The Football Manager Thread

[Adam]

First season with Hull at the end of November and we have a 3 horse race already.

[Yevrah]

The Milan boys all want to join me at Man Utd.

I'm welling up here.

[Raoul Duke]

Get Panda in

[Yevrah]

Sit rep time first, the club is a complete shambles it seems.

[Yevrah]

Competitions

We've just finished 5th in the league, with the board wanting me to get us back into the Champions League.



In the 15 seasons the game's been going we've Utd have won the Champions League twice, the World Club Cup once and the Premier League 5 times, the last of which 3 years ago in the 2026/27 season.

The current squad



Difficult for you gents to judge given the vast bulk are newgens, but it's worth noting the disgusting amount of old fucks on obscene wages, the scant regard for home grown regulations and the general unbalanced nature of the whole thing (six strikers, you fucking wut?). A quick look under the bonnet into the youth teams doesn't make things any better either. When I joined Milan Agrebi and Bramante were already there and were already world class, I've nothing like that here.

The backroom staff

Shit. Summed up by Ryan Giggs still being my Assistant Manager. I said to the board that I wouldn't make any changes to it in order to get the job, will they sack me if I do?

The finances

At last a glimmer of hope. We have £144m in the bank and no debt, so we should be shitting money by the time we get back into the Champions League.

Transfers

No future transfers cued up, which is normally always a good thing, but only a measly million left on this season's transfer budget means I'm going to have to wait a bit to start making some moves. I'd love to cut deep, but I'll only end up being sacked, so I think I'll need to go for bringing four first teamers in and four squad players, which means finding 15-17 players among the shite I've inherited to keep.

Game on.

[Panda Bear]

Accidentally deleted my Leyton Orient save a while back, so I've been obsessively recreating my past glory whilst annoying the girlfriend whenever we watch Sex and the City. It's a good show.

Made it from League One to the Premier League in three seasons. I think I've scored a grand total of four headers from corners throughout my tenure. Is there a trick to it beyond not having a bunch of smurfs who hate jumping?

[Adam]

Opened up a slight gap now at the top, Boro still unbeaten though Downing is tearing shit up.

[Yevrah]

The players in my save are now all a bit shit.

[Adam]

The players in my save are now all a bit shit.

Always happens the further into the future you go, I had a save with AZ Alkmaar on last years version did 18 seasons and was struggling to find any decent regen goalkeepers it really fucked up the save in all honesty.

Just had a cracking cup game away at the toon

[Yevrah]

Yeah, this might be the end of the game for me.

I need a central attacking midfielder for my Man Utd team and the best one I can buy is at Roma, he isn't even that good and they want over £60m for him.

This might be the end. I'm assuming the players don't get any better from this point (2030) onwards?

[Reg]

Take Brighton to European and world glory, Yev.

[Yevrah]

Why Brighton?

[Reg]

Because we're great.

If it adds interest, we've never won the top division, FA Cup or league cup.

[Adam]

Yeah, this might be the end of the game for me.

I need a central attacking midfielder for my Man Utd team and the best one I can buy is at Roma, he isn't even that good and they want over £60m for him.

This might be the end. I'm assuming the players don't get any better from this point (2030) onwards?

Nope if anything it gets worse, if I remember correctly at one point in my AZ save I scouted all the highest valued goalkeepers in Europe and couldn't find one above 2 stars.

[Yevrah]

For fuck's sake.

I love the newgen system, so kudos to SI for that, but to not make it sustainable is crimous.

I can also see why I was battering everyone with Milan more clearly now - I had (nearly) all of the best players left in the game.

[Adam]

Free transfer in the summer and sold in January 7 million profit in 6 months, he was on the bench mainly as i prefer to play Snodgrass and Maloney out wide.

[Dquincy]

Chaps, if anyone is interested, i have taken the last 10 or so pages from the old TTH 'Football Manager Thread' and put them here. Hopefully this works...(p.s.need to do it in stages due to character limit)

Part 1

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Initial Stuttgart-impressions:

* Timo Werner is already a MONSTER at 18 years old. 5 goals and 3 assists in 8 games, with an average rating of 7.76. Already called up for Germany.

* Very well balanced squad. Some dead-weight will be off-loaded next summer, but nothing out of the ordinary.

* This game is too easy. I'm 9-2-0 after beating both Dortmund and Bayern at home.

The unbeaten run came to an end away at Lanciano, after, yep, you've guessed it, 58 matches.

Fixture congestion and players not giving a shit after the league is won can do one.

One of the best seasons I've ever had on FM that. We were frighteningly good.



I'm going to lose both my keepers in the summer, which isn't a major problem on the talent front but will pinch a bit with the home grown rules. Once I've replaced those two I need to start stockpiling kids to build for the future as the first team and its fringe probably has another 5 years left in it.

Just had one of those losses where you dominate the game then the opponents score on their only shot on target. It probably will end up costing me the league title. Their one shot came from a corner, not that there was any doubt.

Injuries are ridiculous, I'm using at least one sub per game because of injuries.

Those numbers from Agrebi and Panda are absurd, but the most lol thing about it is that according to the average ratings a nineteen year old apparently had a better season than a bloke who scored seventy goals.

Jokanovic must be something special, Yev.

4 players with an average rating above the guy scoring 70 goals in a season. That must be a pretty special team there, Yev.

Are you using that 433 tactic thing?

The 'cheat' thing? Nah.

I'm 4-3-3 though, it's posted on the previous page.

The ratings are bolstered by Serie A being a bag of wank (it's down to 5th now in the coefficient rankings despite me winning the Champions League), but yeah, I do have one hell of a first 11 now.

Here's Jokanovic.



£15m min fee release clause for Clubs in the CL from Shaktahr.

My scouts reckon he's maxed out his potential though sadly.

Fucking hell, he's good.

Dominating matches and not winning is worse than playing bad. It completely sucks the fun out of the game.

Agreed. Nothing worse than a guy with 30 goals missing from 2 yards against a keeper with non-league stats.

I think that's why Panda's average rating was lower than a few other players in my team, as even though he scored 70 goals there were still matches where the game decided he wasn't going to score (he missed two pens in one ffs) and when that's all he's in the team to do his rating inevitably suffers.

I've quit my Middlesbrough save due to such frustrations. Admittedly I was using the 433 cheat tactic, but when you're having 50+ shots on goal a game, 25-30 on target and you hit the woodwork three/four times and your strikers are missing sitter after sitter only for the opposition to have two shots on goal and score both becomes irritating.

That and the fact over half the goals they seem to score seem to be screamers from 35 yards out, the amount of times in a post match interview I've had to comment on an opponents wonder goal is ridiculous.

I had that exact scenario with Rigoni the other day, hadn't missed a penalty in ages then 2 in a single game.

I'm twenty minutes into a match against Stuttgart and we've already hit the woodwork three times and missed two sitters, one of which was open-goal.

Moving to Edinburgh has coincided with me getting a bit sick of my Hibs game, so I've downloaded an expansion down to East Scotland Division 1, which is 3 tiers below the Scottish League. I'm managing 'Duns FC'. I've signed an entirely new squad with a total wage spend of £2,500/week. In retrospect that seems quite a lot, and I'll probably end up bankrupting them before I get bored of FM again.

Leeds were fucking 21st

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I generally don't spend too much in January, but Lukaku is out four months and my Ukrainian striker is a cunt, so I went and spent €30M on this guy plus potentially €25M when/if he gets to 50 league goals.

I also agreed to sign a great poacher on a Bosman, and I have the chance to buy him in January for just €2.5M. However, unless I can get rid of the Ukrainian striker, I won't bring him in yet in order not to overload the club with wages.

Also sold a couple of players for around €15M in total to fund a bit of the striker purchase.

25 shots, 1 goal.

Then they come into our half for the first time, get a penalty and equalise.

That Cerullei bloke fully developed. His manager has Rooneyed him to make him a better right back.

Beastly. I'm surprised he's still at L'OM though, as he's that good.

My scout report on him says avoid, so presumably the game doesn't rate him as highly as it obviously should. Though it also says he's world class and extremely interested in joining, so maybe it's just fucked.

Yeah I hate that, I get it all the time. 'Potentially World Class' 15 year old Ukrainian GK = yeah, don't bother

On my game I rarely get anyone rated at 4* and above. It's very weird.

That heading stat would be great on corners, but nobody puts him there.

Just started a Journeyman save in Belgium with Oosterzonen, got 4 weeks of work to kill so this might get a lot of play time.

New tactic went well, nicked from the other half of the dugout, and first few games have seen similar stats as above.

Was going to get FM15 but with 16 round the corner no point.

I've been drawn against my old club Sassuolo for the CL quarter-finals. They've won the last four CL titles and five of the last six so beating them is almost impossible.

The board's expectations were just to get past the group stages, so we've got nothing to lose, which actually helps us.

I really, really, really want to win the Bundesliga.

The game has flipped the switch and I'm being allowed to win games again. A good solid run has me in contention for European places again and I'm only 6 points off the top four. Ayoze Perez is still refusing to sign a contract so I'll be losing him for free when after the first season I was fending off offers of around £40m for him. It's only the money I care about, he's been usurped by Kenedy in the first team anyway.

Rolando Aarons is still beasting it.

I was starting to wonder why Rigoni wasn't pouring in the goals at his usual rate.

He then scored 4 against Pescara in the league and 4 against Valencia in the Champions league.

Was too busy with work this week, so still haven't finished my season.

We've seen off Valencia and have been given a nice quarter final.




We lost our best right winger two days after our transfer window closed, Porto met his release clause, so no replacement and his backup, Thauvin, is now injured for 2 months, of course.

[Dquincy]

Part 2

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We've been destroyed by Sassuolo in the CL (5-0 on aggregate), but Bayern have had a blip in form, only getting 3 points in the last 3 matches, which means that we've managed to build ourselves a nice cushion with only four matches to go.

Won the title with two games to spare.

Unless the Juve job comes up (unlikely) it looks like I'll stay here until we win Champions League. We've got a really young team and some more youngsters coming through so it could happen in the next few seasons.

I've now won the Serie A, Premier League and Bundesliga. I wouldn't mind going to Barcelona/Real Madrid at some point to try and win the Liga as well.

Ayoze Perez has signed a new deal so I can get the flaky, disinterested twat sold in the summer now.

Meanwhile, a MYSTERY TYCOON is apparently lining up a bid. He'd better not sack me.

Roma couldn't get him signed for a touch under £20m in the Summer window, but Leverkusen snapped him up quick for £30m and 50% next sale.

I'd say a good nine out of ten of my defeats follow this exact fucking pattern.



Jesus Christ it's so infuriating.

19 wins in a row to start the season before drawing 1-1 away to Torino:



Ugh.



I'm actually disgusted that we couldn't put them away.

Only signing of the window for £6m.

Got him being tutored by our best defensive midfielder so hopefully he'll turn into a proper gem.

Just look at that hairdo.

Ashley is out. My new chairman is..... Daniel Levy. No noises about me getting punted yet so I'll be interested to see what sort of finances are made available in the summer. Hard to say if I'll notice much difference anyway, the club's making massive profits so I'd have anticipated a decent hike anyway.

Luis Jesus Torres has now reached 901 goals (794 for Hannover and 107 for Spain) in September 2051 at the age of 30 years and 6 months.

In the home straight now I reckon, 99 goals to go to reach that magic 1,000 goals milestone.

I'm scared.

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Got him for free, he'll play upfront as a poacher.

I also signed a winger for free just in case my 41212 stops working and I have to resort to a 442 or something.

Meanwhile at St Mary's.....



Mes que un club, a bunch of completely humbled losers as well. Stick those possession stats right up ye. Proper punching the air moment for me there. What an unforgettable win in the Europa League second knockout round

I'll still finish sixth though.

That's both super cups won and (you get 180 HoF points for the Euro one ) and I'm into the top 20 world hall of fame and closing in on Paisley to top the English one.

I might do him this season actually.

picture sharing

They missed about 4 absolute sitters

Please please please please make it be my year.

Cracking stuff LR.

1st league game of the 4th season with Milan.



I think this is rapidly becoming the best team I've ever had on FM.

Can I have a screenshot of Vadalá? Juve got him irl this season.

Jesus Yev,...


Since lamenting on my downturn in goals and leaky defence last night I've managed 2-1 over Tottenham, then duffed Norwich 4-0 and Freiberg 6-1; only to lose 0-1 to fucking Watford, who have the worst defence in the league to date (November).

No dicking about with 50+ shots or anything, they just dominated me in attack and we couldn't get any shots off at all (14-2 at half-time) despite having 70% of possession. Their goal in the end came from a dubious penalty.

Changed it up twice during, but nothing changed the flow of the game.

windows screen capture

Fuck sake.

That sucks LR. Better luck next time, hopefully.

Well, maybe I shouldn't have rubbed it in about Barca so much. I got Ajax in the Europa League quarter final, won the first leg 3-1 (should have scored about 8) and then this happened..



I hit the post four times. My opponent in the semi final would have been a Maccabi Haifa team with about 3 non greyed out players. Fuck sake.

They played an old fashioned proper 3-4-3 with actual centre forwards and fucking monstered my defence, who in turn were total shit. It seems the game literally doesn't know how to handle positioning defenders around 3 centre forwards. Might be worth a try, but I know I'd just get bummed using it.

In order to shake things up a bit, I've decided to change from a narrow diamond to a 4-4-2, at least for games against small teams. I've brought in a couple of wingers and will be looking to sell some of my central midfielders.

I think I would get bored really easily if we just played another season with largely the same players in the same formation, so hopefully this will make the game more fun.

Oh for fuck's sake, it's happening again.

Kenedy and Aarons both out for four months, at exactly the same time as I had this fucking spate of season-ending injuries last year. He was basically my only in-form striker and Aarons is easily my form player on the whole. Fuck off, game.

[QUOTE=Vim;4421241]My best striker also out two months. Bayern injured him in the second game of the season.

The transfer window's almost over and I have no more transfers to make, so I can show you guys the people I've bought.

I raised €50M selling players ... my best player (on paper) was sold for €25M, which is a bit low but it was all upfront and my change to 4-4-2 means that an AMC cannot find space. He's not well-rounded enough to play MC so he had to go, also he's about to turn 29.

The Ukrainian striker who is an absolute cunt kept refusing to try speaking to clubs even though I haven't played him in six months. In the end I managed to ship him off to Wolfsburg but only for €5M.

One of my centre-backs also left because he's 30 and already quite slow, so he would become a liability. €15M thank you very much.

These are the guys I brought in:

Acosta - MC - free

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I don't know how good he'll turn out, but he will surely bring in a profit in a year or two.

Vitari - striker - free

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I already showed this guy, he's my new poacher. Already got a couple of goals.

Vergara - right winger - free

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He got a 2-month injury right before joining, which was really annoying.

Götze - everywhere - free

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[Dquincy]

Part 3

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I brought him in because he is at least 'accomplished' in every position from the midfield up. He's already got staff attributes but agreed to a player/staff contract.

Rubio - DC/DR - €18M

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I really like the look of this guy. Solid defender but with good technique and for a decent price.

Sanchez - DL - €16M

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He's a bit short, but he's got very high potential according to my scouts so he might be good enough to look over the height issue.

Fittipaldi - left winger - €41M + €26M bonuses

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Paid a lot for him, but I desperately needed a left winger who could cut inside. I'm looking for him to do what Ocampos did for me at Sassuolo and Man Utd, which is cut inside from deep and shit all over the defenders.

Chavez - right winger - €6.5M

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I had brought him to Europe when I was at Man Utd and he was going to be a top class winger, but for some reason when I left they stopped playing him. I checked, he didn't even get serious injuries. They ruined what could have been a great talent, but he's good enough to rotate on the right side for me. I can assure you he'd have gotten 20 crossing if I had kept managing him, and his acceleration was actually higher when I had him IIRC.

So that was that in terms of transfers. We beat Bayern 2-1 in the Super Cup, at Allianz Arena, which was nice ... also got off to a good start in the league winning at home and then drawing 1-1 again at Allianz Arena against Bayern.[/QUOTE]

Mancini was furious

It leaves me one game away from a trip to Wembley, that game being Leeds at home, which I should win.

Left-back out two months now.

In one of my all-time favourite CM/FM managerial appointments, Arsenal have just hired Nigel Pearson.

If only that were to happen in real life.

Neil Ardley is Arsenal manager in my save.

I think the strangest Premiership appointment right now in my game is Darren Ferguson at Anfield.

Although David Luiz at Wigan runs it close.

Random managers must be a theme with Arsenal, they've got Dougie Freedman on mine.

Is Ronny Deila some sort of top job holocaust surviving cockroach on anyone elses? He's been at practically all Europe's top clubs (after one half decent season pre-me at Southampton, and I've had about five better seasons and every big club/nation laughs at me for even looking at their job adverts). He moves around so much cause he keeps getting sacked, and still keeps getting all the decent available jobs. I hate him so much.

He's England manager on mine.

Deila:

Deila was England manager on mine and fucked up and got sacked. They wanted me and then hired Martin Jol when I told them to do one. He's just been sacked by Napoli after a season.

Guardiola hasn't won a club trophy for 7 seasons here

So while the cups were a total waste of time I've qualified for the Europa League in fifth place despite being pretty shit quite a lot and having three strikers who went weeks and weeks without scoring. Imagine if we'd been any good?

Also: As soon as the season ended I got the budgets. £84m transfer budget.

Deila and his team took a proper fisting.

This is by far the longest streak a team of mine has been on in FM.

Ah...

Beaten 1-2 by Portugal as Northern Ireland, two goals disallowed for fuck sake.

Between club and national now, that's six games played today and minimum seven goals disallowed, with now a third penalty against one of my teams.

...zero increase in defensive aggression.

My new backup striker is a bit of a beast






I'm hoping he's a Ronaldo Aarons who just makes a mockery of his attributes.

Can I ask for some feedback on what you lovely folks think of this set-up; this is essentially a wide 4-2-1-2-1 when defending, correct?

Going to try a poacher for once, just to see what happens.

I do miss that tactics screen.

In keeping with the bizarre Arsenal appointments, my personal favourite is this one.

David Moyes was Arsenal manager for 5 years on my save.

What the hell is this?

I think they have someone bizarre on mine too, give me a second...

EDIT: Not that bad, Claudio Ranieri.

Pellegrini at Reading is a bit lol though, with Mancini back for a second spell at Man City.

Peter Bosz

He was the most successful manager though, winning 3 leagues titles and the Europa League.

Pepe the worst, winning nothing.

So I've spent a good wedge of my budget (about £60m of it) bringing in John Stones and Diego Poyet, who has surprised me by turning into a bit of a don. Have shuffled along some of my wages and older players so I've still got about £30m left to spend as things stand. Have been unable to shift Ayoze Perez but then he ended the season in good form so maybe he's going to stop being an arsehole. Going into the new season my team is, pending any further comings and goings, going to look like this:

GK: Timo Horn
CB, CB: John Stones, Ryan Shawcross
WB, DM, WB: Santon, Poyet, Robertson
CM, CM: Hojbjerg, Wilshere
AM: Aarons
ST, ST: Alcacer, Kenedy

Apparently Newcastle are now the 7th-richest club in the world.

Newcastle have just been relegated on my Millwall save, we'll be replacing them though so I'm hoping so nick a couple from them. Aarons is definitely on my radar.

In other news, into the FA cup final after this happened



Zongo is really nothing special attributes-wise, but he's scored 24 goals in the league this season plus another 11 in the cup. Not bad for a free transfer.

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A boring 0-0 draw with rivals Southampton with that tactic above, switched to my regular 4-1-1-4 at half-time but nothing changed, only seven shots the entire game between us.

Then another shitter, changed to a B2B in the centre of the park - hammered Galatasaray only to have another two goals disallowed to end the game 2-2.

...and I noticed a lot of shit like this happening; is there any particular reason my players won't defend behind the ball? I didn't even have the high-line set for the last half?



Seriously getting fucked off with all of the disallowed goals; is there anything I can change to stop that. There's no-one particular person it is happening to either.

I also like how the game cranks your offside player's finishing to 47 once it's decided an offside goal is going to happen. My strikers who're missing sitters and in a dreadful run of form score some absolute peaches when they're about to be whistled offside.

I've got Uwe Rosler managing Arsenal on my game, who took over from Cocu. Zidane managing Stoke is probably the most amusing.

2-1 over Wigan, 26-5 on shots, 19 on target...

...two penalties.

[QUOTE=Pavel;4421561]Actually, I've been looking on-line regarding a blending issue I've been having all this season, and I wonder if that's partially an reason for the intermittent form / seeming lack of response to my orders during matches.

[Dquincy]

Part 4

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My captain (of eight years now), and another main first team player (also eight years at the club) have both suddenly listed as "having serious problems blending into the squad" since August, and it's now December and I don't see any reason for it, and haven't seen any change in it.

Morale is tight, the team is tight; I've checked and they don't dislike anyone that I can see - and anyway we've only had four players come in, all of whom have good attitudes and are well on their way to fully integrating into the team; and whilst six players left, only two of them were first team stars of last season.

I'm all out of ideas, if I could see what the issue is then I imagine I could solve it. Haven't seen anything on-line either that's helpful.[/QUOTE]

4-0 over Gil Vicente to see me top of the Europa League group with Galatasaray and Frieberg - 31s/15ot

...and whilst nice, we had another two disallowed goals for fuck sake.

There genuinely has to be a way to cut these the fuck out. It's ruining coming back to the game after a fortnight's break from it. Two disallowed goals per game for the last eight games, that's more than most teams score.

One game left for the don to work his magic in this season.

My first unbeaten season in FM/CM ever, although it makes that Torino game sting even more.

The team is an absolute unit, currently 75 games unbeaten in all competitions, 66 unbeaten in the league and we have won 29 games in a row in the Champions League.

I'm actually kind of glad I've never had a game-breaker to that extent.



This almost happened on mine too.

Fucking hell Mahow.

That record as a whole is brilliant but I don't think I've ever seen a goal difference that big.

Is it your own tactic, Mahow?

Last day of the transfer window and I've been all boring and sensible, turning big profits and buying on the cheap, getting a bit tired of the save though, in my 9th season, so going to spice it up and splash the £68m I have to spend

Top seeded for my Europa League group and have drawn PAOK, BATE and a Slovakian team I've never heard of called Trencin. And board expectation is, basically, that Levy doesn't care if I don't even make it out of the groups. The second string should be donning that.

Fourth season at Milan finished and we won everything.







Having been here for 4 seasons already I should probably be thinking about leaving given this started as a journeyman game, but Eibar aside this is one of the most enjoyable sides I've managed on FM for years.

With that in mind I've signed a one year extension to the end of season 5 and may just carry on until a really interesting position elsewhere comes up.

I've gone back to my Cork City save from FM14. Once again, I made 2021/22 Champions League QF's, losing to Barca over the two legs. The team is still largely homegrown, with two foreigners (if you don't count the 2 Cork born Nigerian internationals and the Cork born Scottish international) and my youth facilities are world class now.

I can't see much progress past the QF's being made for a couple of years - I need to grow the League of Ireland itself as much as Cork... But that is going pretty well -







Gotta love Stuttgarts transfer policy too... Got this guy on a 2 year loan back as part of the transfer deal, then they extended three times... He's here until December 2023 (it's June 2022)...

That's awesome Merse.

Did you have Wayne Rooney playing for you at one stage?

Merse.

Three games into the league season I've got seven points (including a game against Man United at home I might have won another day) but most importantly Cristiano Rolando (Aarons) has three man of the match awards from a possible three.

I did indeed. Let him go just in the winter break of 2021/22.

edit: @Yev

First season, Inverness won the SPL, second season I won the SPL with Hibs and I think Hearts won it 3rd season, and Deila was still Celtic manager after all of that.

...anyone?

...aha, five headers - from drilled crosses.

And I have the lowest average height in the league.

Bit stunned by that, kept the same counter 4-1-1-4 all the way through for fear of it falling apart towards the end but it just ended up in perfection. The only thing I changed was when I brought on my subs, I switched from flanks to just the left-flank; and the goals kept comin'.

Things I noted:

- Chelsea had a full-strength squad out, but they were starting the game with 89-93%ers for fitness.
- Chelsea didn't register one single shot the entire match, but did have a goal disallowed for off-side from a free-kick.
- I decided to play counter, narrow, high tempo, high-line but retain-possession instead of playing direct due to the weather.
- five of the goals were headers, and six were caused by enforced errors from the Chelsea defence; the other six were either screamers or straight goals.

Don't think I've ever beaten a big team in CM/FM more than 8-1/9-2, ever.

Definitely one for my wall.

Christ, absolutely upside-downside syndrome.

Following that Chelsea game, I noticed that the next few games I was going up against the same basic tactic; so other than a wee tweak here and there for posterity, I kept the Chelsea mauling ideal.

1-0 over Norwich City, with 40 odd shots on goal; their keeper was amazing. So I'll have that, all seems good.

0-1 loss to Manchester City, 13 shots to 9 for them, seems to be my twig for counter-pressing isn't all its craic'ed up to be.

1-3 loss to Manchester United, was 1-0 up at half-time, then Otavio fucking demolished my defence. Again, 14 shots to 12 for them, and I'm concerned that whatever happened with Chelsea, I'm missing some small detail. Even if it was a fluke, there has to be a reason for the sheer domination shots wise that I had over them that resulted in the scoreline.

I mean, they are perhaps the 4th best team in the league at present after Arsenal, Liverpool and City; maybe 5th if you count United.

...now playing City again in the league this time instead of the F.A. Cup. Better nab a win, losing to United as solidly as I did wasn't fun after battling my way into 3rd with space to spare. Now I'm part of the pack again.

EDIT: Six injuries to deal with as well at present, of varying severity and importance to the first team. It does mean the squad is thin, although I'm out of the F.A. Cup now, and the Europa knock-out stage ain't for another few weeks, so I ought be OK.

Too many personality styles. I always go for determined.

[QUOTE=ellzo;4423139]Just finished (last night) first full season with Oozterzonen in Belgian 3rd Division.

Predicted to finish bottom we won the league, not a massive achievement as quite a few semi pro teams so not massive amounts of competition. However quite happy with this and looking forward to a season in the second division.

Disappointed to miss out on the league top scorer award (signed the winner of that) and also mainly annoyed to finish 2 goals off the all time division 3 goal scoring record, though was a record points tally.

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League Table


Best Performers

There was a championship game between the division A and my division B, going into this game I was concerned that I would lose and miss out on promotion, still not sure how promotion as a whole works here.

So I was pitted against the Division A champions away for the first game and at home for the second.

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Went a lot better than I could have ever hoped for. The first leg we were 5-0 up at half time.

The squad I was quite happy with, going to trim a lot of fat this summer and get wage bill down, already agreed attacking reinforcements so need to scout a lot for defenders.

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The loan player Poell is signed to become a full player next year, Sene has rejected my advances so far but when he is club-less I will try again. Diakite is a solid defender, might try and loan again next year as asking for a parent club every 3 months has lead to nothing.

[Dquincy]

Part 5

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Ill try get a solid season preview up this week and reckon might finish the next one quickly, initial aim is to stay up but that was the target this year as well and went a lot better.[/QUOTE]

Ah, good one Merse - never thought of that. I've a listing as a highly professional team; one perfectionist, one charismatic leader, four model professionals, and then the team skirts down from there.

The perfectionist and the charismatic leader are the two who are un-blending at times, seems it's not during every single game, so your answer makes a lot of sense if it's one or two of the personality styles.

Fuck, I've been tutoring everyone like heck over the years too - I'd have thought that would have bonded folks together.

Started a journeyman save with the top 2 divisions loaded from around 10 or 12 countries in Europe.

Had to wait till December before getting a job at Almere City in the Dutch Jupiler league. Rodney Sneijder was the main man, the stadium held less than 3,000 people and there were 4 amateurs in the first team squad. Sat in mid table when I took over we finished 8th which due to the ludicrous duth play off system meant we had a shot at promotion.

We progressed past the 1st round with ease but then came up against Willem from the Eredivise and what I assumed would be the end of our season. The players had already gone on holiday (a bug??) so fitness levels were an issue but we played our best 2 games of the season drawing 0-0 away before winning 2-1 at home. Fortuna Sittard were next up for a place in the top flight. The entire squad's fitness levels were in the 60% and 70% but we somehow managed to draw 0-0 at home and then 1-1 away to get promoted.

On promotion our wage budget was doubled to £20k a week but no one had any interest in joining us. By the start of the season our best player was still an amateur who we couldnt sign to a pro deal because he wanted £4k a week. Despite this we picked up 4 points from our first 2 games but then only another 4 points from our next 10. With injuries mounting and moral at rock bottom I jumped ship.

Many interesting jobs came up that I was interested in (inc 1860 Munich, Dundee Utd, Wacker Innsbruck) and I was starting to think I should have started wit the recomended badges and experience level at the start rather than lowering them. Then I was finally offered a job at Blackburn Rovers.

They are currently 23rd in the Championship and in administration at the start of the January transfer window. We can't sign anyone and I assume any bids for my players will be automatically accepted. We have no coaches and cant sign any. The wage budget is £45k per week but wages are currently at £105k per week, getting rid of Leon Best's £32k a week will help there.

We still have Rudy Gestede (for how long who knows) and a couple of other decent players but there have been plenty of youth team players had to play so far this season. One looks like he'll be a decent centre back and and has a few peremier league clubs sniffing round him. He has played 18 games but is only on a youth contract and I cant give him a full time contract so think he'll be gone soon too.

Anyway I only signed up till the end of the season, whatever happens managing in the Championship should boost my reputation a bit

Finished the 2021/22 season, after letting the CL get in the way of our league form last season, this year I rested big time in the Europe League, and still got to the quarter finals



Happy with that!

Here's my team:

Finally overtaken Ancelotti.

Silly FM. I haven't applied for a single job in the whole of the 8 years I've been on the save.

The whole interaction part has always been bollocks.

Some of the teams my top top players come to me saying they want to leave to join are odd. We're in the CL for the second time in three seasons and they're banging on about wanting to move to Hull and Stoke. Whilst a guy mostly used as a sub is banging on about going to Barcelona.

KHR looks creepy as all hell in that picture.

Have coasted through my Europa League group whilst barely playing any of my first XI but it still grates to watch my second string have 51 shots (a record for me, I think) against some goat herders and fail to score.

Not used to this kind of pressure. The board expect top 4 again. Media prediction is 5th.

The Liverpool job has come up....

Last four games of the season, including a home-tie against Chelsea in the Europa League after a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge which should have been a win but for yet another goal called offside.


I've done some calculations, and since I started counting the goals called offside at the Tottenham game at the end of October, I've had 40 fucking goals disallowed in the last 39 games.

...and the majority of the goals called offside are from two players with top-notch anticipation and off-the-ball.

The called offsides list as:

77 - Dowie (now to be fair I did train him with the 'likes to beat the offside' this season, though he has easily the stats to utilise it)
41 - Cassar
34 - Patton
21 - Scanlon
21 - Coelho
16 - Depay
15 - Primorac
14 - Lameiras
11 - Eisenring

...then another 30 or so spread between the rest of the team.

I've never ever seen such a consistent game event like that. Forty plus goals including the ones from before I started counting. That's essentially killed our league run this year, and is cripplingly annoying in comparison with the oul' "40 shots, no goals" games.

Nothing stands out as having been a massive change from the previous two seasons in the Premier League, and I'm loathe to remove Dowie's "likes to beat the offside" as I'm unsure as to how many of his 28 goals this year (easily his best yet in the top flight) were helped by the PPM.


Anyhow, currently sitting 7th in the league and providing we beat Chelsea in the return leg we are in with a good shout for the Europa League against either Dortmund or Roma; and if we win all our remaining games and get a bit lucky we can hit 5th in the league.


EDIT: Having done a spot of research I can see that my offsides rate is about average; Arsenal (who have been easily the most successful attacking team this season) and Liverpool have about twice as many for each of their main players, and they are both top of the league by some margin.

Of course I've no idea precisely how many of the calls of offside, were goals that were called offside. Still, food for thought.

Wrong thread ffs

Thought Chelsea were going to get their standard undeserved win against me when I came back from 1-0 down to go 2-1 up only for them to end up 3-2 ahead. Depay scoring, of course, because he scores against me every single fucking time.

Then Courtois spills a 90th minute shot for Andrew Robertson (no fucking idea what he was doing up there) taps in and then in the 94th minute Hany Mukhtar curls one in off the crossbar in the far top corner. One of the greatest goals, all things considered, in this save so far.

Ian at the bridge.

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Pretty much. Have a look at the winner:
[youtube]5_V8eW5WYYI[/youtube]

And then to top that off I come back from going 2-0 down on aggregate at Old Trafford (at least worth a draw again ) to come back and win my league cup semi on penalties. Chelsea in the final.

EDIT: Got this lad lined up for the summer for about £10m.

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I assume the price is because he's only got a year left on his contract because he looks the business and personality-wise he seems good too.

I'll prepare the gif.

And yeah he looks pretty damn good. He's not injury prone is he?

Good natural fitness and it didn't come up in the scouting report.

I've finally quit.

Feel so free.

Carried the save on at another club?

I wish one of these fucking teams would lose. In 5th just now, a point seperating me from 2nd (Chelsea running away with the league again) but none of these cunts are blinking.

EDIT: Forgot to mention re: lulzy Arsenal managerial appointments in FM games. Nigel Pearson has been sacked. Replaced by...... Chris Powell.

[Dquincy]

Part 6

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Ugh, United away in the FA Cup quarters.

Here's how the season stands:
League: 5th after 27 games. 3 points ahead of 6th, a point behind 2nd.
Carling Cup: Into the final against Chelsea.
FA Cup: Quarters, away at Old Trafford.
Europa League: Away at Atletico in the first leg of the second round. If I win that I've got Olympiacos or Southampton next.

Vadala is boss, Ian. He's worth about £23m in my save in 2020.

This Panda likes fucking.

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After Tielemans and Hjobjerg for frees and now this lad it seems I'm signing all the dons.

Papped Atletico out of the Europa 3-1. Southampton up next which is BORING.

Silverware. Two penalty shootout wins out of two in a couple of weeks.

Could do without another 120 minutes of football when I'm already staring down the barrel of about six weeks of two games a week.

Ian at Wembley.

Valdes was always a monstrous twat for doing that.

Only if taking the place of Valdes is that little dickhead Depay, Fox. Fuck him and his always scoring against me.

Its the end of the 2051/52 season now and Luis Jesus Torres is poised on 978 goals (857 for Hannover and 121 for Spain) as the quest for 1,000 goals enters its final stages.

He's just had his second-best season ever with 74 goals in all competitions for Hannover, having scored 80 goals four seasons ago.

Rested some players for the trip to Swansea as I'm still in the middle of my hectic schedule. Was 2-0 up, coasting, then two minutes of madness saw me go down to 2-2 after about an hour.

Seething my balls off and then after a shit corner the ball rolls out to Kenedy who beats his man and whips in a cross for John Stones to glance in at the near post.

Fetch me a gif, Fox.

EDIT: Cancel the gif. Out of the FA Cup to United (2-0) and after drawing the first leg 1-1 at home with Southampton, who I have never previously lost to, I went from 2-0 up in the second leg after 15 minutes to lose 3-2. Fucking seething.



If I don't get top four I'm going to be fuming.

Ian in Swansea.

Miguel Herrera

Got fired for punching a journalist.

The journalist probably deserved it.

I always find that every time I hit January my tactic breaks (presumably some sort of update to how the CPU plays against you halfway through the season?) and it's so tiring.

One of my favourite matches from this save



Unfortunately Man U pipped me to 1st, so it'll likely be a tough draw in the knockouts.

Cork.

I've secured Champions League football with two games to go. Should be safely in the automatic spots too so it's whether (assuming I don't bottle it) I can pip Liverpool to second.

Third in the end. That'll do.

He most definitely did. The was aimed towards the Football Federation.

One step away from completing FM...

You've found the cow level?

I'm fairly sure this would do it for me. If I win the Champions League with these shit houses and only two foreigners I'll never top it again.

Alas, it was a step too far.

Might take a job offer from England finally... Not sure I'll ever get this far again. I almost cried.

Enjoying my Dortmund save on FM14 atm.

Added +40 to all European countries regen level so my youth team is busting with top talent from Hungary, Moldova, Greece, Ukraine, Slovenia, Croatia, etc.

Lost Lewandowski at the end of season one, ofc. Two months later, Mandzukic is pissed off at Bayern and I steal in. Managed to bag Dybala for peanuts too who is developing well and now in season three, Harry Kane is leading the line. Nice.

Got some decent players through my own academy too, inc the next Metzelder .

That's him officially in the door. A bit conflicted as to what to do with him though. If I play him behind the strikers, his natural position, then Aarons gets less games. Aarons isn't phenomenal in terms of his actual statistics (7 goals and 7 assists in 30-odd performances) but his average rating is sound and he's a threat any time he gets the ball.

On the other, to be playing as a proper strike Vadala's lacking a couple of attributes.

Up front is the first I'd try, then Shadow Striker at AMC.

The temptation is to finally try and bin off Ayoze Perez, though the little rat actually had his best season in about three years.

Is your formation conducive to playing him as a striker but acting as more of a creative type, bringing the rest of the midfield into play and getting goals that way? That would probably get the best out of him, since his passing is good enough that it could be a bit of a waste having him playing as a poacher or whatever.

That said, he's only really lacking in anticipation, and even then not catastrophically so, so he'd still be shit hot as a proper striker.

Yeah, my two strikers are usually a poacher and a creator type with the AMC behind encouraged to get forward as much as possible.

I haven't played this in ages, so I might settle down to it for a few hours once my dinner arrives.

Any recommendations of fun clubs to play as?

I have to admit, I love the transfer side of the game so someone with a team which needs improving and a decent transfer budget would be good.

On the subject of new saves, for those who are like me and don't pay much attention to these things there is an apparently up-to-date transfer update for this out:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015...ansfer-update/

Decided to stick it on holiday for 10 years and start from there.

Nine million quid.

That obscene Dutchie I posted earlier in the thread is still on my radar, but they want my first born for him so he can wait at Ajax for now. He's worth breaking my transfer record for, but not quadrupling it.

One of the best players I've ever seen on the modern FMs there.

You could probably play a 3-1-6 with him as the only midfielder and do alright.

He isn't even the best mid-twenties central midfielder currently on my shortlist.

In pure attributes I reckon the best player in the game at the moment is an Argentinian striker who's been in the game since the beginning and currently playing at Porto. Abel Arganaraz. His contract is up next summer and if he doesn't renew I'll be all over him.

I don't need him, in fact it'd probably be folly to sign him, but it's still fucking tempting.

Screenshot please mate, I love seeing regens.

EDIT: Ah, might be this geez, my bad: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Arga%C3%B1araz

That's the chap. He's probably random enough to be a regen though, since if he'd ever come close to this sort of outrageous quality before I'd have noticed him.



Was with Lanus until 2020, at which point he signed for Porto and this will be his fifth season with them.

Jesus Fucking Christ.

He must be smashing them in over in Portugal, surely?

Not really. Twenty six in his best season. The AI doesn't even have Messi and Ronaldo matching their numbers in reality so it's not a surprise.

Get that cheat 433 and put him central. He's an 80 goal a season effort.

I've had fifty three out of Heverton using my current tactic so I think I'll stick with that. I wouldn't be confident of getting too much more out of that nutter though, since Heverton has blinding pace in his favour.

[Dquincy]

Part 7

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He's a real player - starts at Lanus...

His potential ability must be randomised though, otherwise everyone would sign him all the time and it's the first I've heard of him.

Somehow miss me saying all of those things, DS posting the actual player's Wiki page, and me confirming that it's the right one, Kiz?

Jesus

Can someone change my name to diljeet please?

The trick with Vadala (and Acosta) is to flip him for a forty million pound profit the season after like I did.

On the day of a personal milestone for Luis Jesus Torres a new club record is set as well.





On 5th October 2052 Torres scored his 1,000th goal, finally finishing the match on 1,001 goals (875 goals for Hannover and 126 goals for Spain). It was very apt that he scored 5 goals on the day he reached such a great milestone. Goal number 1,000 was a near post tap-in from a low right wing cross, typical poacher's effort!!

The game doesn't generate a message for this moment as it's a combination of domestic and international goals, so I'm going to play on and see if I can get Torres to 1,000 goals just for Hannover which should be acknowledged by a game message.

That's insane Spav. How old is he now?

I'm assuming he's early 30's in which case it could well be touch and go. Any kind of medium term injury could see him not reach 1,000.

Torres is 31 and a half years old. He's a model professional, the coaches say he's at his peak, but not going downhill yet. He's had a couple of 3-month-long injuries (torn calf muscle, broken arm, etc) in game, but generally he's pretty fit. He could have another 3-4 seasons in him which hopefully would be enough to replace the 130-odd goals that he's scored for Spain with a similar number for Hannover which would give 1,000 club goals in his career.

2024/25 season of journeyman career. Getting tight...

Spav.

Is he holding all the competitions' goalscoring records? League, cup, European cup?

Good question, P_3. Here's what I could find regarding Torres' records:

Most Bundesliga goals in a season: 51
Most Bundesliga MoM awards in a season: 15
Most DFB Pokal (German Cup) goals in a season: 22
Most DFB Pokal (German Cup) MoM awards in a season: 6
Most Champions League goals in a season: 22
Most Champions League goals in a match: 6

So yeah, he holds pretty much all of them.

Has he ever played on a rainy Tuesday night in Stoke though?

No, but he's still pretty special anyway.

He's proved nothing then.

Useless.

How many games did he get the 1000 goals in?

Ended up coming fifth in the league, missing out on the Champions League by a whisker, although did manage to win the Europa League in the end which was a nice cap to a resurgent end of the season.


Sold on Ayala (£5m - free transfer in), Didi (£4.5m - £6m transfer in, was being a bitch though and never settled) and finally said goodbye to Lorenzo Venuti for the princely sum of £23.5m after six years of service, gaining him on the free when I was back in the fucking SkyBet League 2

...the only reason being that he was 26 and my full-back re-gens were coming of age.

As well as Venuti, an absolute club legend and one of the best players I've ever had for me in any CM/FM game, Tottenham reject Ruben Lameiras went off to Genoa as well after eight years with the team, seeing us pretty much the entire way from the lowest tier to the Premiership and knocking in 20 goals in our first season in the top flight - which still amazes me.

He went for only £6.5m with another £5m on top after appearances. Which having been crippled down with injuries the last two seasons, hopefully he makes, as £6.5m alone for him is a joke given that the fans almost crucified me for letting him go at all.

For the first time ever in this save, I splashed the cash. An' fingers crossed my spending doesn't show up bad cards, as even when I have coin in the game I go for a frugal style.

Have bolstered our front-line over the Summer with something a little different to my usual fare: a 19 year old 6'0" Mexican re-gen right winger Antonio Patino (for £20m +£5m 12m) from America (MEX) who has been loaned straight out to Barcelona for six months just to blood him a bit, and re-gen Ibraima Honda (for £24m +£10m 50apps +£12m 50goals +£5m 12m), a 21 year old, 6'7"; who is a beast of a striker with great potential from Everton.

...they just didn't wanna' part with him, and out of the fifteen players I was looking at over 6'4" he was actually the best deal. First pick would have been Thomas Cacic, 23, a 6'8" Croatian striker from Schalke who was pretty much the finished article, but they were wanting a deal in the region of £125m.

My thinking is that when Honda plays, his height alone will bring a bit of balance that was missing to our average 5'9" front-line.

So far so good, won the Super-Cup against Arsenal (who destroyed everyone last year, doing the Quadruple) and at time of writing haven't as yet lost a game all season, and I'm now at the end of October. Bar two 0-0 draws with Liverpool and Man City, and a few ropey first-halves, things are looking well.

The key thing to determine how long he'll last is his Natural Fitness. It's the attribute that marks how quickly his stamina/strength will deteriorate as he gets older.

That and Determination, to keep playing (although as he's a Model Pro I'm assuming that's high).

Fuck me, beat Wigan 3-0 to go top of the Premier League and my star Regista is injured for 4-5 weeks with an ankle sprain, and immediate backup and rising star Defensive Playmaker is also injured for 4-5 weeks with a fucking c'ankle strain.

Ugh.

Well, at least I have oul' Pawel Zawadski to drop back for a month.

Christ.

Still tight with 5 games to go.

Bugger, 3 games to go. Newcastle just thrashed me 3-0 at St James Park after i had a man sent off with 7 mins on the clock.

780 games in all competitions for 1,001 goals so far.

Torres is currently 16 for both Natural Fitness and Determination, Raoul.

Nice. Should stick around for a while then

Last day of the season.

Fixtures are:
Liverpool v Ipswich
Arsenal v Newcastle
Man Utd v Bolton

Table looks like this.

Tasty.

Last day of the season results.

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Liverpool 4-1 Ipswich
Arsenal 0-4 Newcastle
Man Utd 2-0 Bolton

Your 'inner Brendan' will be keeping it positive saying you only need to find four goals next season.

First loss of the season, and I am not one bit happy.

...scored with their first (and only) shot on target in the 65th minute, horrendous mistake from a ball over the top of my world-class defender Karamatsoukis.

At the other end they cleared from the line four or five times, at one point my winger had an open net but ended up slowing down and being tackled from behind.

17-1 on corners.

Similarly, Pav, I've opened the season with a 1-1 draw against a Wigan team who took their only chance of the game while I swamped them at the other end.

I'd love to know what the AI's conversion rate is in the game.

[Dquincy]

Part 8

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Champions League draw gives me Barcelona, Dynamo Kiev and Besiktas. Tricky, but should be doable.

Been offered the Italy and France jobs. Probably going to go for Italy as there's a load of my old club's (Milan's) players in the team.

To be fair, I've had far less goals called offside this season, still get just under one a game easy. It's the woodwork this time out that's doing me, although aside from the draws against Liverpool and City, I'm happy enough so long as this match doesn't set in a rot.

That Chelsea game must be the only the second game in the opening three months were I haven't had four shots off the woodwork. Everything was just cleared off of the line.

Sometimes it's harrowing to watch, although I like to imagine it means (mathematically) that my shot accuracy has become more accurate than last season and is on the border-line of sticking seven in the back of the net every game.

And, saying as I have five injuries going into the game mostly in the middle of the park - wait, actually considering how the game went down it's clear that the injuries weren't really an issue.

Here's how the team is lining up going into November.



I'm really rather happy with Honda's contribution so far, first time ever I've used either Poacher or Target-man as a more selfish approach upfront, and/or Target-support; along with of course the usual supporting Deep Lying Forward and or Advanced Forward when Dowie comes into it.

Lovely debut for Guido Vadala. Won a penalty a few minutes in, pinged one into the top corner from 30 yards out, scored another and would have had a couple more assists if the strikers hadn't mucked up some chances he created.

That was him playing in the hole.

Beat Brugge 3-0, with all the goals coming in the last fifteen minutes; another four off of the woodwork, and the press asked me what the craic' was again concerning the frequency of games where we hit the woodwork on multiple occasions.

26 shots to 2, only 10 on target this time out, work ball into box etc. at all times, no one appears to be snatching at chances on first impressions.

Can anyone confirm for me if tempo affects shot frequency at all? I don't believe it does.

Pavaozinho, the injury prone Brazilian centre back I sold to Sevilla for a slight profit at £3.5m a few years ago is now worth £14m. I fucking knew he'd come good after leaving.

Still at Milan in my journeyman game and well into my 5th season with them now. Just won my second World Club Cup and this beast has just taken his 3rd Ballon d'Or.



I should probably think about leaving soon to keep this journeyman game in the spirit it was intended, but I can't recall having this much fun with Milan (who I normally always struggle with) for years.

He's shit hot. Your captain, I assume?

He is.

He dedicates all his awards to me as well.

Most managers have a club they stay at for a few years, unless they're a Mourinho or not very good. I think it's still in the spirit to build a bit of a dynasty with Milan before heading off. The whole point of the game is surely to start somewhere shit and then build up to greatness.

Fair points.

I'm nailed on for my fifth straight Serie A title and no one has ever done six in a row before, so I'm tempted to at least stay and do that.

Oh and I'm also really curious to see what mess the computer makes of the club when I do leave.

I've made them the best team in the world, we have an affordable debt structure and £120m in the bank. The average age of the first team squad is 24, with the first eleven about 25.

My Milan team who I left three years ago are still in pretty good shape. They've won the league a couple of times and done fine in Europe. They've not really sold many of my squad off (and made some solid signings to complement it).

Go virtual Brendan Rodgers

Talking of Brendan, he's manager of Real Madrid in my game.



He's one place above me in the hall of fame, but he'd likely be out of sight had he not abruptly stopped winning things 5 years ago.

At least that confirms the game isn't realistic.

Absolutely my thoughts on the matter, I haven't played as a top flight team since starting a game as Juventus back about fourteen years ago. The sheer detail level of the game makes it fantastically rewarding to have the challenge of building from the base up.

Nine seasons in now, and fourth year in the Premier League.

T'is the best craic', especially some of the real players picked up along the way to the top flight; Leonardo Capezzi, Samuel Galindo, Ruben Lameiras, Lorenzo Venuti, Kristian Kostrna, Giacomo Sciacca, Saverio Madrigali, Benoit Dalibard, Ryan Case, Mathias Bossaerts, Thomas Eisfield and the fan-fare of Maik Taylor, Steve Sidwell, Michael Carrick and madly whilst in SB League One, Javi Garcia ( ) for two seasons apiece.





Also, got drawn against the Czech Republic in the 2022 World Cup Qualifying Playoffs; Will Grigg threw in two goals for the first-leg, and with two of my best players suspended, and another injured, the second-leg is looking like a pant-wetter.



EDIT: Annoyingly, hit the post three times in the first five minutes, again.

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Looks incredibly promising, but my coaches reckon he's a bit injury prone and there's not a mention of his professionalism or ambition, so I have my doubts about him ever reaching his potential. Still, if he does develop properly he should be shit hot.



Another injury prone right back, though this one comes with a dossier of evidence about as long as a good WDYTOE. I've posted that earlier in the thread. He should be shit hot when he's fit, but I don't have much faith in him actually staying fit for any length of time, so he'll probably end up being a buy to sell.



I'd tried to sign him when he left Sevilla for Man City, having noticed him during a brief loan spell at Hibs, so when he became available this time I jumped at the chance. He's a bit short on jumping for a centre back, but he's good enough to play backup there and given how injury prone my new right back is I'm sure he'll start on the right reasonably often.



Even with the excellent Tristan Peeters and 'the next Pirlo' Andrea Pacella in the squad, this bloke will still be my primary creative midfielder, at least for this season. My coaches reckon he's playing at his peak so he's unlikely to improve much, if at all, but for nine million quid I should still make a fucking huge profit on him when he moves on. And in the interim I have a world class creative midfielder in the squad.



So far behind my first teamers in his position that he's unlikely to see any first team action this season, even in the cups, but my scouts reckon he has four star potential, with an extra black star of tempting uncertainty. I think he's more likely to go the way of Sylvain Doumbia or Theis Neilsen than a Dean Johnson, that is sold for a profit to a second or third tier side rather than progressing well enough to feature in my first team, but he's worth the gamble for the price.

That mental Dutchie is still on my radar, as I mentioned about fifteen pages ago, and I'm in the process of signing two Colombians who'll join at the end of the season, but I'm quite happy with that summer of business.

Fucking finally.



Milan's record from the 90s is broken.

Sweet. Looking like you'll get the 6 titles in a row?

Any jobs / possible sackings you've got your eye on?

Cheers Reg.

This season will only be the 5th, but yeah, I'm nailed on for that with about 14 games to go.

In terms of other jobs, I quite fancy the idea of making Liverpool a World force again and Igor Petrov is currently very insecure there, but I'm just not sure I can bring myself to leave this team just yet.

[QUOTE=Pavel;4427753]Ooof' - one of the most nail-biting games I've had in this saved game, fucking Jude Winchester (who the media were giving me grief over capping since taking over Northern Ireland last season) scores his second goal in five games to save the day for us after a terrible start.

...and then my avatar comes out in the last minute of the game whilst I drop the pace down teh' the ground and buries two patiently assembled goals from two almost identical widely played balls from Grigg and Winchester.

[Dquincy]

Part 9

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We're going to the World Cup!





[/QUOTE]

First time I've done that on FM15 IIRC.

Who all have you been with in your journeyman save Yev?

Are you using that cheat tactic? If so direct me to it, I might need a fix before the new one comes out.

Smashed the cups as well to take our second clean sweep in a row:



Which leaves the career haul looking like so:



And puts me ahead of Brendan and up to third for the first time.



Worth noting the lolfest in 10th. He's only 44 and has won both the league (two stages) and cup in Colombia, for 13 seasons running now.

I hope he moves clubs soon.

Oh and the Barca job has just come up. Decisions, decisions.

Nope, not using it.

The link's in this thread somewhere though.

I just downloaded an update and Brooklyn Beckham is at Arsenal. He's worth considerably more than my other under-19's but he looks shit.

Sunderland FC - Season 2014/15



Transfers In

Ruben Pardo from Real Sociedad for £3m.

Transfers Out

N/A

Season Summary

It wasn't until the beginning of January that Sunderland opted to replace Dick Advocaat after the Dutchman recorded just two wins all season leaving The Black Cats at the foot of the table, eleven points from safety.

Our season started in the FA Cup but lasted no more than the 90minutes it took Everton to roast us 6-3 so our soul focus was now on the league. Man United were the first up and a Wayne Rooney hat-trick (2-3) ensured our valiant effort was for nothing but such matches were never going to be where we reclaimed the points.

Aston Villa followed The Red Devils, Tim Sherwood's side being fellow strugglers who had dropped to 18th place due to Norwich winning their game in hand but we started off too slowly. Gabby Agbonlahor and Rudy Gestede both striking and John O'Shea's red card made it all the more harder. (2-0). Oh dear.

The international break arrived at just the right time allowing me some valuable time on the training ground with those that remained at the club and by time the league action was back underway I felt much more positive that the tactical discussions were working. West Ham were next up at the Stadium of Light only this time the script read differently as newboy Ruben Pardo, signed days earlier grabbed a brace with the winner coming three minutes from time to record the first win for Sunderland in a long time.

A point against Everton a few days later was a bit disappointing given the context of the match but points were points so we couldn't be too disheartened given how many we lacked. Arsenal followed The Toffees but we were firmly put in our place losing 5-3 at the Emirates. Theo's treble sandwiched inbetween two top strikes from Ramsey and Sanchez. Defoe grabbed a brace to continue his own little scoring streak but we weren't ever in it.

After the game against Arsenal we sat down and studied our next set of fixtures. This was the make or break stage of our season in my mind. Crystal Palace, Swansea, Southampton, Bournemouth and Watford were all earmarked as games we could get points from, I had hoped for at least ten to give us the slimmest of chances but that was being optimistic or so I thought. Palace and Swansea were both beaten 3-2, an underperforming Southampton were dispatched 3-1 at the Stadium of Light whilst Bournemouth and Watford showed their inexperience's and forfeited two points each, two late goals away to The Cherries secured a 4-2 win whilst a sole Jermaine Defoe strike was enough to see off The Hornets.

We were brought down with an almighty thud following our five game mini run as Manchester City cut through us like a hot knife in better, 7-2 being the final scoreline and it could have been much worse. Another international break again arriving at just the wrong time so we had to wait to make things right. We did though, a 3-1 win at home to West Brom shockingly took us out of the relegation zone for the first time and although the 2-2 draw with Newcastle that followed dampened the spirit a little, it returned ten fold the following week as we stuck seven past Liverpool. The greatest/worst week of my career, I'm sure.

Victory over the red half of Merseyside lifted us up to 15th and two points from survival, defeat to Spurs didn't change a thing and by time we'd faced Norwich on matchday #36 we knew our status as a Premier League club would remain intact. We celebrated with a 3-0 win, inevitably got beat by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge (3-0) before ending our great escape with a 4-0 victory at home to Stoke.

League Table

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Top Goalscorers

• Jermaine Defoe - 18 in 37(1)

• Jeremain Lens - 11 in 30(6)

• Steven Fletcher - 7 in 9(15)

Top Assists

• Jeremain Lens - 10

• Jermaine Defoe - 8

• Danny Graham - 5

Highlight of the Season


You can't look past the dismantling of Liverpool, unfortunately. When Roberto Firmino opened up the scoring it would have been fair to suggest we were in for it. Defoe's equaliser seemed to stun The Reds and Jack Rodwell's strike right before half time completely swung the match. Second half Liverpool weren't really in it and when Skrtel brought down van Aanholt to give away a penalty it just got worse. Defoe took it and grabbed the match ball but his afternoon was far from done as he grabbed another two after Jeremain Lens's long range effort.


Game of Shame


Manchester City 7-2 Sunderland


Inept from start to finish, no desire to get stuck in and hopefully the last time I ever suffer such a defeat.


League Table

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Next Season

Massive wholesale changes are expected to take place with the likes of Wes Brown and John O'Shea being offloaded due to their ages and those who didn't contribute throughout the season which will see the likes of Emanuele Giaccherini and Lee Cattermole take off.

Southampton manager Neil Lennon calls out Memphis Depay as our weak link for our home derby against them - I had him on the bench, so I thought I'd let him start.

Free-kick from long range 2:16 into the game.

Does ye'...

Nothing better than your 'weakest link' scoring.

Though that is one of the most ridiculous questions in the whole shitpile of awful interviewing crapness.

I know, ended up 4-0 in the end - Lennon admits he's shite afterwards.

What are the views on the cheat tactics. Been peeing about for a while with it and I must say it's the first time in a long time that I have a vivid interest in FM again, but how is it viewed? Diminishes any achievements?

If the opposition play in such a way that you can exploit their defects, I wouldn't call it cheating as such.

...the issue is that the match engine cannot prolifically adapt to counter what your doing. Personally I don't download tactics, but I've read enough and know enough about the game to know what does and doesn't work for the most part.

I went with a striker-less approach for the first seven seasons in my current save, knowing that I had read a lot about approaches to striker-less football in the modern game as a natural tactical evolution to deep possession football that the likes of Barcelona and Spain have pioneered; and also being aware that in the game itself, going striker-less gives the match engine kittens.

There's an argument to be made that in real life the exact same thing happens, only in real-life the tactics adapt.

I suppose if it was an outright "if you use this tactic with any quality of team you will win" tactic, I'd say that would be cheating. As it is I haven't come across anything in FM14 that I would outright call a consistent exploit, which I like. Each match needs tweaks here and there. As it should, makes it interesting.

[Dquincy]

Part 10

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A few people in here use them (either having inadvertently created their own or actively using ones created by other people) but if it helps you enjoy the game then what does it matter? I don't use anybody else's tactics personally because I just wouldn't find it as satisfying. By the same token I know I've encountered things the game engine can't handle before (playing FM11 as a half-decent team with one good poacher was basically a cheat) and won't intentionally scupper myself if I do.

I don't judge people too much because a) it's frankly none of my business and b) the game tries to cheat the player pretty consistently so why worry too much about exploiting it?

I give up caring at this point in the game. We need the new version now.

Roll on November.

I just do whatever I like. I've made decent tactics on previous versions and in other saves on 15, but right now I just wanted to cane everyone and focus on team-building.

It is fucking hilarious to monster teams 7-0, and I enjoy bringing through regens and succession planning/career globe-trotting.

It's a single player game 99% of the time, so no one really cares all too much what you do.

Precisely man, well put.

Well, some will, you just shouldn't care.

EDIT: Nice to see that no matter how good the form I am in my be my fixtures against Chelsea are still largely a total waste of time. And Depay, as one of the designated always-scores-against-me-players, continues to produce his streak of improbable finishes against me to ensure the run keeps going.

Decided to stay at Milan for at least one more season.

Do people get higher wages when renewing their contract? On a long term Sporting Lisbon game I'm only ever offered the same wages and if lucky an increase of £1k. Never mind those bonuses.

You can pretty much get what you want if you ask for a one year deal.

So much so I have to exercise restraint/an element of realism when doing so.

My United game has got to 2017 and as usual I've hit January and my tactic no longer works.

I can set something going that gets a billion shots a game and wins games 2-1 having hit the post 17 times but it's just not very fun.

January 1st, 2022 Update

Boom.

Ibraima Honda, the 6'6" monster is the key that has unlocked the entire damn thing for me.

...although backtracking:

- the elements of my core squad, some of whom have been with me since the Vanarama South Division, and at least since the Sky Bet League One, are all 24-26 now, all grown-up.


- after three and a half years in the Premier League, everyone's attributes have seen massive spikes in comparison to previous years, what was borderline ability and consistency, is now a well oiled machine, with a spread set of bells right across the team that I am just loving.

No one, even the injury prone players who have seen scant time so far, is below a 7 rating.

My lowest average rating is 7.09, my main keeper, who has 11 clean sheets from 21 starts.

...I've honestly, never had the entire squad all above a 7 rating, ever. There's always some cunt who lets the side down.


- as said, only one new player (Honda) has come into the team, whilst Patino went on loan to Barcelona; two young defenders, Probert and Young are out on loan at Ipswich and Tottenham respectively playing every game, which bodes well for next season as they are getting the games in, and their attributes look solid now.

And whilst I gave up 26 year old club-legend Lameiras, and newly broken into the Italian squad Venuti - the new slim, trim and lacking in any discernible weakness, 22 (25 total if counting the three loans) man squad is tight as a drum.


- my entire defensive line of re-gens whilst young (ave. 20), have come good with force over the pre-season, seeing real jumps in attributes into Premier League quality over the last six months, with years of growing to go.

Eisenring, Mitchell, Zawadzki, Rawlings, Egon Spengler (Steve Egan), not to mention Probert and Williams out on loan; have blooded well with Karamatsoukis, Nemec, Sciacca and Bakker as the 23-26 more mature members of the back-line.


League Table















Tactically, I've stuck with this all season, with the same tactic with more direct options on the counter as an opposite, meaning I can pretty much swap out shouts without losing any tactical preparation.




...the amount of fucking headers I've scored between Honda and Karamatsoukis either knocking them in, and/or setting them up from Eisenberg's long-flat throws / general set-pieces is something of wonder to me.

The main thing though is the assured defence, we're scoring really no more goals than the last three years in the top flight, it's the clean sheets that's really making it sing.

I tend to have a short team in general, so playing tall up-front is a first and I'm totally glad I did it.

Fingers crossed for the second half of the season, and of course the World Cup with Northern Ireland.

I'm on £1,700 a week.

...until 2025.

Hmm, season contracts you say?

Is there an advantage, other than making your current club less likely to sack you, to getting paid loads?

I thought it was just game-pride, really.

An unfortunately redundant element of the game by the very fact that it isn't real.

I've read plenty of folks ask for there to be consequences, such as that you can use your earnings to reinvest or eventually buy teams; but that too seems redundant in the grand scheme of things. I don't see why that would ever be meaningful saying as it doesn't change any of the in-game responsibilities from what currently exists.

FM will never have stuff like that. Those people should play a football chairman game.

There's no advantage, it's just a cool thing to keep track of if you're going for an immersive journeyman game.

Exactly.

Although you have just made me realise that after taking Boca Senior SkyBlues from the Vanarama South to the UEFA Europa League in eight seasons that I've been fucking fleeced

If I win the Premier League finally this year, I suppose I should renegotiate...

Everyone else seems to, every damn year.

I'm still amazed that I've a total wage bill of £920,000 a week, given the amount of agents I've had fired/contracts wished to be renegotiated after six months of signing the old one.

Under 'Board Confidence' it sometimes says something like "since it wouldn't cost much to sack the manager, he lacks security".

That could have no real impact, I don't know tbh.

As I have never been paid much, I honestly do not know in FM14; which is the first I've played since CM03/04 - which didn't have that kind of detail that mattered.

I just assumed it was a Hall of Fame stat or something.

It seems to say that a lot, even when you have a four year deal worth £100k a week.

Two years without losing in Serie A now. I'd love to make it to 100 games.

Yev', now that I have the title in sight; with the team coming to fruition as it is; I am excited about the next few years myself.

Watching you perform as you have has reminded me that it is possible. Due to my LLM games over the years, I've never been in a dominating position in the top flight.

Game on.

I think my unbeaten record is 63, Yev. Well in.

In my save I got shagged at the Nou Camp but just dominated Barcelona and beat them 4-2 in Newcastle.

Unlikely to win the group because of goal difference but a point or two will be enough to secure a spot in the second round.

[QUOTE=Yevrah;4428140]I think this has now become the best team I've ever had on FM.



GK:



RB:

[Dquincy]

Part 11

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CB:





LB:



CM:







CF:





SC:



[/QUOTE]

I love those two centre backs and Ederson is a fucking beast. Jokanovic and Agrebi are superb but they've been posted and praised before.

I always keep my wages to the minimum amount so it doesn't impact the wage budget.

I'm not sure it does anyway.

15 to go.

Yev.

I managed well over 150 league games unbeaten with Rangers on the last version, but I don't think I've even managed a full season unbeaten on this year's.

Perhaps more excitingly, I've just realised that we're 96 games unbeaten in all competitions. Stretching back from 10th April 2027 to now (6th December 2028).

Pre-Christmas games with Millwall.

Which players if any would you look to improve?

Yev', how fast would you get through a season?

The reveal for FM16 happened today. I thought there might be some interest, so here's the new features in short.

Create your manager





Set Piece improvements



Fantasy draft mode

This can handle up to 32 players.



Create a club mode

You can now replace an existing club with your own, new one and choose kits, colours, name etc.




Then there's the usual, added X amount new interactions, new press conference questions, etc.

Lastly there is FM Touch.

Replacing FM Classic as far as I can tell, it is for desktop and high end tablets.
Has the FMC features but with the twist that, you can start on your desktop and via the cloud, take that save out and about with you on your tablet.

That default skin looks genuinely horrible.

Have they officially released that first shot? As in they want people to see it?

It would appear so. #WorkInProgress

What looks like the new team instructions screen.

But what the shit is this abomination.

Jesus.

So they've (to some extent at least) brought back 'sliders', by the looks of that (EDIT: one before) last screen shot.

Sliders

I'll have a lot of fun breaking the game with a 200kg and 100cm manager. Wonder if there will be a visual representation in matches.

Yeah whatever thing you create patrols the touchline.

If you give your avatar a generous mass, does that mean that he will attract the ball towards the touchline that you patrol?

As long as they're pissing about with stuff that doesn't matter rather than getting the core of the game to actually work.

If that's the future then after a return for FMs 2011, 13 and 15 I may never buy one again. That looks fucking awful.

Yeah but they've now got the Rabona in the game animations. What more do you want?

Bit more detail: http://www.passion4fm.com/football-m...s-screenshots/

Some videos: https://instagram.com/footballmanager/ (Instagram )

This is literally already in the game:

About 12-15 hours per season.

Some of those screenshots.

First FM I'm not looking forward too.

Could be also that the Arsenal's squad will have not changed much aswell

Team instruction page looks better imo and fantasy draft mode looks good a first glance. But some of it looks horrific.

Fuck's sake, rested a load of players for my last group game and those Barcelona twats drew their game as well. Could have won the group.

Going off those screenshots, and if it ends up like that (it probably will), its time for an FM hiatus for a bit I think.

I'll no doubt buy it because it's so easy from Steam, but that manager thing is the stuff nightmares are made of, so I probably should exercise some self restraint finally.

I'll just yarr it as/when its cracked (it always is eventually), plus the beta is always cracked too.

I think the next time I'll bother paying is when we get a brand new, from scratch engine.

I didn't buy it in 15, which was the first time for 13 years. I think those shots might have finished me off for good.

The tactics screen gets better every time I look at it.

8 players visible before the scroll bar comes into play.

That shit looks horrid. I only got 15 out of habit but have barely touched it. This is the year I finally drop out of the loop.

Eurgh, lost 6-4 to Everton. Some of the most shambolic defending I've had in this save. Luckily Kenedy and Vidala are dons and basically kept it respectable on their own.

Cunts.

I'm in the minority here, quite pumped up for this. The only 'wtf' graphics-wise is the team screen, otherwise it's fine.

The 'Fantasy Draft' is a great idea. Prozone data looks good, will be great to have more of the team's data as a whole rather than just individual players. Big fan of the team tactics, hoping for similar on player instructions.

The set piece creator is exactly the same, just with different graphics.

So attempting to go 100 matches unbeaten in Serie A, we travelled to Sampdoria.

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I don't know how we hung on and I punched the air when the final whistle went.

Just four matches short of equalling Steaua's all time European domestic league record

That's crazy. I might well have pissed myself at full-time. Well played, Yev.

I'm on a laptop screen, so it'll be a fucking nightmare for me.

The create a manager thing is such a total waste of fucking time it's unreal. Are they really that out of ideas that they've started making it into The Sims? It's barely even visible when you're in-game and has no bearing on how the game plays.

It's not so much the overall shitness of it, and the way it's completely and utterly pointless, it's the opportunity cost of working on that total guff feature rather than improving something else when you've only really got 10 months dev time between releases. Staggering.

Cheers Reg.

Great jobs are coming up all over the shop (Man Utd, Barcelona), but I just can't leave this Milan team yet.

All the aborted attempts from the opening season, version after version, with their squad getting progressively worse, finally seem worth it.

They've sought me out and it was on the to do list in this save as well. I hope they appoint someone shite.

[Dquincy]

Part 12

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Exactly the same for me. I can barely get FM15 to fit decently onto it, this new shit just clogs up the screen even more with totally unnecessary crap.

What can we guarantee from this? A load of fluff and a broken engine that'll lead to a playable game around January time.

Can't you go for it and defer it until the end of the season? Or are you too into Milan?

We can guarantee none of the new features will work until January anyway.

I was thinking that, but if the run's still going at the end of the season I'll be gutted to be leaving.

SI barely give a fuck about fixing things/improving existing features. They want as many new customers as possible to join us lot - the hopelessly addicted crew.

One thing I must add, does the 'cheat tactic' cause fuck ups? I've had some quite ridiculous offers come in for players, namely a certain Nouha Dicko being poached for £20mil by Real Madrid.

Yup, you can sell some absolute shit for massive amounts if they get you the numbers (which forwards do in that system, even average ones).

I was considering buying this year's after skipping 15 but those screenshots are the stuff of nightmares. I'm out.

Seems applies for all. Danny Batth being chased by Napoli.

You're the one losing out bud. Skins will be out by the end of the first week.

FM15 for me has been the most complete version to date.

The skin isn't even that bad or different to 15's.

The team screen is a bit of a shocker but we all thought this year's was crap too.

I've just come up against that legend, in 2029.

I'd replace either Lefebvre or Geerman with more of a specialist. They're both more than sufficient for their positions, but both could be improved upon by getting in someone with optimal stats for their role, rather than all-rounders who are good in their role.

I'll post a similar overview of my Rangers team tomorrow.

I think they're extremely lazy with presentation now. They just leave it to everyone else to sort out horrid/boring skins. The older games looked and felt much better straight out of the first release.

6th season at Milan finished and we've won our third straight clean sweep in a row.

Smashed the league, for A record 6th Serie A in a row.



And took all the cups, our third World Club Cup in a row, our 6th Italian Cup in a row and our 4th Champions League in a row.



The lads:



I flogged Panda to death to see if he could do it and he did. He's now only 6 goals behind Gunnar Nordahl's league total of 210.

In terms of unbeaten streaks, it's now:

35 unbeaten in the Champions League:



111 in Serie A:



And 135 in all comps:



In other news, despite Juve and I meeting in the Champions League final for two seasons running, Italy are still fifth in the coefficient list and showing no signs of catching Germany. Oh and I think Agrebi is dying. Had a season full of knocks leading to a plethora of 2/3 week injuries and his technical stats are waning. He's only 30.

I should be bored by now, but I'm absolutely loving it and with a £176m WARCHEST, I'm going to strengthen the squad this summer, with a GK, CB and two Attacking Midfielders the priority.

Jokanovic still taking highest average rating :P

I do like how even though you storm everything, you still manage to give almost everyone a good amount of game time.

I'm finding that it's pretty essential to do that to keep motivation/freshness up.

You have to pick your games to do it, and Serie A (bar Juve) being a bag of wank helps, but it seems to certainly make a difference.

Stops players whinging like fucks as well, which I really can't be doing with.

I'm glacial by comparison, takes me a week of play to get through a season: even though I'm usually at other things, I don't see me ever playing through a season in a day

A day of solid play would see me through three months game-time max.

Do you have facepacks, logos and kitpacks installed?

Moi?

Yes I do man.

Although I'm running 26 leagues on an absolute beast of a lappy' by FM14's requirements, now and again it does take time to load. The pace is more my indirect play-style.

Yeah, especially as you get further into the game those megapacks really slow you down.

The loading time is very quick on my quite excellent pc, but gone are the days where I play continuously for hours. Or if I do it's while I'm tabbing out and finding excellent youtube videos of immigrants being disgraceful.

Yeah, it is a resource bottleneck over time due to whatever manner it is coded - duly noted on the megapacks.

The choice between playing on for another decade and the aesthetics is certainly a no-brainer.

Some new features for 2016.


http://www.sportsjoe.ie/football/foo...features/38806

So as it turned out there were as many no-fucking-thank-you teams in the unseeded group for the Champions League draw so not winning the group doesn't actually bother me now.

I drew Celtic who'd probably have been my chosen draw after CSKA.

I'll brush over the infuriating run of injuries I'm suffering (not all of them being lasting ones but making games trickier than they need to be by forcing subs or ending games with ten men) and talk about a 5-1 win over QPR, because it's had what might be my first five-goal haul in this save (if Cavani didn't get one for United) and definitely the first 10-rating I've had thanks to Kenedy running riot.

EDIT: Oh, and it also looks like I'm going to lose my excellent goalkeeper because he's a dick and has spent the last three years moaning about a move rather than signing a chuffing contract.

Getting reeeeeeeeeeally bored of this.



This one was a 0-0 draw. It's not even all pot-shots, there's a good amount of solid chances in here.

Have you put that lad you bought recently up front yet?

Is your goalkeeper still Krul? He was an arsehole in the fairly short-lived Newcastle save I had.

[QUOTE=John;4429034]My Rangers side.


Goalkeeper -



Defence -









Midfield -







Wingers -





Striker -

[Dquincy]

Part 13

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Other notables -










[/QUOTE]

Not even a token Scotsman?

There's one Scotsman in my first team squad. The backup goalkeeper.

Turner, Johnson, Blake, Djermoune, and Peeters all came in young enough to be homegrown, though, and Bengaoua will be by the end of the season.

Yev has Panda and now I see that John has Bambi.

Andre too.

Bambi has played over three hundred times for me and I genuinely can't remember a single bad game. The bloke is probably the best defender I've ever had on any version of FM or CM, in terms of performances if not stats. He'd be captain if it wasn't for Dean Johnson.

Panda.

Panda's goalscoring record for you is obscene. My man Omar Patta will probably develop into a better striker than Panda in terms of attributes, but I'd be astonished if he ever gets close to that sort of mental output.

He's averaging not far off two goals a game, for fuck's sake. That's Tsigalko and Skalidis in CM01/02.

I like the draft idea for online games against mates. Other features seem mostly focused on different platforms and game types (full, classic, handheld...).

The power of the 433, its genuinely hard to fuck that formation up in this. You could put out a base one with hardly any instructions and probably do okay. Chuck in cheat corners and throw ins and Jesus.

http://www.footballmanagerblog.org/2...actic-for.html

The exact formation and roles that yevrah uses

Well apart from the CM, but \i suppose this really is the go-to tactic for this version.

He's played more as AMC and been doing really well there. I didn't manage to offload Perez so I've got enough strikers for now. Also Kenedy's already on 14 goals for the season playing in the role I'd have Vadala in as a striker so I'm loathe to shift him.



Not for a few years, I absolutely hated him. Flappy idiot.

FM16 under £20

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/foot...age=2#comments

It's all gone a bit Galacticos Madrid on my Man Utd save in that I've got a team of £40m playmakers and no shit-kicker.

I can't bring myself to play Pogba as a bloody 'BWM'.

There's a serious dearth of quality left backs in my current save, as I'm sure you could have intuited from the fact that I'm still playing Alex Grimaldo there. It's beginning to become a bit of a problem, as although Mulumbu can play there, he's right footed and the most injury prone player I've ever seen. I essentially have one left back, and he's pushing thirty.

The only left footer I've been able to find who might be good enough to step in is five foot four, has terrible mental stats, and his club want fifteen million for him, which would make him the most expensive player Rangers have ever bought.

That there are shitloads of great right backs only makes it more irritating.

Are there no good left footed defensive mids for instance that you could retrain?

I really like re-training players, maybe too much.

Just retrain a ML or a DR. No biggie.

If there were loads of two footed right backs or left midfielders with the requisite stats around I wouldn't be talking about it as a problem.

I've found two wingers who might fit the bill. One of them is only a year younger than Grimaldo, so wouldn't solve the problem, and the other I'm in the process of scouting but he's worth ten million quid at River, so he won't be coming in on the cheap.

Oh God. I accidentally deleted the wrong save files.

Goodbye Leyton Orient super team. I will miss your massive number of players with 16+ dribbling, first touch, passing, technique, anticipation, composure, decisions, flair, off the ball and vision. A fair few of them were even 'Either' footed.

I will particularly miss Albert van Aken, a Dutch winger that I converted to leftback when he was 17 that wound up becoming the best, most expensive player in the game. Had an average rating just over 8.00 one season.

Recycle Bin/Trash?

You can restore previous versions of the folder the save is located in too if you've got backup set up.

He just wants to be dramatic, the flange.

If you delete in-game, it doesn't go to the Recycle Bin.

I don't have Windows Backup set up as my attitude towards it was *psssshhhttttt I'll never be that dumb to need it*. I tried to restore the files using other means, but they were corrupted.

You can get 2% cashback from CDKeys on Quidco now too.

Confirmed that mental Argie striker I posted earlier in the thread, Abel Arganaraz, to come in on a free at the end of the season. He'll become the highest paid player at the club, and so will end up costing me about £300k a week in wages with all the contracts I'll have to upgrade when he arrives, but he should be worth it. I'm seriously considering switching to two up top to see what he and Heverton could do as a pair.

Also thought I'd found the answer to my left back problems, having decided to compromise and just take a right footer there. His contract at PSG was running down and he was only on £30k a week so it seemed plausible. He's agreed a deal with Real Madrid on £210k a week.

I may actually have solved the left back problems all the same, though. The Dutch are churning out players with ludicrous pace, one of whom is a nineteen year old left back who looks like he could be excellent.

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I'm quickly coming to the conclusion that anticipation is the most effective stat in the game.

Arganaraz definitely ought to be a beast if that's the case. 20.

Yeah, he'll absolutely smash it.

Anticipation, Composure, Decisions, Off the Ball, Teamwork, and Vision.

Make 'Composure' that leftback's individual training.

@ John - that Dutch LB could do a job and then move inside when he's a bit older. Not really got the crossing to be a great fullback but you could get him to something pretty solid at CB.

@ Yev - why so?

Determination, Natural Fitness, Stamina, Work Rate, Strength, Composure for me.

All my teams end up full of gigantic, lumbering brutes who gallop all over the pitch like wild bastards

You don't need composure for a full back, he's not gonna have much of the ball anyway and make much runs with the ball.

If he's good at long throws then train him to do bullet throw - the amount of assist my 3 full backs get

Not talking about FBs. Just stats I value in general, across the whole squad.

Pffft, crossing. Run down the left wing, knock the ball past opponents, make more direct passes, cross less. Done. Now you have him cutting the ball back to a supporting player instead of lumping it towards a post.

[QUOTE=corduroy;4429731]Well, my very promising season rather fizzled out. I was third with two games to go, and ended up losing my last two games to come fifth with 71 points, which would have got me into the Champions League in the previous 7 seasons. This began my annoyance.

Then, the UEFA cup final, where this happened:

[Dquincy]

Part 14

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I expressed reservations that Kenneth 'Dennis' Nielsen might be a bit shit when I overpaid massively for him, but I took a chance and trusted him not to let loose his homicidal urges in the most important game in Southampton's history. That I then coasted through most of the rest of the game suggests I'd have walked that with 11 men. Dickhead. Nice of it to pointlessly go the full 120 minutes as well, as two days later I had the FA Cup final:



I am a genius. A proper godlike ubermensch.

It was a really dodgy penalty as well.[/QUOTE]

So, Rigoni has decided to start well out of the gate...

Got 6 players in my team that play for Brazil and 2 Argies

The England national team is a joke, a lack of good regens.

Two players (including my captain) have come to me asking to leave due to their lack of first team football.

It is the day after the Charity Shield.

This game is properly fucking stupid almost all of the time.

Just give them the games they want Cord, ffs.

No. They must adapt to my philosophy of only using 11-14 players per game and repeating this process around 40-60 times per season depending on success.

I refuse, simply refuse, to countenance using all 24 players in a one game season.

I forgot you had a player called Kevon. Do you shout at him to get the tables?

Also: Does anybody not using an ubertactic always have at least one striker on a ten-game goal drought as I seem to?

I had no idea about this.

£85k a week

Finally getting paid a decent amount.

Didn't even notice that we had hit 100

83 unbeaten in Serie A as well.

A very quiet January for me with only 1 transfer in and 1 permanent transfer out:



A hefty fee of £26m but I quite like the chap and he's done well in his first 4 games with 3 goals (in his first two games) and 2 assists. He's doing well in defensive duties as well.



I wanted to shift him and another MC who is now 26 and hasn't pushed on. I was only able to get £4.9m for him and 50% next sale which is disappointing and the other, only a loan move.

Just humped Celtic 5-0 in the first leg of the first Champions League knockout.

No idea how they won a decent group, they're a proper shambles. Such an old team. They've still got Craig Gordon, Mulgrew and Scott Brown as well as further aged signings such as Gael Clichy and Wayne Rooney.

EDIT: Chelsea in the Champions League quarters. Given I can barely even beat them when I totally outplay them I'd put my chances of getting to the semis at roughly nil.

I've accidentally become the manager of Spain.

Considering the last time I was even mentioned in any job context was about four years ago when I was third favourite for the Blackburn job, them offering it to me straight out came as a surprise. So much of a surprise that I clicked accept without really wanting to.

To put it into context, I've managed Crystal Palace (averagely, ending very badly), Stoke (badly, one FA cup win - where I took over at the semi final stage against a Championship team) and Southampton (reasonable job, one FA cup).

It's a good job they are already shit then. Just come 4th in their World Cup qualifying group behind Romania, Finland and Serbia. So I don't think I'll be required to play a game for about a year. By which point I might just resign with the reputation boost of having been Spain manager.

It took him all 38 league games to get to 56 league goals a couple of seasons, he has 57 in only 29 league games this season...

370 league goals in 281 games, 571 goals in all competitions in 420 games.

A poor Barcelona team with two of my former players and an average age of about eighty three has just donned me, largely on the strength of Luis Suarez's mental stats.

38, fucking hell

Turkey have appointed me to take charge for their Fifa World Cup 2026 campaign.

Their ranked 9th in the Fifa world rankings, not sure why their manager quit after topping their group qualification stage.



I shall be staying only for the World Cup, then adios....or Hoscakal.

After failing on google, can someone remind me which are the best nations to set up work permit feeder clubs in?

Croatia. Is only 2 years if I remember right.

Is that for all Nationalities?

Does the two years in Spain for South Americans rule still apply?

It does Dem.

Timo Horn injured for the last six weeks or so of the season and don't really trust any of my backup goalies.

United away and my Champions League quarter final against Chelsea looming. Ffffffff-...

EDIT: Here we fucking go, injuries to Wilshere and Alcacer now. Given I'm not exactly running this dickheads into the ground I'm not sure what else I can do to stop this happening every single year.

Wilshere? Injured?

Try giving (important) people rest days in the run up to big games. I do it occasionally to stop the game killing my top players before finals etc.

Obviously Wilshere getting injured isn't a surprise, it's just the timing of it when I'd already had two or three ruled out for the remainder of the season in a matter of days.

That said, the young goalie I've put in has been doing pretty well.

Striker who is 20 years old, listed as a hot prospect and he's pissing and moaning about not starting enough games.

There are five strikers in the squad who are better than him, with 3 of those being the best in the whole fucking game and the day before he decided to moan? I let him start in a Champions League semi final second leg against Madrid.

That aspect of this game is either hugely broken or annoyingly realistic.

I've lost count of the number of 'backup' players I've signed only to have them pissing and moaning only a matter of months later.

Nearly a third way through the season. Not bad for a team averaging 20 yrs of age. Although Newcastle and the Mancs are strong rivals.


My last result came at a good time though, Newcastle were starting to open a gap.

Quick bit of housework to do, a bath and then it's time to settle down for an evening of this bad boy and the US Open final.

It's the little things in life...

Indeed.

Really fucking annoying and then when I get rid of these fucks my starters moan that the squad depth is horrendous....

Looks like I'll be missing out on getting into the Champions League this year, and probably by a point. Irritating. Not sure what the team needs to push it towards more consistency. I think I need to have us tighten up defensively after going a goal ahead because this season has been disgraceful in terms of wasted leads.

[QUOTE=dquincy;4431027]Doing well cocking up our Champions League campaign. Got Lyon in the last match, who have beaten me three times in the last year.

[Dquincy]

Part 15 ....and upto the point when we switched over to the new TTH.

If anyone wants to put these at the front of the thread so it's in chronological order, be my guest as i don't know how to do that.

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Since I joined the club 3 seasons ago, we have returned to the Champions League from exile, but it's slow going. This is the clubs history in the competition.

[/QUOTE]

I think there's been a riot up there. Mostly my second string as well.

What season are you in Hazza?

The guy is just ridiculous, I thought that 100 might be a stretch but he blitzed it.





Our team records are pretty mental, we've won 46 total in a row whilst being on a 135 game unbeaten streak. In the Champions League we have won 42 in a row, 11 wins in a row in the Italian Cup, 29 wins in a row in the league with a 104 game unbeaten streak still going.

2nd, mid way through.

That's absolutely obscene Mahow.

Yeah, it's absolutely broken.

I can't even leave because I can't walk away from Rigoni who is my favourite player on an FM game ever,.

I've reached that stage in a save where you're on the second generation of newgens, which never seem to be as good as the first.

Aston Villa saved themselves from relegation by beating Liverpool 2-1, which in turn meant I could slip ahead of them into fourth place. First time I've had consecutive seasons in the Champions League which is ace. I beat QPR which sent them down and got Pardew sacked too.

Best players for me this season were Stones, Kenedy and Vadala.

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They did well in terms of assists too, with Kenedy getting 12 and Vadala 7. Vadala ended up getting played in the hole which meant less playing time for Cristiano Rolando Aarons but he had a decent year as well. I think Vadala might be the most consistent scorer of long-rangers I've had too. I thought Chuks would end up being like that but I've never managed to get consistent goals out of him, one season aside.

Just spotted this chap.

Already has a deal signed with Feyenoord though

I've decided to splash the cash this summer.

£140m so far.

Well that a shitty draw for my Turks. I was in the 1st seed pot!

Summer business done.

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So, the Lyon game has approached and we needed to win to be assured of qualifying.

Here's the result...

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Final group standing:

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But, my star player is out for 3 weeks

David Moyes' Leverkusen have just won the European Cup.

Been promoted to Belgian First Division in third season, last 2 were easy with the amount of loan players I could get.

Now loan players are willing to come but clubs want 50% of wages, cant afford that as wage bill is 7.5k a week (anderlecht have 15 players on more than that individually!) and reserves in the top teams are on £1000p/w

The most annoying part of all this is my boards reluctance to get a parent team, asked every 6 months since starting game, they say no, i persuade them to yes and then month later, no suitable clubs

I'm rid of Ayoze Perez. Admittedly for a bit of a pittance (worked out to about £5m) and not flogging him when Man City were sniffing about at the £30m mark now looks a poor bit of business, but then after he was so ridiculously good in that first season it's hard to see how I could have anticipated him getting steadily worse as he approached his peak.

About to sign this young chap for about £20m though.

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He's got shit all interest in anything other than scoring (passing to other players is for wimps) but given the team create plenty of chances he could be mega.

Yeah, he could be a bit of a beast. What's he unhappy about?

Arganaraz scored a double and set one up in a man of the match performance on his debut, so the signs are good. I've also solved my left back problems, or will have in a few months, after signing a left winger with the stats to be the new Roberto Carlos.

Things I don't understand number 573:

Why is it that in the past I generally got about 7-8 headed goals a season from my centre backs, right up until I signed Kenneth 'Dennis' Nielson, a man who is 6 foot 4 with 20 for heading and 17 for jumping reach and has my corners aimed specifically towards him, who hasn't scored a single goal in 2 seasons.

In fact I can't remember him ever even getting on the end of a single corner. God I hate him.

Luckily Citeh appear to be interested in him. I will be so happy if I can get my money back on him.

Hummels and Balanta have bagged 25 a season between them for the first four seasons of my Dortmund save. Barmy.

Can't remember, nothing troubling I don't think. Also only just noticed that he's on £120k with Bayern there, so he's offered to take a paycut before I even haggled him down.



I score directly from a corner about once every third blue moon and I've no idea why. I practice set pieces reasonably often, I have my centre-halves doing the usual things. It's strange and incredibly infuriating. And I'd rather not use a 'cheat' set piece set-up.

4th World Club Cup in a row won with Milan and I've topped the hall of fame.



First time I've ever done that (although I'm still behind Fergie and Mourinho on the European one), but this is definitely starting to become a slog.

I'm gunning for my 5th Champions League in a row and if I equal Madrid's record I might be tempted to move on. If we hit 6 we'll obviously break it, but then I'll be tempted to stay and overhaul Madrid's current record of 13 titles, which a 7th would do and there needs to come a time when a move to a new country happens.

[Adam]

Heartbroke





5 fucking times, 5!!!!

[randomlegend]

Nope if anything it gets worse, if I remember correctly at one point in my AZ save I scouted all the highest valued goalkeepers in Europe and couldn't find one above 2 stars.

Any ideas as to why this happens?

[Adam]

Any ideas as to why this happens?

Not got a clue but I've noticed it on all versions of FM for the last few years, I always tend to have one long save on each version and it happens every time.

[John Arne]

Exciting stuff... Having drawn with both England and Belgium, I needed a win against Scotland to qualify from my group in the Euro's...

[Ian]

Kept away from Man City in the Carling Cup semis which is good. Drawn against Real Madrid in the Champions League second round which is... less good.

[Ian]

Another collection of offside goals in that last game taking my average to, roughly, 437 per match.

I love that whatever Drama Quota the game engine has to meet per match sees my desperately out of form strikers score with sumptuous finishes when they're about to be flagged off.

[Raoul Duke]

Any ideas as to why this happens?

Isn't it relative? So in 2046 when you have all the best players in the world, everyone you scout won't match-up as they're just not that much better.

[Dquincy]

My new signing at Liverpool, free transfer from Barcelona. I actually discovered the fella in his teens when i was at Palermo, but i left them and took him to Barca when i had a 2 month spell there ages ago.

Anyway, he's had a good start for me.

[Dquincy]

Actually got my eye on the Gillingham job.

They are my nearest team which could be considered a local team and are languishing at eh bottom of League One after 15 consecutive years in League One stagnating.

Andy Hessenthaler is 'very insecure', so watch this space....

[TG09]

Just started my first game in a while on this and selected Celtic to be the team of my choice. With England, Italy and France as other leagues.

Won all my pre-season games so far, and picked up a couple of free transfers. Tried to get some ex-internationals to join, but they don't like Scotland or they ask for too much money.

Anthony Stokes is scoring for fun at the moment, so I think we will be ok.

[Dquincy]

Actually got my eye on the Gillingham job.

They are my nearest team which could be considered a local team and are languishing at eh bottom of League One after 15 consecutive years in League One stagnating.

Andy Hessenthaler is 'very insecure', so watch this space....

Scratch that, I resigned and the job never became available

Now currently unemployed 2 months later.

[Alex Ferguson]

Started a save with Chicago Fire as I wanted to try out the MLS. Boy, this league is complicated.

[Yevrah]

Isn't it relative? So in 2046 when you have all the best players in the world, everyone you scout won't match-up as they're just not that much better.

Nah, the stats of the next generation coming through (2nd generation of newgens) in my save in 2030 are all objectively pretty rubbish.

[Smiffy]

.....

[TG09]

What skins and views are people using, I am trying to find a good skins and view.

[Ian]

Ouch. Fisted 4-0 at the Bernebeu in my Champions League second round first leg.

The team have been in really good form and we held our own in terms of overall play but Real were ruthless. Bugger.

[Ian]

Won the Capital One Cup with a 1-0 victory after extra time. Could have done without playing 120 minutes but it was worth it to see Angelo Henriquez sweep one home from 20 yards out. I've won it three times in this save now but it's still the only competition I've won.

As detailed above the Champions League is almost certainly over for me now barring a miracle but I'm still in the FA Cup and I'm still in the title race too. Top six in the league currently looks like this:

[Ian]

Ouch. Fisted 4-0 at the Bernebeu in my Champions League second round first leg.

The team have been in really good form and we held our own in terms of overall play but Real were ruthless. Bugger.

Actually had a right good go in the second leg in the end. Won 3-1, meaning 5-3 on aggregate but I hit the bar earlier in the match as well and was clearly the better team. I reckon on balance of play I might have edged it but Madrid's attacking prowess telling in the first leg and then Rodriguez bagging them a quality away goal just killed it off. Promising signs though. I've beaten Barcelona and Real Madrid at home in recent seasons.

EDIT: Have kept on winning. I've played 30 and am level on games and points with United. Also level on points with Chelsea but have played a game less. Actual title challenge!

[Ian]

I'm just going to keep talking to myself because...

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Ffffffff-...