Football Manager 2010

[Sick N Twisted]

Just loaded up my Portsmouth game from awhile back to see where I left off.

In Feb 2011, and top of the league after 25 games. 5 players injured, but all set to be returning soon. The squad's getting on a bit, so I'm going to try start signing youth from now on.

Usual starting 11 is:

GK: Vincent Enyeama (joined for 800k in the January transfer window)

CB: Nicolas Burdisso (joined on a free transfer at start of season)

CB: Marc Wilson (been here since the start)

CB: Rigobert Song (joined on a free transfer at start of season)

CM: Michael Brown (captain of club, been here since the start)

CM: Jack Wilshere (on loan from Arsenal)

CM: Hassan Yebda (joined for 700k at start of season)

CAM: Diego Buonanotte (joined on a free transfer at start of season)

ST: Vagner Love (joined for £4.7mil at start of the season)

ST: Roy Makaay (joined for free at start of season)

ST: Frederic Piquionne (joined for £1.5 mil at start of the season)

Going to try clean out the squad come summer, I have no cover for CB, except some youth players, so a new CB is my main priority.

Probably going to let Lee Carsley, George Boateng, Yildiray Baturk and Amr Zaki all leave at end of the season, and replace them with younger players, or promote some youth/reserve players to the first team. Oh, and Milevskyi is joining on a free at start of next season.

EDIT:

Zaki's gone, joined Rubin for 6 million.

Edited August 22, 2010 by Sick N Twisted

[Hobo]

15 games in to the season (this custom Irish league has only 26 games in the League of Ireland Premier League season) and with 11 games to go we're unbeaten in the league all season. After getting through 5-2 on aggregate against Maribor (winning 5-0 at home and losing 2-0 away) in the second round of qualifiers for the CL we're in round three facing Maccabi Haifa. We're at least guaranteed to play in the Europa League first round it seems as a result (the Champions League qualifiers are more complex than I remember them being).

[stokeriño]

For the very first time, I love having a feeder club that gives me first option on transfers.

Normally my feeder clubs are shit, or Scottish, or both, so every so often I shall simply get a tedious offer of "Do you wish to match the £250k bid for [a very shit 25 year old Scottish striker no one has heard of, or indeed ever will]?". Uh, no.

Then, this weekend...

"Hapoel Tel Aviv has accepted a £130k offer from [some crap Italian team] for goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama. Do you wish to match this bid?"

...

"YES"

Now I have a badass keeper who's a) happy to be 'Back-up' to Petr Cech, and b) not Ross bloody Turnbull, and I never would have bothered looking for one if it hadn't dropped into my lap. Best impulse buy ever.

[Hobo]

That reminds me actually, Chris Smalling is now angry at me for not allowing him to talk to Southampton (I actually declared a value of 1million for him being as he is my first choice CB and they rejected it). Roy O'Donovan is worried about competition for places (after my previous binge of MF buying) and Ronan Murray is worried about not getting first team football, but he's on loan.

I feel I may have to let some more people go at the end of the season.

[Sick N Twisted]

Won the League Cup against Villa. Piquionne put us ahead after 11 mins, but Young made it 1 - 1 on 50 mins. 90th min, my young midfielder Torric hits a screamer from the edge of the area, 2 - 1 to Portsmouth, league cup winners 2011.

Got an FA Cup semi-final against Man United up soon, after a tough run of games in the league (Arsenal, Liverpool then Chelsea) so hopefully we can get through it.

Guti is joining at the end of his contract, so he'll provide cover for my midfield, although I can see him playing alot more than that, and Jadson will be joining too, shocked that more teams weren't in for him, he'll probably be my most creative player.

EDIT:

Scored late on and drew with Arsenal 1 - 1 and then scored late on again, and came back from 0 - 1 down to win 2 - 1 vs Liverpool. Vagner Love and Buonanotte, 2 goals within 5 minutes.

Edited August 24, 2010 by Sick N Twisted

[Hobo]

Feckin' Haifa I knew they'd be our downfall. 3-1 deafeat at home. 2-0 down at half time, we came back strong got 1 back and then conceded a late late third. Unless we beat them 3-0 at home we're heading out of the Champions League and into the Europa League first round.

EDIT: We beat them 2-1 in the away leg but that late third goal the first leg that killed is. 4-3 on agg. loss!

[Hobo]

I came within 10 mins of the Europa League only for AEK Athens to eliminate us on away goals.

[Herr Matzat]

I love this game!

[DavidMarrio]

i started a new game as Liverpool the only signing i made was to buy Jan Vertonghan from Ajax for 7.25mil to play Left Back and to be cover for centre back and centre midfield.

My best starting line up looks like this:

GK: Pepe Reina

DR: Glen Johnson

DL: Jan Vertonghan

DC: Jamie Carragher

DC: Daniel Agger

MR: Maxi Rodriguez

ML: Albert Reira

MC: Steven Gerrard

MC: Javier Mascherano

ST: Fernando Torres

ST: Dirk Kuyt

But atm with Agger injured at the start of the game i've been playing Skrtel at CB. Torres is out for 3 weeks after getting injured in training.

Results so far:

Hull 0-3 Liverpool (Torres, Mascherano, Kuyt)

Liverpool 6-0 West Ham (Aurelio, Maxi Rodriguez 3, Carragher, Kuyt)

Man.Utd 3-3 Liverpool (Torres 2, Gerrard) *Was 3-0 at half time but Berbatov double and Owen 90th minute the bastard*

Liverpool 1-1 Chelsea (Babel) *Torres picked up his injury in training

Liverpool 2-0 Portsmouth (Reira, Gerrard)

Got FC Kobenhaven next in the opening Champions League group stage match at home (Bordeaux and Sporting complete the group) followed by an away trip to Blackburn, a home tie against Everton in the Carling Cup and then Birmingham and Bordeaux away

[Big Red Fury]

My latest game is with Blackpool. Just barely stayed up the first season but I made a ton of money so I had a nice little kitty to work with.

My current 25 man squad is

GK Stipe Pletikosa (Joined from Spartak Moscow for 325k)

GK Paul Rachubka

GK Matty Gilks

DEF Ibrahim Kargbo (Joined from Willem II for 2.9m)

DEF Dekel Keinan

DEF Neal Eardley

DEF Inigo Sarasola (Joined from Sociedad for 275k)

DEF Craig Cathcart

DEF Ian Evatt

DEF Chris Basham

DEF Jose Manuel Catala (Joined from Villarreal on a free)

DEF Paul Beekmans (Joined from SC Cambuur for 55k)

MID Sotiris Leontiou (Joined from Panathinaikos for 220k)

MID Malaury Martin

MID Elliot Grandin

MID Jason Koumas (Joined on a free)

MID Madson (Joined from Santos from 1.9m)

MID Gary Taylor-Fletcher

MID Charlie Adam

MID Luis Boa Morte (Joined on a free)

MID Jason Euell

MID Radoslaw Majewski (Joined from Nottm Forest for 325k)

FW Jermaine Beckford (Joined on free)

FW Vaclav Kadlec (Joined from Sparta Prague for 3.6m)

FW Garry O'Connor (Joined from Birmingham in straight swap for Alex John-Baptiste)

FW Christian Vieri(Joined on a free)

I realize that there are 26 names but I included Kadlec because he plays a lot but he is U-21 so not actually registered. In January Diego Tardelli is joining from Atletico Miniero for 11.25m so he'll likely replace Vieri and hopefully bang in the goals. Have a lot of nice young players who may or may not pan out. Jeffren, Koke, and Samir Kouakbi chief amongst them.

[Hobo]

My players seem to be constantly injuring each other in training.

However, we are over 40 games unbeaten in the league and sit 9 points clear of second place Derry with about 5 games to go. We're out of the utterly meaningless Setanta Sports Cup, after losing to Athlone 2-1 AET. We're in the quarter finals of the League Cup and the FAI Cup I think. Losing Connor Clifford to a broken foot was a sad thing. I have John Joe O'Toole, Ian Ashbee and Brazilian Rudimier to call into his place and oddly even though he's 36 I'd probably pick Ashbee.

[ONO]

So, my Celtic game crashed due to a crash dump error, and now when I load it back up it asks for a password, yet I never set one....o_0

[King Ellis]

Don't they have a default password set in case you ever forget yours?

[TCO]

Got promoted with Newcastle on 103 points finishing only 6 points clear of WBA with my team that looked like a Man Utd reserve team. In some sort of weird paradox, Plymouth went up in the playoffs while Blackpool got relegated. Gibson and Macheda were absolute stars for me the entire season and Fabio in the latter parts too, when Enrique acted the prick due to Man City sniffing around. Seriously though Macheda is like the best Championship striker ever. He scored 26 goals despite missing a chunk of the season with the U20 World Cup, injury and fatigue. Between him Carroll they neeted an insane 45 goals. I tried to get him back for my Premier League bow, but United wanted £4.5mil for a season long loan so I told them to fuck off in no uncertain terms.

Heading into the new season my first choice team looks like so.

Smithies

Simpson - Coloccini - S. Taylor © - Jose Enrique

R. Taylor - Diaby - Smith - Jonas

Carroll - Bent

Sunderland got relegated and it still took the whole summer of negotiating to bring an unhappy Darren Bent to St. James' Park for £16.5mil, no goals in 2 games so far and I'm already worrying. Diaby was out of favour at Arsenal so he was a steal at £2.5mil. The right side looks a bit week but Ryan Taylor was an absolute beast last year and has continued this season socring a free kick from 40 yards out against Blackburn, while played every single minute of last season at right back and is Mr. Reliable. Smithies has surpassed Harper, who I feel bad for having never gotten a full season in the Premier League at no.1 and now never will. I'm on 4 points after 3 games, like real life. Drawing with Blackburn away, beating Everton at home and then losing to Chelsea at the Bridge.

Ins

Darren Bent - Sunderland - £16.5mil

Abou Diaby - Arsenal - £2.5mil

Luis Boa Morte - West Ham - Free

Outs

Gary Hooper - Plymouth - £1.1mil + clauses

Wayne Routledge - Plymouth - £1.6mil

Leon Best - Leeds - £2.3mil

Joey Barton - West Ham - £475k (Loan)

Shane Ferguson - Liverpool - £1.1mil + clauses

[Sam]

Bent scored something like 22 goals when I went up with Newcastle, I think he plays best as a target man set to attack though, I used a 4-5-1 formation and him and Jonas linked up superbly, scored for fun at home which was good seeing as it took me forever to get a win away.

Also I think you may have paid a little over the odds for him!

Edited September 8, 2010 by Sam

[TCO]

I know I paid a little too much for him, but there was no way I was getting them any lower. They initally demanded 21 million for him, but I got them down to 16 and a half so I just went for it. I was never going to playan Ameobi/Carroll strikeforce in the Premier League.

[ONO]

Don't they have a default password set in case you ever forget yours?

Turns out that if someone else starts up a new game and sets a password for their game, it will automatically set the same password for other new games when loading back up.

[Sick N Twisted]

Got a new update file last week after the transfer window and combined it with the nepal league file, which allows me to start up my game in May 2010 and skip the first season. Started up as Man City, they'd won league but no other trophies, so I'm making it seem like Mancini was sacked due to only managing to win one cup, so they signed me, if I fail to win more than one trophy, I'll leave them.

Basically changed the whole squad around and whole staff team.

Here's all my player transfers:

Tried to concentrate mainly on younger players. Chelsea had a poor first season by their standards and I declared interest in Essien, he eventually asked to leave, so I got him for a good price. Rossi was listed by request, a bargain buy, and Buffon was the same situation as Essien.

Just beat Tottenham 2 - 0 in the Community Shield, Rossi and Neymar with the goals.

Starting 11 was:

Buffon

Richards

Addison

Boateng

Essien

Milner

Barry

Silva

Suarez

Tevez

Rossi

Pleased with my transfers and for once I didn't go out signing a bunch of older players, hopefully I can keep this game going.

Edited September 8, 2010 by Sick N Twisted

[ONO]

Well that was fun. It is 2011 group stages of the Champions League and Barcelona have failed to qualify for the knock out stage and will be playing in the Europa League. Ok, it wouldn't be that bad if they had a tough group..but really they have Ajax (Failed to even get a point after 5 games), Sporting CP and Celtic who I am managing.

If we beat Sporting we finish top and they finish second. A draw will put us through either way. Basically Barcelona need Sporting CP to hammer us at home, and they need to win by 3-4 goals against Ajax. :@

Lovely little win against Barcelona in the first game 3-1.

[DavidMarrio]

Time for an update on my Liverpool game.

League:

So the 1st season I finished 2nd, 6 points behind Chelsea and 6 ahead of Arsenal this is what my record looked like:

Won 26, Drew 8, Lost 4, Scored 106, Conceeded 44, Goal Difference +62, Pts 86. I scored the most goals and had the best goal difference

Torres won Footballer of the Year after an impressive 26 goals, 18 assists in 29 appearences with Maxi Rodriguez and Gerrard in 2nd and 3rd. Kuyt came 2nd in Players Player of the Year with 16 goals and 16 assists in 32 games and in Team of the Year I had 5 starters in Reina, Carragher, Gerrard, Maxi and Torres with Kuyt making the bench

Carling Cup:

Beat Everton 1-0 at home in the 3rd round, Newcastle at home in the 4th round 5-0, Wigan away 3-0, I beat Aston Villa 7-3 on agg with a 5-1 win at home in the 2nd leg. Played Man Utd in the final and I thought i'd miss Torres this game as he had an injury for the match but I went on to win 3-1 with Babel stepping up scoring two goals in the 1st 7 minute before Kuyt got the 3rd in the 74th minute. Owen scored Man Utd's goal so this led to my first trophy

FA Cup:

I had a bit of an easier run in the FA Cup. Beat Brentford 2-0 at home in the 3rd round, QPR 4-0 away and Ipswich away 4-0 in the 4th round and 5th rounds. Played Reading in the quarters and won 2-1 away and then played Bolton in the semi final (Bolton beat Man.U to get the semis). I had to go to penalties the game ended 3-3 and I managed to win to set up a match against Arsenal. I was 1-0 down after 23 minutes with Bendtner scoring but a Maxi Rodriguez 61st minute pen and Dirk Kuyt 75th minute goal ensured I achieved the double in my first season. Torres again missed this game after picking up an injury last game of the season.

Champions League:

After topping my group with 14pts (4 wins and 2 draws) with Sporting finishing 2nd, Bordeaux 3rd and FC Kobenhavn last, I drew FC Bayern in the 1st knockout round. After a 4-3 loss away I thought that a 1-0 would be a great result...Torres scored 57th minute and Ribery scored 75th minute so I lost 5-4 on agg. Final ended up being Inter V Barca and Jose pulled of a 2-1 win with Santon scoring 88th minute

Transfers In 2009/2010:

Jan Vertonghen £7.25mil from Ajax

Omer Toprak £3.4mil from Freiburg (January)

Jonjo Shelvey £2.5mil from Charlton (January)

Jason White (Regen) £500k from Bristol Rovers (January

Transfers Out 2009/2010:

Damien Plessis £1.2mil to Auxurre

Diego Cavalieri £3.5mil to Palermo (January)

Martin Skrtel £12mil to Valencia (January)

Transfers In 2010/2011:

Greg Woods (Regen) £3mil from Man.City

Eden Hazard £14mil from Lille

Matheo Graff (Regen) £1.5mil from Montpellier

Kenny Bell (Regen) £3mil from Sheffield Utd

Juan Manuel Vargas £9.25mil from Fiorentina

Goran Pandev £10.25mil from Inter

Vincent Enyeama £1.25mil from Leverkusen

Terry Wallace (Regen) £325k from Southampton

Transfers Out 2010/2011:

Mikel San Jose to Livorno free

Charles Itandje, Martin Hansen and Chris Oldfield released

Nabil El Zhar £1mil to Empoli

Albert Reira £13mil to PSG

Milan Jovanovic £1.25mil loan to Roma (Future fee of £6.25mil)

David N'Gog £5mil to Nurnberg

Dirk Kuyt £7mil to Bordeaux

Starting XI & Bench:

GK: Pepe Reina

DR: Glen Johnson

DL: Juan Manuel Vargas

DC: Daniel Agger

DC: Jamie Carragher

MR: Maxi Rodriguez

ML: Eden Hazard

MC: Steven Gerrard ©

MC: Javier Mascherano

ST: Fernando Torres

ST: Goran Pandev

Subs:

DR/MR: Greg Woods

DC: Omer Toprak

DM/MC: Lucas

Any in Midfield: Yossi Benayoun

ML/AML/AMC/FC: Ryan Babel

MC/AMC: Jonjo Shelvey

ST: Krisztian Nemeth

My team is pretty versatile and that's probably the main strength I have as most of the wingers can play on either side few of them can play upfront just in case Torres or Pandev gets injured. I trained Gerrard to play striker as I was missing Kuyt and Torres at one bit and he did a good job there so theres always that as a worse case scenario. Jan Vertonghen who was a good signing last season is out for 3-5months and I might be looking at bringing one more player in as I'm selling Kyrigakos cause he's a moaning cunt and seems to hate the youngsters as I've tried to have him tutor and it always ends up with him falling out so he's on his way out for £2.5mil and Fabio Aurelio looks likely to leave for £3mil.

Won the community shield on pens after drawing with Chelsea 2-2, also won the Pepsi Allstars in Pre-season beating the MLS allstars pointless but still i'll see it as a trophy win