Notts County Story – The European Debut
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I expected to be given around 30 million pounds but, to my surprise, the board was willing to give me around 19 million to get an European place at the end of the season. If I would have accepted a title challenge objective the increase to the transfer budget would have been rather small, only a couple of millions, so I chose not to take that risk.
With that financial position I had to sell most of the fringe players in the squad and we received a nice amount for them, around 40 million pounds. Not all of that went back into the transfers budget though…
I brought in nine players, one on loan to buy and five on free transfers.
Let me introduce them in chronological order. You already know about Thomson and Moreno from the previous post, they came on free transfers in June. We also settled the deal for Havard Nordtveit in June, we only paid 4 million pounds for him as that was the fixed fee in the loan to buy deal. I managed to bring in another three players on free transfers, I was quite pleased with that considering the low transfer budget. First, another striker. His name is Demba Ba, Senegalese international that has a home grown status in England because he was raised at Watford. He’s a strong hard working lad that could add depth to our attack and also to our left wing.
The other free striker that I snapped up is a talented Brazilian, Rafael Sobis. His great technical skills could help us a lot in certain games while his experience could also be useful.
The last free transfer is a central midfielder, Belgian international Steven Defour. He’s both a hard worker and a creative player, he could team up well with Lucas Biglia in the middle of the park.
Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.
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Sears (1440)
Laxeyman (1341)
Lye (902)
vaibhavc (520)
CsAtlantis (487)
martin (428)
hils (378)
Dan (353)
Pretty good signings there Johnny, they will definitely strenghten your squad. Joe Barton looks like a good player, you seem to have a good eye for Regens! Defour, Sobis and Demba Ba are all good players, especially Defour and they are great free signings! Kjaer is very good as well, better than Djourou for sure!
Looks like you blew away Young Boys in the 2nd leg, what a great performance there! I have no doubts you will beat Rapid, Good Luck!
Good Signings Johnny.
You Always Get Quality Free Transfers. I Don’t Know Why Their Clubs Would Let Them Go!
Strange How You Drew At Home And Then Thrashed Young Boys Away, Good Result.
When I Saw Joe Barton’s Name, I Thought It Said Joey Barton, And I Was Shocked!
I Think You Have A Really Good Chance Of Reaching The Champions League This Season.
By The Way, What Skin Are You Using?
Oh And, Do You Think I Should Post On My Blog On A Monthly Basis, Or Half A Season?
14 clear cut chances is beyond me. Never seen that before.
Your free transfers are all solid players. Sobis in the PL will be a treat, even though I think that he’s a bit on the weak side.
Simon Kjear is someone I always expect more from in the game. Never really grows as a player from what I have seen. Would’ve been nice to see his stats grow a bit in tackling and so forth.
Your left back looks like an extremely good buy. Only 19 and with those stats! Dodo will work good as a rotation player until Barton can take full reign over the DL position.
Martin, I am the same as you I thought it said Joey Barton at first as well. I think the skin Johnny is using is Vitreous, check out FM Base it’s really good for skins. And also I would advise posting on a monthly basis, but of course it’s up to you.
Thanks for the comments folks!
The skin is called Vitreous, you can find it in the Downloads page if you want to give it a try. About the blog updates, I think that you should pick whatever suits your style, if you have the time to play half a season in one day it would be difficult to post monthly updates.
@Laxeyman
I’m quite satisfied with those signings myself, I hope they’ll do well.
@Martin
Nope, it’s not Joey Barton
@Majk
I expect a lot from Barton and Kjaer, Sobis will probably be a backup for Guilherme but with all the games that we’ll have he will get lots of chances to play.
I also thought he signed Joey Barton lol! Your free signings are really good! Congradulations on the win against Young Boys! Also Joe Barton looks really good for a regen player, nice find.
@Bilal
Thanks mate. Barton was quite expensive but 17 mil for such a talent isn’t too much…
@Majk
Btw, I added your blog to the links page, keep it updated!
I forgot to mention something… If any of you will be watching Arsenal vs Manchester United today I’d be happy to comment it together on Twitter. See you there!
Johnny, I think many of us will be watching Arsenal v Man Utd. I will see you there!
Well done on some brilliant signings Johnny. Think you are Champions League destined
.
About my blog, I decided not to do it as I don’t enjoy the game as much when doing a blog so I won’t do it. Sorry for that.
Good luck with Notts County!
Good signing on the left back Joe Barton(I have the same thought too)SI really not very creative on regen names. 17.5million is not expensive consider he is very young and probably have chance to be a future England international. Some fantastic signings added on the existing players, i think you will at least get a champions league place and challenge for the title this season Good luck mate.
@Lye
Don’t worry about the blog, you should play the game in the way that allows you to enjoy it the most.
Thanks mate, I hope we’ll be able to get at least the 5th place, that would mean progress. Hopefully they will give me some more transfer money in January to bring one or two more players.
@Calum
Thanks buddy, I hope your prediction would prove right
Awesome signings there! How do you find all these free foreigners! and I signed Demba Ba on my old Derby game on FM 2009 and he scored over 30 goals in the premier league for me. May not be as prolific in your side though.
@Luke
Thanks mate, I always check the players with expiring contracts and make my move on the interesting ones. Some players don’t want to renew their contracts and you can grab them for free, “contract status” is probably the most used filter for me when I search for players.
ahh thanks, i always just use contract expired not contract expiring, i’ll bear that in mind.
Johnny,
Yet Again, I Find Myself In The Situation Where I’m Contemplating Whether To Delete My Blog, I Think I Will.
Like You Say, I Should Do Whatever Makes Me Enjoy The Game Most.
@Martin
It’s your decision mate. Take your time, think about it and then do whatever you feel will make your FM experience better.
@Luke
Normally you can approach a player within the last six months of his contract.
@Martin
that’s why I couldn’t find your blog anymore… too bad. Well good luck in the future Mate.
@Johhny Karp
Alright then, I’ll do my best to keep it flowing. I have a tendency to play too much. That way I can either publsih a lot of posts in one day. Otherwise i’ll keep em coming for each 6 months of the game or so on. I changed it to english aswell (the blog) and I’ll be trying to make it more of a story with more in-depth writing than just commenting on pictures I put up.
Good luck now Johnny with Notts Co
Hi Johnny
Good pre-season results there and I like the Steven Defour signing. There seem to be a lot of useful DMC’s from Belgium. Good results in Europe and you have quite a nice schedule to begin the new season.
Thanks Kevin, I hope for a good run in August.
Some great looking signings there. It’s interesting to compare Kjær between our two games, with you being a year ahead. In the important attributes for a defender, it’s interesting to see that I have him at 16 on tackling, how his Positioning and Concentration are one lower for me. I’ve found him to be very consistent. Like others I did a double take when I saw the name Joe Barton.
14 clear cut chances is insane. Most I think I can remember is something like 8, and I thought that was crazy. I like the look of the squad, and feel you should be fighting it out in the top 4.
@TheZiggy
Thanks for the analysis mate, I hope that Kjaer will solve some of the problems that our defense had during the last season. As I said’ I’m pretty satisfied with the squad myself, the only thing that still bothers me is that I couldn’t bring in another winger, a couple of injuries to our current wingers could cause us big problems.
Hi Johnny,
A few questions:)
How do you do to get so good players for free?
Do you offer the contracts in december?
How do you prepare the players in the pre-season?
Do you train them hard for how long?
Do you train them heavy while playing friendlies?
I finished my first premier league with Crewe……8th place, hopefully the next i´ll make it to Europe……:)
Hi Mariano! You guessed right, most of the contract offers are made in December/January. About the pre-season training, I don’t do anything special at all, I stick to the same training schedule as the one I use all year long. 8th place is not bad, I’m sure you’ll make it to Europe next term.
I´m preparing to a new season managing Crewe at the Premiership, i have to achive a half table position and i have a financial dilema:)
The balance of the club is 37 Million dollars
The current budget is 65M and the total budget is 140M
The transfer budget is 112M
So i should be able to spend a lot buying players but……
During the last four seasons i´ve been buying like crazy paying in 48months, so this year i will have to pay 92M from old signings.
So i think that if i spend 112M the balance will go extremly red………
And during this season we are building a new stadiums since the 13.000 we have now is very small……..
What do u think?
Thanks
Mariano, that seems to be a very tricky financial position. I rarely use the installments when paying for transfers, I don’t like to complicate my life
Anyway, I don’t know how your squad looks but I would suggest buying just one or two players on the positions you feel that are weak in your team. You can also bring in players on loan as backups, you can pay one or two million as loan fees for a whole season and bring in some decent backups in return. Then once the financial situation clears up you can resume your spending spree 
The policy i decided is , not buying any new players, probably in december i will have to sell 2 rotation players and i can loan or buy in 48 months again to replace them:)
It´s the “market bubble” strategy, i want the whole economy to collapse:)
Once i did this in another game and at the end of the season my balance was 80M red, but my chairman was Dear Roman and he just gave me 100M out of the blue:)
But with the Crewe chairman i don´t think this is going to happen:)
That’s a good strategy Mariano
I guess you’ll force the chairman out of the club 