Football Manager 2007

[therockbox]

I highly doubt that's true. My Everton team is favourites against almost everyone, I was 2-7 to beat Southampton in the League Cup (at home) but they still came and attacked from the off. Then I'll go to places where I'm expected to have a tough time (Chelsea, Barca in recent weeks) and have one or two shots max to deal with.

[therockbox]

What's the most expensive player you've got in your youth team? I've just noticed that a 17 year old Swedish striker I signed from one of my affiliate clubs when he was 16 is valued at £950k, with another 17 year old whose out on loan at Blackpool is worth £850k.

[IAceI]

What's the most expensive player you've got in your youth team? I've just noticed that a 17 year old Swedish striker I signed from one of my affiliate clubs when he was 16 is valued at £950k, with another 17 year old whose out on loan at Blackpool is worth £850k.

[stokeriño]

England's group for Euro 2008:

England

France

Germany

Poland

What the fuck is that?!

[Summers]

Word War 3.

[stokeriño]

If Poland were replaced with Russia, I'd agree with you.

[Thomas]

Left Kayserispor after 3 and a bit years in charge. Finished 4th, 1st and 4th, and was 5th the next season after 7 games. I left because I'd already been dumped out of the Cup (that I won last year), and the Uefa Cup in the first round to Hamburg. Didn't fancy going through another 30 straight games in the league season where I get angry at my players for letting in goals.

I had a good time in Europe though. First year was in the Intertoto, beat some shite side in the 2nd round but knocked out by Bremen in the final. Next year I beat some shite in the Uefa Cup qual, but couldn't maker it past Lazio into the 1st round, lost 2-0 away and drew 1-1 at home (although they did equalise in the last minute). The next year I'd won the league, so went into Champs League 3rd round quals, lost 3-0 away and drew 1-1 at home to Valencia. Had Leverkusen in the first round of the Uefa, lost 2-0 in the away leg, but won 4-1(!) in the home league, so got into the groups. Lost 1-0, 1-0 and 1-0 to Lazio(a), PSV(h) and Man City(a), but beat Hannover 1-0(a), so that was the end of my European adventure.

Jobs haven't been flooding to me since departing, and the planned move to America wasn't on, so have taken the job at Samsunspor just four games after leaving Kayserispor. They have a 34 yr old striker called Aykut Serkan who has scored 20+ league in the three seasons, so he's the only weapon I have. In their first season they came 2nd in the second division, then 7th in the top league, then 11th. They're now 17th (1 win from 11) and in the relegation zone. £1.4m in debt, with a chairman loan of £15m... no funds to spend, and an aging squad. Hopefully I can avoid relegation.... and beat Kayserispor over there in March.

Edited May 5, 2007 by Thomas

[IAceI]

Took a look at my reserves, these are the players in my U20's who are valued at a million pounds or more, Chumbinho is the oldest most expensive one, he's 20 years old, everyone above him is 17 or 18. The players below Chumbinho are all 17-19. Arthur has been removed since he's 21 but I didn't check before I took the screenshot so he's still there.

Pretty impressed, but my hopes are on a 15 year old kid valued at 140k. Still, some good players in that group, there mainly strikers. All but Sergio Mota and Alex Cazumba are either strikers or can play up front, Mota is an attacking midfielder with Cazumba being a left back/wing back.

[estebanmon]

Since my earlier game got corrupted, I started a new one with Villareal. I beat some Hungarian team 2-1, and I can't find a decent player worth less than my $6 million budget. I did get 3 good scouts, firing the crap they start with.

By the way, are dollars twice as much as pounds in the game?

[Summers]

Tamworth are a fuckin' joke. Sigh.

[-A-]

Since my earlier game got corrupted, I started a new one with Villareal. I beat some Hungarian team 2-1, and I can't find a decent player worth less than my $6 million budget. I did get 3 good scouts, firing the crap they start with.

By the way, are dollars twice as much as pounds in the game?

[gunnar hendershow]

Word War 3.

English win based on having a superior language.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

But...they don't...

Seriously, English sucks. Russian and Polish might sound ugly, but they're a hell of a lot easier than English.

[stokeriño]

Easier doesn't make it better.

In any case, my Euro 2008 run went thusly:

England 1-1 France

England 2-0 Poland

England 1-0 Germany

(Qualified top of group with 7 points, Germany had 4 points, France 3 points, Poland 1 point)

England 4 - 2 Czech Republic (Quarterfinal)

England 1-0 Russia (Semifinal) I'd beaten them twice in the Qualifiers anyway.

England 1-2 Italy (Final) Italy's second goal came in the 81st minute when Toni was clearly offside. I was asked to comment on the 'controversial' goal after the game, said he was offside, and the FA were suspiciously silent about the whole thing. So yeah, I was screwed. Ranked #1 in the World though, so that's something.

Still, I'm glad to have got to the final since we had people like Rooney and Downing injured and unable to be called up. Andy Johnson seems to have a knack for scoring in the 90th minute, bless him.

Now on to World Cup 2010. Easy qualifying group for this one:

England

Malta

Kazakhstan

Latvia

Scotland

Switzerland

...Seriously, they're all going to get pwned.

Edited May 6, 2007 by stokeriño

[TheBoss]

But...they don't...

Seriously, English sucks. Russian and Polish might sound ugly, but they're a hell of a lot easier than English.

[IAceI]

I'll probably learn Polish so I can have a conversation with people when I meet them in the streets in 5 years or so. There's a guy on our street called Polish Joe, he's been there for 50 years or so though, I have a feeling sooner or later he'll just be Joe and I'll be English Luke. >_<

Oh yeah, FM. So I lost back to back matches, which pissed me off, especially losing 2-1 to Flamengo (all three goals were immense though), and then 2-0 to rivals Corinthians, who are reigning champions and down in 14th or so. It's annoying because this is twice or so I've had the lead from Internacional who are top cut down to 6 points, and both times we've slipped up. I call an AI cheat! Internacional are now 13 points clear, and Vasco da Gama are level on points with me with a game in hand. Palmeiras and Atletico Paranese are all nipping at my heels, but I'm confident I can finish top 3, which is a good goal for me I feel. We're expected to finish 4th, but when you consider some of the teams; Internacional, Sao Paulo, Santos, Corinthians, Atletico Paranese, Palmeiras, Vasco, Cruizero (been poor though this season), Botafogo, finishing 4th is difficult, so I'm pleased.

Also after three long attempts, the chairman finally sold the club. I was hoping to have some money pumped in, mainly so I can up my youth facilities and training stuff, I'm not too fussed about getting a £50m budget since I'm just wanting to build up my youth squad as well as possible. Next season I'm looking to overhaul my staff, I've got some decent training stuff sorted, going to set up more position based training stuff since I've experimented with Strikers training, and it doesn't seem too bad. Like I say, I have everything I need in my club already, good players, awesome youth players, but it'd help if I could make them even better to really produce more quality youngsters that can be sold (with sell on fees and buy back clauses etc. of course) to make a healthier profit. I'll probably have to do that anyways, since at the minute my clubs finances stand at around £6m, which isn't enough to really do anything worthwhile.

Still, I'm enjoying the game and we're doing well so I can't complain. Just gotta make sure it's going to continue.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

But...they don't...

Seriously, English sucks. Russian and Polish might sound ugly, but they're a hell of a lot easier than English.

Polish is not ugly, it is a pretty easy language to learn... English is the easiest in my opinion... But polish itself is not so hard, the grammar might be tricky sometimes, but all in all - polish = easy language to learn.

Maybe for me, because I'm polish myself, but... whatevah.

[The Kraig]

I find it far easier to speak foreign languages than write in them. Too many é's and á's and ú's and Scandinavian letters like Þ or Turkish characters like ş. Then there's Greek, Arabic, etc that have entirely different ways of writing them.

[TheBoss]

But...they don't...

Seriously, English sucks. Russian and Polish might sound ugly, but they're a hell of a lot easier than English.

Polish is not ugly, it is a pretty easy language to learn... English is the easiest in my opinion... But polish itself is not so hard, the grammar might be tricky sometimes, but all in all - polish = easy language to learn.

Maybe for me, because I'm polish myself, but... whatevah.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

Yeah, and I'm being perfectly honest when I say that you're the first person I've ever met who has that opinion.