Football Manager

[Lanteri]

So, we've achieved promotion the Premier League, finishing 2nd in the table with 88 points, well behind the 96 points of Leicester City. Reading defeated Birmingham 2-1 in the playoff final to join us on the way up. Doncaster, Peterborough, and Crystal Palace have been relegated. West Brom, Swansea, and QPR have been relegated from the Premier League, which was won narrowly by Man City with 84 points to Tottenham's 83.

Miller and Derbyshire tied for the team lead in goals at 29 a piece. Majewski added 8 of his own with 17 assists, while Findley added 14 total.

[Lanteri]

Was extremely active in the transfer market to get this squad bolstered to hopefully make the stay in the Premiership longer than just a one hit wonder. Biggest shock move for me was managing to scoop up Gary Cahill on a free transfer. Don't know how/why he couldn't come to terms with Bolton, and how no one else in England already managed to get him, but I'll certainly welcome the addition.

The rest of the moves:

GK - Fraser Forster from Newcastle £2m
ST - Conor Wickham from Sunderland on loan for £1.2m
DM - Etienne Capoue from Toulouse FC for £5m + £2.5m more after 50 league apps
LB - Evaldo from Sporting CP £3.2m
CB - Alexey Berezutskiy from CSKA Moscow £3m
CM - Stuart Holden from Bolton £5.25m
AMC - Jo Inge Beret from Udinese on loan for £40k

Out

Lewis McGugan to Leicster for £1.2m
Marcus Tudgay to Newcastle for £1m
Dexter Blackstock to Southampton for £875k
Jonathan Greening to Sheffield Wednesday for £250k

I'm going to continue to run the 4-1-2-1-2 rigid counter attacking formation that we operated out of in the Championship.

Projected Starting XI

GK - Forster
LB - Evaldo
CB - Cahill
CB - Berezutskiy
RB - Gunter
DMC - Capoue
LCM - Holden
RCM - Cohen
AMC - Majewski
STCL - Miller
STCR - Derbyshire

Subs: Lee Camp, Wickham, Findley, Beret, Moussi, Chambers, David Carney

Opening the season at home against Newcastle.

[mgoblue2290]

Have any of you guys ever done shit to your players intentionally? I mean when you have a guy who you know is leaving at the end of the season, do you still play him or do you do what I do and just stop playing him completely? Have you ever changed their training schedule to intentionally fuck with them?

If I know a guy is on his way out, then I don't really play him unless I have to. For example I had a 31 year old Kaka who was still a really good player leaving at the end of the year on a free. Once it came down to the last few months Shelvey was always chosen ahead of him in my rotation and he only played if Shelvey needed a rest.

[Lanteri]

Derbyshire scores 4 goals against Wigan, then goes down for 4 months with a grade three MCL sprain. He had 1 goal in the previous 6 games.

Ishmael Miller is out for 2-3 weeks, and Robbie Findley is out 3 to 5 weeks.

Looks like my strikers for the next 3 weeks are going to be Wickham and Berget.

[BigHouseUSA]

Let me know how that goes. Sounds interesting.

[Lanteri]

There's a mod on one of the sites that makes it so the attributes are listed as a color bar rather than being completely hidden. The color bar representing a range, so while you have a general idea of what their rating is, you don't what exactly it is.

[Fappin Raptor]

Despite my former team being Everton, watching them struggle is a good feeling. Should've stuck it out with me.

[Fappin Raptor]

With Chicharito: 7-2-0
Without Chicharito: 1-1-3

We get him back in a week.

[Fappin Raptor]

It seems like no matter what team I use, what tactics I use, or how good/bad my team is we always fall apart mid-season before having a strong finish.

[Lanteri]

David Moyes took over at Arsenal in November of 2011-2012 in my Forest save.

Steve McLaren took over at Everton in place of Moyes. (I resisted the urge to take the job)

[Lanteri]

Also of note is that Mourinho left Madrid for Man City.

[BigHouseUSA]

Had to upload this one. Finished off a nice comeback in the Champions League with this, around the 95th minute.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dIsNR4GbUk&feature=channel_video_title"]Newcastle vs CSKA Moscow - de Haan Goal 90 minutes - YouTube[/ame]

[Lanteri]

At the halfway point of the season now with Forest in our first run in the Premiership. We're currently a respectable mid-table side, coming in 12th with 25 points from 19 games. We have a +3 GD, with 28 goals and 25 conceded. Our defense has been very stout, but we've obviously lacked quite a bit of scoring punch as we're on pace to score just 56 goals on the season. We're currently in the midst of a 5 match unbeaten streak, with 3 wins and 2 draws in the last 5.

Fraser Forster has developed rapidly into a world class goalkeeper, and has earned two caps for England, appearing in matches against Holland and Romania.

Conor Wickham has come on very strong as of late after going the first 10 games without scoring a goal. He's come up with 5 in his last 5 premier league games, bringing his season #s to 5 goals and 6 assists in 18 appearances, tying him with Derbyshire who has 5 goals in just 7 appearances.

Stuart Holden is our highest rated player at the moment, turning in a 7.40 for the season with 1 goal and 8 assists. Majewski is behind him with 4 and 4 and a 7.25. The Russian center-half Berezeutskiy has been a rock in defense, turning in a 7.10, while Cahill is right behind at 7.9.

Heading into the January window, we've already burnt through our transfer budget for the season, so it's rather unlikely that any moves will be made, but if we do we'll definitely be looking for some depth at center back, and possibly an upgrade over Moussi at our anchorman spot.

Interestingly enough, our record at home ( 2 wins, 3 draws, 4 losses), is worse than our away form (5 wins, 1 draw, 4 losses).

[Lanteri]

Only moves I made in the January window were signing Romeu on loan from Chelsea and Lee McCullough bought from Rangers.

Moussi blew out his knee and is going to miss the remainder of the season so McCullough becomes the new anchorman.

Just had a proud victory, topping Arsenal at the Emirates 1-0 on a Majewski goal.

[Fappin Raptor]

Just beat Chelsea with West Ham in the FA Cup Fifth round.