Football Manager 2012

[Hobo]

Thumped Seatle 3-1 in the Western Confrrence Final! My Whitecaps are through to their third consecutive MLS Cup Final!

And it's a repeat of the previous seasons final as we face DC United. Last year it was a 4-4 draw which we won on penalties. DC always seem to cause us trouble with their strikers Moises and Benjamin Molouko. In fact, until the

current season we had never beaten them. They beat Philadelphia. Which made me sad, I would have liked Union to make it to the final. They had been so utterly shit until this season.

[stokeriño]

Man, I really need to buy a new laptop. After the old one died I'm left in a situation where I have to choose between using the desktop and watching TV each evening (rather than doing both at once)...and it's grinding my FM time down to a halt. :/

[Fudge]

I hate it when regen pics disappear!

[The Lusophone]

Isn't there a fix for that? Or was the update supposed to fix it?

[Fudge]

In display settings there's a show player and staff pictures bit, but the 'show real and generated' is greyed out. Fuck knows.

[METALMAN]

After finishing 10th with QPR, I have been offered the job as Liverpool manager. Let's see how this goes! It is 2016. My first move was to get rid of Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard. About bloody time.

[METALMAN]

lol MLS. He's just been named in the All Star team too!

[Hobo]

Just beat DC 2-1 to win the MLS Cup for the third year running! Now we're just one league win away from equalling DC's overall record for MLS wins! We went 1-0 down early on thanks to Mokulu grabbing another goal against us, only for Wilson Morelo to make a fool out of their keeper and equalise (keeper rushed out to clear, gave ball away to Morelo outside the box and he finished it), then he bagged us the winner just before half time.

Seasons not over yet though, World Club Championships in December.

[Johnny Drama]

Have a long term game as King's lynn taken them from the UCL to the Prem and I am now in 2027 and have just won the FA Cup and finished 10th in the Prem but my laptop strains every time I continue I want to carry on but it takes about a day to just do a week, I might have to holiday in between games to try and speed it up. Have barely played it the past month. Either that or I admit defeat and start a new game but not sure who as.

[Nerf]

Assistant referees are wankers.

[Hobo]

I have given my team a couple of days rest before I have to pick my squad for the World Club Championship in Japan. Which is a competition I have never entered as a non European entry. And haven't experienced since FM09 I do not think.

I just checked on how European Champions and World Champions Chelsea are doing and they're 12th in the EPL.

[Plubby]

Just further solidified up front with the addition of Asamoah Gyan in the summer window. I'm happy with my squad as it stands, and will be able to further tinker with a couple retirements at end of season.

My Newcastle side is, as of 2 Feb:

4th in the Premier League (ManU 56; Chel 52 +39; ManC 52 +29; New 44; Ars 42)

In the final of the Carling Cup against West Ham

In the 4th Round of the FA Cup against Leeds

Awaiting a First Knockout Round matchup of the Europa League against Celtic

And the squad (Italics retiring, Underlined wanting to get rid of)

GK: Krul, Harper, Stojanovic

DF: S Taylor, R Taylor, Santon, Coloccini, Pieters, Kadar, Coulibaly, Simpson

MF: Gosling, Guthrie, Collison, Beckham, Cabaye, Marveaux, Ben Arfa, Wilshere, Gutierrez, Tiote

ST: Sturridge, Ba, Best, Gyan, Lovenkrands, Sh Ameobi

EDIT: And Leeds beat me. Fuckers. I've been a fan of them and this is how they repay me?!

[Hobo]

Avram Grant has been sacked for Roy Hodgsoning Liverpool into a relegation battle. I could leave Vancover for this job but I am still not done! If they got relegated I would be totally up for it.

[Pesci]

I dunno what it is with me and average Italian sides on this game but I'm finally brave enough to fiddle about with tactics and it's paying off. I started off in my standard 4-2-3-1 against Cagliari in the Europa League with my second string - which was still a fairly decent side and stronger than their team - and they started with a 3-5-2. I've had trouble playing against 3-5-2 before but I didn't bother changing by tactics cus lol, Cagliari

They went 1-0 up at half-time and I gave my players the 'I want to see more from you!' talk. Didn't do much as Cagliari thundered into a 2-0 lead straight away. Finally I reluctantly decided to abandon my tactics and noticed that they'd changed to a 5-3-2. Clearly as they only had 2 up front and no support from the wings 3 centre backs would suffice, and I copied their 3 in midfield with an additional 1 in the hole to take advantage of their lack of an anchorman and 3 up front, though with 5 in defence it would be very hard to break down. Brought Pique on as a ball-playing centre-half as a stopper so he stepped in front of the defensive line to link-up with my furthest sitting midfielder, Mascherano. The 3-3-1-3 and deploying Tosic in the hole worked a treat, Tosic providing two assists to draw level. I noticed that they were starting to get the better of the game around the 80th minute and checked to see they'd changed to a 4-4-2. Thus I changed back to the 4-2-3-1 and dominated until the final whistle though failed to make the breakthrough. Finished 2-2 and I topped my group having largely played with a bunch of Under 19s and B Team guys, so I'm happy with that. Also remained undefeated after 24 games, 19 won and 5 drawn - 4 of those in Europe. Always satisfying when you actually see tactical tweaks work during a game. I guess those months of reading Zonal Marking and Inverting the Pyramid have paid off

In the league I'm already 10 points clear after 14 games, 13 won and 1 drawn. Kadlec, who only started in Bojan's absence, has absolutely tore shit up with 27 goals in 13 starts and 1 sub appearance, 5 assists too. Definitely a record - I don't think I've ever even come close to that. Pretty satisfying to be that far ahead after just 14 games given that I've had numerous key players injured at various points. Operation Get The Best Out Of Messi is going so-so, he gets like 8 shots a match and most of them on target - if he only placed them better he'd be getting almost as many goals as Kadlec. He has 5 goals and 8 assists in 16 games so not too bad.

[Hobo]

Slaven Billic left Sunderland to replace Avram Grant as Liverpool manager who are 14th, three points off relegation. Then Grant got the Sunderland job.

Meanwhile I am off to Korea to play Swuon Blue Wings for the FIFA Club World Cup. Although I have no clue why it's in Korea and not in host county Japan. I thought the whole thing was in Japan.

[The Future]

The last one was held in Dubai so I guess it's not exclusive to Japan anymore

[Hobo]

The game has it as the hosts are Japan. Yet my game was in Korea and the other Qtr Final was in New Zealand.

It's weird. Still, we beat Suwon 5-0.

[Gazz]

Maybe Japan expanded it's borders...

[Hobo]

I forgot I was playing Sid Meier's Football Manager.

[stokeriño]

"But be warned, our transfer negotiations are backed by NUCLEAR WEAPONS!"