After many aborted attempts over the weekend I finally got into a new save:
Norwich 20/21 Season Review
The Squad
Solid performances from Pukki and Buendia as well as a few others.
The Cups
Cracking run in the League Cup was brought to an abrupt end by Man Utd, as was the FA Cup by Liverpool.
The League
Slightly annoying to miss out on winning the league on goals scored, but we got promotion, which was the main thing.
Next Season
Delia has given me a WARCHEST of £48m and allowing me to double the wage bill to just under the million mark. Staying up will be all I care about, so it's time to go shopping.
Nice update, Yev. Like the skin being used.
That points total is mad considering two teams achieved it. And that Irish striker looks promising.
2081/82 - Mid Season Update
Fixtures so far:
Premier League table so far:
We've had a decent start but Arsenal are the form team currently. Hopefully they'll wane.
Squad:
Key players:
Nabbed him from Benfica when I left them.
Sacked from Norwich after being too close to the relegation zone after 12 matches. I messed up really by investing too much of the WARCHEST in youngsters and not enough on quality to improve the first team and when injuries hit we were fucked.
Still, no matter. I got to grips with a lot of the screens during that game, so I think it's time for some form of Journeyman effort. This laptop won't run enough leagues for a worldwide one, so will need to stick to European leagues only for now.
Right, I think I've worked out a way for my chugging laptop to run a truly global game. 36 leagues loaded from 18 divisions:
And Yev Bin-Maan, with 96 caps and 39 goals for his country and no coaching qualifications to speak of (making him a 2 and a third star manager no less) is born.
Life has been easy on Bin-Maan since hanging up his boots, living and enjoying life in Saath Afri-ka he had no desire to get into management, but an argument via live link with Gary Neville changed all that.
Cape Town Spurs operate in the South African second tier, but are favourites to go up.
If anyone is interested, this is how the World Cup and Euros have played out on my save so far.
That Spain run in World Cup finals.
Bunch of bottlers. Albeit they fared slightly better in the Euros. I've yet to have the inclination for international management.
Edit: Special mench for Ivory Coast.
@Yev good shout with the journeyman save. Much more interesting climbing up from the bottom.
I think that might be my biggest transfer ever. Loved him at Hertha and when I realised I could get him (ideally I wanted my main striker from Hertha, Matias Rodriguez but I couldn't get him) I had to do it.
He'll be the second highest transfer on this save when the instalments go though. Only behind Mbappe who went to Barca for £183m.
Christ on a bike, that's a lot of £££. How much money is left in your club bank account after that? Surely you'll need to sell to accommodate?
He does look rather good tho. Don't often see 5* for both ability and potential.
I have sold two players since (and bought another too) but I still have £60m in the bank even after buying him.
Also, I've agreed a deal to join Man United at the end of the season. They're currently 9th in the Premiership and came knocking at my door.
2020/21 Mid-Season Update - Cape Town Spurs
So our first job in management has started both well and utterly horrifically at the same time. On the plus side, we're top of the league and favourites to go up and get my first trophy on the board:
On the downside, there's a problem. Well, two problems.
Firstly, we're now over half a million quid in debt and haemorrhaging cash at every turn. On close inspection of the finances, this is solely down to our pitiful gate receipts - despite playing in a 35,000 all seater stadium in Cape Town, we have an average attendance of fewer than 400. I don't know what promotion pays, but I doubt it's going to cover this mess.
Secondly and perhaps most problematically of all, our board will only let us do this when it comes to contracts.
So (now we're into the new year and almost all of my players have less than 6 months left) I'm having to sit and watch each and every one of them get picked off. Shambles.
@Pleb How do I win the Champions League?
I also want to know @Pleb
2020/21 End of Season Update - Cape Town Spurs
Season just finished and title secured, along with a sweet 34 Hall of Fame Points.
The WARCHEST for next season has been set at £0 and our wage budget will be the same as it was this year, so I'm off. The Supersport Utd job is available in the Premier League and Kaizer Chief's manager is very insecure. The latter would be the motherload, but I'm not sure my achievements to date would get me either job, so I may have to use my bin man credentials to convince them I'm absolutely the right man for the job.
I appreciate how much Yev Bin-Maan sounds like a South African coach too.
South Africa seems utterly fucked. First I get a professional club where I can't offer contracts for longer than to the end of the season and then I apply for the available Supersport job and nothing has happened with it for over three weeks now.
Looking forward to the first SuperSport Utd v Cape Town Spurs clash. Make sure you asset strip them of their best players as well.
2081/82 - End of Season Update
Not a bad first season on my return to the gills, won some silverware, but no chance of winning league when Arsenal go do that. The invincibles reign again. And their striker is just fucking ridiculous; 50 goals in 38 league games. mental.
Anyway, back to the gills, a comfy second place in the league meant the Saudi owners were relatively happy and offered me a new 2 year contract.
This is the weasel that ran amok for Arsenal up front this season.
Champions League we ran close but got knocked out at the semi final stage. Slightly unfortunate to have 6 first team player out injured for the 2nd leg, including both my centre backs.
FA Cup we fared much better and a cup final against 2nd in the Championship meant we were always favourites, albeit we made it hard work for ourselves.
End of season squad, inc stats.
Our main striker.
2021/22 Mid Season Update - SuperSport Utd
So after binning Cape Town Spurs off after leading the to the second tier title we moved to SuperSport Utd. 33-1 and 5th favourites for the title we had a bit of work to do, but after a shaky start (including exiting the first and second cup tournaments of the season in the first round) we hit our stride and are top at Christmas.
Top 2 gets us into 'Europe', so that has to be the aim from here.
Thinking of getting a new laptop, would this run FM at lighting speed? https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/comput...29443-pdt.html
Half tempted to push the boat out on this: https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/comput...18229-pdt.html
I don't know much about buying PC's Bam, but this place seems pretty good bang for your buck vs. Currys.
https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/17-gaming-laptops/
Thinking of getting one from there myself for FM22.
The biggest game to date on my save:
Using your own tactic?
I'm a twit
Yeah, a 4-2-3-1 Gegenpress, but I need to introduce another as there were some signs of tactic crackage (if that's still a thing?) towards the end of the season. If Orland Pirates hadn't such a cluster fuck with fixture pile up I don't think we'd have hung on due to the amount of chances we were missing and draws we had.
If you need advice on winning the Champions League down the line, ask Pleb.
This chap has just come through my academy.
5 star potential (with one silver star) and tackling at 15 for a fifteen year old could make him a monster. Just given him his debut in Champions League qualifying (does your knowledge extend to African Champions League winning @Pleb?) against some Liberian goat herders.
Future SuperSport Captain, there.
I'm a twit
2022/23 Mid Season Update - SuperSport Utd
Well, I say mid-season, for some reason we now have two months off and it's still October. Last year we had a month off in January, so I've no idea what's going on. What I do know is we're reasonably well placed at the break.
And that due to the ridiculous break we have some ludicrous scheduling coming up:
We're out of the (elongated) South African version of the Charity Shield and the League Cup, which is probably a blessing, so just the league, main cup and 'Europe' to concentrate on. Talking of the latter, this is the group stage draw:
El Tunis look ridiculously good (having as they do a squad of players worth millions compared to my handful of couple of hundred k players) and have won 4 of the last 5 editions. Might need @Jimmy Floyd to give us a rundown here.
Esperance tend to have a high rep I think, as does Tunisia itself, so they, Ahly, and Sundowns tend to be the teams to beat in Africa on the recent versions I've played. Research is pretty lacking generally for teams outside the highest rep 10/12. Group D there is definitely the group of death.
If you have a large enough database, then Mazembe would be the threat in your group as they are loaded from all the copper mining dollar down in Katanga province. They tend to have a lot of the better Congolese players, some good Zambians, and imports from west Africa.
Cheers. It's cracking managing here. When I get the new laptop I might load all of the custom leagues for every country in Africa and start at the very bottom.
Just hit January and I've lost 7 players to the African Nations now too.
Actually, it's not even that, it's an African national tournament for B teams of each nation.
Absolutely mental.
We smashed our group:
open source screen capture
Not sure what to expect from here on it with it. The teams left all look better than us on paper, but then Orlando Pirates topped their group, so who knows.
Casablanca. Love it.
Bayer Leverkusen 2042/43 Season Update:
Transfers Out:
Finally managed to get rid of Akpinar who, whilst great, was always injured. Also sold some of the players I bought to the club in Ojo (who I signed for £5.5m) and Genovese (also £5.5m) so made some nice profit. Also, I wanted to sell Schurig and I rejected offers above that but the board sold him after I agreed my United move.
Transfers In:
£18.75m which in hindsight was a massive overpay but I was struggling to find players to spend money on in the Summer.
£160m and a former player of mine at Hertha. I hoped he would help us take a step forward and he did but it was too little too late.
I secured a deal to sign him on a free in the Summer but I wanted him in January so I paid £17.75m to bring him in early.
League:
Another shit start fucked us yet again. I really thought that despite the start we might be able to claw Bayern back but it wasn't to be.
Cup:
Meh.
Europe:
I thought we had a chance here especially as we looked brilliant in the groups (the 6-3 loss to Atleti was with the yoof and finishing second provided a better draw) but City were just too much for us.
Squad:
The squad has been MASSIVELY improved by me and they club is set as I've also made them a fuckton of cash (I've boosted the balance by just under £135m). It's bittersweet that I'm leaving them as I really wanted to win the league and Champions League with them but I couldn't say no to United.
I'm sure I'll be reuniting with some of the players in Manchester.
France:
We're in the Semi Finals of the Nations League and we're up against Spain who we battered in the WC so I'm confident, hopefully I can knock that off THE LIST.