Darren — Ultimate European Challenge, world cup draw and a new club 17/18

Hey guys and welcome back to my FM 2011 Ultimate European Challenge. During my last post, you saw Argentina triumph in the Confederations Cup while my search for a new club ended in disappointment. I can confirm that after 18 months, one of the big boys finally offered me a job. I will reveal who soon enough, but first off lets see how my WCQ with Argentina finished.

South American World Cup qualifying results and table

After a very nervous but entertaining 4-3 victory against Paraguay, my side all but guaranteed top spot. This led to some foot loose football and a lot of goals. While Uruguay were brushed aside 2-0 away from home, Colombia buried their heads in the sand after losing 7-0. Argentina then dismantled Peru away from home 3-0 to cap off a brilliant qualifying group.

Talk about qualifying in style, we won all our games bar one draw and managed an incredible 72 goals. That means Argentina scored an average of 4 goals every game. Brazil qualified in second along with Uruguay and Chile. While poor old Colombia will be entered into a play-off. OK its time for the World Cup draw, hold onto your hats!

World Cup 2018 draw

What an anti-climax :( Argentina were drawn alongside Scotland, Ghana and Honduras. Seems like an easy group but Scotland do have four or five amazing regens while the rest of their squad may as well stay at home. Ghana won the World Cup four years ago and still have the majority of those players, while Honduras may as well save on the plane ticket. The two toughest groups are group E and H. England, Croatia, Uruguay and Canada will be tough to call. Then Brazil, Portugal, Cameroon and Saudi Arabia could pull out a shock. Having said that the 2014 World Cup saw Brazil, Argentina, Italy, England and Holland all knocked out in the group stages so you never know what will happen. OK enough of Argentina, we have a lot to cover with my new club and they are………

Darlington of League Two

Only kidding…sorry I couldn’t help myself! The club I am really managing is………

That’s right, the 18 month wait was worth it as Chelsea sacked Jones and hired me a day after receiving my application. It would seem the London club have fallen from grace recently. They finished outside the top three for the last four seasons, two of which saw Chelsea fall below 6th place. Below is what I have to contend with in the BPL…ow dear, what was Jones doing?

I certainly have a task on my hands here, Chelsea are 13th and eleven points off 4th position which is my goal for the season. Looking through the squad Chelsea’s last manager left behind, I have little hope for attacking football. Tafer is a good player but the other strikers will struggle. The wingers are average at best while the CM’s are all over 30 :( Even Chelsea’s back four is bad which goes against everything they currently are in real life.

Not the squad I wanted, but that’s not why I joined Chelsea. Their stature, reputation and money drew me in. Abramovich waved a transfer budget of £53 million and £600K a week extra towards wages. I will be down sizing the wage budget and increasing that transfer budget to over £70 million, hopefully. I have another 2 months to wait before I can reform the squad, so until then I’ll have to make do. Let’s see how I coped in the EPL.

Premier League results: November-December

A great set of results, especially with some bad morale and players that don’t suit my tactic. I can waver the fine margins, because getting through the 2 months was all that mattered. The league table is starting to look more favourable for the Chelsea faithful. After 6 straight wins, I find myself in sixth position and just four points away from the Champions League places.

The Europa League also went quite well. After beating easy opposition we are through to the first knockout round. Not much to report here other than finishing first.

We now have the second half of the season to look forward to. A lot of tough opponents await and we will need a lot of good form if the top four is to be breached. However, I have made some massive signings during January and spent in excess of £90 million. I know this is far too much, but the squad really isn’t good enough to challenge and these drastic moves were vital.

Tom Cairney (central midielder)

The Chelsea squad has a lack of attacking midfielders. I also have to sign three players trained in England as we don’t have enough to comply with the regulations. Therefore Cairney was the best option at a reasonable price. Cairney will be rotated with my top regen Blackwell.

Vladimir Weiss (right winger)

Weiss was bought from Barcelona for £15 million. We are currently relying on McGeady alone to fill the right wing, but he can’t play every game and I feel he is under par for my plans with Chelsea.

Kyle Walker (right back)

I know Walker is very much border line on qualifying as a world class player. But I see far beyond his attributes and have seen the Englishmen before extremely well. Kyle can defend as well as attack and will be my key defender. I think £13.5 million is a decent price for such a good player.

Mike Godwin (left wing)

This regen is extremely good and I snatched him away from an awesome Marseille squad. £20 million is a lot of cash but Godwin is well worth it. He’ll be my number one left winger in place of Perotti.

Ivan Petrovic (striker)

I always save the best till last and this regen is probably one of the best strikers around. A huge £31.5 million was paid to Palermo for his services. The Croatian has scored 14 goals in 14 games for Palermo in Serie A this season and look amazing. The perfect poacher and I think he’ll terrorize Premier League defences.

Well that is it for today’s update. Sorry for making it so long, I just wanted to share everything that has happened. The next five months will be important, but the two after that will be career defining. The World Cup is edging closer and I have a special two part post planned for you all. :) Until next time thanks for reading and I look forward to your comments as always.