Football Manager 23

[John Arne]

And then when you've gone through all your subs and your keeper gets injured with 5 mins to go, you have the answer. Perfect plan.

"The next Pep".

[Adramelch]

So last time I managed AEK in one of those was back in FM13, when we went bankrupt and were relegated to the third division. I ended up randomly winning the Champions League about 6-7 seasons in and I haven't attempted a similar save since. But with Dragon's Dogma 2 coming on Friday, I didn't fancy starting some other game and stopping midway through, so I thought a short-ish save with AEK would do the trick. And then this happened:



Just 5 seasons in. And it wasn't even a fluke, we legitimately outplayed Bayern and Real on the road to the final, where we beat PSG 3-1, getting the lead in the 4th minute and never losing it from there. Not a flash in the pan either, seeing as we made the semis the season before (knocking City out and then only narrowly losing to PSG) and the Europa League final in the first season, albeit in that case we just had very easy draws and were played out of the park by Liverpool in the final.

I think I've pinpointed what it is. Firstly, I've created a successful tactic in previous saves (nothing outlandish, just a solid, very aggressive 4-2-3-1), so it was plug and play here and success was immediate. But secondly, and that's what led to success in my other save over a decade ago, it's too easy to sign wonderkids and have them develop fast by playing in the league where the stakes are very low (basically every team apart AEK, Olympiakos, Panathinaikos and PAOK is significantly weaker). And thirdly, I think they've made it too easy to keep players at clubs without their will. I've declined multiple 70-80m offers for players (which is an immensely ridiculous amount of money for Greek league standards), they complained, I told them to shove it and then they forgot about it once the transfer window closed.

Now obviously, I could self-impose some restrictions, especially in regards to the wonderkid situation, but that's my favorite part of the game as a whole, so that's a big no.

Just to give you an idea of the type of players I'm getting, this guy joined us a couple months back for 1.3m and he's a second backup:



And we have this guy joining in the summer (7m):



Both of them only 18.

[Limoutsonik]

Good shit brother,i myself only sniffed the quarterfinals 4 years in and had nowhere near the luck or fortune to beat the heavy hitters. Any chance we can see that aggressive 4-2-3-1?

[Adramelch]

I should preface this by saying that I've ended up with a very deep squad, where the second (and possibly third) string would probably win the league on their own, so I could afford to heavily rotate. I think that played a part in our CL win as we went in with fully rested players.



It's a high possession tactic, where you're more likely to win 5-3 than 2-0 and have the occasional big defeat (lost to City 7-3 in the group stages for example), but it's been very solid for me so far. https://file.io/6rX9aPpBZGaL for the whole thing.

And the corner routinesm that I struggled with in a previous save, eventually ending up with those after a lot of tinkering. Set-pieces also play a rather big role in the success. For reference, we scored 14 goals from corners and only conceded 2 in 15 games in the Champions League.

[Dan]

it's too easy to sign wonderkids

I definitely think this is a big part of what makes FM easier than it should be. I’ve started editing my database to lower things like national youth rating & club youth facilities, as well as bumping up the base transfer values for some of the major talent exporters like Brazil so you can’t just hoover up a million shit hot 18 year olds for £3m each, but need to finish the Pompey save before I get to actually testing it out to see if it’s made any difference.

Planning to download the Mustermann skin & try a save based around stats rather than attributes for another extra level of challenge.

[John Arne]

One of the most complete players I've had for some time - and my DOF signed him. Makes a fucking change.

[Baz]

Jeez he’s class

[Gray Fox]

He's so good at so many things. I have no idea where I'd want to play him mind you. He could play any position on the pitch.

[John Arne]

I started playing primarily as a central striker, but lately pushed him back into attacking midfield, also central. Haven't even tried him out wide yet.

[Dan]

The results on the pitch weren't the biggest story of the season, however, as it's finally been confirmed that we will be starting work on a new stadium, which will see us sell Fratton Park We have a couple of years left before we move, though, so hopefully we can find a way to say goodbye with a trophy or two.

Portsmouth 2031/32 Midseason Update

Gonna do this with mostly screenshots as I can't be arsed to write a proper update this time

TRANSFERS | LEAGUE RESULTS | LEAGUE TABLE | CUP & CL RESULTS | CL TABLE

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Really great first half of the season, obviously, picking up where we left off in the second half of last season & with United finally taking a step back we've put ourselves in a great position to nab our first Premier League title. We still have Liverpool & City (who offered me a job interview in the summer) on our tails though so there's not a lot of margin for error just yet.

CL is going okay, but I'd imagine we'll find ourselves in the playoff round this year, so hopefully we can get a decent draw there.

It was sad to see Leopold Uhlig go, as he's an excellent allrounder but that's a lot of money for a rotational player who doesn't like big matches, which is something I've put extra focus on this year to try to push us over the edge, and Teun Koopmeiners has slotted right in as a quality veteran who actually costs less as well.

[John Arne]

Simon Boateng, club legend. 221 goals in 329 starts for the reserves and youth team.

[John Arne]

What's the opposite of group of death

[Dan]

Portsmouth 2031/32 Midseason Update

Gonna do this with mostly screenshots as I can't be arsed to write a proper update this time

TRANSFERS | LEAGUE RESULTS | LEAGUE TABLE | CUP & CL RESULTS | CL TABLE

Toggle Spoiler

Really great first half of the season, obviously, picking up where we left off in the second half of last season & with United finally taking a step back we've put ourselves in a great position to nab our first Premier League title. We still have Liverpool & City (who offered me a job interview in the summer) on our tails though so there's not a lot of margin for error just yet.

CL is going okay, but I'd imagine we'll find ourselves in the playoff round this year, so hopefully we can get a decent draw there.

It was sad to see Leopold Uhlig go, as he's an excellent allrounder but that's a lot of money for a rotational player who doesn't like big matches, which is something I've put extra focus on this year to try to push us over the edge, and Teun Koopmeiners has slotted right in as a quality veteran who actually costs less as well.

Portsmouth 2031/32 End of Season Review

Having carried our strong form from the end of last season into the first half of this year, we were in a good position to finally get our hands on our first Premier League title, but with Man City & Liverpool still in striking distance we couldn't afford a bad run in.

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Pretty solid set of results - a few too many draws for my liking, but we had a few fortunate ones, most notably the 0-0 with United where they had 3xG & Turati just superkeepered them. It was the big games that continued to be our main source of frustration as we lost to City & drew with both United & Liverpool, but would those dropped points be enough to deny us the trophy?

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Nope

It did got right down to the last game, but the final day drama was limited as Man City were held to a 0-0 at Brighton, meaning our result didn't matter. There was a point where City did sneak back ahead of us, and for a few games it looked like it might come down to goal difference, but Chelsea pretty much won us the league by beating City 5-3 then immediately losing 5-1 to us the game after.

Winning the title whilst Southampton get relegated is the icing on the cake

Domestic Cups

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We immediately exited the FA Cup, losing to Spurs in the third round, but we made it all the way to the final of the EFL Cup, where we would face good old Man City, who seem to knock us out of this competition every season.

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Yep, they got us again Oh well, nobody cares about this one anyway.

Champions League

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Well this is a surprise.

We had a decent enough time in the league phase, and comfortably saw off Ajax in the playoff before deservedly upsetting Bayern. I expected United to take us out, but for once we got the best of them, and when we nicked a 1-0 away to Barcelona I started thinking we actually had a shot. We finished the job at Fratton Park, which set up a Champions League final against defending champs Real Madrid.

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Apparently I found the super secret 'you win' button at half time, as after a cagey first half we came back out & completely ran them over, led by one of our few big match players Hamza Bensabouh, who scored two outstanding goals to inspire us to a huge upset & pretty much guarantee that this is where the save ends.

Players

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Not gonna do the full squad this time, just a recap of some of the key players in the save.

First up is probably the most important player of the save, Stefano Turati. After we sold Nathan Baxter we had some issues replacing him, so I turned to a couple of Italian lads I'd had good experiences with in other saves. Turati ended up beating out Alessandro Plizzari & established himself between the sticks, eventually becoming club captain & producing some outstanding performances to lead us to an unlikely double. He's also finally earned himself a call-up to the Italian national team, which he's deserved for a while now.

There are two guys who've been here from the start that deserve some love - Alex Robertson stuck around after his initial loan spell, starting for several years before settling in as a reliable squad player over the last couple of seasons, and it's a similar story for Paddy Lane, who managed to keep his 10 assist streak going for the entire length of the save.

Hamza Bensabouh should get a mention, if only for his performance in the CL final, but he's easily the most talented player on the team & on attributes alone he's got a case as one of the best players in the world. Diego Otin has driven me insane over the last couple of seasons, but despite his inconsistency he does still provide more than his share of goals & on his day he's a clinical finisher. Adriano Onyegbule is kind of a weird one, as I've considered selling him almost every season but he just continues to contribute both goals & assists with regularity from the left wing, so I should probably just accept that he's worth his spot.

Lastly, just a shoutout to a couple of academy kids. First up is Zbigniew Urbanski, who is by far the best player we've produced & has established himself in the England squad this year. Dan Davis, on the other hand, looks extremely average but he was the first decent prospect that came through in my time here & he just consistently outplays his attributes, which is more than can be said about a lot of players in the squad.

I've been wanting to try a new save for a while, and have slowly been losing a bit of interest in this one as a result, so I think this might be where I call it, but if I do continue there's definitely a huge overhaul of the squad on the cards. We haven't spent much in the last few seasons, but I think we need a bit more focus on consistency & big match ratings to help elevate us to that final level alongside the truly elite clubs, so with our rep now finally getting to the point where elite players will consider joining us it might be a good opportunity to bring in some difference makers.

[John Arne]

Cutting it fine. Newcastle gave only a second start to some shitty 18yr striker, who proceeded to score a haul. Edged through 8-7 into the Mickey Mouse Cup Final

[Mike]

Mbappe is asking for big things...

[Dan]

I guess he’s rooting for the Super League.

Very different experience with Mbappe in the tests of my database. I’ve put the inevitable move to Real in, but for some reason they keep immediately transfer listing him on the grounds that they don’t have a role for him to play, which seems unlikely to me. His asking price has dropped as low as £13m as I’ve holidayed forward, and I have no idea how to stop it happening.

[Adramelch]

Is there there a way to add him into Ancelotti's favourite personnel list or something? Maybe that would help if possible?

[John Arne]

Should I sell this guy? I don't need the money, however, I do love a good bit of profit.



£145m all in. I paid £19.5m three years ago.



I have thee three ready to step up, Melham being basically on rotation with this guy currently.

[Gray Fox]

You'd be crazy to sell him. Assuming you're a top Prem side now and your coach has good JPA/CA, then he's literally a world class elite talent and of the three you listed only one of them might get to that level in Yamada.

[John Arne]

You'd be crazy to sell him. Assuming you're a top Prem side now and your coach has good JPA/CA, then he's literally a world class elite talent and of the three you listed only one of them might get to that level in Yamada.

All excellent points. Winning a bit too easily now, and I want the $$$$ so one day the board actually build a new stadium.

I may keep him and try to offload Melham.

[John Arne]

Final data update release and some other guff.

All gameplay adjustments will be effective immediately in existing careers, although new save games are required for you to play with the latest player and team data.

Changes to FM24 (PC/Mac) in the 24.4 update include (but are not limited to):

- Crash fixes and general optimisation
- Save game compatibility optimisation
- Points deductions updated/applied for applicable English, Scottish and Welsh clubs**
- Fixed issue where user managers who are over 70 years old and unemployed can’t get a managerial role
- Fixed homegrown status not displaying for players that play in certain non-European nations and clubs
- [Turkey] Removed 'the match squad cannot have any players aged over 33' rule in the Turkish Cup
- [Pre-Game Editor] Fixed issue regarding the importing of fixture files

[John Arne]

Second game of the season



Also, I'm getting carried away selling my best players for $$$. Sold my best midfielder for $70m, but also managed to get 2 very good youngsters in the deal. Not managed to get an exchange deal really work in the past (given I'm selling my best player, arguably haven't got this to work either).

Sold...



Got...

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I haven't stopped the Hitchin save, I've slowly been plugging away and we've finally made a HUGE step:



No promotion (yet) but we've finally secured a promotion place. It looked like we might do it last year but we collapsed after January.

Almost no chance we win the playoffs but it's going to be damn fun trying it.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

We were so good in the first half but we turned to shit after HT

[Clunge]

New stadium .



That name...

[Shindig]

Yeah, he looks like a Minge.

[John Arne]

[Dan]

Is there there a way to add him into Ancelotti's favourite personnel list or something? Maybe that would help if possible?

I tried this, as well as adding him to the clubs favoured personnel, but it didn’t sort it. In the end I’ve just cancelled the transfer & set him to leave on a free.

First run of the db he had some interest from Barca but went to Bayern, who also signed Osimhen. Gonna run it a couple more times & then I should finally be ready to go - I’ve also put together a benchmarking spreadsheet to help with working through all the data, although it’s not quite as psychotic as the Mustermann version

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Another playoff run this season. We're getting close and should have already been promoted:



MASSIVE props for Ioan Jenkins:



He scored more than the Flamingo wankers (44 goals) and Basford (49). He's absolutely bonkers.

[Dan]

I think I've got everything sorted now - I did have a brief scare when all the job vacancies & insecure jobs outside of England randomly vanished at the start of September, but I went back to an old file & that one has gone fine. Leaving Mbappe to sort himself out has worked too, as after Bayern & Man Utd he ended up signing for Real on the third run, so i've moved forwards with that version, and after a few months of applying for jobs someone has finally decided they want to hire our manager.

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Sandvikens were newly promoted to the Superettan Obos, the Swedish second tier, for the 2024 season & narrowly survived, winning a relegation playoff after finishing 14th of 16 teams. I've not properly analysed the squad yet, but from a quick glance it does seem like we have some decent players, and considering I have four months before the start of next season I should have plenty of time to crunch the numbers & find some upgrades for the 532 system(s) I'm planning on running in this save.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

[John Arne]

That'll do.

[Manc]

Soares is pure filth.

[John Arne]

Aye, proper player.

In bigger news, after being rejected about 10 times when asking for a new stadium (with $450m in the bank), finally leaked it to the press, and got this message immediately...



Fingers crossed they don't name it after Dario Gradi (which happened all the time in FM22 and FM23.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Give me Soares and Blake please. Thanks.

For the first time in just over 3 and a half years Hitchin are back in the black. I sold my LB this Summer (pain) and I've been cutting player and staff wages for the past two seasons as we were in £250k debt and it was looking bleak. Unfortunately my mental striker, Ioan Jenkins, wants a new contract and he wants some fat wages so he might need to be sold or, hopefully, we get promoted soon.

[Baz]

Bennell Park

[John Arne]

Give me Soares and Blake please. Thanks.

For the first time in just over 3 and a half years Hitchin are back in the black. I sold my LB this Summer (pain) and I've been cutting player and staff wages for the past two seasons as we were in £250k debt and it was looking bleak. Unfortunately my mental striker, Ioan Jenkins, wants a new contract and he wants some fat wages so he might need to be sold or, hopefully, we get promoted soon.

I found a good lower ploy, when someone comes in with an offer, add loan back until end of next season - they generally seem to accept. You get his wages off your books, and keep the players for another 1-2 seasons.

Bennell Park

You joke, but I wouldn't put it past the Crewe board...

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I found a good lower ploy, when someone comes in with an offer, add loan back until end of next season - they generally seem to accept. You get his wages off your books, and keep the players for another 1-2 seasons.



You joke, but I wouldn't put it past the Crewe board...

Apparently that's ILLEGAL in this save type. I did it once before I realised.

The other times I changed the transfer date to the end of the season. Couldn't do that with my LB though as Swindon (who bought him) wanted him as their first choice LB.

[Adramelch]

Apparently that's ILLEGAL in this save type. I did it once before I realised.

That will definitely get you disqualified from the Official Leaderboards™.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I guess it's just to CLAMP DOWN on people not bringing in any other sneaky loans but it's dumb.

The player isn't leaving you, you're just getting his services (without paying for it) for another year. I assumed it was fine when I did it but found out it's not so I haven't used it again although I probably should. Fuck the official SI forums.

[Bam]

Took over Notts Co in league 2 and back to back league wins got us up to the Championship, was expecting a tuff season of trying to stay in the league but to my amazement we're 15 points clear at the top and unbeaten coming into December.

Just got to hope the wheels don't fall off now.

Also Klopp has been sacked by Liverpool and they have shown an interest in me, not sure if I could turn that opportunity down if it comes up.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Real end of an era shit happening at Hitchin:



He wanted £2.5k to stay for next season which I couldn't give him. He did accept £1.8k with £60k loyalty bonus and some hefty fees but he accepted Galway's offer sadly.





Real shame he's not going to hit 500 appearances but he's got a shot at the 250 goals as we have 6 games remaining plus any playoff games.

My first seriously good newgen at this level, it's going to be heartbreaking when he actually leaves.

[Dan]

He’s no John though, is he?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Absolutely stunning performance from us this season, a real shame that Doncaster and South Shields are just too fucking good. We did beat South Shields 2-1 on the final day so I have HOPE in the playoffs.

Flamingo twats also getting relegated is lovely.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

We got to the final:



It was a close game although they were better in extra time but we held on with them hitting the bar in the final few seconds.

On to penalties:



We had two chances to win in Sudden Death and ultimately Sammon fucked us hard. It was the most tense, brutal shootout I've been involved with in FM and I feel sick after.

[John Arne]

What year you in now?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

That was the 38/39 season.

I really thought we were going to win when my keeper Roger Hartman saved their 11th penalty and then had the chance to score to win it. Would have been glorious.

[Baz]

Can’t believe you’ve not been promoted there.

[Manc]

Are Donny and South Shields operating on mega budgets? Those points tallies are mental.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Donny are loaded.



Their bank balance is £600k.

South Shields aren't loaded but they didn't lose many players from their National side.

The previous highest points tally for a winner was 110 which South Shields got in the first season. The 102 points we got was enough to win in 7 seasons across this save.