undertow
BLUE Nights
- Messages
- 4,368
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On my second season now as Chelsea, there was quite the managerial go around in the summer. City sacked Pellegrini right away and hired José. United waited a few weeks to remove LvG and replaced him with Carlo. Wenger retired and Arsenal went for the sensible budget appointment with Moyes. Klopp left Liverpool for Barca -after del Bosque also retired and Enrique got the Spain job- and was replaced by Mancini. Rodgers is with the Hamsters and sadly Clarkey ended up at Qpha (Colin w**ker retired after they won the Championship). Woy got England to the semis -lost to Germany 1-3 who then went on to win the final against Belgium- then also retired. After weeks of rumours the FA appointed Bilic over Claudio. The Tinkerman then re-joined Roma and left Leicester for Martínez. Everton somehow ended up with Alex Neil who was sacked by Norwich in March, who then in turn went for the unexpected with ?enol Güne?.
On the club front we had a great season. The other bigger teams struggled just like in real life, except us as we capitalised on their failings and finished the league unbeaten, pissing all over Arsenal's record by doing it better. The CL got interesting the quarters when we met Real. The first game was in Madrid, Bale scored the first goal which was cancelled out by Bab only 2 minutes later. Danilo was sent off later in the first half but the game ended 1-1. In the second leg we had a nervy first half but Pedro scored just before the end, so I gave a passionate speech and made some tweaks in the tactics and which clearly worked as we came out and tore them apart, Hazard scored a double and Diego pushed the knife in to make it 4-0. In the semis we met Atletico again (they were 2nd in the group), first match in London. Simeone was wary after we thrashed them 5-1 at the Bridge in the group stage (Hazard hattrick) and went for a defensive 442 but they played fairly poorly and we won 2-0. The second leg in Madrid (our third game in Madrid in the season) was much more equal, just like in the group that ended 1-1, in both games our defence gave the best performance, and here they were rewarded for it as after a corner early in the second JT scored with a header to put it in bed, 1-0, 3-0 overall. For variety's sake the final was against a Spanish team, Barca. I opted to stay with the short passing game instead of parking the bus and were punished for it in just 15 minutes. So I went all in, raised the tempo and the pressing. I guess Barca did not expect an instant fight back as Hazard scored from a counter just 5 mintes later, then Willian banged a double under three minutes still before the half hour mark. Neymar pegged it back shortly after to 3-2 which was the half time score. I switched to a more defensive approach for the second half to frustrate Barca and try to hit them on the counter. The first part went especially well as after 50 mins Alba was off with a 2nd yellow. From that point on we contained Barca, kept the ball quite well with a slow short passing game. We had chances but no goals, until the added time when the tiring Barca team collapsed and Diego went on to score a double in just 2 minutes. 5-2, and the rookie Chelsea manager became an instant legend
I shipped Mikel out in January to Porto, a loan deal with future fee of 8m but he refused the contract from Porto in the summer so he went to the transfer list and Barca came in with a 12m bid. His place went to RLC. Then in June I made some nice deals. Ramires was a backup all season and complained a few times so I offered him out for 30m and Valencia went for it. Rémy was in the same boots, I transfer listed him and Monaco came with an offer about 16m cash, 4m over 12 months and another 4m depending on clauses. Cuadrado had a number of potential buyers, I accepted all bids of 28.5m and he chose MU. Then I cleared out some ex youth who were not going to make it. Norwich was hooked on the offers, they got Moses for 7.5m, Piazón for 4.5m and Kane for 3m. Atsu to Gelsenkirchen for 5.5m, Omeruo to Sporting for 4.5m, Kalas to Saint-Etienne for 4.5m and finally José took a gamble in van Ginkel and got him for 12m. Juve tried for Diego with a 28m and a 36m offer but I kept him as I couldn't find a suitable replacement. RLC, Kenedy, Traoré, Dasilva, Aina, Bamford, Chalobah and Baker are in the squad as backup options to the first team. We might struggle in the new season if injuries hit but as most of the youngsters have a high potential that will change in 1-2 seasons tops.
On the club front we had a great season. The other bigger teams struggled just like in real life, except us as we capitalised on their failings and finished the league unbeaten, pissing all over Arsenal's record by doing it better. The CL got interesting the quarters when we met Real. The first game was in Madrid, Bale scored the first goal which was cancelled out by Bab only 2 minutes later. Danilo was sent off later in the first half but the game ended 1-1. In the second leg we had a nervy first half but Pedro scored just before the end, so I gave a passionate speech and made some tweaks in the tactics and which clearly worked as we came out and tore them apart, Hazard scored a double and Diego pushed the knife in to make it 4-0. In the semis we met Atletico again (they were 2nd in the group), first match in London. Simeone was wary after we thrashed them 5-1 at the Bridge in the group stage (Hazard hattrick) and went for a defensive 442 but they played fairly poorly and we won 2-0. The second leg in Madrid (our third game in Madrid in the season) was much more equal, just like in the group that ended 1-1, in both games our defence gave the best performance, and here they were rewarded for it as after a corner early in the second JT scored with a header to put it in bed, 1-0, 3-0 overall. For variety's sake the final was against a Spanish team, Barca. I opted to stay with the short passing game instead of parking the bus and were punished for it in just 15 minutes. So I went all in, raised the tempo and the pressing. I guess Barca did not expect an instant fight back as Hazard scored from a counter just 5 mintes later, then Willian banged a double under three minutes still before the half hour mark. Neymar pegged it back shortly after to 3-2 which was the half time score. I switched to a more defensive approach for the second half to frustrate Barca and try to hit them on the counter. The first part went especially well as after 50 mins Alba was off with a 2nd yellow. From that point on we contained Barca, kept the ball quite well with a slow short passing game. We had chances but no goals, until the added time when the tiring Barca team collapsed and Diego went on to score a double in just 2 minutes. 5-2, and the rookie Chelsea manager became an instant legend
I shipped Mikel out in January to Porto, a loan deal with future fee of 8m but he refused the contract from Porto in the summer so he went to the transfer list and Barca came in with a 12m bid. His place went to RLC. Then in June I made some nice deals. Ramires was a backup all season and complained a few times so I offered him out for 30m and Valencia went for it. Rémy was in the same boots, I transfer listed him and Monaco came with an offer about 16m cash, 4m over 12 months and another 4m depending on clauses. Cuadrado had a number of potential buyers, I accepted all bids of 28.5m and he chose MU. Then I cleared out some ex youth who were not going to make it. Norwich was hooked on the offers, they got Moses for 7.5m, Piazón for 4.5m and Kane for 3m. Atsu to Gelsenkirchen for 5.5m, Omeruo to Sporting for 4.5m, Kalas to Saint-Etienne for 4.5m and finally José took a gamble in van Ginkel and got him for 12m. Juve tried for Diego with a 28m and a 36m offer but I kept him as I couldn't find a suitable replacement. RLC, Kenedy, Traoré, Dasilva, Aina, Bamford, Chalobah and Baker are in the squad as backup options to the first team. We might struggle in the new season if injuries hit but as most of the youngsters have a high potential that will change in 1-2 seasons tops.
