Football Manager 2011

[stokeriño]

You won the title with that team? Did Clark and McEahran become good players in your game? McEachran always has a lot of potential but I've never seen him actually fulfill his potential.

Clark:

McEachran:

No, I'm not completely sure how these are title-winning players either.

While I'm at it, here's Ben Khalifa and my new signing Stanojevic:

What can I say, my team is built on youth, enthusiasm, and a magic cocktail of drugs and steroids.

[METALMAN]

Almost completed my project of replacing ageing Chelsea stalwarts as of transfer window January 2013. For Didier Drogba I have brought in fellow countryman Seydou Doumbia; Simon Kjaer has come in for John Terry for £19 million; Miralem Pjanic stepping in for Lampard for £5 million. Pjanic for £5 million was an amazing deal and I'm quite baffled by it. He's had an excellent start too.

Still keeping the three of them around. For more than sentimental reasons as well. Lampard still starts the odd game and Drogba has become an amazing impact sub, while John Terry is stil the ever-present captain. Still having problems getting a left back in for Ashley Cole, but I'm considering shunting first choice right back Diego Renan over to the left side, with perhaps Ivanovic or Mancienne becoming first choice right back. However, I do have a 17 year old regen, Mark Casey, who has been doing incredibly well on loan at Charlton, and has four star potential. I'd really like him to come good and eventually be my starting left back.

[stokeriño]

What've you done with Ryan Bertrand? He sometimes comes good.

[METALMAN]

I've still got Ryan Bertrand. He's decent enough, but he's not as good as I expected he might have been. Nevertheless, he's a capable understudy so I'll be keeping him around. Handy for the home-grown quota. As is the case with Jack Cork.

Both Ryan Bertrand and Jack Cork have been capped by England though, which I find a bit bizarre.

[stokeriño]

I've just realised that in this new season the Forest board no longer give a shit about how well I do in the Carling Cup.

MOTHERFUCKING WIN

[stokeriño]

(More random posts from me as I stall before going to bed)

I just found a whole bunch of 17/18 year old regens who are all 6'9" (207cm) tall and weigh 17 stone (238lb / 108kg).

I don't care if they're any good or not. I'm going to sign them all and amass an army of behemoths to (literally) CRUSH all opposition in the U18 league. Muahahaha.

[Plubby]

Shit Stok, at 22 I would throw hoards of AtMad cash at you for McEachran. That's a quality player.

[Mj3]

(More random posts from me as I stall before going to bed)

I just found a whole bunch of 17/18 year old regens who are all 6'9" (207cm) tall and weigh 17 stone (238lb / 108kg).

I don't care if they're any good or not. I'm going to sign them all and amass an army of behemoths to (literally) CRUSH all opposition in the U18 league. Muahahaha.

Sure theyre all not rugby union second rowers? if they ever bring line-outs to football you're sorted.

Into my 3rd season with Liverpool now (5th in all)

These are my signings

Phil Jones (22) - Blackburn - £16m

Nigel De Jong (29) - Man City - £3.5m

Lee Wallace (28) - Sunderland - £7.5m

Junior Stanislas (24) - West Ham - £13m

Pato - AC Milan (25) - £13m

And a host of regens for the U18's/Reserve/Middlesbrough/Accrington/Genk

Total Spending : £75m

Outwardly going are

Luis Saurez - Atletico - £22m (The little bastard)

Alberto Aquilani - Wolfsburg - £4m

Daniel Pacheco - Reading - £3m

Emiliano Insua - Hoffenheim - £10m

Pierrick Cros - Dortmund - £3m

Vincent Kompany - Juventus - £2.5m

Thiago - Wolfsburg - Loan £1m (with option to buy £3.5m)

Richard Saunders - Wolves - 55k This is an achievement of mine for this game, Saunders is the first guy to come through my academy who I've been able to bring up to a decent enough standard for Premiership Football in future, sold him on because he's got a better chance of first team football at Wolverhampton.

Jorge (Regen) - Raith - £2m (edited Scottish leagues, TV deal is almost equal to that of the Premiership, so clubs have better spending power)

Income : £52m

[METALMAN]

Pato for £13m is really good. i got knocked back for £30m on my game.

[The Quasi Juice]

I've still got Ryan Bertrand. He's decent enough, but he's not as good as I expected he might have been. Nevertheless, he's a capable understudy so I'll be keeping him around. Handy for the home-grown quota. As is the case with Jack Cork.

Both Ryan Bertrand and Jack Cork have been capped by England though, which I find a bit bizarre.

Cork became a star player for a midtable team, but he wasn't good enough for my Chelsea team. I made him into a right back and he was strangely effective there. Despite playing 5 games or so per season he still had a starting spot for England for the longest time. Really weird. Says something about England. Same goes for Sturridge, who hardly played for me and some 20 year old regen out of my youth team who never fulfilled his potential.

I also had a hard time finding a replacement for Ashley Cole. I gambled and bought a Sunderland left back of 19 with a shitload of potential. Had him play half of the games his first season, Cole the other and it worked. Cole left the next season and he fully took over. Now he's England's main left back. I'd just go with a regen because there aren't really any real life left backs good enough to replace Cole and still young, if you don't want to waste loads of money.

Edited June 8, 2011 by The Quasi Juice

[EddieG]

The only decent left back I've managed to find for my Liverpool team was Aly Cissokho, vital part of my double winning team.

[DavidMarrio]

I got the Nigeria job But then I got beat by Preston in the FA Cup 5th round 1-0.......

Also somehow I have a press conference in Nigeria and at Anfield at the same time haha

Claudio Ranieri has also gone back to Chelsea on my FM

Edited June 8, 2011 by davidmarrio

[stokeriño]

Claudio Ranieri has also gone back to Chelsea on my FM

Awesome.

Mancini has been Chelsea manager for a few years now on mine. Every time the game reminds me of this it kills me a little more inside.

Meanwhile, Wenger just retired and has been replaced by the assistant manager of the Mexico national team. He's not had any real managerial job according to his FM history so it seems a bit weird to me. I guess this is what happens when a new consortium takes over, as they recently did at Arsenal - though at least they didn't immediately fire Wenger and replace him with Paul McGuinness (lol), as was rumoured.

McGuinness, by the way, was the man promoted from within the Manchester United coaching staff to replace Fergie when he retired a few years back. He got fired after 18 months after making United more of a 'Top 8' than a 'Top 4' team and replaced by Marcello Lippi.

Dalglish also retired last year but I forget who Liverpool have now. Not that it matters, given the way they've joined United in mid-table mediocrity and all.

Trying to remember who the Manchester City manager is (I'm at work) and it's bugging me now. I think it used to be Benitez but he then moved to Spurs and then got sacked by Spurs (lol). Ahh I have no idea.

I do remember that Ian Holloway is managing Dirty Leeds, which seems a little bizarre to me.

[Berober]

Who are the Big 4 then in your game Stok?

[stokeriño]

In my last season they were Forest, City, Chelsea and Arsenal. There was then a big gap down to United in 5th and a bit more of a gap to Liverpool in 6th, I think. United and Liverpool were much lower for most of the season but clawed themselves back up in the end.

Forest's media prediction for the new season is 5th though. Fuck the Daily Mail (who I've arbitrarily picked to blame) - I'll show 'em.

EDIT: Having checked the league table screenshot I posted a couple of pages back, it seems the big gap was between 5th and 6th in the end. Arsenal sort of ballsed up the end of their campaign and so finished only 3 points ahead of United, but further behind the top 3.

[Berober]

How dare that dastardly Daily Mail suggest that. You should just refuse to go to any press conferences with their paper present.

[Jimmy]

The media prediciton stuff annoys me. They've predicted by Ipswich team 7th after finishing 3rd, 3rd and 4th in the last three seasons. It prevents me from buying top players to take my squad to the next level. I haven't played the file for a while but I really want to win the league once before I give up on it.

I can't settle on a game at the moment. I get annoyed with my lack of database in some of my games, so I might start a new one with likes 6 league's open and either start unemployed or go with a Tottenham game.

[Matt]

Claudio Ranieri has also gone back to Chelsea on my FM

Awesome.

Mancini has been Chelsea manager for a few years now on mine. Every time the game reminds me of this it kills me a little more inside.

Meanwhile, Wenger just retired and has been replaced by the assistant manager of the Mexico national team. He's not had any real managerial job according to his FM history so it seems a bit weird to me. I guess this is what happens when a new consortium takes over, as they recently did at Arsenal - though at least they didn't immediately fire Wenger and replace him with Paul McGuinness (lol), as was rumoured.

McGuinness, by the way, was the man promoted from within the Manchester United coaching staff to replace Fergie when he retired a few years back. He got fired after 18 months after making United more of a 'Top 8' than a 'Top 4' team and replaced by Marcello Lippi.

Dalglish also retired last year but I forget who Liverpool have now. Not that it matters, given the way they've joined United in mid-table mediocrity and all.

Trying to remember who the Manchester City manager is (I'm at work) and it's bugging me now. I think it used to be Benitez but he then moved to Spurs and then got sacked by Spurs (lol). Ahh I have no idea.

I do remember that Ian Holloway is managing Dirty Leeds, which seems a little bizarre to me.

Holloway is Leeds manager in my game too (and got them relegated to L1 at the first time of asking after Grayson had got them in the playoffs 3 years running only to be sacked, go figure). Mancini was also Chelsea boss for a while and Ranieri has taken over (although this was a while ago, he may have been sacked).

It's 2016 though and none of the top 6 have left the top 6 other than Liverpool for one season (they came 9th IIRC), although Man Utd looked certain to a couple of seasons back before they went and won 7-8 games on the spin to get them back up to 6th

[Berober]

So my captain has agreed an end-of-contract deal with another club. He's now unmotivated, do I just drop him and strip him of captaincy or keep with him, since he is my best defender by a long way?

[stokeriño]

I always drop players if they're on their way out. I figure that I need to prioritise getting the rest of my squad working well together