Your Most Memorable Saves

[DazRTaylor]

So I am just curious what you consider to be your best ever save games in FM or the previous CMs that SI made?

I have two that come to mind:

• Way back in Championship Manager Italia (1992?) I took Cremonese to the then European Cup.
• Around 2014, I had a thirty plus season save as a journeyman across numerous leagues.  It was epic.

How about you guys?

[craigcwwe]

27 ish years at Salford on FM18 before my file was lost.  

Had a great young team ready to take over, narrowly missed out on the PL a couple of times, got as far as the CL QFs and won both domestic cups. 

[superposh]

Probably my Newcastle United save on CM 01/02. Built an incredible squad. Ronaldinho captained the toon army to back to back Champions League titles and various domestic honours. 

[yowg8ynwa]

Took Cheltenham Town to Europa League semifinal...and lost.

[dolph11]

Without a doubt Donegal Celtic on FM18 for me. Somehow I managed great success (it's still ongoing as I haven't won the Champions League yet) and have have dominated for years domestically. Was surprised as 442 took me from the lowest league to the top but then changed to box 4222 and progressed even further. A fantastic save, it is!

[RandomGuy.]

Cant remember exact details, was a few years ago now.

Started as the club I support, St Johnstone. Got sacked and ended up at Hearts. They were still in the Championship at this point but sat top. 

Got them promoted, and the following season took them to a 3rd place finish and a Scottish Cup victory.

Left the next season for West Brom, who sat close to the relegation zone in the EPL. Narrowly kept them in the league.

A lack of budget meant my Summer signings weren't the best, and we succumbed to relegation at the end of the season. Got sacked straight after the final game.

Next up was Crystal Palace, who'd been relegated beside me the previous season and sat in the bottom three of the Championship. Called into a board meeting around March and tendered my resignation after being questioned about my ability. 

A return to Scotland beckoned, and Aberdeen, somehow, decided to want me. They'd been lurking around mid-table and looking uninspiring, so maybe my successes at Hearts still had me in good esteem up there.

I spent around six years building them up, before finally breaking Celtics stranglehold of the league, it even came down to the final game of the season, as I remember being raging at my partner for distracting me.

Next season Tottenham approached me. They sat bottom of the EPL with one world class player, but the rest was dreadful. The keeper they had was so bad I still remember his name years later, Ron Drewett. One star rated and hes all I had from September to January.

Stumbled to January, spent big on a new keeper and started looking good. Keeper then got an injury that ruled him out for the season.

Got relegated, and the entire squad left, the only one who didn't demand a transfer was Drewett. A huge rebuild, involving young players who'd been loaned out and never been given a chance, seen us win promotion back at the first attempt. Second season had me middling about mid-table.

Aberdeen came calling again, Moyes had taken them over and ripped them team apart.

After rebuilding them again, I moved onto Chelsea, who'd struggled for trophies recently. Spent half a season there before resigning, and moving to Serie B side Udinese.

Spent three years there, getting promoted, finishing mid table, them finishing top half, before leaving them to find a new job..

St Johnstone. It was almost exactly 20 years since they'd sacked me, and I returned to find them bottom of the league. What followed was a slow progress into turning them into the dominant side in Scotland and reaching European Finals, although we never did win one.

In essence, never give up!

[Lenzar]

I had an epic save as Liverpool in FM08. Won the league every season, largely thanks to Carragher and the corner glitch.

FM15 was also a fun save. Starting unemployed, I began at Colomiers in France. The club wasn't good enough for the French National and I ended up sacked after declaring interest in another job. I then took Chelmsford to the National League, before moving to Oxford, where I got promoted back to League One and was doing well when Reading came knocking. I got the boys from the MadStad back into the EPL and into the Champions League. I ended the save at a tycoon owned QPR, taking them to 3 EPL and Champions League wins.

[dafuge]

It would have to be my FM06 Braintree save. 

Having only managed big clubs, I started a challenge to give the lower leagues a go. It was a huge game changer, completely changed the way I played the game.

[imadori]

it was on the old school Sony PSP!!

i forget which iteration it was, but it was back when Bojan (remember him?!) was still in Barcelona.  decided to manage Sydney FC in the A-League...signed Bojan on a free as his contract was expiring! also brought in the New Zealand central midfielder Chris James as my playmaker as a free agent.  also signed young australian players on free transfers as their contracts wore down over the years.  won the A-League every season

also had a regen with 20 jumping and 20 heading! the match engine on the PSP was text only, so the match highlights would constantly be..."Cross comes in...Header by <regen>...Goal!" for EVERY cross.  that regen literally scored at least one goal every match

i had signed so many australians and my team were so dominant and the players performed so well that it got to a point where the Australian national team was EXACTLY my first team lineup except Bojan and Chris James...international weeks left me with a squad of just 13 players to name on matchdays! 

ended the save when i sold Chris James to Liverpool for $45M which left me with a combined $1.3M spent on incoming transfers and $80M received in outgoing transfers after 5 years!  so many bargains from signing players running down their contracts in that save!

 

[mightypvfc]

Some cracking saves with my brother years ago. 

One game I started at Stevenage and he went with Plymouth during the infamous corner bug days. I had a god awful left back but he managed to amass over 30 assists a season so I kept playing him. Assembled a great side signing free players released from Premier League clubs. Two strikers in particular; Jordy Brouwer and Tobias Mikaelson they were the Stevenage SAS. I went from the conference to League One. My brother didn't do much and just consolidated in the Championship until he left because the board sold his best players, to my amusement. He released a certain Ashley Barnes on a free and I proceeded to snap him up. He was a goal machine and I still remind him about this. The game petered away soon after he joined Worksop Town. We never got too many seasons under our belts because play time was sporadic and I liked to watch extended highlights of games.

[Shrabon]

FM13. Winning the champions league with Lotte. And that too,with scoring the equalizing goal on 90th min through Igor Marjanovic and then going on to win 1-3 in ET. Got a player named Jan Mayer when we were in the third division. Had him for almost 12/13 years and he was captain for almost 10 seasons. When the guy retired,my son was promoted to the Lotte youth setup as a result of loyalty shown to a retiring player. Never seen anything like that before,never seen it since

[Novem9]

FM10 Save for Everton. I always fight with Arsenal with Cesc Fabregas and Co until last matchday

Plus in this FM was realistic regens as I remember. Was funny

 

And FM17, journeyman. 2 semifinals of ChL with Benfica and two loses from Olympique Marsellie which was a sugar daddy club in save

[killerkoala]

FM17. Downloaded expanded English league from workshop and started a career with South Park from 10th tier. After gaining promotion first season, I was stuck in 9th tier for several seasons before a decent cup run earned me some cash, and got the ball rolling for several consecutive promotions all the way to Conference Premier, where I almost went bankrupt. Was saved by another unreal cup run which earned me an away match against Man Utd, which despite a crushing defeat provided enough cash to save the club and then some. Went all the way to the PL, which I finally won in 2032. Then won CL in 2035. Longest and most fun save I've done.

[BadanieLuck]

Probably my current journeyman save in FM19. Only started playing a few years ago with FM14. Never got sacked so far, which I was quite proud of. I'm not saying I'm the best by any means, not at all. I'm not one of those guys who can take a midfield team straight to a title fight and sometimes the sack was a close call. But eventually I find a way to get decent results or make small steps forward every year.

But not this time, not this time. Took over Hoffenheim during the summer break who were predicted to finish 4th. The board was fine with just getting continental qualification, so no pressure. Well, I lasted until beginning of March with us only sitting in 14th, just above the relegation zone. My first sack in FM. I just could not get them to perform, no matter what I tried. This was easily the longest season I played because I spend so much time trying to figure things out, created many different tactics and spend hours analyzing. But I couldn't figure it out and in the end was suprised I lasted that long and it was undoubtably justified.

Well, I now moved on to Bordeaux, midtable team that wants to push for continental places, so perfect for me. First game against none other than PSG and we won 2-1 (got a bit lucky) and I instantly saw improvements. But that Hoffenheim is still doing my head in. Still baffled by it and can't stop thinking about it and why it went so wrong

I also very much enjoyed my journeyman save in FM17. Managed to take Villareal, who were in and out of continental qualification, and took them to LaLiga champions within 3 years beating the likes of Real Madrid and Barca while spending a 1/7 of their wage budgets. Really liked that team.

[Geordieboy52]

Still revisit this save sometimes FM2016 turned TNS into the dominant side in Europe, got to 2062 or something and the Welsh league was 9th in the rankings I think.  May dig it out tonight...

[yipster1986]

I hope people don't mind bringing this thread back up. It's quite interesting to read these stories.

My most memorable save was with Stockport County back in FM15. When I got to League One I was looking for fun in the Barca B team, saw their highest valued player in there was available for loan so I just tried it. To my surprise they agreed to it and in came the 17 year old Italian youngster Stefano Beltrami. He was an AMC with all the right attributes for a playmaker: he had flair, he had vision and he had wonderful technique for his age and my level. I loaned him for 3 years straight; the promotion to the Championship in the first season, we avoided relegation in the next and then he single handedly brought me up to the Premiership. After we got promoted he went back to Barca to feature in the first team.

While in the Premier League we built a good foundation and improved steadily year after year. Once we got to Europe on a consistent basis we ran into our former playmaker quite often, decimating us. I decided to get him back. I was thinking of switching tactically and design a system completely around him. I sold my world class wingers and got bought Stefano for a whopping 140M€.

He stayed with us for many more years, winning Premier League titles and Champions Leagues. He even won the Ballon D'Or twice. At the age of 33 we went looking for a suitable replacement and found another Italian wonderkid in the youth squad of newly relegated AS Roma. After mentoring the new lad for 2 seasons Beltrami decided to hang up his boots. So I made him my assistant manager. We both went on to win more league titles and have European success.

Now I use him as my alter ego in some of my saves, it's quite wonderful really. 

[yolixeya]

On CM 01-02 I played for over 100 seasons. I loaded top 5 leagues and then I needed to win everything with one club from each league. When I done that, I just kept playing. I noticed some bugs along the way that were funny. Sometimes for some reason the player would not retire, so in one club I found the goalkeeper who was like 76 yo. 

My current save is really enjoyable. I started unemployed, with lowest coaching badge and as a Sunday League player. I have never played like that, it's so good but also annoying at times. My first club is FCV Dender in Belgian Amateur Division, I'm doing well with them six seasons in but those coaching licences are hard to get, and in six seasons, I didn't manage to improve my training or youth facilites.  

Reputation grows so slowly but I think I am in position to finally leave for a better club. I applied and got jobs at Cagliari and Lokeren already but I wanted to stay because we qualified for Euro cup this season. However time in Dender is running up. This will definitely be a long term save.

[ajt]

my favourite save was probably doing the youth only challenge in fm15, took rot weiss essen to the bundesliga. just found a screenshot in the old thread of my best regen of all time (praise be to imgur). too bad i got sacked before I could complete the challenge, I had a few great youth prospects. was great fun doing the updates and looking at other peoples progress but it took way too much time sadly. i was spending nearly as much time doing my yearly update as i was playing the game.

right now my current save is actually really fun. i took over as boss of servette in swiss second league. promoted first season, second season finished second (champions league qualifier), and now i have just qualified for the champions league from the playoffs, beating plzen, kyiv and ajax.

my team is almost entirely composed of (mostly) free loan players from france. I now have a bank balance of £18 mil, whereas in the first season we nearly went bankrupt and the club had to take out a £600k loan (we pay £5k back per month until 2029, the swiss bankers are great.. ). i was offered jobs at steuau bucharest and rapid vienna in the summer but turned them down in hope. best of all is that basel invited me for an interview last season but chose someone else instead. they finished in 3rd and have just been knocked out of the europa league qualifiers by red star belgrade. I just generally love football manager 

Edited April 19, 2019 by ajt

[Nobby_McDonald]

Barnet on a early version of CM where I lost the Premier League title by one goal thanks to an injury time equaliser for Liverpool at Crystal Palace.

Billericay on CM01/02 where I took them to the Premier League and an FA Cup win.

The online Zealot clan game on 01/02 which ran for over 30 seasons. Highlight for me was two Premier League wins with Tottenham (remain my only ever Premier League wins) and Champions League glory.

Taking Newcastle Town from the Northern Premier League First Division South to the Premier League for one season on FM11, where we narrowly avoided 'doing a Derby' thanks to Notts County being even worse than us.

Edited April 22, 2019 by Nobby_McDonald

[kevhamster]

Back on the very original CM, I took Exeter City to the heights of Premier League champions, so that's up there,

Since the series became FM, my most memorable save is undoubtedly my save from FM10, which is detailed in this thread (credit to Nobby just above me for the thread title!):

In summary, went from East Stirlingshire to Derby County and turned them around from relegation certainties in the Championship to Champions League qualification (with one relegation from the Premier League in the process).  Final game at Derby was an FA Cup final win.  Also had a narrow loss in the European Championship final as Italy manager.

[Zardoz]

A FM 12 save.

I started as usual on the lowest standard league level and in this save in Denmark with Thisted FC. I ended as runner up and was a bit frustrated because only the winner could be promoted. So I looked for another club and only a 6th league team in UK wanted me, the newly promoted Kingstonian FC. The team was technically a nightmare, physically fine and mentally outstanding or with other words: They could not play but run and never gave up. Exactly what I love.

I was 11 saisons with the team, achieved 2 promotions and finally turned professional. Then, I thought I should do something different and went back to Denmark. With Blokhus FC I set-up my personal record of 25 following victorious  games. And then the save broke down.

 

Edited April 23, 2019 by Zardoz

[WillHoward42]

FM12 for me, and my longest ever save on any FM game (since playing from 2008)

Managing Norwich for 42 seasons and making them the powerhouse of england with numerous league and CL titles.

Always remember unearthing an absolute gem of a regen from a lower league team in Germany who ended up the best in the world.

Making me want to get back on the canary yellows again...

[Sheriff7]

Lincoln Red Imps from Gibraltar.Quilifing to EL group stage after losing 1 year ago from Malmo in quilifiers with a goal in 93rd minute..

[Burnley92]

I had a great save on FM08. Started with my beloved Burnley and got them promoted in the first season via the playoffs. With 10 games remaining in the Premier League and sitting in 18th place just 1 point from safety, I was inexplicably sacked!

I joined lowly Yeovil and saved them from relegation with 3 games to spare. A full squad rebuild and 4 seasons later I was promoted to the PL. Last game of the season was, you guessed it, Burnley away. We had to get a point to stay up and, depending on other results, Burnley could be relegated if they lost and Aston Villa won. 

We won comfortably 2-0 and Villa won too! We stayed up and sent Burnley down.

 

Karma 

[Bilbaoboy]

Obviously you can take any team in any division and with enough time turn them in to Champions league winners, and they are the most enjoyable saves, but pound for pound i recently did a Barnsley save and in my second season after promotion to the Championship we won the league cup and i got to an F.A Cup final before i got bored and got the itch for a new team, so not my most enjoyable but probably my most successful 

Edited April 29, 2019 by Bilbaoboy

[fmonit]

It was Fm11, and I decided to play the game properly (no save scrum, no to using editor or scout third party software). 

I started with newly promoted to playable level team Gjovik in Norway. Over a number of years, I managed to bring them to the second tier of Norway, including a Cup final against Fredrikstad (first division club back then), which we lost. 

With my Australian heritage, Sydney FC noticed me and offered me a job which I took. I only got 1 point out of the first 10 games and was promptly sacked. 

Then moved to 3rd division club SV Wacker Burghausen in Germany. Lasted half a season before getting sacked again. 

Bath City FC came knocking on my door, which I gladly accepted. They were in the Vanarama National South and listed as one of the contenders to challenge for the title. We did and got promoted in my first season! I took them then in the next 10 seasons from the Vanarama National league to the Championship. We jojo-ed between Championship and EPL for a few seasons until Arsenal offered me a job. 

With Arsenal, I managed to win 2 EPL titles and 1 Champions League with me in charge over a time span of 5 years. 

I felt I achieved everything so I retired and started with a new manager in the same save. That new manager is my imaginary virtual son, who started in Sweden. 

My son did well straight away, and got Linkoping promoted to second tier Swedish league before taking the job at Odd Grenland in first division in Norway. 

This is where I left it as the next FM came out and wanted to try that one. The year was 2045.

I still remember signing a newgen from Nigeria for my club in Gjovik. Left winger Michael Amoo, who got bought by Kobenhavn and was later a key player at Bayern Munich. When I took charge of Arsenal, I signed him from Bayern as he was well past his peak (33) and Bayern had a better younger player in that spot. He wasn't my best player but still good enough to play the odd game. It was more for emotional reasons and Arsenal had plenty of money. It was funny to see our both careers started in Norway and ended at Arsenal. 

Edited April 30, 2019 by fmonit

[Shelby boi]

On 18/11/2018 at 14:13, yowg8ynwa said:

Took Cheltenham Town to Europa League semifinal...and lost.

 

Omg I managed Cheltenham too. But after 8th successful season, won Epl and UCL. I was sack mid-season a year later.

[srvngrc]

Sporting Gijon in FM 2009 or 2010 not sure and Fleetwood in FM 2012. 

Of course there are many others but especially my Fleetwood save was unforgettable for me

By the way I live in Turkey and I’m a Beşiktaş fan. I can’t remember why i choose Fleetwood