Football Manager 2007

[IAceI]

You tied Liverpool?

¬_¬

Edited May 27, 2007 by IAceI

[stokeriño]

Aston Villa End of 07/08 Season Review:

Curiously enough, the league was a bit of a disappointment in the end. I say 'curiously', considering at one stage I was figuring "I'll be happy with 12th". We had an awesome run of form during March/April and I thought I could sneak a Champions League spot (I was 3rd at one point). However it then all fell apart with a string of poor results: drew 1-1 with Reading, 0-0 with Fulham, and then got hammered 5-3 on the last day by Man Utd (2 of my 3 goals were in the last five minutes, so really it was worse than it looks). We finished 7th in the end, but we already had a UEFA Cup spot courtesy of the League Cup, so that didn't really matter either way.

Then it was the big one...the FA Cup final, facing Arsenal in a rematch of the League Cup final three months prior. I've taken to playing the Advent Children version of 'One Winged Angel' in the background when I'm playing very difficult, very important games. Don't ask me why. Anyway, it was all pretty damn tense and I spent the whole game having van Persie flinging shots across my goal. Then, 80 minutes into the match - just when the song was at it's Cloud-defeats-Sephiroth climax, Baros scored!! A 1-0 win and a domestic trophy double, fabuloso.

My board gave me a fuck load of transfer money when I signed a new 2 year contract with the club in April, so I immediately went and spent almost all of it (£20m) on José Antonio Reyes, who's coming over in July and should be an awesome addition for next season. Reyes, Baros, Angel and Moore (who found form sometime around February, yay) will be my squad's attacking foursome. The only other player I want to buy is a new central defender (and maybe a right winger when I eventually get more money), but I'll have to sell Odemwingie first. No one seems to want him, unsurprisingly, the piece of shit that he is.

And so, my main squad heading into the 07/08 season and European competition currently stands thusly:

Goalkeepers:

- Jerzy Dudek (signed for £2.8m in the January transfer window, now #1 keeper. Sold Sorensen to Chievo for £1.4m to balance it a bit, since he wasn't performing particularly well)

- Stuart Taylor (second choice keeper, since he's not as consistently good as Dudek is. He let in 30 goals this season and only played for 2/3 of it. Yikes.)

- Kasper Schmeichel (also signed in the January transfer window for £900k. Keeper for the future)

- Stephen Henderson (another young keeper with prospects, but I'm more optimistic about Schmeichel than him. Still, good to keep around if he doesn't work out)

Defenders:

- Gareth Barry (was injured for a number of months, first with a torn hamstring and then a fractured wrist, but he bosses the defence nicely from a DC position)

- Wilfred Bouma (preferred DL, put in a lot of great performances through the season. MOTM in the FA Cup final)

- Petri Pasenen (DR, and team captain since he has an influence of 20. I'd say he's been well worth the £4.1m I paid for him at the start of the season)

- Mark Delaney (only started playing him in DC when he started moaning about first-team football. He actually played quite well, certainly as good as Mellberg, but he's getting old and shouldn't be relied upon)

- Olof Mellberg (was...acceptable as a DC throughout the season, but he had a tendency to be rather average or slip up on occasions. Spent the end of the season out with a slipped disc)

- Gary Cahill (central defender who sits on the bench. I had no complaints about him when he played, but he's not exactly screaming to be a regular in the first XI)

- Jlloyd Samuel (filled in at left-back well whenever Barry or Bouma or both were injured. Solid if unspectaculer job, I'll be keeping him around as a backup)

- Aaron Hughes (barely saw a game since Pasenen became a regular. May get rid of him, but not if I can't find a new defender to buy)

- Martin Laursen (is unhappy at not being played, will be leaving soon)

- Liam Ridgewell (transfer listed, Portsmouth, Burnley and Southend are apparently interested)

Midfielders:

- Kléberson (awesome, awesome buy for £3.5m. Had highest Av Rating for the season (7.30), won the English Footballer of the Year and scored 14 goals to boot. Not bad for a DM)

- Gaizka Mendieta (another one I feel was well worth the £3.5m I paid for him. A rock in the centre of the pitch, excellent at penalties and free kicks. He scored 7 times this season)

- Peter Whittingham (Christ, if this guy hasn't had everyone and their mother singing his praises this season. Second only to Kléberson in Av Rating, he's also joint top of the Premiership's Most Assists board. First choice for the ML position, no question)

- Steven Davis (has done very well considering his age and has been able to rotate in central midfield with Kléberson/Mendieta without blinking an eyelid. More to come from him, I think)

- Stiliyan Petrov (usually the first choice for MR, but it's not so set in stone these days. Had some injury difficulties with fractured ribs and the like)

- Didier Agathe (the other MR, and has performed admirably when he's been on the pitch. He's already 31 though, and looks like the years are beginning to get to him)

- Isaiah Osbourne ("touted as the next Steven Gerrard", this 19 year old didn't 'wow' me in any of his dozen appearances for the first team, but he is alright and I look forward to seeing him improve)

- Lee Hendrie (ah, a very familiar Aston Villa name. He meainly occupies the subs bench but is competant enough when needed to fill in)

Strikers:

- Milan Baros (28 goals this season - 14 in the league and 14 in the cups! Wouldn't be where we are now without this guy)

- Juan Pablo Angel (a good 13 goals this season, 12 in the league, and spends his time tussling with Moore for the second striker spot. Who knows when Reyes comes in, though?)

- Luke Moore (managed to pull in 12 goals in the end despite a poor start. Liverpool, Man Utd and Arsenal have all been asking about him and a strong "NO" coupled with a new 5 year contract should keep him at Villa Park. Can only get better, I should think)

- Peter Odemwingie (Ugh, just ugh. I stopped playing him completely towards the end of the season because he never achieved anything. £6.5m he cost me - you realise that's £1.3m PER GOAL? He scored 14 for Lille the year before as well. Looking to offload him ASAP, but nobody looks like biting yet)

- Gabriel Agbonlahor (experimented with him a few times, but didn't really achieve anything except for one late goal during a 4-2 FA Cup win over Blackburn. Still not good enough to be a contender yet)

- José Antonio Reyes (looking forward to this guy. Spent the year on loan to Real Madrid where he bagged 13 goals)

Other transfers out that occured during the season were Jordan Collins going to Dundee Utd for £400k, and Chris Sutton being released on a free transfer.

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with the way the season went. (Y)

[estebanmon]

You tied Liverpool?

¬_¬

Edited May 27, 2007 by estebanmon

[Number of the Breast]

Bobby Robinson, Dumbarton Under 19s, an old friend of mine, lives on the same street as me.

What? So I'm a little behind on the 'my friends are in the game' thing

Edited May 27, 2007 by Charlie Pace

[stokeriño]

You tied Liverpool?

¬_¬

Excuse me, I drew Liverpoole. Sue me. >_>

?

Edited May 27, 2007 by stokeriño

[estebanmon]

Ugh, I finished 2-2 in a football match against Liverpool. Happy?

[stokeriño]

Not really.

I think you'll find that under the Laws of the Universe, it was obligatory for someone to post a picture of a pencil at that point.

[FLiam]

Just wondering, the board takeovers file option is unticked by default on the preferences. When I tick it, when I go back it is unticked, how do I keep it on, I want the board takeovers option on. I don't get it.

[estebanmon]

I've never looked at the preferences screen. >_>

Anyway, after 9 league games I won 2, lost 1, and DREW the rest. I got an upset DRAW against Man U, which is always good. A the butchers from Liverpool broke Luke Moore's wrist, but he's fit again. And I don't know if I should feel lucky to have gotten most of those DRAWS with 4 of my strikers injured. It seems Mollberg or whatever the Swedish defender's name is finally getting to play good. I signed some 36 year old defender from Morocco just in case anyway.

Oh, and someone broke Delgado's leg too. >_>

[ONO]

My Southampton side have been playing well. We notched up 5 straight league wins and are top of the table. I have Robbie Fowler and David Weir coming in January. I also have a shit load of cash from the board, so I'll dab about with it here and there.

[Summers]

I've never looked at the preferences screen. >_>

Anyway, after 9 league games I won 2, lost 1, and DREW the rest. I got an upset DRAW against Man U, which is always good. A the butchers from Liverpool broke Luke Moore's wrist, but he's fit again. And I don't know if I should feel lucky to have gotten most of those DRAWS with 4 of my strikers injured. It seems Mollberg or whatever the Swedish defender's name is finally getting to play good. I signed some 36 year old defender from Morocco just in case anyway.

Oh, and someone broke Delgado's leg too. >_>

Mellberg.

How hard is to fucking read and then spell a name?

[ONO]

Wait..he signed a 36 year old from Morocco to replace Mellberg?

=X

[stokeriño]

I bought a 25 year old Israeli to replace Mellberg. Tal Ben Haim, £4m.

[Summers]

Ben Haim should have been a Villa player, we had him on trial, O'Leary didn't rate him. He went to Bolton.

[IAceI]

3rd season with Sao Paulo seems to be going tits up. We're losing more matches, and just underperforming all round. I was hoping this would be my year as well, but that's not looking likely, I'm upset

[estebanmon]

Mellberg.

How hard is to fucking read and then spell a name?

[Summers]

Oh dear.

So I'm still at Lyon, last season I picked up a nice haul - the league and uefa cup, so I was pleased. A few players this season want to leave, they realize they could go elsewhere thats better than the french league.. and so do I.

I said I'd leave at the end of the season, which is over a month away. Milan, who are suffering - down in 15th somehow, they were predicted 4th - just offered me the job. Milan is a bigger club, and the Italian league would be a new challenge, and rebuilding Milan could be very fun.

But can I leave Lyon with 7 matches left? Decisions, decisions!

--

Mellberg is FAR from an 'unknown player'. Swedish international, former captain, and played in Spain before moving to Villa. Nothing close to being unknown.

Edited May 27, 2007 by The Summ

[IAceI]

I was going to say no one takes Summers seriously anymore with those sort of comments, but then you said Mellberg is relatively unknown so I'll just sit back and watch

¬_¬

[estebanmon]

If you lived thousands of miles away from England where there's no TV station that has ever shown a Villa game you would think he's unknown. >_>

[Summers]

He was the captain of the Swedish team for years. He's still not an unknown player, despite never seeing Villa play.

Anyway..

God bless Milan!

They said I can decide at the end of the season, here's hoping I can nick the French league again, then leave to Italy.

Edited May 27, 2007 by The Summ