Football Manager 2014

[Cheeky Hughes]

Made a few signings to kick off a new season, with Ward-Prowse and Taraabt for a combined £14m, as well as Anderson and Yakubu on frees for squad depth. Jesse Joronen comes in as back-up to keeper/captain/legend/icon Costel Pantilimon. First five league games, win one and lose four- to be fair three of those four were City, Liverpool and Spurs. Got in to the Europa group stage, drawing Stuttgart, Villareal and Lorient. Beat Lorient in the first group game in France 4-3! Hopefully it can spark a turnaround as I'm expected to reach mid table this year.

[brenchill]

I wanted Ward-Prowse but went for Will Hughes instead for £3.5m.

I've scrapped my wingers and I'm now going for a 4-4-2 diamond. I brought in Josue from Porto who has been an absolute beast and now have Bony and Javier Hernandez up front!

[R.W.]

Waiting for a post-window update before I get back into this, but my dream of the Hexagon will begin anew!

[DavidMarrio]

Yep, if it was Eder Alvarez Balanta. Signed him, Doria and Varane to have my defence sorted for the next 10 years or so.

Yeah, that's him. I'm guessing the likes of Real, Barca, et al, will be sniffing around him. Hopefully this summer as I'm broke .

If it's anything like my Brighton game someone like City will come in. Was gutted he left in January because of a release clause. Probably cost me the chance of Champions League football.

[brenchill]

In his original contract he had a £20m release clause but I've made him sign a new one with a pay rise and a £65m release clause... He's going nowhere.

[Millsybeast]

*Waits for City to offer 65m for him*

In my last game of FM14, not sure if im getting FM15 or not probably end up getting it at Xmas, I'm playing as Liverpool and managed to do the thing I wanted to do since I bought FM14, win the league!

Not too confident we can retain the title, as I had a major overhaul of the squad. Champions League group is Dinamo, Valencia & Dortmund so pretty nervous about that too. I also broke the transfer record for a keeper

Henderson left for 15m to City, Swansea bought both Borini and Assaidi for 7m, Lucas left for PSG for 30m, Skrtel left because he bitched and moaned about me fining him for 5m to Zenit, hope he enjoys the league. Suarez left for 40m to Real Madrid, Reina left for 8m to join Lucas at PSG too. Sturridge underperformed so when Spurs offered 15m and 5m over 2 years I leapt at the chance, with the final big name outing being Andre Ayew, who I bought for 10m, leaving to Barca for 17m. With them offers plus a few reserve team players leaving, we gained almost 150m!

So I decided to spunk the cash on a few players, as you do, breaking a record for a keeper in the process. Callum Chambers joined to back Johnson up for 9m, originally I was trying to get im in January but they wanted him loaned back and I needed a wing back badly. Tom Ince was brought back on a free after released by Blackpool. He may not play much but adds strength in numbers for those cup and CL games. He's still 4* Potential too, so unsure why he was released. Bernd Leno was the record signing, for 50m, he's a risk at that price but I reckon since he's 5* potential that he's going to be a great player for us.

Next in was John Guidetti as we needed a good backup to play the smaller games and challenge in the squad, bought from City for a measly 1m. Verratti was another big signing for us, I had offers of 40-50m rejected for Paul Pogba and say him unhappy. I think 20m for him was pretty cheap for the player he is. Gaston Gil Romero, another fave player of mine, came in for 5m to provide backup and potentially become the next Mascherano in our team. 35m was spunked on Targetman Jackson Martinez to replace the goals left by the likes of Suare and Sturridge, lastly but not leastly Will Hughes wanted to leave Derby and they accepted 9m for him, probably the deal of the window.

That leaves the squad like this:

Goalkeepers: Bernd Leno & Simon Mignolet

Defenders: Glen Johnson, Callum Chambers, Wayne Bridge (Last season free), Emiliano Insua, Eder Alvarez Balanta, Daniel Agger, Mamadou Sakho & Tiago Illori

Midfielders: Gaston Gil Romero, Steven Gerrard, Marco Verratti, Joe Allen, Will Hughes & Coutinho

Wingers: Tom Ince, Raheem Sterling, Ryan Kent (Youth Team) & Jordan Ibe (Youth Team)

Strikers: Jackson Martinez, Jerome Sinclair (Youth Team) & John Guidetti

Key Players of last season need to keep going this season, Coutinho & Sterling.

Last year Coutinho got 13 goals & 14 assists

Last year Sterling got 14 goals and 20 assists AND won our POTY and the official YPOTY. 3rd in POTY too.

I hope to get this season done sometime this week, probably end up not winning anything, although we beat Everton to win the Community Shield.

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

50m for Bernd Leno?

50m for Bernd Leno??

50m for Bernd Leno???

[Fudge]

I sold Reina for 50m once, but would never spend 50m on a keeper. I'm usually drowning in cheap 4-5 star potential regen keepers by the end of the second season.

[brenchill]

My Bony - Hernandez partnership has propelled me from relegation fodder to title contenders somehow.

My current starting XI:

------------------Guzan-----------------

Lowton---Balanta---Klose---Rojo

-----------------Mulumbu--------------

-----------Westwood--Delph---------

-------------------Josue-----------------

------------Bony----Hernandez-----

My backline has made all the difference. I managed to pick Rojo up on a free in the summer and he has been awesome. Only downside is I have nothing to bring on the bench, once any of my starting XI go down, my back-up is quite poor.

All jokes aside, pretty much following the Dortmund model .

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

Craig Dawson from West Brom (I think) is usually a solid CB option who goes fairly cheaply. That Jamal Lascalles (sp) guy is usually a good squad man for defence in the Prem as well.

Might be worth considering if you need defensive depth.

[Gorka]

Brenchill has a much, much better side than my Aston Villa team. The team has been bouncing around tenth to thirteenth still. I just cannot seem to get some consistency in this team with results.

Formation: 4-2-3-1.

Third Season.

GK: Guzan

FB: Lowton

FB: Oviedo

CB: Vlaar

CB: Strandberg

CM: Wolff Eikrem

CM: Gudeji

IF: Elia

CAM: Saponara

IF: Albrighton

ST: Kozak

Subs: Di Gennaro, Rayson (Regen)/Baker, McArthur, Podolski/Pazzini/Weimann, Taarabt, Jorgensen/Grealish

[brenchill]

Squeezing £40m for Benteke pretty much made me. I also got £10.5m for Okore. I'll probably finish top 8, no way will I be able to stay in the title hunt, I'm already falling away.

Have you spotted Jordan Graham in your U21's yet? I brought him through to my first team. He has 18 dribbling,

[Gorka]

He has seventeen dribbling on mine, and whilst he was potential, he hasn't performed well in his last few loans. It doesn't help he seems to pick up an injury that puts him out for months now and again. All from matches, too. Grealish has much better stats and at the same age, so he'll feature more. I think I sold Okore in the first season in January for around a £3 million just because he was shockingly awful.

[brenchill]

Both Vlaar and Okore were terrible for me. Vlaar more so given the expectations. I bought a LB called Brayan Angulo who was dreadful alongside them but since I brought in Timm Klose, Rojo and Balanta he had been amazingly good.

[Gazz]

You must be rubbish because on my game Okore plays for Bayern Munich...

Zwei

[brenchill]

You must be rubbish because on my game Okore plays for Bayern Munich...

Zwei

He plays for Valencia on mine, he's still shit though. Not much more I could have done to make him better, he was just playing in a poor side when I had him.

[DavidMarrio]

Nothing like buying for a small price or getting someone on a bosman then selling them on for huge profit.

Tottenham signed Tom Ince for 6.5mil (Signed him on a bosman)
Nicusor Stanciu signed for 7.5mil (Sold to Arsenal who have went shit, for £31.5mil)
Sebestian Jung signed on a bosman (Sold to Arsenal for £35mil)

Now time to replace those three players and add a few more to the squad so that we can finally achieve top 4 and have a good Europa League run.

[JasonM]

So i got this player who went from Avaí reject to a guy that looks like he can become a world beater. I picked him up on a freebie in 2014, and back then he looked like a project... But now he has turned into a player that doesn't seem to be anywhere suited for the Defensive Midfielder role.

He went from having 1 high skill (Nat Fit) to having 11. And the coaches say he'll grow significantly in the future too.

I'm on the fence about what to do with him though. I'm training up his dribbling, since it's really the only skill that is lacking. But if that goes above 10 then I will be hard pressed to have him in midfield, rather being a potential forward option (which I'm stacked in).

So, any suggestions on where to go with this kid? Because he seems like a pretty special guy. He reminds me of a poor-man's Vidal right now.

[Gazz]

Not suited to DM?

He's already a quality DLP/D .If you work on his off the ball and his teamwork and decisions increase with age, then he'll be a great DLP/S or Regista.

There's no need to train up his dribbling, he's a Pirlo. Sitting deep and spraying passes all over the place. Look at that passing, creativity, composure and technique.

[JasonM]

Not suited to DM?

He's already a quality DLP/D .If you work on his off the ball and his teamwork and decisions increase with age, then he'll be a great DLP/S or Regista.

There's no need to train up his dribbling, he's a Pirlo. Sitting deep and spraying passes all over the place. Look at that passing, creativity, composure and technique.

Yeah but I feel I'm wasting his finishing ability by placing him deep. Currently I'm really really wondering where I'm gonna go with him. And I assume going DM DLP/REG is the quickest and easiest way to go, without having to retrain him in other positions.

Also wondering how to play my formation. I'm back in the 2nd division after absolutely being drizzling shit in my 2nd Brasileiro season. I'm succesfull, but I'm not really playing to expectation.

I've messed around with 4321 and 4312 the most (all wingerless), and whilst the 4312 gives me good success.. It also causes the wheels to come off at the weirdest moments.

Right now i'm trying a 41311 (DM/3xMC/AM)

I ain't got a right winger though, so I'm pretty much stuck using wingerless formations.