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[FM09] My Career: The Forgotten Half of Manchester


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INFORMATION

Year Founded: 1887

Status: Professional

Reputation: National

Legends: Georgi Kinkladze

Icons: Richard Dunne

Favoured Personnel: Shaun Wright-Phillips

Fierce Rivals: Manchester United

Other Rivals: Stockport County, Bolton Wanderers

Captain: Richard Dunne

And so it begins, I'm given a £80+ million transfer budget and immediately set about improving some areas of the team.

August Transfers

In

16.7.08 - Fernando Gago - DM,MC - £6M. Gago is a quality youngster and after being transfer listed by Madrid, I snapped him up. If it doesn't work out, I'm almost certain profit can be made.

22.7.08 - Alexis Sanchez - AMRL, ST - £5M. Again, another good youngster, hopefully we can get good performances out of him.

4.8.08 - Sergio Aguero - AM/FC - £45M. Potentially the biggest signing of this summer transfer window as we swoop for the young Argentinian. Will definetely be a first team starter for a long time.

12.8.08 - Dirk Kuyt - AMR, ST - £14.75M. Wanted to sign him for less than £10M but Liverpool wouldn't budge, so in he came for the amount they asked. Will replace Wright-Phillips on the right.

22.8.08 - Stewart Downing - AML - £15.75M. Following Petrov's departure, I needed cover on the left and Downing fits the bill perfectly, and in he came.

1.9.08 - Brede Hangeland - DC - £10.75M. A fair price for a great defender, a last minute deal and will sit alongside Richard Dunne in defence.

TOTAL: £92M

Out

15.7.08 - Shaun Wright-Phillips - Liverpool - Ln fee 1.6M. Wright-Phillips left us after I decided I could get better options on the wing. I figured it would be best for him to get football at another club where he wouldn't get it here.

22.7.08 - Elano - Shakhtar - Ln fee £1.2M. Again, I thought it would be best for Elano to go elsewhere to get first team football and he chose Shakhtar as the club for him.

12.8.08 - Martin Petrov - Newcastle - £8.5M. After a long interest in Downing, and eventually getting a bid accepted, I felt Petrov would be best off elsewhere, and Newcastle got him for the amount said.

Donal McDermott, Karl Moore, Shaleum Logan, Kelvin Etuhu and Vladimir Weiss all left on loan to different clubs.

So, here would be my preferred line up, playing an attacking 4-4-2

GK: Given (Hart cup games)

DR: Richards

DC: Dunne

DC: Hangeland

DL: Bridge

MR: Alexis Sanchez/Kuyt

MC: Gago

MC: Ireland

ML: Downing

ST: Aguero

ST: Robinho/Evans

And with that, we went onwards into the new season and hopefully upward into the dizzying heights on the Premier League..

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Thanks Nep, however, having gone 4 seasons in, it doesn't look great..

AcidBurn, thanks also. Kuyt has got great attributes mentally:thup:

Ched Evans was in my plans Saxonaitor, however when Everton came in with a good bid for a player who wasn't really needed there and then, I accepted.

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Thanks Nep, however, having gone 4 seasons in, it doesn't look great..

AcidBurn, thanks also. Kuyt has got great attributes mentally:thup:

Ched Evans was in my plans Saxonaitor, however when Everton came in with a good bid for a player who wasn't really needed there and then, I accepted.

Why so? I guess you have updates in the offing to let us know? :D

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August to October 1st

Pre-season was quite simple, we sailed past the likes of Feyenoord, Hartlepool and Oldham, however Ipswich managed heroics at the back by winning 1-0, despite our 13 shots on target.

We breezed through the qualifying and first rounds of the UEFA Cup, however league form was not so good. The team was not gelling together and try as hard as I might, I could not the guys to blend as a team. Injuries also hampered progress, with Robinho having a 4 month injury during preseason. Aguero only scored 5 goals throughout the period but on the upside, Gago was on good form and looking like a good signing. We progressed in the LEague Cup by hammering Doncaster 4-0 (Aguero, Downing (2), Kuyt) and Bolton 2-0 (Downing, Aguero). We did seem to struggle without the former British record transfer fee but we seemingly coped and by here, we were sitting a not-so-good 15th place.

Player of this period: An easy one. Fernando Gago has been unbelievably good and looks like a bargain buy!

October to January 1st

October started well with us delivering a continental warning: we were not going to lie down in the Euro Cup. This was demonstrated by the 7-1 aggregate victory over Unirea Urziceni, the highlight being Gago scoring two 30 yard screamers. However, we failed to back up our warning on the pitch and we crashed miseraby out of the group stages of the Euro Cup.

League form was still not great, however we were slowly making our way up little by little. We drew with Liverpool and Chelsea but lost to Arsenal. Lost to West Brom but beat Hull and Stoke emphatically (Richard Dunne getting 5 goals in two games!) We would be playingg extremely well one match and then the next, with the same team, we'd lose. It was all kind of confusing really, however we somehow managed to knock United (yes, that's Manchester, not Leeds or West Ham!) out of the League Cup thanks to that man again, Gago. December was a bad month, winning only 2 out of 6 games, against Kayserispor and Fulham, both measly 1-0 games.

So, the job status was becoming really insecure now with us hovering in 12th, however the board were please with knock United out and progressing to the semi's of the League Cup, so that may have bought me some time for now..

Player of this period: It's a difficult one, but Shay Given probably kept the score respectable alot of the time for us.

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May I ask why my title was edited? :confused:

There was a change in the rules for mentioning player naming because we think it is unlikely there will be any threads where players are not named, so we removed all the warnings from the titles (as it looked a bit silly).

If you want it changed again, just let us know here: Mod Requests

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Apologies for the lack of updates, I've been working throughout the weekend. And I'm tired just now, but I wanted to keep you guys interested!

January - Transfers

In

1.1.09 - Franco Zuculini - £625,000. A real hot prospect, will get the odd game here and there but is mainly one for the future. Could be loaned out for first team experience.

20.1.09 - Andres Guardado - £17.25M. Brought in because the majority of my scouts were raving about him. Is better than Downing, so that means I'm retraining Downing to play on the right, so he can maybe get more games.

21.1.09 - Gonzalo Rodriguez - £15.75M. A decent DC who can play alongside Hangeland. This transfer also paves the way for a few DC's to leave soon.

Out

1.1.09 - Dietmar Hamann - £140,000 - Bielefeld. Hamann was aging and definitely not in my plans, so I felt it was best for him to move back to his home country.

6.1.09 - Gelson Fernandes - £7.5M - PSG. Gelson is a real hot prospect and was in my future plans, however he was consistently moaning about lack of football so I felt he had to go.

10.1.09 - Donal McDermott - Loan - Accrington. Good for him to get some experience, however will probably be released.

10.1.09 - Javier Garrido - £2.3M - Everton. Didn't feature in my plans and I felt this was a good price for him.

11.1.09 - Robinho - £33.5M - Barcelona. Well, probably the biggest transfer (and potentially worst move I ever made) but Robinho didn't seem to get back on form following his injury, so I let Barca have him for more than we paid. The board weren't best pleased and I could hear knives being sharpened..

13.1.09 - Vincent Kompany - £7.75M - Fulham. Having set my sights on Rodriguez as a DC target, Kompany was no longer needed, despite his versatility, and I felt Fulham came in with a good enough offer to see him go.

16.1.09 - Nigel de Jong - £10M - Liverpool. Nigel really wasn't the best DM I had never seen, so I thought £10M was a fair price to let him go for.

24.1.09 - Michael Ball - £600K - Ipswich. I'm surprised I got money for him; a really poor player who would've been left to rot in the reserves.

1.2.09 - Nedum Onouha - £2.6M - Birmingham. Nedum wanted first team football, and, despite my best attempts, nobody would loan him so I let him leave for Birmingham, despite his potential.

Fixtures

Well, January started with the 6-0 thumping of Bury thanks largely to an Aguero hat-trick, and ended with us cruising by a weak Stoke side, with Rodriguez starting off his City career with a goal. In between, 1 win against Portsmouth and 2 losses against United and Newcastle respectively. All in all, 3 wins in 5 games, which, given our current form, was a god sent gift in my opinion.

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February - End of season

We didn't win any games in February. We started with a one-one to West Brom with Rodriguez getting his second in as many games, then a one-nil loss to United in the cup again. We crashed out of the League Cup against Tottenham, a team we faced and defeated in the 4th round of the FA Cup. We rounded it off with a draw (thanks to a late minute Downing goal) and a loss to Wigan and Chelsea respectively. Not a good month at all, leaving my job hanging on the line.

March arrived and we warmly welcmed it with a 5-1 thumping of Arsenal, with an Aguero hat-trick, Ched Evans and Zabaleta helping us regain form. The following match brought us bang down to earth with a bang, after Liverpool narrowly beat us one-nil and we ended the month back on a high with a 3-1 thumping thanks to an Evans double and Aguero.

April was a good unbeaten month, with 2 draws and 3 wins. We drew one-all with Sunderland thanks to that man Fernando Gago, showing us that he is still here and playing. We followed that up with a victory over West Ham, thanks to Hangeland, Aguero and Gago. Middlesbrough were our next victims, although they narrowly lost out to Gago (and us), who scored in his third consecutive game. Alexis Sanchez scored against Hull as we battled it out to an equal draw and we finished by demolishing Aston Villa, with Ireland, Sanchez and Aguero on form for us.

Our fine form was ended by Bolton by a controversial penalty late-on and despite Ireland and Evans best efforts. Our last 2 games were nothing short of horse manure, losing 3-0 and a stalemate draw to Tottenham and Everton respectively.

Position: 12th - A rubbish season in general as I feel the team failed to blend. The cup run and wins over some of the big four may have saved my ass - but only just.

Biggest Win: 6-0 to Bury

Most Games won in a Row: 4

Top Goalscorer: Aguero - 26!

Biggest Transfer: Aguero - £45M

Fans PotY: Fernando Gago

Best Eleven: (Position - Name - Appearances - Goals - Avg. Rating)

GK - Shay Given - 35 - 0 - 6.86

DR - Pablo Zabaleta - 33 - 4 - 7.15

DL - Wayne Bridge - 50 - 1 - 6.96

DRC - Richard Dunne - 35 - 9 - 7.09

DLC - Brede Hangeland - 41 - 1 - 6.88

MR - Alexis Sanchez - 30 - 2 - 7.07

ML - Stewart Downing - 27 - 7 - 7.19

MRC - Fernando Gago - 43 - 10 - 7.23

MLC - Dirk Kuyt - 22 - 3 - 6.91

ST - Sergio Aguero - 52 - 26 - 7.06

ST - Ched Evans - 21 - 7 - 6.90

Hopefully next season will be a major improvement - we probably need to replace Dunne as he's aging and maybe need a new striker.

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A message to the readers,

I'm afraid to tell you this will no longer continue, due to FM causing my laptop to overheat. However, I have re-purchased FM08 and hopefully I'll get another career going soon (hey, Northern Ireland, here I come!). A brief summary of the other seasons; the next season I finished 3rd, signing a lot of llow key players such as Valencia, Johnson, Collison etc. which I was pleased with. The season after that we welcome David Villa and Raul Albiol for a combined £130M and finished 2nd. The following season I was sacked in 4th (!?!?!) place following consecutive losses to Man Utd and Chelsea. I had hooliday on in the game and got the France job following a poor performance by threm at the Euro's (which strangely, Slovakia came runners up to Italy in!). I do apologise for this inconvenience, but my laptop (despite being above recommended specs) has decide to bail out on me. Sorry.

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