Football Manager 2012

[Murrr]

Never played USM when it came out, but I dicked around with it a couple of years ago. Outrageous fun.

Here's where I started:-

What an absolute beaut of a game. I'm pretty sure that nothing you did had any impact whatsoever on results as it was really easy to win 5-0 one week and lose by the same margin the next. Shit like this used to happen all the time. Some of the best players in the game (among them: Dalian Atkinson) were on the transfer list at the start of the game and you could sign them for like £1.5m each. The match "engine" rendered all shots, bookings, red cards etc. in an old school scoreboard style, which was quality. I still mess around with Premier Manager every now and then because it's quality.

Haven't been able to play FM in a little while but guess who has very little to do over his fortnight off work starting on Monday? Oh yeah, this thread's gonna get Murrred.

[delboy]

lost the next four games since beating real away including the home game against the spanish giants, going a bit gung ho on this game now fuck it!

[Lemonade]

Never played USM when it came out, but I dicked around with it a couple of years ago. Outrageous fun.

Here's where I started:-

What an absolute beaut of a game. I'm pretty sure that nothing you did had any impact whatsoever on results as it was really easy to win 5-0 one week and lose by the same margin the next. Shit like this used to happen all the time. Some of the best players in the game (among them: Dalian Atkinson) were on the transfer list at the start of the game and you could sign them for like £1.5m each. The match "engine" rendered all shots, bookings, red cards etc. in an old school scoreboard style, which was quality. I still mess around with Premier Manager every now and then because it's quality.

Haven't been able to play FM in a little while but guess who has very little to do over his fortnight off work starting on Monday? Oh yeah, this thread's gonna get Murrred.

I had 97 on the Megadrive. Played it to absolute death. I remember you had to start with a Division 3 team. I took Brighton & Hove Albion all the way to the Premiership. Totally cheated though, I just saved before every game and replayed it until I won.

[Lemonade]

Last thing - all this nostalgia led me to find a series of videos around old manager games:

I had one on Spectrum called Football Director in about 1988.... that was where I started my life long love affair with Management sims.

Off topic a bit, but did anyone ever play this bad mother fucker?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Prix_Manager_2

It was the absolute Tits McGhee. Had all the proper teams, drivers and tracks, and you could chop and change drivers and try to persuade Michael Schumacher to come and drive for you etc. You had to do R&D and develop new cars, you could spy on the opposition and steal their technology and stuff. Brilliantly Jacques Villeneuve didn't give his permission for his name and image to be used so they put in a driver called "Jack Newhouse" in his place.

I'm not sure how legal the following link is, but I'll leave it here until and hope none of the mods see it. Oh.

http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/912/Grand Prix Manager 2.html

[FOX]

I feel so young. This is the oldest game I ever played (yes, very off-topic):

That was released before my first birthday!

[The Milner]

Its abandon ware now Lucky so your not breaking any rules as far as i know, you cannot buy the game anymore so no one is losing out from it being downloaded. I used to play that all the time, we even had a fantasy formula one league going at school between 10 of us i think using that game.

[soundian]

24-25 CCC 1st

What a nail-biting finish to the season. I went into the last game in 2nd place (to Leeds on GD) but needed to win because Leyton Orient were snapping at my heels. I lost an early goal and never looked likely to score. Although still in second place Hull were now level on points and only goals scored was keeping me above them, and if Leyton took the lead I'd be heading for the play-offs as well. Even after throwing a half-time strop that would make SAF look like a pacifist, my team still looked lacklustre up front. I stuck a few guys on after 65 minutes to freshen things up, still no sign of a goal. Then Leyton take the lead, I drop to third. Leeds are winning as well so it's unlikely a draw will save me.

Out of nowhere, 79 minutes, POW, 20 yarder, back of the net. 3 minutes later, my DC comes up with one of his rare headed goals. 2-1 and looking good for second.

There was another twist in the tale, Leeds lost a late goal and only drew 1-1. The league was mine. Stunned!

So here I am at the start of my intended 2 week FM-fest finding that I've already ticked off my main objective, get the team into the EPL.

I think I'll take a few days off to get the juices flowing again before tackling the biggest challenge in my 16 seasons with Dorchester.

I've still not spent any transfer money, got £10 mill in the bank and I'm only spending about 52K on wages at the moment. All my decent players are contracted for at least another year, apart from a couple who are knocking on a bit.

Al in all, I don't think I could be in a better position going into the EPL for the first (hopefully only) time. I can concentrate on adding quality to the squad rather than scrabbling around trying to fill positions and I should have bags of money to entice the quality to my club.

[Murrr]

Back on the FM wagon. Just smashed league leaders Torino 5-3, which is exactly the kind of result my tactic was supposed to stop. We went 3-0 up in the first half with two goals from corners and an edge-of-the-box from Slovenian midfielder gangster Dalibor Stevanovic. Chuffed, I went into my HT team-talk with a passionate "yer playing really bloody well," and everyone was delighted, or so I thought. The wretched bastards went and shipped three in quick succession to bring it back to 3-3. Awful badness. But then Enzo Scorza, my pacey inside forward with finishing of 8, popped-up in the 85th for a tap-in before Dirty Dalibor the Slovenian Sex Spider banged another one in in stoppage time. Have some of that, maroon-shirted twats.

2nd in Serie B, four points clear of 3rd but 8 behind 1st. 17 games left to play. COME ONNNNNNNN.

[delboy]

3rd in the league half way through the season, was dicked in the euro league group stages won 1 drew 1 lost 4 but at least that win was away at Real. Trimmed the squad in the transfer window and just got a thrilling 3-3 draw against Benfica equalizing with a 95th min pen. And still in the prestigious League Cup! Happy days in Portugal!

[Moose]

Finally got some time to play it last night and finished my first season with Blackburn. I’d aimed for a top half finish and managed to finish 6th and win the league cup. Arsenal were nipping at my heels at 7th for the last 2 months of the campaign, but they seemed to lose whenever I did. I managed to beat them by 1 point, gained away to Norwich on the last day of the season after Yakubu – in his first appearance since a 3 month layoff – came on after 75 minutes and turned a two goal deficit into a point. Hero.

My success has led to the board giving me a transfer kitty of £30m, which is exactly £29.5m more than what I had at the start of my first season. This seems strange as I’ve been getting warned of financial woes all season. Anyway, I’m going to let some oldies who’s contracts are about to expire go, such as David Dunn, Vince Grella and Ryan Nelsen. I’m also going to sell a couple of really bad 1st team players, like Bruno Ribiero (I know, who?) and guys I picked up on a free, like Mahamadou Diarra and James McFadden. Although I have the money now, I don’t want to disrupt my team as they have been successful. So far I’ve targeted Jan Vertonghen from Ajax – for a cute £5m – and I have Scott Brown coming in on a free from Celtic. That leaves me £25m to play with, but I don’t want to spend it all. With The Yak, Yaya Sanogo, David Goodwillie and Ruben Rochina, I’m fine up front. I do need a back-up RM/RW as back up to Hoillet, as no-one else naturally plays there; probably another utility midfielder and a back-up left back. So not much money to be spent there. I might just buy a decent back-up goalie.

As I didn’t have any money towards the end of my first season, my back room staff – who I stringently scouted and then employed - have pretty much been wiped out by poachers: Liverpool, Spurs and Man City. So my first priority is to get a decent staff, hopefully better than my first one. I might just offer Kenny Dalglish my assistant jobs persistently to annoy him. I still have John Hampson as my assistant, but he’s full of shit, so I might replace him. Who’d be a good/comedy assistant to have? I still have Tino Asprilla as a scout, so I win everything.

[Adam Easy Wishes]

I sacked my Spurs game - it's still there, but was getting kinda boring.

Started a new game (with past experience as 'international footballer') as Leeds United. Played half a season (performing pretty disappointingly) when Pardew gets sacked from Newcastle and I'm offered the job. They're bottom of the table with only 7 points. A challenge to save them from relegation? Yes please. Took over and they still had the bones of the current Newcastle squad, with additions in James Tomkins and Michael Krohn-Dehli. Reasonable enough squad to battle relegation, I think.

Started with my tried and tested (at Spurs) 4-2-3-1, but struggled to pick up points.

Krul

Simpson - S.Taylor - Coloccini - Santon

Cabaye - Tiote

Obertan - Krohn-Dehli - Gutierrez

Ba

Morale was low and my strikers weren't scoring. Got to January and although I had £7m to spend, didn't want to spunk it up the wall on expensive foreign rubbish, so settled for one signing - Stefan Reisinger in on loan from some German team I can't remember. Fairly run-of-the-mill striker, but seemed to have a bit of pace about him which would perhaps compliment Demba Ba (Leon Best had been frozen out by this point for being a whiny cunt).

Got mid-way through January and had only picked up a handful of points thanks to hard-fought, ugly draws with teams in and around the relegation places. Needed to change things fast.

Decided to sack the fancy shit and set up away at QPR in a simple 4-4-2 formation (GK, FBs, CD (1 stopper, 1 cover), WMs, BWM, CM, DLF, P). Counter attack with 'get stuck in', 'hassle opponents' and 'get ball forward' checked from the beginning. Get up in their MF faces. 15 minutes in and I'm 3-0 up. Reisinger with two and Ba with the other. Cruising, but don't change things. QPR are offering NOTHING at all. The game ends 8-0 to me, baby. Magnificent display and the turning point of my season.

Krul

Simpson - S.Taylor - Coloccini - Santon

Obertan - Cabaye - Tiote - Gutierrez

Reisinger - Ba

I keep the 4-4-2 in place until the end of the season and eventually finish in 15th, with Wigan below me in 16th and Blackburn, Wolves and Norwich relegated. Lambert got sacked, which was a bit harsh I thought.

So - pre-season rolls round and I have my pick of 'season expectations'. Decide to go for 'avoid relegation' just incase there's an issue with carrying my end-of-season form into the new season, and there's not that much of a difference between wage/transfer budgets between them all. Pre-season business looks like this:

OUT:

Mike Wililamson (Stoke, £4.9m)

Fraser Forster (WBA, £4.1m)

Leon Best (Bolton, £3.3m)

Alan Smith (released)

Steve Harper (released)

Xisco (mutual termination)

IN:

Joe Lewis (Peterborough, free)

Kyle Walker (Tottenham, £3.6m)

Younes Kaboul (Tottenham, £4m)

Modeste M'bia (Almeria, free)

Nicolas Anelka (Chelsea, free)

Scott Brown (Celtic, free)

James Forrest (Celtic, £1.6m)

Gary Hooper (Celtic, £4.5m)

Tried to get rid of the Ameobis, Ranger, Lua Lua, Ferguson + a host of shite in the reserves but that didn't really materialise unfortunately.

Will continue this later. Got work to do...

[Moose]

QPR are dreaful in this game! I beat them 0-6 and 6-1 in my first season. They finished bottom with about 17 points.

M'bia on a free, you say? I might check that out. I'm looking forward to unleashing Scott Brown on the EPL. I'll probably play him as a ball winning midfielder and I fully expect him to get 4 red cards next season. Great.

Everyone I have spoken to have Blackburn going down in their first season. A testament to my managerial quality, surely? I'm pretty OCD with this game, in that it takes me about 15 minutes to prepare for each game. Maybe my stringent tactical approach is the key. ME! ME! ME!

[Lemonade]

2nd in the league with my Arsenal game. Very up and down season. Outplaying everyone but can't fucking score. Plus I do things like beat Man U 2-0 at Old Trafford, then get cuffed 3-0 away to Sunderland the next week. Can't seem to get my away tactics right. I'm unstoppable at the Emirates but fucking useless away from home.

[Murrr]

Finished my first season with Juve Stabia, what a crazy ride. We started off not scoring very much but nicking 1-0 wins here and there, then we learned how to attack fluidly and started blitzing teams. Then our defence suddenly thought it was acceptable to concede 4 goals in 3 consecutive games. I really put the hammer down 8 games from the end of the season. We drew 0-0 after a piss-poor performance against bottom side Ascoli. We were still 3 points clear in 2nd, but Torino were pulling away at the top of the table.

A 3-2 win over Hellas Verona in a game of the season candidate followed, then we smashed Crotone 3-0 by taking our chances and restricting them to 28% possession. Then came the season's most decisive game. Reggina away, the team with the second best defence in the league (to us, 'natch). A win would see us promoted.

After 90 minutes the game looked to be heading for a bore draw. My team were doing their best Roma impression by stroking the ball around and smashing loads of piss-weak shots at their 'keeper without actually scoring. Then, in the 92nd minute, a wild corner appears... and who pops up?

OH YEAH.

Former Don Karim Touzani with a goal-line scrambler in the dying seconds. I wasn't gonna give him a new contract, but fuck it. Contract for life. He can even have my wife if he wants, the cheeky little blighter. WHAT A GUY.

We went winless in the last four games (four 1-1 draws, meh) but who gives a shit? HIT IT ANDREW WK...

What a beautiful, beautiful season. That Sacchi-Murray fellow is a baller. Media prediction: 19th. Final league table...

Totally brilliant. Our defence was absolute superb, and our attackers were lethal once they figured out how to play with each other. Again, my star man:-

Playing him as an inside forward on attack, the boy's a goddamn machine. Finishing of 8! Another lad who can have a contract for life as far as I'm concerned. Complete opposite of Bernardo Corradi, who managed a whopping 4 goals in 28 games, the shit. RELEASED.

My exploits have become so famous that Lazio just offered me their manager's job, but I told them to get bent. I'm Stabia through and through, me. Serie A is going to be tough as hell next season, but I'm not worrying about that. I'll be back with more after I've bathed myself in champagne and caviare. PEACE.

[Murrr]

Fuck me. Released 13 players and let 3 loanees return to their parent clubs at the end of the season. Board have given me £6m and £120k of free wages to play with. Lets do this.

[The Milner]

Why did you have 4 points deducted?

[Murrr]

Real-life failure to make tax payments. Mini-Huns.

[The Milner]

New patch released, change list as follows:

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/300648-January-Transfer-Update-12.2.0-RELEASED

[Moose]

New patch released, change list as follows:

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/300648-January-Transfer-Update-12.2.0-RELEASED

I take it you can only apply this to new games?

[The Milner]

Nah about 99% of the changes will work with your current save game, only a few here and there wont and they are usually league specific. Going through that list i cant see anything to be worried about in that sense.

[Murrr]

Juve Stabia's assault on Serie A is about to commence. The mercato:-

FUCKING HUNDREDS OF PLAYERS. Allow me to explain. There were 13 players out of contract at the end of the season and I only chose to retain three of them. I basically let almost half my squad leave on frees. That Molinari lad had agreed a pre-contract with Monza (which is areet because he was shite) and I somehow won a blind auction for that Aimon Napoli chap despite bidding £100. I promptly released him, however, as he's guff. Crazy Italian co-ownership rules.

I'd literally slashed my wage bill in half, and the board gave me a big boost after promotion too, so I had a lot to play with. Basically, I rebuilt the team. Catania were relegated with a very strong squad, so cherrypicked their team and got a few gems. Additionally, that Paglialunga lad was released by them at the end of the season. First port of call was a new 'keeper, as my current #1 wasn't up to scratch despite his great haircut:-

There aren't enough 'keepers with dreadlocks in the world, and his name is BANTAmoi. What a LADZ. Anyway, I dropped the fucker and brought-in that Bressan guy, who's a bit guff but should do for the worst team in Serie A. My CBs were pishy, so I acquired Rivas (who I always sign when I can, because he's mint) and Santacroce on frees. Couple of excellent defenders. I was happy with Degen at RWB so I kept him on, but playing David Carney at LWB was akin to using a crisp packet for a condom: it might do a job, but it's gonna be bloody painful. In came Calderoni to plug that gap.

In midfield this guy was far too good to pass-up:-

Super player who'll only get better. Brought another Catania player in to complete the midfield three with Dalibor Stevanovic. Scorza was always gonna play wide right, but I bought Gomez, another gem, to play on the left and ex-Barcelona battering ram Maxi Lopez to push peoples' shit in up front. TEAM:-

Drew 1-1 with Sampdoria in the first fixture despite absolutely whomping them for 90 minutes. It's gonna be a helluva season, kids. FORZA STABIA.

[FOX]

That new patch doesn't dock Rangers any points?!?!?!!!!!

Anyway Murrr, I see a match with Inter Milan coming up. Good luck.

[Moose]

Well, I had an incredibly interesting summer transfer window last night. I didn’t want to change too much, I just wanted to bring in a bit of quality back-up to my first team. Things didn’t turn out this way...

My board had given me a whopping £30m kitty to begin with, but then Man City go and offer me £19m for Chris Samba at the beginning of the window. He had an average rating of 8 and was in the premier league team of the year from the previous season, so I said they could have him for £25m. They offered £23m: DEAL.

So, that left me with only a measly £53m to spend in the window. Add the ~£6m I’d received from various fringe players I sold and you have £60m. Bloody ridiculous!!!

First of all I bought a direct replacement for Samba in the form of Brede Hangeland of Fulham for £7.5m, as I was unable to get Vertonghen as he went to Valencia. Pretty much just a £15.5m profit in my mind.

I then brought in Tommy Kuszcack (or however you spell it) on a free after Man U released him as back up to our Paul.

I threw £2.2m at Granada to secure the services of young French winger, Yohan Mollo as a future replacement/back-up for Pedersen (who always gets a game due to his set piece ability).

I then splashed the cash a bit, giving Lille £10m for ex-Ajax youngster Siem de Jong. That leaves my central-attacking midfield options a bit congested (Mauro Formica, Simon Vukcevic and David Dunn), but he’s better than anything I’ve got already, so the lads’ll have to prove why they should remain at Blackburn Rovers: the new Man City. I can always pop Vukcevic or Formica out wide too.

I decided a 37 year old Michel Salgado probably isn’t the best back-up right back to have, so I took in Kyle Walker from Spurs for £5m after he fell out with ‘Arry. This will probably leave my young Brazilian wing-back Romario deputising to Walker, but Romario likes to play at left back too, so there’s always that option.

As I’d sold Keith Andrews to Celtic and hadn’t renewed Vince Grella’s contract, I decided I better get a replacement to lie deep in midfield. I figured Fernando Gago would do and bought him for £4m from Madrid.

I also spent about £5m taking in decent young players to bolster my youth and reserves. Probably no wonderkids in there, but a few that could probably have a future with the club.

So that left me with ~£25m left over and a starting line-up of (in a high line 4-2-3-1):

GK. Paul Robinson © – SW

RB. Kyle Walker – WB-attack

LB. Martin Olsson – WB-attack

CB. Brede Hangeland – LD - stopper

CB. Scott Dann/Gael Givet

CM. Fernando Gago – DLP-support

CM. Steven N’Zonzi – CM-defend

LAM. Morten Gamst Pedersen – AP-support

CAM. Simon Vukcevic – AM-attack

RAM. Junior Hoilett – W-attack

CF. Yaya Sanogo – TM-attack

Bench:

T. Kuszcak

Romario

G. Hanley

S. Brown

S. de Jong

R. Rochina

Yakubu

Pretty bae nad. I have tons of quality in my reserves and youth now too who will make appearances regularly.

I just don’t know what to do with my remaining £25m. My brain tells me to keep it until January, but I also fancy spunking another £10m on a big name. I’ve already tried to buy Berbatov, Van der Vaart, Adebayor and Falcao, but I’ve been unable to negotiate contracts (Adebayor wanted £150k/week!!!!). I could probably use a world class striker though, as Yakubu is on the decline/not very good anyway and all my other strikers are young and more prospects for the future. I could mess about with my budget a bit and afford Adebayor – city only want £1.4m for him – but I would feel bad paying him so much.

Cool story bro’.

It would have been much cooler with pictures, but I’m at work (on my lunch, of course…).

[FOX]

Why do you put three linebreaks between paragraphs?

[Moose]

Why do you put three linebreaks between paragraphs?

Fixed. I typed it in an email then copied and pasted it as I'm a skiving at work pro.