Football Manager 2009

[Clawson]

Sweet. 2 games to go in my 2nd season in charge at Manchester City and I've clinched 2nd place behind Arsenal but ahead of the Scum and Chelsea.

[stokeriño]

I'm playing a new Villa game, and it has just come to my attention that Chelsea have handed the captain's armband to......Didier Drogba.

What.

[shaneo]

I'm in my third season as Utd now, wont 2 Premierships, but last season was beaten by Barca in the CL final, who knocked me out at the semis the year before, bastards! And then was denied a double when Tottenham beat me in the FA Cup final. I hate Darren Bent!

Was actually expecting a difficult year, shipped a few players out, promoted some youth, and demoted some senior players to reserves, so I thought I had made too many changes too quickly, but its working out pretty well. im on a 22 game unbeaten run that stretches back into last season, just beat Liverpool at Anfield, and destroyed Spurs to avenge my FA Cup defeat.

Along the way, I decided that Rio should be my captain from the start, now he is described as a Legendary Centre Back, pretty cool.

[Whisper]

Can't get into this game. I got it a few weeks ago and it seems to just freeze randomly, particularly on the club info screen. No idea why. I've got the patch, and my comp is more than good enough to run the game. In fact, every other aspect of the game seems to run far more quickly than most FM's I can remember. So yeah, no idea what's going on

[TCO]

I'm having a woeful first season with Newcastle. 17th, with 10 points from 14 games, including only 2 league wins and one was a complete fluke 4-2 win over Man Utd. I just can't get wins no matter how hard I try, my tactics seem fine, I just lack the killer instinct in front of goal and leak too many goals.

I've only signed Caceras from Barca and Altidore from Vilararael, with Demba Ba coming in, in January

I did beat 'Boro 1-0 in the last league game though which was crucial, when Oewn scored in the 88th minute, I never felt so happy from an FM moment before. Up next I've got Fulham, Stoke and Hull all of whom are either below me or right above me, so these games could make or break my season

[Sick N Twisted]

Decided to start a game unemployed and work my way to the top, and got placed with Luverdense in Brazil. When I joined them they were top of their group with 5 played, 4 won and 1 draw, and I just had my first match in charge and won 4 - 1 against Vilhena, even though we are relegation candidates.

I've never done one of these kind of games before, I usually play as Everton or Real Madrid, so this should be fun. ^_^

[METALMAN]

Decided to start a game unemployed and work my way to the top, and got placed with Luverdense in Brazil. When I joined them they were top of their group with 5 played, 4 won and 1 draw, and I just had my first match in charge and won 4 - 1 against Vilhena, even though we are relegation candidates.

I've never done one of these kind of games before, I usually play as Everton or Real Madrid, so this should be fun. ^_^

I like those games the best because it seems so much more fulfilling. The best one I did was on FM 08 where I started at some crummy club in Bulgaria where I eventually got promoted to the top division and earned a managerial ticket to Queen's Park in Scotland. After a season I moved to Forfar and got them promoted and consolidated in the SPL after about seven seasons. Then moved to Northampton for about six months when I finally got my dream job at Tottenham. Then the game crashed...

I miss that game.

[METALMAN]

I just had a player score direct from a corner there. First time I've ever had that.

[Crybaby Bunting]

I'm having a whale of a time as England manager. I think this is the only game I've had as an international manager where I haven't got pissed at a result and conveniently redid that match.

It was piss easy to qualify for the World Cup (Won 8, Drew 2)

I had a few friendlies where I botched up (drew with Zimbabwe, lost to Mexico)

But as for the World Cup, it's brilliant. I had Brazil, Mexico and Japan in my group and beat them all.

Then beat Chile on penalties in the next round

Now I'm playing Mali (who've just knocked out Portugal in the last round)

Most of the favourites have been knocked out already (France, Italy, Portugal, Spain) leaving me with an awesome chance of winning the Cup.

I just know that now I'm one of the favourites we'll lose to Mali >_<

EDIT: BEST SCREEN EVER!!!

So I guess Germany's also out. This is awesome.

Edited January 6, 2009 by The General

[DavidMarrio]

I have bad memories of being England manager on FM07...Took over before Euro 2008 thought right i'm going to win this tournament. Couldn't be more wrong as two draws and a loss i got knocked out of group stage and sacked. I only went out cause Turkey scored 90th minute unlucky i was.

Stints at Czech Republic and Sweden for 1 year and a half led me to the Spain Job and with 2 games left needed to win both to qualify automatically for World Cup. Went on to beat Brazil in extra time Joaquin the legend scored.

[DavidMarrio]

I have bad memories of being England manager on FM07...Took over before Euro 2008 thought right i'm going to win this tournament. Couldn't be more wrong as two draws and a loss i got knocked out of group stage and sacked. I only went out cause Turkey scored 90th minute unlucky i was.

Stints at Czech Republic and Sweden for 1 year and a half led me to the Spain Job and with 2 games left needed to win both to qualify automatically for World Cup. Went on to beat Brazil in extra time Joaquin the legend scored.

Now that i'm England manager on FM08 with a few games left in World Cup qualifying hopefully i do a better job with Pellegrino my Assistant (took him to Juve as well), Sammy Lee my Under 21 Manager and Stuart Pearce Under 19 Manager the future is bright for England...hopefully

[Emperor Fuckshit]

Right. Finally got the demo of this cunt last week and have played a few matches now. I took on Arsenal, due to my belief that demos work best if you play as big club for the maximum of freedom (you can actually buy players; play in both Europe and domestically etc etc).

My system basically involves a flat back four, with Toure and Gallas as the centre backs, Clichy and Sanga as the full backs playing with some license to get forward. I signed Senna to play just in front of the defense; playing neat passes through the midfield channels and going back to help out the centre halves when required. Fabregas will then play in a central midfield role with freedom to do pretty much as he likes, acting as the main playmaker, receiving the ball from Senna and then looking to play more creative balls to the forwards. The front line consists of van Persie and Walcott on the wings, and Nasri/Rosicky behind Adebayor as the lone striker.

I chose this system as I didn't want to play 4-4-2 (dull), but wanted to keep Fabregas in his preferred role as an MC (so a diamond was out of the question). There are some problems with this, however. Van Persie and Walcott on the wings may not be ideal: Walcott's crossing skills are weak, and against tough defenses he might find it hard to cut inside and develop moves. Van Persie doesn't have that problem so much, tough I can't help but feel that placing him out wide wastes his ability as a finisher.

I also have the problem of massive fucking injuries. I mean, I'm talking about Fabregas, but he hasn't played a game yet. He, Rosicky, Eduardo and Diaby all start the game injured, and Toure (five months) and Van Persie (one month) have both picked up injuries in friendlies that will cause them to miss time.

As far as the transfer market goes, I've signed Senna as mentioned (~£8million), Lautaro Acosta (£6million) and Francesco Bolzoni (six-month loan; no wage contribution). I still have a good amount of money (about £10million). I was considering getting a keeper, but all of those available are too expensive to justify the marginal upgrade they'd provide over Almunia. Now, with Toure out (and also, incidentally, wanting to leave), I'm faced with a decision about whether to buy a long-term replacement at centre half to guard against his departure and Gallas' decline, to purchase a short-term option for shorter money to provide cover for Toure over the first half of the season, or to just let Silvestre and Djourou muddle through as required. I'll do some scouting before I make a choice. On the way out (other than maybe Toure), Eboue is becoming expendable due to the presence of Sagna, and he has enough value that it might be worth dumping him in January and spending some of the money on a cheaper replacement, placing the rest of the profit into storage.

As for actual results so far... well, it's a transitional period. We beat Barnet (away) 1-0 thanks to deflected Carlos Vela thunderbolt and then a team so minor I can't even remember their name (also away) thanks to an Adebayor goal after a fantastic Van Persie through ball and a close-range header from Nasri. More recently, we scrapped through a visit to Nor'n giants Linfield 3-2, coming from behind and getting goals from prospect Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, Clichy and Nasri.

The game is nice. I didn't play the last version much, due to lack of time more than anything. The 3-D match is a nice addition, although at present it is very reminiscent of the 2-D engine + a vertical plane. Haven't really noticed the 'complete rewrite' of the transfer system, but maybe I need to make more deals before judging. More of the same, basically, with a few welcome bells and whistles here and there. I'm more inclined to buy this year due to not playing much last time, but I haven't made a definite decision.

Edited January 8, 2009 by Emperor Fuckshit

[METALMAN]

Carlos Vela is awesome on FM 09.

Right now I am manager of Hyde United and I'm 2nd in the Blue Square North. I have never managed a worse team. My strikers are utter shit.

[Zaz]

My super Spaniard regen, just turned 18. That's him at 3 stars, he has the potential to be 6 stars. Got him pretty cheap too, 2.7m pounds from Murcia (who got him for free from Ferrol). In his second game for me he got a winner in the last ten minutes against Chelsea, so he'll probably always be a favourite

And some blasts from the past I found in my Photobucket account, these are all from FM06, I think.

If they were only this good in real life

Edited January 14, 2009 by Zaz

[METALMAN]

I was astounded when I saw Defoe's value. Then I realised it was Australian $. Still a fantastic season though.

On FM09 I have got Hyde promoted to the Conference which is nice. We're currently 8th which is a lot better than our expectations of avoiding relegation.

[Crybaby Bunting]

After realising that I've been posting my England/Celtic progress in the wrong thread

I've managed to completely revamp the Celtic squad in less than a year, and at the moment I've got more money to spend in the transfer bank than when I started. The club's drawing a profit, and my free transfers are turning into gold dust.

I brought in Frazer Forster and Ben Foster (current England No1... then again I am the England manager still so maybe that's not coincidence ) on frees, picked up a load of Italian youth players who are turning into solid defenders also on frees, picked up Jay Simpson, Daniel Sturridge, Plessis, Poesebon, Chad Evens, Rodney Sneijer and Kelvin Etuhu for... you guessed it, free transfers.

I've started to become a vulture around the players I see with contracts running out at the end of the year, I keep checking them every week until the 1st of January where I proceed to offer them contracts as soon as possible. Tim Krul (the current Holland no1) may be the next in line now Forster's getting injured almost every two weeks.

And the wierd thing is that players that the likes of Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea bigged up as the stars of the future... actually are becoming the stars of the future, it's just that they don't want to play them at all and they end up moving to me to develop into superstars.

To be honest, the only players that are not living up to expectation are the players I brought in for 1m-5m, my expensive players are living up to their hype: some Brazilian wonderkid I picked up for 18m over 2 years is drawing interest from the best clubs in the world, I can choose to make a huge profit or keep him for the future as he's only 21. And Per Skyshfiehiehghgignhsdjhfhifif or whatever you call him is kicking arse as my captain. My frees are perfect for my squad as they replace half of the Celtic team who are either ageing or just shit.

It's just a brilliant game, I'm slowly but surely making the divide less about the top two against the rest, but more the top one against the rest. Hearts are slowly becoming the main challengers to Rangers for the CL spot.

[DavidMarrio]

I hate trying to do an online game. I want to do one with my mate and i'm hosting. Do you use the first IP before the / or the one after or both?

[DavidMarrio]

I'm still confused as to how to get an online game to work. Keep trying to get my mate to join won't work and when i try and join his it won't work

[cmb211087]

You need to make sure your router ports are open to allow fm to go online. I mean actually going through the router via your web browser and forwarding the ports, as just letting it have access through your firewall will still block it.

[stokeriño]

Ashley Young - worth £30m?

A moot question, since I (Chelsea) just bought him. And I've told him in Player Interaction to get working on making attacking runs.

He is going to rape other teams' defences. Hard.