Unexpectedly.... ok signings...

I'm Spurs. It's 2014 and most of my forwards are a bit broken over the January period, so I loan Simon Church from Schalke, where he's been doing nothing for a while (out of sheer desperation) and you know what? 4 goals in 5 games! I didn't expect much... just someone to run around up front and keep some momentum going... someone cheap and unspectacular. Now i'm feeling bad because I feel I should sign him permanently by way of a thankyou.

Anyone else have similar tales of the unexpected?

In fm09 I signed a youngster called Arjen Babb I think. In his first season he averaged 6.2 and the fans really disliked him. The next season he banged a few in, then the seasons after that he was consistently a 50 goal a season striker (in the prem)

a 19 year old regen called Federico Bermejo, signed him from San Lorenzo to put pressure on my 1st team for the future and gave him a chance in pre-season, he really impressed scoring in almost every game and kept this going in the Premier League and Champions League

Alastair Allison a regen striker i bought from Motherwell for £3.5m, didnt do too well in his first few seasons as he was only realy bench warming and learning from my actual 1st team players but he scored a semi decent amount... something like 19 goals in 90 sub appearances.

When my main striker hit 30 i sold him and was going to have to pay the likes of 30m+ just to get someone who would be better.

So looking at my team i noticed his stats had developed extremely well and i decided to give the lad a chance. In his first full blown season he scored 23 goals in 40 games, pretty damn decent for an 18 year old... but so far this season hes on 28 goals in 11 games including a double hat trick against Motherwell no less and its only just turned November 2015.

Didnt think he was ever going to be more than backup.

On FM09 I bought JM Vargas as a squad player for less than 5m. He ended up getting world player of the year 2 years in a row...

When I signed CMs Tomasz Sokolowski and Mads Reginiussen on free transfer in 2013 I just thought "oh that's good, two quality backups for the league when the Superstars need to rest before/after a Champions League game".

Instead both men became integral part of the team, European Cups included, scoring a fair share of goals and distributing assists like players of a level or two above.

Sokolowksi even took the luxury to score the GWG in our first ever Champions League final against Man Utd, with a trademark screamer from 25 yards.

Now age has weakened both of them, and I'm forced to demote them in the 2nd team, playing in tier 3, but for a grand total of 0£ (and a wage that never exceeded 350k p/y) I got myself two consistent and reliable players.

Indeed their stats are just average [take a look at them in your game], but somehow somewhat they have been a huge hit.

Much better than more expensive and better rated players.

So looking at my team i noticed his stats had developed extremely well and i decided to give the lad a chance. In his first full blown season he scored 23 goals in 40 games, pretty damn decent for an 18 year old... but so far this season hes on 28 goals in 11 games including a double hat trick against Motherwell no less and its only just turned November 2015.

Didnt think he was ever going to be more than backup.

Actualy now that ive loaded the game it seems i was very wrong with his goals and games...

Signed for £3.7m in 2012/13 from Motherwell.

1st season: 11 starts (28 subs), 15 goals, 8 assists.

2nd season: 12 starts (19 subs), 15 goals, 12 assists.

3rd season: 25 starts (21 subs), 24 goals, 4 assists.

4th season: 16 starts (1 sub), 29 goals, 12 assists. (so far in 2015/16 season, 3rd of November)

On FM09 during my second EPL season I needed striker so I signed Kiessling because he was the only one in my budget willing to join. Despite being 33 he scored 29 goals in 31 games and turned out to be signing of the season. Next season he declined stats wise and was half the striker he was in his first season.

Max noble for free in 2009 with my cambridge team, I thought he would be a good signing for the blue square premier, but he actually managed to stay with me several seasons after that, even when I was playing in the premier, he scored more than 10 goals and provided good assists.

I mortgaged my whole future as Sunderland in the 2017 January transfer window to sign star center midfielder Jason Croft from, of all places, Championship side Newcastle for somewhere around twelve million pounds; if he didn't keep us up, I figured that I'd be sacked or at the very best managing a midtable Championship team due to the team's financial problems.

I expected it to go well, he was brilliant and he had no business playing in the Championship, but if it went wrong it would have been quite a story.

Pawel Buzala for £6k in league two. Everytime I got promoted I thought, well will have to sell him now as he won't cut it one division up. But no, still dominated even in the championship. Finally sold him for £4.5m to Toulouse after I got promotion to the prem, he really wasn't going to cut it one more division higher... or was he?

signed Chris Millar from St. Johnstone for 14k with shrewsbury in my first season there. expected a pretty solid CM, ended up with 22 goals and 31 assists from 45(1) league games. Quite an impressive haul i thought

Only one I can think of was years ago on CM03/04.

I bought this Slovenian regen, Matjaz Novak, on a free transfer thinking he could be good backup for my CMs if necessary. Through suspension I gave him a start in the League Cup where he put in a Man of the Match performance and stayed in the Starting 11 for the next 15 years averaging a rating of about 7.5 per season and an integral part of a Spurs team that won 7 European Cups in a row.

He was possibly the best player to never play in a World Cup

Well... it's the end of my season now. I scraped into 4th place. Simon Church got 12 in 15, a player of the month award, and I can't afford to sign him when his loan expires. I'm getting all emotional here. I might write him a letter or something

I signed Gareth Barry for free on a 1 year deal at the age of 35 lol. He has done well, and I'm debating whether or not to give him another year...

FWIW I'm in my 1st premiership season with FC United of Manchester in 2016-17...

In my Rosenborg game, when defending, I was always whacking the ball up the pitch against the big boys in the Champions League. It would usually come straight back at me and we'd buckle under the pressure.

Signed Oyvind Hoas for a pittance just to hopefully act as someone to hold the ball up a bit. He ended up being CL top scorer the next season (well, 18 months later) as we reached the semis...

He's a 6'8" monster... Although strangely, rarely seems to score headers...