I actually started a new game over weekend with Everton, currently lying 5th a point behind Liverpool in 4th with a game in hand. 20 games played so far. Have managed a few very good results, beat Man United 1-0 at Goodison after they had won all 9 of their opening matches. Got a 1-1 at Anfield thanks to Tim Cahill in stoppage time from the peno spot
Signings wise I had a £10m transfer budget and came close to blowing it all on Van Der Vaart, then Villarreal came in with a bid of £7m for Arteta, I negotiated £2m plus Cani, great business in hindisght as Arteta is crocked for 4 months now and Cani has managed 14 assists in all competitions and 3 goals.
I signed Markus Rosenberg for £3m which could rise to £4m if he manages 20 goals for the club (in all competitions, 6 starts, 10 sub appearances ranging from 45 minutes to 5 minutes, and a grand total of 0 goals
) I think my £1m is safe.
Managed to bag Mathieu Delpierre for £3.4m too at centre back, Joleon Lescott picked up a 2 month injury pre-season and Delpierre came in and did exceptionally well and has kept his place since.
My final signing was Stephen Appiah for £4m, he's looked a very good player.
Now i'm struggling desperately to raise £10m to fund the permanent signing of Manuel Fernandes (clause in his loan contract) he's my current top performer, on loan from Valencia. If I can shift Rosenberg for £2-£3m and a couple more reserves I can hopefully raise that money, plus the club is making decent profits each month too.
Probably my only real downer so far this season was Steven Pienaar picking up a cruciate ligament injury, he'd been performing really well too, I didn't really have a choice but to terminate his loan contract to save myself a few quid a week.
I managed to add a few promising youngsters to my squad too, probably most notably Ignacio Camacho and Henri Saivet. The latter was promised first team football to coax him to Goodison but is currently in the reserves, I'm expecting good things from the kid, he scored a hat-trick against Man Uniteds reserves so I put him in the squad for an away game with Birmingham in the Carling Cup, I fielded a weakened team and he came on with 74 minutes gone, the match went to penalties and he missed the decisive one :no: Camacho is out on loan at Aberdeen, thought it'd be good to get him some first team experience and toughen him up a bit, he's played 8 matches so far for Aberdeen and has 3 assists and one goal, not bad for a defensive midfielder who's only 17/18.
Yakubu is my top scorer with 13 in 14 so far, Andy Johnson has been a good sub and replacement for the injured Yak, he's managed 7 goals in 6 starts and about 12 sub appearances.
I'm hoping for a strong end to the season and if I get into the UEFA cup I'd be happy, with the type of player I have they can improve and maybe break into the top 4 at some point.