Football Manager

[Boozad]

Never thought of him, I went for Kayal who was listed at Spurs for £8m. Just season expectations (third season) and have got £26m left to spend.

 

[Nando]

Have you signed him? I've got Javi Garcia too, but he only plays against the big boys.

 

[Boozad]

Yeah I got Kayal, he should be decent enough cover for Gago for a season or two. I've signed a good regen, 18 year old DM/MC who should be good enough in a season or two to start playing first team football. I'm after a left back now, this should be interesting.

 

[Boozad]

So going into third season, the squad has changed somewhat.

OUT:

Stephen Hunt - £1m
Ronald Zubar - £8m
Walter Gargano - £2m
Andrea Dossena - £800k

IN:

Beram Kayal - £8m
Ryan bertrand - £3.5m
Gervinho - £8.75m
Plus a load of quality looking regens and three sweet players the game created (this happened when you carried a demo save into the full game to flesh out the squads when you added leagues).

We're looking good now, and I'm contemplating moving from a 4-4-2 although it's a tough decision as Wilfried plays so well up top with Griffiths or Fletcher. I've five very good central midfielders at my disposal which has got me thinking, and Gervinho is actually a shit hot right winger who will rotate with Dos Santos, and Adam Johnson and Jarvis will rotate on the left.

Bertrand was a bit of a desperate buy as I really needed a left back, but he's described as the next Ashley Cole and came highly recommended by my scout who has decent stats so he was worth a punt at that price.

 

[Del Woppio]

I’ve got a couple of league games left in season 2, in 4th, 2 points off top. Lost Chamions’ League QF, with Real trouncing us 6-0 at the Bernabeau. It’s been a weird season, we’ve haqd spells where we’ve been unbeatable, and then spells where we couldn’t buy a goal. I’ve got Bender coming in July on a free, and will sell Fathi and Henry, and look for a young (probably large and black) defensive CM. I’ll need a right midfielder as Seamus Coleman hasn’t earned a permanent move and you can’t expect 50 games out of Kites, and Jarvis is doing so well on the left. Though I might move him right, as we’ve got Ramirez and Villavuez on the left too. Who knows. Up front, Fletch, Wilfied, Idiye and Griffiths are rotating nicely, and my back four of Walker, Caulker, Kaboul and Rodrigues has been fairly static and consistent. Struggling to keep my keepers happy though, might have to sell one.

 

[Stan Hullis]

Started a new save with Dortmund to take advantage of some of their young lads (not in a Nando kind of way)

Cracking start to the league season winning the first 5 scoring 20 and only conceding three.

Mario Gotze made a fantastic start before damaging his achilies (out for 3/4 months) with 6 assists and a goal in 4 games. The real stand out performer so far has been Robert Lewandowski with 10 goals in 7 games

 

[Boozad]

Up front, Fletch, Wilfied, Idiye and Griffiths are rotating nicely.

There's no real need to rotate your forwards Del. Griffiths and Wilfried played the majority of games for me quite comfortably.

 

[wanderer89]

Just seen a thread on FM base about English wonderkids, and apparently, our very own Scott Malone is on there!

Anybody used him at all?

Sent from my HTC Desire S using Tapatalk

 

[Nando]

He's out on loan in League One again for me, he's doing alright. Can't see him becoming good enough for where I want us to be, should make a good Championship player.

 

[Del Woppio]

£825k p/w and a £40m transfer budget! Oh yeah!

 

[Nando]

Knocked out in the 3rd round of the FA Cup by mid-table League One Preston.

 

[Boozad]

Booo. Morgan out.

 

[Nando]

My computer crashed whilst 4-0 up against Swansea in my next game, restarted and beat Preston 6-3 and lost to Swansea 1-0. Lead at the top down to a single point. Can't see us holding on for another three and a half months.

 

[YoungWolf]

First game of new season at home to Albion! Won 2-0, Fletcher double who then goes and breaks his ankle. Out for 3 months which is a shame.

 

[Boozad]

First game of new season at home to Albion!

That's my first fixture in my third season too. I think my team is immensely better than theirs as it stands, we'll see when pre-season is out of the way.

 

[Nando]

We ended up 4th, on 79 points, 5 behind title winners Arsenal. We drew six on the bounce between week 25 and 31, with three of those games against the bottom four. Wigan snatching a 96th minute equaliser when three minutes were signalled nearly resulted in the laptop going out of the window. It was indicative of our recent displays as we continually gave away soft goals and missed glaring opportunities. I thought we'd turned the corner with a 3-0 win at Upton Park, only to be beaten by relegated QPR, who scored another stoppage time winner.

At this point we had six games to go, struggling Blackpool came to Molineux and walked away with a point, thanks to, you guessed it....another injury time equaliser. Bolton weren't so lucky, and went home on the back of a 4-0 drubbing, inspired by Carlos Fierro. At this point Champions League qualification looked unlikely, our final four games were Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham and Man City, four of the other top 7. The Liverpool game ended 0-0, and considering they were 7th, injury depleted and only in with an outside chance of the top four, I thought it was our best chance for 3 points.

Chelsea came to Molineux, and were torn to shreds by Jarvis and Johnson, a late 30 yarder from Torres only a slight irritation as we comfortably won 3-1. Chelsea were now out of contention too, so it all came down to the Spurs game for the last Champions League spot. The title was still mathematically possible, but very unlikely. We went to White Hart Lane and turned in our performance of the season. Again, Johnson and Jarvis were far too good and we ended up 3-0 winners although 5 or 6 wouldn't have flattered us. The title dreams were not to be as we fell to Man City's superiority, and Arsenal won their final two games.

In the summer, with Champions League football on offer, in came Jack Rodwell, Martin Kelly and Josip Illcic and out went Karl Henry, Adam Hammill and Leigh Griffiths.

Squad now stands at:

Wayne Hennessey, Frank Fielding

Kyle Walker, Kevin Foley, Martin Kelly, Younes Kaboul, Roger Johnson, Christophe Berra, Richard Stearman, Stephen Ward, Lucas Digne

Javi Garcia, Cheick Tiote, Jack Rodwell, Jamie O'Hara, Josip Illcic, Adam Johnson, Matt Jarvis, Dusan Tadic, Michael Kightly

Steven Fletcher, Carlos Fierro, Wilfried, Kevin Doyle, Liam McAlinden, Zeli Ismail

 

[Kenny]

. We drew six on the bounce

Hoddlelite

 

[Boozad]

I lost my rag with FM last night. My mostly carefully planned pre-season so far, giving every member of the squad individual training plans (right down to the youngest youth), a revamp of a couple of backroom staff, introduced some more detailed training schedules, introduced a third tactic to familiarise ourselves with, rode the transfer market extremely well and got the board to expand the ground. Through all of this we were playing friendlies but my squad were picking up a lot of injuries, 50% of the first team squad were out injured for three of the friendlies. Then, as a clean bill of health finally rears its head we go into the final friendly of pre-season...

Adam Johnson gets injured on 78 minutes, I sub him for Matt Jarvis. Jarvis gets injured on 80 minutes, I sub him for Doyle. Doyle gets injured on 82 minutes. Johnson has broke his leg and is out for six months. Jarvis has broke his leg and is out for 5 months. Doyle has broke his leg and is out for 5 months. I now have no left winger for half of the season and Doyle was about to finalise a £4.5m move to Burnley. That's pushed me to the limit and I'm contemplating starting again.

 

[Nando]

Stick with it, I enjoy the game most when it throws massive challenges at me. That's ridiculous to have three broken legs in a single game though.

Adam Johnson was incredible for me, 7 goals and 22 assists.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

We've had two separate cruciate injuries in both the same game (Gilkes/Corica vs Port Vale) and the same pre-season training camp (Williams/Daley summer 96) in real life. Ah, the mid 90s, what glorious days.