Football Manager 2008

[stokeriño]

Okay. So, um.

Beating Chelsea 1-0 in the League Cup Fourth round = yay.

Drawing Arsenal in the Quarter Finals = boo.

Losing 4-1 to Birmingham in the Premiership = OH GOD WHY DON'T I JUST KILL MYSELF NOW.

...Before all the Villan fans come and do the job for me. <_>

Edited January 15, 2008 by stokeriño

[Summers]

You lost.. to.. Birmingham.. 4 - 1..?

*Cocks shotgun.*

[Zaz]

So, I ended up 10th with Tottenham in the first season, which was pretty shite. Started the season crap and ended it crap, but had a good middle going. Ended up the 5th best club in Europe some how for 07/08 as well according to the rankings they do, which was a bit weird, though I did make the quarters of the UEFA Cup and the semis of the FA Cup. What's also weird is that Robinson was one of my best players for the year >_>

Bought Cahill in January and he did bugger all for the rest of the year, making my fans annoyed at such an expensive flop Also bought Dean Bouzanis for 450k which was a good deal.

In the off-season I sold Dawson for 7.5m to Portsmouth (everything here is in pounds), sold Jenas to Everton for 7m and bought Riise for 11.25, Woodgate for 14.5m, Kuszczak to replace Cerny for 2.3m and got Thiago Motta on a free.

Just qualified for the UEFA Cup through EURO Vase. In closing, Gareth Bale is the best player in the world and no one shall ever buy him off me.

[King Ellis]

IT'S ON!

After Kou shyed away because of his fear of Ringo's Wigan Cheat XI winning the Prem (that and he's crap) our Jewraqi friend has stood unchallenged in the FM realm. Until now!

I have stepped up and followed him into the ring. We have both selected Leeds United and will hopefully take them out of the bottom position in League One and onto Premiership glory!

I have my original squad plus a few loanee mercinaries brought in to pad out the squad.

He has his band of Romanian orphans that aren't cheats! Honest!

Who will win? (Well him but let's suspend our disbeliefs for now)

[Zaz]

Bloody hell, I wish they'd let you go back to your halftime team talk after you confirm it rather than starting the second half straight away, like they do with the pre-match one. A couple of times I've accidentally set no halftime team-talk and then they've restarted the game straight away, not allowing me to go change it <_

[stokeriño]

*miscellaneous transfer-related venting approaching*

Financial constraints are always a pain, but when the Aston Villa board wants you challenging for the Premiership title within two seasons, they can be damn well frustrating.

At the start of the season I bought three players: Andre Ooijer for £3.6m, since I needed a right-back; Cristiano Zanetti (DM) for £3m; and Jean Il Makoun (also DM) for £9m. Suprisingly, for the first time ever, the fans think my purchases have been godly - particularly in the case of Ooijer. Huh.

Long and the short of it is, I have about £2.4m left in the kitty, and a wage bill that's £10kp/w too high as it is. Money is somewhat tight.

I'm also trying hard to not think about the pre-arranged transfer of one Curtis Davies, for whom the ludicrous bill of £10m will land on my doorstep come next June. I think it all has to paid then anyway - unless it's in installments, which would be a nicer way to explain why I've been losing money each month.

Anyway, come mid-season, I'm left with a few problems, and no money to deal with them:

I need to think what's going to happen in my goalkeeping department come next year when Scott Carson's loan finishes. I would like to buy him outright of course, but Liverpool are unlikely to sell and, if they did, it'd be for a bomb. A bomb I don't have.

I also need another striker. Carew's all well and good, but he's up front in my 4-3-3 system with Young and Agbonlahor on the wings, which basically leaves Hareword and Moore as the only viable subs...and they've both been shit. I mean, REALLY shit. And to be honest, Carew hasn't been amazing for the past 10 games or so either. Petrov's been scoring more than he has from midfield...

I did try playing a 4-4-2 diamond variation for a while while Young was injured, with Agbonlahor partnering Carew up front (Barry came up to take the ML spot, with Salifou taking the right wing), but unfortunately - unlike every other game I've played on FM08 - Agbonlahor is absolutely shit in front of goal. He can only hit the goalkeeper's chest and the corner flag. That's it.

It does so happen that Jermain Defoe really wants out of Spurs. He's transfer listed for an asking price is £4.6m but I can only offer £2.4m, so I just have to keep re-bidding until Defoe shouts at them enough to accept.

I would sell some of my own players, but no one's buying. Craig Gardner, Stephen O'Halloran and Luke Moore (and Patrick Berger, not that he really counts) are all listed, but all my offers come to nothing. RARR.

I miss the freedom I had at Chelsea.

[Kwanzabot]

Try and find someone in your squad Chelsea are interested in and just offer him to them for like £30m. Chelsea really fuck up like that, even if whoever you are selling is an average Youth Player.

But I know the torrid transfer market, having spent years at Leeds, which is just fucking impossible to do without tearing your hair out.

[Guest Ringmaster]

My merry band of Romanian bastards have now 3 points in the league after six games having finally moved away from this -15 point nonsense that other shitty clubs placed on Leeds 'cause they are scared for their lives :@

[King Ellis]

It transpires Ringo is even more of a cheat as he sold Beckford to Newcastle for 2m despite him being worth only 160k. He also got 200k from Liverpool as a parent club despite most parent clubs only giving 50k.

Cheat. :ohwell2:

[Guest Ringmaster]

Beckford is worth 1.4 million when the game starts! You snooze for actually playing him and making his value diminish. Why play Beckford when you can steal some refugees from Romania? Arsene Wenger was right all along.

[Guest Ringmaster]

While I'm at it those thugs at Swansea are a bunch of mean, no good, Welsh bastards whom I was unable to defeat even as I switched to my 2-1-2-2-1-2 formation what with their goal keeper apparently being god, and the linesman being a no-good filthy son of a whore :@ :@ :@ :@ :@ :@

[King Ellis]

I didn't play him! He was worth that and no one wanted him other than MK Dons.

[stokeriño]

"The fans are still pleased despite Aston Villa's 0-1 English Premier Division defeat against Sunderland. They were pleased with the team's overall performance against a more reputable team."

:blink:

[King Ellis]

YOU FUCKING BEAUTY!

Leeds are up! It took an extra time goal in the playoff final from David Prutton but we're back in the Championship! We ended up finishing 5th and got a relatively comfortable 3-1 aggregate victory over Southend. In the Final we were to face Leyton Orient who had beaten us twice in the league but we had triumphed over them in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy Final.

Michael Mifsud gave us the lead after only 8 minutes but Tottenham loanee Jacques Maghoma grabbed an equaliser after 24. Then Adam Boyd gave them the lead after 32. Mifsud equalised on 40. Then the second half of normal time was a series of end to end chances but no goals. Then in Extra Time David Prutton had a goal disallowed but he managed to get one that counted. After that it was just a case of holding out for the victory.

I should mention Michael Mifsud at this point. Jesus Christ, what a signing!

League: 21 apps (1 sub), 25 goals, 6 assists, 9 man of the matches, 7.50 Avg

Cup: 3 apps, 4 goals, 2 assists, 2 man of the matches

All for the pricely sum of £0. He is now worth £2.1m! He placed 11th in the league top scorers despite playing around half the games of those above him. Sadly though there are numerous loan stars I might not be able to keep on who massively helped us out. Like Canadian superstar Jaime Peters from Ipswich who got 5 goals and 14 assists in his 41 league apps and ended up with an average rating of 7.41. Left Back Scott Golbourne from Reading was also a valuable asset, getting 1 goal, 12 assists and an average rating of 7.19.

So, no doubt Ringo will have run away with the league with Stancu probably getting 80 goals by himself but here's how I managed:

League: P 5th W24 D15 L7 F84 A39 GD+45 Pts 72 (Notts Forest were top on 96 and Swansea 2nd on 84 so I would have got automatic if not for the points deduction)

F.A Cup: Lost in Round 3, Derby 5-0 Leeds

League Cup: Lost in Round 2, Birmingham City 3-0 Leeds

J.P Trophy: Winners, Leeds 2-0 Leyton Orient

Total cost of transfers in: 10k (Spent on one youth from Charlton in January, I did spend some 500k on staff though )

Total cost of transfers out: 250k (Jonathan Douglas to Millwall for 200k, David Lucas to Stevange for 50k)

Bank Balance as of 25/5/08 (Day of the Playoff final): £5,745,969

Like I say, Ringo will have probably romped to the title with his cheats but i'm happy with what I achieved.

Edited January 19, 2008 by King Ellis Island

[Guest Ringmaster]

I finished my first season as Leeds in 1st place, with 104 pts., 128 goals scored in the league and 28 conceded in the league. Stancu scored 38 goals (and is still not top scorer in the league!), Torje scored 11, Dzsudzsak scored 9, Hora scored 18 and Doudin scored 15, my Romanian defense at the back was also sensational. I won the JPT too and gots me some moneyz.

Oddly enough Stancu was injured for about two months, during which none of my strikers scored so until he came back I switched to a no strikers formation that was basically a glorified 4-6-0, I recommend it to anyone in need of winning things, had I not had the little Romanian bastard come back I'd have used it all season because it was an absolute god of a formation, in fact I was waiting for Stancu to stop scoring so I could go back to it but he never did and generally average 3 goals a game.

Now I have to build for the Championship, in all likelyhood I'm going to ship out some of the lesser players from this season and turn Leeds for a Romanian team to a Canadian/American one. I am already engineering a move for De-Ro and then, provided I get enough transfer money and he wants to join, I'm bringing in cheat buys Eddie Johnson and Toto Tamuz.

Just 'cause I can.

[stokeriño]

Is it just me, or is it utterly impossible to find a coach who even comes remotely close to filling the requirements for the best Set Pieces training rating? <_>

(i.e. Technique @ 20/19/18/17 coupled with Attacking/Mental adding together to make 30/33/36/39 respectively)

[The Quasi Juice]

I finished my first season as Leeds in 1st place, with 104 pts., 128 goals scored in the league and 28 conceded in the league. Stancu scored 38 goals (and is still not top scorer in the league!), Torje scored 11, Dzsudzsak scored 9, Hora scored 18 and Doudin scored 15, my Romanian defense at the back was also sensational. I won the JPT too and gots me some moneyz.

[FireDoughnut]

I think he cheated...

Now I have to build for the Championship, in all likelyhood I'm going to ship out some of the lesser players from this season and turn Leeds for a Romanian team to a Canadian/American one. I am already engineering a move for De-Ro and then, provided I get enough transfer money and he wants to join, I'm bringing in cheat buys Eddie Johnson and Toto Tamuz.

Just 'cause I can.

Edited January 23, 2008 by FlatDoughnut

[Steeb]

'Cheat buys' are cheap players that near enough always play exceedingly well, and make it easy to take any team higher with, if I understand correctly. Meaning he didn't cheat in the usual sense.

[Baddar]

'Cheat buys' are cheap players that near enough always play exceedingly well, and make it easy to take any team higher with, if I understand correctly. Meaning he didn't cheat in the usual sense.

In the case of FM, where there's no "cheats" for the game available, this is as close to cheating as you're gonna get.

Verdict = He cheated.