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Im happy newcastle managed to sign ben arfa on loan he can do a job for us this season

im glad we kept a hold of stevie taylor hes our best defender

im disapointed we didnt sign a striker andy carrol has started well in the prem but ameobi lovenkrands and best arnt prem stirikers we need someone who can score goals like santa cruz or kevin doyle

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Anyway, I'm starting up a story, setting it up, and I thought I might give you some input on how I write the story

keep in mind, I won't ever be able to do Mwichmann's style as well as he does it

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While managing Portsmouth, a job offer from Newcastle comes in Dec 29, 2010 after Joe Kinnear is sacked. I've enjoyed the challenge of bringing this side back from the brink, and really enjoying the current Euro Cup run, but there have been some frustrations along the way. Portsmouth is not rich, and they haven't been very generous with me personally. I'm on a 5250/week contract, have essentially gotten no kudos from the board for last year's rescue, they did agree to upgrade the training facilities which were distinctly average, but they didn't go the whole way and get them up to world-class status; they won't improve the youth academy which is similarly behind Prem standards, and the stadium is hopeless - the game itself says the board may build a new stadium if the old one can't be expanded, but the board won't even consider that, and we're being killed financially by only being able to put 20,000 rear ends in seats. Newcastle is a different story; everything about St James' Park is world-class, top facilities, 52,000 seat capacity; apparently the side is well funded and the board supportive (according to the historical record, a consortium bought out Mike Ashley in June 2010). Oh, and their contract offer was 39,500/wk. So somewhat reluctantly - I've not had a historical fondness for this club - I accept the new challenge and start on New Year's Eve. This is pretty much it, though, unless maybe Barca come calling I'm not moving again of my own volition.

First match in charge is an FA cup match against Oldham. It's not impressive, but an own-goal and a Gary O'Neil free kick give a 2-0 victory that wasn't every really in doubt. O'Neil missed a late spot kick as well. The fans are not happy, they wanted blood I guess.

I get busy looking at team strenghts/weaknesses. Joey Barton rates out as a good player from the assistant, but he's not contributed anything, and I know his history, so he goes on the transfer list immediately; he's only appeared 12 times, played poorly, and is carrying 55k of salary. Michael Owen will probably land there too, he's our leading scorer, but only five in 20 league games, half as a substitute, and is carrying a 125k salary. Even with Newcastle's much bigger budget, that's silly. We're carrying 940k of salary of the 1.2m budget, and not sure where it's going. 60k is going to Damien Duff who's buried in the reserve squad, has not played a single senior match. He's already on the transfer list as I arrive.

Meanwhile, I get a report that Igor Akinfeev's relationship with his club is deteriorating, starting with when they asked him to take a pay cut, so I've immediately put in an offer for him, we don't have a quality keeper (essentially, Newcastle have been playing with their backup keeper Harper after Given left). The bid is accepted, I'm waiting on Igor now. The squad is deep but not very strong, and they're not playing to their capabilities, Azpuilcueta, with Owen, are the only true highly rated players, plus a young left back, Nigel Geddes, who has major potential but is nowhere near ready for the senior side.

At this stage, Newcastle are 4-6-11 with 22 scored, 36 conceded (those totals are 14th and 16th, respectively). The 18 points are good for 16th place, one point above the drop zone. Media prediction was 9th, the spot actually held by Portsmouth, 12 points and a game in hand away.

The first league match is a few days later, at 18th placed Fulham. Clint Dempsey opens the scoring and we're in a hole already on 14. Dempsey is a decent player, but the bane of my existence: "that's his first goal of the season" Newcastle look like cr*p and by 30 minutes are down 3-0. We finally see a chance as O'Neil gets in alone on the keeper, but hesitates and the sequence ends up with O'Neil being called for the foul. This is going to take a LOT of work. Edgar manages to get sent off in 15 minutes after coming on as a half-time sub. Martins misses an absolute sitter. Fulham score one more. Finally near full time Martins bounces one off the post and as it's rolling along the goal line Owens taps it in to claim credit for Martins' goal (but then, he's supposed to be a poacher, so good work). 4-1 the final, dismal.

Some transfers were already arranged, not sure I actually needed Stuart Taylor, but he's arrived. Meanwhile, Azpilicueta wants to go to Real Madrid. Hard to conceive of letting go of our most highly rated player in these times. Barton has left for Bolton, where he took 38.5k/week, a fair drop. Now trying to dump Damien Duff, but not surprisingly, there aren't any offers. Also Shola Ameobi, who's nowhere near the quality we need, there are enough not-quite-top-class strikers who rate better than he does. Also, Ryan Taylor and Bryson ask for transfers, perhaps seeing the writing on the wall as far as getting playing time.

Against Middlesbrough, we start well, poor defending lets Owen go through untouched and he doesn't tend to miss those. But by 13 minutes we've given it back on a corner. Then a dubious penalty is given on 19, and it's 1-2. On 26 a ball trickles along the line before we clear, could have been three. A bit further on, Newcastle style, we pick up a yellow card for dissent, apparently - the foul was actually given in our favor. Grrr. Jonas is being a big pest for us on the right, and on 36 he picks out Owen for 2-2. I've transfer-listed Owen, and he vowed to show he belongs. There are some accepted offers, but I don't expect he'll easily go for the lower salaries they'll be offering, his 120k salary was my reason for listing him anyway. We have a massive wage bill for such an underperforming side. Anyway, back to the match at hand... exciting first half, would have been better for us if Steven Taylor showed up (4.8 rating). To start the 2nd, we play some terrible football to leave Digard with a clean shot from about 8 yards, 2-3. Albin crosses for Owen and it goes in the net, 3-3, although it's claimed as an own-goal by Pogatetz. Ends that way, this one was a lot more fun, although we could have done better than just the single point. Which leaves us 17th, two clear of the drop zone - but only a few from 13th, as well.

My two east European transfers get their work permits, Akinfeev and striker Danijel Aleksic.

With little break, West Brom come to town. We edge this one 2-1. After Steven Taylor opens the scoring, we let Ishmael Miller through into a through ball on 62 but they return the favor for Thomson in 77.

The cleanout is underway, not sure why you wouldn't conduct a cleanout on a side which had a close to 1m/week salary burden and was sitting right on the edge of the drop zone. For better or for worse, top goalscorer Michael Owen is gone, not too much cash but cleared the 120/week salary and really inconsistent performances (and injury problems, etc). He ended up taking 52k from Bolton.

For the first time in my managerial career, I've scheduled a silly match - playing our U18 side. Really, this ought to be for the fans, to get a chance to see the young players have fun with the established stars, but nobody (well, 44 people) show up to watch; the actual hope is the 10-0 blowout will build senior team confidence on the back of two tight wins. Other managers have told me there's benefit to this. Since we took a mid week date - the first one where there was an opening, after the holiday festive wear-out-the-players marathon - not everyone in the first 11 played, besides some were out with knocks. Aleksic got his chance to meld in with two goals, and other strikers Zamblera and Xisco scored, as did Vuckic (2), Kadar, Ryan Taylor (we have three Taylors, to keep me confused) and Azpilicueta, plus an own-goal.

FA Cup time, Villa come to town. We start with some of the kind of play I'm looking for, Jonas marauds down the right side and crosses into the box nicely for Alkesic who picks the left side to volley it into. I planned this guy for a project for the future, but with Owen gone, Martins not quite back from injury, and Demba Ba immediately reinjured after coming back from his last injury, he's in there. Villa are rampaging, as if they know they're better, but the next real event is Coliccini burying a header off a corner and it's 2-0 on 40 minutes. Then Jonas marauds again, and Villa forget to actually stop him driving into the box, and he plants one for 3-0 on 45 minutes. Agbonlahor misses a gimme header, then Akinfeev gets involved and makes two really nice saves around the 60-minute mark. Jonas seems to be doing his best to make sure I don't try to bid for Antonio Valencia, his left wing counterpart whom he has thoroughly outplayed. Now if right-sider Albin would pick up his play to the same level and stop being unhappy... Villa attack some, but we seem to be solid in the middle today and clear stuff out. Kancjar scores very late on a bit of a silly goal, chased down a deflected ball while everyone watched, after the declared amout of extra time was over, but the 3-1 win is a safe and comfortable one. If we can't take something positive from that - Villa are 6th in the table, even if this wasn't a league match - I don't know what will do it. O'Neill complains after the match that the scoreline was an injustice, and Villa did have the better of the statistics, but didn't create anything useful (their goal was almost a fluke) except things Akinfeev shut down. In what I hope is a bit of luck, we draw League 2 Exteter in the next round, at home.

Our little generous schedule patch continues, the next matches are #18 West Ham at home, #17 Crystal Palace away, and then Exeter. That gives us at least a fighting chance to go into the following Everton (#9) match at home with seven consective wins, including the silly friendly after the early messes. I'm expecting two more players, at least, to go as they're considering accepted offers, and one more major signing to come in, pending work permit stuff. Meanwhile, ever more people want to bug out - now it's Coloccini who thinks his future lies away from Newcastle.

My third big signing gets through the work permit process and arrives, Marquinhos (the one from Palmeiras, Marcos Antonio da Silva Goncalves). I was somewhat surprised he was still available in Brazil when my scout out there picked him out; even more strangely I got a second scout report and the scouts are not actually raving over him, they only consider him a "very good" signing, they're not singing "star" or anything like that. I kind of override this opinion and spend most of the rest of my cash, because he's got just the kind of attributes I'm looking for to create a more exciting brand of football and yet he's not a flake and has good determination.

West Ham come to town, and now we have the team we're going to finish out this year with, barring last minute offers. Guthrie makes a mark by drilling a curling free kick in the 5th minute. Debuting Marquinhos almost scores on 9, but it's just tipped over. Coloccini misses the header off the corner, then Xisco fires a shot just over. On 15 Jonas is found in the box and it's 2-0 - can we keep doing this stuff? This is more like it! Marquinhos almost gets one on 30, but deflected for a corner. Mad scramble after the corner but cleared, but then the run of play comes back and Marquinhos gets his goal. Guthrie is having a monster game so far, a goal and two assists. The last three minutes of the half West Ham show a little life, but we go to the break 3-0. Slacking off on defense, we let the Hammers get more chances, and Faubert edges one that just rolls in after hitting the post on 63. Geovanni bags a turnaround on 80 minutes, and now I'm a lot less happy. "That's his first goal of the season", yes, once again. There's a mad scramble in front of the goal that's almost the equalizer on 82, and then right at the end the Hammers almost score on a free kick, but it bangs off the post. 3-2 win, the 40 minutes of brilliance were enough, but can't we please have 90 for once?

Well, you have to say the schedule had a fortunate turn to it, I'm hoping the bad attitudes are turned around now, because we'll need whatever good we have: after the next three matches, the last 10 league matches look like a tough run in, I'd actually feel fortunate if we collected ten points from those, which means a 44-ish point season is a possible target. That wouldn't crack the top half of the table, where I keep getting told we should be. We'll have to do better in that final stretch. At Crystal Palace, Marquinhos is still up front (I plan to use him lots as an AMC to cause maximum trouble), causes havoc - one move gets him a shot off the post, another he dumps it off and forces a Palace penalty. Guthrie converts it on 26. But then Taylor picks up his second yellow on 35. They're not told to be this aggressive, so this stuff is either the type of players we have or just the way they've learned to play in past Newcastle systems. Lineup shuffled a bit; at the end of the half Marquinhos almost creates another. Ah, sometimes the refereeing will drive you nuts, Xisco, working alone up front, is mugged by two Palace players, and goes down. The foul, and a card, is on him. Then Marquinhos creates another problem, his close in shot is saved, but spilled, and Albin finishes it. First goal of the season? You're kidding, with those skills? He should have been one of Newcastle's star players before I got here (sign of past problems, I think). Things head a bit downhill, Duff comes in to spell Albin late, and goes out injured immediatetely, so we're down to 10; then Coloccini is cautioned which puts him on a ban to go with the one coming for Taylor, hopefully Enrique will be back from injury so I have a chance of assembling a competent back line. We close up shop, but this never seems to work so well, Mole (Portsmouth reject of mine) almost grabs one on 86 but shoots wide. We get a little posession and pretty much run out the clock, 2-0 win.

FA Cup, League 2 Exeter. Starts the Newcastle Way, Bassong picks up a caution 18 seconds in - need to figure out how to change this trend. Otherwise, play starts well, Xisco bags one less than three minutes in. On 12, the second comes, Lugano heads the corner, although it deflects off a defender and is called an own-goal (too bad, was going in anyway). Xisco buries his second on 17. A man on the post just rescues what could have been the fourth. A header on 31 could have been Xisco's hat trick, but it goes over. 4-0 is a lovely long-range shot from Marquinhos on 38. Lugano pots one off a corner late, with the two front players off to give some subs time. It takes a last-second save by Akinfeev to preserve the 5-0 clean sheet. Elsewhere, Tottenham eliminates defending champion Arsenal, who just aren't having the year they did last year. Next round will be tough, having to play Everton away, but Everton aren't having their greatest season ever either, as they're sitting 9th.

Statistical check: we lead the division in both yellow and red cards. I've tried yelling at players who were sent off - a senior and a youth red card, plus a couple of two-yellow sendings off; we'll see if that begins to have any effect.

Our final match of the "generous schedule patch" comes up, being Everton, whom we'll see again in two weeks in the cup. We're riding a 6-match winning run (not including the U18 romp). That extends to seven as we create more fun. Pienaar nearly opens the Everton account on 17, but shoots over; the Marquinhos wiggles through a several players - the kind of moves that I occasionally see against my own sides and they drive me crazy - and dumps off to Aleksic in close but somehow it doesn't go in. Vaughan's shot from distance is just deflected wide, then a great save off the corner. Everton create more and it's capped by Cahill drilling a long bomb. A nice entry pass in to Xisco is a penalty on Rodwell (the game seems to get these descriptions wrong, it says "Jack Rodwell was clearly obstructed by Xisco" when indeed it was the opposite. Marquinhos nets the spot-kick just before the half to equalize. On 50 Cahill makes a beautiful pass to Pienaar, 1-2. Right away Marquinhos picks out Albin all alone but the shot is saved. On 60 Albin redeems that miss by swooping in on his own from the left and making a nifty move to get open and score from about two yards. It's nice to see the skill players showing skill, I wonder how to organize when Jonas gets back from injury, but that's a nice problem to have. Marquinhos picks out Guthrie on a lovely pass but he shoots over. On 72 Azpilicueta crosses one in for Marquinhos but it's actually in the goal before he heads it, 3-2 in any case. 85 Marquinhos is through on a long ball but the touch is just a hair too hard and the keeper just beats him to it. On 89, Albin fires in a rocket free kick that's just tipped over by Howard. Marquinhos has one more shot at it just at the death and another great tip by Howard. Ends 3-2, in truth it could have been a lot more. Marquinhos rates "only" a 7.4, and sees his overall rating drop I'm not sure what the scouts didn't see in him, and he's only 21 yet, he should get better. I know it's only four matches. Meanwhile, Albin is on a 7.62 for his last four matches, not bad for how unhappy he is. We're up to 10th, 2 pts behind Everton.


Reflections for the first report: we've done what we have to to kick the team in the behind, get more energy, scoring, get morale up, etc. In seven league games we've scored 16, which is a big improvement on 22 in 21. Some players are playing very well, nobody is playing badly. There's still a lot of discontent, a little over a month and a half isn't enough to overcome all of that, plus several of the front-line players are unhappy that there's too much competition for places. Defending is a big worry. We've now got a super keeper instead of an average one, but a number of the people playing that are creating that offensive energy aren't really defensive specialists. Without Coloccini, who's missed time with an injury, and the departed Barton (no, I'm not regretting it yet) have left us without a "stopper" DM type, although the pairing of Thomson and Guthrie works well in a classic 4-4-2; if I go more attacking (as in the tactics screenshot appended here) I get offensive-minded players and the defense of course suffers a bit. We've been good enough for this patch of games, we'll see how we work against the tougher run to the finish, which is as follows (besides away to Everton in the FA cup, and any possible further steps there should we pull that one out - after not exactly putting them away at home, it's in question): Man City (a), Bolton (h), Arsenal (a), Villa (h), Chelsea (a), Sunderland (h), Stoke (a), Portsmouth (a), Liverpool (h), ManU (a). Only Bolton, Sunderland and Stoke are below us in the table. In any case, working out how to improve the defense, and the discipline on the field, will be the summer project, and I'll need to do it in a revenue-neutral way, I expect. Big spending doesn't seem in the cards until we get back to making money, we'll be on a large-ish loss this year, mainly due to transfers, not all my fault: before I arrived, the net transfer spend for the year was already -16.1m, I just pushed it a further -19.3m to try and build something more competitive; still some hopes Reading will pick up the 2.5m option to buy Ameobi, as he seems to have become their starting striker. I did bring the wage budget down some, we're now spending 836k (of the 1.2m), so we should be gaining a little cash back, but for Feb. it didn't seem to be happening as receipts were quite low.

Some screenshots:

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How can harry (saggy face) redknapp be able to sign rafael van der vaart exactly 1 day after the english transfer window ahs closed. If i 'm not wrong tottenhan are in englaad not somewhere like turkey so they should have finished the deal by 6pm yesterday.

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It is upon us, not long left now and the Premier League season will start. Here are the 20 teams that hope to make the big impact next season:
Arsenal
Aston Villa
Birmingham
Blackburn
Blackpool
Bolton
Chelsea
Everton
Fulham
Liverpool
Man City
Man Utd
Newcastle
Stoke
Sunderland
Tottenham
West Brom
West Ham
Wigan
Wolves

So, who is going to win this? Will Arsenal finally get motivated again to win a trophy? Can Chelsea retain? Or will Man Utd get the crown back? Will Liverpool, Tottenham or Man City spoil the party?

Next weekend we will see 2 of the teams go head-to-head as Chelsea face Man Utd for the Community Shield. Could the winner of this be a sign of things to come?
I tried to fill in the gaps at the end of last season, and did the coverage for the World Cup. I hope you all enjoy the coverage I bring.

Here is abit of different coverage, Top 10 names printed on shirts 2009/10 Season:

1. Torres
2. Gerrard
3. Rooney
4. Fabregas
5. Arshavin
6. Lampard
7. Drogba
8. Owen
9. Carragher
10. Tevez

Suprises? I think that the Owen one is definetly a suprise. I think that probably only went up after the 'famous' winner over City.

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Right, well I know my last story was a flop but i'm confident this will be a long one. Here it goes....

Strach Gets The Sack

Gordon Strachen has today, been relieved of his duties as coach of Middlesbrough with rookie boss Aaron McDonald already set to take over from the Scot.
The Brum born coach was seen as a long term replacement for Strachan by Boro chairman Steve Gibson after the money spent by Gordon Strachan couldn't even guide Middlesbrough to a play-off place last season.

McDonald has sent out a long term plan which see's Middlesbrough in Europe in 4-5 years.

"I'd like to think this club has the potential to be a European team in about 5 years, but we will have to see how things go because as a manager it is always difficult" said McDonald today at a press conference to unveil him as the new boss.

The Middlesbrough squad contains buckets of Premier League quality including SPL top scorer Kris Boyd, former Rangers team mate Kevin Thomson alongside the ever-growing presence of David Weather who is set to take the captains armband later today.

Middlesbrough Squad In Full

Goalkeepers

Brad Jones, Jason Steele, Danny Coyne

Defenders

Justin Hoyte, Tony McMahon, Matthew Bates, David Weather, Rhys Williams, Jonathan Grounds, Stephen McManus, Andrew Taylor

Midfielders

Didier Digard, Willo Flood, Nicky Bailey, Julio Arca, Barry Robson, Kevin Thomson, Josh Walker, Gary O'Neil,

Forwards

Kris Boyd, Scott McDonald, Leroy Lita, Marvin Emnes, Tarmo Kirk, Jonathan Franks


Despite having some of the best players in the Division, new boss McDonald has stressed his desire to bring in 3 or 4 more players to the club with West Ham youngster James Tomkins on the radar.


Middlesbrough F.C Information

Founded: 1876
Chairman Status: Loves the club
Legends: Colm Cooper, Juninho, Wilf Mannion, Steve Gibson
Icons: Bryan Robson, George Camshell, Brian Clough, Bruce Rioch, Bernie Slaven
Favoured Personnel: Gareth Southgate
Fierce Rivals: Newcastle, Sunderland
Other Rivals: Chelsea, Leeds
Average Ticket Price: £28.00
Average Season Ticket Price: £450
Value: £28 Million
Media Prediction: 2nd
Squad Personality: Loyal

Middlesbrough Opening Fixtures

Derby County v. Boro - Pride Park - 8/8/09
Boro v. Doncaster - Riverside - 15/8/09
Q.P.R v. Boro - Loftus Road - 18/8/09
Boro v. Swansea - Riverside - 22/8/09
Crystal Palace v. Boro - Selhurst Park - 29/8/09

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So now having come to grips (sort of) with FM2010 I set off on a career abroad, finally settling on Stade Brestois 29 in the French Ligue 2. They were only tipped to make a mid table finish, but in reality won promotion to Ligue 1, so I thought why not give it shot?

Beat the reserves 4-0 in a solid display behind closed doors, shortly after joined to get to know the players, in what is a fairly large squad.

I found that there was competant player all positions but left-back, so the search has begun to bring in a left-back. Also not completely happy with the goalkeeping, the number 1 keeper has a 6 month injury and the 2 back ups are shaky, and majorly dodgy, the second nowhere near ready for League action yet. SO a new goalkeeper could be in the works.
The final position I'll be looking to strengthen is the Strikers' position. I have 2 competant strikers which isnt bad since my formation includes the lone striker, so only a possibility there.

More news coming soon!

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Recently,i found a nice netbook on website http://www.davismicro.com.i like it very much. but i am not sure whether buy or buy not ,because i never do online business with them .i want someone who have experience with Davismicro.com give me some advice. Here is the Details imformation of this NETBOOK what do you think this website? what do u think about this netbook? how do u think about this price of netbook?
thank you!
NAME:Eken M006 MID 10.1 inch Netbook with Android 2.1 Notebook Laptop




the price of this netbook is :US $179.79
Main Feature:


CPU:rockchip 2808 (ARM926EJC+DSP) 600mhz/1GHZ
Memory RAM:DDR2 128MB
Memory ROM(flash):MLC NAND 2GB
Webcom:N/A
MIC:MIC bulit in
Memory Solt:TF2GB/4GB/8GB/16GB/32GB Nand Flash
LCD Screen:10 inch TFT (1024x600)16:9
TOUCH:resistive touch panel
USB Slot:30PIN USB2.0 Max Speed 480Mbps/s
Audio slot:yes 3.5mm
DC in:One charging slot
Sound effect:Audio build-in 0.5w*1 stereo sparkers
Charging bettery:5000 mAH / 3.7V (Li-On rechargeable)
Power Adaptor:220V Input, 5V DC Output, 2A
WIFI:CSR / MARVELL WIFI B/G/N 802.11 b/g
3G:Optional for custom-make
G-Sensor:Yes
Button:Power key,Front Face Home button,Side face Power,Volume buttons +/-,Reset Key
OS:Google Android 2.1
INPUT:Soft Keyboard
Browser:Google Browser
Vedio Format:MPEG1,MPEG2,WMV9, MPEG4-SP,ASF,DIVX,H.263,H.264,RMVB,MOV 1080P
Audio Format:WMA,MP3,WAV,OOG,AAC,EAAC
Picture Format:JPG GIF BMP PNG
Flash Playe:N/A
Language:English inese/French/Spanish/Portuguese/Italian/German/Indonesian/Vietnamese/Poland /Turkish/Russian/ Tailand/Arabic /Greek/ Malay/Swedish
Note: This is not an Apple Ipad.


Specification:


Dimension:260x118x16.6 mm
Net Weight:0.885kg
Gross Weight:1.60KG


Package:


1xEKEM006
1xUSB charger
1xManual

Atfer look this info what do u think ? Look forward your advice .thanks

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same rules as the world one but just on football so ill start : Porto

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So today signals the end of the January Transfer Window, yesterday there was some shock as Victor Moses moved to Wigan. Adam Johnson & Fernando Gago are still linked to Man City, Arsenal were battered 3-1 by Utd and seems they need a new striker from somewhere.
So, is there any other transfers that has been completed today? Has anyone been linked to your club, if so what do you think? Sign him, or leave him? And is there any transfers today that you like, or took you by suprise?