Your worst managerial error of all time.

I have been reading a lot of newbie players making very basic managerial errors and it reminded me of the days where I too, used to make amature mistakes as a manager.

I was once managing Napoli in CM03/04 I believe and I signed a player for a whopping 40 million.

In the contract I accidentally signed him to a month to month contract and he was snapped up by another team on a free transfer the next day as his contract was "expiring".

It took me a very long time to get over it, especially since it was a game I was playing with family as well.

I copped a lot of stick over it.

Playing against Liverpool as Burnley (on FM07, massively overachieved to get into the play offs). My defence was slow, but I needed to try and constrict them by playing a high defensive line. Suddenly, I had a brainwave. I'd farrow my goalkeeper (Danny Coyne) to sweeper, and use him as a "sweeper keeper".

It worked brilliantly for half an hour or so, we even took the lead. But then they started to chip Coyne...

Final score: 13-2

Well, I can't really figure what exactly the error was but it must have been a pretty horrible one: on my first ever FM07 save I managed to finish 8th with Manchester United in my first season. Never, not to this day did I realise what went wrong and I'm amazed that they only sacked me after the season had finished.

I can remember one "mistake" though: in my desperation, I fielded a 4-3-3 formation, with three MCs with farrows and three strikers, against Manchester City at Old Trafford. We lost 4-0. Although it wasn't really a mistake, it was just desperation, a last, hopeless throw of the dice after no logical formation and tactic appeared to work.

Playing against Liverpool as Burnley (on FM07, massively overachieved to get into the play offs). My defence was slow, but I needed to try and constrict them by playing a high defensive line. Suddenly, I had a brainwave. I'd farrow my goalkeeper (Danny Coyne) to sweeper, and use him as a "sweeper keeper".

It worked brilliantly for half an hour or so, we even took the lead. But then they started to chip Coyne...

Final score: 13-2

I love this.... my biggest one was signing Andy Van Der Meyde, on any verion of the game, the guy is pants...

Playing against Liverpool as Burnley (on FM07, massively overachieved to get into the play offs). My defence was slow, but I needed to try and constrict them by playing a high defensive line. Suddenly, I had a brainwave. I'd farrow my goalkeeper (Danny Coyne) to sweeper, and use him as a "sweeper keeper".

It worked brilliantly for half an hour or so, we even took the lead. But then they started to chip Coyne...

Final score: 13-2

At no point did you think, "they keep scoring, perhaps my keeper is too far out?"

FM07, Selling Villa as he wasn't performing, no goals in 30 odd appearances (bought him that season for £45m)

I didn't want him anymore and went as low as £10m to sell him, Man United buy him, scores 40+ goals a season for 5 straight seasons for United..

I guess I've just done one that qualifies, at Arsenal I was getting loads of offers for my youngsters on loan, always a good idea to send them out so kept saying yes. Maybe I should have read the screen more carefully after it transpired I had agreed to let Denilson go to Marseille on loan for a year! The fans weren't happy and Marseille were in my Champions League group!

Got away with it as I finished fourth in the Premier League and got to the final of the Champions League, but the fans were annoyed for a while ....

Years ago while managing Lyon i didnt register any of my good players so i had to use my youth team in our first leage game against Auxere:( 13-0

Quite funny this thread has just popped up,I have been playing since CM97/98 and in that time made quite a few mistake's,though just today has to be 1 of the worst.

I am doing really well in div 2 and with 60 mins gone while winning a game 2-0 I decided to take player's off to give them a bit of a rest,70th min I go to use my 3rd sub CD for a CD but I see they are all still at 85 % so decide not to...well I thought I did...I clicked the ok button instead of cancel and ended up with my CD in goal and no more subs to use...lost the game 3-2!

A real head in the hands moment.

I guess I've just done one that qualifies, at Arsenal I was getting loads of offers for my youngsters on loan, always a good idea to send them out so kept saying yes. Maybe I should have read the screen more carefully after it transpired I had agreed to let Denilson go to Marseille on loan for a year! The fans weren't happy and Marseille were in my Champions League group!

Got away with it as I finished fourth in the Premier League and got to the final of the Champions League, but the fans were annoyed for a while ....

lol why is this so bad

At no point did you think, "they keep scoring, perhaps my keeper is too far out?"

Was just going to say the same thing. After 1, 2 maybe even 3 lobs i'd start thinking something was wrong!

I mixed up a defender and goalkeeper who both had the same surname. Before i realised i was 3-0 down in 10 minutes

Bought Jo for Stoke on a free, thinking I got the work permit, but I had to wait three years until he got a work permit. Waist of wage, but could play in the reserves

I think it was in FM05, as Liverpool, I had beaten Leverkusen 5-0 in the first leag of the Champions League quarter final. When it came to the second leg I thought Id' give my youth and reserve players a run out seeing as there was no way Leverkusen could overhaul that deficit. We lost 6-0.

2-0 up against Arsenal in FA Cup semi-final. I take off my two strikers and best MC with 15 minutes left, just for the sake of fitness.

Then my keeper gets injured. They scored 4 and I go home crying.

Playing against Liverpool as Burnley (on FM07, massively overachieved to get into the play offs). My defence was slow, but I needed to try and constrict them by playing a high defensive line. Suddenly, I had a brainwave. I'd farrow my goalkeeper (Danny Coyne) to sweeper, and use him as a "sweeper keeper".

It worked brilliantly for half an hour or so, we even took the lead. But then they started to chip Coyne...

Final score: 13-2

I did exactly this once, but when the opposition scored with my goalkeeper stranded on the halfway line I never tried it again.

My worst decision was probably buying Rafael Sobis for £35m, only for him to be absolutely awful and be on the transfer list after 8 matches. He ended up leaving for £10m.

accidently releasing fabian delph thinking it was rui marques in last years game

my worse mistake was back in 1996, when i signed pierre van hoojidonk turned out to be my first ever signing and my biggest mistake

Playing as Man U a long while ago, missing RVN from the list of players to be registered for the CL as he was off the bottom of the sqaud screen. Couldnt score a goal to save myself and got the sack for not qualifying for the second stage.

Usually involves Wales.

In FM07 I had a 4-0 first leg lead overturned for Newcastle against Inter in CL semi after resting players cos I had a title decider against my mate using Chelsea the following saturday. In the end I won the league and Inter beat him in the final

Usually involves accidentally telling the team 'Pleased' at half time... have lost many a game by lack of attention to team talks

Usually involves accidentally telling the team 'Pleased' at half time... have lost many a game by lack of attention to team talks

In the new one telling my players to not let their performance drop has been terminal a lot.

My worst ever decision on FM was leaving my successful Celtic team on FM09 to go and manage Arsenal in the EPL, got sacked within months and never got a top team again the rest of the save, just a string of lower league clubs that I'd massively underachieve with and get sacked from.

Championship Manager 95-96! Team was Tromsø, player Tore Andre Flo. Bid offer, 12 million pund from BArcelona, club biggest balance ever: 1,5-2 million pund. And I said no. To this day, I have never forgot it. I thought they would bid more if I only waited, never happened though. Always wondered if I could perhaps get a new stadium or something if I got that money, or perhaps buy a couple of really big stars.

I was probably 6-8 years old, and it is my first real memory from any CM.

In FM09 I got to the champions league semi-final, i think it was my third of fourth season as Arsenal, we hammered real madrid in the first leg 6-1... so I thought, 2nd leg all we need is a goal or two to kill off the game, so i fielded a mix of youth and reserve, nearly didn't end up getting into the final. We put 3 past them in the first half, and they grabbed one before half time (so thats 9-2 on agg, with 45 mins to go, in my team talk i said i was thrilled- huge mistake which nearly cost me!!). I sold Adebayor as soon as I became manager, I didn't realise that he was so fired up against me, the f***er scored 4 goals in the second half along with raul and robben, then they got a penalty in the 94th minute, I thought this is it, game over, there is no time to score 1 let alone 2, and to my suprise m.diarra stepped up and hit the post, the follow up went in from adebayor but was deemed offside... to say that my heart was pounding was an understatement, it so nearly gave me a heart attack.

Then we got to the final and played Inter, 10 mins left and the sods score, but in the 90+4th min with possibly the last second on the clock, who should score a composed finished- Henry (who was useless on his return to Arsenal and was only on the squad due to injuries)- pops up to take is into extra time, then with the last second in extra time, he scores a near identical goal to his first one, to win us the champions league and to leave me screaming in delight to the sheer bafflement of my family, and anybody else who heard my cheering (and swearing)!!

I love this.... my biggest one was signing Andy Van Der Meyde, on any verion of the game, the guy is pants...

Can identify with that one

but my own personal one has to be managing Shelbourne in the League of Ireland on FM08, won the league 3 years running but could make no headway in the Champions League, 3rd qualifying phase was the furthest I'd ever gotten so I left that job when I was offered the bristol city post, looking to take them on to bigger and better things, won the Championship in my first season and then chanced my arm applying for the Chelsea job (Never expecting to get it), but to my suprise they gave me the job. First competitive match in charge: Chelsea vs Shelbourne 3rd Qualifying phase of the Champions League.

Results over 2 legs:

Chelsea 3 - 1 Shelbourne

Shelbourne 2 - 0 Chelsea

Shelbourne Progress on Away Goals Rule!!!!

1) Couldn't believe it, my reserves that I played in the first game did a better job than my "best" 11.

2) Still had a slight grin on my face, redeeming my loss by reminding myself that the players in that Shelbourne team were all effectively "My Players"

FM 10: My right defender was accidentally set as target man, play on head... didn't notice it for half a season, just wondered why my striker never scored with his head.

FM07: Leaving half of the team out of the CL because I had set the filter to hide injured players when registering players.. I ended up playing in the UEFA cup next year :S

My first game was CM02/03 I think it was. Was playing with Plymouth Argyle and took them up from the old Div 3 to Div 1.

Not one big mistake but continually renewing my player contracts on long deals when they were clearly not upto Div 1 (Championship) standards and on what they asked for. Was too attached to the guys that got the team promoted 2 levels in 2 years. Eventually I got sacked for performingly poorly in the season we were in the Championship and also the wage budget was out of control.

Two main ones that have annoyed me really:

1. Accidentally subbing off the goalkeeper and not realising quickly enough during this year's demo. I realised just a few seconds too late, because Tony McMahon, who had been put in net by mistake, managed to not catch the ONE long-ish through ball to him. He fumbled it out to a Leicester player who promptly put it in to make it 1-1. Not a massive thing, but it really irked me to know that I'd cost the team 2 points as a result of a simple lack of attention.

2. Signing Vagner Love on an earlier game (FM 07 I think) despite the fact that he didn't have a work permit. I assumed I could just sent him to LKS Lodz in Poland (who I had as a feeder club), but he woudln't go, and thus couldn't be played after spending 7 million on him. Needless to say I gave up on that saved game.

FM08. Buying Nicklas Bendtner. Need I say more?

in FM08 i signed jeremey menez for arsenal, 35mil, i then loaned him to Roma, as he wasnt at his full stats and i knew regular game time would improve him as i had him in another game and he ended up being the most expensive player in the game, however i didnt read the clauses and they put in a 15mil future fee and signed him midway through the season, my biggest signing of that save and he didnt play a single game.

FM10, first season playing as Newcastle I made a ton of 3 month loan offers for players without realising the transfer window was shut. 3 months later it was January, the loans went through and the players turned around the left the same day.

that could almost be a bug, if you loan a player outside of the transfer or loan window the loan should start when you get the player not the date they accept the offer

Loaned in Tony Hibbert from Everton for my newly promoted QPR side. The single worst player I've ever seen in FM - can't pass, can't tackle, commits horrible errors.... worst decision ever and it was only a loan!

Loving some of these.

I have another one.

Me, my brother, my dad and my nephew have usually always played games together over the years.

Once my nephew was managing Parma and he was terrible at the game.

I was showing him how to search for players and found an 18 year old player who looked decent but nothing special and he wanted the player but couldnt afford it.

So I signed the player, and then sold him to nephew for a bargain price.

I also helped my nephew make a 4-1-3-1-1 formation which I thought would do well.

After 2 or 3 seasons, this 18 year old was one of the best midfielders in the world. Fernarud I think was his name and my nephews side, was one of the best in Europe.

My nephews team was now first in the league and I was 2nd, with Fernarud leading the way on the scorers charts.

I got so upset, I downloaded a save game editor, lowered Fernaruds current ability and lowered every stay by 1-2, just enough so my nephew wouldnt notice.

I then put all my players stats up 1-2 and put their potential abilties up to 200.

Come 3 games to go in the season, I am at home, my nephew needs a win to secure the championship.

My nephew thrashed my team 5-0 with Fernarud getting all 5 goals.

As soon as he won the league, he "Retired" never to play CM/FM again.

With Wigan some years ago, I bought Kikin Fonseca spending most (all?) of the budget. He was supposed to be my key player. He didn't get the pass but I bought him anyway, hoping I could make him play later.

At the second season he was still ineligible and I got sacked.

Mine was a few years ago. I was Newcastle and I was able to sign Zidane, when he was at the peak of his game. He came on a free, with a massive wage and I spent millions on his signing on fee. It was great, thought the Newcastle would love me with one of the worlds finest at the club for at least a year.

However where I thought I had offered him a year contract (after many offers), my joy went to despair when I found out once he joined that I had not. it was a month contract and the very next day, Zidane left me and I was several millions down.

Dimitar Berbatov:20 Million

I bought Berbatov in FM08 in my Juventus. Unluckily my main striker Trezeguet got injured(highest scorer of league after 30 matches). I had to play berbatov as my striker. HE WAS JUST SUPER DUPER CRAP. Didn't score a goal but luckily i ended up winning league by 2 points. I had about 14 points lead at top. All ruined by Berbatov... :thdn::mad:

With Wigan some years ago, I bought Kikin Fonseca spending most (all?) of the budget. He was supposed to be my key player. He didn't get the pass but I bought him anyway, hoping I could make him play later.

At the second season he was still ineligible and I got sacked.

I have Kikin Fonseca in my game, hes a fan favourite.

Mine was a few years ago. I was Newcastle and I was able to sign Zidane, when he was at the peak of his game. He came on a free, with a massive wage and I spent millions on his signing on fee. It was great, thought the Newcastle would love me with one of the worlds finest at the club for at least a year.

However where I thought I had offered him a year contract (after many offers), my joy went to despair when I found out once he joined that I had not. it was a month contract and the very next day, Zidane left me and I was several millions down.

Same as my initial post. Ha Ha.

Mine was selling a world class left wing regen for 40m. Sounds like a great deal, but my team just wasnt the same afterwards, and i was unable to find a replacement.

Loving some of these.

I have another one.

Me, my brother, my dad and my nephew have usually always played games together over the years.

Once my nephew was managing Parma and he was terrible at the game.

I was showing him how to search for players and found an 18 year old player who looked decent but nothing special and he wanted the player but couldnt afford it.

So I signed the player, and then sold him to nephew for a bargain price.

I also helped my nephew make a 4-1-3-1-1 formation which I thought would do well.

After 2 or 3 seasons, this 18 year old was one of the best midfielders in the world. Fernarud I think was his name and my nephews side, was one of the best in Europe.

My nephews team was now first in the league and I was 2nd, with Fernarud leading the way on the scorers charts.

I got so upset, I downloaded a save game editor, lowered Fernaruds current ability and lowered every stay by 1-2, just enough so my nephew wouldnt notice.

I then put all my players stats up 1-2 and put their potential abilties up to 200.

Come 3 games to go in the season, I am at home, my nephew needs a win to secure the championship.

My nephew thrashed my team 5-0 with Fernarud getting all 5 goals.

As soon as he won the league, he "Retired" never to play CM/FM again.

I am sure your Nephew found out somehow and reedited it to smash you... Man thats solid Karma man...

not watching Tevez's contract end and he signed for R.Madrid i was devastated

in FM08 i signed jeremey menez for arsenal, 35mil, i then loaned him to Roma, as he wasnt at his full stats and i knew regular game time would improve him as i had him in another game and he ended up being the most expensive player in the game, however i didnt read the clauses and they put in a 15mil future fee and signed him midway through the season, my biggest signing of that save and he didnt play a single game.

Don't remind me about menez, i spent a fortune on that tit in fm08 after buying him from portsmouth, 2 months in (thats roughly 6 or 8 games- of which he played 75% and we were top of the league (arsenal)) he requests to be put on the transfer list. The weird thing is he did that at portsmouth when he moved from roma. From what I saw he was crap, and he was damaging morale as several players didn't get on with him, so i offloaded him for 5mil cheaper, he chose to go to man utd. Although utd finished 2nd behind me that **** ended up winning the best midfielder of the year award.

I've made a hash of a lot of signings and also gone far too attacking and got battered.

Worst error for me was signing Kuyt on 08 iirc for £45m and he was awful.

Also on FM08, my computer was lagging big time, and i started a match (i use the drag and drop method) and somehow clichy ended up in goal, i only realised at half time when we were 4-0 down against someone like west brom, i think we got hammered as the team never recovered in the game

I am sure your Nephew found out somehow and reedited it to smash you... Man thats solid Karma man...

Definately!

My biggest mistake was in FM09, sold a promising regen i picked up for €5M when he was 16 and then when he was 18/19 I sold him to arsenal for part exchange of Gai Assulin. He was good and I knew my player had serious potential and was very good for his age but I thought he was abit lazy and didnt have great creativity. My club, Hibs, reputation had jumped from national to worldwide because of a sugar daddy and my coaches didnt rate him as highly star wise I suppose

Within 6 months, that promising player a worldwide renowned wonderkid and I flogged Gai Assulin to Juventus for €30M, His stats had exploded and I felt sick. I still dont know what I was thinking!

Excellent Thread OP, very original and very funny reading other peoples amateurish mistakes.

Back in the day, i was very prone to going way over board on the old free transfer signings when players contracts were nearing an end. I would end up with up to 20 odd new players all with insanely high wages, and many of whom were no improvement on my original squad. I then had to spend the remainder of the summer season trying to shift the players on, inevitably leading to failure, and letting them rot in the reserves and crushing my finances. Nowadays, i delay every time, then compare thoroughly before i make my decision.

On FM09 playing as the mighty spurs corluka became the heart of my defense, every big club was after him. I had it set to reject all offers and the max asking value. Valencia was one of the many clubs chasing him and I Couldnt miss the opportunity to try and get a swap deal going for Silva. So I removed the asking price hoping they would put in a bid which I could renegotiate. To my horror the offers of 30+mil went to around 12mil and my chairman Mr Levy accepted a bid from Juventus which Corluka gladly accepted and I lost my best CB/RB, luckily I had an amazing backline of Zapata and Sakho so i managed just fine but I was still gutted and my team was unhappy that i sold him, Modric even requested to be transfer listed.