FM12 : Fulham FC Thread - Just Beat It

[elgreenio]

wind of change

[video=youtube;TmXt83CxfRk]

[lurkingwithintent]

So I joined Fulham late December of season 1 sitting 16th. Started terribly with a 1-5 loss at Wolves but turned it around slowly, the highlight being a 2-1 win over eventual league winners Arsenal. Ended up 13th but was concerned as our financial position was reported to be insecure. However apparently those troubles were solved...I got given a £30m chest to play with. So far I've signed:

Sven Bender (£10m) - Dortmund got relegated and he wanted to leave. A lot of money but he's quality

Adam Johnson (£3m) - t/listed at Man City

Fabricio Colloccini (£3m) - t/listed at Newcastle after they got relegated

Glenn Whelan (£1.5m) - t/listed at Stoke

Kyle Naughton (£1.5m) - t/listed at Spurs

Mehmet Topal (£1.6m) - t/listed at Valencia

Stanislau Drahun (£4m) - quality AMC, signed from Benfica. If you pick him up before any big sides you can get him for 600k. Unfortunately I couldn't!

Harmeet Singh (£975k) - great budget MC.

Lots of sides sniffing around Hangeland & Ruiz so considering letting them go...

Trying to sell Andy Johnson, want to play a 4-2-3-1 of:

Stockdale

Kelly - Hangeland - Coloccini - Riise

Bender - Whelan

Ruiz - Drahun - Dembele

Zamora

Not renewing Schwarzer's contract, Stockdale seems like ample replacement though. Trying to blood some youngsters so will be giving Briggs & Kasami some time. Also will be signing Arnaud Souquet on a free, great young DM and also attacker Zakaria Labyad.

Looking forward to season 2, think we can break into the top 10 and maybe even go for Europe. Still considering selling Ruiz as I think I'm pretty strong out wide and he's on high wages.

[lurkingwithintent]

Ruiz became upset due to the interest & said he wanted to go, I tried to chat him round but it failed so in the end I just decided to get rid of him. No point keeping unhappy players. £10m bids from a few clubs accepted and in the end he picked Aston Villa. That one hurt. Since my last post Niko Kranjcar got listed so I spent £3.5m bringing him into the club and I'm looking at taking Marc Albrighton from Villa to Fulham, had a £4.5m bid accepted which I think is good business, another younger Englishman too. Loaned Nedum Onuoha for the season to provide back-up.

[elgreenio]

good stuff fella, Ruiz has been a bit hit and miss for me since the first season so 10mil is easily enough to sway me. Should be a nice lineup you've got there, depending on whether you get the good Zamora or the one who couldn't hit a barn door with a machine gun.

Takeover \o/, though his intention is to hire Gregorio Manzano /o\

[liuzzi]

End of October first season:

4th in the League (P 7 / W 5 / D 1 / L 1) - started with 4 straight wins, then Wilfried got injured and I dont have anyone who can score besides him, lost to Arsenal, drawed with Sunderland and scraped a win against Wolves.

Have 3 wins out of 3 games in Euro group stage including an away win against Roma, pretty much already qualified and playing second string.

Out of league cup against Hull. The game was a disaster - played a horribly in first half and made all 3 substitutions on half time to turn it around, then 2 minutes after restart Briggs got injured an was unable to continue, 2 minutes after that Vrasljko got second yellow so I pretty much played 80 minutes (including extra time) with 9 men. Zamora had so many chances to seal the game but in the end they scored in extra time.

Planning to sell Gecov, Sa and Zamora (if I can find buyers) in January and bring in another striker.

[CarlosEsDios]

Good to read the posts. Welcome aboard new Fulham managers!

Perhaps we can put a sticky at the top where people upload good buys, cost and positions for Fulham.

[CarlosEsDios]

Official update Season 1 games 30-38

So I finished 11th. If you had given me that at the start of the season I would have taken it. It sums me up as a FM player really. No great shakes but not showing how amazingly crap I am as well. I guess I did waste all my transfer money on a player who can't play for me but there is no point moaning about it now.

I finished the campaign with a very good 3-0 victory over Liverpool and as you can see in the screenshot, Bobby Z was always banging them in for me and I think 16 goals isn't a bad return.

I wouldn't mind the advice on the staff. WHo I should get etc. I know I need to spend a couple of hours sorting out shortlists for staff AND players, and putting in the attributes I need to look for. Painstaking job unless anyone knows better?

Financially, I'm screwed really. I have no transfer money. Was given £9m provisional but the wage budget is crap so to bring that in line, I've lost the transfer budget.

Player wise, Hildebrand is coming in and Kolbeinn Sigporsson. DON'T ASK.

I asked the board to interact to get him. I didnt think they were going to offer £7.5million (he is rated highly by scouts) but not sure I would have paid that much for him.

Anyway, need to sort these shortlists out (even though the temptation just to hit continue is always there)

Thanks for reading.

[CarlosEsDios]

I had reached maximum of 4 in previous post.

[lurkingwithintent]

Heading into season 2, this is my squad:

GK: Stockdale / Ellegaard

DR: Kelly / Naughton / Baird

DL: Riise / Briggs

DC: Hangeland / Coloccini / Topal / Baird / Onuoha

MC: Bender / Singh / Whelan / Sidwell / Gardner / Etuhu / Souquet

AML: Johnson / Dembele / Kranjcar

AMR: Albrighton / Dempsey / Johnson / Labyad

AMC: Krancjar / Drahun

ST: Zamora / Steven Fletcher / Dembele / Dempsey

[CarlosEsDios]

I might as well continue the similar theme - heading into season 2, this is my squad:

GK: Hildebrand/ Schwarzer/ Stockdale

DR: Baird/ Grygera/ Sorensen/ Geis

DL: Briggs/ Orban

DC(2): Hangeland/ Hughes/ Krychowaik/ Senderos

MC(2): Sidwell/ Etuhu/ Murphy/ Gecov/ Odjijda

AML: Duff/ Kadrii

AMR: Dempsey/ Ruiz

ST(2): Zamora/ Sigurdsson/ Dembele/ Sigporsson/ Johnson

[CarlosEsDios]

Well as I'm logged on I might as well give you an update from the first couple of matches

BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE

West Bromwich Albion 2(1) Molina 8, Wood 62

Fulham 3 (1) Sigporsson 31, 57 Etuhu 47

After going a goal down early on, it wasn't looking good as the baggies went looking for a second. I had decided to give Simon Davies his first start under my management and it paid off just after the half hour mark when running inside, he laid the ball into the path of Kolbeinn Sigporsson who was one on one with Scott Loach and calmly placed the ball under his body and his first goal in Fulham colours.

After the interval, with some words of encouragement in their ears, Fulham took the upper hand but it took a sensational strike from Dickson Etuhu for the Cottagers to take the lead. A corner was cleared at the near post and from 30 yards out (maybe even more), with the ball dropping, Etuhu let fly with a volley which flew into the top right hand corner. I've uploaded it to my Youtube account (username zippygeorgeandben) so let me know if you find it ok?

Ten minutes later and we had our 2 goal cushion. Sigporsson, buzzing from his debut goal, took the ball on the right, showed a clean pair of heels to the defender and lashed the ball into the opposite corner. Nerves started to fray as Chris Wood pulled a goal back 5 minutes later and with a mixture of good fortune and good defending, we held on to win the first game of the season.

Sigporsson may have cost me £7.5million but with a rating of 8.8 and 2 goals in the bag, he may be a worthwhile investment.

[elgreenio]

you'd be surprised just how good Sigporsson is mate, really efficient on the game.

As for your staffing issues, here is a list of my staff (plus a few more scouts) :

Your key to looking for staff is setting these filters :

Determination, Level of Discipline, Motivating all at least 14 (can drop to 12 or 13 if there's nobody willing to come to you). Then add in the training attributes you want of at least 15 (eg attack coaching 15).

[elgreenio]

Good to read the posts. Welcome aboard new Fulham managers!

Perhaps we can put a sticky at the top where people upload good buys, cost and positions for Fulham.

would be more than happy to do this with the spare post on the first page if people wanted to post in here or PM me their lists.

As for my squad, start of season 3 :

GK : Ospina, Iliev

DR : Walker, Vanek

DL : Assou-Ekotto, Heide

DC : Hangeland, Bassong, Senderos, Parra

DM : Fernando, Mariga

MC : Rodwell, Gibson, Mendy

MC : Sigurdsson, Kasami

AMR/L : Tadic, Dembele, Frei, Ruiz, Ederson (loan)

FC : Bendtner, Wilfried, Cortinovis (loan)

the regens are :

[bothered]

Ok, just started my first FM of 2012. Fulham’s my “default” Premier League these days – it’s so hard to be offended by them, the fans or the players so it’s a good start for the neutral.

Great thread elgreenio, loving the videos. I’ll have to link to match highlights and stuff like that. I’ve linked my profile to twitter (@rui_zone) and YouTube (TheRuiZone) so you can follow my updates on there too.

Just to set up my game, I’m playing with a huge database! I have about 150,000 players loaded. That means that this game may take a while to go anywhere – but I really love finding players that I’ve never found before. I have players from South America, Eastern Europe and Scandinavia loaded with the English, French, German, Italian and Spanish leagues from the start. Hopefully I’ll be able to find some gems!

Usually I begin by sorting out my settings, my “Team Policy” and how I prefer to view the matches. Then I move onto my tactics. I’m not a great FM manager, so I need to put players into my philosophy and formations rather than evaluate the squad and adapt to them.

I pretty much create a tactic, and a couple of slight variants, and then let the player’s attributes and characteristics change how the team interprets my system. Over time I’ll replace those who don’t fit the system as well as I’d like with those I think will.

So here’s my “base” tactic:

For Fulham purists this might be a shock and one that may not be welcome, but I’m coming in as a neutral trying to put my stamp on things. It’s a formation I was getting close to on FM11 and I got it working pretty well with Udinese in the demo, so I’m going to see how I get on with it with Fulham.

The key is trying to keep possession, but at the same time looking for opportunities to score and be decisive. I’ve tried to use some Barcelona “ideals” with this – false #9, inside forwards cutting in etc.

Most of Fulham’s players look like they could fit in ok at the beginning and there’s a lot of versatility in the side, so that helps a lot.

I’m beginning with focusing on “defensive positioning” with a heavy workload – for obvious reasons. Once the defence is drilled I can work on being fluid when attacking.

This is how I expect to line-up. This is without making about transfers yet.

Goalkeeper:

I need to get a good back up for Schwarzer. I’ll look for youth but I could do with someone ready to come in and play regular cup games etc. in preparation to replace Schwarzer next season maybe.

Defence:

To be honest, for this first season (or until I get significant investment), my defence can stay the same. I have decent cover in the three defensive positions:

DRC: Grygera; Hughes (retrained)

DC: Hangelaand; Senderos

DLC: Riise; Briggs

There’s also Baird but for now I’ll prefer to use him as the “Anchor Man”. I’m not too excited about Halliche so I’ll try to get rid to raise some funds, the same goes with Kelly.

Midfield:

I can use Baird as the “Anchor man” for now but in my “ideal” style of play I’d like a Pirlo style of DM. I want someone defensively sound but not scared of the ball and can help start attacks from deep.

I only really have two players who can be “Ball Winners” who are Sidwell and Etuhu. I need some investment here.

Murphy will be my CM, my playmaker, but he needs a backup. Maybe I could use Kasami there if I’m desperate.

Forwards:

I have players who can fill the wide positions (Johnson, Dempsey, Duff, Dembele, Ruiz) but ultimately I need some players who are more effective. In my experience from past games Dempsey and Duff can be infuriating!

I plan to use Ruiz in the centre as I want a “Trequartista” there and he’s the closest thing I have to one. Zamora will come in and do a job when I need more of a “Target Man”.

My priorities are a goalkeeper and more midfielders.

Once I get my squad trimmed and raise some cash I’ll sort out my staff too. I don’t micro-manage and I don’t really touch training so I need coaches capable of handling that for me.

I also need quality scouts, and as many as I can get, seeing as I have so many players available.

[lurkingwithintent]

So I posted earlier with players I'd signed about to start season two, well on deadline day I added Craig Gardner (£1.5m) and Steven Fletcher (loan with £2m future fee) to the club, also loaned out Dickson Etuhu. The season started terribly as I struggled to find a good tactic & my best squad. I took just 2 points from my first 7 league games and was expecting to be sacked when I decided to shift & try a tactic I'd been thinking about for ages. It's a 4-3-3 of sorts:

Ignore the squad, rested some for the league cup game I just had. After I played that I won my first game 3-1 at Blackburn, results took a while to come but now I'm 5 unbeaten in the league with 3 wins & 2 draws, conceding just twice. Unbeaten in 7 in all competitions, beat Everton away 2-1 and then won 1-0 at Anfield in extra time with a Stephen Kelly goal in the 119th minute to get into the league cup semi finals, where we drew Norwich, so I'm confident we can make it into the final, which will be amazing.

Currently PLD14 W4 D4 L6 in the league but considering our start was PLD7 W0 D2 L5 that means from our last 7 we've W4 D2 L1 which is obviously top form, keep that up and we should be able to move into the top 10 and maybe even push for the top 6.

In terms of signings, Sidwell & Whelan have got stressy about going so both are leaving in January. The club is about £4m in the red so I might try & shift someone else out, prime candidate right now is Zamora who has been crap, Dembele is my first choice up top with Fletcher just behind him. Kranjcar has been awesome so far, bargain buy but the biggest surprise has been loanee Nedum Onuoha & also Kyle Naughton who had to play during a spell with lots of injuries but both impressed, hoping I can raise funds to make Onuoha's loan permanent.

[Mikal]

Welcome to Fulham bothered!

Nice updates guys, keep up the good work. I'm liking the different tactics in the last 2 posts, I'm a big fan of trying something different (although not always brave enough to try it myself!)

elgreenio are those regens you've picked up for Fulham?

I'll try get a Jan update sometime later today.

[lurkingwithintent]

So typically, just after I post that, my form bombed.

Lost 2-3 at West Brom despite being 2-0 up after 30 minutes.

Lost 0-1 at home to Burnley!

Lost 0-4 at home to Chelsea

Drew 2-2 at Wigan, Rodallega levelling for them in the 95th minute.

So PLD4 D5 L9 is not a nice record...we're 16th right now. Trying a few tactical tweaks which I put into play for the Wigan game and we should have won that, last minute 25 yarder getting them a point.

We've also one just 1 of our 9 home games...worrying times.

I think I did make a hell of a lot of changes to the side & they have looked more gelled, hopefully we can have a good second half of the season. The board was only expecting mid-table and I think I can give them that. We're also in the League Cup semis:

Norwich vs Fulham

Arsenal vs Bolton

Arsenal will almost certainly beat Bolton & they will also almost certainly get into the Champions League, all of which means if we can make the final and then even if we lose to Arsenal, we should get Europe next season.

I shall report back. This version of FM seems so frustrating!

[elgreenio]

elgreenio are those regens you've picked up for Fulham?

yeh. With the crap that comes through at the club I always like to save £5m or so for newgens so I can cope with homegrown quotas later on in the game. Had a little burst earlier but will get an update done tomorrow when I should be at least in the January window of the 3rd season

[CarlosEsDios]

Regarding regens elgreenio (and others), I have put notes to come up each year when different countries regens are released. Now, what are the best filters to use for this as you cannot search just for regens can you? I tend to put scouts to look for say Argentina (on 1st January when there regens become live) and between ages of 15-18.

Not sure of best strategy.

Thanks for posting your staff elgreenio.

Also, are you repaying a loan back each month of £825,000?!

[elgreenio]

probably just what you've got on (the age 15-18). You can certainly add the position and some key attributes in to that aswell, but dont put them at the usual 15 as there's no way a player that young will have all the key atts at that level, try 12 or 13. Apart from that it's a bit pot luck and maybe relying on some scouts with good knowledge of the area. My personal favourites are South America (generally not Brazil because of the u18 transfer rule), Scandinavia and those ex-soviet countries. Oh and of course Germany as they seem to churn them out at a phenominal rate.

Not sure what i'm paying back on the loan at the moment, I think it will be that unless my new owner paid some of it off straight after he got in, will check when i'm next playing.

[elgreenio]

just looked, yes paying back the 822k per month as we will in real life.

[Mikal]

Carlos for better screenshots, press ALT + F9 in-game and it will take a screenshot of only the FM screen and put it in the screenshots folder in your documents. Then can just upload that.

Was going to do a Jan update but ended up playing till March time, so I'll just do an end of season one when that comes around.

I'm hemorrhaging money at the moment, making losses of between £4-7m each month, my massive spending spree clearly hasn't gone unnoticed. Got a few older, higher earners going in the Summer, then I will look to really squeeze the wage budget especially and get rid of anyone not worth the money. Signings will have to be limited, but tbh I have a decent squad that doesn't need many additions, just look for some youth and more staff me thinks.

[liuzzi]

Got to January first season, 1st in the league with 20 games played (W14 / D5 / L1). Unbeaten in 15 games in all competitions and doing pretty well. Have just suffered two defeats so far as a Fulham manager (against Arsenal in the league and against Hull in the league cup). Top of the league is pretty tight though as all top 7 teams are within 7 points.

Got Shaktar in the first knockout round in the Euro League (Valencia or PSG in the next should I qualify). Have Liverpool (who have replaced Dalglish with van Gaal) in the 3rd round of FA Cup, drawed 0:0 at home and need to play a replay.

Hangeland is my star player with highest average rating in the league (was also part of the world team of the year as a partner to Puyol). My current team is following:

GK: Schwarzer / Areola

DR: Vrsaljko / Grygera

DC: Hangeland / Shawcross / Hughes

DL: Riise / Briggs

DMC: Baird / Jali

MC: Murphy / Sidwell / Dempsey / Kasami

AMR: Ruiz / Johnson

AML: Duff / Dos Santos

FC: Torres / Wilfried / Zamora

Have had some problems with injuries (Wilfried, Ruiz, Duff, Dos Santos have all been out for 2-3 months each). Best signings have been Vrsaljko, Shawcross and Torres.

Currently the only problem I have is scoring - I am defending well and creating lots of chances from counters but am unable to put these away, would love to have someone like Tevez in front My board actually gave me 20 million to spend in January transfer window with 100K raise in the wage budget as well, this combined with selling Gecov to Norwich for 1M and selling the Smalling transfer clause for 2M has given me 23M to spend. Have only 8M in balance though so not sure how this will work out. Have bidded 5M for Nyang, haven't found anyone else willing to sign who would improve my team in the long run until now.

Anyway all is going well right now - next up Norwich away, Liverpool away in FA Cup replay and Stoke at home.

Btw has anyone seen a direct free kick being scored? Not only I have never scored one in 30 games I have played in all competitions I have actually not conceeded one as well, seems quite strange. Also the second thing seems strange is that despite leading the league with Fulham in January I have not won a single manager of the month award.

[elgreenio]

Btw has anyone seen a direct free kick being scored? Not only I have never scored one in 30 games I have played in all competitions I have actually not conceeded one as well, seems quite strange. Also the second thing seems strange is that despite leading the league with Fulham in January I have not won a single manager of the month award.

Gylfi Sigurdsson taking my free kicks i've got 3 at Jan in 3rd season, you cant see in the stats but i'd guess at least half of his 18 goals in season 2 were also direct free kicks.

We must be really dirty also going by this news item

[elgreenio]

and as I typed that he's just put another one in , Gylfi <3

[elgreenio]

South American touch

[video=youtube;MI-CD-LuBo4]

[CarlosEsDios]

How can you have fines totalling 1.2B?!

ALso, thanks for screenshot help Mikal

and let's see if it works...

PS It's quite small though isn't it?

[Mikal]

That's a whole lotta fineage!

If you right click the screenshot and press view image or whatever your browser says it turns bigger. It's the same as the other ones you posted. Maybe photobucket limited the size, but it generally gets taken as the same res as your screen.

[liuzzi]

Had my 24 games unbeaten run in all competitions ended yesterday by West Brom (of all the teams) in FA Cup 4th round. Not sure what is it in cup games that makes my team just push self destruct, it happened in Carling Cup earlier in the season and it happened again now at West Brom where the defence that has conceeded only 13 in 22 games in the league suddenly shipped in 4. I played my strongest 11 btw as Chelsea was the only top team still left in the competition and I felt I had a good chance in going far. Lost it 3:4.

Anyway still going strong in the league with W16 / D5 / L1 and have QPR away, Bolton home and Arsenal away next followed by first knockout round games with Shaktar in Euro. Arsenal is the only team I have lost to in the league until now so this should be interesting.

The only signing for me in January was Niang (young striker from Caen) for 5M, brought him in to replace Johnson for the next season (I won't be extending his contract). The only player leaving was Gecov to Norwich. Manu made 4 offers for Kasami but he has been progressing nicely and I rejected them.

[elgreenio]

Coming to the end of the Jan window (3rd season) and i've not signed anybody else than what I stated in the last video. Have got a young centre back coming in July that Man U were sniffing around which will allow me to shift Senderos. Ended last night with a win against Bolton after going (I think) 7 games without a win.

[liuzzi]

Has anyone actually won anything with Fulham yet?

[Welshace]

just cant settle on a team to play as... hoping fulham will break that trend... seems a decent challenge, a team on the edge of something if handled right

will soon see.. i'll update with transfers etc soon

[elgreenio]

Has anyone actually won anything with Fulham yet?

I've won the League Cup in the 2nd season beating Hodgson's WBA 2-1 in the final

[Mikal]

Has anyone actually won anything with Fulham yet?

FA Cup first season beating Stoke (human manager) 7-2 in the final.

[CarlosEsDios]

Ok so this is the long overdue official summary of games 1-15 in season 2.

In a nutshell, the team have surpassed all expectations. Bobby has been a beast in front of goal, ably supported by the Icelandic genius (I'm glad I decided to buy him ). Sigurdsson the AMC has not featured quite so heavily as my tactics don't seem to suit him and he voiced his displeasure at quite an early stage. I have given him some game time however, he just doesn't really deserve to be ahead of Ruiz.

Hildebrand has been a good number one this year and has steered clear of injuries (although at the time of writing this, he is out for 10 days).

Defensively, it's still Brede and Aaron at the back with Baird and Briggs occupying the full back positions. I'm not really missing Riise and glad I got him off my wages.

Speaking of wages, despite getting most of the squad to sign lower pay deals, with this HUMONGOUS £825,000 a month being paid out, I'm losing SO much money. Not quite sure what else I can do about this, apart from selling players.

I thew away the chance of league cup glory, fielding a 2nd string XI against Bournemouth at home and paying the price.

I also lost in the league 1-0 at home to Arsenal with the Gunners scoring a very debatable goal late on to decide the outcome.

Noticable results have been a 1-1 draw @ Man Utd courtesy of a 94th minute equaliser (doesn't that normally happen to the opposition with United?!). A 6-0 (YES SIX!) victory of Liverpool where we even missed a penalty. THe 3-0 win against Chelski was the most satisfying and as things stand, we are looking quite cosy up at the top. I don't expect to stay there but I do hope for a EURO Cup place at the end of the season.

It's all looking good though, 30,000 seater stadium. Top/excellent training facilities for seniors and youths. Onwards and upwards!!

Thanks for reading.

[liuzzi]

Well done Carlos, always good to read your updates. I wish I knew how to add pictures to my posts.

Only managed two league games yesterday, won both of them - 3:2 away in QPR and 3:0 at home against Bolton. I am now 19 games unbeaten in the league which is quite amazing. First in the league, two points above Manu and 3 above Tottenham. Next up Arsenal away in the league, Shaktar away and Shaktar at home.

[Welshace]

to add pictures....

1. press alt+F9 in game to create a screenshot which will be saved in Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2012\screenshots..

2. go to a image hosting site such as imageshack, tinypic or imgur.com and upload your pic ..

3. once uploaded the site will provide you with a link to paste on the forum to show your picture

[elgreenio]

liuzzi yours is a network game right?

[liuzzi]

Nope, never tried a network game to be honest, not a big gamer and FM is pretty much the only game I ever play.

This Friday I will see one of my best players (Duff) IRL, I hope he is travelling to Tallinn with Ireland team.

[Mikal]

Looking good around the mid-way stage Carlos!

elgreenio: Mine is a network game.

Fulham FC - End of Season 2 Review

Been a great season in all, ups and downs, some inspirational results and some mares. Anyway here is a full breakdown:

Premier League

Solid Premier League campaign, can hardly fault my team throughout the entire season. I conceded way more than I would have liked, but scored so much more than I could have hoped. Swings and round-a-bouts. But more importantly we finished in a Champions League spot come the final game of the season! I did think I was going to throw away 2nd spot after losing to City in the 6th from last game and still having Arsenal, Chelsea and Everton to face.

Premier League Stats and Info

Full league table

Second half fixture results

Past positions

Premier League player stats

League Cup

Nothing glamorious at all, infact pretty appauling. Obertan ran the show and tore me to pieces.

FA Cup

Another pretty poor showing. After getting battered 6-1 by Sunderland in the league I went away to Torquay and took my frustrations out on them. But put in a lacklustre display against Barnsley and crashed out of the FA Cup.

Europa League

Did pretty well in this competition actually. Semi-finalists is no bad feat, and especially not too shabby for playing mostly my second string throughout the competition.

Behind The Scenes and Preparing For Next Season

Finances

Pretty huge losses throughout the season. Had a huge spending spree and left the club a little short for change, but hopefully with some big earners leaving in the summer and Champions League football next season, finances should start to look a little healthier.

Oh and I got a new sponsorship deal worth £8m per season.

Youth Facility Upgrade

Originally we had our facilities downgraded because of "technological advances" which made our facilities less effective, so I requested better youth facilites and they concured. Wahey.

Player Reviews

Player stats

GK: I have two solid keepers in Kameni and ter Stegen. The latter being extremely impressive in his half season at the club. Will be sorted in this position for years.

FB: Kyle Walker and Cheik M'Bengue are first choice and a brilliant pair of fullbacks. Cheik did want to leave at one point because he didn't like one of my team talks, but got on good terms with him in the end. Back up is Riise and Abenzoar, both are adequate and fine for cup games, but if I get an injury to one of my first choice I don't think they are good enough to stand in for the long haul. May look for a youngster in the summer for LB.

CB: Zapata, Dante, Hangeland. Rocks. No problem here, I love the dynamic I have with them. My only proper back up was Hughes, but his contract is up and I'm not going to renew it. So I will look for a youngster with potential to fill the backup CB slot.

DMC: I have Rincon and Enoh as my more defensive minded midfielders. They are okay, nothing special, Rincon has been better than Enoh, who has disappointed me a little. I may look to upgrade Enoh in the summer but I don't think it's such an issue yet.

MC: My playmaker midfielder. Cigarini and Dzagoev have been great. Cigarini is a bit injury prone and struggles to last the 90, Dzagoev has been a great signing and well worth the £8m I paid. I have another playmaker type coming in the summer (screenshot further down) so will look to ship out Cigarini, and considering I got him for free whatever I get will be profit.

Wingers: Adam Johnson and Ruiz became my first choice partnership, Johnson impressed in his short time so far, but did get a bit of a lengthy injury, hopefully not a sign of things to come. Ruiz was decent but didn't light the stage. His £50k p/w wage could be his downfall and may be out the door in the summer if I can't get that down. Backup was Kasami and Dempsey. Dempsey has agreed to join some German club in the summer for free and Kasami is a decent player who I like to put in the team whenever I can.

ST: Leandro, Wilfried, Sow and Fierro. Some attack I have here. Leandro what a superstar, 34 goals and 16 assists in 39 games, you really can not ask for more than that. If he was more clinical, which he will be if I can get rid of his 'Shoots with Power' PPM, then I think he can hit near the 45/50 mark in the future. Wilfried has been great as well, ashame I haven't been able to use him more this season, but he spent some time injured and then away for ACON. Sow and Fierro filled the gap brilliantly though so I was never left short of attacking prowess.

I have decided if I get rid of Ruiz I will move Sow to the AML inside forward position and then bring in a new striker.

Summer Signing Preperation

Andrea Bertolacci

As mentioned earlier I have got this guy coming in the summer, who will work in rotation with Dzagoev. I paid £9m for him, it was a semi-panic buy as their were others interested, and I'm sure I could have got him cheaper. But, he looks great and I'm hoping he can justify the price tag!

Richard McEleney: Report

Not quite a summer signing as he came through the youth system but my scouts have given him 3.5* potential, so this guy is definitely one I will look to hang on to and see if I can get him up to that level.

Currently Bertolacci is the only player I have already tied down. In the next few weeks I will be looking at my team when contracts expire and players leave, then see where I stand and make my decisions on who/what I need.

I also tied Schwarzer down to a GK coach contract on £1,800 p/w for the next 5 years, which has relieved a lot of his preview £28k p/w contract. He also has quality GK coach stats.

I think that's all. Sorry for a bit of a congested post I haven't really worked out a system yet! I will get my pre-season review up when I get there.

Cheers for reading, if anyone wants any more info let me know.

[mcmuffin19]

So almost at Christmas now... Next up I was home to Newcastle which was the big one for me because this is a network game with my mate who is indeed Newcastle. I went 3-1 up but ended up being a 3-3, which I wasn’t that pleased with but left me lying in 8th. Next up was a 5-0 away win against Sunderland. Then a 3-2 away victory with some of the ressies against Steaua in Europe. Another win this time at home 4-0 verses Stoke. My unbeaten run came to an end when i lost 5-3 away to Wolves in the league which was gutting. My last group game was against Hannover at home to decide the group winner, I had a great second half leaving me winning 4-1.

To round up my current situation I am in my first season, a week or two till Christmas, I lie 6th in the league, about 5/6 points behind 5th, so i really am aiming for 6th place as a great great season finish although id be happy with a top half finish. I am still in the League Cup, i have a quarter final verses Arsenal who are top but a win would find me playing Bolton in the Semis. The FA Cup has drawn me away to Coventry City in Round 3. In the Europa Knockout stages I have Metalist from Ukraine for a chance to go up against either Palermo or Stoke so overall i have to be very happy with that draw.

A note on who is doing well etc... Riise has an average rating of 7.85 currently which has got Tottenham's interest up, so we will see if anything goes down in Jan. Hangeland is my main man, he is quality defensively and has already got about 6/7 headed goals from corners and free kicks. Diogo who i picked up on a free is my regular right back and is solid so i would reccomend him to any first season starters. Mahamadou Diarra who is another freebee has been solid for me in a defensive midfield role. Murphy is getting on a bit now and even though he has the odd top game i am looking for a replacement, maybe in the summer. I am intrigued how Kasami will develop getting him on when i can. All the wingers blow hot and cold for me I have mainly used Ruiz, Dempsey and Duff. Dembele is use less frequently and i am trying to work out his best position. I wonder where you guys get the best out of him? Up front i use 4 strikers, mainly Wilfried who is on top form after a slow start and Zamora who had a top start with lots of goals but is now becoming inconsistent. I also use Welbeck who i find a great impact sub and I also use Jelle Vossen who i picked up cheaply but he isnt doing enough to challenge for a place.

[elgreenio]

been using Dembele on either wing (AMR IF, AML AP) with the two swapping positions during games. Plays better from the right but has performed admirably when I go 2 up top and use him as a poacher or advanced forward

[bothered]

Just a little update. I've not had too much time to play so I've just completed pre-season and made it past the transfer deadline.

Not a great deal of activity. I got Jensen to be a back up for Murphy and Nemeth's best role is trequartista, which is what I need for my formation. He's not Messi or Totti but he's done a decent job so far and that's all I expected. Maguire's one for the future and will one day take Hangelaand's place when he gets on a bit. Welbeck's been great so far. I play him as the wide right striker of my front three, he's getting goals and assists. McFadden I brought in because I sold Demebele to raise some funds and needed someone who can play wide on the left. Despite bringing in £12.25m I've only been given £2m for transfers.

Results have been good. I qualified for Europa League "proper" but I'm in a tough group with Sochaux, Palermo and Vitoria Plzen.

I've played three league games so far: v. Chelsea 1-1 | v. Bolton 2-2 | v. Everton 0-1

There was a board take over by the fans too and the first thing they did was cut the link with Beerschot which I was really annoyed with. I wanted to use them so I could get WP's for players.

Bit too early to see how the formation will work out long term but I'm optimistic about it.

What does everyone do with training? Do you bother with it?

[elgreenio]

is it just the two of you in the network game Mikal?

all good updates from everybody there, think that newgen (McEleney) could come good, going to be a machine in the air and probably net a few from corners. Just needs his mentals to come along a bit and a faster centre back partner.

I havn't bothered with training this time around, apart from setting the coaches to their best combination categories. I usually look around on here for a schedule that has had success and download/import it, then tweak if necessary. Will try to get an update done this weekend for you all but i've got personal stuff to attend to Friday and Saturday, so hopefully some Sunday chillout time to crack on to the end of season 3.

[liuzzi]

I downloaded the Furious training schedules as a base and changed to my liking. Also offered regular coach contracts to couple of youth coaches so they would become eligible to train first team, got couple of extra stars to first team training this way. Have all the original coaching stuff except Bowen who was poached by Stoke I believe. Most of my youth prospects (Areola, Briggs, Shawcross, Vrsaljko, Jali, Kasami, Torres) are progressing nicely. Fei has not progressed, I guess it's down to not enough games so loaned him to Coventry in Jan. Wilfried and Dos Santos have declined a little but both of them have been injured most of the season and I cannot seem to keep them fit.

[Mikal]

mcmuffin: Nice to see another networker using Fulham! Newcastle got a takeover in my game (or are currently going through one) so if that happens to your mate lets hope it's a chairman with no money! 6th would be a solid finish for the first season, and very doable as well. I played Dembele upfront to start with (and still do in cups) and he did pretty well there getting a majority of his 13 goals. But if he gets league games I chuck him out on the wing where he does a decent enough job as well. But he's generally back up for me now. Welbs was a solid signing for me in the first season and my top goalscorer, his pace is deadly. Kasami is one to hold on to, he's one of the Fulham originals I plan on keeping around to see how his development goes.

bothered: Unlucky with the fans takeover, hopefully one of them has a decent sized pocket. What formation are you trying? I'm the same with elgreenio on training. Get the coaches in then look for a decent enough training schedule around the forum, unless I have a specialised position then I'd give making one a go myself.

elgreenio: Yeah just the two of us in the Network game, it's a bit slow but we get it done. Been having crashes yesterday towards end of June so hopefully it doesn't turn out to be anything too serious.

I'm hoping McEleney does turn into a beast, I'm not sure whether to get his individual training focus on quickness or concentrate on getting him to turn into more of a beast. I'm not sure whether to get him tutored either, because I don't think any of my other defenders have at least 19 for determination so I don't want that to be dragged down. Might see how things pan out with him on his own. His determination stat has given me the confidence that he can turn into a decent player, either for the first team or to sell for a nice wedge. Is it common for Fulham to get Irish players through the youth academy? I seemed to have a few come through, maybe it's just a country wide thing.

[elgreenio]

elgreenio: Yeah just the two of us in the Network game, it's a bit slow but we get it done. Been having crashes yesterday towards end of June so hopefully it doesn't turn out to be anything too serious.

I'm hoping McEleney does turn into a beast, I'm not sure whether to get his individual training focus on quickness or concentrate on getting him to turn into more of a beast. I'm not sure whether to get him tutored either, because I don't think any of my other defenders have at least 19 for determination so I don't want that to be dragged down. Might see how things pan out with him on his own. His determination stat has given me the confidence that he can turn into a decent player, either for the first team or to sell for a nice wedge. Is it common for Fulham to get Irish players through the youth academy? I seemed to have a few come through, maybe it's just a country wide thing.

Played a network game in FM11 with 20 people and that was just hurrendously slow, so I know what you're going through. Though at least you only have 1 other person going for all the good youngsters .

Would probably stick him on quickness, with good natural training his already high stats will likely be the ones to increase and solidate him as a good prospect. Hangeland has been a good tutor in my game and is currently tutoring Parra (see my screenies up the page, he's the curtained French lad), all greens training arrows there so can have no complaints.

Can't say I really look at the nationality of my youngsters, but i'd imagine the majority would be British if not English with the odd random thrown in (a Jamaican striker comes to mind).

[elgreenio]

i'll give the Furious training schedule a whirl and see how it pans out , the ones I get from here usually work the players too much and cause a few injuries so get a tweaking.

[bothered]

Mikel: I'm playing this formation.

Just lost to Man City 2-1 with the last kick of the game from Aguero despite it maybe being offside - it's to be expected with playing just one centre back though.

liuzzi: Cheers for the recommendation. I'll check it out and give it a whirl.

The stuff with the board doesn't look good. The financial status is "insecure" and apparently Hangelaand may need to be sold for funds according to the media. I'm only in October of the first season! haha

[JessyL5]

Loving the FFC thread so far , should be at least 5 pages long by now..

Started a save with the cottagers just up to the first Jan 2012 Window , Doing good so far just wish the finanicial situation could improve , cant seem to be able to pay for any of the players i want

Premier League : PLD : 20 , WON : 9 , DRAWN : 4 , LOST 7

Still in all competitions even though my main transfer in Gio Do Santos managed to break a leg literally at the start of the campaign :confused:

Any recommendations on players i could buy to get me through to the end of the season on a budget of 4 mill ???

Hopefully i get to do i in depth analysis as some point like Mikal & Carlos which were both great reads!