Dave — FM2011 Ultimate European Challenge, Liverpool Season 13/14 completed

Welcome back to my post and praise the internet gods that the issues on the website have been resolved!  You join me as the Transfer Window opens for business and I have already secured Yaya Sanogo for a cut price 5.5 million from Barcelona!  This was the only transfer coming in as I tend to do all my transactions in the Summer.  Let’s find out if Yaya strengthens our status domestically and in Europe.

January

Another undefeated month which is excellent considering I played Chelsea and Man Utd in the league and also Arsenal in the semi-final of the League Cup!  The aggregate win over Arsenal means I face Chelsea in the final so should be an entertaining game.  Yaya Sanogo signed for the club the day before the Chelsea league game and I decided to risk it and sent him straight into the action.  He did not disappoint.  He lasted 70 minutes but he set up the goal for Torres (who isn’t sulking and demanding a move in my game!)  The other pleasing aspect of this month was only the 1 goal conceded in the league!  There was no giant killing from Crawley like in real life.  I dispatched them with ease.  Young Harry Nash scoring his first ever goal for us and what a sweet strike it was!  So in the main, there is nothing I can complain about at the moment except to keep an eye on the dreaded complacency!

February

This month was almost the polar opposite of January.  It started off well enough with victories over Portsmouth and Villa but another loss to Spurs who I have now declared my arch nemesis!  The rest of the month was very unconvincing as if losing to Tottenham has knocked the wind out of our sails.  Even the 5-2 win against Everton was bad.  We were 2-0 up and cruising but they brought it back to 2-2.  Thankfully the boys managed to find some fight in the derby to win with a flattering scoreline in the end.  The nil all draw against them in the FA Cup was the last thing we needed.  Fixtures are coming thick and fast now so a replay was not on the agenda!

March

Back to winning ways this month except for the blip against Sunderland at the end which is frustrating.  We cannot afford to lose silly points especially when you look at the league table.

We cannot seem to shake Man Utd off of our tails.  5 points may seem convincing at the moment with 6 games to go, I would prefer to be further out in front!  We have reached 78 points now which is what won the league for Liverpool under Roy Hodgson last season so maybe we could still do it?  You may have noticed the ‘EC’ next to Chelsea’s name.  That is because ……..

…….. they beat us in the League Cup Final.  I am gutted not to have won but at the end of the day, that is not my main objective.  However, I am still going along quite nicely in the Champions League (beating Schalke in the 1st knockout round) and in the FA Cup.  It took me extra time to overcome Everton — again being 2 nil up and them bringing it back before Harry Nash scoring in the 99th minute.  After the game I noticed that we are the only major team left in the tournament so our name must be on the cup!  In the Quarters, we removed Championship side Newcastle with relative ease to set up a semi-final tie at Wembley against Huddersfield!

April

Disaster on the league front this month.  Losing to Man City away I can just about understand as it was always going to be a tricky tie but to lose to Bolton who were 19th is unforgivable.  The juggernaught that is Manchester United have now taken the lead with just 2 winnable games for each club to go.  I was absolutely sick to the stomach.  This has pretty much lost us the title.  We have been in first place most of the season as well which makes it even worse.

Better news was to come in the cups where we knocked out Benfica and have a convincing first leg semi-final lead over Bayern.  We also strolled our way to the Final of the FA Cup where we will meet Aston Villa.  I am feeling good about my chances there!

May

1 match in May I hear you cry?  Well, no!  I just want to keep you in suspense with regards to the other games!  The match against Everton was very uneasy.  I think the players were feeling utterly dejected about going 2nd as much as I was.  Still it’s a win which keeps us in contention going into the last game of the season.  I am facing 12th place West Brom whilst Man Utd have 16th place West Ham.  Waiting for a miracle………

My players have certainly played there part so at the very least, it gives us confidence going into the FA Cup.  But how did Man Utd do?

They lost!! I could not believe it!  I somehow managed to win the league after it looked like we were doomed!  A very hard fought season but we managed to walk away with the winners medals which were rightfully ours :D  I am proud to say, the final table looks like this

First game of the month was actually against Bayern in the 2nd leg.  We were 3 nil but I still had a niggling doubt.  We had just lost to Bolton, would that have an effect on my players?

yes it did have an effect.  We were destroyed and I had no answers to it.  We did have a lot of injuries at this stage including our main goal threat Nando Torres but we just didn’t turn up for this game.  Bayern as it turned out, went on and won in the final which is the only consolation I could get out of this.  However my players were recognised by the European community

Not bad for an old timer!

To get 5 players in the dream team is very good but would have preferred to have won in the final :P

Which leaves me with one game to tell you about.  The FA Cup final.  Fresh from winning the league with the 5 nil victory against WBA.  Only Aston Villa stand in our way of a double and completing the England stage of the Ultimate European Challenge.

We done it!  I believe this was the first time in which Iker Muniain had scored more than 1 in a game so a nice time to do it!  And the awards keep coming in

Final thoughts

What a relief!  I cannot tell you the emotional rollercoaster I was on for those last 5 or so games.  It was also a relief because I never fully fell in love with Liverpool as I did with Fiorentina.  Not really sure why, could have been having the 25 man squad and the homegrown rule.  If it is that, then I am not looking forward to playing in Spain!  I think it is more likely that I often play in the English leagues so there wasn’t that surprise element.  Here is my players stats

Now that England is complete, I stepped down and will be looking for a new club in either France, Germany or Spain.  As per usual my bunch of merry men followed me out the door!

I have a feeling that I will only be working with Bisoli again if I get a big Spanish side.  Within a couple of weeks of leaving I saw this pop up in the inbox.

I nearly wet myself!  Before I had a chance to do anything, the next message in the inbox was this

I was furious!  There was actually 5 days in between each of the messages but the game kept processing before I had a chance to react.

I was linked with other jobs.  Aston Villa and Everton come up but I politely said I wasn’t interested.  Manchester United offered me a contract after Mike Phelan stepped down to become the new manager of England.  I declined.  I chased the Werder Bremen job but didn’t go for it when the manager left.  Main reason was because the kit is absolutely disgusting!  This proved to be a bad idea because I also chased jobs at Bayern Munich, Toulouse and Marseille all to no avail.  I was offered the Zaragoza job but the squad was so weak and they had no money that I would have been insane to have accepted it.  After an incredible 17 months without a job (so just over a season), I have finally got a new job.  Ladies and Gentlemen, I am the new gaffer of Stuttgart.

One final note before I leave you from this long update (sorry!), I thought you might be interested in how the 2014 World Cup in Brazil went

Belgium winning it?!?! Against Ivory Coast in the final?!?!?!?!  Madness!