Football Manager

[BigHouseUSA]

Managing Newcastle, bought Yanga Mbwia for 9mil and Diame for 5.25. Fortunately Senegal didn't qualify for ACoN, so I'll have Dembai and Diame for January. Started a little rough, but haven't lost in nine games, had four straight convincing wins before I went 2-0 up at Old Trafford, they came back for a draw though through a nice free kick. Currently have Yanga Mbwia at left back, my long term goal has him at CB, but he's playing so well there. I have some cash to spend in January and I couldn't resist buying Dempsey, probably could've gone for another younger playmaker on the continent, but I'm sure it will work out. Probably going to sell off Best and Obertan to free up wage space and I'll use the last of my cash on a left back, a CM, or possibly some youngsters. Sitting seventh in all this, Sunderland are around second or third right now, I would expect that to change.

 

[calgaryballer]

I've been fooling around with First Vienna in the Austrian Second Division. Trying to instill a W-M formation on them, based on Cleon's tactic's thread at SI

 

[kyhadley]

Bought this on March 1st. Since then I've played for 5 days and 5 hours.

Addicted rating: Better order another takeaway pizza.


Planning on doing some sort of report on my first two seasons (and counting) with Chelsea once I stop playing for some amount of time.

 

[Lanteri]

Decided to go with Bolton to try and save them from relegation and get out of this financial awfulness they're presently in. A lot of the older players' contracts expire in June as well so I'll be able to build them my way provided we avoid relegation.

I'm presently 25 games into the season, with 30 points coming on 8 wins, 6 draws, and 11 losses with 22 GF and 32 GA.

In January I sold Mark Davies to Blackpool for £3.5m and future incentives and Steinsson to Hull for £1m. Let Mears go on loan as well with the hope that he signs permanently. I bought James McArthur from Wigan for £1.5m and £8k p/w wages as a rotation player, and brought in Jake Livermore on loan from Tottenham.

Formation-wise I've stuck with a flat 4-4-2.

Starting XI when everyone's healthy is:

GK: Bogdan (Jaskelainen (sp?) is leaving on a free transfer at the end of the season so I've elected to give Bogdan the starts).
LB: Marcos Alonso
CB: Tim Ream (Set to BPD-D to utilize his passing ability)
CB: David Wheater
RB: Nigel Reo-Coker (Retrained)
LM: Martin Petrov
LCM: Jake Livermore (AP-Support)
RCM: Fabrice Muamba (BWM-D)
RM: Ryo Myiachi
STL: Kevin Davies (TM-S)
STR: David N'Gog (P-A)

N'Gog has spent a lot of time injured, so Sordell has been getting his share of starts as well, and is actually my leading scorer with 6 goals. Klasnic rotates regularly with Davies as well. Klasnic, Davies, and N'Gog all have 4 goals.

 

[Lanteri]

10 matches to go and morale is in the shitter as I've hit a really rough spot at the end of February/start of March. The biggest morale hit was losing a relegation battle at home to QPR, 2-1. Dropped to 18th, still on 30 points. Below us are Sunderland with 26 and Norwich with 8 points.

 

[BigHouseUSA]

My computer's getting fixed currently, but I've got three games left and in the FA Cup against Liverpool. My only goal was getting in Europe so I can have enough matches for my abnormally large squad, so I've got that done. Sitting in fourth, so I should be able to get CL. I've got to work in Ba, Cisse, Ben Arfa, Jonas (who has been great), Dempsey, Hoilett, and Maveaux. Plus I have five defenders good enough to start.

 

[Lanteri]

Narrowly escaped the drop. Finished the season on 42 points. QPR, Sunderland, and Norwich went down.

N'Gog wound up leading in goalscoring with 9, Sordell followed with 7, Petrov and Davies with 5 a piece. Petrov was my highest rated player on the season with a 6.95.

There's a lot of players leaving in June. Here's the list: (All listed are free transfers)

Jaasekalinen, Gardner, Petrov, Davies, Klasnic, Ricketts, Blake, Paul Robinson, and Sean Davis.

So, needs-wise, my main one is going to be at left midfield with Petrov going. I'll probably look for a natural right back as well, and possibly an upgrade over Eagles at right midfield. Ditto for center mid as McArthur isn't much of a player. Holden isn't much either as he spent the whole season hurt and regressed quite significantly. I'll probably try and move Holden and Reo-Coker if possible. Lee Chung-Yong returns as well from his injury at right mid, so I might give him a shot until January.

Current projected starting XI pre-window:

GK: Bogdan
LB: Alonso
CB: Ream
CB: Wheater
RB: Reo-Coker
LM: Eagles
CM: McArthur
CM: Muamba
RM: Lee Chung-Yong
STL: N'Gog
STR: Sordell

Pretty ugly squad.

 

[Lanteri]

Alright, here's how we're looking heading into the season.

In:

RB - Mikael Lustig on a free from Celtic (£18,500 p/w wages)
CB - Matthew Upson on a free (£6,250 p/w wages)
CM - Ross Jenkins from Watford for £1.5m (£5,250 p/w wages)
LM - Royson Drenthe on a free from Real Madrid (£48,000 p/w wages)
ST - Sekou Cisse from Feyenoord for £775k (£12,750 p/w wages)
CB - Ivan Marcano from Villareal on loan for £110k

Out:

All the aforementioned free transfers.

I tried to sell Holden and Pratley, but no one's interested currently.

Squad for the opening weekend of football:

GK: Bogdan
LB: Alonso
CB: Ream
CB: Wheater
RB: Lustig
LM: Drenthe
CM: McArthur
CM: Muamba
RM: Chung-Yong
STL: N'Gog
STR: Sordell

Bench: Lainton, Reo-Coker, Upson, Jenkins, Marcano, Cisse, Eagles

 

[BigHouseUSA]

What's wrong with Holden? He should be pretty good when healthy.

 

[Lanteri]

What's wrong with Holden? He should be pretty good when healthy.

He spent the entire season injured. Attributes steadily declined over the course of last season. He's no better than Darren Pratley at this point. He's ok all-around and would be semi-useful if I had like a B2B CM, but my midfield combo right now is a BWM and a playmaker, of which he's neither.

Holden

 

 

[Lanteri]

And in case anyone's curious, here's how Sordell, N'Gog, and Tim Ream look at this pont:

Marvin Sordell

 

David N'Gog

 

Tim Ream

 

 

[Lanteri]

Signed Koiikili on a free transfer as well to play left back after losing what faith I had left in Alonso. He'll be starting as soon as he's match fit.

I'm also trying to bring in Brad Guzan on a free as well, pending a work permit.

 

[Lanteri]

Got sacked 16 matches into the season after a 7 match losing streak. :shifty:

 

[spiker]

I tried to sign an American last night and he was denied transfer because of work permit issues. I appealed to no prevail. Is there any way to get around this?

 

[spiker]

Nevermind. Found this at fm-base.co.uk

The players with higher potential ability have more chance to obtain a work permit.


The most important criteria is playing competitive (not friendly) international matches. During the two years preceding the date of application, a player must have played for his country in at least 75% of its competitive A team matches he was available for selection. If the player isn't selected for the international matches due to suspension or injury, this will be taken into consideration when applying the criteria.

Basically, it sounds like I'm boned because I'm playing with a Blue Square Bet Premier League side and the player in question certainly isn't on the USMNT. Damn. He would have fit with my squad perfectly at CAM and he was very interested to play for me too. He accepted my contract offer at about 66% of what he initially asked for.

 

[Bigpapa42]

You can sorta work around it in the Prem and maybe the Championship if you offer the player a contract with the highest squad status. Having them be considered a "key player" for your squad will often all you to get the WP on appeal. But no sure thing. And I doubt that makes any difference at all as low as the Blue Square, though.

Work Permits are one of the reasons I enjoy managing outside the UK.

 

[spiker]

So am I pretty much limited to only players from the EU?

 

[Bigpapa42]

So am I pretty much limited to only players from the EU?

Sorta. Non-EU players who have a second nationality that is EU work fine. For example, plenty of Argentine players can claim Italian as a second nationality. But in lower leagues, yeah, you are likely to have trouble getting in players who are coming in from outside England who are completely non-EU.

 

[Lanteri]

Started a West Brom save after getting sacked by Bolton.

Not a bad first match to the season, eh?

 

[Lanteri]

Halfway through the season at West Brom, 19 games played. Currently sitting 5th in the table with 36 points. 11 wins, 3 draws, 5 losses, 43 goals for, 20 conceded.

We've been unbeatable at home, turning in a perfect 9 wins and 1 draw (coming 2-2 against Man City. Was leading 2-0 til we went down to 10 men and gave up two). 32 for 8 against at the Hawthorns.

Away, we're quite mortal, with 2 wins, 2 draws, and 5 losses. 11 for 12 against.

Shane Long leads the team in goal scoring with 13 in 17. Odemwingie had 11 in only 6 (thanks to a 5 goal performance at home against Norwich, and a hat trick against Fulham, also at home), but has missed the last 13 games with a broken leg. He's slated to return in February, but I don't know effective he will be as the leg break has really hurt his physical attributes. Other goalscorers include Cox with 4, Brunt and Thomas with 3, Dorrans and Olson with 2, Tchyoi and Morrison with 1 each.

Brunt leads the squad with 11 assists, with Thomas trailing him at 8. Cox and Morrison have 4 each, 3 each for Long and Scharner, 1 for a bunch others.

Highest rated player is Brunt at 7.76, with Reid right on his heels at 7.47. Almost the entire starting XI is above 7.0. Tamas at 6.93 and Ridgewell at 6.84 are the lowest rated.