Football Manager 2011

[IAceI]

Schneiderlin turned down the move to Le Mans (the bid was accepted over my head) so looks set to stay with us for another season. The money would have been welcomed but I'm happy for him to stay. So now I have a midfield team of Norwood, Colback, Schneiderlin, Das Neves and Sergio (on loan from Arsenal) as well as Hammond and Chaplow who are a year away from their contracts expiring and both want first team football so will most likely be off.

I think I can be okay for this season but I have some weaknesses at right and left back. Frazer Richardson is mediocre but my only right back, on more money than he's worth and unwilling to restructure much lower (and I'd extend his contract thereby nullifying any decrease in wage) and I'm looking to bring Eric Lichaj back in on loan for the thrid year in a row (he's into his last year at Villa so hoping I'll be able to make it permanent in the end). Then at left back my starting left back is one of my lowest paid players, however his back up is attracting a little bit of attention and is also on stupid wages. So should I try and sell him and bring in a cheaper, possibly slightly worse, left back as back-up assuming I can shift Dan Harding (overpaid left back in question). And what do I do at right back? Let Richardson run down his contract and hope I bring back Lichaj? There doesn't seem to be much talent in the market if I'm honest.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Through to the Europa League group stages which is good. My board's expectation is to reach the next round so hopefully I can do it. In a group with Juventus, Metalist (Ukraine) and some non-team. It'll be hard to win the group but 2nd is definitely possible. Bentley's been on great form and Kranjcar's just opened his account for us. 2 wins and 2 draws in the league sees us in 4th place so it's started solidly.

[stokeriño]

Atletico Madrid wiped the floor with me in the Europa League 2nd round - something I'm actually very happy with, as it now allows me to concentrate on my Primary Aim of Champions League qualification and my Secondary Aim of the FA Cup.

At the moment there are 8 or 9 league games left and I'm quite comfortably in 4th, with a 5 point gap down to 5th. I can't rest on my laurels though because about half of my remaining games are against tough opponents (Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City, Everton) and I could slip down with a couple of bad results. Alternatively, if I'm really good/lucky I could maybe claim 2nd, but not 1st because Arsenal have run away with it again.

FA Cup semi-final is against Chelsea. Given that I think that the other semi-final consists of Middlesbrough and Sheffield United, I really really really REALLY want to reach the final so that I can twat them with relative ease.

[Jimmy]

Horrible start to League 1, claiming 8 points from 8 games and sitting one point above a relegation place. We keep conceeding last minute goals or conceeding from coners. Alternatively, we just don't score enough goals and I play quite an attacking formation. I've adapated slightly, but last year I kept scraping 1-0 wins - but in this league I can't do. More annoyingly, as I achieved two consecutive promotions, I thought my manager reputation might've improved slightly so clubs would want me. But nope. I'm stuck here.

[Thrilla]

We keep conceeding last minute goals or conceeding from coners.

Stop managing my team >_>

My Bradford team have probably thrown away a good ten points from conceding goals in the last few minutes/injury time and the mass majority of the goals we concede are from set pieces despite the fact that I only have them concentrating on defending set pieces in the pre-match thing and have a central defence pairing of a guy that is 6'3 and one that is 6'8! Shouldn't the ball just gravitate toward his head or something?

[britneyspearsisgod]

A player I find gets left off the wonderkid lists all the time is 19yo Uruguayan centre-back Sebastián Coates. Every game I have ever signed him for (he starts at Uruguayan First Division club Nacional) he has been a fantastic signing and evolves into an awesome player in the top leagues. The best thing is that his minimum release fee at the start is £2.4m, which for his talent to beginning with is a friggin' steal, but considering he has so much more to develop into makes it one of the best bargin buys on the game.

That's the first season. Anyone else got any unearthed gems that no-one has figured out yet?

Edited May 26, 2011 by XEON BSIG

[METALMAN]

But look at his hair! I don't want that in my team! I've already got David Luiz you know.

[therockbox]

A player I find gets left off the wonderkid lists all the time is 19yo Uruguayan centre-back Sebastián Coates. Every game I have ever signed him for (he starts at Uruguayan First Division club Nacional) he has been a fantastic signing and evolves into an awesome player in the top leagues. The best thing is that his minimum release fee at the start is £2.4m, which for his talent to beginning with is a friggin' steal, but considering he has so much more to develop into makes it one of the best bargin buys on the game.

My scouts just recommended him to me at Doncaster in 2013, signed him for £6m in the end (eating up pretty much all of my budget in the process). All three of my scouts think he's going to turn into a leading Premier League defender, though.

[britneyspearsisgod]

He seriously will do. I have never been disappointed with him any game I've signed him. He's always my go-to first signing if I can.

[The Future]

So I just beat Chelsea 7-0

The best part is that it was inspired largely by a youth player I stole from them.

[stokeriño]

So I just beat Chelsea 7-0

The best part is that it was inspired largely by a youth player I stole from them.

Chelsea just beat me 3-0.

My squad are so knackered. Several of them are down to 65% by half time, every game.

[Summers]

Okay, so here we go.. My line up is currently this..

Allan McGregor

Nedum Onuoha - Roger Johnson - Anton Ferdinand - Maynor Figueroa

Charles N'Zogbia - Nigel Reo-Coker - Jermaine Jenas - Matthew Etherington

Huge Rodallega - Mauro Boselli

Jenas is in for Vaughan, basically. It's Jan 1st, the board just gave me 12m to spend over the next month. I don't know where to spend it! It's Wigan so getting great players isn't easy. But I don't notice a stand-out weak spot. But I may be bias to certain players. I'm going to bed now, so January will be tomorrow. Throw suggestions and tips my way! 12m is burning a hole.

[TCO]

Second season with Newcastle now and my team currently looks like so.

Ben Arfa and Bentley are interchangeable at the AMR position to be fair and Ahmed Khalli is pushing Macheda too. Nolan probably would be starting but I went on holiday the final 2 weeks before my first game of the season to speed up the process and came back to find Sammy Lee had stripped hime of the captaincy and made Donovan captain. Nolan has since thrown a bitch fit and may be moved on before deadline day. I'd rather not though because I sold Barton to Villa after he wanted a 19k increase on his 70k wages, leaving me short of depth, Ben Arfa and Sergio Carnales are the only other real options. Still though Chiek and Hargreaves is a beastly centre midfield!

Speaking of Hargreaves, he was a great free pickup. Absolutely bossed the midfield so far and scored 2 in 2 games and amazingly hasn't been injured. Finished 7th last year but I'm worried that my team is a little weaker this year after failing to sign Benzema permanently, despite a few good additions. 2 wins in 2 against Stoke and Blackburn thus far so I can't complain.

[METALMAN]

Ashley Cole refuses to accept anything less than £165,000 a week! His contract is up at the end of the season and he is my best left-back! What do I do? I have just started 2012/13 season.

I do not want to accept the offer, and even if I wanted to, I couldn't cause wage budget doesn't stretch that far.

So I could either try and offload him now and get some money, or just let his contract run out at the end of the season. Only problem in getting rid of him is that my other left-backs are Zhirkov and Bertrand. Neither are really good enough for my first time, although Zhirkov is invaluable because of his versatility and I have high hopes for Bertrand in the future. Any signing would have to be a homegrown player because I'm right at my limit for the squad registration, but nobody is good enough.

DAMN ASHLEY COLE. My five year plan (or whatever) was that I would gradually phase Ryan Bertrand in place of Ashley Cole over the next two or three years. Not going to happen now. :@

[Lineker]

He's approaching mid-30's, it's a no-brainer! Get rid.

[METALMAN]

I know I probably should, but he's still really good! He's my team's version of Ryan Giggs! And there are no other good homegrown left backs. Maybe I will get Gareth Bale and stick him at left back.

[Lineker]

I know I probably should, but he's still really good! He's my team's version of Ryan Giggs! And there are no other good homegrown left backs. Maybe I will get Gareth Bale and stick him at left back.

No shit

How about someone like Leighton Baines as a stop-gap?

[METALMAN]

I did look at Leighton Baines and he's okay, but on my game he's really no better than Zhirkov or Bertrand anyway, while Cole is still way ahead of both. He's still first choice for England as well.

Next time I fire up the game I will look into Gareth Bale. I still have a lot of money left because my plan for the summer was to sign Sergio Aguero but I couldn't afford his signing on fee of £13m. I'd quite like Bale at left back, because I like to play with ultra attacking fullbacks. My right back, Diego Renan, is practically a midfielder as well.

this Chelsea game is weird. I just chose a really big team with the intention of it being a quick game but now I'm hooked. Chelsea actually make a really good game, cause even though you've got a pretty good squad, the best players are all ageing and are proving pretty hard to replace.

[Hobo]

Macheda handed in a transfer request at Utd. If the 31 million I was promised was available to me, I'd be all over that. Or any other big striker.

I have scouts looking all over the world for players in the hopes that come June the board will give me money.

[Clawson]

So starting the 2nd season at East Fife, we've managed to not concede a goal in our first 5 league matches as well as taking Motherwell 97 minutes to score on us. Naturally we've scored 1 bloody goal in that time. I'm scared to change my tactics though in case we start bleeding goals like we did last year.