Cheers. I think it might have been one of the luckiest league titles I've ever won if I'm being honest.
Cheers. I think it might have been one of the luckiest league titles I've ever won if I'm being honest.
Arsenal 2033/34 Season
After 11 seasons building my career around Europe, I finally landed a proper high-profile job at Arsenal. To give you an overview of where the club is at, they'd won the title three times in four years between 2027 and 2030 and more recently finished second in 2031/32 (all under Patrick Vieira who'd been at the club since 2024), however that was followed by a very disappointing 7th place last season, which is why the position became available. In Europe the club has done its best to dethrone Juventus as the perennial losers, having reached the Champions League final 4 times in 6 years between 2026 and 2031, but losing all of them. On top of that they also lost the Europa League final in 2032 and the Club World Cup final in 2029. Pretty rough. On the positive side, all that success means that the club is financially stable with a very solid squad and, to my surprise, seemingly run in a very prudent manner. Speaking of the squad, there's quite a few familiar faces in the club, namely Ramsdale, Saliba, Saka, Martinelli and Odengaard. All of them are the wrong side of 30, but all of them are still great players, which gives me a great base to build upon. Another familiar face at the club was Scamacca, but with him being 35 and already declining, he would be one of the first people to leave the club. Apart from them, the following players are also worth a mention:
A player I was looking to build the defence around, who as you see is now at City. With his contract ending in 2035, him not wanting to renew and City coming in with a very lucrative deal in January, I just decided to let him go, especially since he had been solid at best and isn't a homegrown player. City paid 130m in total, so it was an easy decision at that point.
I'd say full backs have been the position I've had the most trouble with in this save, so I was very happy to have a world class one already at the club and one that has a decade of top tier football left in him.
I don't generally like midfielders that are not that well-rounded technically, but I reckon this lad's mental and physical attributes more than make for it. Especially since my midfielders are the ones doing the most running, so his natural fitness and stamina will definitely come in handy.
That one's a bit of a weird one. He was considered a fringe player when I joined the club and had spent last season on loan at Benfica. But I took one look at him and thought he is more than good enough to feature at the club, and he ended up playing 57 games for us this season. Just weird that Vieira didn't really give him the time of day.
The one negative point of the squad was that it was very bloated so we did some spring cleaning (in the summer). A total of 15 players permanently left the club, netting us a ridiculous 424 million euros. A total of 11 players came in for 414m, with most of them being youngsters and only one going straight into our first XI. The following were the most high profile ones:
Our goalkeeping situation was somewhat suspect. Ramsdale was undoubtedly good enough to be our first-team goalkeeper, but with him being 35 and the backup goalkeepers being subpar, it was immediately obvious that we should find a new one, so in comes this guy. He only cost us 30m, which for a young goalkeeper of this quality is more than reasonable and he even got to play 20 games in the cups and in the Conference League.
The one player who went straight into the first XI, as he was a direct replacement for Sodiq when the latter left for City. He cost us 130m (the exact amount we sold Sodiq for), but he is younger and he is homegrown so there's something there. Probably not the best option we had, but we were running out of time in January so he also was somewhat of a panic buy I guess.
A familiar face. When I left Leverkusen I said that I expected Bejinaru to become a world class player and I decided that I wanted to be there for this journey. That said, it was a bit of a stubborn buy as, like Southam, there were probably better options out there, especially as he cost us 100m and he wasn't going straight into the first XI.
A player we sort of didn't need, but one that was an upgrade over our current backup winger. Most of the big English clubs were interested in him in January, as he's a homegrown player (was at Liverpool before leaving for Mainz), so it was a bit of a coup for us, even if he cost a very substantial 83m.
With the squad now in place, I was more than confident of hitting all our goals this season. There was very little pressure, as the board only expected a top-half finish (what an unambitious bunch), and the fact that we would be playing in the Conference League meant that our extra games would be against much inferior opposition, giving us the option to rest players a lot more, compared to City, Liverpool and the rest of them. That said, let's start from the Club World Cup, which started 2 days after I joined the club so I was thrown in at the deep end from the get go. The board were expecting us to reach the final, which, unlike the league expectation, I thought was very ambitious, but apparently they were right:
Not a bad way to start my stint, I'll tell you that much. Especially as it was followed by this performance in the League Cup:
Sadly, we couldn't make it three with the FA Cup:
A bit disappointing to be honest, especially given how seemingly easy our opposition in the final was, but were complete garbage and they played well so fair play to them. The final was inbetween some crucial games so I guess the players just couldn't keep up and had an off day. But in the end, it wasn't that much of a blow as three days later, we played our final league game and this happened:
It was a lot closer than it should have been, I'll tell you that much. We were 2 points ahead of Chelsea going into the final game, where we had to play City at Emirates, while Chelsea were hosting Reading, who were already relegated, so it wasn't the easiest of affairs. But the positive was that we were playing for two results, since even a draw would give us the title, courtesy of our superior goal difference. In the end we very easily beat City 2-0 to be crowned champions. All in all, I thought we were the best team in the league by quite some margin, and it was only ever that close because of the high amount of draws that we've had, six of which were against bottom half teams. But we didn't stop there:
Obviously we were way too strong for the Conference League, so we ended up strolling our way to the title. That said, we did almost mess it up in the semis against Hertha, where we won the home leg 3-0 and then I fielded a weakened side and they came close to taking us to extra time. It would have been a huge travesty mind you, as we were better at their place as well, but I guess it was a wake up call for us.
Obviously you'll have realised by now that my tactic places a lot of emphasis on the striker, and with us also playing in the Conference League there were a lot of easy goals to be scored, but still 55 goals from Hernandez is just incredible. As you'd expect he broke all sorts of records, though he only managed to finish second in the league with his 33 goals, since Haaland scored 35. The three behind him took turns in winning us games, but all three were somewhat inconsistent, so if I had to pick a second star performer, it would be Alentejo, who was by far our most consistent player, filling in the "Xavi" role, where the stats don't tell the whole story, but everything goes through him.
All in all, a magnificent first season at the club, possibly one of the best first seasons I've ever had. There will be some minor rebuilding ahead of us, what with Ramsdale and Odengaard retiring and some positions needing stregthening, but I reckon we're in for some more of the same, hopefully with some Champions League success further down the line.
Last edited by Adramelch; 29-04-2023 at 05:20 PM.
Some masterful set-piece defending, courtesy of Ajax:
Edit: And another groundbreaking tactic, this time from our own left-back and goalkeeper who are planning to crowd our goal so there's no room for the ball. Hint: It didn't work.
Last edited by Adramelch; 01-05-2023 at 09:42 AM.
I won the league with Crewe last season (hoped to finish top 4, so was kind of over-performed)... This pre-season lost 2 of my best players to minimum fee release clauses, and sold another 2 because they were both twats.
Thought I could lean on the younger players....
It seems to me that this version has maybe a little more emphasis on the squad taking some time to gel and players needing more time to perform when they join a club. On average that is of course, there's extremes both ways.
I've just hit the milestone of 900 games in my current save.
8x League Titles
8x Super Cups
4x Domestic Trophies
3x European Cups
2x Promotions
Hopefully the game keeps ticking along nicely and continues to present interesting challenges.
Quick mention for Vincent Burlet & Lucas Noubi who are still doing the business in 2041.
Arsenal 2034/35 and 2035/36 Seasons
A bit of a twofer here as I went through two seasons in the meantime, so you get one combined update. Getting straight to it, here's the more relevant players we've signed in those 2 seasons:
Right-back was our weakest link in that first season, so in came this guy to rectify that. He cost a 71m, but we've been operating at a profit transfer-wise, so we can afford paying more for that extra bit of quality.
With Odegaard retiring, we needed some serious strengthening at number 10, which is where Vidal fit. He cost 49m, which I think was a steal for a player of that quality.
This guy was our main target in the summer, but Bayern wouldn't accept any reasonable offers for him, so we went for Vidal instead. Eventually, he asked for a transfer (because they weren't playing him for whatever reason), so we signed him for 94m, which I reckon is very reasonable for a player of his quality.
This one was the first signing in our latest season. While he was more for the future, I decided he's more than good enough to be a backup striker, which in turn meant I got to sell the other one and even make a profit while upgrading. Over the season he actually came big at various points scoring a total of 16 goals, so I have high hopes for him.
A January signing, this guy joined whenever I realized that Saliba's age was catching up on him. He was available for just 42m, so it was a very easy decision to make.
The latest of our blockbuster signings, Alvarez joined after a long-drawn process where Gladbach demanded insane money for him. Or rather, they demanded a fair price for him, but I thought they weren't in the financial position to be making such demands. They lowered their price in January, so we signed him for 100m. He's been playing as a ball-winning midfielder so far, which is a bit of a waste really, but I reckon we'll figure out something better for him.
You'll have noticed a theme of us spending rather large fees on players, with the 6 above costing a combined 385 million, but that's off the back of us signing young players, developing them and then selling them for a profit if they don't make the first team. The brightest example was our backup goalkeeper, who we signed for 17m a couple summers back and then sold him for 90m just one and a half years later. He only played 20 games for us, so a 73m profit out of that is just insane.
So how did all that transfer business translate on the pitch? Well let's start that we've added another two League Cups to our collection (making it three straight), although the FA Cup still eludes us to this day, with our defeat in the finals at the hands of Southampton in the first season being followed by another exit to Southampton, this time in the fifth round, and one to Tottenham in the semis the season after. As for the league, to say we've dominated would probably be an understatement:
That's two league campaigns where we've been top dogs every step of the way, with us breaking a host of records this season as well. Major props to Villa, Forest and Stoke for some amazing campaigns, but also major lols at City who have finished outside the top 7 twice in a row.
What about the Champions League I hear you asking? Well:
Not gonna lie, the loss to City hurt last season, especially since they've been consistently dogshit and this game was our only loss to them in 3 seasons. But in truth, we were lucky to reach the final as we had a very easy run-in (Juventus, Liverpool and Ajax) and played horribly in the most important game of the lot. But we made up for it the season after that. We had a horrible draw in the first knockout round as we played Real, but we just obliterated them, with a 7-0 aggregate win. After that we were lucky once again with Leverkusen and Leipzig (although both ties were somewhat close), before playing a third German team in a row, and the only team that had beaten us in the competition thus far, Bayern. I was not very optimistic and it was a hard-fought game, but we prevailed in the end with a 2-1 win, to break a streak of losses in the final (5 in the last 10 years) and win the club's (and mine) first ever Champions League title.
As for the lads:
Hernandez has remained incredible (that's 151 goals in 3 seasons for anyone counting), but the real success stories are those of Bejinaru, Southam and Marinelli. Starting from Bejinaru, you might remember that it was sort of an impulse buy, since I'd signed him at Leverkusen thinking he will make it big, but I never ended up managing him there. His first season at the club was very underwhelming, but I have to say that his last two seasons have been immense, to the point where he might be one of the best players I've ever had in any modern version of the game. Just an insane player. Likewise, Southam was a bit of a panic buy, who was somewhat underwhelming in his first 1.5 seasons here, but he just showed up this last season, scoring a lot of goals from set-pieces but also being incredible defensively. Finally, there's Marinelli who had the tough task of replacing Ramsdale and I can tell you the first few months were very disappointing. In fact he was so underwhelming that our results suffered, but I had already committed to him by that point. Thankfully for him, he found his form right before the January window and has been top notch ever since, to the point where he's one of the best goalkeepers in the world. Great transformation.
So where does that leave me? I've won pretty much everything there's to be won at Arsenal (sans the elusive FA Cup) and I have built a squad that can honestly keep going at the same pace for at least half a decade. During those last two years I have declined a lot of interesting job offers (namely City twice, Liverpool, Juventus, Milan and PSG), as I thought there was great potential for titles at Arsenal. But now that I've done that, I reckon it might be time for a new challenge. I haven't found something yet as I'd rather take my time, so I'll still be at Arsenal in the coming season, but I would definitely fancy a move to Spain or Italy.
Last edited by Adramelch; 04-05-2023 at 06:45 PM.
Cracking work Adra. I’m still toiling through my first full season at Man Utd.
Transfer deadline day at the start of the first season and I (Liverpool) am chasing this big lad:
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I'm a twit
Couldn’t afford the 1.2m loan fee.
I'm a twit
Isn't he like proper old by now?
36. Still looks a beast though.Originally Posted by Adramelch
I'm a twit
Oh, he's very young then (seeing as I'm also 36).
Arsenal 2036/37 Season
One more season done and it was one where we had to show that last season wasn't a fluke. Given how dominant the side was last season, I didn't think there was much need for change. To that end, we just looked to bring in two players, a backup right winger to replace Martinelli and a first team left winger to take over from Saka since the two of them have been rapidly declining. I reckon we did our best and the players we brought were true quality:
This guy likes playing centrally, but I reckon he can more than hold his own on the left flank as well. At just 22 years of age (at the time) and at a relatively low cost for that kind of quality (73m euros), it was a great piece of business.
A right winger that's not at Bejinaru's level, but then again who is. That said, he's definitely more than good enough to provide squad depth, he's a home-grown player and he only cost 52m.
In terms of results, the only thing I need to say is that we lost a total of 2 games across all competitions, with one loss being in a glorified friendly, the Community Shield. Sadly the second one was in a more important game, as it came against Tottenham in the FA Cup final, to ensure that we once again failed to win this one. But for those not doing the math, that meant that we went undefeated for 9.5 months. Ridiculous really.
Obviously that also meant that we retained the League Cup, but, more importantly, the Champions League. Unlike previous seasons this time we had to go up against some of the big boys, eliminating Bayern and United before beating Real in the final with an injury-time winner.
Fucking Hernandez. He's had three incredible seasons and yet managed to perform even better this time around. And if you think 62 goals in 59 games is impressive, let me tell you that he failed to score in his last 8 games (which was of course a bit of a bummer), meaning he at one point had 62 goals in 51 games. Unsurprisingly he finished top scorer in the league and the Champions League. You might also notice Bejinaru isn't even in the list, but that's not because he shouldn't be. He had another incredible season with 12 goals and 24 assists in 41 games, but he broke his ankle in early March and ended up missing the business end of the season. Lanza and Vidal put in some very good performances in his place, but we definitely missed his delivery, resulting in some very close results and our second loss of the season. The last person that deserves a mention is once again Marinelli, finishing with a 7.27 average rating, which for a keeper is honestly bonkers. We had a very solid defence, so there were games where he had nothing to do, but there were also games that he singlehandedly won for us.
And with all that said, I reckon the save is at a crossroads now. I could potentially stay at Arsenal for more of the same, but I don't know what else is there for me to do. At the same time, waiting for the few jobs that would interest me doesn't look all that appealing either and I don't fancy taking too big a step down and managing someone like say Napoli. I'll probably see how the summer goes, especially since United sacked their manager so there will be some reshuffling, but there's a real possibility that that's the end of the save.
Last edited by Adramelch; 06-05-2023 at 07:34 PM.
Anyone know where i can get a realistic face pack for regans?
Download NewGan, it's great and easy to use, but a fairly big download.
https://www.reddit.com/r/footballman..._on_fm23_beta/
European Journeyman Game - 2033/34 - Man Utd - Season Review
First full season with Man Utd, seems ages since I've updated so by way of context I joined part way through the previous season where we found ourselves in the relegation zone thanks to some sterling work from Malky Mackay. We turned things around and ended up 7th and with it Europa League football for this campaign.
Finances and Transfers
Mission in the summer was to get the wage bill down below £3m per week and I achieved it, but my God it was a fucking ballache. So much old shit on obscene contracts that continually rejected offers from elsewhere. Giovanni Reyna in particular, who I really quite grew to hate, pissed me about a million times before finally fucking off to Inter.
Other major thing to note there was that Rashford decided to fuck off to Barca when his contract expired. He played well from January onwards, so I possibly would have kept him but he was 35 by that point so no big problem.
In terms of players in, the club was in such a state appealing to established talent was going to be a problem, for two reasons. Firstly, every player we were after that was also courted by a club in the Champions League would reject us in favour of them and secondly the shocking prior financial mismanagement had led to meagre budget for the season (unless I wanted to undo all of the good work on getting the wage bill down) so the decision was taken to gamble on the first team players we had left being good enough to get us into the Champions League this season and focus on buying some promising youngsters to start laying the foundations for the future.
£2.3m from Ulsan. The Park Ji Sung of full backs I'm hoping.
£8.75m from relegated Everton. High hopes for him.
£7m from Peterborough and that was it for players in during the summer window. However, once we got to January the board recognised the improved financial position and gave me a few more quid to spend without taking it off the wage budget and three more young targets were signed.
No work permit yet for this one but at £325k from Efsberg I'll just flip him at some point if he never gets one, which he probably will once I've loaned him out enough.
£2.4m from Lech Poznan.
£5m from Boca.
In addition to that a pretty promising player from Arsenal became available, so I snapped him up too even though I couldn't play him as he'd played for the Gunners and a team out on loan.
At £12m I'll take that.
Backroom Team and Overview
Roy Keane realised the error of his previous decision and finally joined us from Paris FC as Assistant Manager and I culled so many staff people must have thought Elon Musk had rocked up.
With all this trimming I was expecting to stay comfortably in the black all season, but sadly I was very much mistaken. Partly due to £3m per week on wages still being too much for a team with no Champions League revenue but mainly due to ludicrous appearance bonuses in the contracts of the players we did keep and the incessant payments we had to keep making on players who weren't even at the club anymore due to the insane way the previous deals had been structured. You can blame Malky all you like but the real culprit here is Rooney, who must have been made president of the British Managers Lunch club for his sterling work in his 5 year stint. Kept his job due to winning some minor cups but never once had the club above 6th in the league, all the while signing players on deals that would make Peter Ridsdale's goldfish blush.
Expectations
Due to the staggering lowering of ambitions journey the club has been through, the board only expect mid-table, but I want Champions League qualification every year from here on in and anything less this season will be a failure in my mind. A trophy would be nice too, but the number one goal this season is getting the club back in the big time.
European Journeyman Game - 2033/34 - Man Utd - Season Review continued...
What became apparent quite quickly was just how bad this club is. The Premier League has three big hitters in it now, Arsenal, Chelsea and Man City and every time we played them it was obvious how far behind we were in terms of quality. As a result the league season was littered with losses that were obviously going to be so after about 10 minutes of the match starting. Still and on the plus side, we were quite good at beating the shit. We bowed out meekly of the domestic cups, but a good end to the season in the league (including some actuals points, ok a series of single points) against teams we weren't expected to beat we finished 5th. If England got the extra Champions League spot for the coefficient for the year it would mean we've made it. As it turned out they did:
Which left the Europa League as our only hope of silverware:
The win against Ajax had me believing we'd win it and PAOK winning their quarter-final and setting up a semi with us was delightful news. The trip to Greece was more laboured than it should have been but we smashed them back at Old Trafford and Wolfsburg would await in the final.
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Other Things
My Paul Scholes newgen, club youth product Brooklyn Myler is developing and playing very well. 16 goals and 9 assists from 21 starts and 28 sub appearances this season.
And this chap came through an otherwise terrible youth intake in March:
Manager Update
The Europa League win saw me hit a 4.5 star rep for the first time and moved me within about 50 points of the top 10 England hall of fame. My original contract has a year left to run, but I want to stay here for a good while and attempt to make Manchester United great again. They now haven't won the league for 22 years.
Does it automatically add the faces? Only some of these packs I've seen you have to do it manually.
Does it automatically. You just have to export your squad list (they show you how to do it) and import into the their program and click go.
Does it automatically add the faces? Only some of these packs I've seen you have to do it manually.
All over that blud.
I use it around April each year when all the new players have appeared, after you've done it the first time you've still got the filters and whatnot in place for next time so there's nothing to it at all
It’s a fantastic tool
As bad as the default regen faces look, I like that they're not photos so I instantly know who is and isn't a regen.
I'm a twit
Got far too bogged down in my previous journeyman in the Swedish fourth tier which killed the vibe. So I've started a new one and I've landed at... Spartaks Jurmala in Latvia. The aim is to stay above water and build the best youth system in the country. Nice.
I've inherited this kid who, by Latvian standards and for a 16-year-old, looks shit hot. He's a natural AMC, and accomplished AML and AMR (right-footed). I was just wondering whether anyone had any thoughts on what his best position might be. I wasn't setting out to play with an AMC, but I could work towards it in a season or two if anyone thinks he might be better as an AMC rather than training him down a wing.
Spartaks Jurmala.
Could see him doing the job as an inside forward too.
Yerr, it's the low dribbling skill that's putting me off having him out wide though...
And Yev, I was sure someone else had been at Jurmala.
I've picked this up for the first time in a few months. Really fancied a save where I attempt some Sam Allardyce-style short term jobs. A different kind of journeyman save, if you will, that will be free of the usual grind of buying youth, playing good football, and so on as I'm looking to do a fireman in-and-out job at troubled clubs, whether it's turning around a shit season, or bouncing back from relegation etc.
First job is in January '23, trying to save Bournemouth. Gary O'Neil has been given the bullet and things aren't looking too fresh, with this the state of play at the bottom:
No one in the squad earns over £50k pw with the curious exception of not-terribly-good Brazilian goalkeeper Neto who earns £100k pw. We are the league's lowest scorers and 2nd worst defence. Top scorer is Dominic Solanke with 5, and no one else has more than 1. I have a January window but no transfer budget, so if I want anyone else in I'll have to sell to fund it and there is very little in this squad worth the price of admission. With most of the little talent available being wingers like Semenyo and Christie, we'll have to set up to play on the counter. Should be interesting and the first task is Man City away in the FA Cup so that should be short-lived. Luckily I have some wise counsel available:
Cheers, Jermain.
That's actually a pretty novel and interesting idea.
European Journeyman Game - 2034/35 - Man Utd - Season Review
Second full season with Man Utd and we're moving in the right direction. The summer window was a transformative one, but slightly unexpectedly so as I thought I'd done my business early only for the floodgates to open on players out.
Firstly, another couple of pre-arranged deals for youngsters completed:
£1.4m from Thun, looking like an absolute bargain after a year in the under-21s.
£4.8m from Atletico Mineiro. He rocked up with a bad attitude to training and a stubborn refusal to accept being retrained as a marauding left back, but we made progress on both fronts as the season progressed and he put in a few decent first team performances too.
I then spent my entire budget on the following three players, assuming that'd be it for this window:
Out of favour at West Ham and available for £35m, I couldn't resist getting my boy back. We've been through so much together, at Istra, St. Gallen and now Man Utd. He started badly and I was concerned he was shot, but ended the season with 7 goals and 18 assists so I'll take that.
£23m from relegated MK Dons, surely a FEC right there.
With funds running dry I had to pull a Wayne Rooney with this one and mortgage future transfer budgets to sign him.£52m in total, with two £15m instalments included.
So, as I said, I thought that was it and then all of this happened:
Vela was good, but a £42m bid for a winger with 5 finishing was too good to turn down. Antonio Silva was one of our two first choice centre backs but didn't want to sign a new deal and with 12 months left on his contract £60m was gladly accepted. I also managed to trouser nearly £50m up front from Chelsea for Braybrooke who was ageing and massively overpaid. In addition I decided to bin off most of the players I'd inherited that we'd been loaning out that clearly weren't going to make it.
All that little lot allowed me to bring this beast in from Monaco for £81m, leaving me over £100m in the bank and a wage spend of £2.6m.
Expectations
The board want a top half finish, a weak showing in Europe and a moderate performance in the cups, but.... fuck that.
Champions League qualification as a minimum, but a trophy, any trophy, on top of that to make the season a success.
And Jim, cracking idea that, I'll be following with interest.
Can you negotiate avoiding relegation bonuses into contracts?
European Journeyman Game - 2034/35 - Man Utd - Season Review Continued
The League
We were never in contention for the title, but a 3rd placed finish shits on anything that chancer Rooney did and represents Man Utd's highest league position for 14 years. Man City and Chelsea too good again, but if that's the new benchmark for points required to win the league we should be in with a shot of a title within a season or two from here.
League Cup
It can't go unnoticed that that draw to reach a final might be the kindest in all of human history, but we were there and would face Arsenal. In good form, did we have the minerals?
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FA Cup and Champions League
Tough wins over West Ham and Leeds were rewarded by drawing League One Bromley in the semi's who we coasted past to set up a final with Tottenham. Hopefully the old Fergie adage would prove to be true.
More kind draws in the Champions League by avoiding the English clubs, but some stunning wins nonetheless. When Dortmund beat Man City in their semi I couldn't have been happier. However, fixtures and injuries were now piling up and we'd be without 4 first team players (including record signing Gonzalez, who was averaging over a goal per start to this point) for both cup finals. First up, the FA Cup final.
FA Cup Final
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So, the big one. Could we win the Champions League well ahead of schedule?
Champions League Final
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Couple of other bits to wrap up that I forgot to add above.
The season saw us move into the top 10 of English managers:
1 point behind Wayne Rooney thanks to the chancer winning the Championship with Everton is jarring, but well placed to hopefully take 4th place soon and then mount an assault on the top 3.
The finances are also in very rude health, with sponsorship and season ticket income still to come on top of the current balance of £124m. A £115m transfer budget and £1m p/w in wages to work with this summer should also hopefully see us get close to a cracking first X1.
Rhys Gibbs sounds like a PES version of Giggs.
I'm a twit
I've definitely noticed that in this version players need more time to adjust than previously, so I tend to just give them enough time to prove themselves and it's a strategy that's definitely worked for me.
Cracking season that and you already have more FA Cups than I do, in half the seasons so there's that!
I'd agree. Gonzalez hit the ground running, but much more often than not I get 6 months of bang average at least before a new arrival starts to play well.
Any tips on getting the price of a player down? I'm after a striker in the Championship, but MK Dons want £74m for him, which is insane. They were relegated the season before last and have so far failed to go back up so he should be agitating for a move but he isn't.
I just bombard them with offer after offer. It doesn't work instantly but for the most part I've gotten the player in the next transfer window.
Completed it, lads. I even deliberately tanked the league in 35/36 to win the Europa League before I was too good (instead of deliberately finishing 3rd in the group as it served a dual purpose of giving loads of minutes to the academy lads). Slightly ahead of schedule, which is almost bittersweet - my team had obvious gaps and problems, and was looking forward to enacting my MASTER PLAN in the close season to take the final step, and then we went and bloody won the league and champs league anyway.
Does give the save slightly more life - I've won everything, but not all at the same time, so have a general target to essentially perfect the team, with more specific goals of getting league/champs league/copa italia treble and a couple of other bits and bobs.
We also keep producing awesome newgens, so I'm toying with the idea of getting a bit role-playey, and imagining that the board are sick of proud socialist Livorno wheeling and dealing their way to success, and converting it to something of a youth academy challenge (maybe allowing one signing a season or something).
Credit to PSG for getting the inevitable out of the way early this year
European Journeyman Game - 2035/36 - Man Utd - Mid Season Update
3rd full season at Man Utd and it's going very well so feel a mid-season update is warranted.
Transfers
Wisdom Amey (£45m to PSG) and Darko Markovic (£45m to Paris FC) were the latest two players to not understand what we're doing here and want to leave when their contracts expired. No chance that was happening, so off they went this summer. In terms of players in, the usual youth prospects were signed:
£7.5m from Benfica.
£7.5m from Braga
Which left 4 other players who came straight into the first team squad:
Try as I might, this was the only good right back I could find for under something like £150m. £21m from Eintracht Frankfurt.
With Trubin now 34 a new first choice keeper may soon be needed, so moved to get this chap as back up while I can still get him trained at the club. £10.75m from Admira Wacker.
£28m from Everton.
And hopefully saving the best for last:
£85m from Montpellier.
Charity Shield
Having won the FA Cup we'd face Man City and it what I hope to be a watershed moment, we battered them:
Two things to add here. At this point it feels like Haaland will never retire. I guess he's only 35, but still annoyingly good. Secondly, I got 49 HoF points for winning this one match, breaking the 1,000 point mark with it.
League Cup
Pretty routine so far, but was good to beat Spurs away and West Ham will pose a challenge in the semi's.
Champions League
13 points has us 2nd on goal difference in the group, one point behind leaders Juve. With the two games against shit to come at home I'm hoping I can top the group and sail through to the last 16 proper.
The League
Bar the inexplicable defeat away at Derby (and maybe Watford) a cracking first half of the season, we're also amazing at home and have played almost all of the better sides away from home.
Only two points ahead of Chelsea, but I think it's fair to say, IT'S ON!
You’re never leaving United are you.
I'm a twit
I must admit, it's going to be difficult.
The rebuild job has been so huge and it's finally coming together after three years it's going to be hard to go and have to do it all again.
The fucking state of this:
I demand you resign and save Liverpool immediately.
You'd be deeply disliked by so many people too.
After the car crash that was March we rallied and won the league.
Was far closer than that looks and went to the final week due to Chelsea always having games in hand.
Bournemouth 22/23
You may remember that I took over for a short-term fireman job with the table in the above precarious position.
I settled on a 4-3-3 counter-press, with Useless Dominic Solanke through the middle and the midfield three of Cook, Lerma and Billing likely to prove vital as we have no backup for them at all. For goals we're looking at it going in off UDS's arse, or contributions from the likes of Traore, Christie, Semenyo, Tavernier or wank O'Neil-death-throes signing, 34 year old German Max Kruse, who has pace 9, work rate 8, jumping reach 9 and stamina 10 but otherwise an absolutely cracking recruit into the Premier League. The main aim however will be to shore up the defence and keep things tight. For this it's going to be a combination of South American fouling (Senesi, Vina) and British grit (Mepham, Smith).
First up with our merry band of utter shite was the FA Cup, then it was off into our 19 cup finals to try to stay in the top flight.
FA Cup: Man City 3 Bournemouth 1, a scoreline that rather flattered us.
After this game I had a run-in with Useless Dominic Solanke, who, after being useless and missing a sitter in the above game, demanded a move to a bigger club. I was unable to talk him around and so offered him out despite backup Dango Ouattara being crocked. Everton, 19th and always willing to be mugged off in the transfer market, bid £19.5 million which I accepted largely in the hope it might sabotage Everton. Ben Brereton Diaz, from Blackburn, was lined up as the chosen replacement.
PL 20: Man Utd 3 Bournemouth 1. Keep it tight, I said. Don't dive into challenges, I said. Keep your discipline, I said.
As well as the six yellows we also got a straight red for Semenyo, who scored a late consolation and then punted Luke Shaw. Legend. Three points from safety.
PL 21: Bournemouth 1 Fulham 0. I was forced into starting the glacial German and he scored a scrappy shit goal early on. Lerma was then sent off and we had to cling grimly on for an hour playing four-four-fucking-one. Luckily Fulham were shite. Goal difference from safety.
PL 22: Tottenham 2 Bournemouth 2. God bless Spurs, gifting the slowcoach sauerkraut a 93rd minute equaliser. Still goal difference from safety.
PL 23: Bournemouth 2 West Ham 0. 18th v 19th and settled by a missed penalty rebound and then Brereton Diaz's first top flight goal. Three points clear of the drop.
PL 24: Liverpool 0 Bournemouth 1. A legendary performance against the league leaders, settled by a Joe Gomez own goal. Five points clear of the drop!
PL 25: Bournemouth 1 Chelsea 2: Back to earth. Everton and West Ham below us both win. Two points clear of the drop.
PL 26: Brighton 1 Bournemouth 0. Lost it to a penalty. Still two points clear of the drop.
PL 27: Everton 0 Bournemouth 1. Dyche sacked and this is Wayne Rooney's first game in charge but it doesn't go well. Another huge win on Merseyside, gifted to us by a Pickford howler. UDS in the mud. Four points clear of the drop.
PL 28: Nottm Forest 0 Bournemouth 2. Battered a side now managed by Moyes, who might well take two teams down in one season. Three points clear with a game in hand.
PL 29: Bournemouth 0 Arsenal 1. Allardyce would have loved this game. Lost, but lost the right way, keeping it tight and not creating anything. Two points clear with a game in hand.
PL 30: Brentford 1 Bournemouth 2. Brentford have plummeted below us into the relegation fight and this result begins to bury them. Five points clear of the drop with two games in hand, it seems to be coming home.
PL 31: Bournemouth 1 Newcastle 2. Mugged off by Isak. Five points clear with a game in hand.
PL 32: Crystal Palace 1 Bournemouth 2. Yet another away win, four in a row now and seven points clear with a game in hand. Nearly there.
PL 33: Bournemouth 0 Aston Villa 3. 'Tough night for the boys, we go again'. Lerma sent off again. Still 7 points clear with a game in hand.
PL 34: Bournemouth 0 Man City 4. City are fifth and the media were speculating about Pep needing a win to save his job, going into this one. Glad to be of service. Seven points clear with four to play.
PL 35: Bournemouth 1 Leicester 3. Now into a full-on death spiral and teams below us win. 5 points clear with 3 to play.
PL 36: Leeds 4 Bournemouth 1. 'Couldn't fault the lads for effort.' Still five points clear thanks to a Wolves defeat. We play them on the final day.
PL 37: Bournemouth 4 Southampton 0. Thank fuck for that. Billing, Traore (2) and Brereton Diaz keep us in the top flight.
PL 38: Wolves 2 Bournemouth 3. Having stayed up ourselves, this sent Wolves down. West Ham were staying up throughout the day but conceded two very late goals to lose 2-1 and go down.
A very streaky half-season - some great performances and some utter tripe, and a very disappointing lack of Respect for The Point. Still, job done and that was more than enough AFC Bournemouth for my liking, so in went the resignation. The squad is an absolute mess, so good luck to whichever poor bastard has to start a new top flight season with them or attempt summer recruitment.
I, on the other hand, will be hunting for fresh disaster zones to turn around...
I can't help but think that SI really should have done more with the online version of the game. They gave up way too quickly.
As much as the intro of women is good for society and all that, it's going to add very few new people to playing the game, whilst online could, and should be massive by now.
Last edited by John Arne; 18-05-2023 at 06:19 AM.
Just play Football Glory. I’m about to do the double with Chelsea.
I'm a twit
I'd love to see a modern version of Football Manager Live. I loved it for the brief period it existed. Conceptually, it was ahead of its time – even if a lot of the mechanics were quite clunky.
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Have to admit that I'm gutted. Losing Champions League finals is annoying, but the squad was so fucked by the time we made the game and Dortmund just outclassed and outran us, so I guess I have to take the positive of getting there in the first place which has swelled the coffers, hopefully improved our commercial income (which is about £100m behind the EPL big guns) and also seen us qualify for the World Club Cup.
