Being honest here......

I find it much more fun and challenging to be involved in a relegation battle then to win the league. It sounds stupid but I destroyed the Premier League when I used Manchester City but I had everything given to me, money, good players, etc. All I had to do was send out my best possible team and I would win (most of the time). Now I am in the Premier League with Coventry City and I am enjoying it a lot better. I have to do more work with my tactics, try and find good players for cheap, and grind out results. I am currently in 17th place right now 2 points away from relegation with a few games to go and I am enjoying it 100%.

Highlight of my season so far is beating Chelsea 1-0 at Stamford Bridge with a 89th minute penalty from Freddy Eastwood.

I do agree, but it's even more fun when one season you barely escape the drop and somehow find yourself challenging at the top the next. Happened in my Wigan 9.1 save.

Challenging for the top? I would be very satisfied with a mid table finish with my Coventry City side.

Can't blame ya.

As always with FM, I got the new one for Christmas, played with spurs for abit, got fired, and now I'm scrapping my way in Spanish Second Division B. LOVING IT!

For me it's the accomplishment of knowing "I won that game because of tactics, and a couple of good free transfers"

Totally agree.

Although I have just finished my 2nd season with AFC Wimbledon as champions, my first season was a disappointing 13th. But it feels good to know I made the right signings with a £10k budget and developed decent tactics myself. What I found most satisfying was going from being one of the worst defensive sides in the league to the best by a clear mile. It just makes me feel like I did all the work rather than, as you say, buying everything in sight and clicking "I win!".

Now on to Blue Square Premier.... and I'm cacking it!

Agreed.

When the demo comes out and the time till the first/second patch I always play with "big" teams (ajax, At. Madrid), then after a while, normally around January I start over and pick a team in lower regions of UK or Spain and have much more fun in the long run then playing with the big ones.

100% agree! Im playing with Wolves on one of my saves and while we walked the championship, the premier league is proving much more difficult but im loving it. 2 highlights so far have been beating Chelsea 2-1 at home and beating West Ham 2-1 away, the latter because it was a 94th minute winner.

If only there was a concrete way of stopping the 'bigger' clubs trying to poach my better players...........

Tyler, I agree. However, it can get dispiriting in a lower-league relegation battle (BSP or similar) because your players are just so terrible it's hard to know what to do with them. Being the best can get boring - although if you set yourself new challenges, you can keep going. I played as Arsenal in FM08 until I eventually managed the quadruple with an entire 'new team'. Only then did I fail to find anything more to do, and bought FM09!

For the first time I stepped away from Liverpool to try the community Luton challenge. It was very demoralizing even when I was winning games (not that often) cause I just wasnt going anywhere other than bottom of the table. Im still trying but its january and im still bottom of the leauge, however Ive finally cleared the -30 points. Now thats been challenging

I enjoy working on a shoe string budget and trying to get success with small team in the lower leagues , rather than being one of the bigger clubs.

Same here. I started my game with Woking in the BSP. I have been promoted to seasons on the trot, now in League 1, and storming, currently 2nd after 30 games! It is tough to get the right tactics and good players - I recently signed Julio Cruz & Danny Mills of Free's... I am hoping to get promoted again this season, but feel that the step up from league 1 to the Championship will be huge.

Just beat Newcastle 3-1, two goals from Craig Beattie. Looks like my Coventry team is starting to become a real Premier League team

I love Lower Leagues too,

I took over Gateshead got them promoted from BSn in first season and currently battling Relegation in second season im in the last place but should be able to stay up if my players start performing well.

I imagine being Man Citeh on FM09 is incredibly boring. Sign all the best players, win virtually every match, doubles/trebles/quadruples every season...

It took me 3 seasons to build a Juventus team that won Serie A (and the CL) on FM08. In the next season I can already feel myself getting bored with winning all the time, I'm unbeaten in 38 matches and every few weeks I seem to win another meaningless trophy (Super cups, world club championships etc.) There's a much greater sense of achievement when you drag up a club from nowhere and have to scrape by financially.