Football Manager 2011

[hugobomb]

Started a new game as Leicester. Rather foolishly told Milan that we could win the title so pressure from the off but on the plus side, I now have £10 Million to spend. Bought a good Peruvian GK (Leao Butron), Garry O'Conner to go up front and few loans and youth players. Plus about to get Leigh Griffiths off Dundee for £360K, bargain by the looks of him:

[Gazz]

Leigh Griffiths is a FM beast of To Madeira like proportions, if he doesn't get you 25 league goals a season in the Championship, part exchange your game.

[stokeriño]

Finished 3rd in the SPL (inevitable). Took only 2 points from my 6 league games against Rangers and Celtic. I suppose my mission for next season is to try and increase that...

Got to build up the quality in my squad. Here's my current Best Eleven (inherited unless specified):

GK Paul Gallacher

DL David McCracken

DC Michael Williamson (£1.2m from West Ham)

DC Colin Drew

DR Paulo Ferreira (£3.5m from Vitória S.C.)

ML Danny Ogunmade

MC Steve Sidwell (£1.1m from Arsenal)

MC Maxi Rodriguez (£10m from Leverkusen)

MR Charlie van den Ouweland (£325k from AZ)

FC Shaun Maloney (£3.6m from Celtic)

FC Wayne Rooney (free transfer)

Maxi is the only one of the signings I've made since the end of the season. I still have £14m in the bank, but my biggest limitation is wages. The board will only allow up to £12k p/w (recently upped from £9k) and Rangers/Celtic are full of players on £30k or more. There have already been a few possible transfers that fell through because they wanted much more in salary (most notably Jermain Defoe).

I probably need to get a more solid choice for DL and DC instead of McCracken and Drew. Certainly if I do see a great DC I can have a bit of a clear-out, since I have about four utterly average centre-backs littering my senior squad on the basis that none of them have shown themselves to be very much better than the others, and so I haven't yet been able to identify who to sell.

[Gazz]

[Timmoru Suzuki]

How the fuck did that happen?

[Liam]

I've had some small bugs like that. Three seasons in on my Fulham game, and a message suggested how Mark Hughes would be happy with the current form of his Fulham team.

[stokeriño]

Would it be a little bit racist to tip them as the dark horses in the competition?

[Timmoru Suzuki]

Yes. Funny; but yes.

[stokeriño]

So I've just actually got the full version of FM11...

But do I wish to abandon my CM01/02 game, currently in the 2007/08 season with Dundee United? :/

DILEMMA

[Hobo]

Do you have to abandon the CM game?

Just noticed that Spurs, Man City, Villa and Birmingham were the four English teams in the CL in my game after Spurs won the league in 2012/13, City finished runners up and Villa and Birmingham got 3rd and 4th. Villa and Birmingham got to the next round, but the other two failed to progress. However Birmingham are bottom of the Premier League.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

I don't see the problem. It does say 'surprise' as the very first word!

[Baddar]

I once had a press conference where I was asked which defender I'd use to cope with Roberto Baggio. Seriously.

[stokeriño]

So I signed 34 year-old Tore Andre Flo on a free, since a) my previous fourth-choice striker had just been released, b) we're only talking about an SPL standard of football here, and c) because it's Tore Andre Fucking Flo.

With half the season gone he's made only 5 starts - in all competitions - and 7 substitute appearances. And yet somehow every time he's on the pitch he comes away with a match rating of 9, albeit no goals.

Meanwhile, Wayne Rooney has an average rating closer to 7.2 and also no goals. And he whinges to the press every other time he's substituted.

So fuck you, Wayne. You can step aside for TORE, TORE ANDRE FLO. Even though it is very nearly 2008.

(And third-choice striker Steven Thompson can continue doing very little...)

[Benji]

What does your initial manager reputation actually affect? I've not seen it make any difference other than the fact my board and fans are mildly less bothered by me being new >_>

[stokeriño]

What does your initial manager reputation actually affect? I've not seen it make any difference other than the fact my board and fans are mildly less bothered by me being new >_>

The following doth be from the booklet inside the FM11 case.

By default, the 'Automatic' choice is selected, meaning you are entering the football world with no prior experience. However, for whatever purposes you like, you can select that you have been a Professional or an International Footballer. This will increase your starting reputation and potentially allow you more leeway with the Board than an inexperienced manager in the short term, but long-term your reputation and standing in the game may come under pressure sooner than someone with lesser stature.

In my experience, I find the biggest difficulty with a lower starting reputation is that you have to work harder to get a decent second job (i.e. the first one you don't get to pick yourself ). Also, players you try to buy near the beginning are marginally more likely to listen to you if you're a ex-footballer rather than a nobody.

[Benji]

I had no booklet in mine, it's pissed me off to no end because I used to rely on that thing like a priest to a Bible.

[stokeriño]

I deliberately used the word 'booklet' rather than 'manual' because it doesn't deserve the dignity of being called the latter. It's little more than installation and start-up instructions, with a note on the back page telling you to go online if you want the real one.

[Benji]

Park Ji-Sung can suck a dick. I just spent nearly a month negotiating with Man Utd for terms that were acceptable to sign him despite being on the transfer list (I wanted a respected player who could also help Yuki Abe deal with the communication barrier). After finally getting the terms he is not willing to negotiate at this time

[Hobo]

My current game has gotten to nearly 2014. This is my longest lasting 'first game' in the years I've been playing FM. Last night I got the urge to play with the editor and start a new game with some customized data. Partially inspired by seeing the presence of extinct teams on the database. Or just do things that I've done already (or expanded on). Last year I did a bit of an overhaul of the MLS for my Vancouver game, where I stuck a few non-MLS teams into the MLS. Or play with the Old Firm teams in the Premier League. Don't know if I can be bothered starting over again just yet though.

[R.W.]

Got this for Christmas, so downloaded all the patches and graphics, then got the metal_guitarist DB update over from the SI forums, and started a new job with about 30 leagues loaded and me unemployed, with Semi-Pro as my experience.

Applied for every available job, and thankfully the chaps at Port Vale were quite keen on me, so have begun my career there.

Culled the squad of losers who were being paid to much, then scoured the free agent pool (since I always use the "no transfer budgets in first window) option and picked up a couple of handy players - Justin Thompson, a Canadian DC who apparently used to play for Vale, Alain N'Kong, a Cameroonian Midfielder who should fit into the Trequartista role nicely, and a Trindad(ian?) called Silvio Spann!

Lining up with the 4-2-3-1 formation, and at the start of September sit atop League One with 4 wins out of 4 and a Manager of the Month award for me! Sadly Millwall spanked us 5-0 in the Carling Cup, but can't have it all!