[FM10] Keepin It Old School

I have decided to start an immense FM08 career game since my laptop can't seem to handle a very large FM10 game, and I wasn't a fan of FM09.

Leagues Loaded(All leagues loaded from each country) + Large database:

Austria

Brazil

China

Czech Republic

Denmark

Finland

France

Germany

Greece

Holland

Hungary

India

Ireland

Malaysia

Northern Ireland

Peru

Poland

Portugal

Russia

Scotland

Serbia

Slovenia

South Africa

South Korea

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

Turkey

Ukraine

Wales

The leagues loaded were pretty much random, mostly places that I haven't managed...I'll be starting unemployed with Sunday League Footballer reputation. I've just started out with as early a date as possible which is actually the Brazil leagues in December 2006! Talk about a blast to the past.

Now to sim a bit and see if someone comes calling!

My management career starts with Chimney Corner F.C. They play at Allen Park in Antrim with a stadium capacity of 2000 with 106 seats.

The media is predicting a finish of 9th place. I hope to do a bit better than that! The board is giving me a transfer budget of 0 and a wage budget of £1130/wk. This is going to be tough considering we're already £100/wk over the budget and £10,000 in the red....

I've never managed in N. Ireland but have read some careers on here such as Nepenthez that have had great success so hopefully I can replicate something like this.

The season doesn't begin until Sep. 07 so I'm going to try to do some scouting both with my scouts and by myself attending some games in the meantime.

edit: Oh and I make a whopping £20/wk to manage these guys...looks like I won't be moving out from home anytime soon!

Chimney Corner 2007-08 End of Season Update

Media Prediction - 9th

Final Position - 1st

I've set another rule for myself for this game which should make it quite a bit tougher. I will not turn down any requests for any of my players no matter how ridiculous the offers. It has bitten me a few times already as you will soon see.

Transfers In

Chris McCourt(D/WB R) - Signed to be our #1 right back.

Michael Smyth(SC) - A great signing that contributed more than I thought he would considering his stats were pretty garbage...Anyways he's gone now as he attracted too much attention lighting division 2 up.

Michael Burns(GK) - A depth signing since I usually have my top keeper go out for extended periods, he only played in part of one game all year!

Ian Haveron(GK) - Signed as my top choice keeper

Stephen Lyons(AM/SC LR) - A very pacey winger signed oriinally to give us a complete set of fast wingers but now hes the only one.

Marty McNutt(D/WB R) - My backup right back got quite a lot of time hes hard working and I need that if my top man is injured.

Craig Bowers(M LC) - An important player for next season another one that doesn't seem to have nice stats but plays well anyways.

James Haugh(D C) - He's young and a backup DC for now but I really like his physical stats.

Keiran Keane(M C) - A new signing in the January window, his quickness and creativity should spark my midfield.

Gerard Crossley(AM/F RC) - Same as Keiran, essential because of all my sells he seems promising with a 7.6 rating after playing the last 5 games of the season.

League 2 - 22 Pld - 14 W, 5 D, 3 L, 58 GF, 31 GA, +27 GD, 47 PTS

Our form was unbelievable to start as we would run 13 games unbeaten off the top which gave me a sound lead at the top of the table with just under half the season to play. The January transfer window was not kind to me however seeing me lose my top defender Damien Gannon, my top assist man Adam Montgomery, and lose 24 goals worth of strikers in new signing Michael Smyth and Aaron Wallace. Even my secondary striker Alwyn Crawford was poached. It seems that good form had been a curse at this point. I scrambled to sign up some replacements finding James Haugh at defence, and Gerard Crossley at striker. Any others that my scouts found were not worth the time so I decided to field the youth for the remainder of the season.

The change started rough with a loss to Ballinamallard Utd and a draw against are nearest rivals Annagh Utd. We then went up and down for the next 4 games followed by a couple wins at the end of the season to claim the championship!

Intermediate League Cup(ILC) - Just a terrible go of things here this competition is the first to take place and thus I was trying out tactics and ended up at the bottom of our group table with 0 wins.

Antrim Trophy - Also scheduled before the league began in between the ILC matches...An extremely disappointing 2nd round loss versus Dunmurry YM in penalties was our only result.

Intermediate Cup - This competition happened right in a good spell of form for us it seemed no matter who I started came to play. We knocked off Donegal Celtic Reserves + Lurgan Celtic before succumbing to Connor away 3-2. I was pleased with our performance here.

Irish Cup - We did pretty well here knocking off our fellow division 2 competition Ballinamallard Utd and Annagh Utd. We made it to the 5th round where Bangor, who reside in division 1 edged us. Pleased again.

Key Players

Ian Haveron(GK) - Our GK that did not miss a game all season was solid year round, which made the loss of Andrew French our #1 keeper to begin the season not sting as much.

Michael Smyth(SC) - I brought the man in for some scoring depth and man did he deliver scoring 16 goals before leaving in the January transfer window...

Adam Montgomery(AM LRC) - He was a menace all season long, I was pretty sure he would be with his high physical stats for the division. Gaining 15 assists before he also left in January was very impressive.

Craig McCourt(D/WB R) - The pacey full back did his job quietly not putting up many visible stats but he rarely allowed opposition wingers to pass.

Looking Ahead - Even with the sell offs I wasn't able to shore up finances I'm 80k in the red there as well as 300/wk in the red on my wage budget. Going forward losing so many of my best players the next season will be a major struggle staying afloat. Especially considering we couldn't beat division 1 teams this past season.

Best of the Youth Intake

Kenny Kelly(SC) - He was really the only youth I even wanted to give game time. He ended up being my starting striker once my other options left. In 9 games he managed 3 goals 3 assists and a MOM not too bad for the first year kid.

So as to streamline this and get through seasons quicker I'm only going to post screenshots that people are interested in unless I feel something is too good not to share!

I really liked FM08 too.

Excellent work with Chimney Corner so far. Nice selection of leagues by the way.

I really liked FM08 too.

Excellent work with Chimney Corner so far. Nice selection of leagues by the way.

Thanks I just wanted something different since I usually end up migrating to England, thought I'd give this a shot.

After overachieving last year I think I'm really going to be in tough this season, my scouts are not finding much of anything of note

Unbelievable Ian Haveron has decided he dislikes me for no reason...He'll be on his way out now...this has lead me to my first signing of the off season.

David Wilton

Ah, FM08. Brings back some very good memories.

You didn't load MLS?

Good luck in your second season with Chimney Corner nonetheless.

Off-topic a bit...how far is Williams Lake from Vancouver?

Ah, FM08. Brings back some very good memories.

You didn't load MLS?

Good luck in your second season with Chimney Corner nonetheless.

Off-topic a bit...how far is Williams Lake from Vancouver?

I'm a big TFC fan actually but that's the extent of the MLS that I watch not much interest for the other teams. I was thinking about loading it but ultimately decided against it.

Williams Lake is a good 6 hours away, I'll be plenty far enough away from the craziness of the Olympics!

To the game, I've got some ok news from my youth intake this season with Alan Lyttle being the standout.

He should get some games this season if only for his ability to play a plethora of positions that suit my attacking 442.

The media are predicting a 7th place finish for us this season, and I don't feel like we'll be able to do much more than that with our squad so I've agreed. I don't see how they have decided this considering are squad is weaker than last season.

Lyttle looks solid. You should play him quite often.

My facilities are atrocious I can't seem to get anything out of my players, at best they are not improving or losing ability but most are just going down stats..I hope that it's just a case of incredibly bad players and not my training regimes! I can only train them part-time right now too which doesn't help! Here's hoping Lyttle will be different!

Some more good off season acquisitions should help out with this season.

James Forsythe - I am THRILLED for this signing, cost me a cool 0 too! I love versatile players in bad financial situations and he'll be great in any position at the back end.

Marc Hanna - We are quite weak through the middle and he may be able to help us there, the scouts rate him highly so we'll see what he can do.

Pre-season Update

We played 3 friendlies winning 2 and losing 1 including a 3-2 win over Knockbreda. I have to say their lime green kit is revolting luckily I won't have to play any more games against them this season! My new signings seem to be playing alright, nothing that spectacular though.

Our first bit of competitive action will be the Intermediate League Cup where we crashed and burned last season finishing in the bottom of our group, I'm hoping for bigger things this time.

Our group includes Ballyclare and Donegal Celtic the division 1 representatives, and Ballinamallard Utd, Brantwood, and Sirocco Works from division 2. Not the best draw but we'll deal!

I was finally able to secure a striker to join my complement however only on loan but he'll have to do. I'm sure he's about as consistent as Canadian weather but he has some nice pace which should drive defenders wild.

Duncan Kelly has suited up!

Aug 08 Update

4 competitive matches this month, 3 in the Intermediate League Cup and 1 Antrim Trophy match.

Intermediate League Cup

We drew 2-2 with Brantwood to start the competition a result I was not pleased with as we weren't even taking the game to the division 2 side. We followed this with a disappointing loss home to Donegal Celtic and I quickly thought this would be about as successful as last season. However a 3-0 win over Ballinamallard Utd has us still in the running for getting through with games against first place Ballyclare and bottom feeders Sirocco Works.

Antrim Trophy

My loaner Duncan Kelly played well as we dispatched non-league Desertmartin although only by a measly 2-1 margin.

Looking ahead to September we will finish our Intermediate League Cup group and another Antrim Trophy match where we've drawn Rathfriland Rangers another non-league side. In addition we start the first division season and we get to see what we're made of against this tougher competition.

Another loan signing in coming from Crusaders in the Premier Division, Lee Brannigan should give us some help in midfield being fairly creative and having some nice teamwork and work rate.

Sep 08 Update

First Division

We currently sit 7th having played just one match and drawn with relegation favourites Tobermore Utd. They had one shot and scored just my luck, we couldn't finish with Gerard Crossley gaining our only goal.

Intermediate League Cup

We won our 2 remaining matches in comfortable fashion gaining clean sheets in both which puts us into the quarter final against Bangor, who knocked us out of the Irish Cup last season and I'll be looking for revenge!

Antrim Trophy

First we won 3-1 against Rathfriland in dominating fashion and then we downed Holywood(where all the stars come to play...) 2-0. Much happier with these results than our earlier one. The quarter final sees us drawn with Linfield Swifts, Linfield's reserve team, a very interesting draw.

Next month we have both quarter finals to play as well as 4 league matches, so it could get a bit tight. I'll be using more of my team during these busy cup months.

Oct 08 Update

First Division

Not the best of months we dominated Annagh Utd who came up with us this season with a 3-1 win. A draw with Coagh Utd was disappointing considering we outplayed them. Then a terrible loss to Ballyclare which we shouldn't have lost was the start to more disappointments.

Intermediate League Cup

We took care of business in the quarter final versus those dreaded Bangorites with a solid 2-1 victory. Then I pumped up my men before our semi final match vs lowly Ballinamallard Utd and they responded with a lethargic 2-1 loss. Not happy...not happy at all, we miss out on an opportunity at our first cup final.

Antrim Trophy

Linfield Swifts proved to be just a little much for us in this one as we admirably put up 2 goals but the defense wasn't there we allowed 3 goals to get edged in this one.

Antrim Cup

A bad draw in this one away to Crusaders. I was just hoping to put up some sort of fight vs the Premier Division players. In the end my team gave me that much falling in a 1-0 defeat.

A major reason for the downturn in form is a long term injury to loaner Duncan Kelly. Before going down he had 9 goals in his 11 games!

Coming up this month, our Intermediate Cup draw home against Kilmore Rec, a non league side so I'll be expected to go through. Then we have 4 league matches, where I'm hoping to shore up the form now that most of the cups are over for us.

Nov 08 Update

Chimney Corner 1 - 2 Kilmore Rec 1/11/08 Intermediate Cup 1st Rd.
Chimney Corner 0 - 3 Lurgan Celtic 5/11/08 First Division
Loughgall 4 - 2 Chimney Corner 8/11/08 First Division
H & W Welders 3 - 0 Chimney Corner 15/11/08 First Division
Newington 5 - 1 Chimney Corner 29/11/08 Irish Cup 4th Rd.

First Division

What an abysmal month we couldn't get anything going and lose all 5 matches.

GK of the Month - Andrew Fox

Defender of the Month - Marty McNutt

Midfielder of the Month - Marc Hanna

Striker of the Month - Patrick Hudson