lukegraham1991

TRANSFER OUT - MOREIRA This one is only a loan deal for one of the young fullbacks we brought in earlier this season. His value has already improved dramatically - we signed him for 3.4M and he is currently worth 17-25M so it's a no-brainer to keep him playing regular football with this loan deal.

TRANSFER OUT - YERRY MINA Another player that hasn't featured at all for us all season due to injury, I'm not a big fan of the player anyway. So we waited for him to get back from injury and have now cashed in on him while we could - securing a fee of just over 8M & clearing over 100k per week in wages.

TRANSFER OUT - SEAMUS COLEMAN Seamus Coleman has also left the club while we can get some money in for him. The player was running out of contract in the summer and I had no intention of keeping hold of him. On 70k a week and being able to gain a small fee for the sale of Coleman it was a no brainer - 11k per week is being paid to him from ourselves until the end of the season and that's a small price to pay.

TRANSFER OUT - ASMIR BEGOVIC Confirmation of the earlier mentioned transfer of backup goalkeeper Asmir Begovic.

TRANSFERS - ANDRES CARO & FILIPPO TERRACCIANO We've also managed to bring in more youthful prospects, Caro is a central defender and Terracciano is another RB. I will always look to bring these kinds of players in for the right fees as even if they don't get first team football here, their value will only go up and then we can make money for the club and our transfer kitty!

TRANSFER - YOUSSOUFA MOUKOKO We've had this in the pipeline for quite some time, waiting for the player to turn 18 initially, and then having to wait for the new transfer window to happen to complete the loan deal. Hopefully this will give us more of a threat from ST or AML/AMR moving into the second half of the season. If this lad performs like we know he can, we have the option to sign him permanently for 40.5M. HUGE IMPROVEMENT to be had here!

GAME DAY 17 - PREMIER LEAGUE - HOME VS LEEDS UNITED The last game of 2022 was a home tie against Leeds United. Another frustrating performance in which we managed to avoid defeat late on - Santos Borre will have to start moving forward because he's the only goalscorer we have by the looks of things. With January coming up I'm seriously considering selling Calvert-Lewin now to cash in while the value is there & a few clubs are already interested. We can then invest into younger talent that will improve & probably in more than one position because of the fee he will sell for. Notable poor performances: James Garner: 6.4, Ruben Vinagre: 6.5 & Nicolas Dominguez: 6.5. Standout performances: Alex Iwobi: 7.5 & Rafael Santos Borre: 7.5.

TRANSFER - RUNE JARSTEIN We've recently agreed the sale of Asmir Begovic who was our backup goalkeeper to Benfica for 550k as well as clearing up 40k per week on wages. Jarstein was available right away due to being on free agency, I like to have an aging goalkeeper in backup as well as a youngster (still on the look out) to learn from him and the starter. Free agent on 20k per week to replace 550k selling fee on 40k a wage is a no brainer for me! January coming up soon and there will be more moves in the transfer market!

GAME DAY 16 - PREMIER LEAGUE - AWAY VS CRYSTAL PALACE All of the good talk about us playing against teams outside of the top 6 and doing well so far this season has been undone by a shocking performance, once again. Our best player being our keeper isn't a great sign because it means we aren't helping him out further up the field in regards to defending and keeping the ball away from the net. Notable poor performances: Tom Davies: 6.2, James Tarkowski: 6.3, Nathan Patterson: 6.3 & Rafael Santos Borre: 6.3. Standout performances: Jordan Pickford: 7.3.

MID-SEASON UPDATE I thought we would take a look at how the season has gone so far after playing from August up until the World Cup break, and I've also played 2 friendlies in the lead back up to the Premier League restart on the 28th December vs Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. 16 Premier League games played sees us sat in 10th place, an improvement on where we were expected to finish up the at the end of the season, so a positive on that front. We were knocked out of the Carabao Cup early on after being hammered by Leeds United - which was disappointing, but not the end of the world, allows us more time to focus on improvements in the league. The loss to Southampton was a really disappointing one, however, only losing to Man Utd, Tottenham, Chelsea, Man City, Arsenal & Liverpool aside from that isn't too much to be disappointed with right now. We need to be 'the best of the rest' before looking to infiltrate the top 6 which is, of course, the long term plan here. Only two of our defeats have come at Goodison Park - losing out to Man City after being 2-0 up and losing late to a De Bruyne penalty in the 91st min & losing 1-0 in the 90th minute to Liverpool. We do however, need to find more goals, our list of scorers at the moment is as follows: Rafael Santos Borre - 7 goals. Dwight McNeil - 2 goals. Neal Maupay, Idrissa Gueye, Seamus Coleman, James Tarkowski & Gareth Bale - 1 goal. These stats are bit worrying but on the flip side of that, Jordan Pickford (along with his defence) has 7 clean sheets so far this season. Hopefully we can keep up these kind of recent results from the Fulham win and the two friendly results now going into the second half of the season. Crystal Palace (A) up next, stay tuned....

GAME DAY 16 - PREMIER LEAGUE - HOME VS FULHAM We revert back to our initial 4-3-3 formation for this one as we return to home turf after a tough fixture list lately. With this being our final league game until after the world cup, I wanted to take the game to Fulham and come home with the 3 points. Despite Idrissa Gueye getting dismissed with a lot of time left in the second half, we win the game comfortably with Santos Borre back on the score sheet and also chipping in with an assist to lead the line magnificently. Next post I will do an overview on the seasons results so far after we finish the month of December with our final league games of 2022 vs Crystal Palace (A) & Leeds United (H). Notable poor performances: Nathan Patterson: 6.5. Standout performances: Rafael Santos Borre: 8.3 & Alex Iwobi: 7.8.

GAME DAY 15 - PREMIER LEAGUE - AWAY VS BRENTFORD This 0-0 draw makes it 4 games on the bounce without scoring now, we had Santos Borre back but he was well below par on his return, Maupay & Calvert-Lewin weren't much better either to be honest. I don't think it's worth sticking with the 4-4-2 formation because we aren't seeing a return from our forwards, our wingers are playing much deeper and we are also taking away a CDM - while in this game that didn't matter too much, the last few games against Southampton & now Brentford and not scoring with two strikers is a bit worrying so we need to become more solid in other areas and tweak maybe some set pieces and how we approach the attack. Notable poor performances: Dwight McNeil: 6.3, Vitaliy Mykolenko: 6.4 & Neal Maupay: 6.4. Standout performances: Jordan Pickford: 8.1, Nathan Patterson: 7.3 & Jarrad Branthwaite: 7.0.

GAME DAY 14 - PREMIER LEAGUE - AWAY VS SOUTHAMPTON 3 losses on the bounce now after conceding a very poor goal here. 3 goals without scoring a goal as well as 3 poor performances, we changed it up to go more attacking with two forwards in this one as well which is disappointing considering we only had 7 shot, and only 2 of which ended up on target. Some big improvements need to be made here and we need to change our fortunes otherwise we could be in trouble if we can't start finding the back of the net. Notable poor performances: Dominic Calvert-Lewin: 6.3, Nathan Patterson: 6.4 & Neal Maupay: 6.4. Standout performances: N/A

GAME DAY 13 - PREMIER LEAGUE - HOME VS LIVERPOOL Now this one hurts. To lose in the 90th minute at home vs our biggest rivals was a huge blow considering we are definitely the lesser team on paper here, managing to keep them to 0-0 for 89 minutes, and concede a poor goal so late on, is a tough one to take. Two below par performances from James Tarkowski against a top team on the bounce now, if he doesn't improve in our next outing I may have to start looking at a rotation. Notable poor performances: James Tarkowski: 6.3, Idrissa Gueye: 6.4 & Tom Davies: 6.4. Standout performances: Jarrad Branthwaite: 7.3, Vitaliy Mykolenko: 7.2 & Nathan Patterson: 7.0.

GAME DAY 12 - PREMIER LEAGUE - AWAY VS ARSENAL Another tought fixture on paper, made even tougher by some poor performances on our end which then inevitably ends in a comfortable loss as Bukayo Saka puts it on us with a brace. A late red card was too late for us to gain anything from the game, but again, a loss away from home against a team going for the league title by the looks of things is something we have to expect at this stage of the career. Notable poor performances: Neal Maupay: 6.2, James Tarkowski: 6.3 & Idrissa Gueye: 6.3. Standout performances: N/A

GAME DAY 11 - PREMIER LEAGUE - HOME VS ASTON VILLA A must win game at this point in my opinion, to be where we want to be we need to beat those teams at the lower half of the table throughout the season. So, we did just that with a solid performance and Aston Villa never really threatened from what I saw on the highlights. Disappointing challenge from Rafael Santos Borre means we will be without our leading scorer for the next 3 games but Dominic Calvert-Lewin just got back to full training, and we have Neal Maupay to step in to start right away. Notable poor performances: N/A Standout performances: James Tarkowski: 8.1 & Dwight McNeil: 7.5.

PREMIER LEAGUE - 10 MATCH TABLE An update on the league table sees us in 8th place after to games. Not a bad start considering some of the teams we've played already - however, just outside the european places and we only have a 0 goal difference which is something we need to work on. A long way to go until we finish this season though so hopefully next game vs 18th placed Aston Villa will result in a win to kick start our next 5 games!

GAME DAY 10 - PREMIER LEAGUE - HOME VS MANCHESTER CITY Last game of the night this one as we take on a title contender in Manchester City. A couple of changes to the starting lineup after the poor performance last week. We're not expected to win this one by a long shot - but I can't keep people in the side after that last poor performance against Chelsea (another one we weren't expected to win, but I want to see more of a fight at least). Nathan Patterson & Rafael Santos Borre looked to be a couple of good changes to the lineup early on with Patterson assisting Santos Borre for the opening 2 goals where we went 2-0 up. But unfortunately, given the attacking & possession juggernaut that is Man City, it wasn't enough - with a second half onslaught putting us to bed for all 3 points. Notable poor performances: Vitaliy Mykolenko: 6.4, Gareth Bale: 6.4 & Dwight McNeil: 6.4. Standout performances: Rafael Santos Borre: 8.1 & Nathan Patterson: 7.7

GAME DAY 9 - PREMIER LEAGUE - AWAY VS CHELSEA Fresh from a two week international break, we travel to Stamford Bridge to take on mid-table Chelsea, need to be a bit wary here though as they are clearly under performing considering some of the players they have in their ranks. However, this was our worst performance of the season so far, and we paid the price suffering a 2-0 loss. The only positive I can take from this one would be the return and half decent performance from Demarai Gray with his appearance from the bench. Notable poor performances: Neal Maupay: 6.1, Jordan Pickford: 6.2 & James Tarkowski: 6.2. Standout performances: Demarai Gray: 7.2.

GAME DAY 8 - PREMIER LEAGUE - HOME VS LEICESTER CITY Home tie against a struggling Leicester City team ended with us sharing the spoils. A cagey affair and the draw was probably a fair result in the end but this is one I would've liked to have won, especially with Leicester only taking 6 points from 7 games before our match. Notable poor performances: Ruben Vinagre: 6.3 & Tom Davies: 6.4. Standout performances: Dwight McNeil: 7.2 & Abdoulaye Doucoure: 7.2.

GAME DAY 7 - PREMIER LEAGUE - AWAY VS NEWCASTLE UNITED Once again we travel for a tough away test - this time against the new financial powerhouse that is Newcastle United at St. James' Park. The first half was of our usual expected performance, keeping a clean sheet and not creating too much, with Rafael Santos Borre not having a great game unfortunately. Neal Maupay with a great substitues performance coming on with 24 minutes of regulation time remaining in the game and getting a goal and assist to secure the win for the Toffees!! Notable poor performances: Rafael Santos Borre: 6.0, Alex Iwobi: 6.3 & Ruben Vinagre: 6.4. Standout performances: Jordan Pickford: 8.0 & Neal Maupay: 7.8.

GAME DAY 6 - PREMIER LEAGUE - AWAY VS TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR Another tough away fixture vs a top 6 side this game week which ended in a 1-0 loss. We held on for as long as we could but it's becoming evident that we aren't creating a whole lot, often winning games 1-0. On the plus side of things, we are looking alright defensively so far, we just need to get more consistency on the offensive side of things. Notable poor performances: James Tarkowski: 6.3 & Ruben Vinagre: 6.3. Standout performances: N/A

TRANSFER - ERNEST NUAMAH I'm starting to figure that we don't have a lot of pace in the side right now, especially offensively. So, I've taken a punt on a youngster on a cheap deal again to hopefully come in, improve and fill that void. Ratings below on this one, first transfer for the club since I've taken over that has been a deadline day deal!

PREMIER LEAGUE - 5 MATCH TABLE A quick update before I sign off for the evening after we've completed August 2022 (almost - transfer window to go yet!). A great start sees us taking up a european spot as things stand, a long way to go yet but things are looking good so far - we can only beat the teams put in front of us as some might say!

GAME DAY 5 - PREMIER LEAGUE - HOME VS WEST HAM UNITED We take on West Ham in the last game of August. Our 7th place vs their 9th place after the first 4 games of the league season. Huge win, solid defensively once again which we will need to maintain throughout the season to be where we want to be. Some players that haven't been at their best recently getting some solid performances in for us as well - namely Alex Iwobi & Dwight McNeil from the wings. Notable poor performances: N/A Standout performances: James Tarkowski: 8.7