[FM12] Malmö FF thread

[fcunitedfan]

Malmö Fotbollförening

Hello and welcome to my first ever team thread. Fingers crossed you enjoy reading through it (Most of it is copied from Wikipedia and other sources anyway lol). Malmö FF are a great Swedish team, one of the most successful in the countries history. I decided to make a thread about them as I enjoyed playing as them on FM11, and am about to start a save as them on FM12. In this years game, playing as them will be even more fun as they are in the Champions League qualifiers from season one. Anyway, that's enough bigging them up. Please read on, and hopefully I can tempt you into playing as Malmö FF with me this year.

The History of Malmö FF

Early years

The club arose from a municipal initiative in 1905 to encourage young people in Malmö to play organised football. One of the youth teams, Bollklubben Idrott, also known simply as BK Idrott, was a predecessor to Malmö FF. BK Idrott joined the newly created football department of IFK Malmö in 1909, but soon left because of issues between the two clubs. On 24 February 1910 the 19 members of BK Idrott founded Malmö FF; the first chairman was Werner Mårtensson.

The club spent their first ten years in local and regional divisions as there was no official national league competition, playing the majority of their matches in the city division called Malmömästerskapen. They also competed in regional competitions in Scania, and played matches against Danish clubs. In 1916 Malmö FF reached the final of the Scanian regional competition (Distrikmästerskapen) for the first time, playing against rival Helsingborgs IF but losing 3–4. The club defeated local rival IFK Malmö three times during the season, and thus earned the unofficial but much desired title of Malmö's best football club. In 1917 Malmö FF competed in Svenska Mästerskapet for the first time, a cup tournament for the title of Swedish champions, but lost their first match in the second qualifying round 4–1 against IFK Malmö. The club continued to play in the cup until 1922, reaching the quarter-finals in 1920 when they were knocked out by Landskrona BoIS. The cup was eventually discontinued and the title of Swedish champions was given to the winners of Allsvenskan which was first created for the 1924–25 season.

In 1920 the Swedish Football Association invited Swedish football clubs to compete in official national competitions. Malmö FF earned a place in Division 2 Sydsvenska Serien. They won this division in the first season, and were promoted to Svenska Serien Västra, the highest level of competition in Sweden at the time. However, they were relegated after a single season, and found themselves back in Sydsvenska Serien for nearly a decade until they again achieved promotion to Allsvenskan, in 1931.

First years in Allsvenskan and early achievements

The club achieved mid-table league positions for two seasons, but they were relegated in 1934 as a penalty for breaking amateur regulations. The club had paid their players a small sum of money for each game. Although against the rules, this was common at the time; Malmö FF were the only club to show it in their accounting records. In addition to relegation to Division 2, the club suffered bans for the entire board of directors and twenty-six players. The version of events told by Malmö FF and local press suggests that local rival IFK Malmö reported the violation to the Swedish Football Association. This belief has contributed to the longstanding competitive tensions between the clubs.

The club made their way back to Allsvenskan in 1937 after two seasons in Division 2. In the same year Eric Persson was elected as chairman after being secretary since 1929, and held the position until 1974. Persson is regarded by club leaders and fans as the most important person in the club's history, as he turned the club professional in the 1970s and under his leadership the club went from being titleless in 1937 to holding ten Swedish championships by the end of the 1974 season. In 1939 the club reached their highest position yet, third place in Allsvenskan, nine points behind champions IF Elfsborg. Malmö FF's first Swedish championship came in 1944, when the club won the penultimate game of the season against AIK before 36,000 spectators at Råsunda. The last game of the season was won 7–0 against Halmstad BK.

For the next nine seasons, Malmö FF finished in the top three in the league. The club won the Swedish Championship in 1949, 1950, 1951 and 1953, and were runners-up in 1946, 1948 and 1952. The club also won Svenska Cupen in 1944, 1946, 1947, 1951 and 1953, and finished as runners-up in 1945. Between 6 May 1949 and 1 June 1951, the team were unbeaten in 49 matches, of which 23 were an unbroken streak of victories.

The club finished as runners-up in Allsvenskan twice more, in 1956 and 1957. The following year the club left Malmö IP for Malmö Stadion, which had been built for the 1958 FIFA World Cup, and was to host the club for the next 50 years. In 1964 Malmö FF contracted Spanish manager Antonio Durán; this was the first of a series of changes that led to the most successful era in the club's history. Young talents such as Lars Granström and Bo Larsson emerged during the early 1960s and would prove to be crucial ingredients in the success that would come in the 1970s. The club finished second in 1964 but went on to win their sixth Swedish Championship in 1965, when Bo Larsson scored 28 goals to finish as the league's top goal scorer. Malmö FF once again won Allsvenskan in 1967, after a less successful year in 1966. The club's young players, as well as talents bought in from neighbouring clubs in Scania in 1967, became a team that consistently finished in the top three in Allsvenskan.

Successful 1970s, European Cup 1979, 1980s and 1990s

After finishing as runners-up in Allsvenskan for the final two years of the 1960s, Malmö FF started the most successful decade of their history with a Swedish Championship in 1970. The club won Allsvenskan in 1970, 1971, 1974, 1975 and 1977 as well as Svenska Cupen in 1976 and 1978. The 1977 Allsvenskan victory qualified the club for the 1978–79 European Cup, and after victories against AS Monaco, Dynamo Kiev, Wisla Krakow and Austria Wien, they reached the final of the competition, which they played at Olympiastadion in Munich against Nottingham Forest. Trevor Francis, who scored the only goal of the match, won it 1–0 for Forest. Nevertheless the 1979 European Cup run is the biggest success in the history of Malmö FF. The team were given the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal the same year, awarded for the most significant Swedish sporting achievement of the year, for their achievement in the European Cup.

Much of the success during the 1970s was due to new tactics and training methods brought to the club by Englishman Bob Houghton, who managed the club between 1974 and 1980. Eric Persson was succeeded as chairman in 1974 by Hans Cavalli-Björkman. After the team performed respectably under managers Keith Blunt and Tord Grip in the early 1980s, Roy Hodgson took over in 1985. He led the club to two Swedish Championships in 1986 and 1988, and the club won Allsvenskan five years in a row between 1985 and 1989. At the time, the championship was decided by play-offs between the best teams after the end of the regular season; this arrangement was in place from 1982 until 1992. The club reached the play-off final four times between 1986 and 1989 but only managed to win the final twice. Apart from Allsvenskan and Swedish Championships, the club won Svenska Cupen in 1984, 1986 and 1989.

Other than finishing as runners-up in Allsvenskan in 1996, the team did not excel in the 1990s, as the club failed to win Allsvenskan and Svenska Cupen throughout the entire decade. The 1990s ended with relegation from Allsvenskan in 1999. Hans Cavalli-Björkman was succeeded as chairman by Bengt Madsen in 1999, and former player Hasse Borg was contracted as Director of Sport. These operational changes, as well as the emergence of young talent Zlatan Ibrahimović, led to the return to Allsvenskan in 2001. Ibrahimović rose to fame and became an important player in the club's campaign to return to the top league. He was later sold to Ajax in 2001, before playing for Juventus, Internazionale, FC Barcelona and eventually AC Milan in 2010.

Start of the 2000s to the present

The return to Allsvenskan was the start of the successful early 2000s, under the management of Tom Prahl, when the club finished in the top three three times in a row. In 2004, it won Allsvenskan, the club's fifteenth Swedish Championship. In 2005 the club reached the last qualifying round for the UEFA Champions League but were defeated by FC Thun. Successful sponsor work and player sales also made Malmö FF the richest club in Sweden, a position they still hold as of 2011. The club moved from Malmö Stadion to Swedbank Stadion in 2009, a stadium built entirely for football and located next to the old one.

In 2009, Madsen announced that he would step down as chairman, and was replaced by Håkan Jeppsson early the following year. In 2010 the club marked their 100th anniversary with many celebratory events at the beginning of the season. On the day of the club's 100th anniversary in 2010, the Swedish football magazine Offside declared Malmö FF to be the greatest football club in Swedish history. The season became a great success as the club won Allsvenskan for the nineteenth time and became Swedish champions for the sixteenth time. Unlike in 2004, these successes were achieved without any major transfers before the season, and with a squad consisting mostly of younger players. The club remain one of the dominant football clubs in Sweden. In the 2011 season the club ranked second in the overall Allsvenskan table maratontabellen. Malmö FF are also the record holders for total number of Allsvenskan championships and Svenska Cupen championships, and second only to IFK Göteborg in number of Swedish championships.

Stadiums

Malmö FF's first stadium was Malmö IP, which was shared with arch-rivals IFK Malmö. The team played here from the founding of the club in 1910, until 1958. The stadium still exists today, albeit with lower capacity, and is now used by women's team LdB FC Malmö, who were previously the women's section of Malmö FF. Capacity in 2011 is 7,600, but attendances were usually much higher when Malmö FF played there. For the last season in 1957, the average attendance was 15,500. The club's record attendance at Malmö IP is 22,436 against Helsingborgs IF on 1 June 1956.[46] The stadium is still considered a key part of the club's history, as it was here that the club were founded, played their first 47 seasons, and won five Swedish championships.

A new stadium was constructed in Malmö after Sweden was awarded the 1958 FIFA World Cup – this saw the birth of Malmö Stadion. Malmö FF played their first season at the stadium in 1958. The first time the club won the Swedish championship at the stadium was in 1965. An upper tier was added to the stadium in the 1980s, and was completed in 1992. The club enjoyed the most successful era of their history at this stadium, winning ten out of sixteen Swedish championships while based there. The stadium originally had a capacity of 30,000 but this was lowered to 27,500 due to changes in safety regulations. The club's record attendance at the stadium was 29,328 against Helsingborgs IF on 24 September 1967.

Following the 2004 victory in Allsvenskan, plans were made to construct a new stadium. In July 2005, Malmö FF announced that work was to begin on Swedbank Stadion, designed for 18,000 seated spectators and 6,000 standing. The stadium can also accommodate 21,000 as an all-seater for international and European games in which terracing is not allowed. Construction started in 2007 and was finished in 2009. The new stadium is located next to Malmö Stadion. Although there was still small-scale construction going on around the stadium at the time, the stadium was inaugurated on 13 April 2009 with the first home game of the 2009 season against Örgryte IS; Malmö FF's Labinot Harbuzi scored the inaugural goal in the 61st minute. The first Swedish championship won at the stadium occurred in 2010, when the club beat Mjällby AIF on 7 November in the final game of the season 2–0. Attendance at this game set the stadium record of 24,148. Swedbank Stadion is a UEFA category 4 rated stadium.

A view of the Swedbank Stadion from the Falcon stand.

[fcunitedfan]

Malmö FF in Football Manager 2012

Information

Kits

Made by yours truly

Trophies and competition information

Will you be the one to push Malmö FF to more Swedish league and cup victory? Do you have what it takes to win the Champions League with Malmö FF? They're a team who's deserving of European glory, so let's give them some (In-game at least).

Expectations, and the pennies you'll get

Money is tight, even for the richest club in Sweden. Buying those big name players won't be happening any time soon, so you'll be doing plenty of wheeler dealing no matter what you tell the board. Also, the club is already spending £31,736 on wages so you'll have to consider offloading some deadwood if you want to bring in new players in your first season. You'll see later when I discuss the starting squad, that you don't need to improve the team that much to achieve your short term goals.

Euro Cup qualification - £8K and £32K per week

Title challenge - £10K and £34.5K per week

Winner - £10K and £36K per week

I've gone for broke and told the board I'll win the league. I know it'll be tough, but I reckon I can pull it off. As a result of my choice, I have £10.58K to spend and £4.46K per week available wage budget.

[fcunitedfan]

Malmö FF Squad Analysis

Goalkeepers

One area of the squad which is currently lacking. Johan Dahlin is the best keeper at the club, but he's out for six to eight months with a bruised rib. Your next best option is Dusan Melickrek, but he's only an average keeper at best. Then you have Dejan Garaca, who's got the potential to play as well as Dahlin. I plan on giving Garaca his fair share of first team football over the next few seasons, and see how good he can get.

Full Backs

Ulrich Vinzents is a great right back, but at 34 years old, he's only got a couple of years of top flight football left in him. If you train him properly, Filip Stenström will be ready to takeover from Vinzents by the time he's ready to retire. You also have Markus Halsti, but he's nothing more than a backup due to his natural position being central defense.

In the left back position, Ricardinho is your first choice. IMO Ricardinho is one of the best players at the club, and a player who is able to push up to a more attacking role if needed. Backup in the left back position comes in the way of Miiko Albornoz and Tobias Malm, both of which are young and have the potential to play well in Allsvenskan.

Center Backs

Daniel Andesson and Pontus Jansson are a great partnership at the back. Andersson is an experienced defender who may not be very fast on his feet, but he makes up for it by being a hard worker who's very consistant. Jansson, while still having room for improvement, is still a good defender. Yago Fernandez is a pretty good backup at the back, and another defender who has time to improve due to his young age. Markus Halsti is another backup in central defense, but I'd only use him as a last resort.

Wingers

The right wing is where Malmö is weakest, but the young players we have in this position have the potential to develop into great wingers. Jiloan Hamad is the better of your two right wingers, but not by much. Then you have Simon Kroon, who at the tender age of 17 will need to work hard to achieve his potential ability. It's worth searching around for a more experienced right winger to tutor one, if not both of your young right wingers.

The left wing has some slightly better player choices. Jimmy Durmaz is the obvious first choice. He's young, fast, has good dribbling skills, and can put a great cross in. He's not very creative, but that can be improved with time. If you choose not to use Miiko Albornoz in the left back position, he is acceptable cover on the left wing. You also have Jeffrey Aubynn, who may be getting on a bit, but still can play pretty well on the wing if needed.

Central Midfielders

Ivo Pekalski is your defensive minded midfielder, and he's a great young player. When Pekalski isn't available Miljan Mutavdzic is sufficient cover.

Wilton Figueiredo is an attack minded midfielder, and your best option for that position. He's at his best right now, and is an excellent player. In terms of cover, you have Amin Nazari. Trained properly, Nazari could play as well as Figueiredo in the future. Having Figueiredo tutor Nazari would be a good idea.

Strikers

Up front is where Malmö FF is strongest. For your first team, you have three players who are all very good. Daniel Larsson is very fast, and plays well as a lone poacher, or as part of a two striker setup. Mathias Ranegie is a very tall, strong striker who is a threat in the air. Agon Mehmeti is the younger of the three first choice strikers. He's a good all-round striker, but is a bit selfish on the ball and would work better as a long striker. In terms of backup players, you have two under twenty. Dardan Rexhepi and Alex Nilsson are both full of potential.

Captain: Daniel Andersson

Vice-Captain: Ulrich Vinzent

Malmö FF Squad Analysis Conclusion

The Malmö FF squad is good enough to challenge for the Allsvenskan title, but the weak right wing is a bit worrying. If you want to get anywhere in the Champions League, a better right winger and maybe a better keeper is needed. Apart from those areas, Malmö looks pretty solid.

The younger players at the club have the potential to take over from the older players when they retire, and maybe even play better than them in some cases.

[fcunitedfan]

Malmö FF Tactics and Line-Ups

I'm no good at making tactics, so always use the ones already in the game. These two are what the Assistant Manager recommends. It's up to you if you use them, but the 4-4-2 worked well for me in FM11.

[fcunitedfan]

Reserved for future use...

[fcunitedfan]

Reserved for future use...

[fcunitedfan]

How is my thread so far? I'm not sure what else to add to it, so please feel free to make some suggestions.

[SRL88]

Its a good thread mate OP is niiice!!!

Could use one of your reserved posts on transfer targets maybe? Not sure what you have in mind?

[Nottingham Forest]

You missed Jasmin Sudic who is another good CB. Unfortunately he is injured though.

[fcunitedfan]

You missed Jasmin Sudic who is another good CB. Unfortunately he is injured though.

That's why I didn't add him. I only added Johan Dahlin to show how much better he is than the other keeper options that are available while he's injured. It is annoying to have a player out for almost a year, especially a young player like Sudic with so much talent.

[fcunitedfan]

Its a good thread mate OP is niiice!!!

Could use one of your reserved posts on transfer targets maybe? Not sure what you have in mind?

That's what I thought about using one of them for. I have only just started playing this save myself though, and trying to suggest transfer targets for a club with so little money yet such a high rep is rather hard. If anyone can help me out with transfer targets, please send me a PM with your suggestions and I'll add them to one of the reserved posts (with credit to you for the suggestion).

[SRL88]

I think you want to be looking at someone like ronaldo who done the Litex thread Similar reputation maybe?

[fcunitedfan]

I think you want to be looking at someone like ronaldo who done the Litex thread Similar reputation maybe?

I have been following the Litex thread. I like what ronaldo did with him FM11 Litex thread, and am enjoying reading his FM12 thread. The thing about Litex is that they have a much higher transfer budget than Malmö FF. If you tell the board you expect to win the league as Litex, you get £800K transfer budget. As Malmö, you get £10K. Even though Malmö have more money in the bank.

[SRL88]

Nice chairman then ha.

[fcunitedfan]

Nice chairman then ha.

He's tight fisted!

[fcunitedfan]

I spoke to the board, and they have increased my transfer revenue from 40% to 55%. Not that great unless I sell players, but it's an improvement. They also increased my scouting range.

[Suggy33]

I shall be here at some point as I have said previously, don't know when but I will. Good OP though, the guy Ranegie looks to be a good partner to Larsson.

[fcunitedfan]

My pre-season is over, and it was interesting. We won all but one of my friendly matches, and also won the Super Cup. The only match We lost was against Everton, and they were lucky to win a close game where we actually got more shots on target than they did. Apart from the one loss, the team played really well.

In the transfer market, I signed absolutely nobody. That right, I couldn't find a single player to sign. Every player I could have signed either wanted too much, or was worth too much. The only player to leave my club was Malm on loan to örebro SK with a loan fee of £65K.

I can't wait to get stuck into the league games! Our first game is against newly promoted Syrianska FC, and I expect a big win for Malmö. I'm not looking forward to the Champions League qualifiers so much, as I don't think we'll get through them. I just have to hope for some very fortunate results, as I'd love to take Malmö into the group stages of the competition.

[fcunitedfan]

Sorry I haven't updated my thread for a few days. I've been busy and haven't had a chance to play FM12 at all. Just a quick update sinse I've got some time to play the game today. I just recieved the verdict from my parent club enquiry, and chose FC Twente as a parent club. They have a fair few young talents who I could potentially loan. It'll be interesting to see who they offer me. Hopefully someone for my weak right wing.

First game of the season went well. Won 2-0, with Wilton Figueiredo scoring both goals. Figueiredo looks like he'll be one of my best players this season, scoring one goal in the Super Cup, two goals in the first league game of the season, and getting three assists in five friendly appearances. The bad thing about all this is that I can't get him to agree a new contract, and there's a lot of interest in him right now. I've set an asking price of £2mil for him though, which will hopefully keep him with me until the end of the season at least before other clubs start bidding on him. In that time, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he'll agree to extend his contract.

[fcunitedfan]

Ten games in, and things are going pretty well. I've only lost one league game, and am still in the Swedish Cup.

I'm second in the league, three points behind suprise league leaders Örebro SK who are unbeaten so far. I feel a bit bad for Kalmar FF, who were supposed to be enjoying success in their newly opened stadium but are instead having a terrible season so far.

I've got a couple of players coming into the club in the next six months (finally!). Nordin Gerzic is joining us in September from Örebro SK. Paying £50K upfront, then a further £850K spread over 48 months. He'll be replacing Figueiredo if he does decide to leave, or playing next to him if he doesn't. Also got Andreas Östling coming in on a free transfer from Västerås SK at the end of October.

I can't wait to play my first Champions League qualifier, which will be happening in just over a months time. Don't know who I'll be up against yet, but I'm hopeful that I get a team that I can beat relatively easy. I'm also hopeful that Örebro SK's run of form ends soon, so we can sneak past them and top the league.

I'll report back when I reach twenty league games. by that time, I'll also be hoping that I'm reporting back on who I beat in the third qualifying round of the Champions League

[fcunitedfan]

So, we finally played our 20th league game so here's how things are going.

We're now sitting top of the table, with plenty of points between us and Örebro SK. A combination of them losing a few and us going unbeaten helped us jump to the top spot. Ten games to go though, so it could still all change again.

Like I said, we've gone unbeaten for some time in the league. I've also won manager of the month twice due to our league form.

We won't mention the Swedish Cup...

In the Champions League, I thought things were going to go badly when I drew 2-2 against Mogren. Thankfully, we won the second leg with ease. We drew Wilsa in the third qualifying round, and both matches were very close games. We managed to grind out two wins, and get through to the Play Offs where we'll face Rangers.

I signed these three players, and I can't wait for them all to play.

Alen Pamic

Nordin Gerzic

Demba Savage

I sold a few players, due to the offers being too good to refuse. I sold Jeffrey Aubynn to Vitória Setubal for £26K (doesn't seem like much, but he wasn't needed and it was more than his value). Wilton Figueiredo went to Toulouse FC for £1M. Simon Kroon joined Vitesse for £500K. Also sent Yago Yago Fernández on loan to Vitória Setubal for a fee of £60K and they're paying his wages in full for the next six months.

[Falahk]

Nordin Gerzic dont seem to be quite the player he used to be on the past fm's (back on 08, I think it was) , with that said, he would probably still be useful at this level.

also what logo pack are you using?

[fcunitedfan]

Nordin Gerzic dont seem to be quite the player he used to be on the past fm's (back on 08, I think it was) , with that said, he would probably still be useful at this level.

also what logo pack are you using?

Gerzic is playing his first game for me in a minute. We'll see how he does. Savage scored in his debut, which is always nice.

I can't remember the name of the logo pack. I downloaded it at the end of last year to use in FM11.

Edit: Gerzic's debut went well. He set up a goal and got a solid 7.1 rating.

Just so people know, I've been training the team up for a 4-1-2-1-2 tactic and testing it in some matches, and the results have been really good. Some high scoring games, while keeping clean sheets. I think I'm going to see how it does against Rangers, because the 4-4-2 seems to struggle against higher rep teams.

[fcunitedfan]

On a side note, how am I doing so far with my thread? Do people think I should be updating it after less than every ten league games? Should I post a new reply after every signing I make or player I sell? How can I improve? Lots of questions, but I only ask because I want to make this a better thread.

[fcunitedfan]

Well, I've played both legs of the Champions League play off. Here's how things went.

Rangers played so much better than us, but we took our chances and somehow came out of the game with a 3-1 lead. Ranegie played brilliantly, and was so close to a hat trick on a couple of occasions. Garaca's goalkeeping was excellent, and he did very well to keep a clean sheet.

We dominated the second leg, but only managed to score one goal. Rangers were out for blood, and by the end of the match three of my players were carted off injured. Nazari and Ranegie are thankfully OK, but Larsson is out for three months with a torn hamstring! Damn you Rangers!

So we're through to the group stages, which has made the board, the supporters, and myself very happy.

[fcunitedfan]

Group A, our group of death! We stand no chance of getting to the knockout stage of the competition. The best I can hope for is a third placed finish, and even that'll be a hard task.

[fcunitedfan]

I've won the Swedish Premier Division with six games to go. Really happy about that.

[fcunitedfan]

We're three games into the Champions League group stages, so I thought I'd throw up a quick update.

Bad start, but I wasn't expecting to win. Manchester City played so much better than us.

I decided to go for a more defensive approach in this game, playing a 5-4-1 formation. It paid off, and we got a surprising draw. Lyonnais having a player sent off helped, but my players did a good job.

This result was even more surprising. A 0-0 draw against Real Madrid was not expected at all. They threw everything at my team, but we scraped a draw.

[pb1uk]

Hi,

I've started a game as Elfsborg, not played in the Swedish league before. Can anyone recommend any players available realtively cheapy?

Thanks

[fcunitedfan]

OK, I'm going to restart my save as my old one went bye bye with all my other stuff on my computer when I got a virus. I need a change from my FC United save, as I've been playing it far too much sinse restarting it. I'll be posting in here again as regularly as possible, and hopefully I can achieve some very memorable moments with Malmö this time round.

[fcunitedfan]

Strangely, this time round the club is valued at £13.5mill instead of £11mill like it was the first time I started as Malmö. Also, I've been given a £588k transfer budget (I asked the board for a revenue increase and they said yes up to 65%). Wage budget is at £30,360 and our wage total is at £29,949. I'm going to be releasing some deadwood and adjusting the budget slider a bit to free up some more wage budget. I think Robin Olsen will be the first to go, but I'm not sure who else I'll be getting rid of.

Something else strange is that John Dahlin isn't injured this time. I'm not complaining though, as he's a great keeper. I've also got Viktor Norling on loan. He's a good keeper, but with Dahlin uninjured and Norling being paid £1k a week, I'm going to terminate the loan immediately. I also don't have Dejan Garaca or Dusan Melickrek. They're both at different clubs already.

[fcunitedfan]

I've finally got round to restarting this save properly, and my first pre-season is over.

In the friendlies, we didn't do great. Three wins, Four losses, and one draw aren't great results. The most disappointing results were against other Swedish teams. Hopefully these bad results are just due to the team not being fully gelled, and if that is the case, I'm crossing my fingers that they begin playing better together soon.

The weirdest thing about this pre-season is that we didn't play in the Super Cup. AIK played Helsingborgs IF instead (Not sure why AIK), and Helsingborgs won on penalties. I was routing for them, as AIK stole our spot!

This time round, I found and signed some great players for the present and for the future. Rainford Kalaba and Mohammad Nosrati stand out as my best signings, with both being paid for over 48 months.

I've sent a few players out on loan, and sold Markus Halsti and Ulrich Vincents as I feel they both have no future at the club.

My first league game is against newly promoted Syrianska FC, so that'll hopefully set us off on a good run of league results. Oh, and bring on the Champions League qualifiers in July!

[fcunitedfan]

Ten games into the league, and one game into the Swedish Cup. Things are going well, with only one loss in the league and none in the cup. I've got some brilliant results, and the team has definitely gelled well now.

Top of the league after ten games, and already seven points in front of Helsingborgs. Fingers crossed I can keep the good results going and win the league.

[fcunitedfan]

We're through to the play-off stages of the Champions Cup after a win against Rosenborg. Both matches against them were tough, and I only just scraped through. We face Rangers in the play-offs.

[fcunitedfan]

I'm getting so into this save, that I nearly forgot to post an update lol. Anyway, I'm 21 games into the league and still at the top.

I've lost a few games due to injuries and player rotation ( was trying to keep my best players rested enough that they will be available for the CL qualifiers), but all in all the team has still played pretty well.

The Spanish Cup is going great. Semi finals, and we're still in it.

Got further than the board expected in the Champions League, and still in with a great chance of getting to the group stage.

The board has accepted a £2.8mil bid for Figeuiredo, which I'm not happy about as he's playing brilliantly. If he does leave the club, I have a player who I may be able to sign to replace him. Will be a shame to see him go though.

[fcunitedfan]

We're through to the group stage! Can't believe we've won, and the second leg went great.

[fcunitedfan]

Here's the group I'm in. We're probably going to finish last, with zero points but at least we got this far.

[fcunitedfan]

Wilton Figueiredo has now departed, with the board not letting me decide whether to keep him or not. In his place, I just signed Oskar Hiljemark.

[heddy]

Good thread!

[fcunitedfan]

Thank you. I thought I'd get it going again because it seemed a shame to waste all the effort I put into it.

[fcunitedfan]

The Champions League is going OK so far, a lot better than I'd expected.

First game against AC Milan, and we got beat (as expected). We played fine, but they were just too much to handle.

Basel in our second game, and somehow we managed to win it. Basel had more chances, but just couldn't put them away.

Real Madrid next, and we somehow scraped a draw out of it. We had more possession somehow, but Real Madrid got way more shots off that we did. Oh well, a draw was a brilliant result in this match.

After three matches, we aren't bottom of the group like I predicted. A couple of surprise results have got us to third place, where I'd be happy to finish after six games (but even happier with second place). If the results go our way, second place could be ours. I'll be crossing my fingers during every match, hoping to get a good result out of it.

[fcunitedfan]

The last three games in the Champions League group stage...

A heavy loss. I expected Real Madrid to come out swinging, after we held them to a draw. They did just that, and dominated us completely.

After our first loss against A.C. Milan, I expected them to beat us again. This time round though, it was us who picked up a shock win to move us to second in the group.

Last game in the group, and all we needed was a draw to finish second. Basel took the lead early, and I was ready to call it a day and accept third place. Just after half time, we leveled the scores, then we took the lead! After Basel equalised a minute later, I spent the rest of the game on the edge of my seat. The game finished all square, and we'd got that second place spot.

There it is! Real Madrid walked it, and we got the second qualifying spot for the knockout stages. I didn't expect to reach the group stages, so getting this far is a great achievement.

[fcunitedfan]

I'd love to do a first season review, with screenshots and all that but I can't because I didn't realise the game was going to update for the new season before I'd finished in the Champions League. So I'll just tell you what happened with a couple of screenshots.

We won the league by just one point. A lot of players were tired during league matches, due to our involvement in the Champions League group stage. That meant I didn't always have my first team players available for league matches. We drew and lost some games we could have won with a fully fit first team.

The Swedish Cup final was a fairly easy match, and we never looked like losing it. A Jamil Adam hat-trick secured us victory, and the Swedish double.

As the Champions League is still going and I've already posted all about the group stages, I'm not going to repost it all. We've got F.C. Porto in the first knockout round, and I really don't know whether to expect a huge loss or a surprise win. I've set up a few tough friendlies before the first and second legs, just to make sure the team is ready for the matches after they return from holiday.

I wouldn't say I went crazy in the transfer market, but I did bring in a fair few youngsters to train up for the future. Sold a fair few as well, but a couple of the players I brought into the side replaced the departed straight away.

Our best players were Jamil Adam who scored 16 goals overall, Daniel Larsson who scored 11 goals in 18 league games (he picked up an injury and was out for two months), Jimmy Durmaz got the most assists with 14, and Pontus Jansson got the highest average rating of 7.46 and the most MOTM. Pontus Jansson was also the fans player of the year.

That's all I have to say. I'll update again when pre-season is over.

[gotlandskommun]

can someone recommend a good tactic for malmo???

[McCleary]

Don't know if anyone will read this but here it goes..

Started a save as Malmo and whilst the squad is good and should be more than capable of winning the league, I can't seem to bring in any suitable players of a good standard, i dont know whether thats the reputation of the league etc but if anyone could recommend any players i'd appreciate it!

[fcunitedfan]

I was going to go back to this save and give it a proper go, but for the second time it's corrupted! I'm going to have restart for the third time, which is really annoying. So I'm going right back to the start. I'll be playing a 4-1-2-1-2, and hopefully I can get to a similar point this time round where I'm in the knockout stage of the Champions League. I'll post as regularly as I can, and I have a new laptop now so am able to fly through seasons a lot faster due to quicker game processing. I've got leagues from Belgium, England, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, and Ukraine loaded this time round, as I'm able to have more leagues going at once on this laptop without any slowdown.

Now, I'm going to get my (third) first season started, and I'll post again when pre-season is over.

[ronaldo_1978]

Think I'll start a new game with Malmo. This should see me through til FM2013 :-D

[fcunitedfan]

Ah, the Litex legend. Good to see you're up for a Malmo save. I've got a couple of recommendations for signings, if you want them.

[ronaldo_1978]

ey up mate :-D Yea if you could please. I've made a couple of signings already

Ah, the Litex legend. Good to see you're up for a Malmo save. I've got a couple of recommendations for signings, if you want them.

[fcunitedfan]

Lucas Gaúcho is a 19 year old Brazilian striker, can be picked up for free. He's good enough to slot into the squad right away, and will improve a lot in time. Andreas Östling is a 17 year old Swedish central midfielder with a 4 star potential, and can be bought for around £150k. I've signed Rainford Kalaba in all my FM12 Malmo saves (two ended abruptly) because he's brilliant, but you'll have to pay around £2mill which I'm paying off over 48 months. I haven't got him yet (but I'm not giving up trying), but Oskar Hiljemark is a player I really want to sign.

Hope that helps you a bit.