The Football Manager 2017 Thread - Sponsored by Brexit.

**Smiffy** · 28-11-2016, 06:03 PM

Season 2022/2023

After winning two consecutive league titles in Scotland I was invited to an interview by League Two club Accrington. Stanley had finished no higher than 13th in their past six seasons, often flirting with relegation before coming exceedingly close last before taking five points from their final four games to leapfrog both Morecambe and Forest Green. I agreed to a one year deal believing that a top half finish was more than attainable.

A lack of funds meant we had to make do with much of the same squad that battled so valiantly last season although we did get to add a couple. None as good as Paddy Crooks though, it's just a shame he didn't arrive until January. He'll never stick it at Accrington, he's clearly better than League Two.

We started the season with a 1-1 draw away to Newport before an unexpected 2-1 success over Hull City in the EFL Cup gave us a renewed sense of confidence. We may have lost the following match to eventual league champions Cheltenham but it was clear early doors that we wouldn't be in a relegation battle and we never dropped below tenth during the first half of the campaign. Adding Paddy Crooks in January filled a gap behind our lone striker and within weeks we had closed the gap from 10th to 3rd. I didn't believe we would stay there given the size of our squad but I was soon proven wrong and it then became a case of just how high could we go. By the end of January we had successfully jumped into 3rd place and threatened to challenge Cheltenham and York for a stab at the league title but our poor form near the end of the season put paid to that. Dropped points meant we lost 3rd place on match day 45 and the lottery of the play-offs lay in wait given we didn't expect York to lose their final game. As it was they did, Shrewsbury spanking them 5-1 but we still had to do our part and it wasn't going all too well in our penultimate game against Cambridge. Reduced to ten men after Paddy Crooks completely lost it just half an hour into the game we hung on to dear life before launching the kitchen sink as we approached full time. Then it happened...

I'm not even exaggerating when I said I went ass over tit off my chair in celebration. Christ! Aguero eat your heart out. It may not have been for a league title but by God. Too good.

Paddy Crooks.

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Matthew Edgar

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Matt Olosunde - Perhaps our only mistake of the window.

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Ed Francis

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Results

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I have a month left on my contract but I'm unsure if I shall remain with the club and battle in League One. I feel three league titles, an unlikely Welsh Cup and taking Accrington to their highest ever finish is enough to get a Championship club and thus start this career of mine properly. Absolutely buzzing with that final game.

Fuck me!

Spare a thought for Blackpool who suffered a second successive relegation and are now in the National League.

This game.

**Yevrah** · 28-11-2016, 08:15 PM

Rooney's already retired on my Oulu save. Didn't even bother with China, just quit having played 12 games in 4 years for Man Utd.

He's now an unemployed manager.

**Sir Andy Mahowry** · 28-11-2016, 08:23 PM

Here is how he got on in my save:

He then went on loan to PSV (where he became captain) and did this:

He was then released on a free and decided to go into management.

Hired by Brentford on 13/12/2019 but was sacked on the 7th of April. He was then hired by Nottingham Forest in November before being HEADHUNTED after 2 and a half years in Nottingham by Hull in March of 2023.

What a win percentage and a fucking promotion.

**Yevrah** · 28-11-2016, 08:25 PM

Champions League qualifying safely navigated.

We've drawn Bayern, Real Madrid and Basel. Best case scenario is we somehow scrape third and get a team of goat herders in the Europa League first knockout round and worst is that we bum out in 4th, doing nothing for our coefficient whatsoever.

I now have £18.4m in the bank, but not much to spend it on player wise. I suppose sustained qualification for the group stages of the Champions League will release the wage budget purse strings, but at the moment I can still only offer £5,250 per week and that doesn't really attract anyone bar players in Africa. ASEC are loving me.

The stadium's an absolute killer as well. We've just bought it from the council, but we only fill 75% of the 4-odd thousand seats, which is useless and doesn't lend itself to expansion (I don't even have that option to request) or building a new one (the board have flat out refused, probably sensibly).

**Yevrah** · 28-11-2016, 09:06 PM

Finally won our first Finnish Cup, made all the sweeter due to international call ups decimating our team for the final every year.

**Yevrah** · 28-11-2016, 09:26 PM

Sweet.

Max wage allowed up to £11,750.

**Smiffy** · 28-11-2016, 09:45 PM

Jumping from Stanley to Championship club Birmingham who have finished 14th or lower in all but one season. Realistic?

**Yevrah** · 28-11-2016, 10:43 PM

Pretty brutal stuff so far, but we're still in with a shout of qualifying for the Europa League with a win at home over Basel in our final game. Solitary point so far came in a 2-2 draw with Madrid, after they played with 10 men for most of the match.

Oh and I think I've broken Jokelainen, his morale is seemingly permanently very poor (due to my constant lies to him) and he's only scored once in the group so far.

**Smiffy** · 28-11-2016, 10:47 PM

Not even three weeks in and I'm having to fend off interest for this beaut.

He's got a £43M release clause.

On the plus side I've signed three tasty looking youngsters. I've spotted loads over the years but the clubs I've had haven't been able to go near them so it's refreshing.

Mickey

coming in in January are:

Ronaldo Abazi

And the man I hope will surpass Yevrah's Jokelainen.

Axel Magnusson.

**Smiffy** · 28-11-2016, 11:22 PM

Danny Welbeck just popped up on my central Europe search. What a career he's had.

**Panda Bear** · 29-11-2016, 05:15 AM

I'm playing as a "Create-a-Club" called Crescentwood Saturday that replaces Portsmouth. The team name comes from a club in Winnipeg that was founded by a man from Portsmouth in the 1960s. I didn't replace players.

I just won an nine-round penalty shoot out. They were a total of five goals. Pretty pathetic showing, but I'm promoted twice in a row now.

I'm still making up my mind about whether I'm allowed to only buy players from UK & Ireland and Scandinavia, or if I'll expand to allow Western Africa, Southern Africa, and Central Europe.

**John Arne** · 29-11-2016, 06:23 AM

Originally Posted by Panda Bear

I'm playing as a "Create-a-Club" called Crescentwood Saturday that replaces Portsmouth. The team name comes from a club in Winnipeg that was founded by a man from Portsmouth in the 1960s. I didn't replace players.

I just won an nine-round penalty shoot out. They were a total of five goals. Pretty pathetic showing, but I'm promoted twice in a row now.

I'm still making up my mind about whether I'm allowed to only buy players from UK & Ireland and Scandinavia, or if I'll expand to allow Western Africa, Southern Africa, and Central Europe.

Managing Crewe from League 1 to Championship, I didn't have 1 single work permit application accepted, so if you do starting scouting further afield, you may want to ensure that you have a suitable WP feeder club.

**wullie** · 29-11-2016, 10:00 AM

Bigi Bigi Bigi can't you see/Here's what happened in season three

Transfers for the season, with a lot of familiarity. Armstrong and Pennington both played for us in real life on loan, Crowley is from Cov and I had Gilliead, Randall and Malen on loan spells previously. Pennington was a real coup for a freebie in particular, Aidan Nesbitt a colossal waste of money.

Like the season before I was tipped for relegation, like the season before I shoved it right up the bookies' arse.

An improvement points and place-wise, but annoying to fall short of the playoffs after last season where 74 points would have clinched third. A lack of goals was the main problem, partly caused by tweaking the setup in January to be a little more stingy and rigid.

Other than a good league performance, the EFL Cup was the highlight, reaching the quarters to lose a squeaky home tie to Man Utd by the odd goal. The result which will see me remembered just like Iain Dowie and Michael Mifsud was this peach:

Pennington has forced Turnbull to play as backup centre back and emergency leftback, although I'm sticking with Willis out of homeboy loyalty. He might not be the best choice for captain but everyone whines when you switch them so balls to it.

Armstrong would have a great run and then fade for a few weeks, although this matched the general form. Sordell is League One at best so when Armstrong was ruled out injured I had a punt on Jay-Emmanuel Thomas who had been freshly let go by QPR and was primarily a midfielder, but he was surprisingly ace up front:

Now Armstrong's gone home Thomas is my main/only senior striker with any experience for the next season, so I expect him to crumble to shit. It's Coventry City after all.

Nick Powell whinged about wanting to go to Ipswich. I said he can if they offer £1.5m, he didn't turn up for training in protest as it was way too much, which was instantly followed by Ipswich bidding £1.6m. When I confirmed the transfer I gave him a little dig about his conduct and he feigned ignorance, so there's a hat-trick I'm guaranteed to concede next season.

On the plus side, I was offered a transfer budget of £10. Where's that Slovenian?

**John** · 29-11-2016, 10:20 AM

Spend that ten quid on a KFC bucket you can dangle in front of Thomas and he'll get thirty goals next season no problem.

**Smiffy** · 29-11-2016, 02:01 PM

Well isn't that something?

This Simon Tipple was from when I was playing as Leeds on a different save.

Then there's this guy. Currently on loan from Man United in current save.

**7om** · 29-11-2016, 02:17 PM

Last night I finished off pre season and played the first three games in my first season in the top flight of Ireland with Wexford Youths. Played three won three and it's all thanks to my massive coup of a signing:

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His stats for this level are off the charts.

**Giggles** · 29-11-2016, 02:18 PM

Originally Posted by 7om

Last night I finished off pre season and played the first three games in my first season in the top flight of Ireland with Wexford Youths. Played three won three and it's all thanks to my massive coup of a signing:

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His stats for this level are off the charts.

In 2016?

**7om** · 29-11-2016, 02:24 PM

Originally Posted by Giggles

In 2016?

I'm in early 2018 now and technically he's probably level with the better strikers but his mental stats are far and away the best in the league. 3 in 3 to start the season, and that's good enough for me.

**Giggles** · 29-11-2016, 02:27 PM

Originally Posted by 7om

I'm in early 2018 now and technically he's probably level with the better strikers but his mental stats are far and away the best in the league. 3 in 3 to start the season, and that's good enough for me.

I need to start an Ireland game. Do clubs like Wexford ever turn pro?

**Dark Soldier** · 29-11-2016, 03:22 PM

Bury FC 2018-2019

So my primary goal with my giving Bury a £25mil over two seasons sponsorship was to get to the Premier League within two seasons, and it happened. Despite the town being a fucking horrendous shithole, we could attract a fairly reasonable player for our level, so stormed League One by about 12 points, then did this in the Championship last season:

So on to the PL, with a transfer budget of just over £20mil and a wage bill of just over £500k a week. Now on hitting this level, the pool of talent we could attract basically stagnated, and bar 4/5 players, was nowhere near what's required to compete. By rep we're still a higher-mid table Championship side:

The one bonus I do have is the training facilities. When Man City got bought out by oil money IRL, they moved training complexes, and essentially 'loan' out their old set-up to Bury for a nominal fee, so we've had that going for us through the levels. So, from the get go, I targeted African regens (No work permit add-on as ever) who will essentially move anywhere to get away from their bleak general day to day life. These can, inevitably, be snapped up for fuck all, so I brought in about 10 for under a million total first season, and I'm starting to reap the rewards a bit now.

We abandoned our original 4-4-1-1 due to it being very fecking boring. Solid defensively but dull to watch, and since midway through the Championship, we now roll with this:

Which is, essentially, LVG football. See our pass stats:

So, onto my first eleven, spoliered for length:

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Results this season so far:

Smashed by, and got utterly dominated by Arsenal and City, as expected. My fiesty LB got sent off v City after 9 minutes for trying to break Aguero's legs. Smashed the smaller sides (Liverpool lol) and could have got a result v Southampton but terrible fucking finishing.

The table:

Very good start considering we're by far and away the main candidates for relegation. 1000-1 to win it, which we have zero hope of doing. Major plus point is, due to the TV money in the PL, and our wage budget being a tad over £400k a month, we're between 4 and 5mil profit each month. Downside is we have to play in Huddersfield for a season while the board gets Gigg Lane up to scratch as its too small for the PL rules, and the facilities needed some work.

Really enjoying this fecking save.

**Mazuuurk** · 29-11-2016, 03:28 PM

OK a few weeks in. I've offloaded Blind, Fellaini and Ashley Young (pretty nice) and given old Bastian ticket back to the first team for the sake of imaginary spite towards Mourinho.

I've brought in Danilo from Real Madrid for 8.7 Million, which I thought was pretty good, and Stefan De Vrij from Lazio for about 25 Million, which seems like a pretty good buy.

Now, I really don't know how to play with the United Squad. It's swamped with Pacey Inside forwards (Martial, Rashford, Mikhtarian, Lindgard), but I kind of don't want to play a regular old 4-1-2-3 with Wide players. If I did, I'd like to attempt a more direct style of attacking play, but I really don't know how to set that up. Since I always, always play with Arsenal, all I've ever learned how to do is play 4-2-1-3 with lots of possession.

And I don't quite know how to fit Mata / Rooney / Mikhtaryan in without playing with an AMC.

So what have you seen working and not working on this version?
Anyone played as United have any tips?

**Giggles** · 29-11-2016, 03:30 PM

On touch I've been coasting it with a narrow 4-2-1-2-1. Mata is an absolute beast as one of the two attacking midfield players.

**Dark Soldier** · 29-11-2016, 03:33 PM

Aye narrow formations are definitely this year's thing.

**7om** · 29-11-2016, 03:36 PM

Originally Posted by Giggles

I need to start an Ireland game. Do clubs like Wexford ever turn pro?

I'm not too sure really. This is only my second season at Wexford and we're semi-professional with no chance of turning pro just yet. As far as I'm aware only St Pat's Athletic, Dundalk and Bray Wanderers are pro teams in my save.

**John** · 29-11-2016, 05:02 PM

Jovan Causic, the CAM who spent last season performing well beneath his stats, left for Benfica in the summer in a deal worth six million in total. Rundic, who spent last season as a central midfielder, has shifted forward and fuck me, he's come alive.

The media now reckon he's going to be the next Dejan Stankovic.

We have the second most potent attack in the league, having scored one fewer than Partizan, and comfortably the best defence.

As to Europe, we were knocked out by Legia Warsaw in the second qualification round for the Europa League. Hopefully if we maintain this form long enough to win the league we can actually make the competition proper next year.

**7om** · 29-11-2016, 05:48 PM

What kind of game are you playing here, John? Are you going to stick around for a while or move to another country eventually?

**John** · 29-11-2016, 05:53 PM

Ambition is to win something in Europe with a squad of players from my own academy. It's essentially the same game I played with Dinamo Zagreb last year but having started at a lower point.

**phonics** · 29-11-2016, 06:26 PM

I've caved for the first time in night on 4 years and bought this because of reading this thread.

**Adamski** · 29-11-2016, 07:39 PM

I've struggled to get into the last couple of years, so I've decided on an easyish save to get me back into the swing of it. I've went Ajax but set myself a rule of buying only Dutch players under the age of 21. Surprisingly difficult considering PSV & Feyenoord players won't come near you for the most part and I can't afford Ake or Reikik.

Touch on the tablet has helped, I've smashed through a full season in the last few days (won the league by a point on the last day) which is definitely an improvement on my last few years.

My iPad has just decided to pack it in 2 days before New York so probably won't get to play too much more in the next week or so.

Stars so far are Daley Sinkgraven, Zivkovic obv & Vaclav Cerny.

**Reg** · 29-11-2016, 08:02 PM

Why not try a 4-3-1-2 / diamond if you don't want to play a 4-3-3, @Mazuuurk?

**Giggles** · 29-11-2016, 08:05 PM

Started a League of Ireland game. Hadn't seen this before, and definitely never in 2016.

**Mazuuurk** · 29-11-2016, 08:40 PM

Originally Posted by Reg

Why not try a 4-3-1-2 / diamond if you don't want to play a 4-3-3, @Mazuuurk?

That is :
RB - DC - DC - LB
DMC
MC - MC
AMC
ST - ST

....you mean? Yeah I'm thinking about that. For now I have three tactics set up:

1: Controlling / Possession
DC - DC
WBR - DMC - WBL
MC - MC
AMC
ST - ST

2: Countering / Defensive
RB - DC - DC - LB
MC - MC - MC
AMR (IF) - AML (IF)
ST

3: Just weird:
RB - DC - DC - LB
MC - MC - MC
AMC (SS) - AML (IF)
ST

That last one is super strange but it's meant to be kind of a wonky 4-3-3 where one of the strikers is an IF (since it seems to suit Martial and Rashford super well) and Zlatan will be a DLF and Mikhtaryan / Mata will be a Shadow Striker just behind him, with hopefulle the MCR (Adv. Playmaker) roaming about on the space to the right. We'll see. I expect utter failure.

That said, the Tactic no. 2 got me a 1-5 away win against Everton in the debut match, sooo.

**Sir Andy Mahowry** · 29-11-2016, 09:50 PM

His forehead really scares me. It goes on for days.

**Sir Andy Mahowry** · 29-11-2016, 10:10 PM

Don't think I got an option to rearrange it either :\

Only a Polish cup game but still, fucking hell.

**John** · 29-11-2016, 10:11 PM

I'm about to lose my best, pretty much only goalkeeper to one of those shitty agent inserted release clauses. What a box of shit it is to allow the agent to impose a fucking limit on the clause. £1.6m. Utter, utter shambles.

**Manc** · 29-11-2016, 10:23 PM

3-0 down to Napoli in the second leg of the last sixteen and 4 second half goals seal a Europa quarter final.

Loveable set of cunts.

**Sir Andy Mahowry** · 29-11-2016, 10:24 PM

Just remembered that I won the first leg 8-2.

I'm sure our shit youth couldn't fuck it up.

**John** · 29-11-2016, 10:29 PM

Yep. He's off to Barcelona. So halfway through my first properly good season, in which the title was looking quite likely, I have to plug in a complete newbie and hope for the best.

He's significantly less mental than Stakic at least.

**Sir Andy Mahowry** · 29-11-2016, 10:31 PM

At least he's determined and tall.

**John** · 29-11-2016, 10:48 PM

He doesn't look entirely hopeless, and my coaches reckon he could be a player one day, but he's miles away from Stakic and the timing is far from ideal.

**Sir Andy Mahowry** · 29-11-2016, 10:57 PM

Oh he does look like he could be good in the future, but yeah, it's too soon which is a shitter.

Also I fucking hate going through November.

The already hideous looking newgens really don't need porno and paedo tashes.

**Dark Soldier** · 29-11-2016, 11:03 PM

Originally Posted by John

I'm about to lose my best, pretty much only goalkeeper to one of those shitty agent inserted release clauses. What a box of shit it is to allow the agent to impose a fucking limit on the clause. £1.6m. Utter, utter shambles.

Yeah this is my first save I'm seeing all this wank in. Luckily because we're a small club but in PL my players have realistic min fee requests.

**Mazuuurk** · 29-11-2016, 11:05 PM

OK about 8 league games into the season.

I'm joint 1st with a few other teams (notably West Ham who beat me 1-3 as well the fuckers).

I'm struggling to find consistency but I'm playing well enough. I've tweaked the above formations a bit, they are all still varieties of 4-3-3 or 4-3-1-2 though with 3 central midfielders. Strangely, or perhaps realistically, I cannot get Pogba to seem very involved in the game, and he's not playing that well. I'm not quite sure how to 'activate' a player like that, but I suspect it doesn't quite go so well with having someone like Mata just in front of him.

At the same time, Mata is a bit too good to not play.

I'd like for Zlatan to score more (he's got 6 goals in 8 games so far which is OK but only that), but it doesn't make much sense playing him as anything but a Deep Lying Forward and as that he scores less it seems.

**John** · 29-11-2016, 11:14 PM

Originally Posted by Dark Soldier

Yeah this is my first save I'm seeing all this wank in. Luckily because we're a small club but in PL my players have realistic min fee requests.

Prior to finishing in the European places last season most of the fees agents were demanding were about £250k. That £1.6m was in a contract he signed at the beginning of the season, and when I went to offer him a new one in the run up to the transfer window the agent was still demanding £1.9m. He dragged his feet in a big way though so he was still on the lesser contract when Barcelona came in.

Straight into their B squad with a twenty six million quid release clause. I wish this game would let you withhold medals from twats.

**Sir Andy Mahowry** · 30-11-2016, 12:06 AM

Madrid in Poland to end it.

This group is fucking mental.

Absolutely mental.

Does favour the home teams though so hopefully

**Sir Andy Mahowry** · 30-11-2016, 12:56 AM

Christ a-fucking-live.

Almost shit my pants when Ishigaki got sent off, the fucking nutter went in two footed on a 38 year Ronaldo

Porto beating Marseille 2-1 on the final day to dump Madrid out

The best fucking Champions League group I've ever been a part of.

No other 4th placed team managed 7 points too. OM would have actually taken second in two other groups and joint second in another two. Madrid would have qualified in all groups bar two with their total.

**wullie** · 30-11-2016, 08:16 AM

I took the transfer kitty to KFC but turns out I couldn't even get a 3-piece Colonel Meal

I've tried to help as much as I can in the window:

Hard times daddy. This third crack at getting out of the Championship may be the wrong kind of successful.

**Adamski** · 30-11-2016, 08:30 AM

That's crazy Wullie!

Can you get rid of the fake German names on Touch? @Giggles?

**Giggles** · 30-11-2016, 08:34 AM

Originally Posted by Adamski

That's crazy Wullie!

Can you get rid of the fake German names on Touch? @Giggles?

I haven't looked too much, but as far as I remember you can't edit a thing on Touch. The logos are really pissing me off.

**phonics** · 30-11-2016, 12:56 PM

Started as Southampton, got a guy called Vida from Kiev to cover right-back as Cuco Martina is rubbish and his replacement (Jeremy Pied, lol) is injured for 7 years. And some child for a few pennies.

I'm playing a narrow 4-3-3 with Austin as the central striker and rotating between Long, Redmond and Jay Rodriguez up front. My midfield is rather poor with Hjolberg, Clasie playing the midfield/playermaker roles and Romeu as my ball winning DM (after turning down a 30 million pound move to Wolfsburg, bastard)

The only problem being, this leaves no place for Tadic who, although I'm complete arse at reading the stats in this game, should probably be one of my best players, right? He's 40-50% accomplished as a central midfielder and in the brown for up-front which is a shame.

I was starting to shit myself when we drew to Hull,Watford and Boro without scoring a goal but everyone else is just as shit and leaves me in a tidy 4th place. Considering I said I'd get them Top 10 I look like a boss.

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