Football Manager 2016

[JasonM]

Cesena has come in with a 5 million bid for David Ivan, which is also his release fee. So bye bye to him, very sad to see him go because he was a total beast, but five million goes a long way in paying the bills and keeping the team healthy. Liam Henderson is now shuffled up the field into the AMC role, with Fyvie/Hamilton being the midfield pairing now. Part of me wants to get a replacement player, but I also got Siem de Jong on a free and he can play all over the place. And I also still have old-man Scott Brown who aside from his non-existent physicals is still a pretty decent guy to put into midfield.

I mean, I got the money to spend, but I'm just a massive stingy bastard who hates to spend money on anything but a sure deal player who is ridiculously cheap.

EDIT: And just like that Feyenoord comes in with a 1.5M offer for Dubois. And whilst I think he's got potential to be a star striker, I feel he's kinda lacking in some areas (passing, dribbling, mentals) so I make a small profit on him (Paid 900K for him and around 200K in wages, so that's 400K profit... It's something, at least?)

 

Edited May 6, 2016 by Jasonmufc

[FestiveJack]

Box to box with a DLP(D) is usually my centre mid pairing.

[JasonM]

Sweat mode engaged...

EDIT: SUCCESS!

EDIT2: Draw for the first KO round, should be winnable!

EDIT3: Second round should be doable too?

Edited May 9, 2016 by Jasonmufc

[Adam]

Celtic or Roma is a bit of a dull one for you if you get through, isn't it? League rivals who you play all the time or a team you just played twice in the same competition!

Then again, at least you know you're capable of beating them

[JasonM]

15 minutes ago, Adam said:

Celtic or Roma is a bit of a dull one for you if you get through, isn't it? League rivals who you play all the time or a team you just played twice in the same competition!

Then again, at least you know you're capable of beating them

Yeah Celtic I rather not face since I face them twenty times per season anyways. But after going 1-2 and 2-1 against Roma, I feel it's time to win the rubber match.
Then again, still gotta beat Krasnodar who are doing pretty decent in Russia right now.

Seriously though, the triple/quadruple/quintuple matches in Scottish Football is really the worst part of managing there. It's just annoying to have to face a team so many times because well... It's kinda boring, and doubly annoying if they're bogeys.

[JasonM]

Fuck this season so fucking hard...

Other than reaching the second KO in the Europa League, this season was absolutely infuriating in every single way. The inconsistency was soul suckingly bad, and the lovely 7 game skid at the end was just the cherry on top of the pile of utter bullshit.

Honestly wondering what the hell i'm gonna do now, because I am just so damn tired about this entire godforsaken league. The team has all the skill and talent in the world, and they just do their best to shit the bed at the start and end of the season to ruin any chance of success. And on top of that you have Celtic throwing 24 million pounds annually into being awful and still staying profitable somehow, and then you have Rangers who do the same with 9+ million a year in wages.

All the same while i'm here, fifth in wages and the cuntfaced chairman is telling me to go fuck myself if I want to spend more, despite having brought in nearly 23 million in transfers over the past two seasons, and 6 million in euro-prizes... Even my gate has gone up +3M this year.

I got a lot of talent, but right now I wonder if I even want to stick around and slum it out. Because the league is just a total grind, and i've pretty much peaked in Europe. And the game is hellbent on sticking my face in shit whenever it can.

/rant

EDIT: Just an indication of how much of a boring grindfest the Scottish Premiership is... I had to face Hearts and Celtic five times each, and Rangers six times, every team in the champ group at least four times, and the rest at least three times...

Edited May 10, 2016 by Jasonmufc

[JasonM]

Once more unto the breach I shall go. No real interesting job opened up in the off-season, (other than the Celtic job, but screw that!) and I got a year left on my deal, so i'm gonna go at it yet again trying to somehow to break my bad luck streak and finally become a champion in the 21/22 season...

Pre-Season:


The pre-season was insanely successful, the small teams were a great way for the team to get motivated and tuned into scoring goals (James Keatings, just insane stuff). I will have to face MSK Zilina (Slovakia) in the Europa League third round, so that feels like must-win games, since I really want to get into the group stages again...

The Team:

Transfer Roundups:
In:
Roman Macek! - Free - He's back, and kinda better than ever? He did fuck all at Newcastle, then got sold to Celtic who did nothing with him, got loaned to Brighton in 19/20, then did more nothing. Celtic let his contract run out, so I brought him back into the fold to be my go-to right winger once more. His growth stagnated quite a bit when he was doing fuck all, but he's only 24 still and he brings the good as a winger with defensive capabilities. So i'm very glad to have him back on the cheap.
John Ruddy - Free - Sure I have three high potential goalies in my youth, but they aren't challenging Billy for first team duty so they're all loaned out for experience... So I signed veteran John Ruddy on a free to be the backup goalkeeper who hopefully doesn't moan about only playing cup ties.
Mark Noble - Free - I have a bunch of good midfielders in the likes of Fyvie/Henderson/Hamilton. But since Scott Brown fell off the cliff last season, I needed a new veteran presence that can add depth. He's a Model Pro to boot, so he'll be great at tutoring kids!
Omar - Free - Technically signed him previous season, but I felt it would be useful to talk a bit about him... He's a young Model Pro who can tutor, what more do you want to know?
Uros Djurdjevic - 3,8M - My biggest signing to date by quite a margin (previous one was Henderson for 850K). I felt I needed a marquee signing going into maybe my final Hibernian season, and my strikers have always been a bit 'eh' skill wise. Uros on the other hand is a skilled scorer who should really dominate the Scottish league. It can either be a brilliant signing, or massively wasted money and continued scoring woes until my kids finally get skilled enough... But at least now I got a complete striker who is at his peak, rather than having to bank on kids that aren't there yet... But yeah, I've become tired of waiting for the talent to grow and i've signed a heavy hitter, hopefully?

Out:
A shit-tonne of loans
Richie Petrie - Free - Solid defender with no real flaws, he's a victim of depth, should really find a new premiership team to play for.
Callum Denholm - 5M +50% next sale - Man City - They offered me 5 million and 50% of the next sale, nuff said right? Huge talent, but money is money.
Marc McNeil - 3,6M + Clauses - Fulham - They came in and offered a shitty amount, and my shitbag chairman felt it was too good to refuse (fucking idiot twat). I couldn't protest it because I had done so earlier in the pre-season to keep Cathal Nolan around. But I'm dismayed by this because he was going to be the new captain of the side next season... I guess it at least my problems at DR for now... *sigh*

Expectations:
Scottish Premiership - Title contention or bust really. I have been third twice, second once, and last year my 'worst' year at fourth. I want to break the bad luck and finally be able to beat the Old Firm's dominance. I want my title!
Scottish Cup - I have won it twice in six years, and Celtic won the rest. I want to reach the semi finals at least, but naturally winning this would be a very nice thing... Although the league is my priority, and also...
Scottish League Cup - Why do I rate this above the Scottish Cup? Because I have reached the finals twice, and both times I have lost said finals to Celtic and Rangers respectively. Aside from the league it's the only prize eluding me, and if I win this I will have won every single Scottish Trophy. (The Scottish Triple Crown, if you will)
UEFA Europa League - Last year I reached the second KO round, which exceeded expectations in a big way. The board expects pre-group playoffs, I want to get into the group again. Preferably survive into the new year a second season in a row.

Like I said earlier, I have only one year left on my deal and I am still on the fence about staying or leaving. But most likely leaving is what I will do regardless of success. If I win the league cup and the premiership, I will have won everything winnable in Scotland. Sure I can build a legacy and try going for back-to-back, but i've said before that the league is a huge grind... If the team shits itself again, I'll leave because i'll lose my sanity... But I want to finish the season, so I won't just up and leave in the middle of it unless an extremely interesting offer lands before me, which I sincerely doubt.

Edited May 11, 2016 by Jasonmufc

[Adam]

7 hours ago, Jasonmufc said:

The Team:

Mark Noble - Free - I have a bunch of good midfielders in the likes of Fyvie/Henderson/Hamilton. But since Scott Brown fell off the cliff last season, I needed a new veteran presence that can add depth. He's a Model Pro to boot, so he'll be great at tutoring kids!

Excellent signing, Don't be surprised if he guides you to that long-awaited title.

[Whisper]

Second season with Coventry, into March and we've inexplicably moved into second in the Championship with 11 games to go.

Looking at my remaining games (mostly against bottom half sides) I'm starting to worry we might grab back to back promotions. My team is so not ready for the Premier League. 5 of my best 7 players are loanees. 35 (i think?) year old Andy Reid (4 pace!) is my back up attacking midfielder and Marcus Tudgay is still getting game time. If anything happens to John Fleck or Jim O'Brien before the end of the season, we are screwed.

Jack Barmby has proved a great signing though and Carlton Morris, on loan from Norwich, is my top scorer with 14 goals.

I'll take the playoffs at this point. Only four games ago I was wondering whether we'd be able to sneak into the top 6, now we're only 6 off the top with (on paper) a decent run in. I feel like my tactic will break at any moment though. Recently, teams have been creating chances against us but not finishing them, but I can't bring myself to change anything with 6 wins in the last 8.

Still, avoid relegation was the aim, happy days!

[MDK]

Ugh, this game.

Player: You haven't been playing me much
Me: We've only played six league games and you've started four of them. AND you were starting almost every game last season weren't suspended
Player: Oh well, whatever, never mind
Me: Didn't peg you for a Nirvana fan

Edited May 14, 2016 by MDK

[JasonM]

Was doing average again in Scotland, and in the winter I moved to Darmstadt to try to keep them in the Bundesliga... Failed completely, and left the team after I failed to keep them up.

Now i'm at Deportivo who haven't been in the top flight since the first season, and they're a bit tight on players and money so it's gonna be interesting to see how i'm going to return them to Spanish prominence. The talent is there, but the depth is shockingly lacking.

Got quite some work ahead of me...

[Adam]

You stepped out on Mark Noble?

[JasonM]

On 5/15/2016 at 14:11, Adam said:

You stepped out on Mark Noble?

There was nothing left I could teach him, so it was time to let him go explore the wide vast world around him.

So he became the Southampton U18 Assistant Manager...

Anyways, came into the season expecting a mid-table position, kinda overachieved a little by winning the league and getting direct promotion back into the top flight... No idea if the team is ready for this, but hey I guess it beats slumming it out in the Adelante, additionally it gives me my first ever league victory since I never got one for Hibs.

On top of that, the board has given me a pathetic (by comparison) wage budget, and only 3M in transfer money, of which I spend nearly all to get myself a striker that's up to snuff.

[JasonM]

Final friendly of the pre-season done (13 friendlies in total... Started the pre-season a bit too early). Only lost one game in that 13 game stretch and that was the very first one against Liverpool (as part of a transfer deal), the best results came against Hibernian, PSG2, Groningen, Eskisehirspor, and a draw against Sporting CP. But pre-season is mostly my chance to have players run around 90 minutes on full rotation...

So going into Deportivo's first BBVA game in six seasons, the season-opening senior 25 is as following..


All the first 25 pictured
Youth players of note

Transfer Roundups:
In:
Here's the list
João Gabriel - 2,7M - RB Salzburg - The biggest signing by quite a margin, he was doing nothing for RB Salzburg and because he's Brazilian he'll need only two years to get a Spanish passport to no longer count as a foreigner. Striker with clinical technical skills, maybe a bit lacking physically but hopefully he can grow into the go-to striker for this side.
Michael Devlin - 450K - Hibernian - Played for me in the past, and he's a damn solid defender who can hopefully bring consistency to a back four that will no doubt get pounded hard during the season. And for the price he's arguably a bit of a steal.
Florentin Pogba - Free - Laval - One of the Pogba brothers, he's getting on there with age but he still has quite a bit to bring to the table, and since he was free he was right in my price range. He'll be there to strengthen the left side of the defense and play in center too.
Jan Dostal - Loan (8k p/m + Wage) - Lyon - Talented looking defensive minded back, he'll add strong depth to the right side of the defense. If he pans out well I also can buy him for a future fee of 725K!
Niklas Teichgräser - Free - Fürth - Nothing exciting really, but he'll add depth to my soft left flank.
Fernando Fonseca - Free - Sochaux - Again, solid depth player.
Víctor Meilán - 53K - Wolfsburg - No idea why anyone in their right mind would put him in center back, but he was cheap and he's got good physical skill, and if he can get better technically he'll be a useful back.

Out:
Lots of freebies and loanees - Nobody of note

Expectations:


Don't suck and don't get relegated, obviously...

Edited May 21, 2016 by Jasonmufc

[EddieG]

Can someone just change the thread title to Jason's FM diary?    

[JasonM]

1 minute ago, EddieG said:

Can someone just change the thread title to Jason's FM diary?    

Well it's not my fault you guys aren't active 

[Bobfoc]

5000/1 odds to win? I'd say you're a dead cert now.

[FestiveJack]

Took over Fulham using a Sweden March 2016 start date - was actually looking to take over England without having to do the last qualifiers - with them 12th and many many points off the playoffs. Won 10 from 11 and snuck in on the final day. Somehow won the playoff final against a better Brighton side, and Fulham are back in the Premier League:

Out went Mitroglou in the summer for just £5 million. Nothing I could do, fee was in his loan agreement.

In came:

Luke Garbutt from Everton (£6 million): was at the club on loan last season, and the only loanee I found to be of any use. Easy decision to make to bring him in.

Will Hughes from Derby (£9 million): Derby again missed out on the playoffs and this was the final straw for Hughes, who asked to leave. 9 mil for a player who will be my first choice centre mid isn't bad.

Lewis Cook from Leeds (£7 million): and joining him is Lewis Cook. Decide to prioritise signing young British players, and Cook was an easy choice. Bit steep for the season he had - Leeds were about 16th - but him and Hughes will partner each other for a decade potentially.

Nathan Redmond from Norwich (£4.7 million): Needed a right wing/right mid in a more traditional style compared to Tom Cairney, who works well as a wide playmaker but not much else - and with Norwich relegated Redmond was available for peanuts.

Jake Bidwell from Brentford (£4 million): Back-up and competition for Garbutt at left back. A more natural choice than Garbutt - who can also play left mid - and already at a Premier League standard.

Eder Alvarez Balanta & Emanuel Mammana from River Plater (£4 million and £3.4 million): Went out for Balanta, saw that no one was interested in Mammana and decided to gett him as well. Had to give River 25% of the next transfer fee for both of them, but well worth it. Already forcing Tim Ream out of the centre back spot.

Andres Renteria from Santos Laguna (£5 million): The gamble signing. Not a bad season in Mexico (10 goals and 4 assists in 33 games) but a definite risk. Attributes aren't bad an he'll provide good rotation with McCormack, Woodrow and Dembele.

Also brought in Rashford from United and Joe Gomez from Liverpool on loan deals. Confident about staying up and my defensive additions are doing well. 3 1-0 wins to start the season leaves me top, amazingly.

[MDK]

I'm abusing my England manager position. I'll defo play players that are knackered if they are facing Orient the next game >_> 

[FestiveJack]

Roy does that anyway in my United game. Every England player I have always comes back knackered or injured.