I am sure this is why we all play FM

Mediocre season, hanging around the edge of the playoffs for the final quater, quite nervewracking...

5 games to go, must win all to have a hope of getting in the playoffs... pretty nervewraking....

Somehow win all the games

Final game of the season, need results to go my way and to win... nerves starting to be tested!

Go 1-0 down on agg in second leg of the 1st playoff round after 54 mins, really testing my nerves now!

Win the game 1-2 and head off to the final missing a few key players, hoping against all hope

Go down by a goal three times in the final, each time coming back to level it.. Nerves shot, spilt tea everywhere...

Sadly lost it 4-3 in the end but bloomin heck I have chewed my nails to the bone!

I agree. I have managed to turn Southampton back into the EPL level force they were in the early 1980s (2-8 place finishes). I actually finished 4th last season, but due to Man City winning the CL, only qualified for the Europa League (City came 5th).

I am now trying to make the extra step to turn them into actual contenders. This is proving to be a tough task. My squad is talented but young, and the rotation players aren't quite good enough yet to ensure wins. The team is 7th in the EPL, but only winning match after match by the tightest of margins, including numerous comebacks from a goal down. I won the League Cup (beat Man City 4-0 in the final), but only after a nerve-shredding penalty shootout in the semi against Liverpool (0-0 after 210 minutes!). I scraped through the group stage of the Europa League by scoring a 94th minute winner in the final group game to win 4-3, before going out 1-0 over the two legs in the 2nd Knock Out Round. With the League Cup over and now being out of Europe, I will be able to play my strongest team a little more often in the league, but still have 2 games in hand to catch up on before I have that luxury. I've just won the FA Cup 4th round match on penalties after conceding a 92nd minute equaliser at home, before outplaying them in the replay but failing to score. My team then scored all five penalties to win 5-3 (one to be taken).

I had to fight off advance after advance for my top players in the transfer window, while failing to land any of my own targets as they either didn't want to join, asked for crazy wages, or were priced too high for me. I've managed to snaffle a couple of out of contract players for the end of season exchanges, but will only have enough money for one key addition to my squad, meaning I will have another season of working hard to get wins out of rotation players. I know that, over time, my squad will mature into a genuine EPL force, but until then (an educated guess is 2-3 seasons in the future), I need to work hard in almost every game. Really enjoying it at the moment.

Well it turns out if you dont get grimsby promoted in season 1 they take 50% off the wage bill, I had only added about 3 players and trimmed the squad a little so I was about 10k under the 28k wage budget all season. Even with this money saving measure I still was nearly 0.6 million in debt!

I now had very little hope unless I can purge the squad of the rubbish, sign some good talent to back up the signings I made the season before. I have not lost any of my top 5 players so next season should be VERY interesting indeed! I guess I should have either blown all the funds last year and signed more players in the hope of promotion or played the final differently.

The final goal was conceded from a corner so it was not due to my outfield tactics of 4-3-3 that got be back level for the final time and pretty much dominated the match.

The season stats also show a reason why I did not get promotion, scored 97 goals but conceded about 60! 30 more than 1st place with a worse goal difference!! My defence was abysmal and I will strengthen it for next year.

I love turning my Inter team into a force to be reckon with, but this time around I want to try my luck managing a mid table team or a second division team, but I seem to lose interest quick:( because you more experienced players are more patient then I am.

Oh God, I love this type of seasons, unfortunately havenn't had one of those for quite a while now...always overachieving

Oh God, I love this type of seasons, unfortunately havenn't had one of those for quite a while now...always overachieving

Yeh it is so much better to be mediocore at FM like myself. I did set myself the challenge of not plummeting Grimsby into massive debt and getting promotion all in one season, I was about 7 minutes shy of a penalty shoot out and the chance to do it...

I could have signed players and spent the 10k extra a week but I will leave you to work out what that would have been over a season. Considering I was shipping between 80k and 150k a month for most of the year on 18k a week total wage bill I think you can see why Grimsby is such a good challenge.

Mix in the range of players who all want first team football and you have what I think is the best challenge for a 2-3 season game. I think for 1 season you can easily get them promoted but the debt would probably get you the sack. A balance is needed that I did not quite do.

I am still considering starting again from day 1 just to see if I can do it better but now I know the players and know who I should and should not of signed its a bit too much like cheating for me

"I love turning my Inter team into a force to be reckon with"

Excuse me Interesti88, but don't Inter start out in the game as a "force to be reckon with"?

This is both the reason I love FM and why I sometimes hate FM.

Sometimes you face an injury crisis and your youngsters step up to win you the league with a brilliant run.

Then, other times, you've built a world class squad and your title destiny gets dashed by a team of no-name kids.

Another funny situation is when your newgen LB with limited ability runs as fast as he can all the way in the pitch to celebrate with his 'mate'.crazy. but its real madness the 'trial and error' period of saves in every new release of the game