Your Feelings Before The Start Of A New Season

I am currently having a bit of fun with a Luton save on FM08 before FM09 comes out. Luckily, they do not have a massive points deduction like irl and I managed to get myself promoting to League 1 in my first season.

After some wheeler dealing in the first year in League 1, my loan signings got me a respectable 6th place in the table (although I did lose my last 7 games plus the 2 playoff games). A job reasonably well done I thought and all my hero loanees went back to the real world as nobodies at their big premiership clubs.

By this time, my rep is ok and I have some bosmans coming in to bolster the squad so I don’t have to rely on other people’s kids. Pre-season goes well enough. Good results against the poor teams and decent showings against the Premiership boys who offered me buckets of cash to come to the stadium ….. it would be rude to say no!

But now I approach my first league game of the season and the board expect me to get promoted. I have a team full of new players that have only had 5 or 6 games together in what now seem like meaningless friendlies! The thoughts of my seemingly endless losing run from last season come in to mind and the nerves build. It is then that I realize that I cannot hit the continue button! I have selected my team, the game has auto-saved the day before and everything is ready for my 3rd season in charge, but the anxiety is stopping me from hitting that button and taking the plunge!

Is it the fear of the unknown - How will the team play? Will my signings be good enough? Are my new 4-5-1 tactics too defensive? Will I miss Andy Carrol – the goal machine from Newcastle that took his 6’6” frame and bulldozed the league’s defenders last year? How can I possibly take the risk of failure?

So after shutting down FM to have a sturdy drink, calm my nerves, and do a few self esteem building exercises, I got to thinking …. I wonder what other people’s feelings are as they start a new season.

So, why not let me (and everyone else know) how do you feel just before kick off of a new season? Maybe you are in a higher league and, like me, have doubts about your teams ability? Maybe you have assembled the best team the world has ever seen and you feel triumphant before even kicking a ball in anger? Why not share???

At the beginning of my Palermo save five seasons ago before a new season I wasn't that confident more realistic. We were low on money since I had tried replacing some of the older players and things weren't looking good. But then after a few seasons I turned them into the best team in the world winning the past three Scudetto's, two CL cups and plenty of other cups and preseason is all about fitness and working out new tactics and lineups. I don't really care whether we win or lose as long as nobody gets injured. Now going into a new season it depends on the schedule and players.

If I have a good squad and a easy first couple of games I am extremely confident but I know I have to take every point possible in case we lose later on. If my key players are injured I do a Wenger and hope to god my wonderkids can pull through for my top players. Either way I just put my faith in my lads and if were going to lose we better put up a fight. If we have a difficult first few weeks I try to get as many points as possible...draws are fine with me.

I always prepare for a new season , by doing a good pre season which involves 6-8 friendlys , if i am playing LLM i will have 8 friendlies , 2 away v lower sides , 2 home v better sides , 2 away v similair sides and 2 games at home v similair sides. If i am playing as a prem/champ club , i will play 6 freidnelies , 2 at home v better sides , 2 away v lower div side , and 2 away v local sides. I then up my pre season training 1 week before the start of the season by increasig the technical side and slightly decreasing the fitness side.

My feeling depend on the results of my pre-season friendlies

I arrange a league that is around my standard (AC Milan, Bayern, Barca - if big team)

I also arrange a tour to an unpopular country

Depending on morale, i sometimes arrange a friendly against a useless team

I spend pre-season going through each and every senior player on my books and deciding if I genuinely want to keep them, then I'll totally disregard sentiment and transfer list the ones I know I really don't want.

I also usually release all the new crop of youngsters that come in as I know they're all rubbish.

I leave arranging friendlies to the Ass Man as I can't be bothered with all the clicking back and forth and rejecting without reason.

If I'm at the start of the next season (rather than a new game altogether) then I'll know my tactics were good enough to survive the previous season. I'll give them the odd tweak here and there where I feel it/they can be improved.

I'll freshen up the players' training routines a little and hire new staff if needs be.

Beyond that, I approach each season with the same cautious optimism.