Whats been your biggest high on FM?

Hey Folks

Bare with me on this one, I'm managing Hansa Rostock on FM11. Led them to promotion from German Div 3 in my first season. Trouble is all my best players have left in the close season (either contracts expired and I couldn't afford to offer them new ones, or, in the case of my best player, the board accepted an offer on my behalf), and I've had to fill the squad with has beens and rejects I could pick up for free to tackle the German 2nd Div. My wage bill has been cut from that I had last season in a lower division, so it's been a bit of a struggle.

I lost my first 5 games in Div 2, morale is low and my squad frankly ain't that good, but is the best i can put together with my budget. BUT, in my 6th match I've just beaten Furth 1-0. Might not sound like much but I'm massively happy just to win a game with this team. Probably one of my my biggest highs since I started playing CM/FM (around 99/00).

My point, I suppose, is what is your biggest high on CM/FM? Could be winning the Champions League or something more humble, maybe just winning a simple league game after a run of defeats?

my biggest high is probably when i won the world cup 2010 with Ivory Coast, but not just for that simple reason. In the semi final i scored a 120th minuted equaliser and then won on penalties. Once again in the final against Italy it had gone to the dreaded penalty shootout. The problem was that I was sat at home with my clock reading 13:15, and i had to be in the sports hall of my college to sit my History AS exam at half past! I knew if i didnt set off immiediately i would be around 5 minutes late and usually by then the exam starts with or without late comers. I had intended on setting off after the 90 minutes, as my team held a comfortable 3-1 lead with 70 mins on the clock. However 6 goals later and the match finished 4-4. As the shootout started reluctantly i had to PAUSE the biggest game of my life playing football manager which spanned back to CM 01/02 - and on top of that i had to run to college! Needless to say the entire two and a half hours I spent in the exam hall had my mind wondering about what would happen, couldnt really focus on 'how best would you describe the support for Thatcherism from 79-82'! Anyway 3 hours later and i was sat back in front of my laptop and finally was able to click that play button. As you could probably guess it just had to go to sudden death, but with the shootout level at 8-8, my centre defender slotted home the winning goal. Back of the net! ....oh and i got a B in my exam as well so happy days!

Becoming a St. Albans City legend:

Wasn't expecting a crouchaldinho post Where's Vermeer then?

Mine would be getting Dartford into the premier league and winning the FA Cup with them. Nowhere near the status of St Albans unfortunately, but I was pleased. It's odd that I stopped playing the game because I was so unsure whether to sign a player, that I just couldn't continue past the Confirm - Delay - Reject message.

Watching proudly as 6 of my players made the England starting eleven

Wasn't expecting a crouchaldinho post Where's Vermeer then?

Coming up next!

Mine would be getting Dartford into the premier league and winning the FA Cup with them. Nowhere near the status of St Albans unfortunately, but I was pleased.

That's pretty damn good if you ask me.

Before FM10, and my legendary and epic Saints save, the best I had managed was merely getting into Europe with St. Albans City on FM07 (UEFA Cup via the Intertoto), which I was still very, very pleased with. Bear in mind that they started in the Conference on that version, so I had one promotion for free if you like! It took me an age to make it to the Premier League. I kept losing in play-offs in the Championship (about four consecutive play-off losses!)

What I have achieved with St. Albans City on FM10 is by far my greatest achievement on FM (link to the career thread, if anyone is interested: http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/198105-FM10-When-The-Saints-Go-Marching-In-Crouchy-s-Mighty-Saints-Save!).

Take it you stopped playing that then? Hadn't seen any updates in a while, which was a shame as it was a good read. Read through it all in a fairly small space of time, and it was one of the better careers I've seen. Been wanting to get back into my Dartford one, but I might just start again.

My big high was back on FM06, with the legendary Danny Roberts scoring over 1000 goals for Braintree. Plenty of people have done it since but I managed to make a pretty big deal of it back then.

I've had great times with Dartford and Tooting & Mitcham since but Braintree was my first big story.

And dafuge too. In the presence of FM career thread royalty.

Take it you stopped playing that then? Hadn't seen any updates in a while, which was a shame as it was a good read. Read through it all in a fairly small space of time, and it was one of the better careers I've seen. Been wanting to get back into my Dartford one, but I might just start again.

I got to 20 seasons and decided to take a break.

It's more or less on hold right now but I definitely will come back to it because I have some great players who I want to come back to. I also have to see out the career of Michel Vermeer to see what he is capable of! And it is a dream for me, in the long-term, to have a stadium named after me, which I've never managed on FM.

It's been a miserable season in real life for St. Albans City and so I've felt pretty sad about things and the negativity has ended up coming over to my save. That's another reason why I'm leaving it alone for a while.

Regarding the real life stuff, St. Albans City have had major problems off the pitch with an incompetent and corrupt chairman. The club were deducted 10 points this season for financial irregularities (not playing tax on player wages) and things just kept going from bad for worse as the club's board couldn't pay the players and cheques kept bouncing. It's a disgrace and an extremely shameful episode in the club's history. The club has ended up relegated but not due to on the pitch issues but because of the actions of the club's board off it. So, you can probably see why I feel so negative and how it has had an effect on the save and spoilt it for me a little bit. But I'll be back once the negativity has worn off! I have unfinished business for sure!

Yeah, I had some idea of what was going on from your thread and supporting the Darts in the BSS. I'm the opposite to you though, our season ended pretty well, with a 4-0 win over rivals Dover in the penultimate game. The sort of game that makes me wish I could get another season ticket next year.

I will definitely start as Dartford on FM12, will be at uni then and won't have more free time (unemployed and not at uni, so plenty of time to play FM), but should still be able to do a lot. At the height of my Dartford FM save addiction, I was getting through two seasons every 3 days. Did a similar amount in a TNS save as well.

For me, it'd be making the Champions League group stages as Limerick FC, in a LLM rules game which started in Ireland's First Division. Best result was a 2-2 draw against Parthanikos, although we almost held Real Madrid to a 0-0 draw at the Bernabéu, until they scored in the 85th minute.

It's a very fun save - I've played 13 seasons and recently won four consecutive premier division league titles, until the last season, where St. Pat's Athletic won 30 out of 36 league matches and comfortably finished first. They also won four out of the last five of Ireland's FA cup equivalent and have been consistently second in the league while I was taking titles. It's quite exciting to have a rivalry like that develop, just wish the game could acknowledge it by adding them in to my list of rivals (dynamic rivalries in FM2012 please?). In the last five years, most of my games versus them have been either cup semis, cup finals, or title six-pointers.

They started off as a far bigger club than me obviously, wanting to overtake them is a motivating factor for me.

On FM10, getting Exeter from League 1 to playing in the Champions League within 5 seasons, I will never find out how far I would have got in the competition because my hard drive corrupted before I got a chance to carry it on (or back up the save...). I finished top of tough group (beating Inter Milan both home and away) and drew Barca in the 2nd round but I will never know how the mighty Grecians would have fared at the Nou Camp.

I would have to say my current FM11 save is my favourite, with around 18 days play time so far, with the biggest high getting Palace promoted from League 1 with a record points total having only taken over in November, starting in 11th. It's accidently turned into a bit of a journeyman save, but I have essentially got myself (and team) promoted season on season. Started at Lewes as they were lowest club with the worst finances in England(as far as I was aware), but after applying for a job at Reading (by this point I had already got Lewes into the football league & wanted to see what the game (and John Madejski) thought of my ability to work wonders on a shoestring, I was never actually going to take the job) the board said resign or face the consequences, I was in shock considering what I had done for the club, so I took my ball and ran.

I then ended up in Spain with Extremadura UD, they were bottom with 1 point after 15 games when I took over, took a while to turn things around, with very low morale and a registration system I was not used to, meant that I realistically had to wait until the end of November before I could register the new players I had brought in. Finished the season very strong and finished 12th which I was very happy with. Started the new season well top by 6 points after 7 games or so. Then Palace came calling. Signed very few players and just made do with what I had inherited (apart from Stephen Dobbie on a free and a couple of loanees.) Won the league with 4 games to go and finished with 107 points and 107 goals scored (I conceded less than 40 I'm pretty sure).

The biggest high (other than getting promoted season on season (by either promotion or moving to a bigger club)) of this save is that things have finally clicked with using the TC over classic tactics, I have also changed style at each club I've been at rather than just copying and pasting a tactic ala Sam Allardyce and built a tactic around what I had available which is something I have never really done before.

p.s. Apologies for the essay, I got to the point in the end!

Biggest high for me was in FM09, winning the Champions League for the first time with Villa.

The scene: Villa vs Inter. Well into extra time with the scores poised at 1-1 after a barnstorming end-to-ender. We were down to 10-men after someone (can't remember who) was sent off in the dying minutes of normal time. Inter had a break only to be denied by the post, with the ball bouncing about 30 yards out to the feet of late sub Giles Barnes who then went on a lungbusting run down the right of the pitch leaving several tired Inter legs in his wake before cutting inside and SLAMMING the ball into the top-left, leaving the keeper stranded. The next couple of minutes were spent with every man behind the ball, until the whistle went. I went absolutely mental!

Needless to say, Giles Barnes in FM09 is probably my favourite ever FM player.

Actually, thinking about it, it could have been FM08...

Finally winning the FA Cup. 12 years after taking over Middlesbrough, having lost in 2 League Cup finals, and 4 FA Cup finals in the last 6 seasons, we won it at the 5th attempt, a romping 3-0 win over Man Utd.

The wait was worth it!

Playing as Arsenal once, I when throughout a whole season without one single loss in any competition. I won the Carling cup, The FA cup, the champions league and the Premiership.

Winning the African Champions League with Ismaily on fm10, this crowned my overall achievement of winning all six continental competitions in one journey man save.

I'd love to have a bash at your challenge AB and I certainly would do if my computer wasn't so rubbish!

Maybe if I get a new machine capable of loading a few leagues, I'll give your challenge a shot!

This match

Watching my sunderland team beat newastle at st james park 3 - 0 which was enjoyable considering what happened in real life at newcastle.

A match against ManU. Wherein they scored two ridiculous goals because Saints CBs and GK ignored the ball and let Hernandez run between my defenders to collect loose balls and score. Twice.

Then my young playmaker set Mattia Destro free in the box: 1-2.

Then we had a goal ruled offside despite being a yard on according to the replay with those coloured bars laid across.

Then we got a penalty after their player clearly played the ball. 2-2

Then we scored after a beautiful passed through move. 3-2

Then they had a too close to call offside rule out a decent goal.

Then David Hoilett charged from my half past 3 players and put us 4-2 ahead.

Then they had another too close to call offside rule out an excellent goal.

Then Rooney shrugged off a CB and put a hole in the back of the net from 10 yards: 88' 4-3.

Then I literally could not watch as they had shots every few seconds for the last 5mins

Then the game ended.

Bizarre officiating and the most intense stretched defences for all 90 mins; a great game.

We deserved our win; ManU deserve a pitch filled with better players than the over-priced averages that O'Niell's brought in. Seriously ManU are the only team to come close to our spending (£115Mil ) over the four seasons we've been in the Prem and I wouldn't swap for anyone in their squad - apart from 31yo Rooney and 28yo Hernandez that is.

This match

How the jammy dodger did you get two penalties in injury time?

Good feeling beating ManU tho...

I'd love to have a bash at your challenge AB and I certainly would do if my computer wasn't so rubbish!

Maybe if I get a new machine capable of loading a few leagues, I'll give your challenge a shot!

Be great to see you giving it a bash it can be done with one league from each country but I like to run top two leagues at least with two countries from each continent.