Football Manager 2020

[Shindig]

What I get from that is FM really favours the knows the club myth.

[Smjffy]

https://i.imgur.com/Q8OcaGC.png

If the supporters aren't going to riot at the potential news of a new manager then they can go fuck themselves tbh. Where's Oxford United at....

[Smjffy]

Oxford City - 2035/2036

Transfers In

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


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

Ibon was brought in as an emergency loan as we were short between the sticks (and everywhere else as it happens) but he did OK when called upon. Fans weren't too happy about his arrival but they are clueless fecks.


Transfers Out

https://i.imgur.com/0oLCuw5.png

Emmanuel Kone - Swiped from Chelsea's youth academy in 2028 the wingback come winger never made a first team appearance for us which is a shame as he looked promising. A decent loan spell in League Two with Bristol Rovers was followed up by two seasons with League One/Championship club Mansfield. He joined our feeder club Sunderland on loan last season and in the summer we accepted a measly £450K for him.

Frederic De Meyer - Another failed effort after stealing the Belgian striker from Liverpool back in 2028 at a cost of nearly £3M in compensation. Loan spells with Portsmouth and Sunderland offered a glimmer of hope but he was never finding a way in our starting line up given the quality of our front two. CSKA came in with a sufficient bid and we had to say yes. We will make 20% on any profit at least....if any.

Juan Antonio Munoz - Aged 22 now and five loan spells later I just don't think he's going to make it. Another who was stolen from the big boys, Man City losing out on the clearly talented centre back but when you can't do it with Portsmouth, Brentford, Sunderland, Bournemouth or West Brom then you're not going to break into our squad. It's that simple. We'll probably cash in this summer.

Sam Crane - Another poached youngster and currently on his third successive year loan with Championship club Sunderland. We might make some money on him but it's unlikely he'll get a chance. Similar pattern followed to most youngsters I bring in. I'm doing something wrong.

Bjorn Vos - £37.5M we signed him for from Ajax in 3031, a decent start to his Oxford career short lived. We loaned him to Leicester the following season and for the last two he's been a bit part player for us. £50M bid had to be accepted even if I feel he had something more to offer. I have options on the right wing both younger and cheaper.

Ruben Sa - One of our first "big" signings as we brought him in from Real Madrid for £66M. Whilst he never rediscovered the goalscoring touch he had in Spain, he did a more than sufficient job on the right of midfield for us but wage demands and the wrong side of 30 played against him and if he played more than 5 games this season he'd have got a contract renewal. Well, no. We sold him to Spurs for the same fee we signed him for. Decent business.

Season Summary

League

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

The summer saw the club placed under a transfer embargo but the decision not to bring anyone in was already decided long before we knew the club was being sold. As it happens the sale didn't actually go through until December! It was a shit takeover too as no extra funds (not that we need them) and taken off the stock market.



It was evident that Manchester City would be the team to catch again and it wouldn't be until 23rd February that they lost their first league game so to have even been in with a chance by then was some good going but as the games started running out, the points game started getting smaller.....and smaller....

https://i.imgur.com/TMq3l6H.png

Man United had been top before we inflicted their first defeat of the season in some style but it was the other Manchester club that we knew would be troublesome and so it proved.

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

I fully anticipated being five points behind by time Man City caught up.

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

But we were making it difficult for them.

https://i.imgur.com/GER0wSw.png

And now it was in our hands for arguably the first time.

https://i.imgur.com/TNSwOq7.png

We had a horrible end to our season so if Man City weren't already favourites, they would be now.

https://i.imgur.com/9T4CPtt.png

Eyes were firmly locked on Tottenham and Arsenal.

https://i.imgur.com/H19GAAY.png

But shit got real very fast. Mertins scoring in the final minutes to steal a point against Man City whilst our talented youngster Jibrin grabbed a vital vital winner for us.

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

Man City did however follow it up with a win against Tottenham but it was still in our hands.

https://i.imgur.com/8Z4HwG6.png

Until Everton showed up. Fuck.

https://i.imgur.com/yE97oPz.png

Double fuck. A proper bottle job.

https://i.imgur.com/7wYSFW2.png

Or as it? Ott scoring with a minute to go ensured I woke someone up. I think. It was still too big an ask, wasn't it?

https://i.imgur.com/Z0Gy9OY.png

Yes was the answer. It was too much. Arsenal were our last hope. :(

https://i.imgur.com/2Qd77Gh.png

I had a hunch that they threw the game but it wouldn't amount to anything. Would it?

https://i.imgur.com/gRFnKI4.png

FFS Owen. Are you really going to make me lose a league title on goal difference? Fucking goal difference?

Well.....I don't even. :D

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

Crazy!

Domestic Cups

EFL Cup

We were low on numbers all season (maybe 26 players in total at the club now) so we opted to field the kids, or rather the few kids we had left and the players not good enough for regular first team football. It didn't matter as we went out with a wimp anyway.

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

FA Cup

We kicked off in the 3rd round against Rotherham and again we put out the same team that got beat badly by Watford but this time we turned up and recorded a 7-1 win to set up an away encounter against Brighton. We managed to win that 2-1 before drawing feeder club Sunderland in the 5th. Four goals later and we were in the quarter finals which is where we started to take it a little more seriously. Quite the ask given our league form was good, we were still competing in Europe and this was make or break type stuff but our 3-2 win against the midlands side Leicester validated our belief that we were good enough to win, especially as Man City were knocked out in an earlier round. WBA were to be our semi final opponents, a nice day out at Wembley for them but we were to return after a 2-0 win to face Chelsea in the final. I have no words.

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

Champions League

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

No backwater ties but facing Barcelona brought back all manner of memories, mostly the last minute elimination a few seasons ago. We both got off to good starts on Match Day #1 as we defeated Turkish side Galatasary 5-0, Barcelona beating PSV by six without reply. And so followed a similar pattern only we couldn't beat Barcelona home or away. It genuinely felt like we were jinxed by last minute Barca goals. :moop:

https://i.imgur.com/oVsEN09.png

Just why?! Still, the teams that often qualified for the knockouts meant it didn't really matter if you finished 1st or 2nd these days but for us, our second place finish meant we'd be returning to Spain to face last years finalists, Real Madrid but they would venture no further after finding themselves caught in the headlights at the John Woodley Stadium and we absolutely trounced them 5-0. We lost the return 1-0 but as is always the case when we get a good solid lead in the first leg, rest, rest, rest and ooh, game time for youngster.

Juventus were drawn in the quarter finals but we still remembered the drubbing we gave them a few years earlier and evidently so did Juventus as they struggled to land a punch. We won 5-1 in Italy before scoring five in front of our own to progress 10-1 on aggregate where we'd face Barcelona once more.

Our form against them meant they were favourites but after scoring two away goals in the first leg, despite losing 3-2, we had to feel confident we'd reach the final. We only needed to win 1-0 after all, that was possibly. Just go chockablock at the back in the 90th minute, right? Well, we didn't score one.

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

Ooof! Not without its cost as Adel's injury meant he'd miss both the FA Cup final, the final few league games as well as the Champions League final where we'd face a hurting Manchester City.

We had faced Manchester City 26 times prior to the European final and had lost half of them but it wasn't impossible and we knew this from experience. Back in 2027 we had beaten them on penalties after a 2-2 draw in the EFL Cup final. We had beaten them two years ago in the FA Cup final too so we had potential. We also had a great reminder that last season they knocked us out of the Champions League semi finals....

Well....all I can say chaps is fuck Man City. :D

https://i.imgur.com/WPgJcWH.png
https://i.imgur.com/XPpRbFN.png

Madness. Crazy. Beautiful Proctor. last minute goals. Love Yan Canti. This game. :cool:

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

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

https://i.imgur.com/i2LGAdI.png

Legends the lot of them. Treble winners. :cool:

Time for bed but tomorrow will see wholesale changes to the club as we look to go for a spell of dominance ourselves. We will probably bid farewell to Franck Ott, Mohammed Hassan who just seems to cling on to his contract on a yearly basis and probably offload one of the high earners. Maxwell?

I'll do a nice sizeable update when I wake up and get to the first game of the season. We need to figure out what we're going to do in the market, which direction to take, who to sacrifice off the wage bill and hopefully this is where things take off. Our last league title seemed to get forgotten amongst the quick fire seasons.

League
https://i.imgur.com/L5dAQhu.png

FA Cup
https://i.imgur.com/kM1BqXx.png

EFL Cup
https://i.imgur.com/NQtwduv.png

Europa League
https://i.imgur.com/vbwe8g7.png
(lol united)

Champions League
https://i.imgur.com/CsXZgQR.png

[Jimmy Floyd]

https://i.ibb.co/HpD4j6f/ferencboard.jpg

If one image summed my save up, this would be it.

[Gray Fox]

Arsenal winning 2 titles and also 2 European trophies? Shut the save down Smiff, it's broken.

What happened to Liverpool in 2030/31? They were everywhere until then and suddenly vanished.

[Smjffy]

I assumed I knew the answer but you may have the wrong season as the following year was Klopps final and Liverpool finished 7th...at the same time that bring Klopps last season...he left a day after winning the Champions League.

It's definitely a fall from grace as I'm seeing with Man City, I imagine it'll be temporary.

For Arsenal, blame Tuchel although more recently blame Guardiola.

[John]

Paco Jemez is Spain's resident Good Football madman who can't organise a defence, him and Spurs would be such a perfect fit.

He's amazing. A few years ago he was down about eight nil against Barcelona with fifteen minutes to go and took off a defender for a striker.

[Spikey M]

Did he score 9?

[Smjffy]

So in February I got my youth intake and as expected it wasn't much to write home about but I took a picture purely because of the young Welsh striker from Wrexham, it stuck out as that's my place of birth and I thought at first maybe it's because of me as manager until it dawned on me that Rhys Rood is actually English and not Welsh. :moop:

https://i.imgur.com/6gf4b0W.png

Anyhow....mediocre so I anticipated just releasing them after trials but that Welsh striker.....well fuck me.

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

https://i.imgur.com/qHeclH1.png

So come on.....how do I make this one realise his potential? I already fucked the next Gazza after all.

[Shindig]

I'm looking at my old CM save just to see who the big managers are in 2024. Three managers are considered World class. Two are fake Spaniards but the remaining one is Thomas Schaaf. In reality he took them to a Bundesliga and cup double. In the game he won the league cup before being sacked in 2009. He'd be back three years later some poor stints at Monchengladbach and Bielefeld. Three league titles in 4 years and a bunch of League Cups. He also took them to a UEFA Cup victory and a Champions League final. Knows the club, y'see.

The guys with Superb ratings become a lot more interesting. Matthias Sammer. In 2018 he left Dortmund after winning everything the German and European game had to offer. He then went to Stuttgart and won two league titles and a Champions League. He has a Liberian called Lance Kirby leading the line. :D

So a respected ex-player followed by ... Paul Bracewell. After dossing about in Barsnley, Burnley and Huddersfield he finally found his feet at Derby. He won promotion and then took the League Cup. Relegation quickly followed and a nothing spell at Grimsby was followed up by success at Man Utd. A Champions league in 2020 being the pinnacle of his spell. He celebrated in true turncoat fashion as he took up the vacant Man City job and promptly won the League Cup again. :D

Next up is Sampdoria's Roberto Mancini He's easily one of the longest serving managers in the game having took over in 2003. Took him about a decade to win his first title and now seems to steadily win them at 5 year intervals. No proper cup success, though.

Michael Skibbe is something of a German journeyman. He spent a fair bit of time in Leverkusen but the ride didn't really get going until he joined Bayern to help them out of the second division. Within two years (2014) they were back at the top of the Bundesliga and gracing Champions League finals. Momentum waned and, League Cup aside, he hopped off the Hertha in 2021. They won the World Club Championship but he now plies his trade at Energie Cottbus. A rags to riches tale that has seen them promoted to the top table and challenging Werder for the title.

In terms of real oddities, Steve McManaman's managing Valladolid. Michael Laudrup, having done nothing since his playing days, has spent the last decade managing Denmark. Ex Crazy Gang defender Andy Thorn is managing England. He took them to a World Cup final where he lost to Laudrup's Denmark. :D

More stats? Dave Watson has bought and sold the most players (306 & 242 respectively). Nobody else comes close. Jurgen Klopp's at Bielefeld. He is perennially stuck in the German lower divisions. Speaking of failures, Gary Neville's at Grimsby. John Terry won an FA Cup at Brighton, Tony Adams manages Wimbledon. In a really odd move Paraguay are managed by a 40 year old Wrexham coach. Coach, not manager. Coach. I didn't think that was possible. Pep Guardiola has done nothing much. He's another stuck in the Spanish doldrums. He's currently managing Badajoz.

Gareth Southgate is at Moor Green. :(

Matthias Sammer's spending is miles ahead of everyone else, too. £600m compared to Schaff's £300m. As far as I'm aware, the only active player from the database is a 42 year old Javier Saviola. I'm running out of names to check if there's any others. 1021 games (530 goals, 277 assists). Acceleration and pace is at 4 which probably gives him a couple more years. Actually, his determination stat is 20. He's not stopping, although he's starting to get those injuries only physio and surgery can deal with.

[Gray Fox]

Smjffy

Keep him learning at the club until he's at least 18. This is the time to tutor him(if you still can in 20) and teach him potential PPMs or train his other foot.

This is assuming your facilities are top notch. This is where he'll get the best of them.

Once he hits 18/19 it's time to decide if he's good enough to play a role in the squad. If he is, then great. He should play all cup games and any meaningless Champions League ties. He should also be the rotation option striker to come in.
If not, you should loan him. Look to what clubs promise him and their facilities. You're much better off sending him to a Championship club that'll play him whenever he's fit, than a Premier League club that will also see him as a rotation option.

Assuming you have a few clubs offering him first team football, choosing between their facilities is the next step. If still tied, look at the manager. You'll see his preferred formation and playstyle. For example, there's little point sending your 5"6 speed merchant striker to Tony Pulis and his Rory Delap tactics.

Once you've done this, assess him again the next season. He should have improved a fair way with regular football. If he's still not ready for a role, then off on loan again.

If he gets to age 21 and he's not ready for a role in the team it's likely time to sell up. His value should have increased and he'll be ready for a club somewhere. Make sure you get a decent fee, or a good loan-to-buy deal. However if you can still drop in the 50% of next sale fee, always make it mandatory. It may lose you a few million now, but can make up for it later. Choosing a lower club is also a good idea here.

For example, both Real Madrid and Villarreal want your player. Madrid have offered £20m but wont budge on the next sale fee. Villarreal have offered £10m with the 50% fee because they have less money in the pot.

Madrid have an assortment of the best players on the planet. Your guy is going to be on the fringes there and even then, may end up replaced next season.
Villarreal have a lesser squad. Your guy will be playing every week. He'll get better and increase his value. Real Madrid then come back for him a season or two later. Now valued higher, they offer Villarreal £50m, who accept and their player moves. You gain £25m of this and £35m in total and your club is much better for it long term.

That's pretty much my tried and tested player development guide.

[Manc]

https://sortitoutsi.net/uploads/team/886.png

Saison Cinq - It was a difficult year. Seemingly unimpressed by the Europa league victory, the board wasted no time in demanding we level up and secure our status as a Champions League side. Having stumbled to third last year, another top three finish was far from guaranteed especially considering the talent we lost in the summer. Following Rayan Cherki out the exit door were Nzonzi (Retired), Bostock, Taarabt, Koulouris, Zinga and Grimaldi's golden boy, Amadou Onana. With the team losing it's creative spine and expectations high, I set about securing players who possessed a certain unpredictability coupled with league experience. Maxwel Cornet arrived from Lyon (bosman), Amine Harit from Schalke (£5m) and Wylan Cyprien from Nice (£7m). Man City cheerleader Benjamin Mendy joined in the eleventh hour for a measly £2.5m.

On the pitch we started slow. A narrow defeat in the Super Cup to Liverpool set the tone in Europe as we went on to lose our opening four games in a group consisting of BVB, Manchester City & Sevilla. With qualification no longer plausible, we recorded successive victories and edged the Germans into third sport ensuring European football after the winter break. PAOK & Zenit provided little competition en route to yet another quarter final however, a trip to Naples proved one hurdle too many as we lost both legs 1-0. The Italians would go on to win the competition.

Our slow start in Europe was mirrored domestically as we spent all season chasing the runaway pack of Monaco, PSG and surprise package Stade de Reims. Try as we might we were unable to bridge the gap and a winless April left us ten points adrift with four games to be played. The board in their wisdom had decided enough was enough and I was duly sacked. Quite why they refused to let me see out the season is beyond me. I was of course replaced by Vladimir Weiss (not that one) who somehow conspired to finish outside of the European places altogether.

After 238 games I left the club with quite the parting gifts. Former academy prospects Albin Lafont & Kelvin Almian had both agreed to return the club were they made their name. Maxine Caqueret was plucked from Lyon, Aliou Traore from United and Mohammed Ihattaren, PSV. Grimandi was wetting himself over the latter.

My adventure in France will continue as I relocate from the South of the country to the very North.

https://medias.lequipe.fr/logo-football/41/240

[Smjffy]

@Smjffy (https://www.thethirdhalf.co.uk/member.php?u=1348)

Keep him learning at the club until he's at least 18. This is the time to tutor him(if you still can in 20) and teach him potential PPMs or train his other foot.

I'm on Touch so I don't think I get to teach anyone PPM's. I have something called a tutor group I can add players to? Is that it? Just whack a few mental beasts in there with the kids?

This is assuming your facilities are top notch. This is where he'll get the best of them.

Only this season have we actually had a little upgrade. Our youth facilities and recruitment are really good but training facilities have been stuck on average for quite a while with no way to request it. I do only loan youngsters to teams with good+ training facilities and they have to play in the league the scout suggests.

Once he hits 18/19 it's time to decide if he's good enough to play a role in the squad. If he is, then great. He should play all cup games and any meaningless Champions League ties. He should also be the rotation option striker to come in.
If not, you should loan him. Look to what clubs promise him and their facilities. You're much better off sending him to a Championship club that'll play him whenever he's fit, than a Premier League club that will also see him as a rotation option.

I was hoping to use him as the rotation option as I get rid of Mohammed Hassan as his scout report suggests he's already at Championship level.

Assuming you have a few clubs offering him first team football, choosing between their facilities is the next step. If still tied, look at the manager. You'll see his preferred formation and playstyle. For example, there's little point sending your 5"6 speed merchant striker to Tony Pulis and his Rory Delap tactics. .

I've never considered this at all. If I sent a CB out for example I just ask that he's an important first teamer and plays the role of BPD.

Once you've done this, assess him again the next season. He should have improved a fair way with regular football. If he's still not ready for a role, then off on loan again.

I think maybe I might be expecting too much of a jump in stats for the loaned out players? Normally I've said if after 2/3 you're not knocking on the door when I decide the first eleven then you're probably not up to standard. I've had a few players who I decided against but have come back to haunt me.

If he gets to age 21 and he's not ready for a role in the team it's likely time to sell up. His value should have increased and he'll be ready for a club somewhere. Make sure you get a decent fee, or a good loan-to-buy deal. However if you can still drop in the 50% of next sale fee, always make it mandatory. It may lose you a few million now, but can make up for it later. Choosing a lower club is also a good idea here.
So as this is your tried and tested, is that what you'd normally do? 21 and gone if not ready? I always look for the %next sale as well as trying to include a buy back option.

For example, both Real Madrid and Villarreal want your player. Madrid have offered £20m but wont budge on the next sale fee. Villarreal have offered £10m with the 50% fee because they have less money in the pot.

Madrid have an assortment of the best players on the planet. Your guy is going to be on the fringes there and even then, may end up replaced next season.
Villarreal have a lesser squad. Your guy will be playing every week. He'll get better and increase his value. Real Madrid then come back for him a season or two later. Now valued higher, they offer Villarreal £50m, who accept and their player moves. You gain £25m of this and £35m in total and your club is much better for it long term.

That's pretty much my tried and tested player development guide.

You've just explained my early errors. Evidence below.

https://i.imgur.com/ZbhfA4a.png

https://i.imgur.com/r2YXnjL.png

Fair to say we made a bad call. :moop:

Appreciate the post, Fox. I'll try and use it moving forward.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I keep all my better ones in-house, but then in the Hungarian league you're loaning out to teams who get changed in a pig pen and are coached by local witch doctors.

Tough scene Manc, but Caen is a nice place to wash up.

[Shindig]

Spain 2024 is tough. I've been watching for years how the Spanish clubs skate dangerously close to the wall and now I'm playing some 4D chess with Rayo Vallecano. They want one of my strikers who's recent run of form is completely pricing them out of the tribunal. I've got £6m to play with but there's no way I'm touching it. Our awful facilities are leading to injuries and the squad is full of young, angry idiots.

Heh. One of my coaches is heading towards Osasuna but they've asked to delay it because they have too many staff members employed. The AI is thick at times.

[Yaysus]

chairman sells the captain and only good gk at the club for a measly 5m when he's easily worth double, club isn't even in financial troubles :happycry:

[Smjffy]

Oxford City - The Squad.

https://i.imgur.com/rpy3pFW.png

Goalkeepers

https://i.imgur.com/yeV9Etj.png

One of our own. Ollie has been our number one keeper for three out of the last four seasons. Tipped to be the next Shilton at one point. That's now gone but he's definitely going to be around for years to come. At least that's the hope at least.


Defenders

https://i.imgur.com/XaYt2ZN.png

£70M purchase from Liverpool who had initially loaned him to Napoli. He became a first team regular straight off and whilst we thought at one point we could do better, he's proven his worth now for three years.

https://i.imgur.com/R6elGxA.png

About to enter his 9th season at the club and he's been our first choice centre back for the entirety of it. His wage is costly but I don't want us to get rid of him on that basis alone especially as he's soon approaching a decade and a testimonial.

https://i.imgur.com/lImzTK5.png

Almost as soon as Matthew Proctor was announced in our intake (the golden generation one) we knew we had a long term option to challenge Maxwell and he's fared so well in his four full seasons that he forced the clubs hand in selling a few former CB's. He's now a fully fledged England international and much more to come.

https://i.imgur.com/jlLumK4.png

It dawned on me last season after claiming the treble that both full backs we own aren't as bad as first thought. Not quality, just the outlay in terms of regaining any sort of resale value and the inflating wages that both ask for. Dario has been the better of the two for the last two years now but his assists did dry up the season before last. I will need to look for replacements in the next 2/3 years but it's an awkward position to fill.


Midfielders


https://i.imgur.com/crZAl9J.png

200 appearances later and alongside my son both own the middle of the park in most matches. I would like him to score more than he does as 16 goals in total is a bit of a let down. We'll keep him until his dying days though I imagine.

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

The same with my son. If I opt to do this again then I'll be less generous with the Build Your Own Son feature as I genuinely didn't expect him to be so good. As it is he's on course to be one of the best in the world but it reads well so I'll take it.

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

Another who I'm surprised has lasted the distance given I felt we overpaid for him at £60M and had thought the first chance we got to make that money back we'd take. Well, although he played less than normal last season owing to injuries (which we had a fair few with our tiny squad!) he also happened to have his best season to date. It'll be interesting what he offers this season.

https://i.imgur.com/aimp9gA.png

Another who came through our youth system as part of the golden generation crew but he's not really pieced it all together so far. Last season was a big one for him after we got rid of his older competition and he stepped up with his best to date so hopefully he'll avoid injuries this season and get into double figures for goals for the first time.


Strikers


https://i.imgur.com/uuWWi1b.png

I'd struggle to give too many words that haven't already been used about Yan the Man but he had a noticeable dip in goals last season, again owing to injuries and a strike partner who was every bit as lethal but it was the first time since joining us in 2028 that he failed to score more than 20 in a campaign.

https://i.imgur.com/K4kvBvd.png

Our soul signing in 2034 for a whopping £77M but it was his goals last season that won us the European Cup with 20 in 36. Something will have to give with one of the strikers as I think we might be best reverting to our former formation which was less taxing on the bodies. In an ideal world the little Welshie that just came through will take one of their spots.


Subs.


https://i.imgur.com/5s3KgHW.png

Another from our own youth but with just two first team appearances in three seasons he's definitely a back up option. I just begrudge paying more on wages for someone to sit on a bench. Contradictory when you see some of the wages we're paying.

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

He's unlucky not to be first choice if I am honest but a very expensive and good option to have on the bench as he can fill in at right midfield too.

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

Stolen from Man United in 2031 and has spent three successive seasons out on loan with Championship side Sunderland. He's going to get his chance this year but only because we sold our other back up LB for decent money.

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

Proctor forced him out of the first team but I can't bring myself to cash in on a fine CB who cost nothing whatsoever.

https://i.imgur.com/4QwDtjh.png

Summer signing. The jury is out on him.

https://i.imgur.com/WXyD0Yc.png

And him. I swear just signing him reduced his stats massively. I only jumped in as the bigger clubs were circling him so I assumed he's got something about him. Somewhere. Some time.

https://i.imgur.com/UdZrbx8.png

He would probably benefit from more regular football but I'll play devils dilemma and leave him. I don't really care about his career because let's face it, my son is more important to me and he's pally with Aliu Sanca.



Done.

Now we start our community shield game and hopefully a rewarding season. I wanted to bring in another left winger and a striker to ease the burden on the front two as we finally cashed in on Mohammed Hassan who joined Inter Milan for £69M. Franck Ott last seasons Champions League star left for Man United for £53M (but he's ageing tbf) Clement Pinault our back up left back joined Bordeaux for £35M whilst seriously really mean it as last chance saloon for Juan Munoz who left for Bournemouth for the season.

[Shindig]

Wound up playing through a whole season of the Champ Man save.

Villareal 2024/5

We finished 4th in our first season in the top flight. We flirted with the Championship (because Spain is fucked) but our striker started drawing blanks and I could never really settle on a side. We were in 3rd for most of it but 4th's enough for Champions League footy.

Played 38, won 18, Drawn 8, Lost 12. Mediocre in a normal universe but this game is broken beyond doubt. +5 goal difference courtesy of 42 scored, 37 conceded. Betis took another title and a Champions League whilst Cordoba (the last Spanish club to dominate Europe) faced administration for most of it. Hercules found their way to a UEFA Cup final in a relegation season. Our stadium expansion and facilities have punch a whole in our finances. I've got £3.3m to spend and they have given me suitably low expectations.

In terms of new faces, I brought in Billy Kerr on a free to give the defensive midfield some stability. After a shaky start he looked absolutely sound. At the front, Segio Barbero's not the machine he was in the Second Division but he still managed 19 goals to take the league's top scorer. Mercuri's transfer to Levante is ... apparently going ahead for £1.4m. Their financial status is Insecure so I wouldn't count that done just yet. It'll be another year looking for freebies and youngsters. I totally forgot I was managing China too. We almost shat the bed in the first round of qualifying against a plucky Palestine side. The second group features Japan and the Saudis so this might be my lot. Wigan's Chao Lin still leads the line for them. He hasn't played in two years and looks way better for it. What I do hate is having to call players up just to see their attributes.

What happened elsewhere? Birmingham won the Premier League on a shocking 66 points. First Division champions Charlton won the FA Cup. Not to be outdone, Sunderland won the League Cup and then bottled the play-offs. :D Werder Bremen won a fourth straight Bundesliga, a Cup and League Cup. A clean sweep. Mancini's Sampdoria took slightly less time to win the league again.

So who's fallen the furthest? Bayer Leverkusen were last in the Regionals a decade ago. Imagine playing amateur footy at a 29,000 ground. Aston Villa and Southampton are a Third Division fixture now, as are Sheff Wed and Everton. In the other direction, Enfield are now one step from the promised land. A rise that wasn't exactly rapid. They don't even have a proper stadium name. Their Chairman's called Tony Lazarou. I like Enfield. Southport are a Premier League side. When the voting came round for player of the year, they had a nominee. He was shit so I voted for him. :D Palermo are currently in Serie C2. The excellently named Rondinella Impruneta sit in Serie A's midtable. Real Madrid are back in the top flight. Presumably to scrap with Barca for 10th.

Lastly, a club reorganised in 2000, FC Gutersloh are a Bundesliga side. And Javier Saviola has another year on his contract. 37 appearances and 8 goals this season. Legend.

[Smjffy]

https://i.imgur.com/ZbhfA4a.png

https://i.imgur.com/r2YXnjL.png

Fair to say we made a bad call. :moop:

Appreciate the post, Fox. I'll try and use it moving forward.

https://i.imgur.com/qrbCWr4.png

That's quite the clanger, isn't it? :moop:

[Lofty]

Brutal :D

I got a USB A to USB C cable for connecting my iPad to my pc so hopefully I can get Touch updated with all the graphics, skins, kits, logos etc I want now. Oldham are in contention for promotion in my first season despite having no money, however gone into a slump of draws that needs breaking if I'm going to stay in a play off berth.

[Giggles]

Brutal :D

I got a USB A to USB C cable for connecting my iPad to my pc so hopefully I can get Touch updated with all the graphics, skins, kits, logos etc I want now. Oldham are in contention for promotion in my first season despite having no money, however gone into a slump of draws that needs breaking if I'm going to stay in a play off berth.

Let me know how you fare out with that.

[Smjffy]

Oxford City - 2036/2037

Transfers In

https://i.imgur.com/AjAge7r.png



https://i.imgur.com/0NMV7MS.png

Taxed from Newcastle United's youth squad and one we're will become a first team option in time. We gave him a few cup games throughout the season but early days.

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

24 goals in 42(1) appearances suggests he knows where the back of the net is but it was for German outfit SC Freiburg rather than ourselves as we loaned him straight out. Promising start though and he'll get some minutes for our own side next season if a suitable loan isn't found.

https://i.imgur.com/rd0NjC1.png

£50M rising up to £80M is a huge outlay for someone who is always going to play second fiddle to my son and Aliu Sanca but a good option to have nonetheless. He also joins the long line of former Dortmund players to don our clubs colours.

https://i.imgur.com/sWQM5NJ.png

January loan signing to add depth to the left wing but he only started once in the league (scored though!) and was very much stuck on the bench throughout. Our summer window will definitely have to see a winger arrive of high quality.


Transfers Out

https://i.imgur.com/UEG6YA7.png



Clement Pinault - After joining the club in 2029 from Real Sociedad the left back took a while to get going and in the end it proved to be a false dawn. We had initially loaned him right out to Blackburn Rovers in a hit and miss deal, the following two years saw minimal first team games for ourselves before 3032 saw him establish himself as our first choice. Unfortunately it was for just the single season and he made 26 further appearances over the next three seasons. Bordeaux offered £35M, we snapped their hands off.

Juan Antonio Munoz - On his 6th loan spell and finally....actually finally....he did something. Not only did he record his highest average rating of 7.09 but he also had an indirect hand in helping us. Gents....it'll make sense later into the update. :drool:

Mohammed Hassan - We knew he was on the brink because although he's clearly got talent, he's just not a goalscorer. Or at least 10 goals in over 80 appearances suggested as much. Inter Milan were negotiated up to his value of £69M and given we'd had him for a nominal £850K from Arsenal a decade ago, it was a no brainer especially as it opened up a place on the bench of our little Welsh wonder Robbie. The suggestion on his goalscoring ability? He did more in one season with Inter than he had in his entire season with us. :moop:

Franck Ott - He had quite the end to his Oxford career after claiming 'The' treble and being named the Premier League PotM for May but the wrong side of 30, a wage exceeding £200K+ a week and a dipping value said it was time. Reluctantly the best offer we got was £53M from Man United so we took it just to get him off the wage bill. By the end of the current season he had helped Man United achieve Champions League football for the first time since in a few years.

Sory Diallo - Loaned out to Premier League club Everton, his first loan deal since joining us himself and it proved to be a relative success with the Merseyside club finishing 8th but the 2030/31 relegation season still has an influence on the clubs current guise. Just a bit....average?

Marcos Maldonado - See transfers in.

Oliver Hudson - The next Michael Owen they said and 11 goals in 34 games on loan to Oldham saw him keep the tag. I don't see him making the grade for us as the difference between him and Robbie is huge but maybe we'll make something off him in a few years time.


Summary

League

https://i.imgur.com/X70iINy.png



An actual season long title challenge.

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

It was clear we were both the dominant duo of the league but one solitary defeat at this point, a much better GD as well as GF/GA column suggest we were rather unfortunate not to be top ourselves but that eventually occurred after 35 games courtesy of a rather unsurprising accomplice.

https://i.imgur.com/zl8Acgr.png

It was still too close for comfort though.

https://i.imgur.com/Mop1fsV.png

We faced Man United ourselves immediately afterwards and despite being sandwiched between our European games, we hammered them 4-1 to ensure we remained top with two to go. It was going to go to the final day I imagined but someone else had other ideas. Chaps....

After so many loan spells, after so much negative comments from his very own manager....what better way to respond than to put in a MotM performance against the club you started your career at to help your parent club win, or rather retain, the Premier League. :D

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

Magic.

We recorded a 2-0 win away to West Ham thus securing the title. We'd now gone some 15 games unbeaten against The Hammers.

https://i.imgur.com/lvNL5pv.png

Our third Premier League title. 23 to go...



Domestic Cups



Community Shield - We lost to Manchester City 2-0.

Super Cup - Well.....picture > word.

https://i.imgur.com/0nqNeQ6.png

What a start to your Oxford career Robbie! A debut at 16, a debut goal and a trophy. Good kid.

EFL Cup - We made the decision early on that every fixture in the competition would be given to the youngsters and those not getting game time regardless of who we are against so it would be just our luck that our 3rd round tie would be against Manchester City.

https://i.imgur.com/tIpn5eB.png

:drool: Pritchard! He had a great first season but I'll update him individually later....oof. I hoped he'd have got many more chances in the domestic cups but sadly Chelsea knocked us out in the following round so it wouldn't be in the EFL Cup.

FA Cup

We beat Bristol City 3-1 at home in round three with our kids before following it up with a win against Nottingham Forest. Leicester was one step too far for our fledgling starlets however and the 2-0 defeat in round five meant less game time for them.

Champions League

https://i.imgur.com/jK9OT9Q.png

We made short work of our group and qualified with two games to go but it was an easy one. Fenerbahce were the groups whipping boys but it was always going to be a battle for second place for whomever joined us. On this occasion it was ze Germans, Eintracht Frankfurt who qualified at Porto's expense. The 4-1 defeat in match day one evidently too much.

The first round knockout told a familiar story. Most notably Barcelona and last mnute goals.

https://i.imgur.com/mdr9Fp3.png

We were confident heading into the return with two away goals though and a 3-1 win three weeks later once again knocked the Spanish giants out as we progressed. Europe just doesn't strike me 'that' difficult (probably due to only having Eng loaded though :()

Inter Milan were our quarter final opponents and we simply didn't care a we'd face them before without any incident. It would ring true this time round as well as our 7-1 aggregate win stretched our unbeaten run against them to six with 20 goals for and just 5 against.

Arsenal were up next in the semi finals and given they were the only team to beat us in the league (1-0) we wanted to return the favour by knocking them out of Europe but boy we were given a rude awakening. Yan Canti was sorely missed as he'd been injured for the back end of the campaign and wasn't fit enough to start and it looked to be at great expense.

https://i.imgur.com/LOKTDT8.png

But thankfully he returned for the 2nd leg and did what Yan the Man does.

https://i.imgur.com/McwwT3i.png

We were on course to retain our Champions League title, a potential second treble (OK, no FA Cup but we did get the Super Cup...:uhoh:)

Anyways.....Yan Canti. :cool:

https://i.imgur.com/kCQ5WMX.png



Exhausted after last nights all nighter so this update was a bit of a slog. I'll give a nice update about Robbie Pritchard soon as he's clearly going to be a top player. :drool:

Next Season

I think we're about to enter a period of dominance as the league just felt different to normal, I thought City would still take it by virtue of their depth but no one else really posed us many problems. It was the amount of drawn games that stopped us wrapping things up much earlier so maybe start building for the future and add 1/2 for the first team. Financially we're in Rood health, our stadium is nearing completion to add an extra 17,000 seats and our youth facilities are now right up amongst the best so it's time to capitalise. Unfortunately for the save however, I have three days left before I start working again so enjoy them whilst they last.

Robbie the Welsh Wonder.
Robbie. :cool: I was going to update but pictures do it justice.


https://i.imgur.com/G7snoye.png

The Debut

https://i.imgur.com/Y5MaXYc.png

Adel was due a late fitness test so we benched him and dished out an early debut, he responded in kind before being subbed in the 73rd minute for eventual MotM...Adel. Bjorn Vos scoring against his former club.

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

His next strike came against a very strong City side in the EFL Cup. He scored in the flawless penalty shootout win too.

Four days later and again injury to Adel gave Robbie his chance and again he showed his clinical side with a brace. It has to help having Yan the Man and his mentality next to him.

https://i.imgur.com/NdRfK8d.png

Goals in the Super Cup, the EFL Cup and the Premier League so early in his career. Why not extend it to Europe?

https://i.imgur.com/Cv3eUKG.png

Adel might have a problem.....

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

Another strike. Adel actually replaced Yan Canti in the second half allowing Pritchard to finish the entire 90.

https://i.imgur.com/ja29OIM.png

A further strike just a month before his 17th birthday and he'd already proven himself to be a viable option going forward.

https://i.imgur.com/8TnLXRL.png

All before his 17th birthday. A great start....but more to come....because...

https://i.imgur.com/Z9vrsju.png

Wow.

His first goal arrived three months later.

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

By time the season had drawn to a close he'd featured six times but still just the solo strike.

Exciting times!

[Smjffy]

You would think after nearly twenty seasons as well as Liverpool's real life success that I would have clocked that the Club World Cup is now every four years and in July with a shit load of teams in it. Is that right?

Have any of you been in it on FM20? If so, do you use it as pre season or do you still set up for pre season as you normally would? Will I be fucked physically for the upcoming season? Quick answer please as I need to sign loads more if that's the case.

[Pleb]

In late 2016, FIFA President Gianni Infantino suggested an expansion of the Club World Cup to 32 teams beginning in 2019 and the reschedule to June to be more balanced and more attractive to broadcasters and sponsors.[131] In late 2017, FIFA discussed proposals to expand the competition to 24 teams and have it be played every four years by 2021, replacing the FIFA Confederations Cup.

The new tournament, planned to start in 2021, would be held every four years instead of annually, would feature 24 teams and 31 matches. It would include all UEFA Champions League winners, UEFA Champions League runners-up, Europa League winners and Copa Libertadores winners from the four seasons up to and including the year of the event, with the remainder qualifying from the other four confederations. Along with a new Nations League competition, revenues of $25 billion would be expected during the period from 2021 to 2033.

In March 2019, FIFA decided to expand the Club World Cup starting in 2021.

I think FM put that into motion.

[Shindig]

I hate Spain. Betis have a proper monopoly going on. They are the only side unbeaten in the league and there's about 15 points between them and the rest. Even with the Champions League money, I can't crack that. Another thing is how our reputation really does us no favours in the market. Spanish clubs really don't like using the loan market which, when you haven't got a B side, ruins youth development. They have to be born ready or you have to be willing to throw them in the firing line. Looks like another year of freebies but they all seem to be over 30 and kinda limited.

On the plus side, Mercuri's transfer failed miserably but he'd already decided he was leaving so couldn't put a contract down. Billy Kerr was homesick for Scotland but nobody came in for him. He's changed his mind now. Again, I hate Spain. The Barcelona job did come up but I thought better of it. The club has money but seemingly spend it on binmen players.

I'll say this as well: Fuck Spanish fixtures. With the Champions League and Cup games, I've played two games a week for the past 4-5 months solid. I have to keep the squad small for the budget but I need spare bodies for those midweek death marches. If I sneak some silverware I might beat a hasty exit, although the expectations keep the pressure off.

[Raoul Duke]

Good stuff, Smiff. Pritchard looks bonkers for a 17 year old.

-----

Milan
I've just finished up my first season at AC Milan. Ended up coming 2nd behind "Zebre" a.k.a. CR7's Calcio Licensing Division, who were unstoppable (saying that though, we were top with two to play, albeit they had some games in hand). Finished five points off after 38 games as we shat the bed against Udinese and dribbled home. Wouldn't have mattered.

Wound up playing a 4-2-3-1 after a bit of fiddling. Fullbacks are the key by the looks of things, although ours struggled to remain fit enough throughout and I've not quite got the AMC's firing on all cylinders.

Winners
- Raf Leao - easily first choice by the end of it, notching 20-odd goals. Outshone loanee Rebic and retired Zlatan
- Sandro Tonali - bit of a no-brainer, but bought him in for £30m or so and he ended up dominating the midfield alongside Bennacer
- Romagnoli + Musacchio - rock solid pairing at the back. Musacchio managed to earn nearly a yellow-a-game, hilariously, so he's doing his bit for charity via the fines system
- Calhanoglu - assist king
- Diego Laxalt - outshone Hernandez and scored some vital goals. Not bad for someone who looks like the Predator's albino little sister
- VAR - we seemed to blag penalties in almost every other game. Long may it continue

Sinners
- Zlatan - piss poor, which is a shame. Just not mobile enough and took the right option to retire at the end of the campaign to save me having to give him the bullet
- Theo Hernandez - never really got going, save for the odd game. Started injured for a long while. Hopefully steps it up this season as he's got the talent
- Juve - just fuck off. Can't wait until Ronaldo retires

Season 2
We had some great news on the youth team front as a "golden generation" was rumoured. Out popped a cracking keeper, left back, winger and central midfielder who all look capable, if callow.

Transfer-wise I replaced all the misshapen parts who were gunking up the midfield (mostly the shit Spanish wingers and random Eastern European cloggers who Milan kept signing before I showed up) and bought in some high-spec cosmopolitan pass-wizards, raiding the usual suspects of Ajax, Napoli and Dinamo Zagreb. Onwards!

[Lofty]

Am I the only one terrible at managing the wage bill when it is free agent time? Hoovered up a load of better players than the ones I had and released some wasters yet always end up 10k a week over budget.

[Raoul Duke]

I hardly ever pay much attention to budget in FM. Normally because I manage bigger teams so I just sign whoever and it usually works out

[Jimmy Floyd]

Am I the only one terrible at managing the wage bill when it is free agent time? Hoovered up a load of better players than the ones I had and released some wasters yet always end up 10k a week over budget.

It's generally worth it if those players can lead you to a cash jackpot somewhere. Hard in the English lower leagues though as the only real way of doing it is a tasty FA Cup run.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I've reached autumn 2022 - finding myself, after an away goals CL qualifying shitshow in Zagreb, in the Europa League group stage with the rather curious trio of Chelsea, Aberdeen and Legia Warsaw - and because of the Qatar World Cup, they've crammed four of the Europa group games into September, including two lots of Thursday-Saturday double headers.

I judged that the only way to actually do this (with the first pair of games) was to just bin off the first game at Stamford Bridge with the B team, which was duly lost 4-0, and then went to Legia 48 hours later with a fresh proper side who found themselves up against a shit shower of tired bodies, including a 38 year old Wes Morgan (pace 3) who began the game on 65% condition and didn't get any better from there.

Loved it.

[Lofty]

That's mad scheduling, I've seen the game just bin off Qatar due to 'club protests' before.

[Shindig]

That's mostly how my Spanish season's went. They do league games on Saturday/Sunday with the majority on Sunday. Champions League is on Tuesday/Wednesday with any games in hand or Cup games also squeezed in midweek. And it's 2001 so Group stage footy is 12 games and then the knockouts. My squad size is 27 and I've needed every one of them. Even some greyed out keepers because two of mine love to get sent off.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I've had 48 hour gaps between Europe and league before but I've never had back to back European games. The schedule is somewhat like this:

Saturday 7th Honved (league)
Thursday 12th Chelsea (Europa)
Saturday 14th Legia (Europa)
Tuesday 17th FC Alphabet Soup (cup)
Saturday 21st Kisvarda (league)
Monday 23rd Debrecen (league)
Thursday 26th Aberdeen (Europa)
Saturday 28th Chelsea (Europa)
Tuesday 1st Oct Szeged (league)

As such the league is going to have games in hand all over the place and even in the European groups, the games aren't happening evenly so we'll end up having played 4 times while others have only played twice. All this so Michel Platini could build a sex dungeon made out of solid gold.

[Ian]

I'm sure I had one on FM15 where it contrived to give me important games on consecutive days. Can't remember what the circumstances were but I was glad of my over-stacked squad that day.

[Foe]

Fm bugs scheduling cup finals whilst players were on international duty was an absolute bitch.

[thommo]

When I last updated, I was halfway through my 3rd attempt of getting out of the National League South. Torquay were the team to chase down, and despite drawing both of my games in hand, I was able to claw my way to the top spot, thanks in part to important wins against playoff contenders Dulwich Hamlet and Wealdstone.

This was part of a really impressive 9 game winning streak that kept us at the top, despite Torquay also hitting form. It all came to a head on the Easter weekend, where, with 6 games to go, we hosted the Devon side and dispatched them with aplomb thanks to 3 first-half goals. This gave us a 5 point lead with 5 games to go, and despite stumbling in our next 3 fixtures, we saw off Brackley Town (who had manoeuvred their way up to 2nd by this point) in the penultimate match to confirm the title and with it, promotion to the National League.

https://i.ibb.co/wzjxNH3/2020-21.png

The 2nd half of the season was the best we’ve performed in my three seasons as manager, thanks to some new players bedding in and a step up in quality in the first-team in general. Morgan Roberts in particular was in fine form, winning the National League South Player of the Month 3 times in a row, and ending up as our league top scorer with 17 goals. With his contract running out at Northampton, he is definitely one I will aim to pick up permanently.

Evan Pierce also deserves a mention – he racked up 22 assists in the league, 8 more than anybody else. He also chipped in with 7 goals and is under contract for another season. Hopefully he copes with the step up.

Finally, the player of the season as voted for by the fans. Warren Harris should not be performing as well as he has when you consider his attributes, but 17 goals and 15 assists in 38 games across all competitions show how important he was to the team. He’s a team leader and a fan favourite, but my loyalty to him will be tested as we step up next season. I want to keep him around but we will definitely need a new right winger to take over the first-team duties.

https://i.ibb.co/drnzKwC/W-Harris.png

We were also knocked out of the FA Trophy at the 3rd round, to match our FA Cup exploits – Welling United dealing with a rotated side 1-0.

Next season, we need to make some fairly tough decisions. A number of players integral to our promotion will not be good enough to perform in the National League, and will need to be upgraded. We have £500k in the bank thanks to our cup exploits, but we’re still having to groundshare in Ruislip with Wealdstone. I have about £3.5k/pw to work with regarding the wage bill, and so the scouting of the youth rejects will begin in earnest.

[Luke Emia]

Managed to get King’s Lynn to the promised land of the Premier League. 11 seasons in all so not quite Smiffy but not bad as 4 of those were in the Conference. Nearly threw it away was 10 points clear with 8 to play but ended up finishing second and needing to win the last game just to go up.

New stadium is now being built will be for 19,000 hopefully plenty of room to increase that capacity. But, in the meantime I’m moving to Lincoln. Only a minor 65 miles from home but never mind.

[Shindig]

It's over. 3rd place finish and a Copa del Rey final. 2 points off second place Leganes but a whopping 24 off Betis. Barbero with the top scorer award again with 27. I don't know who Spain have ahead of him but 47 for the season is a grand haul. Now let me list out our problems.

Games where our keeper threw a 5
Carlos Parades - vs Celta (4-1 league defeat)
Cesar Fernandes Garcia - vs Nantes (4-1 CL defeat)
Segio Diaz - vs Osasuna (3-3 league draw)
Cesar Fernandes Garcia - vs Atletico Madrid (3-2 league win)
Segio Diaz - vs Sporting Gijon (Cup 1/4 final we won on penalties thanks to Garcia)
Cesar Fernandes Garcia - vs IFK Goteborg (2-1 CL defeat)
Cesar Fernandes Garcia - vs Real Madrid (3-1 league defeat)

I can't trust any of them, although Diaz probably had the best run in the side. 7.13 average rating vs 7 for Parades and 6.78 for Garcia.

Now let me detail our disciplinary record.

Red cards
David Murillo / Enrique Rios (2-5 defeat to Betis)
Cesar Fernandes Garcia - (2-1 win against Atletico Madrid)
Carlos Paredes (2-3 defeat to Gijon)
Hugo Ramos (2-1 defeat to Barca)
Jason Cook (3-1 win against Gijon)
Jorge Mateos (3-1 defeat against Gijon)
Jorge Caro (3-2 win over Rayo)
Sergio Diaz / Enrique Rios (2-2 draw vs Copenhagen)
Luis Cardoso (2-1 defeat to Goteborg)
Jorge Caro (2-0 defeat to Valladolid)
Sergio Diaz / David Murrilo (2-0 CUP FINAL DEFEAT TO FUCKING LEGANES!) :moop:

8 red cards, 61 yellows for the worst disciplinary record in the league A league record for yellow cards but Real Madrid's 14 reds (2008/9) sounds like it'll never be beat.
4 red cards, 11 yellows for the worst disciplinary record in the Cup Top work, lads.

Horrendous cunts. 11 players with reds against them this season. 9 players have 5 or more yellow cards. Far and away, Adjei (our 'combative' Ghanaian midfielder) has 16. Best player in the league by miles but he got pissy with the press because I have the common sense to sub him when he's on a booking. Note the reds in the Champions League as well. We had a second phase group of Copenhagen, Anderlecht and IFK. We should've coasted it.

Berbero is our all-time leading scorer at the no-age-at-all of 25. 138 in 217 appearances. One booking all season. We've got £11.5m to allegedly spend in the summer. I'll be looking to ditch the old wood and hopefully get in some players that aren't fucking mentalists. We're getting a lot of fitness worries with our defenders so I'm hoping at least a couple retire.

Javier Saviola has extended his playing contract for another year 41 appearances for Manlleu. He is 44. He has now played more games at that club that he did at Barcelona. 1099 games, 545 goals. He is their record goalscorer but is some 340 appearances shy of Juan Jose Garrido's record. His pace and acceleration remains at 4. There is life, there is hope.

[Manc]

https://medias.lequipe.fr/logo-football/41/240

Saison Cinq/Six - Sacked like a dog in April 2024, it wasn't until January the following year that I returned to management. So why Stade Malherbe Caen? It certainly wasn't for their history, a second place finish in the 1992 Intertoto Cup being one of few highlights. They are the very definition of a yo-yo club facing relegation/promotion on a combined eight occasions since the turn of the century. This is a trend that has continued in FM as they now find themselves back in Ligue 2 after failing to establish themselves as a top flight side last season. I chose Caen simply for their youth academy. Historically they have nurtured talents such as William Gallas, Thomas Lemar & Raphael Guerreiro and they were now producing the next generation of French footballers. In my first season alone we received over £60m in player sales.

Taking over the reigns with the club firmly in mid-table, I saw out the season in a rather unspectacular style improving our position by just the one place (11th). Nothing more was expected however, it was a big summer ahead as boardroom talks had resulted in the requirement for us to reach the play offs, something which wasn't possible with the current squad. Bankrolled by a few million I decided to raid my old club for players learned in the art of anti-football. No less than six players were poached from Toulouse, including midfield talents Kalidou Sidibe and the forgotten man of French football Maxence Caqueret. More bodies were needed still, Edouard Mendy arrived from Milan as our new No 1, Simon Deli was plucked from obscurity to marshall our back line, and failed wonder kids Wesley Fofana & Thimothee Pembele strived to get their careers back on track.

At the half way stage we were in the thick of it laying in 4th just two points back from top of the table Amiens. The leagues bigger sides Auxerre and Lens would keep us company after the winter break, that was until our consistency paid dividends and we established a ten point lead with just ten games to go. The lead in the end proved too healthy as we were crowned Champions with two games remaining. Lens would join us in the top flight along with Red Star who surprised everyone winning both playoffs rounds.

Some tidy business was done in the summer so I'm expecting a somewhat comfortable ride in the top flight, though we face PSG, Lyon & Marseille in our opening four fixtures.

[Ian]

If anybody was looking to get the current FM but didn't want to pay RRP (and also didn't want to fund crime by getting it off CD Keys or something) the current Humble Bundle for BLM costs £25 and includes FM20 and a bunch of other stuff.

https://www.humblebundle.com/fight-for-racial-justice-bundle

[Jimmy Floyd]

I haven't had the will to do a proper update but here's how things went at Ferencvaros:

21/22: Looking for a third title in a row, the conversion to a diamond was successful and the new look Ramic/Mazzonetto strike pair led us to our most comfortable success yet. Ujpest started the season with 9 wins in a row, which had me rather alarmed, but then their manager was poached by Serbia. They foolishly appointed my old Vidi enemy, Marko Nikolic, who, fresh from having crashed Vidi off the moon and forced a two year rebuild, proceeded to drive Ujpest into the sea as well. They collapsed to a horrible third. In Europe, we beat Bayern, Spurs and Valencia at Fortress Groupama but were thrashed by all of them away, sending us out in third. We got Benfica in the Europa League and won on penalties after both legs were 2-0 to the home team. In the last 16, we got Hoffenheim, and for some reason they and their spearhead Joelinton proved a bridge too far. They went all the way to the final, where they lost to Real Madrid.

22/23: For the first time, we ballsed up the Champions League qualifiers, going out 1-1 on away goals to a very good Dinamo Zagreb side. A lot of injuries and a mad Qatar-driven schedule ensued, but some canny rotation has seen us to a joint lead with a resurgent Debrecen at the very early winter break (there's no club football beyond October in 2022). In the Europa League, we got Chelsea, Legia Warsaw and Aberdeen, and were twice nobbled 4-0 by the former (the Premier League is hegemonic in this save) but were too strong for the other two and went through in second.

Some of my more interesting players:


Miguel González, Chilean right back who has been first choice since 18 and to be honest at that age he promised more than this, but a 6 month injury in between times set him back. However, thus far it has at least kept him here - he's an awesome performer.

https://i.imgur.com/A4UmwrI.jpg

Nicolo Mazzonetto, or little Nicky as I call him, who started the game in the academy and is a bit of a heart pick for me. He's not consistent but he's bagged 56 goals in all competitions and is a great sniffer out of a loose ball in the box. Often pops up in the biggest games.

https://i.imgur.com/pYPSDd0.jpg

Adrian Grandis, picked up from Belgrano just recently and looks like a keeper, although we may struggle to hold onto him long term. Classy midfielder.

https://i.imgur.com/qj7VIqe.jpg

Dzenan Ramic, Serbian hotshot who partners Mazzonetto in my first choice lineup. He is obviously the superior player but I arguably haven't got the most out of him yet.

https://i.imgur.com/fsryBit.jpg

Menzi Mbhele, South African playmaker who on his day is superb but I haven't been able to get much consistency out of him yet. He also has a lot of competition for the AM spot, including...

https://i.imgur.com/pS3cUuy.jpg

Rolando Salas. This guy is an archetypal mercurial piece of shit - awful shite one day, then sublime genius the next. Always love to throw him off the bench in almost any attacking position as his 'make something happen' factor is off the charts, but as a starter he often flatters to deceive.

https://i.imgur.com/tuPNpXd.jpg



I'm working on developing something like the Brazil 1970 formation to try and get a few more of the above in at once.

[Pleb]

Any good tips for starting up a youth only challenge (ie from the youth setup etc)?

Loving your updates Jimmy.

[Manc]

Ramic could be a one club man given his personality.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I should have added that 22/23 will be the first year that Hungary will be playing for two Champions League (qualifying) places, but literally all of it is our doing. It looks like we can drag them to 10th/11th on our own but we will need assistance to go beyond that. Zero other Hungarian sides have made it to either group stage since the first season.

[mugbull]

I played 15 seasons in Sweden once and I got them up to 7th or 8th in the coefficients singlehandedly. Then, literally overnight (in game time), some box got ticked and the market value of all the players in the league got multiplied by a factor of 10. I don’t remember playing much after then but i imagine there’s some poorly coded threshold that, if you surpass, can probably make any league the best in Europe. Wouldn’t be surprised if its gotten fixed since like FM13 or whatever

[Shindig]

Italy's manager decided to retire mid-way through a World Cup campaign, his replacement (plucked from obscurity) was duly sacked after the tournament and now they have a third manager in a fortnight. Saviola's evergreen career is having an unwanted side-effect: His regen won't spawn for ages. There's a first-gen regen doing the same thing (930 appearances and counting) except he's managing in the Conference so he'll probably live forever.

This save is throwing up some weird things.

[Lofty]

Let me know how you fare out with that.

First attempt appears not to have worked, possibly the packs I have used? Also a pain with an overlap between mobile and touch stuff with no clarification if they are compatible with both.

First season with Oldham complete:


https://i.ibb.co/TTyW4L7/image0-2.png

We were predicted mid table and I had no money, so happy with that. Feel like the title was there for the taking but too many games where we failed to break the opposition down.

Still, quite happy that the only signing I made was an 18 year old striker on a free that my scouts, coaches and supporters didn't rate at all:

https://i.ibb.co/h2Ywcqj/image5-1.png

But then my staff seem to be professional idiots and I have no cash to really do much about it:

https://i.ibb.co/rMjqsgW/image2-2.png

[Gray Fox]

I can't get into the local team save(moving house isn't helping) so I've plumped for a different project in Paris FC.


Background

For those who don't know, the team known as PSG these days is an amalgamation of 2 clubs in the 70's. Paris FC formed in 1969 and merged with Stade Saint-Germain in 1970. However in 1973, Paris FC broke away from PSG. This did not go so well for them though. They spent a few years struggling and then dropped out of Ligue 1 in 1979 and have not returned since.

Big brothers PSG didn't shake many trees to start with but managed a couple of titles and good cup success after. That is, until 2011. Since the blood money came in PSG have been relentless. They've taken 5 of 6 titles on offer(as of start of FM19 save) since and in the cups adding 4 Coupe de France and 5 Coupe de la Ligue.
In the real world the latter cup has been stopped to help ease the season scheduling, but I'm not sure if this goes along with what the game has coded.

In short, the rivalry is right there. PSG are now the most successful team in every competition in France, bar Ligue 1.

Surprisingly the most league titles by a team in France is only 10 with Saint-Etienne. So the challenge is to try to take Paris FC to the very top and take down the noisy neighbours.

[Manc]

Lovely choice. The Coupe de la liga does indeed get binned after the first season.

[wullie]

Halfway point in 31/32


https://i.imgur.com/g1mcoR8.png


In previous seasons there's usually been a runaway leader at this stage that I'm at least 10 points behind so if it's ever happening this is my chance, and really it's the only thing that can make up for not defending the Carabao Cup and enjoying all the free crates of energy drink that come with.

[thommo]

Has Ed Virtue been capped yet?

[wullie]

Recently got his first call-up so not capped yet, but he's just waiting for that shithead Toby Yates to play himself out of the starting spot.

[Smjffy]

Oxford City - 2037/2038

Transfers In

https://i.imgur.com/J77Q6Xm.png


https://i.imgur.com/vR4hxr4.png

Not a brilliant start but he rarely got the chance in fairness. 7(5) league games and 1 goal, 6(2) with 3 goals and 3 assists in the cups. He's got potential so we've brought him in for the long term regardless.

https://i.imgur.com/B3vVJfL.png

Our bigger summer signing brought in to challenge Jiminez on the left wing. He scored in numerous league games with 9 goals in 18(14) and a few important cup goals too. Newcastle had bought him from Fulham in 2035 for £51M so a nice little profit for them too.

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

Another cheap youngster brought in from Spain, made 5 league starts with four as sub but another for the long term as opposed to today.

https://i.imgur.com/4oTDsc6.png

Brought in via our feeder club but never started a game. He's a current Serbia international so we'll make money on him if he doesn't establish himself.

https://i.imgur.com/UwCnqU6.png

Injuries and bad decisions led to Diguinho's arrival and he finished the season with 10 in 15(5) and a good option up front moving forward. I have high hopes. £25.5M was more than we wanted to pay but sod messing around with Brazilian club Gremio when so many other big clubs are interested. He arrived in January window and a good preseason might be all it takes.

https://i.imgur.com/TwVk7BR.png

Another relatively expensive signing given his current standing but we see him as a long term option to replacing Dario Gomez at left back so the plan is to loan him out for a season then see where we're at.


Transfers Out


https://i.imgur.com/is8NnxV.png

A product of our youth team with no first team experience and very little hope of making it in my opinion but we'll get 25% on his next transfer fee if he does move on, £15M buy back if he breaks out into something.


Summary

League

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

It might have looked like a challenge occurred but that wasn't the case as Manchester City ran away with it in the end.

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

Two wins in our final eight games might have had something to do with it but we definitely collapsed. :moop:

Domestic Cups

Community Shield - We beat WBA 3-0.

Super Cup - We beat Spurs 1-0. :cool: Retained.

EFL Cup - Sheffield United were taken out via penalties as our youngsters forced their way through. Aston Villa in the 4th round was a slightly easier task as we fielded a stronger side and despite going down to ten men we came away with a 2-0 win. Man City were drawn in the quarter finals and our involvement ended there. 4-2 at the John Woodley Stadium.

FA Cup - Lincoln and Bournemouth were put out 4-0 and 7-0 before we faced Arsenal in the 5th round. A 2-1 win was enough to set up another quarter final, this time against Tottenham who'd win 1-0 and start our end of season collapse. Joys.

FIFA Club World Cup - Drawn against Chelsea and Ulsan Hyundai in the group stage we faced the Koreans first and recorded an emphatic 7-0 victory before following up with a 3-1 success against Chelsea. Maxwell's OG in stoppage time made things nervous before son Timber Rood scored the third in the 92nd. Krasnodar were drawn in the next round and duly sent home conceding six along the way thus setting up a semi final against PSG. We'd face Man City in the final who recorded a 3-2 win over Spurs earlier in the day. I say we'd join them because Yan Canti's solo effort against the French champions was all it took. 1-0.

But then Man City be Man City and they beat us 2-1. :moop:

Champions League

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

We beat Real Madrid on the opening match day 4-1 before recording the same scoreline away to Slavia Praha. When Roma arrived to England though no one foresaw the 8-0 victory that was about to occur. Adel and Van de Voorde with braces but my beautiful delightful amazing top graded son scored four! We eventually finished 2nd but we use the group stages as a chance to give the kids a go, especially after qualification.

PSG would be our knockout round opponents but a 6-2 aggregate win was enough to continue our adventure in the competition. Inter Milan arrived in the quarters and a 1-0 win in Italy was a slender lead to hold but the 7-1 win in the return fixture set us up as favourites for the rest of the competition, odds that were no doubt cut even further when we recorded a 3-0 win against Manchester City in the 1st leg of the Semi Final.

Well. Someone blues got rich.



https://i.imgur.com/j55ecxS.png



So we end up empty handed other than the Super Cup which means my idea of domination was as deluded as I am. There was some bright spots. 29 year old icon Yan Canti continued to find the net with 37 in 54(8), Adel and Diguinho grabbing nearly 30 between them. Robbie the Welsh Wonder with 9 in 24(2) although he's going to struggle to be a first team regular with Diguinho about. Yan the Man is going nowhere.

Man City conceded just eleven league goals. Another period of dominance for them would be a piss take but I really don't feel we're too far off so I'm going to avoid bringing a huge amount in during the summer.

[Manc]

What do your finances look like, Smiff?

[Smjffy]

I'm three seasons ahead of that last update so I'll play catch up after this current one is over. Very good is the answer though.

[thommo]

I know you play with an instant result skin but even so, you are flying through the seasons. I barely get through 2 months if I have a long session on the game.

[Smjffy]

I know you play with an instant result skin but even so, you are flying through the seasons. I barely get through 2 months if I have a long session on the game.

It really doesn't take that long if you ignore the fluff and just get down to it. It is Touch I am playing too. Most the time I spend waiting for it to process because my machine isn't all that great.

[Raoul Duke]

I've been playing Touch and it's a good mix of stuff to do and speed. Doesn't feel like a particularly cut down version at all

[Smjffy]

Oxford City - 2038/2039

Transfers In

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



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

One for the future.

https://i.imgur.com/Yw9klU1.png

Two for the future.

https://i.imgur.com/x0l05mj.png

Three for the future.

https://i.imgur.com/Mr9DuhG.png

Four for the future.

https://i.imgur.com/oE8QbqV.png

Five for the future.

https://i.imgur.com/wIMcFu8.png

Contract was up at FC Porto and he was too good to pass up. Not one for this season although in the four games he started he scored twice.

https://i.imgur.com/5bvebWe.png

Contract was coming to an end at Arsenal and we saw it as a chance to add real quality whilst weakening our opponent. Arsenal actually made a £15M loss on Troels.



Transfers Out

Juan Antonio Munoz - After six loan spells and a minor opportunity last season it was clear that we had to cut our losses on a defender who had tried to make the grade with us for eight years. There comes a time when you just have to admit it's not going to happen so we sold him to Leeds for £13.25M.

Sam Crane - Off to Sheffield United for £12.5M where he proved to be a first team option, sadly for us that wasn't the case and the £1.4M steal from Man United in 3030 looked another wasted effort.

Alejandro - Joined us in 2027 from Chelsea's academy and had stints as first choice over the years but a decision was made to let him leave for £48.5M rising to £60 as this wage was just too much for someone sitting on the bench.

Paul Bollan - One of our own in our so called golden generation but a near £30M bid from Toronto saw his time at the club come to an end. He was a good squad player but nothing more.

Season Summary

https://i.imgur.com/ZJCdtM4.png

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

The biggest surprise of the season wasn't so much our easy run to our fourth Premier League title but Man City being so poor compared to last year. Chelsea were the only team to take a full three points against us showed our strength throughout the campaign.

Domestic Cups

EFL Cup - We lost at the first hurdle as Liverpool won 2-1 at Anfield.

FA Cup - Blackburn, QPR and Man United were beaten 3-0, 4-0 and 5-0 to set up a quarter final against Leicester City. We were riding high in all competitions at this point and so fancied our chances. A 3-2 win suggested we were right to believe that. Unfortunately Manchester City would come up trumps in the semi finals beating us 2-1.

Champions League

https://i.imgur.com/tx41h4I.png

Other than a 3-3 draw away to Milan we made simple work of our group with our youngsters again playing a large role. Schalke got spanked twice as the basement bashing whilst FC Midtjylland took 3rd place.

FC Porto posed no threat in the 1st knockout round despite holding us to a 2-2 draw in Portugal. Our 5-1 win in the return enough to send us through with plenty to spare. Real Madrid were next to visit the John Woodley Stadium and we sent them packing 3-0. The return fixture wasn't so easy though as we were defeated by two goals to nil. Our first leg work enough. Just.

FC Barcelona would arrive in the semi finals and we felt we had their number. 6-2 on aggregate again proving us correct whilst Manchester City lay in wait in the final hoping to retain their title from last season. It wasn't possible as we won 2-1. Eliott Bernand's own goal the decisive one.

[Smjffy]

Oxford City - 2039/2040

Transfers In

https://i.imgur.com/s0bc06w.png


https://i.imgur.com/K8jHenY.png

Nothing much.


Transfers Out

https://i.imgur.com/1ovkG3m.png

After just two seasons at the club Kelvin Ikenna was allowed to join Arsenal for £83M, he just wasn't what we were looking for as he preferred up front. Another to join Arsenal was Dario Gomez who waved goodbye after six seasons as the clubs number one left back. £54M and I'm confident we had the best out of him. Finally Adel, we signed him for £77M in 3034 and he surpassed expectations but an injury hit season last year spelt the end, especially as we've got too many quality options coming through so the bid from Barcelona was easily accepted.

Season Summary

https://i.imgur.com/B0zwO1a.png

It was Chelsea's turn for a late season collapse but truth be told they probably wouldn't have troubled us as we finally started to show our strength as a club. We're not little Oxford, we're one of, if not 'the' big boys of the country.

https://i.imgur.com/Hrz8He8.png

Cups

Community Shield - Beat Man City 3-0 with Diguinho grabbing a brace. He's starting to blossom.

Super Cup - Tottenham 0-6 Oxford City. Canti, Jimenez and Diguinho amongst the goals. Another trophy.

EFL Cup - Fulham ended our involvement before it had even begun as our youngsters came up short losing 1-0.

FA Cup - It wasn't a much better story as Robbie Pritchard's double wasn't enough to prevent Leicester dumping us out of the third round stage 3-2.

Champions League

https://i.imgur.com/5W2eXpf.png

Vitesse, FC Porto and Schalke meant we were going to make short work of the group and this was highlighted by the fact we played our 'reserves' in every single fixture.

Ajax were first up in the 1st knockout round but we brushed past them 7-1 on aggregate. Europe was too easy. Manchester City were drawn in the quarter finals and it was clear the winner of the tie would no doubt win the trophy. Diguinho scoring in both games was brilliant but it was Timber Rood's strike in the 2nd leg that gave us the 3-1 aggregate win. PSG were waiting.

Our visit to France saw a 3-0 lead taken but a 3-3 result. We threw it away but felt confident going into the 2nd leg. Lucas Jimenez's double gave us the 2-0 win and set up another Champions League final, our fourth in five years and it would be our fourth European Cup in five years too as we cruised to a 3-0 win.

[Smjffy]

Oxford City - 2040/2041 - Global Domination.

Transfers In

https://i.imgur.com/grFCo0K.png



https://i.imgur.com/O2KEUuS.png

Stolen from Man United and looks to be the real deal. He barely got a start as the season was far too focused on winning everything but one to keen an eye on.

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

Our new record signing and one to replace the outgoing Alex Jibrin. Jibrin came through our golden generation group a decade ago but he just doesn't score enough. Real Madrid are sniffing.


Transfers Out

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

Zimmermann joined Arsenal for £77M more profit than what we stole him for from Southampton. I say stole a lot because that's exactly what it is come intake day. Day light robbery. He featured for seven seasons but we wanted to stream line the squad somewhat. 5 goals for the Gunners was five more than he managed for us in the last two seasons.

Vitor Andre was brought in on a free from FC Porto and played just five games in both his seasons at the club. PSG's £77M bid was too good to refuse. He went on to score 20 in 38 for them so perhaps another mistake. Lucas Jimenez left for our 'rivals' Manchester City. I signed him back in 2029 and it took him a few years to win me over but a decade later he departs and we make £5M profit too. Bonus. 9 goals in 31 from the wing says he's still a threat.

Marcos Maldonado joined in 2035 for £10M from River Plate but other than a successful loan move at West Brom he was rather useless. Madrid bid £34.5M rising to £50. He went on to score 16 in 37. :moop:

Finally Miguel Romero was let go due to being the wrong side of 30, big wages and we wanted more youth in the first team. Seven seasons as the clubs first choice left back and although we made a huge loss, he won us so much during his time at the club that it's permissible.

Season Summary

League

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

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

Our third successive Premier League title. Our sixth in title. We were pretty darn' good.

Cups

Community Shield - Yan Canti's stoppage time winner gave us a 5-4 win over Chelsea.

UEFA Super Cup - Bayer Leverkusen's Europa League success was no match for our Champions League one as we eased to a 3-0 win.

EFL Cup - We decided to field a strong team from the off and it paid dividends. Another high scoring game against Chelsea saw us come away with a 5-3 win at home. A 3-0 win over Man United at Old Trafford followed in the 4th round. Tottenham were swatted aside 4-1 in the quarters and whilst Arsenal fans laughed at the time, a 6-2 aggregate win over them in the semi final's completed a very impressive run to our first EFL Cup final since winning it in 2026. Burnley ("I fucking hate Burnley" were our opponents and the 5-1 win says all you need to know.

FA Cup - The kids put Boston and Cambridge United out of the competition early doors before Newcastle were drawn in round 5 so we fielded the first team. A 2-1 win was sufficient to set up a quarter final against the lowest ranking team remaining. Charlton. I didn't want to risk it with the kids so again the first team played and came away with a 5-1 win and another day out at Wembley. We'd face Man United in the semi's, we beat them 2-0, the weak later we faced them at the John Woodley Stadium in the league to wrap up the league title. Tottenham were our final opponents but we navigated that once again 2-1. Our first domestic clean sweep.

Champions League

https://i.imgur.com/mw5LJXR.png

After beating Monaco 5-0 on match day one it was surprising that they would be the only team we would drop points to. Atletico Madrid took 2nd place with Anderlecht finishing rock bottom. Another opportunity to blood youngsters was obtained as we qualified early.

Milan were drawn in the next round and we recorded 4-0 and 7-0 wins. We'd now scored 37 times against the Italians.

Quarter finals would see PSG one again but the first leg all but ended the tie as we raced into a 5-1 first half lead. Our 2-0 win in the return set up a semi against German giants Bayern but again we were confident. Our first leg was to be away and although we threatened to score more we could only return to England with a solitary goal as Troels Jacobsen's strike gave us a slender lead. The 5-0 battering in the return however gave us entry to the final for a third successive season. Manchester City would be up as our usual nemesis but as in 2039 and 2036 we denied the Mancunians, this time 3-0.

We won absolutely everything. :eek:

https://i.imgur.com/7M3wPy6.png

https://i.imgur.com/uXe0RLS.png

Next and final update is the current squad and youngsters but we're up to date.....my bad.

[Manc]

Tremendous effort.

[Smjffy]

Oxford City - Summary.

https://i.imgur.com/GEI3zwq.png

The First Team and subs.


https://i.imgur.com/zSjOq7K.png

The clubs number one for the last seven seasons and one of our own. He was labelled the next Gordon Banks at one point, then the next Shilton. He's our own Ollie Armstrong.

Initially from Pakistan he opted for England and has won 25 caps to date which isn't too bad as he only made his debut three years ago.

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

We took Dunn from Newcastle in 2035 and other than a short loan spell at Cardiff he has been sniffing around the first team for a while. Last season was his 'breakout' season in that he started 24 times but we're going to persevere.

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

Fontes signed for the club in 2037 from Brazilian club Palmeiras. We loaned him back two years later but he's finally getting the hang of things and like Dunn, last season was his best to date. Another we'll stick with.

https://i.imgur.com/z0SXWCA.png

After breaking into the first team in 2032, Proctor has gone on to be a rock at the back for both club and country. He's now amassed 73 caps for England after making his debut against Venezuela seven years ago. As part of our golden generation class of 2031, he's hopefully going to be a one club man.

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

The longest serving player at the club. Maxwell joined from Southampton in 2028 and has gone on to play over 400 times for the club, a bonafide legend in wait. For £60M he's represented himself well throughout and will go down as one of the most successful defenders of all time.

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

Brought in from PSG for £110M last season, he's rated as one of the best around and with 9 goals in 28 games he's shown potential. His biggest issue is we're knackered after our long ass season (just completed the World Club Cup too)

https://i.imgur.com/1M2vmus.png

£115M summer signing from Bayern Munchen and it's a big move for Junior and ourselves. He's played for Sevilla, Inter and the Germans after starting his career at Athletico Paranaense but he's still got a lot more to show. Goals would be good as we've struggled with the left wing position for a few years. Last season's Roche is going to feel a bit gutted as he's got plenty of potential so I won't leave him out.

https://i.imgur.com/CIzg1o2.png

After being taken from Southampton's youth academy in 2028 Aliu has won everything Oxford City have won and will be a club icon by time he retires. We're aiming to keep him for as long as that is possible but I do get the urge to cash in on oldies.

https://i.imgur.com/JoG1xq6.png

Quite frankly one of the best in the world. England should be thankful. *spit*

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

The club has three icons. Myself, my son and Yan Canti. What a legend.

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

https://i.imgur.com/Oi7KIKF.png

We had no idea we'd get such a breath of fresh air when we brought in Diguinho from Gremio but he's scored over 60 goals in his short time at the club now and as a fellow Brazilian, his partnership with Canti is beautful.

Subs.

https://i.imgur.com/07pd5sO.png

I'll worry about a good number two if Ollie gets injured.

https://i.imgur.com/86i0KFk.png

Summer signing from Real Madrid. Generates income and has been a bit of a club legend for Madrid so why not.

https://i.imgur.com/5vtW8Is.png

Junior arriving is going to cause him all sorts of issues as he did very well starting in the left wing position last season. 9 goals in 29 given his current level isn't to be overlooked.

https://i.imgur.com/cXfbIC1.png

He gets his minutes. He just has to make them count because Sanca and Rood are pretty much untouchables.

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

It is hoped he'll replace Maxwell in the next season or two.

https://i.imgur.com/riP8utu.png

Experience, depth, not much else.

https://i.imgur.com/J172vuh.png

The experiment failed but he's still a good option and Wales benefited somewhat. He's not what we thought he was going to be but then he doesn't get a great look in with our current front two.



Random Stuff.


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

https://i.imgur.com/LpNk5Cz.png

https://i.imgur.com/J5A9DU4.png

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

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

https://i.imgur.com/bA3A9wO.png

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

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

https://i.imgur.com/AuQX5Y7.png

https://i.imgur.com/wGvGb0n.png

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

https://i.imgur.com/Z1JKL75.png

https://i.imgur.com/jp0go3d.png

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

https://i.imgur.com/QvuqOg1.png

https://i.imgur.com/dWCPCz9.png

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

https://i.imgur.com/6vePNNW.png

https://i.imgur.com/5D8KvFm.png

https://i.imgur.com/ZR2ao1f.png

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

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

https://i.imgur.com/6deeHSt.png

https://i.imgur.com/g6q8Z68.png

https://i.imgur.com/L4Zn4RL.png

https://i.imgur.com/NVEEt9u.png

https://i.imgur.com/V4wXVyf.png

https://i.imgur.com/NVc2blO.png

[Shindig]

Nuts. Top Effort. My time at Villareal is in a horrible spot. We lead the league until recently but Betis have just fucking roared past. We're struggling because Golden Boy Barbero thinks he's too big for us.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Another weird thing about the Qatar scheduling - one-legged European knockout ties. We drew Ajax in the Europa League round of 32, away in the first leg (or so I assumed), went over there and my pal Mazzonetto nicked the winner which I thought we would be taking back to Budapest... but no, that's it, and it's the same in the round of 16 before reverting to two-leggers for the quarter-finals.

They must have really thought this through at some point. The last round of group games (in some groups) took place on New Year's Eve.

[Manc]

R16 opponents?

I won the Europa league that year and the scheduling was a major player. Topping the group we progressed straight to the last sixteen and 90 minutes later were in the QF. Bonkers.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Krasnodar (away), got 'winnable' smoke billowing off it, which is usually bad news.

[Mike]

https://i.imgur.com/RD9I3Ty.png

EEEEEP

[Spikey M]

Sack the manager and get a better one in :baz:

[Smjffy]

Who needs the magical 40 anyway?

[Mike]

Easy:
https://i.imgur.com/zidlNF4.png

[mugbull]

Did anyone ever read the Ratpack series on the SI forums? I'm highly tempted to start a version of it, with fewer words and more pictures

[Smjffy]

More action the better. I'm half tempted to go to half season updates just to keep activity going in the thread. It's a welcome change.

[Shindig]

I want to do a massive info dump on 26 years of CM 01-02. I want to dive deep into what the game prefers to do in terms of finances, transfers, etc. I've got it in my head that the game does not want to breach the Zidane transfer record.

Fun fact: There are two managers who've been at the same club since the save started.

[Baz]

Did anyone ever read the Ratpack series on the SI forums? I'm highly tempted to start a version of it, with fewer words and more pictures

What was it?

[Smjffy]

I want to do a massive info dump on 26 years of CM 01-02. I want to dive deep into what the game prefers to do in terms of finances, transfers, etc. I've got it in my head that the game does not want to breach the Zidane transfer record.

Fun fact: There are two managers who've been at the same club since the save started.

It's the records both modern and historic that I like and I'd love for more to be made of them.

Example in my current save.

https://i.imgur.com/F1eF4Qv.png

I would have liked to have known that Yan Canti had equalled the record but I'd also like more to be made of this:

January 1st.

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

19 league games to score 12 goals....it's on.

[Jimmy Floyd]

There's a lot of stuff on OOTP (baseball management sim) which the football version should adapt. One of my favourite things is on that big expanse of blue next to the player's name at the top, it has little icons for medals/awards won in their career - so in the baseball version you might have three little rings for World Series wins, an icon for an MVP win, 5 little gloves for Gold Gloves won, etc etc. That would be great to see in the football version.

[Baz]

There's a lot of stuff on OOTP (baseball management sim) which the football version should adapt. One of my favourite things is on that big expanse of blue next to the player's name at the top, it has little icons for medals/awards won in their career - so in the baseball version you might have three little rings for World Series wins, an icon for an MVP win, 5 little gloves for Gold Gloves won, etc etc. That would be great to see in the football version.Thats one of those things I never knew I wanted until I heard about it.

[Shindig]

Found something new today about 01-02. Chairmen don't age. Freddie Shepherd is still 61. He was 76 when he died 3 years ago. Unless the game's just given Newcastle a new chairman with the same name.

EDIT: Looking at the oldest player record unearths a player that Saviola has to beat to become the oldest player in Spanish football. He retired last season at 45 so I can't grab his playing stats. He is an original database player so it does give me hope Javier could pack it in eventually.

[Lofty]

Oldham Season 2 Round Up:

Didn't transfer the final table screenshot across from my iPad :D

But essentially finished 10th having been tipped for relegation, flirted with the play off spots at times but ultimately 18 draws and a couple of crushing defeats from total collapses saw us cut adrift. Still a top half finish in League 1 is 2 years ahead of the board ambitions.

Club captain David Wheater retired at the end of the season having fallen down the pecking order. As always, Oldham don't have any money so it was left for me to identify young talent with expiring contracts who didn't want a fortune. This what I got:


https://i.ibb.co/V9d6skt/image7.png

https://i.ibb.co/JmRhJWn/image12.png

https://i.ibb.co/VBvZrQx/image11.png

https://i.ibb.co/ChFZxfq/image10.png

https://i.ibb.co/0Q8P9BN/image9.png

https://i.ibb.co/Lt7Fw98/image8.png

Callum Gribbin definitely the star player there, really surprised I managed to pick him up from Sheffield United.

Bonus Arsenal comedy:

https://i.ibb.co/gFZD35J/image6.png

https://i.ibb.co/4gBsD8m/image5-2.png

:D

[Jimmy Floyd]

Ferencvaros season 5.

So, Europa League last 16, and a single-legger away to Krasnodar. It's snowing, it's a shite game that we had much the better of, and after 80 minutes our long serving centre half Blazic gets a red card. The tables turn and Krasnodar start piling everything onto us, both through to full time and then throughout extra time, but we just about cling on for penalties. Goalkeeper Denes Dibusz saves two (he is a bit of a hero in European shootouts) and through we go to Ferencvaros's first European quarter-final in 48 years, and the first quarter-final for any Hungarian side since Honved made the UEFA Cup last eight in 1979.

The draw was never going to be easy and we picked out Napoli. They are a fearsome outfit, leading Serie A, having steamrollered their way through the Europa League to date, and having won ten games straight in all competitions as they came to Budapest. Their front three of Insigne-Rodrigo-Milik had scored an imposing 58 goals between them, with Insigne also contributing 21 assists for an absurd average rating of 8.02.

Naturally, then, we soon went ahead on the break as Ramic burst them on the counter and Josh Harrop, signed from Preston North End, finished to give us a 1-0 lead. Despite this, Napoli were so much the better team and they finally equalised on the hour when their fourth horseman, Kingsley Coman, danced through the defence (led in this game, thanks to Blazic's suspension, by donkey-like Hungarian journeyman Csaba Szatmari) to score. They then hammered at the door before inexplicably giving away a penalty on one of our rare forays forward, converted by Croatian wing back Petar Bockaj.

Somehow Szatmari and his fellow peasants clung on for a 2-1 first leg win, although this felt somewhat like going to Naples with 'The Camorra are gay, pass it on' emblazoned across the team bus. So when Ramic rifled in the opener early on at the San Paolo, we were into stratified territory. We looked good for a while at 3-1 up on aggregate, but then Insigne won and converted a penalty, and Verdi fired in the equaliser, before they nodded in another just after the break to send us plunging back to earth with molten wax dripping from our wings. It was annoying, but it always felt like no matter how well we did, they were always going to smash home just enough goals to win the tie. They went on to win both this, beating Mainz in the final, and Serie A.

Domestically, despite a shaky start we ended up sweeping all before us in the league and won it by 21 points. Debrecen and Vidi were back to being the closest - Vidi have adopted a curious strategy of loaning in half of South America every year. Ujpest, who had challenged for the title in 21/22, spent a lot of 22/23 in the relegation zone before saving themselves towards the end. Our other derby rivals, MTK, went down. Debrecen finished 2nd and will enter the Champions League best placed qualifying (from which, I can tell you now, they will not emerge). Vidi, Puskas Academy, and surprise package Mezokovesd will go into the Europa League.

[Smjffy]

It's the records both modern and historic that I like and I'd love for more to be made of them.

Example in my current save.

https://i.imgur.com/F1eF4Qv.png

I would have liked to have known that Yan Canti had equalled the record but I'd also like more to be made of this:

January 1st.

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

19 league games to score 12 goals....it's on.

https://i.imgur.com/JrvU5y4.png


https://i.imgur.com/w8iM1Gx.png


Sickening.

[Manc]

No shame bowing out in Naples, Jim. Do you think you'll tire of the lack of competition domestically?

[Mike]

Easy:
https://i.imgur.com/zidlNF4.png


First season in the prem

https://i.imgur.com/L3sw5K9.png

https://i.imgur.com/HTmv11Y.png
https://i.imgur.com/AqkYo2g.png
https://i.imgur.com/Hb8K0hu.png

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

https://i.imgur.com/GNA7STc.png

[Jimmy Floyd]

No shame bowing out in Naples, Jim. Do you think you'll tire of the lack of competition domestically?

I haven't done so far, though this was the first season we really strolled it. The problem they have is no money, apart from Vidi who chuck around half millions here and there. If I was being strategic, I would throw the league this upcoming season as we are up to 9th in the coefficients so there's a direct entry to the Champions League group stage, and the competition need that money more than I do. However, I'm not Mother Teresa, so fuck them.

[mugbull]

Tbf Mother Teresa would burn all the other teams’ stadiums in order to help them build character

[Shindig]

Alright, let's get the first of these roundups done. First thing I'm focusing on is something that really hasn't changed much beyond 2001 levels: Transfers and Wages.

At the time the game's opening, Zinedine Zidane's £46m transfer is the mark to beat and, 26 years later, it has not been surpassed. Only one transfer has breached the £40m mark with that being Rio Ferdinand's £41m move to Barcelona from Leeds. This moved happened in 2006 and nobody has come close in 20 years. The game seems happier to top out around the £32m mark with a host of players hitting that region.

Ronaldo - £32m to Real Madrid in 2001 (REALISM!)
Joe Cole and Patrick Vieira - £30.5m in 2005 to Barcelona and Milan respectively
Alex - £30.5m to Celtic in 2006.
Vitor Santos - £33.5m to Inter in 2018.
Daniel Cejas and Marco Didderen - £31.5m to Milan in 2020.
Antonio Carlos - £31.5m to Valencia in 2023

Unsurprisingly, Didderen and Cejas' moves to Milan was followed by just the one other transfer: a £2.8m arrival of Joel Silva Nieto from Atalanta. During that season, all their departures left for free. In all, Didderen's transfers to PSV, Tottenham, Milan, Betis and ... back to PSV have seen £80.5m change hands. Antonio Carlos, a Portuguese playmaker, surpasses that total handedly. £99m which has seen him play for Braga, Porto, Arsenal, Newcastle, Valencia, Milan and Chelsea. Both men are 32.

I think the game's reluctance to spend big and break records is helped by the unprotected contracts. Why break the bank when you can wait for their contracts to roll down and pay that off? It's the reason I was able to buy Saviola and van der Vaart in 2009 for a combined £18.25 and ultimately, lead me to winning my only major league title to date. I've also noticed the loan market rarely gets used. Across the board, this appears to be for emergencies only. Top sides will only use it if there's some youth they want blooding. Even then, it's only really utilised in Spain where reserve football is a premium.

Wages seem to top out at £120k a week. Betis, for all their recent dominance, have their top earner Ricardo Rosaro (a Spanish striker at the peak of his powers) earning £70k. It definitely seems like wages are location and stature dependent. Spanish football always seems in a state of rags, riches and rags again. The TV money of England (permanently fixed at decent numbers because ITV never went bust) accommodates £100k wages. Even with that in mind, the Premier League wages seem sensible, in-keeping with the makeup of the league table.

Six figure earners are rare, then, even at the most successful of clubs. Juventus have Fabrizio Carnevale (an excellent name) earning £100k. Milan have Ricardo Gonzalez earning £120k which I believe makes him the game's top earner. It's such a rare thing and, as they get older, they demand less and less. Didderen is on £37k, compared to Antonio Carlos' £90k wage packet. Good old Javier Saviola's on a respectable £7k a week, not even Monlleu's highest earner.

So what have these big earners done to deserve the money? Gonzalez is an odd one. He's got no major honours to his name or awards. Highly regarded but not the extent he can win a Player of the Year or Foreign Player of the Year in Italy. He's 30 now and spent most of his career carving a reputation at Como. It seems more like a gamble that may yet pay off with silverware. Atonio Carlos has achieved more. A Champions League with Newcastle (beating my Wigan in the final) and he took Portugal to a Euro 2024 runners-up spot. Marco Didderen's found success almost everywhere he's went. A Champions League with PSV in 2014, a Serie A with Milan (2022). He then joined the formidable Betis spine to oversee two Spanish titles, a Champions League and a World Club Championship win. Marco van Bommel's regen, by the looks of it.

It's a game that, I believe, tries very hard not to take clubs to the wall. Cordoba's probably the biggest club that seems to skirt financial difficulties more than most. They spent big when the going was good but now spend the summers selling to cover whatever small transfers are coming in. I'll go into the financial aspects into detail a little later.

EDIT: Arse command is enabled. Freddie's stats look familiar so I'm confident it is Freddie Shepherd and not some regen of the same name and stats. Gordon Milne remains as Director of football. Gordon Milne would be pushing 90 in 2026. It's the same blokes.

[Yaysus]

utd offering me a contract when I'm only managing in norway and they almost had the same amount of points than the pl winner last season :drunk::uh:

[mugbull]

Oh is Yaysus Saint? This explains it all

[Smjffy]

Oxford City - 2041/2042

https://i.imgur.com/V8YWTCB.png

https://i.imgur.com/5ab7XmU.png

Whilst sealing our seventh Premier League title was pleasing we were even further ahead with only one league defeat as of January 1st, 2042. Just 18 more to go to match Liverpool's total of 25. Sticking with Liverpool, the 3rd place finish was their highest since finishing runners up a decade earlier but despite this, Dorukhan Tokoz was dismissed as the clubs manager. To put this into perspective, Liverpool won 19 cups under Klopp who left the club...coincidentally...a decade ago. Tokoz being the clubs 8th manager since despite winning two. Only Conte had tasted success at Liverpool since Klopp. Painful to witness.

https://i.imgur.com/5cMCbUL.png

After losing to Manchester City in the final in our first attempt at the Club World Cup, we returned the favour this time to add the only missing trophy to our increasing collection.

https://i.imgur.com/zQx4LXG.png

Man United have won the seasons opener 22 times but were no match for us as we recorded out 5th Community Shield win and our third on the bounce. You'd have to go back to the 1990's the last time that happened and even then I believe it was shared between ^^ Man United and Liverpool.

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

Tottenham however stopped us lifting a sixth Uefa Super Cup. Liverpool hold the record with seven and if our domination in Europe doesn't stop any time soon then we're definitely taking that in the next few seasons.

https://i.imgur.com/j4l2OPP.png

We welcomed the return of Diguinho only a few weeks earlier as our Brazilian duo continued to lift the club to new heights. Arsenal in the final wasn't ideal as if we'd lost their record would have increased to 16 Fa Cup wins but domestically I think we're too good. Hell, I'd say we are without doubt the best in the world at this stage but four league defeats suggest otherwise. Arsenal and ourselves have now faced one another 47 times and the record with our latest win took us ahead.

Pld 47 - W 19 - D 9 - L 18 - F 94 - A 79.

https://i.imgur.com/FUY0YYn.png

Our second home is wherever the Champions League final seems to be as we claimed it for a fourth successive time, our sixth in total. To get to the final in six out of seven seasons is awesome but I only have England loaded so it's heavily bias, more so than usual I imagine. Long way to go to match Real Madrid though who haven't won it now since beating Liverpool in 2017/18 but our 4th in a row means we're actually on track to beat Real Madrid's long held record of 5 on the spin. 1950's meet the 2040's.

One man who never got to feature though was club icon, Yan Canti. :( He's coming to his final days after such an amazing career for us.

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

But it was the heroics of our other Brazilian this season.

https://i.imgur.com/BMluo7v.png

https://i.imgur.com/M4Ddr7s.png

I have no doubt that if he wasn't injured for the six weeks then might have challenged for Dixie Dean's overall record of goals in a season. No doubts whatsoever.

https://i.imgur.com/8WMiyCu.png

He helped us win the treble (our second!) whilst cleaning up the awards.

That in mind....there's this too.

https://i.imgur.com/T7HvK5b.png

Oof! 10 players in the team of the year. I imagine if we'd had a right back then we might have got that too but we loaned nearly 20 youngsters out in the January market and our initial choice Jonathan Dunn....well, it just came too soon for him I reckon. He started a good half the season at least but he's not a long term option.

We're in a strange moment now though as I'm unsure which direction to go. We've got a huge stadium, great facilities and good youngsters coming through (plus those we poach) but I'm half tempted to now start fazing out Maxwell (33), Jules Van de Voorde (31), Dominik Schmitz (31) and Victor Macias (30). Yan Canti is 33 too but he's retiring at the club if possible.

Updates from here on in will be first half and second half as I slow things up on the game as I'll be able to start working again next week subject to change. :moop:

https://i.imgur.com/Bt3TwTv.png

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

Anything anyone cares to see? Your club etc?

[Manc]

Four European Cups on the bounce. Woof.

[Raoul Duke]

Who's doing what in the rest of the major leagues, Smiff? Spain still Real/Barca hegemony? What's Serie A up to?

[Smjffy]

Who's doing what in the rest of the major leagues, Smiff? Spain still Real/Barca hegemony? What's Serie A up to?

I've only got England loaded on Touch so you can't even view any other leagues. All I know is money isn't in short supply, the players in Spain are brilliant (although I'd say Portugal have some right beauts) I've just drawn Juventus in the Super Cup so I guess they are OK in Europa.

It's one of the few gripes I've got with this save in that a) it's Touch and b) lack of info which is why I create a separate save each season.

Hopefully when FM21 comes out I'll have a Nasa style computer to make the most of things. I'll try continue this until that releases and then I can try again but from a lower level. Vauxhall Motors were my usual go to team but I'm just pleased to be back 'into' the game.

[Smjffy]

Spain still Real/Barca hegemony?

You timed that all too well, actually. :moop:

https://i.imgur.com/0M9oduH.png

I can tell you some info....such as they won the Super Cup in 2025 after beating Manchester City in the 2024/25 Champions League final. European success was again on the cards in 2030/31 as Arsenal looked to defend their sole success having won the previous year against.....Real Madrid.

The winner of said cups.....one Rafa Benitez. He replaced Quique Setien in 2022 and remained at the club for 11 years and 28 days before retiring from football. Leonardo Jardim lasted nearly eight years after Rafa and current manager is Thomas Tuchel who incidently was the Arsenal manager when they last won it.

He's won the Champions League with three times with PSG, once with Arsenal, once with Man City, the Europa League twice with Tottenham and now a year into his stint with Barcelona it'll be interesting to see what he can do.

[Dark Soldier]

Tbf Smiff I paid 2500 for my PC 18 months back and all I play is FM and Slay the Spire.

Do it, treat yourself.

[Smjffy]

Tbf Smiff I paid 2500 for my PC 18 months back and all I play is FM and Slay the Spire.

Do it, treat yourself.

Such is life at the moment I did treat myself....I bought a huge jar of coffee and a pouch of amber leaf. :D

4th July is such a huge day. It's going to make or break this man but aye, I will definitely look into it.

Current specs are this piece of shit:

Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU 4415U @ 2.30GHz
4GB RAM

The chap at PC world said it would be fine when I told him the specs for FM as that's the only reason I even got it but I should have waited and just saved up for a top of the range laptop. I haven't had an actual PC for years because of the amount I move around.

[Manc]

https://medias.lequipe.fr/logo-football/41/240

Saison 2026-27 - My return to Ligue 1. Despite turning Toulouse into a formidable team both on home and foreign shores, my sacking in 2024 had devastated my reputation. French football had simply forgotten my name. I was confident this season would restore my footballing stock and this was mainly due to our performance in the summer transfer window. Arriving in defence were former PSG prospects Logan Costa & Tanguy Kouassi, neither above the age of 25. In midfield we added the battle-hardened Lucas Tousart from Lyon and the much maligned Tiemoue Bakayoko from Chelsea. With enough iron in the team to seduce Arnold, we desperately needed a creative outlet and Nigerian trickster Chidera Ejuke fit the bill. Former Arsenal product Stephy Mavididi completed our summer spending. All arrived on bosman deals.

It became apparent very quickly that relegation wouldn't play our part in our season, something which couldn't be said for fellow promotees Amiens & Red Star who were suffering at the foot of the table. With 9 victories and 6 draws under our belt we found ourselves in a flattering 5th come the winter break, notably a position above PSG whose 10th title in a row was a whopping 17 points away. We would go on to meet the Parisians in the French Cup and only penalties would spare their blushes. Back to Ligue 1 and a further 30 points in the second half of the season had guaranteed us European football, albeit Europa League. Despite the best efforts of Mbappe & co PSG couldn't reign in runaway Lille and alas the monopoly had been broken. Toulouse & Nice would make up the top four, with Monaco, Lyon & Marseille failing miserably. Were do we fit in this new look Ligue 1 going forward? Your guess is as good as mine.

[Mike]

Such is life at the moment I did treat myself....I bought a huge jar of coffee and a pouch of amber leaf. :D

4th July is such a huge day. It's going to make or break this man but aye, I will definitely look into it.

Current specs are this piece of shit:

Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU 4415U @ 2.30GHz
4GB RAM

The chap at PC world said it would be fine when I told him the specs for FM as that's the only reason I even got it but I should have waited and just saved up for a top of the range laptop. I haven't had an actual PC for years because of the amount I move around.

Another vote for treating yourself when you can. Build your own proper pc.

https://media.tenor.com/images/42bfa9d4a2d5961435691e6c41875b03/tenor.gif

[Smjffy]

Manc


https://sortitoutsi.net/uploads/team/886.png

As I'm sure we all know Ligue 1 was prematurely ended this season (how very French). What you may not know is that Toulouse relegated as a result went down with a 0.46 PPG record, abysmal. With just 3 wins from 28 matches, I fired up fm to see if I could fare any better. With the summer transfer window disabled and the squad in need of greater depth, I hired Wenger favourite Gilles Grimandi and sent him into the free market. Gilles came up trumps and the following experience was added to the squad: Yoann Gourcuff, Mo Sissoko, Ze Ondo, Adil Rami, Bagayoko, Sankhare & Diafra Sakho. Former PSG assistant Zoumana Camara was brought in as my #2.

Further acquisitions were made in the form of Yohan Cabaye via the joker ruling and Samuel Moutoussamy for £6.75m (winter window), the latter signed solely after running a game for Nantes at the TFC.

Believing this was a league full of great players rather than great teams, I decided to park the bus and implement my Scotland 5-3-2 formation. My assumption was spot on. We spent the majority of the campaign flirting with the European places and come Spring relegation wasn't possible. Unfortunately for me the squad then went to the beach and we endured nine games without a win. A little pressure from the board was swatted away with two wins in the final month and we finished 10th with a 1.36 PPG record. We had an outside chance of French Cup success however, our run was abruptly ended by the Parisians who completed a successful treble.

I'm quite content with the squad and am enjoying the African talent we have: Max Gradel, Issiaga Sylla, Ibrahim Sangare, Kalidou Sidibe and that's before we delve into the dual nationals. I'll be consciously pursuing players from the continent with the help of Grimandi and the board who have given me a £16m budget. I'll also be pursuing veterans who can do a job as the mentoring benefits are monstrous for our youth players, in particular Bafode Diakite & Kelvin Amian.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/the-football-database/images/5/53/Gilles_Grimandi.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/340?cb=20161026153832


https://sortitoutsi.net/uploads/team/886.png

Onwards to the summer of 2020 and with the squad in need of a polish, I dived head first into a mountain of player reports Grimandi had collated in the previous 12 months. Firstly came the youth in the form of Rayan Cherki & Amadou Onana. Cherki at just 16 years old is I'm told the next big thing to come from the famed lyon academy, perhaps France itself. £6.25m is a large outlay for a player who may not make his mark in the south of France for some years, but it's a calculated risk. Onana, a rangy midfielder capable of operating as a 6, 8 or 10 will no doubt get many more minutes. He's the best thing since a sliced baguette according to Grimandi, £2.1m then could be a real bargain. Away from youth our priority was the defence and we secured Chancel Mbemba, Pierre-Gabriel & Dimitri Foulquier for a combined £18m, magnifique. Returning to the club from loan deals were Corentin Jean and South London road man John Bostock, both of whom will be playing for a new deal. Departing Toulouse were Ze Ondo, Mo Sissoko, Gourcuff, Quentin Boisgard and record signing Wesley Said. Veterans Rami, Cabaye & Diafra Sakho would stay on and were joined by a 36 year old Valbuena.

On the pitch and my anti-football principles were hitting home as we kept eight clean sheets in our opening ten games. From this base we built a consistency that would see us in competition for a European spot come the winter break. I had planned to make no moves in January, but when Tottenham came calling for home grown talent Kelvin Amian and matched my £20m asking price, the hunt for a centre back was on. Grimandi had heard through the grapevine a certain Manuel Akanji of BVB was available and more importantly Toulouse was an option for the young Swiss. After bending my finances over backwards, £20m & £85k p/w was enough to secure his services. Shortly after Adel Taarabt was secured for £1m to increase our creativity going forward.

The new and improved squad led us to an 2nd place finish with a 1.97 PPG record. PSG lay 10 points ahead and Monaco & Lyon a point behind. In keeping with domestic matters, we once again reached the French Cup quarter final falling to Saint-Etienne. The Coupe de la Ligue has been binned. Rejoice.

No silverware to speak of as of yet, but I have proved my managerial credentials by successfully implementing a midfield containing both Bostock & Taarabt. Take that Harry!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l28CsUganII


https://sortitoutsi.net/uploads/team/886.png

Season trois - With the club heading into a European campaign for the first time since 2009, myself and Gilles worked tirelessly over the summer to beef up a thinning squad. Arriving on bosman deals were Pione Sisto, Eliaquim Mangala & Steven Nzonzi, tidy work. Sisto a like for like replacement for the departing Max Gradel, Mangala for Rami and Nzonzi for Cabaye. The fans are less than pleased with my experience is key approach, but I will continue to bang the drum as it both suits our style of play and has a great impact on the youth players via mentoring. Other departures were Sankhare to Dijon and Bagayoko to Red Star.

With January arrived floods of offers and we waved goodbye to another academy star, Bafode Diakite moving to Lazio for a whopping £40m. Agustin Rogel quickly followed suit in a move to Fenerbahce for £10m. With my defence now threadbare, Akanji in his wisdom decided that 12 months with the club was enough and he needed to move on. Never one to stand in a players way I agreed to sell the Swiss, but only if a significant fee was received. It never came. With a surplus of cash and our strikers struggling to find the back of the net, £11.25m was spent securing the services of Jean-Kevin Augustin from Red Bull. He would go on to score 6 goals in 20 appearances.

UEFA Champions League: Runners up in Ligue 1 we were thrown straight into the group stage alongside Bayern Munich, Chelsea and Hapoel Be'er-Sheva. I would have happily taken a third place finish prior to the first game however, we progressed to the last sixteen thanks to the bizarre antics of the Israeli side who beat both Bayern & Chelsea. We did not suffer the same fate and a home victory against the English mob resulted in a second place finish via goal difference. We would return to London for the next round this time to face Jose Mourinho's Tottenham. A predictably drab 0-0 in the South of France provided a platform for us to steal the tie via a sole away goal on foreign sole. I had beaten Jose at his own game and in the process denied him a quarter final reunion with his beloved Barca. With Mane added to the triple threat of Suarez, Messi & Griezmann, we never stood a chance. Barcelona would go on to lift the trophy.

Domestically we would finish in fourth spot with a 1.81 PPG record. The gap to PSG was closed to just eight points however, both Lille and Monaco finished the season stronger and on another day could have easily upset the odds and clinched the title. PSG are having a bit of a mare having done nothing of note in Europe and the French Cup has now gone to Lille for successive seasons. Our performance in the cup was also one to forget as we fell in the ninth round to our fierce rivals Bordeaux, on what would be our third Derby de Garonne defeat that year.

Our academy producing former names such as Moussa Sissoko, Philippe Mexes, Etienne Capoue & Issa Diop is now starting to come good. Working in tandem with the internal recruitment, I've had Grimandi and his team scouring every inch of Africa. This season alone we've imported youngsters from Tunisia, Senegal, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Ghana & Algeria. With the Europa League lying in wait I'll be hoping to give as many opportunities as possible.


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Season Quatre - Heading into my fourth year with the club and we were beginning to stabilise as a Ligue 1 power. Our fourth place finish last season ensured Europa league football and all the pitfalls qualification brings. Despite a potential 50+ game season, I was quietly content with the team and saw no reason for a wave of new faces. The one player arriving was former academy graduate Jean-Clair Todibo for the sum of £17m. Predictably his time at Barca was frustrating and he failed to make his mark in Catalonia. There were a plethora of reasons for securing his services, his ability to play both in defence and midfield, his age (22), homegrown, and more importantly he would cushion the blow should Akanji move on. Moving in the opposite direction were Diafro Sakho & Valbuena, neither saw fit to retire.

Ligue 1: Without doubt one of the most bizarre seasons I've been involved in. This was of course the year of the winter World Cup in Qatar and the scheduling around the competition was a little half hearted. With the European fixtures taking priority we arrived in November with just the 9 league games played amassing a measly 14 points. We weren't the only side struggling with all of Lyon, PSG, Marseille & Monaco languishing in the bottom half of the table. Only myself and Tuchel avoided the dreaded chop. The World Cup as it does came and went and January arrived with the small matter of TEN fixtures. Winless in four and lying 15th in the table, the media were convinced a poor result in the Garrone derby would see my demise, we won 1-0. Victories against Nice & Montpellier followed, but the pressure continued to mount as we failed to beat Strasbourg, Nimes & Reims. It would take until mid March for the vultures to stop circling and for us to climb the table. Despite finishing the campaign with 1 win in five games, we stumbled our way to a very undeserved third place. PSG secured their sixth title on the bounce thanks to a spectacular Lyon collapse, Monaco and Marseille never recovered. For those keeping score our we achieved a 1.68 PPG record.

Staying with domestic matters it was another French Cup failure as we fell this time in the semi-final to an underwhelming Monaco on penalties. They would go on to lose to Qatar in the final.

Europa League: We were imperious in Europe from start to finish. Five wins from six in a group consisting of Fiorentina, Partizan & BATE meant we progressed straight to the last sixteen (format change?). Lying in wait were Adolf's favourite team, Schalke. Just the one leg on this occasion and a 2-1 victory saw us for consecutive seasons progress to a European quarter final. Giants of yesteryear, we dispatched Benfica with relative ease (2-1) before beating Milan by the same score in the semi-final. The final would see Toulouse v Real Madrid played at the Commerz-bank Arena. This was a functional Madrid team featuring talents such as David Alaba & Marquinhos. After an edgy first half, Real took the lead in the 52nd minute through a deflected shot which bounced wickedly off Mangala. Before the game could settle down, Mangala then scored at the other end with a powerful header. Redemption. With neither side creating clear cut chances the game looked poised for extra time, cue Rayan Cherki. Ah yes the then 16 year old signed for £6.5m was now 18 and well and truly fulfilling his potential, scoring wonder goals aplenty and helping the French U-21 side lift a European Championship. With ten minutes to go he whistled a free kick into the top corner from 30 yards and that was that. Silverware.

Sadly that would be Cherki's final game for Toulouse as Atletico Madrid coughed up £50m for his services. What could have been.


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Saison Cinq - It was a difficult year. Seemingly unimpressed by the Europa league victory, the board wasted no time in demanding we level up and secure our status as a Champions League side. Having stumbled to third last year, another top three finish was far from guaranteed especially considering the talent we lost in the summer. Following Rayan Cherki out the exit door were Nzonzi (Retired), Bostock, Taarabt, Koulouris, Zinga and Grimaldi's golden boy, Amadou Onana. With the team losing it's creative spine and expectations high, I set about securing players who possessed a certain unpredictability coupled with league experience. Maxwel Cornet arrived from Lyon (bosman), Amine Harit from Schalke (£5m) and Wylan Cyprien from Nice (£7m). Man City cheerleader Benjamin Mendy joined in the eleventh hour for a measly £2.5m.

On the pitch we started slow. A narrow defeat in the Super Cup to Liverpool set the tone in Europe as we went on to lose our opening four games in a group consisting of BVB, Manchester City & Sevilla. With qualification no longer plausible, we recorded successive victories and edged the Germans into third sport ensuring European football after the winter break. PAOK & Zenit provided little competition en route to yet another quarter final however, a trip to Naples proved one hurdle too many as we lost both legs 1-0. The Italians would go on to win the competition.

Our slow start in Europe was mirrored domestically as we spent all season chasing the runaway pack of Monaco, PSG and surprise package Stade de Reims. Try as we might we were unable to bridge the gap and a winless April left us ten points adrift with four games to be played. The board in their wisdom had decided enough was enough and I was duly sacked. Quite why they refused to let me see out the season is beyond me. I was of course replaced by Vladimir Weiss (not that one) who somehow conspired to finish outside of the European places altogether.

After 238 games I left the club with quite the parting gifts. Former academy prospects Albin Lafont & Kelvin Almian had both agreed to return the club were they made their name. Maxine Caqueret was plucked from Lyon, Aliou Traore from United and Mohammed Ihattaren, PSV. Grimandi was wetting himself over the latter.

My adventure in France will continue as I relocate from the South of the country to the very North.

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Saison Cinq/Six - Sacked like a dog in April 2024, it wasn't until January the following year that I returned to management. So why Stade Malherbe Caen? It certainly wasn't for their history, a second place finish in the 1992 Intertoto Cup being one of few highlights. They are the very definition of a yo-yo club facing relegation/promotion on a combined eight occasions since the turn of the century. This is a trend that has continued in FM as they now find themselves back in Ligue 2 after failing to establish themselves as a top flight side last season. I chose Caen simply for their youth academy. Historically they have nurtured talents such as William Gallas, Thomas Lemar & Raphael Guerreiro and they were now producing the next generation of French footballers. In my first season alone we received over £60m in player sales.

Taking over the reigns with the club firmly in mid-table, I saw out the season in a rather unspectacular style improving our position by just the one place (11th). Nothing more was expected however, it was a big summer ahead as boardroom talks had resulted in the requirement for us to reach the play offs, something which wasn't possible with the current squad. Bankrolled by a few million I decided to raid my old club for players learned in the art of anti-football. No less than six players were poached from Toulouse, including midfield talents Kalidou Sidibe and the forgotten man of French football Maxence Caqueret. More bodies were needed still, Edouard Mendy arrived from Milan as our new No 1, Simon Deli was plucked from obscurity to marshall our back line, and failed wonder kids Wesley Fofana & Thimothee Pembele strived to get their careers back on track.

At the half way stage we were in the thick of it laying in 4th just two points back from top of the table Amiens. The leagues bigger sides Auxerre and Lens would keep us company after the winter break, that was until our consistency paid dividends and we established a ten point lead with just ten games to go. The lead in the end proved too healthy as we were crowned Champions with two games remaining. Lens would join us in the top flight along with Red Star who surprised everyone winning both playoffs rounds.

Some tidy business was done in the summer so I'm expecting a somewhat comfortable ride in the top flight, though we face PSG, Lyon & Marseille in our opening four fixtures.


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Saison 2026-27 - My return to Ligue 1. Despite turning Toulouse into a formidable team both on home and foreign shores, my sacking in 2024 had devastated my reputation. French football had simply forgotten my name. I was confident this season would restore my footballing stock and this was mainly due to our performance in the summer transfer window. Arriving in defence were former PSG prospects Logan Costa & Tanguy Kouassi, neither above the age of 25. In midfield we added the battle-hardened Lucas Tousart from Lyon and the much maligned Tiemoue Bakayoko from Chelsea. With enough iron in the team to seduce Arnold, we desperately needed a creative outlet and Nigerian trickster Chidera Ejuke fit the bill. Former Arsenal product Stephy Mavididi completed our summer spending. All arrived on bosman deals.

It became apparent very quickly that relegation wouldn't play our part in our season, something which couldn't be said for fellow promotees Amiens & Red Star who were suffering at the foot of the table. With 9 victories and 6 draws under our belt we found ourselves in a flattering 5th come the winter break, notably a position above PSG whose 10th title in a row was a whopping 17 points away. We would go on to meet the Parisians in the French Cup and only penalties would spare their blushes. Back to Ligue 1 and a further 30 points in the second half of the season had guaranteed us European football, albeit Europa League. Despite the best efforts of Mbappe & co PSG couldn't reign in runaway Lille and alas the monopoly had been broken. Toulouse & Nice would make up the top four, with Monaco, Lyon & Marseille failing miserably. Were do we fit in this new look Ligue 1 going forward? Your guess is as good as mine.


Just coming through....

[Smjffy]

Jimmy


I can't be arsed with that. Just put some shitkickers in my own functional formation and hope to break the ensuing 0-0 stalemates.

I'm in the Hungarian league (Ferencvaros) and it really is great. Every oppo team has 10 peasants and a single overweight African centre forward. My key player is a 37 year old Brazilian whose natural position is 'libero', like we're in 1993.


I am still immersed in Hungarian football with Ferencvaros, it is a glorious shitshow. Can't pronounce anything and the football ranges from functional to truly dire. No one has any money, so the only way to compete is to try and nick bargains from other shithole nations, or develop from within.

First year we came 3rd by a single point losing out to relative money bags FC Vidi, and champions Debrecen, who I'm convinced were the worst side of the three. Second year we have been absolutely terrible and yet somehow still only three points off Vidi's lead in November (November is later in Hungarian terms than it is in England). First year we did quite a bit of giant killing in Europe and went out 3rd in Europa group stage, including a 3-0 win over Sevilla. Second year we just got too many injuries in the key August fixture rush and ended up going down to PAOK Salonika in the last qualifying round.

I'm not reallly sure what I'm trying to achieve, but the process is great fun.


Ferencvaros.

Things weren't going too well in year two as we looked to close the gap to moneybags hustlers FC Vidi. We cunted up November to fall 8 points behind their league lead at the winter break and into a chasing pack, along with spawny reigning champs Debrecen, and purple-clad underachievers Ujpest. In the January window, Vidi decided to go even more balls out by spunking £1.1 million (a HUGE sum in Hungarian football) on Debrecen's best youngster, while a fancy Brazilian too good for the league also joined them.

Not to be deterred, I changed up our faltering 3-5-2 formation and moved to a 4-5-1, which made a huge difference for reasons I can't really discern. We started putting away the shit on a regular basis - something we'd struggled to do throughout my tenure - and quickly moved clear into 2nd place, albeit still 8 points behind Vidi, who by this point were spanking everyone left, right and centre. We went to their place needing to win to keep any sort of title race open, and 1-0 down in a soggy piece of shit game at half time was not the way to start. I responded by throwing on veteran carthorse Böde to spearhead a guerrilla 4-2-4, and it changed the game, as we ravaged the wankers second half and won 4-1, closing the gap to five points with one eleven-game round-robin to go (it's three times through the pack in Hungary).

Well, all it took was that one mad 30 minutes of football and our friends at Vidi subsequently folded like a row of deck chairs. Meanwhile, we and our weird front three ('Little Nicky', 5 foot 5 midget teenage centre forward from the academy; 'Ivan the Terrible', genius on-loan Ukrainian winger who never passes; and 'Andy Cole's son', son of Andy Cole) managed to keep winning, and playing with a sheen that had been completely absent earlier in the season. Five games after ambushing Vidi, we took the league lead, and we never lost it.

Vidi, having been 8 points clear with 12 games to go, ended up finishing NINE points behind us. It was a proper avalanche of a bottle job from them, one of the great collapses. We also lolled them out of the cup semi-final with our reserves, before beating the Puskas Academy in the final to do the double. Vidi, Debrecen and Ujpest will join us in Europe next year, but it's the mighty green and white hoops of Ferencvaros who will get a first run at the Champions League in my tenure. At stake is not only glory, but also the twin jackpots of the money that comes from getting into the European autumn (a HUGE deal for a Hungarian club) and the coefficient points that could propel ourselves and Hungary up the pecking order in the future.

The next stage is to try and build a squad for 20/21 that can get us, if not necessarily to the CL group stage, then far enough down the qualifying route to make an EL group stage appearance a breeze. One of the challenges in Hungary is that you can only have 10 non-Hungarians in your registered league squad, and then from there, only 5 non-EUs in your on-pitch XI. That makes it a nice challenge trying to fill your 10 foreigner spots with a strong mix of EU and non-EU players, while also needing a decent flock of good Hungarians.


Summer at Ferencvaros. Regretfully I had to give my marauding winger Ivan the Terrible back to Shakhtar, as they wouldn't take another loan and he wouldn't join permanently. I needed an equivalent who was equally as too good for the league, and found it in the German second tier (says a lot about our league) in the form of Paderborn's Marlon Ritter. I also added Morgan Fox from Sheffield Wednesday, and a couple of Hungarian shitters to make up the numbers. We're a bit thin in some areas but that's where the local 'versatile' (i.e. shit) players come to the fore. I also have a teenage Chilean right back who I picked up for buttons who is absurdly good at this level.

In the early running in the league, FC Vidi, having lost 17 points to us over the last 12 games of 19/20 to bottle the title in the biggest collapse you have ever seen, continued their Felix Baumgartner effort by taking one point from the first six, including a 4-0 home defeat to us. Every week there would be a new set of media ranting from their pisshead Yugoslav manager Marko Nikolic, who somehow still hasn't been sacked. 18/19 champions Debrecen are doing almost as badly and despite heavy rotation due to Europe, we appear to have basically won the title already, being 10 and 12 points ahead of them.

So, Europe. We have a very low club coefficient of 7.5 which meant no seeding in the Champions League qualifying except in the first round where we got past Ventspils 6-2 despite making a slight meal of the first leg. Next up we drew Red Star, which on paper seemed a tough one but we went there and completely dominated possession, winning 2-0 with about 70% of the ball. We saw that one out 1-1 at home and that took us through to face a reasonably favourable draw against Norway's Brann, who had defied their seeding to oust Steaua Bucharest. We went up to Bergen for the first leg and absolutely throttled them 4-0 in one of our best performances, to guarantee European football through to Christmas. However, there was still another playoff round to go to try and make the CL proper and that was against Rangers, the Scottish champions, who had seen off Olympiakos in the previous round. Again we were away in the first leg, and this time we absolutely mugged them off with three set piece goals in the first half. They got one back at the end but we still took a 3-1 lead back to Budapest, and although they scored early, we pinged them on the break as they became desperate in the second half and won that 2-1.

I came back from that game to find we had been awarded over £13 million for appearing in the group stage. To put into context what that means for a Hungarian club, our previous bank balance was £2.9 million. This money should give us the platform to really get to the next level.

Being by far the lowest seeded side in the CL group draw, I was just hoping to draw at least one vaguely beatable opposition to get a few more coefficient points (our useless compatriots have not helped with the Hungarian ranking) and maybe sneak into the Europa League in 3rd. Remarkably, we managed to avoid the smorgasbord of big guns and drew a pretty favourable group of Spartak Moscow, Besiktas and Benfica. My hopes are not necessarily high, but I think it's possible we could get 3rd in that. 2nd would need some proper heroics.


That is a slight worry, as we want the league to stay fairly interesting and keep the coefficient rolling forward, but the big guns' transfers this summer have been awful and made them worse. I guess if we can drag the league rep up a bit it might help? Who knows.

In theory Ujpest, Honved and perhaps MTK could be able to be decent in the long run, the rest of them are just peasant teams playing on bogs.


Ferencvaros third season (Europe edition)

Our first Champions League group stage experience proved both wonderful and unbelievably stressful. Drawn in a low-key group with Spartak Moscow, Benfica and Besiktas, I thought we would be capable of nicking some results here and there given our performances in the qualifying rounds. This proved the case immediately as we took the lead early in the opener at Spartak and hung onto it for a 1-0 win. £2.42 million for just doing that was more than the whole of a Hungarian season would generate for us in gates, TV and prize money.

Next up, Benfica visited the Groupama for our first home game and it was by far the best performance of my reign as we dominated from start to finish and thrashed them 4-0, including a hat-trick from eighteen year old hotshot Little Nicky Mazzonetto, the midget centre forward who, despite his name, is Hungarian/Ferencvaros born and bred. This left us riding high on top of the group ahead of a double header against bottom side Besiktas. Off we went to Istanbul and again we were completely dominant, running out 2-0 winners. So at halfway, we had nine points from nine and had not conceded a goal. Benfica and Spartak were on 4pts each, with Besiktas yet to get off the mark.

Before our next game at home to Besiktas, the other two drew with each other again in an early kickoff, meaning that a win over Besiktas would see us win the group with two games to spare. Alas, this moment was our Pickett's Charge; this was where the dream started to slide. We still did not concede, but we couldn't score either in what was becoming a theme as teams (particularly domestically) worked out that piling men behind the ball was the way to play against us. 0-0 left us 5 points clear of Spartak and Benfica with both of them left to play.

Spartak visited next for our last home game, and a point would take us through to the knockout stages. The game played out similarly to the Besiktas one, with neither side threatening and most of the game involved us having a lot of pointless possession. This time, though, we were stung in the 92nd minute by a heartbreaker of a set piece, nodded in by ex Man City counterfeit midfielder Fernando. So, with a game to play, the group looked like this:

1 Ferencvaros 10
2 Spartak Moscow 8
3 Benfica 8
4 Besiktas 1

Benfica v Ferencvaros
Spartak Moscow v Besiktas

So from having strolled through the first three fixtures, we were now right under the pump and on the cusp of going out - unless we could get something in Lisbon, we would be relying on the hitherto useless Turkish champions to do so in Moscow.

We held our own against a first half Benfica barrage, but on the stroke of half time, we monged up defending a corner and Jardel (presumably not that one) hammered one home to give Benfica the lead. This left us needing either to equalise, or for Besiktas to cling on to the 0-0 scoreline they had in Moscow, where the hosts had already missed a penalty.

The second half wore grimly on with no real threat from us, and no news from Moscow. With nine minutes to go, our skipper Fernando Gorriarán was sent off for a second yellow and that seemed to be it for our chances of getting it done ourselves. Then disaster, as in the 85th minute, Charles life-is-a-Kaboré-old-chum, veteran Burkina Faso playmaker, gives Spartak the lead. Just as we are preparing for the Europa League, though, in the 87th minute, there's some jostling in the box and after consulting VAR, the truly heroic Scottish ref awards us a penalty. Up steps utility attacker András Radó and fucking buries it. We cling on to the end and win the group BY THE BAREST OF MARGINS.

https://i.ibb.co/1fTDWRy/ferenc0.jpg (https://ibb.co/RpcxwQr)
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In the league, we've been utter shite (largely due to the above exertions) but still three points clear of our newly promoted and surprisingly resurgent city rivals MTK. Debrecen have recovered a bit, but Vidi might as well start playing rugby or some other game, it's all over red rover for them.


Barcelona.

They're an ageing outfit, but I think Lionel Messi should have enough to see us off, to be quite honest. Still, nice pay day at the Topps Tiles Nou Camp Stadium.


Ferencvaros year 3 - domestic.

I should start by saying we lost 4-0 at the Nou Camp, then drew the home leg 0-0 so that was Europe done, but a transformative season for money and coefficient points.

In contrast to our European glories, the domestic scene in year 3 was fucking struggle street. Everyone worked out - as one - that the best way to play against us was not to play at all. For long stretches of the season, we would turn up to games and have 70% possession but not even threaten goal.

The epitome of this was our three part duel with newly-promoted Nyiregyhaza (you get used to these spellings in the end). Nyiregyhaza are the sort of team they make you watch at Dignitas to send you off the edge in case the drugs aren't quite cutting it. We played them three times and there was, in total, one goal scored, which was by us in the middle game. This was repeated across the whole season and in the end they finished 12th, and last, with F17 A32, from 33 games - total snoreadors.

To describe their football as agricultural would be an insult to some of the great names of farming who made their name finding creative solutions to achieve complex tasks more quickly. John Deere wouldn't send a single one of his machines anywhere near Nyiregyhaza, for fear it might get dismantled and used for shelter. No, the football played by Nyiregyhaza was more hunter-gatherer stuff - but without the hunting, or the gathering. By the time they rocked up at ours for the third of three turgid snoozefests, I basically gave up at half time because despite having gone super-direct with 4-2-4 from the start, neither team had had a shot at goal in 45 minutes.

Away from those hateful pieces of shit (they properly triggered me), we were uniformly terrible, struggling along at just over a goal a game, but luckily everyone else was dross too. Vidi continued their divebomb off the moon well into the season, only recovering when they finally sacked pisshead Nikolic and installed Debrecen's assistant manager, but by then it was far too late. Debrecen themselves started poorly and stayed bad, which meant that it was down to our Budapest derby rivals Ujpest to take up the mantle of title challengers.

With seven to play, we were level on points with Ujpest (they play in purple and are spearheaded by eleven-foot freak show Lacina Traoré). However, one of many weird tics in Hungary is that the first separator in the league is games won, rather than goal difference, and our battery of 0-0s weren't helping us there. The lead swapped over a number of times before we faced Ujpest in round 31 of 33, going in two points clear. We nicked that 1-0 to go five points clear with two to play. We drew the next one to be three points clear, with a superior goal difference, however we were still vulnerable on the games won rule. We went 1-0 down to a 30 yarder from MTK, then equalised, then immediately went back down 2-1 to another 30 yard thunderbolt. Meanwhile Ujpest were 2-0 up against Debrecen so the title looked gone - but, luckily, I had prayed to St Kevin, the patron saint of bottle jobs, and Ujpest duly surrendered their 2-0 lead in the last half hour to hand us a poor, weak and not particularly deserved repeat title.

The problem we had all year was nils - so many nils - I need to revamp the tactics because we are so, so profligate and inefficient in front of goal and I think it must be match engine related. The key stat for the year (in the league) was this. Ferencvaros: 62 'chances' created, 45 goals. Ujpest: 27 'chances', 51 goals. That is mind-bogglingly different and suggests that despite dominating all 33 league games in terms of possession and shots, something we are doing is badly wrong to let them anywhere near us. We are also nearly bottom of the pile for shots on target %, chance conversion, crosses completed, and every other stat to do with attacking efficiency.

I have now managed to assemble a pretty good young lineup with international prospects all over it - I have a Chilean right back, a Costa Rican midfield schemer, and a South African centre half among others. This next summer will be spent shoring up the Hungarian player aspect of it and maybe sprinkling some of that Champions League moolah over our domestic brethren in exchange for some squad padding.

Joining us in Europe next year will be runners up Ujpest, cup winners the Puskas Academy (an intriguing setup with great youth facilities but not much else, who also managed to come 4th in the league this year), and third place semi-surprise package Diósgyör, who even threatened to get involved in the title race at the end as we and Ujpest Benny Hilled our way towards the line. Frankly I am not expecting too much coefficient help from any of them, but having jumped 13 places to 18th this year and with two lean years still to come off the record, I am hopeful that there is still ground to make there.


The first season I played kick and rush and we were basically dogshit, so ahead of year two I changed to a possession hound style and it brought much better results, until it didn't. In fact, it's still very effective against what you would call 'better sides', particularly away from home. At home to shite, it's almost useless now.

I think the way to go (aside from using a cheat tactic which holds no appeal to me) is just to keep changing every so often.


Good stuff, the title surely a matter of time.

----

Summer 4 at Ferencvaros brought a re-evaluation of the tactics. Until now we've been going 4-5-1 with two wingers - an inside forward from the left, and a winger from the right - either side of a lone centre forward. This worked well for a long time but lost its effectiveness, at least in Hungary, in 20/21 when the inside forward changed from being ultra-direct Ukrainian, Ivan Petryak, to technical, slightly portly German Marlon Ritter. As a response - although by any measure he had had an excellent 20/21 season - I sold Ritter back to Bielefeld, offloaded Devante Cole to Sheffield Wednesday, and decided to switch to a diamond formation with an AMC playmaker the fulcrum of the team, and two up top.

This switch was partly just because I don't think the match engine rewards wide forward play particularly well, and was otherwise informed by the talent I'd managed to find on my hunts around the world. The AMC number ten position will be contested by three men: South African Menzi Mbhele, Costa Rican midget Rolando Salas, and former Man U sproglet Josh Harrop, who I paid almost £2 million to bring in from Preston, funds unimaginable to any other Hungarian side. Harrop is the most ready made of the three, but the other two are exciting for the future.

So to another European season, and another 4 rounds of qualifying lay in front of us as we attempted to make the Champions League group stage once again. Despite rising to 18th in the coefficient table, Hungary's champions must still go from 1st round qualifying and so we headed to the rock of Gibraltar to face Europa FC, winning the first leg 4-0 in first gear and the second leg 2-1 with the C team. Next up was a new name to me, Slovenia's champion club Aluminij Kidricevo. They proved a suitably steely outfit but offered zero going forward, and a pair of 1-0 wins sent us through (winning both legs is vital in the hunt for coefficient points). In the third round, we faced Israeli champs Hapoel Be'er Sheva, and utterly thumped them, 4-0 at the Groupama and 2-0 on the banks of the river Jordan, to progress to the final playoff round.

This was a different test entirely as we were drawn against Red Bull Salzburg. Into the fourth season, no one has yet deigned to take Erling Braut Haaland off their hands, and 20 year old Hungarian schemester Dominik Szoboszlai is valued at £41 million in game - on paper, they should have had too much for us. Once again, though, in the first leg in Budapest we were able to deny them any of the ball and kiddo Mazzonetto, who often seems to pop up in the biggest games, scored two beauties as we took a 2-0 lead to Salzburg. There, Haaland scored very early and I feared a counter-avalanche, but it never came, and we pinched a late equaliser to seal the deal. In European games we seem able to go to this magical level that far exceeds the sum of our talents, whereas domestically it's always a grind. We haven't scored five in a game in my tenure, and only very rarely four.

Last year the group draw had been kind to us but still seeded 30th of the 32, it looked unlikely the stars would align this time, and indeed they did not as we pulled out Bayern Munich, Tottenham Hotspur, and Valencia. The hope is that one of them will be turd enough that we can pinch third, but really I can't see it - I would put our level at probably mid to top half Championship now, and they are all considerably better than that.


https://i.ibb.co/HpD4j6f/ferencboard.jpg

If one image summed my save up, this would be it.


I keep all my better ones in-house, but then in the Hungarian league you're loaning out to teams who get changed in a pig pen and are coached by local witch doctors.

Tough scene Manc, but Caen is a nice place to wash up.


I've reached autumn 2022 - finding myself, after an away goals CL qualifying shitshow in Zagreb, in the Europa League group stage with the rather curious trio of Chelsea, Aberdeen and Legia Warsaw - and because of the Qatar World Cup, they've crammed four of the Europa group games into September, including two lots of Thursday-Saturday double headers.

I judged that the only way to actually do this (with the first pair of games) was to just bin off the first game at Stamford Bridge with the B team, which was duly lost 4-0, and then went to Legia 48 hours later with a fresh proper side who found themselves up against a shit shower of tired bodies, including a 38 year old Wes Morgan (pace 3) who began the game on 65% condition and didn't get any better from there.

Loved it.


I've had 48 hour gaps between Europe and league before but I've never had back to back European games. The schedule is somewhat like this:

Saturday 7th Honved (league)
Thursday 12th Chelsea (Europa)
Saturday 14th Legia (Europa)
Tuesday 17th FC Alphabet Soup (cup)
Saturday 21st Kisvarda (league)
Monday 23rd Debrecen (league)
Thursday 26th Aberdeen (Europa)
Saturday 28th Chelsea (Europa)
Tuesday 1st Oct Szeged (league)

As such the league is going to have games in hand all over the place and even in the European groups, the games aren't happening evenly so we'll end up having played 4 times while others have only played twice. All this so Michel Platini could build a sex dungeon made out of solid gold.


I haven't had the will to do a proper update but here's how things went at Ferencvaros:

21/22: Looking for a third title in a row, the conversion to a diamond was successful and the new look Ramic/Mazzonetto strike pair led us to our most comfortable success yet. Ujpest started the season with 9 wins in a row, which had me rather alarmed, but then their manager was poached by Serbia. They foolishly appointed my old Vidi enemy, Marko Nikolic, who, fresh from having crashed Vidi off the moon and forced a two year rebuild, proceeded to drive Ujpest into the sea as well. They collapsed to a horrible third. In Europe, we beat Bayern, Spurs and Valencia at Fortress Groupama but were thrashed by all of them away, sending us out in third. We got Benfica in the Europa League and won on penalties after both legs were 2-0 to the home team. In the last 16, we got Hoffenheim, and for some reason they and their spearhead Joelinton proved a bridge too far. They went all the way to the final, where they lost to Real Madrid.

22/23: For the first time, we ballsed up the Champions League qualifiers, going out 1-1 on away goals to a very good Dinamo Zagreb side. A lot of injuries and a mad Qatar-driven schedule ensued, but some canny rotation has seen us to a joint lead with a resurgent Debrecen at the very early winter break (there's no club football beyond October in 2022). In the Europa League, we got Chelsea, Legia Warsaw and Aberdeen, and were twice nobbled 4-0 by the former (the Premier League is hegemonic in this save) but were too strong for the other two and went through in second.

Some of my more interesting players:


Miguel González, Chilean right back who has been first choice since 18 and to be honest at that age he promised more than this, but a 6 month injury in between times set him back. However, thus far it has at least kept him here - he's an awesome performer.

https://i.imgur.com/A4UmwrI.jpg

Nicolo Mazzonetto, or little Nicky as I call him, who started the game in the academy and is a bit of a heart pick for me. He's not consistent but he's bagged 56 goals in all competitions and is a great sniffer out of a loose ball in the box. Often pops up in the biggest games.

https://i.imgur.com/pYPSDd0.jpg

Adrian Grandis, picked up from Belgrano just recently and looks like a keeper, although we may struggle to hold onto him long term. Classy midfielder.

https://i.imgur.com/qj7VIqe.jpg

Dzenan Ramic, Serbian hotshot who partners Mazzonetto in my first choice lineup. He is obviously the superior player but I arguably haven't got the most out of him yet.

https://i.imgur.com/fsryBit.jpg

Menzi Mbhele, South African playmaker who on his day is superb but I haven't been able to get much consistency out of him yet. He also has a lot of competition for the AM spot, including...

https://i.imgur.com/pS3cUuy.jpg

Rolando Salas. This guy is an archetypal mercurial piece of shit - awful shite one day, then sublime genius the next. Always love to throw him off the bench in almost any attacking position as his 'make something happen' factor is off the charts, but as a starter he often flatters to deceive.

https://i.imgur.com/tuPNpXd.jpg



I'm working on developing something like the Brazil 1970 formation to try and get a few more of the above in at once.


I should have added that 22/23 will be the first year that Hungary will be playing for two Champions League (qualifying) places, but literally all of it is our doing. It looks like we can drag them to 10th/11th on our own but we will need assistance to go beyond that. Zero other Hungarian sides have made it to either group stage since the first season.


Another weird thing about the Qatar scheduling - one-legged European knockout ties. We drew Ajax in the Europa League round of 32, away in the first leg (or so I assumed), went over there and my pal Mazzonetto nicked the winner which I thought we would be taking back to Budapest... but no, that's it, and it's the same in the round of 16 before reverting to two-leggers for the quarter-finals.

They must have really thought this through at some point. The last round of group games (in some groups) took place on New Year's Eve.


Krasnodar (away), got 'winnable' smoke billowing off it, which is usually bad news.


Ferencvaros season 5.

So, Europa League last 16, and a single-legger away to Krasnodar. It's snowing, it's a shite game that we had much the better of, and after 80 minutes our long serving centre half Blazic gets a red card. The tables turn and Krasnodar start piling everything onto us, both through to full time and then throughout extra time, but we just about cling on for penalties. Goalkeeper Denes Dibusz saves two (he is a bit of a hero in European shootouts) and through we go to Ferencvaros's first European quarter-final in 48 years, and the first quarter-final for any Hungarian side since Honved made the UEFA Cup last eight in 1979.

The draw was never going to be easy and we picked out Napoli. They are a fearsome outfit, leading Serie A, having steamrollered their way through the Europa League to date, and having won ten games straight in all competitions as they came to Budapest. Their front three of Insigne-Rodrigo-Milik had scored an imposing 58 goals between them, with Insigne also contributing 21 assists for an absurd average rating of 8.02.

Naturally, then, we soon went ahead on the break as Ramic burst them on the counter and Josh Harrop, signed from Preston North End, finished to give us a 1-0 lead. Despite this, Napoli were so much the better team and they finally equalised on the hour when their fourth horseman, Kingsley Coman, danced through the defence (led in this game, thanks to Blazic's suspension, by donkey-like Hungarian journeyman Csaba Szatmari) to score. They then hammered at the door before inexplicably giving away a penalty on one of our rare forays forward, converted by Croatian wing back Petar Bockaj.

Somehow Szatmari and his fellow peasants clung on for a 2-1 first leg win, although this felt somewhat like going to Naples with 'The Camorra are gay, pass it on' emblazoned across the team bus. So when Ramic rifled in the opener early on at the San Paolo, we were into stratified territory. We looked good for a while at 3-1 up on aggregate, but then Insigne won and converted a penalty, and Verdi fired in the equaliser, before they nodded in another just after the break to send us plunging back to earth with molten wax dripping from our wings. It was annoying, but it always felt like no matter how well we did, they were always going to smash home just enough goals to win the tie. They went on to win both this, beating Mainz in the final, and Serie A.

Domestically, despite a shaky start we ended up sweeping all before us in the league and won it by 21 points. Debrecen and Vidi were back to being the closest - Vidi have adopted a curious strategy of loaning in half of South America every year. Ujpest, who had challenged for the title in 21/22, spent a lot of 22/23 in the relegation zone before saving themselves towards the end. Our other derby rivals, MTK, went down. Debrecen finished 2nd and will enter the Champions League best placed qualifying (from which, I can tell you now, they will not emerge). Vidi, Puskas Academy, and surprise package Mezokovesd will go into the Europa League.


I haven't done so far, though this was the first season we really strolled it. The problem they have is no money, apart from Vidi who chuck around half millions here and there. If I was being strategic, I would throw the league this upcoming season as we are up to 9th in the coefficients so there's a direct entry to the Champions League group stage, and the competition need that money more than I do. However, I'm not Mother Teresa, so fuck them.


Just coming through. Off to sit outside and have a nice read of both.

Who else has them going? Mike's up next.

[Yaysus]

Oh is Yaysus Saint? This explains it all

no, I was yaysus on the old board as well

[Shindig]

Alright, this update talks about Club Finances and Facilities. I've been digging around the leagues I have open (England, Germany, Italy, Spain) and marked up which clubs are Rich and which are Bankrupt. The latter's the easiest to sort out.

Atletico Deva of the Spanish second tier are under water. They're a club that was bounced between the third and second tiers. The club boasts a 3000 record attendance but they currently only have 2700 spots to play with. Stadiums will shrink if a club's financial position causes their ground to face negligence. I've seen this myself with Villareal as we took on extra seating to see El Madrigal's capacity go back to what it was. Predictably, their transfers are all freebies. Cup football hasn't brought any big paydays with a 3rd round exit the best they've managed.

Spain in general seems the poorest of the nations. There's a lot of small time clubs with tiny stadiums. I think those with youth academies are grandfathered in so their facilities don't change. Barca and Real Madrid have maintained a health bank balance, despite their relegation worries. Four clubs boast Rich status: Barca, Betis, Celta and Hercules. The latter has had a little bit of success with a UEFA Cup and Spanish Cup. What's mostly established their finances though, is a £26m fire sale during their promotion season from the Second Division. Mikel Arteta oversaw that transformation.

Bilbao are the only rich Second Division side but they're floundering in midtable.

The other Bankrupt side is Serie B's Monza. Bottom of the league, they have a tiny 2500 stadium. They're another selling club but that ground means you're always plugging holes. You can fill it all you like but they're not paying £100 a head to enter. They have had sporadic Serie A football (a 14th placed finish in 2014) unfortunately followed up by a relegation season. Its funny how the AI doesn't often upgrade stadium capacity but will condemn seats as soon as the going gets rough.

Everyone else in Europe is in decent enough health. Germany has the 2006 World Cup to thank for their massive stadiums. As a result, all but three of the Bundesliga clubs are Rich. Only Bayern and Hertha carry a youth academy, though. 7 clubs have grounds in excess of 100,000 capacity. Do they fill them? Do they fuck. :D If the 3 Rich Clubs in the Second Tier (Dortmund, Schalke and Frankfurt) got their act together, that'd be a full house. Dortmund are currently second and look a safe bet. Back to the top table, Offerbach's riches have come from player sales. Lubeck and Essen have followed suit but a German Cup win in 2023 has given the club some glory.

England? Yeah, it's fine. Mostly, sides are operating within their means. 10 Rich clubs in the Premier League. The biggest surprise inclusion probably being Southport. Their long climb up the leagues has seen an FA Cup and Champions League final. It's a very well-run club that's spent no larger than £4.5m on their record signing. Rich clubs further down the tree include some fallen giants. Liverpool and Leeds toil in the First Divison. Oldham have seemingly scrimped and saved to this status. As have Preston, although they did spend last season in the top flight. Both clubs have had trips to Wembley for cup finals.

We're not quite done, though. Watford and West Ham swan about with their top facilities and goad the Second Division with their not-as-good-as-they-should-be-ness. They both are trying for promotion. Big fishes in small ponds, eh? Tell that to Sheff Wed. The Third Division is doing their best to knack them. They're currently 7th. Could be worse, though Everton are struggling against the drop. IMAGINE CONFERENCE FOOTBALL AT THE KING'S DOCK.

Finally, to the stupid rich men of Italy. Big stadiums that are often council owned and shared between clubs so this should be easy. 10 Rich clubs sit in Serie A. All of them have won silverware. It's important to note this is includes the Fiorentina that hasn't been relegated to Serie D. As a result, there's a £7m 'Batistuta-sized' whole in their finances at the start of the save. They saw no urgency to plug this, selling Amaral for £825k. Next season, their prayers were answered. Enrico Chiesa going to Valencia for £12m. They followed this by going right back to spending. £17.75m on Landon Donovan, Matias Almeyda and Rogerio. I can only think a board came in to save them.

I guess the next update will be the 'Who's won what?' post.

LATE BREAKING NEWS
Southampton are adrift at the bottom of the Conference. Insecure finances as well. They could be our Leverkusen.

[Jimmy Floyd]

One of my favourite things about Hungarian football is the cup. Everyone - possibly in the whole country - enters in the first round, and the draw is just basically 1,000 bags of scrabble letters dropped out of an aeroplane.

https://i.imgur.com/O17ygKZ.jpg

The full first round draw is more than twice as long as that shot.

[Shindig]

I had to google what ESMTK was short for. Erzsébeti Spartacus Munkás Testgyakorlók Köre Labdarúgó Egyesület. Erzebeti Spartacus. Elizabeth Spartacus. There's a section in their Wiki marked ... Name Changes. :D

1909–1924: Erzsébetfalvai Munkás Testedző Kör
1910: merger with Munkás Testedző Egyesület (MTE) and Erzsébetfalvai Remény SC
1913: merger with Erzsébetfalvai FC
1924: Erzsébetfalva became city as Pesterzsébet
1924–1939: Erzsébeti Munkás Testedző Kör
1939: merger with Drasche Grubacs SC
1939–1944: Pesterzsébeti MTK
1944–1945: Pestszenterzsébeti Kossuth Munkás SE
1945: Pesterzsébeti MTK
1945–1949: Erzsébeti MTK
1949–1956: Pesterzsébeti Vasas SK
1952: merger with Ferencvárosi Vasas
1956–1958: Erzsébeti Munkás TK
1958–1970: Erzsébeti VTK
1970–1973: Erzsébeti Munkás TK
1973: merger with Erzsébeti Spartacus
1973–1991: Erzsébeti Spartacus Munkás TK
1991–1992: ESMTK-Bauinvest
1992–1995: ESMTK-Hungaplast
1995–?: Erzsébeti Spartacus Munkás TK
?-?: Erzsébeti Spartacus Munkás TK – Hungaro Casing
2007–present: Erzsébeti Spartacus Munkás Testgyakorlók Köre Labdarúgó Egyesület

[wullie]

Blimey. If this is to be my year, it all hangs on whether I can keep Ed Virtue alive for another few weeks

https://i.imgur.com/Vqjgcyy.jpg


37 in 34 in all competitions so far, just needs Antonio Conte (took over the England job from Sean Dyche) to put a cap on the man's head.


https://i.imgur.com/6fEPl1w.png

[Mike]

https://i.imgur.com/66o9ihS.png

Turned down England cos I want to learn Italian. Got 5 Italian players too, all called up :D

[Shindig]

Alright, it's Honours time

Might as well start with the English winners. The Premier League has been won by eight different clubs in 2025 years. Man Utd and Chelsea lead the way with six whilst Newcastle managed 5 in a frankly ridiculous decade (2011-2020). Only one of them was mine. :( Next up, Tottenham and Arsenal managed 2 whilst Liverpool, Birmingham and Fulham have all taken 1. Man Utd's final title came in 2013 courtesy of a 26-match unbeaten run. Whilst Newcastle have since struggled after Trond Solleid's retirement. Arsenal are the current reigning champions in a tight four-horse race with Birmingham, Huddersfield and Crystal Palace.

Birmingham won it with 66 points, a record low tally in 2025 which beat Newcastle's previous haul of 67 in 2020. Looking at those types of records, Fulham won the title only scoring 46 goals. It surpassed the previous record held by the previous winners, Tottenham. To put things into context, Alan Shearer holds the record for most goals in a league season with 33. In the year he broke this record, he scored 46 goals in total. :D Only one other has managed to break the 30 mark. Dean Ashton.

Aston Villa have a rather unwanted record of 32 games without winning. A run that covers a relegation year that saw their last win coming in December (against West Brom). Once back, they took just 3 games of the new campaign to break the hoodoo by smashing Blackburn 4-0.

The FA Cup has seen a lot more get their hands on the trophy. 15 Clubs have graced the Wembley steps with Leeds and Chelsea taking the cup four times. I forgot one of Leeds' was mine. Newcastle's 2 victories make them the last of the duplicate winners. The single-figure club involves a real collection of hard grafters. Blackburn, Sunderland, Aston Villa, Gillingham, Coventry, Tottenham, Torquay, Bradford, Brighton and Charlton No side lower than the First Division has won it. Coventry became the first of that level to win since the Mackems but it's no surprise any more to see those clubs land a final spot.

In terms of sequences, Chelsea posted a remarkable 19 games without losing between 2007-2009. This saw a win followed by a run to the semi-finals the following season. The longest losing streak belongs to Dulwich with 12. This lasted almost 7 years.

The League Cup's winners are the usual suspects. Chelsea stand apart with 4 wins whilst Leeds, Newcastle, Sunderland and Sheff Wed all hold 2. Success with Newastle makes me the only manager to win all the major English honours with at the same club. Oh, Man City have won 3. Derby, Portsmouth, Gillingham, Norwich, Fulham, Millwall and Stevenage have all taken solitary cups. If you want a feel good story, Stevenage is it.

The only Second Division club to take silverware, Stevenage did it as part of a mammoth 65-game campaign which saw three tips to Wembley (A Vans Trophy final they won against Stoke and a play-off final win against Stockport) The final itself saw them face off against First Division's Torquay in a 3-2 win I really wish I had the match report for. Sadly, their UEFA Cup dream ended at the first hurdle. Atalyaspor beating them 2-0 on aggregate. A record £65,000 gate receipts for the home leg.

[P_3]

https://i.gyazo.com/5775f9400f6946e841a2e0c7891cd55b.png

This is so depressing. Won the Championship at a canter. Getting ploughed in the Prem. :(

[Jimmy Floyd]

There's a certain level you hit (probably mid table Prem, ish) when the opposition finishing becomes clinical and it's hard to really do much about it.

[Manc]

Nice to see the racists on course for relegation

[Mike]

I think I’m going down this season, not cos we aren’t good enough but because I’ve had 3 of my first 11 injured long term, and one of the replacements for the injured right winger also injured :(

[Manc]

One too many bunga bunga parties.

[Mike]

I think I’m going down this season, not cos we aren’t good enough but because I’ve had 3 of my first 11 injured long term, and one of the replacements for the injured right winger also injured :(

Or not
https://i.imgur.com/YunyWKM.png

[wullie]

Despite beating Chelsea in the run-in too many draws let them in as they won every game otherwise. Clawed it back to a point so needed to better their result on the last day

https://i.imgur.com/6iMLNCg.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/BnSah3Q.jpg

A professional job done:

https://i.imgur.com/ats7wzz.jpg

Could they slip up?



Could they fuck

https://i.imgur.com/VxVSn6Q.jpg

[Giggles]

Best skin for Touch?

[Spikey M]

Bit rapey.

[Giggles]

Bit rapey.

:uhoh:

[Smjffy]

Whichever has the lotion. :drool:

[wullie]

As a welcome consolation, I went on to win the FA Cup by beating as many big cheeses along the way as is possible (also Watford)

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

[P_3]

I dream of the day I can win the FA Cup. Nicely done.

Did we do it?
https://i.gyazo.com/8517927912a5794ac779205c80441f46.png

No. :( 21 points in 14 games is not too bad though, and if I don't get sacked, we'll definitely go up.

[Baz]

I don’t think I’ve ever been relegated on FM.

[Browning]

Wim Veyt would never have let that happen P_3. Never forget.

[Jimmy Floyd]

The 6th season in Hungary has been an absolute slog. I think we're still going to win the league, but it's been a huge struggle after completely smashing it in season 5. Tactics seem to last about 50 games and then that's it, you're done. Like real life, I guess.

[Mike]

All my first team centre backs.
https://i.imgur.com/MNXa4Lv.png

[Jimmy Floyd]

Ferencvaros: I won the league and a 5th straight title, but it was an absolute tunnel of shit to get there. Every time we hit form, we'd then just lose 2-0 to some cow farmers. Vidi managed to have an awful season which took them out of the picture, and our challengers were first Mezokovesd (benefiting from me loaning them about 6 good players), and once they faded away, Puskas Academy and Debrecen. We got to 7 points clear but then shat the bed again and with 3 games to go it was:

1 Ferencvaros 62
2 Puskas Academy 60
3 Debrecen 58

Luckily, they both then completely went into the Mariana Trench so we were able to fall over the line and win the league, a coveted title because this year it gets us straight into the CL group stage. The main highlight of the year was the Ramic-Mazzonetto partnership yielding 55 goals between them, 31 of those to Mazzonetto who is really not that good on paper but one of my favourite players I've ever had on FM. A poacher extraordinaire, like a goulash-eating Ian Wright.

In Europe it was a bit of a non-event. In our one CL qualifying round we again drew Dinamo Zagreb, who had put us out in season 5 but this time we bested them narrowly to get into the CL group stage and reap its Scrooge McDuck style rewards. We were still seeded 4th by 0.5 of a point and got drawn in a horrible group with reigning champs PSG, perennial bully boys Atletico Madrid, and also Dortmund. PSG and Atletico were both far too good for us and thrashed us with ease home and away, but fortunately Dortmund are pretty toss at this point in 2023/4 and we defeated them twice to reach the Europa League. There we drew Porto and got completely turned over 2-4 at home in a game which has convinced me that pacier centre backs will be needed to progress up the European ladder.

With CL group football guaranteed and 9th place in the coefficient table just about maintained despite Scotland, Austria and Czech Rep being right on our tails, this seems a good time to try and throw some money at the problem and step up a level. Vidi got into the Europa group stage this time but only got 3 points therein. League rep has gone up a lot and is now on a par with top flights from Croatia and Sweden.

[Manc]

https://www.smcaen.fr/sites/default/files/logo_smc.png

Saison 2028-29 - I am Daniel Levy's wet dream. Little to nothing is spent on improving the squad, yet each year I continue to guarantee European football. On with the transfers. The ball was dropped in the goalkeeping department as our trusted number one Edouard Mendy decided his future lay in Holland and moved to Feyenoord on a free. That move saw the return of Brice Samba, an experienced if unspectacular type. In defence arrived Smiffy alumni Benoit Badiashile for £9m. A pure athlete who at 26 could easily have another ten years at the top. The midfield is where things got juicy as a triple threat of Oliver Ntcham, Mickael Cuisance & Jeff Reine-Adelaide arrived for a combined £13m. Ntcham (31) enjoyed spells with Nice and Anger post Glasgow and is very much the complete midfielder. Cuisance (27) hasn't quite fulfilled his potential, but his technique is still filthy. Lastly Reine-Adelaide (29) who wound up in Turkey after winning zilch with Lyon. I'll look to implement him as a second striker.

National - I promised the board European football and I delivered as we finished in a flattering 4th. Celebrations come the end of the season, calls for my head were rife just a few months prior as we failed to find a win in eight matches. With our next game against PSG and the fans protesting (:moop:) prior to kick-off, I could feel the steel against my neck. Thankfully anti-football prevailed and we robbed the Qatari Empire 1-0. With the troops rallied we regained our early season form and stole a march on both Lyon (5th) & Nice (6th) prevailing by the sole point. In third were a very impressive Strasbourg under the tutelage of Erik Ten Hag and above them a equally unimpressive PSG. Topping the table then were of course my old side Toulouse whose head coach Vladimir Weiss bolted knowing he couldn't repeat such a feat. The French Cup went to Rennes who narrowly defeated Angers of all teams.

L'Europe - Ah yes the Europa League. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't desperate to win it again, but this wasn't to be our year. Runners up in a group containing Krasnodar, Arsenal and Bulgarian whipping boys CSKA-Sofia, we would face Manchester United in the knockout stages. Unfortunately for us both legs arrived during our collapse of form and one goal was enough for the English.

Next season could be anything. Zidane's PSG are underwhelming, Toulouse have replaced Weiss with Montella and his all or nothing 3-5-2, Lille have spent big and the likes of Nantes and Bordeaux are steadily improving.

[P_3]

I dream of the day I can win the FA Cup. Nicely done.

:lol:

https://i.gyazo.com/1b6b2a919afada381fdd0f0fcaefee04.png

[Manc]

Ferencvaros: I won the league and a 5th straight title, but it was an absolute tunnel of shit to get there.

They all count. Is ten in a row inevitable?

[Jimmy Floyd]

It should be, unless one of the others somehow becomes much stronger in an unexpected way, but then there's no accounting for my incompetence.

[Baz]

Europe next season for Margate? :eek:

[P_3]

Europe next season for Margate? :eek:
I know! Its all a bit silly. :drink:

[wullie]

Made up a little for being pipped to the league by Chelsea by battering them 5-1 in the Community Shield, making up for the one we lost in 1987. I just hope there's a code I can put in to reinstate the Cup-Winners' Cup after not being allowed to DOMINATE the 87-88 version.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I've been offered the Chelsea job after the useless Zidane left for France following Euro 24. They are perennially 6th and miles off the pace. I wouldn't take any other gig but fuck me it's tempting. I might have to start another branch of the save and see if I get into it or not, and go back if I don't.

[Smjffy]

I still haven't started the latest season but one thing I did notice is Liverpool have brought in yet another new manager.

Welcome home?


https://d3j2s6hdd6a7rg.cloudfront.net/v2/uploads/media/default/0001/05/thumb_4297_default_news_size_5.jpeg

[Manc]

Stay in Budapest, Jim.

[John]

I've been offered the Chelsea job after the useless Zidane left for France following Euro 24. They are perennially 6th and miles off the pace. I wouldn't take any other gig but fuck me it's tempting. I might have to start another branch of the save and see if I get into it or not, and go back if I don't.

That's exactly what I did in both my Dinamo Zagreb and OFK Beograd saves any time an interesting offer came in. It's good to have somewhere to go that doesn't involve starting over completely should the save become stale.

How close is Mazzonetto to Phineas Maimela in terms of crap players doing the business?

[Jimmy Floyd]

Phineas was actually crap, whereas Mazzonetto is just pace 17, accel 17, finishing 15 and nothing else, so not crap but completely one dimensional.

I just played a couple of games as Chelsea (though I'll now go back to Ferenc as I'm enjoying that too much) and I noticed the new manager had immediately benched Mazzonetto for the shithead regen I use for cup games.

[Shindig]

I think this is my last season with Villareal. It's all gone right off the boil. 16 points adrift from Betis and struggling to stay in 4th. We're poor in Europe as well.

[Spikey M]

I never had Jimmy down as a sell out.

You think you know someone.

[Yaysus]

some of the job offers are downright stupid
utd, chelsea and atletico offering a job to some no-name manager in norway :thbdn:

[Spikey M]

Is that intentional?

[Shindig]

Speaking of sellouts, I've finally brought enough money to the table to keep Barbero at the club. He spent the last six months of the season being very sad. He is now £1.5m richer and on £39,000 a week for six years. We finished second in the league after a blinding start where we were six points clear of Betis. They would, in fact, finish 23 points ahead of us. :moop: Leganes edged us out in Europe. Barbero missed a sitter in that game that summed his season up. I might go big in the summer and then run away. I have no idea how to bridge the gap to Betis.

In other news, Karl Ellis, a first season regen has 1000 games under his belt. He's 43 and manages Tranmere. Javier Saviola extended his contract again. He'll be entering his 30th year as a player. He's only failed to score in one of those seasons. Curiously, he went from 47 appearances in 2014/5 for Milan to 0 the following year. He's not injured so I have no idea what went on.

Newcastle have beaten Sunderland for a place in the Premier League. Southampton survived the Conference trapdoor by 3 points.

[Jimmy Floyd]

https://i.imgur.com/Limg5yp.jpg

I wondered what on earth was going on here (CL group game), then I looked at the match stats:

https://i.imgur.com/pTIDZBr.jpg

How is there time for all that to happen?

[Manc]

Can we have a career to date post, Shinners?

[Shindig]

Sure.

Newcastle (2001-2013)
FA Cup (2005), Charity Shield (2005), League Cup (2009, 2011), UEFA Cup Runners Up (2009), Premier Division winners (2011)

We always looked solid in cup football with plenty of quarter finals and a Champions League semi. League was a different story until I picked up Saviola and Van der Vaart on unprotected contracts. Saviola scored a 40 yarder on his debut against the mackems and we took the league by two points from Chelsea. It all went south afterwards. Our UEFA Cup final was a 3-2 defeat against Juventus. The scoreline flattered us, if I remember rightly. We solved the Shearer-sized hole by bringing in Anthony Shandran. 7 straight seasons as our top scorer. 153 league goals in total, just 20 shy of Shearer's record.

Leeds (2013-2015)
FA Cup (2014), Charity Shield (2014), UEFA Cup (2015), Premier league runners up (2015)

Just a point separated us and winners Newcastle for that Premier League. I was peeved. I resigned from that job so I probably packed in as soon as it went south. I was doing club / country at that point so I probably just fancied sticking with the international side. A 2-1 win against Lazio won us the UEFA Cup.

China (2013-2025)
Asian Cup runners up (2016)

The game appears to have consigned the Asian Cup to the gulag. A 3-2 defeat to South Korea was as good as it got. The 2018 World cup was over at the group stage but we took 4 points from a group featuring Argentina (0-0) and Bulgaria (2-1). The 2022 World Cup saw an unbeaten campaign with 3 draws taken from Morocco, Finland and Portugal. The Asian Cup still happens but we only got invited to it once. We had an awful World Cup qualifying campaign in 2025 so I called it quits.

Wigan (2018-2023)
Second Division winners (2019), Promotion to the Premier League (2020), Champions League runners up (2022), League Cup runners up (2023)

Probably the most fun job. They were already Third Division champions when I joined and just kept that momentum rolling. We went up to the Premier League via the playoffs and managed two 3rd placed finishes. Paul Fowler's goals got us there but Chinese international Chao Lin led the line for the Premier League years. Fowler is still the record goalscorer for them. 65 shouldn't be that hard to beat. The Champions League final was against Newcastle. They turned up and we didn't in a 3-0 defeat. Then my successor Trond Sollied retired, having finished the work I started at St. James'. What a cunt.

Villareal (2023 - Present)
Second Division winners (2024), Spanish Cup runners up (2026), First Division runners up (2027)

I had delusions of grandeur about this one when we smashed the Second Division. 77 goals, 94 points (at that time a record) with Barbero scoring 34. It's been a time initially marked by poor finances and just having to make do with whatever ageing players I have. It's still a broadly iffy squad. I can't undersell how pissed off I was with the suicide in the cup final. I relived that a little with Leganes knocking me out of Europe. Barbero's form has dipped of late but he was top scorer two years running in the top flight. Four, followed by third and now a runners up spot indicates that, whilst Betis are running away with it, we're best of the rest.

Money's not as big an issue now with the stadium getting another expansion and the European nights always fill up. I could do without the two games a week whilst my squad is full of 30+ journeymen. Betis have been legitimately terrifying to play against. Luis Andres Perez Zabal has taken them to 5 league titles and 16 cups. He's got 20's for tactical knowledge and spotting potential with 15's just about everywhere else.

Freddie Shepherd and Gordon Milne update THE GAME REALLY DID REGEN THEM WITH THE SAME NAMES AND STATS.

[Manc]

Newcastle really coming back to haunt you.

[Shindig]

Yeah, it was definitely a Frankenstein moment. They completely bottomed out when Sollied left though. I'm hoping for power vacuum once the Betis bloke retires.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I got the itch to play today and due to it being on Game Pass I thought I'd dip my toe.

I downloaded a huge league pack (obviously) and then did the fake name fixes (which took far too long as Game Pass hides the folder pretty damn well). Loaded it up to start and none of the new nations/leagues were there and a quick Google revealed that Game Pass' version does not recognise .fmf files.

I'll have to shell out tomorrow for the actual proper Steam version.

[Yevrah]

That itch has come my way too. I need a new laptop though.

[Giggles]

My laptop seems to be able to fly through it but I still can’t see what’s going on with that skin.

[Raoul Duke]

I'm tempted to sack off the next gen consoles and buy a beastly gaming PC next time around. Want to play FM, Cyberpunk 2077 and modded Fallout 4 lyf. Only thing that would suck is FIFA

[Baz]

I got the itch to play today and due to it being on Game Pass I thought I'd dip my toe.

I downloaded a huge league pack (obviously) and then did the fake name fixes (which took far too long as Game Pass hides the folder pretty damn well). Loaded it up to start and none of the new nations/leagues were there and a quick Google revealed that Game Pass' version does not recognise .fmf files.

I'll have to shell out tomorrow for the actual proper Steam version.
It’s only £20 on Steam atm or £16 ( https://www.cdkeys.com/pc/games/football-manager-2020-pc-steam-cd-key?mw_aref=rapdab) on cdkeys.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Yeah. I've got the game loading.

I've gone for 61 nations.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

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

Some brand new nations to FM in there like Abkhazia and Greenland too.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Right, club picked and it's one of the new nations in Greenland:

https://i.imgur.com/66H07Zw.png

Here is our squad:

https://i.imgur.com/27V2UfF.png

Our key player:

https://i.imgur.com/76ZoHdu.png

Our hot prospect:

https://i.imgur.com/yewm1UT.png

We're predicted to finish 4th in the 6 team league. Facilities are shit obviously but we do have a £7.3k wage budget and only £500 of that is being used. Doubt I'll spend too much though as we only have £4.5k in the bank.

[Pepe]

I'm tempted to sack off the next gen consoles and buy a beastly gaming PC next time around. Want to play FM, Cyberpunk 2077 and modded Fallout 4 lyf. Only thing that would suck is FIFA

Fifa is available on PC, isn't it?

[Giggles]

The main problems with PC’s is that they’re pretty much obsolete as soon as you’ve opened the box.

[Pepe]

I don't think that they become obsolete that quickly nowadays. The one I built ~6 years ago on a budget can still run any modern game. I have a new one though, so it just gathers dust.

[Giggles]

What’s the best website for resources and forums for this now? I want to see can I find some skin screenshots.

[Giggles]

I don't think that they become obsolete that quickly nowadays. The one I built ~6 years ago on a budget can still run any modern game. I have a new one though, so it just gathers dust.

They’re moving faster than ever now. My laptop is basically dirt by modern standards and it cost me 1500 quid not a massive length ago. It plays FM grand but it’s hardly tasking it much.

[Pepe]

I don't think that's true. Processor speed isn't moving particularly quickly nowadays, and something like a 1050ti, which came out four years ago, can still handle any game.

Of course, if you want to have MAX EVERYTHING and to have the fastestest gaming rig in the 'hood, then it is impossible to ever keep up.

[Giggles]

Mine has a 1060 and running any benchmarks puts it down as poor to bang average in the graphics department.

[Pepe]

Have you tried running any game? I bet it runs just fine. Of course it is bang average when it comes to benchmarks, those things are made in relation to each other. Also, PCs > laptops.

[Giggles]

Oh yeah definitely true because of no fans but any test calls out the graphics card as being the massive weak point.

[Pepe]

That is usually the case. I think any modern processor can run pretty much any game. It is all about the graphic cards. Luckily, graphic settings can be turned down in most games.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I think my processor fails most recommended checks but I've had no problem running things.

[mugbull]

Hardware is getting better at a slower rate than any time in the last 50 years

[Raoul Duke]

Fifa is available on PC, isn't it?

It is, but I believe it's a bit of a gimped version. Could be out of date though, I've not looked into it for a while.

[Pepe]

It is, but I believe it's a bit of a gimped version. Could be out of date though, I've not looked into it for a while.

I think that the PC version is the full one, with the Switch getting the shit version. Haven't looked into it in a while either, though, but that's how it was a few years ago.

[Yevrah]

It's the full version, just a shit experience in Ultimate Team due to fewer users and exploits ahoy.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

This is our stadium btw:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e7/Nuuk_Stadium.jpg/2880px-Nuuk_Stadium.jpg

It somehow "holds" 2000 people.

[Giggles]

It it grey fake grass or concrete? If it’s the latter then it shouldn’t be called the same sport.

[Spikey M]

It looks powdery.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

It now has a "2-star" artificial turf, that picture is what it was like before the artificial stuff was put down.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

This is what it looks like now:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DldINfGWwAAuNGS.jpg

[Giggles]

That looks a class spot.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Would be lovely sitting up there with a cold drink watching some crap football.

[Lofty]

Saw this posted on FB and made me laugh, apparently the player only agreed the sale because Watford agreed a large sell on clause :D

https://i.ibb.co/LYH16MW/FB-IMG-1593363002909.jpg

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

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

Why?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Found some cracking attacking players but really struggling to find some good defensive players (especially in midfield and full backs) so I decided to employ a very attacking formation to try and overload teams.

Just played my first game and it went well:

https://i.imgur.com/R4wMWO7.png

Had 2 ruled out for offside as well but overall very pleased.

[Manc]

Friendly league I see.

[Gray Fox]

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

Why?

Don't you dare say words against my boy.

[Jimmy Floyd]

My thing runs FM very smoothly and it's just a quarter-decent laptop. If you had a shithouse thing I guess it would be a drag.

The key to enjoying playing FM (which I've sorted out on this save for the first time in years) is to only do literally the things you are interested in doing, and automate everything else with staff. I've touched the training schedules about 3 times in 7 seasons, and my tactics don't go any deeper than assigning positions and roles and maybe set piece takers. I have no involvement with the press, rarely have chats with the players unless I absolutely have to, assistant does the team talks and manages the friendlies. I am basically a high strategy man who picks the team and does the recruitment. If I had to do much more than that I'd get the hump.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

It's a shame that they still insist on keeping the bullshit job interviews which you can't delegate to some sort of PA.

[wullie]

Amongst the stadium moves and new builds, I noticed Huddersfield play in Michael Hefele Stadium. He's listed as a club legend despite having not played for them or managed them in-game, and all Wikipedia can tell me is he set a club record for the quickest goal scored on a debut, and he was brought on as an emergency striker in a game and scored twice. Slim pickings.

[Giggles]

It's a shame that they still insist on keeping the bullshit job interviews which you can't delegate to some sort of PA.

Unless something has changed, don’t they take about 40 seconds?

[Shindig]

Amongst the stadium moves and new builds, I noticed Huddersfield play in Michael Hefele Stadium. He's listed as a club legend despite having not played for them or managed them in-game, and all Wikipedia can tell me is he set a club record for the quickest goal scored on a debut, and he was brought on as an emergency striker in a game and scored twice. Slim pickings.

"The public internet vote is in ..."

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Unless something has changed, don’t they take about 40 seconds?

They do but when you're running a Journeyman game and applying to at least 10 teams when you're looking for a job it's really annoying.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

A Spanish third division side just took one of my best CM's away from me the day before a match and the transfer window in Greenland is closed so I can't replace him...

[Jimmy Floyd]

https://i.imgur.com/JV6bLr2.jpg

The pasta-guzzling bastards can get fucked. Mugged them 2-0 at home to get the job done. Fucking no one beats us in Budapest.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

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

He's shit but still far too good for this league and he used to play for Real Madrid's U18 team.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

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

This is a nifty new feature.

[Jimmy Floyd]

This game is so fun and so fucking ridiculous:

https://i.imgur.com/jSDHZzw.jpg

I have a new goalkeeper this year, which is random 25 year old Englishman Mike Cooper who was released by Huddersfield. I signed him as a third choice but somehow he has ended up as my number one, and in this one he saved a second half penalty from geriatric Christian Eriksen to stop them going 2-1 up, before we entered party mode in the last 5 minutes and burgled two goals completely against the run of play.

I am genuinely scared of the second leg at the Lane. Like, physically scared that we will all be killed and our heads stuck on pikes down the Seven Sisters Road. I don't know what to do. If I go in like normal we will get annihilated, but I don't want to invite pressure either.

[Manc]

Batten down the hatches.

I've had quite the interesting summer in Normandy. Update in due course.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I'm now on a two and a half month break, painful.

[Lofty]

Oldham update:

It's the 23/24 season and having been denied promotion from League One by the skin of my teeth in my second season, I finished second in my third season quite handily. I'm now in the Championship with the lowest average age (21) and the lowest weekly wage bill (91k) having never spent a penny on transfers. That is starting to show because there is a significant jump between League One and the Championship.

The first time I have been tipped for relegation and genuinely feared it. My first choice striker has become a perma crock: it's October and he has yet to play a minute. Bit the bullet and arranged to sign a promising young English kid from PNE, for a princely £1m. Meanwhile QPR and Forest offered me jobs so I must be doing something right.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Got hammered 5-0 by Spurs. Restarted for curiosity with different tactical setups and lost 6-0 and 4-0. Absolutely nothing you can do away from home to the big dogs with the power forwards, yet at home we have some kind of hex over everyone.

Back to the even harder task of trying to break down farmyard shite in the Hungarian league.

[Mike]

Someone ran a regen through that site that software that unpixalates pictures

https://www.reddit.com/r/footballmanagergames/comments/hijz75/realistic_regen_picture_created_with_the_pulse_ai/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

SiGames need to get that in the game.

[Boydy]

I'm playing FM Mobile 19 again. Got St Pauli promoted to the Bundesliga in my second season (lost the playoff in the first) and then just about survived for my first two seasons in the top flight. Then I somehow fluked second place in my third season up there and have finished in the Champions League places since. Almost won the league in one of them but missed out on the last day of the season when I conceded a late equaliser.

RB Leipzig are absolutely dominant and I fucking hate them.

I've got good scouts who keep finding me quality youngsters who develop well but had a few of the really good ones start moaning a season or two ago about wanting to move to a bigger club. Sold possibly the best right back/right wing back in the game to Dortmund for 99 million. And I've managed to replace the ones I've lost reasonably well.

I did manage a German Cup in the season before last as well. I've not been very good in Europe though, haven't managed tobget past the first knockout stage of the Champions League yet.

Oh, and we moved to a new stadium and I got to name it. We now play at 48,000 seater 'Karl Marx Stadion'. :drool:

[mugbull]

Someone ran a regen through that site that software that unpixalates pictures

https://www.reddit.com/r/footballmanagergames/comments/hijz75/realistic_regen_picture_created_with_the_pulse_ai/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

SiGames need to get that in the game.

The main problem is that almost nobody's computers are good enough to generate these faces in a reasonable amount of time (or at all, really, and same goes for that GAN algorithm posted before, or any neural network). The only way that FM could get this to work would be to buy a shitload of server space on AWS or something, constantly generate regen faces there, then upload them in batches somewhere where any game client could pull them from whenever regens are created. Which could work. The problem is, of course, that that would be very expensive for SI, and if you ever wanted your regens to age the game would have to reupload the faces somewhere, have them get sent through some related piece of software, and then download them again.

In short I doubt it will happen. But there's a lot of room for improvement for the current faces that don't require extraordinary computing power like this does

[Giggles]

I should have bought Touch for the iPad. I’d went with Windows so I could get all the proper stuff in it, though lofty filled me in since (ooer). I just never have my laptop near me and turns out you can’t fix some of the stuff on it any more anyway (proper logos illegal, etc).

[Raoul Duke]

The main problem is that almost nobody's computers are good enough to generate these faces in a reasonable amount of time (or at all, really, and same goes for that GAN algorithm posted before, or any neural network). The only way that FM could get this to work would be to buy a shitload of server space on AWS or something, constantly generate regen faces there, then upload them in batches somewhere where any game client could pull them from whenever regens are created. Which could work. The problem is, of course, that that would be very expensive for SI, and if you ever wanted your regens to age the game would have to reupload the faces somewhere, have them get sent through some related piece of software, and then download them again.

In short I doubt it will happen. But there's a lot of room for improvement for the current faces that don't require extraordinary computing power like this does

There's a guy in that thread churning them out at 5 seconds a face on his dev machine - it'd take a few minutes at worst to generate them on a server cluster. The ageing could be done at the same time from the initial image in the background.

Think you're way overestimating how much computing power this needs.

[mugbull]

There's a guy in that thread churning them out at 5 seconds a face on his dev machine - it'd take a few minutes at worst to generate them on a server cluster. The ageing could be done at the same time from the initial image in the background.

Think you're way overestimating how much computing power this needs.

I guess it depends on how often you want to update the list. If it’s once a day then yeah fair play.

The ageing would probably have to be done remotely, though

[Raoul Duke]

You could limit it to the top/loaded/playable leagues which would cut down a lot. Figured it'd just be on regen day (and it could do it in the background whilst you played).

Ageing increases the amount of images but again, you could do that remotely based off the initial seed image generated at 16 or whatever.

[mugbull]

Yeah it’s 100% doable, it’s just that running GANs takes a lot of memory and AWS GPU clusters aren’t cheap. And SI are the last company I would expect to put any $ into innovation

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

https://i.imgur.com/m6ezGuz.png

Greenland must have loved the Crazy Gang.

All of those were straight red cards too.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Inuit Timersoqatigiiffiat-79 2019/20 Season:

So the Greenland league system is five different leagues (based on region) of six teams that face each other four times. The winners of each regional league then play each other once to determine the overall champion of Greenland.

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

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

After about 8 games in our regional league 4 of the teams were in negative goal difference and the fifth wasn't far off it but sadly only three teams ended in the negative.

Pretty straightforward but annoying I couldn't win every game.

https://i.imgur.com/Rv1fdVm.png

https://i.imgur.com/IG7laGa.png

Here is the squad:

https://i.imgur.com/LFcs9oG.png

Corrales started on fire with 8 MOTM's in 9 games also scoring 4 hattricks or something stupid but he went off the boil for a long time after that.

We have qualified for the first qualifying round of the Champions League and usually I'd stick around for a Champions League run but considering the teams we'd likely face it would be an absolute bloodbath.

Sadly no coaching badge was attained as we really didn't have the money for that.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Lads, I've not grabbed my coat:

https://i.imgur.com/m63RZZu.png

Here is the team:

https://i.imgur.com/MV3s8ln.png

And where we ended the season just gone:

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

They're clearly shit (although not as bad as Yalta, -81 GD with 2 points in a 28 game season is shocking) which is what appealed to me.

Edit: Oh and here is our best player who actually looks pretty good:

https://i.imgur.com/8u4YX4S.png

[Dquincy]

Alright chaps, it's been a while.

I've really enjoyed reading people's updates on this thread. Keep it up.

Thought it was only right that i add my FM11 journeyman save which has been going for a few years (real time) now. Currently in the year 2058. After starting out unemployed I've had quite the journey and interestingly I've gone full circle having rejoined my first ever club. Currently trying to get Ayr United to the Scottish Premier from the bottom division. I've got them up to the First division so far, but the board will not change the club status to 'professional' which is hindering matters. I'm in a relegation dog fight at the moment.

Anyway, here are some summary screenshots of my career.

https://i.imgur.com/F3qvTev.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/UO4BifC.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/OaIMDRt.jpg

[Lofty]

Good effort that.

My Oldham save still suffering with bad form while trying to stay in the Championship, took Premiership Blackburn to an FA Cup replay losing to an 88th minute winner. My first ever cash signing, the million pound striker, made his full debut against Milwall, bagging two goals. Then tore his knee ligaments and is out for three months :D

[Manc]

Turkey and Gillingham seem very odd choices.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Quality work though, Quince.

[Jimmy Floyd]

The thing I like in deep games is small nations who get a little cluster of unexpectedly good regens or maybe even just one really good regen. I have picked up a Ugandan midfielder at Ferenc who is the dog's bollocks, would love them to get good on the back of him.

[mugbull]

Trying to think about the most random country to give me a world class regen in a FM game. Had a decent Bolivian once. Can’t really remember any other

[Shindig]

I like when the nationalities go completely sideways. England has a very Spanish sounding playmaker and I remember buying a Scottish U21 international called Javier Fernandez. And all the refs in the Spanish game are known solely by English surnames like 'Readfearn' and 'Fazackerly'.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

https://i.imgur.com/wd24AZw.png

Such a strange position graph.

[Shindig]

I'm more worried about that apostrophe.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

https://i.imgur.com/ntVM5HA.png

What a name.

I'm guessing it's just a South American attempt at "Giuseppe".

[Jimmy Floyd]

When I realised that Joelinton is actually a botched attempt at 'Wellington' I learned many things about South America.

[Lofty]

Oldham relegated from the Championship having spent almost the entire season there. Couldn't turn enough draws into wins in the end, not helped by a lot of key players getting hit with big injuries but you could argue that was also my decision to rely on youth and not have a more experienced squad to mix and match.

Back into League 1, lost my captain Alex Iacovitti on a relegation clause right before the season started so scrambling to get a decent loanee in. Trying to play fairly realistically, so one keeper I brought through the youth system and another who I signed on a free from United both had offers in excess of a million made for them which I tried to negotiate up and then accepted (no way in real life would Oldham be turning those bids down) which has given me a little cash.

I am hoping to bounce straight back but must say sometimes the player database feels very light on touch which is a shame when trying to find new players.

[Jimmy Floyd]

https://i.imgur.com/ZbXXL2A.jpg

Years of playing these knobheads in a series of dirgefests, each more thrilling than the last, and I still can't unpick the lock. How on earth do you play against a team that just never tries to attack?

[wullie]

I like when the nationalities go completely sideways. England has a very Spanish sounding playmaker and I remember buying a Scottish U21 international called Javier Fernandez. And all the refs in the Spanish game are known solely by English surnames like 'Readfearn' and 'Fazackerly'.

https://i.imgur.com/Y9IgpZX.png

From Sittingbourne, where you can't cross the road without running into a Carvalho

[Dquincy]

Turkey and Gillingham seem very odd choices.
True that. Gills use to be a local'ish team for me. The place itself is a shit hole. And the Turks; I can't really remember why!


Quality work though, Quince.
Thanks. I'll try to post the outcome of my relegation battle if I get time.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Edit: Oh and here is our best player who actually looks pretty good:

https://i.imgur.com/8u4YX4S.png

https://i.imgur.com/23SYB0z.png

The lad is on fire.

[Yevrah]

He does look shit hot for what I'd expect he's facing in the Crimean league.

I need to get on this shit.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

https://i.imgur.com/PxcZUS6.png

Massive result that, especially as we suffered a bit of a dip in form due to injuries and suspensions.

They battered us earlier in the season after we went down to 10 men too.

[Mike]

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

Flattering place that, we stank it.

[Manc]

Is there a future in which Burnely aren't 12th?

[Spikey M]

#MikeOut

[Mike]

Job for life me

[P_3]

What season are you in the Premier League now? Can you trouble the top half?

[Mike]

That was the second, and it’s taking ages, we got there too fast, the bench is still full of league one quality and half the first 11 are only championship quality. Basically the goals from an Italian regen called Nanni is the reason we have stayed up.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Ferencvaros season 7. We won the league, but again it was like pulling teeth. We had a truly appalling start and Honved - the old communist army club who have spent the save to date veering between mediocrity and very real flirts with relegation - suddenly sorted themselves out and led. Then we won a load in a row and took the lead back at Christmas, only to completely collapse upon the February resumption and hand the initiative to Debrecen, who with young sharp-shooter Szalay are a slight force to be reckoned with now (by which I mean they only fill their pants three times a month rather than four). They duly collapsed and we 2-0'd our way to the title in wholly unconvincing fashion.

The Brazil 1970 formation - the 4-2-2-2 - is still going after 4 seasons but it may be on its last legs now. Ramic/Mazzonetto remains a potent force up front although Ramic is frustratingly inconsistent given his stats. Behind him, the usual pair is Josh Harrop and local hero Matyas Tajti, although there is now a sustained challenge there from Ugandan whizzkid Robert Semazi.

In midfield, the first choice pair is Fernando Gorriarán - Uruguayan schemer, a starter since day 1, and now capped by Hungary - and youngster Gergo Ihrig-Farkas, who I picked up from the second division early on, then had to sell to PSG for his release clause (losing a crucial year of development) and then bought him back a year later for a horribly inflated £20 million. I judged it worth paying to get 10+ years of a class Hungarian player with the 10 foreigner rule being what it is, and most players worth that don't want to join us anyway so I might as well lob the moolah at someone.

In defence, the wing backs are the key to the whole thing - they provide literally all the width that the team has in total. Right back for a long time now has been Chile's Miguel Gonzalez, who is perfectly in the sweet spot of being too good for the Hungarian league but not good enough to be tempted away. At left back we have Juan Manuel Leyton, from Argentina, who is also good. In the middle, long time veteran Blazic has now come to the end of the road and so the new pairing is another Argie, Mario Zunino, with Bosnian whippersnapper Nikola Lojo.

In goal... I had Denes Dibusz, local man, for years before picking up a really good one from the Ivory Coast. He quickly fell onto the PSG dinner plate (they hoover up literally anyone half decent and then never play them, killing their development), so I brought Dibusz back but he then starting chucking them in, and my other Hungarian got injured, so in came third choice man, ex-Huddersfield and ex-Plymouth freebie Mike Cooper, who immediately started saving everything and has set a new club record for clean sheets in a season. Marvellous.

Season 8 will involve Champions League group stage again, although thanks to my useless brethren the coefficient has fallen so we will have to qualify again in Season 9, should we keep the run of titles going.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Transitioned to a 4-4-2 (I was playing a 4-3-3 with DM before) shortly after the first transfer window closed and it was going alright but my second striker was really more of a winger. Window opened and I found this guy:

https://i.imgur.com/ya7Y9Ah.png

Had his debut the day after coming in and he proceeds to score 4 goals. Him and Molodtsov are going to be a fearsome duo.

Edit: And he twists his ankle in his third game :moop:

[wullie]

Halfway through 32/33

https://i.imgur.com/H7Yq9we.png

Three points worse off than the same point last year, but Chelsea are eight points behind theirs so This Is Our Year™

If I don't get past the CL first knockout stage now at the sixth attempt, have to concede I never will.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Hearts v Cov in a Champions League knockout tie, what a time to be alive.

[Dquincy]

3 games to go in my 2057/58 season. In a relegation fight having lost the last 4 games. My final 3 games are away to Falkirk (4th), home to Raith (1st) and away to Berwick (3rd). Current standings below.

https://i.imgur.com/dy4KfaH.jpg

Here it goes...final leagues games...

Result against Falkirk :

:)

https://i.imgur.com/ZaQO2Eo.jpg

Result against Raith :

:) :)

https://i.imgur.com/KqIbEMR.jpg

We lost the last game to Berwick, but it didn't matter as we were already safe. Glad we stayed up, but we can't attract any decent players whilst we remain semi-pro. So another slog next season awaits us.

https://i.imgur.com/IXX1YNm.jpg

[Boydy]

Finally won the Bundesliga with St Pauli.

[Mike]

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

Flattering place that, we stank it.

https://i.imgur.com/1SzXPLO.png

https://i.imgur.com/ivBoToV.png
https://i.imgur.com/p3k0Ju8.png
https://i.imgur.com/gkfBXuE.png

https://i.imgur.com/jS19WhZ.png

https://i.imgur.com/W7JL8iY.png

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

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Two games left in the season and there is just 1 point in it.

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

We play Kafa (A) and Yevpatoria (H) and TSK-Tavria will play Yevpatoria (A) and Okean Kerch (H).

So the third placed side will likely decide who wins.

*Top 2 redacted to raise the tension.

They beat Yevpatoria 1-0 thanks to an 81st minute winner and we b eat Kafa 4-2 so it comes down to the last game. This is possibly the tightest season I've ever experienced it is fantastic.

https://i.imgur.com/t0MldEo.png

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Gvardiets Gvardiyske 2020/21 Season:

So the final game. Here is what we managed to do:

https://i.imgur.com/LMp2IBe.png

Our main man missing two penalties (he had only missed 1 all season) during the match had me sweating bullets and I was on the edge of my seat.

What they did:

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

Okean going 2-0 up early was amazing, I had no idea what was going on but I was loving it. They managed to turn it around quickly though.

So no change at the top, but who was leading?

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

We scored 53 points more than the team managed last year (they were also 3 points better off this year) and managed to take it. I did not think it was going to happen as we had a blip early on which meant we were 8 points behind them. However, we play each team 4 times and we still had to play each other twice and we took them both. It still didn't look likely but with just 4 games to go they lost 2-0 to Sevastopol which swung it in our favour.

We set a lot of records along the way and this is honestly one of the best seasons I've managed across any FM game.

https://i.imgur.com/dTtnsrW.png
https://i.imgur.com/hiAZdKQ.png

Cup:

We weren't expected to do much in the cup but it only contains the other 7 teams in the Premier League and it started in February when we were really hitting our stride.

https://i.imgur.com/BMXirA4.png

https://i.imgur.com/1XqYw3q.png

Stats:

https://i.imgur.com/Po3ghxI.png

Also, despite missing two penalties in the final game we would not have done anything this season if it wasn't for Molodtsov:

https://i.imgur.com/5UMiaOp.png

37 goals in the league (at an average of 67.08 minutes per goal) was the real difference.

It's a shame the Crimean league isn't recognised by UEFA and thus no European football otherwise I think I'd have hung around and tried to win the Champions League with them.

[Spikey M]

Us there a mechanism to get it recognised? The slots available change with league rep, don't they? Or can't you use the editor?

[Lofty]

So having been relegated in my last update, I showed Bouncebackability Ian Holloway would be proud of and won the league (albeit on the final day when it could've been wrapped up earlier). That was my ambition anyway despite the board and the bookies tipping us for less. My best defender, Farrend Rawson refused to sign a new deal after relegation and was poached in the January window via his relegation clause. I also sold Harrison Male as my young back up GK as Anthony Lewendon looks a better choice.

My new Championship budget is £3.6m and a significantly higher wage budget than last time round. I have gambled massively on a soon to be out of co tract City youth winger who looks exceptional, choosing to lock him down now at the cost of £2.1m compensation than waiting to acquire him on a free and being out maneuvered by clubs with better resources. I had some good loan signings to get promoted who are all about to have their contracts expire, hoping I can sign them permanently and get some more decent loanees in to plug the gaps. Target is simply to avoid relegation.

[Clunge]

Still on FM Touch 17. This kid looks like the forward to end all forwards.

https://i.imgur.com/i9gmEn0.png

[Manc]

How smoothly does Touch run on Mac?

[Dark Soldier]

I've no idea how the new exploit got past testers. Ridiculous. Miles of course has said it won't be fixed as that'd take effort.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=g4SLsteRBaQ

[Raoul Duke]

How smoothly does Touch run on Mac?

I'm playing it on a Switch and it's fine. Imagine it'd be dandy on a Mac

[Mike]

Oh eck.

[Clunge]

How smoothly does Touch run on Mac?
I've been running Touch '17 on an early 2013 MacBook Pro since it was released and it runs absolutely flawlessly - 3,400+ hours and counting.

[Baz]

lol at that bug