Hey, so ive been playing football manager for abit, and have been using this site for information and thought its about time i post my progress.
Having made Brentford World beaters on fm10, (albiet with a "little" 100million transfer kity to start) i was adamant to play this one through, legit and take my local team Staines Town as far as they could go.
The Story So Far..
First things first,
So my first season with staines, and as could be expected, i was predicted lower end of the table, and some players needed to come in.(and by some i mean a whole new squad)
The problem with Staines is firstly, they arent even a proffesional club, secondly they have no funds available and a very very small wage budget.
The maximum i could offer a player was £300 per week, and alot of my current players were on that with others being able to be bought in with much better stats.
Star Signings:
Fofana and Buari were played as inside forwards in a 4-2-3-1 formation, and were great together.
Dean Sinclair and Matthew Wells, where my rocks in the middle, and Wells scored the best hat-trick ive seen on his debut, 3 cracking goals all from well outside the area, and all from different parts of the pitch.
Louis Emanuel and Ben Hoskin were also solid wingbacks,
JAMES ASHMORE, this man played in the attacking midfield spot, and bagged plenty of goals, plenty of assists and 9times out of 10, he was the man creating the goals. I fully recommend him for lower league teams.
I finished the season top of the pack, with my first trophy underbelt.
However, i failed to make any real progress in the cups.
Somehow despite massively overachieving, I didnt win the manager of the year, or the overachiever of the year, despite being shortlisted for both.
Blue Square Premier
Up into the highest division my club has ever seen(yes, i found this funny too) and im already being remarked as a club legend.
A few more transfers were needed, but mainly offloading players who i felt didnt have a future at the club, mainly in order to free up a wage budget.
With a wage budget allowing £500 per week, i knew i had expanded my market massively.
Star signings:
Gareth williams - This guy came in managed to push wells and sinclair out of their starting position, leading to the 3 of them being alternated.
Ahmed Said - My leading scorer, and left koroma in dust, managed to bag me 20 goals for the season, which is what i was hoping for.
CHEICK TOURE - This is so far my best signing, got him on a free, he was only 19, and was an absolute rock at the back, and even got a few corner goals aswell. This guy was unbelievable in this division.
The season went better than imagined and I finished top of the league for a second consecutive season, I was beggining to wonder how far these boys could go, although i knew they would be well out of their depth in league two (my pre season friendlies showed me this)
Again i underperformed in the cups, which is something i was keen to work on next season.
Again i was nominated for manager of the year, and finished runner up... The awards where even on my birthday but no sympathy vote i guess.
League Two
This is where i really felt like good things where happening for staines, Big news happened... Yes we became a Proffesional club, no more part time players, this was the real thing from here.
A few new transfers was needed, as each division i progressed through, more and more players were interested in listening to contract offers, still no transfer budget, and not much of a change in terms of wages either.
Star signings:
Jasinki and Chalwe were solid at the back, and with Toure, my 3 centre backs where able to rotate and always had atleast one on full fitness prior to each game.
Nikola Saric, despite the female name this guy was great, he pushed Ashmore back into centre mid and him buari and fofana, made for a great attacking midfield.
Andy van der meyde - although he didnt really make an impact on the season, this was my first "real" signing of quality, in that he was a premiership and top league player for his career, and just having his name in the squad seemed to give a morale boost to the fans and youngsters.
RYAN TUNNICLIFFE, managed to get him on loan in the january window, and he turned my season around, i was drifting in and out of the play offs, but once he arrived, i managed to establish myself comfortably in them, and promotion had gone from a dream to a possible reality.
And yes it happened..stealing second place and automatic promotion on the last game of the season, the WestSideIsTheBest boys had done the unthinkable.
The praise i was getting was a super boost for the ego, and i had even gone from unproven to Local as my manager status.
This season i finally got what i felt i deserved and that was the desired Manager of the year award. =]
Oh and for my cup runs i did amazingly, I won the johnsons paint trophy, won the FA Trophy and even won the League Cup with an 8-0 win against chelsea in the final.
.
.
.
.
.
I joke, i sucked again, progressing two rounds in each and getting knocked out again. However, my league success was making me happy.
League One
I remember from Brentford this was a hard league to win, there is a lot bigger teams, with a lot of high calibre players and extensive transfer and wage budgets in comparrison to little Staines Town. So i knew getting some free transfers in the summer would be essential.
I would like to mention, although i release alot of my players to clubs for a fee of £0, i always attatch atleast a 20% of next sale incase they manage to flog them on, i get a bit of cash for it =]
The sad moment when your favourite player has to leave
Every year i had higher teams praising my players, and i knew eventually it would come to them leaving. Toure was the first to go when an offer for £200,000 came through, which was £60k above his value, i had a feeling this would be the end of toure in a staines shirt. I haggled with the club and once they agreed a fee of £600k this was too good to turn down.
One player had single handidly took my club into the positive figures of finance.
I still dub this moment the mini Ronaldo to Madrid factor.
Star Signings
Sergi Gomez on loan from spurs was immense, with an average rating of 7.60 across the season, i was gutted to not be able to extend the loan again.
Bahoken upfront replaced Said also banging in 20 goals through the season,
Morrison replaced Buari who was out of his depth in this league, and Ihou did the same for fofana.
ELDIN HADZIC a rating of 7.21, 15 goals, 7 assists this man was my new Toure, that player that made me happy when he scored. My second bosnian and this one definately didnt fail to impress.
The season went better than expected and i managed to bag myself a play off spot, winning in an intense final against bristol rovers 2-0. The lads had achieved promotion to the championship and this is where i figured they would probably stay,
Championship
This is where things got scary. During the end of league one my club had a takeover, and there were managers lined up for my job. Managers with higher qualifications than myself, and i really did think my game with staines was finished. However, they kept me on to which i was relieved and happy i could continue to progress.
I managed to bring in plenty of new players, all whose stats pretty much laughed at my previous squad. I always have a heart vs head dilema in that a player will do brilliant in a season and then i get promoted and get a better player to replace them.
I FEEL LIKE MAN CITY
But it seems to be working so who am i to complain.
I originally set my self the target of progressing to the premiership in 3 seasons, however 11 games into the season i am sat in 3rd(although joint points with another 4). so maybe, just maybe this wont be such a longshot after all.
Star Signings:
Im currently only a few months into the season, but already my stars are showing through.
Scott Parker - The captain of staines, who would have thought it ay, very stong in the middle and doing my team well.
Hunt and Pogatetz, more experienced players who are performing very well indeed.
Kevin Friesenbichler, this chelsea youngster is proving invaluable to my team. 13 games, 8 goals and 6 assists. Need i say any more? This is the closest to a complete star striker i have had so far. Got him for the season as well.
HENRI LANSBURY The arsenal youngster chose me over coventry, blackpool, burnley, Sheffield united and even West Ham. and so far he is deadly.
Below is my pride and joy of my pretty useless scouts so far, an italian regen who hopefully will turn into a decent premiership midfielder. I have him sitting alongside parker, so hoping he will blossom nicely.
He is in no way amazing, like some of the ones ive seen on here but for Staines Town i am happy. Opinions??
UPDATE 2 -- 24/12/10
So the Championship went alot better than I had anticipated. Getting some good free signings at the start of the season really did make the difference. Ill get onto talking about these in a bit, but for now, lets have a look at how the table finished.
Luckily i had managed to establish myself in a good enough position approaching the last 6 games of the season, as these did not go well. A 4-1 defeat to top of the league Forest, led to 2 draws 1 win and 2 losses. One of these i was winning 3-2 and lost 6-3 after letting in 3 goals on 88/91/93 minutes. So a poor end to the season, really has got me thinking about the challange ahead of me for the premiership. Im really hoping for some good released players and also a transfer kity of 1.5million plus.
My cup progress was still not fantastic but a little improved on future seasons,
Fa Cup - 3-1 defeat to Leicster in 3rd round. Very dissapointing here.
League Cup - Lost 1-0 to Liverpool in Quater Final
Star Signings:
Steven Hunt - 22 assists and 10 goals. He was a very good performer for me, however, as a life long Chelsea fan, i dont like him in real life for obvious reasons. So i will be cashing in on him during the summer.
Pogatetz - Performed very solidly at the back and filled in at left back when needed, His end of season injury was one of the reasons I went downhill towards the end.
Andy Johnson(Regen) - Managed to get this guy on loan in january and he got me 15 goals in 14 games, this includes a 5 game goal drought, so this is one of the reasons i achieved so well.
Marco Cirillo (Regen) - This guy has also gone on to train and improve very well, suffered an injury that saw him out for over a month, but was a rock in the middle.
HENRI LANSBURY Continued to impress throughout the season, starting 9/10 of the plays that lead to a goal.
My next update will be after i finish the summer period, showing my transfers and new team layout. When I start off the unthinkable of Staines Town challanging for the premiership title Avoiding relegation more like...
Cheers for reading.
UPDATE 3 -- 29/12/10
Premiership
So i have recently been promoted to the English top division, achieving back to back promotions since BSS, has been quite an achievement, even outdoing what i thought was possible with Staines. Although each year has come at the price of near enough stripping my entire team and relying on decent free transfers.
Now that ive reached the top i feel i can start establishing a team worthy to take on Europe. As each year i will aim to bring in 1-3 players who will stay put in my team for a fair few years. Therefore each year i can strengthen different aspects and the team will hopefully gel together easier than recent seasons
Anyway with promotion came alot of really great things, to an extent of wealth unseen or unthinkable for my southern minions.
Yes, you are reading correctly, Zlatan Ibrahimovic(Zoltz is my nickname for him) is playing for Staines. 13k a week was all it took to secure him.
Fair enough he is aging, and not too speedy, but his technical skills are still amazing, and with the pairing of my regen, im hoping they will do me well this season. So far so good anyway, as including preseason he is on 14 goals from 11games.
So i spent a total of 9.7million, and this was on two regens, one was the man city youngster who basically got me promoted after he joined on loan, and the other looks quite promising. I've also decided to show my regen whos been with me for the past 2 seasons, and he too is developing nicely and his value is consistantly rising =]
Andy Johnson (Profile_ Attributes).png
Sergio Segovia (Profile_ Attributes).png
Marco Cirillo (Profile_ Attributes).png
Still despite these signings and the addition of Burdisso and Patrice Evra, I feel Nigel DeJong is the real steal of the transfers.
He's only just turned 30, so another 3 seasons for him possibly, and hes just the type of ball winning midfielder i needed.
Tactics
With the new signings, my current formation and way of playing needed to be edited in order to firstly account for 2 strikers, and secondly work out a way to have my best players in the favoured positions. This is what im currently working on, but injuries to Patrice Evra, and Zoltz is proving annoying.
Staines Town (Staines_ Tactics).png
Table
Preseason went amazing, with a 2-2 draw to a strong Liverpool and some 8-0 and 11-0 thrashings of some lower teams, I was hoping this would be a sign of good things to come.
Well as expected this league was not going to be a walk in the park, 3 opening defeats, and 3 draws, with only 1 win against west ham, have left me just sitting above the relegation zone. My aim for the season is around the 10th position mark, or mid table.
Although a good 0-0 draw with Arsenal the problem i seem to be facing (not including injuries to my defence) is the amount of penalites i seem to give away. I gathered due to the more skillfull players, my defenders are lunging in and giving away silly fouls.
Anyway i shall keep you updated, and im hoping for an extended transfer budget in january to hopefully scout a solid regen defender.
As always thanks for reading, and if you do be sure to post as it keeps me motivated. =]
Having made Brentford World beaters on fm10, (albiet with a "little" 100million transfer kity to start) i was adamant to play this one through, legit and take my local team Staines Town as far as they could go.
The Story So Far..
First things first,
- I will not be using any editors of any sort,
- I will not be adding extra funds or managers,
- I will restart if 2 injuries occur in one match,
- I will be saving alot(Its a habbit that i cant break out of, i study computer science, saving every 5-10 minutes seems to occur subconsciously)
So my first season with staines, and as could be expected, i was predicted lower end of the table, and some players needed to come in.(and by some i mean a whole new squad)
The problem with Staines is firstly, they arent even a proffesional club, secondly they have no funds available and a very very small wage budget.
The maximum i could offer a player was £300 per week, and alot of my current players were on that with others being able to be bought in with much better stats.
Star Signings:
Fofana and Buari were played as inside forwards in a 4-2-3-1 formation, and were great together.
Dean Sinclair and Matthew Wells, where my rocks in the middle, and Wells scored the best hat-trick ive seen on his debut, 3 cracking goals all from well outside the area, and all from different parts of the pitch.
Louis Emanuel and Ben Hoskin were also solid wingbacks,
JAMES ASHMORE, this man played in the attacking midfield spot, and bagged plenty of goals, plenty of assists and 9times out of 10, he was the man creating the goals. I fully recommend him for lower league teams.
I finished the season top of the pack, with my first trophy underbelt.
However, i failed to make any real progress in the cups.
Somehow despite massively overachieving, I didnt win the manager of the year, or the overachiever of the year, despite being shortlisted for both.
Blue Square Premier
Up into the highest division my club has ever seen(yes, i found this funny too) and im already being remarked as a club legend.
A few more transfers were needed, but mainly offloading players who i felt didnt have a future at the club, mainly in order to free up a wage budget.
With a wage budget allowing £500 per week, i knew i had expanded my market massively.
Star signings:
Gareth williams - This guy came in managed to push wells and sinclair out of their starting position, leading to the 3 of them being alternated.
Ahmed Said - My leading scorer, and left koroma in dust, managed to bag me 20 goals for the season, which is what i was hoping for.
CHEICK TOURE - This is so far my best signing, got him on a free, he was only 19, and was an absolute rock at the back, and even got a few corner goals aswell. This guy was unbelievable in this division.
The season went better than imagined and I finished top of the league for a second consecutive season, I was beggining to wonder how far these boys could go, although i knew they would be well out of their depth in league two (my pre season friendlies showed me this)
Again i underperformed in the cups, which is something i was keen to work on next season.
Again i was nominated for manager of the year, and finished runner up... The awards where even on my birthday but no sympathy vote i guess.
League Two
This is where i really felt like good things where happening for staines, Big news happened... Yes we became a Proffesional club, no more part time players, this was the real thing from here.
A few new transfers was needed, as each division i progressed through, more and more players were interested in listening to contract offers, still no transfer budget, and not much of a change in terms of wages either.
Star signings:
Jasinki and Chalwe were solid at the back, and with Toure, my 3 centre backs where able to rotate and always had atleast one on full fitness prior to each game.
Nikola Saric, despite the female name
this guy was great, he pushed Ashmore back into centre mid and him buari and fofana, made for a great attacking midfield.Andy van der meyde - although he didnt really make an impact on the season, this was my first "real" signing of quality, in that he was a premiership and top league player for his career, and just having his name in the squad seemed to give a morale boost to the fans and youngsters.
RYAN TUNNICLIFFE, managed to get him on loan in the january window, and he turned my season around, i was drifting in and out of the play offs, but once he arrived, i managed to establish myself comfortably in them, and promotion had gone from a dream to a possible reality.
And yes it happened..stealing second place and automatic promotion on the last game of the season, the WestSideIsTheBest boys had done the unthinkable.
The praise i was getting was a super boost for the ego, and i had even gone from unproven to Local as my manager status.
This season i finally got what i felt i deserved and that was the desired Manager of the year award. =]
Oh and for my cup runs i did amazingly, I won the johnsons paint trophy, won the FA Trophy and even won the League Cup with an 8-0 win against chelsea in the final.
.
.
.
.
.
I joke, i sucked again, progressing two rounds in each and getting knocked out again. However, my league success was making me happy.
League One
I remember from Brentford this was a hard league to win, there is a lot bigger teams, with a lot of high calibre players and extensive transfer and wage budgets in comparrison to little Staines Town. So i knew getting some free transfers in the summer would be essential.
I would like to mention, although i release alot of my players to clubs for a fee of £0, i always attatch atleast a 20% of next sale incase they manage to flog them on, i get a bit of cash for it =]
The sad moment when your favourite player has to leave
Every year i had higher teams praising my players, and i knew eventually it would come to them leaving. Toure was the first to go when an offer for £200,000 came through, which was £60k above his value, i had a feeling this would be the end of toure in a staines shirt. I haggled with the club and once they agreed a fee of £600k this was too good to turn down.
One player had single handidly took my club into the positive figures of finance.
I still dub this moment the mini Ronaldo to Madrid factor.
Star Signings
Sergi Gomez on loan from spurs was immense, with an average rating of 7.60 across the season, i was gutted to not be able to extend the loan again.
Bahoken upfront replaced Said also banging in 20 goals through the season,
Morrison replaced Buari who was out of his depth in this league, and Ihou did the same for fofana.
ELDIN HADZIC a rating of 7.21, 15 goals, 7 assists this man was my new Toure, that player that made me happy when he scored. My second bosnian and this one definately didnt fail to impress.
The season went better than expected and i managed to bag myself a play off spot, winning in an intense final against bristol rovers 2-0. The lads had achieved promotion to the championship and this is where i figured they would probably stay,
Championship
This is where things got scary. During the end of league one my club had a takeover, and there were managers lined up for my job. Managers with higher qualifications than myself, and i really did think my game with staines was finished. However, they kept me on to which i was relieved and happy i could continue to progress.
I managed to bring in plenty of new players, all whose stats pretty much laughed at my previous squad. I always have a heart vs head dilema in that a player will do brilliant in a season and then i get promoted and get a better player to replace them.
I FEEL LIKE MAN CITY
But it seems to be working so who am i to complain.
I originally set my self the target of progressing to the premiership in 3 seasons, however 11 games into the season i am sat in 3rd(although joint points with another 4). so maybe, just maybe this wont be such a longshot after all.
Star Signings:
Im currently only a few months into the season, but already my stars are showing through.
Scott Parker - The captain of staines, who would have thought it ay, very stong in the middle and doing my team well.
Hunt and Pogatetz, more experienced players who are performing very well indeed.
Kevin Friesenbichler, this chelsea youngster is proving invaluable to my team. 13 games, 8 goals and 6 assists. Need i say any more? This is the closest to a complete star striker i have had so far. Got him for the season as well.
HENRI LANSBURY The arsenal youngster chose me over coventry, blackpool, burnley, Sheffield united and even West Ham. and so far he is deadly.
Below is my pride and joy of my pretty useless scouts so far, an italian regen who hopefully will turn into a decent premiership midfielder. I have him sitting alongside parker, so hoping he will blossom nicely.
He is in no way amazing, like some of the ones ive seen on here but for Staines Town i am happy. Opinions??
UPDATE 2 -- 24/12/10
So the Championship went alot better than I had anticipated. Getting some good free signings at the start of the season really did make the difference. Ill get onto talking about these in a bit, but for now, lets have a look at how the table finished.
Luckily i had managed to establish myself in a good enough position approaching the last 6 games of the season, as these did not go well. A 4-1 defeat to top of the league Forest, led to 2 draws 1 win and 2 losses. One of these i was winning 3-2 and lost 6-3 after letting in 3 goals on 88/91/93 minutes. So a poor end to the season, really has got me thinking about the challange ahead of me for the premiership. Im really hoping for some good released players and also a transfer kity of 1.5million plus.
My cup progress was still not fantastic but a little improved on future seasons,
Fa Cup - 3-1 defeat to Leicster in 3rd round. Very dissapointing here.
League Cup - Lost 1-0 to Liverpool in Quater Final
Star Signings:
Steven Hunt - 22 assists and 10 goals. He was a very good performer for me, however, as a life long Chelsea fan, i dont like him in real life for obvious reasons. So i will be cashing in on him during the summer.
Pogatetz - Performed very solidly at the back and filled in at left back when needed, His end of season injury was one of the reasons I went downhill towards the end.
Andy Johnson(Regen) - Managed to get this guy on loan in january and he got me 15 goals in 14 games, this includes a 5 game goal drought, so this is one of the reasons i achieved so well.
Marco Cirillo (Regen) - This guy has also gone on to train and improve very well, suffered an injury that saw him out for over a month, but was a rock in the middle.
HENRI LANSBURY Continued to impress throughout the season, starting 9/10 of the plays that lead to a goal.
My next update will be after i finish the summer period, showing my transfers and new team layout. When I start off the unthinkable of Staines Town challanging for the premiership title
Avoiding relegation more like...Cheers for reading.
UPDATE 3 -- 29/12/10
Premiership
So i have recently been promoted to the English top division, achieving back to back promotions since BSS, has been quite an achievement, even outdoing what i thought was possible with Staines. Although each year has come at the price of near enough stripping my entire team and relying on decent free transfers.
Now that ive reached the top i feel i can start establishing a team worthy to take on Europe. As each year i will aim to bring in 1-3 players who will stay put in my team for a fair few years. Therefore each year i can strengthen different aspects and the team will hopefully gel together easier than recent seasons
Anyway with promotion came alot of really great things, to an extent of wealth unseen or unthinkable for my southern minions.
- First things first our stadium is having 10,000 seats added. Considering over the past seasons our attendance has been between 98-100% average this is something that will hopefully bring in plenty more income.
- While this is taking place i am ground sharing with Charlton which isnt ideal but its a bigger stadium and more money is coming my way.
- Wage Budget has been doubled =] Yes i now have a budget of 150k, which means i can offer the top star players around 15k a week, which massively opened up doors for new players.
- Transfer Budget of 14million. This shocked me completely. I was hoping for 1million or maybe 2 at a push.
Yes, you are reading correctly, Zlatan Ibrahimovic(Zoltz is my nickname for him) is playing for Staines. 13k a week was all it took to secure him.
Fair enough he is aging, and not too speedy, but his technical skills are still amazing, and with the pairing of my regen, im hoping they will do me well this season. So far so good anyway, as including preseason he is on 14 goals from 11games.
So i spent a total of 9.7million, and this was on two regens, one was the man city youngster who basically got me promoted after he joined on loan, and the other looks quite promising. I've also decided to show my regen whos been with me for the past 2 seasons, and he too is developing nicely and his value is consistantly rising =]
Andy Johnson (Profile_ Attributes).png
Sergio Segovia (Profile_ Attributes).png
Marco Cirillo (Profile_ Attributes).png
Still despite these signings and the addition of Burdisso and Patrice Evra, I feel Nigel DeJong is the real steal of the transfers.
He's only just turned 30, so another 3 seasons for him possibly, and hes just the type of ball winning midfielder i needed.
Tactics
With the new signings, my current formation and way of playing needed to be edited in order to firstly account for 2 strikers, and secondly work out a way to have my best players in the favoured positions. This is what im currently working on, but injuries to Patrice Evra, and Zoltz is proving annoying.
Staines Town (Staines_ Tactics).png
Table
Preseason went amazing, with a 2-2 draw to a strong Liverpool and some 8-0 and 11-0 thrashings of some lower teams, I was hoping this would be a sign of good things to come.
Well as expected this league was not going to be a walk in the park, 3 opening defeats, and 3 draws, with only 1 win against west ham, have left me just sitting above the relegation zone. My aim for the season is around the 10th position mark, or mid table.
Although a good 0-0 draw with Arsenal the problem i seem to be facing (not including injuries to my defence) is the amount of penalites i seem to give away. I gathered due to the more skillfull players, my defenders are lunging in and giving away silly fouls.
Anyway i shall keep you updated, and im hoping for an extended transfer budget in january to hopefully scout a solid regen defender.
As always thanks for reading, and if you do be sure to post as it keeps me motivated. =]
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