Football Manager - Your Career

[JaseTheVillain]

Got a game going as Villa on FM15, will do a full update at the end of this season (halfway through my 4th season), but Benteke has been on a freaking crazy run of form for me, never had anyone do as well to be honest. He went 6 games without scoring (including previous season), got a torn hamstring, had a pulled hamstring on his return from that, and since he's come back he has made 3 appearances (all starts).

In his first he scored 5 (FIVE) in a 6-1 demolition of Huddersfield in the Premier League, for which he got a 10.0 rating, had a rest for a game Vs Swansea and came back for the cup game against Everton away where we won 7-2 as he and Scott Sinclair scored Hat-tricks (Dybala with the 7th), rested him against Newcastle and he comes in to play against Derby and scores ANOTHER hat-trick in a 5-1 win. He is in ridiculous form at the moment, 11 goals in 3 games making him my (joint) top scorer so far and we're in January!

Just wondering if anyone else has seen such ridiculous form from a non-regen (as we all know how fucking ridiculous they can be) on the game?

 

[JaseTheVillain]

Okay. I've no idea how this happened. This goes down as my best ever FM season by far. I'm utterly flabbergasted.

After finishing 10th last season and winning the Europa League my expectations weren't massive even though we had a take over (playing 15 so Randy was still in charge prior to that)...

Well, we started the season as we meant to go on, facing Man United in the European Super Cup:

Brilliant start of course, and for some reason having won the Europa League I had to qualify for the Champions League (could have sworn you normally go straight to the groups?), this started against FC Twente, not really an issue, they were dispatched 8-2 on aggregate (5-1 at home, 3-1 away). We were then drawn in an evil group of Bayern Munich, Juventus and Ludogrets (we were a 3rd seed), I'd have been happy with 3rd to be honest, but thought I could scrape 2nd. Well...

The loss was 3-0 to Bayern and the draw was 0-0 with Juventus! Juve threw us a bone in the last game beating Bayern for us to secure us 1st.

Champions League Schedule altogether:

How in god's name we won that thing is beyond me, took beatings from Bayern twice (how that only ended 1-0 to them in the 2nd leg is a miracle), and Chelsea should have won that game by more also. The biggest robbery however was Barcelona in the final.

We managed more possession somehow, but they completely mullered us all game, somehow we held on.

Oh, and we won the League cup and FA Cup too!

Having a bit of cash this season obviously paid off!

League table:

Transfers:

No idea how I go forward from here, win the league obviously, but otherwise... Then again, I suppose the biggest thing is to sustain the success!

TL;DR

Season summary is as thus:

2014/15:
Premier League: 7th (P38 W15 D14 L9)
FA Cup: 3rd round (K.O'd in replay Vs West Brom away 1-0)
League Cup: Winners (2-1 V Chelsea)

2015/16:
Premier League: 10th (P38 W15 D8 L15)
FA Cup: 3rd Round (L1-2 to Burnley (a))
League Cup: Quarter Final (L1-0 to Man City (a))
Europa League: Winners (W 4-0 Vs Sevilla)

2016/17:
Premier League: 3rd (P38 W23 D9 L6)
FA Cup: Winners (3-1 Vs WBA)
League Cup: Winners (2-1 Vs Tottenham)
Super Cup: Winners (3-2 Vs Man United)
Champions League: Winners (1-0 Vs Barcelona)

 

[Luke Imp]

2010-2163!

http://www.thesportbible.com/footba...game-ever-on-football-manager-broken-20160909

 

[JaseTheVillain]

That's one way to qualify for the Champions League final.

 

[Hurrikeen]

First season with Spurs and I've won the EFL Cup, Premier League & Champions League.

The tactic I have set up seems to be unbelievable going forward, albeit susceptible at the back.

Particular highlights:

Dortmund 1-7 Tottenham (CL group stage)
Barcelona 3-6 Tottenham (CL Semi, 2nd leg)

I won the PL on the final day thanks to Stoke coming from 0-2 down at home to City, scoring in the 84th and 92nd minute.

Levy is still a stingy bastard though. Record revenues, 3rd richest team in the world - and he's given me £22m to spend. Meanwhile the two targets I had set my sights on - Verratti & Griezmann - have gone to United and City for £82m and £69m respectively.

I did manage to bring in Coutinho in January for £55m as Eriken had broken his leg and I needed a worldie replacement who wouldn't be cup tied for the CL.

Lloris
Walker - Alderweireld - Vertonghen - Rose
Dier
Lamela - Alli - Dembele - Coutinho
Kane

Bench: Donnarumma, Koulibaly, Wanyama, Sissoko, Eriksen, Son, Lacazette

 

[joethegill]

Into my 4th season on FM17 now:

1st Year: Gillingham, finished 3rd in League One, promoted through play-offs

2nd Year: Gillingham, finished 18th in the Championship, having only been expected to attempt to stay up. Kwesi Appiah the hero mostly, although Lyle Taylor scored 15 in only 20 games (8 were sub appearances!)

3rd Year: Gillingham, started like a train, then had a bizarre run of 7 defeats in 7 around December time. Forced to sell off my best players in January and lost a little interest. Resigned. Took over at Burnley (Championship, 9th place) with 6 games of the season left. Target was to get to the play-offs, which I did (unbeaten), and then won them by beating Bristol City 2-1 in the final. Gray and Vokes lethal, James Maddison on loan the key man.

4th Year: Burnley, sold off the dead wood, signed £25 million worth of new players - Jake Forster-Caskey, James Maddison (Permanent), Adam Armstrong and Cauley Woodrow amongst them. Only played one game, lost 3-0 at Bournemouth which wasn't ideal....Will be a struggle this season I feel!

 

[hodge]

Okay so the file I started first made some mistakes getting caught up to speed on the new game, decided to start over again as Bristol City and I've caught up to where the season is now. Got a similar record to City after 16 games, just had an extra loss instead of an extra draw. Started poorly but 4 wins and a draw in my last 5 has seen me climb to 10th. Signed Lafferty who scored 7 in my first 9 games or so and then Tammy took over, after 1 in his first 9 appearances or so, he's now scored 8 in his last 6. Magnusson required a rest so after Taylor Moore came on as a sub one game, he's kept his place since after a string of good appearances.

 

[Luke Imp]

Promoted via the PO's in my first season with Lincoln and runners-up in the FA Trophy. Only signed two players all season.

Mid-table in L2 in my second season but I'm only in late August.

 

[Luke Imp]

Continuing from the 'FM17' thread, I went with Hungerford to start my career game and won the PO's in my first season.

Just about to start my second season and with a budget of £3.5k/week, anything other than relegation will be a success! Can't attract anyone of any note, not even loan signings. Even fellow Conference Clubs won't loan me anyone.

 

[mente captus]

I am still paying fm 2012. currently in russia.

edited the File and re-united the old sovjetunion. So all clubs from the ukraine, georgia, latvia and so on are back.

Top flight with 20 clubs for 74 league games. league split after 38 and Top 10 teams playing each other four times after the split. bottom last Team relegates. teams that finished in 19th and 18th Position are playing playoffs vs the 2nd and 3rd placed teams from the National football league

National football league consists of 40 teams in round-robin for 78 league games.

Pfl with 5 Divisions with 42 teams each Division for 82 league games.

league winners qualifing for playoffs vs the 5 worst teams from the nfl.

Took over FC Volga Nizhny Novgorod. finished 9th, 11th, 15th, 11th and 1st!!! In the Top flight

 

[G.B]

I finished 5th for the second season running in my Gateshead save. Gave up 4th place to Newcastle by failing to win my last 2 games. Luckily this happened...

And I qualified for the CL group stage anyway. My first proper trophy since winning the League 1 playoffs 6 years ago. Thank fuck Thursday night games are behind us now.


Then I did a thing over the summer...

...and resigned from England. Job done, leave while you're on top and all that.

 

[Techno Natch]

I'm back on 14 at the moment and have just lead Canvey Island from the bottom of the BSN to a respectable 14th. Took a long time for my team to settle, and I couldn't really bring anyone decent in on loan or permanent. I think I only won 2 of my first 10 games but I adjusted my tactics to a 4-3-2-1 with wingers which seemed to help. I was initially trying to play narrow down the middle but it didn't really work.

Most of my players are out of contract in the summer, and I can't seem to offer them anything to stay so it'll be interesting to see what happens. I panicked and offered an 18 year old winger £200 per week without scouting him that much but he had a good return with 4 goals and 8 assists in 16 games.

38 year old Ade Akinbyi was my top goalscorer.

 

[Smally]

I'm still on 14 at the moment. Started unemployed with a world class reputation and waited for a decent side to sack their boss. Bielsa got the boot from Marseille, took over them in November time and finished the season in 4th, signing Gabriel Iancu, Fabian Schar and Gaston Gil Romero.

Come summer time I added Gabriel Barbosa, Massimo Bruno and Ruben Vezo to the squad, won the league with two games to spare. I beat PSG with about 8 games left and they faltered from then on. Bruno and Batshuiyi both got 22 goals in all competitions.

Going to give the CL a crack next season, but would also be open to moving on to a new league (got England, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Portugal and Spain loaded). I turned down interviews from Inter and Leverkusen last season as I wanted to try and win Ligue 1 first

 

[Luke Imp]

Continuing from the 'FM17' thread, I went with Hungerford to start my career game and won the PO's in my first season.

Just about to start my second season and with a budget of £3.5k/week, anything other than relegation will be a success! Can't attract anyone of any note, not even loan signings. Even fellow Conference Clubs won't loan me anyone.

Made it up to mid-table albeit relatively early on in the season and then got offered the Doncaster job, who were bottom of L2. I took that, which wasn't really in keeping with my staying at a Club for 2-4 year mind-set but I think Hungerford would have been a ridiculously difficult one to take any further.

Think I've won 7 of my first 10 but 4 of those were cup games. Gone from 24th to 15th, signed a handful of players on really, really cheap deals because I was over budget but had a bit of wriggle room.

Mark Bunn (£1k/week), then Matt Godden, Andrew Tuttle, Jack King on an average of £350/week and all on frees. Managed to get a handful out on loan, which pays for those. The squad isn't actually that bad, and all the high earners, who happen to be the 32+ ones, are out of contract in the summer so it'll be a double positive to get rid of them.

Also tweaked my formation, which seems to have worked. Sacked of a defensive midfielder and gone 4-3-1-2. Can't recall exactly how it works, but it's very narrow, high press, high tempo and fluid set-up. A bit Klopp-like.

From memory, my GK is normal. Full backs are one automatic and one attacking (must have been someone from the Hungerford game that I forgot to change when taking over Doncaster). CB's are cover and ball playing. Middle CM is DLP with ball-winning either side. Front 3 is attacking midfielder, target man and poacher.

Not quite sure I've got the defence bit right because that's not be overly solid, although certainly not bad. Will see how it settles down and maybe tweak the FB's. That said, with no protection, I suppose it's expected.

Massive improvement from an attacking point of view at the moment. Scoring a fair few goals and creating tonnes of chances as well. Given the options available, I'm certainly overachieving at that end of the pitch but slightly underperforming at the other end.

Hoping that I've finally come across a half decent formation and I can start(!) to enjoy a long-ish game. Found it a bit tedious messing around with tactics and not getting anywhere. It's taken the fun away from it.

 

[Luke Imp]

Lost in the PO semi's, having conceded a last minute goal in the previous game, which ended my 3rd place hunt.

Matt Godden, signed in mid-September got 28 in 34 and my record with the new formation was something like 27 wins in 38, scoring 80 odd but conceding 40.

Kept my other handful of signings on as well. Probably would have released 3 of them, but I've been in the situation before on this game where you release adequate players and struggle to replace them so I've played it safe. They're all on £300-£400/week so not expensive.

Coppinger is being released (37 and £4k/week) and others have agreed big pay-cuts. My RB, who is good but I'm going to have to sell because he won't agree a lower deal, is Craig Alcock, 30, £3.2k/week and £850 appearance fee!

If I can tweak things defensively without impacting going forward, then that'd be ideal!

 

[Luke Imp]

Won the PO's, so up to L1.

A chance to get rid of the other 30+ guys who I couldn't shift due to high wages, although they played a decent part in the success this season. As above, I tweaked things slightly and I thought I was still above average scoring and below average defending but as it turned out, I had the 2nd best defence in the league but only just above average goal scoring, so the balance isn't quite right again! That said, with another Ched Evans type signing I'd scored tonnes more because I create chances all the time.

Matt Godden's goals dried up and he only managed 9 all season, whereas Ched Evans, who I signed on a free in November, ended up with 29.

Managed to raise nearly £500k through selling players last summer as well but I didn't spend any of it. Did most of my business on frees but aside from that, despite having £1.5m (now £2m) in the bank, I'm always referred to as financially unstable. There's a Chairman loan of £12m, which is being paid off like a bank loan so it's not something that will be called in, in one go.

 

[Luke Imp]

This formation is pretty good, tbf. Not completely right and it's prone to the odd, silly 5 or 6 game spell but it's the first once I've had in a couple of FM's where I've been pretty content and just go with it because I don't want to be wasting time constantly tweaking things looking for the perfect one.

My 5 forward options (AM, DF and P) of Ched Evans, Mark Cullen, Sam Baldock, Liam Kelly and Paul Taylor are doing the business really well this season. The final three seem to do a job in all those positions even though it's not their best or preferred role. Just a shame that Baldock and Taylor are the wrong side of 30 and Evans won't sign a new deal.

Top of L1 with 10 to play, and clear of 3rd place so I should be going up. Will probably resign and take over another struggling Club, but I'll see who gets relegated/sacks their manager and if anything takes my fancy.

Will be interesting to test the formation with a different squad.

 

[Luke Imp]

Left for Swindon a week or so after the end of the season, with them having been relegated to L2 with basically every good player wanting to leave but all under contract (and on silly wages as well!). You can see the contracts that I've handed out because they stick out like sore thumbs compared to the £5k-£10k/week the ones I inherited are on!

They had a massive squad, so I released 20 and refused to sell anyone initially. The Chairman accepted an offer for one of my players and I missed that in the news bit so didn't have a chance to protest the transfer as I did with a couple of others. Ended up raising £9m through player sales by the season end (sold 3 in the January transfer window when I was more than halfway to promotion.

Anyway, season wise, I scored 102, conceded about 35 and, unsurprisingly, won the league. Again though, there was a silly spell mid-season where I stopped scoring for a 5-8 games for some reason. Not sure why that's happened.

My top scorer (Washington) and assist (Mason) are out of contract and won't sign new deals but are sitting on month to month ones, which is fine, but they'll get nabbed at some stage.

Doncaster came straight down, although were only relegated on the final day.

 

[G.B]

Just finished the 2026/27 season on my Gateshead save and had a bloody good one to mark the clubs (or this incarnation of it at least) 50th anniversary. We started off the season with a 4-2 defeat to PSG in the Euro Super Cup following last seasons Europa League win, then went on a run of 14 without defeat. By January Monaco were sniffing around my star striker again. I'd managed to re-sign him to a new contract that took his min fee release clause from £49mil to £81ml but by this time he was unhappy about me rejecting previous bids and I couldn't get him to sign a new deal. So off he went for £81mil. A pretty big loss as you can see...

I knew it'd happen eventually so had already planned ahead and signed a slightly younger striker with a shit load of potential for 1/4 of Sucevic's sale price...

Anyway, long story short, it all worked out and we rolled through the season with only 6 defeats in all competitions, including a loss to Real Madrid that knocked us out of the CL on away goals at the semi final stage, unfortunately. We done did a domestic treble and that, which apparently doesn't justify a new contract for myself.

So yeah, we're finally one of the big boys now I guess. With our 18.75k seater stadium that totally wasn't a waste of money and won't have to be replaced yesterday. Happy days.

 

[G.B]

A few of my better/younger current players. It's a lot easier finding future superstars now that we're not skint...

 

[Luke Imp]

This is a weird one.

Joe Mason and Connor Washington. Both a similar age (30 and 29). Both out of contract and won't sign new deals but remain on month to month ones after their main ones expire. Neither have any contract trigger clauses.

Washington eventually decides to leave on a free yet about a week before, Portsmouth bid for Mason (ended up getting £650k for him). Why's that?! It was into July, so surely they could have just offered him a deal and taken him on a free?!

 

[smat]

Has that man got one sideburn?

 

[G.B]

At least he doesn't have a mohawk like 90% of the regens in this game.

 

[Techno Natch]

I'm back on 14 at the moment and have just lead Canvey Island from the bottom of the BSN to a respectable 14th. Took a long time for my team to settle, and I couldn't really bring anyone decent in on loan or permanent. I think I only won 2 of my first 10 games but I adjusted my tactics to a 4-3-2-1 with wingers which seemed to help. I was initially trying to play narrow down the middle but it didn't really work.

Most of my players are out of contract in the summer, and I can't seem to offer them anything to stay so it'll be interesting to see what happens. I panicked and offered an 18 year old winger £200 per week without scouting him that much but he had a good return with 4 goals and 8 assists in 16 games.

38 year old Ade Akinbyi was my top goalscorer.

Promoted the following season in the play offs. After a slow start we went on a long unbeaten run and our form was good for the rest of the season. Going into the last game we were top but four teams could have gone up on the last day and unfortunately we threw it away. Southport coming from no where to take the title. Luckily after getting past Chester on penalties we then smashed Hednesford in the final 4-0 which is poetic justice as they cost us on the last game.

We also had a good FA cup run getting to the 2nd round and losing to Notts County which put over £100k in the bank. Good cup runs are great fun at this level and the only way to make money.

In terms of tactics I mainly kept to a 4-3-2-1 formation sometimes using a DM when I felt it necessary. I also tried to play passing football focused on wingers when I could but switched it to a direct narrow formation which saw us go on a 14 game unbeaten streak towards the end of the season. I also switched my Limited full backs to normal full backs which increased their performance and reduced the amount of goals we conceded. Would have thought that was suicide at this level.

Rob Hopley was my top scorer with 19 in the League. Sermento my right winger was a star with 14 goals and 17 assists. He's only 18 and I bought him when I was desperate so paid him £200 a week which I thought was excessive but he's proved worth every penny.

I've got a few promising youngsters but not sure they'll develop here really. I'll definitely need to improve the squad and with crowds of under 400 we're going to be a small team at the next level.

 

[Techno Natch]

Half that money is being used for an expansion to the ground we don't even need.....

 

[JaseTheVillain]

Half that money is being used for an expansion to the ground we don't even need.....

But if you do well enough, you will!


On another note, has anyone else signed Matt Molyneux from Salford on FM17? Not sure if he's a regen or not, but I signed him after taking over Fulham in League One and he's just scored a hat-trick in the Premier League! Turned down £15million bids for the kid in the summer. He has 4.5 star potential too.

Salford are set to make a far old whack if/when we sell him too, as they have a 40% profit clause! Especially seeing as I've set his asking price to £29million and it doesn't seem to have deterred Man United's interest in him.

But then, I seem to get do well with strikers, see Nouha Dicko...

 

[Luke Imp]

Won L1 with Swindon, then resigned and the team are far better placed to stay up than my Doncaster side, which they are doing at the minute in 7th place after 14 games. Doncaster went down in their first season and only just made safety in L1.

I've dropped down to Mansfield who are 24th in L2 and already 10 points adrift after 14 games, which is good going. Got about £1k/week left in the wage budget but I've already agreed to sell one of my players (left winger - I don't do wingers in FM) to Oxford for £90k in January so that'll release some funds. Signed 3 players, but the squad isn't *that* bad. Not a world beating side, but more of an underachieving mid-table one that's a bit unbalanced. Will shift the high earners, who are generally the older ones, in January as well, if I can.

I was waiting for an absolute basket case of a club to take over, but nothing was on the horizon so I've jumped into this one.

 

[JaseTheVillain]

 

[Techno Natch]

@Jase our ground is currently 6k already so will go up to 7k.

We'll need that if we get to the Premiership.

 

[JaseTheVillain]

@Jase our ground is currently 6k already so will go up to 7k.

We'll need that if we get to the Premiership.

Ah, in which case I agree it's a waste of money.