Football Manager

[Fappin Raptor]

I brought in Tshabalalalalalalalala at Swansea. I have a couple more signings from the January transfer window I can't remember.

 

[Lanteri]

Busy summer. Got all my transfers and stuff done early so the team has time to gel, instead of scrambling around at the last minute.

I tried very much to focus half my outfield players on defense, and half on offense. Ramsey, and the rest of the forwards are my offensive half. Jermaine Jones, and the back line my defenders. I sought out to find the best possible defensive midfielder/center mid that I can find, and Jones fell into my lap on loan. Even at 33 he's still got good physical attributes (13 accel, 12 agil, 15 pace, 16 stamina, 15 strength). 19 marking and 17 tackling the big thing for me of course. He's pretty much one big bulldog. Not the best decision making/anticipation guy but I can live with it. If he stinks it up, that's what I brought in Mutch for. And there's always Rhys Williams.

Speaking of Rhys, he's become my super sub now. I can play him in CM, CB, or RB so I'm comfortable sending him to the bench.

On the backline, I already showed you guys the screenie of my new CB. My new RB, Torres, is very much a fullback as opposed to a wingback type like Santon. He has all the key attributes of a good defensive player (17 marking, 15 tackling, 16 bravery, 18 concentration, 16 positioning, 17 team work, 16 work rate, 13 heading and jumping). I'm very much hoping he's a rock back there. Assou-Ekotto on the other side I've found to be a underrated defensive player IRL. At 31 now in-game, he provides me a good balanced fullback on the left side. (13 crossing, 13 marking, 13 passing, 15 tackling, 16 anticipation, 14 positioning). Still has decent physicals as well (15 accel, 14 pace). I also brought in Garrido on a free for coverage.

Nothing has changed as far as attackers ago, aside from replacing Cox/Modeste/Defoe with Jay Rodriguez, and Nicky Maynard returning from loan for cover. Added Simone Pepe for cover on the wing.

I'm fairly excited for the upcoming season despite not being in Europe this time around. I feel like I've put together a balanced squad instead of focusing purely on offense.

Starting XI

GK: Begovic
LB: Assou-Ekotto
CB: Ntombela
CB: Kana-Biyik
RB: Torres
MCL: Ramsey
MCR: Jones
AML: McLean
AMR: Nani
STL: Ba
STR: Sigurosson

 

[Lanteri]

Made one more sale and moved back to the flat 4-4-2 I used last time I qualified for the CL. Aaron Ramsey is off to Reading for £5.5m. Made a £500k profit off him and got rid of his big wage bill so I'm happy. He was a decent player, but the CMs in my flat 4-4-2 are designed to be more defensive so I'll be rolling with Mutch and Jones in midfield.

Gonna bring in a CB or CM on loan for some cover, and that'll be it.

edit: Brought in Diame from Arsenal on loan. Signed Alexis on a free transfer.

 

[spiker]

For anyone who has played up from the lower divisions in England - At what level does it make sense to stop filling your team from Free Transfers? And on the flip side, at which division can I start moving players regularly by selling them on the transfer market?

I'm in the Blue Square Bet Premier League right now. All of my signings have been Frees and when I'm done with a player, I just let his contract expire. I've put guys on the transfer list before, but I never get any other offers besides Free Transfers.

 

[Fappin Raptor]

Tshabalalalalalalala played 2 games for me before he goes out with an injury for 3 months. :gooby:

 

[Lanteri]

Wow talk about harsh...

Got sacked just 12 matches into the season without any warning whatsoever. We were off to a rough start (3 wins, 4 draws, 5 losses), but really how is that sackworthy after bringing the club to where it's even at. Not to mention I've been dealing with injuries to both Ba and Nani, pretty much neutering our scoring. Only had 1 home loss too. 2 wins, 3 draws, 1 loss. Scored 11, conceded 5. Yeah, away, we were 1-1-4 conceding 13, but I've never been a good team away from the Hawthorns.

So harsh though IMO. Not even a 3rd of the way into the campaign.

 

[Lanteri]

Signed with Koln within a week of being sacked.

They're currently 17th in the Bundesliga, with 2 wins, 2 draws, and 8 losses through 12.

Based on their personnel, I'm going to roll with a 4-5-1

GK: Michael Rensing
LB: Jukka Raitala
CB: Juan Guilherme (aka the younger CB Juan, not the one that was at Roma).
CB: Ammar Jemal
RB: Maxi Pereira
DMC: Luiz Gustavo
MCL: Mato Jajalo
MCR: Tim Sparv
AML: Christian Clemens
AMR: Giovani Dos Santos
ST: Lukas Podolski

Whole shitshow of a bench.

 

[BigHouseUSA]

April of 2014, finished in the Champions League my second season, spent most of last summer buying youth products. Had an interesting storyline after Ashley put the club up for sale, one consortium had already attempted to take over the club and hire someone else, but it fell apart. A few months after that another one came forward saying they would hire Michael Laudrup if they bought us. Laudrup went as far to start attending our games, the deal almost fell through, but picked up a day later. At this point, a few stories come out about Liverpool not thinking about resigning Dalglish, Laudrup was the favorite and I was a candidate. Eventually the takeover goes through right as we're on a great run of form, they give me a few games then decide to stick with me, I suddenly become the favorite for the LFC job, and a few weeks later Laudrup is the Sunderland manager.

Sitting at sixth in the league, probably still good enough for Europa League, but CL looks a bit too far away. Still, lucked into the knockout stages of the Champions League, beat Espanyol comfortably in the first round. Drew Bayern, stunned them 2-0 at SJP, then scored a late goal to make it 2-1 in Munich. Just about to play Barca in semis, should be good.

First Leg:

Edit: Won at Camp Nou 2-0 :smug: Did not expect this out of the season at all, final against Lyon who have been amazing all season.

 

[mgoblue2290]

This your first Champions League final? If so, you should feel no shame in celebrating ridiculously if you win. I took my shirt off and nearly fell out of my chair when Aquilani hit his 120th minute winner to capture my first European Cup.

Also, thats one of the most dominant performances against Barca I've seen.

 

[mgoblue2290]

Forgot to mention I just bought FM 12 as well. Bought Iker Munian and a couple bit players just to add some depth. Carroll has 15 goals in 14 league games for me and has been dominant. I'm sitting atop the table and my only loss so far was 2-0 defeat in Everton in the League Cup quarters.

 

[BigHouseUSA]

This your first Champions League final? If so, you should feel no shame in celebrating ridiculously if you win. I took my shirt off and nearly fell out of my chair when Aquilani hit his 120th minute winner to capture my first European Cup.

Also, thats one of the most dominant performances against Barca I've seen.

This will hopefully be my second, I won with Newcastle in my last save of 11. Definitely going to celebrate either way, this run came out of nowhere.

 

[calgaryballer]

Thomas Muller out for 8 months with a broken leg. That essentially ends his Bayern career as I assume he'll be shit by the end. Kroos is also out for another 4 weeks, as is Wickham. My team is getting destroyed by injuries

 

[BigHouseUSA]

Beat Lyon 1-0, even though Krul got sent off. Got offered the Bayern job in the summer, they we're going to give me 23 million for transfers, turned them down and ended up getting 46 million from Newcastle. Just bought Ozil, who was on the transfer list.

 

[Fappin Raptor]

Had the possibility of finishing in 5th but had a tough final two games against Tottenham and Arsenal. Sunderland/Newcastle relegation battle was good. Newcastle was in 18th most of the year until a big flounder from Sunderland.

I hope to sign Gylfi and I also hope that I get some money to improve the squad into an Everton type team that can consistently be mid table. We made a profit every single month so that's good.

One random note: AVB is now managing Sunderland. :lol:

 

[Fappin Raptor]

Wow, I was named Manager of the Year and Sinclair in the starting 11 of Team of the Year. :dance:

 

[calgaryballer]

If Muller's Bayern career is done, I think I've done well to bring in this kid to take his place. SIX FOOT EIGHT!

 

[mgoblue2290]

Wow. That guy is an absolute monster.

 

[Lanteri]

Getting sacked from West Brom like that has left quite the sour taste in my mouth. I think that save has pretty much run its course at this point. Can't get into to Koln at all.

Probably gonna start again in England, likely in the Championship. Bristol City most likely.

I really don't get this game sometimes though. How can you sack a manager that 3/4 seasons has had a team playing European football, that prior to taking over was a yo-yo team? And that's including a semi-final, and quarter-final run in the Europa League in consecutive years, and two years of qualifying for the Champions League? It'd be one thing if it was late in the season, but not even 1/3 of the way in to a shaky start? Does not compute. -_-

 

[calgaryballer]

Getting sacked from West Brom like that has left quite the sour taste in my mouth. I think that save has pretty much run its course at this point. Can't get into to Koln at all.

Probably gonna start again in England, likely in the Championship. Bristol City most likely.

I really don't get this game sometimes though. How can you sack a manager that 3/4 seasons has had a team playing European football, that prior to taking over was a yo-yo team? And that's including a semi-final, and quarter-final run in the Europa League in consecutive years, and two years of qualifying for the Champions League? It'd be one thing if it was late in the season, but not even 1/3 of the way in to a shaky start? Does not compute. -_-

Unfortunately I think that's part of the appeal. Boardrooms are full of morons, which is why we saw Wolves fire Mick and then spend a month looking for someone only to end up with his less talented, less qualified assistant. However, that does often bring a good game to a screeching halt

 

[Lanteri]

As mentioned I went to Bristol City...

This is the result:

Player Stats

 

League Table