shaneo

We are a worse team now than we were in 09. Barca are the same, really. Not so much stagnating, but, when youre so good at what you do, is it bad to stay at the same level? Fergie keeps saying he learned the lessons of 09, and knows what went wrong. I hope so, even though, for everything Fergie is great at, I wouldnt say tactics are his strongest suit, and hope its more than a simple case of "If Fletch were there, they would have had space to pass and move". Still, its a one off game, on English soil, and Arsenal proved they can be beaten, so, lets hope we can do it.

I was proud of Hernandez a few seasons back, when he managed to clinch his 50th goal on like the last day of the season. This season, Welbeck has put him to shame, with 63 goals in 50 games. Crazy.

If Fletch gets fit, I would have him in there, maybe instead of Carrick. We badly missed Fletcher last time out against them.

Schalke werent great tonight, but I think getting dominated in Germany did as much towards that as any players on the pitch tonight. Another CL final, lets hope we learned the lessons of 09. As to people asking about Scholes as captain, its the same as him with free kicks. He doesnt want it, and its best to stick by his wishes. End of story really.

Up to the 2021/22 season now. Won my 7th Prem in a row. Yet, the thing most likely to make me give up and start a new game, is, every single transfer window, without exception, having to reject offers, always from Spurs, for every single one of my youth prospects. They just will not take the hint. At this point, I would just refuse to sell them any player, ever, out of principle for pissing me off every damn transfer window.

Id go with Thorgan. Hell, he even did the business for my United team for about 5 seasons, as backup for AML and AMC.

Into my 8th season now. Ireland have yet to produce a single youth player of note. My scouts havent recommended a single Irish player with the potential to even develop into a decent Prem player, let alone anything better. Meanwhile, my scouts have recommended 4 potentially world class youths from Sudan. Ireland and England are the only leagues running. My dream of filling my United side with Irish players will never come true. Time to work on filling it just with academy graduates I think.

Yeah, I didnt think it was that many draws, but, thats a lot of draws. I was in such a pissed off hurry to get to a clear out of crap and secure a marquee signing, I didnt pay that much attention to the actual figures.

Yeah, after going to actually check how much I drew, its closer to half my games I finished on 80 points.

Oh yeah, I drew like a quarter of my games Still, unbeaten and in 5th, you wouldnt really think it.

I went an entire season unbeaten, and still finished 5th :S I only managed to keep my job since I won the Prem the previous 2 season. The board, in a move of complete stupidity, went and cancelled a year long project of improving the youth facilities with less than a month left to go. I mean come on, cant have been that much money left to pump in, at that stage all they would have needed was a bloody pair of scissors for a ribbon cutting ceremony.

Have you tried him in a free role? I had much the same problem with Rooney, he just wasnt playing great, so I set him as treqartista, free role. He is everywhere now, scores, creates, and massive match ratings. Cesc, likewise, might not like being tied to a rigid structure, so let him do his own thing.

Well, Sakho is a beast. I havent seen him NOT become world class in any game over like the last 3 versions of FM. I had a horrible run in like that in my United game, too. Man City (Away) they were in 4th, not far behind us. Chelsea (Home) in second and breathing down our necks Chelsea (Wembley) lost that one, no FA Cup for me Barca (Away) Spurs (Home) in 3rd, and very close to us, tight season at the top Barca (Home) Only got 4 points from that, and crashed out of both cups Horrible run.

Villa relegated? in the first season of the game? Man, thats a shock. Either they were terrible or it was a hella competetive year in the PL

I bought Helan from City in my Everton game, turned into a beast as a DL/ML/AML. Ciaran Clarke from Villa would surely be a good shout?

Would the coach reports not work for that, and tell you if they were excessively injury prone?

I finally got sick of Bohs. The board kept complaining about spiralling wage bills, but I was keeping them steady, and they WOULD have been under their allocated budget, if the fuckers didnt keep lowering it every season. I had to rebuild that team 3 different times, mostly from scratch, after losing all my first teamers to free transfers thanks to their dicking around. I told them to take their job and restaff it. To blow off steam, I started a Man Utd game, and spent ages tinkering with the training and tactics, which I normally never do, really. I decided Rooney would make the perfect treqartista, according to what the game said about that role, and well, absolutely destroying everything in my way now. 14 PL games, 13 wins 1 draw, 41 scored, 6 conceded. 5 CL games, 5 wins, 13 scored, 2 conceded. Rooney has 13 PL goals, 5 assists and 6 MOM performances, with an average rating of 8.4 Never managed to get a start this good, or get Rooney playing this well, in any game I have started. I really should have been looking at tweaking my own tactics from the start

Fired this back up again recently. Hadnt played it since before any of the patches. There are some minor changes I am noticing, which look nice. Starting season 2 in my Everton game,trying to improve on last seasons 8th position. First step, poach as many promising younglings as possible The real story though, is going into season 3 of my Bohemians game, as I try to make the Airtricity League somewhate respected. Lavish spending means the only thing keeping the club in business is the fact I have won back to back doubles. God this league sucks!

There is a release day patch, does that not fix it?

Well, ended up second in the Prem, and lost t Arsenal in the CL final, a repeat of the previous years final, just the opposite result. Kinda zoned out during the transfer market, made a few signings of kids, but forgot Van Der Sar was retiring, and am left with Amos in goal. Oh well, in keeping with that, I decided that since I am safe for this season, barring absolutely shocking results that is, I am just gonna go headlong into blooding youngsters. Amos, Cleverly, James and Petrucci, all in the first team squad now. Still cant seem to sell any players. Carick, Anderson and Gibson all released on frees, Valencia in the reserves. Only player I managed to sell was James Chester.

Absolutely caned it into April. Got to the CL semis, first in Prem, though thats only on goal difference, and Chelsea have a game in hand, so they may go ahead, out of FA Cup and LC. Catalyst was the Club World Championships. Won that, barely, and the wins kept rolling in. And the fikle bastards on my team suddenly resolved their problems when the wins came.

Coming in to December in my second season as United, and in 9th position, after a truly horrible run of results. May have lost the dresing room too. Vidic said he was upset that we were underachieving, so I told him we should all rally together. Apparently, this was not an option for Vidic, and when I tried to leave it, Ferdinand, Berbatov, Obertan and Evra all complained that I treated Vidic unfairly. Gotta pull this back before January, or I can see it going very, very wrong.

Just blooded a youngster, a newgen, in a LC game, got a nice news story. I know the others had a news story about debut matches, but this seemed more specific, about him being a loal, Manchester born lad. Nice touch I thought.

This is the illegal version. I have already decided to order the legit version. Just for the record. Anyway, in this version they are still being sold. Thats what I am doing too. I wont be able to afford it till around Christmas time, but the demo wasn't enough for me, so went the illegal way. Still, they are games I dont mind spunking my money on.

Well, my friend from school way bac hated football for ages, I introduced him to the FM games back with the 05 version I think, and he liked the game and got into football from there. Die hard Arsenal fan now. Maybe a knowledge of football beforehand would help. Dont they also make Eastside Hockey Manager? Or was that the Championship Manager crowd?