You can't play him in the UK, you'd need to send him abroad and then hope he gained the necessary caps/whatever while there to qualify for a permit.
You can't play him in the UK, you'd need to send him abroad and then hope he gained the necessary caps/whatever while there to qualify for a permit.
I took a year sabbatical as none of the big jobs in Spain or Italy were cropping up but then....I just couldn't say no.
I might try and stick this one so I can plan further than a season or two in advance.
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109 caps/108 goals.
Which hit 100 first?
I'm a twit
1 game left for the mighty Sho'rtan and a victory at home to current champions Olmaliq and we somehow qualify for the Asian Champions League play-off in just the second season of my journeyman save. Probably gonna leave anyway - ideally to the second tier of Korea.
"Smjffy prefers to use the 5-3-2". Appears to be the go to formation this year.
It bugs me because in my mind I am playing 4-1-3-2 which depending on how a game is going can change to 4-4-2 with good old fashioned wingers or 4-5-1 if I choose to drop one of the AF's and put in another midfielder. Sometimes I'll even drop the SS/AM along with the forward, I don't really know if it translates on the field as I tend to quick result or play on commentary mode but even so, none of them are what I consider 5-3-2.
5-3-2 to me looks as though I have three at the back and two inverted wingbacks, although even those inverted wingbacks are slowly becoming a thing of the past, especially last season with PSG but the same formation is always mentioned.
5-3-2 is basically a 4-4-2, but with one person doing all the wide work on each side, and a free extra body in both defence and midfield as a result. It's a proper capitalist 'less is more' solution to all your football needs. Big man little man, can we not knock it, ooh Wendy, 1-0 to the Arsenal. Game solved.
Quite the step up in terms of the budget I'll have.
The squad is looking alright as well, with two future prospects that I'll be trying to mould into first-team regulars:
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I'll probably try to go for something completely different than my attempts at 4-4-2 and 4-3-3 so far. Maybe something silly like this:
@Baz My Haaland SUCKS:
Poor guy.
I can't understand how he's as low as 82 in 101, having used him for a bit. When I took over he was 47 in 44, under me I think he's been 24 in 19 or something. Admittedly I probably keep him on the park longer than AI managers as bringing on Alexander Sorloth for him is proper, you know, 'After the lord mayor's show comes the dustcart'.
Schjelderup has been stealing a lot of his thunder lately. Dude's at 12 in 10 this year alone, including 3 hat tricks. He's 25 in 53 (only started playing as a striker as of late), with Sorloth being at 55 in 104 so it's more of a case of Haaland sharing the love rather than him underperforming I guess.
Absolute worst fucking rule.
Edit: Top of the league by 5 points, the board is "disappointed" as we are apparently only on course for a top-half finish and now, I've had a question about underperforming in a job interview. I am pretty sure it's some bullshit bug to do with there being a 6-team championship playoff group after the regular season.
Last edited by Adramelch; 30-11-2021 at 06:59 PM.
Any decent newgens or players in general in your squad @Adramelch? I started a save with OSFP when the beta came out but i never could break the ceiling of a top 16 finish in the Champions League.
There's a lot of very promising youngsters at the club but the only one that's in the first team (as our 4th striker in a 2-striker tactic) is this guy:
This guy was at the club when I joined in the summer, but the club went over my head and sold him for 27m:
The only other very notable player I can find is:
Sold to Atletico for 11m three years ago and has played a decent bit of football for them (113 games) despite his young age.
Previous Seasons
2021/2022 - Season 1
2022/2023 - Season 2
2023/2024 - Season 3
2024/2025 - Season 4
2025/2026 - Season 5
2026/2027 - Season 6
2027/2028 – Season 7
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2028/2029 – Season 8
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This brings us to 29/30 where this happened:
2029/2030 – Season 9
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The summer of 2030 so the change in vision get worse
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Last edited by Danny; 01-12-2021 at 05:10 AM.
Season 2029/30 Update
First full season in the greek top tier is over and it was a fun one. Starting from the squad, the club had a shitload of average to bad wingers that didn't fit my plan. There was also a distinct lack of good full-backs so a massive overhaul was on the cards. In my one season here I signed no fewer than 12 players for the first team as well as a bunch of youngsters, with 17 players going the other way. The main signings were the following:
Joined us in January for just shy of a million euros. Originally brought as a backup, but seeing as our first-team keeper, while good, wasn't irreplaceable, he got a decent bit of football and will be starting every game next season.
Also joined in January for a pretty hefty 16m. We definitely overpaid for him just because he's Greek, but he's a strong player nevertheless and was very consistent throughout the season.
Another January transfer, this is a guy I have high hopes for. Cost a pretty significant 9.5m but I reckon he's worth every penny.
Getting a player of this calibre and promise for just 1.6m is all that needs to be said.
That's a huge one. Only paid 1.1m for him and he was definitely the first name on the team sheet week in week out.
Originally brought in (7m) to help us with CL registration rules and offer some backup up front, but when the board went over my head and sold our start striker, he took the chance and never let it go.
Our success in the transfer market can be summed up in just the one picture really:
For a club of our stature to have 4 players in that list is pretty nuts. Bantounas is a youth product that I showed in a previous post.
That was actually pretty hard as Panathinaikos played insanely good. We basically won the league courtesy of us besting them in the head-to-head as we won all 4 games. If you exclude those, they outperformed us with 85 v 81 points against the rest of the teams. The league was also coupled with a somewhat easier Cup win:
Nobody really put up a proper fight against us, even if some results might look close. On to Europe:
Now that's what I am talking about. I took my revenge against Young Boys (they were the ones that kicked me out when I was at Krasnodar), was joint first with PSG (the previous winners) in the groups, completely outplayed Atletico in both games, and then went out to Man City in the quarters in a tie that could have gone either way.
Let's start from the obvious. We bagged an awful lot of goals from set-pieces, with Nemeth scoring a ridiculous 21 goals. He's an okay player overall but definitely a physical beast. Not many defenders could mark him really. Other than that Grahovac and Panteliadis basically took turns in single-handedly winning games for us. I am generally very happy with the squad as a whole, with the only exception being our second striker. Abraham definitely has the quality to score more than that but never really got going. I have already lined up a replacement and hopefully I can sell him for a decent amount of money.
If I stay here that is, since this is a thing:
I've also had an interview with Monaco, so there's a lot to consider. On the one hand, I do have a very solid structure here at Olympiacos. On the other hand, I reckon both Feyenoord and Monaco are clubs I could spend a good 4-5 years at, while I can't see myself staying at Olympiacos for more than a season.
Note to self: sack all scouts and analysts
I've got so many injuries now too, it's ridiculous.
5 of those are starters, and 3 are their replacements.
I'm a twit
Norway - World Cup 2026 (USA, Canada, Mexico)
Despite having the hosts in Group A, we were slated to take on Venezuela in the opening game of the new 48-team format. 16 groups of three is an absolute shabby mess, with the side who plays in the first two of the three games surely disadvantaged. Fortunately that was Venezuela and not us. Two of the three sides (us, Venezuela and hosts USA) would qualify for the last 32 knockout round. Our group was to cross over with Group B (Mexico, Serbia, United Arab Emirates) so assuming the former two went through we would be more or less guaranteed a challenging game in the event we could get past our opening group.
First of all we had Venezuela to negotiate. This was their first ever World Cup appearance, having ousted Paraguay, Chile and others to finish 5th in South American qualifying. Their squad lacked star names, with most of them spread around the likes of MLS, other South American leagues, and a handful from mid-table English sides.
This was an anticlimax, as World Cup openers go, in that Venezuela weren't fit to be there. We ripped them to shreds from the first minute to the last. Hakon Evjen, a favourite of mine in the wide right role, banged in the first two early, and Haaland added two more either side of half time. Odegaard poured in the fifth late on for a facile win that put us completely in charge of the group.
In the middle game, USA edged out Venezuela 1-0 which sent both us and the hosts through to the knockouts ahead of our group-ending clash. We therefore needed to get a point against the Americans to top the group.
I wasn't sure what to make of Oscar Pareja's young American side, perhaps still a World Cup cycle from peaking. Liverpool's Brendan Aaronson, Man City's Chris Richards and Dortmund's Giovanni Reyna looked like the stars. The game started dully until five minutes from half time, a comically bad American offside trap allowed Haaland through in 50 yards of space and he did the rest. They then gifted the great man another, his 76th for Norway, with a crass penalty giveaway before half time. Jens Petter Hauge made it three after the break and the group was won without breaking sweat.
Elsewhere there weren't any massive early exits, but a few surprises around. Switzerland, Turkey and Chile were among those to go home, while Jamaica, Uzbekistan and Angola progressed. Here's the top half of the draw:
And the bottom half, featuring us plus every African side ever:
In the new knockout round of 32, our opponents were Serbia. This was far from the easiest draw we could have had. Among others they boasted Chelsea sharp-shooter Dusan Vlahovic, who had an almost Haaland-esque goalscoring record for his country. We had lost first choice left back Bjorkan to injury, so in stepped teenager Marius Joner, from Bodo/Glimt.
As usual we began the game on the front foot and created numerous opportunities, Ajer particularly to the fore stepping out of defence as is his custom. Half an hour in, though, we got stunned by a big punt forward and an utterly savage left-footed finish from the aforementioned Vlahovic. There then followed a crazy 15 minutes of pressure in which we were farcically clearing it off their line for them among other things. At half time it was a smash and grab 1-0 lead for Serbia.
In the second half they looked a lot more comfortable as we flagged - they had had a much longer gap after their second group game. McDermott had to make a great save from Vlahovic to keep it at 1-0. Then, out of nowhere, Haaland caught Milenkovic dallying in possession, ran through and finished coolly for 1-1. Then with fifteen minutes to go, cometh the hour, cometh someone else - Martin Odegaard, who smoked a left footed finish into the top corner from 20 yards. Haaland headed another in and the scoreline at the end looked comfortable - but for so long, I was sure we were heading out.
There were precious few upsets in Round 2 and it's fair to say the draw wasn't exactly opening up for us.
This matched Norway's best ever World Cup performances (1998, 2022) but the next opposition, in Pasadena, were World Cup royalty in the form of Ze Germans. Unfortunately, as I hadn't done the relevant box-ticking before the save, it was a largely greyed-out German side. The only thing for it was to send our full guns out at them and attack. And what a start we had - on 19 minutes, Martin Odegaard was slipped in wide and nailed the finish from a tight angle for 1-0 Norway. The game then became about defending against German pressure. We managed this until half time, and shortly after that the teenager Joner cleared off the line. After that the Germans were remarkably toothless despite a greyed-out fitness advantage, and we almost chillaxed our way to a victory which took Norway to its first World Cup quarter-final.
The win came at some cost, as Joner picked up a suspension and so we were left with only one available full back in the squad; centre back Hanche-Olsen would be shoved in at left back as we took on a Smallpockets-led Argentina, in New Jersey. Their penalty win over Brazil was well merited. Lautaro Martinez led the line for them, with Emi Buendia scheming behind him in a 4-4-1-1 featuring a ruggedly set-up backline.
The game could not have started better - in the third minute, Odegaard was tripped in the area, the penalty was given, and Haaland stroked home his seventh of the World Cup. Then, minutes later, Evjen nodded across the area and Haaland volleyed in another. This looked to me to be CLEARLY offside, but the Lebanese referee (lol) was clearly feeling anti-Argie and gave it anyway. In the second half, he evened things up by giving Argentina a penalty, which Lautaro Martinez put away to bring the deficit back to 2-1. Then, on 66 minutes, Martinez was played in behind and smashed home the equaliser. At this point it felt like a proper World Cup classic. We sort of got back on top but their keeper made saves and we got loads of suspension-earning yellows. But, four minutes from time, we got a set piece on the left, Odegaard played it in and young centre half Martin Normann Williamsen planted the header in for 3-2. Even then our keeper had to make two more saves, but we held on to send Smallpockets crashing out and the mighty Vikings through to the rarefied Valhalla of the semi-finals.
England were the opposition, and after the 5-0 skullfucking which had brought my Belgium days to an end, this felt like a chance for revenge. The slightly left field appointment of Francisco Abelardo, after Waistcoat's resignation, had led them away from the 4-3-3 of yore into a surprising 4-4-fucking-2 renaissance. They had been bold enough to rest key players in their quarter-final against Morocco. On the other hand, we had three new suspensions, including key man Ajer at the back and Berg in midfield. It felt very much like we were up against it.
Immediately that proved the case. Saka crossed from the left in the third minute, Tammy Abraham chunked it nowhere, it bounced off Normann Williamsen and into the net for an own goal. But then we went straight down the other end and had our own lucky break. Schjelderup, making his first start of the tournament, put a shit cross in, it bounced off someone, fell back to him clean through and he finished for 1-1. The game then piddled along for a bit until England went back in front with a disastrous clanger from our goalkeeper, who flapped at an innocuous Ward-Prowse floater, and Harry Maguire was there to follow in.
As we got into the second half we were seriously knackered. I had to make two subs based purely on lack of energy. The third and final change was bringing on Sorloth in place of the flagging Odegaard with twenty minutes to go, and to fire it direct at him, in true Norwegian tradition. Soon after, our right back fired one over the English lines, Haaland ran onto it, and dinked one over Henderson into the net. 2-2. A minute after that Haaland missed an absolute sitter three yards out. England came out looking for the winner and the space behind them expanded. Haaland went clean through again and missed. It was costly. Another shitty set piece was not cleared and Mount swept home. Then a ghastly error by Ostigard allowed Ollie Watkins to sprint through for the fourth. We went out having been easily the better side, on the bizarre truth that however many goals Erling Haaland may score (now 81 in 69 caps), this team creates so many easy chances for him that he is still a very wasteful striker. I think that probably says less about Haaland and more about the FM22 match engine.
That meant yet another France v England final, just like Euro 24; these two old foes utterly dominate world football, with no other nation even close to them. Once again it was France who triumphed, for their third major trophy in a row, and England were left waiting once again. We absolutely did not turn up for the third place match and lost 1-0, which was a shame as I felt we merited third, but Croatia were much fitter than us and by that point in the tournament, fitness is much more important than skill.
I now have a decision to make - as tempting as it is to stay on for a run at the Euros with this historically good Norwegian side, I also can't see myself topping that World Cup run, so it might be time to move on to my fourth nation. There are quite a few interesting jobs open after the World Cup, so we'll have to see where we end up.
I can't buy a point at the moment. Somehow not been sacked despite being dreadful and 4m in debt. Not even sure I'll get promoted back up from the 3.Liga next season at this rate either.
I'm a twit
I just had a notification that I'm about to manage my 1500th game in this save and I went and checked to see other long serving managers and Xavi is currently 28 years deep at Al-Sadd.
We've played six league games thus far and four different players have scored a hattrick.
Smashing it.
As much as people might look at that and say how is that fun?, I want that.
I'm a twit
10 games in to my Premier League return and I'm one place above the relegation spot on goal difference. DADDY'S HOME
Second season, relegation candidates in Bundesliga 2. Somehow in the top 4 for the opening weeks before sliding down to 10th. Somehow the board and supporters aren't happy with this. I'm German Graham Potter.
Took them from 15th to 8th and probably should have ended up even higher, my chance conversion is pretty bad at the moment.
The above tactic is working quite well, especially in home games. For away games against better teams I'm struggling to prevent them exploiting the space between wingbacks and wide centre-backs and thus dragging everyone out of position. Four at the back with a DM in front seems much more stable for those scenarios.
I hate arriving at a club where everybody has minimum fee release clauses in their contract though. Those two high potential players I highlighted in the last post? Both snapped up by other clubs in the winter transfer window, as was my best central defender. Thankfully, this has given me a bit to invest after the season and as my scouting network is now able to do more than browse the local newspapers for applications from players, which is what it felt like at Helmond, I should be able to sign key players.
Ball-Playing centre-back and Complete Forward are the main target areas.
Have you tried playing them as actual Wide Centre-Backs? That's the same defensive formation as the one I play and I can't say I have noticed said gaps. It will happen on occasion but it's not regular by any means.
Yes, I have, could not notice any difference. Might also be a lack of tactical familiarity and team cohesion, there has been a lot of turnover in my squad. Both the wing-backs and one of the centre-backs were new arrivals. Also the wing-backs don't have great positioning, the cause might be as simple as that.
I'm still tinkering a bit with roles and instructions, the new season should give me a good indication as to what works.
wp @Jeet
I'm a twit
Halaand becoming the Baggio figure of WC 2026.
Turns out this game is pretty good.
Honestly, even at its worst, FM has always been the best value for money in terms of games for me.
Does everyone use “editor data files” to fix stuff (I have right team names but through the weird steam files, not picking some files when creating a new games database) or have I just got none of you on steam? I’m all about steam leaderboards so plz add me for competition. I promise I’ll never chat to you. https://steamcommunity.com/id/w1ck3d_5k1llz
I'm a twit
This season is make or break at Viktoria Koln.
I chose the team cos I liked their badge but then immediately realised they had 2 very promising young players I was hoping to lead to the Ballon d'Or. One of them was lost to a minimum fee release clause but my boy Amyn remains and is going back to right wing this season, hoping to cut it as an Inside Forward.
Fans will know I somehow got promoted in the first season, finishing 2nd, but we've just got relegated back to 3. Liga, following a 6-5 aggregate defeat in the relegation playoff to Kaiserslautern. Last season, in desperation, I signed a load of players based purely on star ratings from my scouts. This didn't go well and we we're bleeding money out of every hole. So I did what any shrewd businessman who couldn't be arsed making a spreadsheet would do:
Sold everyone I could and then loaned anyone who would come from my affiliate for free. The top loan is actually my first choice keeper being loaned back to me after I sold him with a 50% sell-on fee. Genius, right? He'll play in net one more year, hopefully see us promoted and open the door to an actual good keeper when we've got some money to spare.
All this activity means this:
Actually that's the first time I've realised I've scraped under my budget so as soon as I stop writing this post and try and sign a slightly better goalkeeper that we had on trial but could only offer £350 to and he wanted £1000.
I made a load of friendly cups and they were all on TV so made some decent money off it. Also won every friendly!
Tactically we're going for this, and sticking with it cos I'm sick to death of chopping and changing just to appease the fans:
I've not put any of the affiliate loanees in yet cos wanna give TEH LADS a chance.
English players suddenly being non-EU (I'm allowed 3) is a kick in the knackers. Hoping someone makes a decent offer for Ro-Shaun Williams.
Anyway, let's get promoted! Board expect top half, media predict 8th (out of 20), players reckon they can reach the playoffs (3rd) and I wanna win the damn thing.
EDIT:
What we saying, lads?
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Last edited by Baz; 03-12-2021 at 12:50 AM.
I'm a twit
Looks like a battering ram of a tactic, almost everyone attacking through the middle Who is providing the width/crosses there, the mezzalas?
Krahl for me.
Has anyone done a stint in the Championship? What an absolute slog.
Season 15.
Liverpool FC - 2036/37
After finding themselves without European football following Gareth Southgate's second stint at the club faring worse than his first, it was deemed imperative that an immediate return to Europe's top table was needed so as to ensure we could feast in future.
I decided against wholesale changes straight from the off and instead signed just the one player during the summer, a relatively modest £40M given what we were getting in return and he didn't do too badly with PSG now interested too so we'll see if they offer anything as the finances aren't as solid as I'd like for a full on rebuild.
I would have liked him to score more but it is what it is.
Season Summary
Not much to update from here if I'm honest as our involvement in the domestic cups was fleeting with former club Tottenham knocking us out of the FA Cup 4th round whilst Man City ended our participating in the EFL Cup at the quarter final stage. Both results were disappointing but probably could have gone either way really As it is, this allowed us to concentrate on the league only which we knew before the turn of the year that there was bob hope of challenging for so we had to settle on ensuring a top four finish was obtained.
It was.
We beat Man City rather handsomely in April, 4-1 but that was the same scoreline in which they beat us earlier in the campaign and Man United whilst never really threatening to challenge the Citizens, they never really looked like relinquishing second place either.
Our better GD, second only to the league champions ensured we finished above Tottenham and 3rd was much better than the 9th position that the former England manager left the club in.
Speaking of former managers.....Man United's current manager....no other than Jurgen Klopp. Traitor!
The summer is going to be a busy one as I feel I know where the weaknesses are in the squad and I'd like to bring in a few of the old boys in staffing roles, a spring cleaning so to speak and see where we end up because next season I want a trophy at least given this was the first season since taking over Tottenham at the midway point in 28/29 that my team and I have failed to lift something aloft. The first time in the last six that my team haven't been made league champions for that matter too.
Erling Haaland again ended the season as the clubs top goal scorer but he is 37 in six weeks time and missed over ten matches this year with a major hip injury so I'm going to cash in and make this departure a bit of a statement of intent. You will be missed, Erling but it is time.
Amazon offering FM21 for free.
I didn't even know there was such a thing as Prime Gaming. Tales of Monkey Island is now downloading though.
Okay, based on the suggestion of @Adramelch I will share stuff from my FM21 CM0102 save here. It was spooky starting the save, cus I could pretty much sleepwalk to setting my starting XI, having probably started about a dozen WBA saves on the OG 01/02 back in the day. This is my current squad:
and this is the quite frankly absurd Jason Roberts:
great fun
Jesus has the creator of that found a way to export the CM database to FM, or has he wasted his entire life creating that?
I'm a twit
Let's see Tommy Wirtanen, Cherno Samba and Steve Palmer?
I'm a twit
Eldar Hadzimehmedovic.
Just go through the legend - Kerr, Tsigalko, Aghahowa etc.
Samba's been done dirty there.
I'm a twit
I dunno, he's class but his stats have never looked that good on paper. Maybe AI managers just can't get him ticking.