My FM11 story (so far)

I played FM10 to death. Steam says 968 hours played, and I believe her. I have been an avid fan and player of the series since the early 90's. I have done some amazing things in my time, and from reading this forum I understand others have as well. I have also been relegated many times, sacked more times than I care to remember. And always, always, when a new version has come out, I have started with Manchester United. It's my club. I inherited it from my father in the early 80's. So it is only fitting I stear them to victory on the FM. Sadly, I have never been very good to the club, and have always been sacked within the first 2 seasons. After gettign it out of my system I usually proceed to become hugely successful with the likes of Solihull Moors, Exeter, Wrexham, Wigan, Ipswich, Wolves, etc. So here I was, on thursday evening, waiting for the clock to tick past midnight so I could battle the inevitable sack again.

My first opinion was that this club is administration waiting to happen. Huge debts of over 700 million resulting in monthly costs of over 11 mil. But a little money in the bank, presumably from the sale of Ronaldo and such. 17 mill transfer kitty had me thinking it was going to be a rough summer going up against the likes of City and Chelsea.

My first seasons was an epic rollercoaster ride. Won the league first season. Turned up my expectations before finishing 3rd two seasons running behind Arsenal and City! and City! and Tottenham. All three first seasons I bombed out of the cups against the likes of Bolton, Burnley and City!

Made some huge signings like Griezmann and Hamsik, fell short against City for Hazard and Subotic and Tottenham got Dzeko, brought in some real duds, like Defour and Lukaku (hard to believe the last one eh?).

Rooney scored 19 goals in the league before christmas first season, then 17 in the next 2,5 seasons... But he's hitting the back of the net again in the 4th season, thanks for asking.

I had a lot of moments where I wanted to tear my hair out, throw an anvil through my monitor or just curl up and cry. Because my strikers couldn't score to save their lives, my wingers and midfielders felt this overpowering urge to shoot as soon as they got the ball within 40 meters of the goal. My keeper was completely unable to judge the flight of the ball outside of the box, we "always" conceded goals in the last 5 minutes of "every" game, and the other team scored easy goals while we needed magic from 35 meters to get one. And we "never" got more than one. Etc, etc, etc.

Many other things ****ed me off as well. Like a youngster signed on a hot prospect contract getting so ****ed, and making so much trouble after getting sent down to the reserves that I had to terminate his contract. AC Milan swooped in and signed him, and that was 1.7 mill out the window... This has happend not once (which I suppose it could) but 5 times (unhappiness, not contract termination). Absurd.

Journalists have been idiots as well. Asking me if Rooney could replace the injured Macheda and make the spot his own. I suppose anything is possible, I said... Also asking me if we would have a handicap when facing Tottenham after a continental game in midweek. Normally a fair question. But this time, the continental game in midweek had been against Tottenham... At the end of the fourth season I was asked if it was an advantage to have a game in hand when I was 3 points behind Arsenal with poorer goal difference and 2 games to go of the season (for us, only one for them). Why would it be an advantage to have 2 games left of the season, instead of one? Either way, I named Arsenal favourites and ended up 2 points behind them. Damn you Bolton!

So I read all the rants posted here, and many times wanted to rant along.

But then I had 2 great seasons when my team finally started geling, my tactics had been tweaked right, and I found my rythm.

Finished 3rd but only 6 points behind City. Scored 70 goals which was an improvement. Had a great run in the Champions League which ended with us stealing a penalty win against Barca in the final.

Then things got better. We won the League cup. Then we finished 2nd only 2 points shy of Arsenal. Then we won the FA cup. Then we crushed Real for the Champions league. Joining Arsenal in the elite club of defending champs of Europe (Arsenal won the first two seasons).

Absolutely marvelous, and thanks to the demo, and many helpful posts in this forum, I have managed not only to avoid the sack, but become hugely successful. It has taked a lot of time (91 hours since release!!) and effort, but I have found the way. And it is tactics and matchday prep. And signing the right guys on free (we're just trying to hang on till 2017 when it says our debts are paid).

Hamsik has been a revelation for me, and is highly recomended if you can get him. I paid way over the odds for Griezmann @18 mill (but he is a useful squad player now). Robben is greedy as hell, but wins games on his own. Asenjo is a solid keeper with great reflexes. Saved us countless times.

And in the end, winning the champions league with a core of players who are at the club at the start is hugely satisfying for a fan like me. Evans, Vidic, Rafael, Evra, Hargreaves, Fletcher, Nani, Rooney and Hernandez have all been key players. And now I have 2 Manchester born youngsters coming up the ranks (one is allready an english national at 19 and replaced Rooney at the world cup when he was injured).

So my judgement is this: FM11 is a fantastic game. It has many flaults, but who doesn't? The added importance of tactics, the negotiations, new aspects of training (individual trainng focus) are all right up my alley. I think I will go play some more now. Important season coming up. We have gone 3 seasons without winning the title and that is way too much.

Enjoyed reading your post WolverineBrother. Thank you for sharing I related to so much of what I read...

I played FM10 to death. Steam says 968 hours played, and I believe her.

That's incredible. I have a full time job and I just figured out I work about 1500 hours per year. You played FM for over half that amount of time. I don't know if I'm scared or impressed!

You should check out the Careers Forum, if set out well, a story like that would go down great in there

Good post WolverineBrother and is this you?: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1326067/Man-claims-set-world-record-sleeping-968-hours.html

Great thread, very enjoyable read

This just proves all those people saying they cant score or win etc etc wrong, and that the game is much more in depth rather than buggy... although it does have quite a few bugs :L

Awesome post. Made me smile

Glad to see that you are starting to win some cups I am in my first season as Man Utd myself, I won the league Cup against Peterborugh 4-1, got knocked out of the FA cup to Burnley in the 4th round, I am in the final of the Champions League having beaten Barcelona 5-5 on aggregate and I am currently top of the league by 3 points and 3 games to go! I got a home match against Liverpool, which could be tricky because they are on a 14 match unbeaten run and scoring goals for fun. If I can beat them I am sure I can secure the title and then I will only have to beat Lyon in the Champions League to win the treble in my first season!

That's incredible. I have a full time job and I just figured out I work about 1500 hours per year. You played FM for over half that amount of time. I don't know if I'm scared or impressed!

Hehe.

I'll tell you the secret.

After a while of FM10 I got a little weary of matchday stress, so I took more of a sporting directors approach to the game. Meaning I hired the best assistant money could buy, and played January and Mid May through August, then holliday'd the rest. Signing players, deciding tactics, etc. This hollidaying was usually done at night, which meant the game was on all night for long periods. So I haven't actually sat staring at the screen for 968 hours.

But I have for 91 hours with FM11...

Good post WolverineBrother and is this you?: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1326067/Man-claims-set-world-record-sleeping-968-hours.html

lol

Would have been even more impressive if he had done it while playing FM.

Glad to see that you are starting to win some cups I am in my first season as Man Utd myself, I won the league Cup against Peterborugh 4-1, got knocked out of the FA cup to Burnley in the 4th round, I am in the final of the Champions League having beaten Barcelona 5-5 on aggregate and I am currently top of the league by 3 points and 3 games to go! I got a home match against Liverpool, which could be tricky because they are on a 14 match unbeaten run and scoring goals for fun. If I can beat them I am sure I can secure the title and then I will only have to beat Lyon in the Champions League to win the treble in my first season!

That's awesome! Let me know how it goes. Always nice to hear about United success.

Glad to see that you are starting to win some cups I am in my first season as Man Utd myself, I won the league Cup against Peterborugh 4-1, got knocked out of the FA cup to Burnley in the 4th round, I am in the final of the Champions League having beaten Barcelona 5-5 on aggregate and I am currently top of the league by 3 points and 3 games to go! I got a home match against Liverpool, which could be tricky because they are on a 14 match unbeaten run and scoring goals for fun. If I can beat them I am sure I can secure the title and then I will only have to beat Lyon in the Champions League to win the treble in my first season!

So, I drew 1-1 against Liverpool and won my remaining 2 games to win the league by 3 points with Aresenal runners up. I went to Wembley to play Lyon in the Champions league final and scraped a 2-1 victory. My first season sees me with my first Treble. I just released Van der Sar, Owen, Neville, Giggs and Scholes in hope that it would leave me with a really big wage budget to play with, but instead I only have 1.5m on wages to spend and 30 mill transfer budget. I just signed Adler for 14.5 mill and now Im looking for a good right back for less than 15 mill and who doesnt want big wages... I fairly comfortable with Brown and Rafael so I'm not overly concerned about that.

So, I drew 1-1 against Liverpool and won my remaining 2 games to win the league by 3 points with Aresenal runners up. I went to Wembley to play Lyon in the Champions league final and scraped a 2-1 victory. My first season sees me with my first Treble. I just released Van der Sar, Owen, Neville, Giggs and Scholes in hope that it would leave me with a really big wage budget to play with, but instead I only have 1.5m on wages to spend and 30 mill transfer budget. I just signed Adler for 14.5 mill and now Im looking for a good right back for less than 15 mill and who doesnt want big wages... I fairly comfortable with Brown and Rafael so I'm not overly concerned about that.

Nice!

I kept van der Saar, Scholes and Giggs on for as long as I could (until they retired) for sentimental reasons, but got them to take pretty good wage cuts after the first season. Now they are excellent coaches!