Football Manager 2007

[shaneo]

I hate the European Club rankings system. I finish with a domestic double, the league and FA Cup, and drop 2 places. Chelsea, on the other hand, finish outside the top 4 in the Premiership, but win the Champions League, and they move up from 5th to first. That sucks. no justice.

[wozzi]

I hate the European Club rankings system. I finish with a domestic double, the league and FA Cup, and drop 2 places. Chelsea, on the other hand, finish outside the top 4 in the Premiership, but win the Champions League, and they move up from 5th to first. That sucks. no justice.

[stokeriño]

It is. And is it not based on performance in European competitions only?

Better than the International Rankings, certainly, where teams can flip up and down the list even when no matches have been played by any nation at all that month.

[Scott McFly]

Indeed, it's based on performance in Europe only. So Chelsea winning the Champion's League and climbing to first is not that surprising. How did you perform in Europe shaneo?

[shaneo]

I was a semi finalist and went out on penalties. Last year, I was a finalist, and the year before, semis again.

If the whole system is based on European comps only, then it seriously isnt worth taking note of. If Barcelona can win 6 straight La Liga titles and still slip out of the top 5, then I guess its just not really worth taking too much notice of.

[Big Red Fury]

Started a game with Crewe, trying to do a Dario Gradi but I may end up leaving for greener pastures. Sold David Vaughan to Leicester for 725,000 pounds almost immediately, signed a deal with Everton which saw Scott Cuthbert(bought from Celtic) and James Vaughan join on loan. Also brought in Scott Dixon on loan from Southampton after he chose to join them over me and Lee Holmes from Derby to play on my left side. Needed one more striker so I went abroad and bought Bolivian striker Jose Alfredo Castillo from Orient Petrolero for 450,000. Was doing alright after a bobble to start the season, fulfilling my mid table predictions but two consecutive results changed my season. Two games in the Christmas/New Year's window where I fell behind 2-0 at half only to charge back with 4 second half goals in each game to win 4-3. My team was overflowing with confidence and we got hot pretty much the entire second half of the season, chasing down the other surprise package Brighton who were at one point 17 points ahead of me. Clinched the title at rivals Port Vale on the second last day of the season, so we have one game left and we are attempting to make it 100 league goals for the campaign. Castillo has been an absolute revelation with 27 league goals(32 overall) and 12 assists, but my main problem is that he has a 2.5 million pound release and Derby are interested so I need to try to re-sign him with a higher one. James Vaughan was also huge, he had 25 league goals. Bought Jason Puncheon in January for 200,000 and he's been good business as well, playing on both wings when we went through a major injury crisis in March and April, which with his help we were able to continue through in a strong fashion. Signed Shavar Thomas on a free, so I'm trying my best to start building a team for next season before this one ends haha.

[stokeriño]

I was a semi finalist and went out on penalties. Last year, I was a finalist, and the year before, semis again.

If the whole system is based on European comps only, then it seriously isnt worth taking note of. If Barcelona can win 6 straight La Liga titles and still slip out of the top 5, then I guess its just not really worth taking too much notice of.

It affects your seeding for things like the CL group stage. Otherwise, meh.

[therockbox]

I've finally gotten into a game again

Since finishing my epic Forest game I've started a few, but just haven't been able to get into any of them. I've tried LLM with Aldershot, but got bored after a couple of months. Then tried Liverpool, but got to Christmas and lost interest.

Started a new game yesterday, and holidayed until the end of the transfer window. Decided to take over at whoever was bottom, but surprisingly it was Spurs. Two defeats out of two with Jenas, Huddlestone, King, Dawson and Zokora all out injured. Went on a fifteen match unbeaten run, including a 5-2 thumping of Man Utd at WHL and a 4-3 last minute away win in the UEFA Cup against Lazio.

Things then went a bit shit. Paul Robinson broke his ribs in a 2-1 defeat at home to Reading, they had two shots on goal and scored them both whilst we missed about 20 chances. Then we lost 2-1 away to Pompey, thanks to the returning Zokora's own goal.

Scraped a 1-0 win at home to bottom-placed Wigan at home, before going to Chelsea away. I was expecting to get mullered but we managed to get to half-time at 0-0, so they chucked Drogba and Joe Cole on. Within 15 minutes they're winning 3-0, and it could have been 5 or 6. Off come Huddlestone, Ghaly and Berbatov who all have a 5 rating and on come Bent, Lennon and Jenas. Bent sets up Keane in the 66th minute, and suddenly we start pounding them. Bent hits the post and Malbranque missed two one-on-one's, before Keane scores again in the 86th minute. Chelsea bring on Carvalho for Ballack, so I set us to all out attack and push the tempo right up.

In the second minute of injury time Lennon breaks down the right and crosses it, and Bent taps the ball home to make it 3-3. I jumped out of my chair for the first time in ages.

So we're midway through December and sitting in fifth, but we have two games in hand on the top four because of the UEFA Cup. Only problem is I won't be able to strengthen in January thanks to Jol spending £13million on some useless Venezuelan, who is so shit he's struggling in the reserves. Real Madrid and Inter are sniffing around Lennon, so I might have to sell him to buy a decent right back.

[Summers]

Summers, thats the best final possible considering your last post. It like a story

OOOOHHHH

LEAGUE CUP SUCCEES!! 2 - 1 victory.

I think this is better than any of my league wins.

[shaneo]

After one of my most productive transfer periods, having secured the services of Aaron Lennon and Michael Owen, as well as poaching no less then 20 of the most promising youngsters on the planet, decimation Barcelona's youth ranks in the process, my computer crashed. Not only did I lose all my transfers, but all data from my last save game, on the 1st January

My enthusiasm was almost completely lost, as usually happens when something like this happens, for a few months, probably till the next FM, however i stumbled accross an old Real Madrid save game.

I started as manager of my local team, Cork City, in the Eircom league, and worked my way up to FC den Bosch in the dutch 2nd division, getting them promoted, then to Murcia in La Liga BBVA, getting them promoted, and moving on to Real Madrid. This game was a whole year in the making, starting last September at the start of College, and I hadnt played since May cus my comp here cant really handle it cus almost every nation is on and the save game is huge.

I am currently coming to the end of the 2016 transfer window, with players like Cassillas, Diarra, Robinho, Boularouhz and De Jong all still kicking about the first team. The board and the fans are unhappy with me since I have been angling for the Utd job all summer, but they seem intent on keeping Keane there. I also havent bought enough star players for the boards liking, since I usually like to poach youngsters and nurture them from the youth ranks, I just find it more fun.

Should be interesting, wonder if I will be sacked before too long or if I will get a chance to turn the board and fan opinions around.

[estebanmon]

Michael Gravgaard from FC Kobenhavn is a god. Well, maybe not that much, but he's still an awesome defender. He's not that expensive either. Him and Mellberg are an awesome defense, with both usually getting 8 ratings. And Jonathan Zebina on the right is awesome too.

And now that I've bought Iaquinta, Carew is nothing for me. Iaquinta, Moore and Maloney are an incredibly good combination. Maloney crosses or passes the ball to Iaquinta, who shoots and gets blocked by the keeper and Moore is right there to tap the rebound in.

I also think that Agbonlahor and Ashley Young are shit. Looking at them closely, the stats for their positions are shit. Young barely has crossing, and Agbonlahor has nothing aside from speed. Oh, and Stiliyan Petrov sucks too, just not as much.

I love my new Villa. I signed Gravgaard, Iaquinta, Zebina, Rodallega and Flamini and they've all been awesome. This game is becoming a really succesful one.

[Pesci]

So, I had to wipe my PC clean, and thus I lost this awesome EWR game I'd been playing. In the need for entertainment I decided FM was my only option and after starting a game with Liverpool only to realise it wasn't much fun, I loaded my old Liverpool game up again. Started off in January 2013 on a shocking run, but I changed a few things around and now I'm in April, in the middle of a fantastic run. It's probably too late for this stride I've hit to mean anything, but still, at least I've managed to salvage our season before we ended up finish mid-table.

Anyway, just had the most surreal game ever against Milan. Quarter Final of the Champions League, second leg. I'd won the first leg at Anfield with a 1-0 win, and I was looking forward to getting something from the match at San Siro. After 4 minutes, Milan score, which totally negates my 1-0 lead and ties things up 1-1 on aggregate. It continues like this until half time, when I tell my men I want to see an improvement on the field. Aaron Niguez responds well, and scores a cracker of a goal in the first minute of the second half. Now I'm 2-1 up on aggregate and looking fairly comfortable because of my lead in away goals.

Gilardino makes it 2-2 on aggregate in the 70th minute, but I'm still going through on away goals. That is, of course, until I kick off after said goal, and after recieving the ball from Samaras, Niguez just runs away. Literally just runs away from the ball. Abou Diaby uses his mad pace to chase after the ball and boot it about 60 yards into my goal net, because my keeper is stood off his line, obviously in case we were planning on passing it back to him. Now I'm 3-2 down on aggregate and I need to do something quick, to make sure our dreams of European glory aren't crushed. I set my team instructions to all-out attack and move my wingers and full backs forward. It pays off when Andy Taylor makes it 3-3 on aggregate, and I'm going through on away goals, in the 89th minute. Then Kaka scores straight from the kick-off in the 90th minute. Then in the 94th minute, Godwin Antwi gives away a penalty and the bastards end up winning 5-3 on aggregate! Madness!

Now the league's my only priority, and at the moment I'm lying 6th with 7 games left, but there's only seven points separating 1st and 7th. Here's the team I'm using:

GK: Masashi Tasada (regen)

DR: Rafinha (just bought for 24m)

DL: Drew Harford (regen)

DC: Godwin Antwi (captain)

DC: Daniel Agger

MR: Ricardo Quaresma

ML: Charles N'Zogbia

MC: Cesc Fabregas

MC: Amaral (regen)

FC: Gonzalo Higuain/Giorgos Samaras

FC: Aaron Niguez

They've only just started playing well together. I hope I don't get the sack at the end of the season

[therockbox]

Me > Martin Jol

Willie John Kiely (£65k) > Dimitar Berbatov (£13.25m)

Radek Cerny > Paul Robinson

Spurs > The 19 other Premiership teams

Won the title on the last day of the season with a 2-1 win at WHL over Man City, with my £65k signing from Waterford Utd coming off the bench to score twice. In 12 appearances (7 as a sub) he's scored seven goals, just two less than Berbatov's managed in 30-odd games.

We almost ballsed everything up with an awful run of form in the last five games, United closed a 10 point gap and took over from us until they lost in the derby in the penultimate game. We scraped a 1-1 draw with Everton at the same time, taking us one point ahead. They beat Arsenal on the last day so it looked like they were going to win the title, but Kiely popped up with two in the last fifteen minutes to secure the title.

Looking to shift a few of the unbelievably underrated players stats-wise though, the likes of Lennon, Berbatov etc. are completely pants. Lennon's already agreed a £7million move to Fiorentina whilst Barcelona and Lazio are interested in Berbatov.

Already signed Cerny on a permanent basis, he took over from Robinson in January-ish and has been amazing. Hopefully someone will come in for Robinson, although it's unlikely because he's shit.

[Summers]

So, I left Villa to go to Betis. With the right amount of investment at Betis, I could have challanged for honours. They gave me little cash, and in my secondseason, they refused to give me any. So I quit. Now I'm manager of League One Wolves.

Manchester United - Villa - Betis - Wolves.

A manager who follows dreams and hopes instead of cash. Oh yes.

[Pesci]

So I tried to sign Micah Richards in the summer, but he wanted a 99k appearance fee. Same with Strurridge. Same with Alexander Zahavi, only he plays for me, and now he won't sign a new contract, which sucks, 'cus he's fucking amazing :@

I take it this is a bug that's hopefully been fixed in the 7.02 update? Because it's annoying.

[Liam]

Anyone recommend me a decent data update, one with the new transfers, promotions/relegations, etc?

[The Quasi Juice]

Sometimes I hate this game, well....kinda. I'm Hertha BSC and I've been having a great season so far. Pulled off an upset by beating HSV to gain 1st spot, then fell to third place (still very good for Hertha BSC). Just now I had the chance to get 1st again because Bayern and HSV didn't win, but I had to beat f'n Leverkusen away. Once again pulled off an upset by beating them 0-2 but three of my most important five players got injured and all for an entire month, goddamn injuries all the time.

Poop.

[Guest Kou]

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to Italy.

EVIL GORAN PANDEV CLONES!

[METALMAN]

Championship Manager 01/02 had two Vitali Kutuzovs in the default data playing for AC Milan.

In conclusion there aren't enough names to go round for Eastern Europeans. Pretty much all of them are called Vladimir as it is.

[CarlitoJay]

Just in case you didn't know the demo for Football Manager comes out next Sunday (30th September).