***The Official Football Manager Thread***

[Zac]

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

Almost an exact repeat of last season.



Last season we were 19-12-11 with 69 points in 5th place.

Expect we lost 7 of our last 10 games this time around, as apposed to coming on strong to end the season last year. We were in control and looking at a 2nd or 3rd place finish. Then it all went wrong. Still not sure what went wrong either. So I fully expect to lose in the first playoff game against Altrincham and have a third season in the VNN. Even if we manage to win it, there is zero chance of us winning the playoffs.

EDIT: As expected we lost 5-2 in the first playoff game. Third year in the VNN it is.

EDIT 2: All staff just got a raise to renew their contracts. Everyone is now on $80-95 a week. Some of you almost walked over the contracts. But everyone stayed in the end.

[Zac]

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

We just bought our first ever player (first time I've ever had a transfer budget, and I spent it all on one player, lol). 7 seasons in. So figured it would be a good time to show the clubs records for the past 6 seasons of its existence.

[jasontoddwhitt]

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


2031-32 Amiens SC Season Overview

Ligue 1: 2nd
Champions League: Group Stage
Europa League: Quarterfinals (Tottenham Hotspur)
French Cup: Semifinals (AS Monaco Football Club)
League Cup: Winner (AS Monaco Football Club)
Top League Goal Scorer: Nacho Varela (20)
Top Overall Goal Scorer: Nacho Varela (31)
Most Assists: Eric Diallo (14)
Highest Attendance: 38,416 vs Lille (Ligue 1)
Lowest Attendance: 32,808 vs Troyes (11th Round French Cup)
Average Attendance: 37,997

What do I do?

That is the question to ponder. Another good year at Amiens. But I'm tired of good years. I'm tired of 'well, you gave them a good run'. I want to win. PSG just won their 12th straight league title and 16th in 19 years (Monaco won three in a row from 2017-2019). We just had our third consecutive second-place finish, and fourth in five years. We did win the League Cup playing our second XI for the third time, but that's not enough for me.

We've built something here. But are cracks beginning to show? We didn't make the knockout stages of the Champions League this year, and the lost revenue really hit the books hard to the tune of a $22M loss in broadcast revenue and an additional $8M lost in prize money. Will we have to sell players? Who knows...though the club was able to withstand that hit and we still have a positive cash flow thanks to the board.

I'm heading into the final year of my contract. The board hasn't initiated contract talks. I'm considered an icon by the fans. Lyon, PSG, and Monaco consider us competitive rivals. That wouldn't have even been dreamed of when I first got here. I feel slighted.

But what do I do? Do I resign? I've not been on anybody's radar since the World Cup debacle with France. Do I coach the year as a lame duck manager? And if the club comes forward with a proposal, do I stay?

Too many questions....not enough answers.

Fans Player of the Season Voting
1. Flavio Nasta (39%)
2. Nazareno Tula (32%)
3. Sebastian Conde (18%)



Captain Flavio Nasta won his fourth consecutive Player of the Season award at Amiens, despite the 29-year-old splitting time at right back with Sebastian Conde. Nasta did make 36 total appearances for Amiens this season, scoring a goal and registering six assists across all competitions. Nasta was named to the Ligue 1 Best XI of the Week four times.

Signing of the Season

In the January signing period, Amiens and Barcelona agreed to the transfer of 24-year-old attacking midfielder Nazareno Tula, continuing the South American tradition at Amiens. Tula was a player that Barca had high hopes for, but his first season in the first XI was a flop after spending years on loan in Spain and Mexico. Tula got lost in the shuffle and Amiens scouts highly recommended him after he was transfer listed. The cost was steep...$14M with futures taking it to nearly $20M.

But Tula made an immediate impact on the Amiens XI. In 27 starts, Tula scored six goals and registered 12 assists across all competitions. The scoring exploits of Varela, Forsberg, and Diallo increased as they started getting better service from the attacking midfield position. He's instantly become our best player and his jersey was the second most popular jersey behind Nacho.

Awards and Such

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lP1KrhxPFHE" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

This lovely little goal by midfielder Massimiliano Cericola (on loan from Roma) secured a 2-1 victory over Monaco early in the season and won Goal of the Month for the month of September. Amiens fans voted it the goal of the year for the club.

Two players were named to the Ligue 1 team of the year. Midfielder Steve Puckett (on loan from Manchester United) made 38 appearances in all competitions, scoring 10 goals and registering 9 assists with an average match rating of 7.36. Central defender Loic Guerin made 52 appearances in all competitions, scoring a goal with an average match rating of 7.28.

Eric Diallo (on loan from Atletico) won the Ligue 1 African Footballer of the Year award. Eric made 53 appearances in all competitions, scoring 22 goals and registering 14 assists with an average match rating of 7.11.

Puckett also won the Ligue 1 Rookie of the Year award, becoming the fourth Amiens player to win the award, joining Danilo Camargo (2031), Martin Koops (2028), and Andreas Ochner (2025).

[Kobalt]

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

A GK who's been a 3rd stringer all year in Vanarama South team signed with Arsenal

[jb12780]

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

My disgust with the real life Arsenal has left me with zero reason to pick up my save.

Might try to go unemployed until the current day and see what comes up.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Suntan Superman]

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

After being uninspired in most other things, I simulated until Steffen Højer was fired from Viborg FF, and begin my yearly save to bring Viborg to the top of Danish Football.

[gopher_guy]

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

Is transferring players TO the MLS a headache? Atlanta has came to me twice now with an offer for one of my CBs. They're willing to pay me pretty handsomely for him, so I really want it to go through, but both times now after the transfer is agreed to, I get a message a couple days later that simply says: "Player X's transfer from Platanias to Atlanta United has been cancelled."

I've seen it before where they can't reach a contract agreement, but the message usually states that. This one just says the deal fell through, and no other info. Is this some MLS weirdness that is causing the deal to fall through?

[Zac]

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

Sounds like it could be the same bug I experienced in Scotland this year in a earlier save. Where clubs kept trying to make offers for my players, but they couldn't actually sign them because it broke league rules. I assume they can't sign this player because of the same thing, they most likely don't have any designated player spots open or they are over the salary cap.

[Zac]

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

Our worst season yet in the VNN. Even though we had the same amount of points as last season. Fourth season incoming. What is sad, is this was the best team we've ever had. Or it was until the board force sold our two best players for peanuts. After that we couldn't muster any magic and win down the stretch. Our form was pretty up and down all season to be fair though.




Expectation is to make the playoffs again this season. Going to clear out roughly a third of the team and try and bring in some higher caliber players. Also had to go back to the 4-4-2 this past season about a quarter of the way in. Team was a perfect fit for a 4-1-2-3 DM Wide, but we just couldn't get results using it. So this off season I'll build for a solid 4-4-2 setup. Stupid 4-4-2.

Also all you jerks just demanded raises to $100-120 a week before refusing to sign. So now we are spending ~6.5K a month on staff. I was able to keep finances in check and keep us around 150-200k in the red the last two seasons (because of low spending and decent cup runs). But I think this season with the staff spending and me spending more on players to get better players in, we will end up probably going down to around 300-350K in the red.

So this has to be the season we go up. Or it could be bad going forward trying to chase that promotion. We need to get money in the bank so we can improve the facilities. We have poor everything. The pitch hasn't been relaid in four years. And its poor all year round. I'm tired of hearing about what a horrible playing surface it is. And our training facilities need to be upgraded so players will actually start to reach their potentials. Otherwise we could get stuck in lower league limbo and I might get fired. Chairman wasn't too happy about missing the playoffs this season as it was.

[jvalverde88]

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

How am I supposed to replace this production?

[Kobalt]

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

Currently in year 7 (I think?) so I gave my starting GK a non-contract instead of a part-time to save money because I wanted to play my young regen. However, my board sold the young regen because 1.7K is too good to pass up so I planned on going back to my starting GK from previous years but he signed with League One team before the season started. Now I had to scramble for random guys and can't keep a clean sheet anymore.

[Velocityy]

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

Finally starting to get the hang of the new UI and the new scouting. I kinda hate the UI in game...but at least I'm getting used to it.

Have been inconsistent since taking over Nordvarmland FF in the 4th tier of Swedish football. Basically splitting wins and losses evenly. It's actually fine though since this team was in a relegation spot and now I'm firmly mid-table.

Signed a new Left Winger, who instantly made an impact with 2 assists (despite losing 3-2 in his debut game). Have also signed a new midfielder for depth, as our backups are crap. Still need a starting quality RB and a stronger CB to feel like the team is capable of competing regularly

I have to say, since I last played in FM16, I'm loving the tactical briefing and the increased scouting knowledge of your upcoming opponents. It allows me to tweak my tactics for every match and I actually believe my coaches and scouts with what they tell me. I don't do every suggestion, but switching from flexible to fluid and stuff like that is super helpful.

[gopher_guy]

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

Finished my 3rd full season at Platanias FC in Greece. It was another successful season, we matched our club record finish last season, and finished 4th again!




Here was our Europa League campaign



It was my first time as a manager in a continental competition, and I thought we did well for ourselves. Had to go through 2 qualifying rounds, but we got through them relatively easily. I was thrilled with our draw. It was tough, but getting to play big teams like Villarreal and AC Milan was so cool. Did not embarrass ourselves at all against Milan, two 0-1 defeats. And we got a huge win away at Villarreal!


We started the league season absolutely on fire, winning handfuls of games at a time. I thought I was going to walk the league for a hot minute. But then Olympiacos found their groove, and I had some injury problems. Bad injury problems. Several key contributors out for weeks, even months, at a time. Last season I was relatively healthy, so I suppose I was due for some bad injury luck. This caused me to have to panic buy a striker in the winter transfer window. But my depth was essentially gone for most of the second half of the season. Someone would come back from injury, and then two more would hurt themselves.

This caused us to stumble in the 2nd half of the season, as you can see.



At the start of this bad run, I had a 4-6 point cushion sitting in the 4th spot. That very quickly evaporated, and I was down in 5th, in danger of dropping to 6th. I desperately wanted to finish at least 5th, as that is the last European spot in Greece. And I got a taste of that sweet, sweet Europa League money this season, it would have been bitterly disappointing to lose out on that this year.

Going into the last day of the season, I was sitting in 4th, Panaitolikos in 5th, and AEK Athens in 6th. I had a 1 point lead on Panaitolikos and a 3 point lead on AEK, but they had a far superior goal advantage.

So going into the last game, I knew that if I lost, and those two won, I'd finish 6th and miss out on the Europa League entirely. And I was playing away at Panathinaikos, traditional Greek power who were sitting comfortably in 3rd.



Came away with a clutch 1-0 victory. Granted, they didn't have anything to play for, but I was still super nervous going into the match. And, both the teams behind me won. So had I lost, I would have finished 6th. But alas, another season in the Europa League for me!

[Zac]

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

What a season!



All thanks to the new signings. It was hard letting go some of the guys that had been with us for so long, on the way up the leagues. But they just weren't good enough to get us to the next level. But these boys were.

Signing of the season right here:


On top of winning the league we made it to the final of the FA Trophy, before losing to Carlisle United. But the run gave us lots of funds. And the gate receipt split alone from Wembley was enough to bring us up to 66K in the red. So as long as we start getting fans into games now we might start making an upturn and actually begin making money.

And our league history thus far:


VNL here we come! Hoping for mid table, but it might be a relegation battle. Not looking to bring any new faces into the first eam due wage restrictions. But I've already signed some non-contract players to bolster rotation. A few vets and a few youngsters.

And finally, on the staff front NoDaHusker has moved up from U18 Manager to U23 coach as we were given a U23 coaching spot. I tried to promote JHedges from U18 Assistant to U18 Manager, but he refused the job. Seems he wants ImTellinTim's job or nothing. Also Tim and Superman turned down job offers from League 2 teams in favor of staying for far less money. But everyone is now on 120-150. Coming up in the world fellas.

[Suntan Superman]

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

Why would I take a job in League Two when I can just be there in two years anyway?

I haven't posted much about Viborg, though I've meant to. We started out my first season in charge on fire, then the team randomly turned on me after I blew up after our first loss and we skidded into second, we traded the top spot with Vendsyssel for most of the season with it culminating in the final day. Vendsyssel at Viborg, level on points, Vendsyssel ahead on goal difference.

A comprehensive 2-0 victory at Energi Viborg Arena sealed the 1. Division title and promotion to the Superliga for us. Vendsyssel ended up losing in the promotion playoffs so they won't even be joining us on our adventure, but fellow yo-yo club Lyngby BK will be.

Now my goal for the next year is to avoid relegation, and get the team out of the red. Before prize money/payouts we were near 2m in the hole, and our finances are still insecure. I don't really have any players to sell off, but I won't have the luxury of refusing offers. I was able to reduce some people's current salaries and make their contracts more incentive laden, so if we're winning and doing well, they're going to get paid more.

I expect nothing short of a rocky road in our first season back in the Superliga.