Football Manager 2011

[YI]

Got through my devil month, not too bad.

Jan 1st - Birmingham 0 vs 1 Newcastle

n/a - Nedum Onouha (18)

Jan 2nd (WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!) - Newcastle 3 vs 1 West Brom

Francisco Alcácer (6,17) Lewis Holtby (35) - Chris Brunt (4)

Jan 6th - Chelsea 1 vs 1 Newcastle

Julio César Marchetti (47) - Boakye (52)

Jan 9th - Newcastle 1 vs 0 Liverpool

Haris Vuckic (59) - n/a

Jan 13th [FA Cup 3rd round] - Middlesbrough 0 vs 3 Newcastle

n/a - Daniel Sturridge (28) Jordy Buijs (52) Boakye (61)

*Sturridge's return from 3+ months of injury

Jan 17th [League Cup Semi-Final 1st Leg] - Newcastle 3 vs 0 Sunderland

Boakye (15) Daniel Sturridge (18,47) - n/a

Jan 21st - Man City 2 vs 1 Newcastle

Jack Wilshire (59) Khouma Babacar (89) - Boakye (40)

Jan 24th - Newcastle 3 vs 2 Chelsea

Ross Turnball og (24) Lewis Holtby (57) Cristian Zapata og (74) - Cristian Zapata (13) Romelu Lukaku (40)

Jan 27th - Newcastle 6 vs 2 Spurs

Daniel Sturridge (5,20,64) Boakye (23,38) Markus Henriksen (73) - Dennis Aogo (45+2) Yannick Sagbo (75)

Jan 31st [League Cup Semi-Final 2nd Leg] - Sunderland 1 vs 1 Newcastle

Eljero Elia (87) - Kwame Essuman (8)

Still 2nd. Dropped further off the pace of Man City, but outside of losing to them I only dropped points Chelsea away, which I'll happily take a draw at.

[stokeriño]

Question 1: what the hell is Madrid's problem?

Question 2: how the fuck did I not win this game??

EDIT: As for the second leg, that too was 1-1 after 90 minutes...then Daniel Sturridge scored twice in extra time to send us through. He's not Chelsea's top goal scorer this season for nothing.

Manchester United in the final...cock-monkeys.

[Steeb]

Khouma Babacar is a beast, right from the off. He's just so damn creative. (Touch wood. >_>)

[brenchill]

I just signed Babacar, too. He had been on-fire for Dynamo Kiev. I managed to pick him up for £15.5m. He will be a nice replacement for a 30-year old Fernando Torres who has been nothing but unspectacular for the last four years.

[Steeb]

More like Puma Babacar. Roar.

Got him as a 17yr old - he'd been recommended to me in my last few games, so I finally picked him up on loan. He's currently my most consistent striker, regularly nets, has more assists than most of the league, so I've bought him for the lovely 9m automatic transfer fee I had as part of the agreement. Steal!

[Hobo]

I am aiming to get Brede Hangeland to come back to Viking after he has been released by OM. We're fifth, four points off of the top of the table and are in the Qtr. Finals of the Cup. If we can stop drawing and start winning we could have a very good year.

[Jimmy]

Drew 1-1 with Barcelona at home which sent me out of the Champions League, but I'm into the Euro Cup, which is for the best, because I think I have a much better chance of winning it. Was quite happy with my first CL performance, though. Drew twice with Barca and picked up two wins against a poor Hungarian team.

[Thrilla]

Is it worth activating the game on Steam?

[Baddar]

Well, if you're one for collecting in-game achievements, you need to do it that way to get that benefit.

And don't they automatically get the updates via Steam?

[data]

I've made my own International Competition which is quite fun called the 'World League'

It has a total of 210 teams from 209 Countries (and the previous winner) First Round is 42 groups of 5, play two home, two away, with the top team qualifying. Second Round is 14 groups of 3, 1 home and 1 away, with the top team, and the best second place qualifying, Then is the League Table 7 home, 7 away games, with the top 2 teams meeting in the Final in a Neutral arena, it's quite fun, and some of the results are really quite shocking.

[Thrilla]

I've never really bothered with the whole Steam thing, as I'm generally offline when I'm playing FM. But I set up an account today and then realised I didn't have my activation code or whatever with me. Did download a game for free though, so it can't be that bad >_>

[Hobo]

Finally managed to get a few wins in a row. Which resulted in Viking moving easily into 2nd. Just a point behind the leaders. Brede Hangeland has signed on a free. Sold our 1st choice winger Karim Coulibaly for 800K to Brondby and am in talks with Bjorn Helge Riise. Because my side is quite young (average age of 23-4 I think), I think bringing in some experienced players might be a good thing. Plus my thing seems to be signing former Viking players. Hangeland is the third such.

Edit: With something like 16 or 17 out of 30 games played, we've hit the top of the league. For the first time a plan of mine has come to fruition, as Brazilian Renato Gaucho, who I signed on a free transfer may be about to move to Feynoord for 2 million. A club record equaling bid. We signed him at 17 and he's now 19. The board accepted it. That money should serve us well.

[YI]

The only way it could have been more perfect was if Birmingham had got a result at Sunderland and put Middlesborough down. I'd honestly totally stopped focussing on the league with about 5-games left. We were about 7/8 points off the pace, but well ahead of anyone below. But Man City totally fucked up their last 3-games. A 3-3 draw away at Everton, a home defeat to Man United (1-0) and then this 3-0 drumming by Arsenal, who I have no idea how they came 6th because I played them 3-times this season and they pretty much turfed me every time.

In the Champions League Final as well!! I don't know whether it's the mentality of the team, but Champions League/Euro Cup (which I won last season) games the team totally goals all out. Won the League Cup again, but got knocked out around the 5th round in the FA Cup by Arsenal. Champions League knockout run, for no apparent reason besides I kind of like posting this sort of shit, was;

Qualifyer Leg.1:

Newcastle 3 - 0 Stuttgart

Jonjo Shelvey, Boakye, Haris Vuckic

Qualifyer Leg.2:

Stuttgart 2 - 2 Newcastle

Boakye (x2) - came from 2:0 behind

Group B:

Newcastle 3 - 3 Juventus

Daniel Sturridge (hat-trick) - came from 2:0 behind to go 3-2 up

Group B:

Villareal 2 - 3 Newcastle

Daniel Sturridge (x2), Boakye - was 3-0 up, Suarez got 2-back, dominated the game

Group B:

Molde 1 - 4 Newcastle

Fabao (hat-trick - only got 9 all season), Boayke

Group B:

Newcastle 5 - 1 Molde

Jonjo Shelvey, José Luis Mena (hat-trick - 19yr old wonderkid from Arsenal), Boakye

Group B:

Juventus 3 - o Newcastle

Didn't fuck me anywhere near as much as the scoreline suggests, pretty even, I even managed more shots on target.

Group B:

Newcastle 5 - 1 Villareal

Boakye (hat-trick), Fabao, Haris Vuckic

Qualified in 2nd place, joint on points with Juventus

1st Round Knockout:

Newcastle 1 - 1 Barcelona

Kwame Essuman (46min) - Lionel Messi (60min)

52% of the possession, and 1 more shot, boooyaaah!!

1st Round Knockout:

Barcelona 2 (3) - 3 (4) Newcastle

Mohamed Larbi (43min), Eden Hazard (50min) - Jonjo Shelvey (12min), Franca o.g (76min), José Luis Mena (80min)

They dominated, I 'abandoned attractive football' and played a direct game, it wasn't pretty, but it was what I needed to do

Quarter Final:

Lyon 2 - 2 Newcastle

Alvaro Dominguez (32min), Marko Marin (59min) - Nedum Onouha (22min), Haris Vuckic (26min)

Reigning champs. Had already turfed them 4-1 in the Super Cup on neutral ground. Had 55% of the possession, generally looked better but sloppily gave away the lead I had.

Quarter Final:

Newcastle 4 (6) - 2 (4) Lyon

Boakye (11min,57min), Nedum Onouha (33min,47min) - Matias Lujan (pen 69min), Ivan Zuvela (80min)

Had it comfortably wrapped up until Radosav Petrovic went and got himself sent off like a fucking twat. Ending was a bit tense, but never really looked like fully pulling it back.

Semi Final:

Roma 0 - 1 Newcastle

n/a - Boakye (60min)

Boakye missed a penalty after 3-minutes, the first he's ever missed for the club. I was shitting myself for this, as they're fucking beasts in Serie A, but they were pussies. Pretty much an even split stats wise

Semi Final:

Newcastle 0 (1) - 0 (0) Roma

n/a - n/a

Again, a bunch of fucking pussies. Shots were even, but I managed 56% of the possesion, as now I knew what to expect I just played possession play with shorter passes.

And now I have Athletico Madrid in the Final. My first ever Euro Cup final (2010/2011 with Man City) was against Athletico Madrid and was an awesome game. Hoping for another one!

Wait hang on. The fat fucking bastard STEVE BRUCE is managing ATHLETICO MADRID!?!?!

Edited March 23, 2011 by YI

[YI]

YAYS!!!

Have the Real Madrid job to potentially accept within the week. Think I'm going to be taking Mena and Boakye with me.

FUCK THIS SHIT!!! Just got some 'crash dump error', reloaded the game, all the way back to May 14th after the 'Boro game. FUCK THIS SHIT!!! So I have to go through all of this again.

FUCK OFF!!

Bloody cunts. I was all up for taking the Real job before. Now I feel robbed.

Edited March 24, 2011 by YI

[EddieG]

So move to Spain and take revenge on Atletico

[Guest mr. potato head]

Odd international play continues in my game. Qualifying for the 2014 World Cup, England finishes third in their group (behind Portugal and Scotland) and thus doesn't make the tourney. Not only can Scotland make it in still with a playoff win, but so can Wales.

And that's saying nothing about Belarus and Canada also qualifying.

[Plubby]

I just downloaded FM Handheld 2011 for my iPhone. Second day on the job I got offered 12 million for Younes Kaboul. If I wasn't at work i'd have run a victory lap. Awesome

I like the game so far, it's quite slick.

[Jimmy]

Crashed out of The Euro Cup Quater Finals after losing on away goals to Marsaille(?). My schedule was so crowded, I was playing matches every three days, it was crazy. Also lost out to Man City in the FA Cup Semi-Final, who also knocked me out of the League Cup quaters. I think they went on to win the FA Cup, League Cup and Champions League.

However, after accepting that I'd probably come 4th this season, Tottenham fucked their season up and I managed to knick third place. However, Manchester United knicked my leading defensive midfielder because he had a minimum release clause in his contract. I fucking hate them.

[stokeriño]

PSG have this annoying inability to defend in the final 5 minutes of a game. My first two games finished 2-3 (v Marseille) and 1-1 (v Lille) when they should have finished 2-2 and 1-0. Both final goals were conceded through headed corners.

Now regretting having the initial transfer window turned on. Sure, I've got Vincent Enyeama for a bloody bargain (£300k??), but half my squad get linked to Man Utd/Roma/etc. I say no. They ask for a pay raise I can't afford. I say no. They are unhappy and demand that I talk with them. I take the "I'm the manager, so screw you" line with all of them. Most of them eventually back down. A couple of them go off in a huff. Charming.

Not many great players you can get for the £3.8 million I have in my coffers. I want to buy Cisse from whichever Greek team he's currently at, but his asking price is £3.1 million so obviously they won't sell unless I presumably get at least £5-6 million from somewhere. Eh...I guess I'll have to take the squad transformation VERY slowly.

But at least I have Claude Makelele!

[unitedツ]

When I try to load a database on the editor, the "OK" and "Cancel" buttons don't show up. Does anyone know any reason why this could be?