Football Manager

[Lanteri]

4 wins and a draw heading into the Christmas break with Napoli, improving our standing up to 5th in the table.

I've got Simon Kjær and Maroune Fellaini transferring in on January 2nd.

Kjær is going to start alongside Cannavaro at CB, while Fellaini will join Blasi in the midfield, with Cigarini moving to the bench.

The other change, is Candreva starting at AMC rather than Quagliarella. Quagliarella has requested a transfer, and it has been granted, as the previous regime had acquired Abel Hernandez and with Nicklas Pedersen also on the squad, I have more than enough depth in a one striker system.

 

[calgaryballer]

Definite bug in the transfer logic IMO, haven't been on the FM forums but I assume they have this. Teams offer players for sale, but have an asking price of £0. I know Liverpool hates Babel, but there is no way they want to give him away

 

[BigHouseUSA]

Yeah, it's been mentioned on the forums. I've only glanced though, so not sure how much concern there is behind it.

 

[calgaryballer]

Yeah, it's been mentioned on the forums. I've only glanced though, so not sure how much concern there is behind it.

i saw on Sortitout that guys like Xavi were being offered for that after falling out with Pep

 

[Lanteri]

i saw on Sortitout that guys like Xavi were being offered for that after falling out with Pep

The only way I can see something like that being semi-not fucked up is if it happens more with older players with massively high wages, that most teams wouldn't be able to afford anyway. So, even if they are out of favor and are being shopped around, it would make a little bit of sense as the team trying to get rid of them doesn't want to pay to keep them on the bench.

One example I saw of someone complaining about it was when Kaka was offered around for no fee in 2013, when he's 31 at that point, injury prone, and being paid a massive wage. I didn't see that as unrealistic, because of the aforementioned age and injury factors. He's a great player, but at that point in his career it's not at all unheard of.

Now if it's happening with younger players then I guess I could be more of a concern, but nothing earth shattering really. There's worse things than Babel being offered around.

 

[Lanteri]

Two mods that I'm going to mess around with now that I saw on FM-Base.

First one puts Celtic and Rangers in the Premiership. They say that Portsmouth and Watford "fold", West Bromwich and Blackpool, the two Premier League teams with the lowest reputation, were relegated back to nPower, and Celtic and Rangers replace them.

Fort William and Keith replace Celtic and Rangers in Scotland.

The other one is the sequel to the £80m challenge, this time around it's £100m.

Not sure which one I want to do first. I definitely think it would be fun to try and be a top flight team in the premier league with Celtic, but I also like building my own team.

Decisions, decisions.

 

[BigHouseUSA]

Highlights from my first win!
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[Lanteri]

Went with the £100m challenge.

It was a bit tougher than I remember from last year, maybe it's because of the squad restrictions in England and needing to scrounge together 8 of them that I actually wanted on the side, and I kind of overspent on my first couple of signings.

In any case, here's the starting XI (when everyone's healthy, and Mutu's suspension ends).

GK: Carlos Kameni
LWB: Leighton Baines
CB: Phillipe Mexes
CB: Diego Lugano
RWB: Phil Neville
CM: Simone Perrotta
CM: Michael Carrick
AML: Ibrahim Afellay
AMC: Adrian Mutu
AMR: Gervinho
ST: Ruud van Niestelrooy

Bench

GK: Carlo Nash
RB: Lichtsteiner
CM: Claudio Marchisio
ST: Michael Owen
FB: Kyle Naughton (Loan)
AMC: Alan Dzagoev
CB: Gary Cahill
------
CB: Danny Higginbotham
AMRL: Llajic (Loan)

Using the 4-3-3 formation I posted somewhere earlier in this thread.

 

[Bigpapa42]

Still hesistant to get into a real game just because of the possible bugs that always crop up early. No work tomorrow so might give it a go. Can't decide between Ajax and Bayer Leverkusen.

 

[calgaryballer]

Anyone else feel like they are seeing a ton of red cards? I swear that in 80% of the competitive games so far, one team has had someone sent off

 

[BigHouseUSA]

Haven't noticed. Have had a decent amount of penalties, but nothing too crazy.

 

[BigHouseUSA]

Was able to survive with Woking, and finished the season strong. My veteran striker broke his leg late on, so I made an emergency signing and the guy looks like he could be better. Also have former Newcastle Academy player Johnny Godsmark who came along nicely as the season went on.

So far I've signed two highly rated center mids, my scout labeled them both as League Two talent. If I can secure my fullback spots up and sign another creative player and maybe a striker then promotion could be possible.

 

[calgaryballer]

Joint top of the table through 8 games. Barca has 22 pts with 18 GF, ZERO against. I am on 22 points with 15 for, 1 against. Just beat Atletico Madrid 3-0

Playing a mixture of 4-4-1-1 (Nilmar up front, Rossi behind) and 4-3-3

Signings for the squad

In
Rafael (RB) - £750k loan from Man U
Edgar Ivan Pacheco (AMC) - £925k from Atlas
Gai Assulin (ML/MR) - Free
Pavel Niakaichuk - £1.2 mil from BATE
Ryan Babel (AML) - £500k from Liverpool (I threw them a bone)
Adam Vass (DMC) - £2.5 mil from Brescia

Also have Vegard Forren coming for £3.3 mil from Molde and 16 yr old Lenny Naggis joining from Caen for £1.2 mil in January.

Assulin went to Villareal B, but thought he offered some potential for the future.

Rafael has been great so far on loan.

 

[calgaryballer]

Well Villareal is done for. Bug in the game means that all teams in Spain see suspensions after 2 yellows instead of five. Means half my team is out almost every other game. noticed it earlier, but didn't really pay any attention to it until today

 

[Lanteri]

I started over with Liverpool. Made two signings, Mirko Vucinic, and Sulley Muntari. (Muntari was mainly because Poulsen tore his knee up like a week into friendlies and is going to be out for a while), as well as brought in Bruno from Valencia on loan.

Running a narrow diamond.

-------Torres------Vucinic------
-------------Gerrard------------
-------Lucas-------Meireles-----
------------Muntari-------------
Aurelio-Carragher-Agger-Johnson
------------Reina--------------

 

[calgaryballer]

Started again with Crewe Alexandra in League 2. Drew 1-1 in my first friendly with Scunthorpe, and am working on a complete remodel of the squad. Started with a fresh new staff, and am recruiting a number of free transfers.

Only two signings so far -
Maxime Chanot, a 20 yr old rightback who started with Metz, Reims and Sheffield United before playing 5 times last year for Mansfield in the Blue Square Prem. Signed on a free as he was out of football

Andy Frampton, 30 yr old leftback/centre back who played seven seasons at Crystal Palace, 5 at Brentford, and 3 at Millwall. Made 21 apps and scored 2 goals last year for the Lions

 

[Lanteri]

Gave Carragher a new contract making him a player/coach, getting a head start on making sure he sticks with Liverpool after he's done with his playing days.

 

[citizenerased]

Still hesistant to get into a real game just because of the possible bugs that always crop up early. No work tomorrow so might give it a go. Can't decide between Ajax and Bayer Leverkusen.

Yep, it always pays to wait till patch x.0.2 every year, the 0.1 patched is always rushed out and they never are able to fix any major tweaks.

 

[mgoblue2290]

Got 100 points in my first season at Liverpool.

 

[Lanteri]

Ditched my Liverpool save and started with Leverkusen. Once again I can't stick to a team, lol.