Season 3: Exceeding Expectations

Hi everyone and welcome to my preparations for my third season of my 2012 FM story with Middlesbrough. Last season saw us finish a very respectable 5th in the premiership and we also managed to win the League "micky mouse" cup. This season i was hoping to break into the top 4 and make a good account of ourselves in my debut season in europe. This post will cover my entire season as i think it will make it easier to read and keep up to date with :)

Transfers:

I started the preseason by brining in some transfers to strengthen my team in areas that i thought we were a bit thin over the last two seasons, brought in some more promising youngsters, dispensed of some deadwood and loaned out some of my own youngsters.

I managed to, i think, bring in some more young talent that should provide more depth and quality into the Boro squad. Screenshots of most of these players can be found below; the ones that cannot be found are all young players for the future. The pick of my transfers in is not actually show above as he was signed after i took the screenshot. I bought Erik Torres from Chivas for 8m. He is a really promising young Mexican who will slot into my midfield:

There was a huge clear out this year with some of the older players being let go and the youth that just weren't cut out were also let go. We did make a little cash to balance some of the transfers through the sales of some players that weren't good enough.

As i haven't been able to give you much depth in my posts before now, i will introduce an overview of my squad and what i consider to be my strongest team:

This is the overview of my team and you can click on their names (below) to get a profile of the player.

Starting XI:

GK - L Branescu

RB - Romario

LB - J Bennet

CB - G Prestia

CB - R Williams

RMC - T Trindade de Vilhena

CM - P Pogba

LCM - K Thompson

RST - C Fierro

ST - Y Sanogo

LST - P Joosten

Subs:

GK - Andrey

DEF - T Llori

DEF - J Pulido

MID - R Smallwood

MID - T Podstawski

ATT - L Gagnon

ATT - A Soukouna

Preseason Friendlies:

The preseason friendlies were, in general, a success with the team playing well and gelling exceptionally. The only game that didn't go to plan was the game against Cardiff in which we just didn't seem to be able to break them down and looked shaky in defence. Overall, i was confident looking at the season ahead :)

The Premiership:

At the half way stage we were sitting 4th in the prem and i was hopeful and in good spirits. We were winning pretty much all of the games we should be wining and putting in the good performances against teams such as Chelsea and Liverpool. In a perfect world, some of the draws against teams like Blackburn and Bolton could have been turned into wins but i can't complain seeing as we're really still a newly promoted team :p

The second half of the season went pretty much the same as the the first half of the season; it was good that we managed to keep up a good run of results through the whole season. We had a few sticks spells but pulled through them really well. To be honest, i can't complain and am really happy with what my young team achieved. The future looks bright at the Boro. The final league table is shown below.

I can't decide on a game of the season. The two that i can't separate are against the two Manchester clubs; City and United. City controlled the game but a great performance by the Boro saw us sneak the 3 points.

The match against Man Utd was equally is thrilling but was much more open:

After a great set of results we had managed to break into the top 4. It was a really good effort and i'm so proud of the players.

After a great season we were rewarded with our seasons main aim; breaking into the top 4. We were quite a way off 3rd place but had opened up a slight gap over 5th place. I'm so pleased with the result :) Next season i think i'm aiming to be closer to the top spot on points or, at a long shot, sneak the title.

FA Cup:

First time we've done well in the competition and we go on to win it :) Chelsea fielded an under strength team which allowed us to sneak a win. We cruised through Bolton and Spurs. Blackburn proved more difficult and we needed extra time to get the win. The match against Liverpool was a tight affair with neither team taking control but we managed to hold our nerve in the shootout and take the cup :)

League Cup:

We managed to retain the micky mouse cup for the second successive year. Strangely we played pretty much the same teams on route to the title; Bolton, Chelsea and Spurs will be sick of us :) The final wasn't that interesting so the screen is of my favourite game which was an epic against Man City (again):

Europa League:

To qualify for the group stages we had quite a tough challenge in Dynamo Moscow but we played well in both legs and qualified, as a 3rd seed, for the europa league group stages.

My match of the group stages is the 6-0 demolition of Rubin who are not a bad team at all.

So moving onto the knockout stages:

We played really well and managed to get the more difficult of the two draws in the semies against Everton but still had my sights firmly set on the final and the trophy. We trounced them in the the first leg but i have no idea what happened in the second leg... the team just didn't turn up... i was disappointed but still pleased to have gotten this far on the first attempt.

This season was an exceptional one in Boro's history and has set us up in great position for next season both financially (below) and the rise in the clubs reputation was one of the leading factors behind my ability to sign promising youngsters.

I'll leave you with this:

As always, i hope you enjoyed the read and it keeps you interested enough to be eagerly anticipating the next post which will be a round up of season 4 in the same format as this post. All your comments are appreciated and if you have any requests or questions i will do my best to facilitate them.

Thanks,

Atokous