The Football Manager 2017 Thread - Sponsored by Brexit.

[Smiffy]

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.

http://s20.postimg.org/fxw7kg4xp/screenshot_340.png

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.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abA5VKwpkCo

http://s20.postimg.org/749wh37ct/screenshot_341.png

Paddy Crooks.

http://s20.postimg.org/dw0bjxwcd/screenshot_342.png


Matthew Edgar

http://s20.postimg.org/pz5n7i7el/screenshot_343.png


Matt Olosunde - Perhaps our only mistake of the window.

http://s20.postimg.org/dyk76rzzx/screenshot_344.png


Ed Francis

http://s20.postimg.org/6wm9kkwe5/screenshot_345.png


Results

http://s20.postimg.org/92gkf2zul/screenshot_346.png
http://s20.postimg.org/s8tri9gcd/screenshot_347.png
http://s20.postimg.org/szmho1ipp/screenshot_348.png


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. :D Fuck me!

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

:chief: This game.

[Yevrah]

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]

Here is how he got on in my save:

http://i.imgur.com/exltndk.png

http://i.imgur.com/XCoovrs.png

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

http://i.imgur.com/BWMQILf.png

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.

http://i.imgur.com/LwCoBlO.png

What a win percentage and a fucking promotion.

[Yevrah]

Champions League qualifying safely navigated.

http://i65.tinypic.com/29xss9u.jpg

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]

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

[Yevrah]

http://i66.tinypic.com/hvnzes.jpg

Sweet.

Max wage allowed up to £11,750. :alan:

[Smiffy]

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

[Yevrah]

http://i66.tinypic.com/r90c2a.jpg

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]

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

http://s20.postimg.org/sglzsigot/screenshot_349.png

He's got a £43M release clause. :cab:

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
http://s20.postimg.org/wr0no3lrx/screenshot_350.png

coming in in January are:

Ronaldo Abazi :cool:
http://s20.postimg.org/frrp8uakd/screenshot_351.png

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

Axel Magnusson. :drool:

http://s20.postimg.org/bjwx0394t/screenshot_352.png

[Smiffy]

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

http://s20.postimg.org/57hrq962l/screenshot_353.png

[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.

[John Arne]

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]

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

http://i.imgur.com/TuPc80z.png

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.

http://i.imgur.com/ZVtDek1.png

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:

http://i.imgur.com/oMzbn3s.png




http://i.imgur.com/YW5xgR9.png

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.


http://i.imgur.com/Nq482yC.png

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:

http://i.imgur.com/dgZdH6k.png

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.

http://i.imgur.com/ij9r6pQ.png
http://i.imgur.com/Qi3FQ3z.png


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]

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]

Well isn't that something?

This Simon Tipple was from when I was playing as Leeds on a different save.
http://s22.postimg.org/n9bpni0m9/screenshot_67.png

Then there's this guy. Currently on loan from Man United in current save.
http://s20.postimg.org/d31yfxbel/screenshot_357.png

[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:

http://e1.365dm.com/15/08/16-9/20/Jonathan-Walters-Stoke-City-2015_3341664.jpg?20150824093908

:drool:

His stats for this level are off the charts.

[Giggles]

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:

http://e1.365dm.com/15/08/16-9/20/Jonathan-Walters-Stoke-City-2015_3341664.jpg?20150824093908

:drool:

His stats for this level are off the charts.

In 2016?

[7om]

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]

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]

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:

https://i.gyazo.com/0a81a0dac5c65881cb2e7e11505da79e.jpg

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:

https://i.gyazo.com/c9db19b31c44bcfd9e0efe7a825b6144.jpg

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:

https://i.gyazo.com/7dfcc2615a29dcd7b77dba4fa1e3ae18.png

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

https://i.gyazo.com/4914d5d7f34ed1dc5bba8e774f670c2c.png

So, onto my first eleven, spoliered for length:



https://i.gyazo.com/272186e2f1379b892c091d7a7ca08464.jpg
Signed from All Stars for £150k first season. Was already League One level so has been my number one since signing. Poor anticipation/Composure but one on one he's rarely beaten and despite the amount conceded he saves our arse regularly.

https://i.gyazo.com/6598a1a291e53cad175604dbeec9ac3a.jpg
Signed from MK Dons end of first season for £500k up front, £2mil in add ons. Converted winger, woeful tackling. He's on rotation with Dominic Iorfa, as going forward he's stunning. All the big English clubs have been sniffing around him. £21mil release clause. Having a mare this season in the Prem though :D

https://i.gyazo.com/74d77c3b36705e64970484c8538bc097.jpg
Club record signing, £8.75mil. Only £4mil up front however. Decent PL player, and essentially the best CB I could attract.

https://i.gyazo.com/04575b1cd60fc2ad24cf4797afd6fb02.jpg
End of first season, £5mil from Brentford. Very solid, rarely makes a mistake. Has a Match Highest Earner clause though, hence wage.

https://i.gyazo.com/e0a56928a49114aee6a657e1eda8cbe8.jpg
Free from RTD Academy in Ghana, first season. Beast, but has a thing for being sent off every six games or so. Loves me, loves the club, £40mil release clause.

https://i.gyazo.com/4c90fbea9029b78b4f8113c016aa371c.jpg
Signed this summer, £450k from Sporting B. Essentially the most 'complete' DM I could get, others had good tackling or strength but horrific mentals. Bargain, really. Emyr Huws from Cardiff is the back-up.

https://i.gyazo.com/961d24fce1635e01a3a3e0b4c5224831.jpg
£250k from ASEC first season. Love this guy, pure B2B, loves me and the club like all my Africans. £21mil release clause.

https://i.gyazo.com/c30a63ebc38c419977850d1bffc1d9a9.jpg
£4.5mil signing this summer. PL experience, very solid all round, is the pure bite in my midfield.

https://i.gyazo.com/23adbbc2ffed72433f252edea9907f41.jpg
Free transfer halfway through last season. Gonna be an absolute beast and is the 'flair' in our midfield.

https://i.gyazo.com/8caff659a211bf9ec7ab64a56ddd3d4c.jpg
Lower league legend. Bangs them in for fun as a DLF. Already a club icon. £4mil end of first season.

https://i.gyazo.com/1a90beb6743976629712e20bd7b62c4b.jpg
By far and away the best player in the team. Transfer listed by request, was also loan listed. Couldn't afford to buy (and wanted £60k a week anyway) so I chucked in a loan bid, full wage and £100k a month. Juve accepted, nobody else came in and he agreed. Currently training as, and playing as the other DLF, and he's carrying us at times.

Main regen prospects:

https://i.gyazo.com/3e550252ea310ed6c1ecbabc982b6d66.jpg
£6mil summer signing, £2mil up front. Scouts went mental for him.

https://i.gyazo.com/d45b201ee8c26a3958f8ad0ca9e1443e.jpg
Free from CBF Academy, end of first season. First choice back-up and will be my main DC in the future, or until a bigger club snaps him up. £30mil release clause.


Results this season so far:

https://i.gyazo.com/69ec9522feaeba8281ee56fec9443266.png

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:

https://i.gyazo.com/ac3f5cdf6656045dc8d2506e3d916389.png

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]

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]

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]

Aye narrow formations are definitely this year's thing.

[7om]

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]

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.

https://i.gyazo.com/78bf80c95995769d960bdddd1ce89552.png

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

https://i.gyazo.com/552c6a3bb4b055962eeaa0e2a267a079.png

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]

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]

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]

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

[Adamski]

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]

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

[Giggles]

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


http://i68.tinypic.com/2vabk0z.png

[Mazuuurk]

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]

http://i.imgur.com/c5WrH0M.png

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

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

http://i.imgur.com/NBTXStM.png

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

Only a Polish cup game but still, fucking hell.

[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.

[Manc]

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]

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

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

[John]

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.

https://i.gyazo.com/dcc8fd62d3bba9944d45c92d0d191e68.png

He's significantly less mental than Stakic at least.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

At least he's determined and tall.

[John]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

http://i.imgur.com/Sw2nYod.png

:cab:

Madrid in Poland to end it.

This group is fucking mental.

http://i.imgur.com/3lXT5qb.png

Absolutely mental.

Does favour the home teams though so hopefully :drool:

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

http://i.imgur.com/aAht1tY.png

http://i.imgur.com/72w99Rr.png

https://s3media.247sports.com/Uploads/Boards/156/25156/229531.jpg

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 :cool:

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

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]

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

http://i.imgur.com/MtCYXFD.png

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

http://i.imgur.com/mTc3KNh.png

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

[Adamski]

That's crazy Wullie!

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

[Giggles]

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]

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.

[John]

Train him to play in the centre of midfield and throw him in. If his stats are suited to playing there he'll perform anyway until his familiarity with the position catches up.

[Mazuuurk]

That's basically the same Problem I had with Mata, Phonics. He's essentially a bit too good to not cater the tactics around to some extent, and that shit pisses me off.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

http://i.imgur.com/zNoLNY4.png

http://i.imgur.com/opdtGnT.png

Couldn't have drawn Ajax or PAOK? Ugh.

[Mazuuurk]

John - don't players become like 10% worse in attributes if you retrain them to a new position?

[Mazuuurk]

It really fucks me off that they write Inter with capital letters for some inexplicable reason.

It's like the one retard in class who just can't be like the others.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Indeed, it's seriously annoying.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

http://i.imgur.com/4pGuSyL.png

What a shit PA.

Fuck you Charlotte, I want nothing 'social'.

[John]

John - don't players become like 10% worse in attributes if you retrain them to a new position?

They do not.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Did that used to be a thing? I'm sure I've heard that before, or something like it affects their PA.

[Giggles]

That's crazy Wullie!

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

Had a look about some forums this morning and you can edit some stuff for touch if it's on a PC but not if it's on Android/iOS.

I hate having it unrealistic so I think I'll buy the full version. Anyone know the best place to buy?

[John]

It uses PA to have a player improve their weak foot, but I've trained loads of players in new positions and if it does use ability points it certainly isn't as drastic as ten percent.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

http://i.imgur.com/XQ4R7KJ.png

http://i.imgur.com/wEkmRiS.png

http://i.imgur.com/MIT8acb.png

Absolutely fucking seething.

We're regulars in the Champions League now, having just qualified for our first knockout match and we've got £25m in the bank. The fuck lads? The fuck?

[Mazuuurk]

It uses PA to have a player improve their weak foot, but I've trained loads of players in new positions and if it does use ability points it certainly isn't as drastic as ten percent.

Hmm OK. I always seem to see red arrows all over when I retrain people, but it could be purely coincidental, and besides if it's only 5% it might be worth it.

I'll try retraining Mata and see what happens. He shouldn't be able to improve any more, and he's still young enough not to have much natural decline yet.

[Smiffy]

30 games into the Championship season and there's just six points separating 11th place Bolton and 3rd place Wolves. QPR look set to run away with it as they are already 18 points clear of everyone. :cab:

http://s20.postimg.org/mk0ye1a0t/screenshot_359.png

We're definitely good enough for a stab at the playoffs, it's hard to gauge Burnley at the moment as they've just lost three of their last four league games but all were sandwiched between an EFL semi final and an FA Cup tie plus replay. We've got them next so hoping it has worked in our favour.

[Mazuuurk]

Tactical question, when playing narrow formations like everyone seems to be doing, do you have fairly high Width to still get some spread of your players, or do you literally just pack the middle with players by having both a narrow formation and no width?

[Adamski]

It uses PA to have a player improve their weak foot, but I've trained loads of players in new positions and if it does use ability points it certainly isn't as drastic as ten percent.

I think it does use a certain amount of PA to retrain but haven't seen it have a massive effect. It's certainly not a percentage of their existing attributes decreasing.

[wullie]

I started the season losing 2-0 at home to Huddersfield and 1-0 away to AFC Wimbledon who are now two divisions lower, so I decided to be a little less rigid as clearly relying on the defence won't cut it this year and we're not scoring as it is. The decision was kind of validated in the next game as I lost 6-5 at Forest.

[Mazuuurk]

I think it does use a certain amount of PA to retrain but haven't seen it have a massive effect. It's certainly not a percentage of their existing attributes decreasing.

So then, what about a player who has reached their max?

[Giggles]

CDkeys are €26.99. Anyone see lower?

[Adamski]

So then, what about a player who has reached their max?

I think they die.

[John]

https://i.gyazo.com/c7e5175b2ab82ced4ff09b7b40e5fab3.png

Just had this fucking geezer through in my latest intake. :drool:

[Dark Soldier]

Iirc, what happens when you retrain position is a certain amount of stat points will be diverted to attributes more specific/central to the role/position. See my converted right winger into a full back. On Genie Scout when I signed him, he had potential 17 dribbling and 9 tackling. He now has, after retraining, potential 16 dribbling and 11 tackling. His vision potential and a couple others have decreased too. This is all based on a wonderkid though, not an established player.

I think a lot of confusion comes from FMRTE, where if you give, say Mata 20 in CM, his stats will almost instantly show red down arrows as the game doesn't expect him to fulfill his new role overnight, so it looks like he's become a lesser player. I believe it evens out over the months. Similar to how only certain attributes can be edited in FMRTE without other stats taking a hit. A player only has so many attribute points at any stage so to go over can be a fuck.

[Mazuuurk]

That all makes quite a lot of sense really.

So it's prolly bullshit.

[Dark Soldier]

Anyway this happened:

https://i.gyazo.com/834772e4f73358738def24aa971330b5.png

Tactic is quite OP. Here's how its set-up (for Maz mainly):

https://i.gyazo.com/c34b15195642d2009b714787b225805f.png

We got the tiniest of bumps in reputation, which means we're now only 3rd favourites to be relegated this season. As per, my options in the transfer window either wanted too much in wage (I refuse to pay anyone over £40k a week currently) or were quite shit, so we're essentially Regen United now. My main signings:

https://i.gyazo.com/a59e61558747963197714debb455bcfa.jpg
£20mil up front, £20mil over add-ons from Bayern. Pjaca went back to Juve, and I badly needed an out and out DLF to partner Clough and he was the absolute best option. Starter.

https://i.gyazo.com/fecd5b73e20b9b2ab12900bb9807fa3e.jpg

£10mil up front, £8mil add-ons from Guadalajara. Fucking beast of a CM. Starter.

https://i.gyazo.com/ae6957abc9f465257b2aaafd7d49aa6f.jpg

Scouts raved over potential, so he's a back-up. £7mil from Kobenhaven.

Main out was Pasalic:

https://i.gyazo.com/636bb590089c81d1868534755f42924f.jpg

Signed for £3.5mil 12 months ago, shone as a rotational CM, and left for PSG for £14mil. Tidy profit.

Bank balance is very good, and we're still in the green on a monthly basis.

[Dark Soldier]

And literally this minute I've sold that converted winger/full back. Pissed and moaned every transfer window about wanting to be sold to Arsenal/Chelsea/City, so I listed him and he's gone to Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship for £18mil :D

[7om]

John :drool:

Love it when a player comes through the academy like that. I just had a 6'7" keeper come through at Wexford who looks like he could be great for this level in future. I decided to try and blood him early so in pre-season I sacked off my reserve keeper and the academy kid is now on the bench for every game.

Got home last night and was quite excited to pick up where I finished off on Monday where we started the league with three wins in three games. Last night was played five, lost five. Proper disheartening, so I'm going to have to have a good think about how we can stop this nose dive.

[Giggles]

That's the thing with FM, you won't need to think. When you restart you'll probably be unbeatable depending on which background it loads with your save.

[John]

John :drool:

Love it when a player comes through the academy like that. I just had a 6'7" keeper come through at Wexford who looks like he could be great for this level in future. I decided to try and blood him early so in pre-season I sacked off my reserve keeper and the academy kid is now on the bench for every game.

Got home last night and was quite excited to pick up where I finished off on Monday where we started the league with three wins in three games. Last night was played five, lost five. Proper disheartening, so I'm going to have to have a good think about how we can stop this nose dive.

Marjanovic picked up an injury so I've just thrown him in at the deep end with a start away to our biggest rivals. Scored two and set one up to get man of the match in a 4-0 win. :drool:

I'm getting about a season out of him at the most. :moop:

https://i.gyazo.com/38c99e6a79ce34d878ded0a8af0b9fbf.png

[7om]

Yep, he'll be sold from underneath you before he even touches any of that potential.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Still angry that the board sold my Dutch beast out from under me for peanuts despite us rejecting more in the Summer, with us being in the first knockout stage of the Champions League and with £25m in the bank :(

Someone give me a hug, please X

[John]

I've lost upwards of a dozen players that way, Andy.

[Mike]

https://i.imgur.com/lqAnMTy.png

Secured a playoff spot. Play Norwich next too.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I've lost upwards of a dozen players that way, Andy.

Yeah but just look at him, I had a fictional man crush on him.

Although this kid I bought is looking swish:

http://i.imgur.com/Pm8SxdV.png

He'll shit on Abdellaoui.

[Dark Soldier]

What's this absolute bollocks of players demanding to move to a club when they haven't even put in a fecking transfer bid? Two of my Africans have been at it all summer, yet zero bids. Moaning cunts.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

What's this absolute bollocks of players demanding to move to a club when they haven't even put in a fecking transfer bid? Two of my Africans have been at it all summer, yet zero bids. Moaning cunts.

The whole system is fucked.

[John]

It gets better if someone does bid, but not the club they wanted to. You'll get players wanting to know why you rejected a bid from Benfica, when the bid came from Legia Warsaw, and you only get the standard options to deal with it, so wind up having to tell your player that the bid from Benfica wasn't good enough, rather than slapping the prick around the head and telling him the channel for Sky Sports News.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I ask them what it will take to keep them here, when we exit the Champions League they want to be back in it so tell them we will.

If we're still in they moan about wanting to win the Champions League, I promise it will happen soon and if they're being a dick I go full mental and tell them they can play out their contract.

Fuck player power.

[Dark Soldier]

My fucking insane left back has three red cards in three games this season. His aggression is only 13 :happycry:

Fined six week wages total and relegated to under 18s for a month.

[Mike]

Finished third. Hopefully we do well in the playoffs.

[phonics]

http://i.imgur.com/zvBEzNX.png

Slow news day lads?

[Mazuuurk]

My fucking insane left back has three red cards in three games this season. His aggression is only 13 :happycry:

Fined six week wages total and relegated to under 18s for a month.

That keeps happening with Schneiderlin, even when I'm not even pressing much. Not sure why.

Anyway thanks for the Tactics display. I'm trying to make my 4-3-3 work now it seems the most fun one to play with- Going decently but I'm unsure how to set up the front three. Currently it's:

F9 (Martial) - CF Attack (Zlatan) - F9 (Rashford)

That seems to leave Zlatan a little outside the game so I'm gonna try out making him a DLF Attack for a while. That means no real focal point to stretch the defence though.

[7om]

I had that problem arriving at Wexford.

Every wanker and his dog was crying about wanting to leave so I promised them I'll listen to offers and off they go all content. No offers ever come in and I therefore haven't broke a promise. I had one moron tell me he was desperate to leave and wouldn't be signing a new contract. Come the end of the season and we're promoted, the idiot still won't sign so leaves on a free. Ends up signing a contract with another Division One team while we're now in the Premier. Good going there, son, well played.

[Giggles]

The one year contracts in Ireland really must be a pain in the hole. Are they the full year or 42-week as in real life?

[John]

Players whinging to leave and then going to a side who won't solve their problems is an FM staple. I had a player last season moaning that he wanted silverware and wouldn't sign a new deal as a result. So he signed a precontract with another club in January, while we go on to win the Serbian Cup with him playing no part. He's off to the worst side in the Ukraine league.

[7om]

The one year contracts in Ireland really must be a pain in the hole. Are they the full year or 42-week as in real life?

I haven't noticed contracts being any different in Ireland compared to anywhere else. The only difference, for instance with England, is that the contracts run December to December.

[Yevrah]

They really do need to tone the whinging and constant transfer bids down, it's absolutely balls.

[Dark Soldier]

They really do need to tone the whinging and constant transfer bids down, it's absolutely balls.

Aye, due to my first team being young, I've currently got 11 of my first 24 all with a wanted status. They've all played this season, and yet every transfer window its about five loan offers per fucking day. No Roma I will not loan you my 4th choice midfielder just because he's 18. No, offering the same again two days later has not changed my fucking opinion.

[Dark Soldier]

And another thing pissing me off. STOP ASKING FOR A NEW CONTRACT EVERY SIX FUCKING MONTHS YOU GREEDY AFRICAN BASTARDS. You're 19, on 30k a week and I've rescued you from a fucking mud shack you twat.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Only one transfer in for me:

http://i.imgur.com/PNQ0nD4.png

£3.8m and my scouts are very high on him.

Tried to buy some more but I was either being outpriced (fuck Daniel Levy wanting £166m for a 19 year old striker they don't play or send out on loan) or the player wasn't interested in us.

We seem to be in that grey area right now so players are really hard to come by. Hopefully that changes in the Summer.

[Giggles]

Not a fucking clue who they are, but still :cool:


http://i65.tinypic.com/k13qd2.png

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I've also recalled this lad from a loan:

http://i.imgur.com/cT46yzQ.png

I had completely forgotten about him until I got a report moaning that he was being played out of position.

[Giggles]

Whatever about the last lot (7-2 on agg after), I know these should be walloping me.


http://i64.tinypic.com/2ykhyqb.png

[Mazuuurk]

The 4-3-3 actually works better with Zlatan as Complete Forward (Attack) in the Front three.

[Dark Soldier]

I am gonna kill these little fucking cunts. £75k a week, six months after you signed a £40k a week contract? You're being sold ya jumped up prick.

[Mazuuurk]

Yeah that has always been extremely annoying. The way I think the game calculates it is based of of their reputation (and maybe some other parameters) or something, which usually increases quickly once you start playing them regularly.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

http://i.imgur.com/Mtkg81G.png

I fucking love hiring ex-players to be coaches.

Imagine Rory Delap pitching up in the south of Poland to teach some kids about tactics. It's glorious.

I've also got Phil Neville as my assistant teaching them how to defend.

[John]

https://i.gyazo.com/d37aadc9654ca2492a4d1ab86dcbdd47.png

Fucking :drool:

We've won it with a game to go, and I honestly reckon this is up there with the most satisfying trophies I've ever won on this game. My entire wage bill is £17k a week. The league's top goalscorer plays for Partizan and is their second top earner. His wage is £17k a week.

[John]

Right, the heroes.

https://i.gyazo.com/030395a4be037113b5012632e4d1ad4c.png

Was first choice for the first half of the season and conceded eighteen goals in his twenty games, a cracking record. Went to Barcelona thanks to a release clause without which I'd have lost him the previous summer on a free. Still bitter.

https://i.gyazo.com/0f1d4f4bcf91db4cc4a6b52c9a3c8b42.png

Conceded seventeen goals in his fifteen games in the second half of the season, which isn't up to the standard set by Stakic but not so far away that it really mattered. I reckon he'll turn out to be quite good.

https://i.gyazo.com/5826567a4d1d87726b219d71e744d8c8.png

The complete nutcase is currently banned for the next match in all competitions, all through an accumulation of bookings. Still a brilliantly consistent performer though and the current vice captain.

https://i.gyazo.com/9ee901325b5f8c3ba8384d229517dae5.png

Remains rock solid at the back, despite his obviously questionable stats.

https://i.gyazo.com/8023a37d0468f603a0438d8505edcc88.png

I'd been holding off putting him into the side because of his terrible tackling, but Djeric picked up an injury early in the season and Blagojevic was so good that he kept the place for the duration.

https://i.gyazo.com/996c3720f1982dffaaa8af6f07699522.png

This little motherfucker still somehow remains in the side, despite being absolutely abysmal. I now have two left backs, one from last year's intake and one from this, who look better than him but one missed three quarters of the season with two separate broken bones and the other came through too late to stop Kizic being my most common starter at left back. The cunt is in my 'Best XI' now, for fuck sake.

https://i.gyazo.com/59540c47a5c88507a7d5a8279b4fa4a9.png

Cuckic left in the summer, clearing a path to the firs team for this little geezer and he's taken it well. Higher average rating, more goals, and more assists than his more well compensated predecessor.

https://i.gyazo.com/6625e8a54c00218c2b91110204c77bc4.png

Was a little behind both Rundic and Causic in terms of development last season so spent most of it on the bench, but stepped into the centre of midfield this season to let Rundic move forward and he's developed like a fucking train since. Got a bit bitchy about wages halfway through the season so is now our most highly paid player by quite some distance, but he's well worth it. He's everywhere in midfield at all times.

https://i.gyazo.com/09f9560f6c3e573acaf2b75315082507.png

Stanisavlijevic, my first choice left winger, spent a fair bit of time this season out injured so Petric, who's accomplished there, played more often than not. He's technically good and has decent pace, so there's a good chance he'll become the first choice once he's natural there.

https://i.gyazo.com/a5dd530d2311c266ac9e0447f6fc4e5a.png

Now we're onto the big guns. Fifteen goals and twenty one assists in thirty three games gave him the league's player of the year, manager's player of the year, and young player of the year, about which I'm sure Igor Rundic was absolutely furious.

https://i.gyazo.com/27a764bced92f2b5341816e0a2c0b8ae.png

Twenty four goals and sixteen assists in thirty five league games. It's obscene when compared to both the eight goals and two assists Causic got in this position last season, and the three goals and four assists Rundic himself got from central midfield. As long as we keep hold of him and Milosevic in the summer I'm confident we'll take the league again next year.

https://i.gyazo.com/c707835035dfd4c4cb25425c39afc9f0.png

Nothing like as productive a season as he had last year, but thirteen goals and eight assists is still a serviceable return. With Belic coming through I'm less confident than I was at the end of last year that he'll remain first choice forever, but he won't be going anywhere.

[7om]

https://s18.postimg.org/ezuvgqxy1/irish_prem_half.png (https://postimg.org/image/fcm9mxg7p/)image sharing sites (https://postimage.org/)

Halfway point in the Premiership.

Not going to lie, about 10 minutes ago I was really fucking close to smashing something. We are just getting run ragged in every game, so I have had to abandon the asymmetrical formation (for now) and go with something a little more solid. After a disastrous run we just drew 2-2 at home with Bohemians after leading twice. This is really tough.

EDIT: Board objective this year is to avoid relegation so they're still content right now. I'm nervous, though. We're inadequate in every way in this division.

[7om]

Nice work, John. Brilliant achievement with an incredibly young team.

[Mazuuurk]

John - how the hell do you manage to get so many great youngsters ?

I don't even seem to have that many in United (I mean, I do, like maybe 4-5 that can be good, but that's freaking United like).

[phonics]

Not sure I understand this game. Beat Chelsea 4-1, Beat Zenit 2-1, Beat Everton 5-4, Lost to Arsenal 8-0, haven't scored a goal in the next 3 games afterwards.

[John]

John - how the hell do you manage to get so many great youngsters ?

I don't even seem to have that many in United (I mean, I do, like maybe 4-5 that can be good, but that's freaking United like).

None of those are great, they've just had a shitload of football early on so they've developed quickly. I've had two players through I reckon could become great, Ahmed Jahic who's now at Atletico and Slobodan Belic, who just came through this year.

[Mazuuurk]

Not sure I understand this game. Beat Chelsea 4-1, Beat Zenit 2-1, Beat Everton 5-4, Lost to Arsenal 8-0, haven't scored a goal in the next 3 games afterwards.

It's a bit like that for me too. I've been playing solid most of the autumn (I'm not in early December and I'm top of the table).

I play most games well but got fucking done in by West Ham and destroyed 4-0 (could have been more, I had absolutely nothing that game) against Liverpool out of nowhere. I mean, shit happens, but I've no idea why I did so badly in that Liverpool game for instance.

[John]

For some reason the values of all my players has suddenly decupled. I knew winning the league would have given us a boost, but not that big and it seems to extend to Partizan and Red Star too. Presumably there's a big rep bump for the league coming up which has taken effect but not been displayed yet, but it's still a bit unnerving to see my player with a ten million quid valuation beside him.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

http://i.imgur.com/mREmyRY.png

Julio Caesar :cool:

Quickest hattrick I've seen on any of my teams on any FM version.

[Smiffy]

Season 2023/2024

After just one year with Accrington I left the now League One club for Championship side Birmingham. The Blues hadn't done much of note in the league with 2019/20's 8th place finish being the only noticeable exception. We had little to spend but brought in a few solid youngsters but despite his goals it wasn't Axel Magnusson who impressed the most it was our free transfer signing Mickey.

http://s20.postimg.org/nbh3zwc8t/screenshot_362.png

He'll go for a fair whack at some point if the interested teams are anything to go by.

Axel Magnusson didn't arrive until January but he managed 10 in 20 games which wasn't too shabby.

As it is though it didn't matter what anyone did as our season was a bit of a let down.

We just about gained a play off spot.

http://s20.postimg.org/phbeuefp9/screenshot_363.png

We'd beaten Sheffield Wednesday a few games prior to cement our place but had lost and drawn with Wolves so it wasn't a forgone conclusion. Until of course faced Wolves and smashed them 5-2. A 2-2 draw in the return put us through to face The Owls and we were confident.

Perhaps too much so. :moop:

http://s20.postimg.org/juf1wxd6l/screenshot_364.png

Fuck Birmingham.

[7om]

Show us the manager history of what clubs you've been at in this save, Smiffy. I'm lost.

[Smiffy]

http://s20.postimg.org/xcqjmyepp/screenshot_365.png

http://s20.postimg.org/5qns29vct/screenshot_366.png

I've just left Birmingham now too...

[7om]

Nice work. My aim after Ireland is the Scottish lower leagues. Looking forward to it.

[Smiffy]

There's not that much of a jump in quality for League One and Two tbh. I only left because the thought of getting promoted a third time just didn't fit with my idea. I don't like the thought of the University being in the SPL when Edinburgh City themselves were still in League Two.

[CJay]

How good is FM17, then? The most recent version I played was '13 - the last one with proper tacticking. I despise their new approach to tactics, but might give it another try. Is the rest of the game amazing or is it a bloated mess? Tempted to give it a go over Christmas.

[Smiffy]

Naughty. :cool:

https://s20.postimg.org/4thctejul/screenshot_367.png

http://s20.postimg.org/hao0gkf0d/screenshot_369.png

[7om]

Scum.

[Smiffy]

Burn, 7om.

http://s20.postimg.org/71vjaqqyl/screenshot_370.png

[P_3]

Like that would ever happen.

[Smiffy]

Will it end in tears a second time that's what I'm wondering? It hasn't started well with numerous players wanting out due to the club being relegated. This one is going to hurt.

http://s20.postimg.org/4yl432r5p/screenshot_371.png

[7om]

Like that would ever happen.

Alex McLeish? Steve Bruce?

[P_3]

I was obviously kidding.

[7om]

I was obviously kidding.

Don't try and play that card just because you got a donning.

[Giggles]

That'll be Europe over then.

http://i63.tinypic.com/icmjqg.png

[John]

Didn't even score a penalty so you could lol at his run up, the inconsiderate cunt.

[Dark Soldier]

Reverted to the OG 433 midway through this season. Fucking lol:

https://i.gyazo.com/29df94d1c63e66f39d390a1827e4c3a1.png

2 wins away from league trumph too.

[Manc]

3 quarter finals and a 3rd place finish in the league. The board claim to be satisfied, but are secretly seething.

16 games in Europe last year and we fluffed it to AZ of all teams. Come August and we start all over again with a trip to Serbia. Depressing.

On a positive note Ocampos and Ongenda are carrying the team and not a penny was spent.

[John]

Come August and we start all over again with a trip to Serbia. Depressing.

Get fucked.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

GKS Katowice 2023/24 season:

http://i.imgur.com/torVnI3.png

http://i.imgur.com/cTu9Num.png

http://i.imgur.com/NblVnvT.png

http://i.imgur.com/nWW2lHN.png

We've made the league our bitch now. Someone usually tries to keep up with us but we were on fire this season.

http://i.imgur.com/CebWV5f.png

No problems with the cup either, the loss in the second leg was only because all bar 3 senior players were available.

http://i.imgur.com/eT2hyGI.png

The Champions League group was mental and I thought we could really do some damage after getting through. Sadly we didn't do enough at home after grabbing an away goal.

Here are the squad stats:

http://i.imgur.com/VWVvAx2.png

Joel Chan was voted our player of the season but Van Den Boogaard was fucking mental. 26 goals and 20 assists in 56 games :cool: Hero.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

http://i.imgur.com/xzmyw9y.png

http://i.imgur.com/VddlqFI.png

Brilliant.

[Mazuuurk]

Haha wat.

My Board just "Injected" 21M "to pass Financial Fair Play regulations". OK, fine. The same day, they increased my transfer budget with... 20 Million.

I'm not complaining but, isn't that exceedingly daft, or am I not understanding the FFP rules properly?

[Dark Soldier]

Well fuck.

https://i.gyazo.com/c710c6f207a248b5bc70e164a77987de.png

Three individual errors cost us, but tbh Barca were easily the better team. 7 of their 13 chances were CCCs. Won the league (on the last day) and FA Cup though, so overall a fucking superb season.

[Dark Soldier]

And I have a season like that, season before finish 2nd in Prem, and my players are kicking off wanting to join the likes of Marseille. This. Fucking. Game.

[wullie]

With the transfer budget not even stretching to a footlong at Subway, the season started ominously

http://i.imgur.com/jc1yTgV.png

As the whole 'tighten up the defence and rely on the forwards' ploy wasn't working too well I pushed them on a little which brought back the goals and the results got a little better, although scoring 5 and still losing was a kick right in the nads

http://i.imgur.com/1nORFZ0.png

Then inexplicably it got real good.

http://i.imgur.com/iHGmHlC.png

The best part is that instead of the constant trope of surrendering points due to late goals, we've started doing that to other teams. Got in a primo fitness coach after the board allowed me to increase staff numbers and we may not be flagging late in every game now

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Transfers out:

http://i.imgur.com/Q2TyBrP.png

Trying to shift as much of the shit as possible. We didn't make as much as last season but those who left this year were a lot worse.

Here are the ins:

http://i.imgur.com/2X6jfEW.png

Bought for potential profit really. Signed on a free.

http://i.imgur.com/bO20em7.png

£750k, again bought for some potential profit.

http://i.imgur.com/lOtcHFE.png

Still seething after the board let Ahmed Abdellaoui walk for practically nothing so I wanted someone better to take over. £10m upfront with £30m over the next 2 years, which is a fucking hefty amount but I've done a bit of saving. I had been trying to buy him for the last 3 years and almost had a deal done but we just couldn't afford the deal I had negotiated so I had to pull out.

He's also started well with 12 in 8.

http://i.imgur.com/o4CqGA9.png

Qualification easy once again and we were rewarded with this:

http://i.imgur.com/Jd8zkFp.png

Again, third is the goal. Qualification to the next round will be harder than last year though so it looks like third will be it.

Here's the squad now:

http://i.imgur.com/mY6UsDK.png

[Panda Bear]

If I don't get promoted this season to the Premier League, I'm going to be annoyed.

I can accept being in the Championship two years, but not three.

On a different note, how beautiful are inverted wingbacks? I've started to convert extra centre midfielders into them to aid my 4-3-2-1's ultra low tempo, retain possession, work ball in the box tactic. My front three, like previous versions, is a TM risky pass/F9 with two shadow strikers.

[Giggles]

Seeing as everyone has been moaning about how annoying this is for the past few pages, is this honestly worth 25 of my Euros when I already have 2016 with a data update?

[Giggles]

Actually, scratch that. CDKeys is broken.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

http://i.imgur.com/tCBycq9.png

:drool:

Fuck the Nou Camp and all the dickheads.

Julio Caesar :wub:

http://i.imgur.com/O28zzru.png

They are my fucking bitches.

Also, my hero is on fire:

http://i.imgur.com/a4wJH8I.png

http://i.imgur.com/q3uB2eK.png

[Giggles]

Downloaded after. Started unemployed and on holiday and got offered Southampton in February 17, Hoffenheim in March, and ended up taking Monchengladbach in the summer. Not too bad a squad, bit light up front.

[7om]

I'm close to being done with this game completely. Nothing fucking works anymore

https://s13.postimg.org/rbkd3vw2v/kjffcv.png (https://postimg.org/image/4zmkahwyr/)uploading pictures (https://postimage.org/)

[Jimmy Floyd]

I have no idea how some of you lot are banging out seasons inside a day. I had it going for 3-4 hours earlier on and off and got through about 7 matches.

[Gray Fox]

I'm pretty sure I remember seeing Smiffy saying in the past that he has it on commentary only and at full speed. Games would fly by.

[Dark Soldier]

I holiday between games most of the season, unless I've got transfer stuff going on. Leaves a lot of players pissed because I'm off on some beach while they're moaning, but it kinda works.

[Spikey M]

And I have a season like that, season before finish 2nd in Prem, and my players are kicking off wanting to join the likes of Marseille. This. Fucking. Game.

They seriously need to fix this shit. Every time I play I take a team from the lower leagues to the top. Last time I played I took Boreham Wood FC to the Premiership and I fuckers kicking off because I rejected a bid from the likes of Charlton who had just been promoted to the Championship.

[Mike]

Reached the playoff final yesterday but had to save it.
Going to play it later once I've cleaned my flat. Woke up early today so I've joked it's cos I'm excited about the match and need to iron my suit :cool2:

[Giggles]

I always just do Instant Result as the engine won't work properly on my laptop (plus, it's shit). Still need days to do a season though.

[Smiffy]

I'm pretty sure I remember seeing Smiffy saying in the past that he has it on commentary only and at full speed. Games would fly by.

Pretty much. Although some skins give you the instant result button now too so you can just simulate with your tactic instead of leaving it to the ass. man.

I tend to go extended in cup comps, sim the meaningless matches games like friendlies or short priced league games and commentary on the league games that actually matter. It's not as clear as that as it depends on form etc too. The two downsides to simming are your backups aren't looked after so well and often remain on the bench whilst your youngsters won't get a look in whatsoever.

[Dark Soldier]

My save is doing that striker thing where all strikers, regardless of amounts of shots, clear cut chances or whatever, refuse to score. Just had one striker have 12 shots, 1 on target, 4 CCCs and twice he was clear through and managed to put it 10 feet wide. 40 shots total, fuck all on target. 2-1 defeat.

I hate when its clear the game is fucking ya as it throws you completely out of the immersion. Dominating every single game by a big margin yet strikers are all nah mate we forgot how to kick the ball.

[7om]

John, Smiffy, Dark Soldier, Andy Mahowry

Does anyone know under what menu you change the settings for who controls the youth team, youth team tactics, handling youth players' contract renewals and all that? I just can't find it.

[Reg]

Staff > Responsibilities

[Giggles]

He didn't say Reg

[Jimmy Floyd]

http://i.imgur.com/BKDZzyp.png

http://i.imgur.com/ZdX7hZG.png

For some reason I'm getting a real perverse enjoyment out of this.

[7om]

I'm in exactly the same position, Jimmy. Except I nearly punched a hole through my screen last night.

[7om]

Three games to go with Derry away next. I'm shitting myself.

https://s18.postimg.org/eb3u0swh5/hrdjfgjh.png (https://postimg.org/image/qpqm14nz9/)screen cap (https://postimage.org/app.php)

[7om]

We lost the relegation playoff 8-3 to a First Division team who don't have anywhere near the quality of players we do. Load of garbage.

[Dark Soldier]

Haha you absolute fanny

[Ian]

I have a German/Turk youth in my team called Haluk Gün who just played well in a Champions League game. I praised him in the press conference. The post-conference news item in my inbox said I was delighted by "The Gün Show."

:gay:

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

:D

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

http://i.imgur.com/PCUhqb3.png

That is pretty huge as PSG are THE powerhouse in my save.

That is the first knockout round too.

http://i.imgur.com/W477UZF.png

Just look at that record.

Partly because they spend money like mad:

http://i.imgur.com/oWa1VFK.png

And here are their main 3 newgens:

http://i.imgur.com/glxeMUG.png

http://i.imgur.com/OA0mDGc.png

http://i.imgur.com/qU8JjRz.png

It's madness to see them going out so soon.

[7om]

Haha you absolute fanny

I don't get this game. My team were leaking goals so I switched to a three at the back, set them all to tight marking and you wouldn't believe the amount of goals we give away where we have 4-5 defenders in the box and none of them are within ten yards of an attacker and he easily scores.

These are not scrub defenders either. They're perfectly fine for this level so what do I do? I already emphasize defensive work in training so what is it? How do you explain shipping eight goals to a team vastly inferior to us? Their forwards were absolute fucking garbage and ran rings around us. How?

[Adamski]

WestHam7om

[Mike]

Newcastle just fell apart against me after full time. Meaning I'm playing Premier League Football next season!
https://i.imgur.com/WUmEs4f.png

https://i.imgur.com/Wcd1iSj.png

https://i.imgur.com/I0sj7jR.png


https://i.imgur.com/stoBVzq.png
https://i.imgur.com/hUbnvrN.png

https://i.imgur.com/MTHZ6Oo.png



Board have set next seasons initial budget at £19mil with a wage budget of £600k

[Pen]

So I ended my first Serie B season in a disappointing 4th place finish. I would've been happy with that at the start of the season, but seeing as I was still within a shot of an automatic promotion on the last round and second just a few rounds before the 4th place and playoffs didn't feel all that great. I got Carpi in the playoffs and lost the first leg 2-0 before drawing 2-2 at home. 6th place Bari ended up going up through the playoffs as they beat Carpi in the final. Udinese (1st) and Novara (2nd) also went up. In the end going up would've probably been way too soon for my team as most of them were barely average Serie B level. I had also gotten myself into further financial shit as my wage budget was a few 10k over the one I got given at the end of the season. I ended up selling Radoslav Tsonev (my best player stats wise, but he never did much) to Fulham for £3m, which more than took care of any financial trouble we had. Again lots of 'wheelin n dealin' over the summer made sure that my team looked capable of challenging for promotion. One of the best surprises of the summer was that two of my youth players came up to the first team and were good enough to warrant a place in the first team squad.

I started the season much better than the previous one and for a while it looked as if I had found a tactic that actually worked. I stormed to the top of the table, and apart from the few slumps I had, I don't think I dropped beneath 5th at any point. Selling squad players I had accumulated during different transfer windows I was also able to get some cash for more wages for the Bosman bonanza in January and a few signings that actually cost a bit of money. I went to the last game of the season trailing Cesena by one point (they had a vastly superior goal difference) and Trapani were 2 behind me and (I had +4 on them in gd). We all had away games in the last round, Cesena having the toughest game against 4th place Palermo. I played out a goalless draw with Verona to put me on 75 points. I was shit scared to lose as Trapani went to win their game comfortably ending just a single goal behind me in gd and on level points. Cesena were leading for the first hour or so, but Palermo equalised and went on to win 3-1 dropping Cesena 3rd one point behind me and Trapani. I was already celebrating my first league win when I looked at the live table, but when it updated after every game had ended Trapani were top as Italy values head to head to goal difference. I would've been so fucked off had Cesena drawn their game as well as it would've meant I had missed out on promotion whilst happily concentrating on not losing. Fair play to Trapani though as their team is absolutely rank. They should be certain for one of the relegation spots next year and maybe they'll even take the rather unfortunate record of getting the least pints in a season from Lecce.

I haven't started the next season yet, but money wise it seems to be a completely new world as I got probably ten times what I've gotten in the last three seasons for transfers (£8m) and my wage budget was almost tripled (just shy of £400k). Looking forward to what next season brings. Still 5 players from my own youth academy in the first team too which is great. 2-3 should play important roles this year too.

So that's where we left off after three seasons of 'lower league' football it was finally the time to test how Lecce could do in the top flight. The financial aspect was obviously the biggest change as I had been playing with pennies prior to my first Serie A season and now everyone around me were splashing millions on players and despite my increased wage budget, I couldn't attract players from teams around me as they all could pay more. 30 year old Holger Badstuber was my best piece of business as he was without a club in July and much to my surprise was willing to join me in my bid for Serie A safety. My first season started well and I was able to nick points from the big boys and build a nice gap between us and the relegation zone. Steve Biakolo, a Cameroonian I had acquired from Union Douala for a measely £150k in 2018 was the leading star of my team. Biakolo's efforts didn't go unnoticed by the big clubs and Baeyrn bid £50m for him on the last day of the January window and Atletico offered me £70m for him in the last day of the summer window. I turned both down (well I was afraid to do that so I asked for £100m from both and they backed down). The reason for turning such massive bids down wasn't that he is irreplaceable, which while very good he isn't, but because I can't attract the players I want making the money irrelevant at this point in time. I ended my first Serie A season 6th which was more than I expected even 5 games before the end. Juve had a mare of a season and finished 7th. Juve's shitty season didn't stop Dybala from putting 5 past my goalkeeper in my 5-2 loss to them. The useless twat only managed to score three this season when we played (3-3) so obviously he's past it now. Juve are currently top in February still yet to lose.

In the season I'm currently in my wage budget is now almost £800k and I was given almost £30m to spend in the summer (at least half of that went to the wage budget) I only brought in a few Belgians and a Turkish midfielder called Okay Yusulu, who is probably the first player of real quality to join me bough with actual money as I'm still struggling to attract players that would be notably better than the ones I already have. That said at least half a dozen players came in on frees and were either loaned or kept on the fringes of my first team again. The previous ones are always sold for a few million which adds up nicely every summer. In Europe, I was given an easy group. Vitesse, Rapid Wien and Red Star where all blown away home and away. Before drawing my last game at home to Red Star I hadn't conceded once and had scored 3-4 goals a game playing mostly my second string. I eased past Standard in the first k.o round with a 6-1 aggregate again mostly playing my second string. Milan are next up and the first actual test in this competition. I will play the 4 times in March as we're also against each other in the Italian cup semifinal.

In the league everything's going superbly. Juve and Inter left everyone in their dust and Inter lost their first game in January and Juve are still yet to lose going in to March. I'm third and apart from losing to Juve and Inter I've only lost once when I was completely outclassed by a struggling Cagliari. Torion are 4th and they are already 7 points adrift and I have a game in hand as well, so Champions league football is a real possibility next season at the Via Del Mare. Still 13 games to go though and everything could turn to shit, but after a draw heavy start I've managed to dominate most games and turn draws into wins (14-8-3).
I think I'll finish up this season tonight as it's fun to play when things are going for you in this game. Lastly a shout out to my star man Mirco Severini who was 12 goals and 8 assists from the wing this season as well as 9 man of the match awards. He's still the only one to be named player of the month from my team.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

GKS Katowice 2024/25 season:

Domestic shit:

http://i.imgur.com/MCCgVyX.png

http://i.imgur.com/WP8DHM4.png

http://i.imgur.com/weJ8Eg9.png

http://i.imgur.com/f08kcC2.png

http://i.imgur.com/3PcjABA.png

We also set the following records:

http://i.imgur.com/P4GLo2K.png
http://i.imgur.com/62bNYl5.png
http://i.imgur.com/IJYi6kg.png
http://i.imgur.com/a8oTF1Y.png

The team is so far ahead of everyone else right now so effectively we're just taking on Europe.

This was great though:

http://i.imgur.com/W0mbh29.png

European shit:

http://i.imgur.com/HGA1g0U.png

http://i.imgur.com/HGA1g0U.png

We also set one record:

http://i.imgur.com/aBqbdgM.png

I'm still a little shocked that we managed to piss that group so much. Doing the double over Barcelona, especially the 5-2 in the Nou Camp, is one of the best things ever. Only going out to eventual winners on away goals is alright by me. Hopefully that will push us into the 3rd seed spots so we can get easier groups.

One transfer in during the winter:

http://i.imgur.com/y0l9W4g.png

Not bad for a freebie Canadian/Polish person.

Here are the squad stats:

http://i.imgur.com/V75GPlr.png

What jumps out for me are my main three up top in Van Den Boogaard, Julio Ceasar and Ndiaye.

But our keeper deserves recognition for his heroics this year:

http://i.imgur.com/YVOzPcs.png

34 clean sheets in 51 games.

[Smiffy]

That's some good going, Mahow. Very nice.

[Jimmy Floyd]

http://i.imgur.com/FASeVKo.png

We ended up going on a bit of a surge and threatened the top half until retreating firmly to the beach, Bradshaw's 23 goals helping our cause. The relegation battle ended up with all sorts of comedy capers, Wigan and Rotherham looked doomed from a long way out but various other teams kept letting them back into it, not least Brizzle City before Harry Redknapp came in to save the day in his approved used motor, and also Wolves who barely shat their way to survival, and despite a late bid by Cardiff to plummet to League One under Paul Lambert they managed to stay up too. So it was to Blackburn's great credit that they managed to plunge from a fairly safe position right to the bottom in a catalogue of hilarity which took in Owen Coyle, Fernando Hierro and Garry Monk as managers before the season was out.

I am playing 5-3-2 and had to change the midfield halfway through the season as my captain Hourihane wouldn't sign a new contract, in came young Matty Cash from Forest (on loan initially but now made permanent), and the Irish Pirlo, Richie Towell from Brighton, who both changed our fortunes considerably. I'll now lose Armstrong back to Newcastle and with our financial disadvantages will probably have to raid some kids from the lower leagues and develop them here as we can't go above about £12k p/w on a player's wages.

[phonics]

I'll be doing an update as soon as I finish this season so just stopping by to ask, is Berahinho any good? He's going to be up on a free and I'm wondering if I can use him as back-up for Charlie Austin but he's scored a brand total of 2 goals all year for Brom.

[Giggles]

I'll be doing an update as soon as I finish this season so just stopping by to ask, is Berahinho any good? He's going to be up on a free and I'm wondering if I can use him as back-up for Charlie Austin but he's scored a brand total of 2 goals all year for Brom.

Doesn't he turn out to be a world beater in this?

Are you Southampton or have you Austin elsewhere? I couldn't get interested in the Bundesliga so I started one as Southampton this evening. Only a few games in though.

[Dark Soldier]

I had Berahinho as a F9 in my Newcastle save for four seasons anf he was insanely good.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

DS had a lot of success with him at Newcastle.

Edit: Yeah, as he said.

[phonics]

Doesn't he turn out to be a world beater in this?

Are you Southampton or have you Austin elsewhere? I couldn't get interested in the Bundesliga so I started one as Southampton this evening. Only a few games in though.

Yep, it's a fun club.

[Giggles]

Yep, it's a fun club.

It was them, Stoke, or Everton when I was starting but they were by far my most enjoyable game on FM16 so I went with them again.

[Giggles]

And Austin has just broken his ankle. Bollocks. My own fault for playing him in the Europa League.

Long is horrendous when he plays so it looks like Jay Rodriguez is going up front.

[phonics]

My first full season in FM in forever diary.

What a weird season, I started well with massive victories over the likes of Chelsea but it was downhill from there, after scraping through the EFL Cup 3rd round on pens everything fell apart, I lost 3 games in a row and the only pick me up was an absolute bonkers game with Everton where the winner changed 3 times in the final 5 minutes. The poor form didn't seem to apply to the Europa League where I destroyed my group but back home, I was being threatened with the sack if I didn't get 9 points from my next 5 games after a 3-0 drubbing to Sunderland. I got 10 :cool: and that was the beginning of the turnaround. I went on a massive winning run that had me beating an admittedly abject Man City 4-2 in the EFL Cup semi final. Then a week in Febuary was set-up to be my entire season. I'd drawn Bilbao in the Europa League with with an FA Cup tie to Bristol Rovers between them and a trip to Wembley against Tottenham 4 days after the second leg. Bilbao scraped through with a last minute winner in the second leg, Bristol earned themselves a replay I really didn't need with a last minute equaliser. I went into the Spurs match just hoping I wouldn't get bummed by the team 8-9 places above me. I bummed them and won Southamptons first trophy since 1973. I'd like to pretend the board were elated but they seemed to be more annoyed by me getting knocked out by Bristol in the replay a few days later.

After that it was a bit of a slog, we went on some good runs and I managed to bring Christian Puliscic through the door. Not that I particularly needed him but I couldn't see a good reason not to at 15 mil or so. Next years aim is to go further in the Europa and hopefully emulate Watfords absolutely mental season.

Final League Position:

http://i.imgur.com/BSMUPOE.png

Fixture List:
http://i.imgur.com/fFP64qJ.png
http://i.imgur.com/BDjdTwq.png

Squad:

http://i.imgur.com/TCSuqji.png


I would make love to Vida. What a man.

P.S. Berahinho has agreed to join me but he's taken me for an absolute ride. To the point I think he might be the highest paid player at the club. I hope this works.

[7om]

Been rejected for the jobs at Grimsby and Northampton both in the Conference. The board also want nine points from our first five games in the first division or I'm out. I'm fucked.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Light skins :sick:

[Giggles]

I've just had a crash after beating Leicester 6-1 away. Fuck this for a piece of shit.

[Giggles]

Cunting thing actually crashed the whole laptop.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Hang about, Man United (who had a 31-7-0 record last season for 100 points) have just signed Marco Verratti for £105 million. Does this sort of shit happen on every game?

[Reg]

Sounds pretty realistic.

[Dark Soldier]

Yes, expect Griezmann/Icardi/Dier/Ali and others to go for batshit money soon. Premier league clubs get insane budgets.

[Jimmy Floyd]

City have a net spend of 120 odd million, including Griezmann. Best get into the thing asap I suppose.

[Dark Soldier]

They signed Dier for £102mil on my save. Its essentially PSG/United/City with a dash of Real/Barca doing the HUGE spending. Chelsea/Spurs/Arse on rare occasions.

[Pen]

My last two games in the Europa League were great. Same the final ended the way it did.



https://s15.postimg.org/5q4rpxfm3/semi.png (https://postimg.org/image/6sey8gyfb/)free photo upload (https://postimage.org/)

https://s14.postimg.org/do7wzxyi9/final.png (https://postimg.org/image/keoe9dlnx/)picture sharing (https://postimage.org/)

I finished third last season in the league and got outclassed 4-0 by Inter in the Italian cup final. I had third in the bag with 4-5 games to go and Inter were 10+ points ahead of me too so I only had the cups to focus on in the last month. I just started the next season to get through the transfer window and two wins against Atalanta and Spezia with a goal difference of 9-1 looks good for the upcoming season.

[Mike]

I had Berahinho as a F9 in my Newcastle save for four seasons anf he was insanely good.
I've just signed him on a free for Brighton! I play an F9 too!

[Giggles]

F9?

[P_3]

F9?
False 9.

[Giggles]

Fuck sake I should have copped that. I kept thinking Forward 9.

[Giggles]

I've just had a crash after beating Leicester 6-1 away. Fuck this for a piece of shit.

Heh, didn't matter in the end. Leicester must be absolutely dire in this.

Only thing was Rodriguez got injured again this time. He scored 4 in the game pre-crash.


http://i67.tinypic.com/30mtzxc.png

[wullie]

Predicted to stay well clear of relegation in 18th but still with 1000-1 promotion odds, the fourth season wasn't promising considering my £3 transfer budget and a 'one in, fifteen out' transfer policy

http://i.imgur.com/UoPbtZy.png

After a terrible start it all seemed to click though with the goalscoring problem being remedied (not so much the defence) and a record points haul and high position

http://i.imgur.com/Hf00iup.png

From 15 games in, we were the moth and 8th was the flame

http://i.imgur.com/Pu5o9fA.png



Due to having no money, fast tracking the yoot was the only option and luckily paid off with Matthew Knox. Signed from Livingston back when I could do things like that and a season in the U23s moaning about not being allowed to go to West Ham and never play, he settled down to have quite a good first season

http://i.imgur.com/P3kU3ue.png


Goals and assists came from the fullbacks too, Connor Randall setting an assists record and Greg Leigh from Bury solving what was a problem position

http://i.imgur.com/V6VHE1J.png


Once the season had ended Burnley triggered Matthew Pennington's £9m release clause which basically funds the club for the next year even if I'm not allowed to use any of it. Academy graduate Juddy Saka will rotate with Jordan Willis and AN Other centre back once one of the loan bids I've sent out gets accepted. Jordan Turnbull dropped down a division to Millwall for £1.8m so defence could do with strengthening


DJ Buffonge was sent out on loan but then came back and managed to play solidly for the last month due to injuries, where he scored four goals of the season in four games. Still rubbish though, unlike Bigi who bossed the midfield again. It was all a dream

http://i.imgur.com/evNNVie.png
http://i.imgur.com/ca4zBf1.png

Having progressed points and position wise over three seasons yet not properly troubled the playoffs, I'm going to assume that despite another prediction of 18th we're going to zone in on 7th and hold on to it for dear life.



Also, the heaviest player in the division is a 17 stone forward. Fatty fatty fat fat

http://i.imgur.com/SmoE6SX.png

[SvN]

What's the consensus on this year? Is it worth buying?

[Giggles]

What's the consensus on this year? Is it worth buying?

Not if you have FM16.

[John Arne]

Ah, the famous Duncan Greenwood. One of the guys at SI is called Duncan Greenwood and somehow, for some reason, always has regens using his name. It bugs me everyone I see his name.
I swear he appeared in my own youth team on my only game in FM17 so far.

[Jimmy Floyd]

http://i.imgur.com/9IT9nxT.png

It occurs to me I may have unconsciously had a transfer policy of only signing players with northern-sounding names. Certainly the result of the window is that my entire squad is from one of the home nations (including the southern part of Ireland) and I think the oldest player is 27. Touch me, Brexit.

[Giggles]

Towell is from Dublin, so would be more eastern than southern.

[Mazuuurk]

I have my eyes on Griezmann, as it were, as the long term replacement for Zlatan in 1-2 years.

[Giggles]

He must be astronomically priced in this.

[Mazuuurk]

Probably like 120-140 million I guess?

[Smiffy]

I think I've overdone this game already. :moop:

[Jimmy Floyd]

Probably like 120-140 million I guess?

City got him for 70 million in the second summer on mine.

[Mazuuurk]

Sounds like a steal to be honest.

[SvN]

Doesn't he have a relatively low release clause in real life? By low I mean less than £100m

[Chris]

Picked this up last week. first time in a few years playing FM (last one I properly played was probably around '12 or '13). Some of the newer parts of the game are throwing me a bit to start with. As said a few times in the thread the Social stuff is shocking, I'm surprised that there's not been any major improvements in the interacting side of the game either, the interviews and player interactions seem pretty much the same have they have always been I'd of thought they could have padded that out a bit better by now. Hopefully all the work hasn't gone in to the match engine as I only play on 2D mode anyway.

Started a game unemployed with the intentions of being a journeyman (Sunday League Experience) with all Scandinavian leagues loaded. It took me 6 months to get a job but finally got the nod at Högaborgs BK which is where a young Henrik Larsson started out, interestingly. They offered me a deal taking me through to the end of the following season. After the first season and first few games of the second season I'm feeling more like I might try and stick it out with Högaborgs though, if they'll have me. With a bit of luck I might end up being the next Graham Potter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Potter).

I came in at the half way point of the first season where we were sat 3rd bottom of a 14 team league, the board wanted mid-table which I was fairly sure I could deliver looking at the squad which must have been really underperforming under their old gaffer. Unbeaten in my first 5 games I was rising up the table steadily and kept that rise going until the last couple of games where I pushed all out attack in aims of sneaking into the top 4. We ended up blowing it and losing the last couple of games and slipping down to an 8th place finish.

The board were more than happy with that finish and the 1 piece of free transfer business I did, bringing Kevin Zorba in on a free transfer;

http://i.imgur.com/vTmuBbA.png

The best player of the second half of the season that I was in charge for was our 16 year old striker Passi Prudence who I'm hoping can fire us to promotion next season;

http://i.imgur.com/HmSNZXK.png

Other Notes
- I spent most of the season playing a fairly standard Control/Counter Home/Away 4-4-2 setup, and that's the tactic I'm going into the second season with.
- We are losing a fair amount of money on each month with the expected balance at the end of the season to be -£275k.
- I finally managed to get a fitness coach in at the end of the season once my other coaches contracts had expired, the board wouldn't budge on that.
- Sweden appears to have elections each year for the Chairman so the new Chairman came in and was happy to keep me on.

Few Questions
- I didn't see anything about prize money at the end of the first season, is there anywhere I can find the money for each position in the league (I'm sure there used to be?) or is it possible I'm in too lower league for prize money?
- I am currently training 3 tactics, 2 4-4-2's and a 4-2-4, the differences between the first 2 4-4-2's are minimal is it worth having them as 2 seperate tactics or should I just keep it under 1 and make the relevant changes before each match? I would like to move to a 3-5-2 I just don't have the personnel for it just yet.

[Jimmy Floyd]

In all fairness to the utterly dreadful and repetitive interviews, can you think of a way they could make them better? I can't.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Griezmann also went to City in mine, £67m in the second season.

[Chris]

In all fairness to the utterly dreadful and repetitive interviews, can you think of a way they could make them better? I can't.

Not really. I make no comment to 90% of the transfer ones, I don't mind the pre-game ones where a manager tries to play mind games it's just the transfer ones that kill me, when I get 10 players in on trial and get asked the same question about each one :rolleyes:.

[John Arne]

A sign of progress, perhaps...

https://gyazo.com/09a618c37e5c6cc5dc866553171e1f36.png

[wullie]

I 'no comment' pretty much anything that isn't about my team in order to avoid arsey follow-ups about mindgames or a war of words. Can you still add your own comment to answers? I always liked the idea of a manager denying a player is for sale and then just saying "big willies" before leaving a press conference.

[Smiffy]

I was about to make a joke about how he's fucked more people over and over again than Barry Bennell ever did.

Then I realised it was Kenyon and not Ridsdale. :moop:

[SvN]

I always got my assistant to do the bulk of the media stuff and ignored everything else I was asked.

[Smiffy]

Not a wise idea in hindsight. When I had my 'son' he had a slack personality because I did too. You're more likely to produce a top quality player if you're a top quality 'manual' manager.

[Danny]

I always got my assistant to do the bulk of the media stuff and ignored everything else I was asked.

Same. I don't do any of it beside taking a question that pops up and I catch it before the timers ticks over.


Not a wise idea in hindsight. When I had my 'son' he had a slack personality because I did too. You're more likely to produce a top quality player if you're a top quality 'manual' manager.

Just get him a good tutor :nod: if I get a 'son' I am going to have to download the editor and make him a star :drool:


http://i.imgur.com/9IT9nxT.png.

Crewes Garrett in goal? Ray, Ainley and Jones became good players for that level for me.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Yep. I tried to get Ainley as well but Sunderland nabbed him from under my nose.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

GKS Summer 2025/26:

Transfers out:

http://i.imgur.com/f9wTIQv.png

I decided to sell one of my first team CB's in Kharitonov as I felt the money was right as my third choice was just as good and he isn't making £41k a week like Ivan. Also sold Perekhod who was my 3rd/4th choice midfielder in my 4-3-1-2. The rest that weren't loaned out, shit.

Here are the transfers in:

http://i.imgur.com/wbSsgxc.png

£7.5m. I no longer had a backup so I wanted to buy someone and he's the one that my scouts liked and who was affordable.

http://i.imgur.com/uSTXuDn.png

£13.25m, possibly rising to £16.25m. I'm not sure why I went so hard after him, I don't like him and he doesn't look like he'll fit in as a striker or an AMC. Some big teams were interested so I went a bit mental.

http://i.imgur.com/TwXd9Jt.png

£12.25m. This prick annoyed me though and I shouldn't have bought him. Last year he went to Red Star for £215k, I tried to buy him but he didn't even want to know us. This Summer he was crying to the press that he needed to come. He's got more about him than the previous one but again I was sort of strong armed because of other clubs interested in him.

Here's the squad:

http://i.imgur.com/0QMc42u.png

[Ian]

My team has just broken what is in my save a 29-year old record. Ledley King's fastest Premier League goal. Shaved a second off it by taking the lead at St. James' Park after nine seconds. :cool:

[Mazuuurk]

By the end of the 8-fixture-run I'm currently on I will only have played one single Premier League game, by the looks of it.

Fuck you FA cup.
Fuck you League cup.
Fuck you EURO cup.

[Jimmy Floyd]

http://i.imgur.com/5fz7A7O.png

Thanks mate but I'd rather slam my fingers in a car door.

[Giggles]

:chief:


http://i65.tinypic.com/aktx5u.png

[phonics]

Van Dijk OFF. Vida OFF.

Absolute joke. I'm bought in some 19 year old wonderkid. Jeffrey Ousamne or something but I think my back six is going to get destroyed next year :(

Bloody United. Bloody PSG.

[Giggles]

Van Dijk OFF. Vida OFF.

Absolute joke. I'm bought in some 19 year old wonderkid. Jeffrey Ousamne or something but I think my back six is going to get destroyed next year :(

Bloody United. Bloody PSG.

Van Dijk is a beast in this. I had to give him 94k a week to keep him happy and stop moaning about joining Arsenal. €41m release clause in it though :(. Fonte has moaned me into letting him join Utd if they stump up €4m, but he's 32 so I'd have been looking elsewhere after the season anyway.

I'm going to have trouble with Ward-Prowse, Bertrand, and Clasie too.

[Smiffy]

I have just completed perhaps the most remarkable season I have ever experienced. We were struggling for much of the season but a tactical rethink and a shake up with the player registrations secures our passage to the top flight. Update to come. :drool: I had us to finish 7th due to having a woeful goal difference but Spain is a beautiful place with it's stupid head to head ruling.


https://s20.postimg.org/vx7z1dywt/screenshot_448.png

[Smiffy]

Established in 1909 and one of the founding members of La Liga, CD Getxo's historical trajectory took a different turn to the likes of neighbours Athletic Bilbao, Real Sociedad and Real Union. Not since 1934 had the Basque club featured in the top flight.

https://s20.postimg.org/kgel6n1tp/screenshot_420.png

It could have gone to any of the top four in truth but as it transpired we were the most consistent and probably deserved it overall. Castilla dropped far too many points from winning positions, UD Logrones poor start to the season cost them and Albacete were unlucky to lose top spot on the final day but ultimately they struggled to score goals on a regular basis.

We faced Murcia in the 1st Phase Playoff semi final winning 5-4 on aggregate but a tense double against Cultural Leonese threatened to undo our season of good work by winning the first leg by a goal to nil but we returned the favour in the return before going on to win 3-0 on penalties.

Our following season I just can't explain.

http://s20.postimg.org/ibbuml6nx/screenshot_449.png

Heading into the final game of the season I wrongly assumed we needed a cricket score against Oviedo whilst hoping Rayo got hammered by Numancia. We had -1 goal difference to their +11 so effectively four points clear of us I thought. We beat Oviedo 3-1 but there was no chance Rayo could lose by such a margin. Then the messages appeared. God bless Spain. :cool:

Just to put this into context....


http://s20.postimg.org/quv8kcf0d/screenshot_450.png
http://s20.postimg.org/963hsq399/screenshot_451.png


Bonkers. At the beginning of the season we were given permission to delay expanding our stadium to the leagues required 6,000 but now we're going up to La Liga where the minimum is 15,000 so I'm not sure what is going to happen there as the planning phase for the agreed one doesn't end for another year. Our change of ownership which saw the club return to the supporters has allowed us to improve our youth facilities although all of them are still at a poor level.

Promotion though. :drool:

https://s20.postimg.org/5nib4unlp/screenshot_447.png

Finally give it was Yevrah's past save that made me lean towards Spain, I found this rather funny.

https://s20.postimg.org/9m6bw6xh9/screenshot_434.png

[Mike]

I may have gone a bit transfer happy. 16 players just joined when the window opened. :D

[Chris]

Picked this up last week. first time in a few years playing FM (last one I properly played was probably around '12 or '13). Some of the newer parts of the game are throwing me a bit to start with. As said a few times in the thread the Social stuff is shocking, I'm surprised that there's not been any major improvements in the interacting side of the game either, the interviews and player interactions seem pretty much the same have they have always been I'd of thought they could have padded that out a bit better by now. Hopefully all the work hasn't gone in to the match engine as I only play on 2D mode anyway.

Started a game unemployed with the intentions of being a journeyman (Sunday League Experience) with all Scandinavian leagues loaded. It took me 6 months to get a job but finally got the nod at Högaborgs BK which is where a young Henrik Larsson started out, interestingly. They offered me a deal taking me through to the end of the following season. After the first season and first few games of the second season I'm feeling more like I might try and stick it out with Högaborgs though, if they'll have me. With a bit of luck I might end up being the next Graham Potter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Potter).

I came in at the half way point of the first season where we were sat 3rd bottom of a 14 team league, the board wanted mid-table which I was fairly sure I could deliver looking at the squad which must have been really underperforming under their old gaffer. Unbeaten in my first 5 games I was rising up the table steadily and kept that rise going until the last couple of games where I pushed all out attack in aims of sneaking into the top 4. We ended up blowing it and losing the last couple of games and slipping down to an 8th place finish.

The board were more than happy with that finish and the 1 piece of free transfer business I did, bringing Kevin Zorba in on a free transfer;

http://i.imgur.com/vTmuBbA.png

The best player of the second half of the season that I was in charge for was our 16 year old striker Passi Prudence who I'm hoping can fire us to promotion next season;

http://i.imgur.com/HmSNZXK.png

Other Notes
- I spent most of the season playing a fairly standard Control/Counter Home/Away 4-4-2 setup, and that's the tactic I'm going into the second season with.
- We are losing a fair amount of money on each month with the expected balance at the end of the season to be -£275k.
- I finally managed to get a fitness coach in at the end of the season once my other coaches contracts had expired, the board wouldn't budge on that.
- Sweden appears to have elections each year for the Chairman so the new Chairman came in and was happy to keep me on.

Few Questions
- I didn't see anything about prize money at the end of the first season, is there anywhere I can find the money for each position in the league (I'm sure there used to be?) or is it possible I'm in too lower league for prize money?
- I am currently training 3 tactics, 2 4-4-2's and a 4-2-4, the differences between the first 2 4-4-2's are minimal is it worth having them as 2 seperate tactics or should I just keep it under 1 and make the relevant changes before each match? I would like to move to a 3-5-2 I just don't have the personnel for it just yet.

Following on from my first post we moved into the second season, bringing in 5 or 6 players who were remarked improvements over the outgoing players whose contracts I let expire at the end of my first season in charge. I only lost a single player who I was looking to keep in Robert Mirosavic, a Serbian U21 International who wouldn't budge from his demands of £300 p/week.

Pre season saw us do well against similar reputation teams from the same level in the pyramid but in other regions of Sweden. A lot of players were not happy that I chose to bring the team back 8 weeks before the start of the season (the default it was going to give me was 12!). This left me pretty frustrated after organising 5 pre season fixtures that the majority of the team were still not match fit come game week 1 of the season. We stuttered to a start in the league matches drawing the first 3 but we then kicked on to win 4 on the trot followed up with a draw against top of the table Rosengard which took is up to where we needed to be in the table, the top 2.

Then it all went wrong... a 0-0 draw against the bottom of the league side who hadn't registered a point all season was where the wheels fell off. From that game we lost 3 on the spin, albeit to better teams than the bottom of the league side but the board weren't happy. They called me in and wanted assurances I tried to tell swerve there complaints and be as slopey shouldered as possible but they were having none of it, they demanded 11 points from the next 5 games, I had no choice but to agree. I tried to rally the troops with a team meeting, nobody reacted well to that. A clash away from home against the second place Hassleholms followed and we couldn't do anything to stop their firepower eventually succumbing 4-2, another loss followed against second bottom Osterlens and that was it I was stood outside the stadium with my bag on a stick.

Back to the job centre it was for me, my spell at Hogaborgs had done nothing for my reputation so I was back to where I was a year and a half ago. Surprisingly within a week of my sacking I had 3 interviews lined up, all coming from over the border in Denmark. 2 of the 3 clubs messed me around too much, the 3rd club were eager from the start and actually offered me a wage rather than nothing like 1 of them, so that was where my next step in the footballing world would be, Boldklubben af 1908.

A newly promoted club this season we only have 15 players (http://i.imgur.com/sdpBzWv.png) on the books and no backroom staff, based on my success at Högaborgs I'll probably last about 6 games, the board are expecting me to fight bravely against relegation so maybe that will give me longer but given I've got 15 players and 3 weeks until our first competitive game of the season it's going to be an uphill struggle. Due to the strange Danish lower league structure we might actually have a better chance than first expected if we can get some players in over the first half of the season. We play in a group of 8 teams (1 of 3) which the top 4 of each group go into a 12-team promotion league and the bottom into a 12-team relegation league, of which the bottom 4 teams get relegated.

[Giggles]

Jut had Shane Long get the first 10.0 I've seen in the game (or in FM16 IIRC).

[7om]

I feel your pain, Chris. It can be brutal at those lower levels when it goes wrong out of nowhere and you can do nothing to rectify it.

[phonics]

Now China want Dusan Tadic. It's like being under siege. I'm busy telling PSG to fuck off after they already bought Van Dijk and now they want my other decent defender when these goons walk in wanting my other player. This season could go absolutely tits up.

[Giggles]

Was just coming to post similar. It's only the 2nd of January and I'm already being raped. 5 offers for Ward-Prowse came in on the 1st.

[Giggles]

Halfway through January and so far it's Bertrand to Arsenal, Ward-Prowse to Arsenal, Clasie to Milan, and Fonte to Shakhtar.

€79.75m better off but the season is over. I was 2nd :(

[Adamski]

Why did you sell them?

[Giggles]

Why did you sell them?

Because in this version you've no option really. They create havoc if you don't.

[John]

None of those are irreplaceable, particularly with eighty million in your tail.

Alex Grimaldo, Carles Alena, Santiago Ascacibar, and Mauricio Lemos, and you're laughing.

[Giggles]

I only got about 45 of it to spend and I've blown most of it on a centre half in desperation.

And Timmy Fosu Mensah on loan.

[Jimmy Floyd]

http://i.imgur.com/0miCXpe.png

Same finishing position as last year, 4 points more, never threatened anything else, utter mediocrity. In truth we were a better team this year but had a lot less luck and the results seemed almost random, there were some games we'd rock up and thrash top teams 4-0 and others we got completely roasted, with no real rhyme or reason, and my selection and tactics were basically irrelevant.

The comedy this year came at the top, where our 1-0 lolfest victory at Brighton on the last day sent them from 1st to 4th, Wolves lost to go from 2nd to 5th and Burnley and Norwich made their respective season debuts in the the top two on the final day. The real lolsters however were Sheffield Wednesday, who were seven points clear in January but didn't win again until beating Wolves on the last day to deny them promotion. Everton, still boasting most of their top flight side, were absolutely useless, especially after they hired Ryan Giggs, whilst god knows what Sunderland were up to, they started the season with some Italian clown called Eugenio Corini in charge who had them in the bottom three before they sacked him. I was asked to four interviews during the season, attended one with Tony 'See ya' Xia but was passed over in favour of Steve McClaren.

My problem now is that we are almost two million in the red and the club has basically no income streams whatsoever, so I'm going to have to sell my best players to stay solvent, which will probably mean another season of 16th at best. I'm strangely enjoying it though for all the inertia.

[Giggles]

Boufal just arrived back from a month at the African nations and moaned about playing time :moop:

[Mazuuurk]

I'm heading into mid-February and my squad is starting to feel a little thin. I have plenty of coverage in Midfield, so much that Lingard have been pissed (and sold to Spurs for 26M, not sure if that is a mistake or not...).

Basically my front 3-line is Martial - Zlatan - Rashford, with Depay as the only real backup. Rooney gets games, but he "wants a new challange" and he's (together with like 4 other players" fucked off that he can't leave.

Problem is, I've tried the fuck out of selling him, but nobody wants to even bid half his value, I assume because of his ridiculous wage. I've had plenty of Loan offers from Ukrainian outfits and the such, but given the above mentioned thin-ness (open goal for you here, Lewis), I can't really just let him out on loan. Well, at least not for only 20% of his wages paid :moop:


That said, I'm doing alright. One game in hand in the league and I'm 2 points behind Spurs, so should go top once I catch up. I've been seeing worrying signs of fatigue though, getting stupid draws here and there and almost getting knocked out the EURO cup by Shakthar after a 3-1 loss away.

Though, that might have been good to be honest. As things stand, I'm in the Quarter final of that, the Semi final of the FA cup, and I already won the League Cup. It's just an insane amount of games.


It also pisses me off that Zlatans stats are deteriorating to quickly. I know he's 35, but in real life he's a fucking physical B.E.A.S.T and his Natural Fitness really should be 20.

[Giggles]

Just gone top on goal difference (Utd have a game in hand) with 5 games to play :drool:

[phonics]

Got bored yesterday and downloaded FM Scout to have a look at the young'uns coming through.

There's only one player Under 20 above one eighty something PA and that's Josh King coming in at 200 PA. Who does he play for you ask? Southampton :drool:

So how do I make him Messi?

[Jimmy Floyd]

Max out your training facilities and coaches, and play him.

[phonics]

I don't organise my own training. Should I? Can I just download someone elses?

[Giggles]

I haven't done a thing with training either. Is it worth downloading a routine?

[John]

Routines aren't as important as the coaches running them. You should be looking for at least four stars on everything and as low a coaching workload as you can get.