The Football Manager Thread

[Palmer]

The fact the AI are unwilling to pay the figures you ask of them, whilst at the same time demanding ludicrous figures for players you want from them, has tarnished every version since FM12 at least. If you want my star centre back who's worth £3 million then offers of £500k spread over 48 months really aren't going to cut it. If the boot was on the other foot the AI would be demanding £15 million+.

EDIT: And now somebody has come to me complaining about the lack of first team football. Yeah, that'll be because it's fucking July, and we've yet to even play a competitive game, you cockwomble.

[Mazuuurk]

10 rounds into the first season on my game and Leicester are top of the league. Chelsea are "only" 8th, mind you

[randomlegend]

Toggle Spoiler

[Browning]

Once a player decides he wants to leave, is there any point fighting it?

I've got Luke Norris as one of my strikers (the only decent one I actually own, though I have 2 great loan strikers). In my first season he was seen as a back up but due to no one scoring I gave him a go and he was an improvement. I changed tactics for season 2 and used him as a Target Man and he dominated the league, finishing as the 2nd top scorer behind only LeFondre at Bolton despite us finishing 17th. This season he's been fantastic again in our promotion push. Right now we're in a 3 way tie with Luton and Boro at the top of the table... and all of a sudden Boro have decided they want him. They put in a bid but as I'd just extended his contract and he has 2.5 years to go, I turned it down. He then kicked up a fuss and couldn't be convinced to see it out til the end of the season to help us get promoted. No matter what he said he insisted he wants to go. I offered them to him for £1m and they agreed to pay £800,000 which is a lot for me... but I just don't think we'll be the same team without him, and him going to a promotion rival will pretty much swing it away from us. I'm half tempted to turn it down... but will he turn to shit and screw me over either way?

It's annoying because I poached Luton's keeper on deadline day, thinking it would give me the edge....

I've had to take a punt and reject it. We already lost our best CB in this window and losing him too would take the piss, but this time my hands aren't tied due to how long is left on his deal. I hope, eventually, he'll stop being a cunt.

[The Merse]

I've persuaded a few to stay.

Gutted I couldn't keep hold of this lad though - attributes are nothing special but he did a great job for me from League 2 up to the Championship with constant improvement and was a 4.5* in my coaches eyes. Signed on a free from Derry as a 17 year old, I turned down £1.5m for him the summer before he walked on us to sit on Derby's bench.

[Browning]

Do you mean during that initial conversation, or afterwards? I tried basically everything but he wasn't having it. Oh well, with 2 and a half years on his deal he can't force me into anything. First game since the saga ended he was shite, but here's hoping that's not a sign of things to come.

Oh and now he's happy to stay as "Boro are no longer interested". Fucking hell. What was the cunt moaning about?

[Sam]

So, German team has just come fake midway through my save, fantastic, that's game over for that one then.

[Danny]

If you download the fix, the next squad they select will be real

[Bernanke]

Which one of you started managing Olympiakos in real life?

[Giggles]

What skin is that @Bernanke?

Toggle Spoiler

[Giggles]

First real test to see if I have a stronger first 11 now and see can I win in the knockouts of the Champions League. Granted Lyon are a bit of an easier touch than Bayern but I'm still calling a win progress.

[Mazuuurk]

Do you mean during that initial conversation, or afterwards? I tried basically everything but he wasn't having it. Oh well, with 2 and a half years on his deal he can't force me into anything. First game since the saga ended he was shite, but here's hoping that's not a sign of things to come.

Oh and now he's happy to stay as "Boro are no longer interested". Fucking hell. What was the cunt moaning about?

This always seems to happen, they settle down once the transfer window is over as there is no longer (naturally!) any interest then. Really retarded but there you go.

[Giggles]

Not great, but at least it's not completely over after the first leg like last year.

EDIT: Fucking Capital One final vs Spurs 3 days before the second leg

[Sam]

If you download the fix, the next squad they select will be real

Point me to where this if you don't mind? I'd smashed through quite a bit of it last night before checking and noticed it all greyed out.

[Giggles]

Point me to where this if you don't mind? I'd smashed through quite a bit of it last night before checking and noticed it all greyed out.

http://sortitoutsi.net/downloads/vie...m1620-16122015

[Sam]

http://sortitoutsi.net/downloads/vie...m1620-16122015

Much love. Sporting Khalsa lives on.

[Mike]

Had a decent transfer window:


Started the season with no keeper as the one I got in on loan was injured and he was all we had. signed someone on a free, but played the first 2 games with a grey player in net.

Third game into the season though, with a keeper in net saw me pick up my first win in the top flight of Swiss football.

[Mike]

Been a lot of injuries up at Winterthur, which is a pain. One upside is I've had to play this guy

[Giggles]

Beat Lyon and then Arsenal in the quarters, but I think that's the end of that run now.

[Giggles]

Speaking of bullshit things in the game, the board round-ups are usually bollocks.

I'm Southampton, I'm about to play Stoke at home to win my 3rd title on the trot with 3 games to spare after 1 defeat all season, and I've an upcoming Champions League semi final in midweek. I know it's not a huge thing as it has no effect but they could still do with a bit more realism to it.

[Toby]

That, fans expectations and media questions are just completely broken.

The highlight of my last season, where we finished third only after drawing on the final day - having started the season hoping to maybe squeeze in to the top half - was that we beat Sunderland 4-1 Not that we beat City, United or Arsenal, or that we won the FA Cup, of course. And sometimes I'll play somebody who rarely plays for a couple of games, he'll get injured or suspended, and the media will ask, "That's a blow, is this a chance for [guy who has played every single other game] to prove himself?"

Thankfully it's all pretty irrelevant.

EDIT: I think I posted a screenshot of the worst one I've seen.

"The fans are very disappointed that the team recently failed to beat Juventus". That failure to win being the 1-1 draw, in a game we played for an over an hour with ten men, that essentially guaranteed we would qualify from the group. Norwich, getting four points over Juventus, to qualify for the knockout stage of the Champions League. Norwich.

[Giggles]

Yeah the media stuff is complete bollocks. Same questions every single game.

EDIT: And again. Lost 3-2 at the Nou Camp while down to 10 men for a lot of it. The media want to know am I devastated with the defeat.

.

[Giggles]

Season done. Don't know whether to jump ship now or stay and try to win the CL. More stadium expansion going on too, going up to 53,000 after jumping to 42,000 midway through last season.
Another option is to blood 5 or 6 youngsters, cash in on some of the big names in the squad, and see what happens there. Walden and Reed have been class since they came in and there's a few other decent looking ones there.

[Danny]

I would have a crack at winning the CL in your shoes. You could then 'reinvent' the side by ditching some of the names and giving youth a go.

[Giggles]

I would have a crack at winning the CL in your shoes. You could then 'reinvent' the side by ditching some of the names and giving youth a go.

Yeah it's probably worth one more shot at it, even though I don't know if this team can beat 2 or 3 of the huge teams to do it. Even if I'd done Barcelona, all I needed was 1-0 at home but got a 0-0, I'd still have had Madrid waiting in the final.

I don't know where I'd add to the team forma push either, maybe a backup striker but I'd improve very little else without spending huge money.

[John]

Nineteen assists from your right back is mental. That defence looks a bit shoddy though. A properly dominant centre back should make a difference.

[Disco]

If any more players end up signing for clubs in lower divisions for a fraction of the wage demands they gave me I might actually have to murder someone.

[Giggles]

Nineteen assists from your right back is mental. That defence looks a bit shoddy though. A properly dominant centre back should make a difference.

Mitrovic, Denayer, and Smalling have been quite good this season although one really top class one would probably make a big difference. Van Dijk wants to leave too.
Semedo is as much an assist machine as he is a yellow card machine. Great going to say he was never played further forward than right back too and I'd recommend him for anyone to take a look at if they're starting out. Not sure where he comes from as I paid big to Chelsea for him in 2019.

[Byron]

AE has just scored a penalty against me

[John]

My first youth intake was a box of shit, which doesn't befit the supposed cradle of Croatian football. It's a bit annoying, but not a particular problem since Dinamo start with about eight hundred sixteen year olds on the books. The winter transfer window was a fucking nightmare (I turn off first window budgets), as clubs came in for about fifteen of my players. A few of them were first teamers, but mostly it was vulturous twats trying to nick my youngsters. I ended up selling a foetus named Josip Brekalo to Valencia because he was being a particularly vocal twat about me rejecting their first approach. He looks like he'll be excellent, but I'll be getting 40% of any sale so I'm not too worried about losing him.

Pjaca has turned into an absolute demon. He'll still be sold, but now it'll be because he's shit hot and I can't keep him rather than because he's a crap twat who won't shut up.

[Mazuuurk]

I really wish instead of doing a "Complete and amazing UI Overhaul waah!" every year they would adress these core problems in all gameplay that's not related to matches and tactics.

Another example of brokenness is that I bought that guy Ajar, and I get 1-2 offers almost DAILY from clubs to loan him, even though I set him as unavailable for loan and Reject all Offers.

[Demerit]

I cannot make a single tactic even partially work on this version

[Browning]

Fucking hell... this game.

I was 2 points off the automatic places and had to play top of the table Bradford. My best CM player was suspended but other than that I had a full strength side. I was thinking how remarkable it was I'd had relatively few injuries this season.... but guess they were saving them up. On 36 minutes I lost my other regular CM to injury, meaning I had to move one of my wingers into the middle, but he then opened the scoring. On the hour I lost my right winger but I normally sub him for another one around that time anyway, so didn't mind too much and off he went. Bradford then head in a corner and I bring on Nahki Wells, who was my prolific scorer before a 2 month injury sidelined him. Minutes later, predictably, I get another injury, this time to my LB, and I'm down to 10 men. One of my CM pair moves to RB and the RB moves to LB... and we're a mess, but Wells somehow grabs a goal on the break for 2--1. But we're not finished yet as the CM who moved to RB then goes off for yet another injury, leaving us with 9 men. My RW moves to RB despite not being at all able to play there.... by only remaining CM (who started on the wing) moves to holding midfield because we're so fucked and Wells moves to the wing, again despite not being able to play there at all. Their keeper then charges out like a mad man for a long ball and kicks it straight to Wells who smashes home from 40 yards and somehow we've won 3-1.... what the fuck was that?

[Disco]

I'm playing FM15 but it's much the same. I'm three or four seasons in and I've had some crazy things happen. Four players injured in the same training ground 'robust challenge' and one who got two different injuries in the same day.

It's almost certainly confirmation bias but it really does appear that the game hates me sometimes.

[Mazuuurk]

Something a little eerie is going on in my game.... :

I'm in January 2016, and:

- Leicester are top of the league
- Vardy is top scorer
- Me (Arsenal) and City are battling in 2nd and 3rd place
- Chelsea are doing bad
- Man Utd are doing bad
- Mourinho has been sacked
- Luis van Gaal has been sacked
- Mourinho has been appointed Man Utd manager


What the actual fuck

[Jimmy Floyd]

Following the sack from Chelsea I've started again with Leeds and have won each of my first eight matches, so there's definitely something very wrong with the game mechanics.

[John]

He was comfortably the best player in the squad in the end, so it's nice of him to stay. We won the league by three points from Rijeka, who sprung a bit of a surprise and were actually top on goal difference going into the last day, where they were biffed by Hajduk while I beat Lokomotiv Zagreb.

Going in I was thinking I'd get by without making a single signing, but I've decided I'm going to allow myself to bring back older players who started off with Zagreb and left, so I'll hopefully get a thirty nine year old Modric in at some point. First on that list is Eduardo, the reason I've changed the rules, who would be immediately and comfortably my best striker. He's at Shakhtar with a few months to go on his contract and earning within my budget, so it's definitely workable. For all the great youth prospects at this club, and there are a fucking ton of them, there are no strikers.

[Smiffy]

.....

[Smiffy]

.....

[Palmer]

I'm playing FM15 but it's much the same. I'm three or four seasons in and I've had some crazy things happen. Four players injured in the same training ground 'robust challenge' and one who got two different injuries in the same day.

It's almost certainly confirmation bias but it really does appear that the game hates me sometimes.

Aye, FM15 is a shambles for this at times. I have 8 first teamers out for a month or more, and as one comes back he's simply replaced by another one. My squad is so small that this means I'm only able to name 3 subs half the time. Makes you wonder why you bother.

[John]

You should expand your squad.

[Giggles]

You should expand your squad.

It's still a bit of a joke though. 2015 was horrendously unrealistic for injuries.

That said, in my experience anyway, they've pretty much fixed it in 2016. They're not overbearing for the most part, and you pick up more short ones later in the season which is fairly realistic.

[Palmer]

I've got so little to work with in terms of a budget that unfortunately it simply isn't possible. I started the season with 22, and have plugged a couple of gaps with loanees from parent club Villa, but there's simply no money left to get anybody else in.

[Mazuuurk]

Another realistic thing: I've had a fuckload of injuries here at Arsenal all year

Specially the English lads.

[Disco]

As Exeter the grand total of spending in my first three seasons was £4.5k, everyone else came in on frees. It's paid off though, we made £10m last year and in what seems to be some kind of crazy alternate universe we're top of the Championship a third of the way through the season.

[Browning]

Just had a game away at 19th placed Exeter where we drew 2-2 and we had a man sent off and they were given 2 penalties including one which was the last kick of the game. This kept us 2nd on GD behind the leaders Bradford when really we should have taken command. With 2 games to go the top of the table was:

Bradford- 81
Gillingham- 81
- - - - - - - - -
Luton- 79
Watford- 78
Middlesbrough- 76

And then a bunch of people who don't matter.

Away at Rochdale and guess what.... they open the score from the spot. We're temporarily 3rd in the table but we come back to win 2-1 while Bradford lose, Luton lose and Watford play out a 4-4 draw. We're so close to the title....

My thoughts have been so firmly on the title after that that I didn't even notice that confirmed our promotion. It's been a close run thing all season and I was convinced Luton would pip us to it when they destroyed us 4-1 and went on what looked like an unstoppable run.... but nope. Not bad after 2 17th place finishes. I just need to work our how on earth I'm going to replace my 2 top scorers (Nahki Wells and Julian Ngoy) if I can't get them back next year. Wells is a possibility as he's only valued at about 200k though I expect his wages to be an issue.... Ngoy I inquired about and they wanted £8m.....

Edit: Nahki broke my heart. I opened talks but his agent wouldn't listen to wage offers less than £20k a week... even with next years budget all I could offer was £8k so it failed. Nahki then immediately sacked his agent and given he previously said he wanted to join us I was hopeful... but no, the exact same negotiations happened.

We dominated the last game but somehow found ourselves 0-2 down... not that it mattered as Bradford were losing. We battled back to a 2-2 draw to secure the point we needed to win the title anyway, but Bradford flopped and Luton join us in the Championship.

Jesus.... Ngoy has just made the Belgium squad for the Euros despite playing in League 1. That's insane.

[Reg]

I've persuaded a few to stay.

Gutted I couldn't keep hold of this lad though

I'm not, I'm glad I won't have to see that scary bastard's eyes again.

[Browning]

And just like that I'm poached by Crystal Palace and none of it matters. This should be interesting.

[The Merse]

I'm not, I'm glad I won't have to see that scary bastard's eyes again.

I particularly liked those being in conjunction with his first name being Johnny.

[Reg]

I'm going to give Stoke a go, and try to continue with their novel Barcelonish ways.