The Terry Venables Challenge (New and Improved)

[manyoo87]

Crystal Palace - Season 3 Update (01/09/09)

League Table 5th

I’ve had my best start to a season so far in this challenge, winning 3 of 4 Championship matches, which has me sitting in 5th place currently. I’ve also won both my league cup matches. My defence has probably been my biggest weakness over the last two seasons, but it seems a lot more solid this year. Bringing in keeper S.Bywater has had a lot to do with this. I definitely think my squad is good enough to maintain my current position or possibly even challenge for one of the automatic promotion spots.

Transfers

Young left-back Leigh Hills was sold for 875k as I already have two capable left backs in Jeff Hughes and Tony Craig. I also felt my midfield was strong enough to withstand the sale of Ben Watson, who went Leeds for 800k. I almost broke my laptop screen in frustration when I read that my Chairman had interfered and accepted a bid for Tom Soares, who’s been my best midfielder and probably my best player overall in the first two seasons. On the plus side I did receive 4.6M for Soares, which allowed me to buy midfielders Anderson Silva and Wilson Palacios as well as young striker Cameron Jerome. Three goalkeepers were brought in; I was particularly pleased with the signing of Stephen Bywater on a free transfer. Finally 4 players were brought in on loan to provide some depth for the first team. Only Kieran Gibbs from Arsenal will see consistent first team action

[pcmeister]

Step 2 - QPR - Season 8 - 2014-15 - End of Season

Premiership Relegation 19th P38 W5 D6 L27 F31 A78 GD -47 Pts 21

FA Cup 5th Round

League Cup 3rd Round

This will have to be a short review of this season because I am nearly through the next season so I have forgotten what happened.

Premiership

League Table

Unfortunately, I was relegated for the first time ever on this game, just because the squad was not good enough and I wasn't backed as much as I would have wanted (only £7m) so I decided that I needed a goalkeeper and a striker of Premier League standard to stay up, but with the money available I brought in Tim Krul for £4.7m, who has decent stats and I could not find the one striker required, so I brought in 2 average strikers (which in hindsight was a mistake), Angel and Ganea for £1.9m and £1m respectively, and I brought in a defender, Reguissnen on a bosman. Obviously this was not good enough, and we went down in 19th position. But for next season, I want instant promotion, and I will only buy players which have top league experience so to prepare for a top-flight season. I should have enough money from parachute payments.

League Cup

2nd Round: QPR 4-0 Plymouth

3rd Round: QPR 1-1 Man Utd 1-3p

Our League Cup run started with an easy win over Plymouth until we met Manchester United in the 3rd Round. We did extremely well to take them to penalties but with the lack of penalty takers, we had no chance so we went out unfortunately.

FA Cup

3rd Round: Blackpool 2-4 QPR

4th Round: QPR 5-0 Millwall

5th Round: Southampton 1-0 QPR

This particular cup run went rather well because we did not meet any Premier League sides, so we were able to power through to the 5th Round: however we met Southampton, who we beat in the Play-Offs the previous season, but poor form in the League continued through into the cup against a decent Championship team and we were beaten so the run ended.

Transfers

Transfers

Sorry about the Championship sign in the corner of the screenshot, I only just took the picture now.

As I said earlier, those 4 were the main signings, as well as Albin and Bazarite on a free transfer, and there were many departures, but those were ones without contracts, except for Damien Plessis and the forward Durak for £550k in total.

Expectations for Next Season

Win promotion, but I want the title!

Will post again rather soon, since after the closure of the forums I have nearly completed 2 seasons, so I was just quickly updating about the first. I like the new forums, I think it all looks good

[pcmeister]

Step 2 - QPR - Season 9 - 2015-16 - End of Season

Championship Winners 1st P46 W30 D14 L3 F96 A39 GD +57 Pts 103

FA Cup Winners vs. Manchester United

League Cup 4th Round

Championship

League Table

Well, I got the title in the end. It went right to the wire, but with me only needing a point on the final day to secure the title, I ended up with 3 more points to add to the final tally of 103 points. So having been relegated the previous season, I was on parachute payments, but I did receive £7m to achieve the title, which was the same as the previous season, although a division lower. If only I had received more last season, then I would have been able to stay up. Oh well. At least I get the chance again at the title, but this time I have a much better squad. With the two best signings of the summer as my new strike force, Jordan Rhodes and Kwadwo Asamoah, both snapped up on free transfers, I was able to get this promotion, scoring 65 goals in all competitions between them. As you can see from the table, both Blackburn and Fulham were able to score over 100 goals, and they were the 2 other clubs who were competiting for those vital points to achieve automatic promotion. Davis Curiale, who was sold to Fulham for £4.4m after the bid was accepted by my chairman, was able to score 45 goals last season, but the money did help me overall. The other striker I sold was Liviu Ganea for £2.2m to Barnsley willingly, and he racked up 35 goals. Despite this, there were no regrets because they could not score goals in the Premier League, which was what I was building for. The other transfers will be talked about later. All in all, it is now the new target to survive in the Premier League in the next 3 years, and I will aim to do that without another relegation.

League Cup

1st Round: Wycombe 0-3 QPR

2nd Round: QPR 2-0 Coventry

3rd Round: Watford 2-2p QPR 2-4

4th Round: Newcastle 2-1 QPR

I met the targets of the board by reaching the 4th Round of the League Cup, but there was a stumble along the way. I did not mess up against Wycombe like I did 2 seasons ago in the same round with a comfortable win. Likewise against Coventry, but only by 2 goals. And then I met Watford, and we needed penalties to separate us, even though we should not have conceded that 90th minute goal against them. But the luck of the penalty shootout shined upon us, and it was not to be our only penalty shoot-out win this season! But then we met Newcastle, who got lucky against us, because we were equals for the whole game, but for their lucky 2nd goal, which ended our run in the League Cup once again.

FA Cup

3rd Round: Newcastle 1-2 QPR

4th Round: QPR 1-1 Bolton

4th Round Replay: Bolton 2-3 QPR

5th Round: Sunderland 1-1 QPR

5th Round Replay: QPR 3-2 Sunderland

6th Round: QPR 0-0 West Ham United

6th Round Replay: West Ham United 0-2 QPR

Semi-Final: Portsmouth 2-2p QPR 3-5

Final: QPR 3-1 Manchester United

Winners

Well, what can you say? Every team I played was a Premier League side, so expectations from the first draw was to enjoy competiting in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup, but we rode past the challenge of Newcastle. But it did not get any easier from there. It took replays for every round that they were possibly available for until we reached the semi-finals. It also took a goal that wasn't a goal in the 4th Round replay to get througn and then a brilliant last minute goal against Sunderland helped us into the 6th Round, where after another replay, we completely outplayed West Ham in the second game to meet Portsmouth in the Semi-Final. This was a much harder game, and it took another penalty shoot-out to secure victory where we were drawn against Manchester United (at the time I had hoped that Championship side Swansea would overcome them in the semis to make for an easier final.) However, my worries were to no avail because despite going 1 goal down, an inspired second half performance secured a 3-1 comeback, with the 3 goals coming within 10 minutes to secure the FA Cup and complete half of the 2nd Step. All that is now left is a 6th+ finish in the Premier League to move onto Step 3.

Transfers

Transfers

So I have spoken about my 2 star strikers, and I also made some other great signings but also some absolute stinkers. Moyano, Spiranovic and Tordoya added to my defence with both youth and experience for nearly a total of £7.5m. The bottom 5 transfers in were for the youth team, so to continue bringing through those all important youngsters just in case I do not achieve the 6th position reasonably quickly. However, this season I focused on getting rid of those players hwo were not needed, and to raise nearly £12m was a particular delight, because on the whole those players who left were not needed and were either not going to play or were not good enough for the Premier League level. I just hope that next season I get the backing that I so desperately need to survive in the Premier League because I felt that 2 seasons ago when I was in the Premier League that we were promoted before our time and so we did not have the stability financially.

Other Notes

I was rewarded with a new 3 year contract, with the long-term aim to survive in the Premier League. But I am hopeful because I did beat those Premier League teams in the FA Cup!

There was an upgrading of the training and youth facilities, and next season there will be a further upgrading of the training facilities to attract the players required to stay up and hopefully compete in Europe (thanks to the winning of the FA Cup). However, this is not my focus, although I believe that I will be able to get in very good players because of the lure of European football.

Will post again at the end of my 10th Season in this challenge!

[manyoo87]

Crystal Palace - End of Season 3 Update

League Table 2nd (Automatic Promotion)

League Cup 3rd Round

FA Cup 4th Round

It took me 3 seasons, but I’ve finally won promotion to the EPL. I guess one of the positives of taking this long to get promoted is that I’ve been able to build my squad and it is a lot stronger than it was during season one. I was in 1st place for much of season but drifted off the pace a bit towards the end. Defence was key in finally being promoted. Hudson, Fonte and loan signing Alex Pearce were solid at the back, which saw me go without conceding a goal for 8 games at one point during the season. Striker Clinton Morrison stood up this year after being very disappointing the first two seasons. He ended up scoring 22 league goals in 40 games and had 13 man of the match awards. In the end I finished in 2nd place, and avoided the dreaded play-offs.

Transfers

Jiri Jarosik was the loan signing after the August transfer window. The attacking midfielder was brought in for just 650k, which turned out to be a bargain as he performed wonderfully with W.Palacios in the centre of midfield. Anderson Silva turned out to be a bit of a disappointment, but he will get a greater opportunity next season with C.Fletcher’s contract not being renewed.

I’ve been a transfer budget of just over 16M for next season. I’ll have to improve the squad all over if I’m to get anywhere near a top 10 finish. My biggest priorities will be purchasing two new wingers and possibly a new striker. I’m just going to look to survive my 1st season in the EPL and then build from there. I’ve also been given a new two year contract following my promotion to the EPL.

[PluckaDuck]

Well done Manyoo87 on finally getting up.

From my experience, It is much better to resign from your job while doing well, to have the best chance of getting a new job.

[pcmeister]

Great job manyoo87, well done on promotion! Load up your current squad so we can have a look and perhaps advise you (if you want)

KUTGW

p.s I will be posting soon with my 10th season in charge - nearly completed it.

[pcmeister]

Step 2 - QPR - Season 10 - 2016-17 - End of Season

Premiership 14th P38 W11 D10 L17 F75 A73 GD +2 Pts 43

Community Shield Runners-Up

Uefa Cup 2nd Knockout Round

FA Cup 4th Round

League Cup Semi-Final

Premiership

League Table

It was a good season overall, coming 14th in the table, despite for the last 6 games there were about 7 teams with 2 points to separate them, so anybody could have gone down this season. Luckily, we managed to put some sort of run together to make sure that not only were we safe but also that we could come somewhere near the top of this pack, to achieve more prize money for the final league position. Having taken the club into a bit of debt (around £6m) this was crucial for the team's bank balance. As you can also see, we scored loads of goals, leading to Jordan Rhodes claiming both top EPL goalscorer and top European goalscorer, but our defensive work let us down (but this was down to my tactic, a very aggressive 4-4-2 with long farrows on the two wingers to make it into a 4-2-4, which left the wingers up the pitch so any team who played down the wings scored a lot of goals.) This led to games which were 9 goal thrillers (with me often losing.) So next season I am going to change the system to a 4-3-3 normal, to give the defence more help, but also that I can continue with the strong attack, hopefully scoring goals as freely as this season, such as in these games:

West Brom 1-6 QPR

QPR 8-2 Chelsea (revenge for the Community Shield)

Next season, I shall be looking for a mid-table finish, to consolidate on last season's survival. (What actually constitutes a mid-table finish? Which positions do I need to finish for it to be considered mid-table?)

Community Shield

Chelsea 4-1 QPR

We did what the board asked and that was to 'enjoy the experience of playing in the Community Shield,' which involved getting thrashed by my fierce rivals 4-1. Not a pleasant experience. :o

Uefa Cup

1st Round Leg 1: Vit. Guimares 1-1 QPR

1st Round Leg 2:QPR 2-1 Vit. Guimares

Group A: QPR 3-1 Juventus

Group A: Sporting CP 2-2 QPR

Group A: QPR 2-1 Club Brugge

Group A: Salzburg 2-5 QPR

1st Knockout Round 1st Leg: Olympiakos 2-2 QPR

1st Knockout Round 2nd Leg: QPR 5-1 Olympiakos

2nd Knockout Round 1st Leg: Arsenal 6-4 QPR

2nd Knockout Round 2nd Leg: QPR 4-3 Arsenal

Our 1st European Campaign ever in the history of the club started worringly with a 1-1 draw in qualifying for the group stages. However, this was followed up with an impressive performance at home against the Portugese side, despite only winning 2-1, 3-2 on aggregate.

Then we were drawn in Group A against Juventus, Sporting Lisbon, Club Brugge and Salzburg, which to be quite honest I was worried because I thought that Juventus and Sporting Lisbon were definitely better than us, and that we might have to scrap for qualification from the group. But that was not to be, and when we absolutely thrashed Juventus in the first game, I just could not believe it! And then we should have beaten Sporting Lisbon when we went 2-0 up away from home (which was also surprising because our away form in the league had been abysmal all season), but only for them to make it 2-2, with Budmiger, the new QPR captain getting himself sent off after receiving a second yellow card for arguing with the referee about the second goal, and hence he was punished by being fined a week's wages. So, topping the group at this stage, a win against Club Brugge at home, where I am always confident of a result, would have secured qualification from the group for sure, and the team duly delivered, picking up a difficult 2-1 win against a resilient side, without captain Budmiger. So I decided to rotate quite a lot of the squad for the final game against Salzburg, with top spot in the group secured, and Obinna, a constant first teamer for me this season, signed from Newcastle on a free transfer, scored a wonderful hat-trick, as we won the game 5-2 away from home.

Securing top spot meant that we would face a third placed team from one of the other groups in the first knockout round when it resumed after the winter break, and we were rewarded by playing a weak Olympiakos team, where I thought that I could easily thrash them in the first leg to rotate again for the second, but it was not to be, and Olympiakos got a draw at their home ground, but we had the advantage going into the home leg, and we did what I wanted to happen in the first leg, hammering them 5-1 and getting an all English draw against Arsenal, and of course I was worried because our first game was away from home, and I just wanted us to stay in the tie, and we did just that, losing 6-4, but the critical factor was having those 4 away goals, meaning that (in effect) winning by 2 goals would secure victory on away goals, but it was just not to be, especially when Bendtner scored in the first minute, making the gap now 3 goals. However, suddenly, all hope returned when Asamoah scored in the 82nd minute, meaning that we would need only 1 more goal with 10 minutes to go. So having chucked 5 up front, changing to a 3-2-5 formation, we had one amazing chance from a corner in the 92nd minute, but Rhodes flashed it over the bar, and we went out of the competition 9-8 on aggregate, meaning that the squad's only focus was on the battle for survival in the Premier League. I hope to lead the squad into another European competition next season.

FA Cup

3rd Round: Gillingham 0-5 QPR

4th Round: QPR 1-2 Swansea

Our defence of the cup started off well, with the destruction of Gillingham, winning 5-0 with my 2nd XI. And having done the same thing against Swansea, thinking that I would get the same result, we got outplayed by 10-man Swansea and they deserved their 88th minute winner. So in the end our defence was pretty feeble.

League Cup

3rd Round: QPR 5-3 Coventry

4th Round: Huddesfield 0-2 QPR

Qtr Final: QPR 3-2 Derby

SF 1: Manchester United 1-1 QPR

SF 2: QPR 0-1 Manchester United

Our League Cup peformance was very strong, and we did not suffer an upset throughout the whole cup experience, which started with an interesting game with Coventry, where there was an interesting set of events in the last 10 minutes, with 4 goals in the last 10 minutes, including an own goal from Feyenoord-bound Carlos Tordoya. A solid performance away from home against Huddesfield followed, which was promising, and then this set up a quarter-final clash against Derby, a team I never like to face, but we managed to pull through with a nice 3-2 victory (however I am furious that Rhodes' second goal was given as a Joe Hart own goal, because he should have recorded a hat-trick). This set up a two-legged date with Manchester United, and after a good first semi-final, getting that all important away goal, we were confident for the second leg, playing well with the score at 0-0 for most of the game, until they scored a goal in the 85th minute, an absolute sucker punch because we had been the better team for 175 minutes. Despite the disappointment, it was a good run, and I really want to get this League Cup in the trophy cabinet.

Transfers

Transfers 2016-17

I brought in some experience at this level in the defence, bringing in Manuel Da Costa, and Altor Nunez for a combined fee of nearly £10m, which really helped in that department. Other important signings were Raphael Phillips, the England Under-21 captain, a goalkeeper, for a cut price of £50k because his contract was running out and I wanted to bring him in for the future. The other important players were Obinna, who got 23 goals this season in all comps and Perotti from Cadiz, who can play on the right, left and centre of midfield, so his versatility was crucial this season. The main guy who left was Wayne Henderson, who after some great years of service for the club (+ sitting on the bench as back-up to Tim Krul for the last 2 years) needed/wanted to leave and I allowed this to happen because of the signing of Phillips.

Other News

I played my 500th game in management, and went over 2000 days managing QPR.

500th Game in Management

Miguel Moyano received the Young Player of the Month award for three months in a row, after some amazing performances at left-back (no, not in the changing room!)

My 10 Years

A look back at what Terry Venables has achieved in his first 10 years in management

Season 1: Crystal Palace - Championship - 4th - Promoted
Season 2: Crystal Palace - Premiership - 14th
Season 3: Crystal Palace - Premiership - 12th
Season 4: Crystal Palace - Premiership - 4th - LC Winners - FA Cup Runners-Up
Season 5: Crystal Palace - Premiership - 11th; QPR - League 1 - 4th - Promoted
Season 6: QPR - Championship - 10th
Season 7: QPR - Championship - 6th - Promotion
Season 8: QPR - Premiership - 18th - Relegation
Season 9: QPR - Championship - 1st - Promotion - FA Cup Winners
Season 10: QPR - Premiership - 14th - Uefa Cup 2nd Knockout Round

I just think that it is such a shame that this challenge has not invited more interest, because I am finding it not only a tough one but also very rewarding. Oh well, I suppose I will eventually win in the end (oh please don't let the save game corrupt)

One final thing: I realise that QPR have changed their badge for next season: is there any chance that someone has this badge (yes I know I should look in the Graphics section)

[pcmeister]

Step 2 - QPR - Season 11 - 2017-18 - End of Season

Premiership 17th P38 W10 D9 L19 F48 A73 GD -25 Pts 39

FA Cup 4th Round

League Cup 3rd Round

Premiership

League Table

League Graph

Just rubbish, absolutely rubbish. As you can see from the graph (a feature which I have never known about before until today), we only saved ourselves by the skin of our teeth. Two games allowed us to turn it around, to find some form to keep us up and force Bolton down. The game against Sunderland, and the game against Southampton allowed us to stay up.

QPR 3-1 Sunderland

Southampton 1-2 QPR

I will have to improve for next season - I keep on leaking goals left, right and centre!

FA Cup

3rd Round: QPR 4-0 Walsall

4th Round: QPR 0-2 Tottenham

A pretty simple result against Walsall to start with, with Brannan getting a goal on his debut to set up a game against Tottenham, who unfortunately destroyed us. So that was that.

League Cup

2nd Round: Mansfield 0-2 QPR

3rd Round: West Brom 4-2 QPR

Another simple result against Mansfield, together with the fact that Mansfield had a man sent off, which set up a tie against West Brom. Despite the fact that I thought that I would hammer them, they really put up a good show, scoring 4 goals. They ripped up our defence apart. Oh well.

Transfers

Transfers

I decided to invest in youth, with 8 players 18 or younger (Phil Austin, Danilo Marragon, Luciano, Luke Blake, Richard Westerveld, John Malone, Santos and Nick Wolf) and 3 main team players (Gibson, Gavish and Bjarnason), including the new England Under-21 captain, Gibson. This put me more than £6m in debt (rising to £10m at the end of the season) but I have now put everybody on the transfer list so gain some funds (and because I want to have as near a clean slate as possible, because the current squad is not good enough)

Other News

David Gibson secured 3rd place in the Young Player of the Year, and my striker Santos, sent on loan to Southampton, got 2nd place in the same award.

Young Player of the Year

One year left on my contract: I vitally need to stay up so that I am rewarded with a new one.

Will post again soon (+is anybody actually still doing this or have you guys given up? Just seems a long time since somebody else posted. I am sure that you guys are going to query at some point why I am completing seasons so quickly: it is because I have so much time on my hands )

[manyoo87]

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm definately still doing this. Sorry about my inactivity recently but I haven't been able to find much time for FM lately. I'm up to my 4th season and I should be able to post an update within the next couple of days. Keep up the good work pcmeister!!!!

[pcmeister]

Step 2 - QPR - Season 12 - 2018-19 - End of Season

Premiership 6th P38 W18 D9 L11 F54 A45 GD +9 Pts 63

FA Cup Winners vs. Manchester City

League Cup 2nd Round vs. Preston

Premiership Table | Graph

Amazingly, I managed to secure 6th position this season (thus completing Step 2 after previously winning the FA Cup), but as you can see from the graph that in Week 29 I was in 13th, when all of a sudden, the team decided that they were going to hit some form after sitting around in mid-table for the previous 10 weeks and won 9 on the trot to come 6th position on the final day, when Liverpool, who were 6th going into the final day had to trot off to a Portsmouth fighting for the title, and assuming that I could beat Middlesbrough, I only needed anything other than a Liverpool win to get 5th. Luckily, they drew to Portsmouth, and I hence I achieved 6th (It cost Liverpool dearly, because they did not even get European football for next season.) To be honest, the key game of my season was the game in Week 37 when Liverpool faced Derby, and luckily Liverpool won because had it been a draw, then 3 teams would have been challenging for 6th place and if Derby had won, then they would have been 2 points ahead of me in 6th and on the final day they faced Watford, who were 20th so would have won (and eventually did). The whole season was a delight, but this 8th season in charge of QPR was my last, because after 2735 days at the club, I resigned (despite having signed a new contract 3 weeks before) because I need to move on to Step 3. The one disappointment that I have is that I cannot lead the club into its second ever European adventure (after the achievement of its first), but with my new club Real Madrid (more on that later) I will be going into the Uefa Cup as well, and I hope to meet QPR in the final!

There is one game that I would like to mention in particular. It is arguably the most exciting game I have ever taken part of in all the games I have played on FM08. It is this one:

Manchester City 1-2 QPR

It occured in my 9 match winning run, but it was vital to keep up with those teams who were above me because I think I was 8th at the time with 5 games to go, and Manchester were 7 points ahead of me in 6th. The game itself was pretty poor in the first half, with it being a midfield battle, but it became much more open after half time because both teams were looking for the win: Manchester City were needing to keep in touch with those teams in the top 4 and I needed to keep in touch with those teams who were in the top 6. However, after two injuries to two of my key players (to Kodro, who was my top scorer (he unfortunately missed the rest of the season) and to Gibson, the former England U-21 captain and now a South African international), Michael Johnson opened the scoring in the 76th minute, and when it seemed that we were all but out, my captain, Patrick Budmiger scored an absolutely inspired goal, which ended up being Goal of the Season, to equalise and then the substitute Jordan Rhodes scored the winner, sending the team into heaven. It meant that we closed the gap to 4 points, and it was vital in us securing 6th because otherwise we would have dropped to 10th and that would have been it for another season. Here is Budmiger's goal:

Budmiger scores Goal of the Season | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |

League Cup

2nd Round: QPR 2-2 Preston p1-3

I'd rather not dwell on this cup, because the game came at a time when the team was low on confidence and struggling to find form. Preston, from League 1, were able to beat us on penalties, and anyhow, we are not very good at penalties.

FA Cup Winners

3rd Round: QPR 3-0 Middlesbrough

4th Round: QPR 5-0 Wolves

5th Round: Macclesfield 0-2 QPR

6th Round: QPR 1-1 Watford

6th Round Rep: Watford 1-5 QPR

Semi Final: QPR 1-1 Everton p2-1

Final: QPR 0-0 Manchester City p3-2

After last season's disappointing runs in both cups, it was necessary to do much better this season and we started very well, destroying Middlesbrough, last season's Championship winners under Sam Allardyce 3-0, with Budmiger scoring a brace and Obinna getting a deserved goal in injury time in the second half to go into the draw of the 4th Round, where we were drawn against a Wolves side in form at the top of League 2, but they were washed away 5-0, with 4 goals coming in the first half. In particular I was pleased with the performance of Stephen Garba, obtaining his first cap for Nigeria this season, because his passing and creativity not only showed, which has always been his strength, but he managed to bring some finishing ability to the table, shown by his two goals this season. He is one who has come through the youth ranks at QPR, ever since the days of struggling in League 1, and up to now he has not had much of a chance in the first team, having been loaned out to places like Charlton where he has matured, but because of our financial problems, I decided to give him a go and he impressed from the word go. So he led us into the 5th Round draw, where we were drawn against Macclesfield. The team found the Rose Ground a tough place to go, and Macclesfield did give us a run for our money, but we were able to survive this task when Obinna eased our nerves by scoring in the 77th minute and then got his second in the 90th to secure the victory and open the passage to the 6th Round. We were drawn against rivals Watford, and despite struggling with relegation from the top flight, they held us to a 1-1 draw at Loftus Road, meaning that we would be forced to have a replay at Vicarage Road. To be honest, I was not surprised by the fact that they held us because they have a good squad full of regens, including Kevin Fairclough who scored the equaliser at Loftus Road. So 10 days later on a cloudier day, we showed our class and Watford showed why they were struggling with relegation because we put five past them, with Jordan Rhodes scoring a fine hat-trick (unfortunately he was not as good as the previous two seasons) and so we were in the draw for the final 4, where we were drawn against Everton. This was a hard game, because despite Everton also struggling with relegation, I have never been able to work out how to stop James Vaughan and he scored against me once again, but Kodro was on hand to equalise to take the game to extra-time, but no-one could score again in this period, so the game went to penalties. It was the strangest of penalty shoot-outs, because after the first two penalties, where 18 year old Brannan scored and Manuel Da Costa, who I sold to Everton in summer transfer window, scored, pretty much everybody else missed, except for Mikael Lustig, who managed to get me the winner and we were in the final against Manchester City, last season's Premiership champions. We were looking to add another FA Cup to the trophy cabinet under my leadership, and after our League performance, and the fact that we got one over them a month before, we were very confident of achieving victory. But the game was a nervy affair, and nobody could score for 120 minutes, so we had another penalty shoot-out, but this time, my keeper Joris Delle played an absolute blinder (not only in the game but also in the shoot-out) and he saved the penalty off Barry Beckham (no relation to David) to keep the trophy in London. It would turn out to be my final game as QPR manager, and it was great to leave the club in such a way. It will be down to Steve McClaren to lead the club to the Community Shield, after he left relegated Aston Villa to take over the club.

Transfers

As you know from last season, I put everybody on the market to raise some funds to keep the club in a stable financial state, and clubs from all over the place did come in for my players. Wolfsburg came in for Jakob Johansson and paid £1.6m for a guy who was in the fringes of the squad (+ he did not really get a chance in my team) and also came in for Birkir Bjarnason, and he left for £3.1m, which was a good profit because the previous season I brought him in on a bosman. I also decided to ship Manuel Da Costa to Everton for £3.1m because he is 32 and his pace/stats were going down, so I decided to make some money. Then Birmingham paid £3m for my 2nd goalkeeper Raphael Phillips: I actually did not want to get rid of him, but he wanted a new challenge and wanted to speak to Birmingham, so off he went. Altor Nunez had a shocking season at the club, he averaged 5.55 and made countless mistakes, so I was lucky not to lose even more money (I had paid £5.5m for him), and he went trotting off to Sunderland for £2.3m. My main goalkeeper, Tim Krul, wanted to go and my chairman accepted a £5.75m bid from Livorno. He has given me some good performances over the years, but he needed to go in order that I could improve the squad. Other important transfers were Santos, who had a £2.7m bid accepted by my chairman (the guy who came second in the Young Player of the Season), and so he went to Monaco. And then the final good piece of business: Ripamonti, who I had brought in on a bosman 3 seasons ago as a 20 year old, left when League 1 Sheffield United tabled a bid of £1.2m, which was accepted because he did not develop as I had wanted (and so it proved in League 1, because his performances were awful.)

So, after raising some more funds and helping out the bank balance, I obviously needed to buy two goalkeepers, and I did that, bringing in Joris Delle (no.1) for £7m from Murcia and Toselli (no.2) on a free from Nurnberg. Rik Blind (£4.5m from Deportivo) became my new right-back, and Papastathopoulos and Mongongu (Free and £4.3m respectively) were meant to be my new CB pairing, but they both got long injuries and never made it back into my thoughts, because my other defenders were too good. Kenan Kodro has been my best bosman signing for a long time because he became top scorer, getting 20 goals in all comps this season.

My Career thus far

Season 1: Crystal Palace - Championship - 4th - Promoted
Season 2: Crystal Palace - Premiership - 14th
Season 3: Crystal Palace - Premiership - 12th
Season 4: Crystal Palace - Premiership - 4th - LC Winners - FA Cup Runners-Up
Season 5: Crystal Palace - Premiership - 11th; QPR - League 1 - 4th - Promoted
Season 6: QPR - Championship - 10th
Season 7: QPR - Championship - 6th - Promotion
Season 8: QPR - Premiership - 18th - Relegation
Season 9: QPR - Championship - 1st - Promotion - FA Cup Winners
Season 10: QPR - Premiership - 14th - Uefa Cup 2nd Knockout Round
Season 11: QPR - Premiership - 17th
Season 12: QPR - Premiership - 6th - FA Cup Winners

Latest News

So having completed Step 2, I resigned after 2735 days in the job, even though I had signed a new contract with the club only a month before. Then a month later, Real Madrid sacked Schuster and after applying for the job, they approached me rather than legend Raul, and having negotiated the terms of the contract, I signed a 2 year contract worth £120k p/w, 6 times the money p/w. I will explain transfers in my end-of season report at the end of next season, but just to warn you, I have needed to completely rebuild the squad, and Real Madrid only have Uefa Cup football next season after finishing 7th the previous season. I have £186m to spend

I will post again after next season, hopefully not an unlucky 13th season in management. To manyoo87: I am sorry that I sounded a bit rude, but it is good to hear that at least somebody is still doing the challenge. I find it amazing fun. I hope to read your update soon!

[rwannou]

This challenge seems funny to me. I think I'll have a go if it's not to late.... at least I'll have references to stick to...

[apchivers]

I may also give this a go, looks like a pretty good challenge, will post updates soon

[jimalex]

I'm still intending to finish this challenge but have not had much time lately.

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc157/jimalex_2007/palacetranprem.jpg

These are my transfers, i'm in my second season. After getting promoted last year we are really struggling and after 14 games played we sit at the bottom of the table. We are omly 4 points from safety though, and hopefully we can survive.

[neilez2]

Just read through this page and it seems like a good challenge, I'm on board. Will post screenies when I get a chance.

Being Scottish, it might be difficult for me to get the England job!!!

[neilez2]

pocmeister you have done very well in this challenge so far! Very impressive mate.

Here is my profile. http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r96/neilez2/Profile.png

I've been very busy in the transfer market getting in over 10 new players.

Mid season update and pics to follow...

[pcmeister]

Great to see you on board neilez2, glad to see more interest in this challenge. Good luck

Nearly finished my 13th season in the challenge, 1st as Real Madrid, and still in all competitions so will update soon!

[neilez2]

Well first season finished. Really enjoying this challenge.

2007/2008

I told the board I would win them the title to get more cash, came damn close...

Final league table (notice QPR got promoted via playoffs)

Transfers (or at least the ones that are near the bottom!)

Now onto part 2 of step 1.

2008/2009

Told the board I would finish mid table, again for more cash. After 2 games though, and two 3-1 defeats I'll be happy just to survive!

Transfers

My manager history (lots of transfers!!!)

This is going to be a long, hard season. My home form will need to keep me up. The problem I've had both seasons so far is due to the amount of new players I bring in, it takes them ages to settle and gel so I start the seasons badly.

Hoping to get some sort of cup run together if possible.

Liverpool won the league and have strengthened considerably, I expect them to win it again.

Looking forward to seeing how you are getting on pcmeister.

[neilez2]

Season 2 update

Season has gradually got better as my team gel together, I've bought a lot of youngsters who are being tutored as well for the future.

I went on a cracking run which propelled me into the top half of the table including these...

Chelsea away

Man U home the European Champions humbled

After beating Man U and Chelski this happened...World Class rating!!!

Januray 2009 table Notice how QPR are struggling

All is going well so far, enjoying the division and might get the top ten finish I'm after a season earlier than I thought! If I get it I'll probably resign and wait for QPR or alternative job to come up.

Kerzakhov has been a revelation along with Enyeama and Jiminez. 3 class players who have raised the standard of the whole team.

[neilez2]

End of season 2 update

Final League Table

Delighted with my 10th place finish, I lost so many late goals this season, if I managed to prevent that I reckon I could have gotten a European place.

Gutted that I need to move on:thdn: I declared interest in the Hull job but I never heard anything else about it and then they sacked the guy and put David Platt in charge and hour later!!! Bristol City were relegated to League One so I'm leaving alone, QPR might be the way forward.

In good company

Squad

[pcmeister]

neilez2, impressive mate. well done on completing step 1

Finished season with real madrid, and i need time to prepare material for an in-depth update because I have just completed Step 3.

p.s I have just got the England job after Stuart Pearce was sacked for their poor display in Euro 2020

[neilez2]

neilez2, impressive mate. well done on completing step 1

Finished season with real madrid, and i need time to prepare material for an in-depth update because I have just completed Step 3.

p.s I have just got the England job after Stuart Pearce was sacked for their poor display in Euro 2020

Thanks, I'm loving this challenge although I'm going to find it hard stepping away from Palace, I've turned them into a right good side. Dropping a division will be tricky.

I don't know whether to play on at Palace or resign and wait for a job to come up. What do you think?

[neilez2]

Start of 09/10 season update

Here are my summer dealings:

Kerzhakov going was after signing Briand. My scouts rated him very highly and he's started like a house on fire!

Samba came in to shore up the defence and replace Caldwell who did amazing last season but my asst just doesn't rate him.

Fernando was a target I missed out on last season and gives me 3 class DM's to pick from.

Couldn't have asked for a better start!!! How long will it last?

Got Man U away next, reckon my 100% will go, just keeping the pic to show off!

Got myself the first manager of the moth award

Phase 2 watch

Bristol City are in League One, I'm leaving them well alone. The other options haven't exactly started well and I'm on constant 'job' watch after completing phase one last season. I can't believe that I need to start again at a new club! Particularly when it looks like I could get European football this year.

The Spain and Argentina jobs came up. Gutted I couldn't apply, I think I would have got them.

I asked the board to expand the stadium, and improve both training facilities. They agreed to them all! Getting an extra 8000 seats!

I spent a lot of time sacking staff pre season and have got in the best staff I could, hopefully I'll see a difference on the park!

[pcmeister]

Thanks, I'm loving this challenge although I'm going to find it hard stepping away from Palace, I've turned them into a right good side. Dropping a division will be tricky.

I don't know whether to play on at Palace or resign and wait for a job to come up. What do you think?

I stayed on with my job, as you seem to now be doing. But at the time QPR had just got relegated to League 1 in my game and I declared interest and they immediately sacked their manager and I got the job.

Despite this, it would be interesting to see how long it would take to get another job if you wanted to resign, but you have done Step 1 much quicker than me because it has only taken you two seasons to complete it, which I think is rather impressive.

The Spain and Argentina jobs came up. Gutted I couldn't apply' date=' I think I would have got them.[/quote']

I know what you mean, I had been offered the Brazil, Holland and Nigeria jobs before but could not take them. But of course when Australia sack their manager (it has happened twice in my game now), they never decide to take me onboard when I apply for the job, even though I would be the best man for the job. But not to worry now, because I have the England job.

Just about to write my 1st (and last) season with Real Madrid now. Hopefully should not take too long!

1 final thing: manyoo87, are we allowed to have two jobs at the same time? just out of interest because in my game I notice that Tottenham are struggling in the Premiership and I would be very willing to take over the job

[neilez2]

I stayed on with my job, as you seem to now be doing. But at the time QPR had just got relegated to League 1 in my game and I declared interest and they immediately sacked their manager and I got the job.

Despite this, it would be interesting to see how long it would take to get another job if you wanted to resign, but you have done Step 1 much quicker than me because it has only taken you two seasons to complete it, which I think is rather impressive.

I know what you mean, I had been offered the Brazil, Holland and Nigeria jobs before but could not take them. But of course when Australia sack their manager (it has happened twice in my game now), they never decide to take me onboard when I apply for the job, even though I would be the best man for the job. But not to worry now, because I have the England job.

Just about to write my 1st (and last) season with Real Madrid now. Hopefully should not take too long!

1 final thing: manyoo87, are we allowed to have two jobs at the same time? just out of interest because in my game I notice that Tottenham are struggling in the Premiership and I would be very willing to take over the job

Thanks mate. To be honest it's went a lot better than I hoped for, definetely quicker!

Must have been difficult to pass up the Brazil job! I've never managed them in FM and I've been playing it since the first CM back in the early 90's...

Just played my first home game in my newly expanded Selhurst Park,35,000 all seater now.

Liverpool at home (almost filled my new capacity)

There has been quite a bit of fallout after that tremendous victory, by far the best result of my career so far!

Will post screenies of league table and progress when I reach January.

[pcmeister]

Step 3 - Real Madrid - Season 13 - 2019-20 - End of Season

La Liga Champions P38 W30 D6 L2 F90 A38 GD +52 Pts 96

Copa del Rey Winners vs. Real Betis

Uefa Cup Winners vs. Bayern Munich

Victorious Real Madrid celebrate winning a famous treble

La Liga Table | Season Summary

It would have been good to show the graph for the season, but I forgot to take a screenshot of it. But I won the title with a game to spare, but to be honest the league went all the way, between Real Madrid and Valencia. After achieving top spot from Week 4, we hit a bit of a purple patch around week 24, and hence we dropped to 2nd after Valencia won 14 in a row, but about 7 weeks later, we were to play Valencia, and whoever won would have won the title - basically a title deciding game - but the main thing was that we needed to win to go back to the top of the table. And we did just that, beating Valencia 3-2 away at the Mestalla. Valencia had gone 1-0 up through a brilliant team goal finished off by Esnal, but Aguero, Viana and Schneider scored 3 goals in 20 minutes to take a 3-1 lead, which was cut down to one goal when Martinez scored from 25 yards, but we managed to hold on to secure a vital win and moving back to the top of the league, which we never let go of, and we were confirmed as champions when we beat Celta 1-0 with a single goal from Aguero, but he got injured quite badly in the last minute of that game, and could only be put on the subs bench for the Uefa Cup Final because he was very tired and he actually wanted to go on holiday, but I could never let him go, just in case I needed a goal from somewhere.

To start the season off, I used a 4-3-2-1 formation because I have so many AM/FC's in my squad, but when we did hit our purple patch, I switched the formation to an attacking 4-4-2 which changed our fortunes, and I have kept with it ever since.

Copa del Rey Winners

4th Round Leg 1: Athletic 2-3 Real Madrid

4th Round Leg 2: Real Madrid 3-0 Athletic

5th Round Leg 1: Sevilla 2-1 Real Madrid

5th Round Leg 2: Real Madrid a 1-0 Sevilla

Qtr Final Leg 1: Valencia 1-1 Real Madrid

Qtr Final Leg 2: Real Madrid 2-1 Valencia

Semi Final Leg 1: Real Madrid 1-1 Barcelona

Semi Final Leg 2: Barcelona 2-2 Real Madrida

Final: Real Betis 1-3 Real Madrid

We secured our first cup of the season when we beat Real Betis in the final of the Copa del Rey, but we had to overcome some very difficult challenges to eventually win the cup, and it all started with what was meant to be a reasonably easy tie against Athletic, but after going 3-0 up away from home, they stunned us with 2 goals in the last 10 minutes and to add to that, we had 2 players getting injured, Schneider and Aguero. But the 2nd leg was a much easier encounter, because we destroyed them 3-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu, with Aguero getting a brace, and Schneider adding another. So in the 5th Round we met a tough Sevilla outfit, and they beat us in the first leg 2-1 at their home ground, but after getting a 1-0 win at home in the second we went through because of the away goals rule. In the Quarter Finals, we met our fierce rivals Valencia, and in the first leg Viana cancelled out Izzo's opener, and in the second leg Cahais cancelled out Mesquita's opener, so we were forced to go into extra time because the away goals rule could not separate us, but thankfully Schneider scored 2 minutes into extra time, to set up a clash with the holders Barcelona in the semi-finals, which was a first set of semi-finals against the Catalan club, because we faced them in the Uefa Cup (more on that later). In the first leg at home, we were lucky to come away with a draw, thanks to an Aguero equaliser. So with Barcelona having the advantage, Bojan opened the scoring in the 4th minute, but Aguero and Adams scored in the 10th and 15th minutes respectively, meaning that Barcelona required 2 goals to get to the final, but they were only able to manage one (Bojan getting his second), and hence we were through to the final thanks to the away goal rule once again, where we met Betis. Fabu opened the scoring at La Cartuja, Sevilla in the 18th minute, but an Aguero brace and an Adams header secured us a 3-1 win, to lift the trophy. I suppose that we had luck on our side!

Uefa Cup Winners

1st Rnd Leg 1: Real Madrid 8-0 St. Johnstone

1st Rnd Leg 2: St. Johnstone 1-1 Real Madrid

Group Game 1: Fiorentina 2-6 Real Madrid

Group Game 2: Real Madrid 2-0 St Etienne

Group Game 3: Lokomotiv Moscow 0-1 Real Madrid

Group Game 4: Real Madrid 2-2 Panathinaikos

1st Knockout Round Leg 1: Aston Villa 1-2 Real Madrid

1st Knockout Round Leg 2: Real Madrid 2-1 Aston Villa

2nd Knockout Round Leg 1: Real Madrid 1-1 Manchester United

2nd Knockout Round Leg 2: Manchester United 1-2 Real Madrid

Qtr Final Leg 1: Real Madrid 2-1 Roma

Qtr Final Leg 2: Roma 2-5 Real Madrid

Semi Final Leg 1: Barcelona 2-1 Real Madrid

Semi Final Leg 2: Real Madrid 3-1 Barcelona

Final: Bayern Munich 3-4 Real Madrid

Our European campaign started off with an 8-0 win in the first Leg of the 1st Round against St. Johnstone, with Aguero getting a hat-trick, Mesquita getting a brace, with single goals from Viana, Bostock and Adams. In the second leg I put out a second team, and we managed to save face after they had gone ahead when I put Aguero on, who scored with 4 minutes to go, but we should have also won that game, but he missed a 90th minute penalty. But we were through to the Group Stages, 9-1 on aggregate. We were drawn against Fiorentina (a), St. Etienne (h), Lokomotiv Moscow (a) and Panathinaikos (h). We beat a spirited Fiorentina side 6-2, with six individual goals, including one from former Fiorentina striker Mesquita. St. Etienne were brushed aside with a Viana brace, and Lokomotiv Moscow also faced the ability of Viana, who scored a 30 yarder in the 90th minute, which was a fantastic way to secure top spot in the group. So my second team came out once again to experience Europe, and we played well against Panathinaikos, who were lucky to get a draw, scoring an 88th minute equaliser. Hence we were drawn against struggling Championship side Aston Villa, and we were lucky to come away with a win in the first leg, because Hoeks, a summer purchase from Bayern Munich, got himself sent off. We made sure of our passage through to the next round when we again scored a 2-1 victory against Villa. In the 2nd Knockout Round we were drawn against another English team, Manchester United. We renewed our rivalry at the Bernabeu, and they went ahead when my defender Hart (now the new England captain) scored an own goal, but this was cancelled out when Adams got the equaliser 6 minutes later. So we marched on to Old Trafford, where we needed to score a goal to go through, and we did that when Aguero scored in the 53rd minute, but Uzoma cancelled it out. So it went to extra time, and 6 minutes from time Adams scored a lovely individual goal, beating 3 and slotting it in the net. In the Quarter Finals, we were drawn against Roma, and after scoring 2 goals, one from Hoeks and one from Aguero, unfortunately we conceded to give Roma a way back into the tie. In the 2nd leg, something unexpected happened. Roma went 2-0 up after 17 minutes, meaning that we needed 2 goals to win to go through. Nothing came before half time. But in the 55th minute, Adams scored. However, he also scored in the 65th, 68th, 74th and 80th, to get 5 goals and allow us to win the tie 7-3. I wonder if this is a record. I will have a look on the records forum and tell you guys if it is!. Going back to the cup run, we were drawn against rivals Barcelona in our second series of semi-finals, but unfortunately Barcelona won the first leg 2-1, and Daniel got himself sent off and hence got a 3 match ban so missed the final. But Real Madrid overturned this deficit through an own goal and a brace from Aguero. However, Telescu (who is coming to the club at the end of the season for £30.5m) scored in the 81st minute to set up a tense finish, but we managed to hold on after Barcelona chucked everything at us. At the Parc des Princes, Paris, we met Bayern Munich to contest the Uefa Cup Final. When Adams scored in the 3rd minute, everything started to go to plan. It was followed up by 2 goals from free-kicks from former Bayern Munich boy Hoeks, and just before the second Viana scored another 25 yarder in the 34th minute, to take the team into a half-time lead of 4-0. But Bayern came out properly in the second half, and Batt immediately scored one, then 25 minutes later scored again, and then Guardado scored a 3rd in the 94th minute. But they did not get another chance, and we once again managed to hold on to the victory. So we secured a wonderful treble with that 4-3 win. Fantastic!

Transfers

When I first arrived at Real Madrid, the squad needed re-building because there was hardly anybody there of decent quality, except for the defence. Hence I was given £186m to re-build to the squad, and I needed every penny. My main two signings (in terms of money spent) were Jan Schneider for £37m and Dwight Scholten for £37.5m. David Gibson was brought in from former club QPR for nearly £10m, as well as Marangon for £3m, because they are up and coming talents. From my first club, Sadick Adams was bought for £20m, and John Bostock for £9m. I paid Fiorentina £20M for AM/FC Mesquita, who had an alright first season, as well as Rafael Carioca, from Werder Bremen for £20M, who is not a regen (he comes from Gremio and is a fantastic DM). I bought Kevin Fairclough for £10.5m from relegated Watford but he did not get much of a chance and so at the end of the season he will move on to Manchester City. My new right-back was Barry Hoeks, bought from Bayern Munich for £16.25m. The final four purchases were youth players for Castilla and Real Madrid C. Most departures were made before I arrived, which included top club appearance maker Iker Casillas, who retired from the game after making 630 apps for the club. The main transfer out that I did was Jonny Evans to Lazio for £4.9m, because I did not need him (nor do I think he is good enough).

My Career thus far

Season 1: Crystal Palace - Championship - 4th - Promoted
Season 2: Crystal Palace - Premiership - 14th
Season 3: Crystal Palace - Premiership - 12th
Season 4: Crystal Palace - Premiership - 4th - LC Winners - FA Cup Runners-Up
Season 5: Crystal Palace - Premiership - 11th; QPR - League 1 - 4th - Promoted
Season 6: QPR - Championship - 10th
Season 7: QPR - Championship - 6th - Promotion
Season 8: QPR - Premiership - 18th - Relegation
Season 9: QPR - Championship - 1st - Promotion - FA Cup Winners
Season 10: QPR - Premiership - 14th - Uefa Cup 2nd Knockout Round
Season 11: QPR - Premiership - 17th
Season 12: QPR - Premiership - 6th - FA Cup Winners
Season 13: Real Madrid - La Liga - 1st - Copa del Rey Winners - Uefa Cup Winners

Latest News

I became the new England Manager after Stuart Pearce was sacked for the team's poor performance in the recent Euro 2020. The team, however, is not as good as I would like it to be, so it will require some close attention: hence, once I have played in the Supercopa and the European Super Cup, I will resign because I have completed Step 3. I will then wait for the Tottenham job, because last season they only just survived in the Premiership, and meanwhile I will focus on the England part of this task.

I was also Manager del Ano after winning the title and 2 other cups, so I have done well this season. But after my wild spending the club have a low balance, and I also do not want to stay for long because I have done Step 3. Hence I will follow what I have outlined. So I will post again to quickly update you on whether I win the Supercopa and the European Super Cup, and then I will be able to focus on England!

[neilez2]

Well done mate that is impressive. Great season. I'm really looking forward to the Spanish leg of this Venables journey. Not looking forward to (inevitably) dropping a division when my beloved Palace are in Europe!

Samba won an award after his heroics for Newcastle in Europe last season and for me this season.

Disaster strikes

The board better not be considering doing this with any other players! He was immense for me, bought for only £2.5mil with a 30% sell on. His creativity will be sorely missed, I hope it doesn't spell the end of my title challenge.

Still hanging on but don't fancy my chances of winning, Arsenal are on an unbeaten run.

[pcmeister]

Step 3 - Real Madrid - Season 14 - 2020-21 - End of Career

Supercopa Winners vs. Real Betis

European Super Cup Runners-Up vs. Inter Milan

Simple update, really. Beat Betis 3-2 away in the first leg and 2-1 at home in the second leg. So I won the Supercopa 5-3 on aggregate.

In the European Super Cup, I was hammered 3-0 by Inter Milan in Monaco so unfortunately I did not win this. Oh well.

Step England - England - Season 14 - 2020-21 - Quick Update

World Cup Qualifier: England 2-1 Denmark

My first match in charge of England ended in a fortunate 2-1 win over Denmark, and in the game I gave 7 players their full debuts, which was fantastic. Most of them impressed so that is good for the future. I also had to hire a new U21 manager, James Loft, and a new U20 manager, Peter Beardsley.

Will post again at the end of the Premiership season, or if I get one of the jobs of Step 4.

[neilez2]

Quick update.

Reached Palace's first ever cup final against a Man City side funded by Shinawatra.

Here's how it went...

The boys just didn't turn up and Bianchi was immense. Oh well.

I just beat Arsenal 1-0 away in the league and sit top of the table with 10 games to go!!!

Arsenal game

League table

I am so nervous about blowing this! If I win the Prem 3 seasons in with Palace it will be the biggest achievement of my cm/fm career.

Really glad I didn't resign and wait for another job!!!

[neilez2]

End of season 3 update 09/10

In all 3 seasons so far in charge I have done poorly in the cup competitions. The only cup I've got further than the 2nd round I've participated in was the Carling Cup final and you can see in a previous post how that went for me!

Arsenal had a magnificent season getting to the final of the FA Cup, the semi's of the Champions League and runners up in the Premiership.

Final League Table

Player of the Year

Young Player of the Year

Manager of the Year

By far the best achievement I've ever had in CM/FM. The team I've assembled are superb. I'm amazed that we managed to make it all the way to the end, I think I owe Arsenals run in Europe. My squad were fresh for every league game, which is me spinning my crap cup form!

No phase 2 jobs on offer so far so I'm going to keep my eyes open and take Palace into the Champions League!

It's 2010 so I've got my fingers crossed for an international job coming up. I could easily get the phase 3 job at the moment , gutted that I need to step back with a Championship team. In saying that I'm also looking forward to the challenge of trying to build another Premiership winning team.

I've got a long way to go to catch up with pcmeister but I've started strongly and I'm loving every minute of this challenge. There is nothing better than jumping about your room celebrating the championshiop deciding goal!!!

[neilez2]

Start of 2010-11 Campaign

No jobs for phase 2 up yet, which is just making leaving this Palace team harder.

Played in the Community Shield

Transfers

So far I've missed out on the Brazil, France and Spain jobs.

I've also missed out on Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs, Man Utd, Sevilla, Villareal.

I'm now in the Champions League and have been seeded fourth.

Here's the group

Fingers crossed a job comes up so I can get phase 2 underway.

How are the rest of you guys getting on?

[neilez2]

Mid season update 2010-11

Jimmy Briand had his great form of last season recognised

My first run at the Champions League went well, it was a tough group and I started badly due to Enyeama and Samba both being injured but on their return they helped me unmeasurably

Phase 2 watch, no sign of any jobs yet. I'm itching to get started on phase 2 of the challenge

[neilez2]

End of season update 2010-11

Really enjoyed this season, I managed to qualify from the Champions League group and drew Real Madrid in the first knockout phase. So the Selhurst Park fans have seen both Madrid and Barca at home this season! Madrid put me out 7-2 on agg and taught me a footballing lesson.

Got offered the Valencia job after Benitez was sacked. Gutted I couldn't take it although I'd love the Barca job in phase 3.

Final League Table

FA Cup Final

I was gutted to lose this game, I thought I had them but giving away the penalty in the last minute almost had me in tears!

Kept my eyes on the job page and Bristol City and Hull jobs were insecure, I declared an interest but wasn't looking forward to managing in League One as they were both relegated. Then the Coventry job popped up after Coleman got himself a Premiership job.

After the most enjoyable and successful time I've had in my FM career I finally left my beloved Palace.

There is no money to spend, squad is ageing and I can't get any staff in. It's going to be tough, but I'm looking forward to trying to make another club great.

[rwannou]

2008/2009- First season.

At last i've finished my first season. And like Shakespeare would say it's "much ado about nothing".

I've failed in leading Crytal Palace in premierchip. Lost against Charlton the final match of the season at Wembley.

It's been hard on me. I'm trying to get the motivation to go one after this failure.

Here are my transfers for the first season :

Here is thge league table

And here is my team :

Sean Scannel was a real joy this season. I'm gonna try next season to have less players on loan and more on contract and get to the premiership this time !!!!

Excuse my english, I'm french.

[pcmeister]

Step England - England - Season 14 and 15- 2020 to Dec 2021 - End of Qualification

FIFA World Cup Quals. (EUR) Group 3

1st Q P10 W8 D2 L0 F27 A9 GD +18 Pts 26

So qualification was easy in the end, which I am pleased about. I actually have many youngsters in the squad, about 4 of them are 22 which is good for the balance of the squad. But there is also some experience, including those who have gone to major tournaments before. All in all, I am pretty confident of going far in the tournament when it comes about, and I have a good idea about the 23 I am going to choose, but there is still one friendly to play against Italy in March 2022, where I will give those who I am unsure about/ competing for places a chance to make it into my squad.

On the topic of qualification itself, it was important to win the first game after England's poor performance in the European Championships under Stuart Pearce. I decided to get rid of most players who were 30+ (except for Henri Lansbury who was approaching 100 caps and Micah Richards, because he is still very good) and I brought in some younger players to 'blood' them. We beat Denmark 2-1 at Wembley in our first qualifier, and despite going behind and losing key 28-year-old forward Michael Weaver to injury, we successfully turned things around with Micah Richards getting in a header from a corner and John Bostock adding his name to the scoresheet with a fine 20-yard winner 4 minutes from time. A month later, again at Wembley, we hammered Bosnia 4-0 in our second qualifier. This time Bayern Munich centre forward Mike Batt scored a brace, and single goals from Liverpool forward Michael Weaver and QPR midfielder Leon Watson allowed us to ease through the challenge.

4 days later, our first away game saw us go to Riga in Latvia, where we once again brushed aside our opposition, winning 3-0, with individual goals from Arsenal winger Gary Edwards, star player Weaver and Manchester United forward Steer but unfortunately he picked up a niggle with 2 minutes to go, but he recovered in time for the next squad selection. Then came our first poor performance, against Israel, where we drew 1-1. What was more annoying was the fact that 20-year-old Arsenal versatile player Stuart Pearson missed a penalty. But Edwards shone again, this time scoring from distance. Our first friendly came against former World Cup finalists, the United States of America, but they now have a much weaker team, hence leading to a good 3-1 win. The scorers were Batt (2) and Kenny Morrison, who is Portsmouth's playmaker, which has led to them winning some Premier League titles in previous seasons. However I was disappointed to concede such a cheap own goal (a deflection), but that is football.

After a long 5 month break, where I watched a game a week, looking at players, we met a formidable Ukraine side, who impressed, but we managed to secure a 3-2 win. I noticed Mike Belt after watching him in a couple of games, and at the ripe age of 22, I included him in the squad and he was rewarded with a starting position on the right-wing, and didn't he impress! His goal (and England's third) was amazing. He dribbled past 2 players, then after cutting in from the right, instead of crossing he fired it at the goal, and scored. He is now a regular, and has made the right-wing spot his own. Another friendly was scheduled for the 24th March against Japan in Tokyo, where we once again needed to come back from behind, beating them 2-1. Mike Batt once again got a brace.

Two end of season qualification games took place, one against Malta, where a lucky goal from Micah Richards secured a 1-0 win, a deflection once again from a corner set up a tap-in. Another was against Bosnia, but unlike the previous 4-0 thrashing, we could only manage a 2-2 draw. This time Steve Brannan, the guy who was recognized (and bought) by me when I was at QPR as a 16 year old with potential to be a superstar, got on the scoresheet. He stayed at QPR for 6 seasons, but at the start of the previous season moved to Southampton, and scored 15 goals there, but they still got relegated. So he is now at Fiorentina, and in the first 2 league games he has scored 5 goals, 2 in the first one and 3 in the second. The other scorer was Batt, but once again someone missed a penalty, Jordan Spence, and I don't think he will be selected, just because I don't think that he is good enough.

So at the start of the 2021-2022 season, we had two matches in September, and two in October, where we beat Denmark 1-0, with Batt scoring once again. Then came the biggy. We thrashed Ukraine 7-2 at Wembley, Micah Richards got a hat-trick from midfield, Fitzgerald scored a long-shot from the left-wing, who moved in the summer-window to Manchester City from QPR for £17.25m. Kyle Lee scored his first ever goal in an England shirt, and he deserved his call-up after being the top-scorer in the EPL the previous season. Brannan continued his club form (something you don't see nowadays) by scoring 2 goals after I put him up front. September passed into October, and we beat Latvia 3-1 and Malta 2-1.

We finally ended the year 2021 with two friendlies, a 5-1 win over the Czech Republic and a 2-2 draw against Portugal, who will be my main competition in the up-coming World Cup, as well as Spain, Brazil and France.

Will post again after the World Cup, where I hope that I will win the tournament to finish this particular task.

On another note, neilez2, keep it easy on the screenshots on the actual page. It makes it much easier to a) load the page and b) read your progress if you have give links to your screenshots if you have many of them rather than posting them as images.

[pcmeister]

Step England - England - Season 15- World Cup 2022- End of Career

World Cup Winners

We had our final friendly before the World Cup, with a 2-1 away win over Italy in Italy, with a good goal from Lansbury to win it in the final minute.

Then the World Cup came around, and we were drawn in a group with Nigeria, Uruguay and Switzerland: hence I was pretty confident that we could win this group to give us a better route in the knockout round. And it started well, with a 6-2 win over Nigeria. A barrage of goals bred confidence amongst the squad for our next game against Uruguay, where we once won again comfortably, a good 3-0 result. In the end, the final game did not matter, because both Switzerland and us had qualified, so I gave the second team a run-out. My faith in my squad bit me right in the bottom because we got thrashed by an average team 5-1, so it left us in second place and with a potentially hard draw.

And that is what happened. We were drawn against France, who were second in the World Rankings (before we beat them!) The result was capped with a fine hat-trick from Weaver, who went on to pick up both Man of the Tournament and the Golden Boot. The hosts, Argentina, followed in the Quarter Finals, and they were also swept away by Weaver again, in another 3-1 win. This set up a tie with the Germans, in a repeat of the 1990 World Cup Semi-Final and the 1966 World Cup Final. The result was exactly the same, with the boys putting in a confident performance to not only meet our target, but to give me a chance to complete the task at hand.

The World Cup Final was played between my English team and the Dutch in Buenos Aires, and wasn't it an absolute cracker. It had absolutely everything. 2 hat-tricks could not separate either team, and so it was left down to the penalty-shoot-out to decide where the trophy would be going. But a fantastic performance from the goalkeeper Raphael Phillips secured a 2-1 penalty win, and football came home.

But the win came with my resignation, and fortunately for me, the Tottenham manager James Loft was linked with the job. And when he took it, I became the favourite for the job, which was confirmed by their approach, and having managed to get better wages than offered, I signed with them. Now I am onto step 4. The squad itself looks good, and with them having finished 4th, it should not take too long to step up, but we do need another left back and a quality centre-forward. Despite this, there is a good English core to the squad, which is fantastic, plus I also have the best goalkeeper in the world, hero Raphael Phillips.

So, I will once again update at the end of the season, and it promises to be a good one.

[rwannou]

2nd season- 2008-2009 : 2nd in Championship.

League Cup : Quarter finals (lost against man utd)

FA Cup : 5th round (lost in the second game against Liverpool)

At last I got promoted.... Here are my transfers for the season :

I wanted to have more players on contract and less on loans. That's what I did. and it worked thanks to a great Daryl Murphy, a wonderful Sean Scannel and a good Marius Niculae.

Reading was too strong for me. I obtained the second place. Here is the league table :

And here are the stats for my team :

I was happy to be promoted. I think I'm gonna have a hard time winning stage 1 but that's the beauty of the game isn't it ?

I refused the Everton job I was offered. It shows how much the great family of football is impresde by my work in Crystal Palace...

So let's go for the first season in Premier League... I'll post when i finish the upcoming season and I'm not a very fast player...

[haza555]

I have completed the Crystal Palace phase of the challenge, but waiting for one of the next jobs to come along is becoming a pain, we are now established as a top 4 premiership side, and Bogdan Stancu is an absoloute tank, scoring 39 league goals last season, 31 and 32 the seasons before. My team is emmence, players like Veloso, Nasri, Stancu, Makoun, Bikey etc..

If you want to see some screenshots just say.

[OugaBagga]

I really enjoy challenges like this where you ahve to follow a set path gives you somthing to aim for. I'm going to attempt it on 09