Football Manager 2009

[TheArsenal]

Word of warning, do not sign Robbie Fowler! Spent £85k of my £100k bringing him back to Leeds. His record so far? Played 25 (16 starts), 1 goal, 1 assist.

Oh, and the goal was a penalty, and the assist was a corner kick

That's what you get for listening to your scouts. I scouted him at the start of the game and they said he would cost 85k. I put in a bid of £0 and it was accepted without negotiation. Contract took a bit of negotiation, but he signed and his record this season has been:

Played: 36 (35 starts)

Scored: 21

Assists: 6

MoM awards: 4

Yellow cards: 1

And it's only March so I expect more goals to come.

[Scott McFly]

The Lord Lanteri part has been about in Football Managers for years I'm afraid. But in better news I have decided to get it before I finish uni courswork(maybe not so good) so I shall finally get to play it. How long does it take to activate your game?

Activation is the easy part, it's working out what your code actually says that's the problem due to o and 0, 1 and I looking the same. There's a link on the SI website that helps you work out which is which. But once you've got that the actual activation of it literally takes seconds.

[DavidMarrio]

Getting a bit sick of draws... I mean i haven't lost since when i got beat by Blackburn 4-3 but now i'm facing a tough tough team in Arsenal who have only let in 1 goal in 15 games, sitting on top of the table and haven't lost in the Prem. Here's my W/L record after that Blackburn defeat in all competitions

Won 7

Drew 5

Lost 0

In the Prem: Won 3, Drew 5

It's not looking good

[therockbox]

Anyone else finding the weather to be really messed up? I've played two games in a row, in Newcastle and now Manchester, with completely bizarre weather. First week it was Wet, Gusty Win and yet 23 degrees. Last game there was a gusty wind, but it was sunny and 24 degrees. What the fuck?

[Adam]

I got that last year nearly all the time. It'd be mid-January, a raging gale and rain...oh but it's 27 degrees celcius.

[TheArsenal]

Just played an epic game with my Luton team away against Brentford.

Scoring opened in the 7th minute when my keeper lofted a long ball over the top and into the Brentford area which Robbie Fowler ran onto and placed into the bottom right corner.

Fowler then made it 2-0 in the 12th minute by collecting the ball in the centre circle, moving forward and hitting a low, placed shot into the bottom right corner from 40 yards.

Brentford made it 2-1 just 2 minutes later when my keeper came out on a one-on-one, only for Williams to run round him and score.

18th minute. Loanee Henri Lansbury appears at the back post to head Luton into a 3-1 lead.

Ten minutes later, Fowler runs at the Brentford defence, past two defenders, and places the ball in the bottom left corner for his hattrick.

Half time: Brentford 1 - 4 Luton Town

40 seconds after the restart, Brentford get a goal back when my defence fails to clear the ball and Poole toe-pokes it in.

70th minute: Henri Lansbury curls the ball into the top right corner from a 25 yard free kick for his second of the game. 5-2 now.

2 minutes later and Brentford hit back. A long ball from the keeper to Williams, who is unmarked and blasts the ball in for his second. Similar to my first goal. 5-3 with 18 minutes left.

Poor clearance from my keeper gives Brentford posession and Williams turns provider for Black to score from the edge of the box. 5-4. 12 minutes left.

4th minute of added time and loanee Chris Martin, on for Robbie Fowler, races into the box, beats a defender, and shoots across goal to wrap up the game.

Final score: 6-4.

[AnnIQ Edison]

I've just got this game and have been working through friendlies with Arsenal. All I can say is that Bendtner is a machine in strike. He's scored at least a double or hat trick in every game so far.

[DavidMarrio]

Talking about Arsenal i managed to end their unbeaten start to the Prem and i don't know how happy i was lol.

Arsene giving me compliments before the match made me happy and my inspirational prematch conference...Goals from Huntelaar who ended a bit of a goal drought and Veloso in the first half and then thought i'd try and sit the victory out keep a clean sheet and finished 2-0. They'd only let in 1 goal before the match so to score 2 makes it a bit sweeter...I look at what Wenger thinks of me and he has a poor opinion so my reply...I tactically outclassed him

Moves me up to 4th so heres the table at the end of November and helps me to be 9 unbeaten in the Prem and 13 in all competitions.

1st: Arsenal 40pts

2nd: Man.Utd 34pts

3rd: Chelsea 30pts

4th: Me (Spurs) 30pts

5th: Liverpool 30pts

6th: Newcastle 29pts

Fixture list for December looks like this:

Chelsea- Prem- Away

Man City- Prem- Home

Newcastle- Prem- Away

West Brom- Prem- Home

West Ham- Prem- Away

Goteborg- Uefa Cup- Home

Rapid- Uefa Cup- Away

Man City- Carling Cup- Away

[therockbox]

Finished my second season at Newcastle, winning the UEFA Cup and FA Cup as well as finishing third in the Premier League. A really good season considering I've got a group of four strikers (Lazovic, Necid, Vagner Love and Xisco) that seem to alternate between world class and absolutely horrendous each week. No surprise that I only scored 55 league goals, although my defence was awesome. We conceded 24 and had the second best defence in the league, just one more conceded than Chelsea. Final top six looked like this:

1. Arsenal

2. Man Utd

3. Newcastle

4. Man City

5. Liverpool

6. Chelsea

Surprisingly, neither Benitez or Scolari seem to be under pressure despite having awful seasons (the second in a row for Liverpool, they finished 8th before this).

FA Cup was a bit of a mix, the first three rounds were fairly easy (Colchester, Wigan and Sunderland all at St. James') but then it got really difficult. In the sixth round beat Arsenal 2-1, although we were really lucky - they battered us from the start but we still managed to take a 2-0 lead right up until the 89th minute. In the semis we knocked Chelsea out on penalties, again we would've lost if Given and Coloccini weren't performing but luckily they were both brilliant. Final again went to penalties, this time against Liverpool. Unusually for a game against the 'big clubs' we dominated, and would have won if my strikers weren't playing like part-timers. Fortunately Coloccini scored twice (both from corners), getting us to penalties. The first twelve penalties were scored, then Lucas missed and Love put his in off the post to give us the win.

Had a good run in the UEFA Cup as well. Finished top of our group ahead of Debrecen, Valenciennes and Anderlecht, before getting Marseille in the 1st Knockout Round. Drew 1-1 with them away before finishing it off 1-0 at home, and got Rangers in the second round. They did nothing but defend in the first leg at St James' meaning it was 0-0 going into the second leg, but we drew 2-2 to go through on away goals.

Got Man City in the Quarter Finals, I was sure we'd go out because I hadn't beaten them all season. They knocked us out of the League Cup and did the double in the League as well, but a 2-0 win at home followed by a 2-2 draw away put us through quite comfortably.

Semis was another tough draw, with Juventus coming to our place in the first leg. We won 2-1 but I was sure the away goal would kill us, and when they took a 1-0 lead in the second leg I was sure we were out. Fortunately Coloccini (surprise surprise) blasted in a freekick in the 86th minute to put us through.

The final against Villarreal should have been much tougher than it was. In the end though we dominated possession, deserved our 2-0 win and really should have scored more. Still, was nice to get a major trophy, and I think I'll end up leaving before next season starts because the chairman is being really stingy again. I can't improve on this season without a fair chunk of cash, in fact I think I'll go backwards. Coloccini and Jonas (our two best players by miles) both want out, and I can't blame them because Barcelona, AC Milan and Man Utd are interested. I've set their values at £30m each but if anyone comes in with a decent off I reckon they'll be sold over my head.

[DavidMarrio]

I just beat Goteborg 4-0 and a player got sent off for them 90th minute. Aftermatch report: Player earned himself a early bath after getting sent off in the 91st minute. There was only 2 minutes of added time he didn't really get an early bath...Just would of maybe got one a minute early. Oh well lol

My next biggest game of the season again a derby this time Chelsea. They just beat Everton while i played UEFA Cup so they have a game in hand and are 3 pts ahead so really need a win. Liverpool also played but drew so really need to capitalize on this

[Pesci]

So I finished 8th in my first season with Spurs. Not brilliant but I think I'm getting the hang of playing away from home so hopefully next year will be an improvement. Selling Darren Bent for 10m to Chelsea, no idea why they want him because he was god-awful last season. For some reason Sunderland feel like splashing out 7.5m on Michael Dawson as well, which I'm not gonna say no to. I've tried signing Vagner Love twice now but for some reason he doesn't get a work permit. FFS. I'll make a post with my squad and all that later on.

[Matt]

So before the season even starts, some good news and some bad news. The good news, after getting Leeds back to the big time Cuddly Uncle Ken is selling up, the bad news is my opening fixtures are:

Chelsea

Arsenal

Everton

Man Utd

Ipswich

Newcastle

5 of my first 6 games are against top 10 sides. Yay.

[DavidMarrio]

That a very very tough Fixture list...

And so i take the lead 3 times in the Chelsea match yet to let in a goal a few minutes later...Screw it i got a well deserved point of Chelsea a team who they thought would batter me and so i've won 2 and drew 2 (Both i should of won) against the top 4.

Carling Cup Semi Finals if i beat Man.City well i got the luck of the draw being a away tie to Bolton while Arsenal will play Man.Utd or Newcastle so that helps towards getting my first silverware

[Clawson]

My March fixtures are fun...

Liverpool Home

Sunderland Home (FA Cup 6th Round)

Paris Saint-Germain Home (UEFA Cup 2nd Round Knockout)

Arsenal Away

PSG Away (UEFA Cup)

Portsmouth Home

Wigan Away

Packed month, but atleast I've managed to tie the Big 4 in all 4 games against them so far. Naturally being City I still sit in 9th with a record of 10-10-6.

Edited December 4, 2008 by Clawson

[Matt]

Lost 3-0 to Chelsea... Currently 3-0 down to Arsenal and I'm down to 10... It's only half time

Edit: 3-1. I'll take that. Mifsud came on and with his first run he was one on one with Almunia but he decided to run to the corner flag before squaring it to Howson who scored a beauty from the 18 yard line.

Edit 2: Forgot to mention that the consortium supposidly taking over want to sack me and replace me with Steve Staunton (my coach), cunts - I've got this team back to back promotions.

Edit 3: Lol, scum. 2 wins and a draw against them now. Was on the backfoot the entire game (as you'd expect) but Emmanuel Villa decided to close down Thomas Kuszcak and he intercepted his past and chipped it goalwards from 30 yards out (I seem to score a lot of long distance goals ), I then hung on for the win. Still in the bottom 3 having played 4 and only got 3 points but man that felt good.

Edited December 4, 2008 by Footjob Fever

[Scott McFly]

Finished my first season with Hearts and ended up in 9th place in the SPL, which is pretty bad to be honest. But the board signed me for another 2 years, so they must be happy enough with it. Still got around £1m from the sale of Christophe Berra to spend on transfers and I could still really do with a new central defender and goalkeeper. My midfield is cracking - my two wingers are on fire, I've got good backup for the right winger and decent enough backup for my left winger, and I've got 4 central midfielders who are good enough to start any game. My main striker Nadé got his 20th goal on the last day so hopefully he'll carry on where he left off from, and I've tried him up front by himself with 3 central midfielders, but I think I might go with 2 up front from now on since I tried that in the last few games. Just need to find him a good strike partner since I've got a few younger players but they're all pretty inexperienced. I've got 3 of them though that can all play well enough and some promising looking youngsters (including a 16 year old I'm half tempted to try out). Definitely need to tighten up at the back though since I think we let in the second highest amount of goals in the whole division, so a keeper and defender would be a good start. Tried to get Ben Foster since his deal's up in the summer, but shockingly he's not interested. I'm gonna keep badgering him though.

[Pesci]

Okay, so as promised, here's my team and stuff. Transfers:

In

Paulo Ferreira - 1.4m (hardly played, but 1.4m for him as back-up is awesome)

Alex (left winger from Internacional - not the other two ) - 7.75m - bit steep seeing as he's hardly played either, he's probably good enough to start, but he won't unless somebody gets injured, so yeah

Miguel Veloso - 12m (he's been as good as you'd expect)

Kevin Davies - 4.4m (yeah... I looked at his stats and decided he'd be good back-up for Pav... but he's fucking awful)

Rafael Carioca - 3m (hasn't played much but he's developing surely enough, so he might start to challenge Huddlestone or Veloso soon)

[January] David Luiz - 9.75m (ideally he'll grow while being secondary to King and Corluka after I sold Woodgate, apparently he's better than King but he keeps getting booked so I'm nervous)

[January] Martin Fenin - 1.1m loan (because Bent was shit and Campbell wasn't great - Fenin basically saved me - something like 6 goals in 14. Not bad at all. Won't get him full-time though because I don't need yet another young player)

[2nd summer] Rodrigo Palacio (and loads of youngsters but typing them out will anihilate this post. Anyway, I need him to play off of Pav, hopefully he won't be shit)

Out

Ricardo Rocha - 1.5m to Birmingham

Didier Zokora - 3.8m to Bolton

[January] Woodgate - 10m to Villa (didn't really wanna sell him but he was the worst performing out of himself, King and Corluka, so I wasn't gonna say no to 10m)

[January] Jamie O'Hara - 5m to Everton - buy-back clause of 7.5m in case he becomes immense - wanted to keep him but he never got played so I thought this could be a good idea

[January] Aaron Lennon - 5m to Bolton - biggest mismatch ever? Anyway, buy-back clause of 7.5m again in case he becomes immense - needed to choose between him and dos Santos and dos Santos got there most recently so felt better selling Lennon

[2nd summer] Assou-Ekotto - 4m to Everton - tried to get rid of him repeatedly throughout the first season - nobody wanted him

[2nd summer] Michael Dawson - 7.25m to Sunderland - yeah, don't get it either

[2nd summer] Darren Bent - 10m to Chelsea - good riddance

Got Sturridge and Macauley Chrisantus on frees too, but neither of them fancy a loan move, which is annoying. Starting line-up:

GK: Gomes (he's so awesome on this game)

DR: Alan Hutton (solid)

DL: Gareth Bale (awesome)

DC: Corluka (awesome)

DC: King (wasn't happy that I stripped him of his captaincy... he's only here until Luiz gets better)

MR: Bentley (good... but I need to get more assists out of him and Modric)

ML: Modric (good... 7 PL goals... but not nearly enough assists... oh yeah, new captain)

MC: Huddlestone (played well occassionally, didn't make any massive mistakes, I'm just playing him so he becomes good eventually)

MC: Veloso (vice captain... he's good enough)

FC: Pavlyuchenko (something like 22 goals last season... most of them headers... but he dried up a few times and that fucked me over)

FC: Palacio (he better fucking score)

Hopefully that team's good enough for Europe, since that's what I promised my board. We'll see.

[DavidMarrio]

Sisters done it again...Wanted the computer decided to click internet explorer a few hundred times causing the computer to crash when friggin firefox was open. I'm going to have to set it to save after every 2 weeks or summit i can't trust her.

So here we go again from after the Arsenal game i gotta replay 3 matches the Chelsea match which i drew 3-3 last time around, Goteborg who i beat 4-0 and Man.City in Carling Cup which was the last game i played and i got beat 3-1.

[Captain Kirk]

Started a game with Rangers but have transfer windows off, tried to bring in Appiah and Trabelsi on frees but both couldn't get work permits.

John Fleck and Aaron are excellent though.

EDIT: Just got beat 1-0 by Aberdeen. Bloody sheepshaggers.

Edited December 5, 2008 by Captain Kirk

[NotoriousGTT]

Finished my first season with Hearts and ended up in 9th place in the SPL, which is pretty bad to be honest. But the board signed me for another 2 years, so they must be happy enough with it. Still got around £1m from the sale of Christophe Berra to spend on transfers and I could still really do with a new central defender and goalkeeper. My midfield is cracking - my two wingers are on fire, I've got good backup for the right winger and decent enough backup for my left winger, and I've got 4 central midfielders who are good enough to start any game. My main striker Nadé got his 20th goal on the last day so hopefully he'll carry on where he left off from, and I've tried him up front by himself with 3 central midfielders, but I think I might go with 2 up front from now on since I tried that in the last few games. Just need to find him a good strike partner since I've got a few younger players but they're all pretty inexperienced. I've got 3 of them though that can all play well enough and some promising looking youngsters (including a 16 year old I'm half tempted to try out). Definitely need to tighten up at the back though since I think we let in the second highest amount of goals in the whole division, so a keeper and defender would be a good start. Tried to get Ben Foster since his deal's up in the summer, but shockingly he's not interested. I'm gonna keep badgering him though.

I dont know about 09, but in 08 Gary Glen was a 20 goal a season striker from the first season on.