retired_jaclynnew1212

Ok, decided to start a new thread as nobody is bothered visiting the official Derby County thread!!

Just finished my first season. Exceeded every expectation in every competition. Finished 4th in the league!! Thats Champions League football for Derby!!! Thats not all. Reached the Finals of the FA Cup. Lost 4-3 on penalties to Arsenal. WON the Carling Cup. 1-0 against Tottenham! Like I said, far exceeded every expectation. And in the league, only missed out on 3rd by 1 point. Everton nicked it in the end.

Arsenal were unstoppable in my game. They & Man Utd were level on points in Jan. But then Wenger showed his brain and bought Matias Fernandez. They didnt look back after that. Unstoppable. Won the league by 10 points I think. Didnt stop there. Ofcourse, like I said, they beat me in the FA Cup. And to top it all, they won the Champions League too! 3-1 in the final against Man Utd!

Anyway, my squad:

GK: Vincent Enyeama, Stephen Bywater
LB: Ginzalo Pindea, Matt Hill, James McEveley
RB: Andrew Griffin, Sergey Ignashevich (c)
CB: Sergey Ignashevich, Mirel Radoi, James McEveley, Claude Davis, Patricio Araujo
DM: Distel Zola, Mirel Radoi, Patricio Araujo
CM: David Jones, Daniel Carvalho
LM: Pablo Piatti, Daniel Carvalho, Stephen Pearson
RM: Giles Barnes, Gary Teale, Marko Marin
AMCaniel Carvalho, Pablo Piatti, Nacer Barazite, Marko Marin
ST: Mauro Zarate, Bogdan Stancu, Kenny Miller, Franco Di Santo

Have got Matias Cahais as well but havent been able to get a WP for him yet so he spent last season on loan to my feeder club and will go again this season (have tried getting a WP again - no luck).

I've been handed a budget of 30M to bolster the squad. I've got Craig Cathcart coming in on a free from Man Utd. Also got Joao Carlos (GK) for 50K who's not got a WP sadly, and 3 other prospects.

Now I think I have a great squad but would need to add some more quality to it. My tactics last season were very defensive most of the time. I played a 4-2-3-1 (2 DM's) and while it served me very well I dislike negative tactics mostly. So need to add some class to my side. Any suggestions will be great.

I AM going to offload the following players:
Stephen Bywater
Andrew Griffin
Claude Davis
Stephen Pearson (was great for me though)
Gary Teale
Kenny Miller (RUBBISH!)
and possibly, David Jones

I missed out on Pasanen, Mascherano (high hopes!), Pander & Kehl on free transfers. All of them chose other clubs except Kehl who signed a new contract. The only one of note left in Thiago Motta. Not sure if I should get him though (any advise?). Morgan De Sanctis is transfer listed for 725K. He's 31 though so not sure. Itandje and Duff are also listed for 900K & 1.7M respectively.

Oh, West Ham, Sunderland & Wigan were the 3 teams that went down. Thinkin of raiding especially West Ham!

Any comments and suggestions would be great. Definitely some additional class to have a hope in hell of even getting past the group stages in the CL and matching the first seasons achievements!!