FM10 - Oops! We're going the wrong way!

Is there a team in the EPL you absolutely hate to see win at all?

Have you been interested in the thread on General that claims that ManU never gets relegated?

Or are you simply looking for a new challenge?

Then may I present the Oops! We're going the wrong way challenge.

Your mission is simple. Start a game with all English leagues loaded through BSN/BSS and large database. Then add yourself as manager of any team you want in the EPL, and attempt to make them unplayable by getting them relegated from BSN/BSS. Sound like fun?

Of course, there are a few other things to be concerned about. This might be a little too easy to do if we don't first establish some little house rules. Here are some I've thought of before starting this challenge (although we may need to add more as time goes on):

It's all about personel

Here are a few rules about your squad:

The We're all professionals here Rule - You cannot just sign grayed-out players from a level 9 reserve squad. You have to sign someone who actually wants to play real football for money.

The No generous to a fault Rule - You want to give away all your stars? Well, you can only offer them out for their full value. If the AI comes sniffing around with a low-ball offer, you are free to accept it, but otherwise you have to ask AT LEAST full value. If no one wants to pay that much for your best player, you're stuck with him.

The We don't give handouts Rule - You can't dodge the above rule by loaning out your best players. No loans out, period. (You can loan in, but why would you want to?)

The Age before Beauty Rule - No, you can't just sign a gaggle of 47 year old strikers to 10 year contracts and watch your team decline. As a matter of fact, you may only sign one player over the age of 33 per season. If you're taking the team down, you want to do it with players in their prime.

The Child Labour Law Rule - Similar to above, you can't just put your youth players out there. Only 2 players on youth contracts are allowed on the senior squad at any time.

The Everybody gets a turn Rule - So, you can't give your star away, and the AI doesn't want to pay for him. Sorry - every senior player under contract has to start at least one league match a season. Makes for an interesting decision - start Rooney early in the year, or hope you can dump him in the January transfer window?

The We may not have quality, but we have volume Rule - You can't just start every match with 10 men and an empty bench. You need to field a full team and bench for every league match.

The Jobs are hard to come by these days Rule - If^H^HWhen you get canned for poor performance, you might be tempted to add yourself as a new manager and continue your quest. This is fine, but you can't do this until the post season squad break. You'll need to live with any moves the interim management makes while you're gone. (Hint - to stick around longer, you might want to see how well you can do in the cups, etc. Think how much fun it would be to play in Europe while you're in the BSP! And give yourself a lower rep - the board might be a little more patient. Of course, finances should be great, since you won't be buying anyone worth anything).

It's Your Tactics!

Of course, to be the biggest loser, you'll need some pretty awful tactics. And you're free to be creative, within these guidelines.

The Funny Shirt Rule - You need to play an actual GK in goal. No outfield players in goal (unless you have no GK on your bench and your regular keeper is sent off). Sorry, but this one is just too obvious.

The Well my scout said he was competent Rule - You can only play someone in a position when they are listed as Competent or better. Of course, "Competent" is a relative term. But still, you need to play someone in a position they're trained for; not just move them anywhere you want.

The No 0-0-10 Rule - It's kind of hard to defend with all forwards, and hard to score when you play all defenders. You need a few of each. Your formation must have between 3 and 5 defenders, and between 1 and 3 forwards (and, of course, a GK). Other than that, anything goes.

As mentioned, I'm sure we'll need some more rules as time goes on. So, who's game? Start your game and post your stories - I'm sure they'll be amusing. And best of all, no need to sim a year before starting - I'm sure you'll want to start dismantling your squad ASAP.

IMO, it's a fresh idea but, whether this is just me I don't know, why would you want to lose on purpose? Not really my cup of tea, hope you get interest, sure someone will enjoy this.

What the hell i'll add this to the list of ever growing challenges i start ... Liverpool will be my choice of victims!

Simple tactic - 2 Full backs

2 Wing backs

2 Wide Midfielders

2 Wingers

2 Wide Strikers

Nobody in the Centre and within all rules.

See, that's the kind of creative thinking that can get any team relegated! Or so you would hope.

It would be fun to see what sort of dodgy play we can get out of the ME.

A journalist from spurs-web.com chose the main focus point for the conference, asking, "You sit here as the new manager of Tottenham. Is this your dream job?"

Petri's response was, "I have my dreams, but this is just a job...

That should help morale at the club.

First order of business was to cancel all the friendlies. We'll sort it out as we go. Besides, it's too hot to play football that time of year.

Time to wheel and deal with the roster...

Like the idea but i'm going to be lineing up like This.

Worst of luck chaps

Manchester United to be relegated

Well that didn't go too well i thought set up a rubbish formation, use a ridiculous rotation system (making 11 changes every game), offer out most the squad and finally play well in Cups and especially the Champions League.

All looked good and worked well unbeaten in Champions League and League Cup with Middlesbrough in next round (winnable even for us) but i still got sacked!!! Manager status was stable so what went wrong!? Apparently losing to Everton it was ... 24th October the date my contract was called to an end have i done enough!? We'll see.

Table when sacked

Transfers.

Players used.

So i just holiday now until season end and then take back over right!?

Yeah, I reckoned that getting sacked would be the biggest obstacle, but I didn't think it would be so soon. So yes, you are supposed to holiday until end of season and then take over again. We're blazing new territory here, though. If perpetual sackings start to become tedious, I may need to change the rules. Maybe just holiday until 1 Jan and see what the team has done while you were gone?

Yeah, I reckoned that getting sacked would be the biggest obstacle, but I didn't think it would be so soon. So yes, you are supposed to holiday until end of season and then take over again. We're blazing new territory here, though. If perpetual sackings start to become tedious, I may need to change the rules. Maybe just holiday until 1 Jan and see what the team has done while you were gone?

Well holiday'd and thought i'd check what was happening come December ..... and they are still in the relegation zone so i think end of season is fair, i think i was too destructive to be honest i will know better next season i think you will have to win atleast a few games and any favoured personnel at the club will have to be played . . . Thats what i think anyways.

Oh and Rafa has took back over

So i got sacked 24th October and replaced with Rafa Benitez here's how he did for the rest of the Season:

Premiership Table - Transfers.

So i'll let the season turn over and then take back over:

Aims:

1, Last longer than October 24th.

2, Lose at least 2 from Reina, Gerrard, Torres, Mascherano.

3, Relegation.

Simple tactic - 2 Full backs

2 Wing backs

2 Wide Midfielders

2 Wingers

2 Wide Strikers

Nobody in the Centre and within all rules.

Wing Backs are classed as midfielder

See I actually think it is possible for you to do this without being sacked, it will take a lot longer, but what if you see their target for the season, eg top half, and finish just outside that, plus do well in the cups. Then the following season their expectations should drop a little, and so you go one or two places below that, and keep doing it that way and surely you would be able to avoid the sack and still drop downwards a bit at a time. Take a very long time though.

I've decided to see how bad I can play with my current squad - provided they can play outside. I transfer listed everyone who only plays DC, MC or ST and decided to go with a nice contain 3-2-2-2-1 formation with 1 DC, 1 FC, and everyone else on the wings. I got a few 18 year olds in on trial, and found my new key player - a striker with finishing of 3.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to develop a new tactical innovation. Rather than a sweeper/keeper, how about a striker keeper? Set the GK's mentality to Attacking, Run with Ball to often, etc. He's also my target man. Should be good for a few laughs.

I couldn't cancel all my friendlies - had to play San Jose. Only lost 4-0, but there's still time to work on things...

Oh dear! First match

Taking Tottenham down . Damn you!!!! :mad:

Great idea, I might just try it alongside my regular LLM save, for a bit of a laugh.

I shall be starting with that most scummy of teams, Machester United.

First things first: Coaches. Pah, who needs them. Everyone is sacked apart from one physion, and a new Assman (as incompitent as I could find using the job advert) is employed.

My scouts are sent across the globe searching for 1-2* players to sign to replace my first team squad, all of whom are transfer listed.

A rather creative set ofare created, incorporated the legendary LLM left-sided sweeper, with every player set to attack as much as possible and other assorted oddities inserted.

Missed the loan rule for one player (a reserve) but continued it otherwise.

Transfers as of August 1:

May have to give this a go. Probaly with either Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea or Arsenal.

Tactics have changed to a 3-2-2-3 formation, with the only central players being a DC and ST due to a lack of 'competent' left-sided sweepers.

Hooraa, it works:

I like this idea for a challenge, although I won't be attempting it myself as I'm busy with my own challenge.

One idea to make the team struggle financially is to sign a load of players with massive ($100M+) fees after 1 game, that way you could easily buy say 10 of those players and in one leage game trigger a $1B expense - will be hard for any new manager to recover from that!

For the first time in memory, dealing with the press has been fun. Signed an 18 year old no-star prospect, then told the press I expect him to make a contribution immediately - I'm sure you can guess what that did to him. Then I storm out of every pre-match press conference, while I tell them I'm delighted to get my arse handed to me after the match. Fun times.

Lost my first three matches by an aggregate 32-0. Lost in the league cup 1-0 to Huddersfield. I might get canned soon, but for the time being I'm having a lot more success here than in my real career save! It's a fun break.

I'm gonna have to give this a go.

I am torn between using Liverpool, Man City, Arsenal or Chelsea.

I will probably go for Man City.

If it were last seasons version then I would go for Newcastle in a heartbeat but alas they have ruined themselves.

Ok, I am the new manager of Man City.

I did 2 things straight away:

1) Cancel all links with all feeder clubs.

2) Cancel all friendlies.

Here is the tactic I will be using.

So that is technically a 4-4-2.

In order to play every player in the correct position I will drop 1 or 2 players into the middle when I need to use a player who can't play wide.

One of the touches I really like is using my keeper as a target man with the ball aimed at his head. I will be interested to see how many own goals are scored.

I have 49 senior players who are not on loan. I intend to have 4 starting XIs, each one with a mix of good players and awful players, and rotate this every match.

By doing this I ensure that each player has to sit out 3 games for every 1 he plays, thus stopping them getting lots of match practice.

A few other policies I will implement are:

1) Every player will be fined 2 weeks wages at every opportunity.

2) All players will be offered up for transfers at least once a week, with every transfer offer being rejected.

Hopefully this will drive morale down.

I have also just played my first league game and despite me playing pretty much the best players in the squad, it didn't go well.

And here are my transfers.

All of those transfers are £40m after 1 league appearance.

They will all get a debut in the next match, so it will be quite an expensive match for me.

This was a little too easy in FM07: I took Chelsea down in the first season without winning any cups bar the Charity Shield and kept my job (default formation and assman team selection for all except the relegation clincher; only sold a couple of stars). Not training players helps.

Anyone tried retraining players for ridiculous positions or bringing their keeper up for corners and set pieces yet?

haha im going to give this a try with chelsea

edit: if a club comes after 1 of my players before they have played a game what do i do?

Decided to give this a go with Manchester United for some fun and to see how bad I can do. I have been sacked in November and am just wondering what date I have to holiday to, is it the league reset date or when the last match happens?

Good idea, fancy doing it with Liverpool.

edit: if a club comes after 1 of my players before they have played a game what do i do?

Sell them, of course. Presumably, if another club wants them, they'll eventually start a game for their new team. But if you haven't started someone by the end of the year and you have a relegation playoff, you better hope that the rust doesn't flake off...

so even though he hasnt played for me thats ok?

Shame i cant do this challenge using Celtic lol, would love to take them down

^That would be class. Celtic in the Third Division.

You are all getting this so wrong

Take it slow, mid-table, then just above relagation, then relagation.

Starting and lsong 10 nil will have you sacked in no time

looks intersting

Manchester United - English Premier League- 2009/2010 (Season 1)- Ethan13

Thought this sounded like a fun challenge and thought it would be fun to watch Manchester United drop down the leagues.

I was sacked on the 7th of November. This is how things looked then:

League Table-----Transfers-----Squad Stats

Roberto Mancini took over and this is how things looked at the end of the season:

League Table-----Transfers

Closing Comments- I didn't really get far this season as they still finished 6th. I will try and stay longer next season and hopefully sell some of the better players.

Story So Far:

 Season    League          Position  Position when Sacked   Date Sacked
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2009/10   Premier League  6th       16th                   7th November            
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm going to have to start again unfortunately my save has become corrupted.

Only lasted until November first. But I hope I did enough damage. GD is pretty remarkable (and I even tried to win the last match before getting sacked).

SACKED!

table

(un)Fortunately, my other game is going well at the moment, so I might wiat until tomorrow to finish this season

Only lasted until November first. But I hope I did enough damage. GD is pretty remarkable (and I even tried to win the last match before getting sacked).

SACKED!

table

(un)Fortunately, my other game is going well at the moment, so I might wiat until tomorrow to finish this season

where u killing birmingham 2

Gutted - only 2 spots out of relegation. Still it looks like I did enough damage that I should be able to take them down next season!

Portsmouth in 8th? Wow

Manchester United - English Premier League- 2009/2010 (Season 1)- Ethan13

Thought this sounded like a fun challenge and thought it would be fun to watch Manchester United drop down the leagues.

I was sacked on the 7th of November. This is how things looked then:

League Table-----Transfers-----Squad Stats

Roberto Mancini took over and this is how things looked at the end of the season:

League Table-----Transfers

Closing Comments- I didn't really get far this season as they still finished 6th. I will try and stay longer next season and hopefully sell some of the better players.

Story So Far:

 Season    League          Position  Position when Sacked   Date Sacked
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2009/10   Premier League  6th       16th                   7th November            
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

That is the smallest screenshots I've ever seen. Any chance you could upload some bigger ones?

I seem to have trouble taking screenshots. I got a new computer and it has a widescreen monitor and all the screenshots I take on it come out real small for some reason. If anyone knows why or what I can do to fix it please say.

In game related news I have made it to October and haven't been sacked. We are sitting in about 13th in the league and I have managed to sell Evra, Vidic, Rooney and Ferdinand.

My type of game. Gonna start a game with either Man Utd or Chelsea...

My aim is to have players from 30 random nations, and go down as quick as possible.

So, second season. Time to get serious!

I retire and add myself as new manager. Spurs still expect top half finish! I offer out every player I can, and fortunately I'm able to unload every GK on my squad.

I look around, and I see that Truro was promoted to BSS! Great, I'll bet we could help each other out. I buy 5 of their players for 66M after 1 league appearance, including their second string GK, who is absolutely horrible. So, Truro gets a 330M endowment and I get some utter carp players at 73K/wk. A fair trade. I also found a 46 yo LWB, but he refuses to sign for 5 years. Oh well, I found a 38 yo DM who will.

Cancel my friendlies, fire my coaches, set my training to none, and away we go.

I doubt I'll last until Nov again, but at least now I've tied up reams of cash on such miserable players for the next 4-5 years that it will be hard for my successor to undo my progress.

Second match of the season - I guess I shouldn't have made that press remark saying that SAF had no business coaching in the EPL. Rooney scored 14 by himself. I particularly enjoy my player ratings - it was certainly a team effort. Maybe I should post this screenie on General than p*ss and moan about how unrealistic the ME is.

hahahahahahah that is absolutely funny! Can you post a screenshot of the tactic?

Absolute brilliant idea for a game where you don't have to think much, just destroy!

Have taken over Man U and sold a lot of players, obviously bottom of the league at the moment, the highlight being a 20-0 defeat against Aston Villa. Only win so far came against Bordeaux in the CL!