[FM12] The complete world encyclopedia of insults shouted at virtual football players

[AK22]

That's an excellent run of results, which should set you up nicely for the rest of the season now

[deltablue]

Inter or Sporting should be quite a clash if you make it.

[noikeee]

That's an excellent run of results, which should set you up nicely for the rest of the season now

Yes it's our championship to lose, albeit having to play yet both Benfica and Sporting away in the last few fixtures isn't very comfortable.

Inter or Sporting should be quite a clash if you make it.

To my surprise Sporting beat Inter home and away so are up next, whilst we beat Wiener as expected.

[noikeee]

Now this was a proper classic game in the cup's semi-final 2nd leg. We had drawn at home 2-2 the first leg which didn't make for a comfortable tie, and things looked worse when Benfica got an early goal and dominated the beginning of the match. I switched to more attacking, aggressive settings and evened out things but then Joaquim Maia picked up a red card to my horror - only for Benfica's left-back to pick one too minutes later. This opened up the game immensely, and after the break I brought on the young Brazilian forward Ronald from the bench, which proved to be an inspired call as he scored 2 and put us ahead on the tie! Only for us to give away a penalty and it all ended 2-2.

The game went immediately to penalty kicks with no extra time. There I thought we were out of the competition as inexplicably our 3 forwards Ferreira, Ronald and Krakowiac all missed their spotkicks. Amusingly, Benfica then missed 3 in a row and we managed to salvage the game knocking our rivals out at their home ground the Luz. The final is against Braga and we have a golden chance there to retain the competition (Porto won this cup last year under previous manager Vítor Pereira).

[noikeee]

I had previously played this game and it ended a cagey boring 0-0, when FM crash dumped (it's happening a bit too often lately unfortunately). On the replay I decided to go for it with more attacking settings. It kind of worked because we created lots of chances and really should've won, however the ultimate result is worse as we'll bring an away goal disadvantage to the 2nd leg as Sporting were more effective and even scored first early on, whereas we only equalized in the 2nd half.

Of course we have just turned around a similar situation against Benfica in the cup so it's hardly impossible to repeat that feat, but I think my Europa League run is about to end.

[B.W.G]

Good run of results so far,best of luck in the second leg against Sporting.

[AcidBurn]

December and January were very good results, could be tricky in the next leg against Sporting.

[deltablue]

The Sporting tie is still very even, don't get too caught up on a single away goal.

[noikeee]

Good run of results so far,best of luck in the second leg against Sporting.

December and January were very good results, could be tricky in the next leg against Sporting.

The Sporting tie is still very even, don't get too caught up on a single away goal.

Deltablue wins the best foreshadowing comment contest.

[noikeee]

Cagey game at the Alvalade and this time luck smiled on us. We were better in the first half and somehow scrapped an ugly rebound-plenty goal in a set piece through our goal happy young centre-back Alejo Jaime. From there onwards it was a tale of trying to resist Sporting as they got increasingly more dangerous, and we did succeed. It has to be said Sporting never really got any clear chances, but did hit the woodwork, and spent the final minutes enclosing on our area as Sebastián Ferreira picked up an injury after we had wasted all substitutions - this meant playing a strikerless formation for the final minutes and hoping for the best.

Next up in the quarter-finals is a very difficult tie against respected German side Schalke, then it gets even harder if we make it to the semi-finals as there we'd face Liverpool or Arsenal.

[noikeee]

Porto - Youth intake 2029

Best player

Miguel Coelho

Rather nice youth intake, the stars are inflated compared to what I had at Ajax because the level of my current first team players is slightly lower, but nevertheless looks like Porto's youth academy is quite good, certainly better than real life where we've struggled to come up with class players for years and years - last regular international player for Portugal was what, Hélder Postiga?

I already had a few quality kids growing in the U19s and reserves, from youth intakes of previous years before my arrival at the club.

[noikeee]

February-March 2029

Fixtures

The league continued to go along very nicely as we had no problems pushing aside Braga and Beira-Mar scoring 3 goals past both, after that we had 2 difficult games vs Leiria and Gondomar but still scrapped 1-0 wins in both, the latter fixture particularly difficult after an early red card to our winger Marco Grote. The winning run ended with a 1-1 at Belenenses, again playing with 10 men for the majority of the match, this time Adeniyi Idris the man sent off, but we bounced back from that with wins over Rio Ave and Naval.

In Europe a fabulous 4-0 win in Austria settled that tie even if we were shocked losing 2-1 at home in the return leg, then next it was an all-Portuguese match-up vs our rivals Sporting and as I’ve detailed previously we scrapped through with a small slice of luck, winning at the Alvalade.

In the cup a fabulous match at the Luz vs Benfica saw us go through to the final on penalties.

And finally, the league cup. We didn’t have a very inspired day at Paços but a draw was enough to qualify us from the groups to the semi-finals. There we were lucky enough to find ourselves drawn against 2nd tier side Leixões – who we had already beaten 4-1 in the cup – and it was a 4-1 win again despite struggling with many many absences, as almost all of my side was away at international fixtures in a massive calendar screw-up. This means we’re through to the final here as well!

Player on focus

Oscar Krakowiac (ST / AML) – I want to pick someone else, but it just wouldn’t be fair, he scored another 9 goals and is now on 30, a new club record (since the start of my career).

I’d like mentioning too the Belgian/Brazilian midfielder Lucas who has also beaten a record, thanks to the 19 assists he has already recorded this season!

Competitions

Liga Zon Sagres:

Supertaça: lost to Sporting 0-1 in extra time in pre-season.

Taça de Portugal: through to the final to face Braga.

Bwin Cup: qualified for the final as well, and our opponents are Marítimo.

Europa League: facing Schalke in the quarter-finals, potentially Liverpool or Arsenal in the semi-finals if we manage to reach that stage.

Summary

It’s looking just great this season as we continue in all fronts. A 5 point lead in the league, with 1 game in hand, gives me the confidence we will get the title even with trips to Benfica and Sporting yet to come; whereas we’re in the finals of both domestic cups against relatively weak opposition; and we’re still in Europe albeit we’ll now have to face some very big clubs there.

Expect a lot of mini-updates in the remaining 2 months as all 4 competitions play out, meaning almost every match is a key match.

[noikeee]

Great performance and good result, it's just a shame we were incredibly wasteful as our strategy of asphyxiating Schalke's space through the middle and playing around the sides of their narrow 4-4-2 diamond worked perfectly, and we created loads of chances. We dominated all match and should've scored more.

Looking good for the trip to Germany however, potentially it's Arsenal who await us in the semi-final as they went to Anfield to win 3-0.

[noikeee]

FM crashed again, this is getting too much. Thankfully I haven't lost any progress because I'm now saving after each and every match, but just the fact I'm having to do that shows something's clearly wrong with my savegame file. It's almost always when I click on a player but it could be any player.

Never used to happen before this season, it's only been this unstable since I came back and took control of Porto. It's frustrating because I was finding this career quite nice again and had even started to think about several plans in the future past Porto, but I'm wondering if I shouldn't start over from scratch again. Will definitely try to finish the season at least though.

[noikeee]

Now this is a trip to Lisbon that went very wrong. Benfica had a slight superiority that they took good advantage of, scoring twice from set pieces in the first half. We threw men forward and risked more and more in terms of instructions, that led to a rash challenge by Óscar Mercado in the penalty area, rightly penalized and converted into the 3-0, which was the final scoreline.

We still have a 5 points lead in the table and only 4 matches remain, but Benfica has just helped Sporting a great deal as they retain some hope of overtaking us later on, which could happen if we lose points in any of the next 3 fixtures then lose in the Alvalade in the very last match.

[noikeee]

This was days after the Benfica match which can't have helped the morale and it shown, as my former Tottenham youth player David Guadagni (who I signed from my previous club Torino back in 2024), now playing for Schalke, sprinted past my defence to make it 1-0 with just 9 minutes played. Remarkably we replied very well immediately hitting the woodwork, then minutes later a Sebastián Ferreira freekick found Alejo Jaime for a simple tap-in that swung the tie back in our favour.

The rest of the match was a calm affair with little happening at either end but still Schalke scrapped another goal to some surprise in the 2nd half, nevertheless we resisted to go through to the semi-final on away goals, where we will face Arsenal. The other semi-final faces current holders Terek Grozny vs VfB Stuttgart.

[noikeee]

Is this a trophy? Yes it is! My first one for Porto. I decided to go for it in no uncertain terms playing the 442 wide diamond from the start, and it worked, as we slaughtered Marítimo whose first and only shot only came in the 88th minute! By the 8th we were already winning with a corner finding CB Jaime who headed it to CB Idris for his own header to go in. We had to wait until the middle of the 2nd half to add another however, as we missed chance after chance but finally Marco Grote put one away. And in injury time Lucas' freekick found the head of Alejo Jaime who this time headed home himself.

It's the club's 3rd league cup after successes in 2017 and 2024 - in real life Porto has never actually won this competition, a relative newcomer to the Portuguese footballing calendar having been introduced in 2008.

[noikeee]

This match had quite a buzz from start to end with Arsenal's gung-ho 3-4-3 formation leading to a sense that the game was never under control from anyone. Despite this and a frenetic start with several chances for both sides the half-time whistle came with still a 0-0 score. We then proceeded to shock Arsenal with left-back Andreou crossing towards Ferreira on a AMR position who headed it for the 0-1. A little later on we finally crumbled to Arsenal's pressure as Djuricic committed a professional foul in the area and saw red, but sensationally Arsenal's former Ballon D'Or winner striker Nawaf Al-Abdulsalam missed the penalty. Even more sensationally Ronald who had come from the bench made it 0-2 in our favour!

Al-Abdulsalam got his revenge with a late headed goal in a corner but it was still a famous 1-2 victory for us in London, and better yet, it felt deserved as we were never dominated not even when with 1 man less. One small step to the Europa League final now!

[deltablue]

#Bwinning

[noikeee]

[noikeee]

We repeated the same strategy against Arsenal's 3-4-3 (4-1-2-2-1 formation on counter strategy, less pressing than normal, shouts of play narrower, pass into space, exploit the flanks, stay on feet), and it worked even better than in the first leg as we found ourselves winning in the 1st minute, thanks to a nice play down the left flank. Indeed all the goals would come from the left flank as we watched Arsenal be utterly harmless then we'd hit them on the counter down there - Ferreira grabbed the 2-0 early in the 2nd half that way, then after Arsenal were a man down we started having a ridiculous amount of clear chances and eventually made it 3-0 through substitute Boulebda at the end of the match.

Massive win and we're through to the Europa League final to face Stuttgart - it will be on familiar surroundings too as the match will be played on my former office at Ajax, the Amsterdam Arena.

[AK22]

Shame about all the crashes, seems really frustrating. Good to see you battling through, though, as your Porto side look unstoppable!

[noikeee]

Shame about all the crashes, seems really frustrating. Good to see you battling through, though, as your Porto side look unstoppable!

Not sure how unstoppable given Benfica beaten us 3-0 very recently but thanks!

[noikeee]

Now this was a way to clinch the title! After beating Boavista and Varzim we only needed a win at home over Fátima to win the league and avoid having to get a result at Sporting's home in the final fixture. And what a win it was, we annihilated them since the very first minute and beat them 7-0, captain Joaquim Maia getting an unlikely hat-trick from the defensive midfielder position as he scored 2 penalty kicks plus a long range shot.

Only 3 fixtures remain: the now pointless Sporting-Porto for the league, the Europa League final vs Stuttgart, and the cup final vs Braga. Can we add more trophies to what's already been one of the best seasons of my career?

[noikeee]

The match at Sporting's had gone terribly wrong, ourselves dominated and losing 2-0, and somehow also losing our best forward Krakowiac to a knee injury no less, despite resting most of the team. The gloom mood seemed to creep in to this match as Stuttgart were the better side for the whole of the first half and scored through a cracker of a long shot. I changed to more aggressive settings and this seemed to lead the match into a period of chaos early in the 2nd half as danger loomed over both nets, Stuttgart hit the bar whilst Ronald missed a sitter for us, heading over an empty net.

Ronald has been a typically great supersub and would prove to be one again despite this discouraging start after being brought in at half-time, as he headed in a scrappy equalizer on the 75th, taking advantage of a crazy run out of goal by Stuttgart's keeper. The game went into extra-time and by this stage we were dominating, and eventually Ronald passed a through ball to a onrushing Lucas from midfield who tapped it in at his 2nd attempt after the keeper had parried the first. Stuttgart then went a man down due to injury and the game fizzled out to a 2-1 Porto win - the club's fourth Europa League/UEFA Cup trophy!

It is also my second Europa League, since I had already won it with Real Madrid a few years back. Now can I add a first Portuguese Cup to my CV? The final vs Braga is around the corner.

[b101]

congrats on the European win, well deserved after a few tough ties!

[noikeee]

congrats on the European win, well deserved after a few tough ties!

Well I wouldn't say it was that tough really, Arsenal were the only really BIG club in our path, Schalke, Stuttgart, Sporting, Palermo are pretty decent, strong opposition but not world class. Nevertheless I'm still quite happy!

[noikeee]

Another easy cup win as Braga offered little opposition, and I had attacking players shining in all lines, with winger Grote, midfielder Lucas and forward Roland (I rewarded him with a rare starting role) having great games all involved in more than one goal. We scored 3 goals in the first half, in the second Braga scored somewhat surprisingly twice but both times we responded with goals of our own. 5-2 and not even a serious injury to captain Joaquim Maia ruined the party!

It's a massively successful season with 4 trophies won, we only missed the Portuguese Supercup and a few better showings in the league vs our rivals - the defeats to Benfica and Sporting were a little painful - to make it a 100% perfect year. Unfortunately I think this cup final was very much my last match in this career, and this time it's for real. FM crashed again before the cup final...

[noikeee]

April-May 2029

Fixtures

Everything was looking great in the league with another easy 3-0 over Marítimo. Next up was a difficult trip to rivals Benfica but we crashed out there in spectacularly humiliating fashion, losing 3-0 ourselves. Did that ruin morale? It should’ve but no. We beat both Boavista and Varzim heavily then stepped up a gear to murder Fátima 7-0 clinching the title in the process. A meaningless trip to Sporting remained but I still got an uncomfortable feeling after losing 2-0 to them to finish the competition.

In Europe we had a very tough test in theory vs Arsenal but a fantastic display in London put us ahead in the tie, then we confirmed the place in the final with an even better 3-0 win at the Dragão. The final vs Stuttgart was extremely tricky as we had to come back from a bad start and a Stuttgart goal to win it 2-1 in extra time, claiming the club’s 4th Europa League/UEFA Cup trophy in history.

In the league cup Marítimo were absolutely harmless in the final as we beat them easily 3-0, and in the actual Portuguese cup Braga did not fare much better on the losing end of a 5-2 scoreline. We won both competitions as expected!

Player on focus

Alejo Jaime (DC) – It could’ve been the usual passer-not-finisher Lucas, or the usual backup Ronald who both risen to the ocassion scoring in both Europa League and Portuguese Cup finals; winger Marco Grote who had 2 great months scoring several key goals too; or captain Joaquim Maia who defied the dynamics of the game scoring a hat-trick vs Fátima as a DM. I will however pick the young Argentinian DC who had another freaky run of goalscoring just like at the start of the season, scoring in 4 different matches in April.

Competitions

Liga Zon Sagres:

Supertaça: lost to Sporting 0-1 in extra time in pre-season.

Taça de Portugal: champions after beating Braga 5-2 in the final.

Bwin Cup: champions after beating Marítimo 3-0 in the final.

Europa League: champions after beating Stuttgart 2-1 in the final after extra time.

Summary

Well I’ve written pretty much all there was to write already – fantastic end of the season as we grab 4 trophies. The defeats to Benfica and Sporting may hurt a little, but they have no silverware and we have a hell of a lot of that. I’m sure they’d swap places if they could.

The career ends right now for good, I’m a little disappointed not to take this team into the Champions League next year, but at least I had 1 very good final sending off year with my childhood club, the stuff dreams are made of.

[noikeee]

Analysis, highlights and numbers – 2028/2029 season

Tactics and usual starting eleven

I started the season with Ajax’s 4-1-3-1-1, but it gradually morphed into this new 4-1-2-2-1 shape which I hadn’t really used at any point of my career yet. It was a bit of a changeable setup though, with various different shouts used depending on the situation and the opposition, sometimes the MCR would move into a AMCR slot too. 4-4-2 wide diamond remained the plan B just like in the last few seasons at Ajax, I used it mostly for the easy games at home.

Squad

This is missing the stats until December for Sergio Mulder and Ruben Dupont who were on loan until that point, the stats were reset to zero when they were both signed permanently.

Until December:

Sergio Mulder – 8(1) apps, 2 goals, 7.37 average rating

Ruben Dupont – 18(5) apps, 7 goals, 7 assists, 4 MoM awards, 7.24 average rating

Top 5 key players of the season

5. Lucas (MC, AMC, ML) – There was a lot of players who I could’ve genuinely picked but Lucas gets in not on average rating but only on sheer number of assists, 23 is a hell of a lot, great decisive goals in the Europa League and Portuguese Cup finals too.

4. Sebastián Ferreira (AML, ST, AMR) – Started as the main striker, underwhelmed a little there compared to Krakowiac but then shone the rest of the season scoring almost as many goals from the AML and AMR positions (he is competent as AMR). 19 goals, 14 assists.

3. Adeniyi Idris (DC, DM) – Fabulous season from one half of my great young duo of CBs, Idris settled in Portugal in no time and even scored 8 goals.

2. Alejo Jaime (DC) – The other half of my young superb CB duo, I don’t understand how did he score that many goals despite lacking a bit in jumping, even if he dried up a bit in goals mid-season – he did score 13 in total!!

1. Oscar Krakowiac (ST, AML, AMR) – Started as backup striker and occasional left-winger, once I made him the #1 lead striker he started scoring for fun and had a fantastic period in mid-season, scoring most of his 32 successful finishes there. He strangely dried up in the final decisive period of the season, but that allowed others to shine, and he had no fault in being injured for both the Europa League and Portuguese Cup finals.

Match of the season

Porto 3-0 Arsenal

Outplaying and outsmarting (tactically) one of the world’s greatest teams, qualifying for an European final in the process, made for a great day at the office.

Career overview

[b]Season   Club (nation)     League (tier)                            Notes[/b]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11/12    Delémont (SWI)    Challenge League (2) - 1st               Promoted
12/13    Delémont (SWI)    Axpo Super League (1) - 9th       
13/14    Westerlo (BEL)    Jupiler Pro League (1) - 8th / EP group  
14/15    Westerlo (BEL)    Jupiler Pro League (1) - 3rd             Belgian Cup finalists 
15/16    Westerlo (BEL)    Jupiler Pro League (1) - 8th / EP final  Belgian Cup winners
16/17    Westerlo (BEL)    Jupiler Pro League (1) - 3rd             Belgian Supercup winners
17/18    Westerlo (BEL)    Jupiler Pro League (1) - 1st             Champions + Belgian Cup winners
18/19    Torino (ITA)      Serie A (1) - 2nd                        Runner-ups + Italian Cup winners 
19/20    Torino (ITA)      Serie A (1) - 2nd                        Runner-ups + Italian Cup winners 
20/21    Real Madrid (SPA) La Liga (1) - 1st                        Champions + Spanish Cup winners +
                                                                   Europa League winners
21/22    Real Madrid (SPA) La Liga (1) - 1st                        Champions + Spanish Cup winners +
                                                                   Champions League winners + Spanish SC
22/23    Tottenham (ENG)   Premier League (1) - 2nd                 Runner-ups + FA Cup finalists 
23/24    Tottenham (ENG)   Premier League (1) - 1st                 Champions 
24/25    Ajax (HOL)        Eredivisie (1) - 1st                     Champions + Dutch Cup winners + Dutch SC 
25/26    Ajax (HOL)        Eredivisie (1) - 1st                     Champions + Dutch SC 
26/27    Ajax (HOL)        Eredivisie (1) - 1st                     Champions + Dutch Cup winners + Dutch SC  
27/28    Ajax (HOL)        Eredivisie (1) - 1st                     Champions + Dutch Cup winners + Dutch SC  
28/29    Porto (POR)       Liga Zon Sagres (1) - 1st                Champions + Portuguese Cup winners + 
                                                                   Portuguese LgCup + Europa League winners 

[noikeee]

The end, part 2

So yeah I don't want to save the game after every match anymore, time to start all over again before I get a nervous breakdown from all the crashes. Going back to FM13 is out of the question as I don't like the new match engine, so it's starting over from scratch in FM12 but I'm afraid it may start crashing again. So it's probably going to be a one-club save instead of a journeyman this time, to make the league setup as trimmed as possible with no add-on leagues or anything like that.

I'm thinking of maybe a club in Ukraine and trying to win the Champions League with an all-Eastern Europe team no South Americans allowed... but maybe that can get boring after a few years with only Shakhtar and Dynamo as serious opposition if I climb the ranks. Italy, Spain or England maybe? That would be nice with many tiers to climb but maybe not as much of a challenge. I don't know really, am open to ideas.

[B.W.G]

See if you can find an add on to give you more leagues,I had a one club save in Spain but I found an add on for the Tercera divisions which gave me more choices for teams.I've seen an add on so there is 6 tiers in Italy which includes Reserve and u20 leagues/.

[deltablue]

Pity to see it end again

[AK22]

I told you that you were unstoppable! Well done, a great finale

[Nobby_McDonald]

A great way to finish the career even if the save did go tits up.

[noikeee]

Thanks folks, I've been a bit off from FM for a few days, did try starting a new career twice and even did the opening post write up twice with screenies and all! The 1st was going to be a one-club save with my local club in the Portuguese 4th tier (editor file), the 2nd starting from the top with Valencia but with some mega hard restricting rules.

... but I couldn't get into neither. Think I'll just start a new normal journeyman. Eventually.