Football Manager 2009

[Captain Kirk]

Liverpool signed Benjani and Caicedo?

[pililuk]

Liverpool signed Benjani and Caicedo?

They did until i didnt save it so now theyve all left for random places in europe, ive now ended up losing about 10M in that transfer

[Matt]

I do not like this at all. According to my scout - who is very good and has 20 for judging potential ability - Man Utd basically have the second coming of Zidane in their youth team...11 TIMES OVER!

Name?

[R.W.]

I'm loving my Accrington Stanley game.

We suck, it's wonderful - I must have the least talented bunch of players in League Two, but our gutsy, cloggy ways have dragged us to 16th in January, with a massive 5 wins, and have seen me linked with the vacant Norwich & Leicester jobs already. And the fans love me - I love this "the fans are pleased despite the 3-0 defeat.." stuff.

Having just signed a couple of better players in the Jan window, as well as striking up a relationship with Wigan, I plan to consolidate this year, then try to actually move up the league next year.

[IAceI]

How the hell do they like you despite losing 3-0?

[The Future]

Everythings going wrong for Man United.

Just as Rooney,Berbatov and Ronaldo started to click the defense went down the shitter, Vidic continued to put in horrible performance after horrible performance and as did my left back Sylvan Armand I began to left Armand out and include O'Shea whose been surprisingly decent. I kept Vidic hoping he would come good but a diabolical performance from him at the Nou Camp and two errors against City which saw us get spanked 3-0 and 2-1 has left me with no option but to give Brown and Evans a shot(Ferdinand is injured.)

After losing the first leg at Barca 3-0...just how on earth do I approach the second leg? Do I just go all out attack and hope for the best?

[METALMAN]

I do not like this at all. According to my scout - who is very good and has 20 for judging potential ability - Man Utd basically have the second coming of Zidane in their youth team...11 TIMES OVER!

Name?

I didn't mean an individual player by that, but I checked out their under 18s at the start of the 09/10 season and they've basically got a first XI of 4 and five star potential players. Whereas my best graduate has two stars for potential and is from Samoa.

Still beat them in the FA Youth Cup bizarrely enough. Though that is mainly down to me poaching Cardiff City's bizarrely brilliant youngsters.

[TheTruth]

Meh. I'm playing as Hyde United in Blue Square North and joined them 3/4 through the season. They were 21st despite being predicted for a top half finish, and even though I manage to get them to 15th and telling me that they won't be judging the team's performance this year, they tell me they're disappointed with me. I also couldn't get anyone else besides one striker to score, and my defence fell to pieces despite being 5-3-2. Hopefully the 09/10 season goes alot better though, considering it will be my first season in complete charge.

[R.W.]

How the hell do they like you despite losing 3-0?

They apparently have some very low expectations.

[KoA]

Just a question about that glitch selling Darren Fletcher using 9.1.0 (just using it on this particular game while I get used to it then starting properly); how long does it usually take for City to bid? I've had numerous mails saying they're interested but nothing yet. I've played the first Premiership game and still nothing.

Could do with the money for some cover on the midfield flanks.

[Baddar]

I do not like this at all. According to my scout - who is very good and has 20 for judging potential ability - Man Utd basically have the second coming of Zidane in their youth team...11 TIMES OVER!

Name?

I didn't mean an individual player by that, but I checked out their under 18s at the start of the 09/10 season and they've basically got a first XI of 4 and five star potential players. Whereas my best graduate has two stars for potential and is from Samoa.

Still beat them in the FA Youth Cup bizarrely enough. Though that is mainly down to me poaching Cardiff City's bizarrely brilliant youngsters.

Blame Bluebirds (from the PS3 FIFA Tournies on here). He clearly bumped up their stats too much when working on them before the game was released.

[Bigal]

What a season

Started a game as Sunderland, who I'm usually shit with. I brought in Thomas Gravesen on a free and Denny Landzaat on loan from Feyenoord, but had transfers off so that's all I got. Disastrous start to the season, only winning one league game in 2008. In January I was given about 34M to spend, so I brought in the following:

Denny Landzaat - 1.6M transfer. Was a top player for us, so well worth the cash.

Nigel de Jong - 9M. Probably our player of the year now.

Andrey Arshavin - 11.5M. He's been a bit of a disappointment, but I have a feeling he'll be better next season.

Emile Heskey - 2.5M. 9 goals in 18 appearances, so he's done the job.

Eidur Gudjohnsen - 1.5M. Think he's going to be a bit of a flop.

Christian Molinaro - 325k. Not an outstanding player, but a decent one, and a bargain.

Luis Ernesto Perez - 7.25M. Is a first-choice midfielder in the team now.

We improved, but it didn't look like it was going to be enough. Almost beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, but they scored in the last five minutes. 12 points from our last six games kept us up though, with a 2-0 win over Wigan on the last day having Hull go down at our expense, and also finished above Fulham in 17th. Nervewracking, but a hell of a lot of fun.

Final haul: 32 points, with 7 wins, 11 draws and 20 losses, 36 goals scored, 60 conceded.

Edited April 16, 2009 by Bigal®

[Sick N Twisted]

Weird question.

If I created a manager in the data editor, is it possible to use him as my manager when starting a game? or do I have to create one in game like usual.

[The Future]

Just a question about that glitch selling Darren Fletcher using 9.1.0 (just using it on this particular game while I get used to it then starting properly); how long does it usually take for City to bid? I've had numerous mails saying they're interested but nothing yet. I've played the first Premiership game and still nothing.

Could do with the money for some cover on the midfield flanks.

Hmm I sold him in January as far as I remember but to Chelsea not City.

Well the season where I wanted to conquer Europe has seen me eliminated from everything but the league, down 3-0 in the first leg against Barca and nearly pulled off a Liverpool like comeback with Rooney,O'Shea and Carrick scoring but then Asenjo got injured and I had already used up my 3 subs...Ferdinand had to go in goal and Bojan scored to send them through on away goals.

City went on an amazing unbeaten run in the league which co-incided with my drop in form and are now a point behind me it could have been worse but I managed to achieve major victories over Liverpool and Arsenal which have helped me stay on top, I was struggling because of a lack of a good central midfielder(Carrick and Anderson are decent but get tired quickly)so I gave Wes Brown a shot and he got very good ratings so I am sticking with him and Carrick till the end of the season and will try to bring in Lassana Diarra in the summer.

[METALMAN]

Weird question.

If I created a manager in the data editor, is it possible to use him as my manager when starting a game? or do I have to create one in game like usual.

I'm afraid not.

Oh and Bigal, Arshavin's always been a disappointment for me. In a way I'm quite glad he's at Arsenal on the new update because I know longer give into temptation when buying him and think "maybe he'll be good this time".

[KoA]

Just a question about that glitch selling Darren Fletcher using 9.1.0 (just using it on this particular game while I get used to it then starting properly); how long does it usually take for City to bid? I've had numerous mails saying they're interested but nothing yet. I've played the first Premiership game and still nothing.

Could do with the money for some cover on the midfield flanks.

Hmm I sold him in January as far as I remember but to Chelsea not City.

Well the season where I wanted to conquer Europe has seen me eliminated from everything but the league, down 3-0 in the first leg against Barca and nearly pulled off a Liverpool like comeback with Rooney,O'Shea and Carrick scoring but then Asenjo got injured and I had already used up my 3 subs...Ferdinand had to go in goal and Bojan scored to send them through on away goals.

City went on an amazing unbeaten run in the league which co-incided with my drop in form and are now a point behind me it could have been worse but I managed to achieve major victories over Liverpool and Arsenal which have helped me stay on top, I was struggling because of a lack of a good central midfielder(Carrick and Anderson are decent but get tired quickly)so I gave Wes Brown a shot and he got very good ratings so I am sticking with him and Carrick till the end of the season and will try to bring in Lassana Diarra in the summer.

Thanks. Another question; say I lived off this 10m until January; would I be given more money in January to spend?

[METALMAN]

Quite possibly. If you're doing alright I would say it's almost definite.

Edited April 16, 2009 by metalman

[therockbox]

Spoiler: Click here to view

That was the table when I took over in December, just started playing the save again after a break and finished the season:

Made a couple of loan signings in January which really helped. Donati came in from Celtic and was miles better than Boateng, so we actually had a central midfield that could tackle and keep the ball. Christian Dailly came from Rangers, he only really started one in every three games but always played well. Seemed to get fouled a lot quite high up the pitch as well, which was useful. I also got Daniel Sturridge from Man City but he was quite poor, scored on his debut but then didn't score again and eventually was just backup to Manucho and Daniel Cousin.

Manucho was awesome though, finished the season with 20 league goals (joint second highest in the league), didn't really see him much but always popped up with a goal. One of the few FM players I've head that can actually score from one on ones with the keeper (touch wood). Boaz Myhill was excellent throughout as well, I signed Basso from Bristol City originally to be number 1, but he got injured and Myhill excelled so I couldn't really think about dropping him. He finished home draws against Chelsea (2-2) and Arsenal (1-1) with an average rating of 9.0 in each game, and given that we stayed up with two points those results were massive.

In the summer I've got rid of a lot of the deadwood from last season. Giovanni's gone to Betis for £2m and Bullard left after his contract expired, he would have signed another one but he was awful in practically every game he played and finished the season with a 5.22 overall average rating. Also raised some funds by selling Fagan (£1.1m) and Anthony Gardner (£1.3m) to Wigan, Folan (£1.3m) to West Ham and Boateng and Wayne Brown (reserve team CB) for a combined £1.2m-ish) to AZ and some Championship team.

Replaced them all with much better players. Signed Manucho and Donatti on permanent deals and re-signed Dailly on loan because he covers a fair few different positions. Got a few players in on frees, Andy Dorman (AMC) from St Mirren, Benoit Pedretti (MC) from Auxerre and Jérémy Mathieu (WBL/ML) from Toulouse. Really pleased with Mathieu, I tried to sign him in January but they wanted £7m for him, and now that I've got him Newcastle and Fulham are both interested. Also signed Scharner (£1.5m) and Carlton Cole (£2.5m) from Wigan and West Ham, as well as Simon Cox and Gary Taylor-Fletcher from Swindon and Blackpool to pad out the team.

First game of the season was away at Liverpool, and we drew 1-1. They took the lead through Babel but Manucho equalised in the second half. Got Man City at home next and then Villa away, so not the easiest of starts but a point against Liverpool was a bonus.

Finished the 09/10 season in 12th with 48 points, well clear of the relegation zone. We were expected to finish bottom so 12th is very good, but we were actually in the top half right until the last 6 or 7 games. The African Nations didn't help because I lost Manucho and Cousin (two of my three good strikers), leaving me with just Carlton Cole. I thought I'd be able to cope by just playing one up front for the period when they were away, but as soon as they'd gone he broke his leg and missed the rest of the season. That meant I had to use Simon Cox (not good enough for the Prem) and Michael Bridges up front, with a couple of youth team strikers as backup. We only got one point out of the four or five games Cousin and Manucho missed which meant we slipped from 8th to 10th, then once they came back Cousin had gone off the boil completely and Manucho only plays well when his partner does.

Still, 12th is good enough given all I had to do was battle bravely against relegation, and because Hull don't have any debts/loans it's really easy to turn a profit. In most months I was getting between £800k and £1.3m, so the balance at the end of the season (as well as the money we got for finishing 12th and the TV rights for 2010/11 was around £35m. The board gave me a £17m transfer budget, and I increased that by selling Cousin (£825k) to Coventry, Andy Dorman (£1.4m) to Crystal Palace and Kamil Zayatte (£5.5m) to Wolfsburg. Originally I wasn't going to sell Zayatte, but I managed to sign Ayila Yussuf from Dinamo Kiev for £10m. All of my scouts said he was a definite purchase, he's 25 and scored 9 goals in 25 games for Kiev last season.

Also signed a couple of players from France on a free, hopefully they can be as successful as Mathieu was. Gregory Bettiol (ST) from ESTAC and Gael Danic (AML) from Valenciennes, along with Delph from Leeds (only £925k) and a Portuguese right winger called Nelson from Betis for £4m. Still got around £10m to spend but I'm going to try and keep that for January.

[METALMAN]

I've noticed than whenever you lose all your strikers but one - due to injury, suspensions, international duty or anything else - you're always left with Carlton Cole.

[R.W.]

Which is always weird, especially when he's not even in your team.