FM10: Official Manchester City - "a small club with a small club mentality"

Manchester City FC, the club closest to my heart. It's a conundrum wrapped in a riddle hidden inside Pandora's box. My relationship with MCFC was "forced" upon me by my dad from a very young age when growing up in Norway. My dad jumped on the bandwagon of high-flying 1968/69 City with Francis Lee, Summerbee, Bell, Young et al and he's supported them ever since, regardless of their terrible fortunes. I've been a loyal supporter myself for about two decades. I'm sure you all know that during this period the club has had quite a roller-coaster ride of relegations and promotions, take overs and general unrest.

But now thanks to Sheikh Mansour things seems to have changed at the "small club with a small club mentality"! We now have professional owners, but more importantly in FM10: unlimited funding. The blue sky is the limit!

To be honest, the squad you have is capable of a top 4 finish even in the first season. It's a bit unrealistic, but due to how certain players are rated on FM10 your squad is arguably better than real-life equivalent. It's already a solid (almost-)world-class squad ready to go!

Your challenge clearly has to be world-domination: Europa Cup and the Champions League is begging for you to swoop in. In a few years you should aim to be on-par with Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea, Inter and AC Milan. You should be up there, standing tall on your own as the best football team in the world.

But I personally feel you should also aim to continue the proud history that Manchester City has at bringing through quality youngsters from the Academy.

Another challenge will be to balance your squad, as clearly you need more players than just a world-class XI. You need an excellent second string XI as well as some youngster and back-up players. How will you keep all these players happy? Well you should know as you're the manager, if you don't you'll need to learn very quickly!

City of Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. In 2007, the population of the city was 458,100. The history of Manchester began with the civilian vicus associated with the Roman fort of Mamucium, which was established circa AD 79. Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a township, but began expanding around the turn of the 19th century, brought on by a boom in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution. The urbanisation of Manchester largely coincided with the Industrial Revolution and the Victorian era, resulting in it becoming the world's first industrialised city. As the result of an early-19th century factory building boom, Manchester was transformed from a township into a major mill town, borough and was later granted honorific city status in 1853.

Manchester today is a centre of the arts, the media, higher education and commerce.

I'll get it over with and just confess straight away, I've only been to Manchester once and I've never attended a game (SHOCK!). In my defense I've lived in Norway all my life and fairly recently moved to Glasgow. I do however intend to rectify this ASAP so don't worry.

Manchester is a busy metropolitan city that arguably might appear nicer for tourist than for residents. Overall I think Manchester is a fantastic city, the gigs they have in the MEN is almost worth it alone. The people are generally friendly and good spirited. I'd recommend a visit to the gay area of Manchester around Canal Street (not I'm not gay) which has a number of cool bars and pubs with seats outside to drink/smoke. For the geeks, this is also were you can find the Alan Turing Memorial. Arndale shopping centre has a good selection of shops, and the surrounding area contains a large number of sights and things to do.

Manchester City Football Club

Full name: Manchester City Football Club

Nickname(s): The Citizens, The Blues

Founded: 1880

Ground: City of Manchester Stadium (Capacity: 47,726)

Owner: Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan

Chairman: Khaldoon Al Mubarak

League: 2008/09 Premier League, 10th

Manchester City Football Club is an English professional football club based in the city of Manchester. They are currently members of the Premier League. The first known competitive fixture was played in November 1880, when the side was known as St. Mark's (West Gorton), they then became Ardwick A.F.C. in 1887 before changing their name to Manchester City F.C. in 1894.

Since winning the League Cup in 1976, the club has failed to win any major honours. The club's decline led to relegation twice in three years in the 1990s, spending the 1998–99 season in the third tier of English football. The club has since regained top flight status, the level at which they have spent the majority of their history. Manchester City is now believed to be the wealthiest football club in the world after its purchase by the Abu Dhabi United Group in September 2008.

Past Honours

First Division/Premier League: 1936/37, 1967/68 (Runners-up: 1903/04, 1920/21, 1976/77)

FA Cup: 1904, 1934, 1956, 1969 (Runners-up: 1926, 1933, 1955, 1981)

League Cup: 1970, 1976

Charity Shield: 1937, 1968, 1972

European Cup Winners' Cup: 1970

A lot of the younger FM players might not be fully aware that during the last 60s and early 70s Man City had an absolute golden age culminating in winning the First Division, the UEFA Cup Winners Cup, FA Cup, League Cup and Charity Shield (not in the same year of course!).

They had players such as Colin Bell, Francis Lee, Mike Summerbee, Tony Book and Neil Young. The attacking triangle of Lee, Bell and Summerbee were feared all across England as they linked up beautifully and were fast, deadly and creative. Can you make Tevez, Robinho and Adebayor your new version of this attacking triangle? Or perhaps you'd like some other players?

Staff

Manager: Mark Hughes (Soon to be replaced by you?)

Assistant Manager: Mark Bowen

First Team Coach: Eddie Niedzwiecki

Reserve Team Manager (Coach): Glyn Hodges

Goalkeeping Coach: Kevin Hitchcock

Youth Team Manager (Youth Coach): Andy Welsh

Chief Executive (Managing Director): Garry Cook

Football Administration Officer: Brian Marwood (Not present in game)

Cheif Scout (Scout): Mike Rigg

Head of Under-18s Coaching: Scott Sellars (Not present in game)

Naturally, you will be left with a very Welsh bunch of back-room staff but there's nothing wrong with that. Bowen is a capable assistant manager and the others aren't too bad at what they do either. Your scouts are of a fairly high quality but apart from one Brazilian (who's a bit rubbish) they're all English. You might want to sack some scouts and bring in a more international bunch. You also have eight Youth Coaches but only one real coach so I suggest rectifying this balance. Five Physios and only one Fitness Coach also seems a bit strange so this can be looked at as well.

Squad

Goalkeepers

Shay Given (GK)

Stuart Taylor (GK)

You're actually a little short on cover here, as Taylor isn't very good. Given is extremely solid and I personally don't see a need to replace him for the next 3-5 seasons (depending on his development of course). I'd recommend getting a young talented keeper that would be happy to be an under-study for a few years. Alternatively just snap up a 31-32 as a stop-gap. You should probably aim for Taylor to be your 3rd choice.

Defenders

Kolo Toure (DRC)

Jeoleon Lescott (DC)

Micha Richards (DRC)

Nedum Onuoha (DRC)

Vincent Kompany (DC/DM/MC)

Wayne Bridge (DL)

Pablo Zabaleta (D/WBR/MRC)

Sylvinho (DL/WBL)

The players you have are quite flexible, but perhaps you're short of a backup DC and world-class wide defenders. Bridge is fairly solid, but there is a lot better left-backs available. Micha Richards has (rightly perhaps) been downgraded slightly, but should still be able to do a job for you. I do still feel that right full-back area should be your #1 priority in terms of signings. Nedum Onuoha has a lot of promise but he's perhaps more suited for DC, and he's not really ready yet. On the bright side, his pace is blinding!

Toure and Lescott is a fantastic partnership and can be your first-choice centre-half pairing for years to come, but I would very strongly recommend getting one (perhaps even two) back-up quality DC as you might struggle with injuries. Vincent Kompany is a good utility-player who's injured at the start.

Midfielders

Gareth Barry (DM/MLC)

Nigel de Jong (DM/MC)

Michael Johnson (MC)

Stephen Ireland (AMRC)

Martin Petrov (AML)

Robinho (AML/FC)

Vladimir Weiss (AMR)

Shaun Wright-Phillips (AMR)

Gareth Barry is world-class, he should play every single game for you. De Jong is a very capable player as well. Ireland was quite impressive on FM09, but on FM10 he looks absolutely superb, Superman should play every week in my opinion. Now Robinho can be a problem as he's not very consistent and you have to figure out how to play him and where (ML/AML/AMC/ST). There's not one easy solution here, all I will say is if you get him to play he can be fantastic for you! Petrov is a decent backup, and Bellamy can also play here. On the right side of the pitch you can, if you want, play Tevez. SWP of course is very solid, he usually performs a lot better than his attributes would suggest. Vladimir Weiss is in your reserve team, I suggest you promote him to the first team as this kid has quite a lot of potential. Play him for cup games and other insignificant games and he should develop nicely for you. Michael Johnson is injured so hard to make a judgment on him from the demo, but it's safe to say he'll never be world-class in FM10.

Forwards

Emmanuel Adebayor (ST)

Carlos Tevez (FC)

Craig Bellamy (FC)

Roque Santa Cruz (ST)

Benjani Mwaruwari (ST)

Well what can I say about our strike force? Adebayor and Tevez are terrific on FM10, very effective and free-scoring. They make a great tall target-man & short work-horse partnership! Bellamy has been upgraded on FM10 but he's still not fantastic, I'd say he's decent now. He's OK for back-up and exactly the same can be said about Roque Santa Cruz (RSC) to be fair. Perhaps it wouldn't exactly hurt to get rid of Benjani and replace him with a young striker with actual talent...

Players Out

(Most important transfers, not complete...)

Transfers

Elano- Galatasary (£6.2m)

Richard Dunne - Aston Villa (£6.0m)

Daniel Sturridge - Chelsea (compensation not decided yet)

Ched Evans - Sheffield United (£3.1m)

Gelson Fernandes - St. Etienne (£3.1m)

Kasper Schmeichel - Notts County (£1.6m)

Loans

Joe Hart (Birmingham), Shaleum Logan (Tranmere Rovers), Kelvin Etuhu (Cardiff City), Valeri Bojinov (Parma), Felipe Caicedo (Sporting CP), Jô (Everton)

Released

Michael Ball, Tal Ben-Haim, Glauber Berti, Didi Hamann, Danny Mills, Daniel Sturridge, Darius Vassell

It's safe to say MCFC had a massive clear-out of players. Almost all of Sven's purchases have been cleared out, plus some other players that perhaps Mark Hughes didn't feel was up for the challenge. Nobody will be greatly missed in FM10, although Fernandes and Elano were OK, they were rarely exceptional. Jo was horribly erratic but could turn out brilliant on a few rare saves. Dunne was of course very solid in FM09, but in return you have Toure and Lescott who's arguably of a higher quality. Sturridge usually turns out alright, but shouldn't be spoken about...

Budget and Signings

I feel you more than anything need to get a good reliable right full-back so that Richards or Zabaleta can be your back-up. The same also goes for left full-back although Bridge isn't too bad it wouldn't hurt to get a new first-choice. Then you might consider a back-up striker especially if you play two or more strikers as Bellamy and RSC are only decent. Your squad is actually got small so if you have money left you could look at a new central defender or a central midfielder (or both).

Transfer Budget:

Continental Qualification Through League Finish: £55m for transfers, £2m for wages

Title Challenge: £73m for transfers, £2.3m for wages

Winner: £79m for transfers, £2.3m for wages

I'd recommend going for Title Challenge as you get a lot more money and it's a fairly realistic goal. Actually the transfer budget seems a bit short, but we're spoiled now after the take-over. Also keep in mind that players like Tevez, Adebayor, Barry were bought in this transfer window in real life so you already have them.

Recommended Signings: (season one)

Darijo Srna- Shaktar (£15m - 20m), exceptionally versitile player with some fantastic skills. Lethal on dead-balls and penalties as well. Can cover DL/DR/ML/MR.

Artem Milevskiy- Dinamo Kiev (£10m - 15m), it won't hurt to have a quality backup striker and this guy is excellent. A very technical player, who much like Ibrahimvic has an eye for exceptional goals.

Edin Dzeko- Wolfsburg (£15m - 20m), finally this guy has been done justice by the German researchers. He's world-class at the start of the game and will only get better and better. His main strenghts are heading and jumping but he's also a good all-rounder. As he's not fully developed yet you can easily shape him with training.

Juan Manuel Vargas- Fiorentina (£15m - 20m), not entirely comfortable with Wayne Bridge? Well this guy is absolutely fantastic. He can play fullback, wingback and even left midfield with excellent defensive and attacking stats. He'll roam up and down the left-hand side without leaving himself too exposed.

Nicolas Otamendi- Velez (£5m - 7.5m), supposedly the next big thing to come out of South America and in FM10 this is reflected. Should be happy to be backup for a season or two until he matures a bit. Exceptionally talented centre-back which due to his PA is absolutely certain to become world class (think Sakho in FM09). He is incredibly strong with excellent tackling, anticipation and speed.

Long-term Targets

Phillip Lahm- Bayern Munich (£15m - 30m), quite possibly the best full-back in the game and he can play both sides! A complete player that defends and attacks with equal skill.

Lionel Messi- Barcelona (£40m - 100m), do I really need to say anything about Messi? I'm sure Tevez would like a to have a fellow Argentinian and this is as good as they come regardless of nationality! You'll have to aim at becoming mega-successful and keep courting him and befriending Barcelona, eventually you'll get him! Play him on the right so he can cut in as he's left-footed.

Yaya Toure- Barcelona (£40m - 60m), bring in Kolo's brother so they can finally play together! Might not want to join you first season though... A fantastic and powerful DMC, a couple of notches better than De Jong!

Giorgio Chiellini - Juventus (£70 - 120m), aside from John Terry this is the best defender in the game and he's only 25 years old. The term "defensive rock" would be insulting towards Chiellini. He won't join you season one, but as soon as you play in the Champions League he'll be interested. The only problem is Juventus does absolutely not want to let him go so the price you end up paying is rather insane.

(Subject to change as more gets known about who's the "super-players" hidden in the FM10 database.)

Key Player (in my opinion)

Gareth Barry - DMC/MLC

An ex-England under-18 captain, Barry joined Aston Villa from Brighton and Hove Albion as a trainee in 1997 along with Michael Standing. As of April 2008, Barry, approaching 400 total appearances for Aston Villa, was the longest serving player in the team. During the league game against Bolton Wanderers on 28 October 2007, Barry became the youngest player to appear in 300 Premier League games (aged 26 years 247 days), replacing former record-holder Frank Lampard. In May 2008, Liverpool made a series of bids to buy Barry, all of which were rejected by Aston Villa.

On 2 June 2009, Barry signed a five-year contract with Manchester City for a fee of £12 million. Many Aston Villa fans publicly criticised Barry for this move considering his alleged desire to play in the UEFA Champions League. However, Barry responded to this positively claiming that his move to City was for a "new challenge". Barry scored his first Premier League goal for City in the Manchester derby versus United on 20 September.

A star player of absolute quality who will command and control your midfield for many years to come. He's got very evenly spread attributes much like Gerrard and Lampard, as such he can be considered one of the few proper box-to-box midfielders in FM10. He defends your back line, he's got beautiful passes, and he'll even chip in with the occasional goal. With very high Influence, Team Work and Composure he's an ideal captain candidate. Barry can also play on ML as he's pretty good at crossing as well. However I'd recommend playing him at MC or DMC as a box-to-box midfielder, possibly a play-maker as well if you like.

Best Senior Player (per assistant manager)

Carlos Tevez - ST

Although not the most prolific goal-scorer, Tévez is well-known for his work ethic and never-say-die attitude. He has previously played for Boca Juniors, Corinthians, West Ham United, and most notably for Manchester United. He transferred to Manchester City in the 2009–10 summer transfer window, becoming the first player to move between the two Manchester clubs since 1999. He has made 51 appearances for the Argentina national team, scoring 8 goals. He was described by Diego Maradona as the "Argentine prophet for the 21st century". Tévez first came into prominence with Argentina while playing in the FIFA U-17 World Championship. At the 2004 Olympic Games, he won the gold medal and scored eight goals (including the winner in the final) in six matches to be the top scorer of the competition. He was the world's second-highest goalscorer of 2004 in overall international competition with sixteen goals.

Tévez and his wife, Vanesa, have a daughter, Florencia. He performs as the frontman for his cumbia villera musical group, Piola Vago, with his brother Diego. The group's most successful hit, "Lose Your Control," charted in Argentina.

Much like real life, he'll run until he hits the ground then get up and run some more. His Team Work, Work Rate, Stamina and Determination attributes are only rivalled by Kuyt and Olic in FM10. In FM he's always been a lot more prolific than in real life, regularly banging in goals and it's not uncommon for him to get hat-tricks. I love this player, he scores consistently and puts in a real shift for you. Tevez doesn't get injured or loses fitness much either so you can depend on him. You simply have to play him every single game that he's fit to play!

Best Young Player

Vladimir Weiss - AMRC

Vladimir Weiss (born 30 November 1989) is a Slovakian footballer, currently playing for Manchester City. He plays in midfield, mainly as an attacking midfielder. The 19-year-old shot to prominence in the 2007-08 season when he was one of the star performers in the Blues FA Youth Cup triumph. He scored in the second leg of the final in which City beat Chelsea 3-1 to secure a 4-2 aggregate victory.

Bratislava-born Vlad is a right winger with plenty of tricks in his repertoire. It is not surprising he has made his way in the game for football runs in the family. Dad Vladimir senior is currently the coach of the Slovakian national side. Vlad, meanwhile, is now featuring at senior international level and is pushing for a place off the bench for the Blues' first team.

Weiss is actually stuck in your reserves as he's 19 years old now, but I recommend you promptly promote him to your first team. He's been given a good Potential Ability this year so he will most likely become Premier League quality if you give him a chance. Play him in a couple of insignificant games against Hull/Wolves or some cup games. His attributes are quite reasonable from the start, but he might not be ready to replace SWP straight away. Which is OK as SWP should have a good few years left in those speedy legs of his. Vlad is a lot more of a techincal inside winger than the typical wide winger like SWP.

Squad Tactics

We all heard the "reports" in the media about MCFC at one point having ten strikers, which strictly speaking wasn't true. But I'd still say that the squad might be a little top heavy. You might need to give special consideration to Tevez and Robinho, even though they can perform as central forwards, they both excel when playing as an attacking winger (AML/AMR). Therefore you should consider playing a 4-1-2-2-1/4-2-3-1 with wingers as shown below.

Possible Starting XI

Alternative you can choose to play Robinho as a ML (where he also performs well, but seems to not score very often), and Tevez as a ST (he can be prolific in this position if given the right instructions). You can then play a flat 4-4-2 with SWP on MR instead of De Jong as DMC...

If you feel that our fullbacks might be the weak link of the team, you could try playing a 3-4-3 or even 3-5-2 which could be very interesting in the Premier League!

At the end of the day, the squad is very flexible, so feel free to try something else than the standard flat 4-4-2. Regardless of formation, I personally feel you should aim for a quick passing game with counter-attack.

As a fan I don't know if I can do it myself, but I suspect a lot of people will brutally drop/sell Robinho to bring in someone more prolific, consistent and less moody player. It's all up to you of course, but I personally feel he brings that creative spark and ability to break through well organized defensive teams like Fulham.

I believe I touched upon this a bit further up, but Adebayor and Tevez is an absolutely fantastic strike partnership. Adebayor is tall, strong and able to hold up the ball but still has a wicked finish. Tevez is extremely hard working, technical and fairly fast. Perfect tall/short partnership which works excellently in a 4-4-2. It also works with Tevez and Robinho on the wings with Adebayor in the middle.

Almost regardless of your formation, the point is you should (IMHO) set Adebayor to hold up play, target-man as well if you like. In addition to Tevez and Robinho on fairly free/creative instructions this should get you loads of goals!

Finally...

As always, any comments/corrections/feedback more than welcome, don't hesitate to get involved!

But most importantly load up a game as the mighty Manchester City Football Club! Share your experiences, your best buys, your highs and lows and everything else.

(Reserved for possible future additions and updates.)

Records

Honours

First "The Treble": FlUoReScEnT aDoLeScEnT - EPL, FA Cup, UEFA Champions League

First "The Quadruple"(EPL, FA Cup, Carling Cup, UEFA Champions League):

First "The Quintuple"(EPL, FA Cup, Carling Cup, UEFA Champions League, FIFA Club World Cup):

Most Successive EPL Titles:

Most Successive Champions League Titles:

Player

Most Goals in One Season:

Most Assists in One Season: TheInvisibleMan - Modric, 29 assists

Most Man of the Match in One Season:

Most Career Appearances:

Most Golden Boot awards:

Miscellaneous

Longest Unbeaten Run: Tyoldinho - 70 games

Highest Fee Received for Academy player:

Largest Stadium:

Lowest EPL Finish without getting sacked:

Lowest Average Squad Age Winning Champions League:

Most Goals Scored in one season:TheInvisibleMan - 107 goals

Respect mate.

Haha, thanks! Thought I'd go all-out and make a team thread we deserve this year (not that last years was anything but excellent)...

I'll be posting updates a lot more in this thread compared to the team guides I made last year, as I'm sure I'll have many many Man City saves during the next year or so

Wow, thats an awesome post

You have a few players missing from your players out bit, I kept a record going here in the OP if I want to have a look

Thanks for the compliment pal, means a bit "more" coming from the MCFC researcher. Good that you approve anyway. Any factual errors or any input you might have?

I was wondering should I put Helan or Weiss as most promising youngster perhaps? The post that arsenal guy made where players PA is listed, could you perhaps confirm if that's correct? I believe he got the list as he was beta-testing FM10 so must have had access to the data editor?

About the loans, I sort of left some out intentionally didn't want to clutter the whole thing with "insignificant" transfers

I'd have Weiss easily. Helan has come from the French research team, I wasn't the one who gave him a -9. So i'd go Weiss, Nimely, Helan. Depending on how high their PA hits in a certain game, the likes of Ben Mee and Adam Clayton could turn out to be better than those 3 aswell

As for the transfer bit, I meant more like Tal Ben-Haim, Darius Vassell, Michael Ball etc have been missed off

Cool, I added a wee "Released" section now.

I'll see when I get home and play a bit perhaps I'll change it to Miami Weiss as the most promising

Another little point, I was rather suprised that Nimely is a -9 now. Was he not a -7/-8 last year? He must have really impressed you when you've watched him I take it? Positively pleased, just a bit surprised that's all...

Brilliant opener mate top stuff.

Going to start a Man City one as soon as I have finished snooping around as Arsenal just testing things.

I wont be looking for young'ens on the demo, just as you only have 6 months, Im going to try and buy the best player money can buy!

I'm at work now, but I'm going to start a proper save myself later today when I get home.

Been reading that Cassano is incredible this year so have to check him out, perhaps you could post a screenshot for us?

Supposedly Dzeko has a PA of:

Miralem Pjanic is PA:

EDIT: Forgot to say thanks for the compliment, much appreciated

No problem mate, it was a great read and is deffinatly going to be useful

Anyway, yeah Cassano has been made one of the must have buys for teams that have the money, Chelsea had already snapped him up way before I even read that he was awesome.

As you can see, he has brilliant technical ability, hes just like a cheap Ronaldo, without the devastating physical attributes obviously But hey, Cassano's still aint bad.

Oh wow, tempting that one... Could get him and just use him as back up for AML/ST (does he play AMR at a stretch?), should be quite a good back-up to Tevez, Robinho and Adebayor.

Oh and Per Ciljan Skjelbred at Rosenborg (Norway) MC/AMC has PA:

He's an absolutely amazing player at the start of the game, and as I kept saying again and again for FM09: He's so reliable and always gets 7 or higher rating! Performs twice as good as his attribute suggests...

Cassano plays on the right, with a yellow dot (unconvincing) so can be easily trained there if needed, shouldn't take too long to get him there accomplished. £16m is a great price for him though!

Skjelbred was amazing on FM09, he was a great player to always have in the squad.

Got a high PA as well on this game, which should mean he can stay in top team squads (as i use to replace him after i got Portsmouth or whatever to a top four team, as he couldnt cut it as much).

Who are you signing yourself then?

DR is my biggest worry... You going to try and sign a new one? Jerome Boateng is supposedly very good this year?

Also, I'm not sure if Wayne Bridge will be good enough... Just our stupid full-backs that needs sorted isn't it? Rest is just back up players in my opinion for cover...

Wayne Bridge looks as if he is not going too bad for the first season, but as per usaul he is better going forward then back.

Micah Richards has been deservedly toned down, but his physical stats are still amazing. Which for the moment means his pace isn't going to be stopped charging down the right, but his dribbling and crossing is a major let down for a fullback.

So more importantly RB is too be sorted, with Richards either rotating in the middle or on the right.

When the full game comes out, i will spend most the budget on youth players, brazilian wonderkids and all that, and the rest on a really decent right back. And keep Bridge at left back and promote Zander to first team (to develope quicker), and try and offloan Sylvinho, useless player, although his stats are very generous this year. Zabaleta should be good enough at right back until a better one has been signed.

But onto my signings...

LB - Im looking into the possibility of Chivu, i was shocked to see he was interested. He can be picked up pretty cheap as well, that could be a straight swap for Bridge.

RB - Sorry to mention same old players, but Srna would be a quality replacement, and he covers most positions on the field, obviously he isn't as great as he was on the last game, but he still is a great player, and could possibly be a great tutor for Richards and Onouha.

Other signings;

Balotelli, such great PA this year, and he is interested from the start, would be a great squad player until i decide to get rid of Robinho (dislike as a person, love as a footballer) and bring him to a starting place on the left.

De Rossi, what a player, and you could never really get him for less than £50m on FM09, or even get him interested. You can pick him up for £35m and would love him sitting infront of the back four.

Im not sure we would need anyone else, except a remarkable set of Brazilian youth in the reserves

I have started as Man City - my career game in FM09 ended up with them (via Bayern and Milan) so it seemed logical.

I am rotating between two formations, an attacking and fluid standard 4-4-2 and a rigid, counter-attacking 4-2-3-1. The latter is actually more deadly/I've got it working better so far.

Signings so far are Van der Vaart (£2.5m upfront, £5m over 36 months) and Chivu (£2.5m plus £36m over 36 months - maybe overpaid but he was the best defender I scouted).

I also have Srna at w/p stage (£5m plus £15m over 36 months).

Like everyone else, the fullbacks were the obvious area to focus on, and VdV was both cheap and filled a hole in my expertise (someone dedicated to playing, er, in the hole). He is a completely unbalanced player, but that can be useful sometimes. I had an awesome friendly where Ade was upfront as lone target man on support and VdV was behind him as trequartista, and I had 'shoot on sight' touchline shout and 'pump ball forward'. He got two goals.

I've also found Tevez and SWP to be excellent - really direct and pacy in a nicely true-to-life fashion.

Once I've got Srna I will see whether I can/want to bring in anyone else. I may target AML as Robinho looks to be better in his natural position up front and Petrov is comically unbalanced. I don't want to be relying on someone with decisions 8 and workrate and teamwork 6! Jovetic looks quite tasty for this position as do Vucinic and Young.

What fun! Going to play first Prem game now - MU away?!?!!

Chivu (£2.5m plus £36m over 36 months - maybe overpaid but he was the best defender I scouted).

Oh god you did overpay mate, I have had a £17m bid for him accepted.

I've just started a wee game on the demo now. Signed Skjelbred for £2.5m, a good backup player.

Working on try to lure Lahm with money, Bayern will let you talk to him for £30m but he rejected £150k/w so I tried again with £200k/w see how he likes that!

Dzeko awaiting work permit, Cassano went to Chelsea I'm afraid

Will update more later!

I feel this Cassano thing is the same as the Hamsik thing on FM09, Man City always bought him for £22.5m

and now on everyone of my games, Chelsea buy Cassano for £17.5m

Just beat Oldham 6-0. Tevez and Dzeko with hat-tricks, only played 45mins each. Tezez playing as a Complete Forward and Dzeko as Target-Man

Aye, next save I load up I'm going to offer Cassano £200k/w and see what happens... See if it's indeed true.

Tyoldinho, how's Srna for you on FM10?

Started as Man City on the demo just to sign a bunch of players and see if they're any good. Found a couple impressive players to this point:

Stephane Sessegnon from PSG is quite an impressive AM LRC for me so far. Averaging 7s and his stats are quite good.

Wagner from Lokomotiv Moscow is quite good technically, if a bit lacking physically, but has been very good for me also.

Most people probably know about Dzeko, he's just a beast.

Philippe Mexes from Roma was suggested to me by Bowen, and I was able to get him for a decent price as opposed to the 40M from 09. Very good defender.

That's it for now, we'll see who else is uncovered as time goes on.

Srna is everything you want a right sided player to be, probably not as devestating on this one as last year.. but he still does the job, hes up and down the right alot more than Bridge is on the left. Im impressed so far, £15m is alot of money.. but as im Man City, i feel it was well spent on a position that needed filling!

Brilliant win against Oldham, Dzeko seems to be a great buy, but I dont think im going to buy anyone like that until the proper game is released this is just a testing save.

Might end up with Srna myself so that's good to hear, can't believe how good he was in the last FM... Just insane :o

Yeah I know what you mean, I only mess about and test stuff myself with the demo. Had to buy Dzeko to see what he was like if you know what I mean. My GOD he seems to be fantastic!

Edit: Tevez just got a hat-trick again, against Bury this time... Won 4-0.

I just went out with the £73m and got Silva (31m), Srna (16m), Vargas (12m), and Arshaven (24m)... It's just too easy, now I've got a team that looks like this:

I will buy Dzeko in the full release i dont want to ruin it by buying him in the demo if you get me! He is one of them players i refuse to buy until i can play longer than January, same with Douglas Costa and Neymar.

Mooki3: Real quality buys there mate, especially Arshavin should be good value for £24m... Might be easy now but imagine on the full game the board is expecting you to win the league, and you'll have Champions League the year after You never signed a striker, Bellers and RSC as backup then?

My squad first run on the demo:

Interestingly my Assistant Manager rates Dzeko higher than Adebayor, mind he's not even close to his potential...

definitely going to have a city game when this comes out. Always good fun to have loads of cash and the accompanying massive expectations. Had a great game going with them on 09 btw. Only came at the club after 3 seasons, saved them from a 12th place to win the league in the next year with a complete squad overhaul. Won the league 4 times on the trot with Balotelli and Ronaldo spearheading my attack (yeah, bought Ronaldo for 94 million after my second title in a row haha).

the-dud, assistant managers are not always that accurate when judging players. Always keep his judging ca/pa attributes in mind.

At Barça for instance, Vilanova rated Ibrahimovic a full star higher than Messi (both in their respective best positions). Suffice to say I sacked him, then got me an assistant with 19 for judging players ca and pa, at least he rates Messi to the standard he deserves

RubenJ:

Cool cool, mind to post in this thread. I'd really like to beat Man United in popularity hehe

Aye I know assistant managers can be a bit dodgey in FM, they always have been all the FM version I can remember...

You not going to have a wee sneaky go with City on the demo then no? Feel free to contribute anyway!

Haha, and I have a broken leg already in pre-season, oh joy!

Robinho got snapped by some Oldham player, nice to see he was taking it as a friendly! Glad it wasn't Tevez.

Im still on pre-season friendlys at the moment due to the fact of just looking at players and players and players, seeing if there is any hidden talent out there.

Anyone have any luck on selling players?? I tried to sell the likes of Bellamey, Petrov, Zabaleta etc but it seems no teams are interested. I bought way too many players each of them cost around 15m lol, even though I had 79m to spend I ran out.

Great OP mate, top work

I started a game with Man City last night. I wanted to play as Liverpool, but there's no enjoyment to be had with a book of milk tokens as a transfer budget.

Man City have an awesome squad considering their expectations. Almost a 'cheat' team tbf

Will post my transfers in a while.

As promised....

Players in

Rafael van der Vaart - Real Madrid - £7.5M

Darijo Srna - Shakhtar - £22M

Carlos Kameni - Espanyol - £5.25M

Maxi Rodriguez - Atlético Madrid - £15M

Players out

Javan Vidal - Hartlepool - £Loan

Martin Petrov - Sunderland - Loan fee of £650k, with option to buy for £3.7M

Javiér Garrido - Wolves - £2.6M

Team Report

Tried to crop that picture but I'm not sure how to do it so it's nice and neat :o

Anyway, that's my team. Been steamrollering the opposition so far.

Maxi Rodriguez

Heh

My results so far: MU 1-1 (A), Liverpool 1-0 (H), Hull 2-0 (A), Portsmouth 3-2 (H). I got manager of the month and am third in the division.

My final signing was Vucinic for £29m. If this had been the real game then I'd have got Jovetic for £18m, as he has better potential, but it isn't...

Wee_Aja: How's van der Vaart on FM10, does he score a lot? Good signings by the way, keep us posted

Bluebeard: Good results, good win over liverpool! Vucinic was terrific on the last FM, how is he this time? Who else did you sign?

A general question, what formation/tactics are you all using?

My signings :

In

Rafael Van der Vaart - £7.5m

Darijo Srna - £19.5m

Artem Milevskyi - £10m

Steven Jovetic - £16m

Artem Milevskyi is my best buy of the season, with 9 goals in 5 apps.

Just restarted on the Strawberry demo myself, still just finding players and everything...

Signed:

Per Ciljan Skjelbred - £2m

Mexes - £17m Possibly one of the best players to come season one? Decent price as well!

Hatem Ben Arfa - £18.5m

Cassano - £17.5m Yes you can pip Chelsea but I had to offer him Key Player £150k/w. What a player though!

Vincent Enyeama - £250k

Artem Milevskyi - £10m

Simon Kjaer - £20m Just thought I'd check him out, very expensive but supposedly amazing potential in FM10...

I'm playing a rather experimental 3-4-1-2 (3xDC, MR, 2xMC, ML, AMC, 2xST), seems to work alright but only in preseason

Invinci: How's Jovetic this year? Supposedly pretty amazing... Milevskyi does look very tasty, what instructions do you give him?

the--dud

Great price on Mexes, atleast some people know how much to offer

You can get Mexes and Chivu for around £17m each.

I see you nabbed Cassano, how is he getting on then? Seen as he has a lot of hype this year

I will buy Dzeko in the full release i dont want to ruin it by buying him in the demo if you get me! He is one of them players i refuse to buy until i can play longer than January, same with Douglas Costa and Neymar.

I know what you mean buddy, and I do the same haha!

Invinci: How's Jovetic this year? Supposedly pretty amazing... Milevskyi does look very tasty, what instructions do you give him?

Jovetic is top draw, got him for £13.5m, hes got a couple of assists and a good av rating in the 3 starts ive given him.

Also, anyone else been Starting Bellamy ahead of the likes of Adebayor or Robinho? I put him in when Ade got injured and hes got 7 in 4 starts!

Tyoldinho: Mexes has been impressive as anything, a defensive rock by the looks of it Cassano has been very good as well, I play him as a AMC Trequarista and he basically roams around making amazing passes and some good goals from long range. Played him as ST for half a game and he got two goals as well!

TheUsualSuspect9: Good to hear Jovetic is ready to go from the start as in FM09 I felt he was only ready 2-3 seasons in... Really Bellamy has been that good for you?? Actually his workrate and fitness is surprisingly low this year... Perhaps he's just one of them players who performs a lot better than his attributes would suggest then... Adebayor is a funny player (was the same on FM09 with updated database), just so inconsistent... He can have a shocking 45 first minutes but then go on to score a hat-trick if you don't sub him!

Just restarted on the Strawberry demo myself, still just finding players and everything...

Signed:

Per Ciljan Skjelbred - £2m

Mexes - £17m Possibly one of the best players to come season one? Decent price as well!

Hatem Ben Arfa - £18.5m

Cassano - £17.5m Yes you can pip Chelsea but I had to offer him Key Player £150k/w. What a player though!

Vincent Enyeama - £250k

Artem Milevskyi - £10m

Simon Kjaer - £20m Just thought I'd check him out, very expensive but supposedly amazing potential in FM10...

I'm playing a rather experimental 3-4-1-2 (3xDC, MR, 2xMC, ML, AMC, 2xST), seems to work alright but only in preseason

Invinci: How's Jovetic this year? Supposedly pretty amazing... Milevskyi does look very tasty, what instructions do you give him?

Jovetic is good, 7 apps 1goal, 4 assists and 1 MoM. I play Milevskyi as a poacher with attack duty. Currently both tevez and milevskyi are tied at 10 apps 11 goals .

I know what you mean buddy, and I do the same haha!

Also, anyone else been Starting Bellamy ahead of the likes of Adebayor or Robinho? I put him in when Ade got injured and hes got 7 in 4 starts!

Well, i did so when tevez was injured. Started Bellamy with Adebayor and i must say he is good considering his stats.

Hamsik is a must buy right from the start of the game. Only £10 m and with a very high PA he'll be world class in 2-3 years. Jovetic too.

Also can't believe that you can sign Mexes with that price and that he wants to join Man City.

I've got Balotelli on my game with £27m and I'll buy him on the full game as well. He will be a legend in this version.

big_bob: Yeah Hamsik is fantastic, but mind to use [ spoiler ] [ /spoiler ] tags for PA/CA postings would you? Balotelli I totally agree with, but I didn't expect him to want to join Man City in season one to be honest. What sort of contract did you have to offer him, Key Player? Aye Mexez surprised me but he was happy to join for only £70k/w so can't moan!

I was surprised too to see Balotelii wanting to join Man City season one. And here's what happened. I made an offer of £35m at first. They negotiated the initial offer and Inter wanted £60m after I made my first bid. Totally unreal.I was shocked. And then I made an offer of £15m + £12 m after 48 months and they accepted it right away. Lol. I think you can get Pijanic that way too. Balotelli wants to join Man City only as a key player.

Here's some player that didn't want to join Man City: Chiellini, Aguero, Neuer. I haven't tried Chivu so far, but it's strange he wanna come to Man City.

I love this 'Small Club Mentality'...just used 104M (currency €) on transfers:

17.25M Mexes

17.25M Chivu

15M Zapata

31M Adler

23M Walcott

should be pretty capable squad now

Edit: after selling fringe players got enuf funds to add Veloso to that list with 19M bid.

ArseFly:

The quote is from Mr. Ferguson - "It's City isn't it? They're a small club with a small mentality. All they can talk about is United – they can't get away from it." Which is ironic because it's him that can't stop talking about us as he's running scared we'll overtake them one day!

Made some quality signings there mate. Three new defenders, are you using Zapata as DR then I take it? Adler looks quality, has he been better than Shay Given for you? He'll just become better and better though you won't see that on the demo... His PA is sky-high!

big_bob:

I think Chiellini should be a long-term target as he's probably the best defender money can buy on FM10 apart from a few youngsters who could potentially become better in the future. Amazing player!

More general about City's reputation, I think it's a side-effect of having Toure, Tevez, Adebayor, Barry, Robinho at the club, I don't think it's a data issue. Eg, our reputation probably hasn't been raised specifically by the researchers, but rather as a result of the players we have it's increased naturally?

Anyway, here's the squad I ended up with:

Will try to play to the end of the demo with this squad and see how I get along

thats a great plan dud as we dont have any pure quality full backs.. just play 3 central defenders, 1 being completely centred, a left footer and a right! Brilliant!

I wonder how many goals it leaks

great post dud,

downloading the demo right now looking forward to play with Man City