Well after my FM Uninstalled itself i lost my Aston Vila game, so i decided to make a new one. Newcastle where a team id never been before so I didnt know what to expect...
Pre Season Predictions : Board: The Board expected me to be a challenger for the Prem Title at the end of a two year plan. In order to achieve this, Mike Cashley lived up to his name and gave me £22M. They expected me to finish atleast in a European spot at the end of the first season.
Cups: Minumunm expectation for FA Cup was 6th Round, and for league cup was Quater Final.
Media: The Media had a completley differnet idea about the League this yeah, they only expected me to finish in 10th place...which i couldnt really belive with £22 Million to play with, i would have sacked my self...
Transfers: I didnt want too spend too much as Newcastle had a reasonably good squad, apart from that shambles at the back Aka defence.
Heres who i brought in....
http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/6...ransfernp3.png Barragan for £8M brought a lot of unrest to the squad. But i decided to take the risk. All the others i was quite sure of that they could easily perform in the Premiership.
Habib Beye had failed to impress in previous games i had scouted him in, so i decided to off load him.
So the beginning of the season loomed, and i thought i had a decent squad to live up to my boards expectations.....but i certainly wasnt expecting what happened next.
Here are the results of my 1st 17 games as new manager of Newcastle United:
http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/3...ewcastlqq5.png A great start to the Season, with some fantastic results.
Most notably:
Newcastle 5-1 Liverpool
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/2...oolovervy3.png Newcastle 3-1 Man Utd (Carling Cup)
http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/7...overvieik9.png My next load of games:
http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/7...ewcastlhf4.png Again, Some fantastic results:
A Nil Nil draw at Old Trafford ( No need for screenie) which to my bewilderment, my board were dissapointed with.
Liverpool 0-3 Newcastle
http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/1...tleoversm3.png As you have probably noticed. My run in the Carling Cup has been great, beating Bournmouth, Man Utd, Derby and Reading to reach the Semi Final, where i was too play West Ham.
Heres how the Semi Final 1st leg turned out...
West Ham 1-1 Newcastle. Decent result in my eyes, taking an away goal and an obivous advantage back to St. James'.
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/4...eoverviet8.png The second leg was a disappointing 0-0 at home, which went in to extra time and i won on away goals. So this meant i would meat Arsenal, Who where having a poor season, being 7th in the league, in the Final. Having already beat them once this season, i was confident i could do it again!
Carling Cup Final:
Newcastle 2-1 Arsenal. So a good piece of silverware at the first possible chance which i was pleased about.
http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/3...loverviuz2.png The Fa cup how ever was a differnet story, as i crashed out in the 3rd round with an appaling 3-1 defeat to Sheff Utd. It could have been more as they missed a penalty in the last minute.
After my Carling Cup Success, i have had 2 games. The first of which being a comfortable 3-1 away win over Reading...and my other one being a not so comfortbale 4-0 home defeat to Man City, in possibly my worst result of the season. Hopefully i will be able to bounce back after this, and get some 'pre carling cup sucsess' form back.
So after 28 games of the season gone, i was exceeding all the odds. Not just chasing for the Champions League, but maybe, Just maybe even for the title. Unlikely, but you know these geordie fans, Ill be hung if i dont win it!!
Heres the table so far:
http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/6...visionlts9.png My best performer of the season has by far been Oba Martins, but the strikers alone have been fantastic.
Obafemi Martins: 24 starts 21 goals, with 9 assists and 6 man of the match awards, and an average rating of 7.30
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/6...profilegz0.png Michael Owen: 22 starts 15 goals, with 6 assists and 2 man of the match awards, and an average rating of 7.03.
http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/7...profileid4.png Heres my Tactics and the team that lost 0-4 to Man City!
http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/3...ewcastlkl7.png Will post more updates at the end of the season!!
