Tuesday Club | Magpies: 20 Years Rich

Hello, welcome back to the #TuesdayClub! Today’s episode comes after the 10-year anniversary of the launch of #FM2012 passed on 21st October! I can’t believe it’s been ten years already! Ten years of tears, tantrums, and lower league heaven with Pablo Counago and Trevor Benjamin.

So, 20 years rich.. In the aftermath of the Newcastle United takeover by Saudi-backed group PIF, the noises coming from the new owners were around, “building gradually”, investing in the club’s stadium and infrastructure, and, “challenging, and hopefully winning the Premier League within five or 10 years”.

With that in mind, what could go wrong if I went into the #FM2012 editor, added Steve Bruce* as Newcastle boss and gave him a transfer kitty of £200 million, and a bank balance of £500 million…

*When collating this, Bruce was still installed as manager on 999 not-out. How quickly things change in the Premier League!

I’ll go on holiday for 20 years – lets the game work its AI magic and report back on the findings. To make it interesting (for me, at least) I added Jurgen Klopp as manager of Liverpool, Pep Guardiola to City, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to United, Thomas Tuchel to Chelsea, Mikel Arteta as player-manager at Arsenal (he’s 28 in-game), Brendan Rogers at Leicester and to spice it up, Jose Mourinho back as Spurs boss.

In this episode I’ll wrap up the first 10 years of the project (I like symmetry). Lets go!

2011-12 Season

Brucey wastes no time in spending his first £100 million, the majority of which going in central defenders.

Serial winner Jose Mourinho wastes no time in repaying the faith from Daniel Levy, and returning the title with ten points to spare. Pep, Ole and Tuchel secure the Champions League places as Liverpool and Arsenal miss out. For Bruce and Newcastle, ninth and a near thirty point gap demonstrates how long the road ahead is likely to be.

Cristiano played out what was every Man Utd fan’s nightmare and actually joined Pep at City for a nominal £35 million fee… he collected the players player of the year award.

There was, however, and early trophy to celebrate – The 2012 FA Cup! The Geordies celebrated their penalty shootout victory over Arsenal by camping outside Sports Direct and maintaining a six-week bender over the summer. The win ensured the second season would be played in the Europe!

For Ole Gunner Solskjaer, it was a dream European campaign – culminating in the Champions League trophy at the first time of asking! Ole’s at the wheel!

2012-13 Season

It looked like Brucey opted for a more conservative approach in his season, spending nearly £50 million, but recouping £20 million back from selling Willian to Real Madrid.

Brucey lost the Community Shield final, and unfortunately for him, in the league there was no progress either. Another safe mid-table position, and knowledge that his former club Sunderland had finished above him! The Geordies were baying for blood… but Staveley was patient.

It was Ole’s time at the wheel once again, as his Man Utd side outscored their opponents to win the title. It would be curtains for Pep early in the new year, as his City side were off the pace and finished fifth. Jose Mourinho would do the dirty on Levy and join Man City, in hopes of salvaging their season. Could Mourinho and Ronaldo be the dream Portuguese double-act?

In Europe, Bruce’s side would fall to Napoli in the ‘Euro Cup’ first knockout round… not a good result for Steve.

The FA Cup would go to Martin O’Neill’s Spurs, and Jose would win the Carling Cup for his new side Man City, setting a familiar pattern of minor trophy first…

2013-14 Season

Despite investing nearly £100 million in the squad in 2013, Brucey’s net-spend would only be £20 million as the revolving door of talent exited St. James. Cabeye being the largest exit, for £20 million, closely followed by Subotic for £18 million. James Rodriguez could be a shrewd move though..

This league campaign has to hurt for Man Utd fans – edged out by Jose and Ronaldo by 1 point! Bruce regains bragging rights over the Makems, and improves to 7th place. Jurgen Klopp is sacked by Liverpool after a sixth placed finish.

Unfortunately for Bruce and Newcastle, the domestic trophys were shared by Fulham and Norwich, so no European football.

For England fans, The 2014 World Cup would live long in the memory- as football came home from Brazil! A narrow 1-0 goal courtesy of Wayne Rooney enough to send a nation hysterical.

For Man Utd fans, its a tale of what might have been as Phil Jones and Chris Smalling are named in the World Cup dream team as a center back pairing. Joe Hart won the golden glove and Ashley Young featured on the left and Wazza Rooney up front!

2014-15 Season

After three years at the helm you might think Brucey has an idea about the direction of transfers – youth players for the future? Start of today? How about blowing another £67m on squad players like Steven Naismith and Jack Collison… Javier Pastore heads to join to Man City revolution for £25m, a nice £4m net- loss for Steve and his best player out the door.

Man City win back-to-back titles, this time it’s not even close. Martin O’Neill gets Spurs back ahead of Man Utd and Ole qualifies for the Champions League knockouts a fourth season in a row.

For Bruce, its six points less than the previous season, and two dropped places.

For Ole, it’s European success for a second time in four years. The core players that led England to the World Cup drive his Man Utd team to European glory.

Man City claim the FA Cup and Norwich make it back-to-back League Cup titles.

2015-16 Season

Bruce turns to Gabby Agbonlahor to turn his fortunes around after dispatching the services of James Rodriguez and Demba Ba. The experienced Lescott and Nasri could also bolster his squad. Bruce makes a net transfer profit of £20 million in the season. What happened to Sugar Daddy status and free-spending.

Jose and Cristiano bring home the league title for the third season running. West Brom and Fulham the over achievers both qualifying for Europe and edging out both Man Utd and Liverpool in the league.

You would think patience is wearing thin with the Newcastle board, but oh no. Bruce guides his side to a mediocre twelfth and is awarded a new contract. He finishes the season with a minus goal difference for the third time in four seasons.

Ole manages to soften the blow of seventh with another European title. Arsenal win the FA cup, and Championship side Wolves win the Carling Cup.

2016-17 Season

Bruce decides to spend some money in his sixth season. He also brings in World Cup winner Ashley Young on a free transfer as a shrewd piece of business. The other players are not regens, but I can’t say I know who they are!

The Premier League title race is the closest it has been for a few years. Man City do make it four in a row- but the chasing pack are getting closer! The top-six all within nine points of each other. For Newcastle fans, its a familiar story in the league, ninth place and thier second best goal difference in 6 seasons – +1!

What Jose is doing in the league, Ole is doing in Europe – and a third Champions League title in a row for Solskjaer’s men, and four in the six seasons we went on holiday!

For Newcastle fans… a date with Wembley was on the cards once again in the FA Cup. It’s another victory on penalties, but that doesn’t matter. The Geordies are singing in the streets again!

Liverpool get their first taste of silverware by liftng the Carling Cup – under the watchful eye of Martin Jol….

2017-18 Season

After spending £55million preparing for a European adventure, a slow start to the season would see Steve Bruce (finally) relieved of his managerial duties at Newcastle. His replacement? None-other than Carling Cup winning Martin Jol!

Man Utd, now with Eden Hazard leading the line, would break the Man City stranglehold on the Premier League. Spurs finish third to continue thier impressive Wenger-esque tradition of finishing top-four every season.

Martin Jol would guide Newcastle to their joint-highest finish. Sixth. But would it be enough to guarantee European football once again?

It was! Jol also had a Wembley outing, but unfortunately was beaten in the Carling Cup final by Man City.

You notice the Euro Cup winners at Liverpool? Care to guess who led them to victory after Martin Jol left? Yup…. Steve ‘Bacon’ Bruce! Go figure!

Newcastle’s European run was ended in the Quarters. Bruce managed to guide Newcastle out of the Europa League groups, and Jol got the team through two knockout rounds before being undone by Stuttgart.

2018-19 Season

Martin Jol’s decided to abandon Newcastle to lead the Dutch National team after 6 months. Norwegian Kjetil Rekdal was poached from Burnley, having been plucked from Aalesund after a decent Europa League run in 2015. Rekdal’s first transfer window sees him cautious with his recruitment. A reserve goalkeeper and aging defensive midfielder the only additions.

The 2019 season would be the most successful so far for Newcastle under the watchful eye of the Norwegian until April 2019 (he was sacked after an early FA Cup exit) and then Slaven Bilic . Bilic, fresh from spells at Southampton, Wolves and Leeds, would give the Magpies to a third placed-finished, automatic Champions League qualification, and ensure the second least most goals were conceded in the league. Andriy Yarmolenko would score 32 goals, with right back Garbiel Torje chipping in with a miraculous 12! Another sweet prize for magpies fans saw Sunderland relegated as basement side.

There are some familiar England names featuring, too.

Newcastle also went close in the Europa League, a semi-final defeat to eventual winners Arsenal. Jol’s side were 1-0 up after the first leg, but could not convert the opportunity.

Here’s how the rest of the season would up. Yarmolenko would win the golden boot.

2019-20 Season

Consistency would see a second top-3 finish in a row for Newcastle. Bilic would get a full season to work with his squad and made quick work of shaping his new squad. Ten inbound and eleven outbound.

The league table makes for good reading.

In the Champions League Bilic’s Newcastle team would outclass Barcleona in the group stages only to fall in the first knockout round to FC Porto.

Could Bilic improve with another chance in the groups next season?

2020-21 Season

Slaven BIlic is given another full season in charge of the club for the 2020-21 campaign. In real life this was the one heavily impacted by Corona Virus… For Bilic the squad overhaul continues with another £35m spent. I’ll be honest, after back-to-back Champions League appearances I thought the owners would be throwing money at this squad… Maybe I made them too cautious in the editor?

Consistency seems to be the key, as Bilic steers his Magpies heroes to second place, and the highest finish since Kevin Keegan 1996/97 and Alan Shearer’s debut season in black and white. For Man Utd, who were linked with Shearer that season, its a 20 point cushion and 97 point haul. Not quite matching the 100 points of City in (real life) 2017-18. Did I mention Ole’s still at the wheel in this save? He survived a fifth placed finish the previous season.

The Magpies faithful were treated to a Wembley day-out, not once, but twice!

Bilic was able to deliver the Carling Cup for the first time in the club’s history by beating Southamption and then managed to beat Swansea City to win a third FA Cup in ten seasons.

The good domestic season for Newcastle was marred by a poor European one. Inter and Valencia too tough for Bilic’s Newcastle.

For Bilic, it would be the end of the road – he resigned from Champions League club Newcastle to join Europe League team Spurs.

That’s it for this week’s edition of #tuesdayclub – I hope you’ve enjoyed ten seasons under the new Saudi regime! Join us next week for part 2, as we breakdown seasons 11 to 20.. there is a familiar faces coming back to the Toon to replace Slaven Bilic….