In Memoriam: Your Favorite FM09 Regens

About two weeks from now, we're all probably going to start playing a new save on an entirely new game; we'll start over from scratch at some team or other and we probably won't go back to FM'09 for any length of time.

When we do this we'll be leaving behind not just our illustrious career as a manager, but also a slew of regens. Some of those regens, of course, are terrible and serve no purpose but to whine about the contract you won't renew when they come up from the youth ranks. Other regens, however, will fade into the ether, only a distant memory on some alternate timeline that will probably never be revisited again.

So before they're gone, let's take a moment to remember the regens that we've grown, cultivated, and bonded with. I'll start.

• Paul Flores (MC, USA): Flores was initially purchased by me when I was managing Grasshopper Club Zurich. Actually, "purchased" isn't quite right; I snagged him on a free, taking him away from the Colorado Rapids to come and play in Switzerland at the ripe old age of 19. When I first bought him, Flores couldn't score, couldn't pass, and couldn't shoot; now, he's the 25 year old captain of Fiorentina, bossing the midfield (even if he doesn't score). If it weren't for the fact that an even better American midfielder replaced Xavi at Barcelona (realistic, eh?), I have no doubt that Flores would be captaining the American national team as well instead of playing relief duty like he is now.
  
• Saul Pedraza (ST, Spain): Pedraza also started off with me at Grasshopper, but he didn't stay long; after he finally settled in Switzerland, Pedraza started banging in the goals like a madman, and it wasn't long (i.e., only about fifteen months later) that Tottenham took notice. I kept an eye on Pedraza, though, and noticed that he wasn't getting many games at White Hart Lane; once I moved to Fiorentina, I brought him over where he pretty much picked off where he left off for Grasshopper.
  
• Sven Bongartz (ST, Switzerland): For a time, I also managed the Swiss national team; they have a great midfield, decent defending, good keeping, and no strikers to speak of. That was, of course, until Bongartz came along out of FC Basel's academy. Bongartz is a wonderkid striker that eventually moved to Arsenal (I had him at Fiorentina, but he didn't really produce; he's now Arsenal's highest scorer, and I still regret selling him); he started playing for the Swiss national team when he was 19 and has been banging them in ever since. Most notably, he helped Switzerland to their Euro 2012 victory.
  

Who are the regens you're going to have the hardest time saying goodbye to?

Richard Dickfence - (AMC, Scotland) : As a youngster, Dickfence played football in the streets and was given the nickname "python" by his brother because of his snake-like dribbling skills. He began his professional career in Scotland with East Fife, playing also for Dunfermline and Aberdeen. After the 2060 World Cup he moved to England to play for Derby Countywhere he spent four seasons.

Stuart Wharton, only 19, Leeds acadamy product and England starter at World Cup. First game at 15, international at 17, loves Leeds and me...I'll miss him :'(

There had only been three regens I had liked. One of them I never signed for the reason his physical stats wasn't good enough. The majority of the better regens were defenders on my game >_<

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There had only been three regens I had liked. One of them I never signed for the reason his physical stats wasn't good enough. The majority of the better regens were defenders on my game >_<

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Some very good players!! Your in 2012-2013 - this seems very early to get such good regens?

Mark Bartlett - GK - Record signing when I signed him from Blackburn for £850K in League One, and went on to keep for England at the World Cup.

Lee Garner - DC - First season regen, went on to be a one club man, and play for Stockport for the next 17 seasons, reaching the Premier League

Martin Riley - MC - Another England star, but this time after he left the club, Riley was snapped up for £20K after an initial loan from Bristol Rovers, who couldn't afford to keep him. Missed a crucial penalty in a Championship play off semi final against Bolton that would have taken us to Wembley, and was sold to Middlesbrough for £6M in the summer window. Went on to represent England whilst at the Riverside before moving on to Liverpool

Jamie Hamilton - FC - An expensive purchase for an 18 year old when he signed for £825K from QPR, but scored 34 goals in his only full season in League One and then 24 and 26 in his 2 championship seasons before being sold to Middlesbrough in a double deal with Riley totalling £15M. Hamilton's price was £9M. Represented Scotland at Euro 2020, and scored against England in the Semi-Final, although Scotland went on to lose.

That was a great save. Shame my old laptop broke:(

Chris Atkinson, Right Back who I brought for my Leeds time in my third season for 800k...

He's now valued over £30 million, making him the highest valued right back in my game, gets overall ratings of 7+ consistently, and has made around 300-400 appearances for the club...

Sheffield United must be kicking themselves for losing out on him

Jeremy Oxby (DMC, USA): I was managing Fulham, and in need of a solid DMC, when I found Jeremy in the US U-20 squad. He did cost me £1 million, but he was awesome.

Samuel Johansson (ST,SWE): I was managing GAIS in Sweden, when he turned up in my youth squad. Labelled the next Zlatan Ibrahimovic! Became league topscorer at age 16, even trugh we finished as number 12 of 16.

Romeo Sneijder (ST/Netherlands) - Wesley's long lost brother was burn in the Heerevren Academy, from which I purchased by to my West Ham side at the ripe age of 17. His first season was nothing special, although consistent substitute play. By the end of the 2nd season, he had become a starter and top scorer in the premier league.

Mohamed (AML) Spanish

Signed from Alicante for just 575k at the start of the 09/10 season with a 50% sell on clause for Derby County. Played his entire career with me at Derby bar the 10 apperances for Alicante. Hes 35 now, gets injured a fair bit but he has the record league appearances for the club at over 500, scored shedloads of goals and got even more assists. Has captained my side and his country for 10 years. Wanted to leave a few times. Nobody wanted to pay 100 million (not even man city or real madrid) so he got depressed and signed a new contract with me. What a Legend.

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Gary Blake AMC Nigeria

Just a legend. 6 mil from chelsea. second best signing ive ever made after big Mo. Awesome.

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Lovely stuff

Gary Blake AMC Nigeria

Just a legend. 6 mil from chelsea. second best signing ive ever made after big Mo. Awesome.

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Lovely stuff

Gary Blake - Only 1 stat below 14 in both technical and mental attributes - nice!!!

Alvin Devaney - He made 25 appearances for Watford before I bought him for £65k Leeds, who I'd taken to the Premiership at this time. He only made 10 appearances for me before going to Rangers for £600k. He played 50 times for Rangers and now plays his football for Atletico Madrid (£6.5 mil fee) and has made 15 appearances for the England U21s.

Atsushi Ochiai - He made 25 appearances for Juventus (who I have to give credit to for unearthing him). He then went on to make 50 appearance for my Leeds side before Roma came in with a £28.5M bid that I accepted. He's made 50 appearances for them.

Robbie Wallace - I took him on trial in 2010-11 but let him slip through my fingers. He went to St Johnstone to Hearts to Everton before I picked him up again in 2014. 17 caps for Scotland at the age of 22.

Ramses Cortes - Villareal let him go and Alcoyano picked him up for free. Litex then took him, Olympiakos, Udinese and now at Leeds, having made 75 appearances for Leeds, 220 overall and 20 caps (3 goals) for Spain at just 23 years of age.

Leonardo - I scouted him at 15 and imediately liked what I saw but unfortuantely he wasn't allowed to transfer until he was 18. In the 3 years before he was allowed to come he made 102 appearances for his club (ABC) then made 32 appearances for me before going to learn his craft at Zaragoza on loan (37 apps) and is back now playing for me.

Federico Gamarra - He made 139 appearances for a variety of clubs before joining me at Leeds where he's become a very important player with 119 appearances in 2 1/2 years. He's also made 27 appearances for Uruguay at 23 years old.

Daniel Santana - I found him at CSKA Sofia and signed him for £1.2M. That was 2 1/2 years ago. Since then he's missed just 15 league games and made 106 appearances overall (101 starts). 5 caps for Spain Oh and he's only 19!

That was one game now for the other!

Michael Gasser - I found him at Ried and he made 67 appearances for me at Basel, in a year and a half, before Inter came in with a £28M bid which the chairman accepted. I'm now at Inter and he's made 56 appearances so far.

I haven't really had the opportunity to test any others out at a high level as Inter is my first job in one of Europe's top leagues but I have many others that were great for the level they were playing at.

Sibusiso Moloto, MC, South Africa - Bought him for £5.5 million and at the last count the game was valuing him at £35 million. Went straight into my Exeter team and quickly became a fan favourite and won loads of awards. He is absolutely my all time fave FM player.

Manuel Lopez, GK, Guatemala - Was looking for a replacement Goalie for one that just wasn't up to standard, I had been looking at those ones that everyone knows about but all their teams wanted at least £70 million for them but then my scouts came across Lopez, rating him much higher. Cost me £29 million in the end but it was money very well spent.

Nice thread - I was about to start something very similar.

My 3 favourite regens from my Leeds game:

Nestor Velazquez, DL

Like a little Gabriel Heinze to begin with, kicking everything that moved on his wing but a bit rough around the edges. And then I've never seen a youngster's attributes go up so quickly and he's the first regen I've ever had described as a 'wonderkid' - his technique, touch and crossing flew up and he takes a mean free-kick as well!

I'm sure he'd have become even better - he's also got a strong right foot, just for good measure.

Eduardo Romero - AMR

He wasn't an all-rounder by any means, but he did one thing very well - namely getting the ball, running at, terrifying and skinning the left-back before delivering near perfect crosses for the guy below. No need for forward runs, just give him the ball on the half-way line and watch him do the rest.

He managed to miss just about every big final with an injury, was always having to be taken off knackered, spent the whole time at the club getting excited about other managers' praise, made various transfer requests and fell out with the only poor kid I ever got him to tutor. When I finally ran out of patience and went to sell him, he told the media all about his love for the club and how he'd never want to play anywhere else!

Nikola Milosevic - ST

Just as I was wondering why I'd bothered sending scouts to Eastern Europe.

You couldn't ask for a better lone striker to hold up the ball and get on the end of Eduardo Romero's crosses. Oh, and talk about good touch for a big man! Once he got on the ball, his agility and strength meant nobody was getting it off him.

He finally convinced me that you don't need bags of pace/acceleration if you've got anticipation and off the ball, as well. Once I taught him to 'place shots' he was unstoppable.

I loved this guy!

Mark Linnane ST, probably the best one ive brought through, even though I stole him from Wakefield FC (fake club) took him to Merseyside (another) then to Man City.

Steve Stevens ST, another class act

Greg Inglis, DC, Melbourne born England defender.

Silvino RW, Brazilian master.

Double Post, my bad.

My best was a Spanish Left Back called JOSE.

Imagine Sergio Ramos but better. I signed him at 16 years old, in the second season of the game for Tottenham. By 21 he was my first team captain, and he went on to captain my side until his retirement at 35 - where he moved on to be my assistant manager.

Not only were his defensive stats absolutely incredible, he had 20 for freekicks, crossing and dribbling. He scored at least 10 goals a season, and assisted about 20.

Mike Palmer - Amazing premiership quality keeper for a 19 year old. Unluckily for him I had two amazing keepers infront of him so he didn't get a shout at Sheffield united in the premiership so went on loan to Arsenal (higher repuation than me) Due to the lack of high quality england regen keepers he was in the england squad despite never playing for his main club.

England lose the world cup final to Ermany on penalties, my keeper watches on the bench. The following season makes his debut for Sheffield united in the charity shield, match goesto penalties and saved 3 out of 5 penalties, ooooh what could have been in that world cup.

He goes to to be a great keeper for my club but sadly never gets his international success.

Paul McLaughlin - big and technical striker, kind of like Ibrahimovic, rose up in ranks while I was at Derry, when I moved on to Celtic I signed him and he became first team regular.

And (what I want to believe is his brother )...

Andrew McLaughlin - left winger. I also signed him at Celtic, but he was never as good as Paul. He eventually went to Torquay or something (not quite sure). He's still a favorite though.

Robin Derks, wonderkid started his career at Feyenoord, was then bought by me to Manchester United at the age of 18 for a stunning 3.8 million euro's. Went on to be a first team regular at the age of 20 and banging in between 20-30 goals for me each season. Now he is 28, World-Class striker, Hollands top goalscorer and loved by the fans.

I'm never gonna let him go again!

Phil Smith - Appeared in the youth team of my BSS Hitchin town side, came straight into the side as a 16yr old. An AMC reminiscent of Lampard, he drove our side with his bursting runs from midfield and had a mental approach that saw him constantly improve. 13 years later in the championship he was club captain, had made around 500 league appearances and was genuinely one of the best players in the country....

Then he refused to renew his contract, my limited wage budget couldn't meet his demands and he left us on a free transfer to Derby, next season his last day hattrick against us, made us miss the playoffs by a solitory point. He broke my heart

Phil Smith - Appeared in the youth team of my BSS Hitchin town side, came straight into the side as a 16yr old. An AMC reminiscent of Lampard, he drove our side with his bursting runs from midfield and had a mental approach that saw him constantly improve. 13 years later in the championship he was club captain, had made around 500 league appearances and was genuinely one of the best players in the country....

Then he refused to renew his contract, my limited wage budget couldn't meet his demands and he left us on a free transfer to Derby, next season his last day hattrick against us, made us miss the playoffs by a solitory point. He broke my heart

That story has such tragedy!

Ignacio Dominguez (Spain). Signed for my promoted Newcastle side from Real Sociedad for £3.2m as a 17 year old. Scored 8 goals in his first season as an impact substitute. Was a regular starter in his second season and scored 18 Premier League goals for a side which finished 12th in the league. Sold before the start of season 3 to Arsenal for £32m.

Was loathe to let him go but......... Kerching!

Sadly what looks like a player who could have developed into one of my best regens ever recently appeared in my youth academy and I'll never know as i'm waiting for FM10 now.

Mark Linnane ST, probably the best one ive brought through, even though I stole him from Wakefield FC (fake club) took him to Merseyside (another) then to Man City.

Steve Stevens ST, another class act

Greg Inglis, DC, Melbourne born England defender.

Silvino RW, Brazilian master.

thats hilarious. greg inglis plays for the melbourne storm rugby league team.

Danny Winters ST - The Orginal Braintree Boy

Came up with the club from the coca cola league 1 becoming the clubs top scorer with 145 league goals in 384 appearances. Got into the england squad in his mid 20s and getting 64 caps and 38 goals, retired from national football at the age of 33. When i became the england manager asked him to come out of retirement for his country which he became captain and we won the Euro cup but saidly he missed most of the tournament with injury. He had a amazing partnership with the young brazilian Alberto until his retirement at the age of 35 for Alberto to become the main striker. He has now taken up a coaching role at Braintree Town FC.

Alberto ST (Alberto Vargas)

Signed him as a 18 year old for 2.2 million in my first season in the premiership with Braintree, 13 years later at the age of 30. The legendard now holds the record for most league goals for the club at 148 league goals in 324 appearances and still going stong. Is Brazils main striker with 50 goals for his country in 70 apperances. He is currently teaching his future replacement 19 year old Mark Taylor (who is out scoring him this season due to injury problems) My most valued player at the club, can't coount how many times his last minute goals have given us the win. Was glad i managed to keep him after the chairman accepted 40 million pound bids for him.

Will be sad to go over to FM 2010 and lose these players. and not to mention the other newgens that are comign up the ranks.

Maicon - AMC Brazil - Came through the palmeiras acadamy and was first spotted by one of my scouts at the tender age of 15. I monitored his progress as I was unable to sign him until he was 18. 6 months before his 18th birthday I agreed a £725k fee with his club and he went on to become the next Kaka, winning a World Cup Golden Boot in the 2018 World Cup and 2 world player of the year awards playing behind...

David - ST Spain - Came through the Valencia acadamy before I spotted him in a preseason friendly at the age of 18. I took a punt at £3m as he only had finishing of 8, but under the tutorlage of Arsenal captain Carlos Vela he formed into one of the top Strikers, captaining Spain to European Triumphs in 2020 and 2024.

I will miss them both.

Nice idea for a thread. Fortunately most of my favourite players have retired anyway, so I won't be losing much in the changeover. But here are my favourites from my Dafuge's challenge game;

Craig Fraser (MC - In his prime) - Put simply, the greatest player of all time. Came through the Hibernian youth system where Premiership Coventry snapped him up. After a couple of season with him tormenting our midfield I had to sign him! He went on to Captain Merthyr Tydfil to an unparalelled 20 Premiership and 16 Champions league titles. And won a record haul of personal awards, being named Champions league Best player 5 times, English footballer of the year 11 times, World player of the year 5 times, World footballer of the year 3 times and Merthyr fans player of the year 10 times. For Merthyr he made 624 appearances, scoring 190 goals with a 7.45 rating, in addition to winning 121 caps for Scotland with a record of 41 goals. Retiring at the age of 40, Fraser even scored in his final appearance. An absolute legend.

His career up to 2033...

Tom McKenzie (ST - In his prime) - The towering Irish striker became a Merthyr legend as he oversaw the club rise from the Championship playoffs to the most dominant club in world history. Signed aged 17 from Shelbourne, McKenzie made an immediate impact with a return of 13 goals in 16 starts. This included a brace in the Playoff final to secure promotion to the Premier league. McKenzie went on to secure a reputation as a ruthless goalscorer and particularly as a big match performer. The former wonderkid went on to score a number of sensational Champions league winning goals and became a key part of the most successful club side in history. At the end of his career Tom McKenzie had made 773 appearances for Merthyr, scoring 444 goals with an average rating of 7.25. He also scored 63 goals in 125 caps for Ireland, making him his club and country's all time top goalscorer.

There are a few others of note, but looking up old screenshots can be pretty tricky. So instead, here is my Merthyr Tydfil all-time best XI...

Saverio Della Monica. DM/M RC

Jozef Novak (ST, Slovenia) - Picked him up at 20, a product of the Bayer Leverkusen youth system. Had 13+ for every important striker stat, 191cm, as well as 18 for frees and penalties. Won the Bundesliga goalscoring award before I nabbed him for Wolves at a record 42.5million pounds. Proceeded to go and score 60 goals in all competitions for the next season, including all the goals in a 7-0 rout of Aston Villa at Molineux, before becoming a 35+ goal per season striker.

Louis Scott (DC) - A Wolverhampton boy, Louis came through and entered the Wolves squad with a CA of 122...at the age of 16! His PA of 194 was achieved by his 19th birthday, as was his debut alongside John Terry at the 2014 World Cup. Captained Wolves to the Premiership, to a heartbreaking CL Final loss in a penalty shootout and was on track to break the club record for most apps.

Then my comp died =(

Sebastien Laborde (CB, France) - I bought him from Lyon, I think, when he was 17 for my Man United team. He proceded to almost knock Rio out of the team when he was 19.

Michael Cooke (RB, England) - Brought him up from the academy and he became a star after two seasons, killing all opposition along the way.

Rest in piece, lads. You will be missed.

i think mine with be a player called moratti at 22 he was worth £30 million and was world class player. i got him for £2 million at 18 i think

As Blackburn boss I had a wonder Central defender called Sean Sim whom I bought from West Ham, he became world class and I sold him to Real Madrid for £63m.

Other players I had were:

Wayne Law - Striker bought from Yeovil for 250k, went on to score 30+ goals each season before Arsenal bought him for £38m

Alfonso Bulletti - bought for £1m as an 18 year old, sold by my board a year later to Inter for a paltry £18m - went on to be world class

Most of my Golden Squad, either the first few years of regens were the best or I was lucky to find some of the best in the space of a few years as teens or early 20's.

Telmo Pereira- Portuguese DM, an early youth signing, and the only person to become at 1st teamer at 17. Like a DM Cristiano Ronaldo, sadly wanted to leave in the end so could have stayed longer then 12 years, but by then the Golden Squad era was about to end anyway

Anders Anderson- Norwegian AMC/R, one of the very 1st regens (winter of 1st season, being norwegian), bought relatively late as 23, had a terrible 1st year or so with great free kick skills not in evidence, they soon were and both as a MC and right winger became one of my most solid players, long time captain and one of the greatest legends I've ever had, only player to retire for me (as opposed to letting the contract run out) and has been one of my coaches ever since. Always use him as an example of why players should give players at least a season, and why I rarely get rid of players without at least a 2nd season.

Sami Mubarak - UAE Fullback/Wing back, played for a record-equaling 16 seasons, unspectacular but very good, won my 1st title in his 1st season, was there though out all the Golden Squad era and finished his club career with the 1st win of the so called Silver Squad, which was his 11th. Also finally reached the world cup that summer and made the 2nd round, a fitting way to go out.

Slobodan Manic - Serb AMC/L. One of those amazing young players you see and know you absolutely had to have. Only the fact I've been traditionally well blessed in the left wing area stopped me buying his a year or 2 previously, and if I had he'd have the outright longevity record as opposed to sharing it with Mubarak. Had injuries in the early years and was also competing with an established excellent english regen, but when he wanted to leave that left Manic to rule the left wing, though ironically on the few occasions I had to switch him to AMC (his 'natural' position) he didn't do very well. Record appearance holder and the last of the Golden squad to leave, just a season ago in the game.

Georgi Mustafi- Macedonian AMC, the magical Macedonian of the center midfield essentially pushed Andersen to the right wing and is statistically the best player I've ever had (just .02 ahead of Andersen). Joint top scoring midfielder (You've probably gathered who with) with 140, amazing.

Antonis Koutroumanos -Greek ST, last one I promise, arrived near the back end of the legendary '6 in a row' so not technically 'golden'. Cost a fortune to nick him from Arsenal but ended up (having only just been released at 34) just 3 games off Manic's appearance record and clear top scorer with 340 in 478 games, 85 ahead of the next best highest scorer and having played only 19 games more, even in his last season he started off as prolific as ever, even if his performances had dropped quite a bit late on, sadly injured in the early stages of his last ever match.

Could have been so many more, but I've probably bored people enough. I had a very special bunch of players though. the 10 year 'Golden' era saw 8 titles in 10 years, with all but the 1st of the '6 in a row' being complete dominations, and 6 CLs (inc 3 in a row) you'd feel fond of so many players like that as well. Never been in one place for anywhere near as long before or had such success so I'm sure you'll forgive me my nostalgic indulgance. actually stopped playing that save for a while at Mubarak's retirement but have forged on since with another brilliant (yet not quite so special) generation. Definitely the best I've ever had and probably will ever have. *salutes*

David Wood (ST, USA)

I signed him for my Milan side after he scored 35 league goals in 38 games for Lecce, who still ended up getting relegated. He went on to be my main striker for about 10 years, smashing the all time goal record for Milan and eventually becoming the highest scorer I've ever had on FM. Unfortunately, he couldn't break the 100 mark for his country, ending up on 97 goals in around 150 caps.

I didn't go on FM09 for a few week in anticipation of the FM10 demo, but then decided to have one last go and see if I could play until he hung up his boots. 2 rushed seasons, and just 6 goals from a declining Wood, later, I finally got the message that the legend had retired. About an hour after this, the FM10 demo was released.

Since then the save game has corrupted, but I will always know that it was saved for the last time displaying the goodbye message for my best ever player. :*)