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Have you ever bought a duffer?


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I'm sure we can all name examples from real life of managers signing players that turn out to be completely hopeless.

And yet, in the game you get to look at all the players attributes before you buy him, so you can tell pretty easily whether he's any good or not. I can honestly say I've never signed a player who turned out to be a failure.

Has anyone out there ever signed a complete doofus? (and be honest now)

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I'm sure we can all name examples from real life of managers signing players that turn out to be completely hopeless.

And yet, in the game you get to look at all the players attributes before you buy him, so you can tell pretty easily whether he's any good or not. I can honestly say I've never signed a player who turned out to be a failure.

Has anyone out there ever signed a complete doofus? (and be honest now)

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On FM06, in about 2009 I signed Fabrice Muamba from Norwich City for about £13million. Couldn't have been more useless if he'd he'd have taken all of his advice on being a midfielder at Man. United from Eric Djemba-Djemba.

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I bought him because of a string of impressive performances for Norwich. I was looking for a young, dynamic midfielder and he seemed to fit the bill.

He was not up to scratch because, well, basically, he just never performed for me. Too many sub-par performances. In the end, I cut my losses and sold him on to Colchester for about £3million.

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Signed marlon king for my newly promoted side. Thought he would add some needed pace to my frontline but turned out be awfull. He quickly tuned into a reserve player and then i could never give get rid of him (depsite constantly offering him out for free), and had to pay his large wages for another 4 years. Hated him

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I wasted tens of millions of Derby County's money in FM07, but then that was partly because we had money to spare and I got a bit over extravagant. Some of those "duffers" were actually very good players, just not good enough to displace my favoured players from the starting line up so £27 million for a re-signed MC (whom we sold for £5 million a few years earlier) to warm the bench for 3 years is maybe not money well spent.

Infact it seems the MC position was the one I wasted by far the most money on, inc. another signed for £20 million who I let go on a free a few years later, him having played very few games for us. He was good, but I had my creative midfielders and I always favoured Giles Barnes in the holding role even though he was far less suited to it than others - it was just the only role left in the team for him to play...and he rarely got injured so the other expensive MCs could go take a hike.

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In FM08, my most recent was a regen called Chris Mullen. He came through my youth academy at AFC Telford and was really good, got terrific stats but the chairman sold him for me to Tottenham. I moved to Blackburn and made them very successful so I signed him for 16m - the most I've ever spent on a player in FM08. He put in a hat-trick in one game but that was the only time he performed for me. He usually got alot of 6's and a couple of 7s.

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I've bought a few duffers in the past, mostly up front but I normally have 1 duffer in 5 up front players. They are either quick strikers that can't hit a batn door from 2 paces or tall target men who can't figure out where to stand.

I've also bought a brilliant DM from Sweden but he's played a total of 4 games over 3 seasons due to always getting injured (17/16 scout didn't say anything about injury proneness after 3 scout reports).

I have also bought a goalkeeper based on brilliant stats & very few goals conceded only for him to flap at everything. Turns out their defense is the best i've ever seen and he is crap.

Also the last 2 AMC's i've bought have been as good at shooting as Frank Lampard without deflections of any kind. Between the 2 of them that's £18 million wasted but by the end of the season my 18 year old regen should be a first team regular there.

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Hmm, in my Derby game start of 3rd season i have just spent a whopping £59 million on Scott Sinclair and Micheal Johnson.

I had sold some of my best players and needed replacements and kept getting turned down so i went crazy

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Yes just in my previous season I signed Tuia for a replacement for Rio but its just not happenin.He hasnt settled in and his stats keep going down even though I have him on a special trainin course.He nearly always gets a 6 and I tried to sell him but no interest,what a waste of 10 million

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Benitez - forgot his first name, Ecuador striker, I signed him for Leeds from Villa for a modest £4m, even for that amount, he was crap, 3 goals in 2 seasons, not as if he didnt have chances on the pitch, missed them all.

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Only once, but it was a loan. I brought in Crystal Palace's Jack Lyons (or was it Tom Lyons? one of them anyway). Thought he would be a good striker for the Conference South...started my first 25 or so matches...not a single goal! Not one! I finally had to cancel the loan to free up the slot for another signing. Bloody useless!

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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Mike7077:

On FM06, in about 2009 I signed Fabrice Muamba from Norwich City for about £13million. Couldn't have been more useless if he'd he'd have taken all of his advice on being a midfielder at Man. United from Eric Djemba-Djemba. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Haha. I signed him on FM06 as well. Absolutely rubbish!

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I bought Pascal Chimbonda for Liverpool (12 mill) in the first season and he was no better than Finnan icon_frown.gif

I've also just bought Billy Sharp, to partner either Torres or Cavani but anytime i play him, he's useless. Its very annoying considering the fact that he used to consistently score 30+ for everyone else he's played for.

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To be honest, not unlike some real managers, my astuteness in the transfer market is inversely proportional to the amount of money I have to spend! I have signed loads of great cheap gems when I've had little or no money to play with, but many of them at Derby were so good that I sold them on for millions and so soon had a massive transfer kitty at which point I lost my head, identified a player I wanted and then just stubbornly kept bidding more and more until I got him icon_cool.gif

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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by glamdring:

To be honest, not unlike some real managers, my astuteness in the transfer market is inversely proportional to the amount of money I have to spend! I have signed loads of great cheap gems when I've had little or no money to play with, but many of them at Derby were so good that I sold them on for millions and so soon had a massive transfer kitty at which point I lost my head, identified a player I wanted and then just stubbornly kept bidding more and more until I got him icon_cool.gif </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Sounds about right. I was given 15 Million to keep Leyton Orient up (in comparison to the 775k I spent to get them there). I signed several players, was winless in November and was sacked.

The worst player I signed was Boularuze (sp, the Chelsea and on-loan Sevilla CB)

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Most certainly have, I often sign players which just don't fit into my side and end up playing the cheaper backup player, because he plays better.

I then tend to make a loss on the player :/

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Yes...i am ashamed to admit so. Playing as Newcastle, was about 2012/13 or so and i needed a right winger so i bought this young English regen, 23, quick, good dribbling and crossing, unfortunately i was so desparate for a winger i signed him for £28 million and took me few weeks (i got him in the Jan transfer windom) to realise he really wasn't that good, Liverpool try to buy him instantly for some reason, so i say 'pay £28 million, and wait til the end of the season for the transfer and you can have him'...they said yes! Incidentally he played an important part in the back up of my team as i went on to claim all the trophies available. Funny old game.

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I invariably sign some 30-something hasbeen in the January transfer window as cover for injuries then get no injuries in that position. They never get more than 10 or 20 minutes off the bench once in a blue moon. Then I shove them in the reserves to get match fit and forget about them before getting rid of them in the summer.

I terms of first team duffers - only one last time out, sort of. He was a Sweish striker and looked great on paper. He always got into good situations then blazed the ball over the bar, but he did get a few assists. Finally clicked at the end of the season, when promotion was almost guaranteed, then flopped in the Premiership.

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Totally, i was celtic and was looking for ah strong defensive partner beside mcmanus, my first season also.. so i go to the search screen and search for centre backs with attributs for example... heading 17 tackling 16 markin 16 pace 12 acc 12 etc etc.. i find yepes whom i can buy for around 2.3 mill... so i think great.. sign him.. turnd out to be a compltee failure and sold him for 300k 1 season l8r icon_frown.gif wasnt till i chekd his pa it was about 140 .. another thing i noticed.. i like my teams 2 play with ah strong defensive midfeilder hoo plays the holding role.. tackles defends wins the ball marks players out of the game.. in the mascherano / neil lennon mould icon_biggrin.gif.. ever banega is ah defensive midfeilder hoo cannot do any of this.. so if u singed him as a defensive midfeilder and had your dm playing like this sureley hed turn out 2 be ah fduff singin ? also birminghams new capture zarate, i singed him in 1 game he was amazing then on the next he was so poor? any1 any ideas y

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On FM2007 at Juventus I splased out £35m on Rafael Sobis, only to discover after I'd agreed the deal he had shoots with power. I played him for a couple of games and he typically started playing like Valeri Bojinov (Also shoots with power), so I transfer listed him, loaned him out for a couple of years and then sold for something like £10m. Overall I think he played something like 7 times, and managed 2 goals, both in the same game from what I recall.

Also on FM2007 in my struggle to get Hammerfest to the top of Norwegian football I stumbled across a donkey called Frederick Klock. Klock seemed a good defender for a semi-pro Norwegian First Division club, until he got onto the pitch. I have never seen a defender make so many mistakes on FM before. He was forever doing that FM2007 match engine bug where they'd walk at snails pace as the opposition striker ran through. Eventually I lost patience and stopped picking him. Then it came round to the next season and I bizarrely decided to give him a second chance, as another look at his attributes seemed to convince me he was worth another go. Again though he was shocking and hadn't changed a bit, so he was transfer listed, put on my really intense training schedule, and eventually released at the end of the season.

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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Sad Git:

Has anyone out there ever signed a complete doofus? (and be honest now) </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Definitely!

In my time icon_wink.gif I've brought in

<LI> A troublemaker I didn't know was trouble when I signed him, and was more applicable to the division I was leaving than the division I got promoted to.

<LI> A player with brilliant creativity and such inconsistency that, well, some days he was phenomenal and other days we were playing with ten men while he walked off his hangover.

<LI> An experienced winger who looked for all the world like he could play, but got 0 goals and 0 assists despite two years as a starter.

<LI> A striker who went the entire season without scoring.

<LI> A past-it who looked like he could contribute, but degenerated so rapidly from where he was when I made the offer to the start of the next season that I was looking to offload him immediately

<LI> A guy I'd loved at lower divisions who just couldn't crack my lineup at the level I was at.

<LI> A hundred youths with promise who never made more than a handful of appearances for my team

If you haven't signed a complete doofus, you aren't hardly trying! icon_biggrin.gif

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In my current MK Dons game I have bought two. In the first season, I bought Jamie Vincent for £1,000. He played consistently badly, and had the cheek to whinge when I criticised him, saying he was being unfairly targeted. I dropped him, and he continued to whinge so I sacked the bastard.

In my third season I signed Nat Brown for £35k who is a defensive catastrophe. He's so bad, he makes Titus Bramble look like the good of defensive ability. He will be sold soon though.

Finally, Phil Younghusband looks like he's going to be a one season wonder.

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Possibly mine was Juan Pablo Angel. Didn't play much of the season though because I started a new game but he struggled to score.

Don't think I've really made any other bad signings other than that. I bought Jovan Kirovski to play up front with Stancu in the championship but he didn't score in 7 games up front. Eventually I dropped him to center midfield due to his AM positioning. Not a bad signing but just wont score.

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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Bongo-Bongo:

In my current MK Dons game I have bought two. In the first season, I bought Jamie Vincent for £1,000. He played consistently badly, and had the cheek to whinge when I criticised him, saying he was being unfairly targeted. I dropped him, and he continued to whinge so I sacked the bastard.

In my third season I signed Nat Brown for £35k who is a defensive catastrophe. He's so bad, he makes Titus Bramble look like the God of defensive ability. He will be sold soon though.

Finally, Phil Younghusband looks like he's going to be a one season wonder. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Corrected

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I sign loads of promising looking youngsters (generally under 19), most of which don't make the first team. But a few always do. Have yet to buy an established player in CM or FM who didn't make the grade - but then I don't buy that many icon_smile.gif

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I bought Aarun Best from Colchester United when I was with Xerez, my scout thought he would become a decent Liga BBVA defender in the future.

He's now with some League Two side's Reserves; it turns out his attributes were promising, but none of them really changed...

><

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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Darksheep:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Mike7077:

On FM06, in about 2009 I signed Fabrice Muamba from Norwich City for about £13million. Couldn't have been more useless if he'd he'd have taken all of his advice on being a midfielder at Man. United from Eric Djemba-Djemba. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Haha. I signed him on FM06 as well. Absolutely rubbish! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I bought him in '07 and he was a fantastic DM for me. He always won 50/50 balls too. If my club had the money, I'd buy him on '08 too!

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Bought Edison Cavani for 50m at end of first season as ManU (08) as my scouts had giving him 5* potential and he looked the best young target man for my 4-3-1-2, he failed and after a year I bought Aguero and Saivet developed rapidly meaning there was no space in the team for him, think he left for 8m a couple of seasons later. The save was prePatch and I decided to start again when a new patch had come out.

New game: decided to be more intelligent with my tactics, thinking that a better way to use Rooney/Tevez would to be have them both attacking midfielders moving up to strikers in a 4-3-2-1 formation with attacking wings, was a partial success let down by my lack of target man (I had bought Palermo as a tempory fix, but his attributes rapidly declined), looked around for a target man and managed to get Cavani for a cheap 8m. Imediate success, best target man evar. <3 Cavani.

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I'm afraid i have you all beaten. It's 2012 and i'm with Leeds, after a disappointing finish (3rd but won the title in 2011) i decided to splash the cash on a new defender. Sergio Ramos for £41.5m and much to my dismay he has been crap in every game, i've resorted to youth team players and Metzelder (who joined for £1m in January and has shown Ramos up).

Also, in the same season i *****ed £22m on Jeremy Menez and he's been an utter disaster, thank god Higuain and Myself have been scoring otherwise we'd be alot lower than 4th!

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Leeds 2012, FM2008. Won the League one title in my first season then went up and won the championship at my first attempt, then went upto the premiership and finished 3rd, then 1st, then 3rd. Also includes two Champions League semi finals (losing out to Arsenal and then reliving bad memories by losing to Valencia), League Cup (2010), F.A. Cup (2010) and not forgetting the much sought after Johnstons paint trophy (2008).

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Joao moutinho for my man u sqaud 15m

not that he made mistakes

but he was jus inaffective

did absoulutely nothing for the team

because he was young i decided to give him another go in the second season (rejecting a bid of 25million from milan)

i thought if they want him he mus be good

when it got to january of season 2

i ended up selling him to totenham for 15.5m

which the board thought was too good to turn down

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Oh i've bought many duffers but the one who sticks out in my mind was on FM06 was Junior Agogo for watford. I was a mid-table championship side with not huge amounts of money to spend and i splashed out 1.4M on Agogo from Bristol Rovers where he'd hit 20 goals in about 30 games in league one if i remember correctly.

He duely went on to be a complete flop scoring about 4 times in 30 odd games much to my disgust. He was soon a bench player and in the end fecked off for around a million less than i paid for him.

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On 08, I earned a shock promotion with Wrexham to League 1 in my second season, which gave me a transfer budget of about £500k. I brought in one or two frees (Stephane Leoni was one, I think there was someone else too) and then blew almost all the rest on two players: £100k on a defender called Zito and £325k on a highly rated Zambian international winger Rainford Kalaba who I thought would be a good replacement for Cesnauskis, who had just refused a new contract having been an instrumental figure in getting the side promoted because he was inevitably going to go to a big club somewhere. Unfortunately, Zito and Leoni were mediocre at best while Kalaba turned out to be awful. He gave away the ball everywhere, was way too short to challenge in the air, never went for any tackles, failed to put any crosses in, looked clumsy and was just plain awful. I eventually got forced out with the club in the relegation zone. I personally blame my scout who seemed to think Kalaba was the best player in the world.

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