My Villa Game

First of all Ill just quickly say what I think of FM09. I think its great.. although im lucky enough to have a relatively new computer and could imagine being a nightmare on slower ones. I think the 3d engine is awful and immediately turned it off at the preferences bit. The whole installation process was tedious and I was just waiting for something to mess up... it did I had to put my code in 5 times but on the 6th time it worked for some random reason.

Anyway Villa....

Im pretty basic when it comes to football manager, I dont mess around with training or tactics. I play 4-4-2 short passing, fast tempo, wide wingers and with training I hire the top coaches and dont touch it. To start off the season I let my assistant deal with friendly matches. They were all convinving wins/ draws against weak teams which I was happy enough with I just wanted to get them fit.

In the middle of this were Euro Cup games (inter-toto to me), where we easily beat OB 4-2 on agg and Slavin Bjiplo (something like that) 5-1 on agg. After this (during start of prem was a UEFA CUP qualifier to the group stage where we beat Dinama Tirana 8-1 on agg, including a 7-0 win at home.

With transfers I looked through the squad and identified weak spots. There werent too many. All I needed was cover for the team (what I could afford). So in came:

Rufete 575k Espanyol

Paulo Ferreira 1.4m Chelsea

Miguel Torres loan Real Madrid

Martin Caceres loan Barcelona

Luis Garcia loan Espanyol

Lautoura Costa loan Sevilla

Eidur Gudjohnsen 2.2m Barcelona

All the loans are for the end of this season and I wasnt payin any of their wages. However Gudjohnsen, Rufete and Ferriera did add on to the wage bill and I was now over my budget so I sold Martin Laursen to Sunderland for 3.2m as I had more enough cover in defence and he didnt have any pace (class player in real life though!).

I started off the season well enough but very frustrating. I drew 1-1 at Sunderland and beat Portsmouth 2-1 at home with Carew scoring in both games. I then went to West Ham where I was 3-0 up and somehow drew 3-3 with a last minute equaliser from Di Michele. I beat Hull 1-0 at home thanks to a Garcia goal. The team was looking good. We beat Middlesboro 4-1 to go through in The Carling Cup but followed with this up with a 2-2 draw at home to Fulham where again we through away a lead in the mast minute. Agbonlahor scored in both these games and he was starting to hit form after a slow start. I didnt really have a settled strike force as yet, all my players were doing well so I was rotating a lot. If a player played poorly they were dragged off at half time.

Fulhams come back signalled a downturn in form, we lost 1-0 at home to Everton (who were top), struggled to a 1-0 win at home to Wigan thanks to Garcia, drew 0-0 at Bolton, lost 4-2at Man Utd (Agbonlahor double but we were destroyed), and, most disapointing, lost 3-2 at home to Middlesborough.

So after 11 games we had won 3 drew 5 lost 3... not good enough.

We had a tough group in Eufa Cup - Hamburg, Valencia, Udinese and Dinamo Kiev. We started off with a 2-1 win vs Hamburg thanks to a Carew double. This started a great run where we Stoke 1-0 away, Spurs 5-0 at home to reach Quarters of leage cup, beat 2nd placed Newcastle 3-1 and Chelsea 4-3 at home (we were 4-0 at half time and almost drew again). Our strikers were immense during this with Gudjohnsen scoring 5 and Agbonlahor 4, Carew scored twice aswell. Garcia was playing well but couldnt get in the team. After this we got a good 1-1 in Valencia but followed this up with a shocking performance away at Blackburn and lost 2-1. We then drew at home to Dinamo Kiev after I put out a 2nd team, this now (annoyingly) means we have to draw away in Udinese to go through. We then beat Liverpool 2-1 in our best performance yet thanks to Agbonlahor and Garcia. However we then lost 4-1 at home to Newcastle in the Carling Cup quarters in extra time which was frustrating. They are 2nd in the league at the moment.... And thats where Im at with my game.

SO FAR:

Whole team doing well enough but nothing good enough to challenge.

Strikers best position - Agbonlahor 14, Carew 11, Gudjohnsen 9, Garcia 6 all scoring enough goals.

Im looking to buy some class for midfield and want to sign Diarra from Portsmouth who looks amazing but they want 20m + petrov and cant afford it. Ashley Young + Milner class on wings, Barry + Reo-Coker solid centre midfield (solid but not Diarra class). Our defence looks good with Davies and Caceres the main centre backs. Cueller is a very good back up, full backs regularly get rotated and Friedel is the man in goal.

Im 7th in the league after 16 games with 7 wins 5 draws and 4 losses.

I met the board target of League Cup quarters and group qualification in Uefa Cup, hopefully I will get further. The fans/ board are happy with me and the game looks promising. Im looking to sell deadwood such as Petrov, Harewood, Rufete (hasnt played 1 minute didnt need him) to get funds for better class player such as Diarra and the many good young players that my scouts have recommened.

I will add on the next part of my story when Im in March/April

Probably get more feedback/comments if you posted it in the AV thread.

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=58155

Yea have a look at the Villa thread

thanks i put it on the story thread...