My new team - Udinese

Today I'm going to introduce to you my new football club - Udinese. I'm managing the 'Zebrette' - which translates as the Zebras! This post will be all about the new team.

Udinese Info:
Udinese's main Serie A rival is Fiorentina, so we have to beat them this season.


The media prediction is 7th, so we need to get into the top half at least.

I have chosen this as my prediction, and have been given a generous transfer budget of £20 Million!



Assistant Advice:

At the start of the season my assistant manager provided a team report for me:

It suggests a new right-back and goalkeeper, so I will be looking at Darijo Srna certainly.

Press Conference:
It was interesting to answer the questions in this new Italian job. I informed the rest of the league about our attacking style!

I think the Udinese players were pleased with this; several reacted in this way:

So, that was your introduction to Udinese. Next time, I'll have played the first few games of the new season and tell you about them, as well team ratings so far and transfers!

Sad end to Villa game!

Due to unavoidable circumstances, the Aston Villa game has come to an abrupt end. When I loaded up the game, it refused to load! The game also had some other problems.

While I have now fixed this this game is over.
I will be starting a new game, so if you have any ideas please post underneath:
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Final squad check before game vs. West Ham!

So, we have prepared, analysed and struggled through to the first game of the domestic season.
We will be playing West Ham United, and home advantage makes us slight favorites!
Looking at the squad screen, you can see the players have a high average rating from the friendlies, with Young, Cuellar and Palombo particularly impressing.

Victory over Siroki Brijeg!

Something of a walkthrough, 4-0, so we can rest easy in the second leg!

Friendlies and euro

Very successful in the friendlies, now we prepare for our Euro Cup Second Qualifying Round match and we should win.

Villa - Hibs 2nd Leg!

A much improved performance defensively, and once again players like Young, Carew and Palombo were fantastic. We can now look forward to the rest of the friendlies, the EURO Cup and the start of the new season.

Friendlies results

As you can see, the first two friendlies were succesful although again we had a problem conceding goals against Werder Bremen.
Just preparing now for my second leg against Hibs!

Tactics vs. Hibs in Euro Vase

These are the tactics we used in the EURO Vase first leg against Hibernian. We beat them 5-3 in the first leg, a very entertaining game, Angelo Palombo is class. He scored two goals, both from 20 yards!

However, our defence were shocking! You would think with five at the back they would at least stop SOME through balls going through, but they are useless.

I think managing Aston Villa this season is sure to raise my blood pressure!

My First Press Conference

I have just attended my first press conference as Aston Villa manager. We have clearly made our attacking intentions public to the rest of the Premiership!

Also, we have been drawn in the Euro Vase against Hibernian! Should be a good game. We failed to get Darijo Srna, unfortunately Man City got him! Bugger! However, I think the team at the moment can still perform without the new right-back.

Ass. Man Team Report

Here is John Robertson's take on the team, good all round, with Barry, Young and Palombo key players. Right-back seems to be the weakest area, so I shall use the remaining transfer budget to get Darijo Srna if Man City do not snatch him first!

Stay tuned next post, where I will be publishing the results of the friendlies and gearing up for my first game!

The Team

As I am showing here, the squad is not massive but there are a few quality players in there! Built around a strong English core, the veteran Brad Friedel, strong centre-backs Martin Laursen and Richard Dunne, with exotic talent Carlos Cuellar as well as Stephen Warnock make a strong defence.
Star player Gareth Barry and new signing Italian Angelo Palombo make a midfield, with great attacking midfielder Ashley Young too. Then up front we have John Carew and Agbonlahor, plus my new Ukrainian signing Artem Milevskyi, who should score a lot of goals.
Next post we will see what the assistant manager thinks of the team. As you can see, my two new signings Palombo and Milevskyi should be a key part of the team and add to our chances of success.

What can we achieve this season?

Targets:

The board targets seem quite optimistic. They want us to come 5th-7th in the league and semi-final in both FA Cup and League Cup. I think we should be able to achieve the league target this season and maybe look at Champions League next season. The FA/League Cup target is tough but we will do our best, and maybe with a bit of luck we can claim one of those trophies.

Club information

Just thought I'd tell you a bit about the club.
Aston Villa Football Club was founded in 1874. They are known as 'the Villans' or just simply as 'Villa'.
They play their home games at Villa Park in Birmingham, a fantastic 42,500 all-seater stadium with an excellent training set-up and state-of-the-art youth setup and academy.
During this season we will be playing in the Barclays Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup and EURO Vase/EURO Cup.
Their home kit is a traditional mix of claret and blue. Their away kit is a mix of black and sky blue.
The chairman is American billionnaire Randy Lerner. Their main rivals are Birmingham City, one of the most famous and traditional rivalries in England. They also have a fierce rivalry with West Bromwich Albion, who are actually geographically closer. We will meet them this season!
They also have rivalries with Coventry, Wolves and Leicester.
Club legends and icons include Peter Withe, Paul McGrath, Juan Pablo Ángel, Randy Lerner, Charles Krulak, Martin O'Neill, Gordon Cowans and Olof Mellberg.
They have won the Premiership in 1894, 1896, 1897, 1899, 1900, 1910 and 1981. With them now failing to win the Premiership for win the Premiership for 27 years, lets end that soon!

I will be showing you the full squad, and giving you an idea of what we want to achieve, as well as showing you my new signings and who I want to buy!

FM Story

Hello and welcome to my new blog!

I am delighted to begin blogging on this website, it is a really good experience for me and I hope my football manager career will make this an interesting read. My name is Mark, age 37, and I live here in Britain.
This is my fifth year on FM and I hope you enjoy this blog as much as I will. I will be playing as Aston Villa, in the Premiership.

Please read this blog and feel free to leave comments!

Here is some info on the team I will be managing Aston Villa!

During the next post I will discuss targets and expectations, and show you my squad and transfer screen.