***The Official Football Manager Thread***

[rsnomar05]

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

Yep, I used to just let my assistant pick my team for friendlies. I started off in division C



I got Ashley Barnes to play for Austria and he's been amazing for me. 27 goals in 33 CAPs. Qualified for Euros and have Turkey, Russia, and Croatia in my group.

Those were some kind group draws. I would love to have Serbia and Iceland instead of Italy and Switzerland. Now let's hope you can pull of the upset and win the whole thing!

[NoDakHusker]

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

Couldn't really get into my most recent career save, might start a new one up soon with a more interesting team. I got bored and simmed until 2026 to see how things turn out. At this point, most of the players are regens.

Here's a summary of various happenings of the world in 2026:

Spoiler

*Zlatan has had a bit of a rough coaching career...sacked repeatedly after taking over mid season for Norwich, QPR and CP who all were relegated. Then sacked mid-season in his 2 most recent stints. Poor Zlatan.


*John Terry is coaching Fulham and keeping them afloat in the BPL. Tim Howard is goalkeeping coach there as well.

*Hull is now a consistent top 5 BPL team and is worth over $1.5 billion. Checking their history, they had a tycoon take over the club in 2019. In the 2025/2026 season they finished 2nd in the league and made it to the last 8 in the Champions League.

*Arsenal have made the CL final three times and lost each time, including once to Tottenham. Yes, that's right: Tottenham.

*Argentina, France and Germany have won the World Cup.

*The US is now ranked 61st in the world and missed the last WC. Their best player is some regen playing for Real Madrid, but looks like the NT has seen quite a dip in talent overall.

*Ronaldo retired at 40 years old, finishing the last couple of years of his career at AC Milan. He netted 486 career goals.
Messi retired at 37, spending the final 3 years of his career at Manchester City and had 420 career goals.

*12 Champions League finals have been played. English teams lead with 7 wins(Chelsea x3, Man U x2, Man City, Tottenham), Italy has 3 winners(Juve x2, Inter), Germany and Russia each have 1(Dortmund and CSKA Moscow).

That's about it for anything interesting. Dortmund and Bayern dominate Germany. Barca and RM still dominate Spain. You get the point.

[rsnomar05]

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

My B Team dominated this match:

[Suntan Superman]

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



Won the Capital One Cup, performed admirably in the premier league with the only shock losses away to soton and away to west ham, otherwise all losses came from above me in the table. the team really started jelling, and playing wonderfully near the end, now I just have to survive ucl teams poaching my players and i'll be really happy.

i signed luka jovic from red star for £8m and signed Yedlin on a permanent transfer for £1m in january, i have kurt zouma joining up in the summer from psg for a whopping £5m + £4m in incentives.

even better news as the board has purchased the stadium, upgraded the youth and training facilities AND the youth category. i'm actually quite excited to move forward with hull city.

[jb12780]

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

Won the Capital One Cup, performed admirably in the premier league with the only shock losses away to soton and away to west ham, otherwise all losses came from above me in the table. the team really started jelling, and playing wonderfully near the end, now I just have to survive ucl teams poaching my players and i'll be really happy.

i signed luka jovic from red star for £8m and signed Yedlin on a permanent transfer for £1m in january, i have kurt zouma joining up in the summer from psg for a whopping £5m + £4m in incentives.

even better news as the board has purchased the stadium, upgraded the youth and training facilities AND the youth category. i'm actually quite excited to move forward with hull city.

Did Spuds get lost or something? What are they doing up there?

[rsnomar05]

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

Beat Italy on the road in a tense, nervy affair that vaulted us to the top of our Nations League group. With just one match left, if I draw or beat the Swiss, I win the group.

[rsnomar05]

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

With a 4-0 win over a surprisingly lifeless Swiss side, I have won the group. And apparently that has confounded critics, who were sure I would struggle mightily in the competition. Um....hello! I just won the World Cup! This shouldn't be "confounding."

[jasontoddwhitt]

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

I always hate when I forget that an agent tacked on a very low Minimum Fee Release Clause to a contract and then I lose said player.

Good luck at QPR Sergey Kundik, who I lost for a measley $1.1M. SMH

2012-13: 8app, 3gls, 6.96 rating
2013-14: 22app, 5gls, 7asts, 3PoM, 7.24 rating
2014-15: 39app, 23gls, 6asts, 5PoM, 7.49 rating
2015-16: 38app, 10gls, 9asts, 4PoM, 7.14 rating
2016-17: 35app, 7gls, 3asts, 6.92 rating

But that's okay, I just signed Daniel Sturridge on a free after he fell out of a favor at Liverpool. Mostly signed him because I'm hoping I get a big year out of him and a BPL team swoops in and gives a high dollar bid for him. Kind of like I did with Davide Petrucci (bought him for $325k from ManU. Sold him for $6M to a LaLiga club).

And in his debut, he notched a goal and an assist.

I think I may actually challenge Celtic for the title this season.

[jasontoddwhitt]

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

Second straight season I got knocked out of the Best Placed Playoff in the Champions League. Last season, it was Arsenal beating me 3-2 on aggregate. This season, we got FC Porto.

The interesting thing is that Jose Mourinho, after winning the Premier League with Man United, decided to go back home and take the Porto job.

We got thrashed 6-2 on aggregate.

Into Europa Group stage. Last season, I won my group and made it to the second knockout round before getting thrashed by eventual champion Chelsea.

Another tough group for me. Let's go.

[studbucket]

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

I always hate when I forget that an agent tacked on a very low Minimum Fee Release Clause to a contract and then I lose said player.

That's the worst. It usually happens to me when I've been playing too long and just absent-mindedly go through the contracts.

[Suntan Superman]

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

Happy(but still sad) to hear I'm not the only one who sometimes overlooks/forgets things on contracts.

Coming into December and this season has blown all expectations at Hull, our depth is showing in my ability to rotate and not lose a significant amount of talent. I know it's a video game, but it feels like there was a huge culture change around the club and I love it, we're strong in centrebacks with Erik Sviatchenko, Balanta, Kurt Zouma and Chris Smalling rotating. Yedlin/Lichaj and Robertson/Boilesen make up the right and left fullback rotations. Lichaj has been a revelation this year after being largely inconsequential last year. Huddlestone/Livermore/Youri Tielemans/Yohan Cabaye make up the midfield and have been very strong all year, Livermore has been the worst of the bunch, and that's not saying much. Ince/Tariq/Gnabry/Bellloni/Bakkali/Robbie Brady make up my attacking midfielders. Bakkali is out for some time so Gnabry has been starting on loan from Arsenal(hoping to sign him permanently soon). Luka Jovic has full-on replaced Jelavic as main striker, and Jelavic is set to leave in January or at the end of the year.

We're sitting 2nd in the Premier League on 27 points through 13 games, 1st in our Europa Group(CSKA Moscow, Sparta Praha, Zilina) and in the QF of the Capital One Cup again facing Bournemouth.

I'm just waiting for reality to set in, I suspect we'll likely finish around 5th or 6th this year.

[Suntan Superman]

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

Reality Check... critical failure

[rsnomar05]

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

Just pulled out a massive win against Juventus. We went into the match tied on points, and the first tiebreaker is head-to-head, so this could wind up being a huge result. I would have gotten the clean sheet, if Stones hadn't decided to put the ball into his own net.

[rsnomar05]

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

Happy(but still sad) to hear I'm not the only one who sometimes overlooks/forgets things on contracts.

Coming into December and this season has blown all expectations at Hull, our depth is showing in my ability to rotate and not lose a significant amount of talent. I know it's a video game, but it feels like there was a huge culture change around the club and I love it, we're strong in centrebacks with Erik Sviatchenko, Balanta, Kurt Zouma and Chris Smalling rotating. Yedlin/Lichaj and Robertson/Boilesen make up the right and left fullback rotations. Lichaj has been a revelation this year after being largely inconsequential last year. Huddlestone/Livermore/Youri Tielemans/Yohan Cabaye make up the midfield and have been very strong all year, Livermore has been the worst of the bunch, and that's not saying much. Ince/Tariq/Gnabry/Bellloni/Bakkali/Robbie Brady make up my attacking midfielders. Bakkali is out for some time so Gnabry has been starting on loan from Arsenal(hoping to sign him permanently soon). Luka Jovic has full-on replaced Jelavic as main striker, and Jelavic is set to leave in January or at the end of the year.

We're sitting 2nd in the Premier League on 27 points through 13 games, 1st in our Europa Group(CSKA Moscow, Sparta Praha, Zilina) and in the QF of the Capital One Cup again facing Bournemouth.

I'm just waiting for reality to set in, I suspect we'll likely finish around 5th or 6th this year.

That's a really solid squad, but I wouldn't rely too much on Tariq. He's been an injury machine for me.

[Suntan Superman]

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

I'd like to think the squad got even more solid in January, Jelavic went back to Everton for £1.2 and I splashed a little cash forking over £10m for Stephan El Shaarawy, and £10m for Gerard Deulofeu. I have a full-on two good squads I can play at any given time.

Tariq hasn't been injury prone for me.... yet. He's been average-amazing.