FMC15 Save Updates Thread

[the_gaffa]

Good luck, Crewe are a brilliant team for a save.

Thanks mate. I've fancied starting a Crewe save for a while now but I've never gotten around to it for some reason! I'll be sure to post a few updates on here once I'm a couple of months in.

[Footix]

Well, we did actually keep it up. We finished 2nd in the league, although quite a few points behind winners Salernitana. So, we got a chance for getting promoted through playoffs, but it wasn't meant to be. We crashed out in the semi-finals, losing 5-7 on aggregate. We won the first leg (away) 3-2, and I really thought we could go on to the finals, but we conceded far too many at home (three of them were due to personal errors = furious manager!) and so it was over.

My contract is running out in a month, and I'm not sure if I want to renew it or not. The club is more or less bankrupt, I'm losing a lot of players (backups, but still) because their contracts are up and I couldn't afford to give them new deals, and ... I don't see how I'm going to get this team any better. I'll probably try to find something else.

So I left Savoia for a new challenge at Villarreal B. I didn't know what to expect, but I was hoping I would be able to ask for permission to use some of the players in the A-team and sort of work together with the A-manager. Ha, right.

First of all, we really lacked squad depth. It's rather hard to win games without any central defenders... Secondly, whenever someone started to perform alright, they were called up to the A-team. Like our only striker. And the right winger. In return (or, "return", they were promoted from the C-team), I got two hopeless 17 year olds at left back. Thanks! We had one decent GK too, he eventually got loaned out without my permission.

Oh, I forgot to mention, the board of course wanted me to challenge for the title?! Like...are you for real? I have fourteen teenagers to work with, anyone with the slightest amount of talent are taken away from me, and you expect me to win the league?

After three wins, two draws and about fifteen defeats, I'd had enough and resigned.

I have given my manager alter-ego a Scottish nationality, and I felt the homeland calling. I have been appointed as manager of Forfar Athletic. They had already been relegated from league 1 when I arrived, so my job for next year will be to get them back up.

[Malicious Penguin]

Just saw this thread! I'm in 2019/20 and have got Wrexham to the Premiership(!); I've had successive promotions other than 2 years in League 2. It was pretty easy in the early going, just getting loads of loanees in, along with a couple of awesome signings (George Barker, Swindon...), but the Championship was a struggle. Finished 23 points off the Champs (Watford) but still made the playoffs, which I somehow won. I'm now 5th in the Premiership (no idea, really. I've finally splurged on signings though, but am stuck with a 15,000 stadium.

My plan throughout has been to do a journeyman save; as soon as I stop making progress, to find somewhere else - I just don't seem to be stopping...

I'll update this thread more now, rather than just posting how amazing I am...!!

[Anti Spiral]

2031/32 season now finished. The Spiral Stadium has opened \o/, ready for it's first game soon. Another league and cup title was completed, but again we lost to PSG in the Champions League semis.

European Champions with England, despite dropping 1 world ranking places since winning the World Cup 2 years ago. Pretty easy run to the final helped us and a 4-2 AET win over Holland in the final sealed the deal. Will probably resign now, but may wait 1 more game to manage Robbie Dyer (my only English player at Dortmund) reach his 100th cap. Potentially then will manage a nation from another continent.

I've resigned from manager of Toronto after winning the North American Champions League (probably helped from 1 or 2 Dortmund Loanees). Planning on going to Africa or Australia next with that manager.

[BoxToBox]

Dang you get around!

[Anti Spiral]

I'm trying to win as many trophies around the world. I would have done more but I got a bit too attached to Dortmund!

[Maw74]

I have two seasons to update on in my Ledley King career game and I will get them done soon, I'm going to take a little break from that game anyway and get my one club game started.

Here is the first bit of news for that game.

[the_gaffa]

Thanks mate. I've fancied starting a Crewe save for a while now but I've never gotten around to it for some reason! I'll be sure to post a few updates on here once I'm a couple of months in.

I finished my first season with Crewe over the weekend and unfortunately it was bit of a disaster!

I struggled to really nail down my tactics and I was chopping and changing far too much. It also didn't help that I had the youngest squad in League 1 and I just struggled to find any real consistency. It was very tight relegation fight and we spent most of the season hovering between 16th-19th. However, despite going on a four match unbeaten run in my last four games, on the last day of the season I finished 20th (just one point off safety) and suffered my first ever relegation on FM. Gutted!

Ah well... League 2 it is. Hopefully, I'll be bouncing straight back up again! Even though I haven't really had any funds to strengthen my squad, I've managed to keep the majority of my existing team intact. Leeds have poached a couple of my hot prospects but I feel I still have a decent starting eleven (for the league) and a pretty good youth intake has given me some promising youngsters.

I'll post another update at the the end of the season. Onwards and upwards!

[Footix]

So I left Savoia for a new challenge at Villarreal B. I didn't know what to expect, but I was hoping I would be able to ask for permission to use some of the players in the A-team and sort of work together with the A-manager. Ha, right.

First of all, we really lacked squad depth. It's rather hard to win games without any central defenders... Secondly, whenever someone started to perform alright, they were called up to the A-team. Like our only striker. And the right winger. In return (or, "return", they were promoted from the C-team), I got two hopeless 17 year olds at left back. Thanks! We had one decent GK too, he eventually got loaned out without my permission.

Oh, I forgot to mention, the board of course wanted me to challenge for the title?! Like...are you for real? I have fourteen teenagers to work with, anyone with the slightest amount of talent are taken away from me, and you expect me to win the league?

After three wins, two draws and about fifteen defeats, I'd had enough and resigned.

I have given my manager alter-ego a Scottish nationality, and I felt the homeland calling. I have been appointed as manager of Forfar Athletic. They had already been relegated from league 1 when I arrived, so my job for next year will be to get them back up.

The calendar has reached January, and Forfar are 2nd in the league. Not that bad! We have had a bit of a cup run too, defeating both Falkirk and Kilmarnock on penalty shoot-outs. We were knocked out eventually, though.

Tactics are a bit of an issue. We concede so many goals due to stupid mistakes, it does my head in. We give away a bunch of corners too, simply because neither of my side backs know how to pass it back to the keeper. Also, while we usually have like 15 shots in a game, only a few of them are actually on target. They aren't just long shots either, it's simply my players being totally useless. When you're one on one with the keeper, I'd think you at least would be able to hit either the target or the keeper, not the corner flag..

Oh well. We're ****, but so are everyone else, and we're 2nd. Hopefully we'll go up.

[Footix]

The calendar has reached January, and Forfar are 2nd in the league. Not that bad! We have had a bit of a cup run too, defeating both Falkirk and Kilmarnock on penalty shoot-outs. We were knocked out eventually, though.

Tactics are a bit of an issue. We concede so many goals due to stupid mistakes, it does my head in. We give away a bunch of corners too, simply because neither of my side backs know how to pass it back to the keeper. Also, while we usually have like 15 shots in a game, only a few of them are actually on target. They aren't just long shots either, it's simply my players being totally useless. When you're one on one with the keeper, I'd think you at least would be able to hit either the target or the keeper, not the corner flag..

Oh well. We're ****, but so are everyone else, and we're 2nd. Hopefully we'll go up.

Finished 3rd, and lost the play-off final in extra time. Gutted, but are having high hopes for the coming season.

[BoxToBox]

Hard luck!

[Burnsey85]

After not playing for a few days I opened up FM and thought about cleaning up my saved games folder, as I'd started quite a few random ones to try out tactical ideas(made a thread about my 1-2-4-2-1 tactic) and while deleting I got a bit carried away and deleted my Spurs save. Thought it'd just be in my bin but sadly not. So started a new save with Crystal Palace, despite Monaco & Sassulo still being on my 'to be' list.

I'm 10th in the Premier League at the end of January, into the 5th round of the FA Cup & got knocked out of the Capital One Cup in the 4th against Watford(which was in the middle of a 8 game run without a win).

Love my squad. Dwight Gayle, Bolasie, Zaha, Martin Kelly & Scott Malone(brought in from Milwall for 4.5m) are undroppable. Quite a few others are on heavy rotation with only Fraiser Campbell, Brede Hangeland & Delaney anywhere near being disappointing. The clubs making money every month too which I'm hoping to keep up.

Currently on a 6 game unbeaten run, scoring 22 & only conceding 3. Sadly though the fans aren't happy with the less than exciting football being played by the team. Still though I'm 'untouchable' and got my earliest(I think) contract renewal at the end of October.

My main transfer targets for the end of the season are another striker(Murray seems a decent Championship striker but wouldn't trust him for a Premier League Run & Chamakh hasn't scored in 11 appearences - I can't give Campbell away which is suprising) and a central defender. Keeping fingers crossed on possibly bringing Zaha back on loan again but doubt that'll happen so probably a RW too.

[BoxToBox]

Sounds good, 10th is a good place to reach with Palace.

Gayle is fantastic, loved having him with Jamaica.

[Burnsey85]

Gayle is fantastic, loved having him with Jamaica.

He didn't get a chance at first, easily 3rd choice as Chamakh always does well when I've played against Palace & Campbell looked decent in preseason upfront and LW. As soon as competitive games started though they were both shocking, as soon as Gayle came in he was hitting them in for fun. Runs himself into the ground too. The next striker I bring in will definitely be more competition than a replacement.

How's Roma going?

[BoxToBox]

He didn't get a chance at first, easily 3rd choice as Chamakh always does well when I've played against Palace & Campbell looked decent in preseason upfront and LW. As soon as competitive games started though they were both shocking, as soon as Gayle came in he was hitting them in for fun. Runs himself into the ground too. The next striker I bring in will definitely be more competition than a replacement.

How's Roma going?

Taken the league 2 years running, but struggle in Europe, meeting the eventual winners in the quarter finals both years(Bayern and Barca).

[safcrhys]

Borrussia Dortmund 2014/15

At the start of the game with Dortmund there was a surprising lack of money available to make transfers, so I just went into the season with the same squad I started with, minus one or two of the poorer younger players who left on the cheap. We started the campaign with a German Super Cup date with Bayern, a match we dominated but ended up losing on penalties. An early chance of silverware squandered. 9 days later on August 18th we eased past Waldalgesheim by 3 goals to 1 away from home in the first round of the German Cup, although the minnows gave me something of a scare when they took an early lead. The first game of the season would be a relatively "straight forward" (at least I thought it would be) home tie with Freiburg.

I was without my key player Marco Reus for the first six weeks of the season and also Nuri Sahin who was suffering from knee tendonitis. Freiburg gave us a scare coming back from 3-1 down to level the game at 3-3 before Ciro Immobile saved my blushes with a late winner. A first defeat of the season wasn't far away though and it was a totally undeserved one as a good Leverkusen side overcame us 2-1 at BayArena. The team responded magnificently by sticking 7 past Hannover, although the away side took some gloss off the scoreline with two goals of their own. The amount of goals I was conceding was proving to be a concern, but at least we were outscoring the opposition, a theme that continued in our first Champions League game - a 4-2 win over Zenit in Germany.

The timing was right then for a first clean sheet of the season in the Borrussen derby against BMG, a comfortable 2-0 win. A second away defeat of the year followed against Wolfsburg who had a poor season by their standards but they had no trouble in humping us 3-0. The team responded magnificently though with 9 wins on the bounce to take us above Bayern and into first place in the league. During this run we comfortably put rivals Schalke to the sword by 3 goals to 0 at VELTINS-Arena. We also knocked them out of the cup in the 2nd round with a very late 1-0 win at Signal Iduna. We were also going well in Europe, top of our group and undefeaten, with the most impressive victory being a 5-1 dismantling of Benfica at home, we also beat the Portuguese outfit 2-0 away from home despite playing the majority of the match with only ten men after Hummels was dismissed.

Stuttgart ended our winning run with a 2-1 success at Mercedes-Benz-Arena in mid-December, Marco Reus scored our goal. The German international had been a breath of fresh air since his return from injury contributing goals and assists from the left wing at a fantastic rate. The first league game against Bayern was scheduled for December 16th at the Signal Iduna Park, it was a game we dominated yet almost lost. We were losing 2-1 when Sokratis popped up to nod home an equalizer in injury time to save my blushes and keep our very slender advantage at the top of the table intact. The last game before the winter break was a fantastic 4-3 success over Hoffenheim at the Rhein-Neckar, a topsy-turvy game was eventually settled by Ciro Immobile, the Italian finding the back of the net twice.

Our away form in 2015 would become of great concern to me. The first game after the winter break was a poor 1-0 defeat at Freiburg. We responded with back to back home wins over Leverkusen and Hannover but we then chucked away two points with a 2-2 draw at BMG. We hammered Wolfsburg 4-2 but then suffered a pathetic 4-3 loss to Mainz in a game that saw my defence all over the shop. By now we had ceded our spot at the top of the table to Bayern and it would prove a very tough task to regain that position. Our Champions Cup first knockout round tie was against Arsenal with the 1st leg at the Emirates. One of our worst performances of the season saw the Gunners romp to a 6-2 win, the margin of the scoreline was perhaps a tad harsh but it effectively ended our European hopes.

We just about saw off bottom of the table Paderborn 2-1 in Dortmund before a comfortable 3-1 success over Leverkusen in the German Cup third round - setting up a trip to Bayern in the fourth round. We then drew three league games in a row, giving Bayern a five point lead at the top as March wore in. The return leg against Arsenal saw us come so very close to redemption in Germany! We were 3-0 up after 21 minutes but just could not find the fourth goal that would take us through, so close yet so far...

Bayern knocked us out of the cup with a 4-0 rout at the Allianz but we put a decent run together in the league scoring an incredible amount of goals. Firstly Hamburg were thumped 5-1, Bremen were beaten 4-2 away from home before a 7-0 rout of Hertha! If that wasn't enough we then went Augsburg and scored six! Bayern's lead had been whittled down to two points and they had some difficult fixtures to end the season. A home game against Stuttgart - who were having a good season - seemed like a formality of just turning up and getting an easy three points, especially given we had not lost at home all season and considering our current form. The away side would somehow beat us 2-0 though, with two very late goals coming after I had to substitute Reus after he had picked up a knock. To make matters worse Bayern lost their game aswell, meaning we would have went top of the table by a point if we had won and just two games remaining.

One of those games was against Bayern at the Allianz, I was confident that we could get a draw and take the title race to the last game of the season and given that Bayern had a very tough game against Leverkusen away from home on the final day I felt we could potentially sneak the championship. Unfortunately though our gameplan was unravelled after only three minutes after Ilkay Gundogan made a very poor mistake to gift Lewandowski an opener, we went on to lose the game 3-1 and basically hand our rivals the title on a plate.

We ended the campaign with a 4-2 home success over Hoffenheim but it was too little too late:

A league high scoring total of 93 goals was something to be proud of but we let too many in at the other end, especially when you look at how many Bayern conceded. We have already begun building for next season with the transfers of Eder Alvarez Balanta and the left back Faouzi Ghoulam arriving from River Plate and Napoli respectively. Hopefully we can go one better next year and pick up some silverware.

[vossmaj]

I love FMC for giving me the opportunity to actually play any FM game at all. Family and job leave me with maybe 3-5 hours per month to play. That is not much even for FMC but still I get addicted.

So I’ll try to update you on some of my progress and looking forward to any feedback after silently reading many of your careers with great enthusiasm. Future updates will be much shorter, don't worry

Started unemployed. Automatic reputation. Loaded all the Scandinavian leagues and will try to win some title in this area. Actually I don’t think I won ANY title at all in my SI-FM career. I did with the EA version but that’s… another story.

All offers I got were from the Norwegian third tier (as there are 4 third tier leagues that’s just a matter of probability, I suppose…) and chose one with stable financials and a decent squad, namely

KVIK HALDEN

Norwegian Second Division Group 1.

Media prediction 9th

Board expectation: Midfield

Most importantly I sold my overpower super youngster Ole Stromsborg. He’s a 5* DC and ST (!), 19 years old when I started and pretty much on the move towards a bigger club. At some point he actually wanted to go to Qatar! Jeez, man, you’re 19! Finally I sold him to Verona for 1.1m EUR plus 20% of next sales.

Here he is after some time in the Serie A.

We use the Stromsborg money to strengthen the team but being a semi-professional side of course we couldn't just buy new wonderkids. So slowly we progress.

There were two milestones in the season:

- Sale of Stromsborg after 11 league matches (defeat against Molde 2)

- Change of tactics after 13 matches (defeat against Ostsiden) from flat 4-4-2 to 4-2-2-1 with Mulac and Andersen as AML/R. Especially Fabian Andersen then played brilliantly and matches we usually drew were suddenly won.

We started ok in midfield and – much to my surprise - ...

...even managed to finally get into the title race (which we lost by only 1 point).

NORWEGIAN CUP

We lost against prem Club HamKam in extra time in round 2. Quite satisfied with that performance.

Statistics show how Andersen and Mulac shaped our Performance (and sorry for the different image sizes...).

And THIS is the successful tactic scheme that we are taking into the next season.

For next season we should play an active part in the race for promotion (only granted to the champion though; no playoffs).

Achievements in the post season part:

- Training facilities improved

- Improved staff by replacing several positions (e.g. my new scout can take up 4 assignments instead of 2 like the old one)

Having played the first matches in season 2 already Andersen and No. 1 GK Heier are getting nervous wanting to Play for a bigger club. So more challenges to come... Wish me luck that this might be among my first ever successful FM clubs... :o

[RTHerringbone]

Great to hear that FMC is successfully satisfying the addiction, even with such limited time to play

[vossmaj]

Yes, it does, but I always struggle when taking on the current save game again. Which player did I want to sign? WHY did I want to sign him? WHO IS THIS GUY ANYWAY?! :confused:

[Burnsey85]

Before saving/quitting I nearly always scout my Shortlist, even if it's far away from a window. Good for an update / see if any are suddenly available at a knocked down price but mainly for the 'Which player did I want to sign' reason! I'm awful at checking my shortlist and nearly always dive in and scout new players. At least when I start up and the reports come up I get my much needed reminder

[RTHerringbone]

I'm closing in on the end of my tenth season with Southampton. We are at the point where we are so good that it is a surprise to lose a match

At the moment, the only thing keeping me going is a determination to get a Herringbone Arena built! We are maxed out at 52,000 and selling it out every week. The stadium was built in 2001 and I'm now in 2024. What is the coding in FM about new stadiums? Can you have a new one every 20 years, or every 25?

[safcrhys]

I am giving away a disgusting amount of penalties this season, is it just rotten luck or could it be a bug or a problem with my tactic? I have given away six penalties in the last 12 games and five of them have been converted.

Into January now in my second season with Dortmund and we are six points clear of Bayern. We beat them 3-2 at the Allianz Arena earlier in the season despite being 2-0 down with 25 minutes to go, a very sweet victory indeed. Ciro Immobile has scored 33 goals in 26 games, he is beasting it this year. Earlier in the season I had something of an injury crisis in my midfield with Mkhitaryan (sp), Reus, Kagawa, Blaszycowski (sp) and Aubamayang all on the sidelines for extended periods at various points but we have close to a fully fit squad now and it is showing, we are powering through games scoring an incredible amount of goals.

On the negative side, Madrid have unsettled both Subotic and Hummels with interest during the current transfer window. I have Balanta waiting in the wings but the other two are just playing too well at the moment. I may have paid over the odds for Martin Odegaard (£10m) but he had just been signed PSV in the Summer and I desperately wanted to make his stay in Holland a short one, I am surprised his PA is not higher though.

Really enjoying this save.

[Burnsey85]

I am giving away a disgusting amount of penalties this season, is it just rotten luck or could it be a bug or a problem with my tactic? I have given away six penalties in the last 12 games and five of them have been converted.

I had this problem in the 2nd half of my season, loads of penalties conceded and Martin Kelly in particular getting 13 yellows in around 20 appearances. I like my teams to press but had to tweak my TI's a bit to calm it down.

Just finished my first season with Palace, hovered around 10th all season but 9th seemed to be my glass ceiling. I'd get to 9th then lose a few before climbing back up to 9th/10th. In my last 18 games I only won 5 but it wasn't as bad as that looks. Finished in 11th, and got knocked out in the 6th round of the FA Cup.

Managed to ship out Fraizer Campbell(£1.4m! Not massive money, but for him that's £1.4m too much) and Chamakh for 600k, who made 14 appearances upfront without contributing an assist or a goal. Zeki Fryers went for £2.8m who was only my back up LB, who I replaced with Dummett for £2.2m. Brought in Charlie Adam for £3m to give competition to Gayle, & Elyounoussi for £1.9m to replace Wilfried Zaha. Atsu from Chelsea was coming for £4m who my scout had a right stonk on about but he failed to get a work permit. Got him on loan though with a buy clause, hoping he'll get a WP next July.

Got the biggest overachiever award in the league. Dwight Gayle got 20 goals in 32 games, and Bolasie got goal of the season.

The board only want me to avoid relegation again which is nice! Think I could be in for a tough second season though

Edit: Spent the last of my transfer budget on Patrick Roberts, heard he's brilliant but never managed him and can't remember playing against him. Look forward to seeing how he comes along.

Ended up with probably the biggest first team squad I've ever had. Ended up with 31 first team players who my assistant rates current ability 2 and a half stars upwards. Hoping this will help me stay strong through the season, bound to end up with quite a few unhappy players but they can stay until they pipe up.

[BoxToBox]

How much did you pay for Roberts?

[Burnsey85]

£10.25m, told myself I wouldn't break 9m as I didn't really need another AMC but got caught up in the bids. Almost doubled Palace's previous record transfer too so not too much pressure on the shoulders of an 18 year old!

[RTHerringbone]

Have started a new save as the annual Saints cakewalk as become a bit dull again. I'm now in Mexico with Club America.

[BoxToBox]

Steal. He'll be incredible, if you really don't need an AMC, consider either wing, or even as a forward.

[BoxToBox]

Have started a new save as the annual Saints cakewalk as become a bit dull again. I'm now in Mexico with Club America.

They have some really good players, don't they?

[RTHerringbone]

They have some really good players, don't they?

Not so much as you might expect. It looks as if it will be quite a competitive league. Lots of other sides have probably a higher average quality on a player by player basis. I just went for them based on a Twitter question, a bit of research and that was it.

EDIT - What excites me is massive crowds, Libertadores, and playing at a stadium which can hold 100k+ spectators - this'll teach the bloody Saints board for limiting me to a pokey 52,000

[Burnsey85]

Steal. He'll be incredible, if you really don't need an AMC, consider either wing, or even as a forward.

Jonny Williams was class for me as AMC last season, and just as good in CM if I changed my system. I've also got Hoolahan who was brought in on the cheap in January, and he's been impressive when he's got a chance. Plus most of my wingers can play AMC so it was more thinking if I could justify spending that much on a player when I could do with keeping that cash for January if needed. But I suppose he's already as good as Williams(according to my ass. man) and obviously he'll improve, plus with the size of my squad I can see at 3 or 4 leaving in January that'll bring in funds if needed. But as you say he looks decent on the wings too so there's space for him and by January he'll be my best AMC so I should stop thinking so tightly

Just played my first game of the season against Burnley(who were decent last season) with my all new front 4 of Austin, Atsu, Roberts & Elyounoussi. My second goal was beautiful to watch... Austin to Roberts, Roberts to Ely, Ely to Atsu who shots in a low cross for an Austin tap in. It's moments like that I wish my video upload worked! Sadly both Austin & Atsu got injured in the second half but saw enough to be excited for that partnership. Won 2-1, had to play a youth CB too due to injuries who finished the game with a 7.1 which raised my confidence a bit. I was slightly worried about that position with 3 first team CB's out long term and another who's just came back from 3 months out.

[john1]

I have also joined you guys in playing FM on FMC I'm doing Big Euro Challenge with Excelsior - who got relegated from Eredivisie in first season. Currently sitting top after 28 games by 3 points ahead of Go Ahead. Brought in Will Keane on free and is on fire, 20 goals in 18 games. Went out against Heerveen on penalties in fourth round of KNVB Beker. Knocked out AZ in previous round.

[BoxToBox]

Not so much as you might expect. It looks as if it will be quite a competitive league. Lots of other sides have probably a higher average quality on a player by player basis. I just went for them based on a Twitter question, a bit of research and that was it.

EDIT - What excites me is massive crowds, Libertadores, and playing at a stadium which can hold 100k+ spectators - this'll teach the bloody Saints board for limiting me to a pokey 52,000

Do they play out of the Azteca?!

Jonny Williams was class for me as AMC last season, and just as good in CM if I changed my system. I've also got Hoolahan who was brought in on the cheap in January, and he's been impressive when he's got a chance. Plus most of my wingers can play AMC so it was more thinking if I could justify spending that much on a player when I could do with keeping that cash for January if needed. But I suppose he's already as good as Williams(according to my ass. man) and obviously he'll improve, plus with the size of my squad I can see at 3 or 4 leaving in January that'll bring in funds if needed. But as you say he looks decent on the wings too so there's space for him and by January he'll be my best AMC so I should stop thinking so tightly

Just played my first game of the season against Burnley(who were decent last season) with my all new front 4 of Austin, Atsu, Roberts & Elyounoussi. My second goal was beautiful to watch... Austin to Roberts, Roberts to Ely, Ely to Atsu who shots in a low cross for an Austin tap in. It's moments like that I wish my video upload worked! Sadly both Austin & Atsu got injured in the second half but saw enough to be excited for that partnership. Won 2-1, had to play a youth CB too due to injuries who finished the game with a 7.1 which raised my confidence a bit. I was slightly worried about that position with 3 first team CB's out long term and another who's just came back from 3 months out.

Sounds like Palace have a bright future with you.

I have also joined you guys in playing FM on FMC I'm doing Big Euro Challenge with Excelsior - who got relegated from Eredivisie in first season. Currently sitting top after 28 games by 3 points ahead of Go Ahead. Brought in Will Keane on free and is on fire, 20 goals in 18 games. Went out against Heerveen on penalties in fourth round of KNVB Beker. Knocked out AZ in previous round.

The promotion/relegation system in the Netherlands is batty. Good luck with it!

[safcrhys]

Borrussia Dortmund 2015/16

So I spent £46m in the Summer on five players, ironically the only area of the team I really need to improve on was left back and despite the business conducted including signing two left-backs I still feel the same way. In came Faouzi Ghoulam and Fabio Coentroa to fight each other for that full-back slot, Coentrao was a huge disappointment during the season given how much he cost (£9m), Ghoulam would become first choice and I'm hoping he will improve a little in the coming years as he is only 25. Also coming in were Eder Alvarez Balanta from River Plate for £5m, Alessandro Florenzi from Roma for £15m and Mauro Icardi from Inter for £7.5m. We made £20m frm the sales of Sahin, Schmelzer, Durm, Ginter and Ji.

Icardi would become the signing of the season, which was something that looked unlikely at Xmas given the form of Ciro Immobile, the Italian would net 42 goals in 37 appearances but he had notched 37 by the end of January, until his form dipped and Icardi certainly took his chance - netting 32 goals in 30 games although 11 of those appearances from the subs bench.

The season began with another Super Cup defeat to Bayern - we dominated the game but they sucker punched us in the second half to claim a 1-0 win. Our inability to beat them was beginning to concern me, we just couldn't seem to cope with Lewandowski. We hit ECG Wirges for six in the German Cup first round and our league campaign would begin away to Bochum. I was anticipating a stroll in the park victory to be honest but we needed a late goal to claim a 2-1 win. Thus began a five game winning streak to start the season. Newly promoted Greuter Furth were soundly beaten 3-0 before a trip to Wolfsburg who beat us 3-0 in the same fixture last season. It was the same scoreline this time round only in our favour as a highly polished performance saw us claim an easy three points. We then beat Hertha 3-0 at home before a 5-0 dismantling of hapless Bremen at Weserstadion, Kagawa and Immobile claiming a brace each.

Our Champions League group contained Arsenal (who knocked us out last year), Anderlehct and Olmpiakos. The first group game was against the Gunners at the Emirates, scene of our 6-2 hammering six months earlier. We performed better this time and although Arsenal had the better of the game we claimed a hard fought 2-2 draw to get ourselves off to a decent start in our toughest group fixture. We dropped our first points of the season at home to Hoffenheim who undeservedly claimed a 3-3 draw at Signal Iduna, we were in conrtol of the game and 3-1 up yet defensive slips cost us late on. The fact we had over 30 shots and the visitors just five yet we still ended up drawing was tough to take.

Our toughest league fixture of the season was upon us as we travelled to the Allianz to take on Bayern on September 26th. I feared another hammering as we were 2-0 down at the break despite probably being the better team. With 20 minutes to go the scoreline was the same but all of a sudden we were given a lifeline as Allessandro Florenzi pulled one back, moments later Blaszczykowski equalised and in the final minutes Mats Hummels nodded home the winner from a corner! A fantastic comeback as we gave ourselves a massive lift in the early battle to get clear at the top. We then thumped Olympiakos 4-1 in Europe before a comfortable 3-0 home win over Leverkusen.

Our first defeat of the season arrived on October 16th and it was a painful one - a 3-0 loss to rivals Schalke at VELTINS-Arena, in truth the scoreline was fully deserved as they dominated the game, it was comfortably our worst performance of the season. We put ourselves in a commanding position in our Champions League group with a 5-2 win over Anderlecht in Belgium before a 3-0 home win over Freiburg in the league. We then nearly exited the German Cup at home to Nuremberg with some catastrophic defending seeing the visitors being awarded 2 early penalties which were converted. We pulled one back but they then scored again to make it 3-1. Thankfully we upped the ante after the break and powered through to win 5-3, the amount of goals we would go on to concede from the penalty spot would become something of a concern for me.

We scraped past Kaiserslautern by 2 goals to 1 thanks to goals from kagawa and Immobile before a 4-1 thrashing of Hamburg on November 8th - Reus and Mkhitaryan both grabbing a brace. Anderlecht were thumped 5-0 at home in the Champions League before a poor 2-2 draw with Mainz. A disastrous 4-0 home defeat to Arsenal in the Group Stages handed the initiative to them to finish top of the pile, it was an even game and I'm still not sure how we lost so convincingly. Thankfully we responded well with a 7-0 win over Augsburg, a 5-1 win over Mainz in the German Cup third round and then a 5-2 win over BMG away from home in the league. Our final group game in Europe ended 2-2 with Olympiakos in Greece meaning we would finish in second place and therefore play Manchester United in the first knock out round in February.

Before winter break we put three past Stuttgart before losing 1-0 to Frankfurt away from home in a dire performance. It cut our lead at the top to 5 points. On January 1st we confirmed the signing of Martin Odegaard from PSV Eindhoven for £10m, he would play a few games before the end of the season and show his quality but his time will come in the next few years. We would go on an incredible scoring spree in the second half of the season, only failing to win by three goals on a couple of occasions. On January 24th we played struggling Greuther Furth away from home in our first game after the winter break and had little trouble in beating them 6-1. We then beat Bochum 5-1 with Immobile scoring a hat-trick. Hertha were then beaten 5-2 away from home before a 4-1 win over Bremen in the German Cup 4th round.

A few days later we played Bremen again - in the league this time - and the result was a 5-1 win. Wolfsburg were then beaten 4-0 before a 4-2 win over Hoffenheim away from home. The first leg of our Champions League first knock out round against Manchester United was at Signal Iduna and it ended with us thumping England's biggest club 6-1, Ciro Immobile scored four goals whilst Reus grabbed one, the sixth was an OG. Next up were two home games against our two biggest rivals Munich and Schalke, an incredible few weeks for the club saw us win both games 4-0 as we moved 11 points clear of second placed Bayern going into March.

We went to Old Trafford and held Man Utd to a 2-2 draw to seal an 8-3 aggregate win and set us up an "easy" quarter final clash with Porto. Before that game tie however we beat Freiburg 3-0, Kaiserslautern 3-0 and Hamburg 3-1. We drew the first leg of the quarter final 0-0 in Portugal but then put in a very limp display at home against Porto and ended up exiting the competition much to my dismay, losing 2-1. At least our domestic form was holding up though, we beat Augsburg 3-1 away before a narrow 2-1 win over Mainz. The German Cup semi-final was an easy 7-1 rout of second division St Pauli to set up a final date with Leverkusen on May 14th.

On April 23rd (St George's Day hehe) the title was sealed with a simple 5-0 thrashing of BMG at Signal Iduna Park, it had been a remarkable season and we were on our way to breaking a couple of records including longest winning streak and most goals scored in a season. We dropped points away at Leverkusen, scoring a late equaliser in a 1-1 draw before a 4-2 win over Stuttgart - a game we were 2-0 down in but came back to win fantastically. Our league season came to a close with a 1-0 home win over Frankfurt. In the German Cup final against Leverkusen we were shocked as the opposition took an early lead but the players showed lots of character as Reus equalised before the break before Icardi grabbed the winner in the second half. A fantastic double winning season then, next target is to win the Champions League for the first time in 20 years.

I really need a top class left back and I am thinking about paying whatever Arsenal want for Ricardo Rodriguez, I am happy with the rest of the squad though!

[RTHerringbone]

I'm enjoying Mexico

A flying start at Club America, where I've switched from Juventus' 5-3-2 DM Wing backs system, to a bog standard wide 4-2-3-1. We are top of the 18 team First Division Opening stage with an impressive record of P13 W10 D3 L0, amassing a goal difference of +24 on the way. We have spent just £745k of our £4m budget on a trio of Mexicans.

We're also contesting well in the North American Champions League, where we won our group and now presumably advance to a knock out stage of some sort. Progress is quick since switching to a 4-2-3-1 so I'm Instant Resulting as I want to rattle through season one as quickly as I can, for some reason - I think it's because I'm keen to get to the Libertadores.

Crowds are creeping up at the Azteca, we just had 69,000 in for the visit of Chivas (a 4-3 ding-dong battle).

EDIT - 85,000 against Toluca Plus we made a profit in the last month (just £56k, but a profit nonetheless). I reckon this save could have legs.....

EDIT2 - I'm not familiar with the format in Mexico, so this is news to me and might be useful to anyone reading. Seems the league is split into an opening and closing stage. After the 17 game opening stage, the top 8 are entered into a knockout, in which I'm set to participate. Not sure what happens when you win / get knocked out. Will confirm when I know!

[john1]

S.B.V. Excelsior - End of the season review

Gutted to missed out on winning the league by a point. I genuinely believe it was in our hands to win the league. Our draw against Achilles, FC Eindhoven and FC Den Bosch have cost us the league. We was heading for a win against Bosch, til they scored in with last kick of the game.

Went down to the last game of the season with us facing Roda away and Go Ahead at home against SC Cambuur. Was hoping for them to beat Go Ahead but got thrashed 5-1 against them. They won the league thanks to Federico Bonazzoli( on loan from Napoli) scoring 29 goals for them. Lucky ********.

Now we got a job to do with the play off.

Jupiler League table

Happy with that, glad we got away first leg.

[john1]

I'm enjoying Mexico

A flying start at Club America, where I've switched from Juventus' 5-3-2 DM Wing backs system, to a bog standard wide 4-2-3-1. We are top of the 18 team First Division Opening stage with an impressive record of P13 W10 D3 L0, amassing a goal difference of +24 on the way. We have spent just £745k of our £4m budget on a trio of Mexicans.

We're also contesting well in the North American Champions League, where we won our group and now presumably advance to a knock out stage of some sort. Progress is quick since switching to a 4-2-3-1 so I'm Instant Resulting as I want to rattle through season one as quickly as I can, for some reason - I think it's because I'm keen to get to the Libertadores.

Crowds are creeping up at the Azteca, we just had 69,000 in for the visit of Chivas (a 4-3 ding-dong battle).

EDIT - 85,000 against Toluca Plus we made a profit in the last month (just £56k, but a profit nonetheless). I reckon this save could have legs.....

EDIT2 - I'm not familiar with the format in Mexico, so this is news to me and might be useful to anyone reading. Seems the league is split into an opening and closing stage. After the 17 game opening stage, the top 8 are entered into a knockout, in which I'm set to participate. Not sure what happens when you win / get knocked out. Will confirm when I know!

Wow 85K against Toluca?? Sounds fun managing in Mexico Any good youngsters?

[RTHerringbone]

Against Chivas in the 2nd Leg of the Opening Stage Quarter Final, the crowd was 102,039 (still 3,000 short of absolute capacity!) Massive! We had a 2-2 draw from the first leg and a 2-0 at home saw a lot of happy Club America fans celebrating at the Azteca. We face Leon in the semi final, who we drew 1-1 with at their ground in the opening stage. They have a few players I'd love to sign, but haven't got the money to do so.

[RTHerringbone]

Wow 85K against Toluca?? Sounds fun managing in Mexico Any good youngsters?

Martin Zuniga is probably the best youngster I have at the moment, but he's quite far behind the established starters, so isn't getting much game time. I'm just allowing my assistant to do a "Quick Pick" of the team at the moment, just to speed me up even more. Your Excelsior save is looking quite entertaining; tough to take missing out on the title like that

[john1]

Against Chivas in the 2nd Leg of the Opening Stage Quarter Final, the crowd was 102,039 (still 3,000 short of absolute capacity!) Massive! We had a 2-2 draw from the first leg and a 2-0 at home saw a lot of happy Club America fans celebrating at the Azteca. We face Leon in the semi final, who we drew 1-1 with at their ground in the opening stage. They have a few players I'd love to sign, but haven't got the money to do so.

That's crazy No doubt you're making alot of cash from home games with that crowd!

[RTHerringbone]

Sent Leon packing with a 3-2 Aggregate win; the return leg again at Azteca where 95,000 watched the 2-1 win. I looked at the history of the Opening Stage now that we're in the final, and for such a big club, it's amazing that we haven't won it since 1985, with a runner up spot in 2013 (against Leon). The Closing Stage history shows more recent success (winners in 2013, 2005, 2002 and 1985), but it's interesting to see that we aren't a gigantic club with a consistent history of dominating the league, and I like that.

We face Santos Laguna in the final, who we beat 4-2 away in the group stage of the opening stage.

[RTHerringbone]

A 1-0 away win in the first leg (I believe there is a seeding system in place, which means that as the winners of the group stage of the opening stage, we always have the 2nd leg at home).

These huge crowds do generate income, but with ticket prices at £5 for the 2nd leg of the final (a 105k sell out!) it "only" generates a Gross total gate receipt of £500k, of which a proportion presumably goes to the opposition. Either way, in spite of losing my first choice keeper just before the first leg, we secured the title with a 2-1 home win in front of 105,064. Darwin Quintero was start man all the way through. The little Colombian (5' 5") netted 18 in 21 games, with 6 assists and 9 Player of the Match awards.

I seem to have had 4 friendlies arranged for me to fill the gap between the final 2nd leg (14/12/14) and the first match of the opening stage (04/01/15). Seems a bit odd, so I might cancel one or two to give a tired team a rest.

[BoxToBox]

Hard luck in the Juplier John1. Hope you win the playoffs.

[john1]

Relegation play off Second Round Leg 1

Very close game, disappointed we threw away 2 goals lead before Manu, grabbing late winner for us.

[john1]

Relegation play off Second Round Leg 2

Another tough game, their goalkeeper was in good form against Will Keane. A close range shot from our youngster put us through.

[john1]

Would be happy with either.

EDIT: Got FC Eindhoven, home first leg

[john1]

Went for 4-4-2 in both legs and we played brilliant in 2nd leg.

Promoted \o/

Players stats

Transfer budget

Pretty happy with that, will look at free signings for decent players.

News

Meh.

Wow, an Englishman sold more shirts in Holland

[john1]

Damn, asked the board if we could expand the stadium for next season, said no cos we can't afford it

Our finances at the club

Genuinely hope we can keep Will Keane next season, got 5.75M release clause in his contract, going to try and get Manu back on loan again.

[BoxToBox]

Well done!

[john1]

Well done!

Cheers, BoxToBox It was hard work but finally got there in the end

Just won Manager Of The Year award

Eredivisie table.

[RTHerringbone]

The joys of FMC and Instant Result. I've flown through this first season - I started it last night!

We won the group stage of the closing stage and have also reached the final of the NACL. That could be an interesting two legged match-up, as we only drew 0-0 at home with Pachuca in the closing stage. Financially, we are doing well; we have sold a couple of decent players to Europe, and they are yet to be replaced. Our average attendance is around the 48,000 mark, but we have still had a few 80,000+ crowds to help boost the coffers.

We also face Pachuca in the Closing Stage QF, so we face them four times in a row!