Football Manager - Your Career

Made four loan signings in the transfer window - LB, 2x CM's and an ST and my form picked up, but there was a decent sized gap between me and mid-table so it's taking a while to close.

Got a new one-year deal in the end, probably saved by my FA Trophy win.

Took charge of Colchester United in a new save. Predicted to finish 20th, ended up finishing 1st. The lads tried their very hardest to fuck it up though, cruising until the last 10 or so games where we went from 10 points clear to winning it on the final day.

Now got the horrible experience of somehow trying to keep this squad that went up last season half based off loanees to stay up in the championship. Tiny wage budget with our best played in Callum Harriott (and only LW) going back to his parent club.

21st of July and I've brought in Cuco Martina on loan from Southampton (immense player), Jan Alnwick, Calum Woods, James Craigen, Mathieu Baudry, Marcos Tebar, Darragh Lenihan, Billy Clarke, Caolan Lavery and Frank Moussa. Feeling oddly optimistic about staying up now, a successful transfer window i'd say.

Need help here lads. Am managing in the Russian 2nd tier with a team called Sibir Novisibirsk. At the start of the second season I have 15k spare wage budget, and finances are fine with the club making regular monthly profits. Yet when I try to offer a new signing a contract I can't go above £700 a week. (This is the case whether on key player, first team, rotation etc...). This makes absolutely no sense as I have many players on around 2k. Seems like a flaw in the game to me, or am I missing something blatantly obvious?

Can you ask the board the increase the amount of wage that can be offered? If not sounds like a bad bug.

Techno Natch said:

Can you ask the board the increase the amount of wage that can be offered? If not sounds like a bad bug.

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Nope, doesn't let me mate. Checked rules for the league as well and there's nothing to do with wages allowed. Has ruined the entire save!

Better start to my second season with Lincoln - 7th after 12 games.

18 out, 11 in. Squad still not quite right, but certainly an improvement on last season.

My attempts of not conceding in order to require very few goals is going very well right now. 8 league games without conceding. Sat in 5th right now, 8 points off top of the league Huddersfield, but have 5 (FIVE) games in hand currently.

Aaron-Bcfc said:

Nope, doesn't let me mate. Checked rules for the league as well and there's nothing to do with wages allowed. Has ruined the entire save!

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I read on another forum about a guy who was managing in the Russian second tier, and he mentioned something about wage restrictions. I can't find his post now, but I'm fairly certain he mentioned there being certain restrictions in place, but then if you get promoted the restrictions are relaxed?

Not a great help I realise, but thought I'd share.

Pyeman said:

I read on another forum about a guy who was managing in the Russian second tier, and he mentioned something about wage restrictions. I can't find his post now, but I'm fairly certain he mentioned there being certain restrictions in place, but then if you get promoted the restrictions are relaxed?

Not a great help I realise, but thought I'd share.

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Appreciated mate. I was looking under the league rules for something like this but couldn't find anything. Have raised the issue on the sports interactive forum and they can't think why this would be the case either. Am uploading the save on there so they can take a look at it.

In the Championship now with Colchester in November, couldn't be happier. My objectives wasn't even to stay up in the Championship, it was to just attempt to get out and make an effort.




Very pleased. Recruitment was excellent in the summer, felt that was spot on. Kept within my budget by signing players on maximum 4k a week and a mentality of being teamwork oriented or determined, let go of a lot of dross too like George Elokobi. The board also gave me a giant helping hand by working a surprise feeder deal with Southampton. Jake Hesketh was one a I loaned quite late, about mid October as Billy Clarke was shit (my worst signing so far easily) and the lad is just a class above and helped to drag us out of a little bit of inconsistent and unconvincing form.



Been a little bit of a tinkerman too, played a 5132, 51112, 532, 433, 4231 and a 442 diamond during the season to give us that little bit of an edge on the opposition, and this flexibility has really helped me out in getting that little bit extra from the lads. I tend to switch the formation soley based on what kind of team and what kind of formation the opposition will play. So if they have fast wingers I go for a 4231 with my wingers man marking theirs, but if they are more of a stronger and less quick team I will play wing backs and hurt them like that.

FM is so rewarding when you do well, I fucking love it. When you don't you just want to rip your hair out but when you finally turn it around you feel so good about yourself.

As suspected, the max wage problem I experienced is a flaw in the game and has been passed onto the developers. Probably just an isolated problem either with my save or that team.

19/20 season with 7 games to go

Chelsea - 78 points (32 games played)
Utd - 72 points
Arsenal - 55 (32 games played)

So Champions League almost secured again and the hunt for Chelsea is on considering earlier in the season they were 11 points ahead and cruising.

Harry Kane has been in insane form this season, 43 in 47 games and that's given he's slowed down over the last 15 games or so. Sold Gotze and bought Pogba in January.

End of the season finished on 89 points, 2 behind Chelsea. Man City in 3rd on 69 points, talk about a two horse race Harry Kane finished on 51 goals (in 54 games) for the season including new Manchester United and premier league record for goals scored in a season. The team of the season had 6 Utd players too including the whole back 4 despite the fact I had the 4th best defensive record and Chelsea conceded 10 less Player of the year award for Memphis again breaking the 30 goal mark for me and 22 year old Brazilian right back (regen) Caetano got young players' player.

I'm managing Chorley at the moment. I signed a promising left back on loan from Man Utd back when I was in the Championship and he was 18. Since then I have renewed the loan each year, and with the game going on and on, time has flown by and he's suddenly 31 and never ever played for Man Utd, his parent club.



I'm debating whether or not to sign him again. He's not been first choice for about 9 years, but loaning him every year has allowed me to just have by one first choice left back (signed aged 16 about the same time so he soon overtook Ivanov) and never have to sign another left back. Back then I was not even paying any of his wages, whereas now I am expected to cover his £140k a week wages plus pay another £250k per month - which is close to £10m per season for a loanee that isn't first choice and at 31 is already starting to decline.

On the flip side, I have the money in the bank that won't be spent on anything else, and I can't be arsed to sign anyone else. Plus I can't imagine not having him around. He's spent the last 6 years at least unhappy, because he only plays when my first choice is injured or knackered, yet stills signs on again every season and Man Utd always let me, even though we are nearly always the best two sides in the league and I have beaten them to league, cup and CL titles. On various FMs I have had players that have spent 2-3 seasons on loan and helped me grow, but I think 13 loan spells is a new record.

Edit: I actually remember seeing him available for loan as a 17 year old and turning him down despite a high scout rating because he didn't look good enough for the Championship, otherwise it could be 14 loan spells.

Gulliball said:

I'm managing Chorley at the moment. I signed a promising left back on loan from Man Utd back when I was in the Championship and he was 18. Since then I have renewed the loan each year, and with the game going on and on, time has flown by and he's suddenly 31 and never ever played for Man Utd, his parent club.

I'm debating whether or not to sign him again. He's not been first choice for about 9 years, but loaning him every year has allowed me to just have by one first choice left back (signed aged 16 about the same time so he soon overtook Ivanov) and never have to sign another left back. Back then I was not even paying any of his wages, whereas now I am expected to cover his £140k a week wages plus pay another £250k per month - which is close to £10m per season for a loanee that isn't first choice and at 31 is already starting to decline.

On the flip side, I have the money in the bank that won't be spent on anything else, and I can't be arsed to sign anyone else. Plus I can't imagine not having him around. He's spent the last 6 years at least unhappy, because he only plays when my first choice is injured or knackered, yet stills signs on again every season and Man Utd always let me, even though we are nearly always the best two sides in the league and I have beaten them to league, cup and CL titles. On various FMs I have had players that have spent 2-3 seasons on loan and helped me grow, but I think 13 loan spells is a new record.

Edit: I actually remember seeing him available for loan as a 17 year old and turning him down despite a high scout rating because he didn't look good enough for the Championship, otherwise it could be 14 loan spells.

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Is that this year's version? If so that's pretty impressive to have taken Chorley so high so quickly.

2015 still.

That was far easier than expected.... Up until February I'd only lost 3 games, genuinely very rarely had an easier season, my wages were mid table and I spent £63k and made £1million back 11 players over the season came in on frees, and I had 4 loans, one of which played 2 games, got injured for a couple of months and I sent him back. My keeper won the Golden Glove (Garratt still), Adil Nabi my main striker for the season finished joint 2nd in the golden boot with 24 goals in 45 games, he scored 30 in 56(1) all season, fantastic return really considering we're a defensive side, as you can see from only 35 goals scored.

My Europa League campaign wasn't fantastic though.


As for the other cups, we fell at the first hurdle, League Cup 3rd round we lost to Man United 4-2 at home, and FA Cup 3rd round we lost to Premier League Notts Forest 1-0 at home (completely undeserved I might add....)

Onto the Premier League and I'm still working on free transfers mainly, though obviously I've spent a little bit. A total of £4.5million so far, I have signed 15 players though, 10 of which were free including my biggest coup so far I think, van der Wiel signed for us! Largest fee was £2.3million on Ki Sung-Yeung. Only made back £170k so far in transfers, not for want of bloody trying mind you! 15 players have left, 14 on free transfers. Only 2 days left of the transfer window too so I shan't be doing much more business I wouldn't have thought. As for the start to the campaign, it started away to Stoke with a 0-0 draw, we hosted Forest next and got our revenge in a 1-0 victory, next up came Barnet in the cup, resulting in a 1-0 victory again. My improvements to the defence seem to be paying off as the team has stood up to two established Premier League sides so far.

Survival and a cup run is the aim for the season.

Think I'm going to start my Lincoln save again.

3½ seasons in and this formation, for whatever reason, isn't going to get me above mid-table by the looks of it (not at National League level, anyway). Attribute wise, my side is good enough but if I change my formation now, then I've not really got the players and it'll take a couple of seasons to get rid of the ones I've got signed up with the current formation in mind.

Just not sure what formation to go with. Half tempted by a 3-5-2, because that's one that I've wanted to create but 4-1-3-2/4-1-2-3 has always worked for me so I've never bothered with it.

I can remember on an old CM, I had a successful one with 3 CB's and 2 DM's but can't for the life of me remember how I set-up further up the pitch.

Had a remarkable 3 seasons with FC United of Manc, i'll just give a quick overview of each season

2015/16
Finished 6th in the Conference North, just short of the playoffs by a point. Don't remember a lot about this season by now. Got beat narrowly by Swindon in the 2nd round of FA Cup. Good signings included Aaron Chapman from Chesterfield, Ryan Brobbel, Edison from Peterborough North Star and Batis Cande who is a brilliant target man at that level.

2016/17
Was given a £150k budget for the North Conference which was strange. However my attendances meant I had a lot more money than the other clubs. Sought out Dayle Southwell from Boston for £8k which was a bargain for the amount of goals he scores. Later on in the season I sought out some young released football league talent...Dimiao from Sheff Utd, Maher from Bolton, and it worked. Won the play-off final vs Brackley 1-0. Southwell 31 in 38.

2017/18
Was given £350k for my Conference Premier first season. Was astounded. Signed some Premier League castoffs, Kristian Scott, Oliver Rathbone, Jindrach Stanek, on frees. Got a lad called Medhi Leacock-McLeod, formerly of Wolves, from Stockport for £7k. Winger. Ended up scoring 20 in 48 for me, only scored 4 in the Conf North the season before for Stockport! Mid-season I picked up Jeffrey Monakana from Bury for £7k, ridiculous talent for the league. Ended up loitering round the playoffs all season, beat Barrow in the semis (they has Ishmael Miller on £1.800 a week) and then Grimsby in the final. The football league awaits (and a £850k transfer budget)

I've just beaten Barcelona, followed by thrashing Arsenal 4-2, my two biggest results of the season. Then FM crashed.

FUCK beans.

Still on FM15, finished 2nd with Real Betis to get them promoted back to La Liga and then finished 3rd in my first season up there. Easy.

Direct 3-5-2 working a treat.

Jorge Molina and Danny Ings were a quality strike pairing, scoring around 45 between them but I've sold Ings to Liverpool for £8.5m, a year after signing him on a free.

GK: Antonio Adan, Pedro
WB: Javier Manquillo (loan), Francisco Molinero, Alex Martinez, Francisco Varela
CB: Jason Denayer (Free), Hector Rodas, Bruno, Jordi Figueras, Edgar Ie (Free)
CM: Marcel Buchel (£400k), Reinhold Yabo (Free), Stephan Furstner (Free), Javier Matilla
AM: Pedro Ramirez (£2.5m), Alvaro Cejudo
ST: Jorge Molina, Cheick Diarra (£3.5m), Alessandro Matri (Loan)

Thought I'd give an update on my Farsley career. After leading them to the Conference North I forced into building a squad that wasn't good enough due to money and my clubs small reputation. But even after doing this I was still surviving in the league....just.. I was 17th and about 5 points clear from the relegation zone at the turn of the year when I thought what might be good news, I was wrong.

Our Chairman announced his intention to sell and a buyer was found and my hopes were rising I might have some decent investment to improve my squad that was until the takeover was complete and they slashed my wage budget meaning I was now over budget so I complained they told me to piss off so I leaked to the press and was sacked.

Now jobless I thought I'd leave it till the end of the season before trying to find a new job but after being bored and with only 3 games left in the season and 2 points off safety I got the job at Chorley now this squad was rather poor bar one player Darren Stephenson who had hit 17 goals for them and was going to be my only chance of survival. Which I did won 2 and drew one which made North Ferriby drop down (even managed to beat Farsley on the final day ). Then started the re-build.

I had a similar sized budget to the one I had at Farsley but with one difference Chorley had a better reputation meaning I could actually bring in some Conference North quality players. Which I did as seen below;


Now unfortunately last seasons hero Darren Stephenson would not sign a contract so I was forced to lose him. But the rest of the transfer business I felt I'd done well. I'd cleared out the players who weren't good enough and replaced them.

Now in this season I am coming to the end of December and my season so far has just been up and down, lets start with the cup competitions. I'm still going strong in the Fa Trophy:
3rd Qualifying Round: Chorley 1-1 Histon
Replay: Histon 1-2 Chorley
1st Round: Bognor 1-3 Chorley
2nd Round: Chorley 3-1 Sutton
3rd Round: Chorley v Southport

The Fa Cup was a big success as well as my results went like this;

2nd Qualifying Round: Gainsborough 1-2 Chorley
3rd Qualifying Round: Chorley 3-3 Hyde
Replay: Hyde 3-3 Chorley (1-4 Pens)
4th Qualifying Round: Chorley 5-0 Cambridge City

Then came my money making draw at home to LG1 Notts County where I lost 2-1 but still made 40K on gate receipts so I was very happy and we didn't embarrass ourselves against a team 3 divisions higher.

Now in the league my aim was to survive with some cup runs which I think I'm going to succeed. As I'm currently 11th just after the halfway point but this is the highest (previously around 14-18th) I've reached and it's all thanks to one loan signing I made a couple of games ago who has changed my team. His name is Peter Yun an 18 year old regen at Accrington. I brought him in cos he was free and my goals were drying up and in the 2 games he's played we've face 3rd placed Worcester where he got an assist in a 4-1 win, then we played 2nd placed Nuneaton where he got 2 goals and an assist in a 3-1 win. And next up I have 1st placed Tamworth and 5th placed Telford. Which is a stupid run of fixtures over the christmas period but I'm already 6 points better off than I thought I would be.

Also you might be wondering what's happened to Farsley since I've left well they survived last season finishing 18th but this season the money just isn't there and they are in 21st and 10 points of safety with a squad I'm not even sure is good enough for the league below. The only reason they aren't bottom is because Royston an even worse team got promotion.

Here are my players stats so far this season;


And yes Luke Jarrom my GK has got 3 goals but he's a great penalty taker he was when I signed him for Farsley and he's carried it on here.

Crewe Alexandria
2019/2020

What an interesting season, could not find consistency in the league at all, yet we still finished 13th after being predicted to finish 19th. Got a decentish return of 42 points over the season and although I finished 13th, we could have still been relegated due to 5 losses in a row before the final day.

In terms of transfers, 20 came in through the course of the season, with 22 going out spent £6.1million and brought back £1.5million.

The top flight is paying off for us however, as we are in the process of upgrading the training and youth facilities, upgrading the youth academy to Category 1, had plans to extend the stadium which I think are still going ahead, but at the end of the season, the board announced that we would be building Gradi Park, a 23,342 capacity stadium, in two seasons. All of which was paid for out of our own budget, a far cry from the days where we had nothing in the bank!

On another note, I have qualified for the Europa League again, due to once again winning the League Cup, this time on penalties against Chelsea. Strangely, we dismantled most everyone we encountered in our League Cup run...

2nd: Barnet 0-1 Crewe
3rd: Rochdale 0-2 Crewe
4th: Crewe 3-0 Huddersfield
Qtr: Crewe 4-1 West Ham
Semi 1st: Crewe 1-1 Tottenham
Semi 2nd: Tottenham 0-4 Crewe
Final: Crewe 0-0 Chelsea (3-2 Pen)

Fantastic first season in the big time. Went out of the FA Cup 1-5 to Man United at home, going in at 5-0 down at half time, we just imploded for some reason.

Still, this was meant to be a journeyman career and Crewe have got me attached the bastards. Looks like the long term aim shall be to make Crewe champions of England and Europe having brought them up from the 4th tier after leading Grimsby back to League 2. If I can do so, it will be the first time I have done so since the 2010 edition bringing Walsall from League 1 to do the same. Forgot how satisfying a save like this is.

It appears my game has fucked up, as we for some reason aren't in the Europa League, this is not due to FFP as we made ridiculously large profits last season... Bastard.

Can't remember where I left off with summarising my Weston Super-Mare save, so I will just give a brief of last season.

Basically, I got promoted. Against all odds admittedly, having the second smallest budget in the league, but it really wasn't great. I was leaking goals left right and centre, and I don't think I persisted with a system for more than about 8 games. I tried 3 at the back, 5 at the back, even 2 at the back with a defensive midfielder and wing backs, none worked. Fortunately enough for me, I had 4 strikers who were absolute gold dust for me, and wingers who could supply the service for the front men.

I scored over 100 goals in 42 games in the league, with 3 of my strikers getting over 25 goals, and the previous seasons top goalscorer for me and the division bagging 15 or so, but he didn't feature that much.



So as you can see, it really wasn't great. I conceded the same amount as goals as Hayes & Yeading, who ended up getting relegated!

Anyway, I signed a new contract and ventured into the conference, despite getting offers from L1 clubs (remarkably, given my lack of coaching badges). I cleared out a hell of a lot of shit, I had far too many average players that I knew wouldn't make an effect in the league above, and with the shoestring wage budget I was given (6k p/w) I couldn't afford to keep them on.

I primarily targeted defensive players, as I was going to stick with the un-orthodox but effective 2-3-2-2-1. Basically, it's 2 centre halves, two wing backs, a very defensive midfielder, two ball winning midfielders sat in front of that, then wingers (as my wing backs aren't really that attacking) and a striker. I still have those 4 strikers at the club, and I've found a way of accommodating 2 or 3 of them into the team if needed, as some of them are naturals in wide areas, as well as upfront.

Anyway, here are my signings and releases:



I appreciate that probably none of you reading have a clue who any of these players are, and to be fair, neither did I. I signed them purely off the scout recommendation. I've heard of Pell, Belford and Lecointe, but none of the others.

Anyway, they've bedded in pretty well. The goals are still flowing fairly regularly, and I seem to have patched up a few holes in the defence. I was told to attempt to try and stay up but the board basically said you don't stand a chance, but I've done alright in fairness, and have picked up some credible results.



Fairly inconsistent and mid-table admittedly, but I'll take that.

My patience is running thin though, I've been requesting to go and do my coaching badges since the day I joined, which was over two seasons ago now, and they still don't have enough to fund them. It's either a stay with Weston and get them as high as possible, or further myself by going onto a bigger club in a higher league, doing my badges and working my way up to the top.

I'll ponder over it and make a decision at the end of the season, dependant on how it goes.

I'll leave you with the league table:

Barnet and Morecambe are having a bad season. Also what happened with Tristan Plummer you released him then 3 days later signed him again?

Harrier94 said:

Barnet and Morecambe are having a bad season. Also what happened with Tristan Plummer you released him then 3 days later signed him again?

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Was a mistake on my part. I thought I had offered him a new deal, and didn't realise I hadn't until he was released, so I resigned him.

Thankfully I did so, he's playing on the left for me and has scored 9 so far!

My time at Weston SM will be coming to an abrupt end near the end of my third season - as another opportunity has presented itself.

I've basically took them as far as I can this season, and there's never the option to further myself there as they won't allow the funds for me to go and do the coaching badges.

My target was to 'fight bravely' against relegation, and for the majority of the season I've been just a few points off the POs, without actually entering them yet. With the lack of quality I had, and the amount of teams between me and the POs, it was never going to happen. I would always go on a decent run, and then never really sustain it to push higher up the table, and I'd lose a few on the bounce. Pretty inconsistent - but for a team run on by far and away the smallest budget on the league, I did alright. 3 or 4 of my better players are wanted by FL clubs as well, which considering I signed them for free and developed them into what they are, is doing well for the club.

Anyway - the Gillingham job presented itself. Their manager went onto bigger things in L1, leaving them manager less in 2nd place in L2, with only 10 games to go or something similar. They have some decent players, so and are financially sound, so I had to take it.

Anyway, promotion shouldn't be too much of a challenge from here, and then onto L1.

Will leave you with the table, and seasons results in my 3rd season at Weston.

Started again with Lincoln on Friday evening and completed one season with a slightly different variation of 4-1-3-2. Finished lower mid-table but drew a lot of games (20 out of 46 I think!). That was down to having my strikers injured all the time and not getting decent runs in the side.

On paper, I've done some good business over the summer and my first XI looks fairly strong. Probably not league winning strong, but a Top 8. Usually strengthen in January with loans so hopefully if I'm doing half decent I can attract players this season!