Feck off! He's a football manager

I signed Leandro Damiao from Internacional for 26m at the start of the 2013-14 season, when he was just becoming a mainstay in the Brazilian team. He remains my most expensive signing, and I recall I had to give him a pretty hefty contract - in fact, it looks like he's still on his initial 5-year contract at 90k/week, 11,500 appearance/goal fees, 1 million for making team of the year (I don't think he has, yet ), and 10% transfer profit. I tend to drive down the main wage as low as possible and blow up agent fees and other bonuses, just because players look at other players' wages and cause general inflation. I think at the time of signing he was on par with Robin van Persie or just below; now, he is my best paid player.

In fact, as of March 2017, I've offered him his first contract extension. I've managed to nail a 3-year contract on 90k/week, 15k app/goals, 900k team of the year and 3m bonus for both player and agent. I mean, at this point the club is swimming in money, but I don't want to hit 100k wages if possible.

The 17-18 season has gone well. We won the League Cup with an extra time penalty against Manchester United, we remain in FA Cup and CL, and most importantly, are eleven points clear in the title race. We were actually unbeaten for 28 games and I was hopeful of an Invincibles run, but on one particular day with a bad combination of injuries West Ham beat us two-nil at the Emirates. That after we staged two consecutive comeback wins against City and Chelsea. Still, we should be able to do a double at least. The young regen Remy Martinez has come of age with 14 goals already, and the team is just full of about-to-make-it players pushing for places now.

Fair play Arc, they must have sorted certain players demands with the patches. He wanted a ridiculous amount when I tried to sign him. Easily about £150k a week (just wages + appearance fee) and that was in the first window with Arsenal. I never went back to him after that.

As for the Denilson contract offer, I was pipped by Arsenal who paid him £85k p/w which I was gutted about but most certainly justified in my offer. Even if I could have offered £100k p/w it represented good value for money, so I thought £80k was modes

Liverpool Season Finish 2018/2019

League: 4th (Went to the wire, had to win my last 2 games to stand a chance. I did and Spurs dropped points in their penultimate fixture)

UEFA Cup: Winners. Beat Sevilla 4-2 in the final, played the 2nd half with 10 men after Jack Robinson got sent off just before HT.

FA Cup: Runners UP. Frustratingly beaten 4-1 by Man City in what was otherwise an even game, I managed to create the most clear cut chances!

League Cup: Winners. Beat Chelsea 2-1.


It was a fantastic season all in all, Man City eventually winning the league. Man Utd fell apart.

In terms of my squad:

Marc Bartra (CB) was immense. He scored an incredible 20 goals (all open play) in 45 games. Breaking the MOTM record at the club with 10 and finishing with an Av.R of 7.53. 3rd in The Player of the Year and in Team of Year.

Louis McDonald made an inspired comeback from a nasty injury he suffered after a good start. Finishing with 3 goals, 13 assists and an Av.R of 7.33

Rodrigo Ojeda also broke the assist record, creating 23 whilst chipping in with 7 of his own. Av.R of 7.32. Was named The Players Player of the Year. Also in team of the year.

Coulibaly hit 16, Spada 14 (despite missing a large chunk of the season), Calabria 13 - on his debut season I was impressed with, being shunted between LW/ST/RW.

Redmond scored 8 and set up 14, a much marked improvement. While Abdelloaui proved to be a force in the AM role, notching 8 goals and 12 assists between RW and AM.

Elsewhere the £300k Jokinen made the RB spot his in place of £22m Gunther. Joao Paulo is a 'Wonderkid' and played well (7.09) over the season alongside Bartra too.

Arsenal sacked Eddie Howe at the end of the season and I was made favourite. Unfortunately I've invested a lot through this Liverpool side, young players in the first team as well as a lot of money spent on the Under 18's so I distanced myself from the post. Maybe in 3/4 years but I want a crack at the Champions League, it's a long way from the Johnstones Paint Trophy!

GK: Szscesny and Sharpe

RB: Gunther, Jokinen
CB: Bartra, Martin
CB: van den Bergh, Paulo
LB: Leal, Browett (Promoted from the reserves)

CM: Martinez (Free), Wilshere (£35m Jan) Ojeda, Pernao, Ghaicham.

RW: Redmond, (River Plater RW £12.5m)
LW: Savelli, McDonald
AM: Spada, Beltran (£4.4m)

ST: Coulibaly, Calabria, Rossi (Loan)


Robinson expressed his desire to move on, as he only had 12 months left on his deal I granted it and he moved on for £11.5m.

Declan Browett was promoted in his place. He's not much of a prospect, but could turn out to be solid and he gets the nod being English. There's also a German LB in the reserves who would be a better option but we'll see how things pan out.

Abdelloaui following his exploits when given the chance last season was allowed out on loan for the duration of this one. Honda was allowed to leave on a free transfer and Walcott was released.

Javi Martinez was also signed on a free. He's only 30 now, and it was agreed in January. So my options in midfield are now frightening.

A RW from River Plater was signed for £12.5m having just broken into the Argentinian squad at the age of 25. He has some fantastic attributes and hopefully will become a key attacker for me.

Marc Beltran, a Spanish AM (ST) was signed for £4.4m after I met his release clause and he has the potential to be an oustanding player.

Finally Guiseppe Rossi arrived on loan from Man City for a £500k fee and £16k p/w contribution. More to add a bit of quality to the depth at a reasonable price.


Objectives:

League: Top 4, Champions League: 1st Knockout Phase, FA Cup: Semi Final.

In my office at the Camrose, Basingstoke Town FC’s football ground it is 28 December 2018 and I feel like I need to take time to update you on matters of the English football leagues. Basingstoke are a premier league, this is beyond all thing the biggest highlight of my management career, and for the group of players we have assembled it is their biggest moment to fulfil the promise and potential they have shown in seasons gone by. Our opening fixtures were humbling, a 0 – 2 loss at Anfield, Bolton winning 1 – 0 on our own turf, but we surprised ourselves with a 4 – 1 home win over Fulham soon after. And in many ways this season has genuinely surprised me, and I felt compelled to share particularly after beating Liverpool 1 – 0 today in the return fixture, and having beaten Man Utd 2 – 0 two days earlier.

We are cruising, on a brilliant run sitting pretty in 5th, 21 games played, 11 won, 5 drawn and 5 lost. Only 26 goals scored against the other 40 some-things in the league which is our weak point, but we are a defensive team and we do have some very talented defenders resulting in only 18 goals conceded, the best in the league by 6 goals. So with 38 points behind us we have a fantastic opportunity ahead of us to enjoy our football and thrill our fans and ourselves in a season where we were predicted to go straight back down.

We managed promotion comfortably, by winning what was a two horse race with Bolton for the Championship title. The play-off pack were a long way behind us two so we were not threatened, but I desperately wanted the title, it was my first and the clubs first league title in the time I had been there, we had a couple of cups, but there is nothing like a league title. We had to work for it having come so close to securing promotion from the Championship at our first attempt the previous season having snuck into the pay-offs, but to no avail, we were quickly put back in our box by Swansea who ultimately secured the final promotion place.

So we really have far exceeded expectations season after season, perhaps you could say the game is too close to the ‘easy’, but we have thought hard, and learnt quickly about how to be most effective with our talent and the 90 minutes. I had grand ideas for tactics of 433, 4132, 4231, and with all manor of attacking flair and intent, and though we are the complete opposite we have found a very enjoyable blend of what we do best. It may sound obvious, but I really have focussed on finding players who have the highest possible positional, decision making and movement statistics, and the relevant skills to match the requirements of their positions. And we play my favourite old 1 match winning goalkeeper, 4 in defence, 1 deep lying midfielder, 3 box to box midfielders and 2 complete forwards who are by nature both poachers and we play defensive and sit deep with bodies behind the ball. But we are good at soaking up pressure and very good at converting defence into attack without committing to counter attack football and exposing the defence. The most important aspect is that we dictate the game, we control the ball and the opposition use of it even if it is just watching them move from left to right and back again, I am happy to let them make the mistakes.

We have found ourselves a bit more money now that we are in the Premier League, but it is still only 5 million in transfer fees and 31k in wages of which I use about half so I have found extra transfer fees. Every player now is a regen, it is not possible to buy a decent known player with my money, and the players I had earmarked when in the lower leagues are now not up to the standards we require now that I can afford them. So I have:

- A 23 year old goal keeper who I signed at 16 because of his intelligence and prospective goalkeeping skills which have now been realised, he is a beast and often enough the man of the match and even this season with 21 appearances and only 18 goals conceded he has proved himself.

- Fullbacks, I spent some money here, I signed a first class Brazilian left back, Teixeira for peanuts from Ascoli, and an 18 year old Portuguese right back (for 2.7 million which is rather more that peanuts for me…) who is already in the national team, they along with two other talented young players have rotated and filled the gaps.

- Central defence, I have 5 top draw centre backs, three of which have been with the club since our League 1 days, and two of which have been brought in over the past two seasons to raise the quality and to move on some that would not be getting game time in this league. That is quite a lot, but I am blessed with a couple of lads that can play left and right too and fill in for injuries in those positions when needed. It is a struggle to keep them happy as they have all been touted by the big boys, but they are all on long contracts and I have no intention of giving some other team the pleasure…

- Defensive Midfield, this is the game ticker and I have two top draw mover shakers who are probably the best midfielders I have and they play in rotation because the fatigue always seems to be an issue given the kicks and mileage these chaps are dishing out. The ironic this is my ‘Giberto’ is a player I so nearly let go at 18, now 21 he is wanted by all the bigger teams and his teamwork, positioning, creativity and decision statistics (let alone the skills stats) put him right up among the best in this position.

- The midfield three, or six actually if I include the substitute youngsters are all rolls royce footballers, probably as close as I could get to the old Paul Scholes mould of a player.

- I have disobeyed my scouting recommendations to sign three of my 4 strikers and I have been proved right on two of them, one of them Moen and Norwegian that I picked up on a bosman from Barcelona while in league 1 has been the mainstay and a prolific goal scorer (52 in 113 appearances) as well as assists, he is my Robin Van Persie. Ribeiro is a Brazilian lad comfortable in attacking midfield position as well as up front, who I picked up for 100 grand and he has delivered 23 goals in a season and a half with 21 assist, he is my Denis Bergkamp. The other lads are all quality and still in many ways proving themselves and trying to displace two very fine strikers.

I am quite content with the team for this and seasons to come and they have competed very well with a premier league filled with ageing stars. If the opportunity arises to buy a top draw young left back as a successor to the experienced Teixeira I will do it, but I am enjoying seeing the lads doing their stuff.

I didn't even notice his appointment, but Arsene Wenger just got sacked by the Tottenham board...

I was in February 2020, 4 points off Top (incredibly tight league - about 7 points seperating the top 6)... in the 1st KO Phase of the Champs Lge (2-0 down after away leg to Marseille), Out of the League Cup and had won the European Super Cup.

Just gone to load my file 'XML Parsing error'. Won't load. It was a file I'd played for nigh on 30 days. In terms of hours actually spent on it. I'm absolutely gutted after starting with Plymouth and getting to where I did...

I fee like someone's ripped my left leg off!

Has anyone found that right backs are strangely good on this game?

Like, whenever I check the player stats tables in the various leagues it always seems as if the majority of the top average rated players and players with most assists always seem to be right backs.

Anyone else seen that or just me?

I feel for you. I've been playing my Southampton game (in 18th season) for a few months now. Can you load an earlier version? I save a different copy of my game every year (i.e. I have 18 saves).

Well first season for Basingstoke Town in the premier league has not ended at its last… 2018/19 season has finished with us in 6th with 65 points and all down to a superb defensive record conceding only 30 goals all season, we didn’t score enough but gave a very good account of ourselves. Chelsea beat the big spending Liverpool to the title, followed by Man City, Man Utd and the mighty Arsenal.

Playing in Europe is going to be a real treat, and I think I have a deep enough squad to cope I just need to ensure I have the quality. I have already negotiated 3 free transfer deals for a good midfielder, striker and a top draw central defender from Barcelona. Still investigating left back options, there just aren’t many quality players in that position…

Borussia Moenchengladbach, Season '12-13

Season two opened with a remit to finish in the top half, but after last season's almost-title-challenge I felt top four was very achievable. A title challenge never materialised this time around; second-season syndrome hit, the numerous squad alterations taking time to settle. Borussia Dortmund were proving all but invincible, decimating the field over the opening half of the campaign, with Bayern just about surfing their slipstream. I was generally in 4th, ahead of a crop of teams looking to challenge for the Champions League positions. Schalke were enjoying a promising campaign in 3rd, until a run of 12 games without a win culminated in a 6-0 thrashing at Bayen and the end of Michael Laudrup's reign.

The Champions League proved a different prospect; drawn into a group with Inter, Zenit and Twente. A 1-0 win in Milan opened the group, followed by tidy home victories over Zenit and Twente. With one point needed to qualify I sent a scratch team to Holland and was promptly thrashed 2-4. A loss at home to Inter - where I dominated and did everything but score, eventually falling victim to two fluke goals - meant I need a result in Russia. Assuming Inter beat Twente, which they did, 6-0. I went 2-0 up, but that had been reversed by halftime, and a second Kerzhakov strike right after the restart put qualification highly in doubt, one of the worst collapses in Champions League history. Despite Zenit going down to ten men I couldn't find a way through, until FM decided to invoke one of its frequent moments of hero-creation. In the dying embers of the game, Neustadter surged forward and split the Zenit defence asunder. Kamarouskiy rounded the GK and slotted home. Qualification achieved with the last kick.

I avoided a raft of big names in the knockouts, earning a modest tie with Sporting. A 0-0 draw in Portugal set me fair for advancement, but I went on to lose the home tie with two quick second-half goals.

On the transfer front, my purchases had done a solid job to-date. Fernando had been instrumental, bagging 13-14 goals by the winter break. De Jong and Reynaldo had also chipped in strongly, with Abu adding some guile to the midfield. The one disappointment was £10.5m record purchase Cisse, with a paltry 3 goals and an inability to hit the proverbial barn door. The board afforded a modest winter budget, which I duly spent on Julian Schuster for £5.25m. A deadball expert, replacing the quality I would soon lose with Arango's increasingly bit-part role. There wasn't much available on a future free transfer, agreeing Solvi Ottesen - a commanding Icelandic centreback - the only other business.

The back stretch of the season was a tremendous battle. Bayern lost form and with nine games remaining seven teams were within a point of each other. The run-in was tough; away ties at Bayern and Koln sandwiched Schalke at home, with HSV on the final day. But the team pulled it out; a 1-0 win at Bayern, victory over Schalke and a last-gasp draw at Koln sealed automatic Champions League entry. Going into the final day I was 2nd, but decided to play a scratch team ahead of the German Cup final and could only muster a tepid 0-0 draw, allowing Bayern to move ahead for a consecutive 3rd placed Bundesliga finish.



A tidy season culminating in a German Cup final and the promise of first silverware. After missing last season's final with a last-gasp defeat at Leverkusen in the semis, this time around I went one better. A 2-1 victory at Dortmund in the semi final - a tough, defensive game settled by Cisse and Reynaldo strikes - set up a marquee showdown against Bayern. They had annihilated Bremen 6-1 to reach the final, but I was quite confident, posting up three victories in five games vs Bayern to date. It proved a stunning finale; Reus' goal earned a halftime lead, but Nordtveit's dismissal - right as I was about to sub him - instantly put the tie in Bayern's favour. I went 441 and defensive and kept Bayern at bay until Boateng netted from a corner with ten minutes remaining. Somehow I retook the lead in the 105th minute through an outstanding Cisse goal, only for Landon Donovan to immediately respond before another minute had passed. 2-2 final score, but I snagged a 4-3 sudden-death shootout win to do-over Bayern yet again. Reus the hero with the decisive penalty.

All-in-all another very promising season. I've developed a difficult-to-beat outfit and a drop of 3pts to the first season was an acceptable trade-off given the numerous squad alterations. If I can keep the group together I think a title challenge could materialise for the third season. It will be tough though, as Germany have lost a CL space to Serie A due to the 5-year coefficients - despite Italy not even having a team qualifying from the group stage, in comparison to 3 German.

There has been some interesting stuff occurring around the leagues. Ferguson and Redknapp have just retired. Generally I find FM12 is modelling the real game world very well; expected teams are largely winning, likely candidates are signing for teams or becoming managers. Arsenal have been Wengerian; 4th and 5th placed finishes, the occasional big-name signing adjoining numerous talented youngsters. Wenger took the France job at the end of the first season, and Van Gaal's 5th place earned him the sack. The new manager of Arsenal? Sinisa Mihajlovic.

Imagine that, in the current climate and given his history

There was a back up file but me being a tool must have deleted it. I haven't brought myself to start a new file until now after a shit day at the office yesterday. Not sure who to go though.

I loaded up Scotland and will have a crack with Rangers. It's as much to do with unlocking the achievements as much as anything!

Sold quite a lot; Neil Alexander (£1m), David Weir (Released), Carlos Bocanegra (Loan), Dorin Goian (Loan), Sasa Papac (Free) Matthew McKay (Loan), Lee McCulloch (£250k), Nikica Jelavic (£1.5m + 20% of future fee), David Healy (Released)

My budget was originally £2.1m and in all I took £3.8 in player sales.

I brought in Arason (Free), Pernia (Free), Stephen Jordan (Free), Danny Wilson (Loan), Macheda (Loan), James McFadden (Free), Jordan Rhodes (£5m), Coquelin (Loan), Kevin De Bruyne (£1m) and Daniel Halfar (£1.8m).

A total of £8.25m. Rhodes being the expensive one but he's one player who I've always wanted to manage on the game and hopefully he'll come good and not be swayed to move.


Sturm Graz and Malmo posed no problems en route to qualifying for the Champions League, before I was drawn against Porto, Marseille and Trabzonspor. Four games in against them and I picked up home wins against Porto and Marseille as well as a point away to Trabzonspor. With defeat coming away to Marseille.

I'm up against Morton in the Semi-Final of the League Cup, with Partick Thistle and Motherwell in the other fixture.

Celtic are a shambles. 17 points from 11 games

I'm top with 30 from 13, scored 32 and conceded 7. Dundee though are 2nd on 28 in 14 and have taken 4 points from me in the two outings against them. Hearts then sit 3rd with 28 from 13.

You are very lucky the wife isn't reading this, she would have you hung drawn and quartered with you associating the great Dundee football club who are in the 1st Division with DUNDEE UNITED who are the lesser neighbours but just under a better run than Dundee have for years