Hello folks and welcome back to the Notts County story! The moment has finally arrived, this will be the last post of the long journey that saw me taking Notts County from League Two to Premier League and European glory. It’s been a long and challenging road, now there are only five games left of it. As you know from the previous post we already clinched our fourth consecutive Premier League title so our only remaining challenge was to win the Champions League once again.
The last four league games were not important for the league table anymore but I surely wanted to see some good displays from my players. Unfortunately they showed a somewhat oscillating form: they played an impressive game against Manchester City, then a poor match against Burnley, then a solid display against Arsenal and then ended the Premier League season with a dismal performance and got beaten by Portsmouth, the weakest team in the league. That didn’t affect the team’s morale though, I guess I failed to motivate them properly.
Here’s the final Premier League table, the title was ours and Forest were going down again, our fans were happy about that.
We had to leave everything behind, the last game of the season was coming up and it was the most important one too: the Champions League final. You might remember that we met Juventus in the final last season too and had to fight pretty hard to beat them. This time they had an important absence in the team, their new and big signing Wayne Rooney was injured. We had a few problems ourselves: Joe Barton was suspended, Hinshelwood was injured, Gergely Varga was injured too and Cristian Zapata was not fully fit following a minor injury in training. Anyway, Juventus were considered to be the favourites and I had nothing against that, I like being the underdog.
So, the game was underway. We were looking fairly confident in the initial minutes but none of the teams was determined enough to display serious attacks. The first one came 12 minutes into the game, we were keeping Juventus in their own half for a while and Jonjo Shelvey eventually found the space to shoot from the edge of the area, it went just wide! Two minutes later Juventus came forward, a through pass from Giovinco to Vela and the Mexican tapped it in! It was disallowed though, offside!
21 minutes into the game, corner kick from the left side. Van Dijk took it, Simon Kjaer got his head to it but it went just over the bar. Juventus‘ striker Lucchini got injured and was replaced by Kalou.
Eleven minutes later, the same situation: corner kick from the left taken by van Dijk, Simon Kjaer beat his marker in the air but the ball thundered off the crossbar and went out of play! That was the biggest chance that came around in the first half. As you can see from the half time stats we were in control of the game but Juventus were defending very well, my strikers were not given any inch of space.
I didn’t make any changes at half time, the team played well in the first 45 minutes and there were no fitness problems. We got our first chance immediately after the break, a long shot again but this time from the other central midfielder, Fabian Delph. It didn’t go better though, wide of the post. Juventus tried their luck four minutes later but Carlos Vela‘s shot from distance went sailing over the crossbar.
60 minutes into the game, we were still in control of the game but we were unable to find space in Juventus‘ defense. My Italians invented something though: Andrea Romano received the ball just outside the box and he touched it first time further to Bonetti who came inside from the right flank. Juventus‘ left back was surprised and that gave Nicola Bonetti a few inches of space inside the box. He didn’t think twice about it, he rifled it in with his right foot and it went straight past the keeper! Get in!
I was expecting a fierce reaction from Juventus but that didn’t come, the first time they came forward after the goal was seven minutes later but Marchisio‘s shot from distance went well wide. I decided not to pull back, I wanted to score a second goal and settle the game. My wingers were pretty tired so I decided to replace both of them, Milner came in for Bonetti and Agnaldo for Ashley Young. I was hoping that some fresh pace down the flanks could give us a boost in attack.
In fact, we had a few good runs down the flanks but they all ended by being cleared by the defense. The only emotion came 12 minutes from time when a shot from Fabian Delph was saved by Juventus‘ keeper. We were still dominating the game and Juventus were not seeing much of the ball.
6 minutes from time, I made the third substitution and sent in Steven Defour to replace Fabian Delph. I wanted a bit more strength in the middle of the pitch and Delph had a yellow card, I didn’t want to take any chances with the referee. I also switched the strategy to counter, we just had to keep the ball, move it around and wait for the final whistle.
And that’s what happened, we just moved the ball around until the ref decided to end the game, we won the Champions League for the second time in a row! It was not a spectacular game but we totally deserved to win it, Juventus didn’t get any shots on target during the whole 90 minutes!
That result pushed me to the 18th place of the worldwide hall of fame, a log way behind the top managers in the world but still in great company there :)
Andrea Romano was our player of the season once again, he scored 33 goals and made 17 assists. He could have done even more if he hadn’t been injured for more than a month. New signing Sergio Aguero did very well too, scored 28 goals and made 16 assists. Overall I was satisfied with the whole lot but that doesn’t matter too much anymore, I was going to hand in my resignation…
Just a quick recap of our league history before that, it started in season 2009/2010 when we won the League Two with an impressive 120 points! It all went smoothly from there, now it seems like it was too easy!
The club’s trophy room welcomed quite a bunch of new shiny silverware, we won everything there was to be won from the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy to the Club World Cup!
Here are the manager stats for those of you who are curious enough to see them.
And finally, the resignation. I was quite flattered to see that Guardiola was the favourite to replace me :)
And I was shocked to see that 21 members of the backroom staff left the club following my resignation, I didn’t expect that.
That’s how it ends, I feel a bit sad to leave the club after so many years but I surely need a new challenge. It’s been a great journey and if any of you wants to continue it you can download the last saved game, just before the resignation. Big thanks to all of you for following the Notts County story throughout the eight seasons, your support was very important for my eventual success.
Now I will take a couple of days off, no Football Manager at all, but then I’ll gather my strengths and embark on a new journey with the aim of taking Dorchester Town from Blue Square South to the peak of European Football.
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Matt
5 мая, 2010 at 12:56
What an ending to an amazing story!
Well Done
Johnny Karp
5 мая, 2010 at 12:59
Thanks for reading it Matt, it’s been a joy to share the story with all of you.
Ana Garcia
5 мая, 2010 at 15:03
Great story, and the perfect way to bow out with a few trophies!
21 staff left! Shows the love they have for you! :)
Anyways best of luck on your new adventure and I look forward to reading it.
Lye
5 мая, 2010 at 15:11
I share your sadness mate. I think its been a bit hard to press that resign button. How i miss all your players. Its been a amazing journey and story. On the other hand, we can look forward to another chapter of your Dorchester story and they will be a force to reckon with in few years. Have a good rest and we will see you back soon.
Calum
5 мая, 2010 at 17:52
Congratulations on an absolutely terrific career with Notts County Johnny, it has really been a pleasure reading it. Good luck with Dorchester, which will be hard! :)
Johnny Karp
5 мая, 2010 at 18:17
Thanks Ana, Lye and Calum. I’m looking forward to managing Dorchester but I need a couple of days to wash out everything about Notts County from my head and set the ground for the different problems that I’ll have to face at Drochester. Thanks again for your support and good wishes.
markjulian
5 мая, 2010 at 18:20
So why aren’t any new authors allowed?
Do you have too many or something?
ravenie
5 мая, 2010 at 18:21
I will definitely try and download that game, I will try to live on the legacy of the greatest pixelated Romanian Manager of all time, ME, Johnny :p. Great job I came across this site by accident, I haven’t stopped reading it since :)
Johnny Karp
5 мая, 2010 at 18:26
@Ravenie
Thanks a lot mate! I think I’ll add that remark of yours to my CV, «the greatest pixelated Romanian Manager», that’s really funny.
Johnny Karp
5 мая, 2010 at 18:23
@markjulian
As I said Mark, it’s just temporary. I have a few reasons but I won’t get into details. You can write me an email if you want to know more. And one comment is enough, you don’t have to post the same question all over the place.
ravenie
5 мая, 2010 at 19:05
How do I get rid of the zip code?
Johnny Karp
5 мая, 2010 at 19:07
Ravenie, you have to extract the file with a program of your choice like WinZip or others. I use a free program called PeaZip.
ravenie
5 мая, 2010 at 19:19
I am downloading Peazip
ravenie
5 мая, 2010 at 19:23
should I turn off football manager and then it should be there? how do I go into the game?
Kevin Mayo
5 мая, 2010 at 19:25
Hello Johnny
Firstly, congratulations on winning the Champions League, a fitting way to end such an illustrious career. It is with a hint of sadness I write this as your exploits with Notts County have become part of our lives over the last several months so I’m sorry to see it end though on the other hand you have provided inspiration to many others including myself to try and achieve such greatness.Change though must have it’s way whether in the real world or that of fantasy so I wish you a good rest and good fortune as you prepare to embark on your new journey with Dorchester. Thank you for the impact you have made on us all whether we realize it or not.
Johnny Karp
5 мая, 2010 at 19:47
@Kevin
You are too kind again, thanks a lot for your support.
@Ravenie
You should place the extracted file into the My Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2010\games folder (or wherever your own saved games files are located), then start the game and try to load it.
Jake
5 мая, 2010 at 20:14
Congratulations Jonny
Another good story and looking forward to next one
What patch are you using because I downloaded your game and it won’t load.
I think this is because of different patches as i’m using the default
Jake
5 мая, 2010 at 20:14
Congratulations Jonny
Another good story and looking forward to next one
What patch are you using because I downloaded your game and it won’t load.
I think this is because of different patches as i’m using the default
Majk
5 мая, 2010 at 20:22
You get a bit teary-eyed realizing this is the last Notts County post we’ll see. It’s been a great journey. What an epic ending with 21 staff members showing their loyalty to you. Wonder if Notts County is going to plummet in the PL from now on? :P
Johnny Karp
5 мая, 2010 at 20:29
@Jake
Thanks for the comment. I started the game before the first patch but I’ve installed every patch that appeared from then, including 10.3 and that could be the problem. Did you extract the file?
@Majk
Thanks mate, I was impressed by the staff’s loyalty. I don’t think they’re going to plummet, the team is very good and I’m sure that most managers could get trophies with the current squad.
markjulian
5 мая, 2010 at 21:02
I cannot believe this, you have done fantastically well to take Notts Co to this many trophies!
I just can’t achieve that sort of thing with Football manager.
I shall send you an email soon.
Mark.
Johnny Karp
5 мая, 2010 at 21:13
Thanks Mark, I’m sure you can achieve even bigger things than this.
ravenie
5 мая, 2010 at 21:57
Im in the folder the others have steam icons but this one has a zippea?
Martin
5 мая, 2010 at 22:04
Great, Great Story Johnny And A Dramatic And Exciting Ending!
Kevin Is Right, You Have Certainly Inspired A Lot Of People!
Have A Nice Break And Try To Prepare For The Dorchester Challenge
Johnny Karp
5 мая, 2010 at 22:56
@Ravenie
Again, you should extract the file from the zip archive, then put it in that folder.
@Martin
Thanks for the kind words Martin, I’m glad that I could contribute with my efforts to the FM community.
Laxeyman
6 мая, 2010 at 00:13
Hi Johnny great ending with the Champions League win, it has been inspiring to read your Notts Co story. Good luck with Dorchester, I’m sure you’ll do well with them.
John
6 мая, 2010 at 01:28
Hey Johnny congratulations on an epic career with County! I’m relishing your new story with Dorchester, my Blyth career crashed, so now I have started with Havant & Waterlooville as they are pretty local to where I’m currently living and will try getting to some of their matches next season. So far I’m top of Blue Square South and in the 2nd round of FA cup having beaten Rochdale 3-2 after extra time! You should try getting Charles Devineau, he is with a french club but available on a free transfer and is a 5 star left midfielder. Good luck!
Martin
6 мая, 2010 at 01:28
I’ve Downloaded The Save.
Lots Of Exciting Things Could’ve Happened! These Are The Things That Happened When I Played On That Save. No Lies!
1. The Board Planned To Build A New 43000 Capacity Stadium Named The ‘Karp Arena’ In Honour Of Their Greatest Ever Manager.
2. The Board Set The Transfer Budget To £82m With About 200k Extra Wage Budget
3. Brazil Sacked Their Manager And Approached Virtual Johnny Karp (LOL)I Didn’t Want To Say ‘Me’ Because That Sounds Like I Created That Manager And Did All The Hard Work Etc. :P
Johnny Karp
6 мая, 2010 at 08:28
@Laxeyman
Thanks mate.
@John
Thanks for the suggestion, I’m sorry to hear that about your Blyth career.
@Martin
That’s unbelievable, they named a stadium after me? You are just kidding, right?
dami
6 мая, 2010 at 12:30
http://i865.photobucket.com/albums/ab213/dami007/JohnnyKarp-1.jpg
No kidding…a stadium named after you is truly extraodinary…
Congrats on your unrivalled success…
Goodluck with dorchester…it’s going to be extremely difficult…
Johnny Karp
6 мая, 2010 at 13:17
@Dami
Thanks for the screen shot mate, this is truly unbelievable. Now excuse me while I pinch myself and stare at the picture :)
dami
6 мая, 2010 at 16:49
unfortunately for you I’ll be the one to launch the new grounds…
Johnny Karp
6 мая, 2010 at 17:07
@Dami
Don’t worry, I have no regrets. I would be very happy if you could keep me up to date with your progress. And don’t sell Sam Hinshelwood! :)
Tuckersears
6 мая, 2010 at 17:42
Johnny,sorry,I have not benn able to comment lately but I have been reading the fantastic blog on my old computer with a few minor problems.Im in school as I write this haha.It’s my computer again,internet does not work now and the same problem that came up before it got sent away has come up again.Anyway,I have been able to play football manager though and I’m doing really good.First manager to win champions league with shakhtar!Its rude for me to speak about my game now so I’ll stop.Anyway,your progress as notts county has been amazing.You are truly a fantastic manager and you desrve all the credit you get.By the way,Who are you going to be next?
Johnny Karp
6 мая, 2010 at 18:33
@Sears
Hi mate, congrats on winning the Champions League! I’m going to manage Dorchester Town in Blue Square South, it’s going to be one hell of a challenge :)
ravenie
6 мая, 2010 at 20:29
Could you possibly recommend two replacements for Guilherme and Ashley Young :)
ravenie
6 мая, 2010 at 20:32
Ooh Balotelli says come and get me :)
cory berman
6 мая, 2010 at 21:08
wot a career cant really add anything to wot everyone else has said but im sure you’re very proud
dami
6 мая, 2010 at 21:23
i’ll try not to sell hinshlewood…but others may go(especially those who play out wide)since i don’t play wingers…
it’s a new regime in notts co.
Sears
6 мая, 2010 at 22:20
Johnny,yes it is.Just checked them out.Predicted bottom!But after your very succesfull Chester + Blyth’s story’s as weak teams,I’m confident you’ll be even more succesfull as Dorchester Town boss.I wish you luck in a long journey!
ravenie
6 мая, 2010 at 22:37
selling defour at 29 lol £9.25 mill.
You couldnt get Balotelli for £100m I can get him for £25m :D
Should I sell Sobis? Or one more season?
Johnny Karp
6 мая, 2010 at 23:06
@Cory Berman
Thanks a lot, I am quite proud indeed :)
@Sears
Thanks for the good luck wish.
@Ravenie
You’re having quite a bit of fun there, aren’t you? :) Sobis has been brilliant so far, I would let him stay for another season but I guess I’m sentimental.
@Dami
Hinshelwood can play as a CM or AM too, keep him! :) You could get quite a bit of money for the wingers, negotiate good prices for them.
Dan
7 мая, 2010 at 16:31
Great achievement mate, your record is untouchable! I seriously think you’re the best around. What makes it more impressive is you make tactics that others then go on to use. Was all that success with your version 3 tactic? Amazing stuff mate, I look forward to the next story!
Johnny Karp
7 мая, 2010 at 17:54
@Dan
Thanks, you are too kind. About the tactic, I tweaked it along the way but nothing too big, just small adjustments to get the most out of the new and better players. If I remember correctly it reached version 4.2 during the last season.
Andries
7 мая, 2010 at 18:33
Enjoy your few days off. You know you earned it!! I’m really looking forward to your Dorchester Town adventure! Good Luck!
Johnny Karp
8 мая, 2010 at 01:22
@Andries
Thanks a lot. I’m eager to start the Dorchester game but unfortunately I couldn’t find the time to do that. I hope to have a more quiet weekend and get it started.
Joseph
8 мая, 2010 at 16:31
Fantastic story-loved every single month of it. What sort of changes to you make to your tactic every time you edit it?
Johnny Karp
8 мая, 2010 at 16:58
Thanks Joseph. The things I changed more frequently are the defensive line (I pushed it higher and higher up), that goes with more pressing. During the last seasons I also gave the players more and more freedom to express their talent on the pitch by moving from rigid to balanced philosophy and then to fluid.
Mícheál
9 мая, 2010 at 10:58
well done jonny. sad to see you leave but hopefully you can do the same with dorchester. would i be able to download the game for 2009
callum
9 мая, 2010 at 23:27
well done mate
are you using the same save or a new one?
Johnny Karp
10 мая, 2010 at 08:57
@Micheal
I don’t have the 2009 save anymore.
@Callum
Thanks. I already started a whole new game with Dorchester.
angel
17 мая, 2010 at 17:18
hola Karp me gustaria saber como se hace para segir con la partida que usted dejo para seguir la campaña con el nots
Johnny Karp
18 мая, 2010 at 15:09
@Angel
Sorry, my Spanish is quite poor so I’m not sure I understand your message completely.
Lewis
3 июня, 2010 at 17:01
amazing story! one question though, can you link me to whatever skin your using? its quality!
Johnny Karp
5 июня, 2010 at 16:57
@Lewis
Thanks for the compliment. The skin is called «Vitreous», you can find it here.
hils
22 августа, 2010 at 10:34
what an ending to a AWESOME story,JOHNNY your 100 times better than me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Johnny Karp
22 августа, 2010 at 10:51
Thanks Hils, it was a pretty good story I reckon but I’m trying to make an even better one with Dorchester Town! :)