Hornso

2nd season in charge of Villa in the books. Finished 6th which is enough to get me into the Euro Cup. Chelsea overtook me on the last day, but I was still 13 points off Champions League so still a lot of ground to make up on the big boys. United ended up taking the title comfortably from Liverpool, Man City & Arsenal. Leeds, Fulham and Norwich went down. As alluded to in other posts Hourihane was player of the season with 4 goals and 17 assists, although French winger Isaac Lihadji went under the radar with 13 goals and 11 assists. Goals came from mixed sources, in addition to Lihadji I had Samatta (12), Haberer (10), Green (10). Wesley also chipped in with 7. Got another 50m to spend, with the focus on getting a standout striker and improving the defence. We scored a lot of goals but also leaked far too many. I'm sure some of that down is to mind-set and formation, but we also seemed to concede a hell of a lot from set pieces.

Like Dante said in his post it's mainly through assists by not from corners in my case. He has 16 to go with 4 goals in 32 appearances. He's quite good at pinging diagonal balls through to my wingers

Another question for the experienced managers on here. I've got a nice small core of 3.5.-4 star midfielders in McGinn, Almada, Grealish, Luiz, & Longstaff. However my lowest rated midfielder Conor Hourihane is also my best performing (7.51 average rating from 27 appearances.) Looking beyond this season, should I stick with him because of his outstanding performances or do you look to upgrade him? Is this season likely a one-off or do players like this defy their ratings continuously?

Just hammered Leicester 6-0 at Villa Park. Very enjoyable

I have heard it mentioned one year he leaves/wants to leave during the Finals(!!!) to wrestle Hulk Hogan?! Apparently the doco only gets better as it goes along.

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I got recommended Zaracho also and got a fee agreed but his wage demands were outside the budget restrictions set by the board so I had to walk away.

Have reached the halfway point of my 2nd season at Villa and am currently on the best run of my FM life that I can remember. After starting the season with 2 wins, 2 defeats and then 2 draws to put me mid-table I have since gone on the following run in the league: WWLWWWDWWWWWWD. The highlights including getting a last minute equaliser at Old Trafford, thumping Bournemouth 4-0 at Villa Park, beating Watford 5-1 at Vicarage Road and lastly overcoming Spurs 4-3, despite blowing a 2-0 lead and coming back from 3-2 down. The one loss was a 1-0 defeat away to league leaders Man City. I alo got knocked out in the Quarter Finals of the League Cup by Liverpool who seem to knock me out of a cup every season. I really thought I could struggle as in the space of a few weeks I lost McGinn for a month, Jack for 5-7 months with a damage spine and El Ghazi for 9-11 months with a knee, but the run has just kept on going. Hourihane has surprisingly been a star with 3 goals and 9 assists, Samagol & Haberer have 15 goals between them and Almada & Adekanye have 5 goals/4 assists each. I have one game left before the transfer window opens with no money to spend, so I am expecting to fall down the league from 4th sometime soon. The other bit of bad luck I had was, I'd loaned Hogan to Swansea for the season and if he makes 20 appearances they have to buy him for 7.25m. So of course after 15 games, he goes and does his knee. I can't see him reaching that level of appearances now so I doubt they'll take up the offer. Lastly, the summer transfer window has us about 45m in debt and this has stayed constant throughout the season. There has been a little chat of a takeover but that went away as quickly as it appeared. What are peoples experience with this, is NSWE likely to inject some cash mid-season?

Any The Last Dance thoughts?

Watched the 80s film Hotshot with Pele as a couple of podcasts were reviewing it. It is absolutely horrid. I thought Goal 3 was bad, but this is the worst movie I have ever seen.

I forgot to mention I signed a 17yr old Uruguayan striker Matias Arezo as my scouts said "Sign at any price". Anyone played with him and know if he's any good? Striker I think is my major weakpoint and Esposito hasn't come up on my scouting radar at all. He seems to be the consensus choice around here. Anyway Arezo is joining in January.

Summer transfer just slammed shut in my 2nd season at Villa. Here's my main deals: INS: Nick Pope - 15m (17m) - From relegated Burnley. Tried to get McNeil as well but they wanted 60m plus. Bobby Adekanye - 6m - From Lazio Janik Haberer - Free - Augsberg Thiago Almada - 8.5m - Velez Deyovaisio Zeefuik - 3.6m - Groningen Felipe Cruz - Benfica B - 950k Matty Longstaff - Newcastle - 24m Matej Kovar - Manchester United - 500k (U/23 keeper after cleaning house and only have Pope & Mvongo) Dennis Praet - Loan - Leicester OUTS: Henri Lansbury - Swansea - Free Borja Baston - CSKA - Free Matija Sarkic - Napoli - 325k + 25% of next sale Ahmed Elmohamady - Brondby - 1m Lovre Kalinic - Krasnodar - 3.7m (4.5m) Jed Steer - Famalicao - 675k Trezeguet - Stuttgart - 10.25m + 25% of next sale Keinan Davis - Lincoln - 875k James Bree - Luton - 85k Scott Hogan - Swansea - Loan with 7.25m buy clause after 20 apps Started with two wins followed by two defeats to Arsenal & Liverpool. Bloody Liverpool after winning the league last season with 101 points only went out and bought Haaland. Plus Chelsea (still with Kepa) bought Oblak from Atletico and then Sancho from Dortmund!

Yeah, the member of the Attorney's Generals office who covered it up and the subordinate who towed the line just moved to a different department! Disgraceful.

Help a bloke out... Weimann, ?, ?, Guzan, Cuellar, Carew, Sidwell, Albrighton, ?, ?, Heskey, Friedel. Gardner G, Davies, Reo-Coker, Young A, ?, Bannan, ?, Lichaj.

Congratulations! You did much better than me. I finished 14th on 47 points. 16 points above relegation, 9 points off Europe. Quick summary is Liverpool champions (101 points), 27 points above United in 2nd. Norwich shocked everyone finishing 5th. Brighton, Burnley & Newcastle go down. Highlights of my season were beating Tottenham & Chelsea at Villa Park, doing the double over our massive rivals(?!) Wolves and managing to get a draw out of Liverpool. Jack & Samagol the only two players to average a 7 or greater. Jack 11g/5a and Samatta 17g/2a. El Ghazi the next best with 8g/5a. The main story line going into the off season is Jack was disappointed when I sold Neil Taylor. I promised youth. Jack deemed Katterbach wasn't a good enough replacement after 18 appearances at a 6.98 rating and has slightly cracked it.

Watched another Neflix doco series, How to Fix a Drug Scandal. Not outstanding, but definitely worth a watch.

Haha, great. Bad Brexit it is. Thanks mate!

Sorry, just quickly. Has anyone else had a random friendly arranged in mid-Feb for them? I had one against Norwegian side Molde. Played a rubbish team and won 4-0. Michael Tait scored a hat-trick...so here's another question. He's not highly rated at all, but if he has a game like that, should I give him a chance to develop at the club? Also, what's the best and worst case scenarios in the game regarding Brexit?

McGinn has definitely improved the last 5 games or so. He's scored a couple of goals playing as a Mezzela. Hourihane has dropped off a bit but probably because I like bringing him off the bench and he's often used to plug the hole left by somebody missing. Luiz and McTominay have been decent. Nakamba is probably the weakest of the lot and seems to get a yellow every game, but he's the only one who is a natural at playing DMC. Resorted to leaving Jack out wide. El Ghazi has been better and started finding the back of the net. Trezeguet does some good stuff but never scores when he has the chance. Then he'll go away with Egypt and have no problem getting on the scoresheet.

I agree. I watched it after the glowing reviews on here. Thought it was fine with a few laughs but nothing special. 6/10.

I'll cease the match updates as it's probably overkill. January transferred window just closed. We're still sitting in 11th with 30 points after 24 games, so surely safety should be secured before the end of the season. Haven't been able to cash in on anyone so the transfer kitty was very small. Firstly brought in Jordon Ibe on loan from Bournemouth for the rest of the season and then signed Yvon Mvogo from RB Leipzig for 1.9m given Heaton's retirement. Borja Baston then agreed to leave on a free at the end of the season to CSKA Moscow. I then managed to sign Janik Haberer from Freiburg on a fee at the end of the season. In the week leading up to the close of the window, Drinkwater tears his knee ligaments. His season being over he's recalled by Chelsea. His replacement is McTominay on loan. Then the day before the window closes, Steer does his achilles and is out for the season, whilst Wesley does his ankle and is out for 2 months. With virtually no strikers available in the loan market I manage to get Josh Maja in for the rest of the season based solely on the Sunderland Till I Die documentary.

Progression of my first season in charge at Villa Park. Away at Arsenal - 0-0, lucky to escape with a point. Away at Liverpool - Lost 2-0 but it could have been much worse. Liverpool have a perfect record at this point. Home to Southampton - Better side, go ahead late through a Douglas Luiz screamer, Michael Obafemi equalises 3 minutes from time. Away at Wolves - They have started very poorly and have just sacked Nuno. His replacement isn't in yet but we poor on more misery. A Jack brace and we leave with 3 points. They end up hiring Bielsa! Home to West Ham - Another struggling team. We dominate them and go ahead 2-0. A poor Reina mistake makes it closer than it should have been. Home to Brighton - Jack, Anwar and an own goal see us win 3-1 and that's 3 on the trot. Away at Burnley - We get Dyched. Two Chris Wood headers are enough to see us off despite a Samatta penalty. Home to Man City - They've been remarkably poor but they are still too good for us. We lose 2-0. It doesn't help that we've now lost Engels for 3 months. Away at Watford - Steven Gerrard's first game in charge sees them win their first game of the season. Peak Villa Away at Newcastle - Christmas period is starting to bite. Jack is suspended and Luiz joins Engels on the long term sidelines. An Anwar goal is enough to halt our 3 game losing streak. Exactly half way through the season and we're sitting on 26 points in 11th. Liverpool lead with 52 points after 18 games from Man United on 41. West Ham (15pts), Burnley (14pts) and Watford (7pts) make up the relegation zone. A few days away from the transfer window opening, so hopefully we can strengthen.

Progression of my first season in charge at Villa Park. Home to Palace - Wesley came off the bench and scored in the 85th minute from a corner to take the points in a game that could have gone either way. Away at Norwich - Poor performance at Carrow Road. Killed us at set pieces, lost 3-0. Home to Leicester - Another competitive performance at home. Wesley again off the bench, scoring from a corner to win it. Away at Sheffield United - Went behind to an Enda Stevens goal. Jack earns us a point with another dazzling run and cracking finish. Home to Everton - Samagol puts us ahead via Jack. Keane equalisers just after half time but El Ghazi (who has been poor all season) answers straight away via Jack again. Everything goes to shit as Delph equalisers from nice play in the 87th and then Digne wins it from a direct free kick in the 95th. The snake gets PotM. Sitting 11th after 9 matches in the league with 12 points. 3W/3D/3L Comments Defense is pretty constant with Reina - Targett, Mings, Engels, Guilbert although Katterbach is pushing Targett. Reina has been #1 all season as Heaton was injured in pre-season and had no match fitness. Got a gig in the Carabao Cup and then broke his leg in training. He's since retired. We get a small amount of insurance money but the clubs keeping situation continues to be a mess. Midfield is an issue. Conor has been doing really well, with Drinkwater & Nakamba serviceable. McGinn a big disappointment thus far Luiz on the fringes. As for Forwards, Samatta/Wesley seem to be good for 1 between them most games. Have resorted to Jack out wide left because of Trezeguet/El Ghazi being poor. Andre Green has featured off the bench the last two games and has shown more.

Been ripping through the docos. Tiger King, Sunderland Till I Die and now halfway through The Test. All well worth it.