Football Manager 2010

[DFF]

My only good left-back has been whinging about wanting to leave for months, so when Inter Milan come in with £24 million for him in December I think "Let's get it over with and sell him then. I can get a good replacement for half that."

So I let the deal go through then go looking through Player Search for good left-backs.

...And there aren't any.

Well, there's one, but he's at Manchester United and Steve Bruce absolutely refuses to negotiate selling him to Chelsea bastards such as I.

Shit.

I also need to find a good striker, though he can be a bench-warmer if necessary, while the left-back needs to be a starter. This is going to be a difficult January transfer window.

What year are you in? I think I'm in 2014 and Zhirkov is still a beast at left back. Ashley Cole is still pretty good too on mine.

[stokeriño]

This will be the January 2016 transfer window. I'll also point out that this is FM2008 so clearly they have some things differently. Zhirkov isn't counted as being at all capable at left-back, for instance; simply an AML with an ability to play ML as well (stupid game...). I actually bought him to play ML when I was West Ham's manager some eight years prior. He's still there, but is 32 now and playing fewer than a dozen games a season.

Ashley Cole is 35 and playing in the Liverpool reserves (one of my predecessors at Chelsea sold him in 2010 for a poultry £9.5 million, the fucking muppets). Everything apart from his mental stats are shot to shit, unfortunately. Only a couple are above 11.

Currently trying to dig out some alternatives. Slobodan Rajkovic looks quite good, although he was apparently at Chelsea briefly in the 10/11 season - played 9 games and left on a free transfer after 6 months. Not sure he'd be all too thrilled to give it a second try.

[EddieG]

Where's Gareth Bale? Or is he not rated on FM 08?

[stokeriño]

Also at Man Utd. I have put a cheeky bid in for him, but I doubt they'll be any more favourable to selling him either.

[EddieG]

What about Marcelo at Madrid? Or wherever he is now in your game.

[stokeriño]

He's at Valencia and I'd probably have to pay £30+ million to get him. I'm not made of money.

The guy I originally wanted from Man Utd, Mamadou Sakho, is now talking about how he wants to move to a bigger club. No sign yet that United are listening to him, but I can monitor that all the same.

In the meantime, Matías Cahais might be a decent choice for a couple of years - if I can persuade Bayern to part with him for £10 million or less...

[9 to 5]

Denis Irwin?

[Hobo]

Joe Cole def. Seattle Sounders. Suck on that Drew Carey

In continued Joe Cole vs. the MLS, he scores in 28 seconds against TFC in the Canadian Championship, Conor Casey and Todd Clark my only real strikers are now injured so he will play up front in the next game.

[Hobo]

England win the World Cup, Joe Cole gets selected afterwards for Euro Qualifiers.

DeMarcus Beasely, Tamandani Nsaliwa both get injured missing the rest of the campaign. Cole, Convey and Kelly Gray struggles with fitness as we struggle to compete in the CONCACAF Champions League after winning the Canadian Championships. We win the Open Cup beating New England. Qualify for the play offs and finish second in the over all standings but go out of the Western Conference play off semi-final losing 4-3 on agg to Seattle after we played terribly at Qwest Field and lost 4-1.

We just ran out of steam

[Pesci]

So what's everyone's longest game on any version of FM? I only ask because my mate is just about to enter 2070 on FM 07

Mine is 2021 on FM09, which I'm struggling to play because I feel obligated to get into FM 10 after I paid for it and besides, I've made things too easy with Man City. If only I had the determination to manage the lower leagues first :/

Edited June 23, 2010 by Pesci

[Gazz]

2032 on FM08

[Hobo]

I think I got about 12-5 years in on one game. Can't remember which one it was.

[METALMAN]

I got to about 2030 once. Although that was on Championship Manager 01/02, so probably about one evening's play. >_>

[stokeriño]

I remember playing about 12 years on CM99/00 with Glasgow Rangers. Most of my games last 4 or 5 years max, though my current one is into its 8th year, so maybe...

[The Quasi Juice]

Yeah, I'm not really a fast player. I think my max is around 9 seasons with Ajax with FM07. I don't like to go too far because then it's just regens only.

[Farmer Reil]

As some/one of you might remember, I had a game going a while ago on CM01/02 with Viking. Well, I picked it up again recently, and won the league again, undefeated this time (Rosenborg hadn't lost in three years until this season, when they lost four. None of them to me though :@). Anyway, the league is basically a two-horse race now, so that's almost irrelevant.

What is relevant is the Champions League. I've gotten Viking to the stage now where qualifying for the first group stage is almost a certainty (in the rare occasions I come second and don't do it automatically). Qualifying from the second group stage though, is harder. However, I ALMOST made it!

My group, to be fair, was the easiest of all of them. Rangers, Valencia and Birmingham (Birmingham have become quite the force in England, Bolo Zenden on the wing, Cherno Samba and Helstad up front, Linderoth, Henchoz and... David Grondin! at the back), finished third in the Premiership after leading it for a while.

Anyway, beat Valencia away, which shocked even me. Beat Birmingham at home, drew away to Rangers... started getting hopeful at this point. Lost to Rangers at home, lost to Valencia at home, drew with Birmingham to steal second place on goal difference.

Second group stage: Barcelona, AC Milan, Stuttgart. Owned Stuttgart at home, drew away. Lost heavily to Milan and Barcelona away. Then freaky shit started happening... beat Milan away 4-3 via a last minute penalty. So I went into the game with Barcelona, two points behind Milan. Milan were away at Stuttgart. It seemed unlikely.

I managed to fucking BEAT Barcelona. Fucking BEAT them, 1-0. But Milan beat Stuttgart 1-0 too. So I found myself in the incredible position of being DISAPPOINTED that I beat Milan, Barcelona and VfB Stuttgart "but only once".

Annoyingly I'm still only World Class in Norway though, so I can't get any other jobs above the bottom tier in any other countries.

[Whisper]

Darn you, making me want to play 01/02 again.

[Pesci]

My housemates used to play that all the time last year and it really annoyed me. Every time the same thing. Get Cherno Samba, get Taribo West on a free, get a few dirty Swedes and you're set plus the average squad size is usually 35.

Edited June 26, 2010 by Pesci

[stokeriño]

I had completely forgotten that the Champions League ever had a second group stage. It seems so ridiculous and over-the-top now.

get Taribo West on a free

Oh yes. Every. Single. Time.

In more contemporary news, I finally got that Sakho left-back from Manchester United (for an annoyingly high fee of £30 million). But I did also manage to sign Luis Suarez on a free, since his current contract will expire in the summer, so maybe that balances it out a bit.

Given that this afternoon he's just been awesome in Uruguary v South Korea, I'm quite pleased. He may be a few years older in my game, but 29 years old is nothing to be sniffed at.

[TCO]

Which Championship Manager was the one where the Lebonese/Swedish Sharbel Touma was the greatest player ever?

Edited June 26, 2010 by The Cool One