The Football Manager 2017 Thread - Sponsored by Brexit.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

2027/28 Season:







Pointless posting the league, we won it at a canter scoring 141 goals in 37 total games whilst only conceding 128.

Before the split we had a 32 point lead, won it after the split by 24 which is our record. Legia finished 5th so they're getting worse.



First time we met PSG and they went bonkers on us. It was fucking horrible. I wanted to cry but semi final is decent.



Melih was fucking brilliant from MC, I thought he might be wasted but the geezer was golden.

He added a lot to our team by constantly pushing forward.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Found someone I want to buy, scouts say he is extremely interested but when I get a bid accepted he doesn't even want to talk because he only just joined his current team.

Then you're not fucking interested you tease.

[Manc]

It's the cam girl all over again.

[Yevrah]

I'm tempted by a Man Utd YNWAWK game.

[Adamski]

http://thesetpieces.com/gaming/fm17-...gers-episode-1

Anyone following this? The author, Alex has done a few FM style blogs focused around Moneyball with Bristol Rovers and Rangers on previous versions. Really good read.

Iain Macintosh is the Guardian journo and has played FM since the early days but is thoroughly hopeless at it.

Quite entertaining so far.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Another year and another midfielder is sold to Atletico as they made me another offer I couldn't refuse. £49m (the extra £7.5m is after a certain number of internationals) with 50% of the next sale is nuts.

In terms of players joining we had just two:



£525k and I've already loaned him out for a total of £1.4m to Braga. Scouts think very highly of him and I think we've got a steal.



£15m and another player from Swansea for me. He's got some glaring holes (fuck that passing) but my scouts absolutely love him. Already capped by Wales so he must have high potential. He'll also be my fourth/fifth choice this year so he could get some decent game time.

[Mazuuurk]

OK. OK.

Fucking OK.

Have been comfortably top of the league since X-mas. Spurs who are 2nd have never been closer than 5 points.

Now, three games to go, all I had to was win ONE of those games. I draw the first one, against Crystal fucking Palace.

Second game, 3-0 up against Burnely, who are 19th. This is at home. I get a red card, and they end up scoring 3 goals, 2 in the last 10 minutes. Another draw.

One game remains, away against Leicester which is considerably harder.
I'm at 83 points and Spurs are at 81.

If I end up fucking this up because of that Burnely game

[Mazuuurk]

Phew

Champions.

[Mazuuurk]

And Zlatan finally got to win the Champions League

Fucking destroyed Real Madrid in the final.

[wullie]

[Dark Soldier]

@Mazuuurk Is that using the mental tactic?

[Panda Bear]

My first, second, and third choice strikers all injured for three months or more within the span of a week.

[Pen]

I'm in a bit of a pickle after Brexit in my save with Bolton. Stormed League one and the Championship with over 100 points and had a decent enough team to survive in the Prem. I ended up finishing 8th and winning the League cup, but it seems I was s bit hesitant selling my squad players as I'm having serious trouble replacing them as none of the budget options will get a work permit. My squad is s bit of a mess because of this and I'm not sure I'm going to enjoy next season much. I've started terribly, although against top teans I should be losing to anyway. 4 games in I have two points but at least I'm in the Europa League group stage after tumbling past Rosenborg and AIK.

[Giggles]

I'm back at Southampton after yet another crash ruined my whole revamp of Liverpools coaching staff and 1st team/U23's and took me back to the day I resigned.

[Giggles]

I knew you didn't get subs when doing Instant Result, but I've just copped after a '10-man Southampton' match report and waiting to see who was sent off that you don't even get a sub if someone is injured

[Mazuuurk]

@Mazuuurk Is that using the mental tactic?

Kind of, yeah. I had my own 4-3-3 set up so I kind of tweaked that so it's almost like that other one. The front 3 are the same roles, but not individual instructions. The midfield is a bit different, it's:

Roaming Playmaker (S) - Ball Winning Midfielder (D) - Advanced Playmaker (S)

instead of the setup they had. That's mainly because it seems to suit the players I have better, but my goal is to move away from having people like Mata and Mktihtikitarian (whatever) in midfield and get more two-way players like Pogba is. Renato Sanchez is top target at the moment.

Apart from that I don't have the Opposition instructions set up at all, and I have some tweaked Player instructions, like telling Pogba to shoot as much as possible, etc.

I'm in a bit of a pickle after Brexit in my save with Bolton.

When does this actually happen, and what exactly does it mean for your squads? Does it mean all EU players also need work permits, or?

[John Arne]

For fuck's sake. I only really do one big save per game - currently 4th season with Crewe in the Championship and I get this...

[John Arne]

Actually considering reloading from previous save,

[John Arne]

Urgh. Just loaded up an old save and it happened again. I thought it was random, or is it hardcoded into each save?

EDIT: Just tried a third time - this time no message. Yippie.

[Mazuuurk]

If it does happen "randomly", my bet is that they either trigger it by random at the start when the game itself is set up, or that they randomize whether to trigger it at the end of each season the 30th of June.

But my bet would be the former, meaning each save created will be predestined to end up one way or the other, so to speak.
Perhaps you can see this in the Editor somehow.

[John Arne]

I believe it's at a random date, up-to 10 years in the game. I'm on 19th Nov, 2019.

[Giggles]

I forgot about that happening

If I get the one where they're running all the forrins out of the country, does that mean I could get the boot due to it too?

[Giggles]

cuntshovels.

[Dark Soldier]

Brexit outcome is decided on game creation so you'll still get the same outcome eventually John Arne.

[John Arne]

Really? That's genuinely fucking annoying. Hey ho.

[Pen]

When does this actually happen, and what exactly does it mean for your squads? Does it mean all EU players also need work permits, or?

I think I got the worst kind of Brexit where only the foreign playing in UK will get a(n undeserved) work permit. I did manage to get two big money transfers in. Both for players who would've gotten a work permit as non EU players under the current rules. Happened during the Spring of 2019.

I think I will continue with the save though. Seems like a decent challenge. I did win the Champions league with Lecce in my last save so a challenge should make this save last longer.

[Giggles]

cuntshovels.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Starting a Chelsea game to see if I can do anything with decent players. Is this some sort of bug or just a weird feature?



Also Giggles, did Matt Targett ever do anything for you? I've just signed him as a sort of backup-cum-future-cum-quotas left back.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Never seen that before.

Eidur

[John]

It'll be a bug. They'll have them listed in the database as previous captains or something and the code that creates that list isn't robust enough.

[Giggles]

Starting a Chelsea game to see if I can do anything with decent players. Is this some sort of bug or just a weird feature?

Also Giggles, did Matt Targett ever do anything for you? I've just signed him as a sort of backup-cum-future-cum-quotas left back.

I have him rotating in the team now in season 3 and he's easily performing as well as Erkin or Jonny do. I'll stick up his stats when I'm on it again.

[Reg]

@Jimmy Floyd: I happen to have just started a save with Atlanta and am aiming to replicate Conte's 3-4-3, ish. (Whether I properly get into it or just play about two friendlies is another matter.) Are you planning on going with 3-4-3/something with 3 at the back?

[Jimmy Floyd]

@Jimmy Floyd: I happen to have just started a save with Atlanta and am aiming to replicate Conte's 3-4-3, ish. (Whether I properly get into it or just play about two friendlies is another matter.) Are you planning on going with 3-4-3/something with 3 at the back?

I'm going even more adventurous and turning David Luiz into a libero. So it's a sort of 3-4-3 or perhaps 5-2-3. If it works then the main fun will be trying to scout out other libero converts, because there are precisely 0 players in the game with that role as natural, let alone Chelsea standard ones. Ginter at Dortmund might be an option if I have the money next season.

[Reg]

Interesting. That could be great fun if you can get it to click. I just did a search for "Is Competent At" Sweeper and it throws up some good players: Busquets, Blind, Bonucci, Pique.

[wullie]

2020/21

After getting close to the playoffs again I was still predicted to struggle with 16th being the bookie's choice.

Transfers weren't quite as desperate as the season before, largely with Pennington's £9m release clause allowing the club to exist for a year without having to sellotape over cracks in the team



Only after looking at that did I remember I had Nathan Dyer. Didn't get a sniff.



After a slightly ropey start things stabilised and from around a dozen games in we stayed in and around (copyright Andy Townsend) the danger area Clive, until a very late run of results saw us hit the automatic spot at a very opportune time





Having to play at Craven Cottage for the next game made it unlikely we'd stay there, but then fate conspired to lend a hand





Next game was at home to 16th place Rotherham, which should have spelt disaster, but instead...







Strong finish.



The best players were the young guns, having some fun





Crazy ladies keep 'em on the run





Wise guys realise there's danger in emotion ties





Bigi wins Player of the Year again, he's becoming Notorious for it ho ho ho. Jakubiak wining the signing of the season confirms that loan players don't count in the running, as he did nothing.



A provisional transfer budget of £20m doesn't seem like a lot, but if I can get Bordas, Nhaga and Jorginho on permanents and a few shrewd loan players it might be ok. Absolutely no idea what to expect from a Premier League campaign, just hopefully it's better than the last one and we don't get relegated at Villa Park again.

[Jimmy Floyd]

So far the libero system has yielded 4 goals for and 1 against, in five matches. It's like being back in early 1990s Italy.

Toggle Spoiler

In truth we're getting a bit outnumbered in midfield on those occasions when Sideshow Bob hasn't just finished one of his wanders into the centre of the park, so I'm thinking about sacrificing one of the wingers, or making it assymetrical, or something.

[John]

Pull Willian back to RM and make him a defensive winger and he should chase inside without forcing you to sacrifice too much width with the ball.

[Panda Bear]

I've never had a work permit rejected after Brexit, which means I'm ahead when it comes to Africans.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Yeah, so with the libero I was 9th, bottom of the league for possession at 42% average, and was thrashed by Bournemouth 4-1 to have me insecure by the end of September. I take the step of moving David Luiz from sweeper to DM and in the first match we thrash Palace 3-0 with 58% possession, and David Luiz is man of the match.

I think in this engine you simply have to have bodies in midfield, and lots of them.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I'm counting down the days until Kylian Mbappe fucking retires.

His record against us is ludicrous, he always shits on us.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I really don't know why they feel they have to ruin the game with all the complaining about first team football from people who are on backup contracts and/or getting decent game time anyway.

About to be sacked due to morale going because of all the moaning so I'll knock it on the head I think. Incredibly frustrating game.

[Dark Soldier]

I really don't know why they feel they have to ruin the game with all the complaining about first team football from people who are on backup contracts and/or getting decent game time anyway.

About to be sacked due to morale going because of all the moaning so I'll knock it on the head I think. Incredibly frustrating game.

A lot can come down to your manager attributes too. Roughly 3-4 seasons in I get barely a complaint, have some squad players playing 5 games a season and they don't kick off.

[Raoul Duke]

Manager stats plus rep.

[Panda Bear]

I have a self-imposed rule to never sign South American players because they're like a cheat code for building a quality squad on the cheap.

I am so tempted to break it over this Brazilian with phenomenal stats who is a natural centre midfielder, but is also a brilliant leftback. But I won't. I am strong.

[Panda Bear]

A lot can come down to your manager attributes too. Roughly 3-4 seasons in I get barely a complaint, have some squad players playing 5 games a season and they don't kick off.

Manager stats plus rep.

This.

It also helps to have a brilliant captain in your camp.

[Yevrah]

Started a game with Man Utd, a few months in and we're doing ok and it's quite fun after slumming it in Finland for so long.

Couldn't resist signing Ronaldinho on a free transfer.

[Panda Bear]

think I'm done with this edition now. I took Portsmouth (renamed Crescentwood) from League Two to the Premier League in four seasons.

I've now reached the point after three Premier League seasons where I can generate 30m+ in sales per year to go along with my annual 30m+ Premier League transfer kitty. Wages are tight, lots of nigh-unachievable bonuses are signed with players, and I make money every month.

End game is that, like every other edition, I'll end up conquering Europe within three seasons through wheeling and dealing regens. I already avoid all South Americans and Eastern Europeans. I impose a minimum of sixteen Brits in the first team for me, but still. Too easy.

Maybe I need to try the John approach.

[Giggles]

Do West Ham turn into a powerhouse in anyone elses game? The finished top 4 last year (2018), they're sitting 2nd this year and have just done Shakhtar 7-0 (10-1 on agg) in the first knockout round of the Champions League.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Yeah they were regular top four contenders on the game I got through to season 5.

[Mazuuurk]

Started a game with Man Utd, a few months in and we're doing ok and it's quite fun after slumming it in Finland for so long.

Couldn't resist signing Ronaldinho on a free transfer.

Nice, what lineup/tactics will you play?