Football Manager 2010

[johnhughthom]

Also, Bristol City are just behind us, in the two simulations I did, I either draw to them or I lose.

Absolutely shocking behaviour, I was going to ask if I can join your game but if you think "practice matches" is within the spirit of FMing I won't bother.

[Secura]

That is not true, your goal difference is like 8 infront of mine and you are top of the league

My goal difference is that high because of the freak win over Sheffield United; if they had fielded a proper team as they were meant to, my goal difference would have been fourteen less, perhaps even worse if I had lost as expected.

I lost my very first game, and lost one shortly after, I only picked up league while after a couple of signings like David Gray from Manchester United, Plessis from Liverpool, etc.

A right-back and a defensive midfielder... they're not contributing to the goals.

The reason I am stating this is because you are giving the impression I am just "thumping everyone" when you got the far more impressive stats by a mile. Only team I only did outstanding against was "Derby" who then sacked their manager and majority of the staff walked out after this. In short, they shot themselves in the foot badly due to the manager.

I argue against this. The case in point being Newcastle United, a team that we have both played and a team that is predicted to win the Championship. I failed to break down their team for sixty minutes until Alan Smith and Joey Barton were red-carded, whereby I then beat them by three goals or something. You had the same result, but against eleven men with a "less impressive team".

The difference between our teams is clear if you look at the directors; my chairman is pressuring me to be promoted the Premier League, whereby your own chairman is hoping that your team will avoid relegation. Having played as Blackpool myself, every single news report relating to matches places the team as the underdogs or highly likely to be beaten to a pulp. Ergo, your team are thumping everyone, uncharacteristically so to the point where you're in second place when you should be mid-table at best, no?

Additionally, with the amount of players you've brought into the first team (and the amount you got rid of), it's unlikely that the team would instantly gel together so well that you'd be performing as well as you are. I don't think I'd be the only one to think something was up in that kinda case. I believe the impression I'm giving is a correct one.

[Jolt]

No more comments on my idea? Oh well.

[Secura]

I'm sure Beskie and JHT would be in, we're all in similar timezones. :3

[Beskar]

Absolutely shocking behaviour, I was going to ask if I can join your game but if you think "practice matches" is within the spirit of FMing I won't bother.

Trust you to clown me.

Also, it is a good idea, Jolt

[johnhughthom]

Oh yeah, I'd be up for that too Jolt. So long as somebody, doesn't cheat.

[Secura]

So long as somebody, doesn't cheat.

Who, me? :P

Our season is really taking shape now; we've played fourteen league games thus far, and things stand as follows:

Secura: #1 West Brom W:11 D:2 L:1 GF:51 GA:7 GD:+44 Pnts:35

Beskar: #3 Blackpool W:9 D:3 L:2 GF:32 GA:10 GD:+22 Pnts:28

Both looking increasingly likely to make a promotion bid, even at such an early stage. Our Carling Cup games against Chelsea and Tottenham are coming up, let's hope we can manage a scrappy win! :P

It seems Terry, A.Cole and Drogba are all injured, but I've still gotta contend with Lampard, Essien and co. D:

[johnhughthom]

I'm hearing rumours of a massive cup upset...

[Secura]

Holy bantha poo-doo, I just beat Chelsea 2-0 and I'm through to the Quarter-Finals of the Carling Cup!

I swear to God, I'm going to get the directors to give me whatever money possible to bring Macheda to the Hawthornes permanently, he's amazing. <3

[Secura]

You think that's a cup upset though... Beskie's Blackpool are currently winning 3-0 against Tottenham and it's only half an hour into the game.

I believe that the winner of the Arsenal-Man Utd tie is going to win the cup itself though.

EDIT: He's multiple goals up now, but it appears that Spurs are not playing any first team players whatsoever; at least Chelsea sent Malouda, Anelka, J.Cole and such at me... -_-'

EDITx2: Blackpool defeated Spurs by seven goals to nil. They join West Brom, Hull, Bolton, Birmingham, Manchester United, Everton and Sunderland in the Quarters.

[johnhughthom]

Naughty Beskie is dead, long live Cheatie Beskie!

[Secura]

Nah, Tottenham didn't play a single player I've heard of except Ledley King, and he's hardly going to change the game.

They played Reserves and he thrashed them; that's what happens to Premier League sides who insult lower league teams by fielding sub-par options. :P

EDIT: Blackpool will be playing Birmingham in the QFs, West Brom are playing Bolton. Both winnable games, I think.

[johnhughthom]

You kiddies can keep your Carling Cup ties with Premier League sides, I have finally decided to start my 10.3 FM career game. My previous three FM 10 games involved great success with Newcastle, ridiculous fixture congestion and marquee signings with Cork City and winning the lot with Rangers. Now for my real game I am going for the glamorous surroundings of Capershotts with Waltham Abbey in the Isthmian Premier League, where I am predicted to come last.

[Secura]

Well, we're now at the halfway point in the season, with twenty-three games each played in the League, the table standing as follows:

Secura: #1 West Brom W:19 D:3 L:1 GF:75 GA:11 GD:+64 Pts:60

Beskar: #3 Blackpool W:13 D:5 L:5 GF:53 GA:21 GD:+32 Pts:44

I was knocked out of the Carling Cup by Bolton, losing 2-1. Beskie managed to defeat Birmingham on penalties, and overturned a 3-1 deficit to beat Everton 6-3 and move onto Manchester United in the final.

In the FA Cup, I managed to defeat Manchester City's full-strength first-team by a single goal to nil, whereas Beskar swept Brentford aside so we've both progressed to the Fourth Round now; Beskie's playing Newcastle, I'm against Southend.

[naut]

Obviously, we are much fewer, and provided you guys would be interested, we'd each take control of the lowest English Premiership teams, for instance, and play for two seasons.

I'd be up for it.

And guess what... Due to Liverpool being deducted 9 points, Man City losing to Chelsea and a last day 4 - 0 win over Everton at Pride Park I snuck Derby into the Champions League on goal difference. There's a 20 point gap between me and United in third place. And it is really tight from 4 till 9, just 5 points seperating it all. I'm well chuffed!

[Secura]

Well, Beskie and I finished our Championship season; West Brom finished the league on top, beating all Reading's 2005-2006 records in the process (around +87 GD, 110+ points). Beskie came second and won the Carling Cup to boot.

I've decided not to continue playing in the Premier League though; there were many bugs popping up in our game (Brett Ormerod changing from a thirty-four year old Englishman to a twenty year old Jamaican is the best example) and a large amount of sheer stupidity and unrealisticness was occuring that wasn't to my taste, so I intend to restart a separate game as West Brom again and try to test my luck doing things more according to the book, so to speak.

[Beskar]

That bug was amusing. "You terminated his contract? You should have sold him, etc etc... wait... why is he Jamacian?"

[johnhughthom]

Secura I think something has gone wrong somewhere in your install or something, either that or you are actually playing Championship Manager.

[Secura]

Secura I think something has gone wrong somewhere in your install or something, either that or you are actually playing Championship Manager.

Well, it was the same on Beskie's end too.

Playing a Premiership game now; Beskie took control of Wolves whereas I was Fulham, but kinda got bored of them being absolutely awful in front of goal and left. Just taken control of Arsenal where they're currently languishing in 9th place, twelve points behind leaders Chelsea with a game in hand... dunno what the Dickens Wenger was doing, but I'm hoping to push back up the ladder and try for 4th.

[Craterus]

Easter holidays, so some time to revise play FM. Getting back into my journeyman save, though still 'stuck' in Argentina. Anyway, last night I played for the first time in 3 weeks and the lack of match practice showed. Got thumped 4-0, then lost 2-0, then 3-0. One of my strikers is approaching his 34th birthday, the other is being courted by bigger and better things in Europe. Gonna have to perfect that 4-6-0 formation for next season if I can't move elsewhere.

Anyway, the highlight of last night's play was coming up against this legendary goalkeeper:



He's actually rather good but his league stats don't show it. One of those 2 clean sheets was against me, obviously. Independiente underperforming massively.

[naut]

Assmann? Assmann?

Just taken control of Arsenal where they're currently languishing in 9th place, twelve points behind leaders Chelsea with a game in hand... dunno what the Dickens Wenger was doing, but I'm hoping to push back up the ladder and try for 4th.

It's because the entire Arsenal squad (Fabregas and v.Persie aside) have absolutely rubbish potential (again makes no sense) and average current ability compared to other top clubs. Hell, even the Sp*ds have better CA/PA mix than most Arsenal players in FM2010. Makes me think the developers are Sp*ds, (poor sods). That's why I play with a modified database, which rebalances most of the major leagues, adds the J-League and corrects the finances of the clubs (hence why Liverpool went into Admin in my game, as they missed out on the CL they lost huge revenue streams + huge debt = minor implosion). So in mine Arsenal went ok in 2009/2010, and then 2010/2011 and now 2011/2012 they are dominating because players start to reach potentials, similar things happening to Wolves and a lesser extent Liverpool as they couldn't bring in players for the first two seasons so the younger players are improving by being thrown in the deep end.

Here's what a little scouting in the Portugese U18s leagues can do for you:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Also bought Kaboul for 3.7mil and Obinna for the same sum. Obinna is a forward, but his stats mean he is actually best as an inside forward left or right (I have a spreadsheet where I compare this stuff... ). Also picked up a Argie defender Nicolás Otamendi from Velez (Crate may recognise him). I was put off by their 11 mil asking price, but they offered him to clubs for 4.4, bargain. He needs a work permit though, which equals 2 years spent in Spain before he can actually play for me. It's going to be diffucult to live up to last season's standards. My CL group contains.... Barca. Aiming for a 3rd place spot and the resulting parachute to Europa league.

[Craterus]

Solid defender. Surprised to see him still at Velez on my game. They are topping the league at the moment though.
The Holland U21 job is vacant but no matter how many times I apply, I don't get an answer...

[Ferret]

Finally got around to buying this game after exploring demos for years. No idea who to start as though, any recommendations from the pros?

[Beskar]

Well, what do you aim to do? At the moment, me and Secura are going to go random teams in the Italian top-league. I will be going as Atalanta (simply because their kit looks cool) and simply just play ball and try to get into a decent position.

However, you could pick a random league 2 team like Cockfosters FC and attempt to play through seasons to get to the Premiership.

You could be a journey manager, picking from the lowest, to attempt to move up the manager ranks to the top clubs.

[Secura]

I've stolen the face of a certain outspoken Portuguese manager that I'm rather partial to, from the massive FacePack that was mentioned earlier in the thread; I will be 'roleplaying' the game as this manager from his current season at Internazionale to whereever the wind may take me, perhaps even a return to the Premier League.

[Jolt]

I've stolen the face of a certain outspoken Portuguese manager that I'm rather partial to, from the massive FacePack that was mentioned earlier in the thread; I will be 'roleplaying' the game as this manager from his current season at Internazionale to whereever the wind may take me, perhaps even a return to the Premier League.

Surely you mean the "Special Two", Jorge Jesus?

[Secura]

Surely you mean the "Special Two", Jorge Jesus?

Hahaha, that reminds me of a Top Gear episode where Jeremy Clarkson played Gran Turismo to get used to a track then drove around it for real and alluded to the fact that he was going to soil himself from all the hairpins and such.

But yes, I am The Special One, albeit without all the cool stats that NPC managers get. :<

[Craterus]

Easter holidays, so some time to revise play FM. Getting back into my journeyman save, though still 'stuck' in Argentina. Anyway, last night I played for the first time in 3 weeks and the lack of match practice showed. Got thumped 4-0, then lost 2-0, then 3-0.

After today's play, I'm now up to 9 games without a win. Playing away at Boca next, so we can chalk that one up as a loss. The team is back into a relegation battle after such a promising first half of the season. Will explain the Argentinian league system if anyone's interested but I doubt that's the case. Safe to say, the system doesn't favour newly-promoted teams.

Also, the team seems to be in major financial trouble. I can't tell how much of this I'm responsible for. I've paid over the odds for a few players (you could argue) and been rather generous with contract demands but I've never exceeded my budget. Anyway, the team name is always preceded by 'penniless' or 'cash-strapped' and there's speculation over which players will have to be sold to make up funds. Feel like Portsmouth.

[Secura]

Join the club; my game as The Special One went completely and utterly down the toilet and I genuinely do not understand what I was doing wrong. I went with the suggested formation of 4-1-2-1-2 that was provided by the assistants, particularly because the other suggestions simply didn't offer enough depth to the play; after the Supercoppa, everything seemed to go downhill. I was playing the following:

GK: Julio Cesar
LB: Chivu
RB: Javier Zanetti
CB: Walter Samuel, Lucio
CDM: Cambiasso
CM: Muntari, Stankovic
AM: Sneijder
ST: Milito, Eto'o

Substitutes being a range of players dependent on the match at hand; sometimes experienced mainstays such as Quaresma or Materazzi, sometimes some of the young players I had bought and was trying to bring through the first-team, such as Verratti or Lukaku.

None of this had any impact though; it simply felt that the team didn't really want to score, didn't really want to defend and were simply eleven people taken off the street, dressed in the Nerazurri and thrown out onto the pitch. I think my results before standing down sum it all up:

Supercoppa Italia: Inter 2 - 0 Lazio
Champion's League: Bordeaux 0 - 0 Inter, Inter 2 - 3 Stuttgart
Serie A: Sampdoria 4 - 1 Inter, Palermo 3 - 1 Inter, Inter 0 - 0 Lazio, Inter 2 - 0 Cagliari, Catania 1 - 1 Inter.

The fans were calling for my head after three losses, particularly as I was languishing in the bottom five of Serie A with a ten point gap between myself and Juventus at the top and the fact that the team wasn't really scoring at all or defending at all, particularly Eto'o. Materazzi and Cesar were on the recieving end of so much grief game after game that they just didn't want to play no matter what I said and it was a surprise that they hadn't taken their own lives. -_-'

[Craterus]

Update: Penniless/debt-ridden Olimpo are now under a no-transfer policy. I don't have any money to spend and the squad is getting a bit too old and slow. In the first team, concerns over the GK (35, star performer last season but needs to be replaced next summer, I think), DMC (38, formation being gradually adjusted to phase him out) and ST (34, previously mentioned, still first-choice and a very handy target man but definitely getting on).
Plus, I don't even have the money to renew contracts. I've lost a bit of dead wood, which is always nice, but my other first-choice striker is now on a month-to-month contract (thankfully didn't leave when his contract wasn't renewed but I'm just waiting for him to get snapped up). I've also lost my assistant manager (he wasn't great) and I don't really have any money to get a new one.

So, summer targets: Assistant Manager, left winger/defensive midfielder, contract renewal for striker.

Switzerland won Euro 2012, beating France on penalties in the final. England didn't make it to the tournament under the capable stewardship of Harry Redknapp. Capello retired after the 2010 World Cup, I think.