***The Official Football Manager Thread***

[ImTellinTim]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

Having been to Iceland and having seen the size of many of the towns outside of Reykjavik and Akureyri, I'll never understand how the country can support five levels of football. Also, Sunday Sunday is fantastic.

Pretty sure half of the clubs in the top division are from Reykjavik.

It looks like the lowest level is also only 2 years old. Probably made up of some youth teams of the top clubs. I'm guessing the recent success of the national team is a big reason for the increase.

[rsnomar05]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

Well, this is a first. I had a player fail to show up for training. Not because he is unsettled or is unhappy, but because he stayed out too late and, presumably, got wasted.

The two messages I got were:

"Saidi failed to report to training today after being spotted by Paparazzi leaving a nightclub in the early hours of this morning."

And

"Saidi failed to meet up with the team after having been seen out on the town the night before."

I must have accidentally signed Bendtner and asked Bendtner to Tutor Saidi.

I've never seen that be the reason for a player failing to show up for training, but this just shows that SI truly does think of almost everything.

Edit: Hilarious. I fined him 2 weeks wages, and he is shocked at the fine and feels it was unfair.

[Suntan Superman]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

So after moderate success with the US, I parlayed the job into a gig with Arsenal, having sacked both Ernesto Valverde and Julen Lopetegui after Wenger left, we're on the fringe of being a middling team in England, finishing a paltry 7th in the league and qualifying for Europa only on the heels of losing the FA Cup to QPR, this is a team in need of a slight makeover.

Awkwardly, the very first thing that happens when I get there is Laurent Koscielny decides he's having trouble adjusting to England after arriving from Lorient in 2010, these must have been the most awkward nine years of his life.

This followed by stalwarts Santi Cazorla and Per Mertesacker retiring, not surprised as neither had much to offer the club, so I wasn't taken aback by it at all.

Then out of nowhere, Julen Lopetegui gets the Juventus job, and starts out by bidding on SIX of my players. All of them want Champions League Football, so I oblige, plus it allows me to makeover the squad. I bring in Martin Odegaard from Juventus for Manolo Gabbiadini as part of the deals. I pick up a bunch of kids to hopefully groom, plus they're all young enough to be homegrown in 3 years. We beat Sunderland 4-1 in our first friendly, so now it's time to see what this mix off vets and kids can do. Board only want me to qualify for Europa League again, so it shouldn't be difficult. Looking to end yet another cup drought at Arsenal as well.

[rsnomar05]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

I got a very generous WC draw:

[rsnomar05]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

I easily won my CL group, crushing Leverkusen 8-1 in the final match. I posted earlier that my biggest problem with the 4-2-4 formation I was employing was the fact that I concede more goals than I would like. Well, now that I have four great defenders and a better GK, my defensive problems have vanished. My squad has conceded the fewest goals in Serie A and the goals are flowing (which was the formation's selling point). So midway through December I'm leading the league by 5 points.

But since things are going so well, the FM Gods will probably injure my entire team, send me on a ten match losing streak, and get me fired for daring to be optimistic. My 2nd, 3rd, and 4th string GKs are currently injured, so I'm an injury to my starting GK away from being in crisis mode. Please don't hurt me, FM Gods!

[ImTellinTim]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

I also figured out the right combination of roles and defenders for the system. Finished season 3 last night and will get around to posting a recap next time I'm in front of the game.

Quick highlights - Won the EPL while scoring the most and conceding the least. Won the Europa League with a 9-0-0 record after finishing 3rd in our CL group, including going through Man City and PSG. Our first league loss at Anfield (to Huddersfield!!). We still haven't beaten Man U in any competition in 3 seasons - they have some kind of cheat code against me.

[Bezzey]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

After finishing 3rd in my first season with Sevilla I have decided to blowup and try to rebuild the team with some youngsters. Here are my moves so far



Add those to my first season moves



This might end up being a disaster in the end but I'm going to roll with it

[rsnomar05]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

What do I get for winning my CL group? A matchup with Bayern Munich in the first knockout stages. Ugh.

[The GIGGAS]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

I've got a quick question. I just took the post for USA Under 23s, as a supplement to my post at Charleston Battery, and I've never done any national team management. Does anyone have any tips or anything?

[ImTellinTim]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

Not sure if you know or not, but the U23 is only for the Olympics then the job goes away. In the U23, you can have 3 over-age players in your squad.

Other than that, there really isn't anything different. The one thing I do when I first get an international job is do a search to make sure all the best players are in the national pool.

You can also find the guys that are eligible but from other countries and try to convince them to play for you. Though that doesn't really apply when you're just the Olympic coach.

[The GIGGAS]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

Not sure if you know or not, but the U23 is only for the Olympics then the job goes away. In the U23, you can have 3 over-age players in your squad.

Other than that, there really isn't anything different. The one thing I do when I first get an international job is do a search to make sure all the best players are in the national pool.

You can also find the guys that are eligible but from other countries and try to convince them to play for you. Though that doesn't really apply when you're just the Olympic coach.

I knew that the job disappeared, that was partially the reason I took it (although for this one, it's definitely the Copa America, as we were put into a group with Brazil, Bolivia, and Colombia, and Mexico's U23 team is in a different group). I've just never played as an international coach and I'm trying to deal with not having scouts and some of the other things that are different.

[ImTellinTim]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

I didn't think about the new scouting stuff and finding new players to add to the national pool...that could be annoying.

I haven't had an international job on this version yet.

Which Copa America year is that, and do you have a U23 team for it because there's a Gold Cup the same summer?

[The GIGGAS]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

I didn't think about the new scouting stuff and finding new players to add to the national pool...that could be annoying.

I haven't had an international job on this version yet.

Which Copa America year is that, and do you have a U23 team for it because there's a Gold Cup the same summer?

2023. Yes, there's a Gold Cup in 2023 as well.

[ImTellinTim]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

OK, Season 3 Recap time.

A successful season with the League and Europa double.



The league was basically wrapped up with 4 matches left, and we dropped some points playing the B team so the top team was rested for the Europa semis and final.

Stats


EPL Team of the Year


Reserves


Awards
World Player of the Year (2016 Calendar Year) - Mario Balotelli
Ballon d'Or (2016 Calendar Year) - Mario Balotelli 3rd place
Manager of the Year - Me
FWA Footballer of the Year - Mario Balotelli
EPL Golden Glove - Bernd Leno (17 Clean Sheets)
UEFA Best Player in Europe - Mario Balotelli


FA Cup


Man U cheat code.

CL/Europa




Transfers In


Transfers Out

Also, season long loans out with fees were Divock Origi, Luis Alberto, Andre Wisdom, and Jordon Ibe

Things got a bit crazy in the January window. Emre Can forced a move to Bayern and Man City decided to activate Sterling's crazy release clause that he insisted on having when I signed him to a long term deal. Sterling's first goal for City came against us shortly after the transfer, but we won the match.

Manager Movement


I think we're pretty set on first team players, so the transfer policy for the next season will be bringing in promising youngsters.

EDIT: Annnnd, David Moyes has taken the vacant Everton job.

[NoDakHusker]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

Well, the Grindavik board lost patience with me when I failed to make any noise in the pre-season cup(which they said doesn't matter to them). I got the sack in March, 2016. No chance to redeem myself in league play. Oh well, their loss.

A few days passed and Bangor City from the Welsh Premier hit me up. I interviewed and they offered me the job. I delayed responding to the offer just to see what else was available.

Cambridge in League 2 was about as good as I could get with my resume. They interviewed me, but didn't offer me the job. So, I took the Bangor City spot. 4 games left in the season, in the relegation zone by just 1 point. Let's do this.