FM14: Heart of Midlothian - We'll give you a 15 point head start

[brettney1980]

Some nice progress guys, awesome work getting Fletcher Jambo98. Can't wait to hear how he gets on.

[mattyw_1874]

Progressing along nicely. Not been getting much time to play recently though which has been poor. Beat Celtic to got 10 points clear then 3 days later beat them again in the diddy cup semi. Got spanked 4-1 by Dundee Utd in the Scottish cup which hurt. Just one of those games, followed it up with 2 straight league wins vs Partick and Aberdeen and the gap at the top is now 12 points.

Danny Wilson wanted away in January. So I promised him I would win the league this season, which is looking good but has added some extra pressure as I really don't want to lose him. Tom Thorpe has flopped (mainly through lack of game time) but Wildschut (my regen above) is developing nicely. Got Wilson tutoring him and he is easily going to replace Zal next season if not by the end of this one. Sidauskas has developed even better than Wildschut but with Aaron Taylor-Sinclair playing so well it will be another season or two before he is first choice (which isn't a bad thing) unless I get a good offer for Sinclair.

Killie in the Diddy Cup final looking for my first silverware hopefully and if I can hold onto my lead at the top things will have fallen perfectly into place with the stadium expansion getting completed by October.

[Jambo98]

Just made it to the end of season 2, and it was probably the most amazing season ive had in a Hearts save.

We were awesome all season, but Celtic were annoyingly great too. With 2 games to before the split, we were 8pts back after a couple of silly defeats. We then beat Celtic at Parkhead to bring it back to 5 going into the split. Still a huge ask, but with a home game against them to come. We duly beat them again at tynie (meaning we had beaten them 4 teams) and it was down to 2pts with 3 games to go.

We won our last 3, and irony of irony, Celtic's second to last game took them to Easter Road. The hibees held them to a draw, allowing me to win the title on goal difference!!!!

2 teams getting 93pts is just insane. We were both 36pts ahead of 3rd place. Totally domination by 2 sides. We also scored over 100 goals which I think is a first ever for me in the SPL.

Our Europa adventure took us out the group stages then past Dnipro, before we finally succumbed to Tottenham at the quarter final stage. They had spent 80million over the 2 game years, and start with an awesome squad so no disgrace!

Unfortunately we blew both cups - both times fielding kids got me knocked out by teams a division below. Annoying, but I had to give my kids gametime to develop.

In the close season, did a bit of business. After wining the league was always going to get some bids on my stars, I let a few go for various reasons:

Andrew Robertson - £3million to Reading - He was a great player for me, having been signed for only £275K a year ago the money was too good to turn down. Still have McHattie who looks good

Jo Coppens - £1.1million to West Brom - My keeper brought in for a free the previous summer. Was solid, but felt I could do better so took the cash

Scott Robinson - £500K to Rangers - WAs down to 4th choice in his position and wasn't developing any further, so let him go

Ryan Stevenson - £350k to Charlton - A hard one, as he scored plenty for me, but never convinced by his overall stats and had 2 young strikers needing to step in, so let him go.

On the inwards side, a few youths but the main signings:

Ryan Gauld - £550K from Dundee Utd - Had been chasing him all season, and been quoted 2.5million. Near the end of the season with Utd sitting second bottom, got a scouting report saying £500K. He is still only 19, looks every bit a classy wide man and home grown Scottish. Will start on the left with Walker on the right, and Lindgard ready to rotate with both

Stefano Denswil - Free from Ajax - His contract had run down, and although im happy with my CEntre halfs, he is young and classy, gives me flexibility across the back line

Connor Wickham - Free from Sunderland - A former wonderkid, who has reached 22 and stagnated a bit. Still like his stats and he has a chance to redeem himself and kick on from here

Alberto Brignoli - Free from Ternana - My replacement keeper, Better stats than Coppens and at 23 has his best ahead of him

Looking forward to trying to get into the CL group!

[Kevlar]

Well since my save was just on the demo i got FM14 on Thursday i decided to start again.

1st of all i made it now transfers in 1st window so i could keep the base of my squad intact and give me a fighting chance in the league.

I've just entered December on my 1st season and i'm still bottom on 0 points, i'm 9 behind Ross County and 10 behind Motherwell so i'm still in the mix a bit.

I've been playing a 4-1-4-1 formation but it has it's ups n downs for me, i keep seeming to lose late goals and end up losing the game by the odd goal.

As folk have said before it's all about survuval the 1st season so ive not much really to say.

My players are really struggling to score goals. Stevo and Paterson haven't even hit double figure between them, Stevo uptop and Paterson out wide.

My only plus side has been Nicholson out left ( Walker was out for 3months ) and young Robbie Buchanan out right ( Paterson was out for 2months ) Buchanan has down well on the right or up top. Made a few enquiries about young lads the now so hopefully have a few signed up on pre-contracts for next season

[Jambo98]

Just sold Wilson to Newcastle for £5million at the start of season 3. He has been amazing for me, but it was too much money to turn down. Denswil who I got on a free is every bit as good, and according to my coaches he has more room to develop further.

Made it into the group stages of CL with relative ease. Been drawn with Spurse, Athletico and Zenit. No chance of getting out of the group I think, but the money sets us up for years.

Hilariously, I now have £21million in the bank..........ah how distant from reality! Just had training and youth facility upgrades agreed for end of the season, which will cost about £7million but since I focus so heavily on youth, its worth it.

I have a £5million transfer budget ant £46K per week free wages, but I cant find anyone good enough that I want to sign! I love my current side, but know the reality is if I want to challenge for last 16 in the champs league, I might have to upgrade the likes of Walker/Paterson/McGhee.

[mattyw_1874]

Jambo98.

Could you not just use those 3 as back up/spfl players. Because with CL football rotation is key. Just keep the new players for the big games.

[Jambo98]

yeah I will need to keep them anyway to help me meet home grown rules. They are good enough to win the SPL last season, but I need to bring in players a level above. Not easy, as my max wage is still £6K even for an indispensable player. Hoping this goes up given the healthy finances!

Have real high hopes for some of my youth, although much harder in this version to get the cream of European youth. Previous versions if you scouted enough, lots of European gems for under a million. Here I am getting quoted £5million plus for 17yr olds. More realistic I think, just makes it all the more rewarding when you find the bargain diamond

[mattyw_1874]

For me it's Wilson and Holt I would find difficult to drop. You're better investing in youth anyway.

I really need to find some time to have a good FM session.

[Kevlar]

Well......

What can i say, finished my 1st season at Hearts. My hardest save with Hearts in any FM iv'e had.

I can't believe it but i actually got us relegated !! Went into the split 2 points behind Ross County but ended up being relegated on the last day away to County !! I won the 1st two games of the split 4-0 then i got beat at home to a 89min goal to Killie which pulled Ross County 5 clear of me, i managed to pull it back to 2 points again and headed to Dingwall for a do or die winner takes all match, i ended up getting beat 2-1 to a last minute penalty but a draw wasnt good enough for me anyway.

So, luckily the board gave me another contract a few weeks before the split so i was safe in my job ( which i didnt expect to really ).

Now the hard work rebuilding this famous club really starts for me.

Out go,

Danny Wilson

Kevin McHattie

Ryan Stevenson

Dylan McGowan

Jason Holt

Jamie Hamill

Calum Paterson

Billy King

I got a fair bit of money for them (Just under £5mil for them all) but obviously i didn't want to lose them but they really weren't happy. Luckily iv'e kept Jamie Walker, Scott Robinson, Brad McKay, Jamie MacDonald, Mark Ridgers, Sam Nicholson and Robbie Buchanan ( two of my better players last season ).

My biggest threat with transfers and trying to sign players were of course Rangers but i managed to sign a decent few lads and beat Rangers to the majority of them

Players in -

Stephen McManus ( free from Motherwell )

George McCartney ( free from Wolves )

Robbie Crawford ( free from Ayr )

Tom Walsh ( free from Rangers )

Jordan Moore ( free from Dundee Utd )

Chris Mitchell ( free from QoS )

Dougie Imrie ( free from St. Mirren )

Ian Smyth ( 100k 15yo from Cliftonville ) 5star Potential

So i have the base of a very good Championship squad now to try win the League !!!

[Terk]

Just started a Hearts save as it's a daunting challenge. Interested to know how you guys set up tactically in the first season (Particularly to get Paterson scoring so much).

[mattyw_1874]

Just started a Hearts save as it's a daunting challenge. Interested to know how you guys set up tactically in the first season (Particularly to get Paterson scoring so much).

Cross balls. He's never going to be natural one on one but if you can get the ball wide and get cross balls in with his pace and areal ability he will score goals.

4-5-1 or 4-2-3-1 depending on how you want to play really. Walker on the right getting crosses in is the best bet.

[JamboLad]

So I've jsut started my Hearts game over the weekend and had a good crack at loads of games last night.

Switched the first T window off for realism... At the 23rd of November and about 5 points adrift at the bottom of the league however I am in positive points of 2!!!

Obviously no transfer movement so my team is as follows

McDonald as GK

Hamill - Limited Full back

McHattie - Complete Full Back

McGhee and Wilson both as center defenders

Adam King - Deep Lying playmaker

Scott Robinson - B2B

Paterson AMR - Defencive winger

Walker AML - Defencive winger

Holt as a shadow Striker

Stevo - up top as a deep lying striker

Playing Ridgid to make sure everyone does their jobs first and also attacking as we may as well fire the goals in which hasnt been a problem with a couple of high scoring games with a 5-3 loss to Celtic being the one that comes to mind.

Working really well as see by catching up already and luckily I've tied up all cotnracts on long term to ensure if the worst did happen majority of players are tied up to 2017 or 2018.

Formation working really well and Im slowly catchig in the league so fingers crossed I can get a loan or two in in January to help and maybe see if there is any older frees come Feb worth trying to sign. I've sold MCGowan for 110k to balance the books so he leaves to Qutar on Jan 1st and that allows me to not worry about all the new contracts given.

Still in the league cup and about to play my first scottish cup game, guess the cups are important for more cash which is really the only aim of the season is to have a decent budget to work with going forward which brings me to a hard decision of who is going to be sold at the end of the season as 1 player will likely have to move on...

Great start and fair enjoying my game so far so hopefully going to be a right long term game here. Has all the makings of a good team and the young players are worth sticking with. Hoping with Adam King getting so much football it brings him on to be a top player.

[lecky1874]

unfortunately got relegated by a point on the final day gutted but on the plus side won promotion back to spl with 6 games too go managed to make £7m by selling danny wilson 3.6m to fulham,ryan stevenson to yeovil 100k,jamie hamill 300k to peterboro,dylan mcgowan to sion 400k,dale carrick 66k to st johnstone,elliot ford to rangers 15k,callum paterson to burnley 2m,kevin mchattie 700k to dundee utd brought in grant adam and thomas obrien in on frees from cowden grant gillespie for 40k from hamilton blair alston and stephen kingsley for a combined 97k from falkirk john guidetti for 6 months on loan who ripped the championship apart with 14 goals and 6 assists in 23 games unfortunately didnt want to extend his loan in jan so went back to city,adam webster on a free for portsmouth,dylan mcgeouch on loan from celtic ,gregory lacombe and romulo on frees/a young attacking midfielder regen from cork for 60k currently acquiring better players for the spl return with nicky adams wideman on a free from yeovil conor clifford on a free for dm/cm from southend also acquired stefan scougall who looks a quality prospect from st johnstone for 450k also got kris doolan striker on a free from partick and young midfielder jordan sinnott from huddersfield on a free current line up in championship as follows

sweeper keeper mark ridgers

cwb right jordan mcghee

cwb left paul dummett on loan

centredef brad mckay

ball play def liam gordon

def mid grant gillespie or sacha petschi

att play supp callum tapping

att play att scott robinson

amr winger jamie walker

aml ins for gregory lacombe

att false nine jason holt or romulo

[Terk]

Onto 1 point after 8 games. Won all four away from home, but taken only four points at Tynie, so work to be done there. Four points behind Dundee United and St Mirren. Not scoring a huge amount, but defence has been excellent, only conceded six goals. Hopeful of avoiding relegation now.

[Midfield Triangle]

What an absolute terrible team.

[Matorko]

I'm curios guys, what happens later in 1st season, some club director takes charge or you got totally random chairman (consortium, tycoon, etc)?

[renato.]

Aiming Europa League spot, after getting out from the bottom. My results:

Playing with a 4-4-1-1, 4-1-4-1 (DM in front the line) and a 4-5-1 (five midfielders in line).

[Kevlar]

Starting over again.

As i said earlier i got relegated with the club ( worst ever in FM for me ), built a good squad for the Championship but i was honestly struggling real bad. Was sitting around 6th at Chrirstmas so i couldnt continue with it. Every tactic i tried just wouldnt work for me, losing silly games like 3-1 at home to Alloa was the last straw for it !!!

Anyways starting again on this so i'll post up my achievements throughout my save

[cfcx]

In my first season we lost alot of players for nothing but managed to stay up, managed to keep Wilson, Walker, Holt, Paterson amongst others though. Second season we finished 2nd just a few off Celtic which was great, into Europe and a few quid banked but Holt, Wilson, Walker, Paterson all wanted out and only Walker has stayed but only because he got injured. Still raked in 7mil in players sold and managed to pick up Scott Dann, Gavin Gunning, Milan Lalkovic, Henri Lansbury, Chuks Aneke, Sergi Enrich, Alan Hutton all on free's which was very pleasing.

However so far league form has suffered a bit when we play after a Thursday Europa League game, really not coping to well with the thursday - sunday games. All though i am rotating where required its seen me down in 5th after 12 odd games, no disaster but a little frustrating with poor performances away at St mirren, Dundee utd and Kilmarnock and a disaster at home to celctic when my centre half got sent off after 15 min and they scored from the free kick, a poor corner and then a penalty all by the 30th min. After changing things up we ended the game well but damage was done and there was no way back and it ended 0-3.

I did however see positives in that game after making small changes, we began with 4-2-3-1 deep and tried to attack them as it worked well for me on the thursday against Fc Twente winning 4-2 so i figured the difference in quality between them and Celtic is debatable and why shouldn't it work. It didn't! Switched to counter tactic with same shape and we settled into the game and we both finished with 3 ccc's for us and just 2 for them, so in the future i beleive we can take them on and beat them just attacking them directly is not the approach to take just yet!

Rangers are back now and nicked Holt off me but we have already beaten them and from what i saw they aren't as good as us yet so the aim is to finish in 2nd again, we are also only 6 points off Celtic in 1st so its quite tight from 1st - 5th and once the cohesion increases we may go one better than the previous season!

[cfcx]

Just won League Cup!! Not the biggest i i have ever won on Fm granted, but this has been one of the sweetest by far

[brenosantos]

I've started my second season with Hearts. At first I was fine, I managed to finish an honorable third place, achieving a spot in the UEFA Europa League, something unthinkable at the start of the championship. Dale Carrick was the second highest scorer with 25 goals in the SPL, but Callum Paterson was the best player of the year with 17 goals and 16 assists in the league.

In the League Cup, we were eliminated by Celtic in the semi-finals after losing 3-1 in overtime with two goals from corner kicks.

In the Scottish Cup we were eliminated by the Rangers in the fifth stage after a draw in Glasgow ( 0-0 ) ended up losing at home ( 1x3).

I could not hold my players, some left by the end of the contract, other proposals for other clubs who took them for free.

In the second season we played the Europa League and were eliminated in the third stage. In the second, we face Kukesi side (from Albania) and had more difficulties than we thought we won 3-0 at home and draw by 2x2 out of the house after we left with a 2-0 win against.

Then we face Marítimo and ended up leaving the competition after a home draw ( 0-0 ) and one defeat in Portugal ( 2-0 ).

CURRENT SQUAD: