Division English Premier Division (14th season)
Season 2036/2037
Finish 3rd

For my expectations, this was an abysmal season that was only rescued by the sole fact taht we beat Newcastle 4-0 in the last game of the season to ensure we didn't have to risk the Champions League qualification.

We were repeatedly destroyed by injuries, the midfield suffered in particular, we had both my first choice AMC's out for long periods, caused mostly by a terrible sequences of events for our 2nd choice AMC, who had his leg broken in the first match in pre-season, came back, signed a new contract, and broke his leg 3 days later. Instead of being in the prime of his career at 28 years old, he's lost an entire star value of CA and has been transfer listed.

We won the Community Shield on penalties after a 0-0 draw in regulation time.

The League Cup was a horrible draw for us, first Manchester United who we beat 3-2, then Chelsea who creamed us 3-0.

We made a long run in the FA Cup, beating Harrow, Sunderland, Newcastle and Wycombe without conceding, only to fall to 1st placed in the Championship side Cardiff, 2-2 after extra time then missing 3 out of 4 penalties to lose 1-3 in the shootout. 25 shots to 9, 5 clear cut chances to 0. Summed our season up really.

In the league we never got a really clear run of form, we'd draw or lose random games, there was a mid-season slump of 4 games in 5 that we drew or lost, and our back 3rd was abysmal, last 9 games were 4 losses, 2 draws and 3 wins, none of which were back to back. That final game against Newcastle we had to win and even then we needed our GD to rise back to 3rd on the final day.

The transfer market was quite kind to us, I accidentally said to one of my key central midfielders that "I'll find him a new club" when he told me he wanted a new challenge, Barca offered £40 million so I took it. I sold our 3rd choice CB for £15 million, our shit 4th choice fullback for £4.6, a crap young ST for £5.75 and a crap DM for £3.3m.

I brought in a replacement DRL for £3.4 who has performed admirably, 3.5CA from Karpaty because of his nice cheap release clause. The reinforcement in central midfield of our 18 year old brazilian 2CA 4PA was very welcome, £10.25m, and of course he tore his calf muscle in his 10th game and missed the end of the season.

I have arranged three incoming free transfers. A replacement AMC from Real Madrid, a DR who will allow our utility DM/CM/DRL to stay as utility midfield, and another keeper which will mean I'll likely try to sell one of our existing three keepers. I'm chasing a good CB on a free transfer from Brazil, but Man City want him as well, hopefully I can get to him before they do.

I'm going to re-do my tactics again as well. I also need to sign a new Assistant, as my current assistant is retiring.

I've sorted out my scouting network once again, focusing on key areas that actually produce players instead of regions that produce nothing at all, and decided to cut down to 13 or so scouts by natural attrition, although contracts expire in 3 years so it'll take time. Also doing the same to the physios (going to 4), and the training is being looked at to ensure that's as good as it can be. Still some oddities, like trying to get a regular coach who trains my keepers to re-sign as a keeping coach, won't sign on as a keeping coach, for giggles I offered him a £535,000 raise, but he still refuses. Congratulations, your desire for a title has cost you oh, 2 million pounds over the next 4 years. I bet your wife would love that. :nono:

Finances are at £21 million, which is £7 million less than last season where I got the Chairman to throw his own money in. The only difference is this year that extra cash to keep us in the black came from selling players. So if you've got a rich chairman, it's definitely preferable to let him take care of things, front load transfers and back load all your transfer income.

I easily qualified in first for Argentina in the WCQ, and we play the World Cup itself in the off-season.

Season   League Position  
2012/13   BSS     18th    
2013/14   BSS     11th  
2014/15   BSS     2nd      Lost in play-off final.
2015/16   BSS     7th    
2016/17   BSS     4th      Promoted via play-offs.
2017/18   BSP     3rd      Lost in play-off semi-final.
2018/19   BSP     1st      Won League Title
2019/20   L2      1st      Won League Title, FA Cup 4th Round
2020/21   L1      11th     JPT Winner  
2021/22   L1      1st      League Cup Runner Up, Won League Title
2022/23   CHP     17th    
2023/24   CHP     2nd      Promoted via League Position
2024/25   EPL     9th        
2025/26   EPL     8th      FA Cup Runner Up
2026/27   EPL     7th
2027/28   EPL     4th
2028/29   EPL     3rd      Champions League Runner Up. FA Cup Semi-Final.
2029/30   EPL     4th
2030/31   EPL     4th      FA Cup Winner, League Cup Winner, CL Runner Up
2031/32   EPL     1st      League Winner, League Cup Winner, CL Runner Up.
2032/33   EPL     1st      League Winner, FA Cup Winner, CL Runner Up.
2033/34   EPL     3rd      Challenge Complete, CL Winner.
2034/35   EPL     3rd      CL Winner. FA Cup Winner. LC Winner. CWC Winner.
2035/36   EPL     1st      League Winner, FA Cup Winner, LC Winner. CWC Winner. Euro Super Cup Winner. CL Runner-Up.
2036/37   EPL     1st      League Winner, FA Cup Winner, LC Winner.
2037/38   EPL     3rd      

Unbelievable. Fucking City came in for the CB 2 weeks before the 6 month contract period was up, offered 20 million and beat my huge offer. Ridiculous.

They gave him £9.25 a year (175k a week), £17k app fee as well. Insanity.

Then again, my highest paid players are my keeper on 360k a week and my DR on 180k a week.

WC didn't start well. We got beat 1-0 by the Mexico after an own goal, while they were down to 10 men.

Dominated the shit out of them, no-one stuck the ball away.

[youtube]J4x05Z3MSkQ[/youtube]

Our WC was just fucked up by my striker.

We cleared the Group Stage, beat Serbia and Saudi Arabia to qualify first. We beat Russia 4-2 before going up against England.

12 minutes in and we're so much better it's like they aren't even on the pitch. 60% possession, 6 shots to 0, they've got a big loss coming for sure.

Then in the 13th minute my striker, with the ball in the possession, just outside the penalty box with no danger of a break or anything like that, makes a scything two footed lunge from behind and gets red carded.

From that moment on England dominate us, we make only 2 more shots on target the entire game. No matter what changes I make our lack of a player kills any chance of holding the ball or getting it back off them and they finally put us out of our misery in the 91st minute.

Absolutely gutted. One fucking player just wrecked our World Cup campaign, three years in the making.

Probably get sacked.

Edited by macktheknife: 20/1/2013 04:00:47 AM

So close!

I love the 50% of next sale clause buy-outs.

Sold a DRL to Madrid for £4.6 million with a 50% of next sale clause.

He's been sent on loan to Monaco for the season, 33 apps 6.6 avr. Back to Madrid, hasn't played a game all season. He's only worth £2.6 million now.

Buy-out option just came up. I get £5.97 million for it. :lol:

I always forget to add that clause when I'm selling players.

I'm starting to get pissed off at the team talks. I'll ask the assistant to give the talk and he'll motivate 10 players and upset 1 and that 1 player will complain to the media bout the team talk which I apparently gave...um...no?

I've never understood the issue with team-talks people have.

It's not a huge deal. But it'd be good if the game actually differentiated between a talk that I gave and one that I didn't. Getting accused of upsetting your players when you're not is pretty annoying.

Think it is time for a clean-out. Going to improve the squad, clean out some of the older guys and players who aren't as good.

Have 4 guys transfer listed, another 2 that I'm going to keep until their contracts expire, an ST who is this year and DM who is next year.

Looking to get a new AM, DM & ST at minimum. Probably another CB as well.

Edited by macktheknife: 21/1/2013 04:16:33 AM

Reina says he wants a new challenge. So the plan is to sell Reina and pick up Sergio Romero on a free transfer as back-up to ter Stegen.

Can't wait for that plan to get fucked up somehow.

Well that escalated quickly. As always, money values are in £

In the space of a couple weeks at the end of November I've arranged the following outgoing transfers in the January window:
3rd choice AMR - 2.5ca, bought him for 24m 2 years ago, didn't progress and hasn't performed. Out for 4.5m + 50% next sale to Madrid.
2nd choice GK - In on a free, out 6 years later for for 10m + 50% next sale to Fiorentina.
2nd choice AMC after being replaced by new AMC - Cost 2.3m 10 years ago, out for 19.5m + 50% next sale to Barca.
2nd choice AML/ST - In for 1.7m, out 6 years later for 18.25m + 50% next sale to Valencia.
33 year old 1st choice DM - Cost 8.75m 11 years ago, out for 10m + 50% next sale to City.

Incoming:
Hottest striking talent in England, 21 year old from Wycombe to replace my current 1st choice ST. I made a bid of 35 million and got rejected, he got mad in the media so I got him for 25 million. 3.5 star CA and 4 star PA.
19 year old Brazilian AMC - 3.5s CA, 22m + 2.5 after 50 goals + 20% profit from Anderlecht.
18 year old Argentine DM/MC - 1.5CA but 3.5CA and good deep playmaker stats, 3m + friendly from championship side Liverpool.

I might need to find another AMLR perhaps to increase my depth there, and a 4th CB could come in handy as right now I've only got 2 proper CB's, one young CB as 4th choice and my 3rd choice is actually my first choice DLP.

Possibly the most boring matchday of all time:

Wolves 1-2 Man City
Villa 0-0 Newcastle
Everton 0-0 Brighton
Fulham 0-0 Arsenal
QPR 0-0 Chelsea
Southampton 1-0 Swansea
Tottenham 0-0 Norwich
Liverpool 1-0 West Brom
Burnley 0-1 Wigan
Man Utd 1-1 Stoke

Just made it out of the worst part of my injury crisis...take on Celtic in my last champions league group game and James Chester injures three of my strikers. No card, nothing. Fucking pissed.

New striker scores 30 seconds into debut. \:d/ \:d/

And a brace after 16 minutes. :cool:

New AMC comes on as sub, scores as well. \:d/

6-0 over Huddersfield. Could have been 10, my new striker should've had 5. :lol:

Edited by macktheknife: 21/1/2013 07:40:24 PM

8 minutes in against Everton in the FA Cup our CB gets hurt. While play is running move DM to CB and sub CB for sub DM. Watch play continue. DM gets hurt, sits on his ass inside the penalty box and plays their striker miles on side and they score. Has to be subbed off as well. ffs.

Also, my 33 year old ST that I'm not going to renew was wanted by City, and offered 3.5m for him.

Rejected their contract. [-( Which means the last 6 months of his contract will cost me 7 million.

FUCK OFF.

My AMR just got hurt in the same fucking game. They are supposed to be our feeder team. Fuck this, I'm cancelling it once the game is over.

I've already lost my first choice CB and MC's for 4 months.

DM out for 6 weeks. ](*,)

Edited by macktheknife: 21/1/2013 09:49:18 PM

Game 1 of 4: Mooy breaks his cheekbone. Out for 4 weeks.
Game 2: Nichols breaks his jaw. Out for 6 weeks.
Game 3: Brazilian RB breaks his foot. Out for 4 months.
Game 4: Kantarovski tears his hamstring. Out for 3 months.

Decided to finish up the transfer window with one final signing, 22 ST/AMRL. 2.5CA now. 3.5PA. £19.25m. Also bringing in a bunch of cover loans.

I think a CB is going to be priority #1 next season.

Edited by macktheknife: 21/1/2013 10:03:56 PM

Debating whether I should attempt to sell Suarez. He's 28 and on 100k/week, which is ridiculous when he's inconsistent as.

2012-13 he scored 40 in 52
2013-14 he scored 13 in 40
2014-15 he scored 11 in 29
2015-16 he has 2 from 5 and it's early december.

First game after kanta was injured, Griffiths picked up a 3 week injury... 5 games in a row one of my starting 11 has been injured...

How much can you get for him and when does his contract run out?

He has 18 months left on his contract and he's worth 13.25m.

Sell him.

In my first season I conceded 33 goals.
In my second season I conceded 24 goals.
In my third season I conceded 21 goals until ter Stegen arrived in January and then 7 after.
This season I'm 14 games in and I've conceded just 3 goals.

If I don't sell this DM I'm going to rename him Zadkovic. He just will not stop shooting from range. I'm hoping maybe that if he can learn the 'looks for pass rather than shot' PPM might help and I'll try again to have him forget the shoots from distance PPM.



Last three for me have been 26, 28, 26. After 26 games this season we've conceded 10, 3 of which game in a 5-3 game against Bristol City of all teams.

Yeah, our opening 9 games of the season were clean sheets. It was pretty awesome.

Turns out Alba, Otamendi, Bocchetti, Walker and ter Stegen makes a pretty formidable defence.

Steven Gerrard's just hit a shocking patch of form though. His last 4 games have been 6.2, 6.4, 5.6 and 4.7.

Just got a 3 and a half star potential ST AML in our youth intake. Australian/English. There was a 2.5 star PA guy as well, also Australian. Only a couple other players worth signing up.

Fuck Gareth Bale is infuriating. Even more so now that he's at United in my save. He's playing LB, collects the ball in his own box, takes the ball past six defenders and scores. #-o

FM13 right? That'd be dribbling. One of the reasons I fucked off FM13.

Have the first leg of our CL Quarter vs Anderlecht (our feeder!).

I have:
* My two first 11 central defenders out injured.
* The 'backup' central defender who normally plays as first choice DM is also injured.
* My 'backup backup' central defender, who is my first choice right back but can play central defender is 70% condition and 'yellow injured.'
* My first choice left winger is out.
* My first choice CM as well.
* My 34 year old striker as well.

My second choice AMC is ineligible as is my new AMRL/ST, so I have 8 players unavailable and a 9th who is coming back from a groin strain and can't play.

So who do I pick to play CB? The 35 year old MC who I got on loan as cover, for his first appearance of the year. Out of position.

In another example of the number 9, I have 9 wonderkids in the first team squad now. \:d/

This new striker is amazing. Damn I wish I got that 7 million worth of reduced salary and transfer fee as well. Ah well.

FFS. We were cruising at 2-0, after half-time they have pulled back to 2-2. It's that fucking narrow 4-2-3-1, it's just so overpowered with the 6 midfielders right up on the goal line while your defenders wait on the flanks where none of them are.

3-2. Ed Davis (that's the strikers name) hat-trick. 22 goals from 18 games. Incredible.

FFS. Lost my unbeaten season to fucking Charlton. 80 minutes of being dominated for no apparent reason, before they stick two past us because of shitty defending.

Edited by macktheknife: 22/1/2013 03:52:27 AM

Guess who I just lost the Champions League semi-final to again. ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,)

After a 2-1 home win, they came out like Brazil, immediately smashed one past us to go ahead on away goals.

Spent the entire rest of the match clawing back the advantage after changing our tactics back to stop their domination, but we just couldn't score, with several ridiculous misses, one where my young striker shot, had his shot saved, then missed the open goal rebound. ](*,) ](*,)

Won the League as well as the FA Cup still.

Edited by macktheknife: 22/1/2013 05:54:52 AM

Haha. Last game of the season, play the youth team because there's nothing to play for, except my soon to be gone all time goal and appearance leading 34 year old striker. We go down 3-0 early. But after second half we pick up and drag it back to 2-3, is it a miracle finsh, the fairtale ending?

No, the striker runs after the ball from a defensive corner and scythes down an opposing player from behind and gets sent off. :lol:

Division English Premier Division (15th season)
Season 2038/2039
Finish 1st

World Cup with Argentina: Our campaign was destroyed when my striker got himself sent off against England in the Quarter Final when we were utterly dominant until that red card midway through the first half. It turned the match on it's head and England went through with a late goal, when I was expecting to make the final at the very least. Resigned shortly afterwards, not going to do much international management again. Maybe if the Spain job comes up I'll take it on but probably not.

We won the league and were back on top of the pile once again after a near-complete rebuild of my first team squad in the January transfer window.

We stayed first from the opening day with only 4 weeks in 2nd during the middle of the season due to fixture buildup, comfortably accounting for Arsenal in 2nd, United in 3rd and Chelsea in 4th with several games to spare. We went undefeated in the league until the 6th last game of the season where we lost 2-0 at home to Charlton.

The League Cup was a failure once more, a 2-1 loss to Arsenal in the 4th round after we beat Liverpool 2-0 in the 3rd round.

There were a number of injuries once again but it was nothing like the previous years crisis. The worst it got was 4 out of the 5 players who could actually play in central defence being out for our Quarter Final CL against Anderlecht forcing me to play an on-loan central midfielder at the back due to a complete lack of players for that match.

CL Group stage was Olympiakos, Inter and HSV, we ended up qualifying second after drawing with Inter twice and drawing once with HSF in the middle along with beating them once and Olympiakos in both their matches. We lost 1-0 to Roma in the first leg of the Knock-Out but came back strongly to win 3-2 on aggregate with an away win in the 2nd leg. Our feeder club Anderlecht awaited us in the quarters but were no threat, they went down 5-2 on aggregate.

Once again we faced our nemesis in Real Madrid. After fighting back in the first leg at home for a 2-1 win I thought we were finally going to break the hoodoo, but our team allowed Madrid to dominate very early and they scored a goal after only 10 minutes that had us down on the away goals rule. After making a number of tactical switches and changes we clawed our way back into the match but our shooting was poor and we couldn't find a winner.

We brushed off our disappointment to contest the FA Cup against Championship side Luton Town a week later. We'd beaten Brighton, Everton, Stoke, Leicester and Arsenal (6-1 thrashing) to get us to the final. A comfortable 1-0 win saw us loft the trophy for the 6th time.

The new tactical shape was brilliant. We conceded only 23 goals in the entire season, 7 of which came after we had won the title and I played a youth team, while scoring 91 for a GD of +68. A measure of how defensively good this tactic is was that at Christmas we'd only conceded three goals in the league.

Despite being on top at Christmas I decided to freshen up the team. We had a lot of older players coming to the end of their useful lifetimes as well as many that weren't good enough to stay. I sold 5 of our first squad players for a total of £62.25 million and brought in £69.25 million. We secured the major signing of Ed Davis, a 21 year old striker from Wycombe to replace Graham Howson who is being released at the age of 34. After tapping him up in the media I was able to get him angry at having a bid rejected, Wycombe quickly surrendered him for the cut-price cost of £25 million when they'd wanted £50m+. After scoring 26 goals in the 27 games he played in the second half of the season he's already gone up in value to £29 million.

I'm looking to get another central defender and central midfielder. I've got a free transfer goalkeeper coming in mostly to stop other clubs getting him, which will be interesting seeing as we already have 1 world class keeper and 2 very promising young keepers. Might have to sell one of them.

The Chairman injected £22.5 million to help with running cost and we stand at £32.5 million balance. There is one player I might try to move on, he's got hurt this season and his stats have dropped across the board. 27 years old but has 4 more years on his contract. Worth £20.5 so I might be able to get £40 or £50 million out of someone. I gained a very hot prospect in his position in our youth intake so I might just move on with the new kid.

Season   League Position  
2012/13   BSS     18th    
2013/14   BSS     11th  
2014/15   BSS     2nd      Lost in play-off final.
2015/16   BSS     7th    
2016/17   BSS     4th      Promoted via play-offs.
2017/18   BSP     3rd      Lost in play-off semi-final.
2018/19   BSP     1st      Won League Title
2019/20   L2      1st      Won League Title, FA Cup 4th Round
2020/21   L1      11th     JPT Winner  
2021/22   L1      1st      League Cup Runner Up, Won League Title
2022/23   CHP     17th    
2023/24   CHP     2nd      Promoted via League Position
2024/25   EPL     9th        
2025/26   EPL     8th      FA Cup Runner Up
2026/27   EPL     7th
2027/28   EPL     4th
2028/29   EPL     3rd      Champions League Runner Up. FA Cup Semi-Final.
2029/30   EPL     4th
2030/31   EPL     4th      FA Cup Winner, League Cup Winner, CL Runner Up
2031/32   EPL     1st      EPL, League Cup Winner, CL Runner Up.
2032/33   EPL     1st      EPL Winner, FA Cup Winner, CL Runner Up.
2033/34   EPL     3rd      Challenge Complete, CL Winner.
2034/35   EPL     3rd      CL Winner. FA Cup Winner. LC Winner. CWC Winner.
2035/36   EPL     1st      EPL Winner, FA Cup Winner, LC Winner. CWC Winner. Euro Super Cup Winner. CL Runner-Up.
2036/37   EPL     1st      EPL Winner, FA Cup Winner, LC Winner.
2037/38   EPL     3rd      
2038/39   EPL     1st      EPL Winner, FA Cup Winner.