FM 13 Cardiff City Thread

From Wikipedia:

Cardiff City Football Club (Welsh: Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional football club based in Cardiff, Wales. The club competes in the English football league system and is currently playing in the Football League Championship. They are the best supported football club in Wales, with their attendances averaging 22,139 for their home games in the 2011–12 season. They play their home games at the Cardiff City Stadium, where they moved to in 2009 after 99 years at nearby Ninian Park.

Cardiff City were founded in 1899 and are the only non-English side to have won any of the three major English competitions. They won the FA Cup in 1927, during a decade when they were one of the strongest sides in the English league, finishing runners-up in 1923–24 and also losing 1–0 to Sheffield United in the FA Cup Final of 1925. They have also been regular winners of the Welsh Cup, and as the winner of the Cup in 1966–67 gained entry to the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, reaching the semi-finals in 1967–68.[1] They played in old Football League First Division periods of 1921–29, 1952–57 and 1960–62.

In 1986, they were relegated to the Fourth Division, and over the next 14 years slipped into the league's basement division three times. In 1996 they were the league's third lowest placed team. However, a Football League Second Division playoff triumph in 2003 lifted them into the Football League First Division; In the 2008–09 season they failed to make the play-offs for the Premier League on goals scored to Preston on the final day of the season. However, in the 2009–10 season they managed to secure a place in the play-offs for the Premier League with two games to spare after beating Queens Park Rangers 1–0. In the semi-final they drew 3–3 on aggregate over two games against Leicester City, before winning 4–3 in a penalty shoot-out. In the final they lost 3–2 to Blackpool at Wembley Stadium after being ahead twice. The following season the team finished fourth in the table again, but ended the season by losing 3–0 on aggregate to Reading in the play-off semi-finals. Manager Dave Jones soon parted company with the club, before being replaced by Malky Mackay.

Overall, Cardiff City have played 15 seasons in English top flight football and are the 39th most successful club in English League football based on points gained during their time in the top flight. From all points collected during their time so far in all professional football leagues, they are ranked 61st.

In 2012, Cardiff City were rebranded by the club's Malaysian owners, Vincent Tan and Chan Tien Ghee. This included the change of the club's home colours and crest, although their nickname, the Bluebirds, remained. Alan Whiteley from the board of directors said the rebrand was designed to help the club expand their appeal. The majority of the fans were against the changes but it has been lightly accepted.

Stadium

Ninian Park

Cardiff's first ground was at Sophia Gardens recreational park where they played from their founding in 1899 until 1910[36] when, due to the lack of facilities at the ground and the increasing amount of support for the club, Bartley Wilson contacted Bute Estate, who owned large amounts of Cardiff at the time, in an attempt to find land suitable for building a stadium. They eventually agreed on an area of waste ground on Sloper Road. The land was a former rubbish tip and required extensive work to get a playable surface, but with the assistance of Cardiff Corporation and volunteers the work was completed. The ground was originally to be known as Sloper Park but was instead named after Lord Ninian Crichton-Stuart, who was a large force in helping the club get the ground built, and became Ninian Park.

The stadium was initially built with one stand before the opening of another in 1928 which could hold 18,000 people to replace an earth embankment. The club record attendance in the ground is 57,893 which was achieved during a league match against Arsenal on 22 April 1953. The record has stood for more than fifty years and is unable to be beaten due to the scaling down of the ground throughout the seventies and eighties due to safety fears which have seen the ground capacity fall to 22,000. In its final year in use, the ground was the only one above League One level that still contained standing areas.

Cardiff City Stadium

Cardiff City Stadium Pitch

In June 2009, Cardiff City completed a state of the art 26,828 seater stadium on the site of the now demolished old Cardiff Athletics Stadium. The project required the rebuilding of the athletics stadium, to be known as Cardiff International Sports Stadium, on the opposite side of Leckwith Road in Cardiff. This ground was deliberately built to house both Cardiff City FC & Cardiff Blues RFC, however the attendances for football are far greater than that of the Blues.

The plan required the demolition of the Cardiff Athletics Stadium, and the council initially insisted that its replacement be built before the start of construction of the Cardiff City Stadium, which would allow the city to have a major athletics facility for the 11 months between the demolition of the old stadium and the building of a new athletics facility nearby. But developers said that the main infrastructure work including highway improvements, drainage, gas supply and electricity cables could be carried out in a way that would allow Leckwith to remain open until July 2007.

On 20 September 2007 it was announced that the Cardiff Blues rugby union club would leave their Cardiff Arms Park home to become tenants of Cardiff City at the new Leckwith stadium.

Construction began on the new Cardiff International Sports Stadium in January 2007, and that venue was opened in January 2009. The new football ground, officially named Cardiff City Stadium, opened in July 2009.

1 GK David Marshall

2 DF Kevin McNaughton

3 DF Andrew Taylor

4 MF Filip Kiss

5 DF Mark Hudson

6 DF Ben Turner

7 MF Peter Whittingham

8 MF Don Cowie

9 FW Etien Velikonja

11 MF Craig Conway

12 DF Matthew Connolly

13 MF Kim Bo-Kyung

14 MF Tommy Smith

15 FW Rudy Gestede

16 MF Craig Noone

17 MF Aron Gunnarsson

18 MF Jordon Mutch

19 MF Kadeem Harris

20 FW Joe Mason

21 MF Joe Ralls

22 FW Heiðar Helguson

23 FW Nicky Maynard

29 GK Elliot Parish

32 GK Joe Lewis

37 MF Stephen McPhail

39 FW Craig Bellamy

Reccomendations

Could use a defender or two as backup but should be a squad capable of promotion using either a 4-4-2 or 4-3-3

I would like to create a 100% welsh team. I'm starting from now on :-) dere mlaen Caerddyd :-)

just about to start a new game any suggestions on a centreback and left back for cheap?

Ricardo Rocha and Anthony Vanden Borre, I signed them both on my Cardiff save...

BLUEBIRDS!!!!!

just about to start a new game any suggestions on a centreback and left back for cheap?

strandberg

okore

dragovic

masilela

ibertsberger

pieter-jan monteyne

osmar mares

pamic

Just started as the Bluebirds in FM Classic mode. Not sure I like not having certain features but I never managed to complete that many seasons in the full version of previous games, so this might be the way to go.

Will keep you posted of progress...

Found it too dull so have gone for the full version. Struggling a bit at the start of the season and with little funds didn't sign anyone of note. No decent youngsters wanted to sign for us either. So got a young defender in as backup and a few loan players to bulk up the squad a bit.

Results are a bit erratic as I'm trying to find the right tactics. It's only October though so plenty of time for that.

Managed to get promoted on the last day of the season!

Money is a big worry though. I know we are struggling financially in real life but Chan Tien Ghee has at least promised transfer funds for the right players. Sadly, he is less than willing in FM13.

I sold Bellamy to raise funds as we couldn't justify the £35k wages he was on. The fans hated me for it but it had to be done. Proved the right decision as we gained promotion.

Problem now as we prepare for the new season in the Premier League is that they have given me just under £1m for transfers and our wage budget has risen a paltry £25k a week to £300k.

What am I supposed to do with that? Very frustrating!

Also, I noticed from maybe January onwards that hovering over 'interact with board' it says that talks are ongoing about a possible takeover. We are in June now and it still says it. No idea what that's about.

nearing the end of season 6 now with City and am on course to win the prem for the first time, been a long journey but have a great team of younsters. Difficult at the start with city, Bellamy's wage is a killer but although useless on the pitch his presense seemed to be good for the team morale, i did manage to win the championship 1st season and managed this by signing Mamady Sidibe at the start for 30k, as a target man alongside alongside Maynard the poacher it gave me a great partnership playing a 442 with an AML (kim Bo Yung).

First season in prem is all about survival (sell Bellamy) but a few astute signings (Vaclav Kadlec) its more than doable, Mutch, Gunarrson Conelly were brilliant for me and since then its been a case of buying 4/5 good/great younsters each season until there's enough talent to challenge for the title, managed to pick up the Euro cup along the way too thanks to the brilliant Manolo Gabbiadini.

Hmm.. a little surprised not more people are doing a Cardiff save. About to start one soon whilst waiting for the Jan transfer update. Should be a decent long term save.

A bit disappointing to find that theres not much cash at the start but I'm sure with a few good buys and sells might be able to raise some funds.

Don't count on it.

Even with selling Bellamy and Taylor in the January transfer window in the first season, bringing in £4m, the board gave me nothing and allowed me to spend just a crap 5% of transfer sales. I spent a total of £80k (yes, just £80,000!) on transfers in the first season and the club still lost £11m that first year!!

Promotion is an absolute must.

It's October in the 2nd season now and the money is flowing in (making about £3-4m a month) but the board still haven't given me money to spend although they have just upped the percentage of transfer funds I can spend to 75%. Whoopy do, 75% of next to nothing won't get me far.

Great start to the season though. Five games in: beat Everton 3-0, drew 0-0 with Norwich, won 4-1 at Reading, drew 1-1 at Chelsea (although they were all over us) and battered QPR 4-0.

In the league cup, beat Preston 3-1 but then lost on penalties at Liverpool like we did in the LC Final last year.

Bargain buys: seems to be a lot of excellent young Belgians out there with quite a few available for £100-150k.

These are my purchases going into the 2nd season:

GK

£120k Enzo D'Alberto

£140k Jeroen Bouckaert

RB

£0 Thomas Piermayr

CB

£0 Sam Hutchinson (very similar stats to Hudson but quicker)

DM

£0 Jan Mertens

CM

£170k Samy Bourard

£45k Stephen Davidson

AM

£130k Diego De Girolamo

£140k Victor Vandaele

RW

£80k Daniel King

ST

£120k Curtis Haley

£60k Dean Tiesse

£0 Leopold Njengo

£0 Joshua King

Joshua King's skills look pretty crap and I only signed him because he was quick.....and because he was free after Man U released him. His value when we signed him only went up to £250k but I wasn't bothered. Backup strikers are always handy.

I gave him 10min pre-season v Atletico Madrid and he did ok so started him v Inter Milan and he scored a hat-trick! He used his pace superbly and his finishing was great too. You'd never have thought he was capable of it looking at his stats. Value almost doubled to £475k.

Thought it might have been a one-off and this seemed to be the case when he did nothing in his next game and a couple of average sub appearances followed before he came on at HT v Real Madrid and scored an injury time equaliser, ghosting in ahead of Pepe to slot home first time.

However, I knew it was only pre-season so wasn't getting too excited.

On to the real deal and he only came on with 10min to go in our opening fixture but then played the full 90min in the League Cup; was MoM, scoring twice and assisting the other in a 3-1 win.

Back as a sub for the league games but came off the bench to score at Reading. Started and scored v Liverpool in the LC and followed that up with another goal and two assists in our 4-0 demolition of QPR.

Value after just 2 months is up to £725k

So far then:

6 games, 4 goals, 2 assists.............Pre-season

5 games, 2 goals, 2 assists.............League

2 games, 3 goals, 1 assist..............League Cup

-----------------------------------------------

13 games, 9 goals, 5 assists...........Total

Not bad for a freebie eh?

That's the first time I've seen the red Cardiff heading on the new FM and I may be sick...

This is the reason the editor was invented...

Not bad idea actually. I might just sort that out.

So, a good start in the 2nd season after promotion to the Prem and the club are back in the black very quickly after being so much in the red last season.

I thought I'd go to the board and ask for some more money to be able to buy our targets instead of them going to our rivals. This seemed to have the desired effect as, for once, TG agreed and gave me some money.

Great! Except when I looked to see how much it was just £200k :/

However, less than a month later I had this lovely little message:

Whoop whoop!

So many targets to choose from though

So there is hope if you hang in there

just about to start a new game any suggestions on a centreback and left back for cheap?

Enar Jaager - Free Transfer. Use him at RB

Joseph Baffo - Loan from Helsingborg for a season with a £500k future fee. Use him at CB

I advise to play

Jaager RB - Connolly CB - Turner CB - McNaughton LB.

Keep' Taylor, Baffo and Hudson as cover.

We are doing incredibly well in the Premier League. Currently sitting 3rd and our 11-game winning streak has just been ended by league leaders Man City who came away from the CCS with a 2-0 victory. They have a 10pt lead over us now, with Chelsea just ahead of us in 2nd and Man U right behind us in 4th. We do have a bit of a gap over Arsenal in 5th so qualifying for the CL is still a decent possibility with the Europa League as backup.

I succumbed and spent most of the £7.25m TG gave me on Ademilson for his £5.25m release clause. I couldn't really resist as he is such a bargain and has scored regularly so far.

Also brought in Kaddourhi as an AM/St. He was valued at £2m but was on the transfer market for just £400k. Seems a good player so far.

Liverpool's CB Danny Wilson was unhappy about not playing enough for them and wanted to go out on loan so I looked into it. Then I noticed on the 'transfer offer' page in the top right corner was the message that because it was an important transfer I should perhaps ask the board to handle negotiations for me. Not something I would normally do but thought that might have meant they would have stumped up the cash to sign him rather than loan and that did indeed prove to be the case.

TG handled it all, including his wages, and bought him for £5m. It meant I then had no money left to spend but couldn't complain. Wilson's taken Connolly's place alongside Turner in my side now and is playing very well.

Will update at the end of the season...

Struggled a bit post-patch update but then found a bit of form again at the end of the season. Finished 4th (just!) and the board and fans were obviously delighted. My job status has gone up to 'untouchable'

Prize money for finishing 4th was £23.8m! Meant we had a turnover of £116m for the season, compared with just £15m in the Championship last season.

Start of June now and TG has just sent me this meaasge:

Woo-hoo!!

I have returned to this forum.

I will be giving this save game a shot.

Looks like Cardiff are in a great position to gain promotion almost immediately at the start of the game.

I chose them because I wanted to start with a solid team with a good youth set-up and emerging talents whom I will aim to use as I progress in the game (Mutch for example).

This thread dosen't give this team justice. I think they are worth a good punt (Not as worthy as GFC Ajaccio mind you )

I think a lot of people are put off managing them because if you don't get promoted in the first season you are pretty much screwed financially.

Mutch, Gunnarson, Mason are 3 that progress very well. Turner's skills don't improve much but he's been a rock at CB for me. Too many wide men to choose from really and, even though Kim's stats look good he just doesn't perform well for me. Same with Maynard really and he's out on loan.

Going back into the save. I really like the midfield setup from the start. Whittingham is a great playmaker by the looks of it, Gunnarson and Mutch look good as well.

Will probably try to get rid of Helgason as he just doesn't fit into my plans.

Started the season off pretty well but the last 3 games have been horror shows. I think I've conceeded 6 goals from corners in the past 4 games. I'm not too sure why this is but I suppose the only consolation is that it isn't from open play.

I'm playing a 4-1-2-2-1, usually on control but I might go with standard now just to shore things up a little. The problem with the Cardiff defence is they're all distinctly average. All CBs are pretty slow but not very good in the air either. In my midfield trio I use Mutch as a DM, Gunnarson as a b2b and Whittingham as an AP. Whittingham has easily been my best player so far, he's just so consistent.

Up top it seems only Mason can play the DLF role decently, and with all the wingers to choose from, again they're all pretty average. Bellamy does alright as an IF from the left but he's not a game changer. Kim is such a hit and miss, unfortunately more miss than hit most of the time. I've also trained Maynard to play AML as he has some pace and can finish.

I suppose we'll see how it goes. The players are still adapting to the tactics and I don't think I did a very good pre-season.

Yeah, I've just finished my 3rd season and Mutch and Gunnarson are still both very much first choice. Mutch has turned into a cracking player and Gunny's a very good all-rounder. Whittingham plays the majority of games too and is still pretty good.

I really didn't rate Kim to start with as he seemed very inconsistent but has really started to do well now. Cardiff have too many wingers though and I've sold Smith, Conway, Cowie and Bellamy. Noone still features quite a bit for me but he's down as a LW in this game when he really should be a RW, although he is capable of playing RW in FM13. Could have just played him on the right anyway (I did first season but he wasn't great) but that would also have meant messing with his PPMs as he likes to cut inside and he's effective doing that from the left but not so much from the right, so I've just left him as he was and he shares the LW role with Kim.

As for the defenders, I suppose they aint great but are pretty solid. McNaughton has all you need for a very good RB although his skills decline in seaason 3 so he's out on loan and may sell in the summer, Hudson's getting old and you'll need to replace him in a season or so (I sold him after 2nd season) but I've still got Turner; he might be a bit slow but is immense in the air and very reliable. He might not have a high Heading attribute but his Jumping is very good and that is deemed more important for winning headers.

LB is probably your biggest problem area. I just don't like or rate Taylor. Bring in someone on loan. I got Matthew Briggs from Fulham in season 1, loaned him again in season 2 and bought him for £3.6m for season 3. If you can't get Briggs, try Adam Smith from Spurs. He's better at RB but can play LB pretty well. He's not as good as Briggs though. I loaned them both in the 1st season but didn't go back for Smith when we went up as he's not quite good enough.

Up front, Maynard was very poor for me. Ended up loaning him out in seasons 2 and 3 (after failing to sell him) and will probably offload in the summer. Had a run-in with Bellamy around Xmas season 1 and he wouldn't back down so I sold him in the January transfer window. He wasn't playing very well anyway (tried both as as Inside Forward on the LW and as a striker) and we were desperate for the money - his £35k wages don't help either!

I've still got Mason but he just doesn't score enough. His skills keep on improving but his finishing has only just gone up to 15 so he's not played that much - might get a chance next season but we'll see.

In goal, Marshall proved to be better than Lewis, to my surprise, so he stayed and Lewis was sold at the end of season 1. Bought a cheap backup to Marshall for season 2 and then signed Guy Assembe for season 3. Very similar to Marshall but a bit quicker and better communication too. He was playing for Nancy but has really low value - picked him up for just £50k! He started the season for me but he is a little bit eccentric and sometimes comes out for the ball too much. By the end of the season, Marshall had once again reclaimed the No.1 jersey although Assembe played a lot too. Will be looking to try and sign Jack Butland in the summer as he is turning out to be really good.

First choice XI:

GK -- Marshall

RB -- Sadi (£3.4m from Internacional, end of season 2)

CB -- Turner

CB -- Danny Wilson (£5m from Liverpool, Jan window, season 2)

LB -- Briggs (£3.6m from Fulham, end of season 2 after loaning for 2 seasons first)

DM -- Mutch

CM -- Gunnarson

CM -- Whittingham

RW -- Jano (Free agent from Spartak Moscow, end of season 2)

LW -- Kim

CF -- Ademilson (£5.25m release clause from Sao Paulo, Jan window, season 2)

Not spent a great deal, mainly invested in youth for the future: Andre Pinto (GK), Stefan Raes (CB/RB), Thorsten Foelsch (CB/DM), Eetu Hamalainen (CM), Piskovic (RW), Pazdan (RW), Duhamel (AM), Dean Tiesse (CF).

Still need a backup LB but struggling really badly to find a decent one although spotted a regen the other day who could be good.

Mutch is also a bit wasted at DM - really want to push him further forward and probably drop Whitts. I'm on the lookout for a quality DM and have been for a while.

Anyway, results so far:

1st season - 2nd in Championship

2nd season - 4th in EPL

3rd season - 5th in EPL but won the Champions League!!!

In the league, it will take a long time to match the likes of Man City, Man U and Arsenal (Chelsea have capitulated and finished 11th this season!) but it's only the 3rd season and we are getting stronger. May 19th 2015 (this season) was very significant though as both Wenger and Fergie retired so it will be interesting to see how the teams cope without them. I was tipped as favourite to take over at Arsenal but declared that I didn't want the job. A week later Man U approached me but I told them to stuff it! haha

So Antonio Conte left Juve for Man U and his stats look very impressive. 2wks since Wenger left and Arsenal haven't replaced him yet.

Wow... that's pretty impressive!

After reading Cleon's thread I've decided to really look into training and youth development. Brought in a 16 year old Ryan Gauld who should be able to step up in season 2.

Whilst Mason doesn't score enough, his job in my team is to be the DLF. Make space for the Inside forwards or play them in. If he gets a goal, then great. I have his finishing up though, probably because he has been first choice since the start of the season.

Kim seems to be really coming into form now. I play him RW as an inside forward and he is lethal on the counter attack. Cut inside and passes the ball into the net most of the time.

As for Mutch, I'm grooming him to eventually take over Whittingham as the DLP. He has all the basics in place. Gunnarson is almost too well-rounded imo. He's doing alright as either AP(A) or DLP(S) for me now, but he does not have any stand out attributes which means when everyone is fit, he's the 3rd choice midfielder being Whittingham and Cowie, who I've retrained to play as a AP(A) in CM.

I've also been labelled as Penniless now, so that might ease selling off Bellamy. Either that or hopefully the club gets a takeover.

This thread seems to not move. C'mon Cardiff players!

Anyways, I'm in Jan 1st season. Sitting comfy in 3rd, with 1st and 2nd within reach. I am also in the middle of a board takeover which hopefully is good news when it's all sorted!

Been taken over by local businessman Steve Gibson. Doesn't seem to be better off. Wiped out debt, but took a bigger loan, and is not planning to invest currently. Absolutely no idea what that means although he's turned down my every request so far.

My old PC has crashed :/

As saved games go into the C drive (documents) and are not saved in Steam, looks like I've lost my saved game unless I can recover my hard drive.

So I've had to start again on an old crappy PC which is so slow.

I suppose the advantages are that I know which players come good and will be starting with all the latest updates so that I can tailor a formation and tactic to suit and won't have to keep changing it with each new FM update.

Still, lost hours and hours of gameplay which I'm not happy about.

I'm only in pre-season so early days but hovered over 'interact with board' and it says the same as it did before and that there are restrictions due to ongoing talks about a possible takeover. This takeover never materialised in my 3-season saved game and wonder if it ever will in this one either.

Hello,

What about the future with the Cardiff? Can we upgrade our stadium? The transfer budget in the next season is bigger? Or it always low?

Can Cardiff recruit some young players with the academy or it's like Swansea?

My PC died so I've started again.

However, in the save game that has died with my old PC I was given £7.25m in the 2nd season. They gave me a lot more in the 3rd season.

Youth players aren't great but not bad.

As I said, I had to start again. Doing well in January of the 1st season, just gone top. £0 money to spend due to Campbell having joined (updated in the latest patch) so I brought in a few free transfers: 41yo Jari Litmanen as a squad player (scored twice so far and the fans love him), 33yo DM Matabuena and 37yo CB Diatta. Best I could get for nothing.

Steam has just updated and crash dumped my game, just after we won 5-2 at Millwall, Helguson scoring 4! Poor fella doubled his tally for the season in one game and now it's been wiped. 2wks into the Jan transfer window too so plenty of transfers screwed up also :/

Stadium upgrade I'm not sure about but the money won't be there to do it for a few seasons at least.

Crash dump again

Fortunately, it was in pre-season before the start of season 2 so I've only lost a week or two of friendlies.

Summary for season one:

As Fraizer Campbell is now part of the squad since the latest patch. money is even tighter than before. £0 to spend and a £300k/wk wage bill equates to a loss of ~£12m over the 9-month season. TG put his hand in his pocket 3 times during the course of the season to invest money into the club: a total of about £5.5m he put in with a £4m wedge after Xmas to stop the club going into receivership :-o although I never had any notifications of this possibility throughout the season.

Won the division quite comfortably in the end, almost mirroring Cardiff in real life by opening up a sizeable gap at the top of the table, with familiar foes Brighton and Hull battling it out for 2nd place. In the end Brighton came through on goal difference and Blackpool won the playoffs.

With £0 to spend, these were my ins and outs in season one:

Out -

Released loads of crap youngsters early on.

Couldn't find any buyers for McPhail, Earnshaw and Helguson so they all left for nothing in January to free up some wages.

Tommy Smith was sold to Blackburn for £350k in January.

Loaned out Conway, Lappin and Velikonja.

In -

Loans: CB Boyata & DM Semedo

£0 41yo Jari Litmanen

£0 33yo DM Matabuena

£0 37yo CB Diatta

£325k 20yo CM Alex (R. Madrid Castilla) - a great little playmaker who was available on the cheap in January. The sale of Smith and letting Earnie, Helguson and McPhail go freed up some money to get Alex. Was immediately valued at £1.5m after signing him and that's now over £2m in the summer.

Also picked up a 17yo regen CB for free who looks pretty decent.

1st choice XI for the season:

GK- Lewis

RB - McNaughton

CB - Turner

CB - Hudson

LB - Taylor

RM - Cowie

CM - Mutch

CM - Gunnarsson

LM - Whittingham

CF - Maynard

CF - Helguson/Mason

Subs: Marshall, Connolly, Diatta, Noone, Kim/Bellamy, Kiss/Alex, Campbell

As you can see, hardly any changes to the real life squad. I stuck with Lewis instead of Marshall and he's done well. Maynard got off to a flyer so kept his place and ended up with 20 goals. Mason was injured early on so Helguson played for a while before leaving in January. Mason took his place and has done ok. Campbell hasn't been too impressive though.

Resisted the temptation to sell Bellamy even though we really could have done with saving on his £35k wages. He's a favourite with the fans and I think they would have been on my back too much especially after Earnie left.

Regretting it now though because he's not good enough now we're promoted and nobody will buy him off me. The two clubs that have been in for him so far. at a measly ~£500k price, he has rejected the contract from. Should have offloaded him in January :-/

Cant believe how quiet this forum is! Especially considering they have just been promoted! About to start my first save up with them, will post updates!

I would have for sure, but sadly, the team in game doesn't quite reflect the quality of their real life counterparts, neither does the financial structure or board really.

It's true. I've struggled in the first season every time. Promotion is a must but once you do then things take a massive upturn and is well worth it.

The owners are talking about spending quite a bit for next season in the prem, I may slightly edit the board to go more in line with what they are promising just to make the save a bit more fun for my liking..., never really had a great save with the bluebirds

Are there unofficial updates that include the promoted Cardiff? Can't wait to play with them in the PL!

Anyone else still going with Cardiff? Decided to continue an old game with Cardiff... Just promoted and loving life in the PL now.

Yeah. After promotion in the first season, we've finished 7th, 4th and 1st

I keep improving the squad season upon season but often end up bringing in youngsters or quality out of contract players.

It's not that the transfer funds aren't there (£20m+ a season) but I'm concerned that spending too much will leave us in the crap.

Main problem is the small stadium which, as it's pretty new, can't be expanded and they wouldn't build a new one either.

Wages have been spiralling slightly out of control and I've made the decision to cut the squad back a bit. Finding it a bit tough at the start of the new season as defending league champions but it's still great.

Finally got the game and immediately started a save!

After adjusting and adjusting budgets I finally got a pretty good team. I don't play wingers so sold Conway for 1.8m. Also sold Earnie and loaned out many youngsters.

My target was a promotion challenge and I quickly fired the 5 rubbish scouts and sent my new 5 around European regions. I then bought the Danish U21 captain from Midjytland I believe, CB for 1.1m. As Conway's money was over 48 months I felt it was fair to sign a player likewise. I did so for 1.8m worh Dare Vrsic from Austria Wien. I also loaned Matthew Briggs from Fulham and Djamel, a DM from Braga.

Deadline Day loomed and I knew I needed signings but this was epic. I loaned Eremenko from Rubin Kazan, Semedo from Sheffield Wednesday and Danny Fox by mid-day. I then bought Marco Sau for £0 which was a steal. After refreshing the budgets as much as I could and refreshing the transfer list every half-hour I sonehow managed to loan Craig Gardner and then Darren Pratley. I knew my wages were too much so I offloaded Craig Noone on loan.

In fairness my defence has been solid. 18 games in and I'm first by 1 point with 1 game in hand. Craig Gardner and Vrsic are amazing. Eremenko's been annoyingly injured, Fox

decent and Briggs solid. Pratley's also done his job along with Semedo who's been a beast. Marco Sau unfortunately hasn't done much and hasn't really settled in. Maynard has been hit and miss but as I play 1 striker it's hard to choose between him, Campbell, Bellamy, Mason, Velikonja and Sau. It is worth mentioning my second team(backups) have beaten Spurs and Everton away and are about to play Norwich home in the Carling Cup Quarter Final. I'll need funds in order to try get some pre-contract deals wrapped up to shape my Premier League squad so I will probably sell those not registered e.e Rudy Mcphail snd Helguson.

Wow, lot of change since the above update!

Reached the Carling Cup Final but lost to Man City 3-2 in my first season. Won the championship comfortably.

Start of the Prem my budget was rubbish but after many sales etc I managed to get Scott Parker for 800k, Adam Le Fondre for 5m, Dusan Basta on loan, Kevin Foley on loan, Pablo Armero on a free, Koray Gunter on a free, Steven Taylor for 2,9m, Sulley Muntari on loan, Ghanaian guy from Udinese on loan, Alejandro Faurlin on loan, Gary O'Neil on a free and Cristian Zanetti on a free. Possibly got some more there.

Played 23 games in the prem and am sonehow 5th although it is very tight. I reached the Carling Cup semi-finals but annoyingly lost to Chelsea. In January I managed to agree that Toby Alderwield will join on a free in the summer on a free. I got given some money to work with so also grabbed Shane Long for 3.1 million, along with Bellusci from Catania for 4.1m. Really cheap yet quality signings are what I tend to go for. Le Fondre is still my record signing at 5M . My scouts help me out a lot in this sense.

Well done bluebirds4life, what formation are you using with Cardiff?

4-1-3-1-1 Haha!

Got 4th somehow in my first season in the Prem. I am within budget and thanks to shrewd signings(none over 48 months) and prettty even transfer expenditure my squad in the middle of the third season is:

Joe Lewis

Fraser Forster(7.5m)

Matt Connolly

Erik Sveichenko(950k)

Steven Taylor(2.9m)

Toby Alderwield(Free)

Ben Turner

Bellusci(4m - Catania)

Pablo Armero (Free)

Paolo Di Ceglie(3.3m)

Mile Jedinak(Free)

Gareth Barry(Free)

Scott Parker(800k)

Mohammed Diame(4.5m)

Javi Garcia(Loan)

Jordon Mutch

Aron Gunnarsson

Andrea Pirlo(Free - 17k per week)

Michu(7.5m - Man U)

Alessandro Diamanti - 2.1m)

Kim-Bo-Kyung

Lukas Podolski - Loan

Adam Le Fondre - 3.5m

Shane Long - 2.7m

Just started season one, any suggestions on an advanced forward? Don't think the four I have will score and need a good one for free or on loan.

Just started a new game on the latest LfcMrshall update!

Didn't get Medel in there though and he isn't interested, so i'm looking to strengthen the centre midfield options, only one i've enquired for so far is old boy Ledley.

anyone else on a cardiff save now got any tips for me?

Ledley and Robson Kanu signed to bring some Welshness back in to the squad.

Just aiming to beat the drop this season then to build from there!

Decent start to the season, considering the tough fixture list.

Cardiff 0 - 1 Man City

WBA 0 - 1 Cardiff

Cardiff 2 - 0 Walsall (LC)

Cardiff 2 -2 Liverpool

Chelsea 3 - 0 Cardiff

The 3 goals shipped away to chelsea all came in the last 15 minutes, they scored 1 and then we fell apart but i was happy with the performance for the first 75 minutes.

Sitting in Mid table which i'm happy with, like i said i'm just aiming to avoid relegation first season.

Transfer window is over now too, with Ledley and Robson-Kanu the only two signings.

Surprised that no one else on here seems to be playing a save with Cardiff after their recent signings.

Ah well, i'm currently sitting in 10th after 18 games which i'm extremely happy with. On 23 pts so only 17 to go to get to the magical 40!

My squad is quite big, but the injuries i'm suffering are showing a lack of quality that the cover provides, so hopefully i can do a few deals in the up and coming january window