KorbenRyan

I think the first couple of seasons are definitely a bit of a slog depending who you get. I think I'd have given up in season 2 out of midtable boredom with a squad I hadn't really shaped if it wasn't for my cup runs. By the time I was knocked out of those the season was almost done, Redmond was flying and there was enough promise to continue. I went into season 3 in two minds and things just took off from there. A couple of examples of just how good Redmond has been Golden Ball Awards

I've been playing this for a while but hadn't posted as the thread was dead when I started. I'm quite a way in (2022/2023) so I'll post a brief summary of each season to date and then I'll post seasonal ones as I finish them So I holidayed until the 6th November and picked up a distinctly average West Brom side. 2015/16 Surprisingly our form picked up quite quickly and we remained in the no mans land of lower midtable for much of the season. I didn't strengthen in January to give the existing squad a chance. By late March we had an outside chance of European qualification but we fell away tamely to finish 12th. Knocked out of the FA cup in the 4th round by Nottingham Forest and already out of the League Cup before I arrived 2016/17 With an average starting 11 and very weak squad players a summer of strengthening was needed. Funds were tight so I sold the IMO over rated Saido Berahino to Spurs for £33.5m to fund the reinforcements. In came key signing Nathan Redmond (£8.5m), Denis Cheryshev (£9m) and Kyle Walker (£3.4m) with a few squad players alongside to strengthen our depth. The season was a vast improvement with Redmond the undoubted star. We had cup runs to the QF of the CoC (2-3 Newcastle) and SF of the FA cup(1-3 Chelsea) and finished a solid 9th without threatening to move far in the table all season 2017/18 Transfers were again about bulking out the squad, I somehow raised £17m selling off the deadwood and Lucas Romero (£8.25m), Tom Ince (£1.9m) and Luke Garbutt (£7.25m) came in. This was a real breakthrough season for us. We lost in the 3rd round of the CoC to Norwich, finished 7th in the League and brought home our first trophy after holding our nerve to beat Spurs in a shootout and win the FA cup 2018/19 Having been happy with my squad depth the previous year and with a £40m transfer kitty I went into the summer window with 2 aims, strengthen my central defence and pick up a regen or 2 to develop for the future. In came Frederico Venancio (£7.5m) and Stefan Medina (£8.5m) with 2 Danish regens Jens Harder(DC) and Jesper Schmidt (ST) who were to form the backbone of our future. No outgoings other than out of contract players leaving. Again this was to be a landmark season for the club, after being trounced 4-0 by Man City in the Community Shield a season of steady progress saw us finish 5th in the league, narrowly missing the top 4 by 2 points. We lost in the CoC QF to Arsenal and then the season really got going, in the FA Cup we drew PL opposition every round but managed to retain our trophy beating Liverpool 2-0 in a hugely one sided final, Jesper Schmidt coming off the bench to score both. Our first season in Europe was a huge success. We needed a last game win over Valencia to progress from the group and we never looked back, knocking out Inter, Sporting and Brugge setting up a final against Galatasaray. In the final we were 1 down with 15 mins to go before Schmidt again came off the bench to score, just as we looked to be heading to another shootout the talented RL West Brom youngster Tyler Roberts stole in at the back post for a last minute winner. Winning meant despite finishing 5th we were qualified for the CL next season for the first time 2019/20 Making our Champions League debut I expected a reasonable budget but the board only offered £12m, Man City came in with a £53m offer for Lucas Romero and I reluctantly decided to sacrifice him to invest in expanding the squad. In came Eric Dier(£9.5m) Julien De Sart (£9m) and in January we broke our incoming transfer record to sign James Ward-Prowse (£19.25m). The season started with the quick addition of 2 more albeit minor trophies, Community Shield (1-0 vs Arsenal) and Euro Super Cup (2-0 vs Chelsea). The strain of CL football took its toll on our young squad and we succumbed to 3rd round defeats in both domestic cups to lower league opposition. Our League form was inconsistent and the season was blighted by 2 separate runs of 8 league games without a win including our last 8 of the season. The CL was a reasonable campaign, we topped our group of Schalke, Monaco and Basel only to draw Barcelona in the first knockout round. We held them to a respectable 0-0 at the Hawthorns before being played off the park at the Nou Camp, being lucky to only go down 4-1. The CL exit seemed to end our season and our poor run at the end saw us slump to 8th leaving us without European football next year for the first time in 3 seasons 2020/21 With a squad designed to fight on multiple fronts I didn't bring many in this season, Phil Jones (£6.75m) and a regen wonderkid Pal Ramstad (£23.5m) the main signings with a couple of cheap prospects alongside. The season produced a lot more consistency, we at one stage went 22 games unbeaten and never went more than 3 without a win. The FA cup campaign was ended in the 5th Round by Man United, we broke our CoC duck beating Chelsea 3-1 in the final and the lack of European games saw our league form improve dramatically to finish 3rd and qualify for the CL once again 2021/22 The summer saw us splash the cash on Tomas Mondragon (regen wonderkid £31.5m smashing our incoming transfer record), Ruben Neves(£20.5m) and Andrew Robertson(£7.25m) bringing our spend to £59.25m another record broken. Phil Jones and Denis Cheryshev left and brought in a combined £14m. We fell at the first hurdle in our defence of the CoC but were once again succesfull in the FA Cup beating Arsenal on penalties to lift the trophy for the 3rd time in 5 seasons. Our league form suffered in the early stages as our return to the CL and a string of injuries hit us hard. We recovered well though to finish 4th in a tight finish between the teams 3rd-7th ensuring we were in the CL once again. In the CL itself we easily won a group of Celtic, Monaco and Atletico. The knockout draw was kinder this time giving us Ajax who we easily dispatched 4-1 on agg. The QF gave us Juventus, we lost the away leg 1-2 but again that man Schmidt scored a late winner at the Hawthorns to send us through on away goals. In the SF we lost the away leg to Chelsea 2-3 and try as we may we couldn't find a winner at home eventually going out 3-4 on agg. A gutting defeat so close to the final but quite fitting in the spirit of the challenge as something SAF experienced quite a few times. Overall Nathan Redmond and Jesper Schmidt have been the standout players with Tyler Roberts and Jens Harder looking like they will join them as the backbone of my squad moving forward That brings my progress up to date as I've just started 2022/23. So I'll post a few screenies and stop rambling lol League Positions Trophies Nathan Redmond Jesper Schmidt Challenge Progress Domestic 0/13 Premier League titles 1/10 Community Shield wins 3/5 FA Cup wins 1/4 League Cup wins Continental 0/2 Champions League wins 1/1 Europa League wins* 1/1 European Super Cup wins Worldwide 0/1 World Club Championship * - Ferguson actually won the now-defunct Cup Winners' Cup. I'll settle for the Europa League, or a third Champions League trophy. Seasons Season League FA Cup Lg Cup Europe CWC Other & Notes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2015/16 12th R4 N/A N/A Took over 19th 2016/17 9th SF QF N/A 2017/18 7th Won R3 N/A FA Cup Winners 2018/19 5th Won QF EL Winners FA Cup and Europa Lg Winners 2019/20 8th R3 R3 CL 1st KO Comm Shield and ESC Winners 2020/21 3rd R5 Won N/A CoC Winners 2021/22 4th Won R3 CL SF FA Cup Winners

Having a similar experience to TheDentalist playing in Vanarama South, played 18 games so far and some of the stats are quite a difference to the rest of the division. Conceded 5 goals from corners (next highest 3), 5 goals from free kicks (NH 3). I've picked up 42 yellow cards (NH 30) and 4 red cards (NH 2) with 289 fouls committed (NH 218). So I think a big part of my problem is we are conceding a lot of set pieces which we don't seem to defend too well against. A lot of the other goals conceded (29 total) seem to come from strikers dropping off, playing the ball out wide to the winger, then making a run in and getting a free header in the 6 yard box from the cross

Southampton have just been taken over by a South Korean tycoon towards the end of 2015/16 in my Everton save. The message came up about him stopping at nothing to turn them into a domestic and continental force. They're also in the FA cup final vs Chelsea at the save point. I've played the season out on my save and then taken over at Southampton to check the budget and they have a provisional budget of £57m and 600k per week excess wages. England is the only playable league but with most major European top flights on view only. Uploading now

He's 21 now in my game and all his key stats for FB(a) are 14 or 15 with about 1.5 star of potential left. The price sounds steep though, you can get both Alcacer and Romero at the start for that kind of cash

PSG in for Romero. 25m upfront, a further 20m over 12 months, 9.5m after 50 league appearances and 9.5m after 10 international appearances. £64m total, not quite his release clause but I can't bring myself to turn that kind of money down EDIT: He turned them down as he didn't like the basic wage on offer lol

Season 2 finished. A real rollercoaster but finishing on a positive note Notable Transfers Out: Mustafi to Dortmund for £24m rising to £31m with clauses Otamendi to Barca for £12.75m (release clause and wouldn't discuss a renewal) Alcacer to Chelsea for £31m rising to £43m with clauses Transfers In Moritz Leitner from Dortmund(Loan) Sergi Roberto from Barca £2.5m Glen Johnson from Liverpool (Loan) Tiago Ilori from Liverpook (Loan) Predrag Rajkovic from Red Star (Loan) Joaquin Arzura from Tigre £3.1m Matias Kranevitter from River £3.6m Leaving a squad of GK Alves/Rajkovic DR Johnson/Akapo DC Vezo/Ilori/Ruiz/Orban/Regen DL Gaya/Orban DM Arzura/Kranevitter/Fuego MC Romero/Parejo/Leitner/Roberto/Gomes AMR Feghouli/Rodrigo De Paul AML Cartabia/Piatti ST Rodrigo/Negredo Most of the season felt like one long injury crisis with at least 5 players out at all times and at one stage 9 of my first XI injured or suspended We finished 4th in the league, with 5 games to go we were 7th with injuries, sales and the added CL games taking their toll. We won 4 on the bounce and went into the last game away to Atletico needing to at least equal Sevilla's result at Barca. We lost 3-2 but Barca did us a favour and CL football was secured again In the CL we were handed a relatively easy group of Benfica, Basel and Malmo. We qualified with a game to spare and then dismantled Benfica at the Mestalla to top the group. We surprisingly easily dispatched Juve 6-1 in the first KO round and were handed a QF against Shakhtar, with the home leg first we handed them a 6-0 thrashing before the 2nd XI lost the 2nd leg 3-1 giving us a 7-3 aggregate victory. The semi saw us draw Bayern with the away leg first. We were annihilated 5-1 over there and drew the home leg 2-2, crashing out to a 7-3 aggregate defeat. 4th place and a CL semi seems a reasonable return but we lacked consistency and an edge to our play all season and lost a lot of games we should be winning. The board have given me £12m to spend in the summer and a quality DC to partner Vezo is the priority. Otamendi left on the last day of the January window and Ilori was the only half decent replacement I could find available within budget

He's been good when he's played on the flanks but seems quite injury prone on mine. Just beat Juve 3-1 away in the CL first knockout first leg, quite a surprise as league form had slipped after Otamendi and Alcacer had forced January moves

Just had Rodrigo De Paul win European Golden Boy in December of season 2, despite only being a rotation option. Guess I'm underrating his contribution a little lol

Just finished season one. A comfortable 3rd place without ever looking like we were going to challenge the big 2 Only transfers in were Lucas Romero and making Rodrigo a permanent transfer. Parejo, Romero, Otamendi and Mustafi were all outstanding but still plenty of room for improvement. Next season is going to be challenging with the extra games the CL brings and less than £1m in the transfer kitty, tempted to cash in on Alcacer but with only 30% of revenue made available it will take a big offer. A few of the fringe players showed promise so hopefully they can step up when needed next year. I had a decent youth intake with 4.5 star and 4 star potential DCs and a 3.5 star potential right back. With Gaya already there it raises the prospect of playing a homegrown back 4 in a few years time

Coming back to FM after a long break and giving this a shot as Lewes

It depends on the spec of your computer, if you're going commentary only the graphics card isn't going to be much of an issue but if you're on a really old cpu with low ram you could get a lot of crashes and spend 20 mins+ waiting for fixtures to process. I had these problems on an old machine running fm11 with only one playable league and the specs will have gone up since then.

I've just got to mid September. All going well so far. I brought in a couple more players to strengthen the depth of the squad, signings in the summer window were: Dedryck Boyata (Man City) £500k Joe Ledley (Celtic) £1.2m Ayoze (Deportivo) £300k The only 2 players of note to leave were Hope Akpan (Hull) £1.1m and Adam Federici (Krasnodar) £2.2m Results have been: Ipswich (H) W 1-0 Bolton (A) W 5-0 Watford (H) W 2-0 Blackpool (A) W 1-0 Morecombe (A) W 5-0 (COC) Yeovil (A) D 1-1 Brighton (H) W 3-0 Leeds (H) L 0-1 Derby (A) W 1-0 Chelsea (A) L 1-3 (COC) The League has gone really well, we played poorly in the draw at Yeovil and were quite unlucky to lose against Leeds in a game we dominated but were hit on the counter towards the end. We sit top 3 points clear with some difficult games already played. In the Capital One Cup our second string brushed aside Morecambe and then we drew Chelsea. I decided to go for it at the Bridge and went full strength, we performed above expectations for the first 80 mins with the score at 1-1 we hit the post and missed a penalty before Chelsea eventually proved too strong with a Torres hattrick sealed in the dying seconds. By the end of the game they had Torres, Mata, Willian, Hazard and Lampard on the field so I'm happy that we gave it a good go against top drawer opposition. Top performers so far have been ALF with 5 in 9, Alex Pearce who has been a big factor in our solid defensive record, Chris Gunter with 3 goals and 3 assists in 9 and Danny Guthrie with 4 assists and the general fulcrum of our play.

I've only played the 2 league games so far and haven't had to rotate. Playing the same shape as you with Attacking,Standard and Counter variations loaded. I've gone with The same CD and DM roles as you but complete wingbacks and inside forwards on Attack on the flanks, DLP(s) and CM(s) in midfield and a CF(s) up top. Team instructions I have push up and hassle opponents on Attacking and Standard. The players aren't all ideal for these roles but I'm going with the system and looking to bring in players that are a more natural fit as we progress. I play Drenthe on the left because I find with an attack instruction he is looking to get in behind and then has more options with his natural foot on the outside, if I was using supporting IF's I would look to play him on the right.

Just bought 14 tonight and started as Reading for my first save as they seem to have decent finances and a well balanced squad. Took my time through pre season tinkering with tactics, won all 4 friendlies including a 5-1 win over Brescia. Only signing so far Boyata from Man City for 500k to add a bit of depth at the back. Opened up with a 1-0 win at home to Ipswich with 33 efforts on goal and followed it up with a 5-0 win at Bolton so off to a promising start.