Football Manager 2022

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

I'm still playing 20 because I haven't bothered catching up yet (will probably wait for 2023 now) and I think the last game I had going I had van Persie and Kluivert as staff at Chesterfield, which is a great novelty.

[Kyle]

Nice little easy run ahead, you know.

[Naitch]

I like the takes on the Chelsea and Liverpool logos there but that Man City one is awful.

[METALMAN]

They are all pretty bad tbh

[Kyle]

Journalist: "What do you think of Diego Simeone's interest in your main striker?"
Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Assistant Manager Extraordinaire: "I'm open to discussions"

Listen pal, unless you're in your prime physical fitness and think you can bang them in, I suggest you stop trying to sell my players.

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

Decided to change things up and do a save starting unemployed (Still on FM20 #cheapskate). Added a bunch of countries and leagues to give myself some options, wound up staying in England with Chesterfield in the Vanarama National League. Successful first season saw us win promotion via the playoffs (we came second by 1 point to Barnet, who I beat 2-0 on the opening day of the next season so get fucked Barnet) and conveniently had a board takeover so the club's coffers jumped from half a million to 2 million overnight. Cut some deadwood and made some shrewd deals to refresh the squad, including setting up a link with Fulham and bringing in Timmy Abraham and Cody Drameh without having to pay any of their wages. Also brought in Kian Flanagan from Palace but he's on 5k a week, which I wouldn't have agreed to if the other two weren't here for free.

8 games in we're three points clear and unbeaten, six wins and two draws. League Cup we beat Crewe 3-0 before being dumped out 2-0 by Villa. EFL Trophy we've started off with a 3-1 win over Bolton, but have Crewe who'll want revenge and the Spurs reserves as the other teams in the group. FA Cup is two months away so don't know who we've got for that yet.

The board don't want to give me a new contract for some reason, and there's already seemingly talk of another takeover which is surely going to come to nothing. Tried applying for a couple of other jobs whilst my contract winds down - Accrington, who just missed the League 1 playoffs the season before and would have been a nice jump up; and PSV, because they're in the relegation zone after five games so figured why not. Neither went anywhere. Dunfermline gave me an interview but their budget is rubbish and the squad is pretty average, so even though they only want a playoff spot I probably won't take it if they offer it to me.

[JasonM]

After starting a save at Newport and getting fired after january ended, I ended up signing on with Concord in the VNS.. Kept them from relegation, and then spent the past two seasons finishing 3rd both times and both times losing the playoff finals by a singular goal.

Frustrating stuff, thought about leaving, but ended up coming back for a third (and probably final) attempt at achieving promotion into the National.

Team building has not been easy in most of the seasons and mostly a case of keeping whoever performed and hoping they didn't demand too much money, whilst adding a few lads here and there... Six games into the season I finally hit the jackpot I was hoping for two seasons ago, by signing 33yo Danny Mills who had been released by Dulwich. in 22/23 he scored 43 in 43 at this level, and last season he scored 12 in 42 as a reserve for a Dulwich that would end up getting relegated back down.

Immediately started him, hoping for the best. And he scored 1 goal against Weston in a tidy win... Then only 3 days later at Dover he scored all five goals in a 5-0 destruction of them, four of them via the head and one from a penalty.

I shouldn't get excited too quickly, but man, if only this club had more money so I could've had him two seasons ago!

[Hobo]

I was surprised to learn there's another Danny Mills.

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

They finally offered me a new deal at the end of September, which I signed. We're absolutely pissing the league (9 points clear at the end of November) thanks in large part to Timmy Abraham's ten goal haul. I opened the cheque book and used most of my transfer budget to bring him in permanently, he's too good for this level and if I am here another season I'll want him around, I don't want Fulham to decide he's too good to loan out.

Still keeping an eye out elsewhere, absolutely loads of jobs opening up but nothing I can realistically go for. Most won't give me a look in because I haven't won anything - put some respect on the FA trophy! Will have another look nearer the end of the season once I've almost certainly got a league title under my belt.

---

Now into January, the Brentford job opened up in the Championship and they were interested in me, so I applied, and then they didn't give me an interview and appointed Big Sam. Feel like I've hit a new low.

[DavidMarrio]

Season 4 (2024/2025) - SM Caen
Despite applying for a few places I decided to stick it out with Caen in the end with the view of trying to get promoted to Ligue 1 and well it's gone better than I expected. By the end of August I'd won 6, drew 1 and lost 2 so was top of the table but it was really close in terms of points between several teams. I had a decent transfer offer put in for my aging starting keeper on deadline day which I accepted and I thought I would have time to sign a new one...which didn't go through in time. So I had to do an emergency loan with another team in the league to get someone in to basically tide me over until January. 

7 wins, 1 draw, 2 losses from September to the end of December (Advanced through to the 10th round of the French Cup in this time as well before losing to Grenoble with a rotated team 1-0).

January came and it was rather stressful in terms of transfers. Teams from abroad were sniffing around my two best players. Jessy Deminguet went to Getafe for 6mil which I thought was too good to turn down and then Frankfurt offered 7.5mil for my best centre back in Brahim Traore. I also annoyingly lost two of my youngsters from the academy who looked really promising as they refused to sign new contracts so had to sell them to Monaco and Empoli respectively for whatever I could get. This gave me some money to play around with so I managed to get a new goalkeeper, centre back, right back and centre mid whilst loaning in two other players. I've not looked back though since January. Absolutely smashed it. Won 13, drew 4 and only lost the once 

Tedic has been an absolute steal from Man City on a free transfer, 30 league goals is an incredible return. 

 

 

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

March 16th proved a landmark day; won League 2 with seven games to go, and had an offer to move to Cardiff at the end of the season, moving up in the world! I'm extremely pleased about it particularly because I tried for Middlesbrough and they decided to reappoint Tony Mowbray, but they're in danger of dropping into League 1 whilst Cardiff are firmly mid-table. transfer budget is low but if I can get some shrewd free transfers in getting promotion within a year or two should be doable.

[King Ellis]

I'm surprised he lasted as long as he did but finally had to sell Szesko in my Salzburg save at the start of season 3. 93m is a marked improvement on the 37 I got for Adeyemi at the start of S2. But Szesko had 2 years left and wanted out so didn't want to risk waiting to see if he'd come round. I feel like Adeyemi goes for way cheaper season one as I'm sure I've seen people get him for like 10m, not sure what Szesko goes for. Maybe I'm a better haggler than the AI.

No way I'll be able to find an equivalent player wanting to come to Austria even with all that money considering he's on like 230k at Bayern now. Did have Lorenzo Lucca agreed but it got cancelled as his team couldn't get a replacement so it's pushed to Jan now. Kinda annoying that it got cancelled rather than delayed and I had to renegotiate and pay more on transfer fee and wages. Way overpaying on his wages given he's not that great but at 6'7 I figure he'll do a good job given the number of headers Szesko and Simic score.

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

Ended the season breaking most of the League Two records - most wins, most goals, most points etc. Can't say I haven't gone out on a high. I've officially entered "Favoured Personnel" status at the club, which is quite nice. Big Timmy Abraham scored a hattrick in the penultimate game to end his tally on 25 goals, totally worth the half million I spent on him. I'll be honest, depending on the scout reports, might bring him with me. Or Jack McKay, who used to play for Cardiff anyway.

Middlesbrough dodged Championship relegation by the skin of their teeth, so I'll have the joy of beating Tony Mowbray in the new season.

[Baddar]

Sortitoutsi have been doing daily transfer updates so I'll more than likely get a game started later this week.

[METALMAN]

Out of curiosity now that I see he's got his move - what is the situation with Christian Eriksen on FM22? Is he in the game? Injured? At Inter Milan? What?

(I don't have FM22 otherwise I would check 4 myslef)

[JasonM]

1 hour ago, METALMAN said:

Out of curiosity now that I see he's got his move - what is the situation with Christian Eriksen on FM22? Is he in the game? Injured? At Inter Milan? What?

(I don't have FM22 otherwise I would check 4 myslef)

In the base database he's not set as injured, still at Inter Milan, but unable to play until 30/6/2022

On my game Inter sold him to Benfica after the second year.

I assume that for the upcoming update from SI he'll be set as being able to play for Brentford.

[METALMAN]

Interesting. Thanks for checking!

[Kyle]

Finally broke into Everton's favoured personnel after three seasons. Only took two 4th place finishes and a 2nd place, two FA Cup finals, winning one, a League Cup final and back to back Champions League finals. Hopefully Man City are feeling generous and give us the win in the CL final and let me feel underappreciated again.

[METALMAN]

The favoured personnel thing seems to be really stacked against the player. One game I was at Roma and won the Champions League and three Serie As. Don't get on the list. Then my successor spends a couple of years winning nothing and he's right there!

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

Meh, I got onto Chesterfield's for getting them promoted twice, they just don't like you.