a 3-0 drumming. Newcastle had 31 shots to the Americans 4 and 10 hit the target compared to D.C. United’s big fat zero. We lifted the Club World Championship trophy and this sat proudly next to my Charity Shield and Euro Super Cup.

Premier League results — December

My first game in December was against Arsenal, we won with ease 3-1 and carried this confidence into an away match against Nottm Forest. That game finished 5-0 thanks to a team performance, but it was pure grit and determination for the next match. We travelled to Ewood Park and almost dropped points until Anconetani scored late on for a 2-1 victory. Then the matches came thick, fast and with tough opponents to boot. First off, Liverpool travelled to Saint James Park only to walk away 2-0 losers. Then Aston Villa had the misfortune of a 5-0 thrashing before we travelled to the Eastlands for a big game against title rivals Manchester City. The blues were shocked as Kakuta turned up the heat helping us thrash moneybags City 4-1.

Premier League results — January

With the confidence flowing, my first loss would be devastating. Though I wasn’t made to feel this just yet as Newcastle beat Chelsea 2-0 with ease. We then beat rivals Middlesbrough 2-0 and I was delighted to see Coezy improving on the pitch, he will be an important midfielder next season. Other competitions took priority on the fixture list leaving us with just two more EPL matches. Both saw a Sanogo master class as the Frenchmen scored 5 goals in two games. Helping the toon beat Wolves 3-0 and West Ham 5-0. Sanogo was so impressive during January, he actually achieved two goals per game.

Premier League results — February

The last stretch came in February as I tried to maintain our unbeaten record. This wasn’t a tall task though with just two EPL fixtures. The first came with a 3-1 victory over Portsmouth, but that scoreline was very flattering as we struggled to dominate possession. Spurs had climbed up the pecking order to second and faced my side in good form. A very even match finished 2-0 to the toon at White Hart Lane. Sanogo made the difference and helped me move one step closer to an unbeaten season.

Premier League table

Three months had passed, 12 games played and we managed maximum points despite some tough opponents during late December. My lead at the top has stretched to 16 points and we’ve still only conceded 8 goals in 27 matches. The league is all but over now in the usual fashion…I’m still waiting for one of the so called big teams to offer a challenge.

FA Cup results

This cup competition offered more than the EPL, we started in the third round against Manchester Utd. Home advantage seemed to count during a close encounter as we won 3-2. My fourth round draw seemed more relaxed as I fielded some youth prospect against Nottm Forest. That almost cost us bar a wonderful performance from 18 year Fernando, who scored twice for the 3-2 victory. Lady luck betrayed me during the fifth round draw as Chelsea came out of the hat. However, I could be thankful for a third home tie and this really made the difference. Repeating our league result and performance saw Chelsea brushed aside 2-0. Next up will be the sixth round against  Middlesbrough, I expect to win and reach the semi-final.

Champions League results & group

With one game to go, I need a draw against Panathinaikos and top spot will be secure. Despite playing away my boys bossed the match and won 2-0. Fernando carrying forward his first team football challenge seemed to have turned a few heads. I ignored the speculation and just enjoyed my top spot and qualification to the First Knockout round.

Scottish side, Rangers were drawn from the hat for my next round. Despite vast improvements to the Rangers squad, I expected victory both home and away. We are already half way there after the first leg, Fernando and Dardouri were incredible as we thrashed Rangers 4-0 at the Ibrox. The home leg is a formality and I eagerly anticipate the next challengers to my crown.

League Cup results

After progressing through the early stages, I found myself against a familiar opponent during the semi-finals. Newcastle had faced Middlesbrough twice in the league, just drawn them in the FA Cup and now faced them in the League Cup. All that experience wasn’t required though. A weak team destroyed our rivals at Saint James Park 4-0 where 18 year Padin scored his first goal. In fact, I think my left back, Constantino scored his first goal too. We then saw out the second leg with a boring 1-0 victory and started planning for Wembley and Manchester Utd.

OK, here is the surprise guys. I decided to record my League Cup final from pre-match to the end analysis. Switch your sound on for the full effect and an explanation on how I manage, step by step. Please excuse the video quality, its not bad but I would have loved high definition…then again I’d want 3D if it were available. :)

Video footage — League Cup final vs Man Utd (click here to view)

There you go, my first official video diary so to speak and hopefully a reasonable explanation on what I look for as a manager. There wasn’t much to do in game and if our form is off I usually do more research prior to the match but this is all for another day. There will be plenty more of these further down the line. DON’T SCROLL FURTHER UNTIL WATCHING THE VIDEO ABOVE!! OR YOU’LL SEE THE RESULT!

Spoiler alert!! League Cup final result below

Squad stats and finances

After such an amazing run, you’d expect some big average ratings and my players certainly delivered. Yaya Sanogo hit 8.07 with 28 goals from 20 starts. Then Danny Wilson has become the best CB around with 7.66 average rating and 11 goals. Marcelo Santos has scored 16 goals and is closely followed by Fernando on 13 goals. Again I could go on forever, but will leave you to look through the list. Some of you wonder how I develop my youth so well, the reason is below. Notice how a lot of young and so called fringe players have been given rotational game time? That makes all the difference and its about consistency. If you leave someone without a game for months, they’ll go completely off the ball and probably not perform well when offered the chance. Give everyone decent game time and they will all stay in reasonable form, so when the fixtures get cramped your not playing out of form of unfit players. This is where the challenge lies, keeping everyone happy and in form.

Now for the part that has become all so important to me, finances. By the end of November (my last post) Newcastle had £136 million in the bank. We are at the end of February and the balance is…£129 million! Not bad at all as we’ve lost the usual amount awaiting the huge windfall of prize money and TV revenue. I have also signed a few Brazilians from a while back where their deal was set to go through in January. I’ll not show their attributes just yet, as their staying in the reserves for now.

Well that is all for today’s update, I hope you enjoyed the read and my little surprise. Please let me know what you think to the video and if you’d like more of these. Until next time thanks for reading and I look forward to your comments as always.

P.S. During my last post Sears requested a screenshot of my managerial stats. Take a look below mate, hope this is what you were after.