FM08 : Olympique Lyon : Les Gones

[Purefun]

Originally posted by purefun:

end of season update currently beginning of june

won the league cup

won the league + 20 points difference

won the french cup against st-etienne our fiercest rivals and what a game it was 3-4 (benzema 2, zarate and menez), great game only scored in the last second of the game offcourse benzema

champions league final was against benfica, i totally blew them away, won it offcourse 2-0 (fred and huntelaar)

now i'm off to another exciting offseason of buying and getting some new feeders

sorry

[Unitedsi]

Good to see some more players with Lyon and some nice (heated!) debate on players since my last visit!

I'm half way through season two and my squad is looking great. Unbeaten except a 1-0 loss in the San Siro against Inter the group stage (3 disallowed goals ) and looking hopefully towards a domestic quadruple and a long euro run.

I've finally got my new RB a year after the board sold Clerc. I've got Dani Alves arriving in Jan for £17m spread over 24 months. Reveilleire is doing ok and will stay in rotation. It's more than I wanted to spend and obviously he's not french but my scouts rated only him and Cicinho on my possible list as good and everyone else was only "decent" or worse. Nearly went for Faubert from WHU but decided he wasn't quite good enough.

In the first team, Ben Arfa and Gouffran have developed really fast. Ben Arfa, who I always thought of as a winger, has convinced me to try him as Juninho's replacement in the centre with some impressive performances. I didn't realise that his "natural" position was the centre. Dervite is also looking very good and Luci from Juve is a great freebie at the end of season 1, doing really well as a backup DM or MC and could easily be in the first XI. Benzema is becoming awesome and Gyan has got 6 goals despite only starting 1 game.

Youth team looking good, Alex and Saivet will be in the 1st team squad next year, Torje is having a stormer on loan for the season at Reading, Zola at Geugnon is guiding them toward Ligue 1 too. A few more will come through but Acapandie is not looking so good for me, supposedly the new Trez and his youth team goals tally is impressive but his stats are going nowhere fast.

On the transfer front, I need a replacment for Coupet soon as Costil and Delle are not quite looking good enough. Lloris could be the man, but Poulin has gone to Villareal. PSG probably won't sell me Landreau and Frey is too expensive. I might have to resort to a non-french alternative but I don't want do that. GK may be the only position I will really look to strengthen in the summer. I have loads of interest in several players so I will mostly be rejecting bids! Until then, I'm trophy hunting...

[Purefun]

unitedsi

heated it was my friend

daniel alves great great great

about ben arfa i have the same opinion as you i thought he was a natural aml but he is that at amc totally forgot about it and i bought first vdv and than anderson from manu so i have no other option to play him at aml (retraining him though).

replacing your gk : costil is worthy of it imo, let him do his thing in french league for one season and lloris is a great gk if he has developed well

[Aspirin]

WOW

been away for a few days and come back to see things getting a little tasty on the forum!!!!

Anyhow it's great to see more people being converted to Lyon. More opinions, tips etc for everyone.

Might give downloading the patch a go. Hope it doesn't affect my game too much.

[kennec]

i think lyon is way overrated in the game. economy and reputation is to strong.in my games they always sign top players for loads of cash. while IRL they sign good players from mid/small clubs from france or germany for low feees.and to finance that they each year sell of a few of their best players like abidal for example.

my 2c

[dweaver]

Hey guys, you've just got another follower!!!

Just started my annual French League game after stints with Chelsea(fan) and Watford(demi-LLM,hehe), and looking forward to it.

What a great squad! With the proper tactic, this team can win it all without any additions!

I'll be going the mostly French route as well, which is not exactly hard seeing as though there is an abundance of domestic talent everywhere.

Wish me luck!

[glory utd]

i think lyon is way overrated in the game. economy and reputation is to strong.in my games they always sign top players for loads of cash. while IRL they sign good players from mid/small clubs from france or germany for low feees.and to finance that they each year sell of a few of their best players like abidal for example.

my 2c

Tbf if you spend it all you will end up in debt, ask purefun And they are the best team in France and rule the league every year so you gotta think they make a good income. Also the guy who bought the club years back is loaded iirc and his financial influence is the main reason why Lyon are the team that they are now.

Hey guys, you've just got another follower!!!

Just started my annual French League game after stints with Chelsea(fan) and Watford(demi-LLM,hehe), and looking forward to it.

What a great squad! With the proper tactic, this team can win it all without any additions!

I'll be going the mostly French route as well, which is not exactly hard seeing as though there is an abundance of domestic talent everywhere.

Wish me luck!

Good luck!

[wisla_krakow]

As the ACoN has finished, a few teams wanted new managers, I took the Cameroon job, hopefully I can find some good talent within their ranks for Lyon .

Suprisingly I'm still unbeaten in the league in late February, having won 18 games, drawn 9. Despite this, I'm only 3 points ahead of PSG, so the title race will be going down to the last few games between the two teams.

[Purefun]

dweaver

welcome and good luck mate

wisla

PSG second? did they buy anybody special? in my game they just qualified for uefa on the last day of comp.

kennec

before you make such stupid comments, please search the net or something

and for the record selling high and buying low and still perform on a high level means your smarter than the rest of them

glory

thank you for pointing out that i was almost broke

[wisla_krakow]

wisla

PSG second? did they buy anybody special? in my game they just qualified for uefa on the last day of comp.

They've signed Pineda and (Leon) Andreasen, so no-one that special. However they just lost when I beat Strasbourg 3-0 so a 6 point lead now .

[glory utd]

Originally posted by purefun:

glory

thank you for pointing out that i was almost broke

No problem mate, any time

[dweaver]

Hey guys, a couple of questions just to be financially prepared:

1) Does the team lose money with the current wage structure throughout the season?

2) How much money do French Ligue 1 clubs get every year from TV deals?

Thanks.

As per the team, I studied the squad in depth and came to the conclusion that I need:

- A GK to replace Coupet while he's out and when he's past it.

- A DC to replace the injured Cris and provide cover when he returns. Muller, Anderson and Paillot are sub-par for this level, it seems.

- A couple of DM/MCs to rotate with Toulalan Bodmer, one probably on loan (Flamini?)

- A backup/rotation AML/R OR a Backup/rotation ST. Depending on which I get, Benzema will either play up front or on the right as a rotational player at the start.

BTW, I'll be playing a 4-3-3 with a flat back four, 2 MCs with barrows, one pure AMC, two wingers with arrows into the box ad a lone striker.

So far the team is as follows:

GK: Coupet

DR: Clerc

DL: Grosso (Evra is relatively cheap but not necessary)

DC: Cris/Squillaci

MC: Toulalan/Bodmer

AM: Juninho (retrained, hope he's versatile enough to become accomplished quickly)

AMR/FC: Govou

AML/FC: Keita

ST: Fred

What do you guys think? I'm leaning towards grabbing Menez and Makoun at the moment...

[Purefun]

dweaver

1. no, not with me that is

2. if you finish first you'll get about 19 mil euro + some extra if you score a lot

gk : costil if you want to keep it french but loan him out in first season, kameni is the way to go experience and great from the start

dc : mensah from rennes is a beast

dm : banega, makoun is great (i have him too) but a lot more expensive

aml : please oh please buy menez from monaco

try to sell dos santos to free up a non-eu spot

as for your tactic 4-3-3

juninho is only good for one season and not at amc believe me mate so put ben arfa at amc he is great there esp. in second season

keita is a natural amr and a lot better than govou so put keita on amr and sell govou if you want and buy someone young like obertan, gouffran

at aml you should put menez as mentioned before this is all imo offcourse

and benzema is godlike in this game rotate him with fred you want regret it believe me

[Purefun]

dweaver

sorry mate answer to your second question is 12.750.000 euro

the answer i gave you was the money you get after winning the league

[dweaver]

Originally posted by purefun:

dweaver

1. no, not with me that is

2. if you finish first you'll get about 19 mil euro + some extra if you score a lot

gk : costil if you want to keep it french but loan him out in first season, kameni is the way to go experience and great from the start

dc : mensah from rennes is a beast

dm : banega, makoun is great (i have him too) but a lot more expensive

aml : please oh please buy menez from monaco

try to sell dos santos to free up a non-eu spot

as for your tactic 4-3-3

juninho is only good for one season and not at amc believe me mate so put ben arfa at amc he is great there esp. in second season

keita is a natural amr and a lot better than govou so put keita on amr and sell govou if you want and buy someone young like obertan, gouffran

at aml you should put menez as mentioned before this is all imo offcourse

and benzema is godlike in this game rotate him with fred you want regret it believe me

Thanks for the financial tips, I wasn't going to spend all of my budget anyways...

I've noticed Mensah myself and in this game pacey defenders are great, but somehow a 1.77m DC (with 10 jumping) seems a bit odd. Then again, this is France, not England,hehe. I can grab Cristopher Samba for 1.7m Euros so I'll probably take that route...

I can get Banega for a bargain price of 4m Euros at the start, I might do it if I can get a sucker to offload Fabio Santos to. Maybe even Anderson, I don't rate him all that high, he'll probably be my 4th DC when the season starts, not really worth wasting a foreigner spot on him.

Menez I'll probably grab, but I found a cheaper solution in Sebastian Roudet for the AML role. Great attributes, can be retrained to AMR easily (at least he's competent there to begin with, dunno about his versatility attribute...)

As per Juninho, I don't think he'll be comfortable as an MC tracking back in my system, so if he doesn't perform at AMC looks like hi stime with Lyon is over... I won't offload him though, I recognise and respect club legends more than the average fan (or manager,lol).

Govou can be retrained to ST easily, so I'll hold on to him for now as a rotation player. Plus he's homegrown!

I'll probably offer to loan Diaby, Flamini and Almunia from Arsenal on the cheap in case of an injury crisis. If they go for it, cool. That usually works for Flam and the Basqueeper, but they usually demand high wage contribution for Diaby. Heck, I'll even offer a loan for Diarra since he can cover at Dr as well.

BTW, any good coaches to recommend for Les Gones? Most of my coaches' attributes were generated poorly and not even Garrido can get 7 stars in anything? I hate to waste money on a lot of terminations, though...

I'm thinking of employing a short passing , fast, counter attacking style so I'll keep an eye for players with good passing, first touch, technique and off the ball for my team.

Any further advice would be welcome, I'm still on teh team designing stage, I won't press more that 2-3 continue buttons today.

[Aspirin]

DWEAVER

As a striker i would possibly go for Falcao. I got Zarate, but Falcao is also a very good player.

Ignashevich is the DC you should go for, although Schwechlen is ace, but possibly a little too young for a first team starter in first season. Kruiswijk also good and cheap.

Go for Barthez (free) or Molina as GK.

Just my opinion though.

[Aspirin]

As far as coaches go DWEAVER, look up Desailly. I didn't realise he was coach or anything when I started but found him scouting for AC Milan, although I think he was free agent at start of game. Good Stats.

[dweaver]

Thanks for the tips Aspirin (Are you a Bayern Leverkusen fan, hehe?), I already tried Desailly, but he just signed with Milan so he won't budge.

Zarate and Falcao are good options, but I probably won't go for Falcao as he has neither a EU passport or African blood. With Benzema, Govou and Keita (even Bodmer!) able to play FC and since I only use 1 guy up frony, I might not go for a striker in the end. I love Jimmy Briand, but he's too expensive for someone who I'm only going to use 40-50% of the time.

[KIMBERRELEY]

First season I sold Toulalan for 36 million to Real Madrid and Benzema for nearly 40 million to Inter! I know they are good but I brought in Veloso for 7 million and Briand and Gignac for under 15 million each, Banega and Breno then won the league in the second season by 15 points!

[Purefun]

COACHES

carlinhos neves

rene meulensteen

garrido if i'm correct

michele bassile from ac milan offer him a role as coach he will come

just look in staff search screen there are plenty with big teams on low wages

and a lot of great scouts too

daniel rolland

ian broomfield

ed van stijn

jose ferreirinha

hope this helps

[Purefun]

Originally posted by KIMBERRELEY:

First season I sold Toulalan for 36 million to Real Madrid and Benzema for nearly 40 million to Inter! I know they are good but I brought in Veloso for 7 million and Briand and Gignac for under 15 million each, Banega and Breno then won the league in the second season by 15 points!

exactly that gignac guy scores a lot too was in fact topscorer in second season in my game

and you should never sell those two mentioned they breath lyon mate thats imo though

[Aspirin]

DWEAVER

Sorry mate, being thick, didn't get the Bayer Leverkusen link??!!

[dweaver]

Originally posted by Aspirin:

DWEAVER

Sorry mate, being thick, didn't get the Bayer Leverkusen link??!!

"Bayer" is the company that produces the original aspirin, and it is based in Leverkusen,Germany. The "bayer" in "Bayer Leverkusen" is actually not part of the team's name, but a sponsor. Kinda like "Red Bull Salzburg".

lol, no prob, I was probably being daft making a far fetched mental reach of a joke, hehe.

[Purefun]

update currently 1 june 2009 beginning of third season

first they only gave me like 10.250.000 mil euro so i did the budgetthing and now have about 18.9 mil euro but still thats peanuts

so only looking for some great regens (found three of them) unless something good came along

selling some of my reserve players i guess to raise some extra cash

arsenal is interested in half of my team and youth team, told them to quitely walk away

[glory utd]

Originally posted by purefun:

update currently 1 june 2009 beginning of third season

first they only gave me like 10.250.000 mil euro so i did the budgetthing and now have about 18.9 mil euro but still thats peanuts

so only looking for some great regens (found three of them) unless something good came along

selling some of my reserve players i guess to raise some extra cash

arsenal is interested in half of my team and youth team, told them to quitely walk away

Thats what you get for being a big spender

Should be more like me and buy everyone who is on a free lol

[Sir frosinone]

Could someone please post a shot of benzema

[Unitedsi]

Purefun, that is not a big budget but to be fair it doesn't sound like you need it anyway! After shelling out for Alves I don't think I'm going to be flush in the summer so looking for regens is the way forward. Still trying to decide on Costil.

KIMBERRELY - can't believe you got £36m for Toulalan, my board sold him for £16.5m and there was no way I was planning to sel him for anything. You got some great replacements.

To update on my game, I managed to draw PSG away in the French Cup 9th round. Won 3-2 AET after they missed a pen and had one disallowed in the last 5 mins of ET. Also managed to draw Barca (when I could have got CSKA Moscow, Rangers, Ajax, Sporting CP or other very beatable teams!) in CL 1st knockout. Seeing as the board expect a 1/4 final place at least, that spells trouble!

Leading up to Christmas I played PSG (3rd place) away, Toulouse (4th place) away and Marseille (2nd place) at home in consecutive games and managed to win 4-2, 4-0, 3-0! 9 points clear and unbeaten going into 2009.

Jan transfer window in 2009 is not quite going as planned. So far I've turned down bids for Saivet, Sakho, Ben Arfa, Dervite, Cris, Alex, Torje and its only the 7th Jan! I have interest in Gouffran, Keita, Montolivo, Delpierre, Grosso, Costil, Menez and Gyan (plus more I can't remember). All fine except Dervite threw his toys out the pram about being denied a move and now I'm selling him for £4m to Liverpool.

Also Gouffran and Ben Arfa kicked up a fuss about their contracts so I've added a bit to my wage bill as they've both been superb. Decided to send Alex out on loan to the Portuguese Premier League and a few more to the spanish 2nd division to get some grown up games. Also sold Belhadj, who has been good backup but got fed up, for £4.7m. Looks like Briand may be available for about £13m so I might try to swap him with Amauri who has not quite hit the heights of last season. I still need to find space for Saivet soon though so not sure what to do.

[Purefun]

unitedsi

some nice results there mate

barca will be tough but can be beat if you find a solution for their midfield (neutralize xavi imo)

lyon players always attract a lot of interest irl and in the game asswell just ask around

had to give benzema and costil a raise to they were on really low contract so no problem i'm still 1 mil under my wagebill

update

i have my first financial feeder could choose between Kansas City, Toronto and a Japanese club i think it was Nagasaki or something, so i got myself Kansas hoping i'm getting some more income now

[dweaver]

Just went through the first 10 days of the pre-season and it all went peachy. The greatest news was the acquisition of Andrea Barzagli from Palermo for a mere 7.75m Euros and 35k per week!!! IMO, the best defender in the game along with John Terry. Great fun. Also got Samba for further DC and DR cover, Banega to nurture as an MC (only 4m by the way..) and Menez for 14.5m to rotate in the wings. Also got Manucharyan from Ajax on loan (no wage contribution) to cover at FC.

I also signed a host of future first teamers in Saivet, Sakho, Saunier, Duplus, Wijnaldum, Teaudors, Le Tallec, Torje , Stancu, Sburlea, Thiago (from Barca), Pjanic, Acapandie, Hazard and my countryman Giannis Papadopoulos from Iraklis. Let's just say that I have the U18 league won already, lol. Too bad I can't fully train or loan out U18s in France though...

I could use a GK, I have Bartez on trial, might sign him for a year if I can't get a good loanee in...

So, July 10 and the team is as follows:

GK: Coupet / Vercoutre / Barthez

DR: Clerc / Reveillere / Samba

DL: Grosso / Belhadj

2xDC: Barzagli / Squillaci / Cris / Samba

2xMC-->DM: Toulalan / Bodmer / Kallstrom / Banega

AMR-->FC: Keita / Govou / Menez

AML-->FC: Menez / Ben Arfa / Keita

AMC: Juninho / Benzema / Kallstrom / Bodmer

ST: Fred / Benzema / Baros / Stancu

Offered my youth coaches general coach staus and they all accepted. I'm now 11k above my wage budget so I'll see if I can get rid of Anderson and Baros to avoid the board moaning about it.

Barzagli baby!!!

[Purefun]

dweaver

What can i say? Mate those are great dealings every single one of them.

Barzagli OMG Wasn't anybody else interested in him? You got damm lucky mate!! I'm feeling a little bid jalous .

And yes sell anderson and baros. Did you sell anybody else?

[dweaver]

Originally posted by purefun:

dweaver

What can i say? Mate those are great dealings every single one of them.

Barzagli OMG Wasn't anybody else interested in him? You got damm lucky mate!! I'm feeling a little bid jalous .

And yes sell anderson and baros. Did you sell anybody else?

Yup, Barzagli... gave him his favourite #43 as well... weird thing is no other big club came in for him... he actually wanted a backup status with 20k per week to sign, but I gave him key player and 35k expecting a bidding war for his services. In the end, I was the only one interested, lol. Good business, that.

I sold Fabio santos for 1m in installments plus 50% sell on clause just to be rid of him. Anderson and Muller I couldn't offload, so I loaned them out for full wage contribution to get below my wage budget.

Preseason went kinda badly, I lost Grosso for 2 months with a hip injury, Juninho for 2 weeks, Govou for 3 weeks and Toulalan for a week.

I signed Cassani from Palermo for 4m to cover for Grosso. He is natural at both DL and DR though and I know he has a very high PA from previous games. His stats are decent and he's 23 already, but if he continues improving he'll be an asset to the team.

I also got Anton Sosnin and Fransisco Merida for the future.

Got affiliated with Alaves in the Spanish Second division, so I sent Stancu and a couple of reserves there for experience. Plus it's a Spanish team so any South Americans I sign in the future can go there for 2 years and come back with a EU passport, that's why I picked them over German Fist Division side Duisburg.

All in all, everything is fine so far, let's hope this early injury bug will not become a trend. Finished with friendlies, have about a week to make the final tweaks on my tactic for the match against Sochaux.

I'll keep you guys posted.

[Purefun]

dweaver

sosnin is good imo could become great with the right tutoring

my first feeder was also a spanish, albacete also second division i have lulinha there

alex wouldn't go to second division, so he is at lokeren (takes 3 years though), belgium first division, they have about 6-7 players of lyon in their first team, they play in UEFA cup now

Could you give us a screenshot of your transfers mate?

[paulo_joze_costa]

lyon is a good choise but the Ligue 1 Championship.. ... is not a better place to play ...

[dweaver]

Here it is:

[Purefun]

dweaver

thx and you are using miniscout i see, i want to use it too but i just dont understand what i'm doing wrong.

Could you do me a favour mate? Send me a screen of how you put your search in, you know where you have all the boxes for gk, def, att, and left, center ... and age, CA, PA ... you know pfff hope you understand

just send it to my personal email mate you can find it in my public profile thx a lot

[dweaver]

Originally posted by purefun:

dweaver

thx and you are using miniscout i see, i want to use it too but i just dont understand what i'm doing wrong.

Could you do me a favour mate? Send me a screen of how you put your search in, you know where you have all the boxes for gk, def, att, and left, center ... and age, CA, PA ... you know pfff hope you understand

just send it to my personal email mate you can find it in my public profile thx a lot

I tuck miniscout away on the top left corner of the screen when I play in windowed mode, so as to see only a player's selling price but not his CA/PA. I tend to lose my enjoyment when I know those things.

As per you using it correctly, first of all make use that "Compress Saved Game" is unticked in your preferences, save your game with it unticked and teh filter should work. That usually does the trick for FM Genie, so it might have something to do with MiniSE as well.

If it doesn't, just keep pressing 'Load' on MiniSE and make sure the filters are cleared. Make a search for GK and it should give you the results. Then clear the 'GK' box and search and it should give you results regardless of position.

BTW, FM Genie beta is out and it works. You can use that. let me know if you still have trouble after this.

If it still doesn't wor

[KIMBERRELEY]

I understand about Toulalan and Benzema, it seems crazy to sell them but the board excepted the Benzema bid and I was playing Toulalan in a 4-1-3-2 formation and as long as I had a player who had decent stats for a DM along with high passing and creativity I could play anyone there. Hence Veloso for less than 10 million, allowed me to Aquero with the spare cash too

[Purefun]

Originally posted by KIMBERRELEY:

I understand about Toulalan and Benzema, it seems crazy to sell them but the board excepted the Benzema bid and I was playing Toulalan in a 4-1-3-2 formation and as long as I had a player who had decent stats for a DM along with high passing and creativity I could play anyone there. Hence Veloso for less than 10 million, allowed me to Aquero with the spare cash too

do you mean aguero from at. madrid if so OMG great buy

[dweaver]

August went well, 5 wins and 1 draw, top of the league. Lost the Champions Trophy though on penalties after dominating throughout the match.

Keita, Juninho, Barzagli and Benzema has been the difference makers so far...

[Purefun]

Originally posted by dweaver:

August went well, 5 wins and 1 draw, top of the league. Lost the Champions Trophy though on penalties after dominating throughout the match.

Keita, Juninho, Barzagli and Benzema has been the difference makers so far...

what did i say, yes thank you i'm always right (about players that is)

and thx for explaining the mini thing going to try it later

[Purefun]

quick update currently 10 juli 2009 going really slow (a lot of dealings going on)

released a couple of players that nobody wanted to loan or buy

sold one player Dor Malul for 1.7 mil combined fee + 30%

loaned out lulinha to castellon for getting spanish nat.

loaned seguin to Genk probably for the last time i'm thinking of using him in first team next season

promoted abenzoar to first team

[Purefun]

forgot to mention that i'm still trying to dump juninho but nobody wants him thats a high wage for someone you don't want (365.000 euro a month)

TAIWO from marseille was a great dl/wbl imo, but i had a look at him now in third season, looks awesome so i made a bid (6 mil euro and accepted) only to know if he is available because i don't play with a dl, but for anyone who does BUY him

also i have two financial feeders now , got one in june and one at the end of june, Kansas City (1.1 mil euro) and Yokohama (2.52 mil euro) in Japan, hoping for lots of cash now

Anyone else have financial feeders? If so, who and how much merchandising do you get per month?

thx

[Unitedsi]

I don't have any financial feeder clubs yet, but in other games (Man Utd, Milan) I've found they don't make as big an impact as they did in FM07.

Update

I've managed to get through Jan 2009 unscathed, except losing Dervite. Alex (turned down a loan to Portugal) and Saivet promoted to the first team squad and both getting a few appearances (and goals!) as I ease to the league title. Acapandie, Wijnaldum, Le Tallac, Duplus, Barazite are all gone or on their way after showing very little signs of being good enough and Sakho has gone too as all my coaches and scouts told me to get rid despite his quality stats. Not sure why they didn't develop, 7* training and some mentoring and games but never mind. I'm finding a few 15-16 year old regens now so not that worried. Abenzoar, Schwechlen, Zola and others still have a chance and Torje has developed into what looks like a top player while at Reading for the season.

Managed to lose 2-1 to Bordeaux in the league but was fielding all my fringe players as it was 3 days before Barca at home. Winning both legs 1-0 against Messi, Xavi et al. made it worth it! Ben Arfa and Menez were awesome. Got Inter in the 1/4 final having played them in group stages in both years so far. Got Nimes in the last 16 of the cup, only us and Marseille left in the tournament from the top ten in the league. Marseille also await me in the Coupe de la Ligue final.

Having said the GK would be the only position I'd strengthen in the summer, Costil has impressed me (but not my coaches, who still say he's only decent) so not sure what I'll do. My scouts rate Jourdren but his stats aren't great. If only I could swap Costil's communication with his eccentricity he'd be awesome! Also, Grosso is getting on and with Dervite gone I'm a little short at the back. Schwechlen is ok but not sure he's the answer at CB.

[Purefun]

unitedsi

alex is very cautious at what club you choose for him, had the same problem

shame about sakho mate

also accapandie and barazite (have them too) didn't develop as they should (in my mind) but i'm giving them another season on loan just to be sure

torje is ace, wouldn't mind having him

i would still go for costil mate, did you have a look at lloris??

[dweaver]

17 games into the league season and I'm sitting pretty lonely on the top with 41 points (12W - 5D - 0L), 11 points clear of Marseille and PSG. Looking rosey so far.

In the CL, I drew Liverpool, CSKA Moscow and Anderlecht. Started with the game in Brussels, went up 1-0 early and dominated, but Kim Kallstrom went and hacked some poor Belgian with both feet and got the boot. They hammered us and took the game 2-1. I was frothing mad at that lumbering oaf of a Swede! Then we hosted Liverpool, close game with us slightly better, 2-1 up with 20 mins to go, then Toulalan goes and picks up a second yellow. They pound us into submission and in the end I'm lucky I can get a draw, 2-2. 1 point from 2 games, plus Anderlecht have 6 points now and sit at the top. This is gonna be a tough one.

I have to get 2 wins against the Russians to have hopes of getting through...

Under the pouring rain and cold of Moscow, we manage to go ahead 1-0 early, but they come back and Jo ties it at 1 apiece. They keep the pressure up but we hit them on the break with Menez' second goal of the game for the lead, which we manage to keep until the end.

Back in France, we dominate CSKA, we go up 1-0 early, they tie it soon after, but after another spell of dominance we go up 3-1 by the 80th minute. They peg one back but it's too late for them, 3-2 victory for us and now we hold our future in the CL in our hands.

After 4 games:

Liverpool 8

Lyon 7

Anderlecht 6

CSKA 1

If we beat the Belgians at home we're through, so it's really up to us. If we drop points, it's gonna be tough with us travelling to England and them hosting the Russians in the final group game.

In other news, the injury back has hit again, Grosso is out for a month, Govou for 3 months, Benzema a month and Ben Arfa 2 weeks. I have Hossam Ghaly and Malaury Martin on loan just to have some cover for my injured guys... Look slike I'll get myself some new fitness coaches in the offseason...

[Unitedsi]

Purefun

Yeah, Lloris is another one with good stats who my scouts are only rating as decent. I'll probably stick with Costil and start him next season and then decide whether I move Coupet on and get another keeper in on or keep him in reserve.

I've just got Desailly in as a coach after Milan sacked half their staff and he was available. Got Zetterberg in too in a bit of a coaching re-organisation. In the summer I might get rid of Rousset and make Desailly my Assistant. I've also got a few more scouts in and really started searching for those regens.

dweaver

You'll get through against Anderlecht, you're better than them! Beating CSKA home and away isn't easy. I'm amazed by all your injuries. I've had no problems with injuries in my game (touch wood), is it happening in games or training?

General question

How much attention do people pay to their assistant/coaches reports on their team and players? I'm beginning to wonder if I'm paying to much attention to them. Plus I don't really get it, Coloccini is rated as 4* in his personal report but only 3* in my team report.

[Purefun]

dweaver

good league run mate

champions league however, how in earth could you lose from anderlecht (although i love them irl), even with a red card you should win mate shame on you (Did they buy someone interesting??)

unitedsi

good thing you changed your scouts mate because i'm thinking they didn't do there job properly or something

about your general question i totally understand your wondering about it, its the same here

[BryceCFC]

Hello guys, i just seen dweaver's screenshot and was wondering how the real Arsenal badge etc is appearing.. I know you need to mod the FM files in some sort of way but could you fellow Lyon players help me out

The Editors forum doesn't help at all...

[glory utd]

MON Lyon to beat the gers!

[Number 7]

Originally posted by glory utd:

MON Lyon to beat the gers!

100% agree!