August 2019
Pretty quiet summer for me this year, there wasn’t really anything I wanted to strengthen immediately so instead I’ve gone with players for the future, I considered selling Benzia but decided to keep him on for a another a season at least but here’s what I did bring in

• Rodrigo (975k) – Actually agreed to sign this guy 12 months a go but he couldn’t join because he wasn’t 18 yet and now that I’ve got him, well I’ve got other options so he’s going out on loan until I can decide what to do with him in the future

• Mark Kragh (875k) – Just couldn’t resist the opportunity to pick up another talented young CB on the cheap, he comes from the same club as my left back Jakobsen and so I’m hoping he turns out just as well as he did

• Martin Rasmussen (500k) – Another cheap Danish player that my scouts found part way through the season, I’ve got some very good options out on the right but for 500k I figured I couldn’t really go wrong with him

• Jean-Jacques Malval (6.75m) – This one is an experiment, he’s incredibly young at 15 and has a lot of potential and the determination to apply that potential but I want to see just how he can develop over the next 6 seasons or so. I think he might end up being something of a flop but for the sake of 7m, well I wanted to find out

• Emilio Vilches (1.7m) – The last thing I need is yet another DM but I couldn’t resist when I saw Vilches, well I did for a bit until I saw that Juve, Barca and United had all had offers accepted so at that point I moved for him and offered more in wages than I normally would have to secure the new understudy to Sven Bender

• Yoshiki Deguchi (5.25m) – Lowton is getting on a bit and although he’s great at the moment, he will need to step aside in the next 2 seasons or so and I do have Paulo as a fantastic backup and eventual first team option but I wanted to make an early move to bring in a 3rd option

Full Transfers – As I said it’s very much a transfer window for the future and possibly never, depending on how these players turn out but I’m happy with the business I’ve done here. If I’m going to spend big again on a new player then it will be next summer once I’ve evaluated all my striking options, if none of the current crop prove good enough then I’ll go hunting with 20-40m for a new one

Trophies so far: Champions League (1) | Premier League (1) | FA Cup (1) | League Cup (1) | Community Shield (1) | European Super Cup (1) | Club World Cup (1) |

May 2019
Interesting season really, as I said in an earlier update we won the Community Shield, Super Cup and Club World Cup before Christmas, the league was a bit of a pain all season long because the CWC left us so behind on games but in the end we were able to make the gap up on United thanks to our games in hand and we finally took our first Premier League title which along with our Capital Cup Final win against Arsenal gave us a Quintuple from this season

The major disappointment for this season though was out inability to defend our Champions League title when we lost out on penalties to Juventus in the bloody final, the loss on penalties I can deal with but their two goals in normal time were from a free kick and a chuffing long throw – not to mention I had Skinn, Hughes, Luna and Astley missing so that’s my first choice LB, CB, CM and AML and considering the run it took to get us there I’m absolutely gutted

For the most part I had some brilliant performers this season from all over my squad, Duyan – the turkish Gareth Bale has scored nearly 10 goals at the age of 16, Yevtushenko has become my 2nd/3rd best CB in just one season, Kavlak and Valades have been wonderful in midfield and my other big players have all stepped up but there’s one big let down and that was Yassine Benzia who carried his poor scoring form from the second half of last season into this one and I blame him for that Champions League Final loss

Top Goalscorer: Matej Vydra (18 Goals | 11 Assists) Top Assists: Marc Albrighton (10 Goals | 19 Assists – New Record)
Honorable Mentions: James McClurg (11 Goals | 7 Assists)Miralem Pjanic (4 Goals | 13 Assists) Pavlo Yevtushenko (6 Goals | 1 Assists | 7.67 Av Rating)

January 2019
It’s been a strange season so far really and I’m not sure what to make of us really, the main problem is that Benzia has completely dried up goal wise and so we’ve struggled a bit with that as my main back up who is 20 years old isn’t quite ready to take over yet but we’ve battled through anyway and managed to win theCommunity Shield, European Super Cup and Club World Cup so far this season to complete the most mediocre treble ever

Aston Villa 3 – 3 Lyon
Aston Villa 2 – 0 Celtic
Aston Villa 4 – 1 Napoli
Napoli 4 – 1 Aston Villa
Lyon 1 – 2 Aston Villa
Celtic 0 – 4 Aston Villa

The Champions League was a fairly easy ride, the only mistake I made was to play a youth side against Napoli the second time we faced them because after we beat them so easily first time around I thought we’d be able to do it with a weaker team but they battered us which was more than fair. That didn’t stop us from topping the group which is great, however we’ve been drawn against PSG in the First Knockout Round which is annoying

The League is a bit odd because of the CWC taking games away from us so we’re in 3rd at the moment but with some games in hand over the other teams so who knows. We’ve got Chelsea in the 3rd round of the FA Cup and I plan to play youth so we won’t be defending that but we’re through to the Capital One Cup Semi Final where we’ve got Swansea.

August 2018
After last season went so well I wasn’t entirely sure as to what I really wanted from this window, I know we need more defensive depth but I wasn’t sure on whether to move on the likes of Baker, Lowton, Albrighton etc and in the end I decided to keep them for another season or so and see how my signings work out

• Maxim Rudolph (10.5m) – I tried to sign this guy for most of last summer and had a deal done at 7m for him but he just wouldn’t talk to us unfortunately but I’ve managed to get him this time around and he should be a great option for us

• Andre (6m) – I’ve been wanting a replacement for Guzan and an understudy for while now, I couldn’t get a replacement and he’ll still be first choice for a while but Andre should make a decent youth option for us and unlike the 5* potential keeper I wanted from United he doesn’t cost 42m

• Pavlo Yevtushenko (5.75m) – When I realised I could get a decent amount for Okore – who played 16 or so games last season – I went and got Pavlo as his replacement, it means I’ve now got 5 players who I trust at Centre Back and for once I shouldn’t be short there

• Victor Kippes (7.25m) – I really do need some depth on the right, Albrighton is my back up at the moment and I wanted a proper understudy for Vydra, annoyingly Kippes can’t move for another 6 months (when he hits 18) but when he does arrive I’m hopeful that he’ll do well

• Gokhan Duyan (2m) – The Turkish Gareth Bale, no idea what will become of him but he only cost 2m and Dortmund were after him so how could I not

• Igor (1.5m) – So he’s cheap and for a 15 year old he’s got really good physicals and so why not was pretty much my view on him

• Rodrigo (975k) – A fair few teams were after him and he only cost us compensation, my plan was to turn him into a Centre Back but he doesn’t join for a year now and I’m pretty well stocked there but for that price I thought he was a decent signing anyway

Full Transfers – Pretty happy with everything we did, could have moved a few more on for sure to bring some money in but with the likes of United bidding big for Hughes and Grealish I’m just happy to strengthen overall and keep my best players

June 2018
How to sum this season up, good, bad, excellent, devastating and incredible should just about sum it up really, I’ll get the devastating out of the way first. I had no expectations of winning the league this season but coming into the last 10 or 12 games we were still in touch and managed to top the league for the last 5 games or so, United are a machine though and smashed their final day opponents while we got held by Marcelo Bielsa’s Tottenham – who incidentally had nothing to play for – in a 0-0 draw that saw us finish second and lose out on the league by goal difference

We played United far too much during our run in but it did mean after losing out in the league we had a chance to redeem ourselves and bring home the FA Cup – which we did in a 2-1 win, only our third win against them in the 5 years since I started this save, I’m happy with winning it but I played a B team throughout until the final and I would much rather have got the league

The Incredible part of this season would be our amazing run in the Champions League, we did well to make it out of the group and after that I thought we would end up going out pretty fast. Barca however we dealt with in a blitz at home that saw us just needing to avoid a hammering in the away leg, Busquets was kind enough to get himself sent off and Messi wasn’t fit – cos we injured him first leg – so we came away with the win there

After that it was PSG who had smashed us 3 years ago in our first Champions League game, 5-1 iirc, and I was fearful but other than Icardi and Cavani their team was pretty poor everywhere else and we just about edge it thanks to the home leg. United should have seen us out after beating us 2-1 at Old Trafford but they’d never beaten us at home since I took over and for once we managed to get the better of them with 4 second half goals that sent us through to the final and probably cost us the league too, the final itself was pretty boring unfortunately and although I’m ecstatic to win it I do wish there’d been some decent highlights in normal time but can’t really complain after that result for us really, especially when they brought on a 37 year old Terry and a 39 year old Lampard in the second half

A lot of players were excellent for us all season but mostly our front three of Astley (12 Goals | 8 Assists) Benzia (23 Goals | 9 Assists) and Vydra (17 Goals | 12 Assists) and then others like Will Hughes(15 Assists and PFA Young Player of the Year) – James McClurg who gave me real second option to Benzia for once (11 Goals | 3 Assists) – Antonio Luna and Victor Skinn – defenders who have been outstanding all year plus Sven Bender who for me was the buy of the season thanks to the stability he offered

January 2018
Forgot to screenshot when I hit 19 games so I’ll just go with this one from my 17th with us in 2nd again and looking in decent form, cue the inevitable downfall however when we go on this run of games in a months time: Liverpool – Chelsea – Barcelona – Man City – Swansea – Arsenal – Barcelona

Aston Villa 3 – 0 Rosenborg
Bayer Leverkusen 0 – 0 Aston Villa
Aston Villa 2 – 2 Real Madrid
Real Madrid 1 – 1 Aston Villa
Rosenborg 0 – 0 Aston Villa
Aston Villa 4 – 1 Bayer Leverkusen

As for the Champions League well I’m sick of the sight of Madrid and Leverkusen, that’s two years in a row we’ve gone up against them both in the Group Stages but at least it went well enough. I’ve no idea what happened to Madrid but they just could not get a win until the last game and we did well enough – yeah getting through the group is great but if we hadn’t drawn 0-0 away to Rosenborg then we would have gone through top and wouldn’t now be facing a hammering by Barcelona in the knockout round

Benzia has been great along with Astley, Vydra, Hughes and Pjanic once more, then Bender has been a great addition and most of the young players are doing pretty well but we do need to sort out defence in the summer because we don’t have enough depth and Guzan is at the limit of his usefullness for us so I need a replacement there. The only business I’m doing in January though is selling Deulofeu for 8m to Stuttgart, he was cheap enough at 1.7m but he’s doing nothing over two seasons to make me want to keep him so he can raise some funds instead

August 2017
Heading in to this window I had a couple of priorities, a new CB, a RB and because Westwood had decided to bitch about being fined for a red card that nearly cost us 4th place I needed a DM to replace him so those were the priorities. I got offers of 40m from Chelsea, United and City for Will Hughes but I held on to him and move on Andersen for 8.5m after signing on a free last season, Westwood (6,5m) Bacuna (3.1m) and Agbonlahor (3m) – oh and Valades who cost 15m has gone on loan to my feeder club to see how he copes because I’m not sure I can give him the games he needs right now

• Per Nystrom (375k) No idea what to make of this lad but for 375k in compensation I wasn’t going to turn him down so we’ll just see how he does

• Ludovico Molinaro (1.7m) Another I picked up for compensation, originally I had a 16m Ukrainian lined up to offer more depth at centre back but because of an overspend elsewhere I had to pass on him and go cheaper so instead I picked up this guy for a couple of million in compensation and we’ll just see how he does

• Marcus Paulo (4m) I was hoping to get a long term right back out of my youth intake but when I didn’t I decided to go buy one, the best I could find was at Juve and I wasn’t getting him out of there for anything under 20m so instead I looked again and found this lad for 4m plus another 400k when he hits 50 games and I reckon he’s the perfect understudy for Lowton

• Eser Kavlak (4m) After spending 15m on Valades last year I was determined to get back to looking at cheaper CMs like Hughes and my South Europe scouts turned up this lad and for 4m I figured I couldn’t really do wrong with him

• Sylvain Bordes (7m) Brought in as a long term replacement for Westwood and rotation partner for Karlsson, decent price I reckon and should do well enough over time

• Sven Bender (8m) With Westwood leaving I strengthened with the young lad above but Bender was listed and for 8m I couldn’t turn him down, his wages are a bit on the high side but not outrageous and he’s massive improvement over Westwood and should do well while Karlsson and Bordes develop

• Gabriel Ippolito (25m) This is the one I hate, I got into a bidding war and my scouts said sign him at any price – so I did and now I’ve spent 25m on a striker I’m not 100% convinced by and when I didn’t need to strengthen there, I could have done with some depth so a 5-10m youth or transfer listed signing would have done but instead I’ve got this lad

Full Transfers – If you take out that stupid decision to sign the Atalanta player for 25m then I think it’s a strong window but yeah I massively overspent on a player I don’t really need and it’s stretched us a bit, need to get through this season secure top four and learn from this

June 2017
Didn’t have the best season overall in the league and just wait till you see the hash I’ve made of the Summer transfer window but yeah I’m not too disappointed with a 4th place in the league but we could have easily been 3rd or even 2nd if we hadn’t had to rotate so much to accommodate the latter rounds of the Champions League but at least we’ll be in it next year

We did better than expected in the Champions League and after making it out the group Kiev didn’t prove too much of a challenge and so we went straight on to meetAtletico Madrid in the Quarter Final. A hat-trick from Benzia in the first leg gave us a chance but we threw the second leg away and in the end we went out because of this cluster*bleep* of a goal from their corner, still though Quarter Finals is great for our second year in the competition

Once again it was Benzia, Vydra and Hughes who impressed through the season but Pjanic, after adapting to his new position, has been brilliant all season and makes a great partnership with Hughes. Skinn might have cost 25m but it’s a bloody good job we did sign him because he was pretty much our best centre back all season long and we only struggled defensively when I had to go to Okore and a youth player back there. Karlsson has also come along well and after Westwood threw a wobbler during the run in he became my first choice DM and did rather well in the role

Top Goalscorer: Yassine Benzia (24 Goals | Prem Top Scorer) Most Assists: Will Hughes (12 Assists 8 Goals)
Honorable Mentions: Matej Vydra (15 Goals – FWA Footballer of the Year) Daryl Astley (11 Goals 6 Assists

January 2017
The Champions League was far kinder to us this year, I was worried when we got the Group draw but I shouldn’t have been really as Roma were utterly terrible throughout and Leverkusen were really hard to break down but they didn’t offer much going forward at all. Madrid should have topped the group but the second time they face us for some reason they had a B’ team out and although we’re no match for their first team we proved more than capable of sorting their B’ team out, as did Roma for their only win of the group stage

Aston Villa 0 – 0 Bayer Leverkusen
AS Roma 1 – 2 Aston Villa
Real Madrid 3 – 0 Aston Villa
Aston Villa 2 – 0 Real Madrid
Bayer Leverkusen 0 – 1 Aston Villa
Aston Villa 2 – 0 AS Roma

So far so good in the league, Operation: Finish in the top four or we’re going bankrupt, seems to be working at the moment with us sitting in 2nd place behind United. I’ve got no title aspirations for 3-5 seasons yet as I need to get my young players to develop enough but I do want top four in each season during that time to help us financially, I figure United will take the title and we’ll drop to 3rd or 4th later on in the season because we had a fantastic run in december where we just smashed everyone before getting held against Stoke in the last game – I don’t see that form keeping up and even if it did then there’s United to deal with

Some of the young players I picked up in the summer have been terrific, especially the 25m Centre Back Skinn who is just incredible in that backline alongside Okore or Baker, so I’ve got high hopes for him. Astley has settled in well on the left wing but at the moment it’s Benzia, Vydra, Hughes and Pjanic who are keeping us where we are, Benzia and Vydra have both started scoring for fun and Hughes – Pjanic is such a dominant midfield on it’s day, Pjanic didn’t do a great deal last season but after adapting to the CM role this season he’s been fantastic

July 2016

I’ve got all my summer transfer work done early as usual so that I can have a settled squad by the time the season gets going, After watching the budget over the last 3 years I’ve decided to go for broke this year and I’ve hit the bank balance in a way I wouldn’t normally but the plan here is to buy the core of the team that will be here for a decade or so, next season if all goes well we’ll still have Champions League football and I can go back to spending about 15m

First thing happened this summer was United activating Lewis Holtby’s 23m release clause and so off he went, He was my 3rd choice at CM but I’m worried he’ll come back to bite us next season. After that I needed to strengthen at CB, AML and CM as a priority and I did that by going for youth once more

Lucas Andersen (Free) – Forgot I’d agreed this deal back in January, no idea how he’ll work out but he cost nowt

Gerard Deulofeu (1.4m) – He’s a player I’ve never owned and needing depth on the wings I was suprised when a scout told me he could be bought for between 1 and 2m so I stuck a bid in. The plan is to keep him for a few years and hopefully see his value rise before moving him on

Daryl Astley (11m) – I wanted this lad from Stoke last year to make him my AML Inside Forward for the future, I couldn’t afford him last time but at just over 10m this year I was happy enough to go for him

James McClurg (12m) – I had no plans to bring in a striker but this 18 year old from Southampton caught my eye instantly I just had to go in for him, hopefully Benzia will keep us his form this season and McClurg can understudy him

Tito Valades (15m) – This is the only signing I’m not 100% happy with, after United took Holtby I got annoyed and decided to push this deal through to bring in one of their youth players. I like him but I’m not as confident with how he’ll turn out like I am with the others

Victor Skinn (25m) – No amount of money would have stopped me buying this lad, at 17 he’s already better than any other Centre Back at the club and with Vlaar having a shocker last season I needed to buy the defensive heart of our team for the future and I reckon Skinn is it

That lot concludes my biggest transfer spend on FM14 so far and I don’t reckon I’ll be spending that much again for a very long time but hopefully it should secure the long term future of this club along with a complete overhaul of the coaches here and the board putting more money into revamping the training facilities and expanding the stadium by 8k seats. I just hope I haven’t done a Leeds here

Full Transfers