Career Prepared....Bringing Glory Back to Aston Villa - Season 3

[EvzeyWales]

Inspired by @smoggy90 and his current Middlesbrough story I thought I would do something similar with a club close to my own heart. 

Despite being Welsh I have been an avid Villa fan for over 25 years. In this time I have been lucky enough to witness a few cup wins, some great European nights and have had the pleasure of cheering on some absolutely fantastic players. Some of my favorite moments still seem very fresh in my mind but the harsh reality is Villa's best days appear to have come and gone  

I still rue some of the missed opportunities and absurd managerial decisions (O'Neil turning down Falcao and opting instead for Heskey) I was in the crowd with the team seemingly cruising to a routine 2-0 win over Stoke, that would have taken us 4 points clear of 4th placed Arsenal. HOWEVER we manged to lose in the most 'Villa Way' possible and concede 2 late goals (the second of which was scored by current Midfielder Glenn Whelan). As it turned out Villa were never to recover from this set back and again missed out on the riches of the Champions League by finishing 6th. This led to a number of big players leaving in the coming years and the downward spiral was to continue, eventually leading to relegation from the top flight. 

The proverbial 'Sleeping Giant' its about time Aston Villa rise from the embers and returned to the top table of English Football.  My goal will be to ensure success as soon as possible, however there is a catch.......

Aston Villa posses one of the finest academy's in English Football and it will be this academy that will provide the players to lead us to success. Therefor I am imposing the following rules on this save:-

* Only players currently at the club, or players who graduate from the academy can be used.

* This means I can sign players who started the career's at Villa - Gary Cahill, Callum Robinson etc. but nobody else

* I will try to include academy players as often as possible

* I will remain with Aston Villa for the duration of this save.

 

So with that in mind here are the players I hope will play a massive part in the Revival of 'The Midlands Biggest Club' :-

 

 

Jack Grealish - This guy should need no introduction and will be a key player from the beginning. A creative force who will be my main playmaker.

Andre Green - A rapid winger who inexplicably was loaned out - will be key upon his return from loan at Portsmouth

Jake Doyle-Hayes - A cool clam collected central midfield player with a big future

Rushian Hepburn-Murphy - Young forward with great potential - should hopefully bag me some goals during the course of the career.

Corey Blackett-Taylor - Another promising attacking player who I hope can make the grade

Callum O'Hare  - I haven't yet decided if I am going to use him as a midfielder or a forward - He will hopefully play a big part either way.

 

And for those not familiar with this great club here is a run down, which I have 'borrowed' from Culture Trip -

The early history of Aston Villa

Aston Villa Football Club was founded in March 1874 by the Villa Cross Wesleyan Chapel cricket team after, believe it or not, they decided that they wanted to try a different sport! With a first match planned – against local rugby team Aston Brook St Mary’s – it was agreed that the team would play one half of rugby and one half association rules. Rugby was a little too rough for them, so they decided to form a football team shortly afterwards.

Aston Villa started to call Kennington Oval their home, and in 1887, Villa won their first FA Cup, against local rivals West Bromwich Albion, having already won their very first trophy, the Birmingham Senior Cup (1880). Just one year later in 1888, Villa was one of 12 teams to shape the inaugural football league. The club’s director at the time, William McGregor, was officially the founder.

In 1894, Villa became league champions for the first time, and when they won The Double in 1897, the club moved to Villa Park – the same stadium they occupy to this day.

 

Aston Villa’s winning Double cup team of 1887 | © Unknown / WikiCommons

Success and decline of Aston Villa

Aston Villa swiftly became one of the most successful teams in Victorian England, and as the 20th century rolled in, there were no signs of slowing down. By 1905, the club was already on its fourth FA Cup win, as a crowd of over 101,000 packed into Crystal Palace to see their 2–0 win over Newcastle United.

As well as their impressive club success, on an individual level, Villa helped nurture a number of players to receive their first England call-ups in the late 19th and early 20th century. Up until as recent as 2015, Villa had provided more players to the England national team than any other club.

Villa went on to win their sixth FA Cup in 1920, but club performances soon began to falter as the longest spell without domestic success was ahead of them. In 1936, Villa was relegated to the second division.

Post-war rebuild

Despite Villa bouncing back to the First Division in 1938, all clubs lost seven seasons to the Second World War, which meant, for some, that their promising careers were over at no fault of their own.

In May 1944, Villa won the Football League War Cup, marking the start of a serious rebuild at the club. It was a long 37-year wait, but Villa finally won a trophy in 1957 – another FA Cup – in one of their most famous victories of all, against Manchester United’s ‘Busby Babes’.

Villa was rather inconsistent for a solid period of around 30 years post-war as they battled various relegations and poor managerial appointments. The club was relegated to the Third Division for the first time in its history in 1970, but the best was yet to come…

 

Aston Villa League Performance 1888-2017 | © EclecticArkie / WikiCommons

Championees, ole, ole, ole!

Following a 71-year wait, Villa was once again crowned champions of the First Division in 1981. The good times were back at Villa as not only were they at the top of their domestic game, but players like Tony Morley and Peter Withe also helped Villa to the pinnacle of club football: The European Cup.

Known today as the Champions League, a 1–0 win over Bayern Munich in 1982 saw Villa’s greatest ever achievement. The club is one of only five English clubs to win the cup.

Villa went on to win the European Super Cup in January 1983, beating Barcelona 3–1 on aggregate.

The recent history of Aston Villa

Founding members of the Premier League in 1992, Villa finished runners-up in its first season. The club went on to enjoy relative success in the mid-90s with two league cup wins (1994, 1996) and often achieved UEFA Cup (Europa League) qualification.

It’s fair to say that Villa stagnated in the early 00s, but optimism returned when a US billionaire purchased the club in 2006. Villa regularly battled for a top four position in the league, narrowly missing out and finishing sixth on several occasions.

Villa’s last major domestic success was the two aforementioned league cups. Villa was a Premier League ever-present until the 2015–2016 season when they were relegated to the Championship. The club’s relegation triggered Randy Lerner to sell the club to Chinese businessman Tony Xia in June 2016. Following a failed gamble at promotion Xia has since sold the club to Nassef Wawiris & Wes Edens.

Edited December 5, 2018 by EvzeyWales
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[BatiGoal]

Love Villa, and I do miss their glory days as well. Thought about doing a career with them off Vibe but this will do much better instead 👍 can't wait to see them back in the EPL and vying for European tickets. Goodluck! 

[Nucleus]

Holte Enders in the sky!! Yipee aye ayyyy! Yipee aye oohhh!!

Got a cousin who’s a Villa season ticket holder, been to a couple of games with him so I’ll be following this 😁

[KennyMiller27]

Good luck mate!Have a soft spot for Villa because of their colors and hope you bring them back!

[smoggy90]

Great write up and good luck! Some great youngsters there 👍

[EvzeyWales]

Thanks Guys - Feeling the pressure now, I don't want to let you all down 😂

Been a decent start in the League, a few of the youngsters have made promising starts, looked into the squad in a bit more depth and I am going to be left a bit short if a few positions in a few years unless I get lucky with the regens. Starting to retain a few just in case. 

Hopefully I will have an update before the weekend.

[EvzeyWales]

Season 1 - Update

So Christmas has come and gone, well in this career anyway, so lets see how my beloved Villains are getting on shall we. I managed to give almost the entire squad a run out  in pre-season and it showed me two things.........our best players are players currently on loan (Bolasie, Abraham, Tuanzabe) and due to my constraints are very much short term players.

So I had a decision to make. Do I play my current strongest 11 or throw the kids in at the deep end? In the end i decided on a pragmatic approach that meant all the youngster would be given a chance and those that sank would be replace in the team be the more experienced players and sent away on loan. HOWEVER those that swim would be my first choice for the season.

So how did we get on......

TRANSFERS

Nothing of note here. After reading the article on Vibe about the grayed out players, and having had success with a few in the past, I decided to offer all a contract. However as they were all absolute dross they were quickly shipped out on loan and will not be having their contracts renewed. If by some divine intervention any of them develop they can at least be resigned at a later date.

As I mentioned the youngsters who didn't step up to the plate were also loaned out, strangely two of the boys identified at the start ended up at Dundee.

I am far from writing these guys off  and I hope they will return to the squad better for having sampled week in week out football. So sent to Dundee were - Callum O'Hare & Rushian Hepburn-Murphy with Matija Sarkic having a temporary move to Holland.

I shall update you on their progress at the end of the season.

SO HOW HAVE WE GOT ON SO FAR

Well lets start by taking a look at the statistic, who has the best average rating, who's been the creative force and most importantly who's been getting the goals:-

 

As you can see the major breakout star of the save so far has been young Harvey Knibbs, he has developed nicely and clearly has an eye for goal. Lets take a look at him halfway through the season

 

 

I have HIGH hopes for this kid, and it seems we are blessed in the forward department, as another of the top performers has been his fellow striker:-

 

Another player with a BIG future who will likely be a mainstay of this save.

As expected Mr Grealish has been the creative maestro and is certainly living up to his hype, very happy with 16 assists already:-

The other 'swimmers' who have remained in the first team are these fine young fellows -

Again I have high hopes for these two!

So how did we do Competition wise:-

Carabao Cup

We had a decent run, using mostly second string players, but our run was cruelly ended on penalties by Manchester United in a game we ddn't deserve to loose.

 

 

The Champiosnhip

So how are we doing in our league campaign. Pretty decent to be fair, we are right in the mix for promotion which has left me in two minds. Do we really want to go up this season? Sounds silly I know but with a young side half of me thinks we may learn more for another Championship campaign as i'm not sure we are quite ready for the big boys. BUT... wouldn't it be fun finding out just how good we are sooner rather than later.

Again no signings planned in January so I will try and push on with the save and provide an update at the end of the season.

 

Thanks all for reading  

 

Edited November 29, 2018 by EvzeyWales

[EvzeyWales]

Season 1 - Conclusion

I am concious if spamming out to many posts so I will keep this fairly brief. First let’s take a look at my top performers for the season in terms of ratings, goals and assists:-

So as you can see Harvey Knibbs has been an absolute hero for me, leading the way in both average rating and goals. He was supported well by Keinan Davis throughout the season.

Grealish continued to provide the spark with Blackett-Taylor also impressing me.

Moving on.......how did our title challenge go? Well to be honest we ABSOLUTELY SMASHED IT. We dropped a few points in the last 3 games as I tinkered with a few things, but the title was already ours.

No cup success i'm afraid but that's not a surprise at this stage. I did dip into the transfer market at the end of January, more to create squad depth than anything else, and two former academy graduates returned:-

Neither will set the world alight but can provide me with some strength in depth.

So I will leave you with the end of season awards. Nothing for yours truly but a few of the lads made the team of the year and one young man absolutely cleaned up:-

Season 2 is going to be about survival and trimming the squad. I have my eye on two former academy players that I will try to add to the squad.

Onward and Upwards #VTID

Edited November 30, 2018 by EvzeyWales

[EvzeyWales]

Season two has started well.....particularly proud of this :) 

[TedB86]

Looking forward to following this one, as a Villa fan!

[EvzeyWales]

11 hours ago, TedB86 said:

Looking forward to following this one, as a Villa fan!

Trying my best for all us Villa fans mate!

Enjoyed this win over the Dingles!!

In fact Hepburn-Murphy has grabbed his chance in the team with both hands!

Let’s hope if he’s given the chance in real life he makes the same impact 😁

[EvzeyWales]

Season 2

Generally I was very pleased with the squad despite our title win in the Championship I wasn't sure how our youngsters would get on in the big bad Premier League. It was a season for consolidation could the youngsters step up a level?

Transfers

All youth players were offered contracts, we needed the numbers, and after my two signings, see above post, I also offered contracts to all the grayed out reserves. I packed the majority off out on loan with the hope one or two may develop.

Player Stats -

In what was an important season for us, lets so who led the way:-

I can't fault a single player - they all really stepped up to the mark. Proving that they, and most importantly, Aston Villa Football Club belong at this level.

As you can see the goals were shared between last seasons revelation Harvey Knibbs and the returning from loan, and extremely motivated  Hepburn-Murphy.

I did wonder if we would struggle to score in this division but Grealish was a creative as ever with an impressive 21 assists. Blackett-Taylor and another returning loanee, Andre Green also chipped in with a good few assists.

Competitions 

So most importantly, when the dust settled, how did we get on? 

Again I was delighted with the boys, for much of the season it looked as if we may trouble the top 4 bu in the end injuries at the wrong time meant this was out of reach. However we did manage to bring European nights back to Villa Park - something I was ecstatic with  

There was also some fantastic news, that I really didn't expect this early in the save

The first bit of silverware Villa Park has seen in a long, long time. 

So after a hugely successful season did we win pick up any awards at the end of season hand out:-

YES WE DID

I have since completed season 3 so stay tuned for the write up.

 

Edited December 3, 2018 by EvzeyWales

[BatiGoal]

Good to see Villa back competing with the elite. Fine progress, just pls don't relegate back down again. I'd blacklist you for that. 

[EvzeyWales]

6 minutes ago, BatiGoal said:

Good to see Villa back competing with the elite. Fine progress, just pls don't relegate back down again. I'd blacklist you for that. 

I have now finished season 3....and don't panic the club is in safe hands with these youngsters. I also appear to have been blessed with some fab regens. Carruthers & Romero in particular should develop into world class players

[EvzeyWales]

Season 3

This was easily my most enjoyable season playing FMM19 yet. A promising youth intake had me quietly optimistic. My only issue is I was enjoying the season so much that I really should have taken more screenshots - this is something I promise will be better in Season 4.

So how did we get on....

FA Cup - This was an area of disappointment, I tried a new tactic in this competition which didn't go as well as planned and we crashed out fairly early. Oh well.....onward and upwards.

Carabao Cup - As you know the Villa Park trophy room has seen about as much action in the last few years as a 40 year old virgin. So I decided I would target this again in a hope we can retain the trophy. This worked a treat and we strolled to the final.....and won! Another trophy in the bag - 3 in 3 years - this really is a purple patch for us.

Premier League - I was delighted with the boys performance in what was a long hard season. We were sitting second as late as February but a few injuries to key players saw our dreams derailed quickly, HOWEVER......we did scrape 4th place on the last day of the season which I was ecstatic with......That's right the 1981 winners were finally back at the top table of European Football.

End of Season Awards:-

Boom....my first taste of individual success. Whilst it was nice to be recognised, the recognition some of my boys received vastly overshadowed any personal success.

Harvey Knibbs was rewarded for his fine season with the Player's young player of the year, and managed to pick up the Golden Boot. The best news of all was England finally came calling and Knibbs is now a fully fledged England International.

Whilst he did't receive any personal accolades I was also extremely proud that Corey Blackett-Taylor also received his first England Cap. With Jack Grealish now a regular this means we have three lads in the England Team. Doyle-Hayes is also pulling up trees with Ireland and Mitch Clarke is a Wales regular.

So 3 boys in the team of the year, with Hepburn-Murphy also extremely unlucky to miss out. Going forward Andre Green and Hepburn-Murphy can't be far off an England call up.

And Finally........

Mr Grealish has again been out of this world and managed to be picked in the Worlds Best XI - A fantastic achievement considering three years ago he was playing in the Championship.

 

Thanks for following guys and stay tuned for a much more detailed update on Season 4  

[BatiGoal]

A CL spot as well as the Carabao Cup. Excellent season. And some super quality youngsters coming through on top of that. Looking very very good! 

[EvzeyWales]

29 minutes ago, BatiGoal said:

A CL spot as well as the Carabao Cup. Excellent season. And some super quality youngsters coming through on top of that. Looking very very good! 

Cheers mate - I am really enjoying this save. Season 4 is going well so far - though in typical Villa style I shall await the free-fall that usually happens in March

[ElwoodJBlues]

Hi Evzey, love the updates on your Villa save, can I ask what tactic you are using?