retired_toad72

Season Three Review

]Manchester City First Team Squad[/URL]

All my new signings played a part, but I was most deeply impressed by my January addition, Alexandre Pato. 'The Duck' arrived in January and was truly terrific, winning games, scoring braces, getting hat-tricks. He's only young and it's frightening to think how good he may turn out to be. He is now the number 1 choice to partner Llorente up-front.

Before I give a detailed review of the main four tournaments we entered, I just wanna say we lost in the Community Shield to Chelsea, two-one, but won both the European Super Cup and World Club Championship; the former, 3-1 against Milan, the latter, 2-1 against Internacional following a 4-1 defeat of DC United in the semis.

Carling Cup

We won it in 2008 so I was confident that, even though it's the cup I mainly rest players in, we could win it for the second year running. I was correct. After seeing off Middlesbrough at the Riverside, winning two-one, in the third round, we were given a tricky game at home to Arsenal. My young guns defeated them 1-0, but it was the quarter final result that sent shivers down my spine; a 3-0 victory against Manchester United. We then saw off Charlton in the semis, 9-1 on aggregate, before winning the competition again following a 3-1 success at Wembley over Newcastle United.

FA Cup

We won the treble in the 2007/08 season, with this being the competition we failed to win. Therefore, it was only natural I wanted to bring our faithful fans this particular trophy. A mixture of my reserves and youth players defeated Doncaster away from home in the third round, us being two-one winners. The 4th and 5th round ties brought us Cardiff and West Ham respectively, both at the City of Manchester Stadium, and we won both matches 3-1. It was the quarter final, however, in stark contrast to the league cup quarters, where we were disappointed. We were knocked out by the side we thrashed in the Carling Cup Semi-Final, Charlton, who beat my rotated City team at the Valley, 2-1.

Champions League

]Champions League Group C[/URL]

So, having comfortably reached the knockout stages, last year's winners, us, gave Roma an aggregate thrashing of 6-0. In the quarters we beat nine-times' winners Real Madrid 7-1 overall, which included a famous victory, 4-1 to us, at the Bernabeu. The semi-finals brought us together with fierce local rivals Manchester United, who were struggling in the Premiership at the time. Twice we went ahead in the first leg (at home), twice they equalised (Rooney's 92nd-minute leveller very cruel indeed), but nonetheless I remained confident we'd win the tournament again. However, it was not to be, as Miroslav Klose's brace inside 3 minutes, in the second leg, gave us a mountain we were unable to climb.

Premiership

]Premiership Table[/URL]

As you can see, were comfortable champions for the second season running. No one was ever really a threat to our crown, and I felt, even halfway through the season, the league was wrapped up in cotton wool. I wasn't mistaken. We'd lost only one league match going in to the last month, when I decided to give young players such as Michael Johnson and Daniel Sturridge a chance to impress. That they did, but we ended up losing twice to Arsenal and on the last day a defeat to Villa, meaning, rather than ending the season with just one league defeat, we had 4. Still, we won the title.

So, a double. Let the next chapter unfold.

retired_astromberg

being a city fan i always play with city, starting the season with (7.01 update) your priority is to raise some cash and reduce your wage bill, get a WP feeder club and strenghten the team

Sales:
i would recommend that you sell : vassel, barton (dabo is better) and distin (resigning him costs too much) to raise some cash, and also try to sell the likes of dickov and stephen jordan if you can find a buyer (personally i sell dunne cos i dont like him but thats up to you)
you may consider selling, danny mills, sun jihai, claudio reyna, ben thatcher, nicky weaver, bernado corradi, trevor sinclair and any other players who will be on the fringes, i usually transfer list and offer them all out, and actiely seek to sell them because i dont care that they become unhappy because they usually play only a small part if they stay and will be leaving eventually, but all these players can do a job if you are short of cash (NOTE: i cant remember who but if any players have high wages, i think its reyna and mills, get rid of them ASAP even if its for next to nothing, this will benefit you in the long run)

First Team:
buy vincent enyeama in goal (hes better than isaksson and you can get him for about £200k)

Defence:
DR: Trabelsi is good enough, onuoha is an able backup, and you always have micah to fill in
CB: richards at CB, try for corluka if you have money at CB, or keep dunne, again onuoha is fine as backup, you may want to look at someone like mravac or blomkvist(mentioned later) to provide extra backup or if you sell dunnie
LB: LB is your problem position, i usually sell thatcher and try and buy an older player like sylvinho but they dont normally want to come, i usually settle for simone padoin from vicenza (about £600k) and train him because LB is not his best position but he is more than adequate. kevin larsen from some danish team is also ok and cheap but keep an eye out for a decent signing (an unhappy wayne bridge for example, someone should be available at the end of the first season, have a look in jan for expiring contracts)

Midfield:
AMR: buy vyachslev(SP?) hleb for about £120k and keep sinclair as backup unless you get a decent offer.
AML: beasley will do for now, if you can afford kristofer haestad (about 1.2m but needs to be re-trained for AML), your longterm goal is guardado, but you will struggle unless you can sell everyone you want and get decent money (£2.9m is the cheapest ive got him for)
CM: Hamaan and Dabo are plenty good enough for you first season, look to upgrade once all other positions are sorted. (NOTE: haestad is best here, but more of a luxury option)

Srikers:
Try and sell everyone apart from Samaras Sturridge and miller,
Corradi can do a job if your sturggling for money but i would recommend buying eddie johnson for about 1mil from kansas city and charles-andres doudin from some swiss team. (NOTE: Samaras has a habit of having a few decent seasons then becoming pants, if you get an offer of 5 mil or more accept it, theres better players out there for much less)

In summary: you should buy enyeama even if its for 2nd choice keeper cos he is a bargain, try and get corluka as he is a brilliant buy and well worth having to play with corradi up front for 6 months, buy padoin and re-train to improve his ability at LB
Buy hleb and doudin as attacking options, and if you make some decent sales pursue guardado, haestad and eddie johnson (haestad being the least important as dabo and hamaan are good enough, and vilakazi (See below) can do a decent job.
obviously these are all my preferences if you prefer any other players go for them, this is just my opinion

Youths:

Youre priority should be to get a polish or belgian feeder club, settle for a spanish club but its not ideal.

The following players may or may not be on your game and have random PA's (most are -9 which means between 150-180) so i cant tell you who is gonna be best on your game, but as most cost next to nothing just buy as many as you can afford and send them on loan for a while, at the very least you should make a tidy profit:

GK: Joris Delle, Vincent Degre, Geoffrey Jourden, Anthony Scribe, Wang Dalei, kenneth stneild (NOTE: Kasper Schmeichel has the same potential as all these keepers, but considering their price i usually buy most of them and loan them out to see who becomes the best inc kasper.)

DF: Nathan Sturgis : good versatile defender but WP problems
Mravac : same as sturgis but an EU national
Blomkvist, Smedjgarden: young players will never become consistent first teamers but are solid enough and young, and should increase in value signifcantly to earn you a nice profit.

MF:
alejandro gomez (arsenal de sarandi), lebohang mokoena: quality but take a while to get permits and improve, buy them if you can and send them on loan to your feeder
benedict vilakazi, should get a WP and contribute to your first team in the first season, doesnt improve much so if you get a decent offer after the 1st season take it.
Lauri dalla valle, awesome young kid, buy him
Jussi-pekka savolainen- this kid isnt great but his team have a habit of releasing him in about november, so shortlist him and if he gets released snap him up and loan him out, he will be able to do a job eventually but i find hes a good profit maker

CF:
matias quintana, nahuel benitez, marco ruben, all good argentine strikers but will struggle for WP Ruben particualrly is class, loan him to feeder and every yr offer him a new contract cos he will do the business if he gets his WP
omar andrade - as above but peruvian
doudin has already been mentioned, he is the best option because he is an eu national.

retired_astromberg

i forgot to mention that kirk broadfoot is a good back up CB and is very cheap, as are gary and stephen caldwell, but they are a little more expensive, as with all the transfers it depends on what kind of fees you receive

and btw its charles-ANDRE doudin not charles-andreS and he plays for xamax in switzerland

retired_kylee10

Not in a million years!!

Plus Barton kicked his head in lol so ya know, i prefer barton.

retired_astromberg

oops my bad again, i forgot didier digard: a DC/DM very good squad player, who is available for about 250k

retired_toad72

The youth facilities are being upgraded :cool: Hopefully to State of the Art.

Only looking to make one major signing this summer. Me and Chelsea are currently battling it out to sign Javier Mascherano.

retired_kiyote22

I started a Man City game and my first premiership game was man united at home!!
and was a 3-0 victory!!!


Transfers In -
Yakubu 9Million
SWP Loan

Squad -

retired_ayanebell

This thread has died but I started a Man City game a week or so back and wanted to get your opinions on my progress :

Season 1 - League : 4th Place
Season 2 - League : 4th place
FA Cup : Winners
Champions League : Winners!

Season 3 Squad :

GK Isaakson/Schmeichel
DR Barragan/M Richards
DL Del Horno/Bale
DC Richards/Araujo
DC Corluka/Schmoller
MR Wright-Phillips/G Barnes
ML Petrov/Guardado
MC Alou Diarra/Digard
MC Riquelme (loan)/Modric
ST Bianchi/E Johnson
ST Cesar Delgado/Sturridge

Out on Loan : Saez, Saivet, Bojan, Dalla Valle

What do you think?