The "How are you doing" thread

[Footix]

Thought it could be fun to have a thread where we could post whatever is going on in your save. Career updates, scorelines, transfer stories ...

Playing as Newcastle in my first season. Just hammered Leicester 4-0 only to lose 1-3 to Tottenham. Three free kicks from Christian Eriksen, what can you do. It was just one of those days. We even had more CCC's than them!

Brought in Tierney on left back, sold Joselu and everybody is unhappy we only got 4 million for him. Heck, I'd pay someone to take that donkey off our hands!

Could use some better players, but 9th after 10 games isn't so bad. Hopefully we can finish top 10 and build something from there!

[stebedabe]

So playing on the switch with Portsmouth . 

Apart from a niggling  training issue Im not sure how to deal with save is going well . 

Managed to get my best players on new contracts to stop the interest in them unfortunately it has put me about 4K over my wage budget and that’s after adjusting my budget so I have no transfer cash . 

Brought in morgan Gibbs wight from wolves on a free loan and dozzel free loan from Ipswich . Am unbeaten in all competitions so far but still early days . 

 

[Graham Banks]

Got sacked from Oxford and Chelmsford, before using things I'd learnt to survive five seasons so far with Leamington.

Now pushing for promotion.

Key things seem to be changing tactics once things start going bad, and to keep players happy.

With clubs in the Vanarama North/South, one must look out for decent free transfers and decent loans.

You don't usually have money to buy players.

[Tomdurka]

Pretty well all things considered..

 

Season 1:

Started my save at League one side Bristol Rovers. Expectation was a solid mid table finish. We ended up winning the league with a game left in the season.. Very proud of that. No other trophys won unsurprisingly.

Season 2:

I expected the worst when moving up to the championship with the rovers, and that feeling was compounded when an article was forwarded to me a day before the season began, comparing the wage budgets of each side in the league.. the average was £400,000pw, the highest was £900,000pw... and we were bottom of the pile with £89,000pw. 

In hindsight the season went very well, finishing in 7th (one spot off play offs) and we could have finished 5th if we didn't lose on the final day. In the end I started to fall out of love with Bristol Rovers so I resigned a few days after the season ended. 

 

Season 3:

while in my final year at the rovers, Stoke got destroyed in the premier league and finished 20th, dropping right back down to where they started.. and they thought I'd be the right man for the job to get them up to the top flight once again. And obviously I agreed..

First day on the job and the chairman sends me the following message (after literally hiring me):

"I'm stepping down lad, and a consortium is taking over stoke city fc". I paraphrased a bit.. the next day I get a message from the new chairman taking over:

"We don't want you as manager unfortunately, but wont make our final decision until the end of the week." 

Sacked after a day must be some record, I thought.. Anyway, they eventually decided to let me stay, something about the fans kicking up a fuss which was pretty cool. 

Their minimum expectation was for us to win the championship. With the amount of money they gave me I don't blame them (1,400,000pw wage budget for starters). 

We finished 1st with 100 pts (a new record for most points in a season for stoke). It really was a breeze with the budget. No other trophys won.

 

Season 4:

after 4 seasons I made it to the top flight of the sport. The board were a bit demanding of me, expecting a mid table finish as a minimum... but they did give me 40,000,000 to spend. 

So obviously I spent It all in the summer, trying to create a solid base of a squad. 

We achieved our expectations finishing in 14th place, but due to a small team size (we only had 21 players) we actually lost the last 6 games of the season. They were all exhausted thanks to the deep runs in tournaments:

Carabao Cup - beat arsenal in the round of 16 on penalties (they dominated us, so lucky), beat Tottenham in the quarters 5-1, which was a mad game. Beat Burnley in the semis, only to lose in the final to city 1-0. Very proud of the run.

The FA cup - the luck of the gods was with us... we got the easiest draw throughout the completion. Got all the way to the final and the toughest opposition was everton in the semis. But guess who we bump into in the final? City again..

Full time: 1-1

 

We won on penalties!!!

Next season was going to be a challenge, with the Europa league added to our schedule... we needed more players in our squad. 

 

Season 5 (current season):

what a rollercoaster ride this season has been. Bare in mind that its world cup year, and it's being held in winter so there is a 2 month break from games mid season.. and that saved us!

I strengthened the squad massively, squad size was increased to 26, and i brought in some top quality prospects... but the first half of the season was a bit of a disaster:

We qualified for the knockout stages of the Europa league with relative ease (I mean the bottom two teams in the group stage were woeful).. but our premier league season wasn't going to plan at all. I thought we'd be challenging for top 10, but by the time the mid season break came around we were languishing in 16th place and had not won a game in 11 matches. 

Something HAD to change, and Qatar was that thing which started turning us around. The 2 month break passes, and I must admit I'm having the most fun I've ever had in FM. This was a real challenge, and I was facing the sack in the not to distant future. First game in the league after the break was man city away, and we get thumped 3-0.. it was expected but never looks good. I'm pulling my hair out trying to solve the issues with our performances. The next few games were so tense. A lot of the teams we played  were in the relegation zone, and we were scrapping 1-0/2-1 wins against them. Every victory was amazing. We managed to draw against liverpool (massive result), and our form was slowly getting better and better. 

A welcome break from premier league action came in the form of a 1st round knockout tie against Borussia moenchengladbach. Due to the world cup, Europa league games only had one leg, and I was playing away (got the short end of the straw there):

60 mins in and we are 2-0 up, and playing world class. 65 mins in and our wing back gets send off (and I have no replacements for him). 95 minute and they equalize with a 30 yard thunderbolt of a shot... we go into extra time... 113 minute they score again making it 3-2 to them (we were getting dominated by this point), so I change our mentality to very attacking... yeah and they score again lol 4-2 after 117 mins...

119 min we get a consolation goal.. 

Wait.. holy sh@t we've scored again in the 121 minute. 4-4!!!! 

The game has to go to penalties now?

Nope, 20 seconds after they kick off they score again.. 5-4 final result.

Very depressing but what a game! 

Our form in the league is currently great, we are sitting in 10th (2points of 7th). 

So yeah, very fun save!

 

 

 

[Footix]

7 hours ago, Tomdurka said:

Nope, 20 seconds after they kick off they score again.. 5-4 final result

Ouch!

Save sounds fun though! And Stoke of all teams, I don't think I've ever even considered managing them. Always cool to read what others are up to! 

[ss03]

Good idea with this thread!

I jumped over from Mobile in January as I found it almost too accessible.. plus I fancied more of a challenge! I don't have the computer hardware for full fat FM but I do have a decent spec tablet so Touch ticked all the boxes.

Started with my most local Vanarama North club Southport... started a little rocky whilst getting to grips with all the additional options but eventually hit a great run which led to me hitting 1st which is where I stayed for the season (media prediction was mid-table). Despite a few blips towards the end I was never under any real pressure as the teams below just couldn't get a good run going. I managed to get to the semis of the FA Trophy which is pretty good for a North side, eventually losing out to Barnet (think it was a 1-0 defeat...). Won Manager of the Year which enhanced my reputation, and then I saw that another local(ish) side in Tranmere were managerless and heading to the National League having finished 23rd in League 2, I applied then a couple of weeks later they came calling...

So I moved to Tranmere Rovers who were tipped to challenge for promotion at the first time of asking (predicted 4th). With money being tight and the wage budget being slashed following relegation, a lot of the first team squad whose contracts were up were released, meaning I had to plug the gaps with cheaper players from the Vanarama leagues and loans from bigger clubs; to be honest I'm enjoying the 'managing the finances' element in this game as it's non-existant in Mobile, just adds to the challenge. Anyway, started off slowly again before finding my feet and eventually reaching top. Interestingly, during this period my star striker was sent off and banned for 3 games following an elbow... first game back was a 5-1 victory and he scored all 5! I did stumble slightly around December and dropped to 2nd as I kept drawing in the FA Cup which led to replays and a busier schedule etc... eventually got knocked out by Blackpool in Round 1. Back on top now after 32 games and around 6 points clear.

I find it takes me around 3-4 weeks to get through a season which feels about right for me personally. How long does it take you guys?