FM 2009 Season Update Thread

Congratulations on being the first one to be fired Stuboy.

 

thank god i outlasted stuboy though to be honest its not looking great for me either

i sold demerit for 3.5mill to bolton sold williamson to swansea for 650k and let mart poom go on a free as he was taking too much of the wage budget. i also got rid of rasiak an sent a bunch of players out on loan.

i got bobby convey i from reading for 2 mill david prutton from leeds for 110k and keiran mckenna from spurs cost me 85k for a season long loan with the option to buy.

i got daryl murphy (aml/st) and darren ward (gk) from sunderland, dorian dervite(cb) from spurs and ronald huth(cb) from liverpool all on season long loans

i also got seyfo soley a cb/dm/cm in on a free to provide general cover and zsolt laczko a lm in on a free to prove proper cover on tht wing

also sadler sold for 1.5mill in january to sheff utd

thinking i had a pretty strong side i went into the season with confidence only to find that my strikers are absolutely useless murphy my top scorer so far with 9 goals in 26 starts! awful

so im now 35 games in sitting in 16th having scored 36 and let in 44 goals i have 43 points were 510k in the read mark ashton is in charge of the club and ive pretty much lost the dressing room considering resigning rather than letting cashton sack me have brought in james beattie on a 3 month loan in the hope he knows what a goal looks like but all in all im screwed

 

Having taken charge of St.Albans the board set a target of staying clear of relegation in the conference south, a target i thought was very achievable and duely agreed with their target and thus my budget was set at £0K to spend and a wage budget which was already being exceeded. This wage budget was later cut right down and it's now well under after some contract re-negotiations and players willing to take a pay cut.

Pre-season went very well after what appeared to be two astute signings in Liam Harwood[CB] (£0 from Bristol Rovers) and Spencer Weir-Daley[CF] (£0 from Notts County). The fans creamed themselves over the latter but he hasn't lived up to the hype and has made more sub appearances than starts and scoring just 4 goals. Harwood has been the most impressive with a average rating of 7.05.

All 5 friendlies were won with aplomb scoring 18 goals in the process with promising signs coming out with the league season ahead of us. The league campaign started somewhat frustratingly as I lost the opening 3 games 1-0 but 2 1-0 wins for the Saints had things moving by the end of August.

September started with a 1st round tie in the conference cup, a weakened side was put out and despite a decent showing we bowed out 1-0, needless to say i wasn't fussed in the slightest. The 3 league games that month produced just two points and then a disspointing draw in the FA Cup, 0-0 at home to Tiverton who are a league below.

During September i'd managed to get Watford as my parent club and Theo Robinson and Jonathan North were snapped up on season long loan deals, Lionel Ainsworth, Ross Jenkins and Lewis Young all joined on 3 month loan deals in October and the first two then extended their deals until the end of the season. Despite hitting 13 goals in 18 games Young rejected the chance to stay

October began with FA Cup progression thanks to a 4-1 hammering of Tiverton in the 2nd QR replay, 4 points from 4 league games in the month including a 3-1 win over AFC Wimbledon meant we were hovering around the bottom 3. More FA Cup progression was to follow as Hitchin were beaten 2-1 in the 3rdQR to set up a tie against non-league giants Oxford in the last qualifying round.

As you'd expect being the home side Oxford dominated but the two sides went in at 0-0, Oxford showed their class going 2-0 up with just under 20 minutes to go. An inspired change at HT proved to be their undoing, in his first appearance Lewis Young pulled a goal back on 82 minutes and then sparked scenes of delight as he forced a replay in the 92nd minute. 4 days later he was on the scoresheet again along with Weir-Daley as 2 goals in ET meant a fine cup shock for St.Albans.

Results in the league picked up in November as we went unbeaten gaining 4 wins and two draws as the loanees showed their worth, the draw for the 1st Round proper of the FA Cup presented us with a very tought tie away at Millwall. I was just hoping for a decent showing so when Theo Robinson put us ahead on 25 minutes we were in dreamland, not for long as they were level 15 mins later from the spot. Disaster struck with 12 minutes to go as we were reduced to ten men but then the unthinkable happened, a routine backpass was collected by their keeper who punted the ball straight at Robinson and it comically looped into the net with just 1 minute of normal time remaining. 6 added minutes ensued and sure enough Millwall broke City hearts on 93 minutes with an equaliser. We went on to lost the replay 2-0 at home. Dissapointment on the FA Trophy front going out in the 3rd QR, but hey we can concentrate on the league.

7 points from 4 games in December meant our steady rise up the league continued as we pulled clear of the strugglers. Young and Robinson hit all 9 January goals between them as we picked up 3 wins from 5 and progression into the top half which the bookies/media certainly hadn't seen coming.

Liam Henderson has joined for 3 months to replace Young and February is off to a winning start and i'm sitting pretty in 9th just 3 points off the play-offs after 28 games and we're the top scorers in the league.

Come on The Saints!

 

well my victory over stuboy was short lived as 2 games later i have been sacked a fairly credible 2-2 draw at home to bristol city was followed by a 3-1 thrashing away to blackpool which was obviously the last straw and so my career with watford has ended expectations where too high and i now begin my search for a new job though i may just start a new game we'll see what crops up

 

What month?

 

was sacked on the 7th of march


gunna start a new game play as stoke try and keep them in the prem and take a lower league job when i get bored ease into this one after my awful job as watford manager

 

Well I've gone on holiday and it's now the end of the season and I've only been offered the Kettering Town job which I turned down, I think that was a mistake! It might be time to start up a new game. I might just wait a little longer though......

 

............I've resurfaced at Bedford Town, newly promoted into the Blue Square North, with no money, no players and no staff, so I have to build them from the bottom up, a tough challenge and truly the proving fields!

4 games into the season I'm 9th having won 2, drawn 1 and lost 1. Not bad. I need to get them into the football league and use it as a stepping stone to greater things.

 

They must have had some real Southerly teams coming up to have Bedford in the BSN !

 

Yeah that's what I thought, the close proximity to Luton unnerved me slightly.

Anyway since my last post we've managed to lose our next 8 games in a row, and I'm just now fed up with being a failure so have retired from football. Am I the first to retire from the game on these boards?!

Now I need a brand new challenge and I'd like some suggestions from people on here as I'm stuck, and this has the potential to make me lose interest in the game, so help!

 

QPR in Championship, build a team with a good budget and survive?

 

Epic fail.

I'd suggest one of the sides with a points deduction for a challenge!

 

has anyone lasted a season as watford yet? i got sacked in december i just couldnt score a goal! i tried all different formations and tactics and nothing worked.
i've got another game as spurs which is going okay into my 4th season with them but got a completely new team having sold all the orignal team over the last few seasons.

but back to watford , i will donate all my 'orns to the person who can get watford promoted and show me proof!

 

I've started up a new game with Watford, I thought QPR but my heart wasn't in it. This is my last chance with Watford, fail this and I'll go manage Chelsea or something! I have also tailored the game in the editor slightly to lower the expectations (more realistic I think) and also make sure I have no tansfer budget at all. Lets see how it goes...........................badly I'd expect.

 

Started to do well with watford, ok still in my 1st season but on a 6 game unbeaten run, think I may of found the tactic for the team!

 

A fair move regarding the expectations Stuboy!

 

i tried stoke and qpr but just couldnt get going so i too have returned to watford hopefully will be better second time round

 

And now for an update from seemingly the most succesful manger to take the reems at Watford this season Mind you, this is only the demo!

Top of the league by 4 points. Unbeaten in 16 games. 12 clean sheets in said games with only 6 goals conceded and 37 goals scored. Only loan signings.

 

am i the only one who gets rid of rasiak straight away? much better players out there who you dont have to pay 12,000 a week for

 

Following on from my last installment things couldn't have gone better, February bought 3 wins from 4 games as we moved firmly into the play-off positions in what was a very tight 2nd place to 8th.

March got off to a flyer as we thumped AFC Wimbledon 6-1 as they managed to score to OGs and miss an early penalty, we duely punished and the goals flowed. 2 more wins and a defeat followed as we kept the momentum going into the last 2 months of the season.

What was to follow was something special, losing just 3 of our last 18 league games and winning 14 of them heaped pressure on league leaders Bath whilst holding off the 3 or 4 sides within touching distance below. 12 points was the gap between us in 2nd and Bath at the top, this gap was cut to 4 with 3 games remaining and as Bath won just one of their last 9 games their tricky run-in was their undoing as we claimed top spot with just one game to go which we claimed the required point to seal the title against all odds.

Predicted to struggle at the beggining of the season i went down as a hero amongst the fans and the board claiming manager of the season to go with my two manager of the month awards.

Needless to say i'm dead chuffed :]]

Final Table


Current Summer Transfers

 

Good work mate. I'm considering giving up on my Watford game and going non-league after reading that.

 

In addition to the signings shown above Magnus Okuonghae a CB/DM signed on a free as Jordan Parkes on loan for 2 months after my LB got injured.

Pre-season expectations were to battle bravely against relegation which is what i was expecting given the fact there was only a slight increase in wage budget and no transfer funds at all. Pre-season bought wins over Abingdon Utd, Tottenham Reserves and a draw against Everton reserves. Defeats came at the hands of Watford and then Fulham reserves.

The season started brightly with 2 wins and 2 draws from the first 4 games, 3 of these games were against big sides, York, Mansfield and Cambridge. We then suffered just one defeat in 8 games although just 2 wins came in that spell as we were frustrated by too many draws. However our postion in the top 5 was very pleasing.

Two defeats and a cancelled match saw us slip down the table and we now sit firmly in mid-table(12th) which is more than what was expected. We crashed out of the Conference Cup (i hate this competition) on penalties to BSS side Lewes and we've been drawn away to Oxford in the FA Cup 4thQR.

 

OK this is trying my patience now and I'll explain from the beginning.

Basically back in the day (i.e Championship Manager) both at school and at University I was good at this game. I have had numerous 'epic' games. These include (pre CM4) taking both Inverness Caley Thistle and Clydebank to Champions League glory, in CM4 I took Accrington Stanley up from the Conference to the Champions League. However the Football Manager days have not been so fruitful.

As you may have read, in my first Watford game I was sacked after about 34 games, so I said to myself, have one more go at managing your beloved Watford son, you know you can bring the glory days back. So therefore I did start a new game and lo and behold I got sacked at the same point again, the same pattern happened again. So I though, lets rekindle the 'glory days' and manage Caley Thistle in the SPL. This is what I am doing now, yet despite having some bloody good players of such a small club, quelle surprise I find myself in the shyte again and the pattern is much the same as my two Watford games. i.e get off to a good enough start and then everything goes downhill after approx 6 games.

What the hell am I doing wrong??!! Do I fiddle with the tactics/training too much? Maybe I should stick to the trusted 442? Maybe I should just not fiddle with anything at all? It's just annoying as I can honestly say I have not had an amazingly successful game since Championship Manager became Football Manager (except if you include a Man Utd or Chelsea game, but that doesn't count).

Can anybody out there (and I never thought I'd say this) help me?

 

Only do slight changes to the tactics, don't over complicate things is my advice, play to your players strengths and not how you want to play. Example why have a short passing game if you have players who have no creativity?

 

.....

Our FA Cup campaign ended with that tie at Oxford, a dissapointing 3-1 defeat meant expectations in a 2nd cup competition weren't met, it was soon to be 3.

November bought a mixed bag of results with 2 wins, including revenge over Oxford in a 2-0 win, a draw and a defeat meaning we were sitting nicely just inside the top 10 and in touch with the play-off places.

December/January has bought about a horrible run of draws, 5 draws from 7 games has left me somewhat frustrated at not being able to string some wins together. One was a good away point at Bournemouth but 3 points have been there for the taking. As previously menionted expectations in a 3rd cup competition weren't met as we crashed out to Cambridge in the FA Trophy 1st rnd, once again revenge was served up as 2 weeks later in our next match we grabbed our only win in the last 7 with a 2-1 victory.

2 more players have joined the squad, ex-scummer Ahmet Berkovic signed on a free after a successful trial spell whilst Nathan Jarman was secured for £0 from Grimsby in a bid to add more firepower up front as Theo Robinson is the only one finding the onion bag this season.

27 games into the league campaign and a massive 14 draws, given the fact a relegation battle was expected i'm happy with sitting in mid-table.

 

it seems that one of the worst things to do is buy alot of players in the 1st transfer window especially if they dont speak english as it takes ages for them to fit into the squad.

i'm at work but my most succesful game has been with newcastle, got them to 3rd in the 1st season and in the second season reached the champions league semi final but my domestic form was poor and i finished 9th in the league, nearly at the end of my third season and am doing quite well, i am 3rd with 8 games left and i love it when man city show aninterest in my players cos i bump the price up and they still buy my players
i bought Thiago silva for 4.9 mill in my 1st season and in my 3rd season man city enquired about him and i set a price of 30 mill and they paid it, i also sold them Martins for 24 mill!

my best buys have been thiago Silva before he moved, Pavel porgebnyak, and simon Vukcevic, i loaned Alex song for a couple of seasons and he's been an immense DM.

Current Squad
GK-Akinfeev
dr- Bosingwa
dc-Colocinni
DC-Kompany
DL-enrique/drenthe
DM- Marcelo Mattos/Song/Sankhare
MR-Jonas
ML-N'zogbia
AMC-Vukcevic/Fernandez
st-Porgebnyak/Bendter
st-Alexis sanchez/Jozy Altidore(Loan)

 

14 games into my first season with Histon, thought I'd give it a go. 3rd in the league, after 14 games. Went the first 11 unbeaten including an opening day win at home to Torquay, and a 2nd half come back from 2-0 down to win 4-2 at Mansfield. Howver have lost two since then, and have slipped to third behind Salisbury, and Stevenage.

 

Now 27 games in, and am second, 2 points behind Wrexham. Reached FA Cup First Round, where Northampton got taken to penalties in a replay. I'm in the Conference League Cup Semi-Final against a York City side I've already done the double over in the league. Apart from being knocked out of the FA Trophy in the First Round against a Burton Side that have only lost twice at home all season, and who's star player is loan signing Harry Forrester, it's all looking rosey in my virtual small cambridgeshire village.

 

My 2nd season in charge fizzled out somewhat after we got ourselves involved in the play-off hunt, dreaming of an unlikely promotion to the football league Theo Robinson got ruled out for about 17 of the last 19 games and my 2nd striker Nathan Jarman who was in fine form decided to go on a horrible goal draught, that added to a real mixed bag of results meant we finished in 10th, winning 16, drawing 19 (!!!) and losing 11. Of course if only we'd turned some of those draws into wins we may have made the play-offs but after being tipped for relegation a top 10 finish is very pleasing indeed.

Expectations are somewhat higher this year with consolidation expected whilst in order for a slightly bigger wage budget i told them i thought we can make a top half finish which we are capable of doing.

Both North, Jenkins and Ainsworth all returned to Watford who went down to league one whilst Robinson now has us as a favoured club and is on loan again for the season, all part of the masterplan to sign him permanently :]] Several fringe players who's contracts were up left the club whilst Jamie Guy (CF), Steven Leslie (LM) and Michael Kuipers (GK) have all joined on a free. Ross Jenkins was released by Watford and after much negotiation signed on a free as has Adam Bygrave a CB released by Stockport.

Here's hoping for a good season!

 

I got Histon promoted via the play-offs, beating Woking 5-1 on aggregate then Wrexham 3-2 in the Final. Half way through league two's season I was expected to come 24th, and my aim was to battle bravely against relegation. I took Histon to 1st but dropped to third two points behind leaders Brighton, before Aidy was sacked. It was a tough choice, but when they offered me the job from nowhere, I found it hard to refuse, and have since taken us from 18th, to the brink of th play-offs with 13 games left.

 

Inspired by Chewitt (there's a first time for everything I suppose) I decided in my last attempt for success to take the reigns at St.Albans. Currently after 25 games or so we're defying the critics and are in 5th place in the league. At last some success!! Key has been getting Arsenal as a parent club. I have 4 of their very good youngsters on loan. Plus Watford's own Avrinel (sp) at the back. Managed to make the first round of the F.A. Cup but a surprisingly lackluster display at home to Oxford saw us go out after a 1-0 defeat. We have reached the second round of the Trophy though. Also another key signing has been Paul Harmon a 27 years old (I think he's that old) Irishman from Fairview!!?? One of the benefits of playing with a large database and numerous other countries added (like Ireland) allows you to pick up a few good random players!

So anyway I shall continue on and see if I can keep the good run going!

 

I'm going into Watford in the next few days to purchase fm09, and am planning to 'go on holiday' for a whole season, before starting as a team promoted to BSN/BSS with only regen players, so as to start a team from scratch.

 

I've started a game with Brentford. I've done a few other games and they weren't too successful so I'm hoping for a change in fortunes.

I've not played a league game yet but had a 1-1 draw with Droylsden and a 2-2 draw with Havant and Waterlooville in two friendlies. With a transfer budget of 0k I've had to wheel and deal, and got in a few frees and loan signings. Tommy Black and Darren Powell have come in on frees (the latter got injured for a month in his first training session ), as well as getting Robert Eagle from Norwich and Ronald Huth from Liverpool, both on loan deals. I'm hoping to maybe get 1 or 2 more players in before the transfer deadline.

My first league game is away at Accrington Stanley (Who are they? etc), which I'll hopefully get round to playing after work tonight.

 

after a good start to my second season at watford i was offered the newcastle job i thought long and hard about it before taking it but the chance to build a really young squad of talented english players was too much and i accepted the job.

on acceptance newcastle were lying 15th after 18 games so i immediatly brought in 35million pounds worth of the best young players i could find 13 of them to be precise including getting james vaughan from everton for 10.5 mill and shipped out nzogbia and bassong for 12 million betweeen them... i of course forgot that a brand new squad would take time to gel and results were few and far between after getting newcastle up to a 10th after a five game winning spree things looked good but the results turned the other way we fell back to 13th and a 2-0 loss at home to middlesborough was the final straw and i resigned with 2 games left of the season.

i felt like i needed a break from managing in club football and i took the job managing sweden.

international management is boring as hell though so i needed a small league job to keep me busy so i took the reigns at afc telford.

just promoted to the conference they had no manager! no players! no staff! and no transfer budget!

so with a 2.5k wage budget i set about building a squad 15 players and 13 games later we are sitting 14th in the league ten points clear of the relegation zone and punching well above out weight fingers crossed for the rest of the season but things are looking good