Football Manager 2008

[TMM]

I'm just about to start my second season as Portsmouth. My first season started brilliantly with a 4-3 win at Arsenal and then beating Chelsea 2-1 at Fratton Park and was sitting top of the league until the turn of the year. I had some bad results, but so did all the teams around me and in March there was still myself, Chelsea, Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool and Everton that could realistically win the league. Unfortunately, things fell apart and I finished sixth, just missing out on automatic qualification for the UEFA Cup which was my goal for the season, but luckily I applied for the Inter-Toto Cup and I should be able to walk through that.

I have made some seriously impressive signings this summer to add to my big signings of Andrey Arshavin, Christopher Samba and Andres D'Alessandro the season before. This is now how my team lines up.

GK - David James/Tomasz Kuszczk/Kasper Schmeichal (haven't decided who'll start yet!)

RB - Glen Johnson

LB - Mattia Cassani/Joe Mattock

CB - Christopher Samba

CB - Sylvian Distin/Sol Campbell

CM - Lassana Diara

CM - Julio Baptista (£2.8m! )

AMR - Andres D'Alessandro/Mauro Zarate

AML - Niko Kranjcar/Sulley Muntari

ST - Jermain Defoe

ST - Javier Saviola (£3.1m!!! )

My substitutes include Sebastian Larsson, Nuri Sahin, Papa Boupa Diop, Pedro Mendes, Andrey Arshavin and Kanu. I'm hoping to offload Kanu and Mendes and hopefully I might bring in Robert Huth. Come on Champions League qualification!!!

EDIT: Oh, and I should be getting Alex Hleb on loan as well...

Edited May 25, 2008 by TMM

[9 to 5]

Tip for you with Samba. On corners and free-kicks, stick him on the keeper. He got into double figues at the end of my first season with Rovers.

[Summers]

I started with Rangers, then I left for the Man United job. Villa were close to going down, so I quit United, waiting to O'Neill to be fired and took the Villa job. Operation: Save Villa is on.

[R.W.]

Just started my first "career" game - have taken on the Lyn Oslo job. Not a bad little team actually. Beating Rosenborg 3-0 in my first game makes things even better

[britneyspearsisgod]

When you scout a player, do you always believe the scouts report? For example, you think a player looks really good but then the scout says he's just a decent signing, do you believe him and not sign the player or do you just basically say "fu" scout, I'll do what I want, which kinda defeats the point of scouting but still

I NEVER listen to my scouts. It's not so bad when you play with a team in the top division or so, but if you're Bath City or something and they piss on every player you ask them to look at and THEN suggest signing a defender with tackling at 2, marking at 4 and positioning at 1... well, needless to say I use them to find out stats I can't see through a normal search if it's a specific player, scouting a region to find more players, or just to scout my next opponent so I can look at their team and plan ahead.

On a side note, that Bath side are top of the Conference South and haven't lost a game yet. So well done to the scouts

[Sick N Twisted]

I got 4 saved games now:

1) Zenit St Petersburg/Spain

currently in 2010, started as Spain and joined Zenit in 2009, got a strong squad with Ionov and Faizulin on the wings.

My Champions league group is tough though:

Man United

Olympique de Marseille

Valencia

first game is against Marseille, so perhaps I have a chance to get past the group stage, heck, even Man U might be a game I can win since they're 13th in league so far after 6 games.

I haven't played this game in a while though, so I may come back to it tonight.

2) Real Madrid/Spain

game is in 2009, and again I got a strong squad, Raúl is still doing fine and has started nearly every game for me. Most matches seem pretty easy to win with the squad I got, with the exceptions of some teams in Champions League and Barcelona whenever I play them. I am tempted to go back to this save because again I haven't played it in a while due to my Milan game, so we'll see what happens.

3) AC Milan

ah Milan, my favourite save game I got so far. Basically signed players every season to strengthen the squad and I am now in 2009 and all of my starting 11 are players I have signed, with the exceptions of Kaká and Gattuso, who are still doing fine. Signed Shevchenko for 75k, since I am a fan of him and wanted to let him return to Milan instead of rotting in Chelsea's reserves, and I just signed Cristiano Ronaldo for 94mil, I know it's a lot, but when I bid at first they wanted around 140mil but I negotiated and got it down to 94.

4) Everton

just started this game today, told board I can get a top half finish so have 10mil to spend, so far I bought Bogdan Stancu for 2.1mil and sold Iain Turner to Hull for 625k, so hopefully I can get a few more good signings to join.

I'll just update this when I play it more.

[Gazz]

I only use scouts to uncover masked attributes, then I just use the comparison graphs to players already in my team.

[TheBoss]

I rarely buy guys that my scouts recommend. I use them only to get more knowledge in foreign regions, that's all...

[Dont Fear The Reaper]

When selecting your team, do you let your assistant manager do it for you or do you select every player individually?

I used to select all the players myself but recently ive been relying more on my assistant to do the picking

[TheBoss]

I pick the players myself, but sometimes I rely on my assistant's help when it comes to team talks - even a poor assistant often hits the bullseye with the right choice of talk

[Dont Fear The Reaper]

If any of you guys are having trouble with results, then this article will help you out

http://www.fmformation.net/general-guides/...-win-games.html

EDIT:

Update on my game:

Poli 1921 - Romanian First League

When I first came into the job, I was expected to guide the team to a safe midtable position and build upon that and after 1/3 of the season I thought that would have been our final finish. Dinamo Bucarest had established a massive 12 point lead at the top of the table and never seemed like losing it. A decent run of results meant we stood in 4th place by xmas. Dinamo still had their 12 point lead.

From Christmas to the end of the season saw Poli go on a massive unbeaten run, not losing a single game. Dinamo on the other hand, began to lose and draw here and there and come April, they saw their 12 point gap reduced to 3 points with my team in second place.

On 26.4.08, Poli 1921 faced Dinamo Bucarest at home, knowing that a win would get them level on points with Dinamo and go top of the league (superior goal difference). This is exactly what happened, a 3-1 hammering saw Poli go top for the first time.

It stayed this way till the end of the season, with both of us winning all of our remaining matches, then on the end of the season, we beat U. Cluj 2-0 to claim our first Romanian First League title.

Edited May 27, 2008 by Dont Fear The Reaper

[Hajjhowe]

Damn Steaua sucking (By their standards)

[Baddar]

When selecting your team, do you let your assistant manager do it for you or do you select every player individually?

I used to select all the players myself but recently ive been relying more on my assistant to do the picking

For friendlies, I prefer the Assistant to take control of the games. He gives all the first teamers (that aren't injured) enough football to be fit for the season, and helps move things along quicker.

But no, I always pick my own team, all of the time. I don't see the point to be honest. I compare it to the Autobooker in EWR...pointless. I'd rather win a game and think to myself "I made that happen," rather than the credit going to the assistant.

[Zaz]

These European club rankings HAVE to be bent heavily in favour of your team. After eight years of Tottenham, although I've done well, all I've won is the UEFA Cup once, the Super Cup once, got to two FA Cup Final's and my highest position in the EPL has been third, yet somehow I'm the second best team in Europe =/

[stokeriño]

Do you mean the coefficients? They're based on the previous 5 years' performance in European competitions and count competition progress/results. You didn't happen to reach the Champions League semis every year in which you weren't winning the UEFA cup?

[SilentBob2004]

OK, it looks like i'm going to lose Vela at the end of the season. I wanted to keep him so i rejected a few bids for him, now he's pissed off and not signing a new contract. It says on his Transfer screen that he is thinking of making a Bosman move so that doesnt fill me with confidence.

So if he does go, i'm not sure if i should buy a new striker or just promote Rhys Murphy from the reserves as he's been good for the last 2 years. If I dont buy a new striker if/when Vela goes I'll be left with:

Adebayor

Aguero

Eduardo

Saivet

Bendtner

What do you think would be best if Vela goes? Leave those 5 or maybe get someone else in if those arent good enough? Bring Rhys Murphy up from the reserves?

[Zaz]

Five strikers of that quality is MORE than enough. I got through last year with a rotation of Saivet, Huntelaar and James Vaughan, with a past-his-peak Berbatov, Terry Dixon and a 3-4 star regen filling in if someone got injured. And I ended up averaging more than two goals a match (for some reason Terry Dixon, 3 stars, was sex whenever he filled in, averaging a goal a match, most of them off the bench. Probably gonna sell him after next year though, just so he can get some consistent first team football in).

And stoker, in eight years, got into the Champions League twice, quarters one year and first knock out round the other, every other time it's been about quarters/semis in the UEFA Cup. I'll post back here the exact results when I load up FM later.

Edit: haha, every year EXCEPT the year I won the UEFA Cup I got knocked out in the quarters (so five times). Twice in the Champions League, first time knocked out in the First Knockout Round, second time in the Quarter Final.

Edited May 30, 2008 by Zaz

[SilentBob2004]

I'm downloading a load of logo's from the net, cos i'm fed up of not having the badges of the Premier League on there but i have no idea how to get them onto the game. Can anyone give me an idiot proof guide of how to import them into the game? Also do you need to start a new game for them to start being used cos i'm 4 seasons into my Arsenal/England game and really enjoying it, dont wanna start afresh!

Cheers.

[Baddar]

I'm downloading a load of logo's from the net, cos i'm fed up of not having the badges of the Premier League on there but i have no idea how to get them onto the game. Can anyone give me an idiot proof guide of how to import them into the game? Also do you need to start a new game for them to start being used cos i'm 4 seasons into my Arsenal/England game and really enjoying it, dont wanna start afresh!

Cheers.

You don't need to start a new game. I'll get my thinking caps on (what a shit saying) and get back to you shortly on where to put the logo's etc. I'll edit this message.

EDIT: From what I can grasp...

Go to documents > sports interactive > graphics > pictures > logos > clubs > eng > premiership > clubs > normal *PLACE NORMAL LOGOS HERE*

Follow that same procedure and click small instead of normal, and place the relevant badges there.

Now, chances are you might not have most of those folders, if you don't have any after graphics, just create new ones in the order stated above. Make sure you reload the skin as well, otherwise they won't show.

And yeah, I THINK this is how it's done, but I'm not entirely sure. Stuff like this is a bastard to explain.

Edited May 30, 2008 by BaddarD2k8

[Dont Fear The Reaper]

Ive recently formatted my HD which means ill have to start afresh on FM2008. Anybody got any suggestions for new games?

Edited June 4, 2008 by Dont Fear The Reaper