I just finished up the 2013/14 season with Forest. We ended up in 14th place earning $7 million. Not too bad. The biggest issue was that the team was about $9 million over the salary budget and so I wasn't able to really try and sign anyone. On July 1 a lot of contracts we going to expire so some of that money would be freed up, but most of the best free transfers would be gone by then. The 2014 World Cup kicked off in Uraguay. My Spain squad made it through the first round easily with a strong 3-0 victory over the USA. In the second round we were expected to lose to Croatia but we came out on top 2-1. The quarter finals put Spain against Argentina, the defending champs I led to WC victory in 2010. I was a heavy underdog. The game was 1-1 until the 88th minute when Carlos Tevez blasted a goal from an angle I have never seen a goal scored from. He was almost on the end line. I didn't think it'd go in, but it did and that was it. Spain were out in the quarter finals with a 2-1 loss. It was close but not really close enough. I should have had the lead...ohh well. I didn't get fired so I'm now thinking about the European Championship qualifying which starts later this season. Argentina went on to retain their title. After returning to England from South America, I was contacted by Roman Ambromovich himself. He asked me to take the recently vacated top job at Chelsea. He said my transfer budget would be over $80 million and wages wouldn't be an issue. This was a sharp contrast to Forest so I jumped at the chance. I had been thinking about leaving Forest, especially when my old Barca job opened up. I applied and didn't get it. Guess who did, Morinho. He left my other former post, Liverpool. So I applied for Liverpool and didn't get that one. I think Steve Bruce got it. So when Chelsea opened up I applied eagerly. So the new 2014/15 Premier League season is right around the corner. Since I am with a new squad I can't really name all of the players, but Nimar is a solid goal scorer. The team finished 4th in the Premier League so the first competitive game I coached we won 4-0 against HJK of Finland, in Finland, in a Champions League 3rd round qualifier. Nimar got all 4 goals. I splashed out about half of my transfer funds on Cona, a strong DM and Riter, a young German RB. Those looked to be the two biggest holes in my squad. They need to get settled in quickly as the Premier League season is right around the corner.
"Ladies and Gentlemen the fourth official has indicated that there will be 20 minutes of additional time.......20 minutes"
I did manage to hang on and win the 2009/10 Bundesliga season, the first honors for Dusseldorf since 1933. We were eliminated in the knockout rounds of the CL, only managing a 0-0 draw at home against Milan before giving a good fight and failing with a tenser-than-it-looked 3-1 defeat on the road. We reached the semis of the German Cup and were knocked out 2-0 by Dortmund. The fact that you only play one leg in the German Cup with the home team being picked randomly makes it fairly nasty. Still, one piece of silverware sounds pretty good to a team that hasn't had any in over 75 years... ***WORLD CUP*** Nigeria approached me at one point during the season, asking if I could get them to qualify for the World Cup. I gladly accepted without checking out their squad beforehand, which turned out to be a problem. Not that they didn't have strikers, or midfielders, or defenders... ...they didn't have a goalie though. Not a single one, not even a 'shadow' player. And a match against Cameroon, who we were 3 points behind with 2 games remaining, looming on the horizon. Gritting my teeth, I figured the best course of action was to throw everybody forward and hope that I could score more than they could. This worked out fairly well as my overmatched DMC turned Goalie gave up 2; thankfully, we scored 4, went top of the group on goal difference and clinched it with a road thrashing of Ethiopia. After finishing 3rd in the ANC, Nigeria were summarily dismissed in the World Cup, getting beaten by Ireland and Turkey because well, Yakubu was injured and we couldn't score for beans, whereas with no keeper, we were certain to give up at least one per game, which held up even for the game we did win, where we thrashed Uzbekistan 5-1. After the WC I resigned even though they wanted me to stay on, knowing that we didn't have any keepers in the pipeline and keeping the team going would be far more effort than it would be worth. ***/WORLD CUP*** My bank loan finally ended in the summer and the Dusseldorf board decided to give me substantially more money, which, plus the 15 million Euros I made from selling Bogelund, allowed me to bring in Pazzini (Italian SC) from Fiorentina and Vabec (D/DM L/M/R) from some club in Spain. Plus some decent youngsters who don't mind sitting on the bench most of the time. Dusseldorf continue to steam on in the 2010/11 season, still active in all competitions. The real stars of this team right now are my wingers, Santi on the left and Maxi Rodriguez on the right. They're both close to double-digit goals, which is something that I've never seen from my wingers before. The strength of the squad is the defense, with Madlung and Van Den Borre holding court in front of Akinfeev. Currently we have a 9 point lead in the Bundesliga, which at one point was 11; however, a recent tie on the road against a Hannover team who came back from 3-1 down saw us drop points. I have played Bayern and Dortmund twice already, my road match against Bayern being a brutal 4-4 draw where they came back from 3-nil and 4-3 down. I felt somewhat lucky to even get out of Munich with a point as they were throwing everything they had at us. And, of course, the German League Cup semi-final draw put us up against...Bayern. And, after a 6-0 agg. defeat of Olympique Marseilles, the CL quarter-final draw matched us up with...Bayern. So! 3 more games against the other massive squad in Germany. Should be very interesting, with those 3 games largely deciding how successful my season will be. I should note that it has been very successful to date, with my team boasting a 18-4-0 record in the league, a 7-1-0 record in the CL and a 4-0 record in the German Cup, for a 34-game-and-running unbeaten streak in all competitions. I suspect it will end before the end of the season, I'm just hoping that it will be in a largely meaningless second leg in the CL.
My Blackpool side are looking good atop of the Championship, i have just signed Adam Hitchen from a spanish side, he looks good so far, my other new signing Izale McCloud has just picked up a long term injury, so I have drafted in Eddie Johnson on loan from Man Utd and convinced his teammate Guseppe Rossi to come back for a second loan spell this season, he is fantastic and has chipped in with 8 goals so far. I pulled off a shrewd bit of business aswell this season, i reluctantly let Danny Coid leave for Derby but only in return for Gresko, Lee Grant (fantastic young goalie) and 250k, both signings have been excellant. With more than half the season gone im leading the league however there is just a 4 point gap between top and 8th place its very tight but very exciting. This must surely be the season the Tangerine Army finally invade the Premier League
that happened to me in a CL final. I took the lead in extra time, scoring in the 119th minute and the game didn't end until about 145. I didn't know what was going on. My keeper was under assault for the 25 minutes of stoppage time.
Some screenshots for those interested: USA Pool December 2009 One of my first games in charge Regen John Simpson Check out CJ brown's effort! If anyone wants to see any stats of players/comps from England or US then just ask. Just qualified for 2010 WC
Yeah, thats me! Ive dragged them up from mid-League One to Champions League knockouts in the minimum amount of time possible. They are vital to my team, especially LD's versatility. He plays all over. Rejected a £29m bid from Barca and he was a little annoyed. Adu has been moved inside permanently since I signed Downing. Some of the US regens are looking sweet, although I dont much fancy my chances at the 2010 WC. Drew Ghana, Holland and Georgia in my group, but because of the way the game is set up I can only play 2 friendlies in the 6 months leading up the finals. Something that needs to be sorted. Dempsey is West Ham's best player, Tim Howard is a rock for Leeds (who are managed by Becks), Buddle is superb for Charlton and Tony Sanneh is the Portsmouth boss. Wonderful!
What leagues do you have active? Just wondering because Americans do poorly in most of my games since I don't have MLS active. I don't remember seeing an American other than me take over a top division European team (if that is what Pompey are in your current game) and fairly few become prominent as players. Forget about the US doing well in WCs.
US, England (League One and above) and the K-League on a medium DB. Even though the MLS is running I am still struggling at international level as far as depth goes. My strongest XI will pretty much give anyone a run (Confed. Cup - semi beat Brazil 3-1 final beat Argentina 3-0, boastboastboast) but there are some strange issues. I cant get a good balance of match fitness throughout the squad due to the confilct in schedules. If my MLS guys are ready, the Euro chaps are either recovering from a season or just getting ready for one and vice-versa. I cant put a decent squad together using just domestic players or just YA's. It has to be both. I'm not really looking forward to this World Cup, and I just drew 1-1 with Puerto Rico (experimental squad that included FC Gallen striker Davy Arnaud and some MLS prospects that were waaaays from fit). Oh well, lets hope they make it a tad better for the next one. Unless you have it on a large+ database you can forget about any MLS'ers even being in the gane, although if you select it to have all Americans present in the game (you do know how to do that right?) then you will get some pretty good regens.
I had a terrible season with Chelsea. I took over right before the season started and didn't really have time to evaluate the squad. I needed some goal scorers badly and couldn't bring anyone in until the January window. By then, the damage was done. I was one or two spots above relegation. This is 2014 mind you, but still it was a terrible performance. Everything I tried didn't work. So I was fired in Feb 2015. I thought about a return to Spain. I am still managing their national team. No good jobs were open so I took some time off and prepared for the upcoming European Championships. All of a sudden Middlesbrough sacked their manager while sitting in 8th in the Premier League. Thinking that sounded like a good gig I applied and got the job. So I'm back to work. I need to get some wins to get Boro into Europe. The squad is solid but I think I need some depth in the back and attack. So I've already lined up a solid striker to come in during the summer break on a free and I'm bidding on two young, strong centerbacks. Hopefully I can get into Europe and the new signings will help me win some games there.
Last I posted, I was drawn against Bayern in the German Super Cup and in the QF of the Champions League. Well, they put me out of the Super Cup on penalties; however, I stuffed them 4-0 in Munich in the CL and walked away 6-2 on aggregate playing with a bench squad (cheeky, I know). I'll take it. In the SF I got smashed on the road 2-0 by Real Madrid (and it wasn't that close) only to get a 3-0 victory at home. In the final I was matched up against Barca, the clear favorite and the best team in Europe. Somehow I managed to hold them off and took the CL (my first every in any CM/FM) on a Mokoena goal in the 119th minute. Since then, I've had a decent run of form/luck and currently have the following silverware: 4 Bundesliga titles 2 League Cups (pre-season Cup) 1 Champions League 1 Euro Super-Cup 1 World Club Cup (International Cup? Don't remember, don't really care.) 1 German Super Cup (the equivalent to the FA Cup) My last two forays into the CL were fairly harsh, the year after defending my title I got taken out in the semis by Milan, a 2-0 home win was followed up by a 5-1 thrashing in Milan that wasn't that close (5-0 in the first half). Last year I got dumped out by Valencia in the first post-group knockout matchup, 4-2 on aggregate. They have Tevez and when he's on, there's really nothing you can do. My main concern now is trying to keep everybody happy -- I've got a load of talented youngsters who all want transfers because they're not getting enough playing time. I'm currently trying to figure out how many times per year I have to stick them in the lineup before they start issuing transfer requests.
Is there a person who can give me the English language file? I got a version from Europe and it's in Polish. Any help who be grand. Danke
You should be able to change the language of the game in the options. However, I could be hard reading it in Polish.
I tried...I don't think there is an English option, just Czech (I think)and Polish. There should be a file within the Football Manager directory right for English?
just started a new game with Derby, as it took me a month to get a new cd rom drive. 100-1 odds to gain promotion and won the first match 0-3 against Gillingham. i'm just looking to finish midtable.
Sorry can't help with this one. I know there were problems with the demo being in the wrong language last time and remember some threads discussing other language issues but I never had to deal with it. I suggest Old Lady Hertha take that question to the FM boards over at SI.
Ok, a quick update. The 15/16 Premier League season has started and I have Boro undefeated after 3 games. We've hit an International friendly break and I'm in the middle of a U-21 Euro Championship qualifier. Ohh, it just ended and I won 2-0. My U-21 team is marching easily through qualifying with a perfect record of 7-0 and a goal diff of +15. I don't there is any question of me moving onto the next round. The full nats are doing equally well. They are 6-0 and easily top the group. I should be qualified soon. I'm really proud of my Boro squad. Robin van Persie is playing very well on the left wing and he just received Premier League player of the month honors. Hopefully I can lock down a few more wins and lead the way for a month or so.
I think I jinxed myself. My next league game was against Newcastle, in Newcastle and I lost. Ohh well. Atleast it took a 9 rating by their keeper to save them.
I'm Tottenham, and believe it or not I won the league in my first season (first season of game), with only Bierofka and a guy called Dwight Pezzarossi signed. I think I've hit tactical gold. My next transfer budget was only 1.5 million, so I signed Freddy Guarin, as well as Crespo and Dede on frees, but they later boosted it to 13.5m which I've spent on Juan, keeping the change for a sunny day!!! This is superb fun, I'm loving it!
The 2015/16 Premier league season and I led Middlesbrough to second in the league. There was a little time where I thought I'd de-throne Arsenal but they went on to win their 6th straight Premier championship. They're doing something right. I was excited to get Middlesbrough into the Champions League. Hopefully I'll make some noise there and get the club's rating up bringing in some more prestige. I'm a little worried because I only have a $13 million transfer budget so I don't know if I can get the depth I need to compete with all the games Europe adds. I was in the UEFA Cup last year and that went ok. I'll try to sign a couple helpful additions. It's now the European Championship of 2016. My U-21 team won the event earlier in the summer and I'm hoping to beat France in the semis to get to the finals and win this as well.