Football Manager 2006

[TMM]

Finally decided to leave Walsall after four years. Won the Premiership last season with them, and have already won the Championship and Carling cup, and I decided I want a change.

I resigned a month into the new season, and at the moment the only job available is Swedish club GIF Sundsvall who are 9th out of 14 teams in the Allsvenskanliga. There's 26 games in a Swedish season and they're already 20 games, but I figured why not and I applied for the job. The fact they're in the final of the Swedish Cup may have had a little bit to do with it. Hopefully I'll get the job (don't see why I wouldn't with the reputation I have) and then just stay until the end of the season, see how it goes and decide from then.

EDIT: Bastards. They hired somebody called Leif. LEIF!!!!!

Edited August 9, 2006 by TMM

[King Ellis]

Finally decided to leave Walsall after four years. Won the Premiership last season with them, and have already won the Championship and Carling cup, and I decided I want a change.

I resigned a month into the new season, and at the moment the only job available is Swedish club GIF Sundsvall who are 9th out of 14 teams in the Allsvenskanliga. There's 26 games in a Swedish season and they're already 20 games, but I figured why not and I applied for the job. The fact they're in the final of the Swedish Cup may have had a little bit to do with it. Hopefully I'll get the job (don't see why I wouldn't with the reputation I have) and then just stay until the end of the season, see how it goes and decide from then.

EDIT: Bastards. They hired somebody called Leif. LEIF!!!!!

Garrett?

Edited August 9, 2006 by King ROOOOOOOONEY!

[Farmer Reil]

Oi, one of my best mates is called Leif

Anyway, since updates seem to be the done thing at the moment I'd better get my finger out.

I started off with San Marino (the country, oh noes cheating¬!¬1), failed to score a goal in the World Cup qualifiers in 2005 (not that that surprised anyone at the FA) and finished bottom. Holland went on to beat England in the final, on penalties.

After the qualifiers were over, I applied for and was given the job at Citadella (Italian C2/A). They were in dire financial straits, and my first (and hugely unpopular) action as manager was to sell our key (and only above-average) player, Albanian striker Elvin Mecaj to Piacenza for £600k (he's now worth £2.5m). However, I bought Belarussian winger Dimitriy Rekish for free, and immediately sold half of him to Sampdoria for £1.2m. £1.8m for one and a half players. That got us out of the red, and Rekish got us out of the relegation zone, so we finished comfortably mid-table, and comfortably not-skint.

At the end of the season I resigned from Citadella to concentrate on Euro qualification in 2007, which saw us grouped with England, Belgium (again), Ukraine, Albania, Slovenia and Kazhakstan. Despite recording our first and second ever competitive win as a footballing nation, both against Kazhakstan and both 1-0, and probably our first ever draw (Slovenia at home0-0), we only managed 6th place, but the FA were delighted ¬_¬. England got revenge on Holland with a 3-0 win in the final.

Citadella went on to win promotion in the 08/09 season, and Rekish was still there (but he later left for Crotone (in Serie A) for £1.2m.

World Cup 2010 qualification was awesome. We were grouped with Belgium (for the third time in three competitions), Ukraine, Scotland, the Czech Republic and Azerbaijan, and finished third (behind Belgium and the Czechs), after beating every team at home except Belgium and the Czech's, and drawing with Azerbaijan away (losing to the rest). Largely thanks to a regen by the name of Maurizio Bollini, who despite relatively poor stats turned out to be quite the goal machine.

After narrowly failing to qualify for the world cup with San Marino of all people, Blackburn (currently 17th in the Championship) snapped me up, and I stepped down as San Marino manager. The reason Blackburn were 17th turned out to be less about the squad, and more about Mark Hughes' incompetence. How can a squad with Bellamy and Zamora up front, Teemu Tainio in midfield, Dudek in goal and Hugo Viana on the wing be 17th in the Championship?

With only four signings ( Matteo Gaudino (San Marino 'keeper who's pretty awesome), Clarence Seedorf on a free and Sergio Floccari who I'd loaned at Citadella but couldn't afford to sign) and a change of formation (4-3-1-2), we rocketed up the league, and won the Championship.

A hoarde of new players were brought in for the Premiership season; an entire four! (Well, four for the first team anyway). Tim Krul (who I'd loaned from Newcastle during a goalkeeping injury crisis and he did well), Robert Muller from Hertha Berlin, Andrea Domeniconi (San Marino midfielder) and Darius Vassell on a freebie.

It's currently November of the 2009/10 season, we lost the first nine games in a row when I changed back to 4-4-2, thinking that Premiership quality wingers would walk all over our three man midfield. Despite that, Vassell scored in every single game he played (which was only five due to injury), and Alexander Odegaard (an AM RLC/FC that I inherited when I took over, and is fucking awesome just behind the front 2) was also on fire. We weren't being slaughtered, but we were losing by the odd goal.

We then did a bit of an Arsenal, and let go Jerzy Dudek (who was costing the earth in wages, and was now only sub keeper), Lucas Neil, and a host of backup players to cut our wage bill down.

Deciding that maybe a left-back would be handy, considering our current left back was an average 34-year-old Belgian, I blew our entire £8m transfer budget on Lecce's Ermilio Rullo, who my scouts told me was awesome. He was, and is consistantly man of the match (unless Vassell plays). He's also always chosen by my assistant as the Captain since Nelsen and McCann are injured. But he can't speak any English. Assuming that matters in FM, I've decided not to risk it (although statswise he'd be excellent).

Switching back to our Championship-winning formation, we immediately started to do better. If you can't defend properly, just score more goals than the other team... We've now wriggled our way to 18th (which is a long way, considering after nine games we were the only team in England AND Italy to have scored ZERO points).

Going through a bit of a central defender injury crisis now though, with club captain Ryan Nelsen (yes, he's still here) out injured and both of our new centrebacks (Mirfin and Muller) also injured. But we'll survive.

Our current team (see how many you recognise ):

GK: Matteo Gaudino (Subs: Tim Krul, Lee Grant (who's whining about first team football))

DR: Nathan Doyle/James Perch/Phil McGuire (a bit of a rotation system, because they're all pretty average. Perch and McGuire are also cover for DC).

DL: Ermiliano Rullo (Sub: Arnaud Le Lan)

DC: Ryan Nelsen

DC: Robert Muller (David Mirfin)

MR: Clarence Seedorf (Sisi)

ML: Hugo Viana (Sisi)

MC: Gavin McCann/Teemu Taino (Andrea Domeniconi)

AMC: Alexander Odegaard (Sisi/Craig Bellamy if desperate)

FC: Sergio Floccari/Bobby Zamora/Niklas Bendtner (loan)

FC: Darius Vassell/Craig Bellamy

Edit: Woah, that was long...but it was five seasons worth

Edited August 9, 2006 by TheReilDeal

[Summers]

You'll win it with Kyle Wilson on board ¬_¬

Kyle Wilson will always be my boy.

Same with Paul Wotton.

[King Ellis]

I have Mirfin, touted as the next Sol Campbell. Insert your own gay jokes here.

[Farmer Reil]

You'll win it with Kyle Wilson on board ¬_¬

Kyle Wilson will always be my boy.

Same with Paul Wotton.

[Summers]

That explains why he's my Norwich captain, and has been for three seasons, and is absolutely amazing for me. And he loves Norwich, and me.

In the game, he is my boy.

[TMM]

Finally decided to leave Walsall after four years. Won the Premiership last season with them, and have already won the Championship and Carling cup, and I decided I want a change.

I resigned a month into the new season, and at the moment the only job available is Swedish club GIF Sundsvall who are 9th out of 14 teams in the Allsvenskanliga. There's 26 games in a Swedish season and they're already 20 games, but I figured why not and I applied for the job. The fact they're in the final of the Swedish Cup may have had a little bit to do with it. Hopefully I'll get the job (don't see why I wouldn't with the reputation I have) and then just stay until the end of the season, see how it goes and decide from then.

EDIT: Bastards. They hired somebody called Leif. LEIF!!!!!

Garrett?

Can't remember the surname, but he was Swedish and I'm fairly certain it wasn't Garrett.

Anyway, went on holiday with the instructions to apply for all jobs, and during was offered the Southampton, West Brom, West Ham, Wolves and Udinese jobs. The day Udinese offered me the job, Man Utd sacked Irureta so I asked them to allow me to delay the decision as I applied for the Man Utd job. Well, I got it, and now I have a sweet penny to spend in the transfer window when I eventually get there.

[TAFKA Castroneves]

Paul Wotton I will sign for any club I am with in this game, he is brillant. He was a mainstay in my International-stars Tottenham team alongside King at the back.

[Thomas]

I have Mirfin, touted as the next Sol Campbell. Insert your own gay jokes here.

[Farmer Reil]

I paid £800k for him from Man City in 09/10.

While I'm here... Mark Wright just got sacked as Derby manager, after receiving the "vote of confidence" just about monthly for the whole of last season, and the first half of this season... I'd love to manage Derby. Even if you're utter shite, it'd still take them a year and a half to pluck up the courage to fire you...

Edit: Hmmm...they're 17th in the Championship... maybe I'll have a go at a bit of deja vu...

Hah, and David Beckham is the new Slovenia manager...

Edited August 9, 2006 by TheReilDeal

[King Ellis]

I have Mirfin, touted as the next Sol Campbell. Insert your own gay jokes here.

Big Dave Mirfin was one of my favourite signings for Southampton. How much did you pay for him / what season are you in?

£2.5m in my third season at M'Boro.

[TheArsenal]

Twelve games into my first season in the Premiership with Swansea, and I've just lost my first league game. I'm sitting second in the league between Arsenal and Chelsea. My games so far have gone like this:

H - Man Utd 1-1

A - Spurs 2-2

H - West Ham 3-2

A - Blackburn 3-2

H - Norwich 1-0

H - Roma 3-0 (UEFA Cup 1st Rnd)

A - Birmingham 2-1

H - West Brom 2-0

A - Roma 1-3 (UEFA Cup 1st Rnd - Agg 4-3)

A - Charlton 2-1

H - Lokomotiv Moscow 3-2 (UEFA Cup Grp)

A - Man City 1-1

H - Arsenal 1-1

A - Middlesbrough 1-1

H - Liverpool 2-4

I did only have ten men in the Liverpool game due to an early red card, and also had an earyl injury taking out Edgar Davids. Hopefully I can get back to my good form and stay up this year. Although I'm second I only have 23 points so far, so I'm nowhere near safety.

Can anyone recommend some good defenders? I'm in November of the third season, and my current defenders either need replacing due to being too old or just not good enough. In fact, any general recommendations would be nice.

[Guest Chasing Ringy]

an anyone recommend some good defenders? I'm in November of the third season, and my current defenders either need replacing due to being too old or just not good enough. In fact, any general recommendations would be nice.

Edited August 9, 2006 by Chasing Ringy

[Guest muddatrucker]

Alexis, he's spanish and from Real Sociedad or something, he's the fucking bee-knees.

EDIT: Or from Mallorca or somewhere, he looks like Fernando Torres.

Edited August 9, 2006 by muddatrucker

[Buford Ripley]

Karl Svensson (Y)

[therockbox]

There's so much bitching in the lower leagues, every week I get 9 or 10 news pieces saying "so and so has declared he is far from happy at his lack of opportunites at wherever."

Even some of my own players have started, there needs to be a response where you can call them shit, not "work harder in training."

[therockbox]

PLAYER NAMING, BEWARE~!

Hereford are 19th in the Conference National, Chelsea are second in the Premiership. Well and truly owned.

It wasn't even a bad Chelsea squad; Cech, Gallas, Givet, Joe Cole, Jarosik, van der Vaart and Jonas Elmer all played. They even had 60% of possession and 22 shots, but still couldn't score.

Because I've played Hereford five times and have won three (drawing twice), I can assume I'm better than Chelsea.

Edited August 9, 2006 by E. Von Dahl killed therockbox

[Farmer Reil]

Oh, and if you need a decent R/LB, sign Lars Kristian Eriksen, I was looking through Lyn once and found him, he was awesome and can play on both sides.

[TMM]

Quick question because I can't be arsed to wait and see: if a player has played in the Champions League for one club this season but then joins another club, can he play in the UEFA Cup? Or is he cup-tied from all European competition?