Irrational Player "Love"

Hi All,

Do you have an irrational love of a certain player or players because of FM?

Mine are:

Clayton Zane

Cesar Delago

Adam Le Fondre

Pedro Munitis

Guillem Bauza

Archie Thompson

What are yours?

I have a soft spot for Artem Milevskyi after a save I had on FM10 with Ajax.

Roberto Firmino, followed me across the world on my FM10 saves, from North Queensland Fury's in Australia, to New England Revolution in the MLS, to Cruzeiro in Brazil and finally AC Milan in Italy. Even in Serie A, he still performed brilliantly for me, creating and scoring for fun. And it looks like this year he's been given a boost, so I'm hoping he'll still join me on a career save at some point

Nélson Oliveira. He is one of Benfica's hottst prospects and I always want to develop him into a top player. IRL I'm very fond of him

Roberto Firmino, followed me across the world on my FM10 saves, from North Queensland Fury's in Australia, to New England Revolution in the MLS, to Cruzeiro in Brazil and finally AC Milan in Italy. Even in Serie A, he still performed brilliantly for me, creating and scoring for fun. And it looks like this year he's been given a boost, so I'm hoping he'll still join me on a career save at some point

Do you follow him IRL? I followed Clayton Zane until he had to retire

Falcao who is at porto, love that guy xD

Do you follow him IRL? I followed Clayton Zane until he had to retire

Not really, I mean I check that he's still about and very occasionally have a look how his season is going, but I guess that's what makes it irrational, my love of him is based on his performances only in FM, even if he was c**p IRl, he'd still be a beast to me.

no pun intended but Vagner Love! In FM10 is signed him in my second season for wolves, he ended up making 275 appearences, 223 goals, single handedly made my team one of the best in Europe, i had an opportunity to buy him in FM11 but i do not want to tarnish his memory just in case he doesnt do as well

My FM player love is for a Belgian regen I had on a network save with some of the forum members from the stories forum. Scored goals for fun, popped up where you were least expecting him and single handedly won me an awful lot of games. He was to my Celtic side what Henrik Larsson was to Celtic IRL.

Mathieu Delvaux I'll never forget you!

Vagner Love

Hamsik

Andy Booth (pre-CM2 days)

Laszlo Varga, a young regen striker in my Celtic team is developing a very handy habit of scoring important goals in very big games. So far he's bagged a hattrick against Barca in a 5-0 CL group stage win and has just scored the winner in a 2-1 victory over Marseille away from home in the last 16 first leg.

Laszlo Varga

Miralem Pjanic

Ever since FM09 (which was the first FM I played).

Pavol Suhaj

Rob Haworth

Yaya Sanogo

Miles Addison

Danny North

I managed Wellington Phoenix on FM10 and they had signed a striker called Wisner. He scored a goal a game for me there so I signed him again at America(MEX), Real Madrid, Velez and Seattle then I brought him to Ismaily in Egypt as my assman, when I left there he became there manager. I have no idea how bad he is in real life or how good. I will at some point buy a Wellington Phoenix shirt and get his name on the back, maybe a bit sad but who cares.

Jack Wilshere,

Miles Addison,

Jimmy Kebe (even had him demolishing La Liga for Barca!)

mine was daniel opare.

Javier Pastore

Steve Gerrard Gerrard

He can pass the ball 40 yards

He's big and he's ****ing hard

Steve Gerrard Gerrard

Mine was always denilson back in the cm days, tho I have none now.

Falcao who is at porto, love that guy xD

so do i 158 goals in 207 games for me at ajax on fm10. also scored 18 in 15 for me on the demo at porto

Also gotta add Febian Brandy to this thread, lower league goal machine. He got me from the Blue Square Premier to the Premier League with Chelmsford City in a brilliant partnership with Marlon Harewood. Strength and speed that the lower leagues just couldn't cope with. He scored over 200 goals for me until we reached the hallowed land of the Prem. Sadly, Brandy's goals dried up in the Premier League, but he did score the winner against Man Utd away! I had to let him go as he demanded too much in wages, but then brought him back after he failed at Metz, and kept him until he retired, where he became a coach (albeit a c**p one) and then my assistant manager (this was at the point when I had everything set up so the ass man did nothing anyway). In total he spent more than 20 years with me. What a legend. Think I'll try and bring him in again when I start a save in the lower leagues. He really is the ultimate poor-mans poacher.

For me its Benjani, former captain of Zimbabwe, legend in my eyes, I buy him every FM and keep him till he retires, He has a crap scoring record but his presence means more

Speaking of the old days, Morten Knutsen and Andri Sigþórsson.

Also the unstoppable Colombian trio: Wilmer Cabrera, Niver Arboleda and Freddy León.

And, on a non-CM/FM related fixation: Rob Scott and Alessandro Birindelli.

More recently:

Lasse Staw

Tomasz Sokolowski

Christer Kleiven

Oscar Trejo - great time on FM08, wasnt a great player but tried to train him in my Juve team, and he just started scoring 20 goals a season, even though he was a backup player.

So many regens as well!

Michal vesely (FM08) - cost me 7k, and went on to become one of the worlds greatest strikers.

Miguel Mora (Fm10) - Cost £20m for newcastle, unbelievable winger, followed me to Madrid for £124M and won world player of the eyar 10 times, second best regen i ever seen.

Diego Rocchi (FM10) - 19 year old signed for inter for £10M I was there for years, he was there for 13 of those, (played 3 years without me before retiring). Broke inter's all time goal and appearence record, amazing striker, was like my son haha

Chris Sutton and Marc-Vivien Foe were amazing for me back on CM99/00 so they'll always have a special place in my heart (no distasteful pun intended, RIP Marc). Haruna Babangida was also incredible that year.

I forget which CM/FM it was, but I also once had Danish regen twins at Roma, one of whom (Rene Larsen) was utterly superb. Spent his entire career with me at Roma though I sold his brother on later in his career.

In more recent years, Nikita Rukavytsa has been sensational for me for Melb Victory in the A-League, whilst I also managed to snag Daniel Villalva from Real Madrid who went on to bang in over a goal a game, eventually gaining Australian citizenship and playing under me in the national side. I also had a Portuguese central midfielder on FM09 who I signed as a teenager and went on to become one of the best regen central midfielders I've ever seen. He moved to Europe for a little under 100mil before returning home for a fraction of the price at a later date in his prime (ily Sergio).

Lastly, I got young Ryan Bennett on a free in the BSP in FM10. He was young, and so was the club, and they grew together into the best team in the English Premier League, with him captaining the club from the heart of defense all the way up.

These are just ones that spring to mind now. Every now and then on the forums I see a name that brings back fond memories, almost bringing a tear to my eye...

Pastore on this edition.

Oscar Cardozo

Oscar Cardozo

and 3 italian regens : all strikers Stefano Mauro, Claudio Campedelli, Paolo Bartolini all of them got over 350 league goals for my beloved Steaua Bucharest

Peter Prospar lol, that's CM 98

Adam Virgo, though thats partly due to real life too

Nacer barazite I ALWAYS sign him for my Brighton team on loan then i buy him, and keep him for as long as possible. he always progresses in time with my rise through the league.

Babangida is a good shout

Nii Lamptey

Been signing Pastore for every club I went to since FM10 but this love isn't too irrational because im an Argentina fan anyways.

But here are a few irrational ones :

Tottenham's Sandro

Andreas Beck

Barcelona's Thiago (though i hate how he always turns italian :| )

On FM10 my Leverkusen save led me to love Derdiyok and Sanchez.

This year none so far, I've loved a fair share of regens though

These span various versions, some the last 4/5 games.

Vaclav Kadlec

Franco Zucullini

Sandro

Romelu Lukaku

I tend to 'love' regens more. I fight far more to keep them at my club.

Vaclav Kadlec is a great shout, had him on one version (09?) where he joined me at Dagenham and Redbridge in League 1, then followed me around my career, ending at Real Madrid and he was awesome eveyrwhere I went. Also signed him in one save on this version and he's still FB.

Sergio Canales.

Bought him as an 18 year old and he became the best midfielder in the world plus my captain. Bit of Fergie Giggs thing between us

Pastore now, far too many to mention from previous editions.

My FM player love is for a Belgian regen I had on a network save with some of the forum members from the stories forum. Scored goals for fun, popped up where you were least expecting him and single handedly won me an awful lot of games. He was to my Celtic side what Henrik Larsson was to Celtic IRL.

Mathieu Delvaux I'll never forget you!

You mean single handedly made my Rangers defence look like utter mugs in every Old Firm derby

Generally I tend to like regens more than real players. On 07 there was loads: Ali Salim, Onyekachi Adenkule, Daniel Crawford, Marenglen Xhafa, Guillermo Barrientos, Ben Bellamy etc

08: Ashley Chambers when he somehow managed top scorer in the Prem and won European Striker of the Year.

09: Lee Beevers for breaking the Lincoln City all time appearance record.

10: Mauro Garcia, the Argentinian maestro. Tony Wright: the monster striker. Axier Alonso and his beautiful placement for a DM and Angelo Lombardi - one career, one club, one legend. And I seem to have forgotten Riadh El Fechtali - the world's best striker and one of the world's worst scouts!

11: So far I've fallen in man love with Giuseppe Rossi. His 87th minute winner over Chelsea secured me the title when it looked like all was lost. Lad.

craig dudley

tonton zola moukoko

Ibrahima Bakayoko

Ishmail Miller

Notts County Legend, won League 1 and Championship for me on FM10 and kept me up in Prem with 16 league goals. All as a lone striker. Retired after becoming a back up player and now an attacking coach for me.

Lost his Notts County top scorer status to a regen called Casella.

in FM10 i had 2 regens i took with me to 3 different clubs, one was called matt bennet and the other was andy morrison, both were legends, i stopped playing after they both retired, it just didnt seem like the same game any more lol

From several versions back, John Eustace playing for Coventry. Paired him up with Tomas Rosenqvist (AMC from Rosenborg). Amazing together.

I check in on Eustace every now and then, but his stats have mutated over the years for the worse. Haven't found Rosenqvist for several iterations.

Vaclav Kadlec, Yaya Sanogo, Roberto Gandola

older versions players: Jimmy Briand, Mads Timm, David Bellion, Romario, Oscar Ustari

fm9-11: Xabi Alonso!!, Phillip Lahm, Thiago Alcantara, Hugo Viana

What a great question!

I really like finding a hot prospect and then seeing if he turns out to be any good in real life.

I have "Irrational Love" for Daniel Villalva, Cristian Zapata & Yohan Mollo. I hope that they become superstars of tomorrow

But it even extends to teams, In champ man 98 (i think) i was challenged to fill Monaco's stadium and since then I have had a real soft spot for them and have even been to the Stade Louis II to see them play!

For me a more retrospective outlook. CM 00 01- Martin Palermo and Kennedy Bakircioglu. And Maxim Tsigalko, Toledo, Jose Julian De La Cuesta and Evandro Roncatto, all from FM 03/04 I believe.

Robert Lewandowski, definitely! Mainly because i had never heard of him before my Napoli save on FM09, when i met Lech in UEFA, and had him score two against me. I've bought him in ALL of my saves ever since.

I think I would have to say Wes Brown and Bakayoko.

The reason is back in the 97/98 release of cm I played the game a lot and these 2 players were always great for me,I had never seen either play in real life but went to my work 1 day and we were talking football and being a young guy at the time suddenly said that Wes Brown would be captain of England 1 day and 1 the the best defenders ever and that the best player in the world was Bakayoko.

None of my work mates had heard of either of them and I really was just going on my CM97/98 experience....I think a year or 2 later Bakayoko went to Everton and did not do my praise justice to say the least and well Wes never got quite to the heights I had praised him for

I would have to say hulk, vagner love, and matias alustiza. Oh and Wes Brown.....such a great RB for me.

But I care more about my the kids who came through my academy.

In my man utd save on FM 10, my two favorites are Gavin Burton (18 yrs old) and Mohammad Al-Yousif (16 yrs old).

Gavin started out being all speed but when he grabbed 2 goals and an assist in his debut against boca juniors at 16, I had a feeling he may be something special (my coaches agreed). Now he just turned 18 and he banged in 14 goals this season including 2 hattricks, both against bolton

Yousif is my little Zidane. He very technically sound for someone his age. He's an absolute genius. He scored 7 goals this season

He scored his first goal against fulham and it was a beauty.

Both are gonna be immense.

Both of them are going to be immense and I know that I am going to favor them as I am also England Under 21's manager