Football Manager 2008

[therockbox]

Which I'll go out on a limb and guess was done by probably a Liverpool or Arsenal fan?

Why?

[IAceI]

Am I right?

[TheArsenal]

Which I'll go out on a limb and guess was done by probably a Liverpool or Arsenal fan?

I'm guessing Arsenal. The "car crash after a poor contract offer" is an Ashley Cole reference. He said in his autobiography that he was filled with rage to the point that he nearly crashed his car after Arsenal insulted him with a contract offer of just £55,000 a week (he wanted £60,000).

[therockbox]

Am I right?

Don't know, it came from F365.

So again; why?

[IAceI]

I thought it might be you ¬_¬

[therockbox]

That would mean loading up 08 again.

No thanks >_>

[Pesci]

Pfft, so I'm now in January 2016 with Liverpool and I'm 8th, but with 5 games in hand that will see me go top if I win them and obviously equal or better all of Chelsea's results until they're all played, which probably won't be until the end of the season anyway.

My defence was incredibly shakey so I pulled my defensive line back quite a bit and now I'm starting to get some good performances out of them again. Well, I dropped Nogueira because he's not living up to his supposed ability, and slotted Godwin Antwi in there instead. Antwi and Agger are just fantastic together. Clean just about everything up. But because of the African Cup of Nations, Antwi's away and I'm having to play Nogueira there are. Curtis Davies has been playing reserve football all season but now he's back in the squad.

In midfield, the exceptional Charles N'Zogbia wanted to be transfer listed, so I granted his request and shunted him to the reserves while giving Porritt a prolonged run in the first team, which he's never had. He's been magnificent and now I definitely won't be selling him in the summer. I bought some Turkish guy called Onen to cover for him, he's only 18 and a great prospect for the future. Amaral keeps headbutting people so I've stripped him of the captaincy and I might even sell him in the summer, since Sissoko is always immense when called upon and will probably do well as first choice. Fabregas is my captain now just as he used to be, and while Sissoko's away in the ANC and Amaral's suspended for butting somebody, I've had to recall Christian Neubert, a 21 year old German DM from loan. Played poorly in his first match but if I manage to get rid of Amaral, hopefully he'll get the chance to improve. Millan's been brilliant on the right, this is probably his best season for me so far.

Up front Niguez and Higuain have been fantastic as always, but my 19 year old German guy, Muller, keeps missing sitters. He scores a fair amount but gets himself in such good positions that he should be scoring hattricks every game instead of skying everything or knocking it wide from two yards out. Still, only young and I'm sure he'll develop well.

GK: Masahi Tsuda/Reina

DR: Rafinha/Diego (won't renew his contract because he wants first team football, so will be replaced with Brad White from the reserves)

DL: Drew Harford/Razvan Lazar (hoping to leave, I hope he leaves too, so I can replace him with Gary Wilson from the reserves)

DC: Agger/Nogueira

DC: Antwi/Davies (when Antwi's back he'll continue playing reserve team football again and next season he'll fall down the pecking order behind Nelson Artaza as well, but he can stay until he demands to be transfer listed or something)

MR: Nicolas Millan/Ross Campbell (18 and looks great for the future)

ML: Nathan Porritt (revelation)/Demirtas Onen

MC: Sissoko/Amaral (hopefully I can get rid of him for about 15-20m and replace with Neubert)

MC: Fabregas (always good)/Javier Cortes (basically Fabregas Mark II)

FC: Aaron Niguez/Holger Muller

FC: Gonzalo Higuain/Giorgos Samaras (hopefully leaving in the summer, he's outstayed his welcome ever since I bought Muller)

[Hajjhowe]

So I decided to try out my old FM 08 game again. Anyone got suggestions for some good Eastern European teams to take? Or any fun (IE: Decent cash) teams I can use?

Right now I am torn between Dinamo Minsk, Dinamo Zagreb & Levski Sofia.

[IAceI]

A team like Shaktar will give you loads of money, but you won't have the reputation to haul in the biggest stars. So you can spend big, but on some more obscure Eastern Europeans that you may not sign otherwise.

Or a team like Saturn in Russia? Although Dinamo Minsk, Zagreb and Levski does sound fun - you can get European football but build up the team too. Out of them three I'm not too sure who to suggest, Minsk obviously because of Belarus. But Zagreb and Levski would probably provide the most room for improvement.

So I reckon any of them three would be good.

[Dont Fear The Reaper]

I recently started a new game as Barcelona manager and its been a brilliant start to the season...

2-0 vs Levante

3-0 vs Almeria

3-1 vs Osasuna

1-2 vs Porto (Champs League)

1-0 vs Sevilla

4-2 vs Real Madrid

3-2 vs Athletic

6-1 vs Lazio (Champs League)

2-0 vs Zaragoza

The board only gave me something like £15 million to spend to I blew it all on Ezeuqiel Garay (Defender) and he has been a rock at the back, id highly reccomend purchasing this player.

[Baddar]

Poor, poor result against Porto.

[Dont Fear The Reaper]

Poor, poor result against Porto.

Couldnt Agree More >_<

We went up thanks to an Henry goal in the 18th Minute and we were in complete control for the entire game, then Thuram knocks one of their players over in the penalty area and its 1-1. Then in the dying minutes, they score a goal that was CLEARLY offside.

They also injured Ronaldinho for 3 months...BASTARDS!

[Darloboy]

I too recently started a game as Barca, I'm coming up towards the end of the second season.

At the start I spent £5.5m on Leonardo Ponzio as cover for Yaya Toure, he only made about three appearances all season. Won the vast majority of the games in the league, fighting it out with Valencia who went unbeaten for something like the first 20-odd games, but drew a few too many of them to allow me to build a lead at the top of the table. In January, out went Xavi to Sevilla for £10m, in came Micah Richards for £20m. He performed averagely for me, got a couple of important goals but overall was a bit disappointing. It didn't matter too much, as by the end of the season I won La Liga and the Champions League, beating Real Madrid in the final.

During the summer, there was lots of activity. Notable departures were Thuram, Sylvinho, Ezquerro and Edmilson who were all released. Zambrotta went to Roma for £8.75m, Iniesta to Real Madrid for £30m, Gudjohnsen to Villarreal for £2m and Ponzio to Betis for £3m. In came Daniel Alves, Franck Ribery, Eduardo and Sergio Aguero. Alves has been brilliant, Ribery very good, Aguero has a 7.45 average which is very respectable but only has 7 league goals as of March, and Eduardo has been shit.

So yeah, I'm near the end of the 08/09 season, after 28 games I'm five points ahead of Valencia, having won 24, drew 3 and lost 1. Valencia have won 21, drew 7 and lost none so they're still well in the title race.

My first choice XI is:

GK: Valdes

DR: Alves

DC: Puyol

DC: Richards

DL: Abidal

DMC: Toure

MR: Ribery

ML: Ronaldinho

AMC: Messi

FC: Eto'o

FC: Aguero/Bojan

Yeah it's too easy managing Barca, but this is my first game as a world class team on 08 so I'm enjoying it so far.

[Dont Fear The Reaper]

I too recently started a game as Barca, I'm coming up towards the end of the second season.

At the start I spent £5.5m on Leonardo Ponzio as cover for Yaya Toure, he only made about three appearances all season. Won the vast majority of the games in the league, fighting it out with Valencia who went unbeaten for something like the first 20-odd games, but drew a few too many of them to allow me to build a lead at the top of the table. In January, out went Xavi to Sevilla for £10m, in came Micah Richards for £20m. He performed averagely for me, got a couple of important goals but overall was a bit disappointing. It didn't matter too much, as by the end of the season I won La Liga and the Champions League, beating Real Madrid in the final.

During the summer, there was lots of activity. Notable departures were Thuram, Sylvinho, Ezquerro and Edmilson who were all released. Zambrotta went to Roma for £8.75m, Iniesta to Real Madrid for £30m, Gudjohnsen to Villarreal for £2m and Ponzio to Betis for £3m. In came Daniel Alves, Franck Ribery, Eduardo and Sergio Aguero. Alves has been brilliant, Ribery very good, Aguero has a 7.45 average which is very respectable but only has 7 league goals as of March, and Eduardo has been shit.

So yeah, I'm near the end of the 08/09 season, after 28 games I'm five points ahead of Valencia, having won 24, drew 3 and lost 1. Valencia have won 21, drew 7 and lost none so they're still well in the title race.

My first choice XI is:

GK: Valdes

DR: Alves

DC: Puyol

DC: Richards

DL: Abidal

DMC: Toure

MR: Ribery

ML: Ronaldinho

AMC: Messi

FC: Eto'o

FC: Aguero/Bojan

Yeah it's too easy managing Barca, but this is my first game as a world class team on 08 so I'm enjoying it so far.

How does/did Deco perform for you? He has been very below par for me this season, im thinking of moving him on in the summer

[stokeriño]

Started a pointless little game as Portsmouth to amuse myself on a Sunday afternoon while I wait for my new copy of CM01/02 (which I gave in and shelled out £4.99 for) to arrive in a few days' time. It's really quite annoying (albeit entirely realistic) that, after I've spent a lot of time and effort to get teams to accept a bid of only £7m (aka my entire transfer budget) for the likes of Gilberto Silva or Shawn Wright-Phillips, the players take one look at my contract offer and say "Pompey? lololololololz, you're off ya trolley mate".

Who is Gilberto Silva to say, as the captain of Brazil, that he's too good for Portsmouth? WHO? :@

Edited April 13, 2008 by stokeriño

[Pesci]

I hate cup competitions on 07, because I do all the hard work of getting to the final and then my team plays absolutely wank. I've lost two FA Cup Finals, two League Cup Finals and a Champions League Final. I've only ever won two (proper) cup finals, and that was last year when I won the treble. Ugh.

[TheArsenal]

Started a pointless little game as Portsmouth to amuse myself on a Sunday afternoon while I wait for my new copy of CM01/02 (which I gave in and shelled out £4.99 for) to arrive in a few days' time. It's really quite annoying (albeit entirely realistic) that, after I've spent a lot of time and effort to get teams to accept a bid of only £7m (aka my entire transfer budget) for the likes of Gilberto Silva or Shawn Wright-Phillips, the players take one look at my contract offer and say "Pompey? lololololololz, you're off ya trolley mate".

Who is Gilberto Silva to say, as the captain of Brazil, that he's too good for Portsmouth? WHO? :@

If only your Leeds 2017 game hadn't got corrupted. That was a story for the ages....

[stokeriño]

Not my game. I don't think I've played as Leeds since CM99/00... Perhaps you quoted the wrong post.

[IAceI]

That was supergrass I believe, who then moved on to Brentford, making a really good diary about the end of his career at Leeds and the start at Brentford.

[Pesci]

I'd love to do a Football Manager diary, and it'd probably be better than a lot of them since I'm quite bad at the game and thus wouldn't win everything in sight in the first season, which is quite a big problem for me when I read FM diaries (as well as selling players that in reality would've only arrived there in that transfer window, replacing your entire team etc). I just haven't got the patience/temperament.

Edited April 14, 2008 by Pesci