Football Manager 2007

[Sir Alan LCSugar]

Has anyone else found that Samaras from Man City is a goal machine. I got him for about 7 million for my Portsmouth side and he's become a goal machine. I played him as a target man for a while, playing off Adu and Lua Lua and that worked a treat, but now I have him and Bendter up front and getting alot of crosses in from O'Neill and Farfan and he's on a roll.

[The Future]

I signed him as backup for my Barca game but he was missing alot of close chances and went on a goal drought and eventually I sold him.

[stokeriño]

Well, in addition to Klose I also bought Micah Richards as well as 17 year old GK Ben Amos from Man Utd. Richards actually got a First XI debut in my first Champions League game (away to Sevilla) since Carvelho was injured and Samuels was away on international duty. He only got a match rating of 5, but that's probably to be expected.

But Klose got injured for 4 weeks, dammit. In three games he got two goals and two MotMs.

Edited January 13, 2007 by stokeriño

[The Future]

I got Gareth Bale on a free, he was kicking ass in my reserves and after injuries to the first team I called him up he did a decent job.

[King Ellis]

Well, in addition to Klose I also bought Micah Richards as well as 17 year old GK Ben Amos from Man Utd. Richards actually got a First XI debut in my first Champions League game (away to Sevilla) since Carvelho was injured and Samuels was away on international duty. He only got a match rating of 5, but that's probably to be expected.

But Klose got injured for 4 weeks, dammit. In three games he got two goals and two MotMs.

I got Amos too on my Villa game. Got some glowing scout reports and only cost 100k. Has some decent stats at 18, should be a bargain.

[Captain Kirk]

My Scotland squad is on absolute fire just now, 4 wins and 2 draws. Includes a 6-1 away win in Austria playing my 'B' team. For some reason I've been scheduled a friendly with Denmark in November and in February the next year. Next up Georgia and Italy will be able to tell how I will do in the long run from those games.

[Thomas]

Anyone else have the contract bug even with the updated patch? I have the updated patch, offered Alan Smith a contract that he refused, and now apparently his contract expired a year ago.

[stokeriño]

Not happened to me. *shrug*

[TheArsenal]

I thought that bug came about in the first patch didn't it?

As far as I know there hasn't been another update yet...

[stokeriño]

There is only the one patch we could be talking about, right? I'm on 7.0.1 and I've signed loads of people to new contracts recently - Geremi, John Terry, Makelele, and all sorts. Not an inkling of the bug.

Edited January 13, 2007 by stokeriño

[Thomas]

There were two releases. A dodgy 7.0.1 where this would happen. And a new 7.0.1 that fixed that problem.

Goalkeepers are still spastics on the patch too.

[Farmer Reil]

Has anyone else found that Samaras from Man City is a goal machine. I got him for about 7 million for my Portsmouth side and he's become a goal machine. I played him as a target man for a while, playing off Adu and Lua Lua and that worked a treat, but now I have him and Bendter up front and getting alot of crosses in from O'Neill and Farfan and he's on a roll.

[Pesci]

I need anger management. I just lost 2-1 to Bolton and turned totally psycho.

I'm 5 points clear the top with 12 games left after being 12 points clear, and it's pissing me off that I can't get anything more than a draw away from home these days when before Christmas I was dominating teams no matter where I played them. I went out in the FA Cup to Everton, and I went out in the League Cup to Middlesbrough, both teams I should be beating easily. Something's telling me that I won't be winning the title this season after all, even after leading since the fourth match, and I really doubt I'll be able to handle it >_>

Edited January 13, 2007 by Burninating Pesci

[Sir Alan LCSugar]

Richie Lambert of Rochdale and Stockport fame? Whatever persuaded you to buy him?

[stokeriño]

Remember what I said about Chelsea and Man Utd being drawn together?

It is, ironically, the day before the two teams meet at Old Trafford in the Premiership - and lo, the draw for the Third Round of the League Cup is taking place.

*Click* - 'View Draw'.

*Click* - 'Draw next team'.

---Man Utd---

*Click* - Draw next team'.

---Chelsea---

Oh, fuck off.

[Farmer Reil]

And lo, United are at home in the cup. Such a rare event

Richie Lambert of Rochdale and Stockport fame? Whatever persuaded you to buy him?

Edited January 13, 2007 by Farmer Reil

[Captain Kirk]

I hate being a pissy cunt when playing this game. Just can't handle losing, left 3 year games because my unbeatable team beat Milan 4-2 then get beat by St Johnstone 2-0. It's not a good game for me when I lose that's why am loving my unbeatable Scotland. I mean Lee Miller scored a hat trick against Austria . Paul Le Guen hates me but that frog eating bastard can get sacked again in my game......hopefully.

[Farmer Reil]

What's Alou Diarra like in FM/real life?

He's a fucking beast on PES5. Easily better than Vieira, and probably Silva, Pirlo and Gattuso too.

[Captain Kirk]

He is a beast in FM too becomes one of the best DM's in the game well in my game anyway.

[ADG]

Just got sacked after three years as manager of Newcastle due to a new consortium taking over and wanting to install Les Ferdinand as manager.

Season One: Not a very good start, qualified for the Euro Cup through the Euro Vase and qualified from the group stages but got knocked out in the last thirty-two. A poor Premiership campaign as well saw us finish ninth. By a stroke of luck we were the highest placed team to apply for the Euro Vase so it was back to that again for the second season. League and FA Cups were atrocious, early exits from both.

Season Two: Offloading Obafemi Martins for £10,000,000 to Milan and the January of season one signing of Dave Nugent for £6,000,000 from Preston finally come good as Nugent and Owen compete for the top goalscorer award and both end the season with 25+. The signing of David Goodwillie in January proves a hit as he hits 15 in 15 games. Euro Cup again a washout, knocked out in last sixteen this time.We run Arsenal and Chelsea to the last day of the season for the title but finish 3rd on 78 points, Chelsea on 80 and Arsenal on 81. First takeover collapses this season but lads still come good to win the League Cup. The Champions League Awaits!

Season Three: Get off to a poor start as more signings cause disruption in the dressing room. One bright spark is the signing of Kim Kállstrom who gets the fans singing my praises. Games are lost or drawn and a tactical rethink is taken. Suddenly we can't lose and start zooming up the table. Finish second in our Champion's League group behind CSKA Moscow and draw Werder Bremen in last 16. Pal Le Guen leaves Rangers at this time to take over at Atletico Madrid and I send along my CV to Ibrox, not making the board or fans happy. A 0-1 loss at home to Bremen puts us seemingly out but we rally and win 2-0 away to go through. Similarly in the quarter finals, a 2-0 loss at home to PSV makes it a difficult job but we travel to Holland and come out 4-1 winners. Semi finals don't go as well, we draw Chelsea. A 0-0 draw at home is good but we lose 3-1 away and the dream is over. It'll be a Chelsea vs. Arsenal final. Second last game of the season and we sit in third, entertaining Arsenal at St. James'. A great start sees us romp home 3-1 winners and we're assured a European spot next season. However with Tottenham a point behind in 4th and Man City 3 behind in 5th we're not safe yet. A poor couple of seasons have seen the Premiership only allocated three Champions League places. Then I'm sacked as the new consortium chooses to select a new manager. The final game sees already relegated Watford take some pride with a 1-0 win against Newcastle but with Tottenham and Man City drawing Champion's League football will be at St. James again. But I won't be there to see it.

Landed on my feet quite spectacularly as Didier Deschamps was sacked from his job as Juventus manager a week after I was released and they were quick to offer me the job with a healthy £45m transfer budget and I snapped it up in an instant.

Season One

First order of business is to take a substandard Juventus squad and improve it. Juventus finished 7th in Serie A last year and barely scraped European competition. £10,000,000 sees Eddie Johnson brought in from Barcelona to add some much needed pace to my attacking options alongside the slower but more technical Trezeguet and £24,000,000 brings in Cristiano Ronaldo to the midfield. £10,250,000 brings in young Peruvian wonderkid Christian Benavente who I send out to Crotone on loan to learn the Italian game. Benoit Pedretti and Kevin Monnet-Pacquet come in on Bosman transfers as well to shore up the squad.

We get off to a good start in the league as Eddie Johnson proves his worth right away scoring goals left, right and centre. Ronaldo proves a revelation in the midfield creating goals and selling replica shirts with his name on the back bringing in a lot more shirt sales than normal. Our good start doesn't last as we start drawing games we really should win. The squad is still quite small and a few injuries have us losing points. Coupled with angry second string players like Davide Chiumentio who want first team football but don't get it. The Euro Cup campaign ends in the quarter finals to Roma and the Italian Cup also ends in failure. In Serie A we find our feet a little and start picking up points but the charge is too late and we finish the season in 6th. The fans start calling for my head, upset at a second successive unsuccessful season. However the board accept that I need more time to turn the club around and they'll give me a second season.

Season Two

After the 'extravangant' spending of last season I get £19m to improve the squad even more, however I can get more by selling players I have. Morais - £5m signing last year - leaves for Werder Bremen for £5.25m but the big money maker for me is John Obi Mikel. Inter Milan offer £6m for a 50% share of him with two years until he joins one club exclusively but only one month later Man Utd offer me £8.75m for my 50% of Mikel and I accept it. Suddenly I'm £20m richer. I take that £20m and try to strengthen the defence as it was the major problem last year - Eddie Johnson scored 48 goals in 54 games which was the only reason we were as high as we were in the league.

An initial approach for Steven Taylor and Zat Knight - my trustworthy Newcastle defensive duo - fails when Newcastle ask £17m for Taylor and £9m for Knight. Instead I choose to bring in Michael Dawson for £18.5m from Valencia and £4m brings Leon Andreasen from Werder Bremen. Bosman wise it's quite slow, however one major talking point I am responsible for is the signing of Jermain Defoe from Tottenham on a free transfer. Three other notable Bosman signings are three players with big futures - David Button (GK), Raul Castro (DF) and Conor McCormack (MD).

Button is thrown in at the deep end as an injury to Buffon means he deputises and performs his duties very well with 8 conceded in 8 games. Buffon comes back and gets the gloves though but Button isn't angry, instead I ask Buffon to tutor Button and they're both happy for the new relationship. A rotating partnership of Defoe, Johnson and Trezeguet starts banging them in and a 5-4 win at Delle Alpi against Inter is a thoroughly exciting match in mid October. The Euro Cup goes well as I finish with maximum points as well in a group with Dortmund, Dinamo Bucharest, Lens and Braga. Last 32 we beat Club Brugge, last 16 we beta Maccabi Haifa. Quarter Finals see us drawn against Rangers and we beat them. Semi-final is an all-Italian tie as we face Sampdoria. A 0-0 draw at home puts us on the backfoot but a 4-2 win means we're through to the final against the team we beat in the group stage, Dortmund.

However, besides the Euro Cup we're chasing Milan for the Serie A title and are on our way to winning the Italian Cup and again injuries play a big part. We manage to survive a late scare to win Serie A and the Italian Cup 5-1 on aggregate, however the Euro Cup goes to Germany as a squad featuring only 5 first choice players battles bravely but loses 2-1 to Dortmund.

Still, the fans are elated to do the double, my reputation becomes World Class, women want me, men want to be me. In short I rock!

Now onto my third season and Champion's League glory!

Edited January 15, 2007 by ADGray