Finished my first season with Celtic lastnight.
My signings in the first season were:
Luka Modric (AM RLC; £3m, Dinamo)
Rodrigo Palacio (ST, £9m, Boca)
Mika Aarlito (AM LC, ST, £400k, TPS)
James McCarthy (M RC, £150k, Hamilton)
Loans In:
Sebastian Leto (end of season, Liverpool)
Justin Hoyte (end of season, Arsenal)
Mattheiu Flamini (end of season, Arsenal)
Major players out:
Evander Sno (£3m, Sampdoria)
Chris Killen (£4m, Stoke)
Jiri Jarosik (£4.5m, Birmingham)
Derek Riordan (£3m, Reading)
Start of season I had a record of 9 points from the first 7 league games with home defeats to Inverness CT and Falkirk particular low points and was 8th in the table. My big signing Rodrigo Palacio was out for 4 months with a hip injury and all in all my team were playing ****. I was playing an offensive flat 4-4-2 with slow tempo, short passing game. It wasn't working at all so decided to sack all my fancy settings in the tactics screen and go bog standard 4-4-2 diamond attacking, with big Hesselink as a target man (balls to head).
After that I won 23 games in a row in the league (a memorable 7-2 pumping of Hibs in there) ended only by an away defeat to Rangers after the title was already won. Hesselink had about 25 assists in those games, such a great target man. Scott McDonald scored 10 goals in 11 games in the league and when Palacio came back from injury he scored 24 goals in 23 games (30 in 33 starts in all competitions for the season). Both players (especially McDonald) missed a lot of chances as well, Hesselink and Modric (as well as Naka and McGeady) were creating a lot of chances in every game. The key to my success was the target man to Hesselink.. some games he wasn't winning the headers so my team just wasn't performing, when that happened I had to switch to a counter attacking game with balls to run on to (Palacio is fast).
My record was:
SPL - Champions (won before the split)
League Cup - Champions
Scottish Cup - Champions
Champions League - First Knockout Round (3-1 defeat to Porto)
Team for majority of season was:
GK - Boruc/Brown
DR - Hoyte/Wilson
DL - Naylor/Staughton
DC - Balde/O'Dea
DC - McManus
DMC - Donati
MR - Nakamura/Brown
ML - McGeady/Aarlito
AMC - Modric/Hartley
FC - Venegoor of Hesselink
FC - Palacio/McDonald
Signings rating:
Luka Modric - 10/10. He was cup tied for the Champions League, and even though I got a few good results (away win at Lazio, draw away to Real Madrid) in the group stage, the team was nowhere near as good without him. He got the most Man of the Match awards in the league and had second highest assists (to Hesselink) and was in the top 10 goal scorers as well. Paid £3m and he was worth £5.5million by the end of the season, has caused zero fuss in terms of requesting transfers or anything either (unlike Boruc and Nakamura who constantly want away).
Palacio - 9/10. 33 games, 30 goals, 18 assists. Can't ask for more than that! McDonald had a similar games to goals ratio during the 4 month injury he had, so he wasn't essential or anything. Palacio had two goals in the goals of the season awards, he seemed to miss the easy ones and score lots of great goals. It's frustrating but when he puts in a 25 yarder to beat Rangers at Ibrox, you forgive him
The other two (Aarlito and McCarthy) barely got a game, they're young and were cheap so no complaints. My loan signings were mixed, I got them as cover for injuries but McGeady and Donati never got injured the whole season and they almost never played. Hoyte played better than Wilson for the first three quarters of the season.. then all of a sudden Wilson's stats got crazy good and he became the best defender in the team.
Started my second season as well.
Players In:
Claudio Maldonado (DMC, Santos, £2.5m)
David (DC, Palmeiras, £6m)
Lino Marzoratti (DRC, Empoli/AC Milan, £3.5m)
Adrian Murcia (GK, Hercules, £65k)
Gilberto (ML, WBL, Hertha Berlin, Free)
Players Out:
Michael Staughton (£1.3m, Birmingham)
Aiden McGeady (£10m, Everton)
Macjiek Zurawski (£750k, Grasshoppers)
Rocco Quinn (£2m, Birmingham)
Team for second season:
GK - Boruc/Murcia
DR - Wilson/Marzoratti/Caddis
DL - Naylor/Santonocito
DC - O'Dea/McManus
DC - David/Marzoratti
DMC - Maldonando/Donati
MR - Brown/Nakamura/McCarthy
ML - Gilberto/Aarlito
AMC - Modric/Nakamura
FC - Palacio/McDonald
FC - Hesselink/Aarlito
Started well in the league, undefeated so far.. although had a 0-0 draw with Aberdeen at home. Beat Hibs away and Rangers at home though, so made a bit of distance with second and third already.
Qualified for Champions League Group Stage.
Biggest blow so far was losing Modric for 5 months to a hip injury.. but Nakamura has came in and did alright so far.
Palacio had scored something like 13 league goals in 7 games so far in the second season but still missing lots of chances which is frustrating in games where every chance counts (like home defeats to Bayern in CL despite more shots on target).
Also I used that 24 month installment thing to get most of the offers for players that I've reported. I had a £10million bid for Nakamura from Newcastle that way but he didn't want to leave, which is annoying because he's ALWAYS moaning. It's a pretty good way to get good money for squad players.
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