Football Manager 2017 - General Chat

[Cure]

2 hours ago, StanLCFC said:

Even longer than 20 years. 

I remember playing CM 93/94 in my early teens and having to use match results as a password/code to get in to the game . And remember players like Brian McCLair and Nii Lamptey being absolute beasts on the game. Was so basic yet so fun to play CM93/94 like that. 

Then came the later versions of CM with legends like To Madeira, Tonton Zola Moukoku, Cherno Samba, Mark Kerr & Michalis Konstantinou 

No way are you that old. I had you down as mid to late twenties.

[Stan]

8 minutes ago, Cure said:

No way are you that old. I had you down as mid to late twenties.

I'm mid 20s. I didn't play CM 93/94 when it came out, played it much after that! think it must have been about mid 2000s playing it.

[Dan+]

Sacked again

I've not found my touch at 17 yet really.

[Dave]

 Ipswich Town (June - December 2020)

 

Summer Transfers:

Out:

Ademola Lookman - Bournemouth - £20,000,000: I braced myself for this. He was getting far too good for this level and keeping him for another season would not have really been fair on him. Bournemouth really are not great negotiators on this game. They offered twelve, I said twenty, knowing damn well i'll settle for anything at fourteen or above and they dealed on twenty. 

Aaron Webster - Bournemouth - £14,000,000: This one I wasn't really prepared for and it hurt. Him and Tommy Smith had a real great partnership at this level and I had him earmarked as the new vice captain. Bournemouth came along and unsettled him. Knowing they're crap at negotating now I made them pay four million than I wanted.

Tried to leave:

Issac Hayden: He wants to play with better players, but ironically it's only recently promoted League One Blackburn that wanted him. Without a buyer he ended up staying.

Tommy Smith: QPR unsettled him but I manage to persuade him to stay for another season. Losing him and Webster would have been a disaster.

Amazing He Stayed:

Andre Dozzell - Arsenal - £20,000,000: I felt it was only fair to let him go if a top club came in because he could go on to play for England, not that I could do anything as they met his release clause, but amazingly he said no to Arsenal. I don't if it's because his Dad played for Spurs, but either way it was quite an amazing and a massive relief to know we were going to have a player of real quality for the next season.

New Signings:

Jay Da Silva - Chelsea - £2,500,000: After being on loan from Chelsea for the last two years they finally decided he was surplus to requirements and he was delighted to return back to a club where he built a strong affiliation with.

Axel Tuanzebe - Manchester United - £3,500,000: After two solid loan spells at Swansea and Hull City I decided to make the young center back my Adam Webster replacement. Technically he was a better player but he seemed to lack the leadership skills that Webster had so I percieved it to be some gamble.

 

We also had an abundance of academy prospects that I intended to integrate in to the first team. The aim was to be stable by Christmas and then push on with a gelled squad after that. I was skeptical with all of the players returning from serious injuries and the loss of Ademola Lookman and Adam Webster hitting us hard.

 

As predicted our start was not good at all. Nine points in the first ten games saw us in the relegation zone. We gained a mini resurgence with a rather amazing win against Bristol City followed with two wins against relegation threatened sides but Sheffield Wednesday and Preston North End bought us back down to earth.

With a relegation battle looming the players called a meeting with me. Which is something I haven't seen before. Dale Stephens wanted to know what I was going about the poor form. I told him and the other in a passionate tone that nobody is faultess here and we would all have to work together to turn this round. The reaction I got at the time was everybody's heads turning positive, but I was to have no idea how positive the reaction was going to be.

Yep that's right. Beautiful see of Green. We won EVERY match up until the half way point. We had some fortune along the way with Managerial Sackings happening just before or after playing some of those teams but some players have really come out of there shells. This is the half way table:

An amazing turnaround really. I'm worried about Everton, 'Boro, Fulham and Palace but I imagine Bristol will drop off.

Everybody has played there part. Bilalkowski has been solid in goal, DaSilva and academy prospect Joshua Emmanuel are great at bombing forwards from full back, Tuanzebe and Smith have developed a great understanding in defence, Hayden has been the ultimate professional. In center midfield Andre Dozzell and Dale Stephens have had to be great because academy propsect Teddy Bishop has been fantastic this season, Tarique Fosu has replaced Ademola Lookman well whilst Izzy Brown and Callum McMannaman have contributed on the right whilst Tammy Abraham has been a beat up top in the last two months.

Hopefully we can make a statement signing or two in January (i'm looking at right midfield and another striker) that can really signal a statement of intent that we are serious about promotion. I really hope we don't choke it again and the FM Gods don't bless us with another injury crisis.

[Tommy]

16 hours ago, Dan said:

Sacked again

I've not found my touch at 17 yet really.

 

Same. Took over Fortuna Düsseldorf and did well for a couple of seasons. Got them promoted etc. and then everything fell apart  Then I tried a save with Borussia Dortmund, and I keep losing or drawing against weaker teams. 

[Dan+]

3 hours ago, Tsubasa said:

 

Same. Took over Fortuna Düsseldorf and did well for a couple of seasons. Got them promoted etc. and then everyone fell apart  Then I tried a save with Borussia Dortmund, and I keep losing or drawing against weaker teams. 

I used to have it where I would start slowly, then start at a big club somewhere to really get used to things before going back to my usual type of saves, and for whatever reason that did seem to work.

Bochum was infuriating. Very promising early doors but it all fell to pieces. Absolute shambles defensively and no-one other than Quaschner could score. The midfield was a real killer too as they were all decent on paper, and at a similar level - yet none of them seemed to perform and I never really knew which ones to stick with so I probably ended up rotating them too much.

Felix Bastians was a good defender for me and surprise surprise we lost him.

[Dan+]

Just now, Cannabis said:

That's a great run of games you've had @Aaroncpfc, it seems like you might have turned a corner and this could be the season that you get Ipswich back in the top flight. 

As for @Dan I'll agree that this years game is trickier than the last and '16 was bad enough. I had success with Internazionale after a shakey start and dominated with Orient but it's really difficult, I think that keeping players morale up is the biggest factor in doing well as unhappy players seem to really fall to pieces on this. 

I'm having a decent if unspectacular start in Bilbao for those that are interested. After the 6-5 defeat against Espanyol we bounced back with a 3-0 win over Panithanikos in the Europa League before drawing 1-1 with Deportivo, losing 3-1 to Atletico Madrid and then winning by the same score-line against Alaves. We sit 7th (one point behind our target of 6th) but I already know this is going to be a tough save, La Liga is so competitive when you're not managing a Barcelona or a Madrid and can only sign Basque players!

Without blowing my own trumpet I'm generally very decent at keeping morale up, a team meeting often does the trick when it's getting a bit low. The catch is if you have too many they end up losing their effect but by that time you're probably on the verge of the sack anyway.

I do think it's harder to keep players happy in the sense of transfers. You get offers for just about everyone. That's what killed it for me at Honved really. I was top of the league yet I had nearly my entire team wanting out. Now I'm generally quite patient but I realised really it was probably going to take about 20 years before I could make any significant impact and that's just too long in a weak league. Holland was probably the perfect balance.

Definitely think this is the hardest of the lot. I'm finding it so hard to find a system that works. That 4-3-3 I had at Sparta worked so well it was like an oiled machine. I've tried similar on this and it's not come close to working.

[Dave]

You say this is the hardest of the lot every year Dan 

[Dan+]

It has genuinely gotten harder the last three years I think. Never really cracked 16 as it wasn't great on my old laptop. Finding 17 tricky but I was pretty crap on 15 for a while at first before cracking it. Reckon I'll get there. Taking a while though.

[Bluebird Hewitt]

I need to get my ass back on this. Was havino a decent save with Cardiff and haven't picked it back up.

[Stan]

just played semi-final of European International League vs Croatia.

Donnarumma saved 7 penalties and then scored the winner  

And I'd made all my subs by the time my left-back got injured so had to change formation and play with 3 at the back, 1 DM, 1 CM and stick with my 3 AMCs  and a ST.

 

 

 

and just done the World Cup Draw and thought I'd check on qualification rules. Also saw Disciplinary rules and it's 12 matches for striking a match official. has this ever happened to anyone in the game?!

[Dave]

Ive had academy players turn up drunk but they've never hit an official.

[Panna King]

I have been the Everton manager, it has been a tough ride, some really average players to deal with, Coleman has to be one of the worst right backs I have had on the game. Also arguing alot with some of the players, got called in twice to the chairmans office and was let off with meeting their targets on both times.   i would love to punch Coleman in the face right now!!

[Guest Cannabis]

7 hours ago, VanPanna said:

I have been the Everton manager, it has been a tough ride, some really average players to deal with, Coleman has to be one of the worst right backs I have had on the game. Also arguing alot with some of the players, got called in twice to the chairmans office and was let off with meeting their targets on both times.   i would love to punch Coleman in the face right now!!

Speak to Seamus Coleman like that and I'll happily punch you in the face

[Panna King]

3 hours ago, Cannabis said:

Speak to Seamus Coleman like that and I'll happily punch you in the face

Hahaha, no matter what I do he just gets a 6 all the time, and moans when I left him out for a few games that he isnt getting first team football. 

[Guest Cannabis]

Getting the hang of Bilbao now, I'm going away tomorrow so will hopefully get to sink my teeth into them with more free time over the next week. We've won three games out of three in the Europa League and sit 7th in La Liga after a recent run of wins. Our target is to finish one place higher in 6th and considering we're only three points from 3rd it's entirely possible. 

 

[Dan+]

The Intro:
I have struggled at 17. It's quite well documented here, but I have not hit the ground running. I had a save with Honved and a save with Bochum, I got bored of the former and got sacked in the latter. I thought it was a shame at Bochum as it felt things were slowly on the up, but not at the rate the chairman wanted. I wanted a similar sort of game, but I don't like going for the same league twice in a row so I picked the league I felt was most similar to the 2.Bundesliga, and what do you know? I'm back in the league I spent the majority of my footballing 'education' in. The Championship. Seeing as we're doing throwbacks, lets go for the club that has given me some of my finest footballing memories. I have had some superb days at Barnsley, lets give some back to them.

This is by no means an easy save. It's probably a bit insane of me to jump into a save like this when I'm struggling, but maybe the potential of not losing my job will help things. I am predicted to finish 23rd in the table, but I see a squad that's capable of a bit more than that. Saying that, survival is the aim this year, and I want to gradually build this team up and eventually get promoted. I want to be up in 4 seasons.

There is actually a bit of money at Barnsley. Nothing significant, but it's enough to really sustain yourself given the money they have taken in for the likes of Stones, Mawson and Holgate - which takes me onto their academy, they're a club who have a focus on this area and that's something anyone who reads my stuff on here knows I like. I do intend to produce players from the academy effectively. It's about survival this year though, and we crack on from there.

 

Transfer business:
Ins:
Harry Pickering (Crewe, £105k) - Young winger signed by head of youth recruitment.
Michael Essien (free) - Solid and experienced, still has something to offer at this level.
Theo Pellenard (Bordeaux, £225k) - 22 year old left back transfer listed, looked a tidy player to me so in he came.
Stephen Quinn (Reading, £575k) - Another experienced and versatile player, an upgrade on what we already have.

Outs:
-

 

Results (each gap indicates a new month):
Ipswich (a) - A poor start. We're beaten 1-0 with a second half goal and really, it ought to have been more.
Notts County (a) (LC) - A resounding 0-3 victory, despite the weak opposition I was quite impressed.
Derby (h) - Took the lead but lost it with two late goals, very disappointing.
QPR (h) - Really turned it on here and won the game 3-0. The pairing of Watkins and Bradshaw looking very dangerous.
Huddersfield (a) - Horrendous, a Huddersfield side without a point beat us 4-1.
Hull (h) (LC) - A poor performance, a late-ish Hull goal, an even later equaliser, an even later Hull goal. Out the cup. Not good.
Rotherham (h) - We were the dominant side, but drew on paper our easiest game of the season 0-0. A really poor result. A poor start all in all.

Preston (a) - A surprise victory. We took the lead early on and Preston went down to ten. We doubled the lead in the second half, conceded a consolation at the end but held on for a very decent win on the road.
Wolves (a) - Once again we took the lead, but we ended up on the end of a 2-1 this time, a late Cavaleiro 30 yarder doing the damage. I can't really blame anyone for this, we expected to lose and fell victim to some top quality which I simply don't have.
Reading (h) - An absolutely atrocious performance and how we only lost 0-1 I will never know. 0-5 wouldn't have been unfair.
Brighton (a) - Preston all over again, expected to be rolled over but we turned in a very decent performance and picked up a surprise 1-2 victory. Great stuff.
Aston Villa (h) - Expected to lose but didn't. Very open game which we threw away late on and drew 1-1. Not too bad a result though.

Leeds (a) - A similar game to the Villa one, fully expected a defeat but it never came. It ended 2-2, another good result on the road.
Fulham (h) - Yet again a draw from a game I expected to lose, a late Bradshaw goal rescued a 1-1 draw.
Newcastle (h) - Our run of surprise draws was over in the cruelest way as Dwight Gayle scored a magnificent solo effort in injury time to give the Geordies a 0-1 win.
Brentford (a) - An absolutely mental game. We went 2-0 down after 9 minutes and could quite easily have been 5 down by half an hour, it was like we were playing Bayern. Pellenard then got a straight red and they added a third. This could easily be a cricket score. Incredibly, my 3-4-2 formation totally unsettled Brentford and against all odds we got the game back to 3-3, only for Brentford to pinch it with 5 minutes left. Quite a recovery in the circumstances, but ultimately a fruitless game.
Bristol City (h) - Needed to win for me. Didn't. 0-2 down very early on, but did come back and salvage a draw late on. Mixed feelings, but that's 6 without a win now.

Burton (a) - A very good chance of a victory blown in abject fashion. Burton even gave us the opportunity by going down to ten men and they still beat us 1-0. An absolutely worrying result which left us in the bottom three.
Wigan (h) - Wigan had just 4 points all season so far. They had been a car crash. Sure enough we were in charitable mood and despite dominating them and missing a penalty at 1-0 up, we drew the game. I got that sinking feeling again.
Nottm Forest (h) - That sinking feeling keeps coming as an abject Forest side turned around a 1-0 deficit to snatch all three points late on. We're in trouble.

Birmingham (a) - Another poor result and performance. A 2-0 defeat and a missed penalty for Birmingham to boot. Morale low and our favourable run gone. Something had to change.
Norwich (h) - This was about the last thing we needed, and sure enough it was the battering I feared. A resounding 0-3 meaning we were winless in 9 home games and 11 games in total. Everything about us screamed relegation.
Sheff Weds (a) - I didn't fancy this. A Wednesday side needing a result against a Barnsley side that was dying on its arse. But we took a surprise lead, and doubled it just after half time, then made it 3, then 4, this is really happening, 11 without a win and we're 4 up at our rivals! Wednesday get one back but Watkins completes his hat-trick late on and the game ends 1-5, incredibly. What a win. Out of absolutely nothing.
Cardiff (a) - I did make a particular tactical tweak ahead of the Wednesday game and I hoped Cardiff fell into the same trap, and to my amazement, they did! We won 1-4. What on earth is going on? We can't buy a win and we then go and slap these two in a row?
Blackburn (h) - Back down to earth with a smack. We dominated from start to finish and BLackburn stole a 0-1 in injury time through Joao. The barren home run goes on.
Birmingham (h) - This was basically Blackburn all over again without the Blackburn goal. The performances encourage me, the goals tally doesn't. 0-0.

So we hit January sat 21st in the table, but I do think the tweak I made to our tactics is working a treat. I think I've been a bit too negative and haven't got my wide men attacking enough. It was no surprise that we pinged Wednesday and Cardiff in those areas. Adam Armstrong is on fire and Marley Watkins isn't too far behind.

I've been playing a 4-4-2, my best side is (R-L) Adam Davies / Marc Yiadom, Marc Roberts, Angus McDonald, Theo Pellenard / Ryan Kent, Matty James, Stephen Quinn, Ryan Hedges / Marley Watkins, Adam Armstrong.

I think we're improving and we will survive, but there are a lot of issues to iron out. McDonald worries me and his cover, Adam Jackson, is absolute garbage. I want Rob Holding on loan but we can't afford his wages unless we ship a couple of players out. Pellenard's proving to be a very decent buy so far and the midfield has a bit of depth, with Moncur, Mowatt and Scowen all ready to be called on. Bradshaw's had a disappointing year so far.

A concern for me going forward is our reliance on loanees. Kent, James and most worryingly of all, Armstrong, are all on loan. Armstrong is on loan from Newcastle yet has scored more than any of their forwards. He won't be here next year. He's a PL and possible England striker in the making.

I'm struggling to strengthen in January, but I'm fairly content with the squad and I think I've found a system that will keep us up. Enjoying this save so far.

[Pig on the Wing]

I have been on hiatus from FM for about 3 years. My better half (of 6 years) made the quite foolish mistake of buying me FM17 for Christmas. So, after a trial run with Bolton (having to pay Liam Trotter 11k per week to get ragged by midfielders at Oxford United got infuriating), I began playing with Sheffield United, the fallen giants stuck in League One, and a guilty soft spot since going to university in the city.

My first season went beautifully - a three-way pack broke off from the rest early on, and I was happy to go up 2nd behind the plastic Dons.

In the Championship, I was hoping for mid-table, but an inspired signing in Diego Fabbrini paid dividends, and I was able to get into the playoffs, where I had arguably my loudest moment playing FM - a 91st minute winner from Billy Sharp after peppering Brentford all game. Amazing.

As a sidenote, Ryan Tunnicliffe had the distinction of picking up an amazing 22 yellows and 3 reds in my Championship season. I love him dearly.

Oh yeah, Everton went down in the first season while qualifying for Europe after winning the League Cup - they're still in the Championship after employing and then sacking Sam Allardyce.

----

I'm now in the Premier League and I was given a paltry £9m to spend by my tight-fisted board. Twats. My biggest spend was £3m on Odion Ighalo, also £1.7m on Filip Djuricic and £1.8m on Davide Calabria from inter. I've stuck up my squad list - you can definitely see the progression of the players I have brought in - not many remain from the League One days. However - Jack O'Connell. What a fucking machine this lad is - buy him early and watch him develop. Oh, and John Fleck. Both way too good for League One.

I'm probably going to get fucked in the Prem, however, 17th will do. And there's shite like Bristol City, Burnley, Brighton and Huddersfield in the league with me. Bring it on.

[Guest Cannabis]

Cracking set of promotions there Stef, @Dan should take note . 

On a site note it's infuriating how shit Everton are on this game. Every diary we've had on here they seem to go into the lower leagues or flirt with relegation. I'm hoping that in the March update we're given a bit of a boost to reflect how we are doing under Koeman.

[Stan]

3 minutes ago, Cannabis said:

Cracking set of promotions there Stef, @Dan should take not . 

On a site note it's infuriating how shit Everton are on this game. Every diary we've had on here they seem to go into the lower leagues or flirt with relegation. I'm hoping that in the March update we're given a bit of a boost to reflect how we are doing under Koeman.

that's a good point actually.

In my save, in all the 14 seasons so far, Everton have only finished top half in 2 seasons; twice finished 17th and you've had Wolves, Sunderland and Bournemouth finish above you twice  

[Bluebird Hewitt]

27 minutes ago, Cannabis said:

Cracking set of promotions there Stef, @Dan should take note . 

On a site note it's infuriating how shit Everton are on this game. Every diary we've had on here they seem to go into the lower leagues or flirt with relegation. I'm hoping that in the March update we're given a bit of a boost to reflect how we are doing under Koeman.

Everton have been fine in mine so far........I think. 

[Tommy]

So after a few weeks of leaving the it alone, I decided to continue my first save again. Things were going shit, so I stopped, but now I somehow turned it around and we're on a good path to promotion again: 

 

Getting job offers from weird Ligue 2 teams all the time, but they can fuck right off. 

[Dan+]

I've noticed Everton being awful too. They're normally always fighting relegation.

[R-D]

Everton have done alright on mine: 12th, 14th, 8th, 6th finishes, so on the up.

I'm really undecided! I like my FC Groningen side a lot, and I've built something special there and I've been looking forward to developing some of our outstanding talents. However, we dominate the league now with relative ease, so it's a case of trying to progress on the European scene - do I stay until we win it?? A. Madrid offer a new challenge, squad needs some rebuilding, but a team likely to push on to that next level.

[Stan]

i'm gonna have to play Man City 7 times this season