[FM18] The Dynamics of telling you to shove your transfer request up y- a journeyman career

[noikeee]

5 hours ago, ManUtd1 said:

PSG is a rough draw from Pot 2, but Ajax and PAOK should be easy pickings for you.

I hope so! I'm more bored of drawing PSG than anything, we played them last year on the Group Stage too and after we faced them on the UEFA Supercup. Also they're currently pretty strong having reached 2 CL finals on a row.

aaaand that's a thousand posts on this thread.

[noikeee]

August 2031

It's an unspectacular, but strong start with 3 wins from 3 in the Premier League to kick off the season. We might not be winning by large margins but it's working, and beating Liverpool away in particular was very nice. I also know there's goals in this side because I had a bit of a technical problem and had to replay the first two matches, and we had beaten Stoke 6-0 the first time around (and Liverpool by the same 2-1 result). Meanwhile, Danish striker Jakob Christensen has started scoring which is great, against Brentford he got a towering header from a cross by Maes, which is a new weapon we didn't have until now.

 

[noikeee]

September 2031

(Transfers)

Kids were loaned out.

 

This was going so well. Big win over Arsenal, slightly lesser win but done the job vs Hull, giant win in the CL against Ajax, also comfortable in the League Cup.... then a home defeat to Norwich. Oh well, we can't be perfect. It's still generally a strong start so far though Chelsea are 1 point ahead now.

 

 

[withnail316]

Just caught up with all of this. Last time I checked in you were still in Denmark!

I was a bit perplexed by your move to Derby, but your work there has been OUTSTANDING! Hope you bow out in style, but I'm looking forward to your next move.

[pheelf]

A very nice start to the season, as for your next move. I'd say option B, you have to do what you enjoy.

[noikeee]

1 hour ago, withnail316 said:

Just caught up with all of this. Last time I checked in you were still in Denmark!

I was a bit perplexed by your move to Derby, but your work there has been OUTSTANDING! Hope you bow out in style, but I'm looking forward to your next move.

Denmark? Oh, yeah, I managed at some point in Denmark.  That was one hell of a long time ago.

I actually just turned off the Danish league in the Summer, to make way for another league which might be a more reasonable option if I move next year. I think the fact Denmark was active explains some things, such as why Kobenhavn has been relatively strong in Europe, and why on earth was such a crazy monster forward like Christensen still playing in the Danish league last year.

I dunno why everyone was so shocked about the move to Derby, it was perfectly logical in my mind - a fallen giant which is always fun, and an open door to the Premiership. Didn't work out too far away from the plan.  

Thanks!

32 minutes ago, pheelf said:

A very nice start to the season, as for your next move. I'd say option B, you have to do what you enjoy.

What if I kind of enjoy things in all of the options?  It's still kinda wide open for me, it'll depend on which clubs become available. The way the leagues around Europe are going at the moment, I'm really only seeing 2 or 3 or 4 clubs that I'd take from option b, so it's very possible I could go with something completely different come next Summer.

[noikeee]

October 2031

 

Another good month, with only a little hiccup away at Leeds. With two other wins over Southampton and crucially, a Man City side that was looking like one of the strongest sides so far this season, we're back up to 1st - albeit with just 1 point over a large group of teams. Jakob Christensen was irresistible with hat-tricks in both of these matches.

Meanwhile we've been doing equally fine in the Champions League, and in Paris it was Óscar Navarro who shone with a magnificent poker. I'm VERY happy with a 4-2 away to PSG. And after beating PAOK we're now with 9 points from 3 matches and well on course to qualify. In the League Cup we also dodged West Ham quite easily, but we were a little unlucky with the draw as we have to play Chelsea away in the quarter-finals.

 

 

[noikeee]

November 2031

What a month. Perhaps the city of Derby is not usually associated with sexy in most people's minds, but by now it surely must be recognised as the capital of sexy football. Leicester, smashed (what a match!), PAOK, smashed, Palace, smashed, and it's all wins as we reach this stage of the season having won everything but the home match to Norwich and the away match to Leeds. This puts us, obviously, first. And the current king of Derby is Colombian forward Óscar Navarro, on insane form, including that astonishing 5 goals in the first half against Leicester that gave him a perfect 10.0 score. To think I was planning to drop him to the bench... Simon Hopkins instead has been the loser in this musical chairs game for strikers.

Of course, I know this is a momentary illusion and that the clock is ticking. If I learnt anything from the last two seasons, is that sooner or later my players turn into sad copies of themselves and we start playing like poo. We did change tactics slightly this season for a slightly more cautious setup, but I do not trust myself and my tactics. So let's just enjoy this current high whilst it lasts.

 

[noikeee]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I edited this news item slightly to better reflect his motivations. Long-held passion for the club my ass, or were you watching Derby matches when you were growing up aged 10 in Medellin? A deserved contract, nonetheless.

[noikeee]

Champions League Round of 16 draw

This was weird, the 2nd pot seemed almost stronger than the 1st. Although this is of course misleading as by 2031 Schalke are a world class side, Real Sociedad are starting to become a force in Spain, etc. But I didn't fancy facing almost anyone that we could draw, and am very happy to get Benfica within the possible alternatives - although we've played them a few times the last few years so this is getting repetitive, it's always PSG, Benfica, Benfica, PSG, .....

[noikeee]

Setting the greatest records on the greatest competitions.

[noikeee]

December 2031

The good vibes continue with the second consecutive perfect month! We're at the top of our game here, and the key match was the 4-0 smashing of Chelsea in the league, in which we clearly paid off their Venezuelan CB Jorge Chacón who scored 2 owngoals, and which was a huge help to increase the gap at the top of the Premiership to 6 points. We even cleared off our CL group with 6 wins from 6, and also beat Chelsea in the League Cup to reach the semi-finals in which we'll face Stoke.

We're killing it but I continue wary - we've been here before, in the same position, the last 2 years, only for things to go wrong both times. Yet, dare I say it, this is starting to feel a little different? By this time last year we had a giant injury crisis, but we've been able to keep our players fairly fit so far. There's also the odd glimpses of nervousness here and there starting to show up but hardly anything too serious. Could we keep the momentum for longer this time?

 

[Rikulec]

Smashing.

[noikeee]

Ballon d'Or 2031

 
 

It's Dario's 2nd Ballon d'Or, 3 years after the first, and quite frankly given the incredible player he is, I am somewhat surprised that so far he has only been able to win this award twice. It's been a slightly unfortunate career for him, dominant the last few years in Italy but has not won the Champions League or World Cup yet. But the other two lads in here were in the Champions League final, in opposing sides. Foster of course got an enormous reputation boost after the crazy 163M€ move to PSG exactly one year ago in the January transfer window, so no surprise to see him in the mix. But it's Valiente, new to the top 3 here, and a player I've had my eye on for a while, that is the happiest as he's the one who won the CL this season.

Again, Derby players made other awards. I'm particularly happy for Esposito who's been a bit of an unsung hero in goal.

[ManUtd1]

4 hours ago, noikeee said:

Champions League Round of 16 draw

This was weird, the 2nd pot seemed almost stronger than the 1st. Although this is of course misleading as by 2031 Schalke are a world class side, Real Sociedad are starting to become a force in Spain, etc. But I didn't fancy facing almost anyone that we could draw, and am very happy to get Benfica within the possible alternatives - although we've played them a few times the last few years so this is getting repetitive, it's always PSG, Benfica, Benfica, PSG, .....

Benfica is a great draw!  Especially given the other possible sides.

[noikeee]

16 hours ago, ManUtd1 said:

Benfica is a great draw!  Especially given the other possible sides.

Plus it would always be particularly pleasing to smash them once again.

Although I don't want to talk and boast too much before the matches... been a master of the self-jinx in plenty of previous occasions...

[Fer Fuchs Ake]

21 hours ago, noikeee said:

Champions League Round of 16 draw

This was weird, the 2nd pot seemed almost stronger than the 1st. Although this is of course misleading as by 2031 Schalke are a world class side, Real Sociedad are starting to become a force in Spain, etc. But I didn't fancy facing almost anyone that we could draw, and am very happy to get Benfica within the possible alternatives - although we've played them a few times the last few years so this is getting repetitive, it's always PSG, Benfica, Benfica, PSG, .....

Poor Krasnodar! 

[noikeee]

9 minutes ago, Fer Fuchs Ake said:

Poor Krasnodar! 

They've won a ****load of Russian titles and topped a group with Juve (who have the current Ballon d'Or btw) and Liverpool... they've been quite routinely in the CL last 16 year after year... and Real have not done much in Europe in ages... I honestly don't think Real are heavy favourites at all! 

[noikeee]

[noikeee]

January 2032

(Transfers)

Not much going on this transfer window, we loaned out winger Aaron Eaton YP24F and midfielder Ryan Garner YP29A and that was it. However I did line up this transfer on a free for next year... I have no idea how will the next Derby manager use him but I bet someone in the future at Derby will thank me:

 

There were two away draws here, but the unbeaten run still continues, with the chance of extending it to February. With the first away draw (Man Utd) I was happy enough, tricky fixture, the second (Arsenal) not so much, they are much weaker these days and we conceded a 93rd minute equalizer. 

But I can't exactly complain. We remain top of the Premier League, 4 points clear of Chelsea with 1 match fewer. We're through in the FA Cup after beating Hull and Arsenal (to face Cheltenham! They're in the Conference!). And we're in our 4th consecutive League Cup final, to try to win the trophy for the 3rd consecutive time - Aston Villa are the opponents.

 

 

[noikeee]

Champions League Round of 16 - 1st leg

Uh-oh. This proved to be a very difficult match against a card-happy ref that put us one man down by minute 25. We have it all to do in the 2nd leg in England. Reminds me of what happened last year against Barcelona...

[kidthekid]

oh no

[ManUtd1]

Naw, you got this. Turning around a one-goal deficit at home is going to happen. 

[noikeee]

8 hours ago, kidthekid said:

oh no

 

8 hours ago, ManUtd1 said:

Naw, you got this. Turning around a one-goal deficit at home is going to happen. 

Depends which Derby turns up. The yearly routine downturn in form is starting...

[noikeee]

League Cup final

 

This feels familiar. It's Wembley once again! It's the majestic Carabao Cup once again! My FM goals are always to push the boundaries and win things that have not been done before, so it's Derby's turn to attempt an historical mark - 3 League Cups in a row. The only team to have ever done that in history is the early 1980s Liverpool (who won 4, btw).

It's not great timing though, as morale isn't fantastic after the surprise loss to Benfica (by the way, that was NOT the end of our undefeated run, which happened earlier - more info in the upcoming end of February update) and it looks like the side is doing the traditional 2nd half of the year form wobble. Then again, it's just Aston Villa. What could go wrong, right?
 

 

Minor changes from the usual side here, purely tactical, Andrew Crerand has been a more usual choice over Maes in the left lately but I'm unimpressed with his form (so in comes the Belgian), whereas at the base of midfield Nikola Zikic has also been poor and is replaced by Ömer Özdemir. Villa look pretty defensive, we've been known to sometimes struggle against these deep 4-1-4-1s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Minute 34: Warre Maes plays the corner.... Serban Petcu heads it wide!!! It's the 4th "half-chance" of the match record so far for Derby but no goals yet.

 

 

 

 

Half-time: No goals yet. We've been by far the better side, Villa have come here to park the bus and do little else - zero shots! But we're not exactly thrilling the audience, and we do need to do more to lift the trophy.

 

 

 

Minute 73: It's a side free-kick for Derby... it falls to substitute Simon Hopkins who is clear! Saved! 

 

... back to Hopkins! Saved!

 

.... back to Victor Hugo! 

GOAL FOR DERBY! 1-0! It's the killer Brazilian doing the business in a final once again!!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Minute 86: It's a cross from the far-right from Maurice Vander....

 

... finished down the left by Warre Maes!! GOAL FOR DERBY! 2-0!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Minute 95: RED CARD FOR NIKOLA ZIKIC! You're ******** me. That's 2 red cards in two matches for the Serbian defensive midfielder, and he didn't even start this match, came out of the bench. Winning 2-0, very last minute of injury time, tackle out of nowhere.... why?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Full time: .... but it hardly matters! DERBY WINS THE LEAGUE CUP FOR THE 3RD CONSECUTIVE TIME!

 

 

Ah yes, the Community Shield + Carabao Cup double. As magnificent as doubles get.

Villa's strategy to focus everything on defence and simply not attack, worked for 73 minutes but then it backfired. They ended up not attempting a single shot, a dismal statistic for our opponents. We'll take it, thanks very much.

[noikeee]

 Youth intake 2032

 

What if I told you guys, that I nearly missed this intake??!! I love the "continue game timeout" option, but sometimes it plays tricks on you, such as this.

This is an INSANE intake. There might not be such a superplayer as that crazy DM Alan Gardner last year, but the potential seems unlimited. Just look at those stars, that's 4 players with 5 stars of PA, and I remind you that we're a world class side, those 5 stars mean business, they could theoretically all be future world beaters.

This is Derby's equivalent to the Class of 92. Derby's Messi-Xavi-Iniesta-Busquets-Piqué generation. The Class of 32 will surely make history, even if not all of them make it. I'm vaguely tempted to stay and develop them, but realistically, that would be like a 10 years project, which I have no patience for, plus I am the worst manager of this forum for youth building when youth building collides with short-term goals: which they absolutely would here, in a world class squad. I'll probably watch them develop eagerly, but from a distance.

[oriole01]

That intake is absolutely bonkers!! You'd better keep an eye on them at your next club, and hopefully buy them while they're still cheap enough.

[noikeee]

February 2032

 

This was entirely predictable, all too fitting. The last team that had beaten us, September last year? Norwich. The team that finally beats us, after an unprecedented run of 29 matches without tasting defeat? Also Norwich. It also felt like this was coming sooner or later, as just the previous match, comfortably beating Hull at home 2-0, we let them draw in the last 10 minutes. The cracks are appearing. The team is slacking and it's the traditional form downturn. It also seems it may costs us in the Champions League once again.

... yet, I have hopes it might not be as bad as last year? Just after the Norwich defeat, bam, 3-0 away at Southampton. We're still 3 points clear in the Premier League with 1 game in hand. And we finish the month with a trophy, our 3rd consecutive League Cup. Is this the beginning of the end, or is this still our year?

 

 

[noikeee]

8 minutes ago, oriole01 said:

That intake is absolutely bonkers!! You'd better keep an eye on them at your next club, and hopefully buy them while they're still cheap enough.

Buying them is just unrealistic, Derby will hold on to them tightly and I've made Derby a top 10 club in the world in reputation.

[noikeee]

Champions League Round of 16 2nd leg

I'm a little bit shocked, but it's not meant to be. We're not winning a 2nd Champions League. Again, just like last year, just missed a tiny edge on this round, and we're knocked out early again.

[Fer Fuchs Ake]

Hurts even more that it's Benfica.

[noikeee]

9 minutes ago, Fer Fuchs Ake said:

Hurts even more that it's Benfica.

It does.

In better news, we're through to the FA Cup semi-finals and....

It's a massive fixture as we meet our rivals! They're 5th in the Championship. The other semi-final puts Everton against West Ham.

I'm obviously very disappointed at dropping out of the CL that early again, but if anything could save this season, would be finally winning the FA Cup. We could still clean out all English trophies. We can do this.

[ManUtd1]

3 hours ago, noikeee said:

3 hours ago, oriole01 said:

That intake is absolutely bonkers!! You'd better keep an eye on them at your next club, and hopefully buy them while they're still cheap enough.

What an intake!  Not just bonkers in talent, but brilliant names as well.  Yeah, that stuff amuses me.  

As does the FA cup draw with Forest.  Absolutely perfect!!!!  Unless you lose, of course.  Which won't happen.  (Because if we've learned anything it is that my predictions are uniformly awful.) 

And **** Benfica, by the way.

[kidthekid]

tough one with the champions league. With regards to the youth intake, even though you would not be developing them, you could still do a class of 32 watch or something, just to see how they end up.

[withnail316]

Man, that intake! There's no way I could bring myself to leave that lot, I'd instantly demand a new 5 year contract!

[deltablue]

Better not lose to Forest

[Mikado911]

What an intake!

To be honest, I have never seen that before for a club at this level.

Maybe your assistant is on drugs or something?

[noikeee]

16 hours ago, ManUtd1 said:

What an intake!  Not just bonkers in talent, but brilliant names as well.  Yeah, that stuff amuses me.  

As does the FA cup draw with Forest.  Absolutely perfect!!!!  Unless you lose, of course.  Which won't happen.  (Because if we've learned anything it is that my predictions are uniformly awful.) 

And **** Benfica, by the way.

Are you saying that we will lose then? 

12 hours ago, kidthekid said:

tough one with the champions league. With regards to the youth intake, even though you would not be developing them, you could still do a class of 32 watch or something, just to see how they end up.

Yeah I used to do that quite often in my previous careers (occasional updates on my youth products of the past), but this one has been a bit more hands-on with updates every month so it felt like a bit too much. Maybe in the future.

6 hours ago, withnail316 said:

Man, that intake! There's no way I could bring myself to leave that lot, I'd instantly demand a new 5 year contract!

Honestly I'm very tempted, specially with the CL not going to plan again, it's unfinished business, etc. But I also want to try out new clubs... and I know that to develop them would take lots of seasons... and that I would have conflicting goals all the time, trying to get all possible tiny advantages to make the team win the CL again yet build the kids up at the same time...

6 hours ago, deltablue said:

Better not lose to Forest

It's not a crazy suggestion, I don't know from memory how many times it happened, but we've been knocked out from the FA Cup by Championship sides at least twice I think. So we're very prone to that exact kind of blunder.

5 minutes ago, Mikado911 said:

What an intake!

To be honest, I have never seen that before for a club at this level.

Maybe your assistant is on drugs or something?

Yeah I've never seen that at this level neither! I've seen a lot of stars before, but on small teams when they don't mean that much. But here... I'm looking at the players on my senior squad that have 4* for CA and it's the likes of Hopkins, Maes, Zikic, Petcu, Vander... all players worth 65M€ or more... my assistant thinks there's 4 kids in here who have AT LEAST as much potential. 

[noikeee]

March 2032

 

March's highlight (lowlight?) was, obviously, being knocked out of the CL by Benfica on away goals. It's an underwhelming season at European level, again. Yet we're still on a possible clean sweep of English competitions, having won the Community Shield and the League Cup, and with the FA Cup and the Premiership remaining. On the cup side, we had little problem with West Brom, setting up that explosive semi-final against Forest.

But on the league there's issues too, to be quite honest. We were poor away to Man City and lost for the 3rd time in the PL this season. We were not much better against Leicester at home, dropping points again, although we did beat Leeds well. As it stands, it's just a single point advantage over Chelsea now, albeit with one game in hand.

April is an absolutely key month. In a tricky sequence from 14 to 27 of April, we play Palace away, Chelsea away, Spurs away, Forest for the FA Cup semi-final, and then Man Utd for the league. That's 5 matches in 14 days, 2 of them away to our closest challengers (Chelsea and Spurs). I need to figure out the magical form for reverting the downturn in form fast, or I sense this could cost us the league, with such a tricky run upcoming.

 

 

[ManUtd1]

1 hour ago, noikeee said:

Are you saying that we will lose then? 

Well, if I say you'll lose...does that mean you'll win?  Or do I need to phrase it in the affirmative-negative, e.g., "go on, son, you can't not not lose!"

I think I need to diagram that sentence.

[noikeee]

Meanwhile, in the Champions League quarter-finals...

Yes you're reading that right, that's 94th, 95th and 96th regular time, not extra time. And Liverpool had won the first leg 2-0. Holy ****. 

[noikeee]

1 hour ago, ManUtd1 said:

Well, if I say you'll lose...does that mean you'll win?  Or do I need to phrase it in the affirmative-negative, e.g., "go on, son, you can't not not lose!"

I think I need to diagram that sentence.

I've made a simple diagram, hopefully it clears things up:

[Fer Fuchs Ake]

With that kind of run in, it'll be a thrilling end to the season. Good luck with it!

[noikeee]

April 2032

Well what about that!! I think nobody was expecting that after our recent struggles, I certainly wasn't! It's a perfect month with 7 wins from 7 and just a single goal conceded! The league very quickly turned a lot less exciting than I imagined, even before the big games - after beating West Ham, Swansea and Palace, we suddenly opened a mammoth 7 points gap at the top as our opponents tripped up. And we would trip them up further by beating them both, at Stamford Bridge and at New White Hart Lane. The ultimate big game player Victor Hugo once again showed up at the crucial moments with goals in both matches.

Oh, the FA Cup. It was a lot tougher than it looked on paper, as Forest fought incredibly hard to avoid getting beaten by their rivals to the FA Cup final. But midway through the 2nd half we finally broke them, and added another in injury time. West Ham stands between us and a FA Cup trophy, the only one that escapes me in England..... Would be quite a fitting way to finish my time at Derby County, wouldn't it?

You might have noticed I didn't mention the Man Utd match. Yet. As things stood, that match was a formality. Get a single point, become champions. And just about the whole Universe conspired to NOT make us champions. Early injury to Óscar Navarro (will miss the FA Cup final), red card to Nikola Zikic, ANOTHER red card to Carlos. We were holding on for dear life with 9 men, in a nonsensical 4-3-1 formation with Victor Hugo as lone central midfielder on an utterly misfitting CM/D role. Incredibly, Man Utd completely squandered their numerical advantage of 2 extra players, as we scored twice with 9 men in the final ten minutes by an inspired Warre Maes. Therefore,
 

 

[noikeee]

11 minutes ago, Fer Fuchs Ake said:

With that kind of run in, it'll be a thrilling end to the season. Good luck with it!

I'm sorry that we made it boring.  Still the FA Cup final to come, we can still **** it up!

[Fer Fuchs Ake]

1 minute ago, noikeee said:

I'm sorry that we made it boring.  Still the FA Cup final to come, we can still **** it up!

Boring wins triumph over entertaining losses any day. Congratulations on another league win! Amazing defensive record this month.

 

[ManUtd1]

1 hour ago, noikeee said:

I've made a simple diagram, hopefully it clears things up:

I'm glad you could clear that up for us.  Much appreciated.

 

27 minutes ago, noikeee said:

Like I said, you cannot not not win!!!

[noikeee]

As I was searching for which jobs might open up at the end of the season, I noticed something rather weird...

Man City gave him the post after sacking Guardiola (for the 2nd time!) midway through this season, as a caretaker manager.... then he was upgraded to "interim manager" (what's the difference?)... but doesn't seem like he'll hold on to the job.

[Vaulks4]

That intake! 

[ManUtd1]

Leo!  I'm really hoping that his managerial career in your save progresses the way it did in my FM 17 nearly men save...