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.
Last edited by Adramelch; 20-03-2024 at 08:19 PM.
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?
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.
Last edited by Adramelch; 20-03-2024 at 08:44 PM.
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.
One of the most complete players I've had for some time - and my DOF signed him. Makes a fucking change.
Jeez he’s class
I'm a twit
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.
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.
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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Simon Boateng, club legend. 221 goals in 329 starts for the reserves and youth team.
What's the opposite of group of death
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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Domestic Cups
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Champions League
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Players
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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.
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
Mbappe is asking for big things...
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.
Is there there a way to add him into Ancelotti's favourite personnel list or something? Maybe that would help if possible?
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.
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.
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
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...
Last edited by John Arne; 11-04-2024 at 01:02 AM.
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.
We were so good in the first half but we turned to shit after HT
New stadium .
That name...
Yeah, he looks like a Minge.
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
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.
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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That'll do.
Soares is pure filth.
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.
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.
Bennell Park
I'm a twit
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...
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.
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.
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.
He’s no John though, is he?
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.
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.
What year you in now?
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.
Can’t believe you’ve not been promoted there.
I'm a twit
Are Donny and South Shields operating on mega budgets? Those points tallies are mental.
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.