Your debut season.

I know there's a similar thread to this but i thought it would be good to compare results and tables to gauge how everyones getting on.

I have to say in my first season i scored a lot more in the second half of the season, in fact if i'd scored as many as in the first it would have been about right on the goal front.

After many 1-0's and one 5-0 things picked up, i achieved a multitude of results including 3-0's, 4-1's, 3-2's, 2-2's etc, quite a lot of 2-0's and 1-0's though.

I only signed three youngsters at the start despite having 32M to spend,

They were, Rodney Sneijder, Victor Moses and Rui Fonte (should have already been there really)

Amazingly, Almunia only conceded 23 goals in 63 matches.

In the end i cruised to the League, and won the FA Cup and Champions League to complete the treble.

The top five looked like this.

----------------P----W----D----L----F----A----Gd----Pts--

1.Arsenal-------38---31----4----3---55---13----42----97---

2.Chelsea------38----21---14---3---79----33---46----77---

3.Liverpool-----38----22----8---8---84----45----39---74---

4.Man City-----38----21---11---6---72----72---36----74---

5.Man Utd-----38----18----14--6---58----29----29----68---

As you can see i scored 37 goals in the second half of the season as opposed to 18 in the first, so it did get better!

Also City pipping Utd to fourth was kinda funny! Not for the Utd fans, obviously.

Overall i'm really starting to enjoy this!

The 2d pitch is good, and adds something extra to the whole experience, i have it on extended highlights, that way you don't know if it's going to be a goal, whereas on key highlights it always is!

I'll probably put an update for the beginning of my next season soon.

Feel free to add your own stats and tables.

Well, seen as how no-one else is gonna post i'll put an update for the beggining of season 2.

I was given 63M to spend so i thought i'd better buy a couple of players.

Players Out:

Phillipe Senderos - 6.75M

Amaury Bishcoff - 6M

Merida, Traore, Sneijder, Ramsey, Randall, Fonte, Nordtveit, Djourou, Lansbury, Barazite, Mannone - all loaned out.

Players In:

Henri Saivet - Free

Sebastian Giovinco - Free

Patrick Vieira - 6.75M, couldn't resist bringing him back home, what a player

Francisco Guillermo Ochoa - 12.75M

My first few results are:

2 - 0 vs Ajax

1 - 0 vs Blackburn

2 - 0 vs West Ham

1 - 0 vs Everton

3 - 0 vs Bolton

So i'm going well and i won the Community Shield, and the Euro Super Cup.

I'll post my Luton season up later when I'm near my PSP darn Notts County wrecked my Play-Off chances. If it weren't for the points deduction I would have got auto promotion Great 3-5-2 Tactic from the 08 tactic thread did it

what leagues have you got playing COTA?

Just England mate, i won't leave the Arsenal post so i thought i may as well have every player available.

yeah ive done that as well with Utd, wanted to try both

My first season was with Stevenage for the forth year in a row and in the first season i achieved....

....

Champions of the Blue Square Prem (won with 8 games spare) (won with 122 points)

Winners of the FA Trophy

Winners of the Setanta Shield

also 2nd round losers in the FA Cup (cant win them all lol)

signings wise i managed to get Henrik Larsson to sign for me in Jan and a few others including John Oster (but he left after the end of the season)

i managed to sign 17 year old Eyal Golasa on a free and is now worth 1.5mil

End of season Stats:

Played: 62

Won: 52 (83.9%)

Drew: 7 (11.3%)

Lost: 3 (4.8%)

Scored: 184 (2.97 p/m)

Conceded: 34 (0.55 p/m

Players Brought: 20 (275k)

Players Sold: 8 (350k)

Manager Points: 456

Overall a great season mainly thanks to my amazing transfer dealings

I'm halfway through season two and the goal situation is much better, i've scored more than double the amount this time last season but still conceded hardly any.

Bringing in Vieira has worked a treat as he's now captaining the side, and regularly turns in performances of 8 or 9.

I'm still unbeaten in the league and going very nicely!

The top five are,

----------------P----W----D----L----F----A----Gd----Pts--

1.Arsenal-------20---17----3----0---42----6----36----54---

2.Chelsea-------21---16----2----3---42---12----30----50--

3.Man City------21---14----3----4---41---13----28----45--

4.Man Utd------20----11---5----4---31----18---13----38---

5.Liverpool------21----9----8----4---27----17---10----35---

So as you can see it's a much improved situation, i think it's more realistic tbh, who ever scores like a hundred goals in a season in real life anyway?

I'm really enjoying it now and i like the 2d highlights, they be a bit dodgy sometimes but it definately adds to the gaming experience!

I'll post my end of season results later....

EDIT: I also sold Almunia to Werder Bremen for 6 million, Ochoa's only conceded 6 goals in 36 appearances, i went in for Akinfeev but City bid 30.5 million for him and i'm not getting ripped off!

Ochoa's absolute quality though, i'd recommend him to anyone who can afford it!

My 1st Season With Man Utd.

Won the League comfortably with 10 Points, With City 2nd, Liverpool 3rd and Arsenal 4th and Chelsea 5th

Went out in Quarters of Champions league

Same in the Fa Cup went out in the 3rd round

and went out in the legue cup in the 4th round.

Cup wise Dissapointing season.

Bought Barry for 24M and Arsharvin for 20M.

Arsharvin was Crap but Barry Proved to be a good signing.

Sold Fletcher to Juve for 10M and Park to Portsmouth for 8M.

O and Newcastle got Relegated

Im in my second season and Signed Ramos for 24M and Marcino for 22M. Also Marko Marin for 15M.

Sold O Shea for 5M to Borough and Martin for 3M to Pompey and Evans for 7.5M to A.Madrid

Started off well 1st in league and in November and still in all Competitions.

Ok so i've finished my second season and almost swept the board, i won the League, League Cup and FA Cup, as well as the Euro Super Cup.

I got knocked out in the Champions League Semi's by Liverpool, who went on to beat Chelsea in the final!

The goal situation is much better and yet again i conceded hardly any goals, i only lost once in the league and Ochoa let in a paultry 16 goals in 64 matches!

Anyway, the league top five.

----------------P----W----D----L----F----A----Gd----Pts--

1.Arsenal-------38---31----6----1---74---13----61----99---

2.Chelsea-------38---27----6----5---78---21----57----88--

3.Man City------38---20---11---10---65---29----36----71--

4.Man Utd------38----20---8----10---55---32----23----68--

5.Tottenham----38---19----8----11---63---50----13----65--

In the end it was between us and Chelsea, the other teams dropped well off pace!

I scored nearly 20 more goals than last season so not bad going.

I'm gonna have a bit of a clear out over the summer as my squads way too big, not everyone can play.

I'll do another update soon.

A lot

Villa for me, finished 3rd behind arsenal and chelsea with man city 4th, no champions league for man utd or liverpool!!, i'm so happy for gareth barry!!!!!! Also won the uefa cup and only made two signings - fantastic! Signed julio cruz who scored 26 and signed paolo ferreira.

what tactic are you using COTA?

I'm using a 4-4-2 with a couple of runs put in,

Attacking mentality, pressing on, short passing, as well as a few individual player insturctions.

A pretty straight forward tactic, seems to work pretty well, good attack, great defence!

have you got your 2 wingers making forward runs? thats how ive got mine

Yeah, i've got them making runs into the box though, with both my central midfielders taking long shots.

I set my CB's and CM's on man marking, and my LB&RB and LM&RM on zonal, the forwards on none.

Hardly concede any.

are you playing counter attack or offside?

Nope, OT, CA and MBH are all set to no.

Tacklings on Normal as well.

i always play normal tackling but have CM set to hard

Yeah same here, seems to add that bit of grit in midfield.

I kinda looked at several succesful tactics including, Jambos, the bugels etc and just developed it from there, it worked nicely in 08 and so far has done very nicely in 09, i think the key in this one is to try to stick to one tactic mostly, the team seems to get used to it then.

ive got 2 games going, one using my 424 tactic with a few tweaks and im trying a new 442 tactic similar to yours in another.

Do you let players run with the ball? ive got wingers and forwards as yes and ive gave them long shots so they can have a pop if the opportunity comes

I've set all my midfielders to run with the ball, and one of my forwards (preferably the speedy one).

It works best with a good contrast up front, i like to have a strong, tall one who's good at heading, and a quick, skillful and pacy striker to make runs.

At the minute it's Adebayor and Vela.

How have you found Fabregas? He has been absolutely useless for me all season, apart from a couple of games.

You guys must have so much spare time! do you play it in your sleep!

I have only just started and about 5 games in (W1, L3, D1) so disapointing.

Mind you it's Crewe so no suprise really!

Q: Can you alter the arrows in the formation screen or are they all preset as you could move them on the P.C version i remember?

Yeah i kinda know what you mean, he's been dissapointing at times but is mostly pretty good, he scored the winner in the Champions League final in my first season, and then scored the winner in the World Cup Final for Spain!

He got 15 goals for me last season but only 7 assists, a bit weak for a player of his calibre really.

Still i'm not dropping him!

Despite my hick-up against United when all my good players were on International duty (there's another thread for that), I managed to pinch the league on the last day of the season.

A string of draws had me a point behind United going into the second last game, against them at Old Trafford. Scored first, but they equalized straight away through Berbatov. Then, 35 mins in, Walcott was sent off. Withstood a barrage for an hour to hold onto 1-1, but went into the last game a point behind. Arsenal away to Fulham, United away to Everton. We went to a 3-0 lead early, while United had a player sent off in the 13th. I spent the entire game watching the scores on the other games!

Everton held out for a draw, we won 3-1, and were crown unlikely champions. Also won the Euro Cup following the disastrous CL exit in the qualifying stage, lost in the league cup final and FA Cup Semi, to Chelsea both times.

CotA, any suggested additions to the squad for season 2? I have 48mil in the kitty, and unlike previous Arsenal managers I'm not afraid to spend it.

Have to say the squad was already quality, i only signed a couple of youngsters in the first season, Victor Moses and Rodney Sniejder.

In the second though i had the same problem, loads of money and wandering who to spend it on.

I wanted a keeper, seen as how Almunia's pretty old, i tried to get Akinfeev but then City bid 30 million and i wasn't getting ripped off.

In the end i got Francisco Guillermo Ochoa for 12.75 million, he was worth every penny, what a keeper.

Only conceded 16 goals in 65 matches, probably the best record i've ever had for a keeper on FMH!

I also brought back Vieira, he's still an awesome player and partnered Cesc well in midfield, got him for 6.5 million.

Depends where your looking to strengthen, i had problems trying to find weakness as the teams very good already.

Started my 1st season with Real Betis.

Main leagues-England

Second leagues-Italy/Spain/Holland

Started with 8m budget

Transfers in:

Tristan-free

Ronaldo-free

Appiah-free

Costa-free

Bak Nielsen-2.5m

Mannone-loan

Fabio Aurelio-5.5m

Hyypia-825k

Shevchenko-2.5m

Transfers out:

Gonzalez-8.75m

Rivera-375k

Capi-525k

Odonkor-3.5m

Scored 9 goals in the 3 friendly games conceded 0, just about to start the season.Im aiming for uefa cup with Ronaldo and Shevchenko banging in the goals.

Finished first season with Southampton winning The Championship easily. Won 35 Drew 9 Lost 2. Annoyingly lost in League Cup Semi on away goals to QPR, after beating Newcastle and Aston Villa.

Used my 4-5-1 tactic from 08. Kelvin Davis only conceded 9 goals in 42 appearances all season. Bought Ochoa for £8.5m in January thinking I'd concede even less but he did worse conceding 11 in 15. Hmm? Must need time to settle in. Picked up Ljungberg, Abreu, Lequi, Costa and Trabelsi on Frees at start of season.

Ok i'm at the beginning of September in my 3rd season.

I had a bit of a clear out as the squad was just too big!

So,

Players Out:

----Player-----------------Club---------------Amount-

Kerrea Gilbert-------------Bolton---------------1.7M---

Mark Randall------------Aston Villa-------------6.75M--

Francisco Merida--------Aston Villa-------------6.75M--

Tomas Rosicky-----------Valencia-------------12.5M---

Denilson-----------------Valencia-------------11.25M--

Nicklas Bendtner---------Valencia---------------15M---

Rodney Sneijder----------Everton---------------Loan--

Johan Djourou-----------Everton---------------Loan--

Rui Fonte--------------Birmingham-------------Loan---

Henri Saivet------------Birmingham-------------Loan---

Havard Nordtveit---------Derby----------------Loan---

Henri Lansbury----------Blackburn-------------Loan----

Armand Traore----------Blackburn--------------Loan---

Nacer Barazite----------Newcastle-------------Loan---

Aaron Ramsey-----------Newcastle--------------Loan---

Carl Saunders-----------Barnsley---------------Loan---

So as you can see it was mostly Aston Villa and Valencia, knowing my luck they'll knock me out of the CL or somethig now, oh well.

Also plenty of loanees, might make the PL more interesting!

Players In:

----Player---------Position--------Club-------------Amount-

Federico Fazio-------CB----------Sevilla------------16.75M-

Mehmet Ekici--------AMC------Bayern Munich--------Free---

Craig Morrison-------DMC---------Stoke--------------1.8M--

Carl Saunders--------SC----------Q.P.R--------------100K--

So i've managed to condense my squad down quite a bit, Ekici is basically in my team and Fazio isn't far off, he's Gallas' replacement.

My line-up looks like this,

-----------------------Ochoa-------------------------

--Sagna------Gallas/Fazio-----Toure---------Clichy----

--Walcott----Ekici/Wilshere---Fabregas--Nasri/Giovinco-

-----------Adebayor---------Vela/Eduardo-------------

SUBS: Fazio, Vieira, Diaby, Wilshere, Moses, Van Persie, Giovinco

Ive now finished two seasons.

1st season finished 10th.

2nd season finished in 2nd(3points of real madrid)

Players in:

Arbeloa-1.1m

Kuyt-250k(bargain of the game so far)

Kanu-2.5m

W. Dalmat-5m

Angelo-1.5m

Varvodic-400k

berthod-3.5m

Free transfers:

Foster

Schweinsteiger

Obi Mikel

Transfers out:

Nelson-2.2m

Appiah-1.1m

Ricardo-4.5

Nano-975k

meli-1.3m

Emana-2m

Xisco-1.5m

Future free Transfers:

Alex

Hart

Wilshere

De Guzman

I haven't started or finished a season yet, but I'll be hoping to do so either by today or tomorrow.

I'm playing as manager of At. Madrid.

2008/09 Transfers in (6)

Diego Buonaotte - 4.5m from River.

Pavel Pogrebnyak - 10m from Zenit.

Gareth Bale - 15m from Tottenham.

Klass-Jan Huntelaar(CLASS!) - A hefty 25m from Ajax.

Francisco Guillermo Ochoa - 9.5 m from America

Rafinha - 12.5m from Schalke.

2008/09 Transfer out (3)

Leo Franco - 3.3m to Aston Villa.

Sergio Aguero(Yep.. I sold Kun) - 37.5m to Chelsea.

Antonio Lopez - 5.75m to Manchester City.

And so far all my friendlies + ECC.

At. Madrid 3 - 0 Cultural Leonesa

Standard 0 - 1 At. Madrid [ECC Qualifying 3rd round 1st leg.]

At. Madrid 3 - 0 Cordoba

Standard 0 - 1 At. Madrid

At. Madrid 1 - 0 Standard [ECC Qualifying 3rd round 2nd leg.]

I faced Standard 3 times this season, lol.

My Champions League group is going to be tough.

Group F

At. Madrid

PSV

Vit.Guimaraes

LIVERPOOL!

Huntelaar is class! Pogrebnyak has 2 assists to his name so far!

Im Millwall, and half way through my season, and in 2nd place (Despite being predicted for 14)

Finals of the Johnstones paint trophy

Fa cup 2nd Round

But knocked out the 2nd round of the league cup.

Not much changes to the squad.

Just added Ched evans on loan from Man city, who is my top scorer.

I also added brian stock from doncaster and Andy Jackson from St Johnson ( good finisher for this level )

And jus got Sam hewson on loan from man utd, havnt tried him out yet, But im quite excited.

Im also workin hard to bring in bobo balde from celtic.

ITS NOT ALLWAYS ABOUT THE BIG CLUBS....EVEN THOUGH I LOVE MANUTD UNITED! UNITED! UNITED!

Andy Jackson is awesome in my game, I started a season with St Johnstone and won the 1st division and the league challenge cup, Andy Johnstone is now attracting interest from good championship clubs and i'm hoping to get at least 750k for him to aid my building for the spl.

My first season ended in great success after a rocky start. I decided to play as St Johnstone and was tasked with challenging for the scottish first division title with no money avaliable for transfers.

I was only able to bring in 1 player, Michael Dobson, an english defender who was immediately installed as captain at the heart of my 3 man defence.

The first 2 months of the season were uncomfortable to say the least and for a few weeks I was actually bottom before the class started to shine through. Inspired by the previously mention Andy Jackson and Liam Craig the Super Jays went on an incredible 23 match unbeaten run and finished up winning the championship by 12 points and also lifting the league challenge cup along the way.

At the end of my first season I was able to attract several new signings, Mike Mcglinchey from Celtic and Chris Burke from Rangers both siging on bosman deals and a young german goalkeeper also for free. Started season 2 flying and have only dropped points to Rangers and CEltic so far and am sitting 3rd after 17 games with a realistic chance of winning the title or at least champions league qualification.

Right i've finished season three, and have won pretty much everything there is to win in England now.

I scored even more goals this season and overall got more points.

It got a bit dodgy near the end when Vela, Eduardo and Van Persie all got injured, i had to put Giovinco up front with Ade for the CL semi's and final and the FA Cup semi's and final, amazingly, Giovinco stepped right up and netted 14 goals in 8 matches including 2 hat-tricks, a cracking total for any player!

Adebayor finished top score in the league with 26 goals, followed by Vela with 20, overall, Ade scored 45 in 63, not too shabby!

Also, to cap off a fine season for him, he won Premiership and World player of the year!

So, the top five in the league,

----------------P----W----D----L----F----A----Gd----Pts--

1.Arsenal-------38---33----3----2---85---11----74----102--

2.Chelsea-------38---27----7----4---63---21----42----89--

3.Man Utd------38---20---11----7---57---33----24----71--

4.Man City------38---20---10----8---62---37----25----70--

5.Liverpool------38---20---10----8---66---44----22----70--

Yet again it was a two horse race, this time though the goal difference was huge

Also Spurs didn't come anywhere near fifth this season, they finished a measly 13th

Anyways, i might start another career now and pick this one up a bit later on, i fancy a bit more of a challenge.

I'd also like to have a career spanning different countries, so i think i'll have a crack at that, not sure who to start as though.

Any suggestions?

I'd also like to have a career spanning different countries, so i think i'll have a crack at that, not sure who to start as though.

Any suggestions?

Annan Athletic

Oh right, probably should have said the leagues i was going to load

They are,

England, Spain, Italy and Germany.

And i'll start in the championship or something.

Oh right, probably should have said the leagues i was going to load

They are,

England, Spain, Italy and Germany.

And i'll start in the championship or something.

Try Millwall,tough challenge, thats if your up for it!

You should forget germany and have scotland and start in the scottish 3rd division, the teams there are REALLY bad!

Annan Athletic or Cowdenbeath perhaps.

Oh right, probably should have said the leagues i was going to load

They are,

England, Spain, Italy and Germany.

And i'll start in the championship or something.

For some reason, whenever I've finished with The Arsenal, I tend to have a bash with Southend.

Not done it on FMH '09 yet, but on '08 I had won everything within 6 seasons. Because of low transfer budgets, I had quite a few cheap South American players who's value would go up after a couple of years.

Did feel great to win the FA Cup while in the Championship, and against Spurs of all teams!

I found this smilie, thought it might entertain everyone, it's quality

Enjoy!

This thread seems to be getting more use that my season reviews one so thought I'd pop my first 2 season reports in here;

Season 1

Transfers In;

Vito Mannone 650k

Jack Wilshire 1.3 million

Rodney Snejder 250k

Tomas Rosicky 3.1 million

Transfers Out;

Jamie Ashdown 650k

Arnold Mvemba 1.2 million

Lauren 170k

Linvoy Primus loan

Jerome Thomas 500k

I became manager of the glorious Portsmouth FC, FA Cup Holders and all... I posted on here with a HELP ME! thread and it's fair to say I could not get going and at the turn of the year here is what the league table looked like;

http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m...anager/Fm4.jpg

Down in 16th which was then my highest position of the season! Out of the Uefa Cup (lost on penalties to Fenerbache) and League Cup and my highest scorer was Defoe who had just 3 goals in 20 odd appearances. I chopped and changed from 4-4-2, 4-5-1, 3-5-2 and couldn't even seem to get any shots away!

However changed my formation to a 4-1-3-2 so like a diamond but with the central midfield where the rest of the midfielders are and the wingers out wide and having forward runs set. I am quite pleased with as is my own formation, not something I thought I would be able to do when I first started the game. But thought about each option. I had previously used a tactic from 08 of easy one's but didn't seem to work with my players so started a fresh with thoughts in mind from what had and hadn't work from each of the tactics I had tried.

My season finished like this;

http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m...anager/Fm2.jpg

Considering how badly I started I am pretty pleased with my final position. I had got up to 7th but had a terrible last 8 games to the season...Had to have a grey keeper on the bench end of season as James gave away a penalty and got sent off and other keepers were injuoed...

Highest Average Rating; Mannone 7.41

Most Assists; Kranjcar 7

Most Goals; Crouch 14 in 44

My Player of the Season; Mannone played 29 conceded 31 aveage of 7.41

Flop; Armaud Traore - never got going really...

Result of the Season; Tough call...beat both Liverpool (2-0) and Arsenal (2-1)

Have managed to secure the following Bosmans ready for next season;

Kamil Zayatte

Daniel Sturridge

Theo Walcott

Michael Mancienne

Plus got the following players coming in for money;

Joleon Lescott 3 million

Asier Del Horno 2 million

and Ayub Daud on loan.

Transfers Out;

Linvoy Primus Free

H Hreidarsson Free

Djimi Traore Free

Glen Little Free

Kanu Free

Rodney Sneijder Loan

Jack Wilshere Loan

Hope people embrace this thread rather than shoot it down, time shall tell I guess. Use any old format you want, don't want people to think I am trying to muscle in and say here's my review now follow suit and post the same way.

This is my first team starting 11 now;

http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m...anager/Fm1.jpg

So thats my first season and here is my recently finished second season;

Well second season over and done with...still no trophies but after last seasons 15th, finished a fantastic 5th! If it wasn't for an end of season slump where I lost to Liverpool, Chelsea and Bolton things could have been much better!

Here is what the league table looks like;

1st Chelsea 74pts

2nd Man Utd 70

3rd Liverpool 70

4th Man City 65

5th Portsmouth 65

6th Middlesboro 59

So where do I go from here? Onwards and upwards, my summer signings have been;

Eyong Enoh Free

Klaas Jan Huntelaar Free

Jesus Navas Free

Alvaro Arbeloa Free

Owen Garvan 6million (his stats shot up last season for the tractor boys!)

Players Out;

Sol Campbell Free

Sean Davis Free

David Nugent 2.5 million (no goals in 2 seasons!)

Can't believe I got Huntelaar! Biggest disappointment last season was Rosicky only played 16 games because of injury but ended with an average of 7.36 which was pretty good..

Anyway my best XI for the coming season is going to be as follows;

....................James

Johnson............Distin.........Lescott......... .Del Horno

.........................Diarra................... .

Navas................Garvan....................... ....Rosicky

..................Defoe..............Huntelaar.... .......

Means Walcott will now join Wilshere on the bench!