Football Manager 2014

[Summers]

Shit.

Was losing the Copa del Ray semi-final 2 - 1 to Hercules. It was the second leg, at home. 0 - 0. Looked like nothing was going to happen, then in the 86th minute.. Gabriel Barbosa (from Santos, 18 year old striker in only his 2nd appearance for the first team - 19 goals in 28 in my b team though!) was running through on goal. Defence closing in, I was shitting it, but then he slid the ball to Paco Alcacer - who has been in great form since Christmas - and he slots it in. Through to the final!

I was somewhat confident that Barbosa would slot it in - but when he gave it to Paco I knew it was goal bound.

[Meacon Keaton]

I'm still on 2012, don't know if that makes a difference, but is there a simple way to find players available for free transfer?

[METALMAN]

Go to player search and filter the contract attribute by expired.

[Meacon Keaton]

Wonderful. Thank you.

[Millsybeast]

I have enough money to buy FM, but one problem is the internet. Do you need to download FM through steam and the internet or can you buy the game and download via disc and just log into steam? If the first one then i'll just stick to FMH12 on the PSP, apparently they decided not to release it for the psp, shame I can't dominate as Grimsby on it :/

[Baddar]

Pretty sure an Internet connection is required at least for the initial installation process.

[Liam]

Barbosa (aside from a 22 game goalless streak in his third season with me, where his confidence was shot to pieces for some reason) has been a beast for my Fulham team generally. Grabs goals in bunches, generally.

[Plubby]

Things just keep getting more tenuous for me. Lost 0-3 to Arsenal, so big derby loss there. Have had six players come to me concerned that we're underachieving.

Their first came from a goal thanks to a rebound off the bar, I think the goalscorer was narrowly offside as the goal was struck and he was acres offside off the bar (which I know doesn't matter, just to demonstrate how much space he had though) and then they scored twice after Soldado got sent off for two-footing a guy from behind.

I got called into the boardroom to explain the loss and took it on the chin for playing 4-1DM-2-2-1 vs 4-2-3-1 and I think if i'd said anything else they'd have sacked me. Last thing I needed when struggling was the Arsenal-City-Chelsea treble. Lost those collectively 1-10 somehow still have a job. Came out the other side of that with a draw and two wins after that including a 4-2 win away at (league leading! ) Everton so hopefully the team meeting I called in which I said "we can turn this around", Hugo Boss said "we need to buck our ideas up and fast" and thus ended the team meeting with 25 positive reactions has turned the ship for us.

[Summers]

Barbosa (aside from a 22 game goalless streak in his third season with me, where his confidence was shot to pieces for some reason) has been a beast for my Fulham team generally. Grabs goals in bunches, generally.

I'd never heard of the guy til I stumbled upon him - but he's played in 2 cup games and got one goal, and two Europa games and grabbed 4 goals.

Pretty sure he and Paco are going to become my number one partnership. Torres, Jonsson and Jonas better get used to the bench.

[Hobo]

And only sign players over a certain height and weight.

Also your keeper must be 20 eccentric and take penalties! (Although I like to sign those if and when I can).

Now I have just seen this:

St. Etienne signed A. Baby! I'd rather "Odd manager signs Baby" but I'll take this.

[King Ellis]

You wont win anything with kids.

[therockbox]

Started a game with Aston Villa, media prediction for the season was 16th and we had no money to spend and very little of the wage budget left so I wasn't too hopeful of doing much. Ended up finishing 5th though, mostly thanks to Spurs, Arsenal, Man City and Liverpool being a bit shit (all except Arsenal changed their manager at some point; City sacked Pellegrini and hired AVB who was replaced by Ruud Gullit, and Liverpool sacked Rodgers and hired Spalletti).

The only signing I made was Luis Alberto on loan from Liverpool, he ended up having a decent season playing as an Advanced Playmaker just behind Benteke (who wasn't great, only managed 11 league goals and had a lot of games where he was just awful). I played a 4-2-3-1 formation with Weimann/Agbonlahor out wide, and the midfield two changed quite a lot as nobody was really good enough to nail down a spot. Luna and Lowton were actually quite good at full back, and Okore/Vlaar were my first choice CB's. Every now and again they'd throw in an absolute stinker but generally they were fairly solid.

Didn't get far in the cups, but that was expected when I had to rotate a load of the younger players in from the u21/u18 squads. Scoring goals was a bit of an issue all season - as mentioned Benteke only got 11, Agbonlahor got 7 and Weimann 6. Vlaar got 8 (all from corners), and was actually my second top scorer in the league which is a bit of an issue.

Got a bit of money to play with in the summer, £10m and an increased wage budget as well. Added a bit to that by selling Darren Bent (Everton) and Kozak (Palace) for about £4m combined. Signed a couple of players from Belgium, and Dennis Praet (AM) for £2m and Bruno (right winger) for £4m (both from Anderlecht). Also got Alberto back on loan for another season - I tried to buy him but Liverpool want £16m for him, which is way out of my price range - and John Guidetti for a few million from Man City, to give me a different option up front.

After all that PSG came in with a £30m bid for Benteke, which I accepted given his relatively average form in the first season. Replaced him with Lukaku on loan from Chelsea for the season, and also spent £7m on Sam Byram - partially as cover for Lowton so I can stop using Bacuna at RB, and because a few bigger clubs have been sniffing around Lowton so I think I'll lose him eventually, probably next summer.

Have just started the season with a 4-2 win over West Brom. Bruno got a hattrick and Alberto was far more effective on the left (with Praet in the middle) than Agbonlahor/Weimann were. I don't think we'll finish as high this season, the teams that underperformed last year will sort themselves out I think, so for board expectations I went with just a top half finish, and hopefully I can put a bit more effort into the cups this time around.

[METALMAN]

I have no idea why FM games love giving jobs to Ruud Gullit so much.

[Cymbols]

Would be Ruud not to.

[METALMAN]

RIGHT THAT'S IT.

Go and join Myke and Linkages on the naughty step.

[jack95]

They do it just for the Gull (of) It.

[Liam]

Suck at screenshots on this laptop for some reason, but managed to win the Champions League with Fulham after finishing 6th in the Prem.

Barbosa scored twice to put me 2-0 up, and then Ronaldo scored twice in the last three minutes. Next kick-off, ball gets pinged over the top, Barbosa bashes it in, hat-trick, Euro Champions!

[Summers]

Into the second season with Valencia now.. first season saw Banega, Diego Alves and Helder Postiga leave in Jan, with Adan, Honda, Correa & Torres (loan) coming in. We finished 5th and lost in the Europa League semis.. I wasn't massively displeased. We struggled to score goals, so that was a bit pants.

Second season business saw Pabon, Cissokho, Feghouli, Pereira and Guardado all leave, raising 25m. We then spent 16m on Gabriel Barbosa (18 y/o Argie striker), Sergio Ayala, Loris Bacchetti and Ignasi Miquel (all in reserve team currently) and Rasmus Jonsson, recently relegated Bilbao pair Mikel Rico and Ander Herrera and Torres returned on loan - with van der Wiel also a loan signing.

8 games in, we're 11th. Proper mixed bag, losing too many already.. bad loses to Valladolid and Granada were followed by a 3 - 2 win over Barca at the Mestalla. Injury crisis at the back has hurt me bad. Rami and Ruiz are both out with bad injuries. Leaving me short on central defence options.. our midfield is full of quality (Parejo, Honda, Canales, Herrera) but none are really shining bright.. and once again up front is an issue. With Torres, Jonas, Jonsson and Paco all looking as impotent as each other. Jonas and Torres have 3 goals each, but they just don't look clinical enough.

The weak defence is hurting, because we find ourselves falling behind without a chance of getting ahead.

Well.. things got better. I wanted to tinish top 4, but we're currently 6th. Three games left, one point guarantees 6th. If Sevilla & Atletico lose all three.. I could finish 4th. Real Sociedad are somehow 3rd - and I can't catch them even if they lose 3 and I win mine, I'd still be a point behind.

So that's a shame. I think a CL finish is too far off, however.. I have two other games left. Valladolid in the Copa del Ray final, and then Liverpool to decide who wins Europa League.

So my final fixtures go..

Celta

Valladolid

Liverpool

Sevilla

Sociedad

I really wish the cup games were after the league games, but my priority is definitely the finals. I'll finish a minimum of 6th, I'm certain of that. A point confirms it.. but I want those cups. I could win all three in the league and still finish 6th - which would be a shame. Cups or bust.

[Plubby]

Aaand sacked. But i've been given a job interview at Sunderland!

Who are last

[Plubby]

Asked for more transfer funds and lost out to Tony Pulis. Got an interview...somewhere else. Malaga? Didn't get that either. Have ended up at Stade Rennais. Should be interesting!