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The premiership is over, the Premiership XI has been decided (with a mere eight players from Manchester United), and exams are beginning or ending (for the IB students). Some say that Football Manager 2007 is getting boring for them, but what could rekindle the fire? Let's take a look at a season with the Premiership XI - how good are they really?

 

First up, i used the recently released CMFrenzy's Premiership XI v1.1  and began to play. I failed miserably so I decided to take control of the club and select the Premiership XI from 2006/2007 season. From there on i went on holiday (I made my assistant manager use the team selection I chose as much as possible). How good is this Premiership XI really? Well... I think it's time to see.

I embarked on this journey with a mere media prediction of 7th! Pah... were they to be fooled. From then on, I had a look at this Premiership XI team, what was it really made of.

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Well... too many Charlton players for my liking so away they went. Selected the Premiership XI from 2006/2007 season and used the 2005/2006 Premiership XI players as subs. With a squad of 16, injuries would not be appreciated...

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Lets just have a look at the general overview for a second, with a squad average age of 27 one could theoretically play with this Premiership XI for quite a while - as long as we replace Gary Neville and Van Der Sar before they die.

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Figured I would speed things up, so away to 1st January 2007 I went to see how this Premiership XI were really doing; are they really all what they're hyped up to be?

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Well from the league standings they are enjoying quite a comfortable lead over rivals Chelsea with 8 points. Interesting to note that Man Utd without eight of their players are still managing 10th place, not too bad after all I guess. Lets have a look at a snapshot of things with just over half the season over then:

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Somewhat surprising that the Premiership XI is unable to go further in the League Cup than the quarter final stage! Another interesting thing is the fact that Giggs seems to be outshining Ronaldo quite badly... lets see how drastic it is at the end of the season! Finances are going good and not surpisingly Drogba seems to be beating Berbatov in the goal standings. Let's have a closer look at the teams and individuals then.

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Well, Ronaldo has thrown a fit it seems... despite Premiership XI having a reputation of over 8000 and the club being 1st, and the fact that he plays every game! Perhaps this has had an effect on Giggs getting more assists than Ronaldo? Other than that, i expected the average ratings to be a lot higher from a club filled with the stars of the premiership.

Interesting first half of the season, is the Premiership XI perhaps too over-powered seeing as they're already eight points clear! Lets fast-forward to the end to find out.

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This is odd... not the fact that Tottenham lost, thats quite normal. Moreso the fact that Premiership XI were knocked out of both cups, and also that Southend booked themselves a place in Europe by beating Tottenham in the Fa Cup Final. That's just messed up.

So who won the League Cup?

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Not exactly shocking that is, seeing as Man Utd lost a lot of their crucial players. Lets get down to the business of it. Was the Premiership XI capable of  winning the Premiership?

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Indeed they were! By a mere margin of five points it seems that this database may be quite some fun, especially in seasons later on in the game. Most surprising thing I saw was the fact that Manchester United finished 10th; they still managed to get into the Euro Cup but only because they won the final against Sporting CP 1-0. What about the Champions League Final?

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Would be interesting to see how Premiership XI fair next season in the Champions Cup. Right, back to Premiership XI. Who won the assist battle? Giggs? Ronaldo?

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Quite the season for Giggs, 20 assists! What about Ronaldo?

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Poor season from Ronaldo in all honesty, expected better from this years PFA Player of the Year.  Now lets see some more screenies regarding the overall goals and average rating at the end of the first season.

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Droga and Berbatov were doing their jobs, thats for sure. Other than those two and Scholes and Ronaldo few players scored. Somewhat of a shame, i figured that Gerrard would have scored a lot more. What about their average ratings?

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Well as I said at the half-way point; their average ratings are quite poor considering the stature of the team's squad. How about the value? How much does this superstar team cost?

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This club of 16 players adds up to an astonishing near amount of 200 million pounds. Surely more than able to contend for the Champions League next season! Now lets move on to the awards:

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As you can see at the bottom part, nobody from Premiership XI won any awards. I found this a tad bit surprising as I predicted Premiership XI to sweep the awards but yet again I was proved wrong. Lets just take a brief look at the Premier Division summary:

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Seems that Ryan Giggs was truly Premiership XI's star player as he helped to create not less than 17 goals in the Premiership. Not too bad of a run either with six games on the trot, something which surely helped Premiership XI be 8 points clear by January 1st 2007. Now to a somewhat humerous event, who was selected for the Premiership XI!? 

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Yep! That's right, the screenshot doesn't lie, only two players. Signalling a somewhat poor display from the players of Premiership XI this season, nonetheless they managed to win the Premiership.  End of season snapshot:

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I assume some of you may be wondering as how many games were lost and so forth? Well here it is:

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With only five losses, Premiership XI had quite the season despite their failure in the Cups. Some of you may be wondering who won the Fans Player of the Year? Well it was Drogba; I also got 36.5million pounds transfer budget for next season to strengthen the squad for Europe. Nonetheless, some of you may be wondering who Manchester United bought - seeing as eight of their players went missing.

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And that is the end of my hypothetical tale, hopefully it wasn't too boring. If you want to download the file go here. Also, please feel free to comment. :)