Football Manager 2012

[Szumi]

Guessing this is the best place to post this. Would there be any interest in people reading a FM-diary in the Cube about the MLS/an MLS club. I love to play with the MLS, especially since I am an American. However, I'm unsure if anyone actually would have an interest in that sort of diary, although it seems quite a few people do like to play as an MLS club in FM.

I'd probably want to make it a shorter diary in terms of write-up lengths, keep the match reports smaller in nature, and to try and focus more on building a career in the MLS, or to try and fight up the ladder and into Europe. It's definitely something I plan on doing at some point, but am at least curious about the interest.

[Lineker]

I once read a fantastic FM diary on SUSIE, where the guy (I think it was the admin, Uncle Sam?) did a great Houston Dynamo story. So go for it.

No more Wolves diary?

[el Grande]

I'd read a MLS diary especially if you took over one of the newer MLS teams like Portland or Vancouver.

[Meacon Keaton]

I'd read it, Szumi. Especially if you played with our Union. ^_^

[Szumi]

Oh yeah, it'd have to be Philadelphia the whole way. I don't always do too well with them on FM, but it'd certainly be Union all the way.

What I really liked to do with the MLS in past years as to create my own nation rules and to add in a 20-league team, adding in Montreal and the Cosmos to make it 20 teams. However, in doing that, you lose out on a lot of the cool features of the MLS, i.e. the salary cap, waiver draft, superdraft, etc. It sucks that FM cannot add the expansion teams in after the end of the season: Vancouver and Portland after the first season in '11, and now Montreal after you complete a season in '12. Would be awesome, but alas, kind of hard for the game to pull off, obviously.

[Regia]

Just out of curiosity, can teams dissolve? Or do they just go into administration for a while?

[9 to 5]

Also, since me and you talked about it last night, does signing club legends help boost attendance and/or income?

[Regia]

I never actually managed to find a club legend who would sign for me, so I guess we'll never know. Although I have managed to get the attendance up by a few hundred. Not much, but it helps.

[Benji]

Also, since me and you talked about it last night, does signing club legends help boost attendance and/or income?

It did for me. Heck, signing players who used to play for the team but aren't icons/legends did it for a short time.

[Regia]

I may have to attempt this for next season then.

After a season in charge of Luton (which didn't end well) I ended up at Bury, who had been relegated from League One, and were sitting in the relegation zone when I took over over them. The attendances have been very poor, with them being as low as 1100 when I took over (hence looking for the legend to try and bring the crowd back). I managed to save them from relegation, although it went to the last game of the season. In the end it was AFC Wimbledon and Burton that went down, with my victory over Burton recently being the only reason they went down over me.

But it will be an interesting post season now. Many players do not wish to resign, meaning that I may have to have a complete overhaul of the team, which will be all the harder if I have no transfer money, which seems likely.

[stokeriño]

I hate the summer break in football. All the contracts I have to try and extend, all the players I want to sell (or loan) but bloody well can't...I can never wait to get back to the normal season.

My Chelsea squad is damn well bloated, by the way. I'm sure some would just think the squad depth is great (well, except for goalkeepers), but I'm really awful at keeping players happy when I have to rotate them. Kind of fills me with dread for the season ahead.

Who the fuck gets to be the starting centre-backs out of Terry, Cahill, Alex, Luiz and Ivanovic? Or the three central midfielders out of Lampard, Meireles, Ramires, Dzagoev, Essien, Mikel, Romeu, McEachran?

Good grief. I'd sell Essien tomorrow if I believed any club in the game would pay me more than pittance for him. He's only been a two star player since he recovered from his knee injuries.

[Regia]

So Bury get taken over, and I manage to survive through, which should be a good thing. Which is until the new chairmen tells me he has no intention of investing money into the club for me to spend yet, and then severs ties with both Preston and Man United. Brilliant.

Edit: Oh this new chairman is a douche. Refuses to increase my transfer budget (which currently stands at around £6) so that I can rebuild the squad. He then also refuses to look into a parent club for us to get good players for free.

Edited November 29, 2011 by regia

[MDK]

So Hamilton picked me up to manage them in the Scotty first division... you can play up to two trialists in one game. I haven't tried this out yet, but wow and damn, I might just have to get in a load of ringers.

[Gazz]

I can't even tell you how annoying it is for the game to crash when you're 5-2 up at half time...

[Hobo]

Charlie McDonald has started complaining about not getting fist team football. It's not my fault that when you play you're utter shite and I have to take you off. Plus, y'know Daniel Powell and his 11 goals this season and the fact I play with one up front isn't helping any of the strikers much.

Balanta has gotten injured and is out for 6 weeks, which means his loan will be up and I don't know if I can re-sign him. Which is a balls. Anthony McNamee looks a good ready-made replacement though.

David Martin seems to be becoming a really good keeper. He's gone up to 270 mins without conceding after an early season where he would constantly fuck up and concede early goals or sloppy ones. I think the return of Doumbé from injury helped this a lot (he's also been a bit of a beast).

So, coming to the end of December, I have MK Dons in third behind Sheffield Utd and Preston. We're three points behind Sheffield Utd, and about seven behind Preston, who we meet on the last fixture of 2011. We also have Preston in the third round of the FA Cup and Brentford in the JPT regional final coming up in the New Year!

I think in January I'm looking to off-load some superfluous strikers, get some needed cash in, and reduce the wage bill and maybe loan a stronger #2 keeper.

[Regia]

Despite the fact around 3/4 of my team consists of players that weren't attached to any clubs, I've managed to put myself together a fairly good team. After a shaky start (a 6-0 loss to Crewe) I managed to go unbeaten in 10 in all competitons, and have only lost one league game in the last 11. I'm sitting in 10th after 12 games, which is fairly good for a completely makeshift squad. The only thing I would like is for my squad to win more games, while I've only lost 2 of the 12 games, I've drawn 6, and if just a couple of them could've been wins I would be sitting in the automatic promotion places.

I've also managed to get some of the fans back. Whereas I was averaging between 1100 and 1300 last season, I'm currently getting crowds of between 2800 and 3300. I just need to try and draw in a few more to help improve my finances.

Edited December 1, 2011 by regia

[Dingle]

So I've just started a Blue Square Bet North career, as THE SPARTANS! (or Blythe). Now, I suppose I could find this in the game, although I'm not quite sure where I'd look (Oi gazz, help me out here).

So yeah, I dunno what my wage hierarchy should look like this low down. Is £100 a week an absolute bargain or a standard wage? Is £300 too much? Etc..

Cheers for any help with this (and any other tips for lowest league football are welcomed).

[Hobo]

Ah my traditional lower league post January slump has arrived, right on que for Balanta's loan to end, Conor Clifford gets injured, Daniel Powell loses form. We're still third, drew our way through December. So far have lost twice in January in the league, as well as in the FA Cup and in the Johnstones Paint Trophy Southern Final 1st leg. Brought in Gary Twigg from Shamrock Rovers, sold Bowditch and a reserve player for nothing and brought Tom Soares in on loan.

The nature of having a team with no budget and relying on loans is very frustrating. Especially when injuries pile up. We're in no way going to catch the top two unless we have another purple patch (Sheffield Utd in second are about 10 points ahead, Preston are 11 points ahead of us in 1st). Which is a shame because I hate the play offs.

[Guest mr. potato head]

Man City is going very well. It's April 3 now, and we haven't lost since Dec. 17 at Old Trafford. That's 20 wins and 5 draws since then. Tevez has been in a bit of a slump but Dzeko's come on at just the right time and has banged in four goals in his last three. Injury bug's hit carefully, Aguero's been hurt for a while and then I lost Silva for the rest of the season, which meant (since Nasri can't play twice a week forever and I have no other AMCs) that I've had to play a couple 4-3-3s and 4-5-1s, but obviously it's worked out OK. Yaya Toure's having a great year.

Finished second in my UEFA group behind Real Madrid, beat CSKA Moscow easily and drew Man U in the quarters. Held them to 1-1 away and about to play the return match. Behind Man U by three points in the league with seven matches to go, including home against Man U which could turn out to be for all the marbles. Luckily my final-week opponent is distant 20th-place Sunderland. Won the League Cup over Spurs, and wins over Cardiff, Liverpool and Norwich have put me into the FA Cup semis against Chelsea (Everton/Man U on the other side).

[Cactus Drags]

FM 2012 is £20 at Gamestation this week. I am tempted.