Central Midfielders
I kept just one of my former central midfielders, youngster Mark Brown. He was an essential player for us last season but now he will have to compete for a place in the starting eleven with four new midfielders, some very good ones I might add. First there is 19-year old Czech giant Radek Vecera, a very tall central midfielder with very good technique. I believe that this lad could become the next Vieira, I expect a lot from him. By the way, I bought him for just 1.1 million pounds from Czech side Slovan Liberec.
Then there is another young sensation, 18-year old Dutch youth international Shyamdew Weibolt. I spent 2 million pounds to buy him from Feyenoord but I believe that he’s well worth it given his potential.
19-year old German youth international Elias Kost joined us on a free transfer from Manchester United, he’s not as good as the first two but I believe that he has the potential to become at least a good piece of business.
With four youngsters in the middle of the park I decided to add an experienced backup player to the lot: 27-year old Spanish midfielder Inigo Perez, bought for 475K from Championship side Sheffield Wednesday. He should be a reliable player although he never managed to play in the top flight before.
Strikers
We already have Andrés and Ibrahima MBow, two very good strikers that should shine in the Premier League, so I brought in just two new strikers to make that department even more competitive. The first signing was Slovakian youth international Pavol Vesely, I paid 950K for him to Polish club Ruch Chorzow. This lad has some pretty good attributes for his young age and his determination should help him to improve over the next few years.
And last but not least, a player that most of you already know from my under 18 wonderkids list: Connor Wickham. He is 22 years old now and, believe it or not, I snapped him up on a free transfer after his Ipswich deal expired. His talent is still there, the potential is still there and I believe that he is the ideal candidate for my «complete forward» role: tall, strong, fairly quick and also with decent technical abilities. I think that he has what it takes to become a club legend in a few years, he just has to work hard to reach his potential and I’ll give him lots of first team football to help him with that.
These were our new signings but the best and most expensive one is still to come. Normally I didn’t want to spend money on a player that would join the club in January but I decided to do that because this player is well worth it. Ladies and gentlemen, we’ll be waiting for him until the 1st of January 2016 but he is a true wonderkid: Paraná, a world-class 17-year old Brazilian striker from Botafogo. I paid 3.8 million pounds for this lad but his talent if obvious and his mental attributes are excellent at his age.
The assistant manager believes that we have enough depth but I don’t agree with the first eleven that he chose in the report, Van Damme will be playing as a left back in most games with Dyer or Porokara as left midfielders.
We played 8 friendly games and I’m pleased to say that we went through those unbeaten. We met two Premier League sides, Arsenal and Blackburn, and we managed to grab two goalless draws in those games but we should have won both since we dominated quite clearly.
We were handed a pretty difficult start to the season since we’ll be meeting Manchester United and Tottenham (joint-favorites for the title) in the first month. I hope to beat Blackburn in the opening day of the season and then give those two a good run for their money…
Before concluding the post I have a screen shot that was requested by Plobdork, there you go mate! I’m not a club legend but I guess that’s just temporary :)
That’s about it for now my friends, thanks a lot for reading the post and for supporting my Motormen throughout their incredible journey from Blue Square North to the Premier League.
P.S.: Stay tuned for an important announcement later today! :)
Vaibhav C.
25 марта, 2011 at 10:32
Hey Johnny,
Brilliant signings there, I feel with these players you can get that mid-table finish. I bought Wickham for Burnley and his finishing is 15 and heading is 15. Jelle Van Damme is a good left-back, I think you will now be better at the back. You also signed many wonderkids, and they are all really good. Is Howard going to start? I feel you should start him. Parana is also really good. P.S. I can’t wait for the announcement.
Johnny Karp
25 марта, 2011 at 11:26
Hey Vaibhav, I guess the mid-table prediction could prove right. I don’t know about Howard, I guess I will start with him and then keep him if he does well.
mark
25 марта, 2011 at 18:19
hi, great story as usual but i was wondering whenever you show your plater profile (i.e connor wickham or others), would you mind showing the stats map in which it shows the player stats circle within the ring of stats?
i find it much easier to determine if the player is good or not and i found it quite easier to know the quality of the players. i am not saying the players you sign are bad but it took me quite a long time to know the quality of the players base only on the numbers and not the graphical representation
would you mind showing that?
cheers, great story and you know i will be following……………. silently……………
Johnny Karp
25 марта, 2011 at 19:57
Thanks for the comment Mark. The skin that I’m using doesn’t show the graphical view of the attributes in the profile and I have to admit that I rarely look at that display, mostly in the comparison screen. So I guess it would be difficult to post those unless I change the skin but I can say that I will look into that at least, maybe I can find a skin that would include my favorite features and the graphical attributes in the profile.
Darren Smith
25 марта, 2011 at 10:50
Parana and Wickham upfront, what an absolute dream!!!!! Can’t wait for January and he may well come at the perfect time. Honestly Johnny the bargains you find for young regens is great and you seem to build squads from small budgets that could last years. Well done mate.
ps I wonder what that announcement is? ;)
Johnny Karp
25 марта, 2011 at 11:27
It might be Parana and Andrés, Wickham might struggle to get in the starting eleven. :) Just around half an hour until the announcement, be patient :P
Excessive
25 марта, 2011 at 12:04
Haha I’m itching to know what this announcement is!
Anyway back to that story of yours, and you have made some great captures there mate!
Parana looks to be awesome, make sure the ‘minimum fee release clause’ is very high on that one, you don’t want other clubs sniffing around your talent.
As for the others, central midfield is again very strong and with them being very young youve got a decent building block for them to improve.
Left midfield isn’t looking too grand though, it’s hard I know to get decent wingers, had that trouble myself.
You’ve got alot of young players in though and I’m sure you won’t need to spend loads on new players for a while which means improvement on the facilities! Woo :)
Anyway good luck mate, especially for those games against Spuds and Man u, hopefully you can get revenge on them this time ;).
Johnny Karp
25 марта, 2011 at 13:56
Thanks for the comment Jake. I think that Parana doesn’t even have a minimum fee release clause, I always try to avoid such clauses. We have a tough schedule in August but I have confidence in my lads.
MRDNRA
25 марта, 2011 at 13:32
£10.75M transfer budget isn’t all that much, but it’s still about £2M more than I got with Leicester in my fairly new game.
Looks like you’ve found some excellent youth talent there, hopefully they’ll live up to their potential and help you avoid relegation at the very least.
Johnny Karp
25 марта, 2011 at 13:58
Thanks mate, we have to avoid the drop, otherwise all the good work would do down the drain (players will leave etc).
Sears
25 марта, 2011 at 15:06
Hey pal,
great signings like usual. I’m sure you have enough quality to steer clear of the relegation spots. Goodluck!
Johnny Karp
25 марта, 2011 at 15:42
Thanks Sears, I hope we will stay away from the last three spots.
hils
25 марта, 2011 at 16:21
Hi Johnny,great signings there!!!!!!!! I’m sure you should avoid relegation!!!!!!!!! Good luck!!!!!!!!!
Johnny Karp
25 марта, 2011 at 19:51
Thanks Hils!
Laxeyman
25 марта, 2011 at 16:23
Pretty good signings Johnny, you’ve got a lot of youngsters with great potential, although your left side looks a bit weak. Despite that, you’ve got some very good strikers and central midfielders, and I reckon you can get that mid table finish, if not higher. Good luck!
Johnny Karp
25 марта, 2011 at 19:52
Thanks Laxeyman, the left flank still troubles me but I can’t seem to grab any of the left wingers that I want.
Laxeyman
25 марта, 2011 at 20:13
btw Johnny, how did you manage to get a youth academy? I can’t get one even when I ask my board, it’s greyed out for some reason, and now that I’m in the Championship I could desperately do with one, especially as the board gave me only £40 as a transfer budget!
Johnny Karp
25 марта, 2011 at 20:17
Nah, the board refused all my requests to improve the youth and training facilities, they must be thinking that expanding the stadium is enough for now…
Laxeyman
25 марта, 2011 at 20:23
But have you not got a youth system? I’d have thought a premier league club would have. My board refuse my requests to improve all facilities, they’ve expanded the stadium by 1500 seats that’s all…
Johnny Karp
25 марта, 2011 at 20:45
All I have is this: «basic youth facilities». That’s all as far as I know.
Lye
25 марта, 2011 at 16:46
Hi Johnny,
As usual you have focused on the youth and some really nice signing there. This season will be more on a transition period. The idea is to establish motorman in Premier League. I believe you can finish in mid-table as i have confidence in your strikers. Good luck on your debut season.
Johnny Karp
25 марта, 2011 at 19:53
Thanks Lye, that’s what I hope as well, that the strikers would pull us out of trouble…
Stromson
25 марта, 2011 at 18:54
Are you continuing to use your Notts County 4-4-2 at this stage?
Johnny Karp
25 марта, 2011 at 19:58
Yes, I will stick to my 4-4-2 setup.
Kevin
25 марта, 2011 at 23:41
Hi Johnny
You sir are a steely eyed missle man! I had to work in an Apollo13 reference sometime :)
The mix of youth and experience is just brilliant and that Brazilian kid Parana is going to eat up defenders :)
Tim Howard was just inspired as is Perez and Wickham. Thorsten and Radec look pretty decent too. Great pre season results and can’t wait for the real action to begin. Well done!!!
Johnny Karp
26 марта, 2011 at 09:40
Hey Kevin. I hope that we won’t get to say this after the first league games: «Houston, we have a problem!» :) The youngsters are promising but we might have to be patient with them since they lack Premier League experience.
Sayam Khan
26 марта, 2011 at 14:33
Hi Johnny,
Julian Marino is a brilliant signing! As are Vecera and Weibolt! Can’t wait to see Parana playing for you also. You didn’t get a big budget but you didn’t spend a lot of it either!
JuanDiego de la Piedra
28 марта, 2011 at 06:00
Hey Johnny,
Back in FM2008 I took Serie C Arezzo to the Serie A (the 1-0 debut in Serie at San Siro was probably the highlight of 5 years) but got tired after a mid table finish and didnt get to my goal which was to be Europe Champion.
You Motormen Story has inspired me to start again and today I got Casale Calcio from the Serie C2/A promoted after a busy FM weekend.
Congrats and good luck on Premier League!
Just one question…what are your corner kick orders? its impressive the amount of goals made by your center backs!
im aiming far post and got 9 corner kick goals this first season, not too bad!
Johnny Karp
28 марта, 2011 at 08:47
Hi mate, I’m glad that you found inspiration in my story and I wish you the best of luck with Casale! About my corners, I set one of the centre backs to challenge goalkeeper and the second one to attack far post while the corners are aimed at the far post.
Mark R
28 марта, 2011 at 16:42
Whats this special announcement?
Johnny Karp
28 марта, 2011 at 16:54
This is the announcement: https://www.footballmanagerstory.com/2011/03/very-important-announcement/
Craig D
4 апреля, 2011 at 15:26
Hi Johnny
Iv been playing football manager for some time now and dont seem to get much success. I was wondering what tactics you have used to get Vauxhall Motors into the Premiership.
Johnny Karp
5 апреля, 2011 at 07:55
Craig, you can try out my tactic here: https://www.footballmanagerstory.com/2010/11/download-my-football-manager-2011-tactic/
Craig D
5 апреля, 2011 at 16:03
thankss :)