Transfers

IN:4 for 57.5M (21yo Italian DL for 18.5M, 21yo Italian DR for 20M, 25 yo Cameroon MC for 15M, young German ST for 2.2M)

OUT:2 for 5.8M

Summary

Well, I got offered the job at Valenica 10 matches into the new season with Valencia sitting in 6th and having just sacked their manager. The very, very nice thing was that I had a transfer budget of 65M to spend come the Jan window!! 

The previous manager (current Liverpool captain) had made some really questionable signings before the season and I felt a bit bad that I had absolutely no intention of playing some players that he had bought for pretty big money. (I haven't listed those signings in the transfers...those are just mine).

Anywho...the team looked pretty good actually. No position looked terribly old (except GK, he was 35), but everywhere else there was some depth and youth behind the starters. The one area this team was most certainly lacking was in defense. 

So, come the transfer window I shored that up by signing 2 Fullbacks (both italian weirdly enough) and they slotted straight into the team. 

One area I wasn't planning on signing anything in was MC, but my scout found this absolutely fantastic looking cameroon MC and I got him what I consider a bargain at 15M.

The season went well enough. Our defense wasn't as good as I would like, and to be honest had we been a touch better we probably could have won the league. My Turkish ST banged in a league leading 32 goals and my new cameroon MC had 11 assists and 6 goals in 21 matches...he is really looking to be the business!!!

Champions League saw us make the Semi Final only to lose to Man City....bastards!!

Spanish Cup we lost to At Madrid in the Quarter Finals

League Table

1st R Madrid 27-6-5 77F 28A +49 87pts

2nd At. Madrid 25-8-5 79F 24A +55 83pts

3rd Sevilla 22-10-6 74F 33A +41 76pts

5th Valencia 22-9-7 78F 35A +43 75pts

8th Alicante 17-7-14 52F 49A +3 58pts

This Alicante team after just one season is almost completely unrecogniseable. They sold off awesome Portugese DC, Congo MC, Argentinian ST, and a host of others and loaned in a ton of players...something I just don't do...I don't loan in players EVER.

Well, with one game left in European Championships qualifying, I was offered the somehow vacant position.

 To be honest, I can't be arsed to go and see if the former manager was sacked or resigned...but either way I was offered the job having already qualified with one match still to play.

 That one match didn't go well as we lost 2-1 to Latvia...but, as I said we were already qualified!!

Group B

1st England 2-1-0 10F 3A +7 7pts

2nd Greece 2-1-0 6F 4A +2 7pts

3rd Holland 1-0-2 5F 10A -5 3pts

4th N Ireland 0-0-3 1F 5A -4 0pts

We beat N Ireland 1-0, drew with Greece 2-2, and then absolutely thrashed Hollland 7-1!!!

Second Round saw us drawn against Hungary

England 4-0 Hungary

Quarter Final saw us drawn against Spain....

Spain 3-0 England   We were easily beaten and never really looked a threat in the match.

I did keep my job though!!!

Spain went on the beat Italy in the Final...with Scotland reaching the Semi's against Italy.

Transfers

IN: 6 for 58M (25yo GK 15M, young DC 5.75M, young MLRC 5.5M, ML 25M, veteran DMC 2M, young MC 4.3M)

OUT: 5 for 11.5M (only notable was an English ML/ST for 6M)

Summary

I was a bit shocked when the board came to me with the season objective of winning the league...really, I was. I wasn't planning on that this season and originally through 2nd or 3rd looked a realistic target.

Well, going into the offseason I knew my priority was a new GK. My one from last season performed well enough, but he was 36 entering this season and there really wasn't much behind him that could step in. 

So, I went out and bought a youngish GK first off. I then looked at the team a little...beside awesome Turkish ST (who was 31 this season) the team didn't have another striker I felt was good enough to partner him up front.

 The problem (and this was a good problem) was that we had three outstanding youngsters, but they were just that...all about 18 and not quite ready yet. So, I decided to go with a change of tactics and this meant moving my aging ML to a more AMC position and I went out and bought a new ML to play over there. 

Besides that, these two changes were the only changes to the starting XI from the season before.

The change in tactic though was the right call and it brought out something in the AMC...he had easily his best season of his career banging in 7 goals and 15 assists from an AMC position.

 Turkish ST had an almost identical season to the one before...but the surprise to me was that Cameroon MC had an even BETTER season that he had the season before....banging in 7 goals and 15 assists and a rating of 7.8!! I wasn't joking when I said he was a bargain at 15M!!! He wound up winning player of the year!!

The season? Well, we hit 1st place after 8 matches and we stayed there until the end of the season. The amazing thing was that we didn't lose a league match all season, but still BARELY won the title!!! 

We were third in goals scored and first in goals conceded and it looks like the defense situation was sorted!

Cups though were another story...we were rocked by At Madrid in the quarter finals of the Spanish cup, and knocked out of Europa by Galatassary in the first knock out stage...quite embarrassing really considering how dominate we were in the league.

Final Tally

1st Valencia 29-9-0 75F 17A +58 96pts

2nd R. Madrid 29-5-4 83F 22A +61 92pts

3rd At. Madrid 29-5-4 89F 24A +65 92pts

16th Alicante 10-7-21 45F 58A -13 37pts (only 2 points and places above relegation)

Highlights - Winning the league and going unbeaten in the league!!!

Lowlights - Our cup form.