I have a dream…

Hello everyone!

I’ve been absent for 6-7 weeks now. Main reason is a lot of work I have to do in my high school senior year. Another reason is I got a little bored with my save.

Fortunately, I completed all of the school/non-school tasks that were in front of me, and I started to miss FM so the season four of my Leeds story continues!

First to remind you, preseason was successful and season started in a nice way for me.
Goals for the remainder of the story are set:

Matches:

So, we had 5 wins since the last post. Actually, it was 4 wins and a 0-0 draw that we ended with a positive penalty shoot-out outcome.

Best game and the weirdest one.

Fantastic win over Celtic.

Many missed penalties. My second keeper Andujar saved 4 penalties!

Team:

Darren Bent is the biggest surprise of the period. Since the last post, he played in 4 matches and scored 10 goals. I hope he continues good form!

I won’t criticize this early in the season, but I expected more from Damiao and Walcott. Hope they live up to the expectations.

Future:

Fixtures:

ECC:

We’re 6th favourite for the title. That means quarter/semi final finish. I hope I will get at least to the Finals.

There is a game against Real Madrid.

They are made slight favourites. I have to watch out for Cristiano Ronaldo and Gonzalo Higuain who started the season magnificently!

That’s all from me for now.

I hope you enjoyed the post and that you will continue reading my story!

Any thoughts, comments or suggestions are welcome!

Hello everyone,
it’s another post about Leeds United story. We’re in season 4 now, as you probably know, we won EPL last season and finished CL runners-up.

You can read about my preseason here.

Story targets:

I haven’t set real story targets at the beginning. Only target was to bring Leeds back to top of English football.
Now, after 3 seasons played, I set concrete targets for the story.

Main targets:

  Win Champions League
  Win the ‘treble’ – EPL+CL+Cup (Community Shield doesn’t count).

Special targets:

  Win CL 2 years in a row in seasons 4 and 5
  Get to Euro 2016 Semi Finals with Croatia.

After finishing main targets (and hopefully special targets) I will end this story and start a new one.

Now, let’s talk about season 4 start.

Community Shield:

This competition has now become my official curtain raiser for the season. If you remember, last season we beat Man United.

This season we had to face Tottenham (who won FA Cup last season).
I expected a win. There were no big surprises although I didn’t expect to concede 2 goals.

Premier League:

I already told you we will face Arsenal, Everton and Chelsea at the start. We got 7 points out of this three-game season start. We drew Arsenal (0-0) and beat Everton (1-0) and Chelsea (3-0).

Chelsea game was fun. We weren’t much better than they were, we just finished our chances. That’s what big teams do, they win even when they play badly.

 

Table:

West Brom had a flying start into the season, again. Aston Villa started well after being promoted from Championship last season.

Champions League:

We got a tough group.

 

We’ll have to face Real Madrid (we beat them in CL Quarter Finals last season), good Celtic and OM sides. However I believe we will qualify for the knockout phase, maybe from the 1st place too.

 

Fixtures played:

Team:

I haven’t used many players in first games. I have to point out my defence is again doing great.
Nicolas Gaitan got injured in the CS game.

I will miss him but hopefully Walcott and Snodgrass will replace him as best as they can.

I owe you my squad depth analysis.

And, here is my U-18 team. There are couple really good potentials.

Club info and reputation:

  

I have become one of the Club Legends!

  Club info from 2011.

Also, compare Club info from the start of the story. I talked about it here.

Estimated value went from 19.5M to 337M !

 

Our reputation is now pretty high.

Boardroom:

 

As you can see, my job is very secure and I have much transfer money left.

Transfers:

Transfer window roundup

 

Xavi:

 

I have to mention Xavi. He left Barcelona on a free transfer and signed for Sevilla.
Pay attention to his current ability report from my scout Rod Ruddick.

He played well. I can only see him losing his place in team to Alan Dzagoev and Thiago Alcantara as a reason to leave Barcelona.

National team:

I have one more friendly game before Euro 2016 qualifications start.

Upcoming:

We now have various games every 3-6 days. Having a big squad is something that will be essential now.

That’s all. Thank you for reading. Stay tuned!

Any thoughts, comments or suggestions are welcome!

Hello everybody,
season IV is on its way. This post will contain info of my team for the season, summer transfers…

Transfers out:

So, Sturridge was someone I planned to keep on my team, but I got him loaned out due to good offer, little playing time…

Lonergan and Gai were too weak for my team. Fabio Borini was sold because he was my worst striker and I couldn’t see him getting any more value in future. If you remember, I got him for free 2 years ago.

Tranfers in:

I was given a lot of money. 125 M and 1100 K p/w too spend. My primary targets were:
-backup DL
-2 rotation ST
-starter MC
-starter/rotation DC
-couple youngsters
Also, one of the things I wanted is as much as possible English signings.

Let’s say something about signed players.

Ryan Shawcross DC

Good English DC. Strong, athletic, good in air, determined. One of top English central defenders (alongside Phil Jones, John Terry…)

Tom Huddlestone (D)MC

Great midfielder. Not too fast but good team player, great passer, versatile. Just what I needed.

Theo Walcott AMR/ST

Got unhappy at Arsenal. Both striker and winger. Fast, pacey and productive.

Darren Bent ST

Last season top goalscorer in Championship. Experienced, athletic, determined. Fantastic acquisition.

Kieran Gibbs DL/WBL/(A)ML

Young, fast, versatile. Best as an offensive left-back. Great backup.

Young guns:

These regens should become great footballers in couple of seasons.

Rest of the team:

These guys did great job last season. Hope they can do it this season too.

This would be my Starting Eleven for the season. There are a few rotations like Hazard to AMC, Verratti to MC, Gaitan to AML, Walcott to AMR, Huddlestone to bench.

We were given best odds for winning the EPL this season (this was received after Bent and Walcott transfers). In the meantime I got Huddlestone, but other teams signed some quality players, especially Man City. Hopefully I can repeat last season success and win EPL and add CL (lost to Man Utd in Final) to it.

Matches:

I had only 6 friendlies this season. We played OK after the loss against Athletic where Fernando Llorente scored a hat-trick.

Our season starts with Community Shield clash against Tottenham. I will face Arsenal and Chelsea in my first 3 games in the league but there are a couple of easy opponents afterwards.

Other:

I received offers from England and Turkey after WC but I refused to give up Croatia manager role.

Thank you for reading! Stay tuned as we go to Season IV of Leeds United story!

Dear readers,
it’s the last post about Season 3 of Leeds story. Next post will be about preseason in 2014.

So, let’s begin

England:

It was an interesting season in England.
My players won:
Leandro Damiao – Top Goalscorer, Footballer of the year (2nd), Team of the year
Marco Verratti – Player of the year (3rd), Team of the year
Sebastien Bassong – Team of the year
Nicolas Gaitan – Goal of the season, Signing of the season

Also, my players were one of the best in almost every statistic available.

I won a Manager of the year award second year in a row.

Aston Villa, Leicester and Burnley will change places with Fulham, Birmingham and Q.P.R.

Spain:

Italy:

France:

Germany:

Europe:

Marco Verratti, Eden Hazard and Dmytro Chygrynskyi were in the CL Dream Team.

Europa League:

World Cup 2014:

Golden Boot – Edinson Cavani – 6 goals (4 games)
Golden Glove – Salvatore Sirigu – 2 conceded, 5 clean sheets, 6.93 (7 games)
Best Player – Sebastian Giovinco – 1 goal, 6 assists, 7.49 (7 games)
Best Young Player – Marco Verratti – 1 goal, 1 assist, 7.10 (3 games)

Awards:

Europe:

Leandro Damiao won Europe Golden Boot!

World:

That’s it. It was an eventful season.

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned!

Any comments, thoughts or suggestions are welcome!

Hello all,
it’s another post about my Leeds story.

You can read about events in April here.
Let’s see what happened in May 2014.

Matches:

First, we had to face Norwich. Easy opponent => easy win.

Leeds 3-1 Norwich

Then, we had to go up a strong Tottenham side at White Hart Lane. Everything ended well and we deserved our 3 points.

Tottenham 0-2 Leeds

Before the last match against relegation contender Fulham side, we were tied with Chelsea at the top with 90 points. Also, we had better goal difference.

We went full attack at Fulham and won, just like Chelsea won against Stoke.

Leeds 3-0 Fulham

This meant we won the title!

It’s funny how Chelsea dropped points against weaker opponents in the last games.

Our last game of the season was CL Final against Manchester United. I had high hopes for this match.

They had an early penalty, but Leandro Damiao equalised. Sadly, we couldn’t take our shots and they scored two goals in the second half and took 3-1 lead. In the end, Marco Verratti took a nice shot and scored for final 3-2 result.

Matches:

Thoughts on season finish:

I have to quote Vitaliy here:

I thought the same before the last 3-4 matches, but looks like the game had something other in mind.
Anyway, I’m happy with the season finish.

Team:

Verratti was our best player scoring 13 times, dishing 24 assists and averaging 7.50 in 49 games. Leandro Damiao had a big season being our top goalscorer with 36 goals in 46 games. Hazard, Bassong, Chygrynskyi, Vrsaljko, Gaitan, Sinclair, Alex Sandro, Emanuelson, Howson, Yobo and both of our keepers, Adler and Andujar played a big part in this season. I have to mention 13 assists by Alex Sandro and 12 assists by Damiao.

Future:

I managed to bring Leeds back to the top of English and European football. It took me only 3 seasons, which is great comparing to my expectation of 5. Also, because of this, a question about my future arises.

Bayern approached me and Liverpool and AC Milan are without a coach.
Should I continue building Leeds United or should I try my self with other clubs (leagues)? I will tell you about my decision in my next post where I’ll analyse season 2013-14.
Your thoughts on the subject will also be taken into account.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned.

Any comments or suggestions are welcome!