My Dream

I know this is a little bit strange, but my dream is to be forever stuck in the UEFA Cup. I usually play a Southampton, Roma, Zenit St. Petersbourg game with dalliances with other teams that usually last no longer than 1-3 seasons. I have played this game for a about a decade now since the CM days, and I can never seem to stay in UEFA cup land. I always promote my Soton team every time. The lower leagues are all about putting goals in the net. You need depth at striker and at least one that doesn't belong in the league he is playing in and "poof" you are promoted. The Premiership is all about defending. Without two good central defenders and goalie you are going down. That all being said...I get promoted and I am a spot or two below the UEFA cup slots at seasons end, but every time in the year following I am in the Champions League. How can that be? I even won the league in year two in the PL. I won it over Man U with 91 points without a single world class player. The key after promotion is to accrue as many spanish europeans as possible in the midfield or any body that can pass for that sake and buy Danniel Sturridge and Danny Welbeck if they go on the transferlist at any time.

One of the big keys after promotion is to sell your entire roster. I know that it is painful and awfully unrealistic, but you will get the most money you will ever get for the players once they get promoted and you can fully retool your team. The championship is only about physicality and scoring goals. A coca cola striker will never score consistently in the premiership no matter who it is. The top league is all about defense, passing the ball well and playing on the counter.

My starting team was

GK - Adler (free transfer from Leverkussen)

RB - Naughton (transferlisted at Tottenham) he is english and he can go all day but otherwise than that he is okay...I had Corluka start in big matches at RB

LB - Didac (transferlisted at Milan) good youg Jose Enrique type spanish fullback

CD - Douglas ( transferlisted by request at FC Twente) Dutch/Brazilian brilliant buy this guy is a top 4 team CD. He definitely wouldn't look out of place at Man U. I was lucky a bigger team didn't get him earlier.

CD - Vertoghen (paid full price 10M Euro) Belgian I had to pay up for this player as D is what wins in the league he is also very versatile and can play with the ball making him useful in the first year as well as when you are team competing in Europe.

CD - Corluka (transfer listed at Spurs) Croatian, this is one of my favorite players. He is so smooth and composed as a defender which makes him a better fit for Italy especially due to his lack of pace, but I re-trained him until he became a natural CD, and he played brilliantly both seasons in the top flight.

LM - Royston Drenthe (picked up on a free) Dutch winger is really fast and has loads of stamina. It is great to have a player like him on the wings because he can play both an attacking and defensive style. He was actually a big part of the team because he was the short option on corners, so he picked up a lot of assits.

CM - Armin Bacinovic (paid full price 8M euros from Palermo) slovenian player young and good at everything. I like having a spanish style midfield and team where everyone can pass, and he is certainly a big part of that. His play was a little poor in the championship year, but he is a really good player.

CM - Glyfi Sigurrson (paid full price 12M euros from Hoffenheim) either footed icelander is a absolute gem. I re-trained him to play CM as his dribbling and movement and pace is extremely poor for the AM position which for me was built into a defensive counterattacking tactic. His passing and set piece play is FANTASTIC! He will also score ridiculous bombs which end up on the monthly highlight reel.

AM - Ben Arfa (transferlisted at Newcastle) French either footed with great technicals a perfect player to play quickly with Struddige or Welbeck on counters.

RM - Bryan Ruiz (paid full price 15M from Fulham) again one of my favorites for his size, versatility and flair. This costa rican is a poor mans Cristiano Ronaldo.

CF - Danniel Sturridge (he was released by Chelsea over the summer!) English, fast fast fast, very good balance as well. He keeps the good teams honest by making them play a deeper more normal line against me. Otherwise they would just setup camp outside our box. He also has a very good shot from distance which is great asset.

CF- Danny Welbeck - (transfer listed at Man U midway through the season) This kid is actually brilliant. Phenomenal physicals especially speed, but he has a lot more tricks than Sturridge with great flair and decent technique. a real fox in the box...Michael Owen anyone?

The loan ins for depth: Taye Taiwo LB from Milan, Jose Bosingwa RB from Chelsea, Mourane Chamak for two years from Arsenal,

In real life that is a UEFA cup team by quality. It is beautiful to play in the competition because that is a time when your team still relies on free transfers and shrewd value for money signings and not a pure accumulation of world class talent or the strangely unencumbered kidnapping of every youngster on the face of the planet with potential. Why doesn't the CPU do a much much much better job of getting young players? that is a another rant for another time.

Tactics are the lifeblood of a UEFA cup team. You constantly have to make adjustments for your opponents playing style and strengths/weakness's because you don't have Ronaldo, Messi, etc... who make everything irrelevant. This is why Portuguese teams do so well in this competition as well as their over reliance on Brazilians and easier league schedule.

The Champions League is a race for World Class players. I cant stand the game when it gets to that point. I set a tactic, pick the players and click sim. Then the process repeats itself over and over again...This is not a fun game to play. Team talks are pointless, team meetings are meaningless, cleverly using tutoring to raise moral at crucial junctures is not needed, tactics mean nothing...World Class players...World Class players and more World Class players....

I literally still micromanage every game tactically every first two seasons and live and die every game at the edge of my seat, but then it fades and fades and fades and I can never get past season 6-8. I want to manage players that I like like Corluka, Totti, Berbatov, etc...and still enjoy the game tactically.

Don't suggest the lower leagues either as I think they are even more perversed by the key player concept than the Champions League. Good players destroy the lower leagues. I have never failed to get promoted from a lower division because all it takes is one. I admit it is a cheap way to play, but it is equally annoying to see Nicky Maynard or Billy Sharp or Ched Evans put 4 on you. I remember Lambert in League One the guy was playing like Maradona for me.

I want to be Everton or Aston Villa under Martin O'Neil. A team good enough to beat the best teams on their day, but never quite capable of making the Champions League. Failure makes success so much sweeter...Success easily gained is not only boring but mentally retarding.

An interesting read, and one that I kind of agree with.

I'll let you have that dream, I'll stick to kidnapping talented youths like you state and making them into superstars.

its the common problem of football manager, that the game gets easier year by year~

Has anyone found an interesting way to play the game with personal restrictions like limiting the amount of players you allow yourself to buy in one season or money spent or not allowing over 48 months transfer purchases?

Has anyone had fun playing single seasons? Does anyone play the game that way consistently? If you do please share, as I am very interested in trying to get more enjoyment out of this game.

48months is absolutely perverse. This is what I did with Tottenham merely as an experiment:

I bought:

Mario Mandzukic for 24M

Edinson Cavani for 35M

Marek Hamsik for 35M

Fernando Llorente for 35M

Javi Martinez for 37M

Andriy Yarmolenko for 27M

Antonio Valenica for 20M

Leighton Baines for 20M

Mourane Fellani for 17.5M

Dejan Lovern for 16M

Martin Olsson for 7.5M

Sime Vrsaljko for 5M

For a Total of 279M!!!!!!!!!

I sold:

Rafael Vandervart for 20M

Tom Huddlestone for 14.5M

Michael Dawson for 10M

Aaron Lennon for 12.75M

Giovani Dos Santos for 9.5M

Gomes for 6M

Niko Kranjcar 12.25M (it hurt me to sell him, but he doesn't belong on the all world roster I was building)

for a total of only 90M with some smaller sales and loan fees earned helping that total

That is a difference of 189 million dollars! I spent 189million dollars in the first season with Tottenham.

Needless to say this team wins everything. I play a very simple 4-4-2 and they ravage teams. It is not pretty...4-0,5-1,3-0,6-2, etc...

We are all fairly smart guys. We find loopholes in the game like this and we exploit them to death. Whether it be the over 48 transfers, liquidating a roster completely, corner kick glitches, or the youth team stuff. It really isn't difficult to recruit 30 young players and tutor them up, play them a little bit and have a roster full of worldclass players. In real life this has to be the most rewarding thing a football club can do, but in the game it is a really shallow enterprise as it is the easiest thing you can do. Why does Southampton get a world class youngster every year in their academy? I know that they have an amazing history of producing talented young players, but I think their maybe too high of a skew towards them.

Why does Southampton get a world class youngster every year in their academy?

This was an issue with early versions of FM12. Have you tried playing a game with Southampton on the latest update? Is the problem still bad there?