Football Manager 2006

[TMM]

My thoroughly enjoyable Walsall/Man Utd game has gotten even more interesting of late. I'm midway through March and I'm unbeaten in ALL competitions!

I've won 24 out of 29 league games and I'm top of the Premiership by two points, but with a game in hand over Liverpool.

I beat Aston Villa in the Carling Cup final 2-0.

I'm in the FA Cup 6th Round against my former club Walsall.

I've been drawn against Porto in the Quarter-Finals of the Champions League.

Not one defeat there. My 2011/2012 record with Manchester United stands at 40 wins and 9 draws from 49 games, scoring 138 goals and conceeding 38. I think that's a damn fine record.

And now to make things even better, I've just been offered the AC Milan job. I asked them to allow me to delay the decision until the end of the season, which they've thankfully agreed to. Which gives me a fun, fun, FUN dilema. Do I:

A) Stay with Man Utd

B) Go to AC Milan and play with Milan's £163m

C) Apply for the Arsenal job once Arsene Wenger retires

I've got a great dilemma don't you think?

EDIT: Ooo question; does anyone know whether Silvio Berlusconi is an interfering bastard in this game?

EDIT2: Also, what sort of stupid rules would I have to put up with in Italy?

Edited August 26, 2006 by TMM

[King Ellis]

Well the game has screwed me royally for doing well in the cups, at the end of the season it's backed all my games into one neat little package which sees me playing virtually every day. Cunts.

[Buford Ripley]

This pinned topic makes me feel all warm inside.

'DEEEN~!

I'm currently in late October, I think, and I'm doing extremely well. I've remained unbeaten in the SPL and won every game bar one against Rangers which ended up being a 2-2 draw and I'm in the Champions League.

I had to qualify, though, and I was placed up against Sparta Prague before I could get anywhere near a group. Prague beat me 2-1 on the away leg but when they came into my backyard I promptly beat them 3-0 andshowed them the door.

And so the groups were drawn and I ended up with Dinamo Kiev, Porto and Monaco which I wasn't too happy about but I could've been lumped in with far worse. My first game took me to Monaco and the bastards beat me 2-1 much like Prague, however, I was all over them in the second half, had two goals disallowed and I was just having trouble converting chances into goals.

The second group game was me against Porto at home and the bastards knicked a point of me with a 1-1 draw. I was completely overwhelming them in the latter parts of the first half and all of the second half but it appears Vitor Baia is some kind of goalkeeping god - he isn't - the bastard stopped most of my shots whilst the other narrowly missed.

Kiev were then going to be the focus of my frustration and did they pay. I played them away first and they were slaightered 4-0 with ease. When those Ukrainians came to Pittodrie (sp?) they got ravaged by a 5-0 margin.

Monaco came to play me again and it was the same song and dance as the last game except they didn't come away with the win, instead we both came away with a 1-1 lead.

I've got Porto away left but regardless of what happens I'm guaranteed atleast a UEFA spot place since Porto leads with 10, I'm second with 8 points, then its Kiev with 6 and at the very bottom is Monaco with 4. So hopefully this club can get some freaking money already.

[Steeb]

Villa are pissing me off.

They can beat the big sides, but not relegation battlers. Excellent.

Bought in Love, Guillherme, Wotton, Skjelbred, Srna and Mvuemba.

Eight games left until the end of the season, and I'm 5th, four points off Spurs in 4th, and 2pts clear of Liverpool in 6th. They've offered me a new contract, but I've delayed it until the end of the season. I'm fucking off if they don't improve

[King Ellis]

So with the 3rd place finish under our belts our aim was to improve yet more and gain an automatic Champions League spot. To achieve this I wanted to shore up our defence a little, we had shipped more goals than the previous season and that's not on so Didier Zokora was brought in for 4m although my assistant wasn't immidiately impressed and said he'd struggle to hold down a first team place.

Early on things were good with some strong League wins over the likes of Man Utd (2-0), Chelsea (2-0), Arsenal (4-0) and Tottenham (4-2) but as I have previously reported to you my Champions League draw so me in a 'group of death' with Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Maccabi Haifa. A 1-1 draw in Israel was a shaky start and this was followed by a 1-2 loss to Barca at home and a 2-2 draw with Bayern, also at home. A 3-1 loss over in Germany pretty much condemed us to an early exit but a 7-0 thrashing of Haifa lightened the spirits somewhat. Things drew to a close with a 1-1 draw in Spain to leave us third and for the second year in a row UEFA cup football instead of the knockout phase of the Champions League.

Meanwhile at home things moved along well with a League Cup run forming, with a weakened side on the park it led to strong showings from youth team products Tom Dobson and Josh Walker and also young striker Dean Bowditch in both the 3-1 win against Liverpool and the 4-0 demolition of Blackburn. It took extra time to beat a 10 man Newcastle at St James' in the Quarter Final but Drogba scored in the 115 minute to steer us to a 2-1 victory. A nervy Semi Final first leg saw us scrape a 2-2 draw against Arsenal, Dean Bowditch grabbing a brace. The 2nd leg proved much easier with a Bowditch hat trick securing us 5-0 aggregate scorline and a passage to the final.

The FA cup also kicked off with another meeting with Stevanage, this time around it was a 5-0 to us, the 4th round was a much closer affair, a mere 1-0 victory over Barnsley. The league brought a bittersweet 7-0 capitulation of Leeds at Elland Road. 2-0 victories over title challengers Newcastle and Chelsea kept us up in the higher echelons of the table.

Returning to Europe saw us beat Deportivo away 2-1 and at home 5-1. Chelsea were also dispatched from the FA cup in the fifth round following a 2-0 win. Things didn't go so well in the League Cup final against Villa, the brummies raced to a 2-0 lead but we pegged them back to 2-2. Rochemback decided to get sent off which put us firmly on the back foot for the rest of the game. We held out until the 86th minute but Villa broke our resistance down to grab a third. In our attempts to equalise we shipped 2 injury time goals to leave us on the wrong side of a 5-2 scoreline.

The UEFA Cup 2nd knockout round paired us with Arsenal which would bring our tally of games with them to 6 for the season. Young backup striker Andrea Russotto scored from the bench to bring a vital away goal but it proved mute given a 3-1 home victory. The quarter finals pitted us against Betis, in Spain we scored a massive 3-0 victory but the home leg proved to be a real spectacle.

Porcellis scored a quick brace to leave the aggregate score at 3-2. It was then I thought about sitting back and trying to defend our advantage. At this point though Rochemback thought it a good idea to punch someone in the face, whilst his right hook was particually sweet it resulted in a red card. To our suprise we scored on the break soon after but Betis hit two more before the break to leave it 1-4 on the night and 4-4 on aggreage, with their away goals though Betis would go through. Minutes into the second half Drogba scored a second to give us back the advantage. Jimenez grabbed one and in the dying seconds Kallstrom popped up to make it 4-4 on the night and give us some pride, but most importantly 7-4 on aggregate. Semi Finals here we come.

The FA Cup quarters weren't so thrilling, a 1-1 home draw against Leeds led to a replay at Elland Road which we won 2-0. The semi final at Wembley saw Liverpool's Daniel Agger get sent off early which allowed us to romp to a 4-1 win, Dean Bowditch grabbing a hat trick. 2-0 home and away victories over Monaco in the semis of the UEFA sent us through to a final with Villareal.

At this point our massive backlog of fixtures left us 4 games behind leaders Newcastle, with the combination of our games in hand and certain results for the Geordies we might still win the league. We were set to play 5 games in a week and things started well with a 2-0 win over Birmingham. We stuttered to a 1-1 draw at Charlton, our FA cup final opponents and then a shock 1-4 loss at Bolton. A 2-0 win over Southampton took us into the final weekend of the season. Everyone would be playing their final games except us who would be playing Norwich some 9 days later. We were 4 points behind Newcastle and they could secure the title at home to Arsenal. With our recent record against them we weren't expecting them to do us any favours. We won our own game against Everton 2-0 and were delighted to see Arsenal defeat Newcastle 2-1. Thanks to our superior goal difference all we needed was a point against 19th place Norwich to secure the title.

But first we had two finals to play. Up first was Villareal. Defoe scored after only a couple of minutes to give us the perfect start but Forlan equalised in what was one of Villareals few chances. We continued to dominate throughout normal and subsequently extra time but failed to score a second. Penalties.

Both teams missed their first spot kicks and followed them up with 3 converted pens. Villareal missed their fifth leaving Guarin the chance to win the cup for Boro, but his shot was saved. In sudden death the tension was unbearable with 3 more players converting their penalties. Canadian Jonathan de Guzman missed Villareal's ninth kick to leave Kompany with the chance to be a hero. He smashed his penalty to the left and past the despairing Morgan de Sanctis to leave Middlesbrough UEFA cup champions for the 2nd time!

The FA Cup final in contrast was a turgid affair with Charlton's 451 not allowing us many oppurtunities. Darren Bent grabbed a goal which booked his place in my World Cup team after the 3 month injury to Owen.

And so the 11th of May, Middlesbrough vs Norwich. If Middlesbrough win or draw they win the title. If Norwich win or draw they stay up. As much as I do like Norwich, I have loaned them many a player over the years, I had to be ruthless. Drogba, Kompany and Defoe scored and a Cicero goal proved to scant consolation as Norwich were condemened to the Championship whilst M'boro celebrated winning the Premiership!

It was truly an epic season with Craig Gordon playing a massive 68 games with the likes of Jimenez, Kallstrom and McMahon not far behind. The four strikers in Defoe, Drogba, Bowditch and Yakubu continue to give a embarrasment of riches with Bowditch really shining in the cup and pushing for a permanent place in the team after Yakubu's lengthy hamstring injury.

Jermain Defoe: 22 league goals in 33 apps, 3 cup goals in 10 apps, 15 european goals in 15 apps

Didier Drogba: 14 league goals in 24 apps, 5 cup goals in 7 apps, 7 european goals in 11 apps

Dean Bowditch: 6 league goals in 20 apps, 15 cup goals in 12 apps, 2 european goals in 10 apps

Yakubu: 14 league goals in 19 apps, 1 cup goal in 4 apps, 1 european goal in 6 apps

So all in all a fantastic season let down only by the domestic final losses. Next season i'd love to get the FA cup and make a better attempt on the Champions League than the last two years. With plenty of youth players poached from various clubs it's set to be a bright future at the Riverside.

Also, my England side go to South Africa hoping to better the quarter final exit in 2006. With Iran, Poland and Uruguay in our group the country expects big things.

Middlesbrough have moved up 1 place to 1st position in the new European club rankings for next season.

Still won't get seeded for the CL though

Edited August 27, 2006 by King ROOOOOOOONEY!

[Buford Ripley]

I've been drawn with Real Betis in the Champions League's 1st KO Round and thus my Aberdeen team's European dream is going to be over soon.

[Buford Ripley]

Thinking that my Champions League dream was over now that I was facing Real Betis, I went into the game without expecting much seeing as I was also playing away from home then lo and behold I win 3-1. I play a bit of a defensive game when they come my way and visit me at the Pittodrie and manage to leak 2 goals before half time so now they're winning 3-3 on aggregate but I manage to mount a late come back with a nifty counter attacking tactic and earn myself two goals finishing the game with 3-2 thanks to an extremely late winner from Betis' Vanden Borre. But I win anyways with a 5-4 aggregate score.

And so they begin drawing the quarter finals and I end up with former group members Porto and then I'm sure that I'll get dumped out of the Champions League since I struggled to even draw against them in my group. And then this happens...

[JKDaRock]

Wow, that's impressive. Ive never had Neil Mellor do good for me though, Ore is awesome though. My recent attempt of LLM was stopped when i found out how much i hated Conference North/South but now i must attempt Brazillian LLM as i've began loving the brazillian league

Edited August 29, 2006 by JKDaRock

[Guest muddatrucker]

My Pompey team has been drawn against, Madrid, Inter and Lille, thats a bit of a cunty group.

[Buford Ripley]

The Champions League dream continues...

[The Future]

Wow I just started as Hartlepool and had a friendly against Manchester United which I somehow managed to win 1-0 due to Ferdinand scoring an own goal

[Buford Ripley]

So I beat R.Mardird 1-0 in the second leg and find myself as serious contendors for the Champions League.

Unfortunately I've been pitted against Man Utd. which I find funny since Alex Ferguson has been backing me all the way during my Scottish Cup campaign and even praised me for winning the SPL with 6 games left.

EDIT: Also note that I'm rather buggered for a right winger in the Champs League Final since one got sent and the other that went on to replace him reached his 3 yellow card limit and so I'm forced to stick a right back in there.

Edited August 29, 2006 by Bluey = Ratings

[Hobo]

I am going good from Bohs to Crewe, from Ericom League to FA Premier League. I am trying now to build a Crewe side worthy of the Premiership. I'm usually pretty bad at the whole signing players thing as I tend to by too many players or too many players who play in one position without getting rid of a few. But I'm getting a good balance. I've signed in pre-season:

Joe Cole from Chelsea on a Bosman.

Sylvan Wiltord from Man City on a Bosman

FSP from Liverpool on a free.

Sebastian De Vries from PSV (I think)

Martin De Weerd again from somewhere in Holland

Andy Todd from Blackburn (relegated from the Prem)

Michael Ball from PSV

Christian Veiri from Sevilla

and some other random kids.

Out as gone:

Juan Ugarte to Ferol

Rory Bereens to Vitesse

Kevin Phillips (retired)

Tomasz Radzinksi (retired, now on the coaching staff)

Christian Veiri (retired to coaching staff)

Over all the squad I've managed to get together according to my assistant manager shouldn't do too badly in the Premiership and Pre season has been pretty good with De Vries scoring in his last 3 outings (I bought him for his finishing) and Kevin Thomas a kid a Welsh kid I got from Cork City seems to be on the verge of something big. I've had to fight to keep Charlton and Spurs away from him. The most surprinsing signing has been Joe Cole who was on the Chelsea reserves and transfer listed too despite being a World Cup finalist with England in 2006 (where they lost to the USA).

In other news the following managerial appointments have been made by Season 2008/2009:

Les Ferdinand to QPR

Teddy Sheringham to Millwall (got them promoted from League One to the Championship via the playoffs too)

Paolo Maldini manager of Slovenia

Stan Lazeridis (sp) manager of Austrialia

Iwan Robers at Cardiff CS

Gary Megson to Arsenal

Klaus Topmoller to Leeds (sacked and replaced by Peter Withe, I think thats his name)

Topmoller then went to Aberdeen.

Gordon Strachan to Real Madrid (sacked)

Mick McCarthy to Celtic (Not Sacked Yet)

Mark Hughes to Man Utd

Pako Ayasteran promoted at Liverpool

Paul Lambert manages Belguim

[fourstarfizzle]

I think I have acheived a level of greatness, I'm sat in work playnig FM2006, so technically I'm getting paid to paly it, £6 an hour

God I love my dull job.

[TMM]

Well I finished the season with Manchester United after winning the Carling Cup, the FA Cup, the Premier League and last but not least, the Champions League. And we did it all without losing one single game. 67 games without defeat. Although, the league ended up being far closer than I expected, as I won it by about 5 points I think it was in the end. I made up for losing in UEFA Cup Final to Werder Bremen the previous year by beating them in the Champions League Final, so that made me happy.

After being offered the AC Milan job back in...February I think, I asked them to let me delay the decision until the end of the season, which they did. I figured when I get to the end of the season, I'd see how things had been and decide then. I knew Arsene Wenger was retiring, so there'd be the Arsenal job available, not to mention the AC Milan job which I was offered as well as staying at Man Utd, which wouldn't be bad.

I figured I'd go to AC Milan. I was told I'd be getting £163m to spend, so I get to bring in who I want. Boy was I surprised when I got there. They seriously have a lot of shit there. Also, the bastards finished 11th in the league!!! Forget the Champions League, I don't even get the bloody UEFA Cup! So you can imagine how pissed off I was with that.

No matter, I have somehow now got £200m to spend on new players.

First order of business is to rebuild the midfield that my predecessor wrecked (actually he wrecked the whole team, but that's not the point).

Fabregas is bored at Arsenal and wants a new challenge, so I lodge a £12m bid for him, they say they want £7m plus a 21-year old striker they sold to Milan the year before. Ok then, fine, no problem. I've got my man, thank FUCK. Good start.

I then go on to raid my former club by bringing in the man who scored 21 goals for me last season Salomon Kalou for £10m, as well as a decent back-up goalkeeper Federico Bellemo who I brought to Man Utd from my previous club Walsall.

I need to work on the defence and a goalkeeper as well (although the previous boss agreed to sign a 35-year old Morgan De Sanctis, I figured some youth couldn't harm anything) so I spend £7m on Arsenal's Italian goalie Andrea Pozzato, who has some great stats. I also sign Freiberg's Dennis Aogo (who has awesome stats) for £10m. I also make a player swap with Bayern Munich for young Italian defender Paolo Valentini and they got my old goalkeeper.

Ok, now I need some strikers. I've already got Albert Gilardino and Kerlon, who are awesome, but I do not have ANYONE else. So, outcomes Mr. Berlusconi's cheque-book as I head on over to Chelsea and beg them to let me have Giampaolo Pazzini, who they let me have for £16.75m plus some shitty young Italian winger, who wouldn't be playing for my team anyway.

"There's three strikers" you think. "That's enough" you think. No no no. I still need another world-class striker, and it's between Obafemi Martin, Djibril Cisse, Lucas Podolski, Fred and a young striker who plays for Tottenham who's a regen, valued at £27m and has already cost teams over £36m and has played for Barcelona, Juventus, Chelsea and now Tottenham. Tottenham want £60m...and I really consider it, but something won't let me pay that much money, so I cancel the deal. Cisse isn't interested in joining me, and Podolski and Martins' clubs won't even talk to me. So it's down to Fred...who I finally manage to sign for £40m...the most expensive player I've ever signed on any Championship Manager or Football Manager.

You'd think I'd be able to go out and buy some young players who'll become great to fill in the gaps. Oh no. My Mr. Moneybags chairman demands I sign a world-class player who will increase the image of the club...WHAT THE FUCK WAS FRED THEN!?! Grrr. I knew he'd end up going out and buying a bloody striker or something, so I dipped into his never-ending pockets again and pulled out £25m for Chelsea's Essien and £17m for Liverpool's Xabi Alonso.

I've spent too much.

Edited August 30, 2006 by TMM

[Buford Ripley]

Even when I have an insane amount of money to spend like TMM I never actually do much spending but that's only because I don't believe in over spending (well not too much) on a player unless I REALLY want him.

Anyway, the Aberdeen Champions League Dream is officially over. Without a doubt Man Utd beat me in the final, however, it was a very tight affair and I could've easily won it had it not been for Van Dersar. Saying that, they could have also steam rolled over me had it not been for Aldo Bobadilla! In the end Utd won 3-2 but hopefully this journey to the final has brought in enough revenue for Aberdeen so that I can actually spend something resonable in the transfer market.

Soeaking of transfers...

I'm in the middle of June and have so far made three signings to bolster my squad and to mount a far more serious challenge to the Champions League (because getting to the final isn't serious enough ). In the process I've managed to coax Hugo Almeida to come in on a Bosman, however, that does give me far too many strikers once more with Waltner, Berg, Thompson, Lovell, Mellow, Ore and Bagshaw but Lovell and Berg may be on their way out with Bagshaw heading back into the reserves. Almeida's arrival could also balance out since I had a bit of a striker injury crisis this season and thankfully Thompson and Mellor stepped up to prove their worth (of £0 ) by scoring 20+ goals each.

Simon Vukcevic is on his way here since I only have one player for cover in Stevie Crawford's AMC role and Crawford is going on 34 but is still awesome though I do need an adequate replacement. Vukcevic will be my most expensive signing at £7M. Kim Young-Kwang comes in as backup for Bobadilla. Bobadilla is heading into his thirties but I thought I may as well think ahead in time and bring someone who could adequately replace him. Kwang also give Jourdren some competition, who incidentally has been quite inconsistent in his first team outings.

Andy Webster also comes in to bolster the centre backs since Russell Anderson is aging and not quite up to scratch to the awesomeness of Rajnoch and Diamond.

[TMM]

Even when I have an insane amount of money to spend like TMM I never actually do much spending but that's only because I don't believe in over spending (well not too much) on a player unless I REALLY want him.

Believe me when I say that had you seen the state of AC Milan when I took over, you'd understand my desperate need to an almost complete and utter rebuilding!

Also let me tell you that Simon Vukcevic is awesome. He was amazing for my Manchester United team.

[Buford Ripley]

I've just realised that getting the golden boot in the Champions League, making its dream team as well as reaching the final and on top of that scoring in internationals has done fuck all for the valuation of my players.

No one is valued over £500K.

EDIT: No one of a decent names wants to join my club. Not even a 34yo Zidane.

Edited August 30, 2006 by Bluey = Ratings

[TMM]

I've just realised that getting the golden boot in the Champions League, making its dream team as well as reaching the final and on top of that scoring in internationals has done fuck all for the valuation of my players.

No one is valued over £500K.

That's what you get for being a Scottish team. I swear on that game unless you play for Celtic or Rangers, no matter how well the team does, your players valuation will never be remotely high. Even some of Celtic's shitty reserve players I've seen for £1m+

[Dan]

Wow I just started as Hartlepool and had a friendly against Manchester United which I somehow managed to win 1-0 due to Ferdinand scoring an own goal

I find out today/tommorow if I got into FM2007 beta testing.

Anyone else apply?