Darren: Newcastle’s pre-season clear out sale 2018/19

Hey guys and welcome back to my FM 2011 Newcastle story. Last season was a change from the normal and a tough pill for me to swallow. Despite dominating the league, we took an early exit from the Champions League and were fortunate to win both the League Cup and FA Cup, all of which was uncharacteristic considering the previous three seasons. Today’s post is packed full of transfer action and changes at Saint James Park, all with the aim of getting back on track and dwindling down my massive squad.

We start the season as ever with expectations. My personal goals should be obvious by now, to win everything and make money in the process lol :) My board certainly share that view and are expecting a lot of trophies this season. Their offer of £150 million for transfers will not be used and I expect a profit and nice return as always.

Before I update you on the clubs improvements and transfers let’s sneak a peek at the richest clubs list. Barcelona are still top and walking it, but they have decreased in value by £30 million from last season. Real Madrid still reside in second place but they only added a further £40 million to their value from last year. Now we move onto Newcastle in third place, we have increased the clubs value by £88 million meaning a current valuation of £562 million. Do the Maths and you’ll notice I’ve gained £55 million on Real Madrid from last season and an incredible £112 million on Barcelona. Not too shabby but there’s a long way to go.

I have spent the last three seasons trying to improve the clubs fairly poor facilities. I think the board have been excellent and as a result my facilities have been upgraded at least once in all areas. I am still looking at these and improving further where possible. I have also tried to make inroads for a new stadium but the board stand firm in saying ‘no!’ :(

You’ll notice my ‘youth recruitment’ is now established, well that made no difference to my new intake of youth. All were awful across England and I couldn’t find even one rated with the potential to be good in the EPL. On the same subject, the whole of Europe failed to produce good youth, I think there was a glitch this year to be honest…or maybe SI are sick of me poaching these guys and decided to hide them :)

OK enough fooling around, its time for every bodies favourite, transfers! I will introduce the new signings first as I feel the departures are far more exciting and important. So joining the club this year were three youngsters, the first you’ll already know as his transfer had been agreed last year. Fernando joins from Fluminense for £1.5 million, my coaches rate this kid with the potential to play at a similar level to Santos. Hopefully that will prove true, but I certainly need to concentrate on his pace.

Next up we have a very young left back signed for £4.9 million from Auxerre. With my other left backs looking unstable I may decide to sell one early and need to get the cover in now. Saint-Louis is 17 years old and has massive potential.

Last but certainly not least we have a brand new right winger, Ziegler was signed for £15 million from Stade Rennais. I have followed the 21 year old for two seasons now and decided not to bid for him last year when I could have paid half the price. This kid will be rotated with the genius, Anconetani.

To summarise my transfers in, we managed to find a future prospect upfront and in defence while strengthening the first team with a new right winger. The total cost of my summer transfer spree amounts to £21.5 million but wait till you read on as my transfers out are a little risky to say the least.

Quite a few important players hit an awkward age this year and I had to make some tough decisions. Jack Wilshere turned 26 years old and never really hit his potential, with such huge wages I offered him out and ended up accepting Inter’s £14 million offer (the same value as I bought him for.) Then we have 27 year old Kakuta, the left winger is sensational but needed to move on soon. I was keen to cash in and Marseille offered me £32.5 million meaning a profit of £30 million. With Kakuta gone I could give Goetz and Gilson the game time they need to become world class. My last big move was Jack Rodwell, a player I had to tear myself away from but knew the valuation would fall very soon as I want to play younger midfielders next season. After offering him out for £40 million I accepted Tottenham’s bid of £30.5 million. A nice profit there of £12.5 million took some of the sting away.

There are three midfielders I’ve tried desperately to offload last season and thankfully all left this time around. Thiago went to Valladorid for £3 million all of which became profit. Then my youngster, Matturano was offloaded to Basel for £4.2 million. The 19 year old hadn’t progressed and we made more than £2 million profit. Then Phil Clarke has been rotting within the reserves for many years since signing on. The 23 year old was sold for £3.7 million to Blackburn (the same value I originally paid.) A lot of hot prospects went out on loan this season too. All with the aim of down sizing my squad while offering first team experience.

In all we raised £89 million from player departures and loan deals, meaning a £67.5 million profit from transfers alone. Now seems like a perfect time to reveal the clubs finances. We finished last season on £193 million, an incredible amount of money but this year seems even better…the bank balance after transfers and Friendlies reads £257 million!!! Pretty amazing how been financially proud and using such a system as the Y2G can make you rich.

Now let’s introduce the squad of 2018/19, my one and only concern comes on the left wing. Harry Goetz has amazing attributes but still lacks consistency while Gilson just isn’t ready to play against the big boys. Ow well hopefully they’ll surprise me and if not I’ll delve into the transfer market…we’ve got more than £200 million to spend :)

As always the season starts with a pointless match and the Community Shield. This season tied me against Manchester Utd despite them finishing the season trophy-less, they qualified after finishing runner up to me in the league and FA Cup. I set out as always with a strong squad and 4-5-1, while United were using a different formation in the 4-2-3-1. Watch the match highlights below to see how Newcastle fared, no commentary just the goals this time I’m afraid.

Reasonable match but very even and I felt pressured throughout. Newcastle’s defence just doesn’t seem solid like the seasons that have passed, but I’ll give it some more time before making changes. On the upside, Sanogo seemed to find his long range shooting boots again. :)

Despite winning the Community Shield, our performance made me a little nervous and then I checked the opening fixture list. Ahhh, what the hell happened there, we play Chelsea away, then Man Utd at home, Man City away before two easier opponents. Then its straight back to it against Spurs, Arsenal, Everton and Liverpool. What a tough opening to the season, guess I have to resolve these defensive problems ASAP.

Well that is all for today, a very busy pre-season with tonnes of changes. Thank you for dropping by and please feel free to ask any questions below. I look forward to reading your comments as always.

P.S. please note my tactics haven’t changed yet, but did during the season. I have two posts ready, one with my results up until January and another very long post explaining my new tactic in detail. Seen as this new tactic came into play around November time, I could publish either post first…but leave the decision up to you. Would you rather hear about my new tactic first, or see my results until January and see the tactic after?