Be sure to check out last week’s post before continuing on our journey.
SB Nation United FC: Breaking the bank in January
Find out who we broke the club transfer spending record to acquire.
When last I left you, SBN United was halfway through our fantasy club's first January transfer window. Summer signing Mario Gómez was sold to Napoli, 17-year-old Youri Tielemans had been brought in from Anderlecht, and young striker Zakari Bakkali was signed on a free transfer (he'll join us in July). Not too shabby really, but if you thought I was done, well, you were wrong.
January 2014 (Part Two)
Thanks to our generous board and financial benefactors, SBN United remains flush with cash. While I don’t want to get the club caught up in a Financial Fair Play investigation, I have to spend some of my massive transfer war chest. Right?!
So I took that $30 million from selling Gómez and made an investment in my club’s future by acquiring 18-year-old striker Gabriel Barbosa for $15 million from Santos. Like Bakkali, he’ll be joining us during the summer. And no, we still weren’t done.
In the midst of transfer business there were still games to be played, and the team started the month strong with a 3-1 win over Southampton in league play. Roberto Soldado netted his 20th league goal of the season.
With a bit of a break before we faced Manchester City, I decided to start training a new tactic. Still technically a 4-2-3-1 formation, the point of this new system was to not only to give the squad another reliable way to play, but to prepare for the future. With all the young attackers set to join in the summer, I wanted a way to have as many of them on the field as possible.
Even though it wasn't fully trained yet, I decided to roll out the tactic against City. The match was a nervy one throughout, with a ton of figurative punching and counter-punching by both teams. Soldado gave us the lead in the 34th minute, but Sergio Agüero answered just three minutes later. Aaron Lennon, played for the injured Erik Lamela, scored in the 59th minute to make it 2-1, but two late goals from City (Nastasic 73', Lampard 85') had us on the ropes.
DId we give up? Nope! We fought back and in stoppage time, Mousa Dembélé scored from close range to salvage a point for the Mustached Gentlemen. Huzzah!
Admittedly it wasn’t the greatest defensive performance, but City’s attack is very good. Still, it got me thinking that an upgrade was in order. I didn’t want to buy an aging defender; after all, my transfer plan after the Gómez mistake is now to buy young and build for the long term. So with that in mind, I managed to tempt away 20-year-old central defender Aymeric Laporte from Athletic Bilbao, triggering his ridiculous $59m release clause.
Did I overpay? Nope. Laporte is a tremendous talent, and don’t be fooled by his age. He’s already amassed a fair amount of games, gaining valuable experience against some of the world’s best strikers, whom he’s regularly faced in Spain. He’s quick, has excellent vision and positional skills, he’s good in the air, he’s tough, basically, he’s a hell of a defender. In fact, a real club is going to buy him sooner, rather than later, and they’re going to pay a pretty penny for him.
More only two concerns about the price are FFP and Laporte’s tendency to get himself in trouble through rash decision making. He’s shown a fiery streak that’s lead to some red cards, but hopefully we can coach that out of him. As for the financials, our next FFP review could be a little scary, but it’ll be alright. We’ve rigged the game with a huge budget and super rich owners. Why not go for it?
It could be worse though, I might have decided to sign this guy ...
New signing DeAndre Yedlin was loaned out to Middlesbrough in a move designed to get him some playing time as he acclimates to a new country. I also sold defensive midfielder Benjamin Stambouli to Torino, since his skill set was limited and I have no plans to utilize a true defensive mid in my tactics.
With Laporte signed, Federico Fazio became expendable so I sold him to Schalke for $18.5m. That money, along with the $15m or so leftover from selling Gómez, helped offset the cost of signing Laporte.
Other big business from the EPL included United signing Yûto Nagatomo from Inter for $15 million and selling Antonio Valencia to Porto for $6.25m. Arsenal signed the duo of Joeël Matip ($9.25m) and Gotoku Sakai ($6.25m), while Newcastle signed Scott Sinclair from Manchester City, and Hull spent $3.3m to buy Dwight Gayle from Crystal Palace.
Back to the games. Next up was West Ham, who we hammered 5-0 in the FA Cup fourth round, despite my putting out a heavily rotated squad to keep my players fresh. Fans can rejoice in the fact that Harry Kane scored. That win set up an away tie against Wigan in the fifth round, which is good, a team we should have no issues with. Since the board expects me to make the semifinals, winnable games are good to have.
Aston Villa was the next sacrificial lamb as we crushed them 4-0. Brad Guzan and the woodwork conspired to keep it close, but three late goals helped us to a comfortable win. Memphis Depay was all over the place, scoring his 16th and 17th goals of the season.
We closed the month with a big match against fourth-placed Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. After 59 minutes we weren't playing well at all, and had fallen behind 2-0. Just like in the City match though, we fought back late and salvaged a draw thanks to goals from Soldado and Vlad Chiriches. We're struggling to deal with fast teams on the counter, but I think that might be down to how I've setup the fullbacks tactically. I'm going to try a change in the next match against a top side.
The injury bug bit us once again, as Dembélé suffered broken ribs and will miss four weeks.
Stupid game.
Next week, we’ll rumble forward into the spring as SBN United attempts to maintain control of the Premier League, while dealing with the return of the Europa League. Can we handle the busy schedule Will we win a trophy or two in the our first season? All will be revealed!
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